Our Favorite Websites

1. Fitocracy

This is our newest favorite site. It turns fitness workouts into an online game. You can complete quests, get achievements, level up, and compete against your friends. You can even join groups and encourage fellow sweaty men and women. The idea is to get you addicted to fitness, and so far-it has been working! Everyday we log our activities and check to see who has more points. It is great for everyone-even if you do not go to a gym, you can get points for doing almost every physical activity you can think of! It is available right now through invite only, so let us know if you want one.

2. Swagbucks

I have been using this site for well over a year, it is completely legit, and I have earned over $400. On this site, you earn points for searching through the "Swagbucks" search engine instead of using one like google. Some other ways you can get points is for playing games, taking surveys, and watching short videos. Once you accumulate points, you can cash them in for prizes. They have many prize categories to choose from such as electronics, video games, and gift cards. One of the most popular prizes is the $5 Amazon gift card for only 450 swagbucks. I love getting gift cards for amazon and for paypal (who doesn't like extra cash?). And the best part? It is all FREE, so why not?! If you want to try it out, you can sign up through my referral link here: Sharell's Referral

3. Woot

This site puts up a new item for sale every single day at 12am central time at a special reduced price. The product can be anything-household items, toys, gadgets, electronics, the list goes on and on. We have purchased several times and love checking to see what the deal of the day is. It is a great place to get gifts as well!

4. Pinterest

Pinterest is a Virtual Pinboard. It lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes. You can browse pinboards created by other people which is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests. Pinterest is also invite only right now so let us know if you want in! Here are our profiles: Sharell's Pinterest & Casey's Pinterest

5. Etsy

Etsy is an e-commerce website focused on handmade or vintage items as well as art and craft supplies. These items cover a wide range including art, photography, clothing, jewelry, edibles, and bath & beauty products. Anyone can open an etsy shop and sell their handmade items. I can spend hours browsing this site and I even have my own painting shop: Sharell's Etsy Shop

6. Google Maps

One of my favorite things to do while I'm perusing the internet is to travel the world. Unfortunately, I haven't the funds to go in person--but with detailed terrain maps, street maps, and 360 degree street view in much of the US, I can at least get a taste for places I might like to visit in the future. And it's also nice to be able to find where I am going (even when I am driving across the country [again]).

7. Wikipedia

It's amazing how much time I've spent reading completely random articles on this online encyclopedia. Following a trail of links embedded in the text of each successive article, I've begun by reading an article about dogs, and ended up reading about the fall of the Soviet Union. Few websites can boast such time-sinking abilities.

8. City-Data

In conjunction with my habitual Google Maps usage, the city-data website and forums contain a wealth of information about many of the interesting places I happen upon. With an impressive amount of statistics in the site's main section, and personal anecdotes available via the written experiences of the forum's members, you can begin to form an impression of even some of the smallest U.S. communities.

9. PubMed

Why bother relying wholly on the interpretations of so-called experts when you can just read the findings of studies of all things medically-related yourself, for free (not all articles may actually be free). However, it does take a certain amount of knowledge of the concepts and lingo to get meaningful answers for yourself. But this stuff is the real deal--ground zero, I suppose, for the dissemination of new discoveries wrought by the minds of our smartest researchers.

10. Something Awful

A sorry excuse for an internet forum. But somehow a truckload of hilarious and sometimes shockingly insightful discussion occurs there anyways.

(1-5 for Sharell, 6-10 for Casey)

What are your favorite websites?