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Saturday, February 18, 2012

Raisins Are Better With Clay

I’ll be honest with you.  I used to be a very picky eater. 
I can remember being very little, and completely naming off a list of all the foods that I did not like at all.  Broccoli, lettuce, green beans, potatoes, carrots, onions...heck, pretty much all vegetables.  I convinced myself that I didn’t like any vegetable, and I flat out told my parents that they should never serve me vegetables for dinner, because I would not eat them.

Ever.
And, naturally, my parents would only use it as an excuse to serve me more vegetables. 

Never mind the fact that I refused to try the vegetables in the first place.  I had convinced myself that there was no way that those vegetables would ever go inside my mouth.
But as I grew older, I started to appreciate vegetables a little bit more, and now at age thirty, I incorporate vegetables into my eating habits whenever I can.  I absolutely love fresh salads.  I am a huge fan of veggie trays at parties.  I can even admit to liking a little bit of broccoli once in a while.

As far as onions and brussel sprouts go on the other hand...well, let’s just say that there are even some vegetables that you can’t make me eat.
The same deal goes for fruit.  Granted, I have a mild allergy to strawberries, so that fruit is understandable.  But, I’m also not a huge fan of peaches, plums, and cantaloupe.  I’ve tried them, but they just aren’t something that I would readily choose to eat.

But the absolute worst thing that I have to say that I have ever eaten from the fruit family is the disgusting brownish-purple dried fruit known as the raisin.


I absolutely despise raisins.  I have heard some people refer to raisins as ‘nature’s candy’.  To me, I don’t believe that nature would be so cruel as to call a grape that has been left in a tanning booth way too long a ‘candy’.
Have you ever been in a situation where you grab a delicious looking cookie or muffin, thinking that it is of the chocolate chip variety? And once you bite in, you realize that you now have a mouthful of raisins in your mouth?  I have.  And, it is NOT a pretty picture.

Now, granted, I know that some of you reading this blog entry ARE raisin lovers, and I’m sure that some of you will try to convince me that raisins are better than chocolate and sex combined.  That’s fine.  Personally, I’d rather swallow a canary whole than eat just one raisin.
Luckily for me, I had two sisters who loved everything about raisins, so every time I went trick-or-treating for Halloween, all the boxes of raisins that I would get in my loot bag automatically went to them.

(I mean, seriously, who the heck gives out raisins for Halloween?)
Just in case I wasn’t clear...I HATE raisins!!!

Well, okay.  Maybe I don’t hate ALL raisins.
There are some raisins that I didn’t mind all that much.  In fact, the best things about these raisins were that I didn’t even have to eat them.  All I had to do was watch them sing songs and interact with each other.

And, no, I haven’t lost my mind either.  Just hear me out.
In order to explain my last statement, we have to take a trip back in time to the year 1986.  It was the year that acid washed jeans were in fashion.  It was the year where boys watched G.I. Joe and girls watched Jem and the Holograms (or vice versa, if you will).  It was the year that solo female artists like Janet Jackson, Madonna, and the late Whitney Houston dominated the Billboard charts.

And it was also the year that an exciting new style of animation debuted.
Claymation.







Although animator Will Vinton had started up his production company eight years earlier and was the one who took the word ‘claymation’ and turned it into a registered trademark, it wasn’t until the 1980s that the process became popular.
Claymation (a portmanteau of clay and animation) is a process where objects moulded with clay and/or plasticine are made around a wire skeleton.  These objects are then arranged in different poses, with each pose filling in one frame.  When all the frames are put together and played in rapid succession, the clay images move on screen, just the same way that a cartoon would be animated.  It was a really neat process to watch, and back in 1986, it was a revolutionary process.



And in 1986, Claymation was everywhere.  Some segments of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse were filmed with Claymation technology (most notably, the segments starring Penny).  Peter Gabriel’s ‘Sledgehammer’ video was a Claymation masterpiece.  And, during 1986, Will Vinton was at work filming a Claymation Christmas special (which would be ready for the 1987 Christmas season).
Claymation was heavily used for an advertising campaign during the mid-1980s as well.  An advertising campaign involving raisins.



The California Raisins, to be specific.
Back in 1986, an advertising company had been brainstorming ideas regarding a commercial that they were to film for the California Raisin Advisory Board, but they were at a loss as to how to go about it.  One of the company’s employees (writer Seth Werner) suggested a rather outlandish idea.

What if they had a bunch of dancing raisins singing the classic Marvin Gaye song “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”?
I know what you must be thinking.  What a crazy idea!  That would never work.

Nevertheless, the idea was presented to Will Vinton, who set to work on taking the idea that the ad agency came up with and turning it into a standard 30-second commercial.


So, imagine everyone’s surprise when the commercial became wildly popular!  Audiences loved The California Raisins, and soon more commercials followed.  The raisins soon began taking on the appearances of celebrities, such as Ray Charles and Michael Jackson in future advertisements.
The California Raisins became so popular during the 1980s that they were even added into Will Vinton’s Claymation Christmas Celebration, singing Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer.  I know that Christmas was two months ago, but if you want to listen to them perform the song, you can click here.

