Okay,
guys! It's time for another edition of FUNNY
MONDAY - the
day of the week in which we take a look at some of the funniest images that
have ever been posted.
Today's
theme? Well, it has to do with the idea
of television news.
You
see, almost all news broadcasts this day and age are done completely live. There might be some time before the
broadcast to rehearse, but inevitably, bloopers do happen.
And
sometimes the funniest bloopers of all happen during the moments of the news in
which a person's name is displayed, or the weather is being reported on, or
sports scores might be displayed. If
the person at the helm of the controls falls asleep at the wheel, or if a
typographical error is made, or even if a person wears the wrong colour of
outfit, it can make for some scenes much more interesting (and funnier) than
the actual news.
It's why I call this entry "Quarter To Eleven News Bloopers".
So,
let's go ahead with the bloopers.
As
always, I want to thank Buzzfeed, Pinterest, Oddee.com, 11
Points, DesignTaxi, and Funny
or Die for the
photos displayed today.
You
know, when you see a flashlight just sitting there in the middle of the street,
I would be cautious too. You never know
what kind of germs could be crawling all over it. Why, it could even be covered with fire ants. And anyone who has ever been stung by a fire
ant knows how much they hurt.
Or, maybe it's suspicious because they somehow crammed a double A battery
inside of a triple A slot. Who can say?
Is
it just me, or did Bart Simpson have anything to do with this contest
winner? Seriously, what an unfortunate
name!
It
must be a slow news day when you can't even find the words to describe a police
chase, so you decide to describe how to write a paragraph instead. It must also make English teachers
cringe...particularly the one who apparently forgot to teach this one how to
spell the word "paragraph" correctly.
Well,
I don't blame this guy one bit. Have
you ever tried running with boxer shorts under your pants before?
I have. Completely
uncomfortable. Suddenly chasing after
someone for their tighty-whities makes more sense. Less chafing.
Wow...is
it just me, or has Wesley Snipes changed a little since the last movie he made?
Well...to
be fair, here in Canada, winter coincides with cold and flu season. Slip sliding on snot could be entirely
possible.
This
is precisely why one should NEVER wear green dresses in front of a green
screen. On the plus side, she doesn't
have to worry about her Ann Arbor showing...
I
think the state of Idaho had a little bit too much to drink last night...
I
always said that if I had to die, I think it would be best if I were killed to
death.
Wait...did
I miss something? When the heck was
World War XI?
Yeah,
there are just so many things that are wrong with this heading, I wouldn't even
know where to begin.
The
biggest surprise is that Michael Newman himself seems to be surprised at the
fact that he is not dead.
Yes,
everyone! I hope you have a great
day...well, except those of you who live in that house that is quickly turning
into ashes. Yeah, you're exempt.
Never
judge a book by its cover.
What
happens when you have a news ticker combined with the news of the Royal Baby
being born? You have a case of the
unfortunate news juxtaposition! And it
happened not once, but twice! Damn,
that royal baby went through a lot, didn't he?
I'd
say that the fact that your graphics designer can't tell the difference between
South Africa and South America is a bigger controversy, wouldn't you?
Okay...so
I'm going to have to stock up on sunblock with SPF 25,000 tomorrow.
Oh,
sure...I remember that American president from the 1990s. Good old Geroge...nobody ever topped
him!
So,
85% voted yes, while 15% voted YES! Ah,
that's the difference. Or maybe they
were voting on the look that they wanted the disgraced baseball player to
sport. I agree. I like the cap better.
I
don't know if scientists really did falsify theories, but hey, 120% of people can't
be wrong.
Wow...I didn't know that MSNBC employed those!!!
Did I miss something here, or did Boston exact some sort of piracy towards New
York City when I wasn't looking?
Okay,
so before I kick off this edition of the Sunday Jukebox this week, I will warn you
ahead of time. If you weren't into the
boy band phenomenon of the late 1990s, you probably will not like the content
of this blog. But for those of you who
did embrace the boy band scene, well, today is your lucky day. This is one that you'll probably enjoy.
I
know this period all too well. Having
graduated from high school in June of 2000 (a month before today's featured
single hit the charts), I remember it all too well. By the time I graduated high school, it seemed as though rock and
roll was becoming phased out to the point where it may as well have been killed
off like disco had been twenty years earlier.
Sure, bands like silverchair, Stone Temple Pilots, No Doubt, and
Matchbox 20 were trying to keep rock alive, and of course I heard a lot of
those songs playing on the radio while I was trying to figure out eleventh
grade algebra.
I
would have to say that 1998 was the year in which I started noticing the shift. It all began with the Backstreet Boys
becoming incredibly popular. They first
broke out in my home country of Canada way back in 1995 (the year I graduated
elementary school), and were already established stars in Canada. Ironic, given that the band was born in
Orlando, Florida. It wasn't really
until 1998 that the Backstreet Boys began to take over the American
charts. If I recall, their first smash
was "Quit Playing Games With My Heart".
