Outside of a Dog, #65

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." - Groucho Marx.

It’s always a treat to discover a new and useful website. The internet offers so much and so many, it is often easier just to rely on old standbys, but you’d be missing some real gems. Here are a few that you might just want to consider bookmarking the next time you're surfing.

Discover America
As the “official” travel and tourism website of the United States, I honestly can’t think of any place, topic, or travel information it doesn’t offer, including allowing you to search by destination, state, attraction, and find other travel organizations and links. A definite first stop when planning any journey that takes you farther than your own backyard.

Book Club Girl
Not strictly for girls, this is a great site to browse for a variety of reading suggestions, even if you’re not in a book club. Including author information, links to book clubs, book blogs, and author websites, you’ll never again wonder what to read next.

USA.gov
The tag is “government made easy” and it does do a pretty decent job of leading you through whatever government agency, department, or question you might need to research. Everything from financial aid, passport information, addresses of elected officials, currency exchange rates, zip code lookup, and much much more is offered. It also has links to state and local governments.

Ravelry
Ravelry is a knit and crochet community that is rivaled by no other. You do have to register, but don’t worry - it's free! Afterwards you can check out an endless list of free patterns, projects, and needlecraft links. But beware - you might find yourself so addicted to this site that you’ll have less time to actually pick up that crochet hook or knitting needle.

What They Play
If you're a parent of a tech-savvy kid today, you'll notice that video games are one of the biggest "I want that!" items on wish lists. What They Play gives you parent reviews and screenshots (photos of in-game activity) and sometimes videos of the most popular games, so you know what your kids are asking for.

Spread the Sign
The sign language dictionary of the world is live and is it ever a great resource! You can type in any word, number, or even a full sentence, and this search site will help you learn how to sign it - in ASL (American Sign Language), and sign language in Czech, German, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish!

Flag Identifier
This is the place to go when you see a flag and you don't know what country it symbolizes. Flag Identifier lets you search by the style of flag, what colors it is, or just what symbols were on it. It includes world flags, state flags, and more.