I put this page together to serve as my own browser starting point, with links to some of the URLs on the web that I find most useful. Hopefully, you will find some interesting things through these links as well.
Search Engines: Google; Ask Jeeves; Google Scholar; AllTheWeb.com; Excite; AltaVista; Yahoo; Lycos; HotBot
Yellow Pages: SuperPages.com
Books, etc.: Amazon.com; ThinkGeek.com; Booksamillion.com; Barnes and Noble
Movies: Movies.com; Movielens.umn.edu; Internet Movie Database; Local Movies
TV listings: DirecTV; TV.Yahoo.com
Travel: New Jersey Transit; Orbitz; MapQuest
Sports: NBA.com; NFL.com; Fox Sports; Sports Illustrated
News and Financial: CNN; NY Times; Washington Post; Huffington Post; MSNBC; BBC News; Asbury Park Press; USAToday; CNN FN
Weather: Weather Channel; Weather Underground for Red Bank, NJ
Tech and related: Slashdot.org; Geek.com; del.icio.us Social Bookmarks
Comics: Yahoo Comics
BACKPACKING: One of my favorite pastimes is backpacking in the mountains. I have found some good sites for picking up topographical maps and for getting information on US National Parks. The U.S. Geological Survey now lets you order its topopgraphical maps online. My favorite source for purchasing maps online is OffRoute.com. Two good sources for actually viewing topo maps online interactively are Topozone and Terraserver. The Maplink site is supposed to have the best collection of maps available from a number of sources. The National Geographic Society sometimes has good stuff on their site. The Great Outdoor Recreation Pages have some useful links for the backpacker as does Backpacker Magazine. And definitely check out my cousin Jeanette and her husband Ron's backpacking gear site, Bear Ridge Outfitters.
KAYAKING: I just love kayaking and am so pleased now that Sam and Keelan have gotten interested in going kayaking with me. We use Tides Online to help us pick the best times to go out.
STRANGE STUFF: Okay, so I'm not the most MATURE male that ever walked the planet. As if you need any further proof of that statement, I still enjoy FIRESIGN THEATER and MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000. Other sites worth checking out, if you're in just the right mood, include Sinfest.Net, SchlockMercenary.com, UserFriendly.org, Atom Films Joe Cartoon, Ironic Times, Satire Search, and, of course, The Onion. Want to learn the tricks behind writing unmaintainable software? Check out a hilarious article on the subject written by Roedy Green. And of course, one must be current on the Klingon Rules of Programming. Some very funny "multimedia" sites are Star Wars Gangsta Rap, Dancing Bush, Viking Kitties and a very silly take-off of "Dueling Banjos" (thanks to Sam, Teresa, Erik and Jack, respectively, for recommending these). And one poking fun at my least favorite OS (thanks to David).
SCIENCE: And, oh yeah, I'm a Scientist (as Bill Murray says in Ghostbusters, "BACK OFF, MAN! I'M A SCIENTIST!"). Some good links, science-wise, are to the JPL Mars Rover site, Stardate.org, Scientific American, and some awesome shots from the Hubble Telescope. For up-to-date science news, there are several good sites including ScienceDaily, Science Forums and Nova's page. Go to the Naval Observatory for the current time (Eastern time-zone).