Retro saturdays and mcdonalds ronald and friends movies

Back in the late 90's or early 00's, mcdonald's released a set of animated videos starring ronald mcdonald and friends. They were available for purchase by themselves for around $4.99 or $2.95 with a happy meal which is explains how I had the whole set or almost the whole set. Each vhs movie was set around a certain theme(halloween,pirate,future) with one vhs tape having 2 thirty minute episodes if they were broadcast on tv

The one reason this gives me nostalgia is because one day me and my family went to san pedro and I taped pokemon(the episode where ash gets stuck in that cave in season 1) and we had to wait a long time for a bus or train or for the truck to cool down after it overheated. All I remember is staying a long time at a mcdonalds and getting the 1st movie. I sadly donated all of them and they live on through youtube

They are kids movies and aimed at kids so you don't need to watch them

Retro saturdays and spirograph "game"

Even though it's technically a board game, I don't consider spirograph to be much of one. It's more a drawing tool for kids and adults. What it is, a drawing pad or papers with colored pencils and a square frame with circular shaped tools with small openings in them. The frame has "teeth" and so did the circles and you would put the tip of a pencil through an opening and hold it down then move the circle to produce weird spiro patterns on paper

That was it and it seems simple but it gave me a lot of joy when I was little. I don't remember if my mom got me one when I was in kindergarten or she found one that the neighbors threw out(they would leave a lot of good toys in a box by the recycle bin when I was little and that also gives me nostalgia) and kept it for me. I would spend hours outside just drawing by myself and I'm tempted to get one for old times sake

Retro saturdays and mr bucket

"I'm mr bucket"  that's all I remember from the commercial. Mr bucket is a board game or it was lumped in with board games but it's a game you can play with friends/family/cats. I never owned one as it was too expensive when it was new and my mom probably thought there was something vaguely sexual about a bucket that shoots balls out of it's mouth. I did play with one in elementary school

The game involves using the little shovels to scoop the balls into the bucket part of mr bucket meanwhile he spits them out of his mouth. That's all there is to it and maybe the kreepy eyes had something to do with the bucket being taken off the market. Maybe because it's also easy to change his name into a profanity and maybe someone stuck something else inside that permanent :O mouth

I still want one

Retro fridays and mario is missing

Mario is missing has stayed in my memory ever since I rented it from hollywood video one time. See back when I was little you couldn't just look up things on google or the internet and wikipedia didn't exist much less using your phone to look things up. So video games were more of a surprise as you only had magazines to go by. The point of all this is that there was games out there that I didn't know existed, common popular games too not super indie 10 copies made games

Mario is missing blew my mind when I first saw it, I was bored of super mario world and I wanted more mario action so I thought this was a long lost sequel and I had to rent it. The opening cutscene and title is very reminiscent of super mario world so I got my hopes up. Well I quickly got crushed and realized that life doesn't always work out the way you want it

You walk around as lugi in various towns and you can't attack the enemies and they can't attack you. Your supposed to collect artifacts I assume and that's the whole game

I still don't know what the buttons do and where to go and I learned that I shouldn't trust a game based on it's franchise

Retro fridays and payphones

Yes I am well aware payphones still exist but they were a lot more prominent in the 90's. Cellphones were around but they were expensive especially for a kid or a teenager or anyone actually so lots of people resorted to a payphone. It's exactly what it sounds like, a phone you pay to use. Usually they were inside a small both to protect the phone from the elements and to give the caller some privacy. I'm not aware of the rates but I do remember it was 50 cents or less to make a local 10 minute call

Usually I would call my mom to pick me up from some place and I would avoid the nasty phone where you would probably catch something just by being close to it. You would pick up the receiver and dial the number and turn the volume up since it was always too low and even the highest setting is still too low. You would put your coins in and make a quick call that you wouldn't believe cost that much $ and it should be cheaper

Cellphones pretty much put an end to a payphone except for me. I went from 2007 to 2016 without a cellphone with service in it. I had to look up and make mental and physical notes of payphones around me because I still used one as recently as march of this year. I haven't had service on my phone since november so I will continue to use payphones. Hopefully they don't go away soon as when I see one I think of my childhood

