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Saturday, January 19, 2013

Eek! The Cat


It’s no secret that some of my favourite cartoons that have ever been made are those that like to make fun of themselves.

Some examples that I can think of at the moment include some of the more recent prime-time animated hits that are currently airing.  “South Park”, “Family Guy”, “American Dad”, “The Cleveland Show”, and “The Simpsons” often spoof pop culture and bust through the fourth wall.  And, I think that’s why I enjoy them so much.  For one, it offers a creative new twist to old favourites, but another reason is that I find it refreshing when people can take the time to laugh at themselves once in a while.  I remember that there were some times in which I have been a little stiff and have been instructed to loosen up a little bit.  Thankfully, I think I’ve done a fairly good job stopping and smelling the roses.

In most cases, these types of cartoons have aired during the prime-time hours.  Whether you watch “The Simpsons” or “South Park”, or used to watch “The Critic”, “Futurama”, or “King of the Hill”, you’d be hard pressed to find a channel on television that aired episodes of the program before one in the afternoon.  This makes perfect sense, when you consider that the majority of these episodes are marketed towards an adult audience.  There were hardly any Saturday morning cartoons that made an effort to spoof everything under the sun because I believe that some television executives weren’t convinced that young kids would grasp the humour.  The closest example that I could think of when I was a little boy was “Muppet Babies”, and even that was considered tame compared to the adult prime-time counterparts.

Yet, FOX managed to create one show that did all that.  It was a show that began airing when I was eleven, and yet I was able to understand most of the pop culture references that the show was spoofing, and it made me chuckle.  There was just something about this show that made me want to watch it week after week.  It was brilliant enough that people got the references and the humour right away, but it was fun enough for kids to enjoy the slapstick comedy that often befell the main character.

I’d say that the show format was sort of like Family Guy, minus the adult vibe, combined with Sylvester the Cat and a little dash of Rocko’s Modern Life.  Put them all together, and you get this big purple cat!



Eek! 

(No, I didn’t scream.  That’s the name of the character of the show that we’re focusing on.)


The show was Eek! The Cat, and it debuted on the FOX channel on September 11, 1992.  The show was created by the team of Bill Kopp and Savage Steve Holland. (Kopp himself voiced Eek).  The duo had previously worked together nearly ten years earlier on a particular game show.



Yes, Kopp and Holland were the team behind the dastardly Whammies that appeared to take away the hard earned dollars won by the contestants of “Press Your Luck”, which aired between 1983 and 1986.

The idea for Eek! The Cat was inspired by the living situation of Savage Steve Holland.  In his younger years, Savage Steve Holland shared his home with several cats, one of which was named Eek.  Initial character designs of Eek were slightly different than what appeared in the cartoon.  Eek was originally coloured pink instead of purple, and the show was originally titled “The Six and a Half Lives of Eek the Cat”.

And, given all the things that happened to poor Eek, he needed every single one of those lives.

You see, all Eek ever wanted to do was help people.  In fact, one of his favourite sayings was “it never hurts to help”.

Too bad that in Eek’s case, it almost always did.


In almost every single episode of the series, Eek had the very best of intentions when it came to assisting others in need.  And, for the most part, he succeeded in his quest...even if he ended up falling down a flight of stairs, getting squashed by household objects, or running away from his nemesis, Sharky the Sharkdog.

At least you can say that Eek always meant well.

And, just who are some of the friends that Eek tried to help?  Well, let’s take a look.


There’s Elmo the Elk (Savage Steve Holland), an elk who is extremely loyal to Eek...but also ends up being incredibly dumb as well.  He often finds work in performing stunts, which seems to have affected his brain.  After all, he does insist that June has thirty-one days.  Or, maybe he just doesn’t like Canada Day?  Who knows?  He tries to act courageous, but then again, he never was praised for his acting ability.  He would probably make Wade the Duck from U.S. Acres look like the Terminator by comparison.


And, then there’s Eek’s beloved girlfriend, Annabelle (voiced by both Tawny Kitaen and Karen Haber).  Annabelle is a big, bold, beautiful cat with a heart as big as her entire body.  As you have seen in the picture included with this blog, Annabelle is certainly no skinny pencil, and that suits Eek just fine.  Eek doesn’t see Annabelle as being fat, and often seems shocked when other people comment on her size.  All he sees is her, and he’s proud to say that he’s lucky to have more of her to love.

NOTE:  You see, everyone?  Not EVERYONE is so hung up on looks.  When a person is in love, all they see is them.  Not their flaws.  Eek, you are totally my hero!

Ahem...moving right along...


Eek is a typical housecat where he lives with a single mother (Elinor Donahue), and her two children Wendy Elizabeth (E.G. Daily) and J.B. (Charlie Adler).  In many ways, Eek is considered to be the sane member of the family, as the mother is too busy trying to listen to foreign language tapes, and the kids are mesmerized by “The Squishy Bearz Rainbow of Enchanted Fun Minute”.


TRIVIA:  The Squishy Bearz were a spoof of the popular “Care Bears” show.  Three of the bears, Kozy (E.G. Daily), Puffy, and Wuz Wuz (Cam Clarke) are happy and want to spread happiness and friendliness to all.  The fourth bear, a French accented green bear named Pierre (Bill Kopp), is contrastingly bitter and angry at the world.


Eek has also made some enemies during his lifetime.  The most obvious one is Sharky, who happens to be Annabelle’s guard...dog?  Guard Shark?  Whatever the case, Sharky hates Eek with a passion, and he goes well out of his way to make Eek’s life a misery.  Consider their relationship to be similar to Garfield and Odie’s relationship on steroids.


Eek also has an enemy that is truly out of this world in the form of the evil alien Zoltar (Brad Garrett).  Zoltar’s main concern is destroying the world with a giant laser beam.  But in order to make that happen, he has to abduct Annabelle to use her large frame as a battery to power his laser.  Of course, Eek being head over tail in love with Annabelle won’t let that happen.

There’s also a couple of characters who make sporadic appearances in the form of running gags.  Piggy the Penguin resembles a certain character from “Lord of the Flies”, and in the example below, you can see that the psychotic character of Alice kind of resembles the character of Amanda Woodward from “Melrose Place”.


TRIVIA:  Yes, that really is Heather Locklear voicing Alice.  She was just one of several guest stars who appeared on the program.  Others included William Shatner, David Duchovny, Weird Al Yankovic, Fabio, Kurtwood Smith, Tim Curry, John Landis, Jaid Barrymore, and the late Phil Hartman.


The first season of Eek! The Cat were full length episodes.  By the second season premiere in 1993, the Eek segments were edited down to ten or eleven minutes in length.  The rest of the time was allotted to a cartoon series called “The Terrible Thunderlizards”.  As a result, the title sequence was changed slightly.

A third title change, “Eek-Stravaganza” was implemented in 1994, right around the time that a new segment called “Klutter” was added, which rotated with the Thunderlizards.  This was the final change to the program, which lasted until the show aired its last episode in August 1997.

Eek! The Cat even had its own video game release for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1994, which itself was a re-porting of a 1993 Amiga game.  Have a look at a portion of the game play below.  It was quite a fun game to play, though at times could be quite frustrating.


It’s therefore quite frustrating to know that Eek! The Cat doesn’t have a release on DVD or Blu-Ray yet.  Maybe one day it will.  Heck, I may end up buying it myself.  I always loved the show.

And, after writing this blog, I hope those of you who remember the show loved it too.  Hey, maybe I’ve even converted some new fans to the program.  You never know.

Friday, January 18, 2013

Man vs. Food Part II - He Ate The Whole Thing?!?


This is a continuation of yesterday's Thursday Diary entry. If you happened to miss it, you can click HERE to link back to it. You might be wondering how I plan to tie in my addiction story to a television program. Well, the answer lies within.



Okay, so welcome to Friday, and the day after I pretty much admitted to being a complete weakling when it comes to anything made out of chocolate. It's certainly not as bad as being addicted to alcohol, lethal drugs, or sniffing permanent markers, but if I don't get the addiction under control, it'll eventually kill me. Now that it's out in the open, I feel better for having confessed it, and now that it's out in the open, it'll serve as a permanent reminder of the promise I made to myself.

Still, I know that the road to absolute freedom from any confection with the names Hershey, Reese, Cadbury, or Mars is going to be a lifelong struggle. I don't think it's something that I can just go cold turkey on. Occasionally there are going to be instances in which I have to have peanut butter M&M's, and there might be instances where I will be at a party where there's cake...and it would be sort of rude to turn down cake at a party. For the most part though, I plan to keep my cravings under control, though it's going to be a challenge. I won't lie to you.

And, I'm already taking steps to try and kick my chocolate habit once and for all. Now that I have an iPod (yes, I have finally joined the 21st century a dozen years into it), I find that going on a brisk walk is a lot more fun. It's like I'm exercising with my favourite artists! I'm purposely only buying vanilla flavoured frozen yogurt whenever I do have a craving for a sweet treat. Not only is frozen yogurt healthier, but by buying vanilla, I won't trigger my chocolate cravings!

(Baby steps here, remember?)

You know, looking back on my love-hate relationship with food (sweets in particular), I have come to one conclusion. When I was binge eating on everything that had any sort of chocolate drizzle on it, I was doing it to feel some sort of happiness. And, why wouldn't I choose chocolate? Chocolate has magical healing powers that makes one feel better...for a little while. I used to laugh off the suggestion that more women would rather have chocolate than sex. But now that I'm a bit older and a lot wiser, I can understand why this is the case.

