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Sunday, August 18, 2013

Venus Was Her Name...

I suppose that you could consider this blog entry one of those “two for the price of one” deals, as today we're featuring songs by two different artists.

But there's a catch. The artists in question will be singing the same song. There is a reason for this. I was trying to decide which version to feature in this space for the Sunday Jukebox, and I simply could not make a decision as I enjoy both versions.

So today, you'll be hearing both. You'll be hearing the original version which was released in 1969, as well as a cover version by a different group seventeen years later.

Of course, we have to have some sort of background info before we launch into the song. And, I do have to warn you...it may come across as a mythology lesson. But trust me. It's of great importance.

So, everyone has heard of at least one of the Roman deities that have been mentioned throughout Greek mythology. Or maybe you've seen works of art in museums painted and sculpted by artists of the Renaissance era that have featured Roman gods and goddesses. Believe it or not, there are at least twenty identified principal gods of Roman religion. Would you like to know what they are? Here's the list.

APOLLO      CERES             DIANA
GENIUS       JANUS              JUNO
JUPITER      LIBER              LUNA
MARS          MERCURY       MINERVA
NEPTUNE   ORCUS             SATURN
SOL             TELLUS           VENUS
VESTA        VULCAN

That's quite a list of names! Some of the names may seem familiar (many are also the names of planets in our solar system), while others you may not have heard of. I'll be the first to admit that I didn't even know there was a god named Vesta.

But we're not going to talk about Vesta. The goddess we're discussing today is the eighteenth one on the list alphabetically (or the last name in the last column).



Venus. The goddess of beauty and love.

Mind you, it's also the name of the second planet in the solar system, a razor blade made especially for women, the name of a pro tennis player, the name of Miss America 1944, a plant that eats flies and possibly other creatures, and according to John Gray, it happens to be the location where all women come from.

How Venus came to be depends on what book you read it from. But in the world of literary mythology, it is said that Venus was born of sea-foam and represents the element of water, which balances out with the fiery tempers of fellow Roman gods Vulcan and Mars. Venus reportedly tempers the male essence, offering the promise of military victory, sexual satisfaction, good fortune, and prosperity.

Sounds like the kind of gal a man wishes they could have, right? I know that I'm currently searching for my own “Venus”, so to speak and make no apologies in admitting this fact.

Anyway, back to the blog.

All you really need to know is that Venus is a gal who really represents love, passion, and beauty. Certainly qualities that suitors definitely look for in a mate (whether you're male or female).

So why wouldn't there be a song written about this goddess?

Well, okay, Frankie Avalon recorded a song entitled “Venus” in 1959 (and if you're interested in hearing that song, you may click HERE). But as talented a man as Frankie Avalon is, we're not going to be featuring his song today.

Instead, let's go back to 1969 and hear the first version of today's song.



ARTIST: Shocking Blue
SONG: Venus
ALBUM: At Home
DATE RELEASED: October 2, 1969
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #1 for 1 week

Now, here's the write-up of the band who introduced us to the classic rock hit “Venus”.

Did you know that the group that sang the song originated in the Netherlands? It's true. The band came together in 1967 in The Hague, and was originally comprised of Robbie van Leeuwen (guitar/sitar), Cor van der Beek (percussion), Klassje van der Wal (bass guitar), and Fred de Wilde (vocals).



It should be noted though that “Venus” was not the band's first single to be released. They had a minor hit in 1968 with the song “Lucy Brown Is Back In Town”, but it wasn't until Mariska Veres took over the lead vocals from de Wilde that the band really began to take off. The band released the single “Venus” in the Netherlands months prior to the American release in October 1969, where it peaked at at modest #3. But little did the band know that the single would become a huge chart-topper worldwide. We already know that the single reached the top of the charts in America when it hit the pole position in February 1970. But did you know that the song also hit #1 in Canada, Belgium, Finland, France, Italy, and Spain as well? It also made the Top 10 in the United Kingdom and Japan.

The original version of the song sold at least seven and a half million copies worldwide since it was released in 1969, and it remains Shocking Blue's one and only chart-topper.

The song certainly has withstood the test of time over the years. The song has been featured in a variety of television shows and feature films from “Grumpier Old Men” to “The Brady Bunch Movie” to “Remember The Titans”.



And, if you skip ahead to the two minute mark in this video, the song was even parodied in a commercial for the V-Chip by a few of the Muppets! I thought it was kind of cute, but that could just only be me.



So, whatever became of “Shocking Blue”? Well, in North America, their popularity quickly fizzled after the release of “Venus”, making them more or less a one-hit-wonder there. But in their native country, they were anything but. The band released over a dozen singles between 1969 and 1974, all of which received heavy airplay on Dutch radio. The band continued making hits until 1974, when Mariska Veres quit the band to embark on a solo career (with her peak popularity lasting between 1975 and 1977). The band did attempt a bit of a comeback five years after Mariska's departure. However, despite the fact that the band recorded the single “Louise” in 1979, it was never released. The band did manage to have a couple of releases in the 1980s as well.

