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Saturday, July 16, 2011

Saturday Morning: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Almost every generation seems to have some sort of cartoon fad surrounding it.

What I mean by cartoon fad is that in my experience, there's one cartoon that seemingly defines a whole generation because it was one that it seemed that everyone else watched.

Supposing that one was born in, say, 2001, for example.  A lot of the shows that kids born in that year may have watched back then were Hannah Montana and Spongebob Squarepants.  Certainly, my nephew, who was born in September 2000, watched both of these, as did quite a few kids.

Or, take someone born in 1991, for example.  In those days, a lot of kids born during that time period watched shows like Pokemon, because a lot of kids from that period played Pokemon games and watched the Pokemon movies.

It's been my experience that certain shows can define a whole generation.

Now, we'll go back to 1981...the year that yours truly was born in.  What cartoons best defined our generation?

It's kind of hard to say for the girls of '81.  Right around the late 80's, early '90's, many girls were addicted to the New Kids On The Block, and when a cartoon based on the band premiered around my third grade year, almost all the girls watched that show.  It made sense too, considering that all the girls in third grade listened to the tapes on their Walkmans, and kept NKOTB pencils inside their NKOTB pencil cases, and scribbed in their notebooks, I LOVE JORDAN KNIGHT!!!

But what were we boys watching?  Here's a hint.  They wear their armour on their backs, and they have an appetite for pizza.

Give up?  Okay, here you go.




(I really wanted to post the actual opening, but couldn't find one that had the greatest of quality, so this will have to do).


The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were a huge part of my childhood growing up, as I'm sure they were for millions of boys born around the same time I was.  Heck, even a few girls that I went to school loved these guys turtles.

You had Raphael (red), Donatello (purple), Leonardo (blue), and Michelangelo (orange) teaming up against the evil Shredder and his henchmen to save New York City, and in some cases, the world itself, from evil.

Most people (such as myself) were introduced to the Ninja Turtles through the original animated cartoon series, which debuted as a miniseries on December 28, 1987, and ended up running straight through until 1996.  But, did you know that the whole Ninja Turtle empire was started off in the form of a comic book?

In early 1984, the comic was put together at a company known as Mirage Studios, based out of New Hampshire.  The characters were created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, and it started off as a result of a brainstorming session.  Together, they self-published the first issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and initially, the creation was meant as a parody of other superhero comics of the day, including Daredevil, Ronin, New Mutants, and Cerebus.



The first issue was released in the spring of 1984 (publication date of May 1984), and only 3,000 copies of the original printing were made (which translates to a very HIGH value as of July 2011, so if you have one, keep it in good condition!).  The comics attracted a cult following over the next two years, but it wasn't until the duo of Eastman and Laird formed a partnership with licensing agent Mark Freedman to expand their creation into a more mainstream audience.

The idea to create action figures of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was tossed around as early as 1986, and a company by the name of Dark Horse Miniatures created a set of 15mm lead figurines.  Eastman and Laird wanted to get Playmates toys to work out a deal to create the action figures of each of the characters, but initially they were uneasy to come up with the patent for the action figures without a television deal being acquired first.

So, in December 1987, the Ninja Turtles miniseries aired for the first time.  To those of you real fans of the turtles, you'll know that the first part of the miniseries is almost identical to the 1990 movie adaptation.  We're introduced to April O'Neil, who works as a reporter for a New York City television studio (in the movie, it's Channel 3, and in the cartoon, it's Channel 6).  She gets attacked by a group of thugs and is knocked out cold, but is saved by Raphael, who brings her to their underground lair.  There, she wakes up and immediately is frightened by the sight of four overgrown turtles and their giant rat friend.  Eventually, she calms down, and she learns of the Ninja Turtles and how they got there.  Apparently, all four turtles were coated in ooze from up above that mutated them into humanoid creatures.  Splinter found the turtles and helped raise them. 

Splinter, of course, is the rat-like master of the turtles.  He named each of them after renaissance painters, and taught them all sorts of martial arts moves, with each one mastering a specific weapon to use in combat.  How Splinter got to be that way differs a lot between the comic book and the animated series.  Just because we're talking about the animated series, I'll explain that way instead.  In the television series, Splinter (whose original name was Hamato Yoshi) was banished from the Japanese Foot Clan by Oroku Saki, who pinned Yoshi's dogi to the wall, which prevented him from bowing to the sensei...a grave insult in Japanese culture.  When Yoshi removed the blade, the sensei jumped to the wrong conclusion, and threw Yoshi out.

When Yoshi found the turtles, the ooze caused Yoshi the human to morph into Splinter the rat.

Oh, and Oroku Saki? 



You know him better as Shredder, the chief antagonist of the Ninja Turtles.  Though the turtles would face many, many enemies throughout the course of the show, Shredder was the one who just couldn't take no for an answer.

The miniseries took a couple of airings for people to take notice, and by the summer of 1988, the first Ninja Turtle action figures hit the shelves.



Weren't they cool looking?  (And, yes...I owned all four, though it took me forever to find a Leonardo!)

The action figures hit store shelves and immediately garnered great interest.  By that time, the miniseries had aired a third time, and this time was so successful that the animated series was picked up for a full season, beginning on October 1, 1988.



By 1990, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were EVERYWHERE.  The movie version had come out on March 30 of that year, which created even more buzz, and which spawned two sequels.

The action figure line expanded that year as well.  Along with the four turtles, you could also purchase action figures of Shredder, Splinter, April O'Neil, Bebop the warthog, Rocksteady the rhino, Krang, assorted Foot Soldiers, and many more.  You could even get the vehicles used in the animated series, like the Pizza Thrower, Party Van, and Turtle Blimp.  And yes, I will admit to playing with all of those characters and more.

Before long, Ninja Turtles cereal and juice boxes appeared in supermarkets, and Ninja Turtles bubble bath stocked the shelves of pharmacies all over the world.


They even had lunchboxes. 

And, yes, I too owned a Ninja Turtle lunchbox.  Only not the one up above.  Mine was fluorescent orange and had a picture of the Turtles battling against the Technodrome on it.  It was still cool.  I wish I still had it.

But, just why was I so entranced by the Ninja Turtles at a young age?

Let's state the obvious.  The Ninja Turtles were marketed towards boys, and well, I definitely fit well within their target audience.  Heck, my whole 9th birthday party was Ninja Turtle themed, and as it so happened, I only sent invites to the boys in my class, as girls made it clear that they hated the Ninja Turtles.

Looking at it through a thirty year old man's perspective though, there's a part of each turtle...a character trait, that I wish I had in each of them...and in some cases, I was more like some turtles and less like others.


