With SIGGRAPH and friends (HPG, DigiPro, ASWF) coming up in a week, here are some graphics-ish sites that you can waste time with while traveling.

1. Make a word out of (mostly) nature photographs. Hover over each letter for where the image came from. The palette for many letters is a bit limited (2-3 choices), but I like the concept.

2. Wiki Spy. Start with a search term, or just start clicking. Each click gives you other related images on Wikipedia. Once you click you can go to the related page by “View on Wikipedia” in the upper right. Not graph-oriented enough? Use Six Degrees of Wikipedia to see how any two things are related.

3. Peruse 5+ million works of art. You prefer 3D? The Met’s collection lets you search on art with a viewable 3D model.

4. Want to find obscure tourist attractions? Atlas Obscura and the 11,710 photograph collection for Roadside America (explained a bit here) might help you out.

5. Check the world’s weather, courtesy NOAA. Note the toggles on the left.

6. Going to Silicon Valley afterwards to look for a job? Take the tour to check average salaries. I do like that it includes tiny animated cars, trains, and airplanes. Then, feel their pain and their dreams of a garage.

7. Quake mods in a browser, by Angelo Pesce using Cursor. There goes all your extra free time; you’re welcome. (Not to be confused with Doom in a QR code.)