It really wasn't until I grew older that I started to feel disgusted over my insatiable appetite. In almost all the times I instinctively grabbed food, I wasn't even hungry. I ate out of boredom, I ate to relieve stress, and I ate to ease the emotional pain that I was going through. I still have memories of being a teenager and finishing off the leftovers from dinner that the rest of my family couldn't eat because I am the type of person who didn't like to see food go to waste. It was like I had become a human garbage disposal out of necessity, and I didn't like that feeling at all. It wasn't until I was 28 years old that I made the decision to try and change my habits so that I didn't rely on food so much to get me through the roughest of days...just four years ago. This year, I'm turning 32, and I still don't have everything perfectly balanced yet. But, all in time though.

You know what's funny though? With the amount of food that I ate as a teenager, it's a wonder that I didn't attempt any of those eating contests, or get in on the action to break a Guinness World Record for eating a set amount of food in the shortest time possible.

You know the contests I mean, right? A pie eating contest at the county fair, or a pizza eating contest at a local pizzeria, or the Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Challenge held each year.

Well, there were at least three different reasons why I didn't enter those contests. Firstly, there weren't any contests like that readily available in my hometown at that time to my knowledge (and if there were, they were usually for foods that I despised). Secondly, when I was a teenager, I was the kid who wanted to blend into the background. The last thing I wanted was to have my name and photo plastered all over the newspaper indicating that I had eaten the most food. That would have just given people more ammo, as far as I was concerned!

The main reason why I never entered an eating contest was simple. I get grossed out by them.



Anyone who has ever seen one of those eating contests on television or in person knows what I mean. It's not like the contestants are casually sitting down at a table with a knife and fork, and are dabbing their faces with a napkin as they sip a glass of white wine. No, the carnage is absolutely insane. Those pies and hot dogs get gobbled up in less than a minute. Some of those contestants swallow them down so quickly, you wonder if they swallow them whole or if they at least chew it once or twice.

Forget the fact that I wouldn't even stand a chance against some of the more competitive participants in these eating contests. I wouldn't be able to last five minutes without feeling intense nausea over seeing the person next to me shovel an entire pizza into their mouths before I was even finished one slice.

I mean, hey, if you do competitive eating for a living, more power to you. I just can't do it.

Now, can you imagine a television show that put a spin on competitive eating contests? Imagine a guy going to every pizza place, steakhouse, ice cream stand, and greasy spoon diner in America, sampling the biggest and most insane food creations ever made. And, imagine at the end of every episode, you see this man attempting a variety of food eating challenges which include everything from sampling the hottest chicken wings possible to eating a TEN POUND hamburger in a ninety minute time period. Would you watch?



Well, for nearly four years, people who had The Travel Channel could have the opportunity to watch Adam Richman do exactly that. And, the title of this show was the direct inspiration of the last two blog entries.



Today we're going to be talking about the show Man vs. Food, which aired on The Travel Channel from December 3, 2008 until April 11, 2012.

We're going to talking about what the show is, how it came about, how the host prepared for every episode and eating challenge, as well as addressing the criticisms and rumours surrounding its host.

Oh, and at the end of this entry, I'll be sharing my own thoughts on Man vs. Food, as well as a little bit of a social commentary.



I had mentioned that the host of the show was a man named Adam Richman (b. May 16, 1974 in Brooklyn, New York). Richman is no stranger to food. He has often described himself as a food fanatic. Since 1995, Richman has kept a travel journal where he often goes into great detail over all of the restaurants he visited, what he ordered there, and any life lessons he learned along the way.

(Well...kind of like I'm doing with this blog. Only I haven't been doing this nearly as long as Adam Richman, and this blog is mostly on pop culture. But hey, we have the life lesson thing down pat!)

The format of Man vs. Food for the first three seasons was the same. Adam would travel to several large American cities in search of the most palatable, piquant, or decadent foods ever created. In many cases, the cities often have their own signature dishes, and Adam often did a themed special around this food item. For example, if he were in Philadelphia, he would do a feature on the Philly Cheesesteak. If he were in New York City, he may have done a show on New York Style Cheesecake. If he's hanging around Chicago, you know that a deep dish pizza will be in the spotlight at some point. And down in the southern states like Texas or Oklahoma, it's grill city for sure.

For the first segments of the show, Adam would visit several restaurants, interviewing people about the local cuisine and how it is made, and then he'd sit down and sample some of it. Now, I must admit that watching a few episodes of the show, the opening was really tough to get through. A lot of the foods that Adam sampled looked really delicious, and my mouth was watering as he tried them. At some point, I was actually relieved when they added onions or strawberries or some other food I dislike, because only then did my cravings end right there on the spot.



