Bryan and Christine have a new computer, a cable connection and no idea where to go online! So I sat and thought - which sites would I recommend for someone ready to explore the World Wide Web? Take a look at the first wave of my bookmark picks:

SPECIFICALLY FOR BRYAN & CHRISTINE:
Hong Kong International School
http://www.hkis.edu.hk/default.htm
Hey B, remember this? For everyone else, this is where the Gillet Clan went to school for almost 4 years. Here's their description, "Graciously situated with water and mountain vistas in a world-class Asian city, Hong Kong International School offers a quality American-style education in a Christian context. The school thrives on its culturally diverse, international community while teaching respect for all religious beliefs."

Freehold Township Home Page
http://www.twp.freehold.nj.us/
Get some general town and event info. Town home pages are generally boring and useless, but by the year 2050, we'll all be able to pay parking tickets online, buy tickets for town events, view recycling schedules, view maps of the town, participate in town forums, and even watch webcasts of town meetings. Oh and have flying cars.

Classmates.com Manalapan High School Forum
http://www.classmates.com
This is a school reunion site that allows you to keep in touch with high school friends. They'll try to wring some money out of you for a premium membership, but I don't think it's worth it. Just stick to the free forums and get a peek at what everyone is up to. Did you know that a friend of mine from high school is a mayor now? How could anyone possibly top that... :)

FUN & GAMES:
Queendom.com
http://www.queendom.com/tests/index.html
I love online surveys and quizzes. They have everything from classic IQ tests to romantic space profiles and concentration tests. Everything is free and everything is fun!

READING:
Salon
http://www.salon.com
Salon has a lot of great features and editorials. They have a news wire that's updated often as well. Keep an eye out for the stories with gold stars next to them - those are stories for premium members that can only be accessed with membership. Read the free items for a while first to see if Salon is worth paying $30.00 a year for. If not, there's enough free content to keep you coming back a few times a week.

Slashdot
http://slashdot.org/
The tagline is "news for nerds", but Slashdot covers so many interesting topics like media, science, and current news that it's really accessible to anyone. If you register for free, you can participate in the discussion after each post and possibly someday have a turn at being a moderator!

JOB SEARCH:
Monster
http://www.monster.com
I found my current position at Monster as did Dave. Arguably the best site online for job searching. Simple to use, lots of responses when you enter your resume and not a lot of garbage emails from them. (Like Techalert.com who I can't get to stop sending me job alerts no matter how many times I unsubscribe). Start with the "Search Jobs link" and get an idea of what's out there for you. Try slightly different keywords in your searches to uncover employment treasures!

SHOPPING:
Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/
They don't call it Earth's Biggest Selection for nothing! Amazon can be a little intimidating at first, but it's fantastic when you have a specific item in mind. Start with a wish list - you'll see the link for it in the upper right corner of their main page. This is a list of items that your friends (and sisters!) can look through when they're trying to get you a gift. People can order items straight off the list and have them delivered right to you. They give you a list of iems to start with, but you can also use the site search box to look for books, CDs, movies and computer games that you'd like to add too. After you've made a wish list, use their notification feature to let your friends (and sisters!)
know where they can find the list.

eBay
http://www.ebay.com
You can get lost for hours browsing the racks at eBay - it's a garage sale for the planet. If I had to estimate, I would say that 25% of the items are pure garbage, 40% are nice, but either too much money, useless to you, or easier to get offline, 25% are "hey that's a good deal" and 10% of the items are "Oh my god, I can't believe I found that!" the trick is learning how to weed out the first two categories before you even look at the auction. The best way to get to know eBay is to do random searches for things you like. So try a few test searches from the front page, like "Jackie Chan movie" (30 items), "cotton quilt fabric" (173 items), etc. Poke around for a while before trying an auction.

BUILDING YOUR OWN SITE:
Yahoo! GeoCities
http://geocities.yahoo.com/home
Not as homey and personal as it once was, GeoCities is still free for those who want to try their hand at a home page. It's a good place to get your feet wet with HTML and the workings of the Web.

That's plenty to get you started. I'll have more bookmarks for you in the future - don't worry, I have hundreds in my list. We'll go to all corners of the Web by the time we're done. Have fun!