After a couple of attempts to blog today, I couldn't get logged on to Blogger so this post comes via email.
Today's song in my head: "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond
Why?: Heard it while driving back to work from lunch and just had to sing along in the car. It's a great song, even made me miss going to FSU baseball games.
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Dumbest thing I heard today: Wasn't really much dumb today, it was more along the lines of frustrating conversations. End of the year budget conversations and how other people want to tell me how to spend my office's money on them because we'd be providing a service to others and their events. BS, they don't have the money and know we do. I know how this is all going to turn out because I know what side my acting supervisor is on.
I forgot to blog at work again today, so this is another blog via the iPhone.
Song in my head: "Just The Way You Are" by Bruno Mars
Why?: It was one of the songs I heard on the drive home and it's been in my head forthe past hour or so. I'm also a Bruno Mars fan, mi us the whole gun and drug charges he picked up in Las Vegas. If you've heard his new song "Lazy Day," you know that he mentions sitting at home in his Snuggie; that really speaks to me.
------------------------------- Dumbest thing I heard today: Today's topic is more along the lines of the most confusing thing to happen today. There was a major storm that hit NC/SC overnight; it was unreal in terms of some of the damage that was done just by straight line winds, there was never any threat of tornados though. My power went out around 1am last night and still wasn't back on when I woke up this morning so I decided to get ready earlier than normal just so I could get to work and be somewhere with electricity. I showered in the dark with a little help from some natural light and shaved with the help of 5 candles (it was so romantic). I left for work at 8am knowing that we don't open until 8:30am, I was one of the first people there. At 8:29am, the university sends out an alert notifying everyone that the opening of offices had been delayed by 2 hours due to damage around campus and trees that were blocking roads all over the county.
Why would you send this out 1 minute before everyone is supposed to be at work? Normally, I would have just been leaving home around 8:30am, but no such luck today. There were quite a few of us at 8:30am this morning that were puzzled by the timing of everything.
I made a big deal about not forgetting to blog yesterday in an email to everyone who stated they forgot to blog yesterday (3 of them). What happens next, I leave work and forget to blog. So here I am at home blogging via the iPhone and sending this in via email.
Song in my head today: "Not Afraid" by Eminem
Why?: I can't remember if this is something that I heard on be way to work or not, but it's been in my head all day for no reason. I know I heard the Dr Dre and Eminem song "I Need a Doctor" at least twice today but it's not the Eminem song that stuck with me.
----------------------------------------- Dumbest thing I heard today: This may actually fall into the "funniest thing that I heard since my last blog post" category, but either way it made me laugh. On the long drive home back from Tallahassee yesterday, I developed a case of XM ADD; I was channel surfing at great speed. At one point early in the drive, I found myself on one of the comedy channels. I can't remember the name of the comedian, but it was a guy, and the segment was titled "Rings are Overrated.". He was talking about different aspects of engagement rings but the funny part was about the size of a ring, here's how it went.
Comedian: "The bigger the ring, the worse the guy. . . just ask Kobe Bryant."
I laughed out loud in the car on that one, it was too good (and the Kobe bashing while playing NBA Jam came to mind too). The same comedian went on to say, "Ladies, if a guy gets you a 0.5 caret ring that's brown, he will never leave you; he needs you."
It was a great weekend back in Tallahassee, I really have missed my friends from there since I've moved. I'm not the only one to have moved away in the past year, but being back with a lot of them this weekend really made me realize how much I've missed them.
Today's song in my head: The background music in "NBA Jam"
Why?:Over the course of the past 2 days, I've played this game for about 5-6 hours, but who's counting. I'm not a video game player by any means, the newest video game system I bought was a Playstation 2 back in 2004, now it's nothing more than a DVD player.
NBAJam was my favorite video game back in high school, I beat that game on just about all the difficulty levels. Needless to say, this past Friday night in Tallahassee when I overheard Adam and Mike talking about how they were going to play it on Saturday, I invited myself to the participate. It took a little while to get back in the swing of things, Mike easily won the first 4-5 games any of us played, but after that the 3 of us took equal turns beating each other. It's just a great and fun game, I've always been a fan of sports video games and the fact that you can finish a game so quickly is half the fun.
The background music and the color commentary of the announcers will be running through my head for awhile.