Let's take Donatello, for instance.  Donatello was the turtle who wore purple, and used a bo as a weapon.  I'll let you in on a secret here.  On any Ninja Turtle themed game, Donatello was one of two turtles that I always played with mainly because his weapon was the best defense against Foot Soldiers.  Donatello was probably the Ninja Turtle that I was most like.  Donatello was the brains behind the turtles.  He built inventions, loved studying books and literature, and even had a nerdy-like voice.  He was your mad scientist of the group, and made no effort to hide it.  It's easy to say that Donatello is my favourite Ninja Turtle of the group now, but I actually had another favourite when I was a kid.


Leonardo was actually my favourite Ninja Turtle for many years.  As far back as I can remember, Leonardo just always seemed to strike a chord with me.  He was the other turtle I chose for combat in the video games (aside from Donatello), and his katana sword made quick work of enemies.  Decked out in blue, he took on the role as the team leader in the animated series (in the movie, it was Raphael).  I think that's why I ended up liking Leonardo, was because he was a leader.  Unfortunately, Leonardo seemed to take his leadership a little too seriously at times, and came across as a killjoy in some episodes of the show, but when it came down to it, whenever a problem needed fixing, Leonardo was always the turtle that people counted on to be there, and I think that was one of the reasons I wanted to be like Leonardo.  As a kid, I wanted people to look up to me, and see that I could work my way through problems.  Granted, leadership has never really been one of my top qualities, but I'm trying to work my way through that.


From Leonardo in blue, we head on to Michelangelo in orange.  If you were to ask me now who my least favourite Ninja Turtle is, Michelangelo would be at the top of my list.  I do like all four turtles, don't get me wrong, and I will say that I must have liked Michelangelo at one time to dress up as him for two Halloween seasons.  But looking at him now, Michelangelo was only good for one thing...his constant surfer talk.  Really, it was like someone transplanted a California Valley Boy personality in the ooze that morphed Michelangelo.  It was fun at first, but eventually, it got really old, really fast.  Oh, and he used nunchucks, which were okay (though funnily enough, any scenes of Michelangelo swinging nunchucks were banned in Europe).  I'm not denying his popularity was huge (he was the only Turtle to appear in the 1990 drug awareness special Cartoon All-Stars To The Rescue), but I see him now as just a one-trick-pony.


Last, but certainly not least, we have the red-bandana wearing Raphael (or, black suited Turtle if you read the Archie Comics adaptation of the Ninja Turtles comic book serial).  I'd have to say that while I rarely ever used Raphael for the video games (his sai weapon really sucked, in my opinion), I did find Raphael to be the funniest turtle in the whole show.  To be truthful, I think Raphael was a perfect combo of the other three turtles.  He couldn't do science experiments like Donatello, but he definitely could think quick on his feet.  Whenever Leonardo was out of commission as leader, Raphael stepped into the role almost flawlessly.  I actually even found Raphael having more of a personality than Michelangelo.  Basically, Raphael was the turtle that seemed to be jack of all Turtles.  He wasn't a master in a specific field, but he knew enough of them to be the most well-rounded one of the group.

Personally speaking, I think I would want to be just like Raphael, though I still have Donatello as my favourite.



The original series ended in 1996, and since then we've had a couple of reboots of it over the years (such as the picture up above), but nothing will ever recapture the original series, which held my attention, as well as the attention of other boys during that time.

A lot of men my age are now having sons and daughters of their own, and from what I hear, a new adaptation of the animated show is due to air sometime in 2012.  I'm a bit old to tune in to see it now, but I hope that a new generation of kids can grow to enjoy the same characters their fathers did before them. 

That would be totally tubular man, like a resurrection of the heroes in a half shell, dude!


Friday, July 15, 2011

TGIF: Steve Urkel from Family Matters

No pussyfooting around.  Let's just jump right into this blog entry.


Above, you will see the cover of the DVD set of the first season of Family Matters.  The show premiered on September 22, 1989 and ran until 1998 on two different networks. (The first eight seasons aired on NBC, and the last one was aired on CBS)

The bad news is that the first season DVD set is the only season that is currently available for purchasing.  For me, it's considered to be a good thing, since I enjoyed the earlier seasons more than the later ones.

Not many people seem to realize this little trivia fact right off the bat, but Family Matters was actually a spin-off of another popular Miller-Boyett program, Perfect Strangers.  Anyone who may have remembered watching the first few seasons of Perfect Strangers would remember that when Balki and Larry started working at the Chicago Chronicle, Harriette Winslow worked there as the elevator operator.  In the fall of 1989, when Family Matters premiered, Harriette was fired from her job as elevator operator at the Chronicle, and in the second episode of the first season, she was re-hired at the paper as the 'Chief of Security', effectively eliminating her from the Perfect Strangers sitcom and firmly putting her into place as the matriarch of the Winslow family.



The rest of the cast was put in place.  Joining JoMarie Payton (who played Harriette) was her husband Carl (Reginald VelJohnson), her three children Eddie (Darius McCrary), Laura (Kellie Shanygne Williams), and Judy (Jaimee Foxworth), Mother Winslow (Rosetta LeNoire), Harriette's sister, Rachel (Telma Hopkins), and Rachel's young son, Richie (Bryton McClure).

In the show, you had similar plotlines to that of other shows on the ABC network's TGIF block.  There really wasn't much different between Family Matters and other shows such as Full House, Boy Meets World, and even its parent show of Perfect Strangers.

However, there was one thing that Family Matters had that none of the other shows really had.  And, that one thing has evoked a ton of controversy in how the show ran, and seemed to be the very focal point of the whole series.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself here. 

Why don't we flash back to the cover image of the Season One DVD?  You have the entire Winslow family scrunched up in the left hand side of the cover while you have one person who almost has a full on head shot.  What makes this whole cover quite hysterical is that the person who has the extreme close-up on the cover is actually a cast member who never became a regular cast member until season TWO!  Sure, he appeared sporadically during season one, but was never credited in the opening until season two.

Don't believe me?  Here's proof (well...as bad of quality as it can be, at least)


You'll notice that there's no visual proof that the character on the DVD cover even existed.  But, you know he did.

Who is this character?


Steven Quincy Urkel. 

Played by actor Jaleel White, Steve Urkel was in many ways both the blessing and the curse of the show that was Family Matters.  I should note that none of this was of Jaleel's own doing...he was given a job to do, and he did it quite convincingly.  It is however my own feelings that the addition of Steve Urkel did some great things for the program at first, but then the producers got waaaaaaaaaaaay out of hand.

And, yes, I did type the word way with twelve A's.  That just goes to show just how serious I am about this.

To begin our story, we need to go back to the very first season.  Episode 12 to be exact.

