and now.. video!

As an apparent gift to me (at least in my mind – it’s my blog, I’ll say what I want) a combination so amazing will happen today that will put shame to all else in the world.

Move over Peanut Butter and Jelly, you’re yesterday’s news.

TONIGHT.

Matt Nathanson will be on Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

::fangirl scream:: (twice in one week – fun)

I knew Wednesday would be an awesome day.

I’m having massive flashbacks to the late ’80s and early ’90s right now.

I got up this morning and checked out the few headlines on the Yahoo! homepage.. and what do you know..

“’80s boy band New Kids On The Block set for a comeback” [video news]
(Oh and check out how they got Jonathan and Jordan mixed up. Jonathan is in real estate, Jordan had tried to have a solo career. Eesh. Someone didn’t do their fact checking!)

::enter fangirl scream here::

haha.. omg.

Ok so I was a NKOTB fan, clearly. Here’s a taste of it. I bought (thanks mom and dad) virtually every single Bop, Big Bopper, Teen/17/Tiger whatever magazine that had any article or- my favorite – mini poster inside about the NKOTB. I took these posters (or pages, as some were just one page, not the full pullout) and taped them to my wall. In addition to the two giant posters (Jordan and Joey) they covered 3 of my walls. Floor to ceiling. Side to side. I had a mosaic of NKOTB, if you will. Plus the other merch – books, hot pink hat, big button (ok who didn’t have a big button? c’mon) and of course tapes upon tapes. Oh yah. I also had the Joey doll. He got along well with my Barbies. (Hello reminder, I was like eight through 11 here.) I say “had” but really I still have all these items, just tucked away in a giant storage box for future reminiscing.

The best memory, going to a New Kids concert in 1990 with my cousin.
This is one of my favorite memories ever. For many reasons. So the story… well I was told that my uncle and aunt were bringing my cousin over and they were going to take us to the Oakland Zoo. Hot damn! Zoo! I went to get dressed and what do I wear? One of my NKOTB shirts of course – my fave! I remember walking downstairs and my mother, seeing what I was wearing, tells me not to wear it. What?! Buuuut Mooooom. She had me change. Pfft. Anyway, I get over it and everyone shows up. (I think she had me change so not to be unfair to my cousin, though, I think she may have been wearing her New Kids shirt, I can’t remember…)

Now I remember my cousin (Kim) telling me that her mom lost tickets to NKTOB – something about they got tossed into the garbage by accident and the lawn had been mowed so now the garbage is filled with cut grass and there was no way anyone was going to go through it and get the tickets. This was a random story as we were still very convinced we were going to the zoo.

On the way, we stopped at a McDonald’s for some fine dining. The place was PACKED with little girls our age, dressed head to toe in NKOTB gear and bouncing around like they were on the high of their lives. Where were they going? Oh.. to a NKOTB concert.

LUUUCKY.

My Uncle and Aunt were now stuck with two very grumbly girls. We pouted. We pushed our fries around. We’re going to the zoo. Whoopie do.

So we’re off! In the car, my aunt took Polaroid photos of us smiling and then sad that we’re not going to the concert. I did just that. Smiled, then scowled and crossed my arms in a huff. Kim, on the other hand, is a cheese for the camera and smiled both times. I remember saying “HEY! You’re supposed to be mad!” haha. I still have my grumbly photo somewhere…

So being 10 years old I had no idea of the route it would take to get to the Oakland Zoo, so they could have driven me to Monterey and I would have accepted it.

At one point my uncle begins to pull up to the Oakland Colosseum where clearly there are signs that say this is where the NKOTB concert is.

Me: “Why are we here?!”
Aunt: “Oh we haven’t been here in a long time, we just want to see it.”

Kim and I grumble. How cruel!

When we park the car they tell us that yes, in fact, we’re here to see the concert.

I am in shock… and completely skeptical. I didn’t believe until we were in the Will Call line picking up tickets. Kim had to help convince me. SHOCK I say, utter SHOCK.

You mean, I’m going to see JordanJoeyJonathanDonnieandDanny!?!? Like, with my own eyes? They’ll be RIGHT THERE?

I couldn’t tell you who opened the concert, I couldn’t tell you all the songs I heard – this was (shit) 17 years ago after all. But I do remember finally caving into the needs of my bladder and running off with my aunt to the bathroom. I remember being in the stall and all of a sudden I hear Joey begin to sing. I scream to my aunt “OMG IT’S JOEY!” and she told me to hurry!

That was a great memory.

As I’m typing up this entry I’ve been playing various New Kids songs nonstop, now I only have a handful and Adam (who is off to my side playing some Wii game) chimes in:

Adam: Do you only have like 3 of their songs?

Me: No, I have a few more than that.

Adam: You don’t have ALL of their CDs? What kind of fan are you?

Me: ::frown:: I have a lot of their TAPES but not mp3s.

Adam: What about the CDs??

…

Me: You know what? Because of that shittery, you’re buying me the tickets now.

Adam: Ok. They have stuff higher than ‘nosebleed’ right?

Thanks to my coworker, I’m addicted to StumbleUpon yet again. I tried it back in 2005, got horribly addicted and had to remove the toolbar from my work computer because it was just too tempting.

Oh for those that don’t know, StumbleUpon allows you to randomly surf the web and find websites, videos, and photos based on your interests. It’s a GREAT way to share sites with friends. You create an account and choose your interests. Then, although it is an option (but useful) you download a toolbar for your browser window. On the toolbar is a button that says “Stumble!” Click that puppy and you’re on your way to hours of zombified internet browsing. The fun part, instead of copy-pasting a URL, opening your email client and sending an email to a friend or family member – you can just click on the toolbar where it says “Send to” and send to a friend that way.

Endorsement over.

Now… I’ve noticed that thanks to the last few days of Stumbling I’ve added to the amount of RSS feeds I’m reading. Mostly those that are related to various crafts or web comics.

I’d like to share some of those web comics with you now. Some I’ve come across by other sites, and some via Stumbling:

xkcd.com
“A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math and language.”
I’ve posted a couple here and there – most recently the Rock Band comic.

mordant orange
Kind of has a Far Side-ish feel to it.

Cyanide & Happiness
Sometimes so wrong, yet so funny..

thingapart
Funny stuff, or I wouldn’t be posting about it now would I?

left-handed toons (by right-handed people)
Odd. I like odd.

Truck Bearing Kibble
The art is well done, funny, overall pretty darn good!

We The Robots
Love it – the humor, the characters are cute, and i love the slightly gritty coloring going on… one of my faves so far.

This is awesome.

Dearest Google Maps Gods:

One day you decided to allow users to create their own maps.

This was an awesome day.

Another day, you decided that not only could we share maps – we can share them to COLLABORATE with others. However, quickly our happiness shattered when us users–us devoted and quite possibly obsessed users, found that we could not add to shared maps.

This was not an awesome day.

Today, this geek is having to do some serious thinkin’ (unrelated to this ridiculous blog post) and cannot be bothered with minor glitches. Fix it, fix it now. Hurry please. I don’t want to throw my laptop across the room.

Sincerely,
A Geek in Distress

:: Improve my damn health.

:: Figure out a new phone plan (I think, minus the initial purchase price, the monthly cost for an iPhone will be cheaper than what I am paying now for my Verizon plan.)

:: Cancel the extended cable. (I have been putting this off for too long.) – DONE! 1/9/08

:: Finish paying for my laptop.

:: Scrapbook every week. (I have several projects to complete by November)

:: Finish my Uncle’s website

There’s more, but baby steps for now. Let’s see in 6 months how far I’ve gone. I certainly hope I’ve at least canceled the extended cable by then.