And since we are on the subject of music, did you know that The California Raisins recorded four studio albums in the late 1980s, and that their own version of “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” actually landed on the Billboard Charts? 
But, while The California Raisins had made a small impact on the music scene, they made an even larger impact in the world of television.  In November 1988, Will Vinton helped bring forth the first full-length animated television special.  Airing on CBS, the special “Meet The Raisins!” debuted to huge ratings, and was nominated for an Emmy award in 1989.  The special allowed the viewer to get to know the band members of the group in great detail, and gave them more personality traits.  The individual raisins were even given names, like A.C., Beebop, Redd, and Stretch.



In 1989, an animated series known as The California Raisins Show aired on CBS.  Although it wasn’t renewed for a second season following its initial 13-episode run, The California Raisins proved that they were still relevant as they entered the 1990s with a second animated special called “Raisins: Sold Out!”, released on August 29, 1990.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about The California Raisins was the fact that they were really one of the first commercial mascots to successfully launch a line of merchandise.  As an elementary school student in the late 1980s, there was certainly a lot of memorabilia on famous bands, cartoon characters, and television heartthrobs and sweethearts.  But beginning around my second grade year, everyone seemed to be all about The California Raisins.  They were on notebooks, backpacks, posters, bedsheets, and costumes.



MINI-CONFESSION:  When I was in second grade, I proudly owned a California Raisins sweatshirt, and I loved that thing to pieces.  I literally wore that sweatshirt until it fell apart.



The California Raisins were also manufactured into collectable figurines.  Restaurant chain Hardee’s would offer the non-poseable figures as a promotional gimmick to sell their Cinnamon ‘n’ Raisin biscuits.  The figurines were a huge hit with consumers, and many people actively collected each one.  Country singer Blake Shelton once admitted that he had a sizeable collection of California Raisin figurines at one time. 
And with California Raisin figurine lines launched in 1987, 1988, 1991, and 2001, there certainly were lots of figures to get.  I often wonder how many were actually made over the years.



These days, The California Raisins don’t really make many appearances on the television, but various pieces of merchandise can be found on display at the Smithsonian.  And as recently as 2011, a picture of a California Raisin can be found on boxes of Sun-Maid Natural California Raisin packages.  It’s hard to say whether or not The California Raisins can make another comeback or not.  But, I suppose if enough time passes, everything old can be new again eventually, so never say never.
Though I will say that just because I may have been a fan of the California Raisins growing up, it did not change my opinion about eating raisins.  I never liked eating raisins, and I don’t think I ever will like eating raisins as long as I live.  But, at least for a couple of years, they were entertaining enough for me to look at them in a whole new light.



Friday, February 17, 2012

Michael J. Fox Was Alex P. Keaton



You know, one actor's story that has always inspired me is that of Michael J. Fox.

Unless you've lived in isolation on a deserted island for the last thirty years (and if you were, you likely wouldn't have access to a blog or know even what a blog is for that matter), you probably know who Michael J. Fox is.

Born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on June 9, 1961, Michael Andrew Fox was the son of an actress/payroll clerk mother and a police officer father. Because Michael's father was a member of the Canadian Forces, it wasn't unusual for Michael and his family to move frequently, and often with very little notice. And, for the first ten years of Michael's life, he lived in several places all over Canada. In 1971, his father retired from the police force, and the family settled in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, a suburb of Vancouver.

At the age of fifteen, Fox starred in the Canadian television series 'Leo and Me', which aired on CBC, and when Michael turned eighteen, he left home and moved to Los Angeles, California, hoping to make it big in show business. After arriving, he had a chance meeting with producer Ronald Shedlo, who was impressed by his talent. And shortly after that meeting, he was cast in his first American production, a made for television movie titled 'Letters From Frank'. On that particular movie, he was credited under the name 'Michael Fox', and he had hoped that he could continue using the name professionally.

Not so.

In Michael's own words, according to his autobiography 'Lucky Man: A Memoir', he found that when he registered to be a member of the Screen Actors Guild, there was already a veteran character actor named Michael Fox (d. 1996) who was already registered under that name.

And in the Screen Actors Guild, no two actors can share the same exact name.

(Mind you there are some exceptions to this rule, as there's a funny story involving Vanessa “Save The Best For Last” Williams and Vanessa “Melrose Place” Williams. Maybe I'll talk about it in a future blog entry.)

So, Michael decided to try going under a different name. Michael A. Fox sounded a bit weird. And, he didn't particularly like the idea of performing under the names Andrew Fox and Andy Fox. So, he decided that he would adopt the fictional initial, “J”, as an homage to Michael J. Pollard.

Thus, Michael J. Fox was born.



And, shortly after changing his professional name, Michael J. Fox ended up getting the role that would make him famous.



By all accounts, 'Family Ties' was one of the most successful television sitcoms of the 1980s. Debuting in September 1982, the show ran for seven seasons, ending its run on May 14, 1989. It was a sitcom that had a very interesting premise. You had Elyse and Steven Keaton (Meredith Baxter and Michael Gross) who were among the very first of the baby boomers to be born.  They were as liberal as liberal could be, even becoming hippies at one point.  They made love, not war.  They promoted peace, not hate.  They were basically the parents that all of us kind of wish we had.



