What are some websites I can visit to take a short mental break at work?

January 27, 2016 1:35 PM

Now that Cute Overload closed shop, I have nowhere to run when things get too intense at work. Can you help me find some options?

My requirements are:

- Safe for work
- Cheerful, funny or positive in general
- Mildly interesting, but not so much that I get sucked into it for hours (no MetaFilter, TV Tropes types). Ideally I would be done visiting in max. 10 minutes
- No news or anything related to politics, activism, global warming, discrimination, or depressing subjects
- Yes popular culture, comic strips, general funny stuff, etc. as long as it's SFW

Thank you, MeFites!

posted by Tarumba to Work & Money (24 answers total)

Buzzfeed comes to mind, it has all those categories you need, and they're presented in a very easy to consume manner.
posted by ariadne_88 at 1:39 PM on January 27, 2016 [4 favorites]

Best answer: Lamebook is an amusing stop once a week. (although it seems that someone's on vacation.)
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 1:41 PM on January 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Despite its name, I have never encountered anything offensive at Tastefully Offensive, and much of their content is cute and heartwarming without being treacly.
posted by workerant at 1:44 PM on January 27, 2016 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Futility Closet, which describes itself as "An idleness miscellany of compendious amusements," presents interesting facts and puzzles in bite-sized chunks.
posted by ejs at 1:51 PM on January 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I really like Emergency Cute Stuff's twitter feed. They haven't been as regular to update lately, but the mid-afternoon Cute Picture on my feed was always nice.
posted by getawaysticks at 1:58 PM on January 27, 2016

Best answer: Open Puppies.

Also Calming Manatee.
posted by suelac at 1:59 PM on January 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I don't know why, but the Worst Cats tumblr just slays me every. single. time.
posted by jrobin276 at 2:15 PM on January 27, 2016 [6 favorites]

Best answer: My favorite: Cake Wrecks
posted by mmiddle at 2:23 PM on January 27, 2016 [6 favorites]

@BabyAnimalPics on Twitter.
posted by wildblueyonder at 2:28 PM on January 27, 2016

MessyNessyChic
BrainPickings
If Charlie Parker Were A Gunslinger
Bored Panda
+1 Futility Closet
MetaFilter ;-)
posted by j_curiouser at 2:41 PM on January 27, 2016

Best answer: Twitter:
Emergency Kittens
We Rate Dogs
You Are Dog Now
Bunny Buddhism
posted by matildaben at 3:14 PM on January 27, 2016

Best answer: bunnyfood is an ideal tumblr.
posted by Cold Lurkey at 3:15 PM on January 27, 2016

The Daily Puppy
Tiny Kittens if you can watch streaming video. Not safe if you are easily influenced to adopt cats.
posted by dilettante at 3:18 PM on January 27, 2016

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/tendency
posted by SemiSalt at 4:58 PM on January 27, 2016

/r/aww/ if you can avoid going other places on Reddit. They have a huge stack of similarly themed subs in the sidebar.
posted by Mitheral at 5:06 PM on January 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I know. The loss of Cute Overload has dulled my days as well.

GoComics has some good stuff.
Zooborns is ok but only posts once a day.
MissCellania is good but she also writes for Neatorama so there's some content duplication.
Bored Panda is hit or miss for me.
Worst Cat is good but, again, doesn't approach the volume of new stuff Cute Overload had.

Good luck replacing the cutes.
posted by irisclara at 6:25 PM on January 27, 2016

Best answer: You may recognize the name from Cute Overload: Not That Mike The Other Mike has his own site.
posted by hsieu at 8:18 PM on January 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Also, it's on a break right now while the artist moves across country, but Breaking Cat News (comic) is usually a twice-a-week pick-me-up. If you're not already reading it, there is a lot to catch up on during the break!
posted by hsieu at 8:37 PM on January 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Pleated-jeans.com is pretty good.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:15 PM on January 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: There's a really wonderful, uplifting 3-minute guided meditation from the Oxford Univ. Mindfulness Centre that's available as a YouTube video. Even if you don't feel like meditating - or can't have the sound on - just looking at the beautiful nature shots is great.

Daily Zen on Twitter is good too.
posted by mountainpeak at 10:35 PM on January 27, 2016 [4 favorites]

Twitter is where I get my daily cute injections, mainly from Cute Emergency and Emergency Kittens. I have also started following You Are Dog Now (and I submitted my own picture, fingers crossed)!
posted by like_neon at 1:08 AM on January 28, 2016

Best answer: Calm.com

Great to provide that mental breath between crises, all in a 5 minute package.
posted by filmgeek at 4:48 PM on January 28, 2016

Best answer: I have spent a great deal of time on Likeks.com over the years.
posted by orange_square at 7:16 PM on January 28, 2016

Response by poster: Thank you everyone! I marked the sites I have been using most regularly. (some of them were timesinks (tastefully offensive was hilarious and really SFW, but now that I have seen all 300 pages, it will only cost me a couple of minutes if I check it regularly)
posted by Tarumba at 10:07 AM on February 10, 2016