Admit it. You're just as addicted to the joys of the internet as I am. Don't deny it. You DO like to surf aimlessly, seeing what gems the internet has to offer. These are what I find to be the best of the best, or at least the most entertaining and useful to me. Remember that my tastes are varied as they are strange, so you'll see just about everything from literature to music to guitar related stuff, and if I feel like it, brain stuff.

I also hate it when people just put the link in and do not explain what it is. This is the reason why I end up at news sites, sports sites, and some boring family album sites. In order to keep you from wasting your time, I've added short explanations of the sites. And yes, I finally organized my links!

Question: Do I spend too much time online or what?

Germany Related Sites

A German Dictionary This is one of the most prosaic, and yet, most profoundly useful sites I shall showcase here on my Fun Links page. As a German minor wannabe, this site has become one of my staples and this dictionary is GREAT! Trust me!

Fulbright Kommission The Fulbright Kommission in Berlin, Germany. If you need more information about the Fulbright grant for people in Germany, this is where to go.

Edgar.de One of the joys of being in Germany is that many cafes have free postcards. One company that makes them is Edgar.de, and they've also made a ton of e-cards which are just as hilarious or beautiful as the free postcards I've picked up.

Hearing Impairment

Natural Communication, Inc. Another of my realms. And another shameless plug for my own work. But this is the one that I work the hardest on, and if you are interested in hearing loss at all, or even not, please check this out. This is one of the causes that I advocate and all. Take the time to learn about the option of Auditory-Verbal learning for children who are hearing impaired or deaf. Thank you.

Auditory-Verbal International Hey, I've got a right to promote this site. Although I prefer Natural Communication, Inc.'s site, this is where you go if you want the professional, international stuff. Go for it.

Learning to Listen Learning to Listen is a wonderful Auditory-Verbal clinic in Toronto, Canada. Warren is awesome, too.

Lautsprachlich Kommunizierende Hörgeschädigte Deutschland LKHD is a support group for hearing impaired adults in Germany. This site is in German.

Journal of Educational Audiology I stumbled across this site when helping my German friend look for some recent research studies. I think I can use this myself--it looks pretty good to me!

Stacey's Story I forgot I wrote something about four and a half years ago, until I went on some other website to look up other things. It's about my cochlear implant experience.

Musicians

Jill Sobule Website Best known for her song, "I Kissed a Girl", Jill Sobule continues to write fabulous songs. Here is her offical website, which has definetely been updated more times than Lisa Loeb's site.

Jammer's Lisa Loeb Shrine Yep! There is a bigger Lisa Loeb fan than I! This is what I consider to be the portal to Lisa Loeb related stuff. Jammer has great stuff about Lisa Loeb, video clips, audio clips, and lyrics and some tablature for Lisa Loeb related stuff. If you're a fan of Lisa, I recommend this site heartily.

Lisa Loeb Website The official website of one of my favorite singers.

Angry Salad Despite what you think these two words mean...this is not a site describing the temperment of vegetables. It is a band that is from Boston (interesting side note: The lead singer, Bob Whelan, went to Brown with Lisa Loeb). And the bassist is cute. Really, really cute. Check it out, give them a listen...I am hoping they will become the next best thing next to...sliced bread. (Note: added 21 January 2002. Angry Salad has disbanded, due to their record company laying people off or something to that effect. I believe three of the Angry Salad members formed a new band).

Annika Bentley A young indie musician from Rochester, New York, Annika plays the piano, the guitar, and uses her voice amazingly well. She writes her own music too, with lyrics like, "once in a store, I saw my sou l/ it was lying there in a teakwood bowl / and by the grace of God / all the passengers-by gave it a nod." Wonderful, no? Plus her website is as funky as she is.

JillMedia Another Jill Sobule Site. However, this one just has media on it. This includes audio recordings of her concerts and a few videos.

Annie Lin Another indie artist. She's also a Lisa Loeb fan and was inspired by Lisa's music and started performing. Annie is also nice.

Guitar

Harmony Central This is the Online Guitar Archive (OLGA) and is a great place to search for songs. Unfortunately, the internet police caught on to this site, so new songs are not posted. Give it a try. Maybe you'll find the tabs for the songs you want to play. I found some great ones.

Wild Plums and Agrimony This is another devoted Lisa Loeb fan site. However, this is related to guitar tablature. So if you are interested in learning how to play "Stay" or other Lisa Loeb songs, check out Tea's site. It's worth it.

Guitarnoise Definetely worth a visit. This site is a beginner's guide to playing the guitar in various styles, and it is really, really helpful, and I think it's better than The Idiot's Guide to Guitar. Which I do own. Probably should not have bought.

Movies and Film

Roger Ebert One of my favorite movie reviewers. His reviews of movies (since 1985, plus his biweekly series on Classic Movies) are posted online.

Vidnet This is a really neat site. You need Real Player or Quicktime for this--this site has a bunch of music videos and short films, trailers, news, and other stuff that you can watch. I highly recommend the short films--they are so neat to watch!