Sadly, Mariska Veres died of cancer at the age of 59 on December 2, 2006.

So, that was the story of Shocking Blue. But it's not quite the end of the story for their hit single “Venus”. For just seventeen years later, the single would chart once more, courtesy of an all-girl group from the United Kingdom. And just like the Shocking Blue version, this group's version also topped the charts.



ARTIST: Bananarama
SONG: Venus
ALBUM: True Confessions
DATE RELEASED: May 30, 1986
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #1 for 1 week



Just like the Shocking Blue version, Bananarama's version also lasted one week at the top of the charts, peaking at #1 on September 6, 1986. Although the trio (made up of Keren Woodward, Sara Dallin, and Siobhan Fahey) were used to performing the song already. They started incorporating the song into their live sets right around the time that they recorded 1983's “Deep Sea Skiving”, and really wanted to record the song as a single as all three girls loved the song and wanted to record it as a Hi-NRG dance single.

The only obstacles in their way were their producers, Steve Jolley and Tony Swain.



The production team had nearly completed the band's third album “True Confessions”, set to be released in July 1986, and when Woodward, Dallin, and Fahey approached them to include their cover version of “Venus” onto their album, they were given a bit fat no by both Jolley and Swain.

And that just wasn't good enough for the group.

Determined to make the single a success, the group approached the production team of Mike Stock, Matt Aitken, and Pete Waterman, the team who would eventually help put Rick Astley, Dead or Alive, and Kylie Minogue on the map. It wasn't initially met with a warm reaction when Bananarama asked Stock, Aitken, and Waterman if they would help them produce the song, as the production team believed that “Venus” wasn't exactly a song that they believed would make a great dance record.

Naturally, Bananarama disagreed. And it's a really good thing that the women were strong enough to keep pressing their belief that the song was ready to be reinvented by them because eventually Stock, Aitken, and Waterman relented. Not only did Bananarama record “Venus” with Stock, Aitken, and Waterman for “True Confessions”, but they also recorded another minor hit on the album, “More Than Physical”.

Actually, come to think of it, Bananarama would start working with Stock, Aitken, and Waterman more often, as they recorded several singles with the production team between 1986 and 1993. So I suppose that “Venus” helped the band expand their horizons and seek out a brand new sound which made them sound more sophisticated and mature.

TRIVIA: And here's some shocking trivia for all of you reading this. Do you know who choreographed Bananarama in the music video for “Venus”? It was a man by the name of Bruno Tonioli – better known as one of the judges of the ABC reality television series “Dancing With The Stars”.

Now, the remake of “Venus” didn't top the charts in as many countries as Shocking Blue's did, but it did hit #1 in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, and Switzerland. And like the original version, the Bananarama version has appeared in several films like “Romy and Michele's High School Reunion” and “American Wedding”.

And, just like Shocking Blue, Bananarama had some personnel changes over the years. Siobhan Fahey left the band in 1988 to form Shakespear's Sister with Marcella Detroit, to be replaced with Jacquie O'Sullivan later that year. Three years later, O'Sullivan departed the band herself, leaving Bananarama a duo in 1991. As of 2013, Woodward and Dallin still perform and record as Bananarama, and I would almost be certain that they still perform the single “Venus” in concert every now and then.

Two different groups with the same single. Both songs hit the top of the charts, and both bands sustained line-up changes after the song was released. But no matter what you say about both songs, and no matter how well you like either Shocking Blue or Bananarama...the fact remains that had it not been for “Venus”, people would not have heard of either band.


They've got it. Yeah baby, they've got it...

Saturday, August 17, 2013

The Roadrunner and the Coyote

It's the third Saturday of August which means that we are going to be featuring a cartoon of some sort for the Saturday Smorgasbord.

And this week, I decided to go classic.




I don't know what it was about “The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show” that I loved so much, but I tuned in every Saturday afternoon to watch it when I was a kid.

(Keeping in mind that there was a Canadian channel that used to air “The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show” every Saturday at five o'clock, just before the evening news.)

I didn't even care if I saw all of the Looney Tunes cartoons a million times already. They were classic cartoons that all of us grew up with, and they are still very much a part of everyone's childhood memories.




Believe it or not, I'm almost tempted to pick up the Warner Brothers DVD box set which contains no less than fifty of these classic cartoons. After all, there is no feeling in the world quite like rediscovering the kid inside of you by owning a small part of your childhood in your media collection.

Certainly within “A Pop Culture Addict's Guide to Life”, I've done several features on Looney Tunes characters over the last two years. In fact, one of my very first entries was on Elmer Fudd. Of course, there have been others along the way. I did an entire spotlight on “Bugs Bunny” along with links to several of his best cartoons. Sylvester and Tweety also got their own blog topic. And I even did a feature on the juniorized version known as “Tiny Toon Adventures”, which given my general dislike of juniorizing classic cartoon characters was surprisingly wonderful.

So, which classic Looney Toon characters will I be featuring this week?

