Superstore is my new favorite show

By which I mean superstore on nbc, it's a tv show with work place comedy similar to the office only this takes place at a walmart like store. It's on thursday nights on nbc at 8pm but I mostly watch the episodes on demand since I work on those times. It stars america ferrara of ugly betty fame as amy a supervisor at cloud 9. The other main characters are Jonah(was new employee) cheyenne(teen mom and looks a lot like a co worker of mine), dina(assistant manager also reminds me of a co worker), garrett(who is in a wheelchair), glenn(store manager and nice guy), mateo(pinoy pride and also reminds me of a co worker)

When the show started I still had my job last year at a warehouse where I would take then edit pictures and upload them and now I work in retail and this show reminds me a lot of my workplace but first, superstore is pretty clever and has good writing/acting(especially nicole bloom as cheyenne) so it is worth a watch. There isn't much continuity between episodes with the exception of cheyenne giving birth and dina having a crush on jonah so you can watch almost any episode out of order and not miss much. The only exception is the 1st episode which establishes the show and the 2 part strike episodes

I like the random little side parts of the show like when cheyenne wanted some cloud 9 brand baby stuff that was 80% off and the district manager was in the store so she couldn't buy them on her shift. She saw a lady taking a bunch so she slowly moved the cart and made a >.> face, this is why she's my favorite character among with how she catfished her school teacher. Also her facial expressions are the best and she looks a lot like my co worker who I'm tight with and is the one who I gave my # to a few weeks ago. Amy and mateo and jonah are the best among with dina and garrett. It reminds me of my work that when we get the right mix of employees it's fun and "banging" as bo would say(cheyenne's bf and wannabe rapper) who is also a good actor and not a employee at cloud 9. I should start reviewing this show similar to how I did with the wonder years

Do you you ever wish you could do something different

Of course we all do all the time but exactly 2 weeks ago I wish I had done 1 thing different. It's nothing bad but I'll continue. As I mentioned in previous posts, I have a co worker that customers think me and her are brother and sister because we are similar heights and body type and help each other out. I last saw her 2 weeks ago and I gave her my # but what I should have done with the benefit of hindsight is asked her what area she was working at then clocked out like how I did and gone back to her and put her # in my phone or wrote it down on a my mini notepad. I also should have mentioned to her the power going out but I made my choice and I have to live with it until I ssee her again whenever that is as we are scheduled on different days next week

Yes I'm still employed and I closed last night and it was a good mix of co workers so it was fun. Also this doesn't mean I want to date/get/girlfriend/ that girl, She said to keep in touch in a manner like holly hills from the diary of a wimpy kid movies and so far I have been unable to

Retro saturdays and doggystyle the album by snoop doggy dogg

Yes once upon a time snoop dogg was called snoop doggy dogg, more specifically on his breakthrough debut album. By the time doggystyle came out in 1993, snoop dogg was already well known thanks to his part in the chronic by dr dre and it was a huge album. An instant classic, doggystyle turned the tides of rap towards the west coast and it made music a little bit more gangsta. It seems like death row records was unstoppable and all the artists on the label were on every album

On to the album itself, it was laid back and slower tempo and a lot of the songs sampled from pfunk music from george clinton and the song atomic worm by the ohio players. It was catchy rap with a distinct sound only snoop could produce. The songs gin and juice and what's my name were on the radio frequently(although in edited form) and the music videos were extremely popular. My neighbor used to blast doggystyle every day after he got home from school for many years

The album is vulgar and crude at times but well worth a listen, it will transport you to a simpler, more laid back time in california.  For the record I like almost all the songs on the cd with gfunk intro and ain't no fun being my faves. There's also little song skits that is something lacking in modern rap

Retro saturdays and clayfighter 63 1/3

The 3rd game in the clayfighter series, clayfighter 63 1/3 has warm nostalgic memories for me that it may not have for others. I'll explain but first I'll mention the weird name. Yes it actually has a 63 1/3 in it's name, at the time of it's release, a lot of n64 games had the subtitle 64 slapped on and clayfighter bucked this trend. Ok the game itself plays a lot like killer instinct gold or street fighter alpha 2. You can build up your special bars and you can get knocked through the background into another level. There are hidden fighters like sumo santo and boogerman and the combo system apes from killer instinct. There are also fatalties

The reason why this game is nostalgic for me is that I rented it from hollywood video pretty soon after it's release. However here's why it gives me that warm fuzzy feeling, I didn't have any n64 at the time as they were too expensive so I rented one from hollywood video(yes you could rent systems) for 3 days and those 3 days were magical and spent with as much time as possible trying to play the n64. I would later own it and the magic was gone. The game itself is good and solid but there's nothing like being a kid and having 3 free days to spend as much time as possible playing to your heart's content

