Family Websites
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Friends' Websites
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Online Activities
- Kingdomality
— take this personality test to find out what your role would have been in a medieval kingdom (12 results possible, including "Benevolent Ruler," "Black Knight," and "Dreamer-Minstrel")
- Homestar
Runner — HR is incredibly funny yet impossible
to explain. It must be experienced to be understood! Click on "first time
here?" AND mouse-over the buttons on all 21 home pages.
- Sheepilizer
— what happens when a negatively-charged sheep is placed in an electric field...?
- Familjens Julbak
— cut out and decorate your own Flash ginger cookie (and e-mail it to friends)
- Virtual
Knee Surgery — conduct cartoon knee-replacement
surgery (easy step-by-step directions with Flash animation, so you can't really screw up). Also has photos
from real, live knee surgeries, which I don't recommend you peruse.
Potentially Offensive
- Halfbakery
— a communal database of original, ficticious inventions and speculation that runs from the
serious to the satirical (get it..."half-baked" ideas?)
- Online Etch A Sketch
— use the arrow keys to create nifty pictures
- Colorcube
— 16 optical illusions and the explanations of why they work
- Winx Club
— click on Alfea, the fairy school, for games and other fun Winx stuff
- Optical
Illusions — numerous examples in nine categories
of illusion, including explanations of why each kind of illusion works.
The Checker-Shadow Illusion (in the "Phenomena of Contrast" collection)
and the Motion Perception Illusion are the coolest, especially when
printed out.
- Joesterizer
10-Speed Frog Bender 2000 — a frog goads you into
pushing the buttons of the blender in which he's floating (also available
for download) Potentially Offensive
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Webmaster Resources
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Teacher Resources
- Teacher Created Materials — tons of free resources and sale items; be sure to sign up for their monthly newsletter, which allows you to download a free electronic activity book every other month
[gr K-12, lesson plans, extensions, printable tests, handouts, standards]
- Holidays
on the Net — funny, serious, and international
holidays and suggested celebrations; I recommend their free, weekly
newsletter that notifies you of all of that week's upcoming holidays
[gr K-12, handouts, activities, direct collaboration with classrooms]
- Simple
and Compound Machines — interactively learn about the
simple and compound machines that make up items commonly found in the house or tool shed [gr 2-6, self-check,
printable tests, handouts, standards]
- Mad Scientist — dozens of neat science experiments and explanations of why they work (inclduing Edible Glass, Flying Rice Krispies, and Underwater Fireworks)
[gr K-12, lesson plans]
- Reporting
and Predicting Weather — interactively learn about
predicting and reporting the weather [gr 4-9, lesson plans, extensions,
self-check, printable tests, handouts, standards]
- Kentucky
Habitats — match Kentucky plants and animals with
their habitats; when you get an animal matched correctly, you get to hear its call! [gr 4-9, self-check, teachers' guide, extensions] Charlie
created this for KET as one of his first Cre8tive Group projects!
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Reference Resources
- Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
— over 11,000 quotations searchable in concordance format, as well as chronologic and alphabetic indices of authors
- 50 States
— everything you could possibly want to know about each state in the union
- French Verb Conjugation
— enter the infinitive form of any French verb, choose a desired tense, and it will conjugate your verb in that tense for all six subjects (je, tu, il/elle, nous, vous, ils/elles)
- Wacky Uses
— little-known uses for well-known products
- World Factbook
— almost every "basic" fact you could want to know (national anthem, flag, maps, etc.) about all countries, territories, and dependencies; compiled by the CIA and updated weekly
- So You Wanna
— teaches you all the things you never learned in school (i.e., "So You Wanna...Buy a Laptop?" "...Speak With an Irish Accent?" "...Improve Your Table Manners?")
- Bibliomania
— more than 2000 free, searchable works of literature, including study guides, reference resources, author biographies, and book summaries
- h2g2 —
The Guide to Life, the Universe, and Everything; comprised of online submissions
- The Book of Clichés
— phrases to say in times of trouble, organized by category (e.g., "for when you feel lonely," "for when someone broke your heart," etc.)
- Babel Fish Translation
— translate up to 150 typed words at a time to and from 13 different languages; can also translate entire web pages
- Wacky Links
— wacky websites, including "Wacky Insect Recipes" (don't worry, it lists nutrition info) and "Wacky Pop-Tarts" (how to turn a pop-tart into a blowtorch)
- The Phobia List — comprehensive list is searchable by both phobia
name and phobia subject (current favorite: Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia
— the fear of long words)
- Rhyme Zone
— type in a word to find its rhymes, synonyms, definitions, and much more
- Consumer Reports
— independent, nonprofit research from an impartial, unbiased, and expert testing organization (helped us choose our car!)
- Temperature
Converter — automatically converts Fahrenheit to
Celsius and vice-versa. Also provides conversion formulae and examples.
