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Air Sickness Bags The next time you fly on an airplane, look in the seat pocket in front of you. There you will find a small paper bag, discreetly labeled "For Motion Discomfort". Most people will just ignore the bag and concentrate on the other treasures you find in an airline seat pocket (such as the free magazine or the spiffy card showing all the emergency exits). A few select people, however, know value when they see it. To such people, an (unused) air sickness bag is a valuable commodity, to be collected and enjoyed. Just goes to show what I always say, that half the people in this world don't understand how the other two-thirds live. Web:
Bizarre Talk and General Discussion There is too much in the world that is not bizarre. If we are to maintain our status as the dominant species on Earth, it behooves us to spend more time immersing ourselves in strangeness. A good way to do so is by subscribing to the Weird List. Then just sit back and wait for your mailbox to be filled with bizarre, disturbing and offensive short stories and ramblings. Perhaps you might even send in a story of your own. (The world needs all the help it can get.) If you are the type of person who wants immediate gratification, check out Usenet for your daily dose of weirdness. Usenet:
Listserv Mailing List:
Contortionism If you are looking for new recruits for your Olympic Twister team, this is the perfect place to start. You can view lots of photographs of contortionists bending their bodies in ways that are probably outlawed in more conservative parts of the world. Besides images, you will also find text on the history of contortion, a bibliography, information about the International Contortion Society and links to other contortion sites. Web:
Usenet:
Dark Side of the Net When the history of the twentieth century is written, the section on gothic culture will have one simple entry: see Carrie Carolin. Carrie is a wonderfully resourceful and talented bundle of energy who maintains The Dark Side of the Net, the preeminent Internet site for things gothic. Here you will find a fabulous list of resources regarding gothic, horror, vampires (and vampyres), occult, magick, zines, magazines, and much more. Root around a little, and you will find links to Carrie's other, equally fascinating enterprises. Not recommended for normal people or Republicans. Web: Death Clock Do you want to know how long it is going to be before you bite the biscuit so you can plan everything in advance? On the Net, you can find out just how long you have to go until you pass on to your final reward. Your personal death clock will tell you how many seconds you have left to live and the date you are scheduled to die. If you don't want to know for yourself, you can check the death clocks of celebrities instead. Web: Death Pools Eventually, everyone dies. The question is, when? If you can guess when certain famous people are going to die, you could be a winner! It's all in fun, so don't worry if you lose. You'll live to play another day. Web:
Discord and Destruction Serious talk about serious talk. Destroy the earth or just our way of life: it's up to you. Remember, life is stern and earnest, and nobody gets out of here alive. Web:
Usenet:
Grocery Shooting I bet you've spent a lot of sleepless nights wondering what would happen if common, ordinary foodstuffs were shot with a variety of different firearms. Well, wonder no longer. You can now view short movies showing, say, a cabbage being blown to pieces by a bullet from a .357 Glaser. Before you get offended, however, I want you to remember the slogan of the U.S. National Rifle Association: If guns are outlawed, only vegetables will have guns. Web:
Grotesque Curiosities When I was a kid I had a shrunken head. It was made out of dark, black plastic, and it was ever so cool. If I had had a chance to get a real shrunken head, I would have done so in a minute, but such items were sadly out of reach for a young boy in Toronto, Canada. However, in my exploration of the Internet, I was gratified to find that the young man's fancy with things grotesque is alive and well. If you like shrunken heads, trophy skulls, and other weird stuff, the Net is only too willing to oblige. Just the thing to show your younger sister. Web:
Negative Emotions Angst, bitterness, misanthropy, fear, disgust, anxiety and just plain being in a bad mood. Join the folks down at the not-OK corral for some roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-down-to-it homestyle bitchin'. As John Milton put it (when they took away his Internet account), "So little is our loss. So little is our gain." Usenet:
News of the Weird It's often hard to accept the mundanity of normal everyday living. If your life isn't weird enough, try browsing through the News of the Weird archives or subscribe to their mailing list. You can read stories that will shock, surprise and flabbergast you. And this news is good for a laugh, too. Web:
Positive Emotions As if there isn't enough to deal with already, here are discussion groups devoted to good feelings and happiness. Bah, humbug. If God had wanted us to hear good news, he wouldn't have given us television and newscasters with bad toupees. Usenet:
Potatoland You don't need a potato to visit Potatoland. All you need is some spare time and an inclination to explore weird Web stuff. For example, do you have any computer files you don't need any more? Send them to the Digital Landfill. Oooooh -- it gets even stranger. Things to see, do, and… Web: Rotten Galleries Do you like strange, sick, twisted pictures and information? How about disturbing images of death, racism, mugshots or crime scene photos? Sound good? Of course it does. Isn't it comforting to know that, whenever you want, 24 hours a day, there is a place you can go to look at pictures that would offend anyone with even a shred of decency and good taste? Web:
Rumors Check out all the new rumors, both serious (Elvis and aliens) and less serious (the FBI and CIA). Did you know that readers of this book are entitled to free admission to Disney World? Usenet:
Stick Figure Death Theater Need a break from all the violence on TV and in the movies? Visit the home of the Stick Figure Death Theater, and -- through the magic of the animated GIF -- you will enjoy a large number of imaginative variations of a stick figure suffering through various disturbing deaths, usually extremely bloody. It sounds simple, but then so does Abstract Expressionism. Web:
Tasteless Topics Taste is in the eye (and often in the mouth) of the beholder. But what do you do on those days when you need a good dose of bad taste? The answer is to check out the Net's tasteless discussion group. Feel free to look, to copy and to participate. Just be sure that whatever you do is disgusting and without any redeeming social value whatsoever. The Web site has the alt.tasteless FAQs and other tasteless links. This is not the place to bring your grandmother for her birthday. Web:
Usenet:
Weird IRC Channels After awhile, going to Tupperware parties and hanging out at the mall can get a tad predictable. So when you get to the point where you are itching to meet some new and bizarre people, try hanging out in these IRC channels. The only thing I can guarantee is that nothing is guaranteed. IRC:
Weird Links If there is one thing that really bothers me, it's being bored. I know some people who can sit quietly in a corner, doing nothing and being happy. Not me, I need ongoing mental stimulation. Why do I mention this? Because this Web site makes a promise up front: "You won't be bored here!" How true. You may be astonished, you may be outraged, you may be offended, you may be inspired, or you may simply be amused, but I guarantee, you won't be bored. If you are at all like me, this is a Web site with which you need to become familiar. (If you are not like me, you need to ask yourself, why not?) Web:
Who Would You Kill? If you're mad as hell at the TV industry and you don't want to take it anymore, here's your chance to make a statement. Select a TV show, and send in your three cents' worth: Who from the show would you kill, and why? And how would you do it? Then check how other people around the Net have voted to terminate the obnoxious inhabitants of TV land. Web:
Zooass Well, this is the Bizarre part of the book, but here is something so bizarre, it stands up and shakes its you-know-what in your face. What do you think about strange postcards, a joke zone, weird advice columns, the Tip the Baby game, the Magnetic Stupidity magnetic poetry Java applet, or Psycho Santa and Kill the Clown games? But wait, there's more: a chat room, some toys you can download for your computer (pranks, icons, goofy stuff) and a pet cemetery. Oh, my gawd. Don't let your parents see this one! Web: |
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