Flash forward to the 1980s, and our hippies now hold adult jobs.  Elyse works independently as an architect, while Steven worked at a television station as station manager.  Still, they hold a rather laid-back approach to parenting and family life.  They are strict when they need to be, but are mostly easy to talk to.  They still hold their liberal political stances though.  Which wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that their children are NOTHING like them!

Well, okay, maybe I shouldn't say that.  Their youngest child (well, for the first few years at least), Jennifer (Tina Yothers), seemed to appreciate the values that Steven and Elyse lived by, and as a result was probably the most well-rounded of the Keaton kids.  The eldest two could not be more unlike Steven and Elyse.  Take Mallory (Justine Bateman), for instance.  For someone born to two parents who practically shunned most material things to live the hippie lifestyle, the fact that Mallory ended up as a materialistic mall princess who spent more money on cosmetics and clothes in an hour than Elyse did in a whole year must have drove them crazy.

And, then there was the role that Michael J. Fox played.



Alex P. Keaton was everything that his parents weren't.  Alex was a Republican supporter.  Steven and Elyse weren't.  Alex is really interested in economics and wealth, subjects that Steven and Elyse really didn't want much to do with.  Alex even reportedly had a lunchbox with Richard Nixon's face on it!

Now THAT'S hardcore.

To further demonstrate the wide divide between Alex and his parents, Alex's favourite television show isn't a cartoon series, prime time drama, or funny sitcom.  He enjoys watching 'Wall $treet Week'.  And instead of comic books and mystery novels, he has a subscription to 'The Wall Street Journal'.  Even his music tastes are pretty much old-fashioned, as he enjoys music from the big band and swing era (though he secretly likes rock music as well).

So, you'd think that with Alex having a completely different political affiliation and belief system as the rest of his family, that he would be completely opposed to spending time with them, and that he would often get into terrible fights with them every single episode.

I certainly won't lie to you, there were some instances in which Alex has clashed with his family a number of times.  In the very first episode of the series, Alex clashed with Steven when he wanted to go on a date with a woman...which happened to take place at an elitist, restricted country club.  In another episode, Alex actually impersonates Steven in order to play the stock market, but ends up losing quite a bit of money in a really bad deal.

And, it's hard to forget the whole Scrabble scandal when Alex claimed that "uushnu" was a word after Steven played the word "zoquo".  Steven claimed that zoquo was a water sport, and Alex claimed that the word uushnu was a term for drying off.

Hence the phrase, "After I zoquo, I like to uushnu."

(Of course, according to Jennifer, Alex would always hoard all the U's so that nobody could use the letter Q...)

Even when Alex's little brother Andrew (Brian Bonsall) wasn't immune to Alex's greedy nature, with Alex even launching a protest against the preschool Andrew attended because of their values, which included sharing and cooperation!

So, yes...in some ways, Alex could be stuck-up, selfish, and looked out only for himself.

But in so many other ways, Alex proved that he could put his own needs aside to be there for his family.  And, yes, I have lots of examples of this.

Take the 1988 episode 'Heartstrings' when Steven ended up suffering a heart attack in the Keaton living room.  Naturally everyone in the family was worried about him, but Alex was right there with the rest of his family, keeping them calm, and surrounding them with love.  And, I think Alex realized that he really needed the support of his family during what must have been a very scary time.  Fortunately, Steven pulled through, and all was well.

Then there was the time in which Alex decided to take on a job at the mall during the Christmas season.  He dressed up as Santa Claus, and at first, he isn't exactly enjoying it.  But after meeting a young girl named Michelle, who only wants her father to come home for Christmas, Alex is visibly moved.  Here's a little clip of the show for you to watch, to see what I mean.

Alex also had some instances in which he was forced to re-evaluate everything that he had believed in, and where one event made Alex question everything about himself.  In the 1987 episode, 'A, My Name Is Alex', Alex had to deal with the after effects of losing his best friend Greg in a car accident.  The Keaton family is devastated by the news, but Alex seemed to be upbeat about it.  It wasn't unusual for Alex to have differing feelings from the family, but even this was weirding everybody out.  It wasn't until later in the episode that we realized that Alex was supposed to be in the car with Greg when it crashed.  Turns out that Greg had asked Alex to help him move, but Alex said he was too busy.  So, when Greg crashed the car and ended up dead as a result, the guilt weighed very heavily on Alex's mind.  He tried to hide it with humour and wisecracks, but when he kept seeing Greg's ghost pop up, encouraging Alex to keep living, he eventually has a full-fledged breakdown, questioning why he was still alive when Greg was dead.

The last part of the episode was structured in a way that was quite creative for a sitcom.  In it, Michael J. Fox as Alex was on a blank soundstage, talking to an off-screen therapist about his thoughts and feelings about Greg's death.  But, it also provided some insight over how Alex got along with his family as well.  I only wish I could post a link to the episode so I could show all of you what I mean, but I can't seem to find a link to it at all.  But, if you wanted to find it, just search for episodes that aired during season five.  It's included in that season.  Some highlights of that episode include the following though;



- Alex explaining that walking into the kitchen when Elyse was there was the equivalent of walking into a hug. It is explained that Elyse was there trying to comfort him when Alex was complaining that Nixon was being set up in the Watergate scandal (which as you know resulted in Nixon's presidency abruptly ending).



- Steven attempting to teach Alex how to play catch in an effort for him to make friends and fit in more.  When Alex keeps dropping the ball, Steven kept reassuring him that as long as he was trying to catch it that it was good enough for him.



- Mallory telling Alex that he shouldn't worry about Greg dying, because she believes that he will be reincarnated just as Shirley MacLaine was, and Alex admitting that he really admired Mallory's simple way of looking at the world.  He had always felt pressure to be the best at everything from teachers, and as a result of this, it effectively isolated him from his peers.



- Alex having a memory of Jennifer breaking a bottle of perfume in her room that Alex bought her, and how the scent of the perfume reminded Alex of the day that he and Greg first met.

By the end of the episode, Alex has come to the conclusion that Greg's death wasn't his fault, and that he resolves to become a better person.  After all, with the visuals that Alex experienced during his therapy session, he realized that his family had a lot of faith in him, and that maybe he should reciprocate that faith back.

Again, it was a lovely episode.  You really should watch it.

I guess one final example of Alex really being there for his family came at the end of one season where Alex ALMOST achieved his dream.  Throughout the first couple of seasons, Alex was an overachieving high school student who was desperate to get into Princeton University.  He worked hard at getting good grades, and he participated in everything he could to pad his application.  He was almost there.  He had gotten the on-campus interview where the dean of admissions would decide whether Alex was Princeton material or not.  And, knowing Alex, he most likely would have been a shoo-in to make it into the school.

The one variable he DIDN'T count on?  Mallory.

You see...Mallory was on her way to surprise her ex-boyfriend Jeff (who happens to attend Princeton), hoping that she may be able to rekindle the relationship.  But when she finds that he has moved on, Mallory realizes that she hasn't, and is broken hearted.  So broken hearted that she actually interrupts Alex's interview!  So now Alex has to make a choice.  Will he stay at the interview while Mallory is clearly distraught, or will he support Mallory through her heartache, knowing that he could very well be walking away from his dream?

Tell you what.  Why not watch the episode here?  It's called Go Tigers.  The first word links to part one, the second to part two!

Now, my goal was to demonstrate how Alex P. Keaton was a lot more well-rounded than people may have given him credit for, and I hope that I succeeded in that.  But, I think that was part of the charm with Michael J. Fox.  He really had the acting ability to really make audiences feel a whole plethora of emotions regarding Alex.  At times he could be obnoxious, but he could be so sensitive as well.  He could be so smart, but make really stupid choices.  He could be cocky, but he could also be vulnerable.  Michael J. Fox did it well.  Alex P. Keaton is still widely considered to be one of the most-loved sitcom characters of the 1980s...and perhaps all time.



Of course, 'Family Ties' was just one of the roles that made Michael J. Fox famous.  As everyone also knows, he starred in the Back To The Future trilogy (which if I do a blog entry on those movies, I'll talk about them then), which catapulted him into super-stardom.  He also appeared in a series of movies during and after filming 'Family Ties'.  Teen Wolf, Doc Hollywood, Greedy, and The American President, to name a few.  He also starred in the sitcom 'Spin City' from 1996-2001, as it was produced by the same people who created 'Family Ties' (and had guest appearances from Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter).  He even took on voice work during this time.  He was the voice of Stuart Little when the popular book's film adaptation was released in 1999, and also held roles in the animated feature Atlantis, and the two Homeward Bound movies.

These days, Michael J. Fox has now taken on a new role.  Health activist.



Although he started showing symptoms of Parkinson's Disease in the early 1990s, it wasn't until 1991 that he was given the official diagnosis.  With the support of his wife, Tracy Pollan (who played one of Alex P. Keaton's love interests on 'Family Ties'), Michael managed to create his own foundation, 'The Michael J. Fox Foundation', which was designed to hopefully find a cure for the debilitating disease.  Although when he first got word of having the disease, he began to drink heavily as a way to try and forget about it, he did seek therapy and with some help, steered away from the alcohol for good.

He kept the the fact that he had the disease a secret until 1998, when he admitted that he had the disease publicly.  By then, the tremors associated with the disease became too noticeable for him to keep it quiet.  But, Michael J. Fox has done so much in raising awareness for Parkinson's Disease, as well as really trying his hardest to find a cure for the disease.

I suppose in some way, I could probably picture Alex P. Keaton doing exactly the same thing if he was in the same position.

After all...both Michael J. Fox and Alex P. Keaton are both two very strong people.


Thursday, February 16, 2012

Sharp-Dressed Man? Not Always...

