Fun things to do online during Spring Break

Rate cute animal photos.

Thanks to a Facebook post, I was notified of the Daily Paws Web site.

In between watching the election coverage, I spent a good half hour ooo-ing and ahh - ing over the puppies, kittens, wild animals, barnyard animals and other pets (including hamsters, porcupine-like animals, iguanas and mice).

Here is one of today's top dogs (Mickey):

And a top cat (Angel):

And because I feel bad, a bottom dog (Sexy Daisy) and a bottom cat (Domino):

The site also includes pet tips and pet contests as well as an adoption link.

Of course I'm working on submitting a photo of Pause but for tonight it's back to politics.

Fantasy versus reality

I do not comprehend the obsession with fantasy sports.

My boyfriend and his friends for example have a baseball, hockey and football fantasy league. There was once a basketball league but that wasn't as successful and "amateur" in comparison. (I was in it but I did not do a single thing except name my team).

Their leagues are no "five-by-five" (no idea what that means but this is what they tell me with a chortle) and during draft day, they all sit at their computers all day long ... drafting and what not.

I've learned there are many Web sites for fantasy sports fanatics to keep up with stats like Rotoworld, and CBS sports has a fantasy section in addition to their regular sports news. There are also magazines specifically for fantasy sports.

The details of fantasy athletics have been explained to me several times by extremely excited parties but it's in one ear and out the other -- I prefer my sports live and in-person, and even that in moderation.

However, I've always been intrigued about this die-hard dedication to virtual sports so when I heard about a celebrity fantasy league last year, I decided to try it out.

Fafarazzi is aimed towards die-hard celeb followers. I'm not die-hard by any means but I do know my gossip-journalism quite well.

What you basically do is draft a "team" of celebrities who you think will be mentioned the most in the news.

According to Fafarazzi:

Scoring is based on Fafarazzi.com's automatic scoring method. Each time a celeb's full name is mentioned in the selected gossip blogs & entertainment news sources they will earn 1 point. You can read more about the scoring method here.

Currently, there is a "March Madness" Fafarazzi league where:

• 64 celebrities split into 4 sections (Movies, Music, TV & Socialites and Weirdos).
• Celebrities are ranked 1 to 16 in each section based on their historical points on Fafarazzi
• The tournament will begin on March 18th at 8am and end on April 5th at 8pm. (To coincide with the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament)
• The tournament has 5 rounds, semifinals and finals. Each round will consist of 3 to 5 days of scoring. Scores will be tallied from 8am to 8pm Eastern Time.

(More details here).

In addition, you can either join a pool or make your own pool with your friends. Basically this Celeb-style March Madness will determine who is the ultimate celebrity.

The Web site also has a ton of stories about celebrities compiled from gossip magazines worldwide. You also get an e-mail that lists by points the top celebrity of the weeks and it's probably no surprise Britney Spears is the top scorer this week. (I am pretty excited to include a picture of her on this blog).

The basic league I attempted with my friends last year failed miserably. No one was really into it (including myself) and it seemed silly to spend a ton of time with our celebrity league.

But it seems as though the site is doing quite well and Entertainment Tonight even has their own league.

As fantasy baseball season is starting soon, I'm tempted to try Fafarazzi again -- but then again, maybe I'll better off just watching gossip T.V.

Photo courtesy Creative Commons user Disier.

FYI: I'm back.

I was swamped beyond belief these past two weeks but now I'm back. A new post (probably about Pause) will be coming very soon.

I know all three of my fans are excited.

Yikes!

Apparently it's Monday already.

With midterms and papers, I got a bit distracted and the days just flew by. That said, I missed the memo on capturing Friday's snowstorm after-effects.

But lucky for me, I live in Boston where snow melts nice and slowly.

Here are some "after the after-effects" of the snowstorm I caught today, three days after the storm:

In front of my apartment some cars are still not shoveled out.


Melting snows.


An interesting parking job in an otherwise cleared parking lot.

Tech-savvy pets looking for love

People aren't the only ones searching for that "special someone" online -- dogs and cats are in on the trend as well.

It looks like there are several Internet dating Web sites for not only pet lovers but also for pets.

(For the record, I stumbled upon these while doing research for a paper).

The slogan for Date my Pet,"Date me. Date my pet," basically says it all.

Here's the basic premise:

DateMyPet.com is the leading online dating website created exclusively for pet lovers. Whether you are looking for a life partner, a buddy for your pet or just someone to hang out with, here you'll be able to find exactly who you are looking for - pet lovers like yourself. It's fun, interactive, safe and anonymous - until you decide to take it further.

And take it further is what many people do according to the site's testimonies.

For example, Charlene wrote:

I have not had much success meeting anyone of quality online before. I had heard of your service online and decided to give it a try. I love all animals and thought it was a great idea to meet other animal lovers.

The site, which was founded by Robert Yau and his dog, Hershey and launched September 2004, is very user-friendly site. On the homepage you can do a quick search to see what the Web site has to offer before you even register. Basic membership is free. When you sign up, you include what pets you have and your options include dog, cat, reptile, fish, horse, bird, small animal and other. You then have your own profile page where you can upload a picture and include details about you and your animal, and what the two of you are looking for.

The site also features the latest "Pet News," and currently there's this story from the AP about candidates and their pets. (Also according to the news feed, My Catspace and MyDogspace recently launched).

There is also a link for "Pet advice" and "Dating tips."

Other sites with similar ideas are Pet Dating Online and Pets Passions.

The philosophy of Date my Pet -- which is probably similar for the other sites -- is that if potential suitors are both pet lovers, the dating process will go a bit more smoothly.

And even though it's a bit unconventional, it could even lead to some puppy love.

Safety at Northeastern.

After the tragic shooting at Northern Illinois University I find myself wondering about the safety of Northeastern University.

But according to Reader's Digest I'm pretty safe -- Northeastern ranked second on their list of safest universities in the country.

Reader's Digest asked 291 colleges and universities in the country to "participate in a survey to see how well prepared they were to handle various safety and security issues. 135 agreed."

The survey looked at several safety issues including residence hall security, whether students must show ID to enter the library and the number of full-time university police.

According to Reader's Digest:

We realize that each campus is different and that its security needs are unique. Therefore, we believe it is fairer to say that certain schools are excelling in the safety arena; others are doing a good job, and some would benefit by putting more resources into campus safety and security.

The Northeastern News* ran this story Thursday about Residence Hall safety. When I first lived on-campus, I found signing in guests to be a big pain but now I realize it is important. In addition, students are not allowed to have more than three people in their room at one time and students are 100 percent responsible for their guests.

But there are loopholes in some of Northeastern's safety procedures.

For example, students do have to show ID to get into the library but they just wave their ID and keep on walking. It's pretty easy to flash someone else’s ID, especially when the library is busy.

Maybe it's details like this that made Northeastern not fair too well in another survey.

Reader's Digest also compiled crime data for 285 universities from 2004 and 2005. They then put universities in either a "lower," "moderate" or "higher" category.

Northeastern received a ranking of 101, putting them in the moderate crime category. For a city campus I guess this isn't too bad. A large chunk of the crimes were burglaries, and there were no murders.

In general, I do feel safe on-campus.

I can't help but wonder though whether these safety procedures are enough to protect a tragedy as big as Northern Illinois or Virginia Tech.

*I am a former managing editor of The Northeastern News.

Like I said, dogs are awesome

Here's a video from behind the scenes at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show done by Nightly News: