Top Websites

This post is going to be a little out of the ordinary compared to the purpose of this blog and what have you...I'm finding that I don't have a good place to just write random thing unless I put it on my poetry blog, and out of the choice of putting this with a bunch of poems and with a bunch of rhetoric, I think it's closer to the rhetoric.

I wanted to make a tops list for websites that I like and I suppose the only way I can tie it into rhetoric is to explain why I like them--I suppose a claim could be made that these are the greatest advances in the internet of our day, but I'll let you decide:

Aside from my own websites and tools like Google Analytics, Blogger, email account sites, school work sites, and facebook (which is also just a tool), this is my list of sites I visit most, appreciate most, and enjoy the most.

• Wikipedia - Although not a professional encyclopedia, I think wikipedia is one of the best places to learn about pop culture. All you need to do is look up a topic or word and it'll give you the general consensus of what that topic is (rhetoric in action).
• Dictionary.com - I always find words to look up--particularly latin phases like quid pro quo or nosequenter, etc. that you can only learn about in a dictionary. The folks at Dictionary.com are doing the world a great service.
• IMDB - The internet movie database is chalk FULL of data about movies...while watching a movie I find myself questioning where I have seen this or that actor before, and so I look him or her up. It is also helpful for distinguishing real indie actors or filmmakers from all of the phoneys. It's almost like a barrier to entry: if you're not listed on the IMDB you better have some proof that you're legit. --I have to be careful though because I'm not listed on the IMDB, plus people can get on there by signing up for a one year membership.
• CG society - This nifty website is awesome for finding desktop backgrounds. Plus it exposes you to the world of art. Who knew that looking at artwork could be so entertaining? (I did...that's why I became a filmmaker) Not only does it expose you to different art styles, if you set up a basic account, you can talk directly to the artist about any of your questions pertaining to their art.
• Craigslist and KSL.com - I love searching around CL or KSL for bargains and to sell my old stuff. Although everyone has a different purpose for why they buy stuff, I typically buy stuff that I can fix and resell. Recently I helped my dad buy a camp trailer that we can leave up on our mountain property, we've done a little fixing up on it, but we needed to buy something cheap because trees fall down a lot in that area and we didn't want a tree to just fall right on it and ruin it, so we bought a cheap one that looked decent to camp in and fit our needs.
• eHow.com - I remember back in the olden day turning to howstuffworks.com to figure out how things work and how I can do things like pick locks and how metal detectors work, but nowadays I don't need to. eHow has really fixed the world by making it easy to find how to do things on your own. There are even articles on how to pick locks!
  However, even though this made it on my list, I Think eHow is incomprehensive at this time. It's not finished...there are TONS of things that aren't on there, like techniques for playing with polymer clay, but I think that's the purpose of eHow...they have tons and tons of junk (for instance, 100 different ways to sandblast your pants) but they don't have other, more intricate things that not as many people do. So I think it would be better to put eHow alongside other websites that do that and more.

Other sites that almost made it:

• Hulu - Hulu almost made it into the most important websites of our time list, but they recently changed their business plan. If they would have continued to offer free internet movies (all of them) and they were good quality movies, then they would have won this prized spot. Instead of benefiting humanity by bringing back old classics like Gone With the Wind, The Sound of Music, or the Wizard of Oz, they are charging people to buy a Hulu+ account, which makes no sense because Netflix has a better selection of better movies. Essenturally, Hulu sold out it's position as a benefit to humanity and is now offering free crappy movies to anyone bored enough to resort to them. Granted, I still watch them because although the movies are terrible, they made money somewhere and have some aspect to them that could help me improve as a filmmaker, if I can only find it...
• Google and particularly GoogleTranslate - Google is amazing, let's face it. I'm not just saying that because my blog is hosted in the google universe. But I didn't want to put google on my top list for some reason... It has provided millions of people with jobs, even people outside of google's company simply by providing services (tools and adsense and adaware) that have the potential to make money. That means SEOs are given jobs, Web Marketers are given jobs, and professional bloggers are given jobs too, all because of what google has done. If I were to list a site represented by Google, I would choose GoogleTranslate or GoogleMaps. Translate is nifty when you want to translate a phrase or read something someone else wrote in another language. You can even translate whole websites, which means I can go onto Japanese websites to learn about samurai armor, or singaporean websites to read about pirating video games (heh, I'm joking). Maps is a good tool because SOOO many people get list with verbal directions. However, I think one reason I excluded it from my list is because it still has many kinks to work out, like the fact that both my house and my film studio are not accurately listed on googlemaps...
• Launch (YahooMusic) and Pandora - Although I don't use it, maybe you do... Launch (its original name) was THE place to go for free internet music and music videos. I think they still are the best place for music videos and the top 100 chart, but I don't necessarily think they are a benefit to society. . . Not only are their other tools that do the same thing equally as well or better, but they are missing components that might be beneficial to humanity, Pandora included. I don't use them much either. Sure, they make people happy, but I don't think they're worthy of a standing ovation.
• Youtube and Facebook - No way would you catch me listing these too thugs! Youtube and facebook are places for junk. People post the stupidest videos on youtube and often times you find yourself thinking: why am I watching this video? just because someone recommended it? It hink it would be better if there were a better sort of ranking system other than user's opinion. Like a professional judges panel along with it or some categorical system that prevented you from watching anything non-professional. I get sick of seeing fat kids shake and fat girls try to striptease only to hurt themselves... In fact, I get sick of seeing fat kids altogether. Plus, Youtube is full of plagarism and there is no way to stop it...the crackdown police aren't watching EVERYTHING. Facebook too, is just a bully. They are full of pictures of fat kids shaking, fat girls strip teasing, slim girls strip teasing (I don't want to see that! geeze!) and sure, I can block them and unfriend them, but in order to use it as a tool I have to have them on there to reach other people. Plus facebook can be used as the ultimate stalking too and...don't let me ramble on about somethign I already wrote about...
• Dating sites - Being a dating and relationship coach and not out for money (some dating coaches start their own dating websites and that's how they make money)I can honestly say that dating sites are a waste of time. You would have better luck going to the county fair or church on sunday to find a mate than you would hiding behind a computer screen. And there really isn't science behind it, even though you might think there is...opposites attract as well as likes, so what does that say when the site recommends you to someone simply because they are similar to you or opposite to you, or both?--it just gives you an incentive to like someone you wouldn't otherwise think about. Try meeting people outside and you'll find that you have a much higher chance of success together...
• the Guttenbergproject (Sp?) - Free Ebooks, a lot of them ancient. I didn't include this because they haven't done a well enough job advertising themselves, nor accessing books. If they ran a business model rather than a non-profit, they'd do much better...even if you had to view a few ads here and there to get at what you want...
• Amazon.com - Amazon IS worthy of this list, but I think they get neglected on a few sides and that is preventing them from really helping humanity. Sure, purchasing products online is great, but until they find a way to really bring the asthetics of shopping and instant take home, it's going to be hard (maybe when transporters are invented they'll REALLY have something spectacular).

Now I am sure there are some critiques of this list...It focuses more on intellectual and scholarly-like sites than entertaining and loving sites. But You have to remember that I wrote this for humanity sake, not entertainment sake. If you want to talk entertainment with me I'll go get my copy of old greek and old norse myths, then we'll compare modern humor to ancient humor and you'll find that it is the exact same. But if you compare greek libraries and databases to databases of today you'll discover that knowledge is MUCH more accessible.