While working out my schedule for next semester, I realized something that I suppose I knew, but I never really thought about. This is the first time I'll be going back to the same school for a second year in four years. My junior year in high school was at Cambridge Springs, then I abandoned that place for Union City, then skipped town and went way South to Florida Southern College, followed by coming back North to Edinboro. I feel like I should just transfer somewhere so I don't break that trend.


Erie Made CNN!
Too bad it was for a mother of four using her 1-month old baby as a bat. Yes, she swung her baby at her boyfriend and fractured its skull. Why do people like this continue to have children?

Japan at Night
Just some really cool pictures of Japan at night. It's like Vegas times ten-thousand.

Hillary Clinton Talks Funny
Hear Hilary change her dialect while talking to a group of African American supporters.

The Other Side of the Global Warming Debate
Top scientists that don't believe humans are responsible. Another denial from a scientist that helped come up with the theory in the first place.

My Pyramid Tracker
It's a dot gov site where you type in what you eat in a typical 24-hour period, or what you ate in the last 24-hour period and it will tell you that you're going to die young. It's pretty comprehensive though, and will give you stats on everything from your calories to your vitamins and minerals. I found out that while I don't get enough calories usually, I consume way too much sodium for my own good.


Millau Viaduct
This bridge is 1,125 feet high. Do you realize how high that is? To compare, The Empire State Building is 1,250 ft high. That's ridiculous. Who in there right mind would drive on that? I'm getting dizzy just thinking about it.

A Pictorial Evolution of Michael Jackson
Yeah.........

Retrojunk
I'm sure pretty much everybody has been here, but if not, you're missing out. This is the ultimate source of 80s and early-90s awesomeness.

Labels: Linkage

I consider myself a child of both the 80s and the 90s, even if I spent only my toddler years in the 80s. I was influenced by both decades, from the toys to the clothes to the television shows. Still, while the 80s was one weird decade, the 90s may have been even more weird (or at least more gimmicky). I was thinking for a long time about this old oatmeal I used to eat that came with a delightful fruity mixer of some sorts that you mixed right in with the oatmeal. We used it eat it all the time back when I was younger, but whenever I brought this up to anyone, they never knew what I was talking about (like usual). Finally, thanks to Google and some really vague keywords, I was able to dig something up and found it: they were called Oatmeal Swirlers!

You see, it was oatmeal... but you could swirl fruity goodness into it. The commercials always had them drawing really cool things into their oatmeal, but usually all I could get out of it was some semi-straight lines that crossed each other. I didn't care though, because this stuff was heaven in my mouth.This site turned out to be a goldmine though, and I ran across more old foods that I used to always want. These were foods I would kill for just to taste one last time!

Then there was also Pop Qwiz -- popcorn, except in came in COLORS. Yes, colors such as red, green and blue. From there, I ran into something else I never would have remembered in a million years: Ooze - which was essentially just Jello with a picture of the Ninja Turtles on the box. I have fond memories of eating this ooze though, hoping somehow it would transform me into a Ninja Turtle. Sadly, it never did.

Trust me, it may seem like regular Jello to the untrained eye, but I assure you it wasn't. It was Ninja Turtle ooze. Then there were things like these comic book ads, where there were pictures of all these hip, neato prizes like tents, telescopes, bikes, walkie talkies and portable FM radios where. The way you got these prizes was by selling stuff for this company. I always planned on doing it, and would write out which prizes I was going to get (I think you had to sell some $72,457 worth of stuff to get the walkie talkies), but I never got around to it.

I miss the days when gimmicky products weren't as subtle. They didn't try not to be something they weren't; they flaunted there gimmicky-ness right in the parents faces yelling "You're so stupid for buying this stuff" knowing the parents didn't have a choice because their kids saw the commercials in between episodes of Captain Planet and 3-2-1 Contact.

By the way, if you remember 3-2-1 Contact, let me know. I seem to be the only person in the world that does - it had a bunch of different sections on the show, like a Pac-Man rip off (that was my favorite), and a Dragnet ripoff, where they had days of the week for their names. That's about all I remember, but it was glorious.

Labels: Rambling

I quit drinking pop. Cold turkey. One day about two weeks ago, I just thought, "Hey, what's the point?" And like that, I quit. I save some money, I cut out a lot of unneeded sugar out of my diet, and I don't rely on the caffeine any longer; it's really a win-win situation. I have to give Sara some of the credit though, because she doesn't drink any pop ever, and it probably influenced my choice a bit.

I've decided to stop eating so bad too. Not that I'm getting fat by any means (in fact, I'm getting skinnier, I think), but since I've stopped working out on a regular basis (without basketball or ROTC in my life, I don't have continual exercising in my life any longer... it's a weird feeling), my body has been feeling pretty crappy. I can hear it pleading, "Hey, if the only exercise you get is walking to class every day, please stop trying to kill me." I guess stirring ramen noodles and lifting chicken wings to my face doesn't count as exercise... and no, I don't the push-ups are doing much for my health either.

