Flickr Fun Friday: It's Inescapable

I'm talking about the Kentucky Derby, and it is, indeed, inescapable, if you live in Kentucky. The Run for the Roses is this weekend, and I'm...well, not all that interested, really. Horses are kind of nice to look at, but I don't really like to be around them ("large" "unpredictable" and "temperamental" are not qualities I look for in an animal) . I hate losing my money on bets, and you could not pay me to fight the massive crowds at the race. Unless, you know, I was invited to sit in Prince William's royal box or something. But, for anyone who is interested in the race but cannot actually make it to Churchill Downs, I thought I could provide a glimpse of what you will be missing, courtesy of Flickr:

Hats

(courtesy of velo steve's photostream)

Knowing my luck, my seat would be behind this lady.

Drunk People

(courtesy of bhenak's photostream)

Based on some of the stories I've heard, you will see a lot of drunk people. And they will probably be covered in a nice, thick layer of mud, since it's supposed to rain pretty much nonstop from now until post time.

Oh, and yeah...Some Horse Races
(courtesy of boboroshi's photostream)

There will be a bunch of races, but I don't know if anyone will actually notice or not. They will all be too busy modeling hats, downing mint juleps, losing money faster than the current economy, getting stuck in the infield mud, and trying to scope out celebrities.

If you do decide to go to the Derby, I hope you have a great time! I think I'll just hang out here, where it's quiet, cool, and dry. And no one will throw up on me.

(And I realize it's Thursday night, not Friday, but I knew I wouldn't have time to post tomorrow.)

Shout-outs to a Couple of Peeps

Since I've read all the way through the archives of most of my favorite blogs, I'm always looking for new chuckles. I discovered a couple of new blogs recently, and they are so awesomely hilarious that I just had to add them to my blogroll:

Cake Wrecks
Jen at Cake Wrecks searches the web for photos of disastrously-decorated professional cakes, and writes the most perfect comments on them. I laughed so hard at this entry that Diet Coke nearly came out of my nose, and that doesn't happen very often. And, if you're a fan of shows like Ace of Cakes, you will love her "Sunday Sweets" posts, which showcase gorgeous, non-wrecky cakes.

It's Lovely, I'll Take It
This is my most recent find, and there are plenty of chuckles to be had. Sara Lorimer culls funny, weird, and sometimes just plain inexplicable pictures from real estate listings, and adds her own commentary. It was hard to pick a favorite, but this post was one of them.

To Sara and Jen, thanks tons for the laughs! And for everyone else, I recommend that you check out these blogs immediately. Just put down the Diet Coke first.

Flickr Fun Friday

Since I've recently discovered all the fun to be found on Flickr (I totally did not plan that alliteration-sorry), I decided to start a (maybe) semi-regular feature called Flickr Fun Friday. Here's the photo I chose for my first installment:

Photo courtesy of Kenn Wilson.
(If this does not satisfy the attribution requirements, I am truly sorry.
All that Creative Commons stuff is confusing.)

Ah, the I'm-way-too-smoove-for-pants-that-fit style! How I hate it. Any photo that highlights the foolishness of this look is okay by me. Nice work! (And nice gray undies, dude.)

I Think the Answer You're Looking for Is "Yes"

(Photo and article courtesy msnbc.com)

I know that I am innately jealous of anyone who is naturally thin, but this is just ridiculous. To the Australia Miss Universe folks: Please do not condone this by allowing this woman to enter your pageant. I'm sure there are plenty of lovely, healthy-looking girls in Australia who could vie for the title. To Miss Naumoska: Eat something! And quick! You may not know it, but food can be really tasty. I would suggest a nice, big plate of pasta; a good glass of wine; a loaf of delicious garlic bread; and a yummy tiramisu. That always seems to do the trick for packing on the pounds for me.

I Love This So Much...

Everyone and their brother has probably seen this clip by now, but I just had to share anyway:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

(I would have embedded it, but YouTube has disabled embedding.)

I have wanted to be a professional singer my whole life. If you've never sung before, you probably don't realize how scary it is to walk out on that stage and wait for the music to start. Sometimes, I'm afraid that I won't be able to sing at all, but I may throw up instead. For that woman to not only take the stage, but perform so beautifully AND totally blow away the judges, was simply amazing. Susan Boyle, congratulations to you. I am so happy that the record companies are calling and you will have a chance to do what you love, because you deserve it.

Why I Loved the 80s, Part 2: Prince

(Photo courtesy of criticaljunctions.com)

As I was reading the other day about Madonna's latest escapade, I started thinking about the fates of the big pop triumvirate of the 80s: Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Prince. While The Purple One has hardly lived what most of us would consider a normal life, he hasn't dangled any babies; been brought up on charges; become a scary yoga-fembot; or tried to adopt the majority of a small African nation. If the commercial I saw recently is any indication, he's still out there, singing, playing, and dancing, just like he was when I discovered his music in 1983.

I first saw Prince on MTV when I was 12 or 13, and I was enthralled--I had never heard music like that before. He was different, and talented, and (at least in my teenage mind) a little bit dangerous. My mom didn't like him, so that was another bonus. I fell deeply in love. My junior-high-logo windbreaker was covered in Prince buttons, and I read every magazine article and book that I could find about him. My mom was patient enough to listen to hours of facts about Prince (did you know that he plays 17 instruments? and his nickname is Skipper?). I even made my grandmother watch a couple of his videos, but she was less than impressed. I must have listed to my 45 of "When Doves Cry" a million times.

Eventually, after watching Purple Rain for the tenth time, I began to hatch a secret scheme. Prince had developed a reputation for discovering female acts: Vanity, Apollonia, Sheila E, and, later, Carmen Electra. Since I wanted to be a singer when I grew up, I was convinced that I could find a way for him to discover me, too. He would take me home with him to Paisley Park, so that we could work on my music. While I was there, Prince would naturally fall in love with me, and we would get married. I was going to be Mrs. Prince Rogers Nelson!

Seriously. I went through an entire year of my teens with the firm conviction that I would someday marry Prince. Eventually, I grew up a bit, and my passion for Mr. Nelson faded a bit as my musical tastes shifted to hair bands like Bon Jovi. I've continued to follow his music, though, and my wonderful husband took me to see him when he came to Lexington in 1997. I still turn up the radio when "Little Red Corvette" comes on, and I own the three-CD greatest hits collection. There was so much great music back then that it's hard to narrow my favorites down to just a few artists, but Prince was definitely one of the main reasons why I loved the 80s.

(I was going to end this post by embedding the video of "When Doves Cry," but apparently the aforementioned Mr. Nelson does not care for having his material posted to YouTube. Oh, well.)

Mid-week Blues

It's Wednesday. Here at Nerd in the Corner, we're tired and a little grumpy. Most of all, though, we want warm weather NOW.

Even Abby is a little down about it. But! We're supposed to hit 65 degrees for Easter Sunday, so things should be looking up soon. I hope to have some free time this weekend to write a real post, too. Happy Thursday, everyone!

I May Owe Someone An Apology

After I joined Facebook, I realized that it could be a valuable tool for gaining new readers for my blog. So, I added the little networking button, and shared my blog with all my Facebook friends.

Fast forward a few months. In the past couple of weeks, I've had a couple of Facebook friend requests from people I don't know, and I ignored them all (my mom's "don't talk to strangers" lesson must have REALLY made an impact on me). Being a huge dork, I completely forgot that I had ASKED people to find me on Facebook, and that those nice folks sending me friend requests had probably done so because they've been reading my blog.

So, many apologies to anyone who sent me a friend request and never got added. If you will resend, I'll add you! I promise I don't suck all the time.