Series: Cartoon Network

Today we will go over several series that were broadcasted by the American cable television network Cartoon Network (CN). CN launched on October 1, 1992 after purchasing the animation studio Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1991. CN broadcasted series 24 hours a day, and mostly showed classic animations. In 1994 CN started broadcasting "Cartoon Cartoons" with original series like "Dexter's Laboratory", "Powerpuff Girls", "Ed, Edd 'n Eddy", "I am Weasel", "Cow and Chicken", "Johnny Bravo" and "Courage The Cowardly Dog".

Dexter's Laboratory aired from February 26, 1995 to November 20, 2003 and is notable for helping launch the careers of several cartoon creators. Johnny Bravo aired from March 26, 1995 to August 27, 2004. Many of the writers of Johnny Bravo became successful afterwards, such as Seth McFarlane (Family Guy) and Butch Hartman (Fairly Odd Parents). Cow and Chicken aird from November 12, 1995 to July 24, 1999 and was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1996 and in 1998. I Am Weasel aired from July 15, 1997 to 2000 and was originally part of the Cow and Chicken series, and eventually spun off into its own series. The Powerpuff Girls aired from November 18, 1998 to March 25, 2005. Powerpuff Girls was nominated for 6 Emmy Awards, 9 Annie Awards and a Kids' Choice Award and also had a feature film. Courage the Cowardly Dog aired from November 12, 1999 to November 22, 2002. The series combines elements of black comedy, comedy horror, surrealism and drama and is therefore rated 7 years and older. Ed, Edd 'n Eddy aired from January 4, 1999 to November 8, 2009. The series was one of the longest running and most successful franchises.

This was all on Cartoon Network and its 90's series. Next time we will talk about Nickelodeon and its series !

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Series: Friends

This week we'll discuss series that aired during the nineties and were popular in that decade. Today we will tell you some more about Friends.

Friends is an American sitcom that aired from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan, New York. Friends was a huge success, the final episode (the 236th) was watched by 51,1 million American viewers, making it the fourth most watched series finale in television history and the most watched episode of the decade. Friends also won many awards and was nominated for 63 Primetime Emmy Awards! Because of the success, the actors earned more salary each season, which became astronomically high in the 10th and last season. In the first season they got $22,500 per episode and $1 million on the last two seasons!

We won't discuss the content of the series here because we think that most of you watched it and already know what's it about. And if you haven't watched it (yet), we won't spoil it for you.

Here are some Friends fun facts:
- A 30-second commercial during the break of Friends costed advertisers $500,000
- Monica (Courtney Cox) was the first one to ever say the word "period" on American TV
- Courtney Cox originally read to play the part of Rachel (Jennifer Aniston)
- Before naming it "Friends", the creators considered titles like "Insomnia Cafe" and "Six of One"
- None of the episodes were filmed in New York, despite being set there
- During the first seasons the apartments mysteriously moved up a couple of floors and they changed from being number 4 & 5 to 19 & 20

This was all on Friends! Next time we will go over several series that were broadcasted by Cartoon Network!


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Pokémon: Real Life & Emulator

As we promised, we'll give you a link to download an emulator so you can play the oldschool Pokémon on your laptop.

But first, check this 'Pokémon' out!



Emulator

Well, here is the link to download Visualboy, the emulator : Click here!
Now you've only got the emulator, so here you can download the roms to play: Click here!

Have fun !

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Pokémon: The games

Over time, Nintendo created a lot of Pokémon games for several handhelds and game consoles. The games on the handhelds are more famous, so we’ll focus on them. Most of you are probably familiar with the aim of the Pokémon games (we all know the Pokémon song and the slogan ‘Gotta catch ‘m all!’). For you who don’t know: the aim of the Pokémon games is to catch all the Pokémon the game contains and be the best Pokémon trainer in the world. However, not all Pokémon can be catched in a game. You’ll have to trade Pokémon with other players, like your friends.