The episode was titled 'Laura's First Date', and it originally aired on December 15, 1989.  In the episode, Laura wants to go to a school dance, but has no date to go with.  Rather than run the risk of being a social outcast by going to the dance without a date (which in my opinion is NO BIG DEAL) she chooses to stay home.  Meanwhile, Carl and Eddie decide to try and set Laura up by finding prospective dates for her.  Carl's choice?  Steve Urkel.

Boy oh boy would that be a decision that Carl would live to regret.

It wasn't that Steve himself was a bad kid.  He really wanted to impress Laura and the rest of the Winslow family by doing good deeds with only the best of intentions.  Unfortunately, you all know what the road to hell is paved with.

Here's just one of the many examples of this.


No matter how well-being Steve might be, he always does something to screw things up.  He may end up electrocuting himself, or blowing up an oven in home economics, or flooding the senior prom with his balloon drop machine catching fire.

And, yes...all three of those things have happened to Steve Urkel.

He was your stereotypical nerd character.  Always into creating new inventions and having high intelligence compared to other people, what Steve had in book smarts, he sadly seemed to lack in social skills, and this proved a problem when going after Laura, who simply wasn't interested.

Nevertheless, the addition of Steve Urkel was only meant to be a one-off episode, but on the episode that Steve appeared on, the ratings spiked upwards.  On another episode he appeared in, the same effect.  By the time the second season rolled around, he had been given a spot in the opening titles, and when Telma Hopkins left the series midway through, Steve Urkel got the prestigious last spot in the credits while Rachel and Richie took a backseat and Judy Winslow disappeared into thin air.

Steve began to take on a more dominant role in the series, and because of this, his popularity grew.  He made guest appearances on 'Full House' and 'Step By Step', and he even had a breakfast cereal named Urkel-O's!


It's a wonder it wasn't cheese flavoured.

He even started up a dance craze during the early 1990's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTeOcVelYi0

I'll admit to it.  When Family Matters first came on, and Steve was brought on, I liked it.  Keeping in mind that I was barely ten years old at the time, I thought Steve brought a lot to the show.  He was quick with the comebacks, and he caused a lot of hilarious happenings on the show.  But, what a lot of people don't seem to realize was that Steve had a good heart underneath the argyle sweaters and suspenders. 

For instance, he once saved Carl's life after he fell through the ice while fishing.  He got revenge against Laura's nemesis, Cassie Lynn Nubbles after she tried to sabotage her election campaign for class president.  And he has proven to be a good sounding board for Harriette and Mother Winslow whenever they need one.

He even managed to get the last word against Laura a couple of times, despite his obvious crush on her.  When Laura desperately needed a ride to a cheerleading competition, Steve selflessly offered to take her.  When Steve's car broke down outside a motel, Laura was pretty nasty to him until he decided that enough was enough.  I regret that the video feature is kind of wonky tonight, so I'll have to post the link instead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukH_g_HMonk

See...even the biggest nerds can have one heck of a backbone when pushed.

At any rate, the introduction of Steve Urkel probably helped get the show renewed season after season.

Then the producers got a little bit...too silly, and capitalized on Jaleel White's fame a little...too much.




Okay, so when they created a cousin for Steve Urkel named Myrtle (also played by White), it was kind of milking the Urkel cash cow for all it was worth.  Still, it wasn't overly obnoxious, and in the few episodes that Myrtle did appear in, it did make some sense.

But then around season five, this guy came onto the scene.



Recognize him?  Believe it or not, this is Steve Urkel.  Kind of.

During season five, Steve created some sort of potion known as 'Cool Juice' that would alter his DNA and turn him from geek to chic with one simple chemical compound.  He downs the potion and immediately becomes the alter-ego of Stefan Urquelle.  Immediately, he wins the heart of Laura...something that Steve Urkel himself could not do.  During a party at the Winslow house, Laura makes her feelings known and is happy to be with the new Steve.  However, Stefan has one major difference compared to Steve Urkel.  Whereas Steve was kind and compassionate to others, Stefan is self-centered, and a smidgen on the narcissistic side.  Seeing the true colours of Stefan, Laura wants Stefan to turn back to Steve, and he does.

This would have been fine if it were a one-off episode, but before you knew it, it wasn't long before the whole show began to have Steve/Stefan plotlines.  Stefan would appear more often, then Laura would sabotage the transformation chamber to have Stefan forever, then Carl would accidentally turn into a nerd, and then somehow, Stefan gets cloned, and it was just one big mess that viewers tuned out of really quickly.

Steve Urkel may have brought the show to new levels.  Stefan Urquelle brought the ratings down in a BIG way.

The ratings got so bad that in 1997, ABC dropped it from its schedule, only for CBS to pick it up for the 1997-1998 season.  It wasn't enough to save it though, and in May 1998, Family Matters went off the air forever.



You can't blame Jaleel White for trying though.  Jaleel even admits that sometimes he found it hard to mingle with the other cast members, and he sometimes felt that there was a divide between him and the other cast members, in particular with VelJohnson.  These days though, Jaleel White is still acting (his latest acting role was in the summer movie Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer, which admittedly was a flop), and he is busy raising a daughter (amidst some drama with the mother of his child involving the police).

(I'm trying to keep a positive spin on this, people...I really am!)

I guess the one thing I can say about the Steve Urkel paradox is this.  He was a good character if you could overlook the squeaky voice, cheese cravings, and endless 'DID I DO THAT?' utterances.  He probably had more character development than a lot of the current sitcom characters have.  I mean, if you take into consideration that his own parents seemed to have no relationship with him at all, it's a miracle he turned out as well as he did.  Having the Winslow family as a sort of back-up family may have caused Carl to down the ulcer medicine a bit faster, but in the end, Steve was all the better for having them in his life.  And maybe, just maybe, the Winslows became better people by having him in theirs.

Even if they didn't want to admit it.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Thursday Night At The Arcade: Chrono Trigger

Have you ever had the desire to go back in time?

Maybe you'd want to fix a crucial mistake that you've made in the past.  Maybe you want to relive the glory days of your youth by reliving your idea of the teenage dream at the age of 40.  Or, maybe you want to go back and see your departed loved ones one final time.

Or, perhaps you'd take your time machine and go years into the future.  Maybe you want to see how your life ended up.  Maybe you want to see what the world looks like one hundred years in the future.  Maybe you secretly want to find out the winning lottery numbers for next week's draw so you can be prepare yourself in the present day.

Whatever the case is, I'm sure that there are many reasons why one would want to go back in time, or delve their way into the future.

Would you, if you knew you had the power?

Personally speaking, I'm not sure I would take the chance to do so.  I'm a firm believer in the concept that everything happens for a reason, and that if it is meant to happen, it will.  Of course, presently speaking, I'm still waiting for that A-ha moment (and by A-ha moment, I don't mean requesting 'Take On Me' on my local radio station).  Whatever the case, I'm sure that if the cards align themselves properly, it'll lead to great things.

