Website of the Day: MindHabits

Did you know that playing social-intelligence games can reduce stress hormones by 17 percent? That's right geeks, a video game designed by McGill University researchers can help train people to reduce the production of the stress-related hormone cortisol.

The MindHabits Trainer game is featured on the MindHabits website, which contains a whole lineup of "science-based video games designed to help players reduce stress and build self-confidence." I can't say I've seen dramatic results in my life, but the company claims the games will make you more confident in dating and reduce the stress that goes along with aging. It's gotta be worth checking out, right?

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Website of the Day: Ebates

How did I, online shopping Jedi, not know about Ebates?! One of my friends just turned me on to this website, which gives you both online coupons and cash back on your purchases from a ton of my favorite online stores.

For me that means Bluefly, Nordstrom, drugstore.com, as well as the Apple Store and eBags (a great destination for laptop bags).

Just sign up (it's free) and once signed in, navigate to the store you want to shop at from Ebates. Once you make a purchase, Ebates tracks it for you and sends you a check for your cash-back credit!

I've also heard good things about Fatwallet, which is similar to Ebates. Sometimes I think the universe wants me to shop.

Website of the Day: Faces in Places

Do you ever see something that totally reminds you of, or looks like a face? As much as you try to shake the fact that a rock or a cloud is smiling at you, you just can't? Well when TeamSugar user Calamari sent Faces in Places to me, I couldn't get over how many recognizable human faces there are on everyday things. I'm already addicted to this site, and can't help but check out all the new photos of faces in places. Trust me, the more faces you see, the more visible they will become — kinda like a sixth "faces in places" sense!

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Website of the Day: GetSatisfaction

Got something to say? Some clickin' and complainin' to do? Head over to GetSatisfaction and search out the retailers you have a beef with. Often times someone got there before you with the same question or complaint, and it's already been posted by another user and solved.

It's a great way to vent and find possible recourse (there's a whole thread on finding a Wii if you're still having problems finding one, even) — have I ever espoused the virtues of venting and how therapeutic it is?! No? Well I am now. Go get your grievance on.

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Website of The Day: KEXP

I am not only in love with all things geeky, but all things related to music as well. Thankfully we live in a time where we have access to more cool music, more often with sites like Pandora and Mercora making it super easy to get new music into those earbuds. If you have access to the internet (duh) and either Windows Media, Real Player, or iTunes then you're all set to feast your ears on the musical stylings of kexp.org.

Why else do I love it? Just

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Website of the Day: EveryBlock

Whenever I move into a new neighborhood, it always takes me awhile to get comfortable and adjusted to my new surroundings. Well there's now a site that can help put your mind at ease, or at least keep you in the loop of everything and anything that's happening in your neighborhood.

EveryBlock currently provides all insider block info in cities like New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. Find photos, news articles, crime reports, building violations issued, and much, much more about a given area. Their motto is "We compile news sources, public records, and other local sites so you don’t have to," so they're basically your online "neighborhood watch" advisors!

And if you want to know all about your lovely new neighbors, be sure to check out another great website — Rotten Neighbors!

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Website of the Day: Passive Aggressive Notes

Despite the holiday cheer and goodwill that's still emanating throughout the world, we all have our passive-aggressive moments. We can't help it really. It's a natural, if not necessary, defense mechanism to deal with all the unthoughtful people or awkward situations in our lives. So how do we deal with all that passive aggression?

nannychica recently blogged about Passive Aggressive Notes, a site that features a collection of funny notes from roommates, family members, and even strangers. As someone who constantly battles the smell of microwaved food coming from the kitchen unsure of how to react, the site gave me a real kick. It reminds me of a cross between the "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks and Post Secret.

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Website of the Day: Human Calendar

The creator of the playful Human Calendar site set off to ride his bicycle around the continent of Australia in 2002 and "somewhere in the middle of nowhere" found himself thinking about random things once.

"Whatever day this was, I happened to be thinking about computers and a girl, " he says on the site. "Specifically, about the then-upcoming humanclock.com redesign and Marcia Brady."

