Make The Most Of It

On Thursday Clay and I attended our first concert in over three years.

New Found Glory just released a new acoustic album. It’s a really great, emotional album written and recorded after Chad almost died and was diagnosed with Pheochromocytoma, a rare cancer that often goes misdiagnosed. Their accompanying tour is raising awareness and funds for the Pheo Para Alliance. I knew we had to be there.

They played Celebrity Theatre, an intimate venue known for its revolving stage (stationary for this show, though). It was incredible. A real gift of a show for longtime fans. I only teared up twice: once during Dressed to Kill and once during Kiss the Floor (my fave song from the new album).

Grateful to experience this show and for this music I’ve loved for so much of my life. Hopeful for Chad’s health and for more NFG in the future.

I grabbed some photos from their Instagram to remember the night. Shots by Ana Massard.

New Found Glory performing NFG on stage Jordan singing Chad playing guitar the stage and crowd at Celebrity Theatre NFG on stage

They played a lot of songs they don’t often play live, so I made a Spotify playlist of their set. Missing from the playlist is I’ll Be (Edwin McCain) which to my knowledge they never recorded.

Here’s to us fools that have no meaning
I tip my glass to you
Let’s toast the night away to friends
And forget about tomorrow

Wonders of Street View

Neal Agarwal is one of my favorite people on the web. He makes weird interactive projects over at neal.fun and his latest is a joy to explore.

It’s called Wonders of Street View and drops you into Google Street View at curated spots. You can click around and explore for hours, trust me. There are a bunch of neat places and things to see and my favorites are...

The road side attractions:

Swole Bus in Prague, Czechia: a red double decker bus with two buff arms coming out the side Miniature Carnival in Hamburg, Germany: a very detailed model of a tiny carnival

The absolutely gorgeous natural wonders:

Ice Cave in Sakha, Russia: tunnels of ice lit with green and purple Blue Forest in Flemish Brabant, Belgium: forest of tall but narrow trees and the ground is covered in blue flowers

The distant places I will never see in person:

Space Views from the International Space Station: a view of Earth from the space station window Summit at Mount Everest: a handful of climbers at the peak

The captures at the perfect moment:

Tripping in Nova Scotia, Canada: a man is mid fall after tripping on the sidewalk The Hopper in Myślenice County, Poland: a rabbit is leaping in the air

And of course I love a Google glitch:

Tripod Man in Ontario, Canada: glitchy capture of a guy leaning into the backseat of his car and he has three legs

Of course there are tons more delightful and beautiful places to explore, so check it out!

Wonders of Street View

Finding ways to use all these stickers

The tech industry loves stickers and so do I. Lisa Frank really had us hoarding stickers at an early age. Like many others before me, I can never decide where to put them. There’s only so much laptop surface area and the permanence of it all feels daunting.

I looked into some ways of finally using them. I don’t have the courage to go full David Darnes and do the sticker desk, though I absolutely love how it looks.

top view of a white desk almost completely covered in stickers

Sticker desk from @DavidDarnes on Twitter

Of the options I saw, fridge magnets felt like a safe and easy thing to try. So this weekend I got some adhesive magnet sheets and gave it a go.

a big pile of stickers on a desk

just a portion of my sticker hoard

It was pretty simple. Peel the sticker, peel the magnet, stick them together, cut.

a sticker of a fancy yeti next to some magnet paper and an x-acto knife

Turned out decent enough. If you look too closely you might be like, did a child cut these? Related, I recommend extremely sharp scissors. The easier ones were the ones I could use a straight edge and X-ACTO knife. But, it’s better than having them sit in a drawer hidden away.

colorful magnets on a fridge

Should I cover the entire fridge? Just might.

What I order at dim sum

With Chinese New Year tomorrow, I’ve got dim sum on the brain. My friends have said they don’t know what to order when they go on their own, so here are the staples we always order to get you started (mostly for meat eaters, sorry).

Siu mai
Steamed pork dumplings often with mushroom and shrimp in thin wrapper. Usually in the cart with lots of stacked metal steamers.

pork dumplings in a thin yellow wrapper

photo by Sara McCleary

Har gow
Shrimp dumplings in a sticky, translucent wrapper. Almost always ordered with siu mai, so same cart.

shrimp dumplings in a white translucent wrapper

photo by Matt @ PEK

Char siu bao (steamed)
Fluffy buns filled with barbecue pork. At dim sum I recommend getting the steamed version (pictured here). If you visit a Chinese bakery definitely try the baked version (will be a brown, round bun).

white fluffy buns filled with bbq pork

photo by Takeaway

Noh mai gai (sticky rice)
Sticky rice filled with chopped mushrooms, chicken, and often a piece of lap cheong (Chinese sausage). Wrapped in lotus leaves.

rice wrapped in steamed lotus leaf

photo by Takeaway

Gai lan
Steamed Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce.

Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce and sesame seeds

photo from whiskeyandbooch.com

Shrimp balls
Fried. Shrimp. Balls. I recommend you get shrimp toast first if you see it, but I’ve found a lot of dim sum restaurants have switched to doing these shrimp balls and they’re also very delicious.

crispy fried shrimp balls

photo from makanan.club

Chicken feet
If you’re feeling adventurous... The chicken feet are deep fried in hot oil and steamed so the cartilage puffs up and becomes soft. They’re then simmered in a sweet and spicy black bean sauce. Think of it kind of like eating a chicken wing, where you eat around the bones. Not for everyone, but I love ’em.

steamed chicken feet in black bean sauce with jalepeños

photo from tucsonfoodie.com

A few others we often order to round things out:

  • crispy spring rolls
  • shrimp cheung fun (shrimp filled, flat rice noodles with sweet soy sauce)
  • Singapore noodles (yellow curry noodles)
  • steamed spare ribs
  • dan tat (egg custard)
  • jian dui (sesame balls)

Add some hot mustard or a chili oil/soy sauce mix and enjoy. And also, Gung Hay Fat Choy! Happy year of the rabbit 🐇

My favorite series of 2022

2022 was a good year for television with a bunch of fun new series and one major standout. Some honorable mentions for this list are Maya Rudolph’s Loot, anxiety-filled The Bear, Rachel Bloom’s Reboot, and the adorable Ms Marvel. We also had a lot of fun catching up on LEGO Masters (so wholesome) and Succession (not so wholesome).

Here are my fave miniseries and series debuts from 2022.

the cast of Yellowjackets 10. Yellowjackets

William Jackson Harper and Cristin Milioti 9. The Resort

Stanley Tucci and David Tennant 8. Inside Man

Kit Connor and Joe Locke 7. Heartstopper

Wednesday Addams holding an umbrella in the rain 6. Wednesday

cast of Our Flag Means Death 5. Our Flag Means Death

cast of Peacemaker 4. Peacemaker

cast of A League of Their Own 3. A League of Their Own

cast of The Afterparty 2. The Afterparty

Adam Scott’s open head with a little Adam Scott working at a desk 1. Severance