They can take my internet when they...you know the rest.

June 26, 2009 2:28 PM

So, money is tight for many of us, my household not excepted. Belts are tightened as much as possible. Nearly all entertainment expenses cut, but we aren't giving up internet access, no way, no how.

But I'm in such a rut, I haven't found anything new and interesting in ages! The post in the blue about the Sims3 blog "Alice and Kev" is what is prompting me to search out the new and interesting.

Now tell me what I should be entertaining myself with online. I like horror, sci-fi, comics, geography, trivia, history. I like to read works-in-progress stories, blogs, comic strips.

Note: I have read similar posts from the AskMefi past, and have gotten some suggestions. Oh CakeWrecks, how you amuse me so! Sites I do check out frequently: Metafilter(obviously), DailyKos, Sporcle, TWoP, several news sites, Daily Show, ColbertNation, and then just a few friends' personal blogs. See how limited my experience is?

posted by Jazz Hands to Computers & Internet (24 answers total)

Neatorama may be of interest to you. It has some history, trivia and sci-fi elements.
posted by sacrifix at 2:31 PM on June 26, 2009

Have looked at Futility Closet?
posted by mhum at 2:32 PM on June 26, 2009 [1 favorite]

If you enjoyed Alice & Kev, check out the recent askme about similar game playthroughs.

The Help me fall in love with the Internet again askme has lots of good links in it too.
posted by bjrn at 2:34 PM on June 26, 2009

My favourite online comic strip is XKCD

I'm not sure Indexed fits in any of your categories exactly, but it's close to a couple of them.
posted by IanMorr at 2:38 PM on June 26, 2009

i posted this question and got a lot of good stuff from it.
posted by nadawi at 2:55 PM on June 26, 2009

I like Fark.
posted by torquemaniac at 2:59 PM on June 26, 2009 [1 favorite]

There are plenty of people addicted to reddit.

I am one of them.
posted by thisperon at 3:07 PM on June 26, 2009

Discovered yesterday: Cracked.
posted by Houstonian at 3:14 PM on June 26, 2009

For TV shows and movies: Hulu and Fancast are your best (legitimate) bets.
posted by The Deej at 3:38 PM on June 26, 2009

Damn Hell Ass Kings is a collection of blogs by friends of the founders of TWoP (Glark, Wing and Sars), including Metafilter's own GaelFC. Lots of good writing and snark within.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 3:41 PM on June 26, 2009

This is pretty random since the question is all over the place:

Drawn!

Lileks

First chapters on NYT and WaPo

RLC (full disclosure: this is my dad's blog, but recommended if you like "works-in-progress stories")

kottke

McSweeney's
posted by Jaltcoh at 3:51 PM on June 26, 2009

Digg.com and boingboing.net have lots of interesting stuff (less filtering than, well, metafilter). Someone upthread mentioned hulu, joost also has shows and movies. I've been able to paste together a lot of movies from youtube for the kids (i.e. we watched Mouse Hunt in 10 parts the other night). Also in my recently clicked, Drudge and AntiWar.com for news, photoshopdisasters for laughs. Actually, photoshopdisasters is an example of something I found via metafilter that is worth checking everyonce and awhile. You might try just scanning backward in mefi for pages that change.
posted by 445supermag at 3:53 PM on June 26, 2009

boingboing.net offers a stream of mostly intelligently written posts in a nice mix of topics close to the ones you listed.
posted by andreinla at 3:53 PM on June 26, 2009

Best answer: If you like TWOP's recaps, I bet you'll also like The Watcher and Alan's Sepinwall's blog, which are both intelligent TV blogs with episode recaps/reviews by professional critics. Not as snarky as TWOP, but still good. I also really like Pajiba for all sorts of snarky reviews and pop culture commentary - it reminds me of TWOP in The Good Old Days. Entertainment Weekly also does great episode reviews.

As for webcomics, I love Fart Party. Dumb name, but great, funny autobiographical comic (more like an illustrated blog) by a Californian living in Brooklyn.
posted by lunasol at 3:56 PM on June 26, 2009

aluc is good for watching movies and documentaries, but don't tell the feds I told you.
posted by orme at 4:08 PM on June 26, 2009

Best answer: Free Speculative Fiction On-line. SF Signal has frequent articles linking to free sf.

There's lots of trivia goodness on the Jeopardy forums and the Jeopardy Archive.
posted by Zed at 4:16 PM on June 26, 2009

You could try some Stargate SG-1 episodes on Hulu, or Outer Limits episodes.

For daily laughs/leisure FmyLife will give you more laughs every day than anything else.

If you enjoy just browsing and discovering new things, check out the links tagged with "history" and "comics" on delicious.

Some people enjoy the very dry Dinosaur comics.
posted by mtphoto at 4:40 PM on June 26, 2009

Manybooks.net you can download ebooks to read on your computer or ipod/iPhone or other portable device.
posted by JoannaC at 4:43 PM on June 26, 2009

Best answer: FML (FuckMyLife) is hilarious. Just when you think your day is crappy, it's good to know someone else's life is crappier. The first time I fell in here, it took me two hours to emerge from reading the archives. My sides hurt from laughing.

Urlesque is a daily collection of off the wall websites that can be quite entertaining. You tube links you've never heard of. Upside down celebrity faces. Bizarre pictures. It's led me down cyber roads I never thought I'd ever wander through.
posted by HeyAllie at 5:10 PM on June 26, 2009

Cliff Pickover's Reality Carnival
posted by AloneOssifer at 7:47 AM on June 27, 2009

Response by poster: You guys are awesome. Now I have something to do and can't whine anymore, "There's nothing on the internet!"
posted by Jazz Hands at 8:25 AM on June 27, 2009

I just want to jump in here and add:
Thrift Horror community on Livejournal. The horrors are horrifically awesome, the commentary on most of the posts is good snark too.
If you like FML you'll probably like Texts From Last Night (mostly about drinking and debauchery)
posted by sarahnade at 2:35 PM on June 27, 2009

I'm a little late to the party, but I suggest installing Boxee. It's been a nice Cable replacement for me.
posted by empath at 3:04 PM on July 1, 2009

(especially if you have a spare mac mini or appletv.
posted by empath at 3:04 PM on July 1, 2009