The very first Pokémon game was Pokémon Blue for the Gameboy and was created in 1996, Japan. Other Pokémon games of the first generation for the Gameboy are Pokémon Red (1996), Pokémon Green (1996, only in Japan) and Pokémon Yellow (1998). In Europe, some of the Pokémon games were released some years after their release in Japan. Several characteristics of this first Pokémon series are the starter Pokémon: Bulbasaur, Charmander, 

Squirtle (Red and Blue) or Pikachu (Yellow). Of course, you’ll start your journey in Pallet Town.

The second generation of Pokémon games were released on the Game Boy Color, the successor of the Gameboy. Games that were available for this handheld were Pokémon Gold (1999), Silver (1999) and Crystal (2000). The starter  Pokémon of these games were Chikorita, Cyndaquil and Totodile, which you’ll all remember. One of the additions to these games are that  you were able to choose your gender in the beginning of the game.

Although the Pokémon games of the third, forth and fifth generations were released after the nineties, we’ll still discuss them because it’s Pokémon (and therefore worthwhile to discuss). The third generation is on two handhelds. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team (2005) is on the Gameboy Advance and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team (2005) on the Nintendo DS. These games are different from the earlier games. Instead of being a Pokémon trainer, you are turned into a Pokémon. Which Pokémon you’ll become differs  from the answer you’ll give on questions in the beginning. In both games you can be a Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Charmander, Cyndaquil, Totodile, Chikorita, Treecko, Torchic, Mudkip, Pikachu, Eevee, Machop, Cubone, Psyduck, Meowth, and Skitty.

Generation four consists of a lot of games for the Nintendo DS: Pokémon Diamond (2006), Pearl (2006), Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time (2007), Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness (2007), Platinum (2008) and Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky (2009). These games differ from each other in playing modus: either you are a Pokémon trainer (such as in Diamond, Pearl and Platinum) or you are turned into a Pokémon (as in the Mystery Dungeon series). The starter Pokémon in Diamond, Pearl and Platinum are Turtwig, Chimchar and Piplup. You are probably a bit unfamiliar with these, because they aren’t a part of your nineties memories. In the Mystery Dungeon series it depends on the answered questions which Pokémon you are: Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, Pikachu, Meowth, Chikorita, Cyndaquil, Totodile, Treecko, Torchic, Mudkip, Skitty, Turtwig, Chimchar, Piplup and Munchlax. As you might have noticed, you can’t be Eevee, Machop, Cubone or Psyduck anymore.

The fifth and so far final generation of pokemon was released on the nintendo DS. In this generation there is only Pokémon Black (2010) and White (2010). If you haven’t played Pokémon anymore, you  probably don’t know the Pokémon you can choose in the start: Snivy, Tepig or Oshawott.

We think the first generations are the best generations of Pokémon. Charmander and Squirtle are much cooler than Woobat or Garbodor!

Tomorrow we will give you a link to an emulator so you can play Pokémon on your laptop.

Next week we’ll talk about series of the 90’s!

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Pokémon: Series

The Pokémon series are a Japanese anime based on the Pokémon video games and is part of the Pokémon franchise. Pokémon started airing in Japan on April 1^st 1997, so it is running for almost 15 years now! The fifteenth season of Pokémon is currently airing in Japan, and those 15 seasons are divided into four series or generations.  Seasons 1 to 5 belong to the Original Series, seasons 6 to 9 to the Advanced Generation, seasons 10 to 13 to the Diamond and Pearl Series and finally season 14 and 15 belong to the Best Wishes! Series.

The Pokémon anime series are about a boy named Ash Ketchum, he travels the world with his friends (human and Pokémon) in order to win Gym badges which are an entrance into tournaments, battle other Pokémon trainers, and catching new Pokémon. During this he also encounters Team Rocket, part of a criminal organization, who are trying to steal his Pokémon, and especially his Pikachu. Unfortunately for Team Rocket they never succeed and they end up being blown away, episode after episode. The anime relates to the Pokémon video games quite a bit, for example, just as in the video games, Ash cannot carry more than 6 Pokémon at a time.

Check here the very first episode of the Pokémon series!

