March is a month of waiting. Winter is still lurking outside, but the warmer months and the return to the patio are almost here.

While you’re waiting for the weather and climate to co-operate, there is the dilemma of finding something to pass the time. Luckily, the internet contains plenty of quality websites to while away some leisure time.   

The nice thing about interesting or entertaining websites is that, unlike an app for a particular brand of mobile device, a website is accessible not only on any computer, but on the internet browser of a phone or tablet, such as Safari on an iPad or the Google Chrome browser on an Android.

Games are a fun way of idling away some time, and it’s even better if they also stimulate some cognitive skills. I spend plenty of spare time playing mentally challenging word games that aren’t complicated or time-consuming, such as Wordle and the crossword game Waffle (https://wafflegame.net/daily), which also has a couple of other word games called Stackdown and OneWordSearch. 

However, the success of word games has spawned numerous online imitations and variations and the online magazine Lifehacker has an interesting article describing 16 other games to play if you like Wordle (https://tinyurl.com/3e5rccdk).

Most of them are much more difficult, such as Absurdle, which I found impossible to solve, and Heardle, which is an auditory game to gauge your pop culture music knowledge. 

Another type of game to test your mental abilities is based on Google’s Street View, which is a 3D scrolling photo of almost anywhere in the world.

You are plunked down somewhere in an unknown country and have to figure out where you are by wandering around looking for clues and then placing a pin on a map to see if you’re correct.

GeoGuesser (https://www.geoguessr.com/) is quite challenging but, apart from three free daily challenges, there’s a monthly fee, whereas GuessWhereYouAre (https://guesswhereyouare.com/#/) and Streetviewr (https://www.streetviewr.com/) are free alternatives.

Google gives its engineers free time to work on personal projects and as part of more than 1,700 projects available online, there is the Chrome Music Lab (https://tinyurl.com/55z6pkdw). The lab is filled with wonderfully fascinating, interactive, and challenging music activities such as Song Maker, Voice Spinner, and Rhythm. I’m not musical at all, but still created some satisfying musical creations, or at least I thought so. 

Another intriguing and fun online activity is creating artwork out of coloured sand at This is Sand (https://thisissand.com/). Many of the creations on display are quite impressive, and there’s an app for your mobile device.

If you want to immerse yourself in creativity, there are two websites which will stun you with their technical brilliance and artistry. Zoomquilt is an endless, mesmerizing zooming artwork that you have to see to truly appreciate. There is the original Zoomquilt website (https://zzz.zoomquilt.org/), Zoomquilt2 (https://zzz.zoomquilt2.com/), a YouTube channel so you can view it on a large TV screen, and an app for your Apple or Android device.

The website 100,000 Stars (https://stars.chromeexperiments.com/) is an absolutely stunning, interactive, representation of all the known universe. Zoom in, click on a star, and a description will pop up. When you first arrive at the site, it’s a good idea to click or tap on the Take a Tour button in the upper left.

Perhaps you’d rather spend some indoor time reading and getting informed. Mental Floss (https://www.mentalfloss.com/) is a one-stop location for all manner of information, news, and valuable trivia. Click your way through the menu at the top to discover amazing facts, answers to “big questions,” cultural news, history and geography topics, or try some quizzes. 

Another must-read website is Snopes (https://www.snopes.com/), which will prove why you should not believe any “news” you read on social media. It is “the definitive fact-checking site and reference source for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumours, and misinformation.”

It’s actually entertaining reading about outlandish conspiracy theories, scams, and AI-generated nonsense. 

With luck, by the time you’ve finished spending some quality leisure time on the internet, you’ll be able to head out to the yard to begin your spring chores. 

Links in this column and others are available at www.rayser.ca/online and I can be reached at rayser3@cogeco.ca.

© Peterborough Examiner