Do you want to know something?  I was having a heck of a time trying to decide what to confess today for today's edition of the Thursday Confession this week.  I know that I said this last week as well, but this week was challenging as well.  So, in order to get some inspiration, I decided to go through some of the notes that I used to write in my Facebook Notes section.

Before I started off this blogging venture, I used to write a lot of my thoughts and feelings in my Notes section.  I didn't write in there every day...most of the time, I was lucky to get one Note written every couple of weeks.  But looking back through my Facebook Notes section, I've come to the conclusion that some of these notes were just too good not to share.  

I mean, if I'm friends with people, they could read my notes whenever they wanted.  For the general public, those notes have always been sealed.

Until now.

Just for today only, I'll be reposting one of these older notes.  I actually wrote this one back in May 2010, which was right around a time that I was going through some physical and emotional positive changes.  For the most part, I have kept up with these changes, aside from a bit of weight gain (a miserable after-effect of my gall bladder surgery last February).  But, I'm back on track to getting to where I want to be, and everything is good.

From May 7, 2010, the Facebook Note entitled, 'Fashion' (with slight editing).  And, to separate the note from the blog entry, the note section is highlighted in white.

And, the confession?

THURSDAY CONFESSION #7:  I used to dress like a slob because I felt I had no choice.  Now that I have choices, I definitely play the role of sharp-dressed man whenever I can.

Until very recently, I've always been very confused over the whole concept of what makes one fashionable.

Clothes were not something that I considered all that important in my daily life. Of course, that's not a declaration of wanting to belong to a clothing-optional colony, or wanting to travel to one of France's many nude beaches, because let's face it...there are some things that some people really should not see. But, I never tried to keep up with the latest fads, nor did I want to spend oodles of money on clothing either. As long as I walked out of the house with a shirt, a pair of pants, and clean underwear, I was pretty much good to go.




I was also one of those kids who HATED getting clothing items for birthday and Christmas gifts. You all know what I'm talking about, right? Grabbing that box wrapped up in red and green wrapping paper expecting the newest Super Nintendo game or the newest album from your favourite band, opening it up in anticipation...only to find socks and underwear inside of it. Why that sort of thing could ruin Christmas for a kid, especially if the socks and underpants outnumbered the Hot Wheels cars and other random toys.

To me, clothes were the type of thing that one needed to have. But they were also one of the things I hated to spend money on.





I remember some of my earliest memories of Back to School shopping. Buying the crayons and the binders and the packages of 400 sheet lined paper...that portion of back to school shopping was the fun stuff! But once we stepped away from the stationery department at Walmart (or Woolco as it was known back in Canada prior to 1994), and headed towards boy's wear, my excitement soon faded into boredom and frustration.

I was more than happy to have just worn the same clothes from last year for another year. Anything to spare me the dreaded back-to-school clothing shopping. Of course, I didn't have a choice.



Trying on shirt after shirt after shirt was incredibly trying. Don't even get me started on shoe shopping either. Shoe shopping was like hell on Earth for me. The shoe department may as well have been a burning inferno filled with devils armed with pitchforks disguised as smiling happy salespeople standing around the Doc Martens and Birkenstocks. And that's not a dig at the hard working shoe salesmen who have helped people find proper shoes since the 1800's...it's just how I felt about shoes as a kid. I would literally spend half an hour to two hours in that department trying on dozens of shoes because my mother was so concerned about making sure they fit my feet properly (of which I had no idea why SHE would care since SHE wasn't the one wearing them). Add my unique walking style back then (if you weren't aware, I walked on my toes until age 11 due to a slight arch problem), and it made shoe shopping a nightmare.



To make matters even more complicated in regards to shoe shopping, I was the kid in the class who had the largest sized feet. So, therefore, finding boys shoes to match my massive clodhoppers was even more of a struggle. On one hand, finding shoes was such a difficulty when I was nine...but on the bright side, none of the kids could tell me to act my age and not my shoe size...mainly because for the longest time, my age WAS my shoe size. :D



We now move on to jeans...or rather my fight NOT to wear jeans as a kid. I remember family members trying to buy me jeans and me always refusing to wear them. For one, I found them uncomfortable. For another, none of them really fit me well at all (because as you know, I was in the category of 'husky boy' during my childhood). I actually didn't wear my first pair of jeans until I was thirteen. Prior to age 13, I used to wear what was comfortable. And, what was comfortable were those gray and black fleece pants. You know, the kind that people wear in gyms and school tracks to do warm up exercises in? They were cheaper than jeans, and I felt more comfortable in them. Of course, being one of the only kids to wear pants like that made me another target of cheers and jeers, but I really didn't care. To me, clothes were clothes, and in all honesty, slobby slob was my style back in the early 1990's. Track pants, fluorescent purple and green windbreakers, baseball caps worn backwards, and of course the brief time in third grade I rocked a mullet. A poster child for What Not To Wear if I ever was one.



