T N.

Austin has a great music scene, and Austin City Limits, the show, for years and years has been featuring the amazing artists that come through the city. Whether or not it's a band that you're normally into or not, ACL turns any band into your favorite.

This place looks sketchy, but it's actually a good place to get your vitamins and supplements. You can find nearly any kind of supplement you're looking for, and for cheaper prices than GNC. Shipping prices are reasonable. The most impressive aspect of this company is in its dedicated customer service. If there's a problem, they'll call you, and when you call them, there's always someone available to respond. One warning: this is not the place to go to research products. Every product description will boast of making you into Hulk Hogan. But if you already know what you need, the prices are good and the customer service is excellent.

When I moved to Guatemala for my job, I needed to learn Spanish quickly. Rosetta Stone was way too repetitive, dull and tedious. Pimsleur as well. I came across Michel Thomas's method, by chance, and cannot think of any other way to learn a language. Known as the language teacher to the stars, Michel Thomas has a method that I connected to instantly - one could say it's kind of based on fuzzy logic at times. Generally, though, the method breaks up a language into pieces, and through seemingly real lessons with real folks, Thomas presents those pieces to you in a way that builds on your previous knowledge. By the end of a track, you've learned something new and can apply it in everyday conversation. I still have yet to get through my advanced lessons, but it's clear there's a sequence (present tense, basic sentences to past/past participle sentences with varying structures, etc.) and any repetition is deliberate and purposefully layered on things previously learned in the course.

Colorincolorado.org is an excellent resource for Spanish-speaking families and teachers of English Language Learners. It has a wealth of articles, resources, guides, etc. for parents and for teachers to communicate with Spanish-speaking parents. It was created/funded by the American Federation of Teachers and has the most up-to-date research on reading instruction for ELLs. I often go to this website first if I need to find Spanish articles on testing, reading as a family, etc. to send home to my families. Everything is in English and in Spanish.

Okay, I have no idea how many folks here need to use a website that is exclusive to Guatemala but I wanted to give this website the props it deserves. Getting things shipped from the U.S. to here is not easy; the taxes that must be paid, the pick-up process, the high probability that you might not really get it, etc. can make it a hassle. Iguama has been a godsend. You can order anything and get it brought to your doorstep for some extra dollars more. I got a book I ordered within a week of buying it. Really nice service for those of us here!

I only just saw a segment on CNN about this website. I love the idea - trade in your old electronic items for cash so that these guys can refurbish them or reuse the parts. You wouldn't get much for these items (I found my Canon Powershot S50 which is still in good condition would receive $5; the newer the models, the more you get, though) but at least you're recycling and finding something to do with this stuff. If your item isn't worth anything to them, they'll still recycle it for free. Not bad either. And shipping is always free. Who doesn't have that stash of old electronic items that you feel too bad to trash but also aren't sure what to do with?

What a great find, thanks to Stacy T! I bought some Zoobies for my little nieces at a great price. I signed up for the alerts, which I wish Woot would have, and soon there will be kidsteals.com too. Can't wait...

I'm not gonna lie, my friend/former college roommate is one of the two women behind this business of creating adorable organic cotton t-shirts and onesies with original felt designs. I bought 2 onesies and a shirt from Kandle Kidswear recently for some friends' kids, and although these clothes are admittedly not my personal style (I don't do onesies anymore), I was really pleased by how well-made and very cute these pieces are. More importantly, my friends loved these gifts. I'd definitely buy more of them in the future. Kim and Laura, the owners, are great to interactive with and responsive. As well, you can tell they put a lot of care into each piece.

Sidereel.com is the only place that I could find and actually watch episodes of Top Chef and Weeds. While other websites didn't allow me to access shows in Guatemala, good ole Sidereel came through for me. It's great to be able to choose from a variety of links that are available and working as well.

I've bought a lot of items from Knock Knock in the past. This place is full of novelty items that are fun and completely useless, such as pre-printed post-it notes that start with "Just Thought You Should Know: (checkboxes for something smells, this sucks, check your teeth, you're too loud, everybody knows, you rock) and a space to elaborate". There are other things like large checklists for beer rating, paper voodoo pads, labeled file folders (to check off whether it is something to be done "in the near future, when I feel like it, against my will, by somebody else or never"), slang flashcards, etc. Completely useless but a lot of fun to have around in case the occasion arises that you might need to give your boyfriend a "things you must do to make me happy" checklist. The website gives free shipping on orders over $50 and is completely reliable.

