First Week Gone

With the first week out of the way, I am dropping down on the amount of reviews I do to two per week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Thank you.

Not a Flash Game

Not a Flash Game is exactly what it says it is not. Huh? It's not a flash game. It's also not work; but it can be passed off as work. It can even be played when you're not at work, but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves, here.

What exactly is Not a Flash Game? It's a version of Brick Attack/popcorn/etc. except that it's design makes it look like you're working in Microsoft Word.

Not a Flash Game stems from the website and group, 'Can't You See I'm Busy!' and is labeled as 'Breakdown'. Along with it are a few other games that allow you to play while appearing to be at work, a link to high-scores, links to follow the creators of the games on Twitter, a cost calculator, and a link to a career factory (only for those in the Netherlands).

All in all, a pretty good time killer when you're brain-dead at work or just bored in general.

My rating: 6/10

The Book Seer

BookSeer

This is a simple-looking website with one function: To predict what book you should read next. Put in the name and author of the book you just got done reading and this magic little website created by Apt Labs will generate a list of books you should try next. It pulls data from Amazon and Library Thing as well as giving you a link to find your local bookshop or local public library if the results aren't to your liking, or it isn't able to generate any results; which isn't often.

While this isn't as important to people who do not like to read books, it is an invaluable tool to those who do.

My Rating: 7/10

DeviantArt

Today, I tackle a giant. Many of the people who read this blog or will come to read it are already aware of this website. For those who aren't, you may find it here: DeviantArt

What makes DeviantArt such a great website? It's free to join and it literally houses some of the best art of the modern age. People of all ages and talent ranges make their way there on a daily basis to upload their pictures in the hopes that the right person will see them, or that millions of internet viewers will run across it and say something similar to 'omg, I love this dude.'

That's putting it simply, though. It's not just about the art. It is, in itself, a bustling community full of people who give helpful tips to new artists and share trade secrets with each other all the while helping each other progress further than they would on their own. Whereas some artists will have their own website that may or may not be found via various search engines or StumbleUpon; DeviantArt is sure to be found via search engines and stumbleupon. When anybody looks up art for an anime, or for a cartoon, or really any sort of art from self-portraits to TV and Movies; or even just scenery; they're bound to run into at least a handful of search results linking to DeviantArt.

The artwork from the site has definitely made it's way into my bookmarks and favorites more times than I care to recall as I've run across some picture or another that reminds me of my childhood in some special way, Some person having remodeled my memories into something new and fresh while still holding true to my nostalgia; and it grips my heart in a caring caress and makes me fall in love with my memories all over again.


credited to: AdamWithers

Can you name all of the characters in this picture? I can; and that's what makes this so special to me. I grew up watching these cartoons and I remember loving them and wishing they would have stuck around a lot longer.

And, it's not even just that. The creativity and new art that makes its way onto this website also grips and causes emotions to ebb and flow just as surely as the things I used to know. Art that grabs me and twists playfully the parts of my soul that I was previously unaware of.

Pictures such as:

credited to: MumblingIdiot

and this:

credited to: GoddessVirage


Whether you're an artist, an art admirer, a person who enjoys a good story through the use of images or just someone who enjoys seeing their childhood re-imagined in new and powerful ways; DeviantArt really does have something for everybody.

My rating: 10/10

Ascii Tables

When I ran across this website, I immediately saw the use for it. Who hasn't been confused by ascii tables or hex and decimal codes? Ascii Tables

Being the nerd that I am, I immediately made my own conversion chart in a notebook for easy access, but all you really have to do is bookmark the page and look back on it from time to time. This helps a lot with html and the like and the little alt codes that some people have issues with.

It also has Scan Codes and EBCDIC, HTML Codes and Unicode v4 tables. It sports a link to another useful website, All Conversions which has an assortment of functions from Area conversions to Byte conversions, to temperature and volume.

All-around a pretty useful website and even more useful for people into computer programming.

My rating: 8/10

Pangloss Wisdom

Dr. Pangloss was a character in the French Satire Candide, which was first written in 1759, by Voltaire; a philosopher of the age of enlightenment. In the book, Dr. Pangloss was the mentor of a young man named Candide who lived in seclusion in an Eden-like Paradise. To this young man; Candide; Pangloss sought to teach optimism, until their world was ripped apart and Candide was forced to witness and experience great hardships in the world around him.

This website, Pangloss Wisdom, was designed to bring you wise sayings that Pangloss might have said, had he the time to say them. Each quote is designed to bring insight to the readers mind and the viewer is only ever a click away from the next saying.

Along with this feature, the website also sports a few utilities for web-designers, Shakespearean insults, (Now you, too, can insult like the folk in Shakespeare's plays) a rhyme generator, (for the poetically disinclined) a unit converter, (for those who, like me, didn't spend enough time in school memorizing conversion tables) and a link to their home page, where even more goodies may be found.

Informational, practical and; if nothing else; entertaining, this website has something for just about everybody, even if that something is a temporary distraction from duties.

My rating: 'I like it!' a.k.a.

An Introduction

Please allow me to introduce myself...

I'm a man of... taste, at least. No wealth, otherwise I probably wouldn't have the time to enjoy browsing the internet or making blogs.

My name is Christopher M. Brown, I'm 25 years old and this is the catalog of my journeys online.

Through the use of StumbleUpon, I have come across many various websites, and through my wonton use of the 'I like it!' button, I have accumulated quite a backlog of popular websites.

Now, after having used StumbleUpon for over 2 years, I have enough stored content to keep me busy for years to come, if I decide to review every website that I've run across or will run across. I have decided to embark on such a venture. Lucky you.

I wonder if I will be able to get it all done in my life time: browse and review as much of the web as I can. Of course, it makes it easier when not everything is worth giving a review. What do I base the worth of a review on? My personal bias, of course. You hate me already, I can tell.

What exactly will I be reviewing of each website? Well, since I am a hopeless optimist that see's... or tries to see, anyway; the good side of everything, I will be reviewing the Pro's. If you want the con's of a website, I'm not going to give them. These are all websites that I like; in one fashion or another; and as such, I would like more people to visit them and to expand the popularity of them.

Already you're tired of me talking. I can see this is going to go well. Well, it is my blog. If you don't like long blocks of text, I suggest you move along. If; like me; you have the time to sit there and enjoy, over a cup of coffee, the simple eloquence of another human as they dive into the bastions of imagination; then by all means, stick around and see what I have in store. I promise to be as entertaining as I can.

I welcome you all to my Pen-Powered Insanity. May God have mercy on us all.