h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I give you my latest online time-wasters:

www.stumbleupon.com -- You get a loverly search bar that you can customize. Let's say you're this Dragonfly character from hootoo and you are interested in cooking, puzzles, poetry, graphic art, mythology ... things like that... you tell stumbleupon.com that you like those things. You can surf around in one category at a time, or all of your preferred categories. Stumbleupon.com finds sites it thinks you will like. The more time you spend rating sites, the smarter it gets. Fantastic.

www.pandora.com -- Musical madness. Let's pretend your this Dragonfly person from hootoo and you want to listen to Johnny Cash and Joni Mitchell and Cake and The Beatles and other such music. Yes, you could use the virtual iPod link you found using stumbleupon.com, but since you first found pandora.com and remember reading about it in one of your favorite magazines, called Mental_Floss, you slowly get a bit addicted to pandora.com (which you also like because of the mythological reference) and it helps you pass the time while you paint.

http://www.jigzone.com/ -- Does more need to be said? This site times you and shows how your time compares to others who have done the same puzzle.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/everydaymatters/ -- The Every Day Matters Yahoo! Group. Let's say you're this Dragonfly from hootoo. You like creative things. You would like to draw. You found an awesome book at a book sale called "The Creative License" and soon you went online to the author (Danny Gregory)'s site and soon he led you to this Yahoo! group that connects you with artists and other creative beings and it's really a fine place to start off lurking for other creative souls -- have you seen a sketchblog? These are things of beauty, things this Yahoo! group will bloody hook you up with.

Thanks for the read.

(OOOPS! Forgot to proofread this before I posted. I'm used to www.YourHub.com, where I can edit my posts any ol' time. Ah well. No huuuuge mistakes ...)

Mind if I share a few of mine? I'm a huge fan of webcomics at the moment, and they're my favorite way to waste time online.

www.drmcninja.com -- He's a doctor. And he's a ninja. What more could you want?

www.qwantz.com -- Dinosaur Comics. This is the strip that proves that the world of webcomics can be a literary craft instead of an artform. How? Simple: the art never changes. You have to experience it yourself to truly appreciate the concept, I'm afraid; mere words won't do it justice.

www.sluggy.com -- One of the earliest (and still one of the best) "serialized" webcomic stories on the Internet. Follow the adventures of Torg, Riff, Zoe, Gwynn, Bun-Bun the killer rabbit, Kiki, and a cast of hundreds of supporting characters as they embark upon stories ranging from simple Internet comedy to gothic horror to angsty drama to far-flung space odysseys to martial arts madness. Oh, and beware the pun.

www.schlockmercenary.com -- In my opinion, the guy who draws this is one of the greatest wordsmiths in the history of the English language, on par with (if not superior to) Douglas Adams. Even more serialized than Sluggy Freelance, this is one the best comedic space opera around....

www.starslipcrisis.com -- ...OR IS IT?! Rappidly nipping on Schlock Mercenary's heels, this sci-fi comedy may one day surpass Schlock's roving band of space mercenaries. And besides: name a single other sci-fi epic that takes place almost entirely inside a flying art museum. Go on. Name one. I dare you.

www.zapinspace.com -- And for those of you who don't want your comedy mixing with your sci-fi, I present Zap. A highly dramatic sci-fi story featuring everything that you've come to love about the space opera genre, with an extra emphasis on mentalists.

www.thewotch.com -- It's like a cross between Ranma 1/2, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, The Wizard Of Oz, and Dawson's Creek. The author knows how to perfectly blend fairy-tale technique with modern teenage romantic comedy. But why's it like Ranma 1/2? Well, if you know Ranma 1/2, then the answer to that one should become apparent in about, oh, thirty seconds after you start reading.

Awesome! I love comics. Cartoons are one of my categories on StumbleUpon.

I also nearly bought a book about how to make comics ...

Aw, man....

I checked the current pages of each of the webcomics that I just listed, and...man. Dr. McNinja is freakin' hilarious today. And it's a perfect example of the type of Tensely Dramatic Comedy that's a staple of the strip.

"I'm a huge fan of webcomics at the moment, and they're my favorite way to waste time online.
www.drmcninja.com -- He's a doctor. And he's a ninja. What more could you want?" [afgncaap5]

I don't mind if he's your doctor, but I prefer my doctors to be somewhat plump so they don't get silly ideas like making me train to run marathons.

Once you start with Dr. McNinja, you won't go back. Sure, he might ask you to train for a marathon. But hey, there's no better Doctor to have if you're kidnapped by a cabal of lumberjacks during an operation.

If you like www.pandora.com you should give http://www.last.fm/ a try (which unlike pandora is not just for US residents). So far I know two other hootooers over there but hey more welcome

P.S. you can find me @ http://www.last.fm/user/happydufus/

P.P.S. Last.fm won "Best Music Community" at the BT Digital Music Awards last night

Woah ... really... will have to check them out.

Hi, Affy, Pauly, Happy!

s all around

Happy-- thank you. Now John Lennon's "Out of the Blue" is playing in my happy ear. Haven't heard this song in years ...

I'm more like Into the Red than out of the blue.

Oh dear.