Where Balloons Go

Real First Post

So I figure I will start this off with a small linkspam.

• Twisp & Catsby In: The Land Of Upp – The source of this blog’s title. The Twisp & Catsby series started out as a sort of one-off joke about Kevin Smith’s claim that Jersey Girl wasn’t “for critics.” Twisp & Catsby, say Gabe and Tycho, are not for critics either. After their initial strip, it seemed like just a single time thing. But there have been a few more random strips since then, and I’ve (mostly) enjoyed all of them. It’s a different style than most of Penny Arcade, but I still find the little things in the Twisp & Catsby strips amusing. Which brings us to …
• Penny Arcade – A mostly gaming-centric webcomic written by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik. Started out as just a webcomic, but now includes a charity, five collected volumes, a randomly released podcast, a game, and a convention (Penny Arcade Expo or PAX). I am quite fond of PA even though I cannot claim to be any sort of dedicated gamer. You can still get entertainment and amusement out the strip without having played every single game that these guys have (because I can almost guarantee that you haven’t). If you end up liking the comic, I definitely recommend heading to the iTunes store and downloading a couple of the podcasts. They’re totally free and come with the bonus of being absolutely hilarious.
• xkcd – Probably my favorite webcomic (if I had to choose). Math, science, love, basically all the ~mysteries of life.~ Some of them are funny, some are kind of upsetting, and some (I ain’t gonna lie) I don’t get due to a lack of knowledge in advanced math/science. Still, it’s an overall accessible webcomic, and features everything from an engaging sense of humor to the occasional existential crises encountered by young adults.
• Kiva – Kiva is a micro-financing site begun by Matt Flannery. The site allows users to make micro-loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries. These loans allow budding businesspeople to found or expand their trade, feeding money into their economy. Loaners can choose the sort of business that they wish to loan to, ranging from the agriculture to the transportation sectors. Entrepreneurs can be individuals, families, or groups, and Kiva provides statistics on delinquency in repaying loans and time necessary for repayment. It’s a great way to make a difference with a small amount of money (which is definitely a concern for high school students like myself).
• BBC News – The site that I use for the majority of my world news. Less politically motivated than the major US sites. If you use Firefox, the Latest Headlines RSS feed is from BBC. A very useful site when it comes to staying updated without being mired in extreme bias.

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