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Monday, January 12, 2015

Trivia 34: The Pop Culture Addict Speaks!

I will be the first one to admit that I am finding this new format for the blog in the year 2015 to be much easier to maintain.  No longer do I feel as though I have to stay up for hours on end to do a ton of research and fact checking.  Writing from the heart has been so much easier for me to do...and it also frees up more time for me to do other things.  After all, no more excuses, right.  The more free time I have, the more I can find ways to improve my life from here.

After all, 2014 was admittedly a rough year.  2015 can only get better from here.  After all, I have some great news to share.  My mother's kidneys are a lot better than they were four months ago, and if she keeps doing what she has been doing, she will be as good as new in no time!  That's something to celebrate, right?

And, this coming summer, there will be even more to celebrate as in August 2015, my parents will be celebrating their...hold on, wait for it...FIFTIETH wedding anniversary!  Fifty years of marriage!  That's like 225 years in Hollywood! 

And, while 2015 does not mark a milestone for me by any means (aside from the fact that it will be fifteen years since I graduated high school), I will tell you that I am going to be turning 34 years old this year.

Wow...34.  I think that's how old Marge Simpson was when "The Simpsons" debuted in 1989.  Weirdly enough, she still happens to be 34 some quarter of a century later.  If only we were all so lucky.

But 34 is a good age.  34 is a number that I see being a lucky one.  After all, three plus four equals seven, which some would consider to be the luckiest number of all!

Of course, my thirty-fourth birthday doesn't happen for a few months yet, but I thought that since we're on the subject of the number 34 (and because I was admittedly struggling to find a topic for today), I thought it would be a good idea to reveal thirty-four pieces of trivia about the person who has been keeping this blog up and running for almost four years now!

Some of these you may already know, but some of you might be pleasantly surprised at what I may reveal. 

So, here we go.  Thirty-four facts about THE POP CULTURE ADDICT!



1.  I was born on a monday morning at 7:35 am.  Even though I was born a morning person, it doesn't mean that I have always been one!

2.  Whenever I know I don't have to work the next morning, it is not uncommon for me to turn in at 2:30 in the morning.  What can I say?  I do my best writing when the sky is dark.



3.  I have a comic book collection that runs into the 4000+ range.  Most are of Archie, of course.

4.  I learned how to read before I learned how to talk.  Don't believe me?  Ask my parents!



5.  i accidentally knocked over my sister's make-up shelf when I was eleven.  As a result, our family bathroom smelled like exclamation perfume for two whole weeks.

6.  I've only been hospitalized twice in my life - once in 1988 for an asthma attack, and once in 2011 to extract my infected gall bladder.

7.  I have only ever broken one bone - my left pinky finger.



8.  My birthstone is the emerald.

9.  My starsign is taurus, the bull.



10.  I used to have an extreme case of globophobia (fear of balloons popping).  It has gotten better, but I still will not pop a balloon voluntarily.

11.  I have 1,011 songs stored on my iPod.

12.  My most recent television guilty pleasure?  Bar Rescue.



13.  I have an addiction to chocolate.  And, no, I am in no rush to go to chocoholics Anonymous for treatment...but on the brighter side...

14.  I can probably go a whole year and only drink a maximum of three alcoholic beverages during that whole time.

15.  My most prized possession is my train ornament that appears on our family christmas tree each year. 



16.  Although I do have a cell phone, I could (and have) gone days without using it once.  I like to have one for emergency purposes.

17.  I do not have any piercings whatsoever.

18.  ditto for tattoos.  Although I appreciate the art that goes into making tattoos, I would never get one because I do not like needles.

19.  my locker number in high school was 2121.

20.  My locker combination in high school was 44-37-06



21.  My ambition as a child was to appear on the television show "You Can't Do That On Television".  Sadly, the show got cancelled before I became old enough to even audition.



22.  The very first video game I ever played was mario brothers.  Not the one where you jump on goombas and save the princess.  The one BEFORE that one.



23.  The very first album that I purchased with my own money was U2's "Achtung Baby".

24.  I have a mild allergy to strawberries.  I eat one, I turn the colour of one.

25.  I hate football, but will watch the Super Bowl just for the Halftime Show.

26.  The only awards show that I will ever watch is the Grammy Awards.

27.  My hair is unfortunately thinning.  But at the very least, it is still dark.

28.  I refuse to shave my hair completely off.  I still have emotional scars from the time I nearly shaved my head at 15.

29.  I consider myself to have excellent penmanship, and am seriously trying to come up with ways to turn that into a side business.

30.  The most I have ever won on a scratch and win lottery ticket is fifty dollars.



31.  I openly admit to watching "EastEnders" on YouTube, as new episodes do not air in canada.  Sorry, Coronation Street fans!