Well,
with the Backstreet Boys being regarded as "The New Kids of the Block for
a new generation", naturally it paved the way for other boy bands to try
their hand at success, all over the globe.
Let's
see. In the United States, we had 98
Degrees, O-Town, LFO, The Moffatts, and Hanson all charting between 1997 and
2002.
In
the United Kingdom, there was Westlife, Boyzone, A1, BBMak, and 5ive. I don't know if any of them actually had
hits in the United States, but some of them managed to have some singles chart
in Canada - I seem to remember the last two bands I named as having at least
one hit.
Hell, even in Canada, we had soulDecision and 3Deep. And, no, I won't post videos of either band. Lord knows I heard enough of them in high
school.
So,
which boy band will we be featuring in this blog? Well, we'll be featuring a band that featured five members, and
had a few hits on the charts between 1998 and 2002. I can tell you that one member became a huge superstar, another
one had a brief solo career, one became involved in the game show/infomercial
industry, one ended up on a reality series, and the final member came out of
the closet and almost went up into space!
And no, I'm not kidding!
Okay, I've held you in suspense long enough.
Here's today's featured single, a number one hit fourteen years ago this
week.
ARTIST: *N Sync SONG: It's Gonna Be Me ALBUM: No Strings Attached DATE RELEASED: June 13,
2000 PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #1 for 2 weeks
Yes,
we'll be taking a look at the only #1 single that the boys of *N Sync managed
to get during their seven years together.
And,
here are the members of *N Sync above.
From left to right, we have Joshua "JC" Chasez, Joey Fatone,
Lance Bass, Chris Kirkpatrick, and Justin Timberlake.
The
band formed in 1995, and interestingly enough, the one who came up with the
idea was Kirkpatrick, who had applied to become one of the Backstreet Boys, but
just missed the final five. He
approached the then manager of the Backstreet Boys, Lou Pearlman, to finance a
second boy band. Pearlman agreed...on
the condition that Kirkpatrick found four more singers to join him.
The first member came easily enough.
Kirkpatrick had met Joey Fatone while he was working for Universal
Studios in Orlando, and Fatone jumped at the chance to sing with Kirkpatrick.
Member
#3 was Timberlake, whom Pearlman had recommended, as he had already achieved
success as a member of The Mickey Mouse Club.
And once Timberlake had jumped on board, a fourth member came in the
form of JC Chasez, whom Timberlake worked with on the show, and who he had
formed a close friendship with.
Now, the fifth member of the band was a bit of a wild card. Initially, the spot was filled by Jason
Galasso, who would serve as the group's bass singer. And, with Jason's arrival came the inspiration behind the group's
name.
Just picture the names in this order.
Justin - Chris - Joey - Jason - JC.
Look at the last letters of the names.
Yep, you see where I'm getting at?
One problem. Just before the band was
about to sign with Pearlman's label, Galasso had second thoughts and quit the
band, leading to the signing of Lance Bass.
And to keep the name the same, the band initially had Lance going by the
name of "Lansten".
Kind of lame, but whatever.
Shortly
after signing with Pearlman, the band moved in together and started working on
their harmonies and performing dance moves.
They traveled to Sweden where they recorded songs with producers Denniz
Pop, Max Martin, and Andreas Carlsson (who would also work with The Backstreet
Boys, Robyn, and Britney Spears).
And,
just like the Backstreet Boys before them, *N Sync had to wait a while before
they had success in America. Believe it
or not, their very first single "I Want You Back" (which was their
first American single to chart) was released two years before its American
chart date in October 1996. In Germany.
And
between 1996 and 1997, the group had massive success throughout Europe, with
their debut album being released in 1997, and them doing several concerts
throughout Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.
Interestingly
enough, the year that *N Sync had released their album in the United States -
1998 - was the year that the group discovered that their mentor, Ron Pearlman,
was robbing them blind. They soon found
that Pearlman was taking as much as sixty per cent of the band's earnings when
he was only supposed to take one-sixth.
A settlement was made out of court, and *N Sync moved on to Jive
Records, but they wouldn't be the last band to go after Pearlman.
But,
that's another story.
You know the rest. *N Sync went on to
release three studio albums, a Christmas album, opened for artists like Janet
Jackson before embarking on their own tours, and became a real presence on the
pop charts.
And
certainly with today's single, they showed that they also could inject humour
into their videos. I'll grant them
this. The music video for "It's
Gonna Be Me" is quite creative.
The guys, trapped in their Barbie doll like boxes bust out, trying to
get the attention of a girl (which parallels the theme of the song, which is
about trying to get a girl's attention and not stopping until he is the one she
wants). Of course, they are mere
toys. I suppose if you really wanted to
offer up this theory, maybe they were showcasing what their former manager Lou
Pearlman saw them as...puppets on a string.
