30 StumbleUpon Sites in a Row

Ah, StumbleUpon… Never before has wasting time on the Internet been so easy, so addicting. What is it about the little “SU” button which makes it so tempting? Click after click, site after site… Minutes easily turn into hours, and my excuse that I’m just looking for something to blog about becomes increasingly weak.

So I’m going to blog a cross-section of my stumbling — thirty clicks on the “SU” button (minus sites which do not load for whatever reason), thirty sites listed. Keep in mind that these are sites which other StumbleUpon users have liked, have rated, and have added to the pool of sites which can be stumbled upon. Thirty sites later, maybe I’ll have a virtual proof of total depravity online?

1. An image of two people at a beach — A girl in a bikini is looking down the trunks of a guy… Off to a great start, StumbleUpon…

2. An animated image of a pole vaulting failure — Actually, this is kinda funny, though I wish it had some sort of context to it (StumbleUpon images rarely do, though, so I’m used to it).

   

3. QDB: Quote #641942 — I guess I’m not geek enough to think this is funny. Probably my loss.

4. How to Blog Like an ******** — Not sure how offensive this title will be, so you’ll have to excuse the minor censorship of it. The site is a list of things not to do while blogging. I’m unsure if the last item in the list (“End your posts abruptly, without a closing paragraph…”) is meant to be serious or not; after all, that post itself has no closing paragraph. Either way, I agree with the list. Far too many blogs out there are filled with such junk!

5. Monkey with a Deathwish — An ~3 minute video of a monkey picking on a pair of tigers. I actually really enjoyed this — that’s one brave monkey!

6. Sweeney Todd & Mrs. Lovett, as they appear in the 2007 film, portrayed by Johnny Depp & Helena Bonham Carter. The still is from one of the funniest scenes in the film, which the play version (which Alicia, her mom, & I just saw yesterday in Cincinnati) didn’t really do justice to.

7. DTWOF #522 — The first web comic in this stumbling journey, and unfortunately it didn’t make any sense at all, though it did have at least one polyamorous lesbian, which is enough controversy to assure that it’s read be someone, I suppose. Next…

8. Psychologist Attacks Tom Cruise — It’s kind of like shooting fish in a barrel. Of course celebrities are going to be attacked for their lives (whether they’re screwed up or not), never mind the fact that the lives of non-celebrities are just as screwed up — if not more so — and never mind the fact most celebrities’ lives would probably normalize quite quickly if we as a loving/hating public would just get our noses out of their business.

9. Amazing Human Powered Roller Coaster — This actually seems really fun, though I’d have to get over that pesky fear of roller coasters first! Oh, and apparently I’d have to go to Japan to ride this.

   

10. Cartographer Ian Thomas sacked for revealing Alaska destruction plans — A map-maker makes a map which is too detailed — so detailed, in fact, that the map inadvertently revealed secret government plans for a refuge. Neat.

11. Star Wars: Sweded — A parody of Star Wars: A New Hope in the style of the new Jack Black & Mos Def movie Be King Rewind. I want one of those X-Wing costumes for next Halloween.

12. The Awkwardness Survival Guide — Hilarious advice for what to do when you find yourself in a variety of socially awkward situations. There is some “adult language” toward the end, so tread lightly if you’re easily offended. Otherwise, continue on and learn what to do if you’ve just called your teacher “Mom” or if you’ve ended a phone call with a colleague by telling him “I love you.”

13. An episode of the Flash-animation series “Homestar Runner” — … I still have no idea why people find this funny. I’m stumbling on, attempting to forget what I’ve seen.

14. Maze Design — What makes a maze complex or aesthetically pleasing? That’s what these folks set out to figure, and in the process they’ve made some pretty cool looking mazes, including one which resembles Abraham Lincoln!

15. Has Windows Vista Failed? — A look at the expectations and reality of Vista sales. And although Vista seems to be doing well, has it failed? Well, I don’t plan to upgrade, so for me at least, yes it has. My wife’s laptop came with it, and frankly, I’m unimpressed and disappointed. Long live XP.

16. Old Age — This page looks like it came straight from the early days of personal home pages on the web, complete with plenty of silly images and animations. The content is a long thing about how being old is great because the unknown author has finally learned to appreciate life. On growing old, I’d have to recommend my readers to check out Ecclesiastes 12:1–7.

17. Make a Homemade USB Vacuum Cleaner for Under $2 — Why you would want a vacuum that doesn’t work well (see the demonstration at the end wherein a ton of dirt is still left behind) and is tied to your computer, I don’t know. Plus, I have a hard time believing that the parts could be obtained for under $2.

18. The Mutt E-Mail Client — A text-based e-mail client for Unix systems. As this is completely irrelevant to me (Gmail provides everything I need and more for e-mail), I’m moving on…

19. Another Random Day: Ignorance — Another web comic. I actually understand this one, but the punchline simply isn’t funny. This is turning out to be a bad day for stumbling onto genuinely humorous sites…

20. Edible Landscapes — Mmm, yummy.

21. Rejected Durex Ad — A pic of a fake Durex Condoms ad featuring George H. W. and Barbara Bush with text that says “Condoms save lives,” the implication being that had the Bushes used protection, George W. Bush wouldn’t have been born, the war in Iraq wouldn’t have taken place, and countless lives would be saved. I can’t help but wonder if the image creator voted for Bush; it’d be a lot easier to blame his parents rather than his own vote!

22. Punching for a Conversation — A witness to a brief teenage fist fight wonders at what point the fist becomes as comfortable (if not more so) as the spoken word in resolving differences. Throughout middle school I witnessed plenty of fights break out; thankfully, I saw a greater number of problems resolved through talking it out.

23. 20 Amazing Firefox Shortcuts to Save You Time and Money — Some tips I didn’t know, many which I did… And I’m not sure how knowing that I can press Esc to stop animated images will save me time or money. I guess that it could save my sanity on some sites, which is sanity I can then use to save time and money elsewhere, but that’s a stretch.

24. Chemistry Pick Up Lines — Ignoring the fact that physics is the most romantic of the sciences, the site provides a list of chemistry-related pick up lines. Like most such lists, this one’s filled with the funny and the lame, and I’d feel sorry for anyone who would have these used on them.

25. epic Pole Vault Fail — Yep, the same image from earlier in this list… Not even to thirty pages, and we’ve already got a duplicate.

26. Strange Signs — I’m a sucker for strange and funny signs, and this list contains a few I’ve not seen before. I particularly like the warning that toxic waste does not give you superpowers, despite the fact it worked for Daredevil!

27. Top 10 Present Clothing Styles I Don’t Get — Yeah, I don’t get these styles either.

28. A Writer’s Block — Another web comic. This one’s actually funny, and I spent a few minutes reading some of the older comics as well.

29. John 1:1–14 at sketchfu — A neat animation of John 1:1–14; this site looks fun…

30. Cave Explorer — Another funny web comic, though again it’s just an image out of context. Who made it? Where are the archives? Oh well, at least this one was enjoyable.

    Edit to add: Apparently the comic is from the Perry Bible Fellowship series. Hat tip: Bucket, in the comments.

And that’s it, a look at thirty stumbles in a row. How many of them are useful? How many are a complete waste of time? A few were interesting, but finding them certainly doesn’t seem worth wading through the rest of the bunch.

Perhaps I’ll refine the categories I have set at StumbleUpon and do another thirty in the future, to see if that list is any more worthwhile than the thirty above.

If you are a StumbleUpon user, is your rate of worthwhile sites any better than mine?