How do you do, fellow kids? I am here today on New Years Eve to tell you about two of my absolute favorite websites on the world-wide-webs. They are similar in spirit, but represent two distinct media.
The first is Radio Garden, a website that lets you listen to radio stations from all around the world. Click the link to listen to a rad lo-fi station from New Calédonia!
The second is Free InterTV, a similar site, but for TV channels instead of radio stations.
These sites are must-bookmarks for every pirate, hacker, nerd, or indie-web guru; I must admit that the first is more "corporate" than the second, but it is solid still.
While browsing Radio Garden last night, I felt a profound sense of sonder. While spinning around the very detailed globe, I thought about how these tiny little dots which barely even appear on a map are actually real places infested with -- er, I mean, inhabited by, people whose lives are just as real as mine. Some of them have likely even been confined to these regions their entire lives; I myself rarely leave my 1-square-mile town.
I dunno, ma'amn. I just found it kind of melancholic, but still very beautiful that I could listen to the same tracks the locals hear as they drive down the streets in their cars. It's like we are together in this one moment, each unaware of the other's existence.
By the way, that's the new thing - "ma'amn." It is more inclusive than Oregon's other favorite gender neutral nouns (man, dude, "you guys.")
Vivaldi Supremacy
The Vivaldi web browser is my favorite browser, for a litany of reasons. I won't list them all (or at all) here, but I want to say, for those who appreciate the breadth of Google, but do not like the slop it's polluted with these days, you can add a custom search bar to your browser including the terms
" -site:pinterest.com -site:quora.com -site:medium.com -site:linkedin.com -site:facebook.com -site:instagram.com -site:tiktok.com -site:youtube.com -site:reddit.com"along with whatever other sites you'd like to block out, and your experience will improve a thousandfold as you relive the days of stumbling upon obscure gems of the clearweb.
If you want more web-searching tips, read the essays at Fravia's site, and check out Google's advanced search commands. If we're being honest, you probably already know about Marginalia since you're reading this on Neocities, but I find Google to still be superior (though I have soft spot for Marginalia as well.)