Dumbest thing I heard over the weekend: There really wasn't anything dumb heard or said over the weekend, it was just a bunch of friends hanging out with each other. There was one great story I heard from a few people and the story never changed. A former co-worker, Lori, was taking a job candidate to dinner one night and let the valet service at a local restaurant park her car. The valet left her doors unlocked when it was parked, so when they brought the car back to her after the meal, there was a homeless man sitting in the backseat drinking a beer. Lori got her car from the valet and noticed the homeless man so she started asking questions to the valet and restaurant staff. There was a question asked by the manager of the restaurant (clearing trying not to take any of the blame) to Lori that went something like this:
Manager: Are you sure he (homeless man) wasn't there when you dropped your car off?
Really??? Who keeps someone like that in the backseat of their car . . . idiot manager. Apparently, the car smelled really bad after all this, Lori did get the restaurant to pay for the inside of her car to get detailed.
Not only did I hear this song a lot on the radio on the way down here, it was already in my head quite a bit in the last few weeks.
Today's song in my head: "Rolling in the Deep" by Adelle
Why?: Why not, this song is amazing and she's such a soulful singer (besides the fact that I heard it multiple times on the 8 hour drive from Rock Hill, SC to Tally). It wasn't until long ago that I really took a long listen to this song (or even Adelle for that matter), but I will be paying attention in the future to her new stuff that comes up. For the longest time I just put her in a category of "Sure she's popular but not for me" but like I said, I only had to pay attention to it once to understand why everyone loves her.
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Dumbest thing I heard today: It's slightly cheating that I'm posting this just after midnight to count as my Friday post, but that still follows our rules. Anyway, even though I heard a lot of different songs on XM on the way down here, over the course of an 8 hour drive I got to listen to the entire Braves game on the radio. The announcers were talking about how the radio broadcast has improved over the years to now be in surround sound. I thought that was pretty impossible being that it's just a standard AM or FM signal and cars typically don't have surround sound speakers, but hey, they have to have something extra to talk about for a 3 hour game. Here's how part of that conversation went.
Announcer 1: If you're driving home from work or stuck in rush hour traffic, think of this surround sound broadcast as us ridding along in the backseat with you. Announcer 2: If you feel a tap on the shoulder from us in the backseat, please keep paying attention to the road. Announcer 1: Heck, if this is surround sound, we could reach around the seat and give you a bear hug while your driving . . . Announcer 2: Uh. . . yeah . . . but please still keep your eyes on the road.
I just had to laugh a little bit about how stupid that all sounded.
The last minute time off request has been granted, leaving the office here in a few minutes on my way to Tallahassee for the weekend to see good friends and visit some of the places that I miss.
Today's song in my head: "On the Road Again" by Willie Nelson
Why?: The short explanation is that I'm excited to go back to Tally for the weekend and this seems like the perfect start of the road trip song. For all of those that have ridden with me in the past (Kelly, Meredith, and Kinsley), the "Fancy version" of Rocky Top will probably be played once or twice along the way.
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Dumbest thing I've heard today: I'm going to cop-out on this one today, it's a slow day at work and I just want to get on the road again. . .
Life is busy these days, that's for sure. Learning a new job in the past year and having a boss out on leave will speed time up.
Today's song in my head: Mountain Music by Alabama
Why?: The last song I heard this morning on local radio before I got in the shower was "Old Alabama" by Brad Paisley. In this song, he pays tribute to the group Alabama since the song is all about them. There is a couple of lines of Mountain Music in Brad's song, but I couldn't get the original Mountain Music song out of my head while in the shower. In addition to it being the last song I heard before getting in the shower, "Old Alabama" was the first song I heard when I got in my car and XM loaded up. It was an easy winner for today's selection.
Funny thing is that I'm not an Alabama fan, it's too old and twangy for me but it's such a classic that any fan of country knows that song. (I can picture Adam stabbing his eardrums out at the mention of country music.)
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Dumbest thing I've heard today: You know what, it's not been a day that I've heard anything dumb yet. Let's give a round of applause to mankind for not earning a Darwin award today.
Tally bound tomorrow, just need that oil change in the AM. Later bloggers.
