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| Websites I Like... | |
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| Below, in no particular order, you'll find an eclectic list of several sites
that are of personal interest to me, some of which you might also find
helpful academically.
Others are just downright weird. | |
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| Links | |
| | Here you'll see the world through the imaginative and rather narrow mind of
Strongbad (a short-tempered Flash-animated character who looks like... we'll
let's just say he manages to type while wearing boxing gloves) and his
sidekick Homestar, just your average everyday talking marshmallow (???).
Through the use of dramatic foil, comedy ensues.
Homestarrunner.com
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| | A point-of-view webquest to help you become reacquainted with the life and
times of Shakespeare. See also the link for "Life in Elizabethan England: A
Compendium of Common Knowledge" below.
Elizabethan Webquest
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| | Didst thou say, "Shakespeare"?
A guide to what life was really like during the time of the bard. Sports,
games, language, fashion, religion, money, food-- it's all here.
Life in Elizabethan England: A Compendium of Common Knowledge
| |
| | Click and drag soundclips of the president to design your own speech.
George Bush Speechwriter
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| | I love vintage saxophones and own a 1933 Conn Pre-Chu Berry tenor horn
myself. She's old, but she still sings beautifully...
Saxes Galore
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| | Looking for a good read? Enter any three of your favorite authors, and let
the Gnod's artificial intelligence engine select a book you will love. It
works much the same way as the Music Genome Project and Pandora (see below).
Find Me a Good Read
| |
| | Think you know Homer? Watch ten The Simpsons clips and see if you
can finish each classic quote.
Homer Simpson Fill-Ins
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| | Oxymorons, spoonerisms, and yes, really, really bad puns. Here you'll find
a vast array of categories addressing the art of language play. There's
even a section devoted solely to Stupid Cow Jokes that you'll find "udderly"
terrible. Submit your own if you dare. (In case you were wondering, I
don't get my "material" from this site-- it usually comes to me on the
spot... unfortuately for us all.) You'll also find some wry rhetorical
questions in the spirit of Steven Wright. Here's a taste: Was the inventor
of the colander accused of having an idea that did not hold water? And
another: Why does the "Return" key move the cursor to a new line?
Punliners.com
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| | Musicians, test your ability to identify intervals and chord qualities by
ear. If you're really up for a challenge, click on the "Perfect Pitch"
section.
Ear Trainer
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| | Make a Flash movie online. You select the characters, background, text,
music, and action. It's simple to use. Send your masterpiece to a friend!
Make My Movie
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| | A guide to retro-speak by Geetz Romo. Useful when encountering neo-Beatniks,
poseur hippies, jazz-musician-wannabes, and the like. Y'dig?
How to Speak Hip
| |
| | If all truth is found in paradox, then this site might contain more profound
insights and themes than any other on the web. Prepare yourself to ponder
oxymoronic, paradoxical, and self-contradictory quotations throughout the
ages. Before you know it, you'll be a philosopher yourself.
Oxymoronica
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| | Is "Ring Around the Rosie" really about the Black Death? Where did the
company name "Google" come from? Is the correct phrase "Hawk a Loogie" or
"Hock a Lunger?"
Word Origins
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| | Thankfully, it looks as if we are in for only one more year of
Bush's terrorizing the American people with his War on Grammar.
Bushisms
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| | Unlike punliners. com, this site also includes palindromes
and malapropisms.
More wordplay
| |
| | An interesting, albeit simple, history of my favorite medium. If you have
RealPlayer, you can watch a clip from Edwin S. Porter's seminal film, The
Great Train Robbery.
The History of Film
| |
| | Everything you wanted to know about music theory presented in excruciating
detail. Not for lightweights.
Dr. Brian Blood's Music Theory Online
| |
| | Photos of cruel and not-so-unusual abuse of the humble apostrophe.
The Apostrophe Protection Society
| |
| | If you haven't seen the show since you were a kid, you should watch an
episode this week. You'll see beyond the slapstick into a searing satire
of American life that is The Simpsons. Obscure trivia, icons galore,
character tributes, and classic "Ralphisms" abound here. Comment on your
favorite Simpsons lines and read what others have to say about them as
well. Link to other fine links to all things Simpson.
The Simpsons Archive
| |
| | If you like Comedy Central's The Daily Show, you'll appreciate The
Onion's "mockumentary" news reports. If you find a real side-splitter, you
can email the page to a friend directly by clicking on the rather tiny icon
at the bottom.
The Onion
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| | A Writer's Shortcut to Stronger Writing by C.J. Cherryh
Writerisms and other Sins
| |
| | Type in your name and get a humorous anagram in response.
Yours Truly,
Ruggedly Sober Lice
Instant Anagrams
| |
| | My favorite book of all time, ZAMM is perhaps the most challenging and
thought-provoking novel you'll ever read. Based on true events, it's an
American roadtrip that, along the way, will make you think about how
and why we think. (Somehow it also manages to become a ghost story.)
This is a link to the FULL text. The book is copyrighted and published by
Bantam, so if you like what you see, pick up a copy for yourself at a
bookstore. The author died a few years ago, so he won't be seeing the
royalties anymore, but puchasing the book is the right thing to do
nonetheless.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
| |
| | If you are in love with the English language, this is a goldmine...
Writing Links & Links for Writers
| |
| | And another...
Writing Tips for Writers
| |
| | Develop your media literacy to help you see through the fog of propaganda
surrounding corporations, the government, and the mass media.
