T N.

Nanocrowd is a relatively new site that lets you type in a movie that you like, choose between several descriptors (what they call "3-word nanogenres"), and get is a list of movies that you might like. This is a great complement or replacement for Netflix's recommendation system, which some people have commented is pretty useless (for me, it works). I would recommend checking out Nanocrowd, it makes for some interesting finds. One of the problems is that, because it's relatively new, there are still some kinks to work out. For example, you can't search for directors or actors as a starting point. Also, the movie selection is fairly limited although all the popular selections are there. I tried searching for a couple Almodovar and Bunuel flicks to no avail. However, there's definitely potential and room for improvement. The site is definitely easy to navigate, and the presentation is nice and clean.

If you've read A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (written by Dave Eggers) or any books in the annual series of the Best American Nonrequired Reading (edited by Dave Eggers) and thought they were funny, then McSweeney's is the website for you. McSweeney's is actually a publishing house founded by Eggers, who has his hands in starting all sorts of things, including Valencia 826, the pretty neat organization that started in San Francisco, which has also spread to other cities, to help write children and adolescents develop their abilities in writing.

McSweeneys.net is the on-line complement of McSweeney's print Quarterly Concern Journal, and you can get all the laughs without paying $15 per journal, which is a bit outrageous. Different writers are featured, but all the writing generally falls within what could be described as hilariously confusing performance art in writing form. Think the New Yorker's Shouts and Murmurs times a hundred. I'll admit that I don't always get it, but it almost doesn't matter. What matters is that it's got you rolling on the floor laughing even if you can't explain it to your friend.

I use a few magazines to stay up to date on art, music, film, books, etc. Paste Magazine is the one I look forward to the most. It gives me everything I need in a well-designed magazine that uses great, thick paper, perfectly saturated photos and a nicely matted cover. The web version is even more informative, though it can tend to have too much information scattered all over. The email that I get from them about once a week reminds me to stop and enjoy the things that make life worthwhile. My wish is that they would personalize either the website or those emails to my particular tastes.

I have yet to find a website to replace this ill-designed resource for films. It's the first thing that I think to go to when I want to find out who was in what, or what film is that again? There's no easy way to cross-reference actors so winning that Kevin Bacon game takes more work than it should. Additionally, everything about the appearance and organization of IMDB is wrong. There is nothing else that I find useful about it, except that once I almost was able to obtain "MTV's 25 lamest" episode from another user. However that fell through and I continue my life-long search.

I still use allmusic.com. I don't know if anyone else does. The primary use I have for it is to cross-check it against my music collection, to make sure that I have absolutely every single album by the bands that I love. Additionally, if I'm in one of those moods to categorize my music, I'll use Allmusic as a guide for genres and styles.

Once in a while I'd read the snippets about artists too, but generally it's better to rely on Wikipedia for that, as I tend to get distracted by the highlighting of other bands' names in the text. As well, I don't like having to click on "read more". I just sought out that one artist, isn't it slightly obvious that I would want to read more? It makes zero sense for me to target one thing in particular and then have to click on a link to read more about it.

Allmusic also has a section which gives you similar artists, influences and followers. It's all well and nice but somewhat useless in the age of last.fm, pandora and grooveshark which all allow you to listen to those similar artists right then and there.

Hands down, hands down, the very best radio station out there. KEXP was one of the redeeming qualities of living in Seattle. KEXP has good taste in music, period. Three bad songs in a row on KEXP? No such thing. Missed the title of a song or band? No problem, all of the playlists are archived so that you don't miss a thing. They even have a song of the day feature in case you can't tune in that day but need to have a booster shot of good tunes. Fortunately, even though I no longer live in Seattle, I can still listen to KEXP online.

If there's one good thing about California, it's this radio station and really for just one reason: Morning Becomes Eclectic. MBE is one of the best morning shows, featuring live performances by bands across different genres of music. Not only can you listen to the show anytime (they've got them all archived), but you can also watch the performances. This is a spectacular feature because to see a band live, performing stage shenanigans, is one thing but to see them, somewhat muted and contained, in the context of a studio is just good music in its purest form.

Unfortunately over the past years KCRW has "sold out" (I know, I hate having to use that term but I feel there's no other way to describe it) to the commercial powers that be. Amazon seems to be strewn all over the website. For example, when you click on best albums of 2008, what you get are links the DJs' top ten lists sponsored by Amazon. If you want to click on a DJ's top ten list, you get sent to some other part of the website; clicking on the album takes you to Amazon. I don't want to go through that extra trouble, I just want information!

Houston's a great town with a diverse group of folks, particularly around the Rice/Montrose area. KTRU 91.7 is a pretty interesting radio station that plays what they call "strange and eclectic" music, everything from post-punk to americana to ska to africana and there's even a kids' music segment. It's worth it every once in a while to tune in, but its wide range of music makes it difficult to be a loyal and constant listener. The website itself is gawdy, but it's actually appropriate for the kind of wacky programming that goes on there.

Stumbleupon.com is pretty much an overwhelming mess if you haven't gotten in on it at the ground level. I recently joined and, although I love discovering new and interesting websites, I didn't even know where to start. There are so many websites arranged on one page that it feels like clutter. The one thing that I do like is that the genres of music are broken up so that I can find the best rated indie music sites without much work.

