www.DigitalDreamDoor.com

Led Zeppelin or Linkin Park?  The Who or Nickelback?  The Beatles or Jonas Brothers?  The answers were "Led Zeppelin," "The Who," and "The Beatles."  If you answered Linkin Park, Nickelback, or Jonas Brothers, you need to have a good look at the 100 Greatest Rock Artists list at www.DigitalDreamDoor.com.

http://www.metrolic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/no_music.png

Of course rankings are always biased, blah blah blah.  But, what makes this website great is that it is one of the least biased music rankings you will find.  I'm not really sure how it comes up with the rankings, but the majority of people seem to agree with them.  There's music lists on almost every genre, including Rap, Disco, and Electronic.

Don't use the website as a stone-cold list, but use it to discover and appreciate top music artists that you may have never heard of before.  For those about to rock, I salute you.

8/10

www.quickmeme.com

http://qkme.me/CcF

"A meme is a concept, catchphrase or byword that spreads from person to person" (1).

Memes are visually short, witty, and make me laugh.  If you haven't jumped into the craze yet, you can catch up on thousands of user-made memes at www.quickmeme.com.

My favorites include:

Ash Pedreiro

Socially Awesome Penguin

Engineering Professor

Lame Pun Coon

It's usually updated daily.  The best memes spread on the internet like wildfire.  To stay up-to-date on the Internet, you better study your memes.


8/10

1. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-07-28-ebay-weirdness_x.htm

www.kidbleach.com

http://kidbleach.com/images/15.png

There's some pretty disturbing stuff on the Internet.  If you've made it to this website, there's a good chance you've passed some alarming images during your journey.  I won't describe what I have seen.  Although you can't "unsee" them, you can clean your mind at www.kidbleach.com.

It's just a website with animals being cute to help wash away whatever gross picture you have in your mind.  As of now there are only about ten pictures that cycle though, but they are all pretty adorable.  Kidbleach is the "kid" version.  There's also a male (www.eyebleach.com) and female version (www.guybleach.com), but these are not to be viewed at work.  Unless your boss is awesome.

7/10

www.Ruminations.com

(1)

"I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option."

"I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in."

"MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood."

"Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk."

If you laughed and agreed with these quotes, you're not the only one.  More funny quotes like these can be found on www.Ruminations.com, where users share their humorous thoughts in text form.  If you have your own witty remarks about life, you can submit your own rumination, which are then rated and commented on by other users.  Ruminations was created by Aaron Karo, a comedian who also came up with many of these hilarious quotes.  The website is a relaxing time-waster and it's always good to know that you're not the only crazy person on this earth.

8/10

1.  http://ruminations.com/site/themes/ruminationsmack/images/logo_centered_top.png
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[BOOK] The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

(1)

After reading youth-targeted The Hunger Games, Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was a great welcome back into captivating thrillers and merciless violence.  The novel takes place in Sweeden, where journalist Mikael Blomkvist is hired to investigate the disappearance of Harriet Vanger.  Just like the typical mystery, the disappearance of Harriet Vanger sheds light to a much darker and evil side of the Vanger family.

The first half of the book is pretty much background of the main characters and each individual of the Vanger family.   If you can sit through hours of description of too many characters to remember (many of them disappear by the end of the book), you will be rewarded with a high suspense thriller in which the main character Mikael Blomkvist slowly creeps closer to solving a puzzling murder case.

Most of the characters are developed nicely.  The character who stands out would be Lisbeth Salander.  In her, Larsson has created a unique and likeable character.  Despite her tattoos, piercings, and cold persona, she was by far my favorite character by the end of the book.  Compared to the main character in The Hunger Games, Salander is the type of female who would straight up kill you if crossed her.

The plot is pretty straightforward: find the killer.  But the book had adequate amount of creativity and twists to the point where I really had no idea who enemy was.  The book is definitely not for the weak of heart; parts of the book had me cringe inside asking myself, “What the hell am I reading?”

The final revelation was shocking and thrilling to say the least.  It definitely leaves a lasting image that you will see in your mind for nights to come.

Disappointingly, the book does not end with a cliffhanger and it has delayed my start of the second book in the series.  The first book is so satisfying that there simply isn’t a need to instantly dive into the second book The Girl Who Played with Fire, unless you’re hungry for more Lisbeth Salander.

8.5/10

(1) http://bestlittlebookshelf.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/girl_dragon_tattoo1.jpg