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Lately I’ve been feeling like this ship has run it’s course. It started out fun and then it started to feel like work and then I thought, “Woah – this is a blog – not a job!” I don’t think it should ever, ever feel like work around here – this is my hobby! So I’m bidding Weekend Diversions farewell for now. That doesn’t mean I’ll never post another funny video or game – I just won’t post all of them at once on a weekly basis – let’s divert our attention any day of the week!

Anyway – for old times’ sake – here are four of the diversions I’d had lined up, the four things I’ve been wasting my time with the most and / or consider worthy of mention:

• Awesome New Facebook App: Who doesn’t need another way to kill time on Facebook? UNO has been all the rage in my circle lately – I’m not proud to admit that the first couple times I played it I could not figure it out! Word of advice – make sure you are trying to play UNO and not, say, Phase 10 or Rummy. They aren’t the same. At all. Thanks to Jean @ Working Momma 247 for turning me on to this seriously addictive game. My husband and son might not be so thankful.
• Awesome Ryan Gosling Fan Page NOT Run By Daily Mish Mash: Check out F*ck Yeah! Ryan Gosling if you are into all things Gos’ or just like a good laugh combined with a good swoon. Obviously Jen pointed this one out to me, as a joke actually, but I thought – god forbid some poor Gosling fan out there not get her fix of all that goodness. Consider this my act of community service for the day.
• Awesome SNL Video Where Justin Timberlake Basically Makes Fun Of Himself And It’s Awesome: My husband showed me this video this morning and it was too good to not share with you all. I’m betting you’ve all already seen it and I’m jumping on a bandwagon like way after the fact, but what else is new? Seriously, check this one out.
• Awesomely Uplifiting Website That Makes This Economy Seem Less Sucktastic Or At Least Points Out The Silver Lining: Cards of Change is this great little collection of old business cards and notes written by the people who formerly held the job titles printed on them. It really kind of shows how life goes on and gets better and that all endings are really just new beginnings…

And on that note, have a great weekend!

This week I’ve got a new blog, a simulation game, a word game and the means to create your own timelines – essentially the ultimate in random assortments of diversion.

I’m guessing a lot of you have heard of Passive Aggressive Notes, but I am new to this little gem so I thought I’d pass it along for anyone else who’s been living in a cave with me – anyone who’s into LOL Cats, Cake Wrecks and the like should enjoy this one. Here’s a sampling:

So you know those fun games where you get to live out the life of a person – there are the kinds where you feed a pet or baby, clothe it, buy it things, etc. There are Sims. And then there is this. This simulator takes you through all the fun and exciting steps in the life of a single, minimum wage McDonald’s employee. It’s the epitome of mundane and yet strangely addictive. I think it’s worth looking at at least once, to remind you that (unless you are a single, minimum wage McDonald’s employee) maybe your life could be better? Or if you’re kids are bugging you about why they should go to college, maybe you could send them the link?

DeepLeap is a fun new online word game that is definitely addictively fun – it starts the second the page loads and you’ll see letters show up and letters disappear as time goes by – try to make as many words as you can with the letters you can. If you like scrabble or any of those other great online word games, you’ll like DeepLeap.

Okay, so say you wanted to build a timeline – maybe for a work project or just for fun – how do you go about it? Well if you are smart or maybe just happen to be reading this post conveniently at the right time, you’ll go to TimeToast, which lets you make a free timeline like the one I made here of my son’s life so far. And I bet you could come up with something even cooler than that to make a timeline of – I’d love to hear your ideas on this, or the other diversions, in the comments section below.

I’m writing this week’s Weekend Diversions on a Tuesday, taking total advantage of the post scheduling feature. Why write so far in advance? Thursday and Friday I’m going to be traveling with my husband to an out of state in person interview with a company we’re calling Dream Company. With any luck by the time we get back Friday night we’ll be celebrating a new job and delusionally busy with the planning details. I doubt I’ll be glancing at the computer much this weekend, thus the scheduled post. To celebrate this occasion, I thought I’d devote this week’s Weekend Diversions to minimalizing our time here online, or getting away from it completely. I’m going to start with small steps for the first diversion and by the third diversion, hopefully you’ll be hopping off the computer, too, into a fun new adventure with your family.