32.  On my second day of my current job, I accidentally destroyed an entire display of holiday air fresheners after I lost control of a pallet jack.  I'm amazed they kept me.

33.  I wear a wristwatch with a blue M&M on the face.

34.  I still feel extremely comfortable with the new direction that "A Pop Culture Addict's Guide To Life" is taking.  More importantly, I am extremely comfortable at the new direction that I seem to be taking as well.  My only hope is that the rest of 2015 seems to go in that same direction!

Sunday, January 11, 2015

I Can't Dance, I Can't Sing...And That's Okay!

Okay, I will get to what is going through my mind on this very cold, very icy January day.  But to give you a bit of an idea as to what this topic will be about, I'm posting this music video.  I figure it will be a nice throwback to the days in which I used to do Sunday Jukebox entries.



ARTIST:  Genesis
SONG:  I Can't Dance
ALBUM:  We Can't Dance
DATE RELEASED:  December 30, 1991
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  #7



Ah, yes, Genesis.  This is a group that has gone through some changes over the years.  When they first began, Peter Gabriel was the lead singer and Phil Collins played the drums.  Then Peter Gabriel left the band to do a solo career, and Phil took over as lead singer.  Then Phil did some solo work putting Genesis on hiatus for a while.  Some could consider their 1991 album "We Can't Dance" a comeback album of sorts (their previous work was 1986's "Invisible Touch"), but I wouldn't classify it as such, since Phil Collins didn't actually leave the band. 

Anyway, enough about that.  Because I'm shifting my focus in this blog from pop culture to...well...life, I won't be going into too much detail about the song.  Instead, I'll be focusing on the meaning of the song and how it kind of relates to some memory that I have.

All you have to do is listen to the first few lines of the chorus and that will basically describe what I was during the first decade of living.

I can't dance, I can't talk
Only thing about me is the way that I walk
I can't dance, I can't sing
I'm just standing here selling everything

Very little has changed since then.  I still can't dance.  I still can't sing.  And while my walking style has since improved, I can't say that it will get me booked at any "Fashion Week" events.

(Well, okay, there's also the fact that I am also chunky too.  Runways don't like the chunk.)

Oh, and I only highlighted the first three lines of this chorus as well.  The only selling I did as a child was when I sold boxes of chocolates, wrapping paper, and ornaments during the Christmas fundraisers between grades two and eight.

I'm not going to deny the fact that as a child I was clumsy and uncoordinated.  I was a walking time bomb back in those days. 



I guess if I could describe myself as a cartoon character from the past, it would be that comic book character named Pat the Brat.  He was a precocious little boy who often got himself into a lot of trouble just for being a curious and inquisitive little kid.  He was someone who was admittedly very clumsy and awkward, and often did terrible things by complete accident.  He was a brat, sure, but compared to some of the kids that I see running around the store I work at, he's a complete angel.

Anyway, I consider myself cut from the same cloth because like Pat the Brat, I didn't consider any of the things that I was doing to be wrong until someone pointed it out.  Rudely, might I add.

See, whenever I would read Pat the Brat cartoons, I would laugh at the silly antics that he did until he got caught.  And then he was made a spectacle for public humiliation by everyone else.  I didn't quite like that part because I don't feel that humiliating anyone for the payoff of a cheap laugh is much fun - especially when the scapegoat is a child. 

And the reason why I didn't find it funny was because I knew what Pat was going through. 

Now, I suppose some of you probably would argue that Pat caused a lot of unintentional damage to his home, the supermarket, and his school and that some of it might have been warranted to set him on the straight and narrow.  But in my case, I felt like I was singled out for things that I couldn't control and made to feel like some sort of freakish science experiment gone wrong.

And back to the Genesis song we go.

First of all, I will admit that I can't dance.  I used to try to cut a rug on the dance floor.  I ended up shredding the linoleum.  I was horrible back then, and I still don't consider myself a wonderful dancer.  I actually am the type of person who will refuse to go out on a dance floor unless I get a ton of liquid courage inside of me.

Liquid courage being code for alcohol, of course.

And yeah, people made fun of the fact that Elaine from "Seinfeld" had better moves on the dance floor than yours truly.  But that was fine for me, since I never really aspired to be a professional dancer.

And I'll also admit that I had trouble talking when I was a kid.  I suppose part of that could stem from the fact that I didn't say my first word until I was almost three years old.  I'll be the first to admit that waiting until age three to speak was quite late in life.  So late that people actually believed that something was wrong with me.  Of course, I proved them to be wrong, and I can now speak quite well. 

Singing also doesn't come naturally to me.  I am very much tone deaf.  I remember in Christmas concerts, I was always shoved behind scenery, or made to hide in the back row so that people wouldn't hear how terrible I was.  Upon retrospect, that was probably a horrible thing that was done to try and remedy a problem.  But I am not denying that I couldn't sing a note to save my life back then and still can't today.

