T N.

Snapfish makes it easy to store your photos online. Uploading photos is really quite easy, and sharing your albums is also just as easy. I've made over 20 albums since 2007 to share with families of students; in a way, my (the school's) Snapfish account has a running history of the school for which I work. I have also ordered prints from Snapfish, and the photos come as I requested them, on time and without any issues along the way.

Dailypuppy.com is a great website for doglovers but probably better for people who wish they could have a puppy but are too allergic to have one. Here you're introduced to the world's cutest puppies, along with their interests, likes and dislikes. "Meet Stuart. With his brothers and sisters, Stuart loves herding the cat and spending lazy afternoons sunbathing. One of his pet peeves is when his owner makes him do tricks without giving him treats. He says, 'What a tricker!'" Another great use for the website is playing guessing games with your friends. Use your dog knowledge to guess breeds, cross-breeds and possible names. "He's a pitbull-rottweiler-doberman mix, and his name... is Freckles!" Doesn't matter if he doesn't have any freckles.

Lately I've been checking Roger Ebert's website everytime I watch a new movie. I don't think that he's a particularly brilliant critic, like others do; I just find interesting the way that he can sometimes write like a Pulitzer prize winner and other times like a 7-year-old (or like me) describing a film. He can, at times, offer good insight into films, but I prefer NYTimes and New Yorker reviews (I've also recently discovered for myself David Edelstein from New York magazine).

If you like beer, fatty foods and cute things, then this might be the website for you. Well, I've only visited for one reason, the Lions and Tigers song, which is simply irresistable and mildly inappropriate, if you pay close enough attention to the video. Whether you watch the video or just listen to the song, you'll be making this your next beer-drinking group song. http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/kenya/

I never thought much of Charlie Rose until my friend Jeremy explained to me the brilliance of Rose's interviewing style, particularly his ability to draw his subjects out of their skin and into thought-provoking and fascinating discussions related to their chosen profession and personal lives. And then there's the element of human emotion and sincerity that Rose can uncover in each of his interviewees that can make you feel like you're right there sitting in that room with them. You can watch most or all of these great shows on www.charlierose.com.

Learning to Love You More is a website and project dreamed up by performing/social/visual artists Miranda July (film Me and You and Everyone We Know, book Noone Belongs Here More Than You) and Harrell Fletcher. The idea is that the artists propose an assignment (take a picture of your parents kissing, draw a scene from a film that made you cry, list important events in your life in 1984, take a photo of strangers holding hands, make a good-bye list, etc.), and the public sends in their responses to the assignments. It's interesting to peruse the works of everyday people, people you might walk by on the street. I like to imagine that one of those people I pass by might have submitted a piece I really liked. And really I've liked almost everything I've seen, even if it doesn't align with my idea of art, because it's not about that. What is it, is up to you to decide. Unfortunately the project is closed to submissions, but the website will remain as a testament and archive.

3voor12 is a Dutch multimedia company which produces a series called (Behind) Closed Doors (http :// 3voor12. Vpro. Nl/doemee/tags/(behind)%20closed%20doors). This series seems to aspire to be like La Blogotheque's Take-away Shows but falls short in so many ways. The bands play mostly in a couple of claustrophobia-inducing elevators in Amsterdam. The camera stays fixated on the singers, mainly because there's nowhere else for it to focus. The performers, at times, seem to be a bit uncomfortable. Note Will Sheff of Okkervil River rushing the interviewer into another song ("Er, shall I play another?"). As well, quite a few of the performers spend most of the time singing with their eyes closed, I can imagine to avoid the awkwardness of playing in such close proximity to the cameraman and interviewer. The production value is poor, and in turn, the results are pretty mediocre, even if they are some great bands (Grandaddy, Iron & Wine, Low, Bon Iver, Apples in Stereo, etc.). Perhaps it's the Dutch I'm lacking, but it seems that the website is not easy to navigate. However, going through the behind closed doors list can be pretty amusing with labels such as "Liam Finn zat met George Michael op het toilet" (Liam Finn sings about how he met George Michael on a toilet?) "Lou Rhodes (ex-Lamb) doet krantje croissantje in de Paradisolift" (Lou Rhodes sings with a croissant in his mouth on the Paradiso lift?), "Iron & Wine voelt zich $#*!ed" (Sam Beam gets $#*!ed? I don't want to know.)