Demetri Martin could be viewed as one of those heavy-handed hipster stand-up comedian types, and I mean, honestly, that's what he is. However, to me, he's just adorable and funny. I happened to catch him back in 2002 or 2003 on a late-night TV show, possibly the Conan O'Brien show. (He actually wrote for the Conan O'Brien show and The Daily Show.) Since then, Demetri Martin has pretty much hit it big with his own Comedy Central shows and, more recently, an upcoming role in a Steven Soderbergh film, according to Paste Magazine. http://demetrimartin.com/ used to have much more entertaining bits, but I'm still giving it a "Love it" rating because I can't stop thinking about incredulous breakfasts and leather sleeves sometimes.

I use Nice Translator to translate back and forth between English and Spanish. I had been using Google translator before, but having to translate both English and Spanish was too much of a hassle using Google. Nice Translator has good, sometimes better, grammar and structure, but the best part is that it does simultaneous translation. All I need to do is type whatever I want translated, and it does it in Spanish and English. It also comes in a variety of other languages - Arabic, Vietnamese (useful for communicating with my parents), Lithuanian, Korean, etc. The only issue is that the text box is too small and can sometimes be frustrating when you want to edit something you've typed.

Grooveshark has a user-friendly interface and a good assortment of songs that can be played outside of the United States. Even with my shoddy internet connection, the songs play pretty smoothly. I can find all the bands I like from the Magnetic Fields to Wolf Parade to Camera Obscura. Although the collections aren't complete, recommendations for other tracks are fairly solid, though somewhat predictable. I still have a preference for last.fm because of its sleek design and information about bands but would probably go to grooveshark first to try out any tracks I hear about.

DSW is my one shop shoe stop, not that I need that many different types of shoes. It basically has all the Mary Janes and ballet flats that my heart desires: from wedged to no wedge, toe cleavage to full coverage, solids to plaids, bows and all. This website allows me to buy them all without having to go down to the store, and I love it. As long as you know your sizes according to certain brands, you're guaranteed the right fit. I recently bought 3 pairs of ballet flats easily. The only issue was that shipping took about 2 weeks. I'll always wait for comfortable flats though.

I'm going to have to write my first "hate it" review. Unfortunately I can sympathize with one of the reviewers who had his/her account held for seemingly no reason. This past week the same thing happened to me as I tried to pay my student loan bill before the due date. Paypal apparently thought that the fact that my paying my student loan, which I do every single month, was unusual and put a lock on it, with one requirement being that I send them a utility bill with my address. For what, I have no idea. My living in Guatemala makes this impossible, and the fact that it has now taken me 4 days to try to resolve this is just ridiculous. I think this may be my last transaction with Paypal, if I can help it.

I love to read but don't always have time to do leisurely reading. Zoetrope describes itself as "a quarterly literary publication founded by Francis Ford Coppola in 1997 to explore the intersection of story and art, fiction and film." If you're a fan of modern-day story-telling, this may be the website for you to peruse. I love to stop during busy moments to enjoy a short story or two, and Zoetrope always delivers something interesting. However, the downside of this site is that not all of the stories can be viewed in full on-line. More often than not, you'll find this note at the end of the online version: "To read the rest of this story, and others from the Spring 2009 issue, please purchase a copy from our online store." Unfortunately, issues are hella expensive.

Visual schedules for teachers of children with special needs - this website is nice because it has picture schedules for children with autism or developmental disabilities. You can print out generic pictures and sequences such as for toileting, brushing teeth, crossing the street, etc. I actually went ahead and purchased the $49.95 make a schedule yearlong desktop program, which will come in handy (and it comes in spanish) though i believe the price was steep for just a year. I think the whole website is useful though i don't like the fact that i have to click around so much to find what i need.

Make an online mix tape - this is a great way to make a mixtape for someone thousands of miles away... or just down the street. Sign-up is super easy, and you can start creating your own faaavtape in no time. You just search for the songs you want to add to a particular "tape" and there it goes. The big downside is that there are songs that, while listed when searched, don't play, and sometimes you think you're adding a song when in fact it ends up being another song.

However, the idea is great, and the interface is accessible. You can also link it up to your last.fm or pandora to make a favtape of your favorited songs on either of those sites.

Preferred over pandora - after finding that pandora really wasn't suggesting any particularly fresh or new bands, i turned to last.fm. Last is user-friendly and chock full of good bands and songs, without being repetitive in its suggestions. You can allow it access to your music folder and play songs straight on last.fm. Each new track shows you a couple of other bands you might like that aren't necessarily in your library yet. I've found a handful of new bands in one sitting, everything from chamber pop to folk to shoegazing to rock and on and on. Each piece of feedback that you provide, whether you love a track or ban it, seems to be taken into consideration.

Great little secret for camping and outdoor gear - i'm not a camping and outdoors person but i still love campmor. They have everything you need for roughing it or for staying warm by the campfire. I got a bunch of stuff before a trip to whistler and everything came on time and fit perfectly. Though snowboarding camp wasn't fun, wearing my new duds was way fun, thanks to campmor!

Quirky gifts for everyone - this is an adorable site that sells quirky novelty items that may or may not be useful and/or necessary. Everything from a ladle that can rest on the side of the pot (useful but possibly unnecessary) to tiny finger food plates (possibly useless) to an airplane fork (useful and necessary). There are tons of things, and everything comes just as expected, on time and according to the descriptions.