Geek Girl Navigating the World: My Favorite Webstuff

Author’s disclaimer: I take no responsibility for any of the content on any of these websites. I didn’t create any of them, and I freely admit that I’m quite easily amused. Any brain-melting, time-wasting, or flinching is solely the responsibility of you because you had to go and look at these websites. If you should, for some reason, require any sort of brain or eyeball bleach because of something you saw on these websites, then you’re going to have to buy your own. That said, let the fun begin!

It doesn’t take a genius to see that the internet can be a treasure trove of great stuff and time wasting if you only know where to look. It’s also a good resource for finding some pretty good stuff for free.

First and foremost, if you love reading and aren’t horrified by the idea of reading a book on a screen from your computer or on a reading device (yes, I love my Nook, how could you tell?), you can download the Amazon Kindle app, the Barnes and Noble Nook app, and the Borders eReader app for free. Why might you want to do this? You want to do this because you will never have to shell out the money to buy a classic of literature ever again. Each online retailer offers a selection of free ebooks for download, and they add new titles periodically. If they don’t offer enough to keep you occupied, then you can go to Project Gutenberg’s website at http://www.gutenberg.org/, and you should find plenty of books on a variety of subjects to keep you interested.

If short fiction is something you’d rather read, especially on a computer, then head over to Tor.com and sign up for their e-mail newsletter. You’ll soon find that your inbox is regularly infused with fresh, new fiction by the likes of Charles Stross, Jeff Vandermeer, and Elizabeth Bear. Almost all of those stories, should you be concerned about never being able to find them again for a re-read, can be downloaded in a format that you will be able to read using the free apps mentioned above or an eReader device if you happen to have one. There are also some nice sweepstakes to enter through Tor.com that you really won’t want to miss. Even if you don’t want to sign up for their e-mail newsletter, the story archive really is not to be ignored. There are some really excellent pieces of fiction posted there that deserve your attention.

Even if they don’t consider themselves readers, most people like comics, or at least most of the people that I know do. Don’t believe me? Try this little social experiment. First, get an old Calvin & Hobbes book that you won’t mind losing terribly. Then, go and find a crowd of random people. Go ahead and leave the book with the crowd. From a distance, observe the crowd. Someone is going to pick up that book and start flipping through it. Someone else is going to start looking over their shoulder. Pretty soon, the majority of that crowd is going to be either looking at the book or talking about their favorite Calvin & Hobbes moments or involved in a massive game of Calvin Ball (although this will probably only happen if the crowd is composed of a high enough proportion of geeks who would do this kind of thing).

The internet is full of webcomics. Some of them are good and some of them are bad and others–well, the less said about those the better. One of my favorite webcomics is Sluggy Freelance by Pete Abrams, which is at www.sluggy.com. This is one of those comics that’s not only full of crazy inventions and complicated science fiction-style plots, it also has amazing quotability, a homicidal mini-lop, annual running gags, and some really creative usage of Jimmy Buffett lyrics. The archive is pretty extensive, but it’s certainly worth reading, especially if you’ve ever wanted to see a lame vampire fail at, well, just about everything, or perhaps witness the Borg (or at least a Borg-like race) get defeated.

Another favorite is Dragon Tails. No, it has nothing to do with that PBS series. This one is written by an Australian who really likes gaming, but manages to keep the gaming references very accessible for anyone who would rather read a comic strip about eight baby dragons on an island with robots, an odd white fairy-dragon thing that’s difficult to explain, and a kitten named Moppy. Oh, yes, and there’s a very angry squirrel named Norman. The comic hasn’t actually been updated since February 8, 2010, but it’s still worth a look. One of my favorite sayings about hindsight comes from the Dragon Tails strip. You can read it at: http://dragon-tails.com/.

Maybe you’d prefer animation. If that’s the case and you have somehow missed them, you should really go to the Simon’s Cat website http://www.simonscat.com/ and look at the films section. The animated shorts are deceptively simple black and white line drawings, but the animator most definitely knows how cats behave and how they move. The most recent film posted, “The Box,” is the most accurate portrayal of a cat that I have ever seen.

For slightly edgier fare, and I would caution anyone who is curious that The Animation Show is the brainchild of Mike Judge (of Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill fame), so these are, frequently, avant garde and independent short films, go to http://www.animationshow.com/. The site isn’t updated frequently, but the majority of the posts contain trailers for animated films, short animated films, or links so you can go and watch animated films. You can also find out if a showing of The Animation Show traveling film festival will be coming near you any time soon.

So, maybe you just don’t feel like watching animated shorts, but you’d really like to waste some time on the web. It’s possible that you just want to brighten your day a little by looking at something cute. In that case, nothing beats otters. No, really, well, okay, except maybe for bunnies. Luckily, you don’t actually have to choose. Either dailyotter.org or dailybunny.org will provide you with an immediate and regularly updated dose of cuteness.

Obviously, this isn’t even a fraction of what the internet has to offer. Honestly, I could kill an awful lot of time just reading book reviews on this website (www.bscreview.com in case you’ve forgotten–stranger things have happened), but, sometimes, it isn’t always that easy to find something you really want. Hopefully, this little mini-guide has given you a few blissful moments of ‘net exploration that have proven to be rewarding.