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

I start at burlington on wednesday

Yes I am really nervous and my friend said I'll be fine so I'll take his word for it. I'll study up on the return policy and look at my notes and hope for the best. The good news is that my co workers are nice and the customers are pretty nice themselves. I expect to be thrown into the cashering fire but i may not be and I will get more training if  I'm not. I got my uniform clothes ready and have money for lunch and I'm just anticipating the day with a nervous demeanor

Retro saturdays and beanie babies

Ah beanie babies, once so beloved by adults and childern, now they are thrown to the wayside and forgotten about by mostly everyone until someone says "remember when beanie babies were cool" yes I do remember. I'm not sure how the fad started but it was cool in the 90's to collect beanie babies and like most fads, a lot of people went overboard. Beanie babies themselves are small stuffed animals with beads or some type of bean inside and a TY tag and a heart tag that says it's name and a small description. I don't remember how much they cost but they were pretty inexpensive and i owned about 2 or 4. The fad lead to a happy meal toy called teenie babies which I will cover in another post, what I most remember about beanies babies is how rabid people were for them(picture black friday but worse) and it seems like everyone was buying them to save for later because they would go up in value

Well it turns out that didn't happen and beanie babies are worth less then what they did in the 90's. I recently saw one at a rummage sale for 20 cents so of course I got it. That also describes how far beanie babies have fallen. So many people bought so many beanie babies and assumed they were going to be rich in about 15 to 20 years. The irony out of this is that some things released around the same time are actually worth some big money if you kept them sealed. I didn't buy into the fad and I'm glad I didn't but the little stuffed animals bring me a lot of nostalgia when I see them at goodwill or savers. Oh they were popular around 1996 through 1998

Retro saturdays and american idiot by green day

Green day had a great career before the american idiot album but this was a career changing album, out went the ripped clothes and blonde hair and in came in black hair and black dress pants and black dress shirts and red ties and black mascara and eye linder. Green day completely changed their look and they got extremely popular for it. The girls who thought they were ugly on the last album now suddenly thought billie joe was sooo cute. Blvd of broken dreams and american idiot were huge radio staples and still are today. I remember every girl I knew at the time said they were big green day fans and they were goth/punk/skater

There was also that song about waking up billie joe when september ends that is now a fad every oct 1st, The turn towards the black lead a lot of girls to go for that look and suddenly it became cool to have jet black hair. The whole time I wondered what was happening with this band and why so many people hated dookie. Just as quickly as the new look green day became popular, the fun ran out and it stopped being cool to like green day and the were a footnote in 2005

Retro fridays and tragic kingdom by no doubt

By tragic kingdom I mean the album itself and also it's a play on words of the magic kingdom. When it came out this album made waves and was extremely popular on the radio. I couldn't go to a store without hearing don't speak or just a girl or sunday morning. I associate kb toys and super kmart and going to the mall to this album. What made the band's popularity explode was the media focusing on gwen stefani. I remember there was an interview with her in a disney adventures magazine and she always wore a bindi(indian jewelry on her forehead) and she also got famous for her style of dress

Obviously don't speak became the breakout and still is, hit but it is a solid alt rock album that came out in a male dominated genre in a unexpected time. The album still holds up well today and giving it a listen always brings me back to the 90's when it seems like it was blasting out of every car. It's also interesting to see how gwen's fashion style has changed throughout the years

Retro fridays and the slipknot debut album

This blog post was inspired by a girl a saw a few days ago. She was around 14-17 and had bluish hair and a black slipknot sweater with a big S on the back. It brought me back a lot of nostalgia and she was born around/after their peak but the band still hits home with her. In a nutshell that best describes slipknot, a band with songs and an image perfectly geared for angsty teens. In the early 90's nirvana and a lot of alt bands were that music that catered to the teenage crowd, well in the late late 90's and early 00's slipknot was that band

Although it is known as slipknot's  debut album(it's untitled and called slipknot) their actual debut is eat mate feed kill but this follow up is the major label bombshell dropper, the nevermind of slipknot if you will. I was there when it came out and I was.........made fun of for not thinking slipknot was the best thing ever and for not hating my parents. This album was released in the prime of nu metal and expanded the genre onto new territory, if you never heard it well a lot of the songs are cookie monster growling. The band itself is weird in that they had 9 members and they all wore masks and had a barcode on the back of their jackets. The album had such hits such as surfacing(also the video captures peak slipknot well and their fans) wait and bleed(the most mainstream song) and spit it out. Once they went tour they were a hit and commanded huge crowds especially at ozzfest. Kids and teens everywhere went nuts for slipknot shirts and the S logo was a huge seller. It was on every shirt for maximum cool effect and seeing that girl's jacket give me that nostalgia. Just like how slipknot attracted angsty teens in the early 00's, the music still appeals to today's teenagers

