Carole's Bookmarks: Fun, Fascination, and the Urge to Give Back

If there were a "Internet Addicts Anonymous", I would really have to think long and hard deciding whether I would or would not join.

Having been online since the late 1980's I used a service called CompuServe, which was before AOL, Netscape, Yahoo and Google had been born, and the roadway to the internet was just opening.

Switching from CompuServe to AOL in 1993 opened up a whole new world to me. I quickly came across an area in Finance called the Motley Fool, which at the time existed only on AOL. It was a small community of people learning how to invest, along with a number of already savvy stock brokers , and more than likely some unsavory characters who trolled around the message boards and chat rooms hyping their penny stocks.

Two brothers, Tom and David Gardner, founded the site and showed up nightly to run the chat rooms, which numbered two if there was an overflow from chat room number one.

If you had followed their online portfolio when it began you would have quadrupled your money so many times you might have trouble counting it. I got to know Tom and David from the nightly chats. When their first book was released and people were lined up to meet them I simply put my hand out to Tom and said, "Hi", and used my sign on to identify myself. Tom immediately recognized me from my sign on, and after their publicist recognized me too, he made a formal introduction, using my name. We remained friends though the years.

Today of course, there can be no chat rooms where you pop in and talk to Tom and Dave, the Fool has expanded many times and become an internet site open to all with millions of online visitors taking from it whatever their needs may be.

I might add that my husband to be at the time gave me a certain amount of money to invest for him and by the end of year one I had outperformed all his professional money managers. (Of course to be honest, I had no restrictions on my investments, and I was heavily weighted in internet technology stocks.)

So that's my beginning online.

Since then I created a website called "Tonos.com" I partnered with two great producer/songwriters, David Foster and Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds. Together we recruited the most talented producers in every genre of music. We put our music online and let people write to our melodies and lyrics. We ran contests as we looked for artists and writers. Our mission was to level the playing field in the music business and to give everyone who had talent and access to a computer the same chance to be directed to the best producers, publishers and labels in the music industry.

Bottom line, we folded our doors because we were dealing with mostly young musicians who by their second month of membership were tapped out. We tried. We were there two years before American Idol. We were just too early.

Through the years I found and continue to find so many wonderful sites online which often lead me to others and still others, (thus the term; surfing the web) Whatever my interests -- which often change with my needs and moods -- I discovered a site that fit. I found games to play, in ways that were mindless and for me almost meditative because they allowed me to zone out. I found word games that kept me on my toes and card games that challenged my memory.

I also found so many extraordinary travel opportunities. The moment I know which country my husband and I might be visiting, I hop online, go through a number of my travel sites, and invariably I discover the best hotels before the travel agent suggests them. I've even found a few hotels they hadn't yet heard of, one or two became our favorites.

Recipes, shopping sites, film reviews, music on iTunes, online rhyming dictionaries for when I am actually working writing songs, art sites, auction sites, gourmet sites, chocolate sites, vegan sites, education sites, and finance. You can find charitable sites that interact with you allowing you to give money online, choosing causes that mean the most to you. Political sites and blogs, entertainment sites, pet sites, finding the rarest of dogs, seeing the available puppy and it's family from breeders you trust, Amazon, EBay, for buying and selling on, YouTube, MySpace, IMDB, kid friendly sites, beauty sites, sites to play Poker on, health Sites, online pharmacies, photography sites, phones and camera sites, green sites, spiritual sites, and automobile sites. I am exhausting myself just thinking about how many places I have visited and liked enough to bookmark.

I want you to benefit from my addiction, which I just decided not to give up.

Here are two sites you might enjoy visiting. One for fun and fascination and one for when you have the urge to giveback.

From Musematic.com, I recommend, Jackson Pollock by Miltos Manetas.

I'm dying of curiosity about what the Intellectual Property implications of this site may be. But in the meantime I'm having an awful lot of fun creating my own drip paintings. Great site for creative pursuit when you're put on hold on the phone.

