I'll never stop reading the comic strips in the paper. Lucky for me, a lot of them also have a presence here on the web. They are listed here in order of decreasing maturity (which I might be guilty of as well).

This Modern World, by Tom Tomorrow
Doonesbury, by Garry Trudeau
For Better or For Worse, by Lynn Johnston
Rose is Rose, by Pat Brady
Dilbert, by Scott Adams
Cathy, by Cathy Guisewite
Doctor Fun, by David Farley
Adam, by Brian Bassett
FoxTrot, by Bill Amend
Calvin and Hobbes, by Bill Waterston
Bizarro, by Dan Piraro
Where The Buffalo Roam, by Hans Bjordahl
Callahan, by John Callahan

And how could I not be a twentysomething American male without a love of games? First, there are card games. My father taught me the ancient and honorable game of Gin, a game of which I have only beaten him four times in my life. (He claims two don't count because he was in the hospital. I disagree.) I learned to play Hearts as a freshman in college (Go Mullets!), and then I learned to play the crazed game of Pounce with my mother, the unofficial champ of the game.

There are also puzzle-like games, like Tetris and Columns and such... it's all based on what's called combinatorial mathematics. Alexey Pajitnov designed Tetris in 1985 at the Moscow Academy of Science; this game spawned a new kind of computer-based puzzle combination games.

For some reason, I'm rather interested in transportation lines and communication paths. This means I like examining road maps, learning about telephone prefixes, and all that other stuff. Like:

North American Numbering Plan Administration
-- all area codes, numerically and alphabetically (by location)
North American telephone area codes and prefixes/exchanges
why American roads are numbered they way they are:
The U.S. Interstate System
the U.S. Routes
city maps for getting around town (Orlando is NUTS!)
regional/state/national maps for traveling
subway maps
train maps and schedules
airport codes
American ZIP codes
postal codes outside the U.S.

Adbusters

These guys inoculates you against mass media, advertising, and corporate viewpoints. Check out their great ad parodies!

Ich bin a niderrechtiker kerl! (I'm a low down good-for-nothing!)

They're not solids, but they're not liquids, either. (If anybody exclaims "thixotropy" while reading this, I'll be surprised...) But they're all edible! Although it's probably better on top of something. This is the only association dedicated to representing the manufacturers and suppliers of dressing and sauce products. Although I'm really unsure why a separate group dedicated to toppings needs to exist!

Being a nicknames aficionado, I can really appreciate this...

Get out there and read what the government tells you not to read!

Denis Leary said it best when he said, "One down, three to go..."

The San Francisco-based BLF has been altering (improving) billboards since 1977. See what happens when you mix artisitic talent with a healthy disregard for advertising. Check out campaigns that span two decades, targeting everyone from Exxon to Apple, not to mention lots of alcohol and tobacco billboard. Their mantra is "Outdoor, if it's large, it's a medium."

"There's shrimp kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo, shrimp cocktail, shrimp scampi..."
Yes, it's now a real restaurant chain.

This wonderful Mexican take-out place in Gainesville, Florida brings back wonderful culinary memories from my undergraduacy. They can now send burritos via FedEx!

"Like maple syrup, Canada's evil oozes over the United States." -- from the film Canadian Bacon

You mean to tell me that William Shatner can sing?!?

In other words, scientists tested if pickles were a suitable source of incandescent light. Really.

"No clouds today, and a high of negative 62 degrees Celsius..."

Most people have some idea how they would like to end their mortal existence on this planet. Some would like to go quietly in their sleep, while others would prefer to "kick the bucket" while making passionate love. One person in particular wants Death By Curry. To find a curry so hot and so mean that it would render him lifeless on the spot.

Translate any web page from regular English into various dialects, joke voices, and other strange manglings of the English language. Also, ValleyURL specifically translates any web page into likeohmyGawd! For example, you can see my web page in redneck, Jive, Cockney, Elmer Fudd, Swedish Chef, Moron, Pig Latin, and Valley Speak. And don't forget the crowning achievement... Oly-hay Ible-bay! Yes... the Holy Bible is now in Pig Latin. "In-ay e-thay eginning-bay..."

Every conceivable way to become an alcoholic quickly.

Pronounced "duh-men-shuh", a combination of the words dumb and dementia, it's a showcase for Chris Condon's quick-witted ad parodies and wacky computer industry and corporate spoofs. I dare you to copy the seven deadly sins motivational posters and hang them up around the office.

Translate the following sentence into American English: "I've found two quid in me jumper, and now I'm off to buy a packet of crisps!" If you guessed, "I found some spare change in my sweater, and now I'm going to buy some potato chips" you were right. If you didn't, perhaps you should consult this handy glossary of British slang.

