Time-Wasting Web Sites 31-40
31. PostSecret
With a decidedly less high-tech but far more innovative approach, PostSecret publishes actual postcards mailed in by people looking to share their deepest secrets. The site's creators call it an "ongoing community art project." (For more on PostSecret and other sites like it, read "Online Confessions: The Web Bares Its Soul.")
32. Timothy McSweeney's Internet Tendency
The name may not be memorable, but the content at McSweeney's Lists site is tough to forget. The site features page after page of random and often hilarious lists--"Rarely Used Parenthetical Statements," for example, or "A Picnic Date Ending in an Awkward Sexual Encounter, Told Chronologically Through Board-Game Titles."
I'll bet you never noticed how much Perez Hilton looks like the Grinch, or how similar Daisy De La Hoya is to 80s singer Pete Burns. The user-driven community of Totally Looks Like did, though. Intrigued?
34. Monoface
Who needs look-alikes when you can build your own face? Monoface, the brainchild of a Minneapolis-based ad agency, lets you play Mr. Potato Head with real people. Click to combine different eyes, noses, and mouths until you find a suitably funny combination. With nearly 760,000 possibilities, it'll take you a while to run out of steam.
35. The Genuine Haiku Generator
what fun, this quaint site
creates haikus on demand
english teachers frown
36. FreeRice
Play trivia and make a difference with FreeRice. Every time you get an answer right, the site donates 10 grains of rice to global hunger programs. FreeRice is run by the United Nations World Food Program and uses revenue from in-site ads to pay for the food.
37. Archive.org
A world of data awaits you at Archive.org. The site is home to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, where you can look up versions of Web pages dating back to 1996. It also hosts the Live Music Archive, an impressive collection of free live concerts.
38. Pets in Clothes
The Hot or Not craze of the early 2000s gets an aww-inducing update with Pets in Clothes, a site dedicated to cute animals wearing cute duds. From cats in sunglasses to dogs in nurse outfits, the cuddly images just keep on coming. Taking a cue from the Hot or Not model, Pets in Clothes progresses through photos by having you rate each image on a scale of 1 to 10. And of course, you can submit your own pet pics for inclusion.
Think your handiwork is bad? See some of the worst excuses for quick fixes at There, I Fixed It, an ever-expanding gallery of the most pitiful repair jobs performed all over the globe.
40. Homestar Runner
Cult favorite Homestar Runner is still going strong. Start with the latest Strongbad E-Mail missives and gain a whole new appreciation for the all-powerful Lappy 486 and, of course, scroll buttons and random. Keep on scrollin' on, friends.
Got a favorite time-wasting Web site we didn't mention? Add it in the comments section below. Just make sure it's worth our time.
When not wasting time on Twitter, Contributing Editor JR Raphael fine-tunes the scroll buttons on his new geek-humor site, eSarcasm.