We will be finishing our historical studies next week, but here are a couple of tidbits you might enjoy.

Here is a great online Bible Study website. If you don’t have Bible software on your computer, this is the next best thing.

http://biblepro.bibleocean.com/dox/default.aspx?WELCOME=true

Here is an interesting historical piece on Roman gladiators. Think they looked like they do in the movies? Think again. They were fat vegetarians.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/ancient/AncientRepublish_1081439.htm

I thought we would take a little break from the heavy stuff this week. PC world just released its list of the 100 best undiscovered websites. Here are a few. I’ll post more later.

http://www.whfoods.com/

A web site all about healthy eating. It contains, recipes, lists of the most healthy foods, and all kinds of advice on how to eat well and feel great.

http://www.dafont.com/

Looking for the perfect font for one of your projects? Dafont.com has thousands of free fonts. Just click and download.

http://www.websitegrader.com/

Run your own website? Websitegrader.com will help you see how you are doing. Just punch in your address, and you will find cool stats about your site. For instance, Thorncrown.com is the 1,855,244^th most visited site on the internet. Considering there are more than 108 million websites on the web, that ain’t too bad.

http://www.official-linerider.com/

OK, this is silly. You draw a sledding course, then a little guy sleds down it. Oddly entertaining.

http://www.bargainist.com/

If you can’t resist a bargain, you better not go to this site. These folks scour the web daily for the best deals from major retailers.

Someone directed me to a website where you can figure out how much of a nerd you are. I scored a 72 which makes me a mid-level nerd. If anybody is a bigger nerd than me, I want to know.

Recently, I came across an internet homepage that might be the best out there. It is called pageflakes.com. Pageflakes has all the components a good start page should have like news and  weather. It adds versatility, tools, and fun stuff that go way beyond sites such as MSN, Yahoo, and Google.

Once you have your page set up for your local zip code, you can add things like to-do lists, sticky pads, and your own personal calendar. You can even check web based email. It also has fun stuff like comics and a daily game of Sudoku.

What I like best about Pageflakes is its ability to add custom RSS feeds. Most Internet start pages allow you to subscribe to feeds, but you only get to pick from feeds of their choosing. Pageflakes allows you to see feeds from you favorite blogs (hint, hint), forums, and websites. All you have to do is click the "add feed" button on your homepage and paste the link to your feed. The feed will become part of your start page. For example, now, I can see all the wonderful comments you all make on the Thorncrown Journal right on my homepage.

PC World recently chose Pageflakes as the best personal web page. After getting my own pageflake, I can see why. 

If you are a bad speller like me, this little freebie is a must have. The folks at ieSpell have come up with a plug-in for Internet Explorer that serves as a spell checker. In the past, if you wanted to check your spelling, you had to write your forum posts and article comments in your word processor, make the spell check, and then cut and paste to your forum or comment editor. Well, no more. With ieSpell you can simply right click on any input form and a spell check option will come up. And the best thing about ISpell is that it is FREE. Check it out at:

iespell.com