Today's song in my head: Smooth Criminal (Alien Ant Farm version)
Why?: This morning in a staff meeting that wasn't on my schedule until 15 minutes before it started (I take care of space reservations in the building I work in and no one had reserved a room), we were talking a little bit about a pretty serious sexual assault case on campus. While our dean of students was talking about what her role had been in the incident and investigation, she mentioned a couple times "criminal behavior" and "criminal process." I was kind of paying attention but my mind was thinking about other work related topics and when I heard "criminal" a few times this song popped into my head. You may be asking why this specific version and not the Michael Jackson one; simple, Dance Marathon. The year in college that I participated in Dance Marathon, this song was part of the Morale line dance (all you higher ed folks know what I'm talking about) and so since I've heard it a hundred times, it's the first one that comes to mind when I hear the song title.
For all you King of Pop fans, here's his version.
Dumbest thing I've heard today: Every morning on a radio show I listen to while getting ready for work, they have a 5 question trivia game where the first one to answer 3 correctly gets a prize (it's usually tickets to a concert or race). Here was question #2:
Radio DJ: "Remember all the answers to today's questions have double vowels in them. At Easter time, you can usually find marshmallow chicks . . . " Contestant 1: "Eggs!" Radio DJ: "Incorrect, let me finish the question. At Easter time, you can usually find marshmallow chicks shaped candy, called what?" Contestant 2: "Umm . . . Chocolate bunnies" Radio DJ: "Wow! Really?"
God Bless America, including the not so smart ones.
Not going to post much about the rules, we all know what they are (blog on the working days, ask permission to be out of town, bonus for themes and weekend posts, yada yada yada . . .).
I've given some thought to what I've wanted to blog about off and on the past few months and I shall make my final decision based on a combination of two things. This year's theme is "Random song/jingle/theme song stuck in my head" with a touch of "stupidest thing I heard someone say or ask today." The first will happen each blogging day and the later only if something relevant is said.
Today's song in my head: The Fraggle Rock theme song
Why?: This morning before getting in the shower there was a commercial on tv (don't normally watch tv in the morning, but I wanted to hear the latest Bin Laden news) and right before I got in the shower I thought, "That sounds a little like the Fraggle Rock theme." Then I thought of the Fraggle Rock theme song and it's been in my head most of the morning, crap. Good show from back in the day, but that's an old show.
Dumbest thing I've heard: It wasn't today, it goes back to last Friday. A student called me on my office phone while I was in my office and it's a student I've gotten to know pretty well in my 10 months at Winthrop. Here's how the beginning of the conversation went:
Me: (answering phone) "This is Billy." Student: "Hey Billy, are you in your office?" Me: (paused a moment out of disbelief) "J_____, you called me in my office and I answered the phone, so yes, I'm in here." Student: "Oh"
To wrap up the "Blog a Day in May" Challenge, I wanted to mention 5 toys that I never got growing up that I wanted really badly. (Santa, you let me down) 1) Star Wars toys - I asked for so many things and never once got one, not even an action figure. When other kids would bring theirs in for show and tell, I'd only be envious. 2) Operation - You would think for a simple board game this would be an easy request. No clue why I never got it, but the commercials had a jingle that you just couldn't get out of your head.
3) GI Joe aircraft carrier - I never had a lot of GI Joe stuff, but this is something that I thought would be way to cool not to have. Looking back, it was the best thing for me that I never got it. A friend in the neighborhood had one, it was freakin' huge.
4) Telescope - I knew when I was young I wanted one, but could never figure out why. Astronomy never interested me, I just thought it would be cool to have a telescope. We had too many trees around to ever use one to spy on the neighbors, it was probably for the best that I never got one. 5) B.B. gun - Even though "A Chirstmas Story" is one of my favorite holiday movies, it's probably best I didn't get one. I'm sure I would have broken a window or something if I would have gotten one.
Toy #16 - HeMan Lunch Box Why Chosen: Seemed like every kid in my elementary school had a lunch box graced with a popular cartoon at the time, mine was no different. This also brings the first toy I blogged about come back full circle as HeMan was popular in my household. Technically, this isn't a toy, but it's based on one and let's face it; you gotta eat lunch, this is a necessity.
Worst thing to ever happen to this toy: My brother and I had matching lunch boxes so I think I was the one to put a big sticker on the outside of mine to tell the two apart, no doubt that hurt any resale value. My HeMan thermos developed a leak at one point, so I got a G.I. Joe version to replace it. At the time I thought it was weird to not have the lunch box and thermos not match. At one point in time, it became uncool to use a lunch box and the trend became brown paper sacks; R.I.P. lunch box.