What resulted is a collection of "gridded people" and calendars meshed into one. The pictures don't click to anything (except for the creator's backstory), so don't expect revolving faces that pop up — a la the Brady Bunch credits — but it's entertaining nonetheless.

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Website of the Day: How It Sucks

More times then not, websites provide you with both positive and negative product reviews. Do you ever find yourself sifting through the good reviews to find the bad? Let me guess . . . What you are really trying to find out is whether or not something sucks, right? Now there's a website called How It Sucks which ranks products on how much they suck (literally), based on their Amazon reviews. Discussed on The Consumerist, a red bar indicates how many negative reviews the product has received. In this case it was the Apple shuffle, which scored a doesn't really suck rating — phew!To learn how to post your favorite websites to our Website of the Day group,

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Website of the Day: Free Rice

'Tis the season of giving thanks and giving back, so it only seems appropriate that the site FreeRice has been getting a great deal of attention. The site's goals are twofold: Provide English vocabulary lessons for free and help end world hunger by providing free rice to hungry people.

The site is a definition game, offering you multiple definition choices for a given word and asking you to click on the answer that best defines the word. If you get it right, you get a harder word. If you get it wrong, the next word is easier. For each correct answer, Free Rice donates ten grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program.

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Website of the Day: SU Periodic Table

The most extreme grown up geeks I know were also geeks growing up. You know the kind of kids that have always loved science classes, mathematics and of course, periodic tables. I thought of them when I found SU Periodic Table, a site that has replaced all the elements with photographs of the letters that represent each element.

The creators encourage readers to photograph street signs, graffiti, car registration plates or street art and share the letter photographs. For example: NI — representing Nickel, comes from a sign for the uNIversity parks, or ES — representing Einsteinium — from No CyclES. All I know is, it's a lot prettier than the Periodic Table in my high school chemistry class.

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Website of the Day: PlayerBlock

PlayerBlock claims to be the "first ever text based service that allows people to look into the dating habits of others." The idea is you post a review of your date online or via your cell phone so that the next guy or gal has a heads up and won't get played. While I'm not convinced the service is necessary, it's certainly a technological step up from iDating parties, where you pick your date based on the pics on their iPhone.

PlayerBlock's text message platform allows you to post comments about the date (or player), as well as read and get responses from others that have had problems with him in the past. PlayerBlock is available to registered users or via text messaging from your cell phone and includes a monthly fee. Is it worth it? I don't know. I'm no player hater.

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Website of the Day: 300 Love Letters

The other day I went on a search for beautiful websites that might lift my spirits and provide that "Rom/Com" like high.

I found 300 Love Letters, a fun site created by a woman with plenty of words, emotion and humor to share. It reminds me of the One Million Messages project, but it's definitely a more personal endeavor — the creator wrote three hundred love letters to strangers, friends, lovers, ex lovers and family members and posted them on the site. The homepage looks like a mosaic of colored tiles, but each color represents a letter and when you click on it, you are taken to a sweet, sometimes twisted and deeply personal letter.

Why did she do it? She says:

At the start I had one very simple goal: by the end of this project I wanted to be able to write a love letter to anyone, a stranger on the street, or someone that I have nothing but scorn for. I wanted to be able to pull out and vocalize the small thread connecting me to them, them to me, the something in them that I found beautiful or real and the something between us that existed beneath everything, acknowledged or unacknowledged, forgotten gestures and moments, strange and rare affinities.

If you take a 20-minute cruise on the site you'll see exactly what she means. To learn how to post your favorite websites to our Website of the Day group,

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Website of the Day: Online Etch-a-Sketch

The original Etch-a-Sketch may have been created at the height of the Baby Boom, but our generation can now enjoy all the fun with the online Etch-a-Sketch.

The site is promoting "global communication through the medium of Etch-a-Sketch" (lofty goal, huh?) and allows you to create fun pictures using the arrow keys on your keyboard. Once you have finished your drawing, you can e-mail it to a friend to share your skills.

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