These are a few of my favorite things: DAY 3 – Internet delights

in Random Crap

This week we are sharing the things that are getting us through the harder times. Monday we did podcasts, yesterday we did tv and today we’re doing the wonderful internet things keeping you going. (Non-porn edition.)

The internet can be a scary sort of place where the loudest and most horrible people get the most attention but it can also be an amazing community of kind and wonderful people and it also houses most of my favorite cat videos.

So today let’s share our favorite online distractions. Maybe it’s a website or blog you love or a youtube video that makes you incredibly happy or someone you follow online who always makes you laugh or feel seen or an online group that is a second home.

I’ll start:

I spend way too much time online so one of my favorite things is falling into dark rabbit-holes on wikipedia like this List of unusual deaths, which kept me clicking on more links until 3am.

Also recommended: Atlas Obscura, which makes me feel like I’m traveling even when I can’t. (I use this site for almost every vacation I take because it gives me weird-ass recommendations that are so me.) And xkcd, which you probably already know. And reddit (once you find the subreddits that are right for you) is fascinating because there are so, so many subreddits for everything you can imagine. (Explain Like I’m Five and Submechanophobia are two of my faves.) And instagram, which uses my past likes to suggest videos for me except Hailey steals my phone and likes weird possum videos and other weirdness so it’s always a surprise.

Hailey suggests The Useless Web (which gives you random, weird websites) and we played with it for a few minutes this morning until it gave me this one which was actually very satisfying to play with.

Now it’s your turn, but first I will show you the best things instagram recommended for me today:

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The best boy

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😭 @p.aciencia @thanatos_lana @_.ashanti_

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Follow @clout9clips via: @tonybaker

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20 YEARS: Acclaimed Brazilian pianist/conductor João Carlos Martins plays piano with both hands for the first time in 20 years thanks to bionic gloves custom-built for him. Because of a degenerative disease, for decades he had only been able to play with his thumbs and sometimes his index fingers. Here he is once again enjoying what he loves best: playing the piano. Español: El aclamado pianista / director João Carlos Martins toca el piano con ambas manos por primera vez en 20 años gracias a unos guantes biónicos hechos especialmente para el. Debido a una enfermedad degenerativa, durante décadas solo había podido jugar con los pulgares y, a veces, con los dedos índices. Aquí vuelve a disfrutar de lo que más ama: tocar el piano. Portugués: O aclamado pianista / maestro João Carlos Martins toca piano com as duas mãos pela primeira vez em 20 anos, graças às luvas biônicas feitas sob medida para ele. Por causa de uma doença degenerativa, por décadas ele só conseguia brincar com os polegares e às vezes com os indicadores. Aqui está ele mais uma vez curtindo o que mais ama: tocar piano.

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cursed❤️

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Nightmare fuel 😱

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Okay. Your turn. What wonderful internet place do you love?

PS. Thank you for making this a wonderful internet place for me.

62 thoughts on “These are a few of my favorite things: DAY 3 – Internet delights”

Read comments below or add one.

  7. I’m a sucker for animal rescue pages on Facebook (wingspawsnclaws is my favorite so far)! Another good Facebook page is “Can I Pet Your Dog? Podcast” which has zero drama and ALL THE PUPPIES.

    I also love online comic strips, such as Questionable Content, Surviving the World, Order of the Stick, Hark! A Vagrant, Hyperbole & a Half, Gunnerkrigg Court, and Weregeek.

  9. I’ve been following Amanda Kloots on Instagram, and would recommend her site to anyone wanting a pick-me-up. She lost her husband actor Nick Cordero to Covid 19, and she is determined to honor his memory by living each day to the fullest. She posts her workout classes which she teaches, inspirational quotes and adorable photos and videos of her son Elvis. She inspires me every day with her positive outlook and gratitude for life. I am so grateful for people like her and Jenny who uplift me!😊

  12. I love reading your blog. And I fantasy shop Realtor.com and dream about all the fantasy houses I would live in if I could afford the staff to clean it and garden it for me. I love https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/ for all the things and places you never realized existed in your state to visit and to go do fun things in. I’m not really an Instagram or Pinterest’s person, not because I don’t enjoy them, but because you can get lost down the rabbit hole once you start using them and look up hours later wondering where the time went…. so I’m really happy when you curate videos and photos for us to see.

  14. Best timing ever and loved everyone of these things… so needed today of all days thank you!

  15. It’s driving me crazy *why* did the cat walk off the pier can anyone help me understand this?

  18. Dena Blizzard “One Funny Mother” , Meredith Masony “That’s Inappropriate – Meredith Masony” and Tiffany Jenkins “Juggling the Jenkins” are my best friends that I’ve never met. They have kept me laughing and sane through this impossible and insane year.