Certainly, the temptation of wanting to go back in time to fix things has been there.  Don't get me wrong, the idea of changing events in my high school life in order to have a better experience overall would have been too difficult to resist a few short years ago.  The more I think about it now, the more I realize that I probably wouldn't take the chance to go back if I could.  Everything that happened to me, happened to me for a reason, and somehow, I'm supposed to make sense of it all.  So far, I'm beginning to find a way to do exactly that.  Do I wish that things could have been better back then?  Absolutely.  Am I stressing out over it now?  Not as often as I once did.  It's going to take some time to come to grips with it one hundred per cent, but the journey's been a fun ride so far.

That's essentially why I started up this blog in the first place.  Certainly, it celebrates the wonders of pop culture gone by, yes.  I'll even grant you that there is a bit of irony involved in the idea that I would not want to go back in time, yet I have no problem writing about it in blog form.  Irony aside though, I feel that writing about past experiences and what I can take from them is entirely different from wanting to build a time travel machine to warp back to 1997 to prevent people from bullying your sixteen year old self.

If I hadn't have gone through what I did, I most certainly wouldn't be the person that I am now.  Because of what I had to deal with, I find that I can read other people a bit better than most others, and that I can tell the difference between what is genuine and what is sarcastic.  I still can have emotional reactions to what people can say, but I've gotten a lot better at hiding it.  Most importantly, if I can get through that, I know that I can get through anything that may come my way, and that's a good feeling to have.

Besides, the more I think of it, if I did have the chance to revisit my life as a teenager and have the ability to change even one thing, then who knows how badly my future could have been affected.  And the idea of changing one minute thing in the past life completely changing the future in unpredictable ways...it's a scary thought if you really analyze it.

In closing, my ultimate answer would be that I would not use a time machine if I was given the choice (and if one actually existed).  The only way I would even consider warping through decades and centuries would be if I knew I could do something to stop catastrophic global destruction.

The video game that I'm featuring in this blog entry deals with that very plotline.  If you knew when and how the world was going to end, and you have the chance to change history so that the world is saved, would you take the challenge knowing that the future of mankind would solely lie in your own hands? 

Quite the loaded question for a Thursday, no?


Yet that's the exact situation that the main characters in the 1995 video game 'Chrono Trigger' faced.  Could they go back in time to save the world from being destroyed by an evil force?  Could they save the planet from becoming one gigantic dustball?  Would they be back home in time to watch the latest episode of Big Brother?

The story of Chrono Trigger starts off like this...and if you are interested, I'll provide you with some background music to listen to as I tell it.



The story of Chrono Trigger begins in the year 1000 AD.

Yep, we're going WAY back in time here.

Anyways, the main character of the game is a red-haired (seemingly mute) kid named Crono.  Although the cat that lives with him seemingly has gotten his tongue and won't ever give it back to him, he is our main protagonist.  There is a Millennial fair going on at the moment, and Crono is determined to spend his (hard-earned?) allowance on the attractions there.  Besides, his mad scientist friend Lucca is working on a secret project there and Crono got curious.

I'M SURE WE'LL NEVER SEE IT...

Along the way, Crono quite literally smacks right into a young woman named Marle.  Marle is sweet, kind, and a chatterbox of a woman.  Quite literally, she speaks more than I think any other character in the game.  Maybe she's the reason why Crono can't get a word in edgewise.  After a brief conversation, Marle decides to join Crono.

(GAME TIP:  You might want to mind your P's and Q's in this scene, because your actions will determine a future event depending on what you say and do.  Just giving you advice.  All girls love being reunited with their pets, and I hear the chicken is tainted there, so DO NOT EAT IT.  You have been warned.)

We then come across Lucca and her 'Teleportation Machine'.  If you're interested, the scene is just below.  It also may explain how the adventure begins.  Just scroll the time bar to the 2:44 mark, and away we go!



So, if you watched the video, you know exactly what's going on.  If not, well...let's just say that Marle's pendant clashed with the diodes and anodes and other -odes that may have been present, and it kicked her back in time about four hundred years.

Crono, being the fearless type, decides that he's going to be in big trouble if he just leaves the fair without helping our damsel in distress, and decides to take off after her.

Fortunately, Crono ends up in exactly the same spot that he stood.  Bad news?  It's in 600 AD.

Even worse news, upon arriving in 600 AD, Crono is immediately attacked by historical creatures.


You know that fear people would have about how killing one little thing would change the future forever.  Just ignore this.  Kill the blue imps.  You only have 29 HP's in this screenshot, you know!

Crono immediately heads to nearby Guardia Castle, where he discovers that Marle looks exactly like Queen Leene, who happened to go missing, but was found (when Marle took over the role).  Just as Crono arrives to take Marle home, Marle suddenly disappears into thin air, and it is later discovered that Marle is actually a descendant of the royal family of Guardia.  The reason she disappeared is because the real Queen of the 600 AD era was kidnapped by an evil being.  If anything happened to the Queen, Marle would never be born!

So, now you see what I'm getting at here.  If someone's existence depended on going back in time to stop a tragedy from occuring in the past, wouldn't you move heaven and earth to get back there?

With help from Lucca (who used her own teleportation device to warp back to 600 AD), and a green human-like frog creature whom they meet at the cathedral where Queen Leene is being held captive by Yakra, the trio defeat Yakra and rescue the queen (and Marle who reappears when history is corrected).

But, okay...you've seen how by going back in time, we can save a couple of lives.  Yet when introducing the game, I talked about how if you were faced with knowing that an apocalypse was coming, would you go back in time, or go ahead in the future to try and prevent it from happening?

Once Crono et al arrive back in 1000 AD, they're arrested for kidnapping Princess Marle, and during the escape attempt, they notice an electric blue gate in the middle of Guardia Forest, similar to the one that sucked Marle and the gang back to 600 AD.  There is some misgivings about going through a gate that they don't know, but considering that a barrage of guards wanted to kill them, I would say they made the right choice.

When they arrived at the other side, this is the landscape that they walked into.



What you see is the year 2300 AD.  An apocalyptic wasteland where nuclear winters blanket the cold ground, and the water is as black as the midnight sky.  The animal life are all mutated and sickly as a result of the catastrophe, and the few humans that are still alive are destitute and frail.  There is no food, and no means of getting any food, as any efforts to grow crops are futile in a world with acidic soil.  Someone had the foresight to invent little pods that restore health, but they do nothing to cure the endless hunger pangs the people of 2300 AD had to endure. 

But how did the world get to be such a horrible place?  Was it a nuclear disaster?  Was it a comet?  Was Harold Camping actually CORRECT in his predictions?

I believe this little clip will reveal all.


