The Wonders Of Stumbling

I love random things. Not as in “OMG monkeys and saxophones GOD I’M SO RANDOM” random. But I mean I like a lack of order at times, and for unexpected things to crop up wherever possible. I pretty much never listen to albums normally these days, I pick games to play and films to watch using random number generators, and more recently, I downloaded StumbleUpon.

StumbleUpon is a toolbar that downloads to your browser and provides you with a button to click which takes you to random sites. It’s based off a list of interests and categories, and most of the sites are recommended by other users, meaning that it’s possible to filter your results over time, and you don’t just get a whole bunch of spam sites from Google ads.

I’ve been playing with it for the last few days, clicking it whenever I feel I need a bit of inspiration. And while looking for inspiration for today’s blog, I figured “hey, why not write about the actual toolbar?” So that’s what I’m doing. I’ll be pressing the button 10 times and reviewing what I get. Let’s go!

Result 1: http://www.wanderfly.com/

Now this is a site I like. I’m bookmarking this. I’m becoming a bit of a travel nut after trips to Japan and America over the summer, so a site that basically provides you with trip ideas based on what you want to see and tries to keep you in budget is right up my alley. I had a little play around with it, and while most of the proposed budget gave me European destinations only, it’s still a great idea. May make use of this someday.

Result 2: http://danwaldschmidt.com/2008/08/50-things-successful-people-have-in-common/

I never know how to feel about lists like this. Sure, they do have a lot to say, but they feel very much like management speak half the time. Oh, and for the record, I have 34 of those qualities (won’t say which), so I’m apparently 68% successful. Go me!

Result 3: http://www.randompics.net/?p=16504

I don’t know what to think of this. Is it meant to stir some emotion? It’s listed on a site that claims to have hundreds of “funny pics”, but this isn’t funny. Sure, it’s vaguely interesting to know that some of the stone used in the construction of the WTC has found a new use, but otherwise, this just made me think “meh”

Result 4: http://www.rhymesayers.com/

Independent hip hop record label. Haven’t explored this fully yet, but I’ve always been interested in finding out about more underground hip hop as part of my quest to have pretty much every genre of music (except maybe jazz and country) significantly represented in some form on my iPod, so I’ll certainly wander around the site and see what I think. I definitely liked a couple of the tracks I listened to initially.

Result 5: http://articles.boston.com/2011-09-20/ae/30180836_1_marclay-screening-room-clock

I’m intrigued by this film project (if you can call it that) that’s being reviewed here. Makes me want to actually see it for myself, although the likelihood is that it won’t be heading this way any time soon. Shame, since I do work in a place that would probably show it, not that we’re open 24 hours. Sadly, the pages stopped loading for me after a while, most likely due to a temporary server error, so I couldn’t continue. Shame really, I was intrigued.

Result 6: http://rescomp.stanford.edu/~cheshire/EinsteinQuotes.html

I’m glad the compiler of this list admitted they don’t know the veracity of the quotes, but some of them are still interesting. Still, this is the kind of thing StumbleUpon is great for, pulling up quotes or articles that inspire you and make you think. Sure, you don’t get it all the time, but it just makes things like this list of quotes stand out more. I especially liked this: "You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat." But then again, I’m odd like that.

Result 7: http://knstrct.com/2011/06/21/jet-off-to-australias-pretty-beach-house/

StumbleUpon has this horrible knack for bringing up articles like this, showing places that look amazing but would probably cost ridiculous amounts of money to go and visit. And since I have an itch to travel, this doesn’t help. Stop it, stop making me want to see fancy places like Pretty Beach! D:

Result 8: http://midwesternmoms.com/2011/09/fall-recipe-roundup-all-things-apple/

I occasionally get these random recipes. I need to try them at some point, especially since I keep saying I need to learn to cook properly. What’s more, this is a collection of recipes rather than just one. And I like the look of that caramel apple pie. *makes a bookmark folder for all these random recipes*

Result 9: http://www.goddesssophiawalker.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Trek-Who.jpg

Holy crap! I’m a massive geek, so seeing fanart combining the two biggest sci-fi series of their respective countries is impressive to me. OK, I don’t watch much Star Trek, but Doctor Who is pretty damn awesome. Not sure about The Doctor or Amy Pond’s faces though. They let the whole thing down.

Result 10: http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/illusion/illusions29.htm

Many of these I’ve seen before, and they still drive me insane. And hurt my eyes a little too, although that may be because I have limited light as I write this. Should probably stick the light on.

So that’s a small look into the adventure that is StumbleUpon. It’s a fun little tool and one that I can’t help but play with frequently. If you too are looking for inspiration, or just a way to pass the time when you’ve got nothing better to do, I’d go and download it. It’s free, and can easily be hidden during those times you don’t want it distracting you.

And I sound like I’m advertising it. I’m not, I just really like it, and have nothing better to talk about today. Deal with it.