A farewell for now

It’s November, which means two things: 1) I’ve been swamped for the past month and a half on election coverage and 2) this blog is almost five months old.

I was planning on doing an article at this time about the first thing, and discuss the time when in kindergarten I believed that my vote for George Bush Sr. would be counted in the event of a tie for the adults election (I don’t think it was close enough that they had to come down to it), but sadly, today’s is actually a farewell, at least for a while.

Goosebumps Month: Recap

 Throughout the month of October, I’ve gone through the sometimes unfortunate task of reading Goosebumps books. It was a choice, I know, and one I was looking forward to early on in the creation of the blog. But that didn’t make it any easier.

You see, throughout doing this blog experiment one thing has constantly been in my mind: tell the funny, embarrassing and nostalgic stories of a time long gone. And revel in the ironic love of all things 90s.

There was honestly no candidate better than R.L. Stine.

Goosebumps Month: "How to Kill a Monster"

“How to Kill a Monster” is not so much a manual on how to kill horrible, blood thirsty creatures that will kill you. (Also a description for bears.)

No, it’s a Goosebumps book. And a surprisingly decent one, all things considered.

Goosebumps Month: "It Came From Beneath the Sink"

On the cover of “It Came from Beneath the Sink,” there is text reading, “It’s warm! It’s breathing! And it doesn’t do the dishes!”

I guess at least this one didn’t put me to sleep every time I tried to read it.

Goosebumps Month: "Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes"

“Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes” is the 34th book R.L. Stine published under the Goosebumps banner, which I think is getting fairly close to the point where the series has run its course.

And let’s be honest here, in eight books he publishes one of the worst in the series “Egg Monsters from Mars.” (Apparently “A Funny Thing Happened on the way to Jump the Shark” wasn’t available.)

Goosebumps Month: "The Ghost Next Door"

This week we move a little further into the Goosebumps library with “The Ghost Next Door,” the 10th book of the series.

Goosebumps Month: "Monster Blood"

"Monster Blood" is the third book in the Goosebumps series (if you can call it that) and the story is the basis for four of its books. If there was ever a flagship book in R.L. Stein’s writing, I feel like this is it.

And boy, it is fantastic.

Goosebumps month is here

I want this exact picture on the biography page of any book I ever write.

To be entirely honest, a good portion of this blog is dedicated to allowing me to reminisce over the many things from my past that I love ironically. From T.G.I.F. to Pogs and most of the shows Nickelodeon produced back in the day, this has been a dream come true in terms of self deprecating humor and nostalgia.

But for all of the things that I love ironically, there is one which I kind of put on this list, even though I truly enjoyed it (and am still pretty fascinated by it): Goosebumps.

The Velveteen Rabbit

Here come the water works.

Somebody gave me a copy of the Velveteen Rabbit as a gag gift.

7-year-old and 25-year-old me cried a little.

Rollerblades

Neon colors were actually one of the highest exported goods during the '90s. Seriously, Wikipedia that.

 I don’t understand the weird shoes that kids wear today that have a wheel in the heel. They don’t make sense to me and seem a little dangerous.

Then again, when I was a kid I probably spent as much time in the summer with wheels on my feet as they did. Mine were called Rollerblades and they were about 80 times cooler.

5 for Friday: Birthday memories

Caitlin, myself and a very young Zach circa 1997. Although this was technically Zach's first birthday, celebrating with the family is always nice.

As I said with my last post, Wednesday was my birthday.

I have had a lot of great birthdays (many that have happened in the past few years have been especially fun), so I thought I would trudge through memory lane and come up with some highlights.

Today is my birthday

These pictures were taken a few years apart.

As you can see by the headline, today is my birthday, so instead of doing a post about 7-year-old me, I think I may talk for a bit about 25-year-old me.

He’s new here, so let’s be nice to him.

Becoming a stand-up comic

"Seriously, don't make me laugh. I'm swinging here, come on."

I think of myself as funny. In fact, I pride myself on it in a manner which borders on narcissistic.

It also was a future occupation 7-year-old me though we would one get get into, even if he was more in prat falls.

Heroes in a half-shell

Watch out bad guys, headband-wearing turtles are coming to get you.

Ask almost any kid during the late ‘80s and early ‘90s what their favorite TV show was and good chances the answer is going to be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Confession, 7-year-old me was not one of those kids.

Pogs

To do list: 1) Find my slammers. 2) Knock all of these over.

The other day I was talking with a friend about my weekend job at a local magazine store. In doing so, he had mentioned that he had not been there since the mid ‘90s when he would make regular stops to pick up football cards and pogs.

Yes folks, we’re doing a post on pogs. Get ready to read at the edge of your seats.

5 for Friday: Taking trips

"What? Oh, this dinosaur? Yeah, I dug it up, no big deal."

This is my last post in the series for Summer 2011, which for me has been a great time with friends and some good memories. But there is one thing I did not do this summer which I probably should have considered: taking a vacation.

For my family, vacations were few and far between -- we took one-day vacations before they were cool. But that’s not to say we didn’t take a few trips in my lifetime of note. So here we go, my family’s top trips, at least as best as I can remember.

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.