POINT OF VIEW COLUMN: Killing time -- at school online
By Reagan Gearhart
Picture this: You have a two-hour break between classes, all your friends are in class, and you’re too broke to get a snack. You want something fun to do, so you head off to the computer lab.
You check your e-mail and you send the one about the crippled boy in Ffbajudistan to your friends so he gets a nickel from the Red Cross. Now what do you do?
Here are some good sites you can visit to pass the time and have fun.
First up is the fake news at www.theonion.com The Onion, a fake newspaper that pokes fun at current news, also invents news. It boasts some classic fake horoscopes such as this one: “Gemini: (May 21 – June 21) The very future of humanity probably won’t hinge on your knowing the difference between igneous and sedimentary rock, but hey, you never know” (Sorry, Mr. Phillips).
The next site may actually be useful for school work. Sparknotes are basically free Cliff Notes that are written by Harvard graduates. The notes at www.thespark.com aren’t why I visit this site, however. It includes several tests on it such as the Death Test, the Wealth Test, and the Purity Test, some of which have been forwarded a lot.
The Spark also has features such as the Stinkymeat Project, which chronicles one man’s fascination with a plate of decomposing meat he has hidden in his neighbor’s yard, complete with daily pictures and a screensaver. The site is also giving away a Spark T-shirt.
Another good site is www.shockwave.com. Here you can download the Shockwave player, which can be useful for searching the web. It can be used to watch music videos and animation.I like this site for the video games. It has most of the classic arcade games of the 80’s like Joust and Defender. It also contains some similar new games, such as King of the Hill Paintball, for free.
My only complaint is that they don’t have Burgertime. I can only hope. Maybe for the student arcade?
If you get caught playing the games, just say you’re writing a follow-up story for the Apache. Who knows, they might actually buy it. You might want to try this one last, while you still have computer privileges.