Click

For each season of the main series there has been a movie made featuring the main characters of the season,  currently there are 15 Pokémon movies and one feature length TV broadcast (Mewtwo Returns).  Each movie features a Legendary Pokémon; this is mostly done to promote them in new version of the video games and in new series. Aside from the anime series and the movies there are also different Pokémon specials. In English they are called the Pokémon Chronicles or Pokémon Sunday series, alongside the Legend of Thunder! special and several Pikachu shorts.

Some Pokémon episodes were removed from the rotation, the most infamous of these episodes is “Electric Soldier Porygon”, this episode was removed because hundreds of children experienced seizures or seizure-like symptoms after seeing repetitive flashes of lights in the episode. Even though these flashes of light were caused by an attack by Pikachu, the featuring Pokémon Porygon never appeared in the anime again and neither did his evolutions Porygon2 and Porygon-X.

This was all on the Pokémon series; we hoped you have enjoyed it! Next time we will discuss the several games of Pokémon and we will gave an emulator to play it on your computer. 

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Pokémon: History

You all know Pokémon, right? If you don’t, shame on you!

In 1996, the media franchise Pokémon was created by Satoshi Tajiri and owned by the video game company Nintendo. Ever wondered why Pókemon is called Pokémon? Well, it is the romanized contraction of the brand Pocket Monsters and such contractions are quite common in Japan. Pokémon is originally released as a Game Boy Role-playing game and it was interlinkable between Game Boys, this means that you can trade Pokémon with other Game Boy Pokémon players. This is extremely handy, because Pokémon Red and Blue have different Pokémon and by means of this trading system you are able to still have all Pokémon.

Pokémon is the second most successful and lucrative video game-based media franchise in the world, behind Nintendo’s Mario series, which we have blogged about earlier. Because of the success of Pokémon, there are anime, manga, trading cards, toys and books about it.

Over time, five generations of Pokémon were created. However, only the first two generations were released in the 90’s: the first generation (Red and Blue) was released in 1998 and the second generation (Gold and Silver) in 1999. The first generation of Pokémon consists of 151 Pokémon, the second of 251 Pokémon. You can check all Pokémon out here: Click here!

Next time we will talk about the series of Pokémon. To create a nostalgic feeling, we will post the link of the first Pokémon episode ever!

And remember:

List of subjects

We have noticed that some of our readers think that we don't discuss enough different aspects of the nineties. In our first post we said that we would go over several different topics, but didn’t mention every one of them. Now we have decided to give you a list of all what we will talk about beforehand so that you will know what kind of topics will pass by.

1.       Music: in our first week we’ve talked about different music styles of the nineties, such as hardcore, rock and boy- & girlbands.

2.       Electronics: This week we discussed different electronic devices that were popular in the nineties like the Gameboy and different game consoles.

3.       Pokémon: Next week we will talk about Pokémon and everything that is related to it.

4.       Television series: Trending 90’s series like “Friends” and different cartoons.

5.       Fashion: We will discuss different types of fashion that were hot in the nineties.

6.       Playground fads: Here we will talk about the fads in our childhood, such as playing with marbles.

7.       Collectibles: We will discuss different collectibles like Flippos and different trading cards.

8.       Computer games: Which computer games were popular in the nineties?

9.       Movies: We will go over the biggest and most popular movies of the decade, such as Titanic.

In the end we will probably give you a recap of all the topics we’ve discussed in this blog. We have to add that this list is provisional; it might happen that we add or delete a certain topic mentioned here, because we can’t overlook the whole blog yet. We hope you are satisfied with this list and if you have more comments or suggestion, we are happy to hear them!

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Electronics: PlayStation 1 & Sega Consoles

This will be our last blog about 90’s electronics, and today we will talk about the PlayStation 1 from Sony and the Mega Drive & Dreamcast from Sega.

