Final days of Summer

This kid knows how to play.

My youngest brother went back to school last week. I stayed at the office until 1:30 a.m. Friday waiting to check pages after the football game. Last Monday I had to wear a hoodie when I went to the park with a friend.

Summer is officially coming to a close. I should really keep that a secret from 7-year-old me.

I want to ride my bicycle

People who love riding bikes: This guy.

For all intents and purposes, this is the last week of summer (yes, technically Fall starts in about a month, but kids are back in school and the city pool closes this week). And so far this year, I have not taken part in one of the most traditional summertime activity: Riding a bike.

But then again, when you look at 7-year-old me’s history of bike riding, it’s not all that surprising.

Do the Sneak

When you want to watch the Simpsons, but your folks say 'No,' you do the sneak (ahh), do the sneak.

I have great parents. They are wonderful people who have always been loving, respectful and caring. But when you are a 7-year-old you tend to have a love-hate relationship with your folks because you’re told to love them but deep down, you know they are the ones that keep you from doing the things you want to.

And therefore, you do the sneak.

Running

I want to know how people used to play basketball in these.

I don’t have a lot of friends with kids, or at least I don’t spend a lot of time around their kids, but when I do, I have noticed something about those children that I never see in adults: they run everywhere.

However, I am living what some doctors would refer to as a sedentary lifestyle.

Without this getting into a creepy place, I want you to watch children next time you are around them and notice how often they run. Kids have places to be and they are going to get there as soon as possible. Better yet, try to remember back to grade school and look at the difference between kids in 4th grade to kids in 6th grade -- it’s about 2 feet and 14 mph.

This probably comes down to a number of things, but possibly one of the biggest reasons people older than 6 grade don’t run like they used to is because they don’t play like they used to. Sadly working as a journalist in a small town newspaper doesn’t allow for a whole lot of recess breaks. For some reason HR always gets a call whenever I ask co-workers to partake in a game of hide and go seek with me.

In addition, I have never been one for exercise, or sadly physical activity of almost any kind. Although I played sports in my youth, it was typically not because I was interested in them, and throughout college it was very uncommon to find me at the gym except for the quarter I took a wellness class. And even though I recently purchased a pair of shoes with the purpose of being used as running shoes, I have only taken them to the park with me a small handful of times.

I realize that physical health is something I should probably be working on. I was a big fan of walking in college and for the most part had no problem walking from building to building on campus and even taking long trips off campus to hit up the local library or grab a bite to eat. Even today I have no problem walking to my part-time job downtown or walking to any of the nearby bars to see friends. The problem is that when you spend so much time working in an office, and that office is so far from home, you tend to walk less and less. And now my only real physical activity during the day is the distance between my car door to the door of my apartment.

One of the good things I can say is that I have tried to make a more conscious effort in the past few years to eat healthier, with more veggies and I have almost completely cut red meats out of my diet. I do make other bad health choices, but I feel like some of these things are a step in the right direction.

So for this, I apologize to 7-year-old me not taking care of myself as well as you did, even if you didn’t know you were doing it. Yes, it may be awkward watching you run everywhere in family movies, but at least you were keeping active -- and having fun.

10 for Friday: Disney Movies

For a 7-year-old in the 1990s, there was no company as prolific as Walt Disney, especially their cartoons. So in order to do a countdown of my favorites at the time, I’m going to have to cheat a little bit.

So, here are 10 of the best animated features, according to 7-year-old me.

I'm Nick, and I used to be a Mac

Even today, I still kind of see this as our greatest technological discovery.

Today’s blog posting comes to you courtesy of a Frankenstein PC with about two components of the computer I bought a month before I started college in 2005.

I’m often surprised I use a PC considering how much 7-year-old me loved the Mac II that spent a few summers at my parent’s house.

"It's Morphin' Time!"

Let's be honest, you know the names of each of those characters and what animal they turned into.

Sometimes in looking back we notice our mistakes. This was possibly one of them, but I’m not alone.

Dear 7-year-old me, I’m sorry we had to watch Power Rangers.

5 for Friday: Super Nintendo Games

Its on like, well, you know.

I play a lot of video games today. Probably more than I should. But for all of the time I spend in front of my PlayStation, I feel like the best gaming experience I had was as a kid.

I’m a major proponent of unique gameplay and “fun” games. Instead of titles like Call of Duty and Halo, my game collection tends to feature more discs that allow me to roll things up in a ball or play “Everlong” on a plastic guitar. That’s kind of my thing.

For me personally, the idea of fun gaming was at it’s peak with one system in particular: the Super Nintendo. The system featured a huge collection of great sidescrolling adventures with fun characters and brilliant animation (for the time). So with that stated, here are 7-year-old me’s favorite games for the Super Nintendo (warning: this list is based completely on what he owned/played at the time).

"After these messages, we'll be right back"

This was the best thing Disney has ever done.

Remember that time I said my DVR is full of Batman cartoons? I lied -- it’s really just full of cartoons.

And I have 7-year-old me to thank.

As many of these posts have suggested, I had a more than mild addiction to cartoons as a child. It was one of those constants things in my life I could barely go without, and luckily they were not hard to find (even without cable TV).

Blinded me with Science (Fiction)

LaVar Burton was everywhere in the 1990s, which helped make it the greatest decade. I understand that fact is now featured in every 6th grade history book.

 Although I’ve already mentioned it, 7-year-old me would be disappointed that I haven’t had the opportunity to travel to space or own a jet pack.

I’m disappointed as well.

The 1990s proved to be a relatively interesting time for science fiction, as it marked the 20th anniversary of “Star Wars,” years of strong ratings and prosperity for “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and its spin-offs, the introduction of the Sci-Fi television network and the breeding grounds for a number of TV shows based on out-of-this-world adventures.

5 for Friday: TGIF

This lineup was the reason why TV was invented.

I’m going to be honest: I’ve been looking forward to writing this post since I started this blog.

So, remember that story about not having cable but never really having any problems with that? One of the biggest reasons why 7-year-old me had no problems with this was because network TV was, in his mind, actually pretty good and offered some excellent choices. And few were better than TGIF.

Using my full name

If you want someone to stay away from your possessions, use a name tag with Winnie-the-Pooh on it. Works every time.

The byline on every story I have written is “Nick Dutro.” That would have made 7-year-old me puke.

As a child I had one major request for most people: Call me Nicholas. It was a strange request (I was a strange kid, and a babysitter had recently pointed out to a friend of mine), but one that I was very adamant about. I wanted to be called my full name, and I would not accept any variations on that.

Reading

Everything in this picture is perfect. Including "Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes."

Even with all of our distractions, reading was cool in the 1990s.

Ok, maybe cool is a stretch, but I recall reading as a major source of entertainment as a child, something I have sadly lost touch with. And something 7-year-old me would probably be judging 24-year-old me for today.