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Sunday, March 29, 2009

Where I Go (on-line)

I admit it: I would be lost without the Internet, and quite honestly I am not sure what I did before it existed. I am an Internet junkie. The word 'portal' has an actual, technical Internet meaning, but in a very real sense it is a great word to describe what the Internet really is, namely this gateway to other things and places. That noted, here are some thoughts and links to some of the places I enjoy visiting on-line:

BLOGS
There are really only two blogs that I read regularly these days -

Dinoscopus - This is the blog of arch-conservative Catholic Bishop Williamson (infamous of late for his "I am not convinced that millions of Jews died during the Holocaust" views). Once you get beyond the overly formal language the Bishop uses and you hold your nose at his offensive Holocaust views (which he doesn't really discuss in his blogs) you find that he writes about a variety of different topics. I find that fascinating.

SDACT Blog - This is the official blog for the union that formerly represented Catholic teachers in the Diocese of Scranton. I am the product of a Catholic high school education, and I have fond memories of some of my teachers. While I don't necessarily agree that teachers should be unionized, I do recognize that they should be the ones to make that decision. The fact that the Bishop of Scranton unilaterally decided that the union shouldn't represent the teachers rubs me the wrong way. Anyway, this blog tracks news and events surrounding this group.


NEWS & CURRENT EVENTS
There are four news sites that I regularly visit -

MSNBC - Tops for both volume & freshness of content. My only complaint is that the page doesn't always load when I am at work and I want to check the headlines. That could be because of the ancient version of Internet Explorer that we use at the office.

Scranton Times On-line Edition - This is my new homepage, replacing the Drudge Report. I only really read it for the local news. The national & international stuff I get from MSNBC. It's not a great page, but it has the best volume of local content that I've seen. They also let you comment on articles, which can be fun.

Drudge Report - My old homepage, before Drudge well full force into "Obama Evil" mode. I don't claim to be the President's best supporter, but Matt Drudge does go overboard in cherry-picking articles that paint Obama in a bad light. Too much negativity for me, but the page is always worth visiting for the extensive and well-balanced (in terms of liberal vs conservative) links.

Note that I also will visit FoxNews when I am at work on occasion, although I never go there while at home. I like the freshness of news content at FoxNews, but some of the opinion pieces (and there are a lot of them) tend to get stale.


ON-LINE VIDEO
This is where I spend about a third of my Internet time -

Hulu - I watch current episodes of my favorite shows here; in fact, I watch them more on-line than on the TV. I love the fact that I can catch the latest episode of The Office when I have to time to watch it, as opposed to having to watch it when NBC says I have to.

Break - I don't go there as often as I used to, but it's always worth checking out. If you find videos of 12 year old boys eating teaspoons of cinnamon (and then seeing what happens...note: don't do that), then this is the place for you.


JUST FOR FUN
Some other places I like, really just for the fun of it -

AmIAnnoyingOrNot - I love reading the profiles, although I don't do any voting, etc.

FaceBook - You can find my FaceBook page by searching for me. Stop by and see me.

Tee Shirt Hell - Some very funny (and often offensive) stuff.


OTHER
A few other sites I enjoy & why -

Cult News Network - I really enjoy reading about religion, philosophy and related topics, so this is a great site for keeping current on religious events.

Operation Clambake - A site with information on the Church of Scientology. Fascinating stuff.

Urban Dictionary - Say your teenage son/daughter references a term you've never heard before, what do you do? Why you go to Urban Dictionary and look it up.

Song Facts - Lots of trivia about thousands of songs.

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