I'm still trying to figure out why people like Tiny Mix Tapes. The one feature that I thought would be cool, the mixtape section, in which readers request mixtapes and mixtape "robots" produce a list of tracks according to the request, is an original idea that goes nowhere really. All it is, is a list. That's it. Not even sample seconds from the tracks. At least give me that. Albeit, the names of the lists are sometimes charming or whimsical, but my personal opinion is that sometimes the robot's got it all wrong. For example, the mixtape request entitled "Mix Tape for a Bipolar Relationship". Not a single Magnetic Fields or Lambchop song? No Mates of State? Songs with the word "love" in the title aren't the only things that cut it, Mr. Robot. Part of the reason for some of these ill-conceived, shoddy mixtape lists is that there seems to be no real selection process for the robots. Anyone can do it. Tinymixtape, for such a sweet idea, you can do better.

Zach Condon and his band Beirut don't need to be gimmicky to be good. They're just unbelievably good. Flyingclubcup.com presents the band's 2007 album in a series of take away shows filmed by La Blogotheque. I'll admit that these particular shows can come off as a bit heavy-handed, and if you watch too many in a row, like I did, you may end up throwing up for two days straight (but the best kind of throwing up, music-induced). To be able to see them in quiet motion and to hear the sweet coordinated melodies of their french horns, ukuleles, pianos, accordions playing together is only second best to hearing the lovely, overlaid instrument of Condon's voice.

Absolutely freaking brilliant. Ridiculous happiness is what take-away shows brings me. Take-away shows is the brainchild of French independent filmmaker Vincent Moon and La Blogotheque, a French music website. Bands are invited to perform on the streets of various cities, primarily Paris, but also Belfort, New York, Seattle, L. A., etc. and Moon (and other directors in later shows) brilliantly films them doing what they do best, making good music.

These are performers who don't need crazy dance moves or wacky autotuning to sound good. Everything from Xiu Xiu and Architecture in Helsinki to Jens Lekman and Beirut to Lampchop and David Bazan, everything that I love and a lot that I have yet to love, or hate. Take-away shows presents music in its purest form - just the artists and their instruments - unadulterated and so lovely it can bring tears to my eyes. One good take-away show could make me extremely happy for the rest of the day.

Now that I'm in my 30s, I forget things more often than I'd like to, things such as the time that The Soup comes on in Guatemala City, the class that I have to teach at 10 a.m., the vegetables in the crisper section, etc. Some things are trivial and don't matter, but birthdays are things I don't want to ever forget, especially when they are family members or good friends. For that, I have my birthday alarm list. Birthdayalarm.com sends me emails 1 day and 3 days before someone's birthday, which I keep in my inbox as a reminder to send a little note, gift, email or someecard (someecard.com). With this, you can fool people into thinking that you're really on top of things. Sign-up is easy though at times figuring out how to input the dates can be annoying. The site could be more user-friendly in some ways, and at times the emails are not consistent. Not sure why but you are sure to get at least one email to remind you of that someone's birthday.

Cuteoverload. Let me tell you, this is no misnomer. You might explode when you see how much cuteness there is on this website. From kittens and puppies to hamsters and ferrets to owlettes and ducklings, all cute cute cute. I'm a big fan of kittens, not necessarily having them as pets, but more so looking at their round, funny and furry bottoms. The furrier, the better. The pinker the cast, the more the overload (http://cuteoverload.com/2008/12/28/owche/). Cuteoverload makes for a great replacement for a pet kitten or baby hedgehog. It doesn't need to go for walks, you don't need to feed it or clean its litterbox, and it never grows up.