Retro saturdays and tara reid

Ah tara reid, I'm a still a fan of her but for a period of time in the early 00's she was THE girl for a lot of guys. With her long flowing blonde hair and piercing blue eyes, she was good looking and had a killer stare. She was also in a lot of tv comedies and tabloids so you couldn't get away from her even if you tried. I most remember her from well I haven't seen any of the teen comedy films she was in and so I only know her from her appearance in official playstation magazine

I of course remember her infamous nipple slip after she got implants and that's all she wrote for her. She seemed to vanish then recently returned in the sharknado videos with her killer eyes. I can't be the only one that thought she was cute in 2001

Retro saturdays and thick ball necklaces

I'm not sure what the real name of these necklaces is but for those that were around in the late 90's to early 00's will surely remember these. I don't remember if girls wore them too but I do vividly remember it was "cool" for boys to wear them with a skateboarding shirt and extremely spiky hair

I never bought into the fad or much of any fads but my friends at the time all had these necklaces and the few friends I'm still with are embarrassed to remember those times. There isn't much else to say as it was just a necklace that made you "cool" but people now cringe when they see one

Retro saturdays and disney movie box toys from mcdonalds

It's hard to explain so a picture will say a lot and those of us that would get these toys from mcdonalds will remember them. It is a thin plastic(possibly vinyl or pvc) box with the cover being the same as the vhs version and the box had a plastic figure relating to the movie. For example woody with toy story and simba with the lion king and bambi with bambi. That's all there was to it but for some reason it captivated us and lead us to try to collect them all

The anticipation of buying a happy meal and wondering what movie box you would get almost makes me want to get a happy meal now. I would usually get a simba or bambi and there was a 2nd and possibly 3rd run. More disney movies got released in the 90's and there was more of these box figures toys released, based off my rough memory I would say there was about 15 different kinds

I still see these at swap meets and they always take me back to my childhood

I have been busy working to post retro friday yesterday

On thursday I worked a 9 hour shift from 1 to 10pm followed by a almost 7am to 3 something shift. So 9 hours few sleep then an 8.5 hour shift then going to target and sears and kohl's with my mom left me with little energy to post retro friday so that will continue next week as I won't be working a busy holiday schedule for next friday

Anyways I'll post retro saturday now instead and everyone enjoy your christmas eve as I will be busy working a 6 hour shift

2016 has been good to me

Unlike the majority of people that complain about how horrible 2016 was and want it to end, my 2016 has been mostly good. Now many of you know how my 2015 went and how horrible it was so this year went well for me. I got not one but 4 jobs(3 really but I count one of them since I was hired) and my mom got a job too so things turned around in my family. The bad news is that my grandpa died in feb and I have made peace with it

His last conversation with me he told me to try hard at my new job and to get myself a small car and a girlfriend who isn't lazy because I have a lot of good qualities to offer a woman, The family f150 also had maintenance problems that my dad didn't bother(he is lazy so parts finally gave up) and it is 16 years old so things were finally bound to go wrong. So no running truck for now(I think it's the yoke axel that needs lubrication) but at least everyone in my family works(except for my 4 year old sister) I have had good finds at the swap meet and yard sales and good hot wheels finds and my co workers are nice at my new job

I finally got to see the cubs win the world series and the lakers have turned things around and the rams moved back to los angeles. You got to take the bad with the good and there has been a lot more good in 2016 in my life

Now I remember why I hate sundays

They usually go slow and lonely and boring and depressing and yesterday was no exception. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't seem to focus at work and I kept messing up on things. For example I have no idea how to do a layaway so guess what happened yesterday, some layaway customers came and I messed it up so next time I didn't do a layaway and most likely I'll pass them onto more experienced co workers. I dropped a glass thermos a lady bought and had to refund her on the spot and it was the last one. I had a lot of customers that bought the last one of a thing and some didn't have a brand so I had to hope and pray they didn't want it as the price or name wouldn't come up. I held some purchased items for a customer and once they buy something their supposed to take it with them

