DUDE®'S COOL STUFF PAGESo, you're obviously a curious sort of person, coming in here with relatively no clue as to what is contained here. Well, as I've stated, this is essentially "stuff" that I want to share with you. Yes, that's right, YOU. Below you'll find info on the New York Yankees, the 1996 World Champions. In addition, check out my list of links to cool sites (primarily FREE) where you can spend hours of time online, investigating the best of the web from my point of view. I hope you enjoy the sights you are about to experience. Take care...and don't forget to write!
What's Here?
- Baseball: Including the New York Yankees!
- Horror Fiction: Your guide to the dead on the Web
- Multimedia: Sorry. This section removed due to space.
- Games: All work and no play makes DUDE® a dull boy!
- Quantum Leap: One of the best shows ever on TV
- Assorted Stuff!: Including Corporations vs. Individuals
Baseball
I'm a big fan of the New York Yankees, having grown up watching the Bronx Bombers. I remember their '78 World Series like it was yesterday. In 1996, as I predicted, the Yankees did it again! And now in May 1998, we're off to a great start with the team that's been called the best in baseball! To show your support, be sure to visit the official Yankees Website. Devoted to the best team in baseball, the site offers an online schedule of Yankee games, chat with other fans in the Java chat area, an online catalog of official Yankee merchandise, and movie clips of past and present Yankee glory. Highly recommended! I've been waiting for this for at least two years. (And my girlfriend has been dreading it!) Although I'm currently stuck in Alabama, now I can listen to every single Yankee game over the Internet! And you can too! Choose eitherAudio Active or Audio Lounge for live radio coverage of the games from WABC radio. You'll need the free Microsoft program, NetMeeting, to listen in. (Both of the sites listed above provide links to download NetMeeting.) If you'll be listening using a 28.8 modem, you should expect some pauses and delays, but it's not bad at all. If you have a faster connection, it's just like sitting out on a stoop with a transistor radio. Couldn't be cooler! 
For decades of Yankee lore and information, be sure to drop by Total Yankees Online, an invaluable site for the true Yankee fan. Containing a wealth of info on past Yankee greats, this site is billed as "The Online Encyclopedia of the New York Yankees." Featured sections include Players, History, Records, and a place to create your own Dream Team! Highly recommended! An invaluable resource for baseball, check out MLB@Bat, the official site of Major League Baseball. Here you can get all the latest updates from the world of baseball from Spring Training to the World Series. Also, visit Virtual Ballparks using QuickTime VR, order official MLB home videos, and, in general, immerse yourself in America's pasttime! Highly recommended! You say you can't make it to your home team's game and no local station carries the game? One alternative is web simulcasts! These two sites offer play-by-play coverage of the games:
- ESPN's GameCast: For the true baseball fan who thinks little animated players are kind of unnecessary, ESPN Sportzone offers its detailed view. This is the best way to watch baseball on the Web, with inning and game summaries, box scores, and more! There's even a photo of the current pitcher and batter. However, links to games are only available while the games are in progress; in other words, you can't "watch" a game that's over. Other than that, GameCast is excellent!
- SportsLine's Shockwave Baseball: Macromedia's Shockwave is a necessary plug-in to see the animated action; the other option is simply regular static updates. This service allows you several options, including downloading an entire game to your hard drive with or without sounds. Compared to Instant Sports and ESPN GameCast, this site has more of a primitive cartoon look to its players. Pretty cool though!
For constant updates on current games, check the ESPNET baseball scoreboard and standings to see how well your favorite team is doing (even if it's not the Yankees...). In my humble opinion, ESPN should make their entire site free. The premium option is ridiculous... Although I can't help but feel this way, I can't resist providing a link to the entire ESPNET SportsZone MLB page. They do have some excellent coverage. Check it out!Horror Fiction
I have an affinity for things that go bump in the night. If I were to remake the movie "Old Yeller," that dog would come back as a decomposing zombie right out of Stephen King's Pet Sematary. Sure, I like other genres and I even read "classic" literature, but my tastes reside in the world of horror fiction. One of my favorite horror authors is, of course, Stephen King. To collect the complete collection of Stephen King's books stop by the Stephen King Library online, a Book-of-the-Month Club site. For just $7.95 plus S&H you can start off your subscription. Future books are only $14.95 plus S&H (roughly $18 total). Hey, it's how DUDE® got most of the older SK books in hardcover so I highly recommend the SK Library! It's the ultimate way to immerse yourself in the world of Stephen King: the Duke Nukem 3D Total Conversion, Redrum: The Shining II. Wait! Keep reading! It's not as silly as you might think! The entire Overlook Hotel has been recreated in painstaking detail, including the ballroom which plays "Midnight, the Stars and You" in eerie accompaniment to your nocturnal escapades. This is not a traditional shoot-'em-up level for Duke; rather, you'll have to conserve your health and ammo because you're being stalked by ghostly incarnations of Jack Torrance complete with bloody axe. In your quest to rid the Overlook of its apparitions you'll encounter various scenes and audio clips from the Stanley Kubrick film. This is truly frightening stuff, so much so that I literally had goosebumps while playing. Don't believe me? Check out a Redrum Review and then GET IT! (BTW, you'll need the full registered version of Duke to play.) The best fan-created SK page I've found on the Web has to be Elliot Koeppel's Stephen King Page. There's a chronological listing of King’s published works with cover images and a brief synopsis of each story, a list of King's uncollected works, and even a special page dedicated to one of King's most intriguing villains, Randall Flagg. It's obvious