I'm going to feature a pair of characters who could be considered the ultimate enemies. I mean, if you had someone who tried to catch you and make you the main course of their dinner, you wouldn't really like them very much, would you?

But don't feel too sorry for the prey. In fact, you should probably cheer him on. For one, they have the fastest feet in the entire world. Their natural agility makes them run faster than a cheetah, and he can literally run at speeds topping 300 miles an hour or greater. It kind of makes it impossible to get a hold of him if you take that into consideration.

Not even the entire product listings in the ACME store order form, The Sears Wish Book, or the Bradford Exchange artisan catalogue could help our antagonist catch and eat his prey. If anything, the prey is so intelligent that he often ends up using his enemy's bag of tricks against him.

You'd think that after trying so hard to catch his dinner and failing miserably that he would give up meat altogether and just subside on a diet of Caesar salads and V8 vegetable cocktail.




Then again, nobody ever claimed that Wile E. Coyote was a super genius either.

Yes, today we're going to take a look at the relationship between Wile E. Coyote and his ultimate nemesis – a little bird with a lot of turbo power known as the Acceleratii incredibus.




Or, by his nickname, the Road Runner. Meep Meep!

Created by Chuck Jones at the height of Warner Brothers and Looney Tunes popularity in 1948, Wile E. Coyote continues to be the thorn in the side of the Road Runner, with their most recent cartoon together airing on December 17, 2010!  It's a wonder the coyote hasn't dropped dead from starvation!  Spending over sixty years trying to catch the perfect meal?  He should've just gone to the nearest KFC and be done with it!

But then again, if there are any Looney Tune characters that could feasibly continue making cartoons, it's the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote.  After all, both of them are almost considered to be silent characters with the exception of the Road Runner's distinctive call (recorded by Paul Julian).

Anyway, I bet you're wondering how Chuck Jones came up with the inspiration behind the creation of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner.  Well, as it turns out, author Mark Twain could be credited towards the creation of Wile E. Coyote.  In Twain's book "Roughing It", Twain describes the coyote as a "long, slim, sick, and sorry looking skeleton" that is a "living, breathing allegory of Want".



Yep, I can definitely see that about Wile E. Coyote.  He's desperate, starving, and is so consumed with trying to get what he wants that he loses his grip with reality.  

TRIVIA:  As far as the appearance of the coyote went, Chuck Jones designed him with fellow animator Ken Harris in mind.  I kind of wonder how well their professional relationship was, given that Chuck Jones' character would end up doing a lot of this during the entire run of the Looney Tunes cartoons.



Yeah, that had to hurt.



Anyway, the first cartoon that aired which featured Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner together aired on September 17, 1949.  The name of the cartoon was "Fast and Furry-ous". 

(Not to be confused with the long-running film series "The Fast and the Furious" starring Paul Walker and Vin Diesel that in my opinion had run its course three movies ago...but hey, that's just my opinion.)

The cartoon was directed by Chuck Jones (as were most of the earliest Wile E. Coyote/Road Runner cartoons), and this episode set the stage for a lot of the running gags that took place in each subsequent episode.  Have a look and see what I mean.



GAG #1 - The ever-changing Latin origin.

As you well know, every species in the world has an official Latin name - even us (homo sapien).  And, naturally, the Road Runner has his own original Latin name.  In fact, it's so original that during each episode, it changes to something else!  In every case though, the name usually has something to do with speed.  In the very first cartoon, his name was Acceleratii incredibus, but here were some other names that were mentioned.

Velocitus tremenjus (Zipping Along, September 1953)
Hot-roddicus supersonicus (Stop, Look, and Hasten!, August 1954)
Speedipus Rex (Ready, Set, Zoom!, April 1955)
Delicius-delicius (Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z, May 1956)
Tastyus supersonicus (Scrambled Aches, January 1957)
Batoutahelius (Wild About Hurry, October 1959)
Velocitus incalcublii (Fastest With The Mostest, January 1960)
Fastius tastyus (Lickety-Splat, June 1961)
Burn-em-upus asphaltus (War and Pieces, June 1964)
Semper foodellus (Freeze Frame, November 1979)
Ultra-sonicus ad infinitum (Soup or Sonic, May 1980)
Boulevardius burnupius (Chariots of Fur, December 1994)
Geococcyx californiaus (The Whizzard of Ow, November 2003)

I should also note that Wile E. Coyote also had ever-changing Latin names too such as Everreadii eatibus or Carnivorous slobbius, but I always found the Road Runner names to be much cooler.



GAG #2 - The coyote has the ACME supply store on speed-dial.

If you're ever buying stock in the fictional cartoon world, don't waste your time on Slate Industries, Spacely Sprockets, or the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant.  The money can really be found at ACME Industries, of which Wile E. Coyote has seemingly spent his whole life savings on goods from the company.

And when I say that Wile E. Coyote has basically purchased every single thing from ACME, I really mean it.  Just have a look at all of the list of things that Wile E. Coyote has used to entrap the Road Runner.

