ASCII by Jason Scott

Jason Scott's Weblog

Webtrap —

I’ve recently been able to figure out the phenomenon of a webtrap.

There’s a site called dannychoo.com, the adventures and experiences of a guy in Japan called Danny Choo. Danny’s a technical guy, a photographer, an otaku, a fan who wears costumes… and he’s also a great tour guide, giving you context to life in Japan. He’s really good. Really, really good. Like, too good.

He’s so good that one of his entries can take me 30 minutes to read and I can finish reading and still not feel done. I feel like he just put out the nice pamphlet that I could browse for hours while on a train or walking around, giving me insight and more details to research. Each one of his entries is this little microcosm.

In my web browsing, I have to keep moving. I have so many things I’m looking up, so much stuff out there. Like a shark, if I stop moving, I die. (Also, my eyes look scarily dead and people think I’m super dangerous and I am mostly not.) When I find a page like Danny’s entries, I have to say “OK, this has to wait” and I set it aside.

In no time, I have DOZENS of his entries set aside. Entries of sparkling detail, of context and regard and insight, waiting for me. Piled up, and waiting.

Danny consistently does this, but others do this too. It’s a mark of quality, no doubt, and I am complaining of the weight of the riches, not the pain of poverty. These are meals that pop out of the little slot when I bang the vending machine a few times looking for junk food. They are wonderful.

While browsing these weblogs, I will stumble on these, and go “Oh no, webtrap.” I find a page where someone has meticulously linked to so many cool things, that I could lose a day going through them, and at the present I do not have days to lose. I have less than days to lose. I am going to start cutting some major stuff out of my life so that my film gets done on time. I can’t afford to spend two hours on an amazing overview of a subject I always wanted to know. Or a subject I didn’t know I wanted to know about until right then and there.

Haaaalp, trapped.


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8 Comments

  1. Jim Leonard says:

    Herroo……

  2. Ravenwood says:

    Dude, this very blog of yours is one of my favorite webtraps. Practice what you preach! 😉 j/k

  3. Josef says:

    I agree wholeheartedly with the above comment, especially when this blog links to other pages which link to things 😛

  4. Chris H. says:

    Another good one (but not remotely in the same league, or even with same potential of entrapment,) is the ‘Stuff White People Like‘ blog. 😉

  5. Shell says:

    Between you and Waxy, I can spend hours online and not even notice that I forgot to feed the kid!

  6. Josef says:

    Well I’ve just been webtrapped on the above weblog for the last 30 minutes

  7. JustAName says:

    The times I’ve been trapped on this weblog of yours are much too numerous to contemplate.;)

  8. JustAName says:

    The times I’ve been trapped on this weblog of yours are much too numerous to contemplate.;)