So let’s start with Readability, a website that lets you choose the fonts, font sizes and margins that you prefer to read online, install a little bookmarklet into your toolbar, and then click the bookmark when you want to view a certain page in that format. Cut the clutter and get to the heart of what you are trying to read. I’m betting this could increase your productivity and at the very least it was kind of fun playing with the settings and seeing how it did it’s thing. Give it a whirl.

Alright, this next one is for my fellow Mac users. To all the PC or Linux users reading this, I’m sorry, you’ll just have to move on to the next diversion, which promises to be a lot of fun anyway. Alright, for my Mac pals still with me, check out Freedom – this little application will disable your network connection for up to eight hours at a time, allowing you to step away, into the real world and find some 3D diversions in the form of ‘the rest of your life.’ Don’t worry if you change your mind and want to log back into your network before the time is up – just reboot your computer and you’ll be back up and running. I think this is a neat way to encourage yourself to take a break if you find yourself spending too much time online – or if you are trying to limit your kid’s online usage. But before you go, make sure you check out this last diversion!!

Since you’ve used Readability to increase your productivity and get your work done, and you’re maybe thinking about installing Freedom to give yourself a little internet R&R, here’s a link that will help you find something new and fun to do. KaBOOM lets you find local places to go out and play in your area. Search by your town or the town you’d like to visit and it will give you a list of parks and play areas near you.Want more incentive to give KaBOOM a try? If you know of a play area not on KaBoom you can enter it into their databse yourself. For each valid entry, Julianne Hough will donate $1 to your cause — and enter you in a drawing to win prizes. This week, you could win an Amazon Kindle 2! To read more about KaBoom and their mission to find as many places for kids to play as possible, click here.

I’ve got four great diversions for you this weekend. We’ve got a game, a blog, a video and a fun way to design your own baby bedding. Let’s start with that last one first.

Carousel Designs has this fun tool which lets you design your very own baby bedding from the ground up. You get to choose the fabric for each part of the bedding ensemble which includes a bumper, crib skirt, sheet and comforter. Each piece has several options. For instance, the bumper can have a separate fabric for the front, back, trim and ties. I think I could spend hours designing cute bedding ensembles for our baby, due in July. I’ve already made two sets that I love – and the best part is, once you’ve designed that great set of bedding you can actually order it to buy. So whether you are window shopping or actually in the market, this is a really nifty little tool.

Ready for something else? Try this fun ball dropping game called BallDroppings (clever, huh?). When you open the page balls will literally start dropping into the screen. Drag your mouse to draw lines and catch them. Set up a sort of obstacle course for the balls to bounce through. Each time the balls hit a line you’ve drawn it makes a fun little sound that starts to become rather melodic and hypnotizing. So you may be getting brainwashed while you play but I’m guessing you’ll be so intrigued by the game play and diverted and whatnot that you probably won’t notice.

If you are a fan of Cake Wrecks and / or grammar then I am thinking The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks will be right up your alley. Basically it’s a collection of pictures taken of signs, products, etc. where quotation marks have been used unnecessarily and the results are typically hilarious. Example?

Alright, last thing for today is the youtube video from Britain’s Got Talent that seems to be taking the web by storm. Proof that you really shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover?

So, Friday is here and I have to confess that I found nothing new to divert your attentions with – nothing. To be fair, I’ve kind of had an off week – I didn’t devote very much time to just blog surfing – I haven’t been a good commenting buddy. It’s kind of no wonder – so the diversion pool is a bit light this week and tide us over until next week, which I’m hoping will be more diversional, I’ve decided to round up my top 3 comic strips – a perfect anecdote to weekend boredom. I loved reading the comics in the paper on Sunday mornings when we lived with Dan’s parents and had the newspaper delivered every day (we’re too poor for such luxuries) and there are a couple comics I read religiously here online. So I’ll show you mine and then you have to show me yours, kay?