Retro fridays and mortal kombat 2

Mortal kombat 1 was a surprise hit for midway so of course there would be a sequel. Bigger,badder and better, mk2 expands upon mk1 tenfold. There are more characters,secret characters,levels and fatalities among with new bablities and friendships. The gameplay is tightened up so this was a huge deal when released. An instant classic, mk2 was a big quarter muncher at the arcades especially thanks to all the rumors. You can't start rumors about a modern game as someone has already combed through all the game data but in the 90's you were limited to what you heard from friends

For example, there was a rumor of shang tsung being able to morph into kintaro and a kano morph. If you were like most kids, you just played and had fun but I have another memory with mortal kombat 2. At a swap meet I saw a vender selling it for $20 for just the cartridge which was a big deal as it was a lot more then that also to a kid with no allowance/job it took me awhile to get all that money(legally) so when I finally went to the swap meet again I was let down to find out that mk2 was sold and instead I had to settle for mk1. I could have owned the snes version of mk2 and I would never own it until I got mk shaolin monks for the ps2 as it has the arcade version of mk2 as an unlockable

For many that lived through the era, mk2 is seen as the best mortal kombat game. Im good with scorpion and raiden and liu kang and sub zero

Retro fridays and boyz n the hood

Boyz n the hood is a landmark in the film industry and set a tone for movies in the 90's. The movie is a time capsule of the late 80's to early 90's in south central los angeles. Although not a documentary or based on real events, the movie is very accurate to anyone that has lived in south central in those times. It stars cuba gooding jr and ice cube as best friends who have different upbrings with cuba gooding as tre being raised by his dad and ice cube as doughboy not having a father

When released it was a huge hit and opened a lot of eyes to the lives of many people that live in sketchy areas. I would always try to rent it at my local video store but they only had 2 copies and it seemed to be always rented out. I finally got a copy in the early 00's when a video store was phasing out vhs movies and I got mine for 50 cents

That's pretty much all my nostalgia with boyz n the hood, it was popular but there isn't much to talk about, it's a great movie and if you never seen it then it's a treat

I'm still employed for now....

My seasonal position continues so for now I am employed and there has been no word of what is going to happen so I will continue to work my shifts and pick up a shift if asked when someone doesn't show up/calls out.  The power went out a week and 2 days ago and then returned the next day but the internet was still out. I was able to get it fixed 4 almost 5 days later but because fate likes to tempt me, I think I missed my co worker's text during that time and they probably think I'm ignoring them. I have yet to see them at work so my life hasn't turned into a soap opera just yet. There was a recent performance evaluation and I did pretty good with some minor things I need to work on

That makes me feel like getting a report card in elementary school but this time my grades are good. Besides that I been going to the 99 cents store and goodwill a lot what with vday coming up before we know it which is another thing I'll touch base on. If you don't have a valentine for vday well your not alone. I haven't had one my whole short life and I don't sweat it although some years are harder then others however it would be nice to have a valentine for vday one year. By which I mean black roses and/or chocolate/candy/flowers/ and most importantly, one of those little cards you get in a box of 20 that say to and from on them. I'm not sure why but I would love to get one of those cards, probably because I had an awkward childhood

Retro saturdays and polaroid cameras

By polaroid cameras I mean the ones that were extremely popular in the late 80's until the mid 90's if my memory serves me right. The ones that were usually black and squared shaped with no curves. They were the right camera at the right time and therefore a product of it's era. 35mm film cameras can get pricey even for a used one so more people turned to polaroid as they were cheap. The film came in a pack of 10 or 14 or maybe 16, it was an even number and you clipped it into a slot at the bottom of the camera

I believe the film also charged the battery(for flash and to display the shots you have left) and that was that, you were ready to shoot and here is where the nostalgia for polaroid cameras come from. Once you took the picture, a thick square came out of a slot with a grey picture and slowly it faded into the picture you took. You didn't need to develop a roll of a film and pay more money, the picture you took was right there for you to view in seconds similar to a camera phone

It blew my mind when my mom took the pictures and yes she did shake them to "develop them faster" although that has been proven not to work. That's where the line from the hey ya outkast song comes from "shake it like a polaroid picture"

These cameras got left behind by digital cameras and smart phones and flip phones but they will always have a special place in my childhood. Polaroid stopped making the film in the mid 00's but a company called impossible film took over and you can buy some film for a polaroid camera although it's more expensive. I have 3 polaroid cameras from different eras(70's,1991 and 1999) and although shooting with a digital camera or a dslr is what I mostly do, I still bust out my 1991 polaroid for old times sake