Any person who loves short films should know about Martin Pickles. Pickles is a sometimes-surrealist, all-the-time eccentric British filmmaker. I fell in love with his work starting with his End of the Century film, which was featured in a Microcinema series. I haven't seen a film of his that hasn't been, in the very least, entertaining and humorous (though at times pretty dark), but most are thought-provoking and sometimes reminiscent of the brilliant Spanish filmmaker Luis Bunuel's work. On Pickles's website gmfilm.co.uk, you can check out most of his short films.

Some people call Pitchfork Media elitist and pretentious, but all I know is that it's still the best source, for me, of discovering new music that I'm sure to like and of being updated on my favorite bands. Living in Guatemala, I'm unable to see live shows or to talk to like-minded folks about the stuff I like, but Pitchfork.com keeps me feeling in the loop.

Pitchfork was the only place that covered U. K. band Flotation Toy Warning months after some friends and I heard it used by Martin Pickle in a short film. It's the only place where I can find out about a possible Camera Obscura/M. Ward collaboration, watch Weezer covering MGMT's Kids, listen to some good tracks, and wait excitedly for a new Broken Social Scene album. Of course I like Pitchfork most of all because I agree with almost everything they say as well. If only Pitchfork came in the form of a skinny, faux-hipster with a job so that I could fall in love with it in person.

jottit.com is a website where you can create easy webpages. All you need to do is type in your text and, if you know html, you can embed photos, videos, whatever you'd like. Sign-up is super fast and easy. Although it's not sophisticated, it's easy for kids to access and use. I've used it to create work plans and a resource page for students so that they don't need to ask me what website to go to for this or that project. They simply go to the class jottit page and reference for themselves.

Someecards.com makes me laugh out loud. A friend of mine mentioned that it comes from the writers of The Onion, and that makes total sense. Someecards is a simply brilliant alternative to those annoying ecards, the ones that catch you unawares with gawdy graphics and obnoxious music. In contrast, someecards are witty, sarcastic ecards, quiet in their hilarity. Quiet in that there are no outlandish graphics or sounds. Hilarity in that they are hilarious. After having seen X-Men Origins, I had to laugh at this one: http://www.someecards.com/upload/movies/i_dont_see_whats_so_gay.html

Iomoi.com is one of my favorite places for simple stationary and cards. Their designs are clean and inoffensive, great for sending to the relatives or friends. Living in a place where mail is not easy to send and receive, I use iomoi's online stationary to send to friends when occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries, etc. arise. The cost is about $15 a year, which is worth it as I don't have to sit on the internet searching through ridiculous e-cards.

Yousendit.com is a great website to use for sending those large, unwieldy files that are too large to send through gmail or yahoo mail. You can send files up to 100MB easily. Uploads and downloads are quick, and even if the files aren't so huge, it saves me the time of waiting for my email client to get it done.

Shopping online at bananarepublic.com is super super easy if you know your size there. Usually I'll use it if I find a piece at the store that didn't come in my size. The website is bound to have it in the right size and more colors. It's also easy to navigate, but the annoying feature is the "quick look" feature that most of the time just slows down the viewing process for me. The best part of shopping at BR online is the fact that you can return the pieces at the store or through the mail; they always send a return sticker that you can pop into the mail. No hassle at all.

I love Urban Outfitters for the middle-of-the-road clothes that I can be comfortable in and wear to work. Yes, there exists some of that at UO. urbanoutfitters.com has some great on-line only sales, and because of how ridiculously over-priced the clothes are generally, the sales prices come in handy. I've gotten $3 shorts there and $10 dresses if I am just diligent about checking in on the website. Plus, if you're in the range of XS to S, you have to get in more quickly because those sizes go fast. Yes, it's a lot of work but well worth-it because the clothes, on average, last 5 years for me. The shipping is always right on, and I've never had a problem.