Now, in elementary school, I didn't care at all about fashion. In high school, I began to shed a bit of that apathy about it and I began to care about it a bit more. Of course, in 1995, I was still hopelessly out of the loop, and admittedly, I styled some of my fashion choices after what people were wearing on teen shows like California Dreams and Saved By The Bell: The New Class. That meant lots of things that I absolutely regret purchasing at the time. Pleated pants. Button-down shirts two sizes too big. T-shirts that looked like the Teletubbies vomited all over them. In high school, I tried my best to fit in...but it seemed like everyone else was one step ahead of me.



And, can we talk cost? My family was working class at the time, and couldn't afford to shop in chic shops. Most kids I knew headed up to Kingston or Ottawa and hit stores like the Gap, Old Navy, Eaton's, and Foot Locker. My parents could barely afford the underwear section at Walmart. 

Well, okay, that's a gross exaggeration. 

But money was tight, and I had to shop at the discount stores. But, to their credit, they managed to stretch a dollar further than the stretchiest rubber band, and always made sure that I had plenty of new clothes to wear every September, and at a tenth of the cost the other kids were spending. I wonder if that's where I inherited my own desire to be a spendthrift myself. 


(Don't worry, I'll get into more detail about that later on.)

There was also another reason why my gravitation towards fashion was slow-going, and it was mainly in relation to my body type in high school.





I was fat.

And, at the time, designers like Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren didn't make clothes for fat people. Well, affordable clothes at least.

You know that feeling that people get when they search through racks of clothing, eyeing every single garment with a fixed gaze, hoping to find that perfect piece? Having a lot of different choices available and arranged by size so it made it easier to pick out that perfect outfit to grab the attention of the flavour of the month at the school? Yeah, that NEVER happened with me.

Let me tell you what I wore in high school. My shirt size was 2XL. My waist was a 42. In most cases, shopping for clothes in high school was a hassle for me because most of the time, I could never find anything that was my size. It was absolutely heartbreaking seeing a shirt that I thought I would look absolutely handsome in only to find that the biggest size that they had in it was a medium. But, of course, my parents always insisted on making sure I had new clothes every school year, so I was forced to grab whatever clothes had the 2XL label in them. 






Most of the time, they were some of the ugliest looking clothes there. They were either covered in logos of sports teams that I never watched or cared for, or they were in bland colours like ecru, tapioca, tree bark brown, and puke green. Sometimes, they were both. A real double whammy of ugliness. I should note though that I always chose clothes that covered everything. I didn't believe in wearing shorts, or sleeveless tops. I mean, those would just show off the fact that I was overweight even more, and I really just wanted to hide behind it.

At the time, there was also no such thing as a "Big & Tall Men's Wear" shop in town, so that also added to my frustration about fashion. I was always made fun of for how I looked, and was actually told by a few people that I was out of style, or that I wore T-shirts advertising hockey and basketball teams that sucked. If only those thoughtless brats I went to school with realized how little choice I had in my clothing selections, perhaps they may have been a little more understanding. Not that I wanted to dress just like them, because I found some of their fashion choices a bit bewildering at best description. But, the prospect of finding my own personal style was more or less a dream.

And, it remained an impossible dream until 2009.

As you all know, 2009 was the year I began to change myself physically. At first, I didn't see it as a big deal...but as the months passed, I realized that I needed to update my entire wardrobe. My work clothes just hung on me, and the belt I wore basically had to loop around twice for it to keep my pants up. 






And, yes, I know that for some kids, the showing off the boxer shorts thing is the way they wear their pants these days...but I've never really understood current trends anyway.

What I did need was new clothes. And, around the six-month mark of the whole transformation process, I discovered something wonderful. Suddenly, I was the one who was searching through all the racks, finding things I liked. The difference? Everything fit!

Now I was the one wearing nice looking jeans. The trendy looking dress shirts. The flat-front trousers in size 36. 

It was a bloody miracle.

Here's a confession. During my weight loss transition period, I was inside the Walmart men's wear department trying to replace my work uniforms (in Canadian Walmarts, particularly in the supercentres, we have to wear black and white), and I happened to grab a pair of size 40 pants to try on, thinking that I had slimmed down enough for me to attempt to wear them. I asked the fitting room associate to open up the room so I could try them on, and when I did...a 40 was TOO big! So, I rushed right out of the fitting room, and grabbed the next size down (of course, I remembered to put on the pants I wore into the room, because let's face it, running around Walmart in my undies would get a person arrested), and found that THEY were even too big.

It was there that I exclaimed "Holy crap, I'm a skinny bitch!"

Well, okay, I didn't exactly say that. But, let's just say...it took a long time for me to stop smiling.

It's now been about...oh, three years since that Walmart fitting room encounter. I've now completely renovated my whole closet. My closet is filled with all the clothes that I feel the best in...comfortable, cozy, and most important, make me look good. And, no, there's no fleece pants, sports tees or anything in oatmeal or puke green. And, taking a page from my parents book, most of my wardrobe is very cost-efficient and affordable, though I did take my own trip to Old Navy to do some shopping there, since I can actually wear most of what they have there now.

