What do you waste your internet time on? What are the best procrastination websites and online games? What’s the latest and greatest in the World Wide Web that you think everyone should know about? Let us know—comment below!
Useful/Fun: Anyone who thinks Zooey Deschanel is not awesome need not read further. However, anyone who believes in the general awesomeness of Zooey Deschanel should know that she co-founded a website, HelloGiggles, which calls itself “a positive online community for women (although men are always welcome!) covering DIY and crafting projects, beauty, friendship, sex & relationships, pop culture, pets, television & movies, nostalgia, fandom, tips on savvy and stylish living meant to inspire a smile.” The link leads to a lovely advice column, mainly because if it goes to the front page you’ll be so distracted with subscribing and reading and laughing that you’ll never read the rest of this article.
Awesome: Whether you’re a bibliophile or a bibliophobe I hope Messy Nessy Chic will inspire you to read or visit your local bookshop sometime this week. As readers migrate to ebooks, and individually owned bookstores lose out to big chain stores like Barnes & Noble, it gets harder for writers to get published for the first time. Support a starving artist this week by visiting your friendly neighborhood booksellers! Or just enjoy the pretty pictures.
Educational: Learning is boring, right? Wrong. Replace your usual music station (admit it, they just play the same things over and over again anyway!) with an hour a day of Swell.am, an app for your iDevice. Thanks to a super-cool algorithm that, like Pandora, helps Swell figure out what interests you, it will give you news and information you actually want to hear, in the time you have to listen.
Activism: I tried to figure out a joke about how Canadians are all supposed to be nice, but it kept falling flat given how wrong this situation is. CBC has a full report on the freshman orientation chant used by St. Mary’s University in Halifax, or you can watch the video below and tell people you know why you think it’s wrong. If you do, maybe someone will think twice and say something when they see this kind of thing—instead of letting it continue for 5 years.
Delicious: (I’m going to read minds for this one.)
No-flour black bean brownies from ChocolateCoveredKatie.
You’re thinking “Gross. Also, why shouldn’t I use flour?”
Well, it’s healthier not to. And I know, you won’t believe me until you try it, but it doesn’t taste like black beans. It’s delicious. I swear. And you can feel good about it!\