Retro saturdays and miss cleo

I don't remember much about miss cleo since most of my memories of her involve tv commercials on sunday mornings(those were boring days and I would usually play outside with my hot wheels) they were always mysterious and full of smoke from incense and had a dull hmmmm...voice

She was a psychic who can tell your future by calling a number that would flash on the screen and that was pretty much what she was known for. There was some faked calls on the commercial to prove she was "psychic" and it was pretty expensive to call. I never did(because of the price) but I was always tempted to thanks to her frequent commercials. I don't know if she was a real psychic or not but she was a prominent face in my childhood

Retro fridays and aim away messages

If you used aim at any time then you know what an away message is. The precursor to facebook status updates and twitter, AOL instant messenger away messages were a status. If you use skype then you know what it's like. You go "away" and then a message shows up on your profile and if someone instant messages you, they get your away message as a response. People(teenage girls really) would use it to write vague things about their crush in hopes they zomg have a crush on them too and teenage love and all that

It was also used to ignore certain users by saying you'll brb then going on away and returning when they logged off or just not returning from away at all. It got into some mind games with people going invisible and it started teenage drama. The leet haxxorz would be on away and they could still chat with you and the away message wouldn't show up. Idk how they did that and I never found out, in case your wondering, my away message was the lyrics to smells like teen spirit and then a girl copied me. I'm not sure if skype uses away messages but if they do then they'll live on but if not, I have those memories of a more drama filled time over minor things someone said in their profile away message

Retro fridays and man in the box by alice in chains

For most of my childhood this song was everywhere and I do mean everywhere, I would be riding my bike with my friends and someone would go by blasting this song. I would go to kb toys at the whittwood mall and people would be blasting it in the parking lot and it would come on the mall's muzak system. I would go to a mcdonald's and this song would also come on the muzak

You could not avoid it even on tv and so I accepted it and it became part of my childhood. I didn't know who sang it or what it was called, I just knew it had a distorted guitar and it was about a man in the box. The guitar riffs are what made me a fan as they are crunchtastic and memorable and catchy

Sadly this song faded out of popularity later in the decade but it was fun while it lasted. Sometimes I bust out the flannel and listen to this song and it's like old times

Here's the link to the video

I didn't have internet since late saturday night also my work slowed down a lot

There was a planned power outage on saturday night due to some construction in my neighborhood but it went out later then expected so I was able to see a 1978 episode of saturday night live where carrie fisher was the guest host. Yes she did a princess leia impression and bill murray was good as always

Ok the power returned on sunday morning and the internet.......didn't. I did all the unplugging and rebooting song and dance and nothing. It would broadcast a wifi signal that I could connect to but I got no internet. So I waited until monday morning to call and schedule a repairman to come by which he did today(wednesday) but between then I was without internet. That is 3 full days of no internet. Luckily I was able to go to the mall on tuesday and use the wifi and my asus eee netbook and I also got to see some of my coworkers so it was a surprise for them. Speaking of my job, ever since after christmas, things have slowed down even more so in january. When I last worked on saturday morning to evening there was only 5 or 6 cashiers scheduled the whole day. I am still employed but I am not scheduled all this week and I am not sure if I will be hired for a permanent position or it's good bye. I like my co workers and I got buddy buddy with some of them especially with one that we have a special work bond as I call it. We were both at the group interview and we got hired and since we were both new we made a pact to look out for each other

I saw that co worker on my 3nd to last day and gave them my number to keep in touch with me but the power went out and they haven't texted me sooooo either I'm a boring person or they didn't save my # right or they are waiting until the week ends to see where we stand job wise. I was hoping to see them yesterday as they were scheduled that day but I didn't see them and hopefully that dosen't mean the end as they are a good person/friend and I don't want it to end just like that. I enjoyed my time at burlington and my co workers were nice and I was pretty well liked which is ironic as I have a hard time making friends and I'm awkward. Sure I spent a lot of shifts over caffeinated and I stressed out over little things but it was fun most of the time

Retro saturdays and marvel super heroes vs street fighter

I can't believe it's been all this time and I haven't posted about my favorite fighting game ever, marvel super heroes vs street fighter. A sequel to xmen vs street fighter and released a year later, msh vs sf was very similar but with a bigger and varied roster. There was more characters from marvel comics such as omega red and the hulk and blackheart and captain america, this was balanced out by removing some xmen such as rogue and magneto and storm. However my 2 favorite characters were still in this game(cyclops and wolverine) so it was all good and I spent a lot of quarters playing this game at the arcades