And, then there's the way that I walk.  Or, rather, the way that I walked.  The way that was handled is something that I can't quite forgive so easily.  Because it was something that I had no control over.

I said this before, and I'll say it again.  My walking ability was messed up as a kid, though I didn't think it was.  So I walked on my toes about 99% of the time.  It was the only way I felt any comfort.  My arches in my feet were slow in development and whenever I tried walking flat-footed, I felt intense pain.  It got to the point where I went into a hospital so that they could do tests on why I was having problems walking in a way that the world considered "normal".  The problem did eventually go away over time, and by the time I was twelve, my feet had corrected themselves enough, but prior to that was rough.  The other kids in the class didn't understand, so they made fun of me.  The teachers that I had didn't understand, and they made fun of me too.  And the school's idea to correct the problem was to send me out of class with a social worker and forced me to walk around the school with books on my head to correct something that really wasn't bothering anybody else.

Was this how schools worked back in the 1980s?

Anyway, the point that I want to make is that not everybody is good at everything.  I openly admitted to being poor in a lot of different things.  But there are lots of other things that I am fantastic in, and I think that we should all focus on what everyone's strengths are...instead of tearing people apart for things they cannot change.

That's just my thought on the matter. 

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Je suis Charlie

I don't think that I can ever remember a time in which I did not have any sort of art supply in my hand.

I know that in my earliest childhood years, I was always playing with crayons and scribbling all over everything that I could. 

Well, all right...I suppose when I was a kid, I did try eating a crayon or two.  With all the bright colours that crayons could be, I suppose it could be easy for a two year old to mistake them for a delicious stick of candy.  I wonder how many times it took me to brush all of that cornflower blue crayon wax off of my teeth?

Of course, crayons were cool, but pencil crayons were cooler.  I still have fond memories of colouring in colouring books with Laurentien brand coloured pencils.  Any Canadian who remembers these pencil crayons (which sadly are no longer being manufactured) knows that they were the pencil crayons with the fancy names and a number to correspond with each colour.  Well, I had used those pencil crayons so much in my childhood that I actually memorized each colour as well as the number that corresponds with them.

For the record, my five favourite colours were 5, 8, 13, 19, and 22 - otherwise known as Orchid Purple, Emerald Green, Ultramarine Blue, Cherry Red, and Sky Magenta.  And, if you're going to add in the 60 pack in that mix, I was also fond of 25, 33, and 39 (True Blue, Tangerine, Ocean Blue).

I have to admit that when it came to art supplies, I was kind of a bit of a snob in that regard.  In everything else in my life, I was hunky-dory with any brand, but for art supplies, I definitely had my preferences.

For crayons, they almost always had to be Crayola.  Although, there was a store in town called Woolworth's that made a package of 64 crayons which I felt were of higher quality than the Crayola ones.  It's a shame that Woolworth's/Woolco got bought out by another retailer whose name begins with "W", because I really did love Woolworth's crayons.

Pencil crayons had to be Laurentien.  Not because I knew the colours of them, but because they were the only pencil crayons that could withstand the force of those monstrous pencil sharpeners in the classrooms. 

Markers, on the other hand, I was more lax with.  Obviously Crayola makes an awesome marker (and I have the Crayola Marker Maker to prove that fact), but I also love markers that do more than...ahem...mark things.  Have you ever heard of Mr. Sketch markers?  I love those things!  They not only last a really long time (I still have markers that work perfectly after four years), but these markers are scented as well!  Now, some scents are absolutely wonderful.  I'm particularly partial to the raspberry, mint, mango, and grape scents myself.  On the other hand, whoever thought that black licorice would be a great scent needed to get their heads examined.  Oh well, I suppose out of a standard twelve pack, there has to be one scent that is less than special.  

And these markers are great for making posters and signs.  Just have a look at the one I just did using them.



Isn't it lovely?  Of course, I didn't use all of these colours.  I just added them in to make the sign look more beautiful.

But what does it mean?  Je suis Charlie?



Well, I'll tell you what it means.  Je suis Charlie is French for "I Am Charlie".  And, no, I haven't changed my name to Charlie.  It's actually a phrase of symbolism and a phrase of strength.  It was coined by music journalist and artist Joachim Roncin, and he posted the image seen above (the one in black and white, not the one that I just drew) immediately following the tragic events of January 7, 2015 in Paris, France.

By now, everybody in the world has heard of the Charlie Hebdo massacre which took place on that date.  A dozen people were killed at the offices of the satirical magazine by two masked gunmen.  Over the next two days, various other attacks all around Paris took place with hostage situations and shootings.  By the time the majority of they suspects were taken down, seventeen people had lost their lives and another twenty-one injured.

The reason behind the shootings?  Political cartoons - particularly the ones about Muhammad, the Islamic prophet. 