- Internet Archive Wayback Machine
— search an archive of the 30 billion webpages that have ever existed since 1996 (includidng old versions of existing sites)
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Organizations We Endorse
- SPEBSQSA — international men's barbershop singing organization
- Sweet Adelines International — international women's barbershop singing organization
- D.A.R.E. — Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, for which we volunteer every year
- American Humane Society — shelter where we adopted our kitties
- International Guild of
Wenches — a powerful confederation of women devoted to torturing men
in the nicest of ways (please note: a "wench" is not a whore). Operates at Renaissance faires.
- Central KY Blood Center — non-profit blood donation center where we donate blood and pheresis (donating is a great date, with a free snack and t-shirt!)
- Governor's Scholars Program — five-week, residential, pseudo-college summer program for select high school seniors (like Hilary, in 1996)
- Boy Scouts of America — the nation's foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training (hey, it worked for Charlie!)
- Crazyworld
— homepage for "the truth" anti-smoking campaign (also check
out their "drop
dead day" and "connect"
campaign commercials)
- Ichthus Ministries — Christian music festival started in Wilmore as an alternative to Woodstock
- Shards O' Glass — a fake popsicle company analogous to a tobacco company (watch the commericials)
- You're Too Loose — requires members to pass a spelling/grammar/punctuation test (Hilary was the fourth member out of 72 to submit an error-free test)
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Art & Artists
- SandFantasy.com —
mind-blowing performance art done with sand (check out the "imagine" one on the left)
- Snarbles.com —
weird little cartoons in the "snarchives" Potentially Offensive
- ASCII Art Gallery —
showcase of computer keystroke art
- OrenArt —
digital portraits that work on two levels: when viewed up close, one experiences an abstract image,
but when viewed from a distance the image becomes photorealistic.
- Gashlycrumb Tinies —
Edward Gorey "comic strip" in which 26 children are alphabetically disposed of one by one ("A is for Amy who fell down the stairs... B is for Basil assaulted by bears..."); his art is macabre, witty, and enigmatic Potentially Offensive
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Food & Play
- Hamster Ball
— download this addictive game, in which you guide a hamster-in-a-ball through the twisty, elevated ramps of multiple obstacle courses
- Pampered Chef
— stock your kitchen with their essential, high quality products; we unreservedly recommend everything we've purchased from them, but cannot give up our:
stoneware, Twixit! clips, bamboo tongs, citrus peeler, mini-whipper, corn cob knobs, Quikcut paring knife, smooth-edge can opener, chef's knife, and apple peeler/corer/slicer (we don't own that last one, but it's kick-butt cool)
- Stress
Relief — download a game that lets you destroy
your desktop screen using a hammer, chainsaw, machine gun, flame-thrower,
paint gun, phaser, stamp, and termites (which can also be squished).
Also available in a holiday version, with a carving knife, smashing
candy cane, ice and snow guns, candle, elves, paint gun whose blobs
resemble gifts, extinguisher, and holiday stamp (scroll down to "Desktop
Games").
- King's
Quest I (VGA remake) — download this fan-remade version of
King's Quest: Quest for the Crown that uses 256-color graphics;
also available is King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones
- Starbucks
— legend has it that Hilary can sense a mocha hazelnut Frappuccino from 2 miles away
- Frogapult
— download this game to help frogs survive by catapulting them onto a target in the middle of the swamp (propel the frog too hard = eaten
by an alligator, too soft = eaten by piranhas, too high = eaten by birds, too far = impaled on spikes). Potentially Offensive
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Places We Shop
- Amazon.com —
this is a link to our "Wish List" (we also have separate ones)
- CafePress.com —
set up your own shop of customized stuff!
- Victoria's Vault —
a plus-sized consignment store in Lexington
- Hard Rock Café —
Hilary collects their logo t-shirts (unfortunately, she cannot wear the cool "city" shirts because her hair hides the artwork on back, which is the whole point of the "city" shirts)
- Lane
Bryant — except for her socks and shoes, literally
everything Hilary wears on any given day is likely to be from this
store (including her jewelry)
- Goodwill —
a treasure-trove of children's books and board games for the budget-conscious
- Versailles Flea Market —
the best flea market in central Kentucky (tons of furniture, too)
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Music We Enjoy
- BostonPete.com
— cost-free, commitment-free internet radio broadcasts. I recommend
Songbook America (classics by songbook composers from 1950s-today),
Soundstage (Big Band originals and jazz of the 1910s-1950s
), and Old Time Media Station (comedy, drama, and music from
the Golden Age of radio).
- Weird Al Yankovic —
the musical artist who made our family what it is today
- KLOVE —
nationally-broadcast (and internationally-web-broadcast) Christian radio station; the staff even prays for listener's concerns daily — click here to submit yours online!
- ApologetiX —
Christian parody band (parodies rock, pop, etc. with Christian lyrics)
- DaVinci's
Notebook — the award-winning comedy a cappella
group (be sure to listen to the clips from "Title of the Song" and "Kingdom in the
Sky," to which the link will send you anyway)
- King's X
— melody-oriented progressive/hard rock band with a touch of funk and lush vocal harmonies (Charlie's favorite band)
- Gas
House Gang — Charlie's fave barbershop quartet, the 1993 International SPEBSQSA Champions.