The past few days have been eventful

First off I have to post that whatever I say as an employee of burlington coat factory that my views/opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the views of burlington or it's affiliates


Ok first up I got pokemon moon on launch day and I'm having fun with it. I have not played X or Y or the ruby/sapphire remakes so the 3D gameplay is new to me and it throws me off. I choose the owl starter and I am currently at level 12 and training outside close to the pokecenter by route 1 close to your house. The one thing I noticed is that this game uses a lot of the 3ds power and it uses battery faster then other games. It also does that special start up that super smash bros and monster hunter have where they take awhile to start because they shut down some of the system resources and running programs. I think this game freezes if you try to play a different game from the home menu

The music is really catchy and the pokecenter has the same music from red/blue but slowed down and remixed, they also have a cafe so pokecenters are one stop shops to heal/buy items/buy coffee. I like the rockruffs which are dog pokemon with some sort of spiky rock collar around their neck. There is a lot of cut scenes that drag out the story and I wish they could have been sped up or skipped but I don't mind. The gameplay is solid as always. The game is money well spent and onto a different thing now

Yesterday I went to orientation at burlington for the cashier position. It went well although there was a lot of information thrown at me at once but luckily for me, burlington raises a positive, supportive environment. The coworkers I met are nice and I can ask questions without seeming like a pest, I can tell the manager or manager on duty that I need more training and I can do more orientation training. I don't have to be quiet and fail, I'll ask on my 1st day if I can use a register by myself 1st to recap and because some things you won't understand until you actually try them in person. I can also shadow someone and ask questions and if I am thrown into the fire and start cashiering right away well the only things I need cleared up are how to print out a gift receipt and how to do a return. I am confident in myself and my skills that I have learned in my previous job and the people aren't in much of a hurry as in my previous job so I can make small talk with customers. I already have some black dockers style pants i got new and cheap 2 or 3 weeks ago and I got  a black polo shirt and a black shirt that looks like a sweater with a polo shirt type collar. I'm going to be on the lookout for another black polo shirt for cheap

I am a seasonal on call employee and my 1st day is later this month after thanksgiving however since I am on call there is a chance an employee can call in sick and I will have my 1st day earlier then expected. I am nervous and anxious about my 1st day but I believe it will go awkwardly at first then I'll get the hang of it and become a model employee. There is also a chance after the holidays end that I get hired as a normal non seasonal employee and I would love to stay onboard permanently

Retro saturdays and speed the movie

No this movie isn't about a drug, I'm talking about the 90's classic staring sandra bullock and keanu reeves aka neo from the matrix. Oh and dennis hopper is in it too and uncle joey from full house. The movie itself is about dennis hopper rigging a bomb on a city bus and it will explode. I 1st saw this movie on tv as I would frequently see the poster and vhs cover whenever I would go to video stores. It's probably the number #1 most rented vhs movie simply because every video store kept multiple copies by the cashier so it made a great impulse rental

I recorded from fox one day in the 90's as it was supposed to start at 9pm(my bed time back then) and end some time after 11pm and this was on a school night. The next day I rushed home from school and rewound my tape and it recorded it, I was in awe the whole film and I wondered why it had an R rating if it didn't have much violence and no sex scenes(just one make out scene) and also how a bus could go that fast

What makes this movie interesting now is the 105 freeway where most of the freeway scenes took place. In real life at the time it was under construction and now it's one of the busiest freeways in southern california and it's in need of repair. It's just funny to look at it and realize it's not that old. The traffic back then was interesting and it takes you back to the early 90's. I remember how popular the ford taurus was and this movie reflects that. The bus itself is neat as it seems to be from the 80's and it's different yet similar to today's modern aquare buses

Retro saturdays and virtual bart

This super nintendo(I think it was also on the genesis) game may not bring a lot of nostalgia for most people but for me it does and it's my blog so I'll cry if I want to and you would cry too if it happened to you. Ok that song got stuck in my head but moving on, the simpsons:virtual bart is a simpsons game for 16 bit consoles from the 90's. I rented it from a video store that used to be across the street from me and because I was(still am) a huge simpsons fan and the appeal of a bart simpson video game was too much to resist