You know the ones I mean right?  In Canada, the political cartoons are splashed all over every opinion page in every newspaper.  Mostly the political cartoons in my area poke fun at the Prime Minister of Canada, or the Premier of Ontario, or whoever the major newsmaker of the week happens to be.  They can hit below the belt, but for the most part they are harmless.  I always say that artists all over the world are free to paint, or write, or illustrate whatever they want because that is how they express themselves.  If people choose to agree with an artist, they can praise them, write them a letter, or share their works with other people.  And if they don't like their stance, they have the right to ignore it, or even criticize it.

What they don't have the right to do is go on a rampage in Paris and kill every single person who has opinions that differ from theirs.

Look, I'm not the type of person who would illustrate political cartoons that potentially could insult a political leader or an entire religious group.  For one, I can't draw very well, but for another, I don't have any interest in political cartooning.  That said, I do believe that people do have the right to express themselves in whatever way they want.  And if that way just happens to involve a little controversy, so be it.  I'm sure that most of the people who died at Charlie Hebdo realized that the drawings that they were doing could potentially upset a lot of people, but they went ahead and published them anyway because they were proud of the work that they had done.

I certainly don't believe that any of the eleven people who were killed in the Charlie Hebdo offices on January 7, 2015 did anything that warranted them losing their lives at the hands of a pair of cowards who chose to use violence to express their rebuttal towards the cartoons.  And anyone who does believe that the cartoonists deserved to die that day, I simply shake my head in disgust.

That's why I drew up my own "Je suis Charlie" sign.  That's why I am posting it here.  To show support to those artists and journalists who died, not just on January 7, 2015, but over the course of modern day history.  As someone who takes pride in his own work, I certainly don't want to be told what I can and can't post because of fear of repercussions.  Not that I really post anything controversial in this blog anyway, but that's beside the point.

We should all have the right to express ourselves in whatever way we want to that does NOT HURT OR DESTROY OTHER PEOPLE IN THE PROCESS. 

Je suis Charlie.

Friday, January 09, 2015

Finding a Little Bit O' Country in a Heart of Rock 'N Roll

How many of you out there have social media accounts out there?  I know I have a couple that I use.  In fact, if you look on the right hand side of this blog, there are listings for the official "A POP CULTURE ADDICT'S GUIDE TO LIFE" pages on both Twitter and Facebook.  Definitely check those pages out if you like.

Well, this post was somewhat inspired by something that happened on one of my social media pages.

You see, many of my connections on social media (well, more than 50% of them anyway) are local people from my hometown or its surrounding areas.  And one perk to having so many local connections is that you literally get to know what is happening in or around your community seconds after it happens.

Now, granted, sometimes that can be a good thing, and sometimes it can be a very, very bad thing.  In this case, we'll go with good thing.



So, according to what people have been posting on their own walls (which in turn appears on my own news feed), country singer Luke Bryan is coming to Ottawa (which is located fairly close to where I live).  And, there are three types of status updates that I am seeing a lot of in the wake of the upcoming Luke Bryan concert.

1.  People have already gotten tickets.
2.  People are going to get tickets.
3.  People are pissed off that they can't get tickets.

Now, as for my own feelings on the Luke Bryan concert, I would consider myself someone who doesn't really care if he got tickets or not.  I can't really consider myself much of a country music fan.  I grew up listening to rock and roll, pop, rhythm & blues, Motown, even the occasional hip hop song.  If anything, I listened to everything other than country to rebel against my family as a teenager!

(I grew up in a family of country music loving folk.)

Even now, you'll find that if you look at the track listing of my iPod, 97% of the songs on it are non-country.

Of course, you're probably wondering something.  I claim to not have much love for country music, but yet only 97% of my iPod reflects that.

Well, I'll be the first one to admit that over the last couple of years, I have started taking a liking to a few country songs.  And over the last couple of weeks, I've been adding a couple of country songs onto my playlists.  I don't see myself completely converting into a country music loving fool who swings my partner round and round, and do-si-do her to the ground...

Wait.  That's square dancing.  Nevermind.

The point is that while I will always be a rock and roll person by heart, I can allow a little bit of room for country music every now and then.  Truth is, some of the stuff coming out of Nashville now is really good.  The songs are upbeat (sometimes), pleasant, and most important have a message that everyone can understand and doesn't resort to repeating the same word over and over again while they show off just how firm and round their buttocks are.

(I'm looking at you J. Lo.)

Now, I will admit that most of these songs come from the "New Country" era, which began sometime in the mid 1990s.  I don't think I could ever get into the twangy old school country, even though I will say that George Jones, Tammy Wynette, and Merle Haggard are among some of the legends of country music. 