But, that would be too much symbolism for a four minute music video, so
I'll just steer that train of thought back to the station.
I
actually wonder how much make-up it took to get the boys of *N Sync made up to
look like marionettes? For that matter,
I wonder how long it took to make up the extras in the video to look like toy
soldiers and Barbie dolls. It's really
quite impressive for a boy band video.
After
this song was released, the band never did get another #1 hit. In fact, their 2001 follow-up,
"Pop", wasn't quite as well-received as their previous discs,
although the single "Girlfriend" did make the Top 5 (which in my
opinion was the best of the three singles anyway). They launched a tour to promote "Pop" in 2002, with
plans to record a fourth album in 2003, but by that time, each of the members
of the band were beginning to go their separate ways. It's hard to pinpoint when exactly the band knew they were
finished, but Justin Timberlake's sudden popularity as a solo artist probably
was the driving force behind the split.
The dissolution of *N Sync was made official in 2005, and all the guys
went off in different directions.
So, what happened to *N Sync?
Well, I don't think I need to explain too much about Justin Timberlake. Not only has he achieved great success as a
solo artist with such singles as "Cry Me a River", "Rock Your
Body", "SexyBack", and "Suit & Tie", but he's also
begun to make a name for himself in the film industry as well, starring in
films such as "Shrek The Third", "The Love Guru", "The
Social Network", and "Runner Runner". I think it's safe to say that Justin Timberlake is probably the
most successful of the members of *N Sync.
But the others certainly haven't been slacking.
JC
Chasez also developed a solo career right around the time *N Sync split
up. While JC didn't quite burn up the
charts like Justin has, he still had a couple of hits, like a collaboration
with Blaque on their 2000 hit single "Bring It All To Me", and a
couple of solo hits including "Blowin' Me Up (With Her Love)" and
"Some Girls (Dance With Women)".
He also has a couple of acting credits, but mostly he has stuck with
writing and producing for other artists, including Matthew Morrison, David
Archuleta, and even his former rivals, the Backstreet Boys!
Joey
Fatone has seemingly taken a different career path altogether. Beginning in 2007, Joey started a career in
game shows and reality television. He
was one of the featured celebrities in the fourth season of "Dancing With
The Stars", coming in second place.
Months later, he hosted the NBC game show "The Singing
Bee". He became the ringmaster for
NBC's short lived series "Celebrity Circus", and now currently serves
as the announcer for the game show "Family Feud". And as of April 2014, he serves as the host
for the Food Network show "Unwrapped", which sees chefs recreating
snack foods, and preparing dishes with their creations. Again, a different career path from music,
but whatever works.
I wish I could find out some more info on Chris Kirkpatrick, but since *N Sync
broke up, he's arguably been the quietest member of the group. All I could find that he's done since the
split was that he appeared as a contestant on CMT's "Gone Country 2",
where he placed second. But given that
the judges of the show were really impressed by his ability to write and sing
country music songs, I wonder if maybe one day, we'll see him switch genres of
music. The jury's still out on that
one.
As for Lance Bass...perhaps some of the more interesting stories have revolved
around him. Like Timberlake, Lance Bass
also tried his hand at acting...but his projects weren't as commercially
successful as some of the ones that Timberlake appeared in. Bass' credits include "On The
Line", "Zoolander", and "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and
Larry".
Oh, and one of the weirdest casting choices?
In the video game "Kingdom Hearts" (an RPG that blended Final
Fantasy with Disney), he voiced Final Fantasy VII's Sephiroth! Lance Bass as Sephiroth? Sorry, I can't buy that.
Lance
Bass also followed in Fatone's footsteps by appearing on the seventh season of
"Dancing With The Stars". He
finished third.
And
in 2006, putting rumours to rest, Lance Bass officially came out as being gay
in People Magazine, and has been in a couple of relationships since then (the
most publicized of which was his relationship with "The Amazing Race"
winner Reichen Lehmkuhl).
These
days though, Lance is content with voice work, lending his vocals to a few
Disney projects, as well as doing musical theatre (including a six-month
engagement in 2008 with the musical "Hairspray").
We
won't talk about his attempt to go up into outer space in 2002, though. That story is beyond words.
And,
there you have it. The story of *N
Sync, along with their only #1 hit. It
seems hard to believe that it has been twelve years since the group last hit
the Billboard charts. But you know,
when they performed together at the MTV Video Music Awards in August 2013, they
still proved that they could make music happen. I suppose that it could be possible that they could reform once
again.
This
is week number three of a special ten-part series of "SATURDAY
NIGHT AT THE MOVIES".
From
now until September 27, we'll be doing a spotlight on one of the ten movies
featured in this 10-pack of family favourites that I picked up at my workplace
two weeks ago. And, well...needless to
say, some of the movies are such that I really loved them and still love them
today (as was the case with the first movie that I looked at in "The
Wizard). Some of the movies were
critical bombs, but I still could find something nice to say about the film (as
was the case with last week's "A Simple Wish".)