Atom Films More short films. Many of them are supposed to be absolutely wonderful. I recommend watching "god@heaven", which is a terrific movie about a little boy and a prayer...it's adorably amazing!

Star Trek: Voyager

Delta Blues If you are a Star Trek: Voyager fan (or fanatic) like me, you'll get a kick out of this site. Here, Review Boy (Jim Wright) recounts the details of the Voyager episodes and provides analyses of the plot, characters, and dialogue in each episode. Be warned: he's such a guy but darned if I don't enjoy this site. It's a hoot.

Star Trek: Voyager Virtual Season 8 (& 9) If you were displeased with the way that the Voyager series ended, fear not! A dedicated group of fans got together and wrote a continuation of the series. I've read a few other fan fics continuing the series, and this is the one that stays truest to form and is the most believable. J/Cers, 7/Kers, hop on board and fly at warp speed! If you are a 7/C, hahahaha. Tough luck, dude. (Note for non-Trekkies/Trekkers. J/C=Janeway & Chakotay "shipper", 7/K= Seven of Nine & Harry Kim shippers....sigh.... 7/C = Seven of Nine & Chakotay shippers)

You Can't Do That on Star Trek! Another Star Trek site for you fanatics. But unlike Review Boy's site, all the stuff on this site are visuals. They're not just pics, but the photos that we're so accustomed to seeing have been altered...it's disturbing, but at the same time, incredibly entertaining...

Zeke's Five-Minute Voyager Absolutely hilarious. Parody of the various episodes of Voyager. In addition, other shows and creations are parodied. Worth the visit.

Literature

Fanfiction.net Well, while the idea of fanfiction being literature is somewhat dubious...the reason I am including this is because there are some good writers out there (who also happen to be my friends. Look for them under the names "jael" (lower case "j") and "kyllikki". The stories they have written are really nicely done. Plus, if you are in a low mood because your writing sucks--take heart! There's a lot of writing out there that really sucks!

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg is a really cool project, where a bunch of literary works are put online.

Fairy Tales and Fables While this site plays some irritating midi-file when it opens, I love this site anyway. This guy has put up so many fairy tales (not just the Grimms and Anderson tales) but also the "Kunstmärchen" such as those written by Wilhelm Hauff. There's also a variety of folk tales.

The Baldwin Project If I were not an audiologist-wannabe, I'd be an English major (bet you thought I'd be a German major) specializing in children's literature. This site has some wonderful children's novels. Including my own personal favorite, The Secret Garden.

Romantic Period Literature Resources While I was doing some research a few years ago, I came across this website. This has excellent links to journals and other useful sites.

People I know and their websites or online journals

Violetsplace This is the live journal of a former high school classmate and former girl scouter.

plattitudes A friend of mine, Beth, has her own weblog. I've been reading it madly everyday. She's so cool.

Miscellaneous (Stuff that will blow your mind)

Der abenteuerlicher Gartenzwerg Here is a project that the Fulbrighters (or at least the ones that participated in the Regensburg Language Course) are working on. This project is consistently evolving, as pictures get taken and sent.

Mystery Date Unlike the name implies, and my tastes as well, this is NOT a site where we solve a crime. Or even a game where we're supposed to guess whether a prince or a toad is waiting for us behind the door. It's basically a fanzine based on the fifties! So retro! Trust me! You'll love browsing this site.

The Museum of Menstruation I so totally stumbled onto this site by accident. It's interesting, and you probably can discover new things about the "Menses" that you never knew. Great way to break the ice, or if worse comes to worse (girls/ladies/femmes) you can use the information on this site to gross out and scare off those icky guys who've been bugging you for dates.

The Useless Pages If you are in need of mind-numbingly stupid sites...check this out. There's a great number of silly sites that will just blow you away with their banality, but at the same time, in the midst of the uselessness...they are useful in that they make us laugh and snicker. Only go here if you have too much time on your hands...

Jones Soda I've never had the pleasure of downing a bottle of Jones, but I have some cool bumper stickers from the company. I'm not one to advertise for companies, but I do love the website. For all its capitalistic commercialism, there are gems--strange stuff, but it's a trip. Check it out, and if you get your hands on a Jones, let me know, ya hear?

For Better or For Worse My favorite comic strip. While I have to crave Edy's Coney Island Waffle Cone here in Germany, I can satisfy my appetite for a wonderful comic strip. The strip's updated once a day, which makes it absolutely wonderful! In the meantime, I'm just eating Haagen Daas. Well, I guess it's better than nothing...

Chank Chank was one of those wonderful sites that I happened on when I was a sophomore in college. Bored by the exciting fonts provided by Windows, I decided to try and find something funky. Well, I found my funky fonts here. Or at least some of them.

The College of Wooster The Battle Cry: GO SCOTS! Not many colleges have bands that are clad in kilts, nor do many have bagpipers. Wooster does. And Wooster is one of four schools that believes in torturing college seniors by making them toil over a thesis, while their advisors make them go insane. Oh yes, I went here. And also, Wooster has lots of squirrels.