Britt"Encyclopedia" H.'s Profile

Need to waste/ be entertained for an hour or two? Visit The Frisky. As their tagline states, they're about "Love, life, stars, style." They do a good job of trying to sort through all the stuff that's out there and posting interesting/ entertaining material.

My favorites are the top 10 lists- they can get pretty creative!

This is a personal finance site, similar to mint.com, but it goes the extra mile to help you manage and plan your finances. In addition to tracking your finances for you, it is really all about getting you to understand your money (ie. how to invest, what investments are, how to plan for- graduate school, buying a house, having a baby, etc).

Right when you join, you take a diagnostic test so that Learn Vest knows exactly how to help you. Each day, they send useful tidbits of information to help you understand a little bit about money every day. They're not overwhelming and are actually enjoyable to read.

I have yet to discover all the nifty features on this site, but am sure I will not be disappointed!

I just discovered this site a few weeks ago and have since spent A LOT of time on here. It's just so easy to scroll through the pages of designers because the really interesting and high quality work that is on here.

This site is a similar concept to etsy.com (which allows artists and designers to sell their products on their website), but they are more selective about the designers that are allowed to post on the site. This is a great site for gifts and discovering new products and designs like jewelry, t-shirts, etc.

This is a great place where you can make a difference, but don't have to leave the comfort of your own home, or if you don't have that much time.

"Change.org raises awareness about important causes and empowers people to take action." That's exactly it- they provide online petitions you can sign, thoughtful articles about social change issues (ie. social entrepreneurship, global poverty, healthcare, human rights, education, environment- just to name a few), and even have job listings.

If you are white or know any white person, this site is for you. This site mocks and pokes fun at white people's habits, ideas, spending habits in a way that will have you doubled over laughing. Although they don't update as often as I would like, each post is pure quality.

My personal favorites are: #18 Awareness, #91 San Francisco, and #116 Black Music that Black People Don't Listen to Anymore.

This site follows and documents innovation and originality happening in style, fashion, design, culture, etc. They have great posts with ample pictures and explanations.

This is a great site if you're interested in any type of design and looking out for what's new and fresh, not the latest trend. It's kind of hard to explain but once you visit the site, you'll be hooked!

I recently discovered this site through Mashable.

If you need to re-do your resume, this is the site for you. You put in your information and JobSpice does the work for you. They have several different templates (or you can create your own template if you're a developer).

The site has launched recently, so I'm sure if there are any kinks, they'll be worked out soon! The one complaint I have about this site is that it they don't allow you to very much leeway to format your resume yourself- for example if you want two sets of bullets with different indentation distances, you can't do that.

As we all know, public schools are severely underfunded, but this site makes fundraising for teachers easy.

Teachers post projects for which they need money and you can give as much money as you want to fund it. This way, you can give as little or as much, and see your dollars directly at work.

Simple as that!

Think REI online, but cheaper.

I've bought several items off of backcountryoutlet.com and have been very pleased with the quality of all the items. They have extremely discounted outdoorsy (hiking, backpacking, cycling, kayaking, etc) gear.

A lot of the items are from the previous season, but they're still good quality and outdoors gear doesn't really change from season to season. Keep an eye on the prices, as they may change from week to week.

I recently discovered TweetDeck and it has made Twitter so much easier to use.

With TweetDeck, you can create different categories for the people that you're following ie. friends, news, technology, etc. This allows you to see tweets by segment. You can also see all of your mentions and log in to Facebook to gain access to people's status updates.

You can also synch multiple accounts- although I have yet to try this.

Twitter would not be the same without TweetDeck, which makes the amount of information on Twitter manageable and easy to view. Thanks TweetDeck!

I started using Twitter a couple of months ago because I had to learn it for work. At first, I didn't really get the point and now I absolutely love it.

Not only do I follow my friends (although they're not the most consisten Tweeters), but I also follow various news sources like @bbcworld, @cnnbrk and @TIME. There are many others on Twitter, but it's great because I log in and I can read a quick blurb on the top news articles. Depending on your industry, there may be quite a few people writing about new industry trends and topics, especially technology and nonprofit.

A must follow is @mashable who writes about social media and how to effecively use sites like Twitter and Facebook.

Another recommendation: use TweetDeck (tweetdeck.com) to organize the people that you follow and keep up with mentions, etc.

Sidereel allows you to look up shows and see an organized listing of the videos. You can look at shows by season and then search for a particular episode. Then a list of links, compiled from video sites, pops up and you can pick whichever link you like. This is particularly helpful because there are so many broken links out there. If one doesn't work, then there are several more you can try that are right in front of you.

If you are looking for simple ways to reduce your environmental impact, this website is for you. Ideal Bite puts together ideas, most of which, can be easily implemented in every day life.

They also have a daily newsletter called the "Daily Bite" which is helpful- all of them are archived on the website. Their staff try these suggestions and usually have pretty funny stories woven through the newsletter. It can also be customized, depending on which city you live in.

It's one of the few newsletters that I get daily that I actually read. Even if it's just to scan and see if it's of interest. I always look for the "$#*!tail Fact" at the end of the newsletter. Usually a very surprising fact. I'm a fan of trivial pieces of knowledge.

I recently discovered this website and can't get enough.

Yes, FML is all the rage, but TFLN (Texts From Last Night) is so much funnier. People submit funny text conversations, usually from the previous night of debauchery. And we all know people like the people on TFLN.

Probably not the best to read at work because of some inappropriate content, but super funny!

They are also on Twitter, but don't update nearly as often as they do their website.

Add this site to your favorites and share it with your friends.

This is one of the few blogs that I check daily for interesting articles.

Good writes progressive articles on what we can do as individuals and collectively to improve the world we live in... but not in a corny way. They write about politics, climate change, biking, clean water, and anything/everything that you can think of. Their bloggers read several news sources and then post articles with their commentary. This makes it easy to sift through and read really interesting stories.

They also have a magazine, of which I'm an avid reader. You can subscribe for free or pay as much as you like. If you pay $20, you get invited to events that they host. However, the money you pay doesn't go to Good, but rather to one of their many nonprofit partners.

This is a truly refreshing site to read and their magazine is one of a kind.

LOVE THIS WEBSITE! If you are a music lover, you will too!

This site competes with Pandora, Last.fm and Playlist... but it's my favorite out of all of the music sites I've come across.

There are several preselected stations that you can choose from, according to genre or you can type in an artist to listen to that artist and similar ones. Or you can create your very own custom station. If you click on the artist's name, you get a bio, and if you click on the album, you get a review if it's available.

You can also ban songs or select them as favorites. I think you can skip up to 4 songs, but if you pay a small montly fee, then you can skip an unlimited amount. With that small fee, you also get access to the song's lyrics.

I've found this music library much better than Pandora. Slacker plays a greater variety of songs and does a job of predicting what you might ilke.

I have been listening to Slacker at work all day for the past year and have yet to get bored of it. In fact, I've discovered some of my new favorite artists!