Granted, I've not becoming an entire health nut or anything. I'm not going to give up on pizza or chicken wings (they're like crack, I couldn't quit if I tried), but I'm just going to eat more fruit and vegetables, more whole grain stuff rather than processed, more non-instant oatmeal, and I'm more or less cutting fast food out of my diet. With the 3 to 4 Dollar Menu lunches a week I was eating, I might as well have been eating a stick of butter every day. It'd probably have been healthier. I have a feeling if I got my cholesterol checked out, it'd be a little to high for someone who is only 20-years old. I guess a steady diet of McChickens, Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers and soft tacos over the past, well, 20-years of my life would do that though.

So, we'll see how this goes. If I still feel like crap in another month, maybe I'll give up on it and assume I'm just going to feel like crap the rest of my life. In that case, bring on the tacos. I'll keep you updated, because I'm just sure you so interested.

Labels: Rambling

After my classes on Friday, I had a pleasant, although somewhat lonely, solo drive northward to Niagara Falls to meet up with Sara and a fun mix of her family/friends for a concert, good food, cold weather, and pure, blissful Canadian culture.

I'll tell you what, Jonny Lang can play the guitar. I mean, he can play. He put on a great and memorable show up at the Seneca Casino (hopefully Sara will get some pictures up and video footage on YouTube before long). If you don't know him, check him out -- Red Light, Lie to Me, and Beautiful One aren't bad places to start. Jonny plays blues rock, he's Grammy nominated (not like that means much of anything nowadays), and he's only 26 years old. He released his first acclaimed album in 1995, so do the math. His voice back then already sounded like a 40-some year old cigarette smoking blues brother, and it still does -- Sara's mom and I both noted he's probably not going to have a voice left by the time he's 40. It hasn't stopped Bob Dylan though, so I don't think he has to worry much. The most memorable moments of the concert include Jonny's jaw-dropping guitar solos (in which he made some of the most contorted, goofiest faces a man could ever possibly make), the drummer's solo (I've seen drummers this good before (i.e. Tyler James), but it never fails to impress me how somebody can move their hands that fast and make something sound so cool), and the fifteen minute jam session where nobody sang at all... they all just rocked out. It was great. Afterwards, Sara and I got some very late night fancy Italian cuisine, while Sara's mom, her friend and Mystery Man went and tried their luck at some Keno (43 and 3 turned out to be the lucky numbers of the night).

Saturday morning we woke up, got a bite of the hotel's complimentary breakfast (I stayed away from the eggs, they looked a little too manufactured for my tastes), then headed over across the border to Canada to check out the falls; it was absolutely freezing with the wind, but it was a lot of fun. The waterfalls look awesome in the winter (video by Sara). Besides the obviously cool waterfall, we made our way to Clifton Hill (which is basically a small Disney-like street: the happiest place on Earth... or Canada, at least) and we checked out the Movie Star Wax Museum (Harrison Ford, De Niro, Eastwood, Vader, and the Ninja Turtles, among many others made an appearance).


Afterwards, we all walked across the street to get a bit of lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. They had a young feller working there with a python and some other large snake, and of course I jumped at the opportunity to get the things wrapped around my neck. They slithered around all creepy like, before Sara's mother and her friend decided to try it out themselves; being teachers, they figured their students would love to see two snakes wrapped around their necks. Finally, I coerced Sara -- who seemed pretty content just taking the pictures -- into doing it. She looked a little creeped out at first, but soon softened up to the slithering reptiles as they crawled through her hair. After that, we all ordered our food (from a waitress that said "aboot and eh? -- it's not a stereotype, eh?), but saw the same young feller put away the snakes and brought out a genuine Capuchin monkey -- yes, that's right, the same monkey that can be seen in my favorite movie of all time Raiders of the Lost Ark. Her name was Susie, a diaper-wearing one-year old Capuchin, who didn't fancy females -- but being a manly man, Susie took a liking to me. The young feller let me come behind the rope separating us from him and I stuck out my arm. The monkey climbed right up it onto my shoulder, then around my front, back onto my shoulder and making its way to the top of my head, which she found pretty comfortable. It was a pretty cool deal, having never been so close to a monkey before. These guys lives for 30-40 years and you can buy them anywhere from $2,500-$4,000. Of course, as the young feller confirmed, it's literally a 24-hour a day job, because monkeys can get into anything, open doors, and they're a curious bunch. Sara and I decided to wait until we could afford a butler and/or maid before we get one. Here's a short clip of Susie that Sara captured.

The only disappointing part of the trip was that I didn't get to buy the best and coolest thing Canada has to offer: milk in a bag.

Labels: Rambling