that a lot of time and effort has been put into this page. If you're a King fan, you can literally spend hours sifting through all the cool stuff. Another cool SK fan page that I discovered is Ed Nomura's Stephen King site. Although the layout of the pages isn't the best, if you hunt around you'll find a lot of info on the horror master. Among the best material: a Dark Tower IV Riddle Page where you can answer seemingly countless riddles about the series, a Bloops 'n' Blunders Page with many embarrassing mistakes in King's works, and a breakdown of the (mostly awful) movie adaptations of King's novels and stories. Billed as the successor to Stephen King, Clive Barker is a decidedly different voice in horror. Visit Lost Souls, the official Clive Barker Website and get into his twisted mind. In addition to his popular movies, including Hellraiser and Night Breed, Barker has written unique horror that has met with outstanding praise from critics. At his site you can sample a story by him and view some of his bizarre artwork. In addition, you'll find original fan fiction (some of which is quite good) and monthly interviews with Barker. According to this page's author, Matt Schwartz, the HorrorNet Homepage is the "most up-to-date site dealing with horror fiction." From what I can tell, he's absolutely right. This excellent site has everything! I've been searching for a hardcover edition of Dean Koontz's Watchers for years--literally. If all goes well, I'll have it soon, ordered from this site! Too cool! Also here is a section of original fiction by noted horror authors. Read "Tower Man" by T.M. Wright and "The Wicked" by Douglas Clegg online! They also have a looong list of online fiction, including novel excerpts and poetry with a horror theme. I could go on and on, singing the praises of this professional site, but why don't you just stop by yourself? You'll be impressed! All aspiring horror writers and fans should visit the Horror in Literature pages at The Cabinet of Dr. Casey, a well-done horror site. Search a database of horror authors and their works, follow links to an extensive amount of online horror fiction, and more. They also have a list of published authors who have consented to have their email addresses listed (no Stephen King...) so you can email them with questions and compliments. Be sure to check out the rest of the site from the homepage for more horror-themed material, including horror in art, movies, games, etc.Games
Okay, I'll admit it: I spend quite a bit of time playing games, including (at the moment) The Curse of Monkey Island and the greatest game ever, Duke Nukem 3D. Of course, with all this gaming, even DUDE® has to be concerned about where his gaming dollars go. What to do? For honest reviews from a real, down-to-earth gamer (as opposed to magazine reviewers who eat-sleep-and-breathe games)? Head on over to Lynn's Game Pages for reviews of a large number of popular games. It's obvious that Lynn devotes quite a bit of time to gaming (adventure games in particular) and her reviews are excellent. Before you invest your bucks, check her site out. Like Tetris? Want something just as original to satisfy your need for puzzle games? Try Bubble Puzzle 97, an excellent FREE game from CONMEG software. Shoot bubbles with a wide variety of expressions with your launcher in an attempt to pop bubbles of like colors. The first levels are easy, but later levels require quite a bit of thought to complete. DUDE® says GET IT! Well, I'm a happy puppy! I downloaded a number of shareware hits at HappyPuppy, an amusing and very well done site. Make sure to check out the hints and reviews sections as well the other specific pages within this great site. There is a ton of game info here! Be a happy puppy too! Highly recommended! Simply put, the best computer gaming magazine is PC Gamer. Their website features downloads of demos and patches, chat, reviews, and previews. Find most of the material from the hard copy of the mag here, with the exception of the CD-ROM with massive demos not available online. Highly recommended! Download numerous games for both Win95 and Win3.1 at The Software Site. Voted in the top 5% of all websites, the site has thorough descriptions of titles before you download. Not the best site for games, but not bad either.Quantum Leap
Yes, I'm a big fan of Quantum Leap. Although NBC cancelled the series, there are a number of websites which are keeping the adventures of Dr. Sam Beckett and Admiral Al Calavichi alive. For example, Quantum Leap: The Accelerator Chamber (named the best QL site by NetSCi-Fi) offers a wealth of info about the show, including a comprehensive episode guide, FAQ's, and sounds & images from the show. Hey, there's even a QL drinking game! Also be sure to drop by The Quantum Leap Information Page for more of Sam & Al. Although not quite as well done as The Accelerator Chamber, this site offers up more info on the time-travelling duo. The magic of QL continues with original fan fiction, available at the Quantum Leap ftp Archive. (There are also a number of novels published by ACE.) Some of the fan fiction is extremely amateurish, but other stories are excellent, accurately capturing the flavor of the original series. In addition to many others, "Afterimage" is highly recommended! Another resource for fan fiction is the newsgroup, alt.tv.quantum-leap.creative, which usually offers reposts of the stories available at the ftp site. In addition, be sure to visit another newsgroup, rec.arts.sf.tv.quantum-leap for ongoing discussion, obsessed leaper lists, etc. from a multitude of QL fans.Assorted Stuff!
Although Roadkills-R-Us is a fictional company and is just intended to be a parody, Toys-R-Us got all bent out of shape and decided to pursue legal avenues in an attempt to shut the site down. Although this site hasn't been updated in a while Toys-R-Us attempt to close it hasn't worked yet and has resulted in a lot of negative publicity for TRU. Show your support for the individual against a large corporation and visit this great site. Have a few laughs and remember: boycott TRU for their stupidity. Of course, you must check out the inane conflict I've had with AT&T Worldnet. Yes, it's absolutely true: AT&T Worldnet Sucks! Next thing you know, I'll be sued for telling the truth about Worldnet. Of course, I did originally name the page "AT&(shi)T Worldnet Sucks" so maybe the boneheads at AT&T won't figure it out... ;)