The White House (www.whitehouse.gov).I visited the White House long before the internet was a reality. As I remember, which could be wrong because it was such a long time ago, we just showed up and waited for the tour to begin. Nowadays, things are different. Similar to the airlines’ restrictions, visitors who wish to tour the President’s temporary residence cannot bring along handbags, combs, cameras, or anything but themselves—with clothes on. If you don’t like restrictions, you can take an internet tour of the place. The website would be nicer if they took a tip from realtors and offered one of those nifty 360° virtual viewings, complete with a jazzy music loop. But no. That would cost us taxpayers another couple million, I suppose. Anyway, the site has some good information, namely that anyone can get tickets to participate in the annual Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn. You have to reserve your tickets from the National Park Service people a few days beforehand. At last look, there was no information about WHEN for 2008, just a recap of last year’s event. (Phone the White House line at 202.456-7041 for the latest information). I’m guessing that politicians’ kids and grandkids get first dibs for the tickets, unless the families are off to Barbados or Seville or Tuscany for the Easter holidays. But really, there is quite a lot of good information about our Presidents here. Come back to it next January and see how it changes with our newly-elected prez.

Musical Crystal Glasses (www.fliggo.com/video/alvrdtoi). Fliggo is a smaller version of YouTube, so chances of getting your own “production” seen on the Web is a little easier. The musician, whose name is not given, plays a classical piece using water-filled crystal glasses  And he does it very well. The tone sounds like a harp, which would be much easier than this. I wonder how many crystal glasses this man goes through in a month.

Blast from the Past (www.paleofuture.com/2008/). “A look into the future that never was,” explains the site creator. I happened across an article here, written on November 8, 1970, titled “Computersville is Almost Here.” And, I figured the author of this piece was psychic, because most of what he said has come true. In addition to that little tidbit, Paleofuture has enough curious bits of nostalgia and laughable predictions to keep you clicking away at the links for a long time.

Strange Art (www.funforever.net/archives/chewing-gum-sculptures).  I suppose it’s cheaper to use chewing gum rather than marble, huh? The sculptures, all pink by the way, are created well enough. When I got tired of looking at them, I found links on the right column of the webpage that took me to balloon sculptures. Those intricate, rubbery figures are not something you learn to make in a clown class. Mosey around this site and you’ll find many more examples of strange art—or rather, art made from uncommon materials.

Troy Paiva’s Lost America (www.designshed.com/lostamerica/). Photography buffs can learn some of the techniques Troy employs to capture atmospheric and eerie shots of ghost towns, for example. Troy uses gels, strobes, flashlights, and long exposures under the full moon to create remarkable scenes of places most people would avoid at night. None of the work is photoshopped. He uses a Canon 20D SLR and in the past three years has gone digital, as most of us have.

Have you started working on your taxes yet? I’m not necessarily recommending tax software, but it may help to look at an eye-opening chart I discovered this week. After you have viewed it, race over to the chocolate site I mention below. Then settle down and jot some memories from long ago, using a useful online program.

Death and Taxes (www.thebudgetgraph.com). So. You want to know how our government is spending our money? This chart will show you. Included are the latest budget requests from our President, some of which were mentioned in his 2008 State of the Union address. There are more than 400 programs and departments on this chart. I noticed that the proposed budget includes a huge increase for the National Science Foundation, while the EPA’s proposed allotment has fallen. Lots of stuff to look at. Makes you want to find as many extra deductions as possible when you figure your taxes.

 Intentional Chocolate (www.intentionalchocolate.com). This is a commercial site, and I usually try to stay away from them for this column. But the premise behind this product is so notable that I had to share it with you. Here is a product description: “Intentional Chocolate is embedded with the following intention: Whoever consumes this chocolate will manifest optimal health and functioning at physical, emotional and mental levels, and in particular will enjoy an increased sense of energy, vigor and well-being. The new “ingredient” in Intentional Chocolate is not a conventional nutrient, but rather the focused benevolent intentions of highly experienced meditators. Intentional Chocolate is the first product born out of this mind-matter technology.” Apparently several restaurants in Chicago use the product.. Be sure to indulge when you finally sit down to do your taxes. Write My Memoirs (www.writemymemoirs.com). Anyone thinking about writing his or her life story ought to have a look at this website. Actually, it is free online software that allows you to create an autobiography easily. You can write one event at a time, and it helps you organize your thoughts. It has a section on helpful tips, too. I’m not sure why it is free. It looks like a fine program. Just be sure to read the privacy policy to see if it’s for you. The People History (www.thepeoplehistory.com). For nostalgia or for reference or both, this is a surprising find! Want to know how much things cost in the 1930’s? The answers are here, along with tidbits, trends, events and more of each decade starting from the 1920’s. The information spills over into a separate blog, and more is added as discovered. Rules of Thumb (http://rulesofthumb.org)  A rule of thumb is defined as “a homemade recipe for making a guess.” The goal of this site is to gather every rule of thumb on earth into a gigantic database. It is easily searchable and fun to browse. Antique Appraisals (www.eppraisals.com). There are various levels of services here, from free to fee-based. You can browse through more than 70 pages of appraisals and select three without having to pay for the information. You can submit your own antique or collectible information to get an appraisal, or you can just browse out of curiosity.  

Cam of the Week (www.fishycam.com). Fishy Cam lets you watch the action of fish swimming around in a fishbowl. Unlike other cams that often show nothing happening, this one, at least while I was watching) is full of fish swimming back and forth. A time-waster? Maybe, but it does get your mind off other stuff, so maybe it has some redeeming value.