Back in 1999 AD (which was significant since at the time, some theories determined that the apocalypse was supposed to begin in 1999), a monster named Lavos woke up from beneath the Earth's core, and immediately threw a temper tantrum.  He burned down whole cities, made volcanoes erupt, poisoned the rivers, and caused massive earthquakes which killed millions.

In the 401 years since, the world has continued to rot and decay, and the remaining survivors grow weaker and weaker.

Marle said it best when she said that she absolutely refused to believe that the world she loved so much in 1000 AD would end up in such an irreversible state. 

So, that becomes the new goal of the game.  To stop Lavos, and save the world.  To prevent Alaska from being baked, so to speak.


It is here that I will stop talking about the plot, because for anyone who hasn't played this game, I don't want to spoil it for you.  In fact, I want you guys to at least try this game out if you're into the RPG genre.  It's a masterpiece, in my honest opinion.  Originally, it was released for the Super Nintendo system on March 11, 1995, but since then it has been ported to the PlayStation console as well as the Nintendo DS.  There's lots of opportunities to play this game.

There's also a lot of different endings for this game.  There's well over a dozen, if I'm counting correctly.  Remember how any actions you perform in the past can change the future?  This has an effect on what ending you will receive.  See if you can find them all.  In my playing experience, I've managed to see four so far (and unfortunately that includes the GAME OVER screen), but I know some of you reading this probably HAVE seen all of them.

Oh, yeah, one final bit...I included a clip of the trio fighting some guy named Magus.  You'll encounter him quite a bit.  But, is he against you?  Or, is he an ally?

Only you can decide that.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

We Interrupt This Across The Pond And Beyond Blog For An Important News Bulletin


Normally, I would just leap in and talk about what today's blog subject is, but before I do, I have a very public announcement to make...more along the lines of a warning.

I think we may be on the verge of a real epidemic in the world of cyberspace.

No computer virus or malware threat could infiltrate as many computers as this phenomenon surging across the globe like a sonic boom.

It started off innocently enough in 2007.  At first, only a few people were affected, but over the past four years, a whopping 35 MILLION people have been knocked senseless by this growing threat.  Some reacted with absolute frustration, others merely laughed it off.  And, some vindictive people, upset that they had become victims, decided to spread it to other unsuspecting people.

Unsuspecting victims had no clue what was to come.  Clicking on websites promising the moon and more.  Trying to download video clips of that show you missed.  Attempting to watch live embarrassing bloopers.  Sure.  That's what they WANT you to think.

Oh, speaking of which...someone just e-mailed me this video link.  You know that show Family Guy?  One of my favourite clips on that show was the whole fight between Peter Griffin and that giant oversized chicken.  Well, I have some great news!  Someone sent me this e-mailed link to me.  Apparently, they have word that the season premiere of Family Guy will have an all new fight scene between Peter and the Chicken, and they promised that someone will not get out of it alive!

I haven't watched the video yet...and unfortunately, the video has been dubbed in Korean, but hey...at least it fits the theme day, right?  But, I wanted to share this with you before I inadvertedly end up becoming a victim of this plague that seems to be attacking computers left and right.

Ladies and gentlemen...I give you...a preview of the Family Guy Deathmatch...in Korean.


Wait...what th-.

What the hell is this?!?

The video clearly shows a chicken in the previews, but...what the heck is going on at the beginning?

There's no blood.

There's no Chicken.

All I see is the president.

The president dancing with Ellen.

And, singing something...

Oh no.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no.

Not me too!  NOT ME TOO!!!






AUGH!!!!!  I'VE BEEN RICKROLLED!!!!!!!!!!!








But, then...so have ALL OF YOU TOO!!!!


But, don't be afraid, you guys.  This ties in with the theme for today's actual blog entry, which I like to call...

Across The Pond And Beyond:  The Rick Astley Edition

And here's the song that got the ball rolling...



Some stats:

ARTIST:  Rick Astley
SONG:  Never Gonna Give You Up
ALBUM:  Whenever You Need Somebody
DATE RELEASED:  July 27, 1987
PEAK POSITION ON BILLBOARD CHARTS: #1 for 1 week
TOTAL VIEWS ON YOUTUBE AS OF JULY '11:  35,923,789 and counting!

That's a lot of Rickrolling for you.

But, what exactly IS Rickrolling?  And, how did it start?


As I alluded to, the whole business kicked off in 2007, which appropriately enough was 20 years after the single "Never Gonna Give You Up" (Astley's breakthrough hit) was released.  It started up as a simple prank around the beginning of the year.  Much like I have done at the beginning of this blog entry, you take a link or a video clip that seemingly seems innocent enough, but too irresistible not to explore.  But once you click on it, you are immediately taken to either a clip of 'Never Gonna Give You Up' playing on an endless loop, or the music video itself.  By May 2007, the prank had garnered publicity, and on April Fools Day, 2008, YouTube and several other sites made every link on their home page redirect to Rick's video.

It proved to be great fun, and even Rick Astley himself was quite chuffed over the Rickrolling trend.  In fact, proving what a good sport he was about it all, let me direct you to a clip of the Macy's 2008 Thanksgiving Day parade.  Don't worry...it's not another Rickroll trick...not exactly, anyway.



I think it's pretty cool to see that he's such a good sport about it all.  If anything, it may have given his record sales a little bit of a boost...

...or prompted the massive burning of every single copy of 'Whenever You Need Somebody' by a group of radicals who may have been Rickrolled fifty times too many.

Still, though...you have to wonder if Rickrolling is the only legacy that Rick Astley will ever really be known.

Because in my honest opinion, (and I am aware that I could face some ridicule here for admitting this on a public forum by those who are pro-Rickroll, and could possibly be anti-Rick Astley), I think Rick Astley is a very underrated singer.

In fact, I'm going to go on the record to say that there's a hell of a lot more to Rick Astley than what it seems.  It involves more than Rickrolling.  It involves a young man from England who wanted to have success as a singer, but seemed to hit roadblocks one right after the other.

It seems hard to believe, but why not take a guess as to how old Rick Astley was when he recorded 'Never Gonna Give You Up'?  Not released.  Recorded.  Anyone?

Okay, I'll tell you.  Rick Astley was born on February 6, 1966 in England.  'Never Gonna Give You Up' was recorded on New Years Day, 1987.

If I'm doing my math correctly, this means that when Rick recorded that song, he was one month shy of turning TWENTY-ONE!!! 

Now, I ask you...do you know any 21 year old males who have such a deep, distinctive voice as Rick Astley?  I think not!

It's hard to overlook it though, because for his first two albums, he was under the Stock/Aitken/Waterman production team, which was heavily influenced by synthesizer pop music.  It's very easy to lose the impact of the vocals when placed against drum machines and Yamaha keyboards, such as in his 1988 song 'Together Forever'.


