The Why and a Beginning

Hello everyone!

Why on earth create a blog?

Last week, I found myself drafting yet another email to my brother listing a few website links he had to check out....when I had an idea. Why not do what the entire rest of the world does and create a blog? I'll list the stuff I like and encourage folks to email me their favorite things as well. What will we end up with? Lists of things to check out. Cool things.

By the way - I would have put BLOGS on my list of un-cool things up until, well, 10 minutes ago. But I promise I won't allow this to become self-indulgent and ego-driven. (cross my heart and on the girl scout's honor and all that)

So here's where I'm going to start. Here are two web sites that are cool that casual users may not know about:

• http://www.digg.com/ This should become a stop for anyone hooked on the internet but tired of their routine of websites. It is a compilation of links to stories/items/pictures/videos that folks have listed as worth seeing and as people view it and vote - it moves up the ranks. When you first get to the site, you will see the most popular items up to the minute in all categories. You can then focus by looking at the most popular for the day, week, month or all-time. There's also a way to see posts in your particular area of interest - science - entertainment - news, etc.
• http://www.hulu.com/ - More people may know about this. I don't watch/like much tv. But this site serves up episodes of all the most popular tv shows . "The Office" and "The Simpsons" as examples. They have about 4-5 episodes of each show rotating at any one time - and they show with only 2 or 3 commercials for the whole episode. I love it - because I've now gotten hooked on "House" which I'd never seen before. The site emails me when a new episode is added weekly. There are movies on this site, as well.

Well, that's it for my first post. Wish me luck with the blogging! Hey - when I pass away someday long from now - may I ask to have "blogger" listed in the tag line? Something like: Amy Craig Martiner, Beloved mother, sister, daughter, grandmother, blogger, passed away at her Manhattan penthouse today. Thoughts?