I love TED (stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design but has moved beyond just those perspectives). TED believes in "Ideas Worth Spreading" and presents various talks, all available online, by geniuses and leaders on different topics. Every speaker has an idea, invention or innovation to share, and I find each one utterly fascinating, even if they come from perspectives I've never even considered. If you like Charlie Rose, Democracy Now, NPR, etc you might like TED. An excellent and engaging talk (and one of my favorites) is one by Sir Ken Robinson on how schools kill creativity in children: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

Usable Knowledge is a website designed by Harvard's Graduate School of Education to link practice with research by presenting research in more appetizing ways. Being out of school prevents me from being able to access educational journals as easily as I'd like to. Usable Knowledge is a great site to not only be able to read about the latest breakthroughs and findings in education by some pretty smart folks, but it gives me research in a shorter and friendlier way.

Tudou is a Chinese video sharing website, the Chinese Youtube, if you will. When I can't access episodes of Project Runway or Top Chef anywhere due to networks' restrictions, I can find it on Tudou. What's even better is that sometimes the episodes are loaded on one video rather than on several videos. They also have full-length feature films.

Isokineticsinc.com is a place to get products for exercise, rehabilitation, or in my case, for children with special needs. They have great things like therabands, balance boards, hand exercisers, easier to catch slow-motion balls, etc. I bought 6 balance cushions (at an extremely reasonable price) for my school. The company sent me several emails to update me on the status of my order, and the 6 cushions came 3 business days later by FedEx. The cushions are of excellent quality and Isokinetics will be a company I use in the future for procuring equipment for my kids' sensory needs.

The Queens Library website looks like it would be a great resource for those folks who can physically visit it. The best part about the website is that it offers the Tumblebooks service (normally a couple hundred bucks) for free. Tumblebooks are e-books for children, and the site also has some books for adolescents. However, the e-books are wonderful for little ones up to age 13 or so, as all the illustrations are shown and usually the readers are quite good. My students love Tumblebooks, and I love the Queens Library for providing this service for free! Tumblebooks are here: http://www.queenslibrary.org/index.aspx?section_id=16&page_id=314

Radiolab is all about distributing knowledge to those who just want to keep learning and who are curious about the world. If you want to know more about laughter, stochasticity, the phenomenon of zoos, music as a language, etc., try Radiolab. If you like This American Life, Car Talk, etc., check out Radiolab. (http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/)

Cnet is a great place to get a professional's and other users' opinions about computer software and downloads. In my case, I use them strictly for that and for free downloads of standard programs like AVG anti-virus, winrar, Vuze, FLV converters, etc. You can see how many downloads it's had, star ratings and user reviews. There are also programs that you have to pay for, making it easy for you to get without having to go to the store. The whole thing's safe and super easy.

I use Shu Uemura depsea products (which are lightweight and excellent) from time to time and have purchased them from shuuemura-usa.com. The products are really affordable; there were no issues with ordering and shipping. When my things came, they were always nicely packaged in cute containers that I could reuse for gifts to friends.

Not only do I love the name of this "CutePDF" application but I love the function of it. The CutePDF writer turns any of my documents, spreadsheets, powerpoints, pictures into PDF files with just the click of my "print" button. There are a couple of CutePDF products on the website but I use only http://www.cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/Writer.asp (which is the only free one; there are trial versions of the other products). After you download the Writer application and converter and install/run it, a CutePDF printer is created on your computer (excuse my technical language inability). So whenever you're done with a document on Word, Excel, Powerpoint, whereever, you go to print it using CutePDF printer. Instead of actually printing the document, it's converted into a PDF file, just like that! The whole process, from downloading to creating PDFs is amazingly simple. I find CutePDF very useful when I have to send letters to parents and professionals via email.

Chuck Norris is ALMOST as cool as ninjas. Here you can learn more facts about him, like "Chuck Norris is so fast, he can run around the world and punch himself in the back of the head." or "Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door." You can also put your favorite phrases on a t-shirt by just clicking on the fact. This website proves that you can never know enough about Chuck Norris.