I’m going to warn you – these are not the comic strips you might expect a girly little mom like me to adore – but I do promise they are good stuff:

Sluggy Freelance - If your “type” leans towards the tall, dark and geeky – or if you are that tall, dark and geeky guy – then Sluggy Freelance is for you – this comic tells the story of two typically nerdy guys and the girls who love to hate them (but mostly just love them) – oh and their talking pet ferret and slightly evil talking pet rabbit – with some sci-fi action stories and some fun current event parodies thrown in. Sometimes this turns into guy humor, or you’ll have a few weeks of “action movie” type plot – but Pete, the mastermind behind Sluggy is a comic genius and this is probably my favorite comic strip. He posts (almost) daily with the occasional filler strips, but if you are new to Sluggy, I recommend starting at the beginning – because you might be lost if you try hopping in mid-strip. The best part about following my advice? This comic started in 1997 so if you do go back through the archives, you will have lots of divertive goodness, likely for weeks to come. It’s been my experience that you can catch up on all things sluggy in about two weeks. Here’s an example of one of my favorite Sluggy moments:

XKCD – Did I mention I’m a geek lover? I’m a bit of a nerd myself and this comic might show my true nerd colors for sure. I’ll freely admit this might be over your head, you might not get it – sometimes I don’t get it either but man some of these strips are just genius, especially his romantic stuff, makes me all teary eyed – and usually I can find the comics funny even if I don’t get the smart people stuff – also XKCD started my love affair with hover captions – which means when you are reading these gems, you’ll want to hover over for added humor on each strip. Here’s an example of a good strip I think anyone can love:

Baby Blues – I’m guessing you’ve heard of this one. I wish I could subscribe to this in my blog reader and get the new stuff, but copyright, blah blah blah… I love them anyway, but I’ll admit I don’t follow it religiously because of all that corporate hoopla. You can read the two weeks old and older comics here. I’m guessing you guys already know about the genius that is Baby Blues, but I couldn’t leave them out of my top 3 because, well, they are in my top 3.

What are your top 3 favorite comic strips?

This weekend’s diversions come courtesy of Jean @ Working Momma 247, VSL: The Very Short List and my Google RSS Feed.

My good bloggy pal Jean pointed me in the direction of this fun quiz which tells you Which Cake Wreck You Are. If you haven’t been to Cake Wrecks before you’ll want to go there first and have yourself a good laugh – it’s one of my favorite blogs and always makes me smile. Here’s my result:

( http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2008/05/cake-that-started-it-all.html )

You’re an oldie, but a goodie. You can take things a wee bit too literally, sometimes.

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Have you ever wanted to make your own movie? With the text-to-movie app at xtranormal.com you can make your own little cartoon movies in minutes. Here’s an example of the fun that can be had with this fun website:

You write the script, cast the actors and add in music, expressions and more. It’s so easy and rather addicting.

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Lastly, from VSL, a version of Little Red Riding Hood you’ve probably never seen before. VSL writes:

Tomas Nilsson is a design student at Sweden’s Linköping University, and his modern take on the Little Red Riding Hood story started out as a class project. We’re giving it top marks.

Inspired by an equally brilliant video by the Norwegian duo Röyksopp, Nilsson turned the old fairy tale into a story about 21st-century information flow: He breaks the Hundred Acre Wood down by Wildlife Density (12 moose, 9 deer, 3 wolves, 25 hares). He gives Granny a nutritional-facts label (she’s high in trans fat, low in calcium). And when the hunter arrives and fires his rifle, we’re treated to a CSI-like internal view of the wolf’s brain as the bullet enters. The end.

Here’s the video:

If you have any tips or suggestions for a weekend diversion you can email me at mommablogsalot (at) gmail (dot) com.