Where are they know?: Probably stashed away in my parents garage somewhere, my mom's too nostalgic to have thrown it out or donate it.
If I could play with them now, would I?: Only if there was some resale value where I could put it on eBay.
Relevant in today's times: No, but at least this guy has a Youtube video about the same lunch box.
Toy #15 - Wiffle Bat Why Chosen: This may be the most simple toy that I've blogged about, but one that I had fun with for years doing many different things. I think I got it when I was 5 or 6, but I remember using it as late as high school. It started off as being used for exactly what it was intended, wiffle ball games. Sometimes it was just a parent tossing a ball and me hitting it, other times it was with my brother and I taking turns hitting and pitching. I can only remember once or twice playing with the neighborhood kids. Later in life, it turned into a pool toy having games of pool baseball when we moved into a house with a pool at age 11. As I got older, I realized that I could be a big help to my parents and clear off the drive way of hickory nuts, large acorns and other round things that fell from trees. I would collect a small bucket of whatever I found and take one at a time, toss it in the air and try to hit them over the fence with the wiffle bat. Not to worry, on the other side of the fence was an open field, not a neighbor's yard. This was one of the few activities I would embark on by myself as a kid. As an introvert all my life, I was very content doing this on a regular basis.
Worst thing to ever happen to this toy: When I got older, I put the bat through a lot of abuse but it never broke. Hitting rocks and golf balls with the bat didn't help it out much, but it survived. I never broke any windows or anything, so I thing I managed to never damage anything.
Where are they now?: I would guess thrown away. The years of abuse left it warped, discolored, and full of dents. If it's still sitting in my parents garage, I'd be very surprised.
If I could play with them now, would I?: I played softball a lot in college, grad school and beyond and have since come into possession of a real softball bat. There really is no need to have a wiffle bat any more, but I can't say I wouldn't fight the urge to toss some acorns up in the air and try to hit them if I still had a wiffle bat; my apartment complex might not like it.
Relevant in today's times: Yep, they still sell them everywhere and some colleges/universities even have wiffle ball as an Intramural sport. There's all sorts of Youtube videos using wiffle bats, I'm pretty sure the one below was filmed at Gibbs Hall on the UT campus. That wasn't the building I worked in as an RA, but I knew it well. Gibbs Hall is one half scholarship athletes and the other half guys like this who aren't athletes ( he claimed that "if it's made for kids, it can't possibly hurt me").
Why Chosen: I could choose from just about anything that Nerf had made in the late 80's and early 90's, we had a lot of stuff. This was fun because it was a good reason to take something padded and have me and my brother hit each other senselessly with it and not be overly violent. Yeah, we'd stab and hit each other with the swords a little too hard sometime, but it was supposed to be safe with Nerf (and usually was).
Worst thing to happen to this toy: After many uses, you can imagine that the foam swords would start to show their wear and tear. They would either be permanently bowed or the ends would start to fray/shread.
Where are they now?: These had to still be in decent enough shape to donate or sell at a garage sale. We weren't so harsh with them that they had to be thrown away.
If I could play with them now, would I?: No, don' think that I would.
Relevant in today's times: If you want to see people playing with foam swords, just venture out to Landis Green on the weekends. The LARPer's don't use a Nerf version, but still use a padded version. I was with Tyler, one of our Student Activities GA's, the first time he went to Landis Green and the only thing he could say was, "Looks like something you would see in the movie Role Models."
Why Chosen: This was a simple toy, but also one of my favorite TV shows of all time (see intro above). As a kid, I loved watching this show and seeing what a talking car could accomplish. The toy itself was about 18 inches long, so it was a pretty good size. In addition, it talked in the voice of KITT. If it had fresh batteries in it, you could push down on the back license plate and it would repeat some of the cool phrases that only KITT would say, like "Activate the Turbo Boost." Way too cool! If the batteries weren't fresh, it would be a slow motion sounding voice and not be the same. At the time, I didn't realize how cool it would have been to save the Michael Knight (aka David Hasselhoff) action figure.
Worst thing to happen to this toy: Since the car in the show would make all sort of jumps and tricks, it was only natural to try and recreate them. The car held up pretty well, but I put that thing through some abuse.