Propaganda Techniques
| |
| | If you are interested in writing poetry, you MUST visit this site. Find out
everything you want to know about becoming a better poet-- even how to
publish your work.
Student Poets Only
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| | A history of the English Language
English Language
| |
| | An entire website devoted to a literary term that doesn't know whether it's
coming or going. Or going or coming.
Chiasmus.com
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| | These words are as interesting as they are obscure.
Weird Words
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| | If you like The Onion, then you have probably already seen The
Daily Show. Here's the online version of the show hosted by Jon Stewart.
The Daily Show
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| | Make your own comics.
Comic Creator
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| | List updated annually.
101 Best Websites for Writers
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| | Looking for literary criticism online?
Internet Public Library
| |
| | Find out the origin of those old, rotten cliches when they were new and
fresh.
Cliche Origins
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| | Monty Python news...
Did you know that Monty Python's Life of Brian was voted the number
one comedy film of all time, beating out American Pie and even their own
Holy Grail? (Of course, the British comedy team have the home-turf
advantage-- the survey was conducted in England.)
The Daily Llama
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| | A simple mix-and-match guide to creating snappy comebacks that would make the
Bard proud. Stop dead in their tracks those rubes who would insult "Yo
Mamma."
The Shakespeare Insult Kit
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| | The story of Oedipus. In eight minutes. Performed by vegetables.
Seriously. And it's PG-13.
Oedipus the Movie
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| | The Phrontistery (Look it up)
Phrontistery
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| | Words for which there are no words.
Sniglets
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| | Start off with "6 Foreign Expressions You Should Know" and go from there...
Daily Writing Tips
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Ways for generating ideas, breaking writers' block, and WRITING...
37 Dramatic Situations
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| | Could you start making a living as a writer right now? Click and find out...
Funds for Writers
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| | Writing a novel? This site offers advice on every possible aspect of the
process you can imagine.
Tips for Aspiring Novelists
| |
| | Eleven simple rules that go a long way in adding credibility to your writing.
11 Rules of Writing
| |
| | Looking for a new band to listen to? Let the power of Pandora's Music Genome
Project go to work for you. It learns your favorite songs' musical
identities by analyzing "everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to
instrumentation,orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich
world of singing and vocal harmony" to find the best music you never heard.
Pandora
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| | Test your vocabulary, and feed the hungry. For every word you guess
correctly, the United Nations will distribute ten grains of rice to needy
people. Watch the virtual rice bowl fill up as you improve your vocabulary.
Free Rice
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| | Still stumped on how to write an MLA Works Cited page? Find the type of
source you're using, and type in fill in the blanks. It's easier than
Easybib.
Citation Machine
| |
| | View Web 2.0 here, a webfilm which will have you rethinking each branch of
classical philosophy in post-modern terms.
Digital Ethnography
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| | WordSpy says, "This Web site is devoted to 'lexpionage,' the sleuthing of new
words and phrases. These aren't 'stunt words' or 'sniglets,' but new terms
that have appeared multiple times in newspapers, magazines, books, Web sites,
and other recorded sources."
WordSpy
| |
| | Prickles or Goo? Which one are you? (South Park meets Alan Watts.)
Prickles and Goo
| |
| | Click on any circle of Dante's Inferno to find out more about each of the
rings of hell as he envisioned it.
Dante's Inferno
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| | Future English majors only...
History of Old English
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| | When you need help, call somebody.
Math 911
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| | Another reason The Simpsons is even smarter than you think...
Cinematic Allusions in The Simpsons
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| | If you're not exactly sure what satire is, watch this clip from Saturday
Night Live. What dangerous aspect of American culture is it poking fun at?
SNL Taco Town
| |
| | Something to do if you have four minutes to kill between commercials...
Optical Illusions
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| | First, check to see how many of these classic works of literature you have
read. Next, click on those you haven't and begin catching up...
The Great Books Online
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| | See the relationships among synonyms. Visuwords™ uses Princeton University’s
WordNet, an opensource database built by university students and language
researchers.
Visuwords
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| | Increase your ability to speed read by pasting any text of your choice and
viewing it at up to 6,000 words per minute.
Speed Reading Practice Engine
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| | Screenwriters, check out this online screenwriting software. It allows you
to collaborate with your co-writers using the web.
Plot Bot
| |
| | Wolfram allows you to compose and download original electronic music
compositions. Perfect for scoring your own movies.
Music Composer
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| | Little or no musical talent?
Touch Here
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| | What does the sound of salt look like?
Chladni Effect
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| | "Fuzzmail records the act of writing and lets you send it as an email.
Dynamic changes, typos, pauses and writeovers are captured and
communicated.... Just start typing a message and fuzzmail will record what
you type. When you're done, click "send" to stop recording and send your
message. The recipient will get a private web link to read the message
replayed in the way that you typed it. A copy of the Fuzzmail you wrote will
be sent to you at your email address."
Fuzzmail
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| | Do your parents suffer from Adultitis, or worse... could you be exhibiting
early-onset symptoms yourself? Given the average four-year-old laughs over
400 times a day, while the average adult laughs just 15 times per day, you
may indeed be experiencing this terrible disease in its eary stages. If so,
learn more about this epidemic, and get get help here:
Adultitis Official Homepage
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| | Find the top ten reasons for visiting Dave's website.
David Letterman's Top Ten Archive
| |
| | Bored?
Nose
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| | That's all, folks...
The End
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| Know of a site you think I would like? | |
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| Send it to mrdecubellis@gmail.com
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