This weekend’s diversions are all about things that aren’t exactly what the seem, because they are actually better. Last things first, Jen posted this awesome video on her blog and I just had to share it here. Watch as Portia De Rossi apologizes for marrying Ellen…

So next I thought we’d have some fun with math, or rather the New Math. Basically it’s like the best kind of math ever because it’s funny AND you’ll understand it. Don’t believe me? Check out some of these equations and tell me if it doesn’t all add up to you…

Alright. I saved the best for last – this diversion comes courtesy of Jean and has been probably the best part of my entire week – and my husband’s week, too, because after I got sufficiently addicted, I got him hooked, too. It’s called Broken Picture Telephone and it’s awesome. I’m guessing you guys have played that Telephone game in school or something where someone says something to someone else, etc. etc. and by the time you get to the end the message is completely changed? Yeah this is like that except with pictures and it’s hysterical. I’ll show you a quick example and then you have to go try it for yourself, kay?

I kind of feel like pulling up the covers and hiding today – but I get the impression that my absence would be noticed, so instead I’m going to share with you some of my current favorite distractions – sure to brighten up your weekend or at least provide you with new things to attempt to call “work” when your kid asks what you’re doing – will they be fooled? Or will they beg to “work” with you?

Have you heard of Likaholix? It’s basically a website devoted to stuff you like – search for products, places, blogs & websites – and tell people why you like them – it can connect to Facebook for easy connection to all your other diversions (and friends). The more people you connect to on Likaholix the funner it is. Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself. (Let me know if that invite link doesn’t work for you – and I’ll see what I can do ::winks::)

Speaking of nothing related to that, can you KenKen? Do you know what a KenKen is? Apparently it’s the new big in math puzzles, similar to Sudoku but like on crack. Jen @ Stuff Jen Says wrote a post about it recently and I’m all sorts of intrigued and petrified by this new craze.

According to Wikipedia, KenKen “is a style of arithmetic and logical puzzle sharing several characteristics with sudoku. The name comes from Japanese and is translated as “the square of wisdom” or “cleverness squared.”

“The objective is to fill the grid in with the digits 1 through 6 such that:

• Each row contains exactly one of each digit
• Each column contains exactly one of each digit
• Each bold-outlined group of cells is a cage containing digits which achieve the specified result using the specified mathematical operation: addition (+), subtraction (-), multiplication (×), and division (÷). (Unlike in Killer Sudoku, digits may repeat within a group.)”

Think you can KenKen? Try it out online here, here or here.

Okay, last diversion, and I promise this one doesn’t involve nearly as much thinking – no, this diversion focuses more on destruction – mayhem – breaking things – but without the messy clean up. Go to NetDisaster, type in the web address of your favorite website, choose your poison and then watch the magic happen. It’s severely addicting and easy. I spent far too much time than was probably necessary flooding my blog & making protesters picket up and down it (but not at the same time, which could have been awesome… hmmm….)

That’s all for this week – have a great, diverted weekend guys!

In honor of my 1 Year Blogiversary, this week’s Weekend Diversions will all be somewhat blogging themed. They aren’t quite as divertive as usual, but they are cool. And it’s my party, I  can do what I want to.

First order of business is to avoid being productive and see which celebrities are on Twitter now. Some of my favorite celebs to follow are @danecook, @MarthaStewart, @johncmayer, @TheEllenShow and @jimmyfallon. But Blissfully Domestic just did a post listing even more great celebs now on Twitter like: @aplusk (Ashton Kutcher), @MrsKutcher (Demi Moore), @BritneySpears, @MishaBarton, @TheRue (Rumer Willis), @LilyRoseAllen, @JaneFonda, @FranDrescher, @iamdiddy (P. Diddy), @BrodyJenner, @RyanSeacrest, @MCHammer, @ElijahWood, @Jamie_Oliver, @Michael_Phelps, @LukeWilson, @TinaFey, @JimmyKimmel and of course @PerezHilton. That should keep you happily diverted for awhile… When you’re done updating your following list (you are following @mommablogsalot, right?) we’ll continue. ::waits::

