Well it's not new as I cribbed it from an existing program
but:

How about a thing that pops up when you press a button (I vote for the windows key on XP machines) that surrounds your cursor (wherever it is) with eight objects. Each object can then be an icon or a folder. An icon obviously would launch a program, whereas a folder would open a new expansion of objects.

The key things would be that you could access the launcher with your cursor anywhere and not have to go to the edge of the screen to get it, and that you could keep the folders open and click multiple icons to launch multiple programs without having to re-navigate the folders each time (I'm looking at you Windows Start Menu!)

Has anything like this been done? I tried to search for it but didn't know what terms to use. Could it be done?

Yup...been there done that. I even think there are two different themes in the theme section that do it.

Yup... Recombinant (pic) by mrbiotech, available here. A little buggy, though.

Thanks guys. There are just so many themes to look through. Also could someone recommend a distro with a self-installer? I CAN do the manuel install but would prefer not to if I don't have to.

Scratch that last, I RTFWS (same as RTFM but with the M replaces by Web Site)

I'll save you from the flames.