If only I could look up gameplay footage or reviews of this game like in today's world. I quickly realized this game is cheap and hard and unfair. You pick a level and each one represents a different nightmare that bart has while he's using a vr headset(so ahead of it's time) I remember one level was a road rash rip off but harder and another one was a factory platforming level that is also hard. Each level is extremely difficult and the only way to beat it is with a gameshark or game genie but those were the days and you couldn't exactly complain and get your way unlike today's video games

Oh there is also a level where you use your slingshot to throw things at simpsons characters in front of the school but it's also hard. If you can get this game nowadays, get it cheap as it's not that much fun without cheats

Retro saturdays and street fighter alpha 1

Unlike other street fighter games I don't have much play time with street fighter alpha 1 but it does give me plenty of nostalgia so I'll continue. Story wise, alpha 1 takes place between street fighter 1 and 2 but it came out sometime in 1995 according to my vague idea I have from magazines from 1996 where sfa 2 was on a lot of covers. I first saw it at funco land and thanks to the font I read it as street fighter nlpha but I badly wanted a playstation for this mysterious new street fighter game

I would later play it an an arcade and of course picked ken. The game was similar to sf2 but the graphics and stages were beefed up and the major difference is super combos. Sure they started out in super street fighter 2 turbo but that game was hard to find at the arcades and you needed an expensive niche console such as a 3DO to play it at home. Ok back onto alpha 1, the graphics blew me away among with the super combo dragon punch. I wanted this game only I had a super nintendo at the time and it was only for the playstation and sega saturn. The character roster is solid and the fighting engine is tight among with gameplay. This game is where mr bison is roided up as the final boss in a trend that still continues

I didn't play it much at arcade since I always preferred alpha 2 however I did finally own it when I got alpha anthology for the ps2 but I still don't play alpha 1 much. That best describes this game, it got overshadowed by it's sequel and is mostly forgotten about. I also have the gbc port which is impressive and has a smooth frame rate and is the best street fighter game for the gameboy or gameboy color. Alpha 1 is worth some quick playings but it quickly gets tiresome

At least it has cool box art

Retro saturdays and bubble gum mini milk cartons

I use the term milk because that is what I most associate a carton with, mostly because of getting one every day in school, yes I know orange juice also comes in a carton. Back on topic, in the 90's it was extremely common to see these little cartons everywhere at stores. They were filled with little pieces of gum that didn't last long both in flavor and in chewing. The novelty was in the little carton and pretending to be drinking something from it. Sure it was easily forgettable but there's something about gum in non gum containers

Retro fridays and rock n roll racing

Another game I would rent frequently, rock n roll racing is now somewhat known as the first game to use licensed music. Sure the songs were just the instrumental versions but it was still cool to hear paranoid by black sabbath in a game. The game itself is a 3/4 isometric view racing game with weapons. You buy a car then you can spend money to upgrade it or buy a faster car and move onto other planets. Yeah in this game you race on different plants and some of the characters are inspired by the xenomorphs from aliens. The gameplay is pretty solid and at times the AI can be cheap but nothing too bad

I would rent this game as a last resort when I had a difficult choice between a random unknown game or rock n roll racing. I'm glad I made that choice often as the counter man said I was the only one that would rent it frequently. It was later ported to the gameboy advance(which I own) I spent plenty of time with my neighbor just racing and trash talking and having fun

Retro fridays and teenage mutant ninja turtles turtle pies

This blog post will be short and most likely not sweet, turtle pies are not poop like it's name seems to suggest, they are those snack pies that are usually 79 or 89 cents and are lumped in with other snack foods like nutter butters and ding dongs. I indulge in a snack pie from time to time and I prefer the chocolate kind because it has chocolate pudding inside. The outside is a hard pie crust that has the shape of a calzone or hot pocket but it's hard

Tmnt turtle pies were just like this but the crust/inflated calzone was colored green and the filling was colored yellow. Sure these were tmnt colors but as a food product it was a turn off, who wants to eat something green that isn't usually green. Yeah it didn't last long and I only miss the package but not the actual pie itself