Okay, so the lyrics weren't exactly Shakesperian, or even Tori Amos like, and the music video was so bright, you needed those special glasses used to view an eclipse.  You can't deny that for someone barely in his twenties, he had one heck of a voice.  I'm not afraid to admit it.

Speaking of voices, Rick had a little bit of controversy that was linked to another Stock/Aitken/Waterman prodigy, Kylie Minogue.  A crazy rumour began circulating that Rick Astley actually sang Kylie's song 'I Should Be So Lucky', only it was sped up to make it sound like Kylie sang it.  I know it sounds completely bizarre, so I wanted to see for myself.  First, here's Kylie's original video.



Now, watch what happens when you drop the pitch a few octaves.



Eventually the rumour turned out to be completely false...as it so happened, Kylie Minogue really did sound like Rick Astley when slowed down...but it wasn't exact.  Still, you kind of have to wonder what both of them thought of this little rumour.

It seems unfortunate...almost a crime really, that most of Rick's best known songs are fluffy dance hits, when I felt some of his best work was after he left the S/A/W production team.  He released two albums after that period, 'Free' in 1991, and 'Body And Soul' in 1993.  Both of them were a departure from his pop background, with him moving in towards a more R&B/soul angle.  The public weren't as receptive to Rick's new genre, and I find it a shame, because I thought he grew as an artist and his songs afterwards were very powerful and emotional.

In case you think I've lost my mind, I'll post an example.  Here's 'Hopelessly' from his 1993 album, which hit #4 on the adult contemporary charts.


Again, some of you might not agree with me, and that's fine, but I really liked this one, as well as most of his later efforts.

He retired from the music scene shortly after this video was released to concentrate on his family at the ripe old age of 27.  (On a side note, don't we all wish we could retire at 27?  And, people claim he was a one-hit wonder!)

He's done some singing since then, and has released a few songs, but none of them matched the success of his previous records.

Regardless, Rick Astley will probably always be in the public eye for years to come, mostly because of the Rickrolling prank.


But, you know what?  I'd like to think that some people out there will remember him for his musical talents, because in my opinion, Rick Astley has what a lot of people currently in the music business seem to be completely lacking.

He actually has the vocal talents to back it up, unlike some others who must rely on an auto-tuner to get through one track on a manufactured pop mess.

I think that should be celebrated, not shunned...no matter who the artist is.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

What Wheel Of Fortune Taught Me About Myself

It seems unlikely that a game show could teach me anything about myself other than wishing that I could go on the show to win cash and prizes.

And, don't get me wrong.  One thing on my bucket list is to appear as a contestant on a game show.

There's one game show that I've always wanted to be on.  Not necessarily because of the cash and prizes (of course, if I ever won something on the show, I'd be happy), but because it seems to be made for an aspiring writer, such as myself. 


Wheel Of Fortune, which was a Merv Griffin creation.  A game show institution for over thirty-five years.  A game show that has had thousands of contestants and given away millions.  People spinning a wheel of many colours and guessing a letter in hopes of solving a puzzle to win money and the chance to earn even more money in the bonus round.

Would you like to see what I mean?  Okay, I'll post a video for you right now.  Here's a clip from an episode of Wheel Of Fortune that originally aired on September 11, 1990.



I could go on and on about how much Wheel Of Fortune has helped me learn so many life lessons, but I'm trying to make this blog a little more fun, and a little less boring.  So, I'm hoping that by doing a bulleted list of points and inserting video clips and pictures from the show that I can hopefully illustrate what this show has taught me about myself. 

Are you ready?  Would you like to buy a vowel or use your free spin?

No?  All right.  We'll begin.


1.  By now, I'm sure that you all know that the current host and hostess are Pat Sajak and Vanna White.  But, did you know that they weren't the original hosts who christened the program?  When Wheel Of Fortune debuted on television on January 6, 1975, the original host was Chuck Woolery, and the letter-turner was Susan Stafford.  It's hard to find clips of both of them in action, but I managed to locate this clip online from 1979.






2.  Chuck Woolery's last day of hosting Wheel Of Fortune was Christmas Day, 1981.  Pat Sajak began his hosting job three days later on December 28.

3.  Vanna White became the show's official puzzle board turner on December 13, 1982.  Below is a clip of her very first episode.


4.  Prior to appearing on Wheel Of Fortune, Vanna White had gotten noticed on a little game show known as 'The Price Is Right'.  In 1980, she appeared as a contestant in Contestant's Row.  Unfortunately, her ability to bid was not good enough for her to play a game of 'Plinko' or 'Safe Crackers', but I imagine she had fun anyways.

5.  It is here that I will talk about the first thing that Wheel Of Fortune has taught me about myself.  The first lesson I learned from watching Wheel Of Fortune is to not get too greedy.

Wheel Of Fortune has always been a game of chance, filled with lots of calculated risks.  There are twenty-six letters in the alphabet, and it's not a guarantee that every one of them will appear in each puzzle.  Some may not appear at all, while others can appear as much as nine times.  Again, it's a matter of risk.  You'd ideally want to land on a large amount when choosing a letter that appears a lot, but sometimes that doesn't happen.  But, you don't want to call out the wrong letter either because you will end up losing your turn.

And then there's the wheel itself.  Certainly there are lots of dollar amounts on the wheel, and the odd trip giveaway.  The Free Spin space is always a nice thing to pick up as well.  Of course, there are usually a couple of pesky black wedges that can spell death to anyone's game should you happen to land on it.



The dreaded bankrupt wedge.  The funny sound it makes is a nice little novelty, so as long as you don't happen to hear it during your turn.  In most cases, the Bankrupt wedge can be a really horrible game-crushing blow.


Well, okay, in that instance, the guy only lost $350.  But, I've seen instances where contestants have lost way more.  They lost prizes.  I remember one person ended up losing almost $34,000 in cash by landing on Bankrupt.  That had to hurt.

So, one thing that one must consider when playing Wheel Of Fortune is the fact that sometimes a time might come where you aren't sure of what the puzzle is, or what letter to call.  Or, sometimes, you might know what the puzzle is, but want to spin the wheel more for some additional cash.  The point is that whatever the case is, if the risk is incredibly great, and you stand to lose a lot, SOLVE the puzzle or BUY a VOWEL.  Don't just fake it like you know it.  Otherwise, this can happen.


I think now is as good a time as any to continue this list.

6.  The first letter Vanna White ever turned on the puzzle board was 'T'.

7.  The wheel on Wheel Of Fortune weighs approximately 2,400 pounds!

8.  As you've seen up above, the Wheel Of Fortune puzzle board used to be one in which Vanna would turn the letters around.  On February 24, 1997, Vanna's job became a lot easier when touch-screen technology entered the fold.