But I don't mind sharing some of my favourites with all of you.  In fact, why don't we start with the person who kicked off this blog.  Mr. Luke Bryan himself!



Do I - Luke Bryan
Released:  May 2009

Ah, now this could be considered a loose collaboration with country group Lady Antebellum, as Hillary Scott sings background vocals, and Bryan co-wrote this song with Dave Haywood and Charles Kelley.  Anyway, I know that Luke Bryan is most known for singing songs that have a lot of energy and movement to them (See "Rain is a Good Thing", "Country Girl (Shake it For Me)", and "That's My Kind of Night"), but I kind of like Luke Bryan's ballads more.  This one is particularly good because the song is about two people in a relationship who question whether they should stay together or call it quits.  And, hey, he delivers the lyrics in such a way that you can believe his frustration over making that choice.



So Small - Carrie Underwood
Released:  August 2007

One could argue that out of all the winners of "American Idol", Carrie Underwood is one of two who proved that the formula could work (the other is Kelly Clarkson).  Since winning the fourth season of the reality talent competition, she has definitely made her mark on the country music industry, and I certainly consider myself to be a fan.

But of all the songs that she sings, I would probably have to go with this one as being my all-time favourite.  Sure, all the songs she sings about cowboy casanovas and taking a Louisville Slugger to a pair of headlights are fine, but this one provides real meaning.  It is essentially a song that puts everything into perspective and makes us sit back and not sweat the small stuff.  A good message for the new year, I'd say.



Cruise - Florida Georgia Line
Released:  August 2012

Is it overplayed on country radio?  Probably.  Do I care in the slightest that I enjoy this one?  Nope, not really.

And certainly this single by "Florida Georgia Line" (made up of the duo of Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley) burned up the country charts the minute it was released.  It hit the #1 spot on the charts in December 2012.  As of 2014, "Cruise" is the best-selling country digital single of all-time in the United States.  It not only topped the country charts, but peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2013.  And a second version of the song was released with Nelly joining in for the fun.

So, what makes this song so popular?  Well, just listen to it!  I dare you to go ten seconds without getting into the beat of this infectious single!  Go on.  I dare you.



Stay - Sugarland
Released:  September 2007

I have a confession to make.  I absolutely love Jennifer Nettles voice.  It's very unique, but that's what makes it so great.  You can easily tell her apart from the sea of country music vocalists out there.

Did you know that this song was also the first Sugarland song that was written solely by Nettles?  Usually the songwriting process involved both Nettles and Kristian Bush.

In this case, Nettles proved she had the magic touch, as it became a #2 hit on the charts, and became the group's unofficial signature song.

The song itself is quite good, if not heartbreaking.  It touches upon the subject of infidelity...a common theme for country music.



Why Haven't I Heard From You - Reba McEntire
Released:  April 1994

For my final song choice today, I thought that I would choose a song by someone who has been in the country music industry for almost 40 years!  Reba McEntire certainly has been through a lot in those four decades.  She released several albums, filmed a television sitcom, and tragically lost her entire band in a plane crash.  But through it all, Reba has persevered and has officially become one of the modern day Queens of Country Music.

So, to close this blog off, I thought I would post a song that is considered a modern day classic country hit.  And, I admit...I enjoy this one just for the music video alone!

So, there you have it.  Five songs that I currently have on my iPod.  There are others, I'm sure.  I just went with five.

Hey, I figure a little country music in all our lives is fine.  

Thursday, January 08, 2015

I Need A Taser Fridge

It's January 8, and I would probably hazard a guess that if you haven't already broken your New Year's Resolution yet, I reckon that it will be coming within the next week.

I absolutely hate the phrase "New Year's Resolution".  It adds a lot of unnecessary pressure of trying to achieve something that may or may not be even possible.  I think that's why I went along with the idea of having a New Year's Dream instead.  That way, if what I wish for comes true, it was meant to be.  And if not, my dream could be changed to something else.

At least, this is how I try to justify not making any resolutions. 



But I often wonder what some of the most common New Year's Resolutions are that are made.  After all, while everyone hopes to have something that they want to make different for the New Year. it's funny how most of us seem to have the same ones.

I was doing a little bit of research on the subject of New Year's Resolutions, and I found a list of the most common ones that are made, courtesy of www.usa.gov. 

Yeah, I know, I know.  It's an American site, and I'm Canadian.  But I would think that this list is somewhat true for almost all developed nations.

So, without further hesitation, here are the top thirteen New Year's Resolutions that are made every January 1.

