When 'net surfing was still completely new to us, we had a few faves that really did the trick. Discovering The Onion for the first time was like a revelation, and they still know the funny, although the move to New York killed a little bit of the outsider nature they had.
Anyway, we went back to a few old reliables recently that have been allowed to die ugly deaths. Now shadows of their former selves, they are propelled mostly by inertia, still good for display ad income or egoboo but not so much for entertainment.
Granted, this smacks of Bobcat Goldthwait's best joke:
"At this point in my career, people feel obligated to come up to me and say 'I
used to like you. You
used to be funny.' So I say 'Oh yeah? Well I just
met you and
you suck.'"
Still, it's our blog. Here's the No Longer Recommended:
Disturbing AuctionsOnce upon a time, the moderated and original writing on Disturbing Auctions brought the
pointlessly odd on a daily basis. Then they put the patients in charge of the loony bin by setting it up as a message board. Posts now are inevitably of the been there, done that, workaday lame variety, without even a nod to the writing that made the original site great.
SalonOh what a little success will do to you. Back in the day this was one of my true daily must-read sites. Smart writers, a seemingly endless base of topics and opinions to draw from, Keith Knight's
The K Chronicles, nearly weekly articles from my beloved Cintra Wilson, what wasn't to love? It was political without being preachy, intelligent without looking down, and not afraid to laugh at stupid jokes. But then they started charging admission for the second half of articles, and suddenly what started as a daily news magazine on my computer became an ad-riddled password-entering obstacle course that was more work than anything else.
The Best Page in the UniverseMaddox was the guy who was
better than your kids. Perhaps he still is, but now he sounds like
every other hothead on the 'net.
Ain't It Cool NewsThis used to be geek central. Now it's ground zero for hate speech and trolling. Not to mention
patently uncool news.
How about you? Leave us a comment and let us know what sites you used to love, but can't stay with anymore?
How awesome is this?
Picture-based meme threads have been around for a while, but like so many other Internet fads they tend to rise and fade depending on the idea. Sometimes it's the people involved (remember when we were all making jokes about Chuck Norris - but then he started doing it too?), sometimes the topic doesn't have a shelf life (Brittney shaved her head? That's hilario..zzzzzzz), and sometimes it's just not as much fun as you originally thought it was going to be. 
But if there is one picture-meme out there that simply will not die, it's Caturday. While I'm sure someone out there probably knows the story of it's origins, knowing why it started is hardly the point anymore, because it's everywhere. Not that I'm complaining -- "Do You Want Karate?" cracks me up every time. But until it gets assimilated into a Burger King commercial by corporate America one fact is clear:
Finally, something to break up the all-day coverage of what was in Queen Amidala's refrigerator on the day the police found her body. There is such a thing as too much news, you know.
Perhaps the most disturbing is their revelation of the fabled "Urban" octopus -- which is apparently capable of entering homes through standard kitchen pipes -- after which they eat the stuff in your fridge, envelop your puppies, and drink your milk.
At a time when so much pop culture art -especially genre art-is made on a computer, it's refreshing to see some large-scale sci-fi sculpture. The artist is Greg Brotherton, and the pieces range in scale from miniature to nine feet tall.
Ahhh Weebl. Just when you think he's fading away, he rolls right back up with an instant classic from his talking egg duo. Maybe it's just me, but I happen to think this video plays right along with my CSI-inspired get-rich scheme. Either way, it's a quick giggle to get your mind off the workday.
Just in time for everyone to have mp3 players small enough to hide on the lapels of your shirt, the folks at Nikko Home Electronics have come out with a pair of hulking speakers that would look horrible in just about any living room you could think of.