(Hmmm...dipping chocolate in onion powder. That would definitely make it less tempting. Must remember that for future reference.)

It was only really the last part of the show that kind of made me wince in pain and shock.

That was the part of the show in which Adam would take on a food eating challenge where he would do battle against foods that were either too spicy or incredibly gigantic to digest. And to add to the pressure, some of the challenges had a time limit to boot! Whatever was a guy to do?

Eat, of course. You see, that's where the title comes into play. Will man be able to triumph over food, or will food cause the man to collapse in pain and cry uncle?

Believe it or not, each one of these eating challenges came with a lot of preparation. Richman has explained in several interviews that when he is on the road, he finds time to exercise twice a day in order to keep in shape in between challenges. He'll also fast the day before an eating challenge, making sure to stay hydrated by drinking a lot of club soda or water. He also says that he works out on a treadmill for an hour immediately after taping an episode. Now, you might think that this would be incredibly uncomfortable after eating an obscene amount of food, but I'll admit that after Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner, I have to move around for a bit after eating because it's incredibly uncomfortable if I don't.

And, just what kind of challenges will Adam take on?

Well, how about eating a 12-inch cheeseburger with twelve beef patties and twelve slices of cheese? Basically, a heart attack on a plate. If you can stomach it, you can watch the clip below. But, I wouldn't recommend watching it on a full stomach. I know I found it hard!



Other challenges that Adam had to take on were...

  • eating a Southwestern Omelette made with an entire dozen of eggs
  • eating several chicken wings with each wing hotter than the last one
  • eating an ice cream sundae made with two gallons of ice cream
  • eating a four pound grilled cheese sandwich
  • attempting to break a record with 39 other people in eating a hamburger weighing 190 pounds!

Wow...after reading all that, I don't think that I want to eat ever again! My stomach feels full and I'm not even the one eating the food!

The show was praised by some critics, who loved Adam's passion for food, and the fun aspect of looking into the world of food eating contests. On the flipside, there are people who have panned the show, saying that Adam is setting a terrible example by promoting the sin of gluttony, and that it sent out the wrong message to people.

Believe it or not, there were actually rumours circulating around the Internet that Adam Richman's competitive eating lead to fatal heart attacks, prompting Adam to lash out at the people spreading the rumour, announcing that he was, in fact alive. And, as of January 18, 2013, Adam Richman is still alive.

Although one thing he doesn't do any more is competitive eating (which likely lead to the cancellation of Man vs. Food last year). He officially walked away from the contests effective January 27, 2012, stating that he wished to move ahead with future projects and bid farewell to his many followers.



As far as my own thoughts on Man vs. Food...they are admittedly mixed. On one hand, I can see where people are coming from about how the show is presented. Although Adam has stated that he worked hard to maintain his weight in between food challenges, I can't see how stuffing your face full of food in a half hour is considered to be healthy for the digestive system. If I tried to stuff a 12 patty burger in my mouth in twenty minutes, I would likely be dead...or at the very least in a hospital bed getting my stomach pumped. I honestly don't remember if they had a warning prefacing each episode explaining that not everyone should try these massive eating challenges, but it would have been an asset. And, I can probably also see people pointing out that it seems a bit wasteful to gorge on giant sized food items when there are people in the world who wish they could even have a small morsel of it.

Though, taking on the role of devil's advocate here, I see where Adam is coming from. He has a passion for food, and he loves talking about it, showcasing it, and eating it. And, as someone who has a passion for writing, I can't fault the guy for showing off his passion. It might not be the most brilliant way of doing it, but again, I can't fault him for it. It's not like he had to do the challenges because he was feeling poorly about himself and felt like he HAD to eat to feel happy. He was happy doing the challenges because it was his passion, and even when he failed at the various challenges, he still had a smile on his face knowing that he gave it all he had.



And, hey, on a positive, whenever I did watch an episode of Man vs. Food, it killed my appetite...so maybe what I need to do whenever I get a craving for chocolate is watch a marathon of those eating challenges before I go out with my iPod around town.

It can't hurt, right?

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Man vs. Food Part I - Chocoholics Anonymous


This is a Thursday Timeline entry that I absolutely have to write...because I think that once I have it out in the open, it will give me no excuse to do anything else other than make my life better. And for the first time in the history of the blog, this will be a two parter! Part II will be posted Friday, January 18.

January 17, 2013

I have a bit of a confession to make. And, here's the thing. Most of you who know me probably know this to be common knowledge anyway. It won't come across as a really huge secret to those who know me best. But, it's something that I really need to get out there in the open so that I can see the truth and do something about it.



My name is Matthew...and I am a chocoholic.

I know, it's such a shameful secret to possess. I admit it. But, it's true.