Beginning with that episode, whenever a letter appeared on the screen, the screen would turn blue, and all Vanna had to do was touch the screen for the letter to appear.  It also made Vanna not have to do nearly as much walking, as instead of her having to reveal each letter one by one, the solution would appear all at once.

9.  The most commonly picked letters chosen by early bonus round contestants were R, S, T, L, N, and E.

10.  And, that brings me to my next lesson that I have learned from this game.  Choose letters that make sense.

Sometime in the late 1980's, the contestant was given three additional consonants, and one additional vowel to solve the bonus round puzzle at the end of the show.  This was to accommodate the fact that the bonus round puzzles were longer, and more difficult to solve without additional letters.  Of course, R, S, T, L, N, and E were the six pre-selected letters, since those six letters were used the most often.  But contestants really had to choose their letters wisely, because if they made the wrong choices, they could lose the bonus round. 

Of course, if a contestant has a hunch, or is lucky enough to be able to solve the puzzle after the initial six letters are called, it can become quite easy.



It's not like that all the time though. 

Suppose I was on the show, and I got on the bonus round.  Which three consonants and one vowel would I have chosen, given the idea that the puzzle could be almost anything?

For me, the vowel choice would be easy.  I would pick A.  Behind E, A is a common vowel used in a variety of words in the English language.  In all likelihood, the letter A should appear in the puzzle, unless the puzzle solution was 'Bubble Bobble', or 'Linguini'.  It's a chance you take, but the odds would be in my favour.

Now, for consonants, one I would immediately pick would be H.  Why H?  Well, there's quite a few words that start with SH and TH, and there's lots of words that have an N and an H together, like ENOUGH, ANYHOW, NINTH, and NORTH. 

With the letter H in play, it leads me to choose my next consonant.  C.  Because with the letter C and the letter H, you have the CH combo, which appears in so many words in the English language.

As for my final consonant, it's more or less a crapshoot, but one letter I always liked was the letter M, and the letter M begins a lot of words like MUSHROOM, MACADAMIA, MINESTRONE, and, well...MATTHEW. 

So, my final bonus round letters would be R S T L N E, as well as H C M A.  It wouldn't have helped me out in the above bonus puzzle, but the odds would be in my favour.  And, of course, if I knew the puzzle beforehand, I'd make appropriate changes.

Okay, from one lesson to another.

11.  Wheel Of Fortune taught me how to spell

Or, at least I would like to think so, anyway.

When I was a little kid, my family would always gather around the television at 7:30 every evening to watch Wheel Of Fortune.  It almost became kind of a tradition.  And, I can't begin to tell you how many words in the puzzle boards happened to appear on elementary school spelling tests.  Who needed 'Hooked On Phonics' or 'Reading Rabbit' when you had Wheel Of Fortune as a study guide?  You all laugh now, but it really did teach me spelling tricks and mnemonic devices that helped me become a better speller, and ultimately a better writer and communicator.

12.  Vanna White holds a Guinness Book World Record for most frequent clapper.


13.  The set may have changed considerably over the years, but the podiums have always been red, yellow, and blue.



14.  The bonus wheel has changed a considerable amount as well.  In fact, during the early stages of the days in which contestants could pick their bonus prizes, there were only five options inside the word 'WHEEL'.  Now, you have dozens of cash prizes to possibly win.  The highest amount currently is $100,000, but if one was lucky to win the million dollar wedge and solve the puzzle, and if they got the $100,000 envelope, it became one million dollars.  Only one person has ever won the million dollar prize since its implementation.

15.  The longest serving announcer for the show was Charlie O'Donnell, who served as announcer from 1975-1980, and again from 1989 until his death on November 1, 2010.

16.  The theme of Wheel Of Fortune has changed over the years, but the most common musical theme for the show was a Merv Griffin composition called Changing Keys.  In fact, here are some of the theme songs for the show...the original version of Changing Keys being the first one on the list.



My personal favourite was the 1989-1992 theme, which is why I posted it at the beginning of the blog post.  :)

17.  Ready for another lesson I've learned from Wheel Of Fortune?  Here goes.  Wheel Of Fortune taught me the difference between a person, a place, and a thing.  Sure, it may seem like an insignificant thing, but as a kid, I was a bit confused, so it was nice to know that the show cleared things up.

18.  Before, contestants who left the show with nothing would just get consolation gifts.  Nowadays, every contestant who appears on the show is guaranteed at least one thousand dollars for their trouble.  Not a bad day's work.

19.  In the early days of the show, each round ended with something called a shopping round, where they would be taken to a themed display of various prizes, each one with a price tag.  Whenever a contestant won a round, the cash they earned would have to be spent on these prizes, with any leftover going onto a gift certificate.  So, if you had earned $2000 in the round, you'd have to buy $2000 worth of prizes.  Perhaps a state-of-the art typewriter and a fur coat?  Or maybe a $4000 vacation to Spain?  The practice was stopped in the mid 1980's in favour of the contestants keeping all of their cash.

And, finally...

20.  Sometimes, people just don't think about what they're saying when solving a puzzle, and it can make for some rather...awkward moments.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Monday Matinee: Marley & Me

Anyone who may know me especially well would probably say that I have a tendency to wear my emotions on my sleeve.  I tell things like it is, I try to feel empathy towards others if the situation calls for it, and depending on the tone of something, I can range from hysterical laughter to crying in loud sobs.

In most cases, I am not afraid to show off my emotions.

When it comes to the idea of watching movies or television shows, I tend not to be that way.  I don't know whether it is because the movie or television show is a fictional situation with fictional characters played by the beautiful people of Hollywood, or not.  I tend to not get overly emotional over watching a movie.

There are some exceptions.  It's hard to have a dry eye while watching Old Yeller, and the animated film 'All Dogs Go To Heaven' was a tough one to get through, especially when you consider the tragic fate of young Judith Barsi, who starred in the film.

And then there was the movie that I happened to stumble across on television late Saturday night.  It was the television premiere of this movie, and I found myself blubbering at the ending, which could best be described as one of the most emotional ends to any film that I remember watching.  Ever.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself here.

I've always said that movies that are based off of a work of literature can be quite difficult to pull off, and make into a movie that is just as good as the book.  Certainly, Stephen King novels have been translated into several movies, where some have been really good, and some not so much.  'Fried Green Tomatoes' and 'Mrs. Doubtfire' were box office success stories, while 'Confessions Of A Shopaholic' didn't really get much success in a critical venue (although, Isla Fisher is gorgeous)

(Ahem...just thought I'd put that out there for no other reason than that I can.  Hopefully Borat doesn't come and get me.)

Anyway, the subject of today's 'Monday Matinee' happens to be one of those movies that originated from a book.


