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laila
sevendials
19 August 2005 @ 11:03 pm
How To Waste Time, part 1,435,077  
Today, I sing the praises of the primary function of the Internet.

The Wasting of Time.

It's sad but true. To think of the noble purpose for which Al Gore created the Internet (whose creation alone is enough to illustrate why he will never become President), and then to think of the use which we its denizens have occupied ourselves putting it to! Oh, the fun we have had sitting here, staring at our screens, typing nonsense for the world to enjoy. All you need is a modem and you too can have endless fun doing Not Very Much when you could be doing something marginally constructive.

To this end, I present to you a list, in no particular order, of the Top Ten Magnificent Seven Sites which I feel have been responsible for utterly wasting my time when I could have been spending it on something far more productive, like picking lint from my pockets or staring into space, or actually, you know, writing something in recent months.

  • Live Journal

    • Well, just LOOK at it. Look at what Live Journal has done to me! That said, I find this site far, far too fun to want to stop posting. Besides, I absolutely love my flist and their multiple internet presences. I'm inordinately grateful that I possess an LJ account, because it's cheap enjoyment from the comfort of my own home and provides me with a Ranting Outlet, but it's probably the Biggest Time Waster in the World Ever.

  • Candybar

    • Otherwise known as That Damned Korean Doll Site. It's pink and cute and oh it's like CRACK. Crack of the very highest order. Every so often I find myself going back there and making dolls for hours and hours, for the sheer hell of it. I've fallen into the trap of trying to 'recreate' my (multiple) OCs and their (very strange) clothing tastes using these dolls, and the more I do it the worse things become. This site scares me.

  • Fanfiction.net

    • The place where fangirls go to die. I cannot believe how much time I spend on this site. Reading Mary Sue fiction, no less. Considering the nature of fanfiction, this thing wastes an inordinate amount of my time too, both on- and offline. But I love it, I love it so much even though it's insane and eighty percent of the work there is unreadable. It's still my spiritaiual home... which says a lot about my poor, abused spirit.

  • Clone Army

    • Do not, for the love of God do NOT visit this site if you are of an even remotely sensitive disposition. I'm not kidding. Don't do it. Thank you. Not only is the time-wasting potential of this site immense (I spend a fair amount of time just staring at the forums) I hesitate to recommend it to anybody at all nice. Yes, folks, this is my favorite web comic site, run by an artist who is both exceptionally talented and extremely sick.

  • Something Awful

    • Something Awful's philosophy is 'The Internet Makes You Stupid'. I second that. I can feel my brain atrophying even as I type (duh... what does 'atrophy' mean?). That said, though, this site Does Not Help, for all it pours scorn on every Internet subculture out there. I have this site to blame for introducing me to the sad, sick world of the Furries, and for that reason alone I cannot wholeheartedly recommend it to anybody.

  • Gaia Online

    • Describes itself as 'an anime roleplaying community' which says it all. The time-wasting trick employed by these forums is that its members earn 'gold' for posting with which they buy virtual clothes and accessories for their ludicrously cute avatars. Neat trick. I haven't been there for ages, largely because this site addicts and eats time in a way even Live Journal can't manage. It's horribly insidious. Stay away. Really.

  • Rotten Tomatoes

    • The reading of lousy film reviews make me a happy obsessive Ken Hidaka fangirl, ergo I visit this site, which collates links to reviews of pretty much every film on general release out there. I like the clunkers the best. You wouldn't believe how much fun I had with the reviews for Battlefield Earth. I know, it's a relatively old film, but the bad reviews... oh, the bad reviews! How they made me smile.

There's more.

Lots more.

For example, I read a whole slew of web comics (some more from habit than because I'm really that bothered about them any more), a handful of movie review sites, a serious site on why Scientology is an dangerous cult and the church hierarchy deserves to have their heads metaphorically kicked in. I read current affairs sites, the occasional intriguing headline on MSN, stupid comedy sites, lame forums, god knows how many Weiss Kreuz websites... the list continues. But if I listed all the sites that killed my free time, I really would be here all night. I don't have all night. I've got other things to waste my time on, dammit!

Comments now. Whee. Wasting time, thou art my friend.
 
 
Current Mood: mellow
Current Music: blush response - blade runner ost
 
23 comments | Leave a comment
 
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[identity profile] devida.livejournal.com on August 20th, 2005 07:20 pm (UTC)
ok, first of all you once told me that you've never seen Blade Runner the movie. if that's still the case how can you listen to the soundtrack of a movie you've never seen?
i'm not saying that you can't, just that without watching the movie you may have little or no point of reference or context to which piece of music lends appropriate emotion to which scene?
see.
to the internet..
well, Dr. Cox said a few weeks ago that if all the porn was taken off the internet then it would shut down and there would be one website left which would be campaigning to bring back porn.

but i must admit the internet does make football more available, rather than using teletext and a weekly magazine that was 2 weeks delayed with 'breaking' news.
plus, if you're in North American culture (and i am) it's easier to order things from the states and CA. all my birthday presents came from the CA this year.
and i'm trying to order a cheap copy of 'The L Word' on dvd too, cos i can't live without Shane any longer *drool*
xx
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[identity profile] sevendials.livejournal.com on August 21st, 2005 10:38 pm (UTC)
I've seen about half of 'Blade Runner' and I have seen the scene the track I was listening to comes from (I want to see the rest). However, that I listen to the soundtrack anyway comes pretty much as a result of my rather bizarre background. I'm kind of used to hearing OSTs long before I get anywhere near their associated show/series/movie/whatever thanks to my father's status as A Performing Arts Teacher. I know he used to play the soundtrack to 'The Draughtsman's Contract' all the time when I was a kid. Never seen the film, though. Thanks, dad!

... I also got the soundtrack to 'The Rocky Horror Show' played at me when I was... what? Eight? Younger? Way too young to see the thing. But I'd seen 'The Rocky Horror Show' before I got round to watching 'Grease', which says an awful lot about my family, my upbringing and me in general...

Funnily enough, I don't go to porn sites on the internet (um... does NC-17 fanfiction count as 'porn'? If it does, then I DO go to pron sites), largely because here I am on a shared computer. No internet porno for me. Boo. I'll get there, though, just give me my own PC and a private room to view it in and I will start becoming just as Internet-Normal as you could wish. Unless, of course, the NC-17 fanfics count as porn, in which case I'm doing it already. Just discreetly, and in text only.

With you on the 'into stuff that is not readily available in the UK' thing, too. Though I have Japan to thank for the size of my overdraft, as if that wasn't horribly and blatantly obvious. I need to get myself some more Japanese stuffs, but first I need moneys with which to acquire it. Must get part time job, I want disposable income dammit. Good luck with finding that DVD!
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[identity profile] devida.livejournal.com on August 22nd, 2005 04:28 pm (UTC)
we all want disposable income girl.. plus see if you can transfer to the degree scheme, cos the non-honours course has EXACTLY THE SAME funding as the diploma, fact.

there are a few porn sites that i've visited in my time, and as there is a thing called 'history' on your Internet link i never worry about unwanting eyes seeing what i've done cos i just go through google to begin with and erase my misgivings after i leave the site.
i'll have to give you the addresses of a few sites when i see you again.

you haven't seen the end of Blade Runner? I'm bringing you the dvd when i get back. for yonks i thought i was Ray Batty (testosterone will do that to you when you're 11) and the bits between him and Pris make me cry every time.
*sniff*
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