I drank an ubermonster and I was on edge the last 30 mins of my shift and at home and I still am right now. It made me moody and needy and like a teenage girl that got dumped. I realized it was sunday and I been having bad luck because of it(I also spilled some uber monster on a tru bag I had) and today it still continues. The traffic light near my house isn't working and goodwill is having a black out so it's closed to customers and I was looking foward to it

Luckily for me, customers didn't get upset and only I stressed myself out and the majority of my coworkers are nice and helpful

Retro saturdays and chips in a cup

I'm not sure if these are still made in a cup but I do remember that in the early 00's these were a new, popular thing. For the longest time, chips just came in a bag with air but in the early 00's someone smart came up with the idea to package them in a plastic cup. Sure it's a simple change but it's a huge breakthrough in the world of snacks. This makes it a lot easier to eat chips one handed(get your mind out of the gutter) and you can have the tv remote in one hand or you can text your bff with the other or you can eat them while driving since they also fit in a cup holder

This cup also makes it easy to pour out the chips into your mouth without touching the chips themselves which is a plus in my book and one less hand washing. You can also eat them while skateboarding which was a huge trend at the time

When chips came out in a cup they were marketed as extreme which was cheesy and they were soon everywhere at school. I used to always get the doritos 3D version even if it didn't hold much, now I feel like getting some chips in a cup

Retro saturdays and the kb toys website from 1996

Just look at kb toys website from 1996, see if you can spot the differences between it and a modern site. In case you didn't notice, there are no options to buy anything from the website or shop. It's just a guest book(I remember when websites used to have those) featured products and a gallery of collectible products. There was no information on a weekly ad or where a local kb toys was or what time they opened/closed and on what days. Websites back in the 90's were a lot simpler and loaded faster but they were full of fluff

They were more to get kids to ask their parents to take them to kb toys to buy them toys and this would work on me nowadays if kb toys still existed. I wish more sites were simple and clean and space efficient

Retro saturdays and overalls with one strap on

As lame as they probably seem now, back in the 90's it was extremely cool and trendy to wear overalls but you would get 10+ cool points if you only wear one strap similar to how high school kids think it's cool to one strap a back pack.Every boy and maybe girls too, all wore at least one pair of overalls in the 90's, it was required to be a kid or adult in the 90's. I know I did when I was very little and I had a hard time getting them off when it came time to go to the bathroom

There isn't much to say about this fad or the overalls, it was cool for a time period to wear overalls and even cooler to wear them one strap. I am thinking of getting some overalls again and try to bring that style back, if not then I'll be extremely 90's and will look like a time traveler

Retro fridays and mcdonald's moon mascot mac tonight

I'm not sure what his name was(yes he is a he) but this crescent moon head man used to be the mascot for awhile for mcdonalds back in the early to mid 90's and possibly the late 90's. He wasn't an anthromorphic moon either, but a man who happen to have a moon for a head so yes he was kreepy and that's probably the reason why mcdonalds went back to ronald mcdonald

I most remember the (big) mac tonight ads where every friday or monday(based off my memory) big macs were 99 cents and I wish that deal would come back again. This single handly kept mcdonalds afloat in the 90s after the spilled coffee scandal. Mcdonalds also had some happy meal toys where each one was a car with the moon man as the driver and I still have some. They also used him for nascar logos and that was also a happy meal toy I have

Mcdonalds should bring him back for a short time since things from the 90's like to come back

Retro fridays and barney the purple dinosaur

Barney could also be baby's first edgy idea. See once us kids got to a certain age, we thought we were cool for bashing barney or that it made us cool. "Barney's for babies" was the common quote you would hear on the playground by kids that were too cool for school. While they were right, barney was also a integral part of our childhood learning experience. Barney taught us numbers and the alphabet and how to be nice to each other(which didn't work) and to share and help others and not be selfish

"barney is a dinosaur and I don't know the rest of the words" I can still hear that theme song in my head often. Barney was on pbs every day at various times throughout kid friendly times and sometimes at night. It seems like every kid in the 90's grew up with barney then his popularity petered out in the 00's and then tried a reboot CGI series then stopped. I'm not sure barney re runs are still on anymore. The only way to get your fix is through youtube or old vhs tapes