Wasn’t that fun? But now you’ve been sitting on your arse twittering for god knows how long, eating god knows how many delicious snacks (I’m drooling just imagining it, and I have a very good imagination when it comes to snacks). Time to burn some of those blogging calories with the ProBlogger’s 10 Ways To Get Fit While Blogging. I’ll give you a sampling to get you started, but then you’ll have to click that link for the rest:

“1. Cyber Squats – Who says you have to sit when you’re online? Set your chair aside for a few minutes and instead do squats as you write your next blog post, comment, or when you cruise around the Web. I’m squatting as I write this post – ouch!

2. RSS Raises – As you’re sitting at your desk, straighten your knees and lift your legs out in front of you. Do this as you catch up on your favorite blogs on your RSS reader.”

Alright now that you’re feeling toned and fabulous and probably thinking about jumping on Twitter to see if @johncmayer has updated recently, let me entice you with… money. Yeah it’s a low blow I know, but seriously the ProBlogger is at it again with New Blogger Jobs Available. So now you can call all this bloggy diversion the most worthwhile activity you engage in, because when you aren’t being entertained or sharpening your writing skills, you’re getting in a stellar workout and making money, too! So be sure you check out that article, too before moving on to my last diversion which sounds suspiciously like work except with a huge payoff…

Another gem from Blissfully Domestic this week: Free College Tuition (if they’re willing to work for it). How cool is this? Apparently the new campus trend is offering students free tuition and/or room and board in exchange for their manual labor. Sound too good to be true? I was actually very impressed with the deals they were offering – things like working 10, 20 hours a week will get your kids free tuition in some of these schools and one college of engineering is simply offering free tuition to it’s students. Seriously. I know you’re checking that article out right now for links to your kid’s future college dreams. Your welcome.

That’s actually all for this week – sorry no funny videos (try YouTube) or games (okay there is this one) but I’m suspecting this was worth your time anyway. Stay tuned for more blogiversary celebrations, coming to an RSS feeder near you…

Last week I showed you an adorable video of John Mayer and Elmo talking about nothing cute. Not long after Ange @ Red Knows How sent me a link to the following video with combines John Mayer with another one of my favorite people, Ellen Degeneres.

I’m officially a John Mayer funny video junkie so if you come across one you think I’ll like, please comment to let me know or send me an email at mommablogsalot (at) gmail (dot) com.

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Have you ever wanted to make your own font but had no idea how to go about it? Yourfonts.com is a free online font generator that lets you create your own fonts in minutes. You’ll print a sheet that you will fill in with your handwriting, then scan it in and within 15 minutes you’ll have your very own font that you can use on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. You can make as many fonts as you want!

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Speaking of free stuff, RedBox is offering a coupon code for a free movie every Wednesday in March. Just visit their blog, RedBlog on Wednesdays for the code. The blog itself is pretty cool, too, with articles about upcoming movies, DVD reviews, behind the scenes info and other  fun things for any movie fan. I added it to my RSS feed and have been having a lot of fun perusing their archives. Definitely a great read!

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Have you heard about the new Pepsi Natural (or maybe seen it in a store)? Sold in glass bottles for the slightly exorbitant price of $4.69 for a four pack of 12 oz. glass bottles, they do look very pretty and might intrigue people with the information that these versions of Pepsi contain no high fructose corn syrups and are sweetened with plain old sugar (42 grams of sugar I might add!). Still I’m not sure I’d spend that much for something that, at the end of the day, is still soda and still not great for you. How about you? Would you spend $12.50 per gallon (regular pepsi runs for $3.69 per gallon just to compare) for “natural” pepsi? For more great information about the new Pepsi Natural, check out keacher.com for a great review.

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That’s all for this weekend – don’t forget Sunday is Daylight Saving Time – time to Spring Forward! For more information on DST check out this neat article at Blissfully Domestic and also timeanddate.com for some easy information.