So I had to do a total system reinstall on my desktop today. I plan to request one on my laptop, next. (Sorry, Mike. This does mean the obsessive overwork will resume.)

Since I was already reviewing my life and notes in detail I thought I’d clean up my bookmarks considerably. After all, now that I have Pocket I really only use about a 10th of them. But as I clean I thought I’d share some that I found along the way that may amuse and bemuse the rest of you.

Astro-logic (or lack thereof, depending on your inclination.)

• This one is a Moon Sign Calendar with daily activity recommendations, for those of you who need some extra direction in life – or just want some way to take the guess work out of digging a well.

• The phone app Shuffle My Life is probably more fun if not necessarily direction-giving in the grand sense.
• A quick and dirty way of knowing if Mercury is Retrograde.

Apartment Hunting

• Now that I own a house I don’t use this, but Apartment Ratings proved really useful when hunting. Also, the horror stories while miserable to live are often diverting to read.

Fandom

• As anyone who gets to a conversation with me beyond the depth of “you’re wearing a shirt!” knows, I am a Daria fan. I also still have friends in the hardcore, old-school Daria fandom. This Daria Encyclopedia is one of their creative efforts spurred by the show.

Learn Stuff

• EXCO TC: Experimental Community Education. There’s a kid’s drum and dance class going in the Twin Cities right now.
• Before Google revealed how appallingly lazy we all are, there was Usenet. Usenet still took some work to read and to discover – thus, good volunteers there made cited, sourced and oft-updated FAQs. They are still often better than the vast majority of what you can find if you just Google it. Because you suck at Google.
• Not used nearly as often since I shut down my shop, but the International Mail Manual from the USPS is quite the mystic tome. Did you know that you’re supposed to obtain a translucent plastic envelope for your customs forms? Did you know that the USPS will ship them to you free of charge? Back when I had tons of clients in Australia and Israel this proved quite useful.
• Police scanner codes. 10-4?
• Want to get digital with your old school research skills? The Directory of Open Access Repositories is there for YOU.
• Cornell University recently released its Witchcraft Collection to the public.

Look at Stuff

• Looking for some public domain amazingness – or some not so public domain? Take a look at the Library of Congress Digital Collection.
• For people like me who love illustration, comic books and general fun, the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum.

Write Stuff

• Just want to write for writing’s sake, or you’re too shy to find a local writer’s workshop? Scribophile just might solve that problem for you.