CONFESSIONS OF A FAT GIRL

A Look Back on Twitter

I randomly got curious this week and here is what I learned:

I was the 6,798,762nd person to join Twitter. (There are currently over 1.8 billion Twitter accounts.) 

The first tweet was sent by co-founder Jack Dorsey on March 21, 2006. He was followed by 31 people who were likely friends and colleagues. Today he has 2.4 million followers.

Originally, it wasn't spelled out, you see. It was just "Twttr."

Here's a cool article from back in the early days of Twitter if you're curious - written by co-founder Evan Williams. Originally, Twitter was a project from the Obvious Corp., founded by Dorsey, Williams and Biz Stone. I think. I actually didn't Google that - I could be talking out of my ass but I'm going to publish as is and hope I'm right. Live on the edge.

I have been on Twitter for over 83% of its existence, for longer than 99.9% of its other users.

I joined and tweeted for the first time on June 13, 2007. This is actually rather special to me because on June 13, 1992, I was Bat Mitzvah'd. On June 13, 1997 I graduated high school. And it was my Grandfather's birthday. June 13 is one of my favorite days. 

This site is kinda cool (if not a little stalkery) -- get your own Twitter history here.

P.S. I think Jack Dorsey is kinda cute. Frankly, if for no other reason than he founded Twitter, Sqaure and is kind of a genius and is even a little douchey -- I think he's sexy. ;)

Flashback Four Years

This blog has been around for over six years now, having survived my many whims and design experiments. 

Four years ago, I added this feature:

It seemed like a weird thing to do, actually. Creating a Facebook page for my blog was even more self-serving than having the blog itself. It was asking people to be a fan of.... well, ME. It was further inviting strangers to follow me at a way more intimate level than this site or Twitter. 

It also sort of served, to me, as an indication that this blog was more of a business than a personal endeavor and I was really hesitant to make that destinction.

That's how it felt in my mind.

But it's sort of a necessary "evil" if you have a blog these days. It's one of those things you just do. And to be fair, according to my Google Analytics, a fair amount of my traffic comes from Facebook and that's the goal in the end, right? Whether I am reviwwing a product or just being a snarky bitch, the goal is for people to read it. Don't fool yourselves, bloggers. Bloggers blog for themselves for sure, but they also blog for an audience. It may start off as a catharsis but we're on the world wide web here. 

And I'm not saying that's a bad thing, to be clear. Perhaps one of the best things about the internet is that it affords the average person the opportunity to be famous. Even if only in a small circle or for 15 minutes. It provides possibility and potential to everyone. 

And by the way, if you haven't liked me on Facebook yet, I'm so close to 400 fans, I can taste it, so do me a solid, would ya? (Hey, I may as well get that ask in while I'm at it, right?)

What's Up, Friday?

Happy Friday, boys and girls. I hope you had a smoother week than I did. I am exhausted and would like to nap for approximately three days. But I will settle for sleeping past 6am tomorrow, which I've been looking forward to since Wednesday or so. 

1. THE DAILY SHOW. Omigod, you guys. The Daily Show. I love it always but this week, they were just SO on point, I kept watching clips over and over. I didn't know I could love it this much with Jon Stewart on vacation. Nothing against John Oliver and his sass and delightful accent, I'm just a Stewart fangirl. But in any case, these:

 

 

2. Rider Strong on Twitter. I've followed him for a while but just never paid enough attention to catch wind of his brilliance until Buzzfeed wrote a whole article about it. You see, every once in a while, "Boy Meets World" alumn Rider Strong searches for his name on Twitter and replies to some of what he finds. 

3. The MLB All-star game was this week and the highlight was easily Mariano Rivera's participation in the game. Because this is the legendary closer's last all-star game appearance. Sadly, Mo is retiring. You can hate on the Yankees but nobody hates on Mo. He is a class act and he will be missed. 

4. Um, Unlce Jesse and the Rippers are performing on Jimmy Fallon tonight and I am ELATED.

5. Mashable has been rolling out these cool infographics on how much it costs to be a superhero now versus the days of old. I've been geeking out to them all week! 

6. Bad Kids Clothing created this HILARIOUS shirt as a favor to someone. When Taylor Swift fans FLIPPED OUT about it, they decided to mass produce it and sell it. Good on them. It's so tempting -- I kind of want one. But she'll have at least four new exes by the end of 2014 and the shirt will be outdated. 

A Whovian Moment (That's a Time Travel Reference, Non-Nerds)

Anyone else a Doctor Who fan? No? Just me?

*crickets*

I don't believe it. Shame on all of you. Go DVR some Doctor Who, you guys. 

But anyway, I digress. The whole point of this post is to unveil yet another recurring feature of my blog:

Look! Another logo! The phonebooth is called a Tardis. Again, it's a Doctor Who thing. (I bet you really wish you watched it now, don't you?)

If it helps, think about the phone booth in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure - it's a time travel thing. Get it? I guess we can all conclude that in the future, all time travel will be happening in phone booths since that seems to be a thing.

And I thought it would be fun if now and then I revisited something fun or useful I posted about in years prior. And thanks to the Timehop app I mentioned in my June 20 post, it's pretty easy to find something I want to revisit.

So about this time, two years ago, I was getting SUPER EXCITED for the New Kids on the Block/Backstreet Boys concert.

Oh yes.

I love boy bands. I am not ashamed. I mean, I love pop music a lot and just especially Boy Bands. *NSYNC, BSB, NKOTB, Hanson (yeah, I'm including them) and even the present day'ers like One Direction and The Wanted... I just turn into a giddy 12 year old. Going to the NKOTBSB concert was a nostalgic, screaming, joyous, teen-idol-crushing mess of a great time. And the tickets were a gift so thank you once more to Leslie, who took me and my +1 to the show. 

 

Yeah, our seats were kind of ridiculous.

The Right Stuff.

Oh hi, Jordan Knight in my section.

Oh yeah, we got Kevin, too (who was on leave at the time).

Biggest and bestest boy band ever - NKOTBSB

And then, also, I got some priceless video out of the evening. I mean, I touched Brian Littrell's hand, you guys. I was basically a puddle.

 

 

I'd like to also point out that since this concert, I've met Donnie Wahlberg (NKOTB), Kevin Richardson (BSB) and, of course, my FAVORITE EVER, Joey McIntyre (NKOTB). I've seen Hanson in concert and am seeing them again this Fall. 

Happy two-year anniversary NKOTBSB!