But
now we're into week three. And this was
a film that I absolutely enjoyed as a nine-year-old boy, but now looking back
on it, I can't stand today. The entire
film was a complete farce, it had over the top acting, a ridiculous plot, and
was easily considered to be the worst movie of 1990.
So, I guess what I am trying to say is that at the age of nine, I had horrible
taste in movies.
But,
again...I was a kid back then. Tastes
change and grow more mature as we get older.
As a kid, I may have liked Cheez-Whiz right out of the jar, but now I've
gravitated towards finely aged cheddar.
I may have been content with eating lettuce leaves right off the head as
a kid, but now I like to have it as part of a salad. And, as a kid, I may have satisfied my dessert cravings with Ah
Caramel snack cakes...and now...
...oh,
what the hell. I STILL like Ah Caramel
cakes.
But
as I was saying, the third movie that I reviewed for today's blog is such that
I really liked it as a kid, but am not too fond of it today. But, I suppose that's the risk that you take
when you buy ten movies at once. There
has to be at least one or two that you don't really care for.
I
think the only reason why I was a fan of this movie in the first place as a kid
was because of the fact that Bill Cosby was the star of the show. And, when I was younger, Bill Cosby was a
big part of my childhood.
I used to watch "The Cosby Show" all the time when I was kid. I also watched reruns of "Fat Albert
and the Cosby Kids" whenever they came on. I even remember his little segments on "Captain
Kangaroo" where he hosted the "Picture Pages" segment with the
marker that always made the funny noises.
I also remember wanting a marker like that, not realizing that it was
just a plain ordinary black marker with a paper face and a sound guy in the
background provided the funny sounds.
What can I say? I had a wacky
imagination back then.
So, yes, Bill Cosby being the star of this film was a huge factor behind my
wanting to go and see it.
Now, I wonder what it was that I ever saw in "Ghost Dad".
The
film, surprisingly directed by Sidney Poitier (Yes, the same Sidney Poitier
that starred in "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner"), was released on June
29, 1990, and was savaged by the critics.
Roger Ebert famously gave the film only a half a star out of four. I'm guessing his thumb was permanently
locked on the down position when he was giving his review.
Oh,
and Rotten Tomatoes? A 7% approval
rating. Ouch.
Now, just judging by the title, you can pretty much guess what the premise of
the movie is. It's about a dad who
somehow becomes a ghost. But the way
this film depicts the afterlife is quite...strange. Not as strange as "Beetlejuice", but strange.
And I don't mean that as an insult to "Beetlejuice" either. As far as I'm concerned,
"Beetlejuice" imagined the afterlife just perfectly.
As
the movie "Ghost Dad" begins, we're introduced to Elliot Hopper
(Cosby). And to be fair, the film
starts off quite innocently enough.
Elliot is one of those men who feels that working, working, working will
lead to rewards, rewards, rewards.
Seriously, we've all seen people who claim to be so-called
workaholics. I'll admit that I myself
get bored really easily unless I have something that I can do, so I can
certainly sympathize with the whole workaholic angle.
Elliot,
on the other hand, takes it to the extreme.
He is always at the office, and very rarely spends time at home with his
children Diane (Kimberly Russell), Danny (Salim Grant), and Amanda (Brooke
Fontaine). But things are finally going
Elliot's way. He has the chance to make
the biggest business deal ever at his company.
If he succeeds in closing the deal, it will mean a huge promotion, and a
company car. The deal is expected to go
through on Thursday of that week, if all goes well.
It's
just too bad that Elliot decided to take the wrong transportation just days
before the deal.
Because
Elliot promised his eldest daughter that she could have his car when he
received his new one, he is forced to take a taxi to work. And the driver of the taxi, Curtis Burch
(Raynor Scheine) is a Satanist who obviously should have never been given a
driver's license in the first place.
Desperate to stop the taxi, Elliot makes up some story about him being
Satan, and this startles Burch so much that he drives off a bridge and crashes
into the river below.
Now,
at first, it appears as though Elliot has survived the accident, as he escapes
from the car unhurt. But Elliot quickly
realizes that something isn't quite right when he accidentally gets in the path
of a bus and the bus drives right through him.
So, this basically confirms the whole "Ghost Dad" title here. Somehow, Elliot's spirit exited his body,
and he is free to roam the Earth as a spirit.
But what happened to his body?
And, what happened to the insane taxi driver on top of that?
But those are questions that Elliot is not concerned with. He just wants to get home to his children. Problem is that because he is a ghost, he
can't really communicate with them.
Sure, his kids can see him in a dark room, but they can't hear him. It's like trying to watch a movie on
television with the mute button jammed on the remote control.
To
add to the confusion, when Elliot tries to tell them what has happened, he is
whisked away to London by Sir Edith (Ian Bannen) who confirms that he is, in
fact, a ghost.