The PlayStation1 (PS1) was designed by Sony in Japan and was released in Europe in 1995. Almost every console of the PlayStation series has three different versions; an Asian, Northern-American and European version, this is because there are also different television outputs in these different parts of the world. The PlayStation was the product of a failed collaboration between Sony and Nintendo; they initially agreed to make a cd add-on for the SNES but Nintendo ended this agreement because Sony would have all the rights to the games that would be on this cd, and that would not be profitable for Nintendo. Because the development of this add-on was in such an advanced stage, Sony turned to Phillips and they created the cd-i, which is placed in the PS1. The PlayStation dominated the 32-bit and 64-bit era, this was partly because the cd’s for the PS1 were relatively cheap and it was fairly easy to play illegal copies on it. The PlayStation 1 had a market share of 70,4% (in comparison: Nintendo had 22,7%). 

 

Sega released the Mega Drive in Europe in 1990 (In America it was called the Sega Genesis). The Mega Drive wasn’t very popular in homeland Japan, but it was very well received in America and Europe. The Mega Drive was technically better developed than then the NES, which give Sega a head start to Nintendo at the time. Sega released some add-ons and new consoles like the Sega-Mega CD, Sega X32 and the Sega Saturn, but when Nintendo released the SNES, the popularity of Sega and the Mega Drive dropped quickly.

Let’s see what the Angry Video Game Nerd has to say about a Mega Drive game:

The last console Sega released was the Dreamcast (1999 in Europe). The Dreamcast was one of the first consoles that allowed users to play online on SegaNet (America) and Dream Arena (Europe). The Dreamcast wasn’t very popular because similar consoles from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo that released in the next decade had better features. This meant the end for the Sega consoles, and in 2001 they announced that they would retreat from the hardware market.

This concludes our week about electronics! We hoped you have enjoyed it and next week we will talk about Pokémon and everything that is related to it!

Electronics: SNES & N64

Scroll down to download a SNES or N64 emulator on your pc!

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) was released in Europe in 1992 and was the second successful series of Nintendo gamecomputers after the Nintendo Entertainments System (NES), which was released in the 80's. The SNES was the best-sold gamecomputer of the 16-bit era. Between Nintendo & Sega, another gamecomputer manifacturer, a big "game war" was fought. Sega produced more fast and cool games such as Sonic the Hedgehog, whereas Nintendo released more child-friendly games like Super Mario World. In the end Nintendo won the "game war". The SNES is still very popular today, especially collectors and retro gamers still like to play the old SNES games.

Here you can download an emulator, so that you can play the original SNES games on your computer : Click here to download a SNES emulator

Some of the most well-known SNES games are: Castlevania, Donkey Kong, Final Fantasy and the Mario series.

The Nintendo 64 (N64) was the successor of the SNES and was the 3rd successful series of Nintendo gamecomputers. The N64 was released in Europe in 1997 and was a 64-bit gamecomptuers, which was the last series of gamecomputers which used game cartridges instead of cd-roms and dvd-games. Game cartridges had some advantages over cd-roms and dvd-games, such as that it is more difficult to copy cartridges, are very reliable, are scratch-proof and they load very quick. But the disadvantages seemed to be greater than the advantages in the end and therefore it was the end for the game cartridge. Because the N64 had an original shape and a new type of controller, it was a moderate success with 30 million sold copies (even though they had to compete with the 1995 Sony Playstation). 

Some of the most popular N64 games are Super Mario 64, Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong 64 and Super Smash Bros.

Here is a link were you can download the emulator for the N64 games:  Click here to download a N64 emulator

This was all for now, but don't go anywhere because next time we will talk about the Playstation 1 and the Sega Mega Drive & Dreamcast!

Electronics: gameboy

Hi!

This week we will talk about different electronics that were trends in the 90's. Today the topic is the Gameboy. We believe that the Gameboy deserves a whole post because it was such a fad!

Admit it:

We all have been through this moment

In Japan, Nintendo created the original 8-bit gameboy in 1989. There were many succesors to it; Nintendo Super Gameboy (not portable), Gameboy Pocket, Gameboy Light (only in Japan) and the Gameboy Color (first gameboy that used colors in the screen). The gameboys after the color all came out in the next decade, so we won't mention them here.