Sure, some people might be chuckling in the stands, and I do get your point. It isn't like I just confessed to having an addiction to liquor, painkillers, cigarettes, or other drugs. And, I'm certainly not addicted to love, because let's face it, I am no Robert Palmer.

How can anyone be addicted to chocolate and other sweets?

It's easy. I am. And, it's an addiction that I have struggled with for the majority of my life. An addiction that I wish I could kick once and for all.

But I'll be the first one to admit that kicking my addiction to sweets has not always been easy.

For one, the temptation seems to be everywhere you look. I can't turn on the television without seeing an ad for the Dairy Queen Blizzard of the Month, or an innovation on an already tasty candy bar that made it even more delectable. I can't go through a checkout line at any supermarket or drug store without standing next to the candy counter filled with chocolate bars and sweet delicious candies and feeling a need to buy something. Even in a place as calm (well, depending on the people inside of it) as the employee break room at work isn't always safe, as there are always vending machines and baked treats inside screaming “TRY ME!”

In fact, there's a lot of times in which I'll randomly grab something that is dipped in chocolate and caramel and eat it without thinking...and then when I see the empty wrapper sitting beside me, I just feel disgusted with myself for letting the addiction take hold once again. It's that easy to do, and I'll admit that in my moments of weakness, I succumb to the sweet charms of candy.



Even when I was on the straight and narrow and lost a ton of weight, I didn't give up eating chocolate. I merely cut down on my consumption. But recently, I have had more moments of weakness than I can even count. At first I thought that it was related to the surgery that I had almost two years ago. I had read that one of the possible side effects of having your gall bladder out was slight weight gain, and since my surgery, I have gained about 30 pounds back. It's not like I went completely backwards and am not back to my old weight...but my clothes are feeling a little big snug, and I want to nip this chocolate addiction in the bud before that happens.

I guess I just need a little bit of help.

Before I explain what I need to have happen, I should explain how I came to develop my addiction to chocolate and other types of candy.

Believe it or not, I never really had that much of a problem with weight when I was a young boy. I mean, yes, I was quite tall as a kid (and at 6'2”, I'm still considered tall), but looking at old pictures of myself that were taken back in the early 1980s when I was toddler aged, I was rail thin. Yeah, I was built larger than other kids my age, but I wasn't considered unhealthy at all. Sure, I ate the occasional M&M, and I distinctly remember having a McDonald's Happy Meal like once a month or so, but that wasn't overly bad. The rest of the meals I ate as a kid were healthy and wholesome.



In fact...if I had to look back on my childhood, if there were any foods that I had to have back when I was a kid, it was V8 Vegetable Juice. I can't imagine how many cans of V8 I drank as a kid...it's a wonder that my skin didn't glow a bright shade of red! I also remember vague memories of opening up the fridge, grabbing a head of lettuce and ripping off lettuce leaves and eating them! It sounds really bizarre, but that's what I was drawn to as a kid when it came to snacks.

Then school happened.

Before I continue, I should probably explain something. Nowadays, many schools promote healthy living and healthy snack options, and you see a lot more fruit and milk being consumed.

This was NOT the case in the late 1980s.

Schools back then often had junk food at everyone's disposal. Heck, the French classroom in elementary school which doubled as our canteen during lunch hours sold snacks such as chocolate bars, Doritos, and ketchup-flavoured potato chips.



(Yeah, ketchup chips is a Canadian delicacy.)

Anyway, the temptation to eat unhealthy snacks in school was always present, and rather than not feel left out, I ditched the V8 and downed sugary soft drinks.



And, you know what? I shoulda stuck with the V8.

It didn't take long for the kids in the class to notice that I was filling out a little. Again, at the time, I didn't have that much of a weight problem, and my parents just chalked it up to me having a few growth spurts, is all. But kids weren't necessarily as understanding as adults could be. In fact, there was one group of boys that were in my second and third grade classes that completely made my life a living hell by poking fun at my size and my weight. They called me all sorts of derogatory names, they were telling everyone that I weighed 100 pounds (which granted, for a 7-year-old, was quite huge, but absolutely untrue). One kid even tried to act smart by lecturing me on how I should lay off the potato chips. Never mind the fact that he was built sort of similar to how I was...apparently HE was an expert on MY body. Sheesh.

Of course, that's how I feel now. When I was seven, comments like that really stung. So, when I went home, I was in the frame of mind where I was like, “I'll show that 'J' (I use initials to disguise their identity because I don't believe in slander)...I'll eat an entire bag of potato chips and show him that I didn't need his advice. And, had I just stopped with the one bag that one day, I likely would have made my point quite nicely.

Instead, I got used to filling up on potato chips every day after school. It actually got to the point where I couldn't function unless I had potato chips to eat every day after school. It was almost like a form of kiddie crack or something. The more nasty comments that were tossed my way, the more potato chips I had to have.