Oh yeah...all my fat clothes? They've all been donated to the Salvation Army. But, I do still have one pair of pajama pants that I used to wear back in 2008. They have the Coca-Cola logo all over them and they're a size 2XL. There are two reasons why I have kept them. One, they are so baggy and roomy that they're perfect loungewear for around the house. But, two, they're a reminder of the person I used to be. I always want to have that reminder just to remind myself not to get to that point ever again. I'm a new man now with a new sense of style that works for me. There's no way that I will ever go back to that old slobby me. 

Of course, these feelings that I have about fashion are brand new, and admittedly, I wouldn't have these feelings without losing all of that weight. The truth is that there are a lot of people in this world who are going through the same feelings of frustration now about clothes-shopping that I did just a few years ago. I think that is a commentary on the whole attitude of the fashion business. Just because a person is a little more chunky or overweight than the average person doesn't mean that they don't want to look their best. I would have loved to have been able to have found this new appreciation for fashion that I have now back then, and it would have been a lot easier had more options for plus-sized people been available. It does make me happy to see more department stores incorporate a plus-sized section in their stores, and I am noticing that a lot of the stuff in those sections seem a lot more fashionable than the slim pickings I had to choose from at the age of sixteen.

I used to watch the Biggest Loser on television and one of the favourite episodes of that series was the makeover shows. Where the people who have dropped all the weight now get to try on clothes that are smaller and more stylish, and how happy they look after showing themselves off after all of the hard work they did to get to that point.

Well, every time I look in the mirror, I tell myself that this is MY Biggest Loser moment. And, luckily, I can feel that way every day, knowing that I took the steps to change who I am for a much better model.

The clothes though are just the pretty wrapping paper on the outside though. But, it's funny how the way you look on the outside can impact how you are on the inside. Right now, I feel both are in check.

Now I don't even mind getting clothes for gifts. I love it now.

Of course...I still hate shoe shopping. I don't think that will EVER change.




Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Behold The Power Of The Mighty Lego!

I’m going to start today’s blog entry off by asking everybody a few questions.
Question #1 – Did you play with Lego building blocks when you were a child?

Question #2 – If any of you are parents yourselves, have you ever bought your kids Lego blocks to play with?
Question #3 – Have you ever spat off a stream of obscenities and swears after stepping on a stray Lego building block with bare feet?

My answers to the following questions are, yes I did, no, but I would if I had kids, and yes, yes, a million times yes!



I don’t know what it is about Lego bricks, but they have the potential to be used as deadly weapons if placed on the floor at a specific angle and position.





Nevertheless, Lego building blocks were one of the best toys that I ever played with.  The possibilities were endless when it came to the creativity that one possessed when faced with a Lego set.
Is it any wonder why I chose to spotlight Lego in today’s blog entry?

I honestly can’t remember a time during my childhood that I didn’t play with Lego building blocks.  When I was first introduced to Legos, I must have been no older than three or four.  I think my parents waited until I stopped trying to chew on toys before letting me play with them, because let’s face it, Legos could be a choking hazard in the wrong hands.  Once I was old enough, my parents dug out the case of Legos that belonged to my older siblings and allowed me to play with them to my heart’s content.
Mind you, none of the pieces were completed sets.  I imagine that they were back in 1977, or whatever year that they were bought, but over the years, pieces would be lost forever.  Nobody knew where they disappeared though.  Maybe they were sucked up by the vacuum cleaner.  Maybe they were accidentally thrown away.  Maybe they were buried in the backyard alongside my sister’s Malibu Barbie.  It’s hard to say.



It didn’t matter though.  Having three incomplete sets of Legos made the possibilities endless for building whatever I wanted.  I could build a Lego sword, capable of beheading any blockheads who dared cross my path.  I could build a Lego city of the future, with brightly coloured buildings in various shapes and sizes.  I could even attempt to build a robot with Lego bricks, capable of taking over the Lego cities that I would build.  Eventually, I would end up getting my very own Lego playset.  If I remember correctly, it was the police station set.  Oh, I must have had so much fun playing with it.  When I first got it, I did build the models that one was supposed to build.  But, over time, I would deviate from the plans and build my own creations, which I took great pride in.
I think that’s what I liked best about Legos.  They allowed one to have as much creative control as they wanted.  Every Lego set may have contained a set of instructions, but that didn’t mean that you had to stick to it.  I almost think that Legos were one of those toys that didn’t need rules.  All you needed to have was a love of building things and a highly creative mind, and there were endless possibilities.

By the way, do you know anything about the history behind Legos?  If not, I’ll share a brief history here.
The tale begins in the country of Denmark in the 1930s.  There, a man by the name of Ole Kirk Christiansen began to make wooden toys inside his workshop in the town of Billund.  Though, it would take a couple of years before Christiansen would come up with a name for his business.  He eventually settled on the word ‘LEGO’, which stemmed from the Danish phrase leg godt, which loosely translated into English meant “play well”.


During the late 1930s and early 1940s, the toys produced by the Lego company were made out of wood.  By 1947, the company began experimenting with plastic toys, and two years later in 1949, the Lego brick would be born.

