i-Lights

The Duct Tape Guys and Other Wacky Websites

Each week, The Light Stuff presents one or two articles suggesting different uses for your i-Lighter account. Today, I'm tweaking that format to focus on hobbies and oddities.

Since i-Lighter's page and notebook features are for gathering and organizing material, I thought it might be fun to look at different websites with a gather and save format. The ones collected here walk a fine line between quirky and relevant. You be the judge.

Daily Costume - An ambitious collection of appealing photographs depicting oddly costumed people and objects. The website design allows thumbnail viewing and photo enlargement. The purpose of the site, other than to draw a large crowd, is not immediately obvious. Maybe the site will disclose its mission in the near future.

Two New Developments in the World of Technology

Regular readers of The Light Stuff know I am not a techie. I'm just a person who plays one on the Internet. So much for my online profile.

To some degree, I even eschew technology. In the pockets of my life where tech exists there used to be pockets of serenity. Blissfully long ignorant stretches of time when nobody needed to communicate with me, and if they did, it could wait. As technology enables formerly non-existent means of communication, I no longer have that luxury.

Don't get me wrong. There are many blessings associated with the ability to communicate with friends and family anywhere any time. I love social networks and all that they entail. I suppose what I don't like is technological intrusions. Cell phones are a perfect example. Email is another.

How did we ever survive without constant interconnectivity?

Top 10 Reasons Pregnant Man Needs I-Lighter

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Contrary to popular belief, 34-year old U.S. citizen Thomas Beatie a/k/a the Pregnant Man is not a hoax. Thomas, who is six months pregnant, is expecting a baby girl with his wife Nancy this July.

The happy couple from Bend, Oregon have been featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show and in People magazine. Countless news articles meticulously detail the reality of this medical anomaly. Although initially shocking, the story makes perfect sense.

Tremendous advances in medical science have changed the norms of society. Thomas, formerly Tracy, is transgender, meaning he began life as a girl and surgically altered his body to become a man, keeping his female reproductive organs for future prosperity. In that respect, although legally a man, his body is somewhat similar to a hirsute woman who has undergone a radical mastectomy.

Busy Professionals Can Make Money Online

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It's Tuesday Tech, a day I've set aside here at The Light Stuff to give a  lay person's perspective about cool tools or websites offering to make my day a little easier. I've spent a large part of the day delving for money making opportunities as well as material for this article. Thankfully, I have not emerged empty handed.

In fact, there are so many websites offering to pay for this and that, it's difficult to separate the wheat from the chafe. I'm not claiming myself an expert by any means, but I do have a bit of experience as an Internet entrepreneur. Never claimed it was good experience, just experience of some kind. This may not instill a lot of confidence but relieves my need for full disclosure.

Busy professionals need a website they can call their own. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. Just some kind of online presence for people to connect. There are plenty of social networking sites that provide a free place to park profiles. Some of my favorites include Yahoo!360, LiveJournal, Facebook, and Mashable.

Twitterlights Needs Your Vote to Crack the Top Ten

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Monday morning news and reviews for i-Lighter and Twitterlights once again brings a smile to weather-worn lips. I've been culling the web all week for links and tweets and for the first time since we launched this blog, I'm proud to report there's more buzz than I can handle.

A very good sign if translating into an up tick in user numbers.

Remember, The Light Stuff is here not only to inform and entertain, but also to build community and encourage feedback. People who haven't used i-Lighter and Twitterlights are really missing out. If you haven't yet downloaded and used i-Lighter version 2.1, I can only guess it's because you don't enjoy the ease of one-click posting to your blog, del.icio.us, or twitter, and/or haven't seen any Internet content you'd like to save and organize.