But
wait. Plot twist. The reason why Elliot hasn't crossed over
yet is because in the words of Sir Edith - they screwed up. So, now Elliot's crossing over session has
been rescheduled to Thursday.
Hmmm...interesting
how the date just happens to be the exact same day as Elliot's big deal being
closed. I wonder if this movie will
have our phantom parent discovering what the real meaning of life is. I wonder if he'll have a chance to explain
things to his kids and his love interest Joan (Denise Nichols). And, I wonder if he'll actually learn
anything from this if in fact there is a way to bring him back to the living.
Oh, wait. I've said too much.
Sigh...let's
just go on with the trivia.
1 -
This was Sidney Poitier's final film as a director. Can't imagine why this would be the case.
2 -
Sidney Poitier's daughter makes a cameo in this film as a nurse.
3 -
John Badham was supposed to be the original director for the movie, with Steve
Martin playing the role of Elliot. I
bet both men are probably breathing a sigh of relief not taking this project
on.
4 -
Kim Basinger turned down a role in the film, claiming that the script was
horrible. Smart woman.
5 -
Although Raven-Symone was too young to be cast as youngest daughter Amanda,
Cosby was so impressed by her audition that he had a part created for her on
"The Cosby Show" - Olivia Kendall.
6 -
Scenes were shot during the spring and summer of 1989.
7 -
Believe it or not, a novel was made of this film about a month after it's June
1990 debut.
And, well...that's it.
Let's see...I should probably pick a better movie for the fourth week. Ah, yes...here's one that has a 93% approval
rating...and it'll make you never look at a matinee quite the same way again...
This
is going to be a fun FOODIE FRIDAY post, because it is all
about one of my favourite childhood drinks.
And,
no...it's not milk, water, chocolate milk, or Kahlua that I was convinced was
European chocolate milk by my older sister.
Thanks, by the way.
No,
this story deals with a particular drink that you had to mix up in order to
truly enjoy it. And, as always, I have
a personal story to share with you about this drink.
And in order to tell this story, as much as I hate to do it, I'm going to have
to channel Sophia Petrillo from "The Golden Girls" to get the ball
rolling.
Picture it. Ontario, Canada. 1990.
I can't remember which supermarket I happened to be in at the time, but
something tells me that it was a supermarket that used to be known as O.K.
Economy. It has since been torn down,
and in its place is a restaurant, pay day loan place, and video store, but back
in the day, it was the premiere place to do all of your grocery shopping.
I
like to describe O.K. Economy as kind of like one of those budget, no frills
type stores. There was no florist, no
clothing items, and no fresh salad counter.
It was basically a small meat counter, a small bakery, and all your food
basics. Even though it's been over
twenty years since it closed up, I can still remember that store's layout. The cereals and dry pasta were in the
middle. Frozen food was towards the
back. Dairy was along the side
wall. And, all the cash registers were
lined up along the front of the store.
(Actually, as a kid, the cash registers were my favourite place in that whole
store. It was the place where the candy
bars, Archie Digests, and Panini Sticker Books and Stickers were sold. And if I was lucky, I could choose from one
of the three choices to take home with me.
Usually, it was the comic book.)
But
another thing I remember about O.K. Economy was that the drink section was
exactly one aisle away from the cash register area. And when I say drinks, I mean every possible beverage that you
could think of.
Sure, 1990 sort of pre-dated the period in which an entire aisle was devoted to
bottled water. But there were still
plenty of choices to choose from. There
was the standard Coke and Pepsi, juice boxes, Crystal Light mixes, Gatorade
(back in the early '90s, we only had orange and lime to pick from), and of
course, those fruit juices in those plastic containers that kids would take
with them for school lunches. You know
the ones I mean? The ones that tasted
like fruit but had like enough sugar in them to put someone in a diabetic
coma? Ah, those were the days.
But
it was in this drink section that I discovered a brand new tasty treat that
looked really good. And the good news
is that since a package of this drink mix was only like twenty cents a packet,
it was pretty easy to convince my parents to pick up a couple of them.
The drink mix? A then-new flavour of
Kool-Aid called "Purplesaurus Rex".
And,
I have to tell you...it remains one of my all-time favourite flavours of
Kool-Aid. It was similar to grape
flavoured Kool-Aid, only it was mixed with lemonade to make a grape flavoured
lemonade beverage. And I won't lie to
you...Purplesaurus Rex was my drink of choice during the summer of 1990.
I'm
still annoyed that the flavour was discontinued some two, three years later. I hear that in some stores in the United
States, Purplesaurus Rex is making a comeback.
Please let me know if this is true.
And, while we're on the subject...if I give anyone the money, can you
buy me some? I really want my
Purplesaurus Rex Kool-Aid fix.
And, yes, I am 33, and no I am not kidding.
Any time I can have a small slice of my childhood back, I'm all for it.