Initially, when Lego bricks were designed in 1949, they were originally known as ‘Automatic Binding Bricks’, and were largely based on a design created by the United Kingdom creation known as ‘Kiddicraft Self-Locking Bricks’, released in 1947.  The original Kiddicraft design was modified by Lego, and a material known as cellulose acetate was used to create the interlocking blocks.  The blocks would lock, but they were also designed in such a way that they would easily come apart from each other.
It was around this time that Lego adopted the motto det bedste er ikke for godt.  Translated into English, the motto reads as ‘only the best is good enough’.  It was a motto coined by Christiansen, who encouraged his employees never to skimp on quality.  Six decades later, the motto is still in use today.

However, in Lego’s earliest years, the plastic building blocks did not sell well at all.  Many Lego sets were actually returned to the company due to the poor sales, as many consumers and retailers at the time felt that plastic blocks were just a poor substitution for wooden blocks.
It wasn’t until 1954 that Lego bricks began to gain in popularity, thanks to an idea by Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, the son of Ole Kirk.  That year, he was in talks with an overseas buyer about distributing the Lego bricks when an idea came to him.  He saw the potential for Lego bricks to be used for creative play, and felt that he could market them as a toy that was both fun and educational.  At the time he had the idea though, the Lego brick still had some flaws.  The bricks didn’t lock very well, and weren’t exactly the most versatile.  A newer, more modern Lego brick was designed, and patented on January 28, 1958.

TRIVIA:  If you were lucky enough to have a Lego set that was manufactured in 1958, you might be surprised to know that bricks that are made in 2012 sets are compatible with the 1958 bricks!
Five years later, in 1963, the material used for the creation of Lego bricks was changed.  Instead of being made from cellulose acetane, the company used acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) polymer, a substance that was stronger and more resilient.  This is the material that is currently used to manufacture Lego bricks.  To make a brick, the ABS is heated up to 232 degrees Celsius (450 degrees Fahrenheit) and once the substance takes on a dough-like appearance, it is poured into the brick moulds, and cooled for fifteen seconds.  Afterwards, the bricks are inspected to see if the bricks meet the standards of the company.

According to the company, out of one million bricks that are produced, a little less than twenty bricks fail to meet the standards.  That’s quite a good success rate.  Even better is that for the bricks that do not make the cut, 99% of them are recycled to be made into newer bricks.  So, Lego isn’t just a company with high standards for their product, but they also seem to have huge awareness of recycling and the environment.  No wonder I love this toy so much!


Lego bricks are manufactured and sold in most colours.  Among the most common colours that people can find are black, white, blue, red, yellow, and green.  But other colours can be found, depending on the Lego kit one plays with.
Today, Lego bricks are manufactured all over the world, and it is estimated that since 1958, the company has produced well over four hundred BILLION Lego bricks.  To put that in perspective, if you divided up each of those bricks evenly amongst every person in the world, each person would have a 60-piece Lego kit!

BONUS TRIVIA:  According to a 2006 article in BusinessWeek, Lego could be widely considered to be the #1 tire manufacturer, producing 306 million miniature tires per year! 




It’s true that Lego bricks are amongst some of the most sought after toys for girls and boys.  With various playsets ranging from Harry Potter to Barbie to Indiana Jones, there’s fun for everyone.

Lego even made sure that people of all ages could experience the joys of Lego building.  In 1969, Lego began manufacturing Duplo blocks.  They were the same as regular Legos, only twice the size.  The perfect block for really small children to play with.  In addition to that, the Lego Baby line was launched in 1995, which gave babies the chance to have fun with Legos.


Legos have also managed to make their way to video game consoles as well.  These days, it’s not uncommon to see Lego adaptations of Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, and Star Wars being made into video games for the XBOX 360, PlayStation 2 and 3, Nintendo Wii, and Nintendo DS consoles.
As if that weren’t enough, various Lego stores and theme parks have been built all around the world.  A total of 46 retail stores in various areas of the world have been opened, and as expected, the stores mostly peddle Lego related merchandise.  In some newer stores, certain areas of the store have been transformed into classrooms, where instructors teach children between the ages of four and twelve various subjects using Lego blocks as visual aids.
Now, that would have been a school that I would have LOVED to have attended.



And, there are five Legoland theme parks that have opened up.  Naturally, one is located in the birthplace of Lego, Billund, Denmark.  There are locations in England, Germany, and two in the United States.  There are also four Legoland Discovery Centers open for business in the United States, England, and Germany, with more scheduled to be opened up in the near future.


(I wonder if Canada will ever get one?)


And, just recently, Lego managed to leap into the board game market.  To make the game even more fun, in order for players to begin playing the game, they first had to build the game board out of Legos.  Once that was done, the players would control little Lego men and move them around the board.  Even the dice used in the game was made of Legos.
It’s amazing just how far Lego has come as a company.  And, with continued success through creative and innovative ideas, it’s no wonder the toy is still widely purchased and loved.  And, in 1998, Lego bricks were inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame!

That’s my report on Legos.  I hope you all enjoyed it.  As for me, I’m now starting to wonder if I even still have my old Legos.  I kind of want to play with them again after writing this blog!