The internets make me happy

Considering the kind of days I've had at work lately I've had to take certain measures to de-stress. Since I'm trying to restart 'Operation: I'm-Not-Buying-Bigger-Pants' I have to back away from actual snack foods so the sugary goodness of the Internet is the next best thing. There are several sites/activities online that I do when I'm feeling particularly 'stabby' towards people or things and I can't knit.

I can't even remember life before the Internet, well actually I can but I prefer not to. I remember the frustrating dial-up (shudder) we had when I was in high school. It always took FOREVER to dial in and we had AOL. Although there was always a certain thrill when I finally logged-in and the AOL voice said "You've got mail". When I first moved out on my own at age 20 I sublet an apartment on Madison Avenue, across the street from the Southern College of Optometry and down the street from the historic gay bar, J-Wags. The guy I sublet from had high speed Internet and once I experienced it I was hooked. I never had dial up again.

There are so many awesome things online. In no certain order here are some of my favorite internet activities/sites. Maybe you've already seen them or maybe you find them juvenile or silly or even possibly offensive. But they still make me laugh out loud and forget that I wanted to scream. Even on my worst day these always cheer me up.

• LOLcatz and I Can Has Cheezburger? Cats and bad spelling, what else can I say?

• Cleolinda and her Occupation: Girl blog. I just found out about her last week but I already love her. Her entry on Brian Williams was genius. Her Movies in Fifteen Minutes are overwhelmingly fabulous (here's Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire) and her Twilight books recaps had me laughing so hard I cried. I can't possibly stay in a crappy mood after reading her entries. Plus she's from Alabama.
  
  

• 'Window' shopping. For yarn, Etsy-items, shoes I could never afford, vacation packages, whatever. Virtual yarn shopping isn't nearly as satisfying because you can't really grope the yarn as you would in an actual yarn store. I like looking at Sonny & Shear, The Loopy Ewe, Etsy, Endless.com, Expedia and Amazon.

• Facebook status updates. Some of my friends have the best status updates ever. A few in particular make me laugh manically every time they update.


• Adult Swim. Oh how I love thee. If I don't get to watch Family Guy every night I feel like I've missed something important - even though I've seen every episode a meeellion times at least. And then there is the pure genius that is Venture Brothers and Robot Chicken. Le sigh.


• Vintage Olan Mills photos. I dare you to look at this and not laugh. And it's okay to laugh because I have pictures of myself that are just as horrible.
  

• Weight Watchers recipe cards from the '70's. Yum!