Click here to hear them sing Eine
Kline NOT Musik and The
Willian Tell Overture.
- Michael Bublé —
relatively-new performer who sings in the style of classic thirties and forties swing/jazz; his self-titled album is absolutely fantastic (you can listen to every track on his site)
- The Bob Rivers Show Christmas Songs —
includes both original holiday tunes and twisted parodies of classics (must-listen tracks: "The Twelve Pains of Christmas," "The Chimney Song," and "Chipmunks Roasting on an Open Fire") Potentially Offensive
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Authors & Literature
- Bulwer-Lytton
Fiction Contest — An international literary parody
contest named in "honor" of Victorian novelist
Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton. Contest entrants are challenged to submit bad
opening sentences to imaginary novels. Bulwer-Lytton opened his 1830 novel
Paul Clifford with a ghastly, 58-word sentence beginning with the now-immortal, "It was a dark and
stormy night."
- Lemony
Snicket — author of A Series of Unfortunate Events; I highly recommend
the author's
Unauthorized Autobiography (particularly after
reading some of The Series).
- Terry
Pratchett — British fantasy/satire author of the
Discworld and Bromeliad series QUOTES!
- Piers Anthony
— award-winning author of the incredible Xanth, Adept, Incarnations of
Immortality, and Mode fantasy series
- Douglas
Adams — British satirist who authored
the fantasy/sci-fi Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy series and the "ghost/horror/detective/time travel/romantic/comedy" Dirk Gently
series
- Anne
McCaffrey — British fantasy author (see a trend
yet?) of the Pern, Talent, and Tower and Hive series
(the Talent series is the prequel to the Tower
and Hive series)
- Robert
Jordan — author of the Wheel of Time fantasy
series
- Uncle
Shelby's ABZ Book: A Primer for Tender Young Minds —
by acclaimed children's poet Shel Silverstein (IT'S NOT DIRTY,
just twisted, so don't worry about the Playboy part at the top)
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Website Contributers
— provided free bullets, icons, backgrounds, and code for this site
— free backgrounds; lets you see what all text colors
look like on each background
— our page titles are in "Nocker Cranky," by Brian Powers
— our groomsmen "logo" is a screen capture from a G.I. Joe episode-
— our free guestbook provider (although it has ads)
— our bridesmaids "logo" is from Winx wallpaper
— provided free bullets, icons, backgrounds, and code for this
site
Artists Whose Work Is Representative of Talia Jenea:
- Clyde
Caldwell — painted Krosan Restorer as well as
the Wheel of Time trading cards
- Jessica
Galbreth — sketched Cliodhna and Silver
Moon Fairie and painted Wood Witch, Gypsy Rose,
Titania, and Fairy of Good Luck
- Selena
Fenech — painted Hide and Seek, Autumn
Winds, Blossom, Lady Anghosina, Nouveau
Fairy IV: Autumn, and Rune
- Abranda
Sisson — sketched Lady of Lorien and painted
Wall of Hearts and Kindred
- Jonathan
Earl Bowser — sketched Morgan le Fay
- Amy
Brown — well-known fairy artist who painted Emerald
Wings
- Sheila
Wolk — painted Revelation
- Giorgio
Iovino — Italian artist who sketched Noldor
- James
Browne — painted Daughter of the Forest I
- David
Delamare — painted Titania (the sepia-toned
one)
- Mary
Baxter St. Clair — painted Jardin des Reves
in
- Josephine
Wall — painted Psyche's Dream and has
a passion for "light and colour, fantasy and visual storytelling"
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Miscellaneous
- Deep Thoughts
— a comprehensive, chronological list of Jack Handey's points to ponder
- Japanese Emoticons
— these are read vertically, as opposed to horizontally like Western smileys;
for example, the Japanese "thumbs-up" smiley is (^_^) b
- Roadside America
— your online guide to offbeat tourist attractions
- Family Fun Magazine
— the family experts on travel, food, crafts, parties, holidays, games, activities, and products: all the essentials that enrich the important time parents and children share
- Star Trek
— the official site for the sci-fi phenomenon
with which Charlie is enamored
- SNL Jeopardy! Skits &
Commercials — watch video clips of
Celebrity
Jeopardy! skits and mock commercials from
Saturday
Night Live. Potentially
Offensive
- News of the Weird
— this weekly syndicated newspaper column proves that true stories are weirder than made-up stories Potentially Offensive
- King's Quest IX: Every Cloak Has a Silver Lining
— fans are creating another "final" installment of the series originated by Roberta Williams to replace the aberrant, violent KQVIII; fans can audition for voice parts or join the creative team
- Digital Photography Review
— the latest in digital photography and imaging news, reviews of the latest digital cameras and
accessories, including active discussion forums, sample images, a digital camera buyers guide, side-by-side comparisons,
and the most comprehensive database of digital camera features and specifications on the web
- The Darwin Awards
— Named in honor of Charles Darwin, the father of evolution, they are awarded to those who improve our gene pool...by removing themselves from it. Of necessity, this honor is bestowed posthumously. Potentially Offensive
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