He's used an ACME Super Outfit, rocket powered roller skates, a weather balloon, a giant kite kit, glue, ACME grease, ACME Triple Strength Battleship Steel Armor Plate, a jet bike, ACME Dehydrated Boulders, a giant elastic rubber band, an Indestructo Steel Ball, Earthquake Pills, invisible paint, suction cups, a bungee cord, and countless other devices and gadgets.  With an arsenal like that, you'd think that he'd have a handle on things.

But then again, Wile E. Coyote was cursed with the "Inspector Gadget" gene.  He has all the tools needed to be a success, but can't figure out how to use them.  In some cases, like the example below, they have a tendency to turn against him!



And, this leads to the third and final recurring gag, which you've seen already, but I can't seem to get enough of it.

GAG #3 - 

Sigh...yeah...that never gets old.  

Friday, August 16, 2013

Twice in a Lifetime

Yesterday, I had a bit of a moment.

Everyone has one of those days in which they are forced to sit down and re-evaluate everything that has happened to them over the course of their entire lives and they reflect on what they could have and should have done differently in order to understand how we got to this point in our lives, and where to go from there.

Yesterday was that day for me.

I've been struggling with the fact that I'm essentially at a point in my life where it seems as though I cannot grow any more in both the personal and professional aspects of it, and it scares me to death that there doesn't seem to be any clear-cut solution to fix either one right now. I honestly am at a loss over what I can do to get myself from a good place into an even better place in life right now.

I know that somewhere out there, the answer does lie. I just need a super strength calculator in order to figure it out. Or maybe just a little bit of luck.

If anything though, my little period of reflection that I went through yesterday has told me one thing. I can't continue the way things are right now. I've got to do something about it, even if it means making some incredibly hard decisions along the way about my future in regards to my professional and personal life. I've got to find a way to find that balance again, and to feel self-confident about myself.

But that's the thing. As far as I know, I have the time to be able to do that. I mean, almost nothing is ever guaranteed in this world. Especially not time. The only things that seem to be a guarantee are that we all have to pay taxes (unless you're “Survivor” winner Richard Hatch), and we all end up dead at the end of our journeys.

I know it sounds like a rather bleak and depressing outlook, but it's what inevitably happens. Unless of course, you're one who believes in reincarnation. In that case, just disregard that last fact.

But you know, as bleak and morbid as this is going to sound, have you ever thought about the legacy that you're going to leave behind after you breathe your last breath? What your epitaph will say?

I suppose in some way, I'm currently leaving behind a little piece of myself in cyberspace by doing this blog. Unless something happens like in the television series “Revolution” where all the electricity mysteriously disappears, I would like to think that my blog will remain after I pass away. It's no guarantee, especially if I happen to live to be a hundred. But, knowing that I have something posted for everyone to see gives me some comfort.

Still though...is it enough for me? That's kind of debatable right now. I do wish that I could have done things differently in my life, and sometimes I do feel as though I have regrets. Usually though, I don't dwell on the mistakes of the past, as I cannot do anything to change them. All I can do is make changes now, and hope that somewhere along the road, they will be worth it (even if I'm not sure what to do at this point in my life).

I'm sure I'm not alone. Many of you have been in the same position I am. You have little regrets that you have carried with you for weeks, months, even years, and those regrets have basically shaped the way that your entire life has gone ever since.

If we're lucky, we make peace with those regrets, or even find a way to turn things around. But some of us hold onto those regrets our entire lives until we die. And once we die, there's no way to turn back the clock and fix what has happened...

...or IS there?



Case in point with today's television show feature, the PAX television series “Twice in a Lifetime”. The show only ran for two seasons between August 1999 and May 2001, but in its short run acquired its fans. And, I'm not afraid to admit it. I was a fan of this show.

The best way that I can describe “Twice in a Lifetime” is that it's kind of similar to what might happen if “Touched by an Angel” had a love child with “Quantum Leap”. It's a show about going back in time to right the wrongs of the past...with a twist. In each episode, the star of the show is a person who has already died, are sent to heaven, and are given three days by a judge of the higher order to fix the mistakes that their past selves made and hopefully steer themselves towards a better and brighter future.

Now, here's what's very interesting about this show. Each of the shows had its regular characters that appeared in almost every single episode. The late Al Waxman played Judge Othniel, the judge who handed out the sentences to those poor, unfortunate souls who had a lot of regrets weighing them down.



And helping all of the recently deceased stay on the right path to making all of their future dreams come true were a pair of angels. In season one, the angel was named Smith (Gordie Brown), and in season two, the angel was named Jones (Paul Popowich).

In fact, one of the most interesting things about season two was that Jones appeared to be one of the ones who also appeared to be undergoing a trial in understanding his own regrets (his human self was killed off in season two's first episode). And it appeared as though every single person that Jones helped got him one step closer to understanding his own regrets (though I'm not exactly sure if Jones' story was resolved at the end of the series or not, as I did not see the final episode).

And to be honest with you, I thought that the whole show ended on an abrupt note anyway...though to be fair, Al Waxman did die the very same year that show ended, and once Judge Othniel passed away, I suppose that it would be tough to continue the show without him.

