New toy! Nifty little program that will convert your photos into a Polaroid.

www.poladroid.net

(thanks, Marc!)

• Multicolr Search Lab – Idée Inc.
  Love this!
  (tags: Photography flickr Color inspiration)

• 10 Very Good Reasons Why You Should Grow a Giant Beard
  No, I don't have a beard. But my coworker Dave "The Yeti" does, and he stumbled this site to me. Silly stuff!
  (tags: funny humor)

• YES WE CARVE | Change Your Pumpkin, Change Your World
  I'd totally do this, but we don't have a porch to put pumpkins on.
  (tags: design crafts politics obama holiday)
• YouTube – GOOD: Vampire Energy
  Simple breakdown of common household items sucking energy
  (tags: video environment sustainability)

• PalinAsPresident.com
  Another scary concept – ANSWER THE PHOOOONE!
  (tags: funny humor interactive politics)
• A Truly Frightening Prospect
  (tags: politics art design)

Friday night I went to a New Kids on the Block concert with my friend Amber, my cousin Kim and her friend Jaime. Minus one unfortunate incident that involved a cellphone and beer – we all had a blast. (Not my phone!) Joke and laugh if you want, but it was an AMAZING show.

First, our seats. This was the view from our Floor seats.

Then, if I turn to my right, you can see how close we were to this mysterious stand. My, what could this be? Oh yeah, it’s the little stage the boys show up at during the concert.

Lady GaGa opened – she’s very performance-arty and I loved it. I first heard her “Just Dance” song on So You Think You Can Dance, got hooked on it and bought it — and after hearing a few more of her songs live, I will buy her album when it comes out. I wouldn’t mind going to a show of hers again sometime.

Next up was Natasha Bedingfield. She’s a great live performer, which you know you always run that risk, that an artist may be more of a studio artist (or band.) But she did great. Unfortunately I didn’t get a very good photo of her, I was still working out the settings on my camera – had to prepare for the boys you know. I did capture a decent video however.

Then.. the moment we’ve all been waiting for… the boys were back! Check out this video I took of the beginning.. I find it hilarious because you will notice the exact moment I go from “crazy excited” to “positively berserk”.

The whole show was a glorious mix of new music (their album is really good) and fan favorites from the past. It was great singing along to the old songs. It brought a lot of memories back, that’s for sure.

Thanks to Kendra, who attended the Thursday show in Sacramento, I was well informed on the timing for the smaller stage. She said that the guys show up at the stage after the “In Memory” montage. I let my girls know about this as well as the people sitting in our row. We basically informed them because once it was time to go – we were going to move as fast as we could. At one point, the stage got dark and I saw the words “In memory” show up on the screen.. I look to Amber and the other people in our row and start screaming “NOW!! NOW!! GO GO GO!” but we couldn’t move. Usher people were standing in the way, letting a few rows at a time take up the space.

Now, the rational side of my brain totally applauds this. They were blocking people from the closer front rows from our little back-stage. Thank you usher people, for that. However the completely fan-crazy portion of my brain, heavily drunk on the sexy that is JoeyJonathanandJordan did not approve. I was about to attempt climbing my chair but thought better of it. Frankly I didn’t want to end up face down on the floor. Our row was let go and the girl one seat over from me and I locked arms and charged the stage. We totally bonded out of sheer fan-frenzy and attempted to get as close as we could. My determination paid off, somewhat, in that I was now techinically in the “3rd row”. However, because I’m short (thanks genes!) my arms are shorter and I could not reach the boys for the life of me. I tried everything short of pulling my arm off and extending it out for them to touch. So, I didn’t get a touch of the hand… I got totally awesome photos instead.

More photos!!

This was a wonderfully wild and fun experience and I’m so thankful that I was able to re-live a portion of my childhood. I think that is the main reason the boys concerts are selling out. People are hanging out with friends they haven’t seen in forever and they’re reminiscing about previous concerts they went to and how crazy they used to be over NKOTB.

I cannot wait. I cannot concentrate. I can’t help but feel like a 10 year old all over again.

I’M GOING TO A NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK CONCERT AGAIN!!!! It’s only been what, 18 years since the last one.

• The financial crisis, a Pokemon parable | kottke.org
  I think I finally get it. Pretty funny way to describe the crisis, that's for sure.
  (tags: humor)