This service lets you receive all your faxes at your existing electronic mail address. It's free.

Where man is square and woman is line. This is a great story about a two-dimensional universe.

This is a "leading source for news, info, and the assorted sad/happy/weird items that make the study of ex-kid stars a gothic pursuit." It's a terrific site if you either want to take a strangely nostalgic trip down memory lane, or if you're interested in finding out what the former Brady kids are doing.

"Oh deep in the pond is where I dwell / and in spring days my life's sheer hell."

Ever play "Red Rover, Red Rover" on the freeway during rush hour?

William H. Gates III, Co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of Microsoft, has been rated by Forbes Magazine as the richest person in the world again. Bill's net worth has reached such astounding levels that some people decided to find a way to present it that made sense to the average reader. This net worth claims that if Bill were a country, his net worth would rank 43rd -- behind Israel but ahead of Syria. Bill Gates "has been making money at a staggering half-million dollars per hour -- around $150 per second. Which means that if, on his way into the office, should he see or drop a $500 bill on the ground, it's just not worth his time to bend over and pick it up. He would make more just heading off to work."

Conspiratorial Coincidences, Number Numbness, Percentage Pumping and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies are among the many topics at this site. A humourous discussion of the mathematical mistakes that are made with all-too-much regularity by the media, reporters, advertisers, politicians, and others (perhaps even by students), this site opens the door to discussions about whether or not some 'mistakes' might be intentional efforts at deception.

You have the opportunity to add your two-cents worth to an important question: Which way should toilet paper roll? Strung over the front, or strung over the back?

Beware of Vogons, but Don't Panic!

While you might not be ambitious enough to build a nuclear bomb, isn't it nice to know that you can?

It's a craft, not a science. And contrary to widespread myth, it is not a felony to possess lockpicks.

This should be Filed under "Cultural Roadkill on the the Information Superhighway." This site features a new "inexplicable object" for the world to marvel at every week -- just because it can. Take a look at some purely bizarre things in this world...

How many ringgits to the baht? Where's Tierra Del Fuego? What's a spoliator? The wildly popular radio quiz show and best-selling almanac is now an outstanding reference site with all the facts.

There are actual vending machines that are accessible on the 'Net. You can even check online to see what sodas are in them, how full they are, and some machines have a pay-system instituted! Some people are too damn lazy to carry quarters, so they figured out a way to deduct money from their accounts and automatically drop a soda of their choice to the bin, waiting for them to get.

"`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves / Did gyre and gimble in the wabe..."

No, Steve Miller did not sing "Big 'ol Jed had a light on!"

Ooh, look at all the pretty colors...

Believe it or not, there is a lot of Jello jiggling around in cyberspace...

Duck -- Flying pencils!

This encyclopedic site contains photos of and historical notes for license plates from every state and dozens of countries around the globe.

Holding your breath, swallowing your tongue, trying not to think of polar bears... but my favorite is having a "who is less competitive" competition. You see, trying to win at this will make you lose. Trying to lose makes you win, which makes you lose. Not trying at all makes you lose, which makes you win, which makes you lose.

A Luddite resource that requires the use of dreaded technology to get to it? Yup. Billing itself as the last place to look for Luddite reading, this is for the technology dysphoric, phobic, paranoiac, and the merely cranky. It features selected books, films, and other resources for folks who would like to turn their backs on technology, if only they could be sure that it would not sneak up on them so.

Basically, this is the PGA for Mini Golf. I'd prefer to see their tournaments on TV than the real golfing ones. But I'd wanna see a guy dressed like Payne Stewart -- and a caddy! -- at a hole with a windmill, shouting "Fore!", and then smacking the ball so far it that hits a kid in the forehead at the other end of the amusement center. Yes, that's my sick mind in action.

Nice, but ever try to unfold a $5 paper crane?

Yes, now you can sing along on "Rainbow Connection". It's not kismet... it's Kermit. Sing along, everyone!

Here's a lovingly crafted resource for that uniquely American art form -- the musical. But although I've actually been in a few musicals, they aren't very realistic. I mean, how often during a conversation do you burst out in song with your friends and family?

Give them credit for their good advice on the Avalanche strategy (throwing all rocks) and the Naughty Kid strategy (carrying all scissors, all the time).

Welcome to the ultimate compendium of historical and fictitious personages who've managed to achieve recognition, acclaim, or notoriety with just one name. All of the usual suspects are here: Adam and Aladdin, Xerxes and Zorro, as well as Greek deities, Disney characters, seven dwarves, and assorted anthropomorphs. Something about Web publishing seems to inspire list-makers to brave new realms of compilation... like my college nicknames list!