But now, here's the thing about “Twice in a Lifetime”. The characters who appeared in the opening credits of the show weren't exactly the stars of the show. In fact, what's very unusual about this show is the fact that the show relied heavily on its guest stars to drive the show along.

And just who were some of the stars who made appearances on the program? Well, here's a partial list for you, as well as the show/movie you might remember them from.

Corbin Bernsen (L.A. Law)
Kate Jackson (Charlie's Angels)
Patrick Duffy (Dallas)
Donna Mills (Knots Landing)
Julia Duffy (Newhart)
Joe Penny (Riptide)
Lance Kinsey (Police Academy)
Tracey Gold (Growing Pains)
Markie Post (Night Court)
Miko Hughes (Pet Sematary)
Ralph Macchio (The Karate Kid)
Reginald VelJohnson (Family Matters)
Jackee Harry (Sister Sister)
Stepfanie Kramer (Hunter)
Ian Ziering (Beverly Hills 90210)
John Schneider (The Dukes of Hazzard)
Wil Wheaton (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

Not a bad list of names, isn't it? And each one of those people featured were killed off, given the three-day sentence, and somehow ended up better people at the end of their respective journeys.

So, how do people end up getting such a sentence from Othniel? Well, in every single case, something happens to them that changes the entire course of their entire life, and they end up broken, bitter, and living a life of broken dreams and tons of regrets. And the way that they end up dying is usually a method which can be embarrassing or ironic.

Some of these examples include...

A man whose son went missing from a camping site who is struck by a car after he thinks he sees his son passing by.

A woman who finds out she is dying of lung cancer who ironically enough gets run over by a truck advertising cigarettes.

A woman dies alone in a park after giving up her dream of being a photographer to pursue a life filled with pain, heartbreak, and anger.

A man whose teenage child ends up stuttering and pregnant due to her being neglected by him due to work commitments slips on a book and dies after an epic fight with his boss.

An overbearing father bullies his son to the point that the son resents him, and both end up getting struck with baseballs to the head – where the son ends up dying from his injuries.

A womanizer who woos women and breaks their hearts ends up choking to death.

A former tennis pro sustains injuries which paralyze her. She becomes bitter and dies alone at her home.

And, finally, in what could be considered to be one of the most bizarre deaths to be featured on “Twice in a Lifetime”, a gossip queen who ruins the life of a celebrity ends up dying after accidentally falling in a dumpster!

(Hey, I don't write this stuff, people!)

So, when they go back in time to the period in which their entire lives went sour, they are disguised as someone else who will have the opportunity to get close to their younger selves in hopes that they can make them see the error of their ways. The smoker, for instance, becomes a guidance counselor at the school that her younger self attends. The son who died in the baseball accident becomes a player on the team that his father played on when he was a kid. And in one of the funnier episodes of the series, the womanizer who treated women as objects came back as a...you guessed it...a woman!

Now, usually on the first day and a half, the people end up making novice mistakes, and in a lot of cases, they sometimes end up making the problem a hundred times worse. But it's not until the third day arrives that they end up finding out the solution, and convincing their former selves to make the opposite choices in hopes that their lives will be spared. And in the process, they all learn a little bit about themselves.

Now, I don't want to spoil the endings of all of these shows for you, because I think that most of you should watch them yourselves. But there are little clues that are scattered throughout each show that will point viewers in the right direction. It could be a person that seems like a recurring character at first who ends up being the person who saves them from themselves. Or it could be reigniting an old passion that may seem like a hobby at first.

In the examples I brought up in this blog, do you know how I talked about the episode where the man lost his son in a camping trip? He convinces his younger self to support a new business...one that involves recruiting dogs in the aid of recovering missing persons.

Or, you know the woman who was suffering from cancer? What happens when she reveals a secret that her own mother has been keeping from her? Does this convince her younger self to butt out once and for all?

The woman who ends up giving up her dream of being a photographer finds herself working at the same restaurant as her teenage self. Can she convince her younger self to follow her dream?

The man who dies after spending his whole life being a workoholic is taken back in time to when his daughter was a toddler...and he begins to realize that maybe a career as a stay-at-home dad doesn't sound so terrible after all.

What happens when the baseball playing boy discovers that his own father was being bullied himself by his grandfather? Can he find the courage to break the cycle?

When the paralyzed tennis player goes back to the rehabilitation centre where she ends up meeting her younger, still paralyzed self, can she find the courage to help her accept her disability? A young girl who is also staying at the rehab centre might be the key to the whole thing.

Being a woman certainly hasn't been easy on the womanizer...especially when he realizes that his secretary whom he always ignored might have the charm to keep his younger self on the straight and narrow.

And as for the paparazzi who choked inside a dumpster? Let's just say that the stars have a way of aligning together in her case. In particular, one Hollywood starlet who helps her see that sometimes friendship is more important than gossip.


So, to close off this blog entry, I have a special treat. Here's an EPISODE OF THE SHOW for you all to watch! Enjoy!

