Kent

I love neologisms, and I saw from my feeds yesterday that there is a new one making the rounds: wilfing (from "What was I Looking For?"). As this has become both a pastime and age-related hazard, I've decided to take some time to help people better wilf.

Exercise 1: Wikipedia

Wikis are an excellent way to wilf, and Wikipedia best of all. Pick a page, any page. Note the time. Now, find an interesting link on that page and follow it (no external links, please). Repeat for 10 pages. How long did that take you? You could easily do another round before lunch, go ahead. No one will care. For myself, I decided to start at today's Featured Article (Anton Chekhov). After following The Seagull, subtext (w00!), Morlocks, H.P. Lovecraft, Red Hook, IKEA, dyslexia, chromosome, tobacco, we come to snus. However, no information is available on if Anton Chekhov himself used snus, so we must leave that to the historians. (20 minutes)

As an alternate to the link counting, try the speed round. See how long it takes to go from one topic to something completely unrelated, perhaps Hyacinth (the flower) to Martin Luther King, Jr. (6 links)

Exercise 2: Blogs

This exercise is slightly more difficult. However, many blogs are insestuous and constantly interlink (I'm looking at you three), and many blogs on the same topic tend to flow nicely. Try the same two exercises above with blogs. Perhaps start with Jeff's recent post on software licenses (as that's what I still had open from grabbing the links for the above). See if you can get to ... oh, I don't know, maybe the "Faces of the Fallen" project at the Washington Post. (that's a Coding Horror to a true horror, no political statement implied.)

Exercise 3: Product reviews

In this exercise, you'll need to decide on a product you'd like to buy. Then start browsing the reviews on ePinions, Amazon and elsewhere to decide what you should buy. That should kill a good day or two.

Happy Wilfing!
The author is not responsible for any marital strife, firing or other conflict due to you wasting your time on the Internet. Really, go outside, it's nice out there (well today, and here anyway).