What was really frustrating was that after fourth grade, all the nasty boys who used to pick on me transferred to a French immersion school. So, feasibly speaking, I could have kicked the junk food habit in the fifth grade, right?

Unfortunately, that was the time that another group of bratty boys started to bully me as well. And, these guys were much, much worse than the last crew that I got rid of. Not only did they make every effort to make my junior high school years a complete misery, but they teamed up with a group of mean girls who also used to make me feel terrible about myself. Making comments about how I would kill them if I ever sat on them, or telling me that I ate a VW Beetle, or making up a rhyme like “Matty Matty 2x4, can't fit through the patio door”.



(Which actually showed their stupidity, as a 2x4 is a rail thin plank of wood, come to think of it.)

Regardless, my junk food cravings increased tenfold. Instead of having a single snack size bag of potato chips, I was eating a family size portion in one sitting...along with dip made from Philadelphia cream cheese, and at least three cans of soda. Not the diet soda either...I'm talking Pepsi and Coca-Cola here. And, when it came to dinner, I made some foolish choices as well, opting for take-out cuisine over home-cooked meals. What could I say, it made me feel better eating the foods that I liked.

Remember that point for later.

When I entered high school, I was hit with a real double whammy when my “new” group of bullies met up with the group of bullies who used to terrorize me about my size in the second and third grade. And would you know it, they all befriended each other and suddenly my pool of haters doubled.

Is it any wonder why I despised high school so much?

And, when I was in high school, that's when my food addiction switched solely to chocolate and sweets. I don't really remember eating a whole lot of sweets as a kid, but when I was a teenager, I couldn't get out of bed without having some form of chocolate.

I'm telling you, my chocolate addiction was out of control during my teen years. I would buy bags of Hershey Kisses and eat the whole bag in one sitting. I would pour half a can of chocolate syrup onto a dish of vanilla ice cream in order to make it extremely chocolatey. In fact, I'm kind of ashamed to admit this, but I secretly stole chocolate chips out of my mom's baking pantry to satisfy my chocolate cravings.



Not my finest moment for sure, but at least I'm copping to it now.

But, why would I let something as simple as chocolate make me go absolutely crazy?

Well, it comes back to a statement I made earlier. I ate chocolate and other junk food during my saddest times to feel happier. To feel like I wasn't empty. To feel something other than being alone and friendless.



In many ways, the chocolate worked like an anti-depressant of sorts. Because I felt so horrible about myself, I didn't feel like it was worth trying to impress people who didn't care. To me, no matter what I did, people still wouldn't want to be around me. They were happy in their own little groups, and I was always the outsider looking in.

I ended up developing an inferiority complex. Because people didn't want to know me, or worse, abused me emotionally, I couldn't count on them. But chocolate and other tasty treats were always there whenever I needed them. They wouldn't hurt me. They would fill me up with their caramel centers and nougat filling, and make me feel not as empty anymore. Or at least until the next craving came along, in which I would eat more chocolate to feel better about myself. Calories and nutritional value didn't matter to me. What mattered was having the feeling of happiness inside of me, even if it came in chocolate covered sponge toffee.

Which could explain why by the time I graduated high school, I weighed 300 pounds.

I was shocked at that number, and I told myself that I had no idea how I had let myself go. I also had a tendency to lie to myself a lot back in those days. I knew very well how I ballooned up to that weight. It was my dependence on chocolate and sweets that made the weight gain possible. Sure, the sugar buzz might have made me feel good for a little while...but knowing that all that chocolate was transformed into fat made me feel disgusted about myself...which in turn prompted me to grab some more junk food in order to take away the disgust and replace it with happiness once more.

You see the vicious cycle here?

It really wasn't until a few years ago that I decided that I would make a positive change about myself and my battles with the bulge. That was the year I decided to join a weight loss contest at work.

You want to know something? I ended up losing the second highest amount of weight in the whole contest. And, you want to know what helped me?

Compassion and support.

Seriously, my co-workers were incredibly supportive of me. They cheered right along with me as the pounds melted away. They also were quite annoying as they checked on me to make sure I wasn't sneaking chocolate behind their backs.

In fact, here's a confession. The whole contest lasted through Easter...and I still ended up losing weight that week despite the chocolate temptations. Mind you, it was only half a pound, but a loss is a loss, right?

So, what made the weight come off quickly during a three month period when I had close to thirteen, fourteen years and I couldn't lose an ounce?

Simple. Positive reinforcement.

Those mean boys who used to pick on me...they may have thought in their own warped train of thought that they were helping me, but they weren't. Of course, I can only take the blame for eating all the junk in the first place, but they weren't entirely blameless either. Of course, now that I have it all out here in the open, I suppose I can forgive them for the maelstrom of terror they unleashed on me. After all, it's not like I'll ever see any of them ever again, right?

