Nintendo: 1; Me: 0

I unceremoniously ditched my gray, boxy Game Boy as a little girl. The two games I tested, "Kirby's Dream Land" and "The Little Mermaid," proved to be much too difficult for me. Kirby just wouldn't eat clouds fast enough and Ariel was unwieldy and hard to navigate. So, at 25 years of age, I'm a little surprised that the Nintendo DS™ would catch my eye.

My surprise continues, as I've realized I'm just as succeptible to a marketer's whim as the next Jane Doe. I'm a little late on this one, as Jezebel talked about this weeks ago, but I definitely priced the metallic rose model today at $129.99 and thought, hmm, not that bad!

I think this campaign was aimed at the likes of me. America Ferrera, Carrie Underwood and Liv Tyler joined the ad campaign for Nintendo DS, to say to women - "look, video games are fun!" The same women who previously had no interest in gaming, or have had to sit through countless hours of watching guys play Halo, NCAA Football, FIFA or GTA (I'm speaking from experience), and think the gaming realm is an annoyance, not a diversion.

I'm excited to learn through Nintendo DS, I can become fluent in Spanish, play with doggies, and learn new Yoga positions! However, I think I should wait on this purchase. I'm already weighing down my Michael Kors bag with a Canon Elph, iPod and Samsung Blackjack...I think I've already exceeded my personal electronic devices per handbag. Better to wait until I can afford the game/mp3/cell phone/PDA hybrid.

All I Really Need to Know I Learned from The Baby-sitters Club

Oh. My. Gawd. Pardon my randomness, but there is a microcosm of my childhood floating around on the Internet. Apparently there are people in this world that revere The Baby-sitters Club by Ann M. Martin as the holy grail of girlydom, just as myself.

As I am known to do, I was able to click-click-click my way into discovering a whole little online world devoted to the BSC that I never knew existed. I've discovered a blog solely devoted to character Claudia Kishi's off-the-wall attire (I also learned a new word, Whatthefuckery, but I digress) as described in this series of pre-teen fun. There's also BSC Wikipedia, Claudia's Room, BSC Stamped and Stoneybrookite, a blog dedicated to the "best friends you'll never have."
Wow. If I ever felt I am a reader of niche sites on the Internet, I do now. But I love that communities have grown to support the BSC books, as they basically half raised me. And look how good I turned out! I don't know about you, but every BSC book I ever purchased was the best $3.50 in the world. When a Super Special came out, it was like my birthday. Sigh. I miss the days when "boyfriends and babysitting don't mix!" spoke to me.

But in all seriousness, I think we love the Baby-sitters Club because the girls were real characters. Mallory rode horses and had, like, 18 brothers and sisters, Dawn was a "vegetarian" from "California" and wore white linen pants, Mary Anne had that boyfriend, and Claudia was artsy and painted Native American prints on her rain slicker. How weird were they?!

And yet it was okay to like them, and they were liked in the books. What a good lesson! And by another token, each book was narrated by a different babysitter. A true lesson in seeing the world for all its valid opinions. I think the entire BSC series should be mandatory reading at the elementary level. Not a believer? Let me just end with this. A book in which a girl can wear this outfit, and still have friends at the end of the day, is an open-minded, worldly book indeed:

(Claudia was wearing): "a big yellow shirt with red x-shaped buttons,
enormously baggy white pants, and big red Doc Martens double-laced with black
and yellow shoelaces. Her long straight black hair was pulled upon top of her
head with more black and yellow shoelaces braided together. Her earrings said
'stop' and 'go' - 'stop' in her left ear and 'go' in her right."

Sugary sneakers? Oh, yeah!

Grape-"flavored" Reeboks?

No, these aren't just purple versions of the Reebok Princess shoes my mom has been rockin' since 1987. And no, don't try and taste this footwear, it's not like Jessica Simpson's syrupy sweet "Desserts."

These are Kool-Aid Reeboks, a hybrid of sneaker and sugar that will make plenty of people want to shell out the $50 - $75 they cost. Grape, strawberry and cherry launched on Feb. 1, but we have to wait until Mar. 15 for orange, lemon and lime. I guess citrus footwear isn't in as high demand.

The co-branded marketing promotion, Instant Classics, is part of Reebok’s 2008 spring collection. Yes, these shoes are kind of ridiculous, and I can't really believe how these brand extensions worked together - but it does. The soles are hilarious and I love that Kool-Aid Man's little face is on the inside. Him so cute! The "strawberry" is a little Pepto-Bismol-esque, but I really like the purple.

According to PSFK, the collection can be purchased at http://www.undergroundstation.com/ or select Reebok retailers nationwide. They make them for toddlers, too, how cute is that?! But why don't I see any women's shoes? Sad. We like color-saturated weird apparel just like the next Joe Schmoe.

Oh, and happy 2008...

Ah yes, um, Happy New Year! Forgot to say Happy Holidays or anything of the sort...how rude.

My time was spent wearing a cheesy Christmas sweater and green tights, enjoying a chilly trip to Lake Arrowhead and watching the ball drop from Bainbridge Island, Washington, among other highlights. Strep throat being one of them.

Anyway, enjoy this cartoon that really does pose a problem for future NYE drunken countdowns (and offers two solutions that might seriously be our 2010 eyewear.)

Better than an annoying FWD:

Returning to work after a long holiday weekend is always particularly painful.

Due to much tighter pants, you've sworn yourself to a diet of minestrone soup or Lean Cuisines, so the 11:32 a.m. kitchen snack of Baked Doritos isn't there to brighten your day. Your office chair you previously thought comfy and adequate pales in comparison to mom and dad's recliner. And the traditional five-day work week is looming ahead, mocking you. Friday is so far away.

I'm glad I discovered the someecards.com Workplace section so I can bring a little sarcastic sunshine to my coworkers tomorrow. I've loved the site's irreverent e-cards for quite a while, but hadn't yet perused the section perfect for gifting to your coworkers. I am scared that the creators of these cards "get" the workplace as much as they do.

The free cards are spot on, with jokes about not joining your colleague's LinkedIn network, apologies for IMing them from three feet away and feeling connected to your cubicle mate via their shared iTunes folder. They even poke fun at inevitably pointless colleague chatter, such as "It feels like a Tuesday." I'd rather it feel like Friday, myself.

So go ahead and clog the email inboxes of your colleagues. These cards are likely to be the one thing they fish out of their quarantined junk box that brings a smile to their face. Although, I can't for the life of me imagine an appropriate time to send some of these, like uh, this one.

Although, I do really want to see a card like "Do you have the dial-in number?" or "Sorry I ate your box of Wheat Thins while you were on vacation." But of course, my current favorites joke about timesheets, like the one you see above.

How could a joke about timesheets not be funny?

Cat Power

I have been sending too many cat videos to my coworkers. One suggested I make a cat blog. Sounds a little scary, so I think I'll stick with just a funny cat video every now and then. This one is great - cats are so smart!

Rorschach Turkey

Behold, the impressionist/ink blot turkey masterpiece I created in honor of Thanksgiving.

Isn't he pretty? You can make one, or something else less festive, at http://www.jacksonpollock.org/. Play around with it, try to spell your name, draw your favorite pair of shoes, your dog, etc. FYI, hitting the space bar clears the screen.

Make sure you hit F11 and do a "print screen" and paste into another application when you see something you like. You can save the image as a jpeg and do absolutely nothing with it. Enjoy.