Well, when ya gotta go, you gotta go!

Think of it as a coloring book for web designers and anyone intrigued by how colors communicate. This playful tool lets you combine any five web-safe colors from the 216-color palette available to web designers, in order to see the effect they create on the page.

Did you know that Betsy Ross was the only real human being to have a Pez dispenser made in her likeness?

Some of us have atychiphobia (fear of failure), and some of us have acrophobia (fear of heights), but I want to meet someone who has arachibutyrophobia (fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth).

Sometimes I don't remember telephone numbers very well, and so I make them into words. This handy-dandy utility converts any telephone number into words.

Purity tests try to gauge how "pure" you are within some realm of experience by having you answer a list of questions about your experience (or lack thereof) in that subject. It's not just sexual tests and nerd tests; this site will test you on everything from niceness to weirdness, from jocks to gamers.

Mr. Ryden paints luminous icons of movie stars, children, angels and insects, and cuts of meat. He claims that a magic monkey comes into his studio at night and does his artistic work. He also names P.T. Barnum, Ren and Stimpy, Alice in Wonderland, and Charles Darwin among his influences. His schoolteachers wondered why his drawings of dogs would have their intestines showing or why his self-portraits had a third eye.They disapproved, but he learned to really enjoy confusing my teachers and even scaring them. You should have no inhibitions when creating art. His art is skillful, fascinating, and darkly humorous.

To answer the obvious question, yes. They're serious. (Oy vey.)

Unless you have a serious bandage fetish, avoid this site.

You are here.

A silly utility to create ASCII font art... versatile and useless.

Beavis and Butt-head got their start here... and even more disgusting animation as well. I love it!

Please understand, potato launching is serious business. It raises important questions: What kind of launching device works best for your own specific potato-altitude needs? What about fuel injection choices? Is there a better or safer ignition system? This is no small potatoes.

Anything goes for these wantonly self-destructive creatures, including cheek stuffing...

To me, stamps are another way to put art in public places. I used to collect stamps a long time ago. What I do now instead is buy a lot of different kinds of stamps, and then use them.

While driving across the country in 1995, some yoyo took it upon himself to begin a quest for the most egregious examples of tackiness and lack of taste that were to be found alongside our nation's highways. There are a lot of strange places that simply defy explanation, and this guy has been fortunate enough to have seen some of the best. Some locales even defy pictorial representation and must be directly experienced for their truly disgusting natures to be understood.

Almost everything you never wanted to know about water closets, johns, the facilities...

I thought I'd seen everything. I was wrong.

There's something voyeuristic about this whole thing: a store that sells unclaimed airline baggage online. Which is not to say it's a bad idea. It's just that after browsing through the goods, after seeing some traveler's lost teddy bear on sale for four bucks, or another's Tommy Bahama shoes for $35, you feel a little odd. Then you think, "Hey, four bucks. What a deal." And you click the order button. Finders keepers. Be sure also to visit the "What Is It?" section... some lost luggage is plain old weird.

Washington seems to be more interested in spending the budget surplus on entitlement programs than in using the money to pay off this huge debt.

This agency is the official source of time for the U.S. Government. They are the country's official timekeeper. My inner geek says, cooooool.

Find out the exact number of people in this country and on this planet at this exact moment in time!

Since the Annals of Improbable Research first published the "History of the Universe in 200 Words or Less" in 1997, it's been translated into more than 30 languages including Klingon and Pig Latin. We were most comfortable with the original English, although the Elmer Fudd version and the "English to French to English to German to English to Italian to English to Portuguese to English" version both have a poetry all their own -- never mind the Latin and Esperanto versions. Then there's the minimalist version, The History of the Universe in 2 Words or Less. And finally, you should take a peek at the original piece of humor that inspired the Universal History thing to begin with.

Yes, even you can get gross anatomy on the Web! Just picture it... slicing up a dead guy from head to toe!

"Bowing before the porcelain god" and "technicolor yawn" never did it for me, either...

This etymology quiz game is a great way to learn fifty-cent words.

"Spin the Big Prize Wheel! Big Money! No Whammies!" ...good grief. Get a life.

Fifty years ago, a computer with less computational power than a modern pocket calculator filled a whole room, and ran programs consisting of only a few hundred instructions. In the intervening decades computer hardware has continued to shrink while computer software has continued to grow, so that today we can fit the extensive software needed to drive a World Wide Web server into a computer the size of a box of matches. Technology has narrowed the gap between embedded computers and general purpose computers to the place where the size advantage of embedded computers has become nonexistent.