Thursday, August 15, 2013

August - An Unbalanced Month of an Otherwise Balanced Me

Okay. So, you know when you have an idea for a Thursday Diary entry plotted out in your head, and you are all set to talk about it, and then something happens and you decide to completely flip the script and just wing it?

That's what this post is all about. It's completely unscripted, unplanned, and it's just my own personal thoughts that are going through my head at this time. And, I warn you...my winging it abilities are not very good. As a result, this blog entry might not seem as polished as some of my other works. But you know what? I have a lot on my mind that I really need to get off my chest, and I figure that now is as good a time as any.

I just hope that I can make it through this Thursday Diary entry without being whiny or annoying. It's always a risk one takes when they go “live”, so to speak. However, it's one that I think that I need to take.

And, to match the nervousness I am feeling, I'm changing up the ink colour to a nice orangey colour (I'd use yellow for caution, but it won't show up against the yellow background).

August 15, 2013



Is this month over yet? I mean, really, is it?

Sigh...I guess it's only typical. One of the most difficult months that I am currently experiencing and it happens to be one of the ones with thirty-one days. At least when I had my gall bladder removed, it was February, and it was only twenty-eight days.

I honestly don't know what it is about August that I am finding so difficult. I know some people have said that April is the cruellest month, but I have never really been a big fan of August. I mean, yeah, August has had some good moments (the birth of my nephew as well as my parents' wedding anniversary). And last August was a good one, as I finally spent time with an old friend who came up to visit during the summer.

But there's just something about August 2013 that has kind of made me a bit...well...crotchety.

I'm finding myself not enjoying things as well as I could be. I mean, yes, I did reveal a few days ago that I am simultaneously coming to terms with everything that has happened and that I am in a rather good place right now. And, for the most part, up until this month, I would have completely agreed with this point...to a degree.

And then August 2013 happened, and I find myself questioning everything about myself.

And to tell you the truth, I HATE having those feelings. I thought that I was completely past all of that by now, and yet here we are. The fifteenth of August. And, I'm finding that I don't really know myself as well as I thought I did.

Let me give you a bit of an idea as to what August has been like for me so far. It's been a month in which I haven't had a whole lot of downtime. I mean, I did take a tour of our annual rib festival this past Saturday, but aside from that, I've been basically all work and very little play. Not exactly what one would call a rather balanced life.



And I think this is the key to note when it comes to what I have been thinking about. Balance.

I'm gonna put it out there right now. When it comes to the subject of balance, there's only two words that I can use to describe my understanding of it.



I believe the cool kids call it an “epic fail”?

Well, I'll tell you what. August 2013 has most certainly “pwned” me in that regard (hey look, more “cool kid/nerd” lingo – I'm getting good at this teenspeak).

And, if there's any lesson that this month has been drilling into my head thus far, it is this. I don't know how to achieve that perfect balance in my life that so many people take for granted.

But then again, I've always had issues with balance...both in the emotional sense and the physical sense.



I still have vivid memories of kindergarten gym class. Now, I don't know if you remember some of the activities that you all performed in gym class as a five-year-old child, but one day in class, we had an obstacle course set up with dozens of stations for us to improve our athletic abilities. And as it so happens, one of those stations was a balance beam.

Well, okay, technically it wasn't a REAL balance beam. My elementary school was too cheap to pony up the dough for one of those. So my school used the poor man's version of a balance beam, which was an upside down bench.

(That should have been warning sign number one right there.)

Suffice to say, I didn't exactly do so well on the balance beam portion. I fell off the beam/bench halfway through and bruised my arm rather badly. Luckily, I didn't break it or sprain it...but needless to say, I had to use my left hand to finish my colouring assignments and well – I am not a southpaw by birth. Need I say more?

(And, come to think of it, this more than likely was a contributing factor to my lifelong hatred of P.E. Classes straight through my entire school career.)

Well, the reason why I have brought up this whole balance beam analogy is because it's very similar to the road in which I am taking currently, and it best describes how I am feeling during August 2013.

Unbalanced.

I'm just at a point in my life in which I feel as though I am losing control of what I once thought I had, and it's not a good feeling.

I feel as though I've spent so much time trying to perfect my professional life that I feel like I've left my personal life off to the side to gather cobwebs. And, this isn't the way that I saw myself living life...as a workoholic trying his best to make everyone happy that he's completely forgotten how to be happy himself.

I know that a couple of weeks ago, I was talking about how I wanted to try something new in my professional life. How I wanted a pair of scissors for the safety net that I call work. I still haven't changed my mind about that. But right now, I'd settle for trying to find a way to balance my work life with my home life. I've been doing a lousy job of it as of late.



Now, keep in mind that right now I'm in what you call a rather unique situation, as I've changed my job title a couple of times this year.  And most days, I'm okay with the job that I am doing.  But trying to keep track of all the latest gadgets, and sometimes being at a complete loss as to how to explain how those gadgets work...it just takes a lot out of a person, especially one who has only been in an area for six weeks. I don't feel as though I am grasping everything the way that I did when I was in the food department, or even in seasonal, and I get angry at myself for being so frustrated when I believed that those days were behind me.

