Sunday, February 14, 2010

Internet Junkie


(Hand in the air.) Yep, that's me. I know, I know, there's an awful lot of junk on the web. Lots of dangers like lurking pedophiles and identity thieves. But there is also so much cool information and neat sites that I find myself endlessly fascinated. And being someone in constant need of distraction while I'm writing, I stumble onto new sites daily :)

Here are some of my favorites:

One Look Dictionary Search

http://www.onelook.com


The site indexes over 14,000,000 words from over a thousand dictionaries. I like it less for the definition and translation help and more for its word search/phrase tools. For instance, you can find all the phrases with the word 'blue' in it; all words that start with bl and end with rd with four letters in the middle; or find phrases related to a given word.

Tiny Url

http://tinyurl.com


When you want to share links but the darn things are a million characters, you can go to this site and tiny url it. It will change the link into something short that can be shared easily. Warning, it will give you a different tiny url everytime you put the same given url in.

IGoUGo

http://igougo.com

For all you travelers out there. This site allows you to reference a half dozen travel sites at the same time when you're checking on airfare.

Urban Dictionary

http://www.urbandictionary.com


I'm a recent subscriber. I have to rely on my kids for the most up to date phrases and humorous play on words, but this site has more than a few laugh out loud usable words/phrases. People submit them and then you can vote on whether you like them or not. Some of them are a real stretch. Others, like the recent submission of 'muffin top' is already solidly entrenched in slang vernacular. But there are a few gems in there, and I've started a folder for those. Some of my favorites: texthole (a description of the guy in the car in front of you weaving all over the road because he won't stop texting on his phone); mid-day crisis (the point in the afternoon when caffeine no longer cuts it and you're in serious need of a siesta); mondaze (the mental fog or daze you're in when Monday rolls around); or weekend amnesia (getting back to work on Monday and having no memory of where you left off on Friday.) Great site for writers, for dialogue ideas for certain secondary characters who add flavor to our stories.

Merriam Webster Dictionary

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary


I'm a word-aholic, and love this site because of its auditory component. Type in any word and not only do you get the definition, but you can click on the red speaker icon and hear the word pronounced.

Cool Text

http://cooltext.com/


Ever wonder how people get those cool signatures at the end of their blogs or email posts? Here's a site that helps you do that.

Live Search Club Games

http://www.clubbing.com/Pages/Games/GameList.aspx


Because there just aren't enough distractions when I'm trying to write. Here's a site with a ton of free games to play, including my favorite Chicktionary and nineteen others. You can play as a guest or join and earn tickets which supposedly can be turned in for prizes, although I've never done that.

Okay, so now you know how I spend my days :) Do you have a favorite link to share?

14 comments:

Terry Odell said...

I recently fell in love with Wordle.net, which makes word clouds. Not only are they pretty, but you can play with layout and font and color scheme. But mostly they're a fun way to check to see which words you're overusing if you plug in a scene or a chapter.

Aly said...

I admit it...I am a blog whore! I LOVE reading blogs! So that is most of my internet junkie time!

I love Cake Wrecks! It makes me laugh!

Post Secret is a blog I have followed for a while. It can be heart breaking to read some of the secrets people send in but there are some that make me fall out of my chair laughing!

And then something so simple that so many people don't use is Google News. I love this b/c it grabs all of the news stories in one place and you can pick and choose your news source!

I am pretty boring I guess, LOL!

Aly

Helen Brenna said...

Nenenenene .... I'm covering my eyes and pretending I don't see this!

KylieBrant said...

Terry, Wordle is a favorite of mine, too and has lots of uses at school. I've never used it to see if I'm overusing a word, though. Thanks for the tip!

Aly, there are sooo many blogs out there! It could keep us busy all day!
I do love to get news off the Internet. I'm embarrassed to say I never thought of Google News!

Helen, c'mon you need more distractions don't you?

Cindy Gerard said...

LOL Helen. Me too. Although these sound like fun!

Michele Hauf said...

I've become bored with surfing. Oddly enough. I have my blog crawl I do every morning, which includes the must-view http://icanhascheezburger.com

And that's about it!

I find Twitter distracts me lately. :-(

I love that dictionary sight you listed! I always want to know how words are pronounced.

Unknown said...

It's hard to be a internet whore on dialup. Too much work to turn the tricks. :) But I did write down some of them to check out when I'm not insane. Should that auspicious eventuality ever come about.

Keri Ford said...

I was going to say Cake Wrecks, but Nutty Mother beat me to it. Distraction of late--email inbox. Wowsiers, but that thing has been hopping (today is catch-up day)! I was also introduced to Romance Divas just before the new year. Great place for writers looking to link up with other writers.

Since I'm super excited about it---how about I share a link to my newly designed website that I am just in love with??

www.keriford.com

(really wish I knew the html code to make that a clicky link)

KylieBrant said...

Cindy, you'd love Chicktionary!

Michelle, I'm with you. My reading vocabulary is better than my speaking vocabulary because I'm weak in pronunciation. I do a few words a week as a vocabulary builder. I'm a dork, LOL.

Lois, you must have the patience of a saint to wait for dial up. I'm cussing if the site isn't up in a matter of seconds! Spoiled, I guess.

Keri, I'll go check out your site!

Cindy Gerard said...

Kylie - you evil wench. You turned me on to Chicktionary over a year ago. It's one of my addictions. Along with Spelling Bee which is on the same site.
Not sure I'll ever forgive you :o)

GunDiva said...

Kylie, the last thing I needed was more ways to waste my time online. Thanks a lot!

My daily blog crawl has grown to almost two hours (yikes!). I spent yesterday going through each of the 103 blogs that I follow to see which ones I could live without. I managed to cut out three, but then found five more that I *had* to add. Can I just become a professional blog reader? 'Cause I think that's the way I'm heading.

I'm with Nutty Mother on Cake Wrecks (I email it daily to everyone I work with). Also for a guaranteed laugh, Crazy People I Work With, is a great blog.

Now I'm off to check out the cool texts and see if I can't find a great new signature for my blogs!

Christie Ridgway said...

Oh, man, this is all good! I'm supposed to be working!

Debra Dixon said...

These are great! Love it.

Okay, so I have to add one that I cribbed from one of my author's tweets today.

http://writeordie.drwicked.com/

You have to write or bad things happen. You can get it for the desktop too. I think it's a scream.

KylieBrant said...

Gun Diva, I'm off to check off those blogs!

Lol, Christie. When do you think I find this stuff?

I'm intrigued, Deb! Gonna check it out!