Marley & Me was a 2005 New York Times bestseller, written by journalist/columnist John Grogan.  The book was all about his adventures with raising a yellow Labrador Retriever named Marley, who was described as the world's worst dog, due to his inability to be trained.  He's strong, he eats a lot, and chews up anything and everything that happens to get in his way.  Despite the challenges, the author ends up growing to love the dog, and how he happened to be there when he was having a family of his own.

The book was such a success that a movie version was made three years later.



On December 25, 2008, the motion picture Marley & Me was first released in theatres.  The movie starred Owen Wilson as John Grogan, Jennifer Aniston as Grogan's wife, Jenny, and twenty-two yellow Labrador Retrievers of all different ages and sizes as Marley.

The film was a huge box office success.  In fact, it set a record for the biggest Christmas Day opening ever with over fourteen million dollars in ticket sales alone. 

Though, I'm sure that none of you care about the logistics of ticket sales, or how the project came to be, so let's get right on with the plot of the movie.



The movie begins when John and Jenny get married in a blizzard, and decide that they want to start their married life in a warmer climate, so they move to Florida where both of them get jobs at competing newspapers.  Jenny seems to be fitting into her job quite nicely with prime assignments and byline pride, while John seems to struggle. 

Jenny seems to drop a couple of hints about motherhood, and John is a little unsure of whether they're ready for it.  At the suggestion of his co-worker Sebastian (played by Eric Dane), John decides that the couple should get a pet, to see if they can handle the responsibility needed to take care of a child down the road.

So John surprises Jenny with a trip to a farm where they meet a whole litter of yellow Labrador puppies.  Jenny immediately chooses one from the litter, and they decide to name it Marley after reggae singer Bob Marley whose song happened to be playing on the car radio the day they brought Marley home.

Unfortunately for John and Jenny, Marley isn't exactly the model dog.  He eats enough food to fill a Walmart pet food section, he tears apart pillows and stuffed animals, and even managed to get himself kicked out of obedience school!

In fact, here's the trailer for Marley & Me, just so you can have an idea as to what kind of mischief Marley manages to get into.



Yikes...they weren't kidding when they called Marley 'incorrigible'.

Regardless of which, despite Marley's rambunctious and mischievious nature, John and Jenny loved him with everything they had.  When Jenny had a miscarriage, Marley was there for her to hold on to.  When Jenny gave birth to their first child, Marley was just as excited to meet him as he was when he first came home with the Grogan family.

Marley also seemed to have a positive effect on the career of one John Grogan.  Seeing as how his reporting career wasn't exactly taking off, the editor of the newspaper he worked at offered him a column, which would be published twice a week.  Marley ended up providing a lot of the material for the column, and not only was his column a success, but the newspaper circulation increased significantly since John's column began.


Soon after, Jenny gives birth to the couple's second child, and develops a case of post partum depression as a result of it.  She finds herself getting snappy with John and Marley more often, and in a fit of anger tells John that she wants them to get rid of Marley.  John decides to let Marley stay with Sebastian for a few days until Jenny calms down, and once she does, she realizes that Marley's home is with them. 

Eventually, John's column goes from becoming twice-weekly to daily, which pays enough money for Jenny to become a stay-at-home mother.  John later relocates to Pennsylvania to take on a reporting job, which later becomes a chance for him to continue his column.

As the film winds down though, Marley's old age starts to catch up with him, and the Grogan family is left to make an incredibly difficult choice. 

Let's just say that there's a reason why I ended up blubbering during the last fifteen minutes of this movie.

But, you know, that's fine with me.  Having a pet is probably one of the greatest joys that one can ever have, in my opinion.  Marley may have brought a lot of frustration and inconvenience to the Grogan family, but Marley really did have a heart of gold, and he loved them just as much as the Grogan family loved him.

Still...when you're put in the position where you have to say goodbye to a pet, it can be quite hard on the owner to say goodbye, even if the owner knows that it is what is best for the pet.

It's something that I had to face myself last July.


This was my cat.  His real name was supposed to be Tom, but my niece who was two at the time we got him had knocked out her front teeth in a playground accident, and it came out as Ol' Thum, so the name stuck.

Ol' Thum came into my life during my Grade 12 year of high school, in the autumn of 1998.  In fact, he was the one who found us!  My father was doing some work out in the backyard of our house at the time, and was moving some things when he heard a faint meowing coming from the fence.  When my father investigated, this beautiful cat with a perfect white diamond shape above his nose came out of hiding. 

And promptly bit my dad's finger when he went to pet it.  Surprisingly enough, my dad didn't get angry.

Over the next four weeks, we used to set out some food on the back porch for the cat, who seemed to hang around.  It wasn't anything special...just leftover lunch meat from my lunches, and some chicken.  After about a month, the cat felt comfortable enough to enter the house through the kitchen door, and from there, he stayed.  He wasn't a kitten...the veterinarian estimated him to be four years old at the time, but he seemed to have had a rough go of it lately.  Because he had been fixed when he came into our lives, we figured that he had been abandoned by his original owner, and I think he was looking for a new family to take him on.

Having Ol' Thum come to live with us wasn't exactly all fun and games at first.  Ol' Thum was at first, quite uncontrollable.  He thought the whole house was his litterbox, and he scratched and bit us constantly throughout all of 1999.  I think that it was him trying to feel us out, and get to know where his boundaries ended.  By the new millennium, he had calmed down enough for us to keep him around for the long haul.  He even allowed us to let us rub his tummy and hold him, which a couple of years ago would have been impossible due to his defensive stance.

Over the dozen years we had him, he proved himself to be an awesome friend and pet.  If there was ever a mouse in the house, Ol' Thum would often dispatch of them for us.  If we were feeling down or sad, he'd pop up on the couch and snuggle up to us and give us a reassuring head bunt.  Oh, and one time, Ol' Thum happened to come across a nest of baby rabbits and he guarded them from the dogs that were in the neighbourhood.  Although it proved to be a futile effort, as none of them survived, he at least tried to be there for them, which I thought was a cool thing to witness.

There comes a time in which you know that nothing lasts forever.  Ol' Thum started getting sick shortly after Christmas 2009, and his weight rapidly dropped to the point where he was half his weight.  He also moved really slowly, and you could tell that he was in constant pain.

As hard as the decision was that we had to make, we knew that there was only one possible option to help end Ol' Thum's pain.

On July 15, 2010, Ol' Thum crossed the rainbow bridge.

It's been only a year since he passed away, but I still think about him.  He was such a huge part of my life for twelve years, and in those years, he made such a positive impact.  He was a wonderful cat, and as far as I'm concerned, there will always be a place in my heart for him.

Just like there would always be a place in John Grogan's heart for Marley.

There really is nothing greater than the love one has for a pet.  Although there may be more animals in my future, I'll never forget Ol' Thum.

A friend of mine made this picture for me, just two days after he passed away, and I think it's an appropriate picture to end this blog entry.


1994-2010