Okay,
so as of right now, Purplesaurus Rex Kool-Aid is off the table. But, there have been other flavours of
Kool-Aid that I also enjoy, and that are still available even today. Whether you enjoy it through Kool-Aid
jammers, add it to bottled water using the small bottles of concentrated
liquid, or still make it the old-fashioned way using a little sugar and those
powdered packets, Kool-Aid is here to stay.
So, I'll make a list of my top 5 flavours, as well as three flavours that I
cannot stand.
So,
my list.
1 - CHERRY
This
one will always be my definite go-to brand.
It also happens to be the flavour of Kool-Aid that you can mostly find
inside of Kool-Aid Man's pitcher. You
know, those commercials where he smashes through your wall, shouts "Oh,
yeah", and gives you Kool-Aid while your parents are forced to use their
savings to repair the damage done to their living room? It's certainly one of the most popular
flavours of Kool-Aid, and if you ever had one of those Snoopy Sno-Cone Machines
(I'm still looking for one of those, by the way), it always came with cherry
flavoured Kool-Aid. So, I think that
the reason why cherry ranks so high on my list is because of Snoopy.
2 - LEMON LIME
This is becoming increasingly harder and harder to find, which is a shame,
because lemon lime Kool-Aid is absolutely awesome. I first started drinking green Kool-Aid when I was a little kid,
and if I remember correctly, I wanted to drink it during the same time I
discovered the television show "You Can't Do That On
Television". The reason? It kind of made me feel as though I was
drinking the green slime that they dumped on the kids on that show. Sure, the shades of green were
different...but you can't match that flavour.
3 - GRAPE
Well,
given that grape is a key flavour used in Purplesaurus Rex, it's only natural
that I would list this flavour as one of my favourites. And one thing I used to love about grape
Kool-Aid was its extremely dark colour.
It was one of the few flavours of Kool-Aid that could turn your tongue
as purple as Grimace's on those McDonald's commercials!
4 - TROPICAL PUNCH
This is one of those flavours that kind of divides people. Some absolutely love it, while others
despise it. One kid I remember used to
hate this flavour because they claimed it tasted exactly like that yucky
fluoride rinse that we had to take once a month in elementary school. I on the other hand don't share this
opinion. As someone who loves all sorts
of fruit punch style drinks, I admit that I enjoy Tropical Punch Kool-Aid. And, if you don't believe me...try freezing
it in an ice cube tray and making mini popsicles. Tropical Punch Kool-Aid always tastes better when it's frozen.
5 - ORANGE
It's not a flavour I don't like. I can
drink orange Kool-Aid just fine. But
it's certainly not my all-time favourite.
And
now, the three flavours I can't stand.
1 - STRAWBERRY
Considering
that I'm allergic to real strawberries and can't stand artificial or simulated
strawberry flavour, I always avoided this flavour like the plague. Absolutely disgusting.
2 - PINK SWIMMINGO
Okay,
whoever came up with the bright idea to mix cherry and watermelon flavours
together in a Kool-Aid packet needed to get their heads examined. I know that some people really loved this
flavour combo, but not me. This one
made me sick to my stomach the first time I tried it.
3 - INCREDIBERRY
This one was short lived, like Purplesaurus Rex and Pink Swimmingo. And well...one thing that this flavour had
going for it was its ability to change colour.
The powder was yellow, but once you added water to it, it magically
became red! Too bad this flavour
contained strawberry as well. If it was
cherry and raspberry instead of strawberry and raspberry, this flavour might
have easily replaced orange in my like list.
So, what flavours of Kool-Aid were your top choices? And which ones did you not like?
And where oh where can I find Purplesaurus Rex Kool-Aid again?
I
am SO excited about this edition of TUBE TALK THURSDAY because it's linked to an
item that I recently bought for peanuts!
Would you like to guess what I bought?
Come on, guess!
Give
up? Okay. I'll give you a hint.
Watch the video below.
Yes! We're going to be discussing "Fraggle
Rock" in this blog entry...or at least, we'll be doing a character sketch
on one of the characters in this blog entry.
This
blog was inspired by this find that I discovered at a store recently. (But, shhhhhh...don't tell anybody this, but
I bought it at the competition!)
I
found this at a store for just under ten dollars.Granted, it is the last season of "Fraggle Rock" (I
actually had no idea that the show ran for four seasons between 1983 and 1987),
so I only have the last 24 episodes of the series.But hey, twenty-four episodes out of ninety-six isn't that
bad.They're all pretty enjoyable.But seeing an entire season of shows on DVD
for under ten bucks - especially a show that I watched religiously during my early
childhood - on sale...well, I couldn't help but snag it.
After
all, it was one of the first shows that I remember where there was a character
that had the same exact name as myself.
And certainly, I always found it fun whenever Uncle Traveling Matt made
an appearance on the program.
But, just for the sake of this blog, let's just stick with the core five
Fraggles that appeared in the program.
