Sites of the Moment
 

Every now and then, I come across a site I want to share with people...then I forget it. Damnit!

I will use this new topic to post those sites that are either useful, funny, or just stupid. Feel free to contribute your own as well.

--I am an avid road geek. I like learning about highways, driving them, seeing pictures of them, whatever. By accident, I've become a regular on the misc.transport.road ng now. Here are a few of my personal faves:

kurumi.com: Contains the 3-digit interstate section. Very informative...more info than most people would care to know.

The End US Highway Page: A listing of all the US highways, with their beginning and endpoints...pics too in many cases.

The International House of Zzyzx: Lots of cool stuff beyond the Interstate Highway List

AARoads.com: Highway signs, photos, etc.

Other sites of interest or disinterest to you:

touristguy.com: I find this site to be ridiculously funny. Sort of a new version of "Where's Waldo?" (Note: photo heavy, takes a bit to load on 56K)

I am a fan of webcams (for the scenery...not the naked chicks):

View of the St. Louis skyline from the Mississippi River

The Nomecam (from Nome, Alaska)

Various webcams from the Buffalo area: I keep meaning to look at these during the day...I'm curious to see what it looks like up there right now.

The Wing Bowl website: The mere fact that this is listed under the "sports" section is funny enough. For non-Philadelphians, the Wing Bowl is an event hosted by 610-WIP sports radio. Leading up to the event, people try to qualify for it by eating a ton of food in a certain amount of time. Then, the qualifiers go to the Wing Bowl and try to eat the most chicken wings. This is the 10th year of the Wing Bowl, and it has grown to the point that it is held at the First Union Center, and attracted 12,000 people last year...at 6am in the morning. It is truly a spectacle...and only solidifies Philadelphia's place as the fattest city in the United States.

Thanks for posting these links, Sycamore! I particularly like the End US Highway page, as it has US 6 on it. I lived most of my life in Bishop, CA and for a while lived north of Bishop right off of US 6, so I would always see the point where they took the picture. Recently they added a sign mentioning how long US 6 is and where it ends, so it was very interesting to see all of this. Maybe someday I will travel the whole length of US 6...

Very cool. I've only driven on US 6 once, as it goes through the suburbs of Chicago.

One of these days, I'll drive the entire length of US 50. I've seen its beginning point in Ocean City, MD, and have also driven large stretches of it in Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri.

I like the interstates and all, but you see even more driving the old US highways. US 61 is another one of my favorites.

50 runs right by my house. Jenni and I drive on it every day. :)

I'm relatively close to US 50 as well, which runs through Carson City, NV.

Province of Newfoundland and Labrador: For those unfamiliar, it is in the Canadian Maritimes. The Newfoundland part is an island that has its own time zone (1 1/2 hours ahead of US Eastern time). Labrador is on the Canadian landmass. From what I've seen, it's a beautiful place to visit. I'd love to go there sometime. You can download a free screensaver with pictures of the province.

St. Pierre and Miquelon: A small group of islands owned by France, just off the southern end of Newfoundland. Again, another little fascinating place I'd like to visit. Of course, I don't know French.

And of course, some of my favorite places online these days...job sites. :rolleyes:

HotJobs

Headhunter.net

Monster

Net-temps

Lastly...

Philadelphia: Come to our wonderful city! Eat a cheesesteak and a soft pretzel. Go to the Art Museum and climb the steps just like Rocky did. Check out South Street. SPEND YOUR MONEY BABY!!! (Watch out for the hotel deals that are offered on the site...apparently, they're not as good as they're made out to be.)

The Cellar - Heh. You know I like this one.

MSNBC - I'm addicted. There's something about MSNBC that I really like, and I always have. I've been going here for news for some 4 years now.

DO NOT CLICK THIS LINK - I'd be lying if I said I didn't spend a lot of time here.

Apple - MacWorld San Francisco is Monday, and they're hyping it up. It's driving me nuts to watch - I want to know!

and really, that's all I visit on the web with any regularity. Other than that, I'm working or something. Of course, I spend a lot of time reading, and I have those sites at home in bookmarks - I'll post 'em later. Definitely some fascinating stuff.

This here is the "Web Guide" on my personal site...it's basically my bookmarks file Yahooified. The "Toolbar" folder section ""Regular Haunts" shows where I hang out most often.

I need to implement a link-checker one of these days.

I notice you like the weather. You might also enjoy - and this applies to everyone BTW - www.my-cast.com, where they basically try to pinpoint weather more accurately to your location, especially for the next 9 hours. It's convenient for figuring out when to head out of doors.