A site for Giving Back: Donors Choose.org

I love this site so much that my husband, Bob Daly, and I opened the Los Angeles Branch of Donor's choose 2 years ago. At the time it was in only five or six cities. Today it is now in every major city in America. Personally I love the idea of funding a project for a classroom and teacher in need and becoming an instant philanthropist at any level of giving you choose.

Here is how Donorschoose.org describes itself.

DonorsChoose.org is a simple way to provide students in need with resources that our public schools often lack. At this not-for-profit website, teachers submit project proposals for materials or experiences their students need to learn. These ideas become classroom reality when concerned individuals, whom we call Citizen Philanthropists, choose projects to fund. Proposals range from "Magical Math Centers" ($200) to "Big Book Bonanza" ($320), to "Cooking Across the Curriculum" ($1,100). Any individual can search such proposals by areas of interest, learn about classroom needs, and choose to fund the project(s) they find most compelling. In completing a project, donors receive a feedback package of student photos and thank-you notes, and a teacher impact letter.

If you check out these sites, let me know what you think. OR send me your own favorites. You can use the Huffington Post comments function below.

So, in internet speak, ttyl. (talk to you later).

xoxoxoxoxcarole

Comments

[shael]

Great post Carole, but I wish you would spend less time surfing and more time creating some music. If you wont release another album, how about creating a website where fans can download some of your unreleased stuff, whether it be old or new. Id love to hear 'One Misunderstanding," and the song you wrote with Burt and Carly, "Walk Away."

[Roman777]

Hey Carole, can I get my TONOS money back? I renewed and then you shut down the website. No refunds?
What happened to my money?

[arethabaez]

I've loved your work from Groovy Kind of Love on, Thanks !

[QueenCeleste]

A lovely post. The Jackson Pollock site is great fun! The internet is truly a miracle. Often after watching films on TCM I'll Goodle actors from Hollywood's Golden Age. That era fascinates me and finding tidbits on Jean Arthur, Jimmy Stewart, Claudette Colbert and dozens of others is my cup of tea. I also look up medical info, song lyrics (almost daily!), travel destinations and hotels (as you mentioned), and so much more. Ebay is an occasional addiction, especially for vintage jewelry.

I am involved in animal welfare issues. Through various humane organizations I can send letters to my representatives on bills affecting pets, wildlife, lab animals, etc. It is now so easy to get involved in areas one feels passionately about. The Animal Rescue and Rainforest Sites allow you to click each day, resulting in donations of dog and cat food and the saving of small portions of the rainforest. Amazing!

(Along those lines, Carole, I hope you will consider adopting dogs from shelters. You mentioned looking for rare dogs, but there are thousands of dear, adorable dogs languishing in pounds and shelters in desperate need of good homes. Sorry, couldn't resist slipping that in!)

By the way, years ago I thought I saw you in a ladies loo at Scripps Clinic. If that indeed was you, you are even more gorgeous in person! I look forward to future posts.

[jtothez]

I, too, am a huge fan of donors choose. It's a great organization, and it's a great feeling when you get that package of thank-yous from the kids whose classroom and learning experiences that you helped fund.

A similar website/non-profit organization that I also really like is Kiva http://kiva.orgg). It's an organization that lets individual donors participate in microfinancing entrepreneurs from around the globe. To quote them: “Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. By choosing a business on Kiva.org, you can “sponsor a business” and help the world’s working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the loan you receive email journal updates from the business you’ve sponsored.­”

I've used Kiva and it is an excellent experience. Connecting with your lendees is amazing - perhaps someone will combine Kiva and Donors Choose and let a class lend money and communicate with the fundess?

I also love sites like Truthout http://truthout.orgg), an independent news that focuses on just the facts, and the Common Language Project http://commonlanguageproject.comm). Their slogan is “Positive Reporting Across Borders” and their mission “is to develop and implement innovative multimedia approaches to international and local journalism­.” They seek out the often-marginalized people directly affected by the issues they cover, avoiding the bureaucracy and government spin machines.