Retro fridays and mortal kombat 3

The very first time I played mortal kombat 3 was at my friend's house with his super nintendo, I remember it pretty well. His mom's white 1992 ford taurus was in the drive way so I knew he was home somehow. He had a nintendo 64 and a sega genesis and 32x and possibly a sega CD and a game gear and gameboy and possibly a 3DO. I know his brother also had a good gaming pc(for the time) and I was amazed that this video game heaven was so close to me. Compared to me with just my snes and a handful of games. Ok so he asks if I wanted to play the newest mortal kombat game so I say yes and he puts it in his snes

I have played mk2 and 1 but this game blew me away. The atmosphere and music perfectly sets the tone among with the character select screen. The roster is a big departure from the previous games with returning characters getting new looks such as sub zero and kano and jax and shang tsung. We played a lot of battles and of course I wanted this game for my snes but it was expensive(around $40 brand new) so I made the most of my visits to his house. I also rented it a couple of times and that's where a lot of my memories come from. I still remember the code for the kool stuff secret menu that my friend told me

I bought a magazine that was pretty much codes for different consoles and I learned another life lesson. Always check to see that everything is intact, my magazine have the mk3 section ripped out so I was doomed for months wondering what the other cheats were. I luckily wrote down more cheats from a tips and tricks onto a note card(you couldn't just look them up on the internet) then copied them onto more papers just in case I lost one. I got extremely good at the game and still am especially with smoke. I can be your worst nightmare with dial a combos, I am also good with kabal and sindel. I rarely played this game at the arcade since the AI is extremely cheap which brings me to my next point

The AI in this game is extremely hard and cheap and they cheat. The computer reads which buttons your pressing so if you do a special move by the time you pull it off, the cpu is already countering even on the very easy difficulty. The way to counter this is to trick the computer into doing a move then do a teleport attack, I can beat them with smoke but with other characters it's a lot harder

Sure ultimate mortal kombat 3 is better but I'll always have a soft spot for mk3

Sweet vicious is my new favorite tv show

It premiered on mtv 2 days ago but the first 3 episodes are on demand so of course I watched them all in a row and I still want more. This is how it must feel to watch breaking bad or the walking dead. Anyways the show is about 2 college girls who end up becoming vigilante hunters of on campus and off campus rapists. The 1st 3 episodes sort of ran together but the main characters are jules who is the girly girl blonde in a sorority and has a double life as a ninja rapist hunter, the other character is othellia who has green hair and looks a lot and acts like my last gf I had a long time ago(no it's not her though). She is a cool stoner girl who works at a record store and sells drugs and is a expert level computer hacker. The 1st episode ended with othellia running away from campus security for smoking and she runs into ninja jules beating up a guy. Othellia decides to track her using jules phone and saves her from being killed by a rapist who raped jules. Othellia's save actually killed the rapist and now the girls are in this together. They throw him into the trunk of o's car then go to a bar and a random guy hits on jules who turns out to be not so random and is actually the brother of the dead trunk guy because he gives his phone to jules to add her number and there's a picture of them 2

Othellia gets nervous and has to go outside to throw up so the girls discover the car is missing and then o throws up and the episode ends. The 2nd episode continues on the cliff hanger and the girls realize the car was towed since o parked in a no parking zone. So they make some calls and find out it's at a police station and need to pay $2000 to get it out thanks to the parking tickets owed. Othellia listens in on a conversation a girl has that she was raped and the police just keep jerking her around therefore giving othellia ideas for their next target. Jules wants to back out of the vigilantism because she is slowly hitting it off with the dead guy's brother and because someone died. The girls bury the body in a cemetery and have some arguments but things turn better when othellia see's writing in a bathroom where girls wrote down the name of guy rapists.So the duo get back together and I don't remember much else from this episode

The 3rd one continues with more vigilante hunting and the girls use the dead guy's phone to trick his brother into thinking he's snowboarding. There's some fight training done by jules to othellia and othellia gets fired from her job because she would close the store and hunt a rapist with jules. That's how the episode ends and there's more minor details I left out by you get the jist of it. Oh the reason othellia throws up is she throws up when she's nervous which seems a lot like stan from south park

November 12 2001

Why that specific date? it was the crash of american airlines flight 587. What makes it important is that it happened soon after 9/11 that many of us thought it was a terrorist attack. I know I did and it scared me. What actually happened is the vertical stabilizer snapped off the plane and the engines fell off. One of my worst fears and it actually happened to innocent people. Everyone on board died and it seems like everyone has forgotten about november 12 but not me

