Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Installment #53 - (Christmas) Clip Art

















It's coming, folks - whether you like it - or not. The holidays - Christmas, Kwanza, Hannukah, the New Year's celebrations - festivities or pandemonium - however you want to look at it or whatever you call it!

I have been slowly digging out all the decorations and trying my best to plan ahead with some semblance of positive anticipation. Ugh! It's killing me! Oh, to be young again!

Clip art plays an enormous part in brightening up experiences online during the holidays. But, all that glitters isn't gold!

I checked into 16 "Free Christmas Clip Art" websites and visited all but 1 - because I had all kinds of bells & whistles going off when I tried. Two of them get a 10 out of 10 - 5 stars - my ultimate praise. Eight were okay - nothing to jump up & down about. Six were "No Way!"

Here are my results:

BAD:
  • christmas-graphics-plus.com (This is the one that supposedly has "malicious behavior")
  • freegraphics.com (this is actually a directory of links - I never trust them - nor should you!)
  • hellasmultimedia.com (I don't know what happened here - it used to be very good.)
  • holiday-clipart.com (Many reports of bad links.)
  • clip-art.com (Another directory)
  • freeclipartpics.com (Not really bad, just NOT really FREE!)
EXCELLENT: GOOD:
Posted by Geni at 6:18 PM 0 comments Links to this post
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Thursday, October 22, 2009

Not my Usual Post - Duplicate Post from Geni's Gabs - But Links are all Safe to Surf!


Halloween is my favorite holiday because it is the anniversary of the day I was adopted! I always got to have a "Second Birthday" party - a super scary Halloween Birthday party! My mom went all out with the decorations and the trimmings - she & my dad both got dressed up - even if all my dad would do is throw a sheet over his head and moan all night!

Every year, I decorate my house more for Halloween than I do for Christmas! Nothing as extreme as the picture below - a bit more toned down! If you need some decorating ideas, try these on the About website.

If you're interested in how Halloween came about, its history and common traditions, check out "The Real Story of Halloween" and "Did You Know...?"

And of course, you will want the best costume for yourself or for your kid - got to Halloween Express or the Halloween Costumes websites. One year, I got lazy and blackened one of my eyes, put on a pair of black pants, and a black T-shirt with a giant letter "P" ironed onto it - I was a "Black-Eyed Pea" - what else? I even got my dog, Sandy, into the spirit:

For some fun activities for the kids or the squeamish, check out the games at Kaboose and the Free World Group. But for some serious scaring, go to Caverns of Blood!


What would Halloween be without the serious scary stuff? To read all about and see photos of actual haunted houses - not the kinds your local Rotary clubs or churches do - the real ones! Check out Haunted Houses and Real Haunts.

And to catch some ghost sightings - check out Ghosts of America, Ghost Sightings, and actual "authentic" Ghost Videos.


To watch free horror movies online, legally and safely, try: Jaman, Babelgum, Hulu, Fancast, or my personal favorite, Fearnet. These websites have the old scary Black & White flicks, as well as the more current ones like Halloween, Nightmare on Elmstreet, Frankenstein, and the usual array of vampire, witch, and zombie movies.


But, if all you're looking to do is send a simple, but unique e-card, you'll find what you need at one of these: Card Cow, BloomPetals, Fun Utilities, Greeting Spring, HD Greetings, Vlad Studio, Hipster, E-cards, or Here n There.


Have fun and watch your back! You never know when someone is hiding in the shadows to get ya!
Posted by Geni at 6:55 PM 0 comments Links to this post
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Saturday, August 29, 2009

Installment #52 - Funny Pictures and/or Cartoons

Things haven't been as stress-free for me lately as I would like them to be, so tonight I felt the need for something funny. But, you know me - I had to check out my intended destinations before visiting!

I checked out 15 of the web sites in my Google results - good grief - it's a cotton-pickin' shame that people can't even get a laugh online without some butthead trying to invade our cyber-space!

Of the 15, only 4 were "good-to-go" - 9 are "iffy" by using third party tracking cookies excessively (remember: 3p's don't harm your PC; they just slow you down) and going a little overboard with pop ups. However, 2 of the websites were extremely dangerous and definitely OFF LIMITS!

Here are my findings:

BAD:
  • killsometime.com
  • monsterhumor.com
GOOD:
OK, but Pop ups:

***IMPORTANT NOTE OF ADVICE***

With a good browser, proper security programs in place, and a strong pop up blocker surfing the Internet can be one of the best experiences of your life. I highly recommend you take a minute and check out these three links, especially the second one. They are easy-to-read and understand and the smart thing to do!
Posted by Geni at 3:01 AM 0 comments Links to this post
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Friday, May 1, 2009

Installment #51 - Car Repair Advice


I recently bought a 2002 Ford Taurus used car and, as one would expect, it needed work. Taking it to a repair shop is risky when you don't know much about cars or their repairs. So I needed to research what mechanics told me by posting the cars's problems in several forums. I checked out only 9 web sites and 1 was too new to judge, 2 were plagued with 3rd party cookies, and 6 were good.

Here are my results:

BAD (3rd party cookies):
  • ford-forums.com
  • fordforums.com
TOO NEW:
  • askcarexpert.com
GOOD:
Posted by Geni at 5:45 PM 0 comments Links to this post
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Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Installment #50 - April Fools Day & Online Pranks


In honor of April Fools' Day I had wanted to send out some pranks and/or ecards - NOT! Gee whiz! It's gotten so bad now that you can't even send a free e-card to a friend without potentially causing harm.

I'm getting so sick of all of the invasive so-called advertising and marketing ploys being used. It's not fair and is making surfing the Internet not-so-fun anymore! Get a life, you stupid cyber jerks! Can't you think of any better ways to amuse yourselves without negatively affecting the rest of us?

This blog site is starting to get so depressing! I only checked up on 10 web sites and guess what? Only 5 of them were worth a darn!

Here are my sad results:

BAD:
  • freewinks.net
  • squidoo.com
  • aprilfoolzone.com
  • funmunch.com
  • girlsentertainmentnetwork.com
GOOD:
What's even worse is that these "good" sites aren't always the best ones. Sadly, the best web sites are the ones that have been "invaded" - the site owners have fallen prey to the evil marketing companies and/or have been targeted by the creepy hackers and criminals because these sites are so popular and have so many visitors.

I don't know the solution - do you?
Posted by Geni at 1:09 PM 0 comments Links to this post
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Monday, March 30, 2009

Installment #49 - Free Online Radio/Music



Every once in a while I like to listen to music while I surf. I tend to run into problems though like a lot of websites start up with sound and the music overlaps - ugh! Also, since music is a teen/young adult "thing" and that age group consists of the most notoriously careless surfers, music websites tend to be very "dangerous" as far as malware, hacking, and whatnot go.

I checked up on 17 websites - unfortunately, only 7 were worth a darn! Personally I prefer Pandora and occasionally AOL radio. Here are my results:

BAD:
  • napster.com
  • deezer.com
  • radiotower.com
  • spinner.com
  • real.com
  • rhapsody.com
  • we7.com
  • smashitsusa.com
  • live365.com
  • last.fm
GOOD:
Posted by Geni at 10:25 AM 0 comments Links to this post
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