I lost the weight because I had a support system who truly cared about me and my well-being. And, I have to admit that it was something that I really had to adjust to, because nobody had ever had my back like that before. It was something that I just wanted to grab onto and never let go of. You see, in some ways, I was doing so well with the weight loss program because I didn't want them to feel disappointed in me. I wanted them all to be proud of me. I'm sure that looking back on it, they would have been happy even if I had lost a few pounds. And, that was cool. As I said, it was rare for me to have real, genuine friendship and love shown to me, and it touched me.

And, you know...that love and support tastes so much better than the sweetest chocolate.

That said, I want to go back to that person I was four years ago. I want to feel good about myself again, and not sink back to those levels of despair. I want to get back out in the world and feel like I belong.

These past couple of years have been rough for me. I had a serious surgery, and within a year, I lost one of my best online friends, as well as the co-worker who was in many ways my biggest cheerleader (though if he were still alive, he would KILL me for calling him that). Those losses really hit me hard, and it made me feel like I had lost a huge part of the success that I had achieved. And, Christmas was one of those holidays where I overindulged on my one weakness, and paid the price for it later on.

I guess what I am trying to say is that I want to get healthy again. I may never be a 32-inch waist, but I want to look at the mirror again and like what I see, I'm okay with what I see now, but I want to feel better on the inside again.

I just need to surround myself with positivity. And, sometimes to find the positivity, you have to make peace with the bad.  But, they say that admitting that you have a problem is the right start...and as much as I don't want to admit it...I still have a problem resisting chocolate and junk food.



I'm on the right track though.  With me admitting it, I have no excuses tying me down any longer.  I'm sure all of you reading this won't let me forget my admission either now that I have it out there.  But hey, with my dislike of Valentine's Day, staying away from heart shaped chocolates has never been easier.

That's all for now.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Lite-Brite Art


When I was growing up, I remember always being an artistic kind of kid.  I very rarely played sports, and I wasn’t really into building castles made of sand in the playground sandbox (though I did attempt to bury a nasty little kid who was mean to me in the said sandbox...and I would have gotten away with it too had the teacher kept her back turned).

Honestly, if you had just given me a package of coloured pencils, a 64 count of Crayola crayons, washable or scented markers, or even an assortment of finger paints, I was the happiest child you could ever see.

I suppose part of the reason why I was such a creative child (and for that matter, a creative adult) was because it was really the only way that I had to express myself.  I didn’t really have a powerful voice when I was a kid.  Oh sure, my parents always exclaimed that as far as tone went, I didn’t have a problem, as people in the back row of an auditorium could hear me.  But when it came down to using my voice to engage in conversations with other kids, teachers, or even guests who came around to visit classrooms, I kept mostly silent.  I didn’t think anyone really had any interest in what I had to say, so I just kept quiet.

But when art class rolled around, I was able to channel all of that stored-up energy into some of the craftiest and most daring art projects ever.  I wasn’t a very good artist when I started school, but by the eighth grade, my creativity had matured, and I ended up getting some of the higher art marks in my class.

Of course, one thing that I refused to do in art class was conform to all the other kids.  Yeah, I suppose that most frogs are green and brown, but as far as I was concerned, one could have a frog that was purple with blue and pink polka dots all over them.  I mean, if the Care Bears could come in every possible colour of the rainbow, surely a frog could be any colour I saw fit, right?

I think that’s what my ultimate goal was in life...using my artwork and my creativity to stand out in a crowd.  Let’s face it...it was painfully obvious that when I was a kid, I certainly wasn’t going to do it with my talents of congeniality and outspokenness.  Art class was all I had.

So, it wasn’t out of the ordinary for me to draw a sailboat sailing on a sea of orange and red.  All that I had to say was that it was a fireproof boat cascading down a sea of lava.  And, I thought that it was fantastic to grind my lemon yellow, sky magenta, and emerald green pencil crayons down to nubs in order to create the brightest coloured construction paper based Easter egg for my reading buddy while I was in the sixth grade.  My egg was so bright and shiny that when the student teacher held it up to the class, some of my classmates needed shades! 

(Well, okay, it wasn’t that bad...but it was nice to get positive attention in class, at least.)

Though, I had a bit of a hard time convincing my first grade teacher that I had purposely coloured my fish bright red because it was actually a Jell-O fish (not to be confused with jellyfish).  But, I didn’t care for the woman anyway, so who cared what she thought?  I LOVED my red fish!

And, when it came to a particular toy that I played with, I totally broke the rules as well when it came to colour selection.

I purposely coloured the snowman pictures in red and green to make them more Christmas like, even though the colour scheme called for mostly white and pink.  I used double the amount of purple that I was supposed to on my train picture because purple was my favourite colour.  Oh, and the reason for Mr. Potato Head being yellow instead of orange?  Well, I didn’t have a reason.  I just did it to rebel!