Here's the wikipedia link to the article

Retro saturdays and final fantasy legend 1

Final fantasy legend 1 was the first final fantasy game I purchased and I got it on a whim. I got it at a funcoland that had just opened up that week so the store was still fairly new. It was still a niche store that didn't carry much product compared to the monolith gamestop would become. Anyways I had my choice of the 3 ff legends games as they were cheap new games and to a kid like me at the time, a new gameboy I could afford was like finding $500 on the street. I settled on ffl1 because the box art looked cool

Yes that was how we used to judge games, I couldn't just look up a review or gameplay footage, I had to go but was on the cover and there was a sword and a helmet so I figured it was a hack n slash game. I was wrong and ffl1 turned out to be a rpg stuck in 1987, even as an adult playing the game the menus seem to be stuck in the nes days. Something about them seems to archaic. The game itself well I didn't play much of it as I quickly found it hard and boring so I moved onto other games like super mario land 2

retro saturdays and grand theft auto 3

Grand theft auto 3 is considered the grand daddy of gta games and the one that changed the game. The first 2 gta games were pretty similar only they were limited by a top down bird's eye perspective that turn off a lot of potential players(I was one of them) but gta 3 is the 1st entry that went 3D. The very 1st time I played it was after I got it at the swap meet for $20 back in 2002. Yeah they let me buy it easy peasy despite not being 17 and my dad didn't care again because it didn't have nudity or sexual situations. When I first played it I thought the time was a timer that would let you explore for a certain amount of time then stop and all of a sudden your in a different level or something similar. Once I realize this world was mine to explore I was blown away

At first I just drove around and explored and took in the different buildings and little nooks and crannies. I stole a truck and sped off to go off jumps from various ramps. I had the time of my life just driving and driving and listening to the different radio stations. I punched someone and he ran away and I couldn't chase him down. I punched someone else and they punched back and I knocked him out then picked up some money. Besides that, the most nostalgia I have for gta 3 is back in the summer of 2003. I was on summer break from school so of course I had a lot of free time that I spent playing gta 3, every day I would play for at least one hour. I got my tampico juice in a big cup and found a lot of easter eggs and jumps and glitches. I found out that if you use the perfect handling cheat and jump on top of a hospital roof then it's not solid and you fall through into a blue hell. I found out there is a sign that is rather easy to get to that says you weren't supposed to get here. I found out there is an invisible wall limiting the world, I found out you can fit more then 2 or 3 cars in a garage by parking one half way in and then driving in another

I spent a lot of time looking for hidden packages and have found 93, I looked for hidden missions, I used to get my wanted level to 6 stars and see how long I could last before dying, I drove a tank and saw how much I could last. I spent a lot of time on gta 3 and it still gives me warm memories

I tried to replicate the summer of 03 a few years later with gta liberty city stories but the magic just wasn't there. There is no feeling like being in a new world that's your's to explore well maybe a new gta game

retro saturdays and mortal kombat trilogy

This was the hottest mortal kombat game and fighting game when it was released simply because it brought out the little kid in us. Yes mortal kombat games had T and M ratings but it was mostly for the (nowadays) tame gore. As a kid it was the coolest fighting game in existence among with killer instinct. Down to it's core, mortal kombat trilogy is mortal kombat 3 or umk3 but with a lot more characters and backgrounds and a flimsier story and it's the 3rd game using the mk3 engine hence the name trilogy even if it's not the 3rd game in the series

Ok onto the good stuff, for the 1st time ever you can play as the sub bosses goro and kintaro(although goro was in gameboy mk1 but eh) on a home console without cheats and motaro and shao kahn also without cheats although this was only in the playstation and sega saturn versions. The nintendo 64 version is considered the inferior port because it only has shao kahn and motaro or the classic versions of some mk2 characters and less stages and less music and less sub zeros(only one), The ps1 and saturn ports have all the bosses/subbosses, mk2 versions of jax and kung lao, mk1 versions of raiden and kano although if you really wanted to be picky(and people are) then they could have used the versions of characters in previous games such as mk 1 reptile and mk 2 scorpion. Because this is the internet, someone already made a homebrew game like that using all the characters from all the mortal kombat games ok onto mkt

When I first played it I was blown away at the huge roster. I had a hard time picking a character and I immediately wanted a ps1 and this game. Happily that moment would happen some years later. i loved everything about it except for the long loading times that can drag on at times. There was a new hidden character called chameleon on the ps1 version and khamelon on the n64 version. They are semi transparent ninjas that use the abilities of the female and male ninjas.