1.  Lose Weight
2.  Volunteer To Help Others
3.  Quit Smoking
4.  Get A Better Education
5.  Get A Better Job
6.  Save Money
7.  Get Fitter
8.  Eat Healthier Food
9.  Manage Stress Better
10.  Manage debt
11.  Take A Trip
12.  Reduce, Reuse, Recycle More
13.  Drink Less Alcohol

Now, some of these I have been doing all along, and some I don't need to do because I have never needed to do them in the first place (I am a non-smoker, so I technically don't need to "quit").  In fact, I can say with confidence that I do not need to do #3, #6, #10, #12, or #13 on this list.  Truth be told, #6 was my New Year's Dream for 2012, and it is still continuing as of 2015.

The others...well, let's put it this way.  I could use improvement in all of these.  Especially #9 for sure.



But get a load at what the number one most made New Year's Resolution is!  Yes, the top made resolution is to lose weight.  Now, what I don't understand is why the resolution to get fit and eat heathier is all the way down at #7 and #8 on the list.  You would think that losing weight, getting fit, and eating healthy would be the trifecta of resolution making, wouldn't you?

But hey, it does explain why during the month of January, you see dozens of workout DVD's on the shelves of any video store.  Seriously, in the store I work at, we must have every Jillian Michaels DVD ever made.  The television and video game console sales of December are now over, only to be replaced with great deals on treadmills, exercise balls, and FitBit accessories.  And, I would reckon that January is definitely the peak month for all new gym memberships being filed.

Now, how many of those people actually keep going to the gym after January?  Well, that's debatable, I suppose.

But traditionally speaking, we tend to let ourselves go during the holidays.  And, why not?  Christmas just seems to be the absolute excuse to get stuffed!

Well...physically, that is.

Roast turkey, mashed potatoes, gingerbread men, honey-glazed ham, peppermint candy cane infused hot cocoa...these are all foods that I gorged on over the holidays, and believe me, I'm paying the price for it! 

But then, I've always been considered a yo-yo dieter.  In the last ten years, my lowest weight has never gone below 210 pounds.  My heaviest?  Well, we won't talk about that.  Let's just say that it was a lot more than 210!  And truthfully, there's a lot of reasons for it.

When I get stressed, I eat.  A lot.  When I get depressed, I eat.  A lot.  When I get bored, I...well, you get the picture.

To me, food has always been a coping mechanism for all bad feelings that I felt.  And, I admit that when it comes to food, I don't always make the smartest choices.  But I have also found that when I am happy, and making positive choices, that actually curbs my appetite.  Has anyone else experienced this sort of thing, or am I just crazy? 

The point is, it kind of boils down to what my New Year's Resolution Dream is for 2015.  Trying to stay positive in an increasingly negative world.  I figure that maybe if I continue thinking positive thoughts, it will discourage me from eating as much food as I normally would in stressful situations.  Or, at the very least, I should substitute water for food.  After all, water is a lot healthier, and they say you should drink eight to ten glasses of it per day to stay hydrated.

Or, maybe I should try to find out where our old family fridge ended up.  The fridge was avocado green in colour and obviously looked like someone had swiped it from the "Good Times" set long ago.  But one thing that was really special about that fridge?  It would give me an electrical shock every time I tried to open the door!  It was annoying as heck, but at the same time, it certainly helped keep me away from the fridge.

Yeah, I need one of those.  I need a taser fridge.

Wednesday, January 07, 2015

The "Squinterns" of "Bones"

This is a blog post that is solely pop culture themed, but with a Who Am I Wednesday kind of twist to it.

(Hey, I said that I would be lessening the focus on pop culture, not completely abandoning it.)

Actually, this post is absolutely inspired by a show that I have absolutely gotten hooked on.  This obsession began a couple of years ago, and during the month of December (on my off days from work), I had a bit of a binge watching session of said show.

On a side note, doesn't the term "binge watching" just make you want to cringe?  I mean, spending an entire day watching a marathon of television episodes just seems like a big waste of time!  Luckily, the weather hasn't been great lately, so I can make a logical justification that binge watching television is a safer activity than walking down a snow covered street where the temperature is forty below with the windchill.

Anyway, I'll tell you a little bit about the show before I go into more detail about today's blog.



Have you ever heard of the show "Bones"?  The show debuted on FOX on September 13, 2005, and is currently in its tenth season.  The show features Emily Deschanel as forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan and David Boreanaz as FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth.  Together, the two solve cold cases and unsolved murders just by examining the skeletal remains of the deceased.  Along the way, the relationship between Bones and Booth develops over time, and by the beginning of the tenth season, both are married and have a child together named Christine.



The show is based loosely on the life and writings of novelist and anthropologist Kathy Reichs, and was created by Hart Hanson.  In addition to Boreanaz and Deschanel, the series also currently stars Michaela Conlin, TJ Thyne, Tamara Taylor, and John Boyd.  The show also starred Jonathan Adams (Season 1), Eric Millegan (Seasons 1-3), and John Francis Daley (Seasons 3-10).