Now, you may be thinking that I am talking about one of those Paint-by-Numbers books where 1=red, 2=orange, and 3=chartreuse with crimson stripes.  I am not.


Instead, I’m talking about this fun creation.


How many of you had a Lite-Brite growing up?  I certainly did.  And, it was with this Lite-Brite that I ended up rebelling against what the guide told me to use and did my own thing anyway!  And, I LOVED IT!


Lite-Brite was a creation by Milton Bradley (now manufactured by Hasbro), first introduced in 1967.  And, it was a toy that was quite ahead of its time in many ways.

Lite-Brite worked like this.  You had a little metal box that sort of resembled a cross between a space heater and an Easy-Bake Oven.  At the front of the box was a little grid that was filled with tiny holes, and at the back of the box was a small light bulb (well, the earlier versions were anyway...current versions now use LED technology run on battery power).  By using sheets of black construction paper as well as the large assortment of coloured pegs that came with the Lite-Brite, you could make a wide variety of pictures by sticking the pegs into the holes through the black paper.  Then when the light was flicked on inside the box, the lights would glow brightly and your wonderful picture would be bathed in light, making the coloured pegs even more beautiful. 


The pegs came in eight different colours...Blue, Green, Orange, Pink, Red, Violet, White (Clear), and Yellow And, in case any of your pegs were lost, accidentally thrown away, or ended up being embedded into somebody’s bare foot (a common occurrence at my house, given that I almost always forgot to pick up my Lite-Brite pegs when I was finished using them), there were replacement packages of Lite-Brite pegs that could be purchased at most toy and department stores.

The Lite-Brite would come with several sheets of black construction paper to make an array of pictures and designs.  On most of the pieces of black paper were pre-drawn pictures of clown faces, lemonade signs, and boats.  Each one was designed in such a way that each of the drawings was made with letters.  The letters corresponded with the colour of peg that was supposed to go in each slot.  And, how did you tell which peg went where?  Easy.  Just look at the first letter of the colour, and go from there (B for Blue, V for Violet, P for Pink, etc).

But there were also some blank canvases included with the Lite-Brite.  And, these blank pieces of black construction paper were my favourites because you could really let your creativity shine.  Sure, putting together the pre-drawn pictures was a lot of fun, but being able to create your own designs was most excellent.

Mind you, my idea of creativity was drawing my name in all eight different colours...though I also used Lite-Brite as a really unique way to play tic-tac-toe and connect the dots.

TIP:  If you are going to play connect the dots with Lite-Brite, use one colour for the dots, and another colour for the lines...and make sure that you plan out your drawing first so it doesn’t look like a multicoloured blob.

Still, some of the designs that I have seen online have been extraordinary.  There’s a lot of creativity that people have exhibited with Lite-Brite technology.  Why, you could make a beach scene...


...a volcano...


...and THE LAST SUPPER?!?


(Now, that last Lite-Brite design is incredibly impressive.  I wonder how long it took to make?)

My Lite-Brite is long gone now.  I think the bulb finally exploded in it when I left it on for too long.  Luckily, it didn’t cause a fire, but my parents decided to get rid of it shortly after that.  But, what is interesting about Lite-Brite is that it still lives on today in sleeker, more modern forms.  Lite-Brite now comes in a flat screen version, as well as a three-dimensional cube, where kids can now create four different designs at the same time on each face!  As well, there was also a Lite-Brite that spun around and played music, but that model is sadly discontinued.


And, the best part is that a Lite-Brite is still fairly affordable.  Depending on what type you buy, it costs as little as $10, but no higher than $25.  Not a bad price.

In fact, I’m even enclosing a link to an online version of Lite-Brite so that you guys and gals can remember the fun that it brought.  It’s not quite the same as actually having a Lite-Brite in front of you, but give it a whirl anyway.  Just make sure your Java is updated, or else it will not work.


(Apparently, you can also get a Lite-Brite App for your iPhone, if you have one.)

That’s about all that I have to say on the Lite-Brite...but to close this blog entry off, I have one more thing I have to say.

I loved art class as a kid.  As I said before, not only did I excel in it, but it was really one of the few things in my entire school experience that allowed me to showcase who I really was without fear of repercussions.  It was a carefree experience for me, and I got a lot out of it.  So, when I hear schools threatening to cut art funds to balance school budgets, it drives me insane. 

I am one of those people who will fight tooth and nail to keep the arts in our schools.  And, if I ever am lucky enough to have children of my own, I will make sure that they at least have the option to pursue art at their school if they so choose it.  Art helps people express themselves and I don’t want to see it taken away from anyone.


*stepping down from his soapbox that is bedazzled with green, orange, and purple Lite-Brite pegs*