The person who used to get frustrated when things went terribly wrong...that was the past. Everything is supposed to be balanced, and I'm supposed to keep a cool head at all times.

Well...that is until we got to August 2013, and everything got flipped upside down.



A year ago, I felt so much self-confidence about myself, and I was doing so well. Even a few days ago, I was doing not too badly, and was in a good place. But sometimes all it takes is one bad day for you to question the self-confidence you thought you had and it makes you re-evaluate everything you ever believed about yourself. Something happens that takes that perfect balance and completely tears it all apart.

I guess what I'm saying is that it took that bad day of having to pick up the pieces of what was once a balanced view of the world, and trying to figure out what the extra weight was that caused that scale to upset.

And right at this moment, that weight is my self-confidence at the workplace. Or rather, I should say, the lack of it. And, while I will absolutely credit every single one of my co-workers for being absolutely amazing and supportive, and who have likely helped me try to sound like less of an idiot savant in trying to explain how things work...there's a part of me that feels as though my being there is holding everyone back in some way.

Mind you, they'll also be the first ones to point out that I am being absolutely silly in thinking this way and they will tell me that I am doing well even though I might not see it. But when it comes down to it, my comfort level at this time in regards to what I am doing in my life right now is at an all-time low, and I don't know how to fix it.

I guess right now, all I can do is try to make it work as best I can, in hopes that one day I can find the balance that I need to continue finding success and happiness.

And also, I need to find a way to balance my professional life with my personal life. Because I know that if I can't make it happen, then nothing will ever improve.

I absolutely hate feeling this way, but sometimes when one has a bad time of it all, getting it out in print certainly helps. And strangely enough, I feel slightly better for getting it all out there. My self-confidence still needs a lot of work, and unfortunately, I cannot purchase a self-confidence booster shot at any store.

I'll get there...I am just as a loss as to how. Perhaps in the near future, a complete job change is in the works, or at the very least, trying to find options for improving my personal and social life, which I feel has been kept under lock and key for some time.




For now...there's still sixteen days left in the month. Here's hoping that they go by quickly. And here's hoping that September is better.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Ode to a Samsung Classic Collection II Model MW3100T

Well, this week, I have no requests for the All-Request Wednesday, and admittedly, I'm a little bit sad about that. But then again, I haven't really had the time to properly promote the feature. August has been one of those months in which I haven't had a whole lot of free time to myself, and I'm trying to do a million things at once. I still take time to write in this space each day though, so take it from me, that's always a good thing.

Anyway, since I have no request for this week, I thought that I would try something new. I thought that I would let the computer decide my topic for me.

I know what you're probably thinking. How can a computer EVER decide what topic I should talk about? Well, here's the answer.

Have you ever heard of the website known as “Flickr”? Well, before sites like Instagram and Pinterest took over in popularity, Flickr was one of the best sites to find pictures. You could literally find a photo on almost any subject imaginable.

And, so I decided to make Flickr the site that inspired this request!

What I did was I clicked on the section of the site that prompted a random picture to pop up. And what I decided to do was make the very first picture that popped up the theme for today's blog.

Would you believe that the first photo that popped up on my screen was a shot of a microwave oven? I had no idea that people just randomly took pictures of microwave ovens and other kitchen appliances and posted them on picture hosting sites, but apparently a lot more people do it than you'd think.

Nevertheless, I came up with a fantastic idea for a blog entry just based on this picture...and unfortunately it begins on a rather sad note.

My microwave oven that I have used recently bit the big one. I mean, it still turns on all right, but the timer recently quit working on it, making it absolutely impossible to determine how long food has been cooking inside of it without having to set off a second alarm. And considering that microwave ovens are meant to cook food conveniently, setting up a second timer to be able to use it isn't very practical. So, I've come to the sad conclusion that my microwave oven is completely toast, and that I will have to get rid of it.



In Loving Memory
Samsung Classic Collection II Model MW3100T
1989-2013

And yes...you are reading that correctly. My family owned that microwave oven since the late 1980s! And for twenty-four years, it provided our family with reheated frozen dinners, microwave popcorn, and cup-a-soups faithfully. It started off as an anniversary present from one of my sisters for my parents, who used it at least twice a week for about ten or fifteen years. Then I staked my claim on the microwave and it lasted another nine years after that.

Seriously, how many microwave ovens do you know that have lasted almost a quarter of a century? Not many, I bet? In fact, I often talked about my microwave with almost a strange sense of pride. I mean, that microwave has been in my family since “The Simpsons” have been on the air! I don't even think I've had a television, VCR, DVD Player, computer printer, or refrigerator last that long!

Though, when it comes to microwaves, I'll be the first one to admit that every single member of my family who used that microwave over the years were very careful about how they used it. We didn't set any bags of popcorn on fire, we didn't nuke a cup of hot cocoa in there so long it cracked the cup inside. And we certainly didn't do this...