I got good enough to beat it without dying aka 1 quarter, but the last boss is a toughie. Rather then having you fight your partner like in the prequel, you instead fight cyber akuma who is a lot faster and stronger and has multiple fireballs, in a handicap match. It quickly turns one sided especially when he starts throwing around his cyber hand and he does 3 unblocked attacks and your almost dead

The gameplay and the graphics are good and hold up well so it's worth a play if you ever see it at an arcade and yes arcades still exist. The music gets intense especially zangief's and akuma's and this a game that you must play. It still brings me a lot of nostalgia and it has something that it's sequels are missing

Retro saturdays and mario kart 64

Idk how I made it this far in time without posting about mario kart 64 but alas it's time for mk64 to shine. The sequel to the surprise super nintendo hit, mario kart 64 took everything that made the previous game great and expanded on it ten fold. 3D graphics(although I consider them 2.5D) longer more involved levels, new characters, hills and dips!, new weapons and music. It instantly became a classic upon release and I couldn't get enough of mk64 at sears and best buy as an n64 was too expensive so I had to make do with store displays. I always picked toad or luigi or yoishi as they seem to be the fastest. My favorite levels were the freeway one, the desert with the train, bowser's castle, the snow level, moo moo farm, wario stadium, this game has a lot of memorable levels that draw you back for more

Of course it's possible to have fun by yourself  in this game but when you play 4player is where memories of a childhood are made. I would go with my friend's to play laser tag on a friday evening after school, usually his mom would pick us up in her white 1992 ford taurus and on the way to the laser tag place, 1979 by the smashing pumpkins would come on. We would have our fun and she would pick us up after she went to the mall and did some shopping or after she went to montegomery ward like a 90's mom or grandma. On the way back sometime she would ask us if we wanted pizza which was greet with cheers and yes shouts then it was off to pizza hut. Even if we didn't get 'za, the gang would play n64 until late at night with mario kart being the most popular game

Best buy used to have a huge 30 foot plus screen that was connected to an n64, at first they had super mario 64 then switched it to mario kart 64 when it was released. This was just to draw attention but it worked and I always tried to show off a little when I played that n64. I can almost hear the "welcome to mario kart" and "select your player"

Retro fridays and teenage mutant ninja turtles the next mutation

I believe tmnt the next mutation started in 1996 or 1997 based off my memory. It was a live action tv series similar to the cartoon show but with the turtle puppets from the tmnt movies. It used to  be on the weekday evenings to get the crucial after school audience and saturday mornings but I mainly watched it in the evenings before karate at the ymca among with mighty ducks the tv series and 101 dalmations the tv series

By the time the next mutation premired, the tmnt fad was winding down so there wasn't much ratings or much plot development. Each episode had a basic formula and shredder was the usual bad guy or the turtles solved a mystery. What broke ground was the next turtle that was introduced, venus de milo. Yes the next turtle was a girl and she fit in well but the show didn't last much long after she became a new character and she was quickly forgotten about

The show to me was pretty good but I can see why people didn't like it's formula, there was also a crossover episode with the power rangers in space which blew my mind at the time. This show is fun for a quick novelty then it wears off

Retro fridays and objection by shakira

Objection is one of the english language soongs that propelled shakira from a spanish pop/rock singer into a huge usa popstar and she is still enjoying that fame. Anyways the song objection also has a spanish counterpart but I believe that objection was made first then the lyrics were changed to spanish with the same tune. When released in 2001 it was all over the radio and a spanglish broadcast ota channel #31. It used to play spanish language music videos and objection was frequently played

I remember the video having shakira turned into a cartoon character that beats up a lady that's much  bigger then her and she's dancing in that same place where she beat up the lady and driving away in a mustang. If your like me, you liked shakira's hair and eyes and eyeliner and her dance moves. This song among with whatever,whenever is the reason she is popular today. I could not get away from this song in the early 00's and I wish shakira would go back to the look from the early 00s

Here's the link to the video

Oh one last thing, this song and video were parodied on mad TV by mo collins in a song called translation

Friday might be my last day at burlington coat factory

The inventory is scheduled to be finished on the 14th or 15th or it may go on longer then that and after it's finished I may or may not be brought onto the normal non seasonal staff. However I don't think that will happen to me because nothing about my employment would stand out from a supervisor or manager stand point. Sure I never missed a day or called out and worked overtime a couple of times when asked but that's all I stand out with. I was nice with customers and all that jazz but I was a good and not a stand out employee

Who knows though, for all I know I can be hired as a part time worker, but for now I'll treat friday as it will be my last day at burlington coat factory. I will say goodbye to my co workers and try to get some facebook urls to add them and that will be that. I will be back to the job hunting grind on monday or saturday and I will get a haircut on tuesday of next week. The more things change the more they stay the same