But in this blog, we're actually not going to be talking about the main characters of "Bones".  Instead, we'll be talking about a group of recurring characters that began airing on "Bones" beginning with the show's fourth season.  Characters that are lovingly referred to as "squinterns".

Now, a squintern is just a slang term that Booth came up with on his own to describe the various interns who help Dr. Brennan, Dr. Hodgins, Dr. Saroyan, and Angela solve murder cases at the Jeffersonian Institute.  The original intern was Dr. Zack Addy, who was a graduate student of Dr. Brennan, and was chosen personally by her to be her intern.  That internship ended abruptly at the end of season three after Zack blew off his own hands in an explosion, and it was later revealed that he was the accomplice of a serial killer.  Zack has since been institutionalized after pleading insanity, though he has since made guest appearances in season four and five.

After Zack's departure, the intern spot was filled with a series of recurring, rotating "squinterns", each with their own distinct personalities and backgrounds, and depending on the murder case presented in front of them, some squinterns perform better than others.

At the beginning of season four, six squinterns were introduced.  One was introduced in season seven, another in season eight, and two more in season nine.



Now, for this blog, I will only be focusing on the first eight to be introduced.  Nothing against Rodolfo Fuentes (Ignacio Serricchio) or Jessica Warren (Laura Spencer), but they are still fairly new, and haven't been on much.  Maybe if "Bones" gets renewed for an eleventh season, we'll see more of them.  But the others have appeared in at least one or two episodes a season since they were introduced, and therefore have more personality to dissect.

And, since this is a personal blog as well, I'll try to see if I can see a little bit of myself in each squintern.  Let's begin, shall we?



Clark Thomas Edison (Eugene Byrd)

Initially, we first met Clark at the very beginning of the third season of "Bones" where he served as Zack's replacement after he went on tour in Iraq.  When Zack returned, Clark left.  He would later return to the show in the beginning of season 4 as the first of the rotating squinterns. 

Now, one way that I can definitely identify with Dr. Edison is the fact that he is absolutely professional in everything he does.  When he comes to do a job, he wants to get the job done and not mess around with drama and silliness.  But where Clark and I differ is that he goes too far.  Clark - especially in his first couple of seasons - is so serious that he completely doesn't know how to have any sort of fun whatsoever, and alienates his fellow co-workers at the Jeffersonian.  He does end up becoming more relaxed as the show progresses, but is easily still the most serious minded of all the squinterns. 

PRO:  He is extremely focused on his work.
CON:  He doesn't seem to understand what "fun" is.



Daisy Wick (Carla Gallo)

If there could be one symbol that I could use to best describe Daisy Wick, it would probably be a Care Bear.  She is absolutely perky and filled with sweetness, and she absolutely wants to help out in every way she can.  But unfortunately, that's about as similar as a Care Bear as she gets.  You see, Daisy is brilliant at her job, but she doesn't usually do it for the good of the Jeffersonian.  She does it to score brownie points with Dr. Brennan, who responds to Daisy with annoyance and aggravation.  Daisy is the only intern to have been fired from the Jeffersonian TWICE for her over-eager behaviour.

Still, Daisy really doesn't mean any harm.  I actually like her on the show because she is so enthusiastic about her job that it's hard not to get inspired by her.  I would also say that she also has a childlike way of looking at things that sort of warms your heart.  I guess it's no wonder that Dr. Lance Sweets fell head over heels in love with her.  It's a shame that Sweets was killed off before the birth of his son with Daisy, Seeley Wick-Sweets.  But, I am sure that Daisy will have help from her friends.

PRO:  She is extremely enthusiastic about her work.
CON:  That enthusiasm can get really grating, really fast.



Wendell Bray (Michael Grant Terry)

Right off the bat, Wendell has one thing in common with me.  He comes from a working class family, as I have.  And what is even more impressive is that Wendell does not believe in free handouts either.  Although his hometown raised the money for him to be able to intern at the Jeffersonian under a scholarship program, Wendell's main goal is to repay the people every last penny.  What a guy!

I think Wendell is probably my favourite of all the squinterns because he appears to be the most well-rounded of all of them.  He dates, he socializes, and he has no major faults.

Well, okay...he does have one fault.  He has the ability to make his own problems worse.  It must have been awkward for Wendell to date Angela after she broke up with Hodgins, and even more awkward for Wendell after Angela and Hodgins got back together again.  And, I'm sure that Wendell didn't expect that his use of marijuana to treat his cancer diagnosis in season nine would nearly get him fired from the Jeffersonian!  In the end though, thanks to the firm friendships that he made at the Jeffersonian, the team found ways to keep Wendell employed at the Jeffersonian.  In turn, Wendell has probably been the most help in solving murder cases.  After all, of all the squinterns, Wendell has appeared in the most episodes of "Bones" so far.

PRO:  He has a keen tendency to relate to almost anyone.
CON:  His impulsiveness has gotten him into trouble.