If you are expecting references to Valentine’s Day here, I’m way ahead of you. If you remember, I covered one site last week (www.links2love.com). This week, I’ve been working on President’s Day, and much, much further out in time, some outer space predictions. I caught a few videos on YouTube about Nibiru, an alleged 12^th planet that prognosticators say is going to do the Earth major damage in  2012. Some of the videos were very convincing, but the Internet being what it is, one needs to check and double-check to make sure the information found is accurate. That said, you can guess the course of my surfing and its results this week. We’ll begin with our last several Presidents.

.

Presidents & UFO’s (www.presidentialufo.com). I’m not sure how I arrived here. Probably from a link that dealt with Nibiru, the brown dwarf or Planet X or whatever it is—or is not. From FDR to our current President, each administration’s remarks or policy about UFO’s is presented here. Except for Jimmy Carter openly admitting to seeing a UFO (while campaigning, in his pre-President days), there is not much so-called declassified information here. But then, I just scanned quickly some documents put together for UFO fans. Um, did I tell you I saw a UFO once? It was close to 30 years ago and I was living in a remote area with clear skies and it scared the bejeebers out of me. The local police took my report while trying to hide their smirks. Despite that sighting, I am not ready to join the ranks of the UFO buffs.

The Planetary Society (www.planetary.org). I’m guessing that most of this nonprofit’s members have not sighted a UFO, but then, they would be open to the possibility. Their objective is public education and advocacy for space exploration. They could be considered an organization that is building a stairway to the stars for John Q. Public’s curiousity. Carl Sagan, among others, founded this organization. And it has cool stuff on its website. I learned that on January 28 of this year, Asteroird TU24 made its closest earth approach for the last 2,000 years. And in addition to news, the site has information about the opportunity to participate in “stardust@home,” the specks of space dust that need volunteers’help to sift through. One must download a special virtual microscope and officially register to help. This is not a video game, but serious research. So, if you have the time and interest, there’s a project for you. Unpaid, of course. I think I’d rather be out searching for specks of real gold.

Deep Space Video (www.fronteirmultimedia.com/deepspace.htm). For the price of just your speedy internet connection, you’ll get a very cool, approximately 3-minute look at the beauty of the cosmos, with appropriate music to boot. This is a commercial site that is selling 12-minute versions of Deep Space, Good Earth (also very cool—watch it, too) , the Moon and the Sun. The 3-minute previews are free. There is an offer for a demo download with a 7-day or 7-play option, which I assume is free. If you want to own one of these nifty cosmic shows, it will set you back only $12 (one dollar a minute). I can tell you that the 3-minute free version is definitely worth a look.

Tallahasee UFO sighting, 2005. 

I was planning to focus solely on Valentines’ sites this week, but found myself scanning other nooks and crannies around cyberspace. And yet, the theme that emerges for this week’s picks has to do with words.

Anyone who finds himself having to write something can find useful information this week.

Why We Write (http://whywewriteseries.wordpress.com). The writers’ strike has affected our television programs, including several award shows. These same striking writers were asked to contribute to this blog. So, you will find very good writing here, which makes for fun reading. This blog may appeal more to us writers of any genre, but if you wonder what makes a writer click, you will find many answers here.

Valentine Love Letters (www.links2love.com). Despite generally being geared towards a teenage audience, this site has one great section that anyone can enjoy. Here you can read the love letters of famous personalities such as Napoleon to Josephine, Victor Hugo to Adele Foucher, and Zelda Sayre to F. Scott Fitzgerald. Plus many more. “Don’t you think I was made for you? I feel like you ordered me…”Zelda exclaims. One is unlikely to find any more eloquent scribblings about love anywhere else on the Web. If you’re interested, some of the other stuff at this site includes flirtability quizzes and a valentine quote generator.

Buzzwhack (www.buzzwhack.com). This site was created to “demystify buzzwords.” It includes a separate IMglish dictionary. IM, for the unenlightened, is “instant messaging,” also text messaging. .MIHAP? I am AATK. BWTHDIK?  That is the short form of “May I have your attention please? I am always at the keyboard. But what the heck do I know?” Texting is much easier than spelling out each word. That requires actual spelling skills. And, who has time for spell-check, anyway? Me, because I’m not ready to join the texting generation. It’s still gibberish to me.

Fight the Bull (www.fightthebull.com). Speaking of gibberish, business jargon can be a pain  to read and understand. This site, which offers a free download of a “bull-whipper,” will analyze that verbose piece of unintelligible writing and score it. Many of you may be unaware that MS Word has a thesaurus, a word-count checker, and a wonderful composition-checker, the Flesch Reading Score. (My score is 60 for this column, with a reading grade level of 7. The latter utility is something I use for my longer pieces of writing, and it tells me at what grade level a reader can understand my writing, among other things. It is a wonderful helper for all writers. Now comes along this bull-whipper, which will rate your document’s ease of comprehension. I did not download the software, but I used another option found at the site: you can paste in a hard-to-read document and send it to the person who wrote it via e-mail. So, if your boss writes terrible memos that no one in the office understands, then you can alert him to his errors via the “Mystery Matador.” The boss will receive a friendly e-mail pointing out his errors. Go ahead; I tried it on my own piece of writing. It is friendly, and this service is anonymous, so the boss won’t know who sent it (unless you are his only employee).

Weather Cancellations (www.cancellations.com). As I sit here writing this, our local schools are closed due to the ice storm/freezing weather. If you have a child in school, you either watch the ribbon running across your television screen or turn on the radio for information. Maybe you call the school and hear a busy signal The ribbon on my very old screen is partially cut off, so that would not work for me if I had school-age kids. But, I can log on to this website and find out which area schools are closed or having delays. It works for businesses too, but you have to log in your school or business and keep the information updated for it to be effective for your students, employees, or customers. Spread the word.