::A Geek in Korea::

Since I started using Opera’s “Speed Dial” feature (Firefox users can use this extension), I’ve had to pick which nine sites I like sitting in an open blank tab when I fire up my browser. I check, surf, read, skim, and obesses over many more sites than my “9″, but here is a list of the sites I use in my Opera Speed Dial:

1. Popurls. News: This is where I monitor several dozen social news sites at once. If I had digg or reddit in my RSS feeds, I’d be getting HUNDREDS of news stories every day. However, at an aggregation site like popurls, I can skim all the best news aggregation sites quickly and pick out the stories that interest me. This is like a nozzle on a fire hose. There is always more to drink, but this keeps me from drowning.

2. Penny-Arcade Forums: Guilty pleasure: This is where I keep up on games. It’s suffering it’s “school’s out” invasion of bored teenagers at the moment, and isn’t holding my attention like normal. (Shrug).

3. Discovery Channel’s Puzzle Maker: Work: This website has saved my ass so many times when we’ve finished a book, or I need to make a puzzle to entertain the class after a test. This is a total lifesaver.

4. Google Reader: News: I check my RSS feed using Google’s tools because it’s easier to sync, and I hate RSS readers that treat news like emails. When I check a story, if I don’t click it, it should be GONE.

5. A Geek in Korea: Obvious: I’ve got a post in the oven every day of the year barring illness, so I’ve got to keep this site easy to access when inspiration strikes me.

6. Amazing Handwriting Generator: Work: This is for my lowest level, can barely read, can barely write, can’t do any other homework class. These kids get two handwriting sheets to strengthen their wrists before they move up to higher levels.

7. Boggles World ESL: Work: Why reinvent the wheel? There are great worksheets here. A lot of my teaching worksheets come from, or are inspired by something on this site.

8. Io9: Science Fiction: This is where I keep up on stuff related to science fiction, whether it is television, comics, movies or anything else. They don’t update on the weekends, which makes me think that eventually this site will get replaced by something else.

9. This is the “Wild Card” slot. Currently there is a game I posted about a while back. This might switch to Gmail, or iGoogle, MSNBC.com, Youtube, or whatever else I am using at the moment.

Keep in mind this is my “work” related list. It makes sense that almost half the stuff is teaching or material generating sorts of websites.

When you count all the websites I check via RSS and through aggregation, I’m sure I’m checking content on several hundred websites, never mind the 20+ podcasts I work my way through during the week.