The Giving Spirit

I was recently on www.heifer.org buying a friend a birthday present (she got ducks), and I was thinking about how easy it is to make somebody's life a little better, with practically no inconvenience on your part.  I am a Heiferaholic.  Whenever someone needs a gift, whether it be a birthday or Christmas or just because, Heifer.org in my go-to website.  I've given ducks, lambs, chickens, and honeybees to people all over the world.  None of my friends or family members need anymore material things, so I give a donation on their behalf.  They always appreciate it, and I'm sure the people on the receiving end do as well.

FreeRice.com is without a doubt one of the best websites I've have ever been on.  One of my middle school teachers introduced it to me, and I've been visiting it frequently ever since.  What you do it match words with their synonyms.  You are given a choice of four words or short phrases to make to the original word.  But what makes this website so good is that for each pairing you get correct, the website will donate 10 grains of rice to the United Nations, who then gives it to an area in need.  So along with being great practice for when I was studying for my SATs, Freerice.com also does the world some good.

There are many websites like this, a favorite of mine being www.freepoverty.com, which donates cups of water as you locate cities all over the world.  A website that makes you smarter AND helps people in need?  What could be better?  And all it takes is a minute of two of your free time and brain power.  There are some many people in the world who don't have necessities like clean water, so why not do something to help them?  It's fun, easy, and will give you good karma points.

Introduction

As a college student with an unprecedented amount of free time, I have discovered the true marvels of the internet.  With the help of Facebook, Youtube, and the champion of time-wasting, StumbleUpon, I now have an unlimited supply of websites upon which I can procrastinate.  But what good would it be if I didn't share the gems I've found? Some are popular, some are not, but it doesn't really matter because you will love them all the same.  And you WILL love them.  I have a great taste in websites.  The internet has eaten many hours that should have been spent studying.  Oh well.  At least one good thing came out of my boredom: the inspiration for this blog (even if it is an assigned project for my class).  So brace yourselves, because once you start Stumbling, you never stop.

To kick off my internet extravaganza, I'm going to tell you guys about one of my all-time, favorite websites has got to be www.oddee.com.  'A Blog on Oddities,' it is basically a site full of lists of strange things.  With new lists posted daily, I am on this website every morning right after I open my Webmail and my Facebook.  Each new post is as entertaining as the one before, and none of them disappoint.  Some of my favorites include '18 Hilarious Photobombs' and '13 Coolest Airplane Paint Jobs.'  The entries range from so-cute-you'll-puke to Not Suitable For Work raunchy, but each entry is unique.  Another highlight of Oddee is the 'Weird News' section in between the lists, which are current odd news stories from around the world.  For example, today's headline is, "Teens Snorted Ashes of Man, 2 Dogs Mistaken For Cocaine."  (Yeah, that actually happened.)  It directs you to an outside website, often AOL News or Yahoo! News, and you can read to your little heart's content about stupid teenage thieves who snorted a poor woman's husband and her two Great Danes.