Some day I will run out of things to post about for retro fridays/saturdays

However that day won't be soon, the 90's and early 00's were an infinite period of time and eventually there will be a lack of things to nostalgia over and things I experienced and somewhat experienced. I can move onto the 80's or talk about things I have never played/seen like dragon ball z or wcw nitro. For now I still have a lot of material and I keep busy with my job and pictured editing and this blog so I will continue for at least 2017

Retro saturdays and mmbop by hanson

Mmmbop is easily hanson's biggest hit of their career. The song is a slow laid back pop song with the chorus of mmbop. Somehow this ended up becoming an extremely poular song and the breakout hit of 1997 and 1998(based off my memory) and what most people also talked about is the hanson brothers. If your not familar with the band hanson and it wouldn't surprise me, is that the band is made up of 3 brothers who had long hair and looked like girls especially the youngest(zack)

After mmmbop the band faded and all that was left was those magical years when for a brief moment, a trio of boys captivated the world with a catchy pop song. Yes this entry is brief but there isn't much else to say about a one hit wonder so here's the link to the video

Retro saturdays and rice krispie treats

Not to be confused with the cereal of a similar name, rice krispie treats are a small granola type bar of rice krispie cereal(note the lack of the word treats) and a marshmellow holding it together as a yummy glue. So 1st came rice krispie cereal then the treats(what this blog post is about) then the cereal with chunks of rice krispie treats, got it? ok I'll cover the other 2 iin future posts. I could not get enough of rkt, every time I went to food 4 less I would throw a box or 2 into the cart then I would run off and read the latest issue of expert gamer or egm

I miss those times and that food 4 less, the rice krispie treats tasted like a sweet marshmellow and a hint of rice but I wanted more and more. They were that good, I haven't had one in about 14 years or so give or take a year or 3

I think I'll look to see if they are still sold next time I go to target/walmart/smart and final just to get some boxes for nostalgia's sake. People still make home made versions of the treats as a thanksgiving or christmas and new year's snack so I'm glad this product still has an impact on the world

Retro fridays and floam by nickelodeon

Sure gak gets all the nostalgia from people that grew up in the 90's but there was another slimy sticky gooey substance made by nickelodeon called floam. Despite it's moist feel, floam was very similar to play doh but with small balls that remind me of a peanut butter snickers or rice krispy treats ceral. You could take it apart and mold it pretty well and throw it at someone or a wall and it always made a nice plak sound

I had a lot of floam because it was a lot more cheaper then gak and found at more stores. I wish it was still made but at least you can make your own home made version for the nostalgia

Retro fridays and sock'em boppers

"sock'em boppers, more fun then a pillow fight!" I don't know why but I remember the jingle from the commercial pretty well. Maybe because it was 2 kids whaling on each other with balloons on their hands which is what sock'em boppers are. Think of those inflatable floaties that little kids wear to swim but bigger and rounder and have a space for you to insert your hands. That's what sock'em boppers are. I never owned a pair as they were too expensive but kb toys is where my memories of sock'em boppers were made

They would always have a bunch near the entrance so me and my brother and random kids would have pillow fights with these and by pillow fights I mean punching each other with something that has the strength of a feather. It was great and I'm tempted to look up a pair to have more pillow fights with my brother

Here's the link to the commercial

Things at work have slowed down now that the winter holidays are over

By winter ones I mean christmas and new year's eve. There are less employees scheduled each day and week and I don't know where I was going with that sentence. Like most jobs, I can have good days and bad days where everything seems to go wrong. Off topic some of the employees are doing inventory and once that is done I'll know if I am hired as a permanent member of the team aka normal worker or if it's adios good luck and thank you for your seasonal work

Today a customer asked if me and a coworker are brother and sister and I found that funny, I'm not sure why he asked either. There isn't much to this post so hopefully 2017 continues going (mostly) good for me as 2016 was and not bad like how 2015 was for me

I started 2017 the same way I started 2016

With my dad getting a lotto scratcher ticket and me winning money off it. It's funny how things work. The main difference this year is that I have a job (for the moment, it may turn from seasonal to perminant) and I also have experience now to list on my resume so I won't struggle as much to get a job as I did in 2015. I also got some good hot wheels this new year's day. One thing that throws me off is that the new year's rose parade is tomorrow on the 2nd instead of the 1st and the post office also won't open until tuesday the 3rd because they get an extra day off if a holiday falls on a sunday

Life's what you make it so hopefully I get to own a 1991 ford taurus this year or a fox mustang and blast ice ice baby the whole time I drive