Most gamecomputers did not have worthy succesors, but this isn't the case with Gameboy. The cartridges from the first 1989 Gameboy can still be played on the 2001 Gameboy Advance. Similiar gameboys from other companies proved not to be as succesful and were distroyed by Nintendo.

Some of the most familiar gamepacks for the Gameboy were Super Mario, Pokémon, Tetris, Donkey Kong and Final Fantasy.

Super Mario

Pokémon



Tetris

Donkey Kong

Final Fantasy

Funny Fact: The "Gameboy-thumb" is an acknowledged form of RSI!

All in all we can conclude: Nintendo FTW!

Next time we will talk about the Nintendo consoles: Super Nintendo (SNES) and Nintendo 64 (N64). We will also give you a link to a site where you can download a emulator, so that you can play all the old Nintendo games on you computer, in original style!

Music: Hip-hop & Rap

Hey everyone!

Our last music blog will be about 90’s hip-hop and rap. Hip-hop became popular in the 80’s and grew bigger and bigger in the 90’s, this period of time was called the golden age of hip hop. Some strong themes in hip hop were Afrocentricity and political militancy. Some of the more know hip hop artist of the 90’s are Run DMC and A Tribe Called Quest. Hip hop was popular in that decade because everything was being discovered, so therefore everything was still innovative and new. Even though there was an emphasis on Black Nationalist rap, there were still some very well-known white hip-hop artists, like Eminem and Vanilla Ice and his Ice Ice Baby…

Hip hop became the best-selling music genre of the mid 90’s with selling millions of records of artist such as Dr. Dre, Snoop Doggy Dogg (These days without the Doggy) and Wu-Tang Clan. Some of the more famous female hip hop and rap artist of the nineties are Lauryn Hill (who was nominated for 10 Grammy’s for her album “The Miseducation” and won 5 of them), Missy Elliot and Queen Latifah.

The mid nineties were marked by the deaths of the West-Coast rapper 2pac and the East-Coast rapper The Notorious B.I.G., which conspiracy theorists claim were killed as a result of the East Coast – West Coast hip hop rivalry.

 

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This was all on hip hop and rap, and it also marks the ending of our music topic.

To close this week’s topic we have found a site where can enter a certain date (Birthday or Anniversary etc.) and it will generate which song was at the top of the charts that day, and each year forward. Click Here

Next week our topic will be 90’s electronics!

Music: Rock

Hi !

The nineties brought us some great Rock bands that broadened the genre. Bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam really brought Grunge to the mainstream, whereas bands like Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead and Smashing Pumpkins broadened the alternative rock sound.

Grunge became known in the early nineties as a genre that had a “dirty” sound and where the artists had an unkempt appearance. They rebelled against the mainstream rock which they thought was commercialized and too highly produced. Grunge lyrics were often about social alienation and entrapment and had an apathic feel to it. The popularity of Grunge declined when Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain died in 1994 (and Nirvana subsequently seized to exist), Pearl Jam had touring problems and Alice in Chains lead singer Layne Stanley left the band in 1996. After Grunge, post-grunge became more popular with bands like Foo Fighters, whose front man was Nirvanas old drummer.

Another popular rock genre was pop-punk with leading bands such as Green Day and Weezer. These bands had a fan base of mostly teenagers, which proved to be a great success. Alternative rock and metal emerged from the late 80’s hardcore scene and gained popularity after grunge broke into the mainstream. Alternative rock and metal fused all sorts of genres like prog-rock, punk, industrial and even hip-hop and rap (bands like Rage Against the Machine and Red Hot Chili Peppers).

Rock is a genre that proves to be timeless, since many of the artists mentioned here are still active today with bringing out new albums and touring. Here is a list of greatest rock songs of the 90’s. (In a random order, everyone can decide for themselves what the best song is).

Click on the link to see the youtube video of each song.