The thread that would not die
 

Where I've been lately...

Neopets: Rho got me hooked on this one. Think of the tamaguchi times 9000. You create a pet, feed it, play with it, buy it books, challenge other neopets in the battledome, build it a home, start it a bank account, buy neostocks, etc. It is utterly ridiculous, yet satisfying and fun.

The Cherokee Nation: The home of my true peeps. I'm currently trying to register with the tribe, which is a rather daunting task.

And yes, I WILL open my own casino and smoke shop soon. :)

Sycamoreland: My site. I happen to like it a lot...der! It needs a bit of tidying up though.

Virtual Crack Rock: Send crack to the ones you love.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary/Thesaurus: Always handy, especially when I am trying to spell words like connoisseur.

The United States Department of State: Very cool site. Background notes on every country in the world. Informative...allows me to continue my path towards Cliff Clavin-ness.

MSNBC: I like the news...and CNN and Fox News irk me.

Google: Searching for things is good. I used to be a faithful Yahoo fan, but google just kicks major ass.

And lastly...

City of Baltimore: Soon to be the new home of the Sycamores.

The Fighting Whites: I heard about this from Rho...it apparently has been getting some attention recently. Yea for my peeps. :)

Used Car Appraiser: I found this at WNBC's website (New York City's NBC affiliate). You can get an idea of what your car is worth. Our car is worth a whopping $400...it even lost $100 because it's purple. :p

livin' large
 

Ha! Our 1991 escort wagon is worth $450. (well I did kinda fudge the condition a little)

You can also try going to the Kelley Blue Book website as well for your car's current value: http://www.kbb.com/

From Kelley, I got $690 (trade-in) and $1290 (private sale). The private sale one sounds decent, but I'm pretty certain I could get more for a trade-in, especially if I were to purchase a new car.

Incidentally, my current dream car is the VW Passat W8. I built one a few weeks ago at vw.com. $40,000. :(

We're looking Subaru Forrester to replace the old wagon but despite our best (worst) efforts it just keeps on running, doesn't burn oil, and gets good mileage... We'd like to get another year out of it to allow us to pay off the sand mound and get the pickup paid off early.

40k thats a lotta beans. One of our neighbors houses is listed at like 60 or70k turn of the century two story with 10acres of woodland... prioities brother... of course there are almost no jobs here outside of the stone quarries... hmm you can sleep in your car but you can't drive your house and that Passat would cover all the state capitals.

Criminy! $40K for a friggin' Volkswagen?!?

Maybe they should think about changing their name.

Übermenschwagen?

I'm hoping for one more year out of Putt-putt, then I want to buy a new (or newer car) and an older car ('86-'95). There were a couple of cars sitting out along the street in front of my complex during the winter, and I was soooo tempted to buy either of them.

The first was an '81 Camaro for $1500. (The body looked good, but I wanted to see how it ran. That was the last year before the big makeover, and those late 70s-early 80s GM engines were such shit. I had a 229 V-6 in my '80 Monte Carlo...and it was the most gutless piece of shit gas-burner I've ever driven.)

Then there was the '78 Cutlass for $500, with a V-8. The body looked alright, and if it had the 350 V-8, that would have been decent. My '76 Camaro had the 305 short-block, which was satisfying. But I passed on both of them for fear that they would flunk PA emissions.

I'm surprised that the W8 only puts out 270hp, but it gets good gas mileage. I was also considering a Jetta TDI, but the VW's are just too expensive for my liking. If I HAD $18-22K to spend on a car, that would be another story. They quit making the Chevy Metro/Suzuki Swift 2 years ago, so I'm thinking of maybe a Corolla, Civic, Cavalier, or the new Suzuki Aerio. I want something small, with a bit of pep. I don't think it would be a good idea to have a big car in a city like Philadelphia, not to mention, I'll get strangled on the insurance factor.

Oh, and that $40K price tag on the W8 doesn't include the 10% luxury tax. :eek:

Is that a typo or do PA urbanites have emissions testing? We don't in the boonies. Luxury tax, I don't think so either. Time to change residences.

The following counties in PA require emissions testing:

Allegheny
Beaver
Bucks
Chester
Delaware
Montgomery
Philadelphia
Washington
Westmoreland

My understanding is that all cars over $30,000 in the US are subject to a 10% luxury tax. I don't recall Dubya or Congress rolling that one. :)

Pop-Up Stopper: I saw this on the local news the other night. It stops most of those ignorant pop-up ads from popping up. And it works rather well...rarely misses an ad.