Now,
every single television show seems to have a core group of people who star in
every single episode. In the Archie
cartoon series that is based on the comics, you always had Archie, Betty,
Veronica, Reggie, and Jughead. Saved By
The Bell had Zack, Lisa, Screech, Kelly, Slater, and Jessie. And, Boy Meets World had Cory, Shawn, and
Topanga.
Well,
Fraggle Rock is no exception. In
Fraggle Rock, the core five are made up of Gobo, Boober, Mokey, Red, and
Wembley. And, I'm sure that most of you
who watched the show had a favourite Fraggle.
The Fraggle that was most like your personality, and the Fraggle that
you could identify with the most.
I know I certainly had my favourite Fraggle.
And, it might not be the one that you might think.
At some value, I liked all the Fraggles from Fraggle Rock. I liked them all enough to collect the
little vegetable car toys that McDonald's released as part of a Happy
Meal. But there's one that I can relate
to more than any other.
Surprisingly,
it's this one.
Yeah, when I was a kid, when Fraggle Rock was still popular, I remember during
one recess, kids were talking about their favourite Fraggles. The consensus was that Gobo and Red were the
most popular. But I always seemed to
have a soft spot for Wembley. Not a
whole lot of people liked Wembley. I
think I was only one of four who did.
Only Boober seemed to be less liked.
I
don't know what it was initially that made me like Wembley so much. Maybe it was the fact that I thought Wembley
was a wicked cool name (rumour has it that Wembley's name was inspired by
England's Wembley Stadium). I still
think Wembley would be a cool name for a son...well, if having children is in
the cards for me, that is. The jury's
still out on that one.
But
for another, the reason why I loved Wembley so much is because he and I were
just so much alike that it was uncanny.
Granted,
my hair has never been blonde. And,
I'll admit that my eyes don't nearly roll around as much as Wembley's did. And, I don't think I've ever worn a Hawaiian
shirt with banana trees printed all over it.
Truth be told, I don't pull off the Hawaiian look all that well.
But,
I think if we were to take a look at what the name "Wembley" means in
Fraggle language, maybe it'll reveal something about my own personality as
well. Let me get out my English to
Fragglish translator...
Ah,
yes...Wembley...from the verb "to wemble".
WEMBLE: to go to
and from between two things without making up your mind.
Basically, to wemble is to be indecisive.
And, boy oh boy is Wembley indecisive.
He is so indecisive that he will actually agree with both sides of an argument
to avoid having to choose a side.
Wembley is certainly a Fraggle who wishes to be a peacemaker, but finds
it incredibly difficult to maintain that peace when he is forced into making a
choice.
Funny...I
seem to have the exact same issue.
You
see. I'm not a very confrontational
person. At least, not when dealing with
people face to face. I can call out bad
behaviour with words without any hesitation, but when I try to take those words
and speak them out loud to someone, I don't like doing it. I absolutely hate it when people raise their
voices at me, and whenever I'm in a situation where people are angry, I tend to
either go into a mini panic attack, or I try to run away from the
situation. I don't know whether it was
because I was surrounded by angry people in my childhood, or whether it was the
unpleasantness of the louder voices (loud noises in general bother me), but
when people are angry and I feel obligated to choose sides, I can't do it. So in that sense, Wembley and I do have a
similarity.
But,
I still maintain that I'm not nearly as indecisive as Wembley is. It doesn't take me long to choose what I
will wear in the day. Most of the time,
it's either black or white due to my job.
Wembley has a hard time deciding what shirt to wear...and he only has
two...and they're the same exact shirt at that!
But
wait. Wembley's got more personality
characteristics than being indecisive.
He's also quite the cheerful Fraggle.
He's the first one to say hello to people, he tries to be in a good mood
whenever he can. I'd also say that he
can be energetic whenever the mood strikes him. I don't even think he needs to have a dose of caffeine or an
extra serving of radish flavoured building blocks to get him motivated in the
slightest.
I
guess I can consider myself the same. I
try to keep a positive attitude most of the time (even though sometimes it can
be quite difficult to do). And, I've
been told on a couple of occasions that I could tone down my personality
because I can be slightly goofy and crazy. Anyone who I work with can probably attest to that fact alone.
But
Wembley also has a personality trait that I also seem to share with him. And I suppose it can be a bad trait to have.
We both suffer from "people pleasing disease". In that, we try to find a way to please
everyone and make everyone happy - even though in a lot of cases, it is an
impossible dream.
Though in Wembley's case, I think he did a little bit better than I did in that
regard. By the end of each half hour
episode of Fraggle Rock, any problems that Wembley may have had were resolved
and everyone got along again.
But in my case, I find it a bit difficult.
I hate to describe myself as being insecure with myself, but I won't lie
to you. There are some days in which I
feel incredibly insecure with myself. I
probably shouldn't feel this way. After
all, the one place where I felt the most uncomfortable, I've been away from for
fourteen years now. But sometimes I
still doubt myself. Am I the family
member that people can be proud of? Are
people really my friends, or are they just using me? Am I really doing a good job at work, or are those just lines
people tell me in order to keep me there?