This game is worth playing despite it's loading times as it had the biggest roster of any mortal kombat game to date(mortal kombat armegeddon would surpass it)  and it brings out the inner little kid in you

Retro fridays and smarterchild

If you had aim back in the 00's then you most likely have heard of smarterchild, it was simply a bot but to many of us we called it a friend that was always willing to talk or a person that was always online on our buddy list. There wasn't much to smarter child, you just messaged him/her/it and he would answer then you would go back and forth. The novelty of it was asking him questions and trying to make him say things like he hates you or it was racist. Yes the fun wore off pretty fast but I'll always have my memories of asking it if he wants to hang out and being rejected

Retro fridays and Terminator 2: judgement day

Terminator 2 is the best movie in the terminator series and despite being released in 1991, it holds up extremely well and doesn't seem dated at all(well besides the cars) obviously it's the sequel to terminator 1(released in the 80's) and for many of us it was one of the few R rated movies our parents let us watch and/or rent because I know my dad did without bating an eye. It also helps he was a big fan of T2 and arnold. It is funny that violence is acceptable in a rated R movie for parents but nudity would be a big no no

Whenever I would have idea what to rent at a video store or hollywood video I would turn to T2 as there was always multiple copies(it was a popular movie) and I knew I didn't waste my money and that I rented a good movie. Even back in those days it was considered a classic and it has gotten better with age. If you never seen it well you really should and your in for a treat. It's not required knowledge to have seen the 1st movie as it will only flesh out a minor detail

I don't want to spoil the movie or go into great detail but T2 is a movie classic that some where out there, is a 8 year old kid watching it somehow on youtube or netflix or vimeo and being blown away just like how I was when I was little

Retro fridays and gex enter the gecko for gameboy color

This game is a specific brand of nostalgia as most people haven't played gex:enter the gecko for the game boy color as it is an extremely unpopular port of an extremely popular ps1 and n64 game. I got it for cheap at best buy and of course I bought it because hey cheap new game right? and the home console versions of gex was pretty good. I also got it because I read a preview about it on nintendo power magazine so I figured the gbc version was just as good. Ah the joys and innocence of youth when we didn't know any better and assumed most games were playable or good

Ok I am being too harsh on gex for the gbc as it brings me a lot of nostalgia. The game itself is pretty solid, it's a platforming adventure game with a hub world and a wide variety of levels. However it tries to do too much on a gameboy(it also plays on a brick gameboy or gameboy pocket) as some of the levels are simply too big and the goals are too vague among with the hints. Oh and there's no battery backup so you have to write down some long arrow passwords. Yes I still have the papers and papers of passwords. I did enjoy just exploring the huge levels even if I didn't know what to do or where to go. I mostly played it on a gameboy pocket so that made it a little bit harder to navigate without the color

I fondly remember this game because of pokemon blue, when it came out I so wanted blue that I even saved 2 new AAA batteries for it. However the store was sold out so more disappointment and I was back to playing gex enter the gecko until I was able to get my hands on pokemon blue.

It seems like people are down in the dumps today so I got some good news

You know since D.Trump won the presidency and all it seems like a lot of people are :/ or sad or can't believe he really did it. It's very similar to the cubs winning the 2016 world series. Yesterday I posted a blog about background checks and about an hour after I posted it I got a call from burlington and yes I was offered the job and I accepted it, I got some emails and got an employee burlington account and I had to fill in some epaperwork and all that good stuff. The handbook and similar material is in doc and pdf format so I put it on my phone and I will give it a good read soon then list my house of availability and hopefully I get scheduled unlike my last employer

The ironic thing about all this is how easy it seems and how this is my 4th job this year(yes I count the previous one even though I didn't work a single minute for them), it's seasonal though I will be be job hunting again before I know it but I'll enjoy the break from job hunting and I like burlington coat factory

If you get asked for permission to run a background check on you does that mean

you got the job? because last week I went to a group interview at burlington then as a closing statement the interviewer said they would call us if they wanted to continue the process. Well I got a call less then an hour later explaining a background check request was going to be sent to my email, so I clicked the link and put in the password I was given and all that stuff, it lead to a form to fill out which I did and I authorized the company to run a background check on me. Hopefully that is a good sign and i have a clean background both in criminal and driving history so I'm just going to twiddle my thumbs while I wait for a reply