ACME License Maker: Makes authentic looking license plates online. You might have seen the ones I made in the Toronto thread. All 50 states and 13 Canadian provinces and territories. Like this nice one here:

Punkin' Chunkin' Contest: Held the first Saturday in November in Millsboro, Delaware (125 miles S of Philadelphia). The farthest one has traveled? 4114 feet (or 3/4 of a mile). I have got to see this in person. :)

As seen on Conan O'Brien:

Jesus Sport Statues

Pictured below is Tae Kwon Do Jesus.

If Jesus had a website ...
 

http://www.catholicfreebies.com/ ;)

I wonder if they make you show them your Catholic ID card. ;)

Tony posted this almost 6 months ago, and all I can say is...I'm a jackass.

I just happened to see them do a demo of this on NBC10 a few weeks ago, so I finally set it up.

It is very very cool BTW. You pinpoint your exact location on a map (city, area, street, the relative position of your house), and then it creates a "personal radar" for you. It gives you hourly predicted temperature and the chance for rain. You can set it up so that it gives you a rating (fair, good, poor) for outdoor activities, running errands, etc.

Of course, I'm kinda lucky. The closest weather station to me is at Northeast Philadelphia Airport (a stone's throw from my house). I find it amazing how the temp can vary considerably at times between Phila. Int'l. Airport (where the official reading is taken) and NE Airport (20 miles away).

i found my-cast thanks to undertoad as well. ive found it to be surprisingly accurate. another cool thing you can do is set up multiple locations, so you can get a forecast for your house, work and play areas. i have it set up so i can check all my favourite mountain destinations.

i also like www.intellicast.com. not quite as neat as my-cast, but its good for a second opinion.

~james

There are times when I've consulted my-cast to check the temperature outdoors, as opposed to actually standing up, walking the 15 feet to the patio door, and opening it.

I don't know that I trust the hour-to-hour forecasts. After all they are still just forecasts. My favorite thing about the service now is just the radar. It seems to be a better image than ones at weather.com (the Weather Channel). Using the radar you can kinda see whether the oncoming thunderboomer is gonna be harsh, and how long it'll last.

Are you watching wind direction James?

Griff:

not yet. we had our fire up here last year. mostly what im watching now is to make sure that the places i plan on visiting in the next few weeks arent burnt down. incidentally, npr's Talk of the Nation featured the colorado wildfires today. they talked a bit about the reasons for the fires size, techniques for fighting them, the weather patterns they create, etc. if youre so inclined, the link above has a link to a realaudio stream of the program.

oh, and a link for the truly dorky model-builder. i want this stuff.

~james

Pork Roll Xpress: Pork roll is quite possibly one of the greatest foods ever created from a pig. If you've never had it, you can order it online within the US.

WuName Generator: There are several out there, but this has always been my favorite. Want a cool name like Ghostface Killah, Ol' Dirty Bastard, or RZA? Well, you too can have a name that makes you sound like you're straight out of the Wu-Tang Clan.

Some examples (and this is using full names, i.e. Anton for Tony):

Mine--Crafty Barnardo
Dave--Partially-Formed Transformah
Tony--Loose-Lipped Controller
Griff--100-Watt Warlock
Rho--Tha Eurythmic King of Nowhere
Jesus Christ--Temporary Spastic (*rofl*)

The best one I have ever seen is Well-Liked Assman...my boss in MD got that one.

Haw! That's a fine one sir!

The World's Largest Catsup Bottle: Located in Collinsville, Illinois, near St. Louis...a 170-foot tall water tower, shaped and painted like a Brooks catsup bottle. Seeing is believing. :)

The Phobia List: Any fear out there is probably listed here. Are you xyrophobic? Achluophobic?

Rand McNally: I consider their atlas a bible for the road. They have a mapping function similar to Mapquest that I actually think is better. Their website also gives you a glimpse into various cities and tourist sites across the US and Canada...good stuff.

The Insectarium at Steve's Bug Off: Located on Frankford Avenue in the Holmesburg section of NE Philadelphia. One of those places I keep meaning to visit, but always forget. It looks like fun.

Something Sycamore finds stoopid yet funny: A pro-lifer is on a crusade against the parent company of Dairy Queen...he accuses them of funding Planned Parenthood. It makes me want to run over to DQ right now for a Blizzard. :)

Dr. Pepper: The world's greatest soft-drink *drools*

SEPTA: I talk about it enough...the Philadelphia area's main public transit system.

And then there are my favorite routes: the 20, the 84, and the best one of them all, the R7 Trenton train.