Colin Fisher (Joel David Moore)

Colin is an odd duck.  There.  I said it.

In most cases, while the murder investigations can be a tough (and disgusting) job, the people who work at the Jeffersonian can usually find humour and positivity in their jobs.

Well, all except Colin, that is.  He is essentially the poster child for clinical depression if ever there was one.  Making dark and depressing comments at every opportunity should be enough for anyone to lose their minds.  But the way that Colin delivers his lines, it makes it nearly impossible to stay annoyed for very long.  He may be a killjoy, but his comic timing is impeccable.

Oh, and he is extremely good at his job, too.

PRO:  Underneath the dark cloud lies a brilliant scientist.
CON:  It's just a shame the dark cloud is more like a never ending fog.



Arastoo Vaziri (Pej Verdat)

What can you say about this Iranian born Muslim who prays several times a day and who speaks fluent Farsi?  Well, you could call him a liar, as he faked having an Iranian accent for months before it was exposed that he had an American accent by Dr. Saroyan! 

But Arastoo had a good reason for it.  He believed that if he talked with an accent, then people would not question his religious affiliation.  Keep in mind that Arastoo became an intern at the Jeffersonian just a few years after 9/11. 

As a result of this, Arastoo tends to view each murder victim with compassion and humanity, seeing the skeletons not as a pile of bones, but as an actual person.  And that human touch and soft side that Arastoo possessed helped him form a romantic relationship with Dr. Saroyan which still continues as of season 10.

PRO:  Shows a lot of empathy and has a compassionate side.
CON:  Starting off his internship with a little white lie.



Vincent Nigel-Murray (Ryan Cartwright)

If my favourite squintern is Wendell Bray, then Vincent Nigel-Murray is probably the one that I am most like in real life.  Okay, so I don't possess a British accent like Vincent did.  But he does have a very retentive - almost photographic - memory of random facts that he has no problem sharing with the world.

Gee, I wonder who else I know that has that affliction...

Vincent's main problem was that sometimes the facts he blurted out had absolutely nothing to do with the murder investigation, which grated on the nerves of the other people working in the Jeffersonian.  But even though Vincent could be unpredictable with random trivia, he somehow managed to bring everything full circle.

Sadly, Vincent was killed at the end of season six, cut down by a bullet meant for Seeley Booth.  He is still missed.

PRO:  Possesses an incredible smorgasbord of random knowledge.
CON:  Unfortunately, most of that knowledge is irrelevant to any case.



Finn Abernathy (Luke Kleintank)

I suppose you could consider Finn to be Vincent's replacement.  Eighteen years old and filled with Southern charm, it's hard not to be mesmerized by him.  Especially considering that he is probably one of Dr. Brennan's best interns as far as forensic anthropology goes.  But Finn's past is rather dark.  The rumour was that he had murdered his abusive stepfather.  There were police reports of him attacking his stepfather with a knife when Finn was younger, and as a result, he served time in juvenile detention.  But when Finn turned 18, his record was cleared, giving him the chance to work as an intern at the Jeffersonian.  He had a lot of work to do in convincing his co-workers that he had changed, but eventually he found a way to fit into the group.  He even started up a hot sauce business with Hodgins in Season 8!  How cool is that? 

PRO:  Is easily considered to be one of Dr. Brennan's most knowledgeable squinterns.
CON:  Even though he has changed for the better, you don't want to get him angry.  He still has glimmers of a hot temper.



Oliver Wells (Brian Klugman)

I think Oliver is one of those people you either really really love, or really really despise.  Certainly he isn't one of the easiest people to get along with.  In fact, he comes across as having such a superiority complex that even Dr. Brennan gets annoyed with him.  He got so obnoxious that Angela was forced to give him a letter telling him to stop being so obnoxious!

That said, when he is on top of his game, he does show that he knows what he is doing, and he has definitely earned his place on the Jeffersonian team.  His place in the social aspects of the lab?  They need major work.

PRO:  Is a diligent worker who has a lot of drive.
CON:  Is an absolutely insufferable individual to work alongside.

So, I suppose that if I had to choose three squinterns that I would working for me on a case (that is, if I were an anthropologist and not a blogger), I would definitely go with Wendell, Finn, and the late Vincent.  But really, each one of them has earned their place on the team and bring forth their own skill sets to create one of the best fictional forensics teams ever show on an hour-long drama. 

And, here's a tip for you.  Watch the season eight episode "The Patriot in Purgatory".  Five of the eight squinterns appear in this episode alone, and while it does seem to be a dynamite stick ready to explode at first, it quickly becomes a team that when they come together, differences mean absolutely nothing.

So, how many of you watch "Bones"?  And if you do, who is your favourite squintern?  Daisy?  Arastoo?  Ahem...Oliver?