Retro saturdays and animaniacs the game

Animaniacs like it's name suggests, is a video game based on the hit 90's show and it was released for the super nintendo,sega genesis and gameboy but this post will focus on the snes version as that is my most nostaglic version. I got it brand new(still shrink wrapped) for christmas one year from my adopted grandma and I was extremely happy because new snes games were far and few for me back then. Yes it was a bargin bin game so she got it cheap but I didn't care because I liked the tv show and by little kid logic the game was just as good as the tv show. I was in awe at the things a new snes game came with such as the manual and a pamplet for fox kids and a card thing to subscribe to nintendo power magazine and a little plastic cover for the bottom of the snes game

I couldn't wait to go home and play it but first there was the manner of christmas cookies and hot chocolate which I also miss. Also I remember wearing my favorite jacket and things were just magical at those times, When I finally got home the intro has the theme song for the tv show and I was just :D and then I realized how things aren't always what they seem, yes this is a medicore game and at times extremely hard but I still got some joy out of it

I'll never forget that christmas where I got animaniacs the game

Retro saturdays and driver 1

If your like most people you have played driver 1 and got stuck in the 1st level aka the driving lessons and you most likely have only played the 1st game in the series. Driver 1 is a 3D action adventure similar to a toned down grand theft auto which is it's downfall. The majority of the gameplay in driver 1 is driving to a certain spot on a map while avoiding the cops and usually your timed. Once you complete it then you move onto the next one and your teleported to a different spot of the map. This isn't like gta 3 where you can free roam between missions

What was great about driver for it's time is the free roam mode in which you could just drive around. Unfortunately most players got stuck on the very 1st level which serves as a tutorial. The very last thing you have to do is well I don't remember it exactly but I believe it was driving straight then doing a 180 and stopping in a certain area while doing it in a short amount of time

I remember when it came out how the gameplay mechanics were pretty fresh and there was a cool commercial involving a car chase,sadly grand theft auto 3 over classed it in every way and relegated driver to the nostalgia bin

Retro saturdays and the system of a down album toxicity

Similar to how nevermind by nirvana defined a generation and set the tone, toxicity by system of a down is the pinnacle of the nu metal movement of the late 90's to the early 00's. Critically acclaimed and universally loved by listeners, toxicity was released a few days before 9/11 and was the perfect album after the attacks. The themes on the songs are of government corruption and charles manson and overcrowded prisons and whatever chop suey is about. When it was released it was extremely popular even if you weren't into nu metal

The band didn't fit the nu metal mold but they were still lumped into that genre, the songs are catchy especially chop suey and prison song and shimmy and bounce and toxicity. For me this album is what stands out from the early 00's besides the obvious. Everyone who was anyone had this cd and it made you somewhat cool to own it and say you watched the chop suey video. It was a time of sagging dickies pants/shorts and small skate shirts and spiky bleached blonde hair and system of a down

The follow up(steal this album) was good but not as huge as toxicity and the band lost some popularity but not the ability to make good music. For me when I listen to chop suey I'm back in 2001 when the world was starting to become a different place

Retro fridays and lunchables taco bell nachos and tacos

Yes lunchables are still around and I know this because I frequently buy the pizza ones when they are on sale for 99 cents as a snack and for the nostalgia. But this post isn't about the pizza, no back in 1997 through 1998 lunchables had a tie in with taco bell and sold a nachos lunchables and a tacos lunchables. Yes I did try both when they were sold and this is about those experiences.

The tacos one came with 2 or 3 tortillas(most likely 2) and orange shredded cheese and ground beef and of course the mini crunch bar. I'm not sure what was in the meat but I always ate it cold at school and never got sick from it, maybe this is why I have a high tolerance for food and rarely get sick from it. Kids always wanted a taco when I would bust out my mini tacos(yes they were small) and sometimes I traded one for other food(fair is fair) but mostly I ate the tacos and was left wanting more

The nachos lunchables is pretty easy to make currently and I'm not sure why it was actually made into a lunchables. It is small restaurant style circular chips with a packet of nacho cheese and salsa. Despite it's simplicity, it is yummy even if the portions are small

I wish both would make a limited time comeback as I used to wolf down the tacos and I miss them. Oh one last thing, the commercial has a cheesy 90's cgi lunchables in a western show down

