Richard Gilzene: My favourite wastes of time…
I thought making a list of my favourite websites would be incredibly easy. I’ve spent exactly half my life on the Internet. Part of the first generation raised on it. I use it everyday.
But after 5 minutes I realised, in reality, nowadays I use the Internet like a pensioner at ‘club’, and only visit things like ‘Guardian Unlimited’ and ‘BBC News’. Far cry from my days as a 1337 h4xxor, feasting on a diet of warez and pr0n. Anyway, I digress. Here are 10 sites that you doubtlessly would have already been to because, whilst being incredibly vast, the Internet is f*****g tiny.
(No particular order or anything)
1) 20jazzfunkgreats – mp3 blog extraordinaire. Everyone has one friend who thinks they know everything about music. This is the website that will put them to shame.
2) The Hype Machine – the ultimate time waster, debate settler, quick-music-fix supplier. Search for any song you like; if it’s been posted on an mp3 blog any time recently (and it usually has), you’ll be able to stream it in full. Just essential.
3) Idiot Toys – award-winningly amusing tech humour, and should already be in your bookmarks because it’s part of the same blog network as Tech Digest.
4) Japan Today – I like Japan, you see. JT is one of the more accessible Japanese news sites. Read for a week and realise how boring UK news is in comparison. Sample headline: ‘41.2% bathe with cell phones, poll finds’
5) The Superficial – the celeb gossip blog that isn’t Perez Hilton, Holy Moly, WWTDD, TMZ, Dlisted, IDLYITW, Heatworld…
6) styleslut – at one point ‘Europe’s fifth most popular blog’, styleslut is stupid, has been called ‘offensive’ and is sometimes NSFW. It deals with music and parties, elements key to today’s yoof, and therefore is probably read by the people who write Skins. See also: Hipster Runoff (much of the same, but stupider and US-based)
7) Football365 – increasingly preachy football website. Has become home to what is probably the most culturally relevant football forum in the country. If that even makes sense. Interchangeable with Guardian Unlimited: Football.
8) Wikipedia – by far and away the most important thing to happen to the Internet; our children will thank us as they search for historical evidence polar bears existed whilst choking on smog/dodging tidal waves/being charred by the sun.
9) MagCulture – excellent magazine/newspaper blog, focusing on editorial design, industry ethics, typography and other interesting stuff. Used in conjunction with Media Guardian.
10) Something Awful – I’ve not been to SA in years. But I can assure you, go, click blindly on any link you like and you’ll laughing, or at least smiling, in seconds.