Is this blog really as much of a success as I hope it is?
All of these questions I've asked myself at some time. Sometimes, more than once. Sometimes every day over a month long
period. I wish I didn't feel this way,
but admittedly, it's not that easy to find the on/off switch.
But one thing I can count on is that over time,
I do find that switch, and I go on with life as planned. That's all we really can do.
Just like my buddy Wembley did for four years on Fraggle Rock.
It's
WHO AM I WEDNESDAY, and this one will feature a diary entry written by
myself.
(Seriously,
who else could it be written by?)
And,
well...this is going to be a personal one.
It's based on the subject of confidence, and how...well...frankly, I've
had trouble with it.
August 6, 2014
I want you to picture a line being drawn across
a piece of paper. If you like, you can
draw the line yourself as you read, but you don't have to if you don't want
to. I want you to look at the middle of
the line. The middle of that line
happens to be the part of the line that has equal and balanced confidence. It's probably the part of the line that most
of us want to be on.
With me so far?
Then you have the two book ends of the
line. Two extremes. On the right hand side, you have the edge of
meekness. This is the place in which
you have zero confidence in anything you ever do, and where you don't feel
comfortable showing any sort of leadership whatsoever. You'd rather fade into the background than
show any sort of confidence or passion whatsoever.
This is not a good place to be.
On the left hand side of the line is the edge
of arrogance. People who fall on this
side of the confidence spectrum have too much confidence to the point where
they become cocky, argumentative, and boorish.
They feel that their way is the only way and anyone else who thinks
differently is not welcome to share any of their ideas because they will be
ignored.
So, I guess it sort of goes like this...you
kind of want to stay towards the middle of the confidence spectrum. You don't really want to go on either
extreme because you'll either be too afraid to speak up and lose opportunities,
or you'll be so opinionated that you scare everyone else away.
So, I suppose you're wondering where I am going
with this train of thought, right?
Well, I'll be honest. When it comes to confidence, I've been firmly on the right side
of the spectrum. As in, I've had a hard
time finding it.
Sad thing is...I never used to be that
way. For some reason, I remember when I
was a youngster, I had plenty of confidence in things. I used to try new things all the time. I learned how to use a computer at the age
of four (though keep in mind that computers weren't as fancy and complex as
they are now), and I also learned how to read at an early age. I was quite the confident and smart
toddler...or so I was told.
But then I entered the harsh world of public school, and it's amazing just how
much my self-confidence plummeted. It
was bad enough having people my age try to knock me down, but when you had
teachers who should have known better doing the same, that really grinded my
gears. What was it that made them do
that? I honestly don't know. I don't know if I'll ever know the answer.
But I will say this. I found it incredibly disheartening and rude that so many of my
peers and teachers used to look at my size as if it were some sort of
liability. I got it. I was the token fat kid in the whole
class. But to be actually lectured by
some children in the class over what I was eating? Totally below the belt.
Did it ever occur to them that the more they told me that I shouldn't be
eating All Dressed Ruffles Potato Chips, the more chips I actually ate? As if their negativity and judgmental
comments would actually cause me to realize that I had to lose weight.
News flash. I could have gotten as
skinny as I wanted to back in the day.
Those miserable kids still wouldn't have hung around with me. Truth be told, looking at it through my
perspective today, I wouldn't have wanted them in my life anyway. Why in the world would I want to be around
someone who constantly critiques me and offers me up some unsolicited advice
about how I should look?
I mean, seriously? With comments like "You'd look so much better if I was
thinner and had a six-pack?" Are
you really that superficial that you'd make those more acceptable qualities
than trust, honesty, loyalty, and kindness?
Why in the world would I want to be around that?
But still...those comments stung. The
unsolicited advice about how I should change my looks really made me hit an
all-time low in confidence. Those words
left me damaged, and I'll be completely honest with you. I still find it difficult to take
compliments at face value because I can't determine whether they are genuine or
whether they are dripping with the bitter taste of sarcasm.
I want to believe that people are one hundred
per cent honest when they offer kudos or compliments to people. But, my brain is admittedly a little bit
jumbled when it comes to processing compliments.
The depressing part is that it never used to be wired that way. I remember thinking when I was a child that
everyone's word was golden, and I used to feel comfortable telling people
anything about everything. I'm more cautious
now.
In fact, I think that really answers the question as to why I have a hard time
keeping friendships, or even starting up relationships. My heart is still quite damaged, and I still
have locks and chains wrapped around it as a way of protecting myself.
I lack the confidence in myself to summon up
the courage to find the keys that will unhook the chains and open up my heart
to others.
I wish it weren't the case, but that's the way life works out sometimes.
One day, my confidence will move closer towards the middle. It just might take a lot more time than I
thought.