  22. If you haven’t discovered the Caenhill Countryside Center in Devizes, UK, your life is about to be immeasurably better. Every morning, Chris The Chatty Farmer lets his animals out of the barn for the “rush hour” and calls it like it’s a horse race. He loves all his animals, and he’s exceptionally silly.
    https://www.instagram.com/caenhillcc/
    https://twitter.com/caenhillcc
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKn7tfvyZEBfhRCuZ0aPVhQ

  27. I’ll echo what someone else posted and say the webcomic Questionable Content. I also enjoy Wilde Life, The Boy Who Fell, and Oglaf (nsfw).

    https://www.seventhsanctum.com/ is an extensive collection of generators for writing, gaming, art, etc. I often use it as a sandbox for my brain.

    On Reddit, check out Humanity, Fuck Yeah! (r/HFY) for sci-fi stories featuring humans being awesome.

    Ask A Mortician on YouTube is amazing and informative!

  36. This blog is a huge part of my internet get always. I look forward to getting the emails for new posts! ❤️

    Also I play an MMORPG game called Final Fantasy XIV online. I have met an amazing group of people there, I chat with them everyday. We have exchanged gifts and cards. Even phone numbers! I can’t imagine my days without them now.

  39. Do you like history or sewing maybe both?
    If you love Harry Potter, Sherlock Holmes , the victorian/Edwardian era. You will want to
    Watch Bernadette Banner on YouTube!
    Her diction will delight your ears. 💛

  41. I feel I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Archive of Our Own. Yes, fan fiction. Yes, thar be smut available within. But there’s also some incredible writing and the chance to read beautifully-rendered fixes for when a TV show/movie/book/etc. let you down or simply ended and you wanted more.

  44. “WhereTheHeckisMatt?” is the new name for WhereTheHellisMatt? — which has gotten me through many a rough patch over the years… My vision of a perfect world where we all can dance together…… as it should be…

  45. Trixie Mattel & Katya Watch, on Netflix’s youtube channel. Also, How It Should Have Ended, Eons, Kurzgesagt, & the hilarious Jamie French.
    Imgur is a bigger time-suck than Pinterest these days, but Pinterest can still occasionally deliver

  46. Ooh, I second Kitten Academy and Cake Wrecks! Also pretty much any live animal cam…

    For me, a daily check-in (apart from this site!) always includes The Far Side, which posts Gary Larson archives. https://www.thefarside.com

    Another site I frequent when feeling a little down in the dumps is Put You In a Better Mood, which gets its photo feed from a subreddit called aww – just basically cute animal pix. https://www.putyouinabettermood.com

    Oh, I have so many…Google Arts & Culture is really amazing (and, you know, just museum websites in general). https://artsandculture.google.com. I’m also getting hooked on Twitter – fun sites include Bodega Cats, Giant Military Cats, M_Crouton (who is a cow that lives on a farm animal sanctuary in NY), A bear, and Yesterday’s Print which is full of old pictures and ads.

    Finally, I love cooking videos – YouTube faves include Peaceful Cuisine and Emojoie Cuisine, and I love watching the cooking videos on The Kitchn.

    Erm…was that too much?

  49. My absolute favorite internet thing is The Colo(u)r Clock. It converts the current time to hexadecimal and then displays the corresponding color. Really simple, but utterly fascinating to watch. I pull it up whenever I need something soothing.

    http://thecolourclock.com/

  50. A vlog on YouTube called Ordinary Adventures. A 30-something couple in California visit and review theme parks for fun and food and shop at stores for movie and holiday related items. There is something fun and relaxing about watching them in their ordinary adventures… especially during a pandemic.

  53. That cat on the dock… I can’t stop laughing… I have actual real-life tears running down my face. I needed that, thank you.

  56. Walter Geoffrey, Gus Gus, Tuna Makes Your Heart Melt, Tucker Budzyn, Esther the Wonder Pig, The Fowler Herd, Jade & Jasper, Daisy the Newfie, Bulenjy, and of course, the Bloggess

  57. Soooo…I think that cat who walked off the pier must be blind or something. Your blog is my happy place most of the time, but that video genuinely hurts my heart. I understand why people find it amusing, and that the cat was never in real danger, but no matter what the circumstances, an animal in distress should never be used as an object of amusement. Imagine, if she’s blind, how much she relies on her family and how unprotected she must have felt. The bigger problem is that if such videos prove popular and influencers like you promote them, more “accidents” will happen. You wield a lot of influence; please consider carefully what kind of world you want for animals when posting these videos.

    Men playing chicken with giant spiders, though? Sold!:

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QUC-MPxUzo8

  59. The Golden Ratio – gives me joy every day to see what the dogs are doing, and their humans seem wonderful.

  61. A vlog on YouTube called Ordinary Adventures. A 30-something couple in California visit and review theme parks for fun and food and shop at stores for movie and holiday related items. There is something fun and relaxing about watching them in their ordinary adventures… especially during a pandemic.

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