Here's the link to the commercial

Retro fridays and halloween in elementary school

No that isn't a band or a song or an obscure movie, I'm talking about the actual event of being in elementary school on halloween that can't be replicated as an adult(unless your a teacher or a ta). Growing up, halloween was one of my favorite holidays at school, you got to wear your costume to school and take part in a parade of sorts. It's more like a snake, your class would line up and then go to a seemingly random class and walk through to show off your costumes. Ok my memory reminds me that about half of the students or so would form the snake parade and the rest were in their class sitting down and watching the kids go by. I do have pictures from when I was in the parade and I wont be sharing them because my alien costume was cringe worthy. I also think that parents were invited to watch said parade and could take pics which explains how I have a picture of me

The best part is after the parade. Teachers already throw out the lesson plan for halloween and usually put on a halloween movie or a movie but the day gets even better. The 2nd half of the day is for a class party. Usually someone's parents bring punch and juice and cakecups and cookies and chips and other random junk food that kids love. We kids would just socialize and have fun and goof off and enjoy the pizza and juice and be kids.If things went right, there was another movie that would be put on and that was little kid heaven

Of course being kids the main event and cherry on top of an already good day was trick or treating. I have many fond memories of school and halloween and I hope to be there when my sister dresses up for school and I will be taking pictures

Retro fridays and pokemon booster packs

Something about the feel and smell and sound and texure of pokemon booster packs takes me back to the days when the cards first came out. For nostalgia reasons this will focus on the 1st 3 sets as after that the pokemon fad lost a lot of steam(I still played the games though) which picked back up with pokemon go for some reason. The cards came out before the games did and for many of us it was our 1st exposure to the pokemon themselves. I remember going to the santa fe springs swap meet and there was a stand that had baseball cards and pokemon cards for $3 so I usually got 1 or 2. I loved the designs on the holograms and the little tid bits of information and things like the height and weight. I really got into the fad(yes pokemon cards were a fad) and I had a lot of rare cards such as blastoise and venusaur and clefairy and gyrados and mewtwo and even an ancient mew. One card that eluded me and still does is a holographic charizard

One summer day I was at the swap meet when they had new cards that had a jungle on them and the 1st edition mark and that is when I got 2 and got a holographic persian and a non holographic jolteon. I got hooked some more and I would later buy more booster packs at a store at the whittwood mall called game quest. They sold board games and trading cards and childhood memories. Another time I rode my bike to that store and got a starter deck which is....well....a deck to get you started playing. It had energy cards and a holo rare and a place mat and cardboard pikachu coin and rule book. Things on the playground got intense and I would usually trade my duplicate rares for others and I amassed a big collection of cards. I still wish I had my childhood ones but I don't and it's sad. After jungle was fossil and the trend was losing steam fast thanks to the release of the pokemon games, then more cards came out and I stopped being interested after the team rocket series came out

In it's prime, pokemon cards were everywhere and I still have a sealed booster pack that I may or may not open. Nothing beats that feeling of ripping open a pack and seeing which cards you got(ok there are some things)

It feels surreal to say the cubs won the 2016 world series

The cubs have been pretty meh most of my short life with some few good seasons like in 2003 and 2008 and 2009 and 2015 so the idea of the cubs going to the world series is already pretty jaw dropping but that they won it? and in a game 7, that's an out of body experience that doesn't feel real. I half expect this to be a dream or the trophy somehow taken away and the cubs didn't win but guess what, they did win and it was great

I was on edge the whole time and half expected the cubs to somehow blow it because this would mean the curse would come back with a vengeance if the cubs lost a game 7. I was counting outs and hoping john lacky got into the game as he has already pitched in a game 7 of the world series as a rookie(nerves of steel). When there was 5 outs left in the game is when the indians started making a comeback and I was hoping this wouldn't be all she wrote. But this team is different, they didn't dwell in the moment and get crushed, no they fought on and used the rain delay to inspire themselves

Sure back to the future 2 was off by the year but I finally got to see the cubs win the world series in my lifetime. That was one thing that was on my list of things to see before I die(among with seeing the dodgers win a world series) also this could be a great line in a job interview. You take a chance at a job you are unqualified for but you get an interview and the interviewer asks why you applied and you say "hey if the cubs can win a world series, I can give this a shot"

Today I walked to a liquor and bought a newspaper for the 1st time in about 5 or 8 years and I will keep this one for decades to come