For a brief moment in time, barney captivated us and we couldn't ask from more from a big purple dinosaur

Retro fridays and street fighter alpha 2

When released, street fighter alpha 2 was a big deal in the world of video games. Street fighter alpha 1 was a surprise hit and people were tired of waiting for capcom to count to 3 so this was a great way to get our sf fix and this was a huge fix. Building upon it's predecessor, SFA2 had a bigger roster with more characters from sfa1 and bigger and brighter sprites and the super combo system was overhauled. Now there was a custom combo to go along with alpha counters and super combos. What drew me to this game was the big(for it's time) roster, I had a hard time choosing between rolent,ken,akuma,sakura,gen or guy but I mostly stuck with ken and sakura for their uppercuts

The graphics will blow you away and it's what gives sfa2 it's own distinct look among with the music and the stages. I would play this game after I beat xmen vs street fighter and I found it to be hard and I can only get to the 3rd or 4th stage then I would lose and didn't want to spend any more money. When it came out on the super nintendo I was amazed this game was able to fit on my old snes and of course I wanted it but it was the 2nd most expensive snes game after dkc2($59.99) so my dreams of owning the home port of sfa2 were dashed for awhile. I would later own the arcade port on the alpha anthology game for the ps2 and I still play it from time to time. The cover art hypes you up for the game among with the inclusion of evil ryu and having mr bison be the final boss

Today is the 4th anniversary of sandy hook shootings

When it happened I could not believe that someone could do this. Just the thought of all the little kids made me really sad and still makes me want to cry. I remember it was all over every channel and I couldn't comprehend it happened. I half expected it to be a dream but it wasn't, this really happened(I'll destroy anyone that says it didn't happen) and it is still an extremely tragic event. Just the thought of little kids dying so young is sad

Next week is going to be a busy retail week

It's the days before xmas last minute shopping week so lots of stores including burlington will be extremely busy. My hours have increased every week and I am ready for this challenge next week. I'm glad my company has a heart and doesn't schedule employees for crazy 14+ hours shifts. We all work reasonable hours that are understandable now that there are a lot more customers

Even my customers are nice even when the line gets really long and the wait can be awhile. Good luck to those that also work in retail

Retro saturdays and joey lawrence

You may not be familar with that name and that's ok, Joey Lawrence was a extremely popular pop singer in the early 90's. In terms of how huge he was, picture justen bieber and that will give you an idea and that describes his career somewhat well. Joey was a teenage hearthrob that had his 15 mins of fame then well I'm not sure what he did after but I do know he was in melissa and joey earlier this decade. Just as quickly as he rose to fame, he petered out and was off the limelight until melissa and joey made him relevant again

There is an episode of melissa and joey where his daughter finds out he was a pop singer in a duo and we see a video of modern day joe singing so he still has it. He probably still goes to himself "yeah I used to be a big pop singer, I had it all" but he still looks good and completely different. He was unavoidable on tabloids and magazines which is how I knew who he was

One last note, he is also the brother of jack(matthew lawrence) from boy meets world and his brother has been on melissa and joey

Retro saturdays and street fighter 3

Capcom finally counts to 3, it's ok if you don't understand that joke but I'll explain it. Back in the 90's there was a noticeable gap in time and fighting games released between street fighter 2 and 3 that it became a running gag in magazines to say that capcom couldn't count to 3 as they were content to make spinoffs instead of street fighter 3. For example there was the vs series(xmen and marvel), xmen children of the atom, marvel super heroes,street fighter alpha 1 and 2, super gem fighter mini mix aka pocket fighters(sf like game with mini characters),super fighter 2 turbo, the darkstalkers series, street fighter ex(3D street fighter) and possibly rival schools. All these before street fighter 3 finally came out in the arcades. So when I finally was able to play it I was in shock and could not believe this game was real