HELPFUL HINT: Don't ever put metal in a microwave. Ever. And, don't let your Gremlins throw things in there either. It will never end well.

Of course, all good things come to an end, and I've come to the conclusion that my microwave has outlived its usefulness after twenty-four years.

And on that note, I now have to face the inevitable. I have to now buy a brand new microwave oven. And to be honest with you, I'm a little bit nervous about doing so.

If you haven't noticed from the picture up above, the microwave that I used appears quite primitive in comparison to more recent models. I mean, let's look at it a little closer. You have a little button on the right hand corner of the microwave that allows the door to pop open. Most of the new microwaves do not have this feature. All you really have to do is pull on the door of most modern microwave ovens and it will open up without any problem.

And then there are the two dials that are on the right hand side. Dials on a microwave this day and age are kind of like the telephones with the rotary phone dials. Absolutely impossible to find now. I mean, let's face it. We now live in an age in which button pushing is the key to happiness. That's why we have keyboards for computers, remote controls for televisions, and push button technology on almost all microwaves manufactured over the last twenty years.



Now granted, I'm not completely clueless when it comes to using the newer model microwaves. We have modern style microwaves in my workplace employee lounge and they're simple enough to use. They've been a welcome addition to the lounge, especially when you have only an hour for lunch.

Of course, this leads into my next point. Do you know how many microwaves that we have gone through at my workplace since I began working there eight and a half years ago? I lost count after five.

Now, initially, I was thinking that the reason why we went through so many microwaves was due to the fact that they weren't built as durable and reliable as they were back in 1989. I mean, when a microwave only gets two years of use, some may see that as a great shelf life for a microwave. But when you consider that is only a twelfth of the shelf life that my beloved microwave had, it does kind of make you wonder about how good appliances are being built these days.



I know that many people are frustrated with the whole “made in China” debacle about how ever since we started outsourcing manufacturing jobs to other countries the products have simply just not been as good as they were some decades ago. But just looking at my own experiences with appliances, it's hard for me not to take that argument into account.

But it's recently dawned on me that this might only be a part of the issue here. You see, my workplace has two microwave ovens inside of the employee lounge. And, on any given day at my workplace, there can be as many as one hundred and fifty people using a microwave at any given time. That's essentially seventy-five people to a microwave. And when you have that many people using a microwave that frequently, things have a tendency to wear out a lot faster than they are meant to.

Not to mention the fact that not everyone that I have worked with in the past have not been as respectful to their kitchen appliances as my family was with our Samsung Classic Collection II Model MW3100T. I seem to recall one incident in which someone who is no longer with the company decided to make a cup of Ramen noodles inside of the microwave not realizing that they forgot to add the water inside of the cup.



Needless to say, it was a smoky mess, and that pretty much killed one of the microwaves right there. Mind you, that was just an isolated incident. However, the fact that my workplace has essentially gone through a microwave for every year that I've worked there kind of gives me the heebie-jeebies about purchasing another microwave. I highly doubt that I will get a microwave that will take me through the next twenty-four years of my life, and it makes me kind of sad in a way because it seems as though appliances just don't have the same shelf life that they used to.

I guess I have this mentality that if something isn't broken, don't fix it or replace it. I'm definitely not the kind of person who wants to have the latest model of anything in order to maintain the so-called “status quo”. I don't really care about my social class in comparison to other people. I'd rather have appliances that work for a really long time rather than appliances which are only guaranteed to work for a year. I guess that's why I won't upgrade to a new iPod until my old one dies out. That's why I still have one of those big and bulky televisions instead of the sleek LCD/LED models. It still works perfectly fine, so why get rid of it? And, that's why I haven't bought a microwave in twenty-four years. To me, a good appliance means one that does its job and then some. I don't care if it sticks out like a sore thumb. Interior decorating is not my main concern when it comes to choosing electronics and appliances. It's how much I can get out of them

Mind you, the only exception to this rule is when I upgraded my Nintendo DS with a Nintendo 3DS. But that's only because I wanted to play the newer video games. I still have my old Nintendo DS as a back-up in case I need it, and I even still have the Super Nintendo that I used to play twenty-one years ago. It's yellowed with age and a lot more sensitive than it used to be, but still works like a charm.



I just don't understand the mindset of people who line up outside a store to pick up a new iPhone or the newest model of a cell phone, when the iPhone or cell phone that they have in their hands is just as good. I mean, when you consider that an iPhone/cell phone retails at $399 and up depending on the model you purchase, trying to keep up with the Joneses can put one into bankruptcy if one isn't careful. I just don't really understand the disposable nature that people have when it comes to appliances. It's really sad to see.

I mean, has anyone not seen “The Brave Little Toaster”? The appliances in that film were old-fashioned and ancient, but yet they still found a way to be useful to their owner.

Just like my old microwave served my family for years and years.



And so, I bid farewell to an old friend...a friend who made sure I had buttered popcorn to eat during movies and reheated meals from the day before.

You served me well, Samsung Classic Collection II Model MW3100T.