Again, this is a project that would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible, without the web - “The digital age has created new opportunities to connect people around the globe. The CLP believes that this has opened up exciting possibilities for independent media, especially in the realm of international reporting.­” They post all their extraordinary articles, photos, and podcasts on the site I linked above.

Of course, you can't overlook things like the Knight News Challenge, a contest that exists to provide funding to localized projects similiar the previously mentioned news site http://newschallenge.orgg).

Thanks to everyone for sharing their favorites!

[TheIndependenceParty]

In 1985 I traveled for a living, ... and like you, connected to CompuServe. Each iteration of improvement to the internet, let alone the WWW, has been a true epiphany. The access to information and knowledge, and opinions are quantum changes for the human race, each in their own way.

No more checking in to the hotel, ... unscrewing the phone jack, and attaching alligator clips to the contacts in the wall. There were very few to whom anyone could "write", and e-mail was not yet part of that, ... but there was contact and the intention to share information, ... and thoughts, and even crude works of digital art, and files to be read and appreciated.

Before the eyes glaze over, I grow a fan of every new improvement. I grieve for libraries, but long for books, ... the touch, the smell of old paper, All still there of course, but suffice it to say this is a period of change. Not Guttenburg, ... but close.

Few will ever see a Pollock firsthand, or visit the Barnes Foundation in person. The works of the artists and authors of the world that are inacessible by geography must not remain inaccessible by that simple limitation.

How that will be accomplished to the betterment of Humankind in times like these remains to be seen. From an educational perspective, there is no more important prerogative to follow than this.

Every child on the Earth is the heir to every thought and every deed. For the first time in Human History we have the opportunity to deliver to them their rightful inheritance!

[mtonello]

DonorsChoice is fantastic! A while back I made a donation through there website for a classroom that needed funding for chairs to create a reading circle. Several months later I received approximately twenty letters, each handwritten by the students in the class, thanking me for providing them with 20 bean-bag chairs. It's a win-win situation. Thank-you Carole for bringing this to wonderful charity to everyones attention.

[alipes]

ms. bayer sager, i'm a substitute teacher. i've chosen to be a substitute teacher as it affords time to pursue writing endeavors: i substitute a few days, write a few days, etc. as you know, substitute teachers are ineligible to participate in the DonorsChoose program, but i think i have a good idea that would go far in educating about civics and the u.s. constitution. i'm going to send an e-mail to your contact. the header will be Civics/U.S­. Constitution. i hope you have a moment to review it. thanks--and thanks for the pollock site, that's neat.

[aMollyMaguire]

What a wonderful description of the joys of surfing the web! I too am a long-time user/addict? of the internet, from CompuServe to Yahoo and Google! There is truly a Before Net and After Net in my life. I even met my true love online, in a chat room for fans of Jim Rome's radio show. I went there looking for people to carpool to Dodger games with, and we've been together 8 years now. Thanks for the Jackson Pollack site, and here's one I've had fun with that is similar - those red, blue, yellow, black & white boxes of Piet Mondrian on Stephen Linhart's wonderful site, http://www.stephen.com/mondrimat/.

[anastasiabeaverhousen]

One of my all-time favorites:

http://wheelchairfoundation.org/

A great organization that does wonderful things for crippled children worldwide for a suprisingly small donation.

You get a picture and thank you letter from the child you helped. It really is chicken soup for the soul.

[Imzadi]

Wow - I thought that was Joan Collins.

[FeelinGroovy]

Thank you for http://www.jacksonpollock.org/
it's wonderful!

:)

[Stephen]

Thanks Carole for a an "upper." Eases the guilt of too much surfing, just a little. (After all I feel just a little bit guilty to begin with.) I have loved your music for its humanity and see that it is all of a piece with who you are.