I thought the graphics were the best and elena quickly became my favorite character with sean a close 3nd and of course old standbys ken and ryu still being characters I was good with. This new sf game quickly became the only thing I would play at the arcades and I got really good at it. However I only got to the final boss gil and he is extremely cheap. He has a super where he restores all or most of his health. I lost interest once marvel vs capcom 1 came out and there wasn't a home port of sf3 as the saturn or the ps1 couldn't handle it and the dreamcast came out when this game was already seen as old hat

I'll never forget that year I played street fighter 3 and it's a game that now I feel like playing, if only I had the $$ to buy an arcade cabinet to get the true nostalgia

retro saturdays and mortal kombat 4

Mortal kombat finally jumped into the third dimension with this game. This was the 1st mk fighting game that was released that didn't have motion captured 2d graphics but instead, fully 3D computer generated polygons. With the jump to 3D comes the ability to step side to dodge attacks but now onto the game itself. When released in the arcades this was a big deal as fans wanted to see mk in 3D and how the newest game would turn out. I remember playing it and feeling confused as it kept the gameplay engine from mk3 but it controlled like virtual fighter. I remember picking subzero and being blown away at the graphics and the sound effects and the faster speed of the gameplay. This wasn't the same ol' mk game anymore and that was great

The game(well goro anyways) was on the july or august 1998 issue of egm2 and I remember reading it at newstands at stater  bros then buying it for the moves list. My new favorite character quickly became fujin and me and my best friend(at the time) would spend every recess and lunch talking about mortal kombat 4. We talked about rumors and tips and possible ideas for the next mortal kombat game. It consumed our lives and the playstation and n64 release blew our minds. He got it for ps1 as I didn't have one and he would brag about playing it every day after school. He moved away at the end of the school year but I still played mk4

I would later get my own copy for the ps1 in 2008 at a swap meet for $3 and nostalgia can create pretty powerful memories. If you never played it, pick quan chi or shinnok as they are beginner friendly characters

Retro fridays and hit me baby one more time

This song was britney spear's very 1st hit single and the reason why she became so popular. What brought the song over the top was the music video and the frequent airplay. I would frequently go to sears with my mom and of course this song would come on over the musak, it was everywhere and I couldn't escape from britneymania. When the music video debuted britney's school girl outfit was considered extremely risque as was the video itself. When you look back at it, the video is pretty tame so it's funny to see how things changed over the years. Britney rode her hit single to fame and fortune and it seemed like she became huge overnight similar to nirvana

I was on the this song is meh bandwagon that was pretty popular in the late 90's but britney spears still gives me strong nostalgia for the late 90's to early 00's especially when I hear hit me baby one more time

Retro fridays and princess diana

I got to admit, I don't remember much about princess di, I just knew she was british and that they had a queen and a princess and she had short hair. She was usually in the news for something small she did and that was it. What I most remember her for and what I am sure most people remember her for is her death

That to me was huge news in the 90's even if I didn't know exactly what she did/or was, I do remember she was in a early to mid 90's S class and she wasn't wearing her seat belt. So the car hit a barrier on the freeway and that is how she left this earth. It was all over the news and it struck me hard. How can this princess suddenly die? but she did and I still miss her

My 1st week has been pretty smooth

The only things I don't know how to do is page other employees using the intercom or the codes that are used. I don't have much time to ask my co workers on a mini crash course because when I clock in it is already busy and I open a register to help customers. That's how it's like my whole shift, I help one customer after another with very little down time until my shift ends. It is only going to get busier and so far things have worked out in my favor

However here are some tips to help things go smoother and faster for you the customers, 1. If something doesn't have a price tag or tag of any kind, ask an employee on the sales floor such as someone stocking shelves if they can get a price for you. As a cashier I would have to look up on the schedule who is working in what department the object is at and then I would have to find someone with a walkie talkie and page them and hope they have one and then they would have to look it up. This is all while I stand there feeling helpless so it is faster for you and me if you ask a non cashier employee what the price is and it will save us both a lot of time

2. If you buy a lot of things with security tags on them, it will take awhile to get them off one by one so have some patience as I am going as fast as I can and I am not going slow on purpose