1.  The Offspring - Self Esteem
2.  Weezer – Buddy Holly
3.  Green Day – Basket Case
4.  Alice In Chains – Man In The Box
5.  Foo Fighters - Everlong
6.  Nine Inch Nails – Closer
7.  Rage Against the Machine – Killing In The Name Of
8.  Red Hot Chili Peppers – Under The Bridge
9.  Soundgarden – Black Hole Sun
10.  Depeche Mode – Enjoy The Silence
11.  Radiohead – Paranoid Android
12.  Nirvana - Come As You Are
13.  Smashing Pumpkins – 1979
14.  Blur - Song 2
15.  Metallica - Enter Sandmen
16.  Radiohead - Creep
17.  Oasis - Wonderwall
18.  Pearl Jam - Jeremy
19.  R.E.M. – Losing My Religion
20.  Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit

Next time the topic will be 90’s hip-hop and rap!

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Music: Happy Hardcore

Today we will discuss (happy) hardcore and related genres like rave and hardcore house (Gabberhouse). Dutch hardcore can not be confused with American hardcore, which is a totally different genre and sounds more like punk. Happy hardcore is, as the name says, a happier variant of hardcore house. It is characterized by mealy-mouthed lyrics song by (usually) a woman. It also has a high tempo and often contains piano fragments. Happy hardcore was very popular in the Netherlands and to a lesser extend in Great Britain.  A lot of different hardcore movements formed in the nineties, in order to make it more mainstream, happy hardcore was formed. This form of hardcore had more melody to it than hardcore house for example and therefore was easier to listen to. Happy hardcore had a growing fan base in the Netherlands and it eventually became a genre in itself, it was most popular during the mid-nineties but is still listened to today.

Some of the most familiar happy hardcore artist are DJ Paul Elstak, Party Animals, Charley Lownoise & Mental Theo, Dune, Scooter and Hakkûhbar. Hakkûhbar was a typical “Gabber” artist, “gabbers” were known for the bald head (boys), tracksuits and typical way of dancing, known as “hakken”.

To give foreign visitors an idea of what Dutch happy hardcore is; here is a compilation. Dutch visitors can enjoy it too of course ;)

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Even now in 2012, hardcore is still popular and a lot of the above mentioned artists still perform. There are even festivals devoted to hardcore only, such as (Sensation) Black and Decibel Outdoor.

We hoped you have learned some more about happy hardcore in the nineties. Next time we will go over Rock and other related genres!

Music: boy- and girlbands

This week we will discuss 90’s music, each time we will go over a different genre. Today we will talk about different boy- and girl bands that were successful in the nineties.

Maybe the most well-known girl band is of course the Spice Girls, which originated in 1994. Their first big hit was “Wannabe” (1996), which created world fame for them. They have sold over 75 million records, making them the best-selling female group of all time. Each of the five Spice Girls had a different character and nickname. Which Spice Girl are you? Do the quiz here: Click Click!

The group split up in 2000, only to reunite in 2007 and splitting up again in 2008. According to latest news there are planning to reunite once again.

Spice Girls; then and now. Find the 10 differences! ^_^ 

The best selling boy band off all time is the Backstreet Boys (BSB), with having sold over more than 130 million records worldwide. BSB formed in 1993 and became famous with their 1996 debut album "Backstreet Boys". They took a break form 2002 to 2005, when they came back with the album "Never Gone". In 2006 Kevin Richardson left BSB and the remaining 4 members are still active today. Other well-known boy bands from the nineties are: New Kids on the Block, Take That, Boyzone, 'N Sync, 5ive and Westlife

Here is a compilation video of Backstreet Boys songs. Enjoy!

  

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A Dutch mixed group which was very famous in the Netherlands was the Vengaboys. They consisted of 2 guys and 2 girls and were known for all the different costumes they wore. Some of their biggest hits were: “We Like to Party”, “Shalala Lala” and “Uncle John from Jamaica”.

That was all on boy- and girl bands, next time we will talk about (happy) hardcore, so make sure to check the blog regularly!

 

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Human Jukebox

To get you guys in the right mood for next week, here is a clip of all 90's music

How many do you remember?

Thanks to all the people who are already following us here and on Twitter and liked us on Facebook!