Of Shadows on the Stars: If you've visited the blog version of the Manifestos, you might have noticed the "Is my blog hot or not?" link. (UT has it on the IotD blog as well.) If you click on it, you're taken to a site that will show my blog, then allow you to rate it (on a scale of 1 to 10). After you vote, it takes you to another blog to vote on. The link I've posted is the blog that generally shows up right after mine. It's basically the ramblings of a 17-year old girl, talking about whatever is on her mind.

Some might dismiss it as silly filler, but it takes me back to my high school days...ah, to be 17 again. :)

Seaman's Beverage Company: In searching for a red creme soda, I stumbled upon this company, based in Prince Edward Island. They have a nice little site, where you can learn about the company and take a virtual tour.

(Hey Nic, they apparently distribute the soda in the Toronto area. I need you to pick me up a case of Cream Soda. :) )

Syc, I'll send you a case of Semen Soda by FedEx.

Re: Sites of the Moment
 

Haha! After reading the various replies, here are some of my contributions:

INNERVISIONS: my humble home page. :)

Depeche Mode: My favorite band in the entire galaxy.

Alt Support Childfree.com: "The original Usenet newsgroup for both childfree people and "fencesitters" (those who are exploring childfreedom but have not yet decided to be childfree)."


Food Network: Two words...Iron Chef. :D

Hossam Ramzy: In my opinion, THE king of Middle Eastern (Belly Dance) music.

Bob The Angry Flower: Funny 'toon site.

Baltimore!: Gotta shout out the hometown.

Damnit...I knew a reference like this was gonna come up. :)

100 Neediest Cases: Every year around this time, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (St. Louis's daily newspaper) and the United Way team up to help some of the city's less fortunate.

When I read some of them, I wonder, "Well, what the fuck were you doing to get in that situation?" But you only get a small glimpse into the situations, so it's unfair to pass judgement on them.

The Christmas lights are up on Front Street in Nome.

This is strangely fascinating.

Holy shit...I first brought up the Nomecam in a thread on this day a year ago. Scary.

I found the Nomecam almost 2 years ago...and I usually visit it several times a month. Yes, it is strangely fascinating. I guess b/c it's a window on this little town in the absolute middle of nowhere. I keep meaning to check it when the sun rises out there (which is at 3:31pm EST tomorrow, or 11:31am Alaska time), just to see if I can catch the northern lights.

And what goes with semen soda?

What else: http://www.chrissycaviar.com/

Moontaxi: A site with various music channels...no commercials, good quality. One of my personal favorite channels is the old school hip-hop one...I heard some shit I haven't heard in almost 10 years.

Windows Media Player only, unfortunately.

Is it only for media player? I didn't notice that. It's good for me at work though, b/c that's all I have on my 'puter. I could probably download realplayer, but I don't need anyone busting my chops.

Ledo Pizza: Maryland-based pizza chain, with locations primarily in the DC metro area. (The closest location to Philadelphia is Lancaster, although they seem to be expanding into other areas like mad.) Absolutely incredible pizza; great pasta and sandwiches, too. They are currently offering several cheesesteaks, of which I am suspicious. The South Philly Cheesesteak DOES look incredibly South Philadelphian though (I did not try it as I was feening for the pizza). And they have this other offering that I can best describe as a Primanti's-style sandwich-salad. (I can see folks in Pittsburgh screaming in sheer terror upon reading this.)

Their franchising system looks like a good deal too...uh-oh, I see another Career Option thread coming. :)

The North Korean Government's Website: I pulled this from the BBC. What a trip...seeing is believing.

OMG OMG. What a find Syc!

The official NK seal includes a huge illustration of hydroelectric power generation! I did not know that! Is the irony too thick and rich yet?

That website can get you to a Cafepress shop for the Korean Friendship Association, where you can buy a "DPRK Socialist Achievement Mousepad" for $12.99. Yes, friends, like every other half-baked idea, the DPRK only generates a profit through its Cafepress section.

And Jag, please note that the I did not use that silly word 'Socialist'. The Koreans were the ones to use it. They must be confused. Direct your corrections to them, thanks.

I couldn't believe that North Korea actually had a website...I suspect that many North Koreans have never even heard of a computer, much less the internet. When I saw that link on the BBC site, it was too good to pass up. Now, I'm just waiting for the FBI to show up at my doorstep.

It is an interesting read though. As slanted as it may be, as I've said before, it never hurts to have multiple perspectives of something.

Psychic Man

Because.

Kutz, I saw your site...cool stuff, though it would probably be better if I were on a better computer.

Zio Interactive: A Korean company that makes some of the games for my phone. I highly recommend you check out the site, and select the English version...it's not quite Engrish, but the way they use English is kinda funny.