3. Which is another thing, I want you to get checked out fast so I am doing things as fast as I can

I probably have more but those ones are the ones that stand out to me right now, I like my job at burlington and my co workers are nice even at the end of a long day/shift/week. I am not afraid to make mistakes and ask for help

Retro saturdays and bill clinton and monica

By monica I mean monica lewinsky who was an intern in the white house when bill clinton was president. For those of us that lived through the 90's, this was a huge deal and a scandal, second only to the oj simpson bronco chase and the rodney king riots. Sometimes in the mid 90's, bill and monica did sexual stuff probably in the white house based on my vague memories. Yes he is married to hillary clinton and yes it was a big deal as he ended up being impeached. However he was still president after it was all said and done

This scandal doesn't seem to be that good but what made it memorable in my eyes and everyone else is bill clinton's famous "I didn't not have sexual relations with that woman" which lead to emulation everywhere. For the longest time on kazaa and other p2p programs in the early 00's it was a crapshoot if you got a sound file with the famous quote. It was lampooned on late night shows and saturday night live and of course a bill clinton mask was a popular halloween costume. Just as quickly as it happened, the scandal faded from the media and it was a footnote in the wild 90's. However just the name of monica lewinsky brings up those memories

Retro saturdays and virtual fighter 1

When released, virtual fighter 1 was a groundbreaking revolution in the fighting game genre when it was released. It is a 3D polygon(buzz term) fighter that was grounded in reality. There was no 30 feet super jumps, no fireballs or teleporting or blood, just 1 on 1 fighting using your fists and feet. It was a breath of fresh air and quickly became the most talked about fighting game and later saw a home port on the sega saturn. I played it a few times and liked it, mostly because the xmen vs street fighter arcade was full. Whenever I would go to pizza hut there would be a VF arcade machine and I always played some matches while I waited for my 'za

I have never owned a sega saturn or virtual fighter 1 in home form so that's all my nostalgia of it. I do also remember it was covered in egm and gamepro and egm2 and tips and tricks. The sequel came out next year and got all the attention and hype and play time but the original is still good if a little blocky and is a great game

Retro fridays and hit clips

If your not familar with hit clips, they were extremely popular around the late 90's to early 00's based off my memory. The player is a tiny little U shaped thing that played a small square stamp sized "album" I saw album because each little square only had about 1 song or 2 or 3 if you were lucky. It came out in a time when CD players still ruled and mp3 players were huge and bulky and expensive so it had some good timing when released. Think of a hit clip as an extremely limited non skip cd player and you got the right idea

I remember there was a commercial for mcdonalds where they were promoting a free hit clip song for $2 more with purchase of a combo meal. There was britney spears and 98 degrees and other popular pop artists. I never got a hit clip as I saw it as a rip off then a few years later I got a 20gb mp3 player. The ipod came out in 2001 so that doomed the hit clip and it was cheaper to buy an ipod and lots of songs. With that came the end to the hitclip

Retro fridays and oops I did it again

The 2nd popular single released by britney spears, oops I did it again provided that britney spears wasn't simply a 1 hit wonder 15 mins of fame flash in the pan. She was somewhat here to stay and that she did for the early 2000's. Oops I did it again was a pop and radio staple among with always being on TRL. Not just because it's a catchy song, but the video also gave the song a strong impact

That's all I remember about this song, well britney spears also dressed in a early 00's manner around then (usually jean skirts) and over the years this song was a symbol of her former self. The cat suit outfit in the video still is very memorable. Here's the link to the video

My 1st day at burlington went well

My co workers are really nice and willing to help out even my(scary to me) manager on duty(because they have the power to fire you on the spot). I had a mini team rally to start my shift and I had an experienced cashier show me the ropes then I was eventually off on my own. Things mostly went smoothly although I did want to be fast with bagging and payment but the security tags slow me down. The process to remove them can take awhile if someone has multiple products with security tags on them. I don't mind though and I find them fun, things picked up around lunch time and after it and I was handling things like a pro

Tomorrow is my 2nd day and I look forward to it and my coworkers are easy to get along with and we all help each other. I wish more stores had this kind of positive environment