Five Websites You Should Be Wasting Your Time On, Right Now:

Hey slacker:  If you could just give me a moment of your time, please?  Unplug your buds from Pandora and take a quick look around - your boss is tucked away in his back office, diddling Solitaire for the rest of the morning?  Good.  Because I got the scoop on some websites you should be surfing instead of watching the clock til your next mandated ten minute break from your cube-based hell:

via theoatmeal.com

Site:  The Oatmeal (theoatmeal.com)

What it is:  Crude-but-funny drawings of cartoons with allegorical twists.  Everything about facts about cats and Nikola Tesla to blog posts about terrible first dates and quizzes about how many Justin Beibers you could possibly take down in a fist-fight.

Time Waste Value: Strong.  If you've never been to The Oatmeal, you could literally lose hours upon hours going thru the site's many facets.  Just try not to guffaw too loudly and alert your fellow cube dwellers.

Updates:  Semi-often.  Currently the site's creator Matt Inman is touring in support of his book (The aptly named "Five Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth"), so the updates haven't been as frequent, but that's sure to change in the near future.

Site: Eater (eater.com)

What is is: A hip food-based blog with bits of chewy pop culture morsels for you to digest.  Some fairly decent writing and topics for the food obsessed, whether you're into organic farm-raised salmon or greasy french fries left over from the previous night's shift at Wendy's.

Time Waste Value:  Good.  The blog entries are more than just a few paragraphs and there's enough recipes and videos to keep you occupied until lunch.

Updates: Daily.  So feel free to bookmark and check back often.

Site: Runner's World Magazine (runnersworld.com)

What is is:  The most comprehensive running website out there; after you've porked yourself stupid over at Eater, feel free to waddle over to RW.  Here you can get tips on your running workout, gear, music, nutrition and blogs from guys (and gals) in the know.  And it's not like that one guy in your office that bores you to death with his workout, as the site is mostly geared towards the beginner who's just getting their feet under them; you won't be over stimulated with a bunch of technical jargon.

Time Waste Value:  Decent.  If you're already subscribing to RW's magazine, a lot of the articles on the site are redundant after about a week from when you get your latest issue.  But there's enough daily updated blogs and gear search criteria to eat up an hour a day here.

Updates:  Just about daily.




Site: Listerverse (listverse.com)

What it is:  Ever wonder who the top ten worst men in military history are?  The top 15 most dangerous plants?  The top 11 animals most likely to be extinct in fifty years?  Then pop over to Listverse, a blog that carries nothing but researched lists of the most random shit on the internet.  While I think some of the information on the site might be the author's own opinion, some of the stuff is pretty interesting.  Just be aware of some of the links at the bottoms of pages; they can redirect you off site and are usually sketchy in the way of viruses and spyware.

Time Waste Value: Strong:  You could seriously end up burning hours of productivity on this site, as well as your company's computer server.

Updates: Daily.

Site:  Life Hacker (lifehacker.com)

What is is:  Granted, LH is part of Gawker media, which is like, the Kia of Journalism, but Life Hacker has just enough redeeming value to keep me coming back and checking shit out.  Want to know how to break into a zipper-locked suitcase?  LH's got a video for you.  How about job hunting tips that are outside of the box?  While the site tends to lean towards the tech-y side, even average joes can find something redeeming.

Time Waste Value: Moderate.  If you can get past any Gawker site's terrible interface and proof-reading, you can waste an hour or more here.

Updates:  Multiple times a day.