Where are they now?: No clue, probably joined the stack of toys sold at a garage sale or donated to charity.
If I could play with them now, would I?: No, it would be nothing more than a decoration at this point.
Relevant in today's times: David Hasselhoff seems to never go away, he's always involved in something so his career is still going. As far as the tv show/franchise, it tried. NBC tried to bring back the show but it just didn't work (see intro below). I was a fan when they brought it back in 2008 but it strayed too far from what made the original popular; went way too top secret and took on some over the top. By the time they went back to what worked, it was too late to save the show. Deanna Russo was my celebrity crush of 2008, so I thank the creators of this remake for bringing her into the public eye.
I'm taking a break from my regularly scheduled blogging topic to share with you the funniest email forward I have ever received. Pocket Taser Stun Gun
Pocket Taser Stun Gun, a great gift for the wife. This was submitted by a guy who purchased his lovely wife a "Pocket Taser" for their anniversary.
Last weekend I saw something at Larry's Pistol & Pawn Shop that sparked my interest. The occasion was our 22nd anniversary and I was looking for a little something extra for my wife Toni. What I came across was a 100,000 volt, pocket/purse-sized taser. The effects of the taser were suppose to be short lived, with no long-term adverse affect on your assailant, allowing her adequate time to retreat to safety.... WAY TOO COOL!
Long story short, I bought the device and brought it home. I loaded two triple A batteries in the darn thing and pushed the button. Nothing! I was disappointed. I learned, however, that if I pushed the button AND pressed it against a metal surface at the same time; I'd get the blue arch of electricity darting back and forth between the prongs. Awesome!!! Unfortunately, I have yet to explain to Toni what that burn spot is on the face of her microwave.
Okay, so I was home alone with this new toy, thinking to myself that it couldn't be all that bad with only two triple-a batteries, right?!!!
There I sat in my recliner, my cat Gracie looking on intently (trusting little soul) while I was reading the directions and thinking that I really needed to try this thing out on a flesh & blood moving target. I must admit I thought about zapping Gracie (for a fraction of a second) and thought better of it. She is such a sweet cat. But, if I was going to give this thing to my wife to protect herself against a mugger, I did want some assurance that it would work as advertised. Am I wrong?
So, there I sat in a pair of shorts and a tank top with my reading glasses perched delicately on the bridge of my nose, directions in one hand, taser in another. The directions said that a one-second burst would shock and disorient your assailant; a two-second burst was supposed to cause muscle spasms and a major loss of bodily control; a three-second burst would purportedly make your assailant flop on the ground like a fish out of water. Any burst longer than three seconds would be wasting the batteries.
All the while I'm looking at this little device measuring about 5" long, less than 3/4 inch in circumference; pretty cute really and loaded with two itsy, bitsy triple-a batteries, thinking to myself, "no possible way!"
What happened next is almost beyond description, but I'll do my best.....
I'm sitting there alone, Gracie looking on with her head cocked to one side as to say, "don't do it master," reasoning that a one-second burst from such a tiny little ole thing couldn't hurt all that bad.. I decided to give myself a one-second burst just for the heck of it. I touched the prongs to my naked thigh, pushed the button, and HOLY MOTHER, WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION@!@$@$%!@ *!!!
I'm pretty sure Jessie Ventura ran in through the side door, picked me up in the recliner, then body slammed us both on the carpet, over and over and over again. I vaguely recall waking up on my side in the fetal position, with tears in my eyes, body soaking wet, both nipples on fire, testicles nowhere to be found, with my left arm tucked under my body in the oddest position, and tingling in my legs.
The cat was standing over me making meowing sounds I had never heard before, licking my face, undoubtedly thinking to herself, "do it again, do it again!"
Note: If you ever feel compelled to "mug" yourself with a taser, one note of caution: there is no such thing as a one-second burst when you zap yourself. You will not let go of that thing until it is dislodged from your hand by a violent thrashing about on the floor. A three second burst would be considered conservative.
SON-OF-A-.. that hurt like he**!!! A minute or so later (I can't be sure, as time was a relative thing at that point), collected my wits (what little I had left), sat up and surveyed the landscape. My bent reading glasses were on the mantel of the fireplace. How did they up get there??? My triceps, right thigh and both nipples were still twitching. My face felt like it had been shot up with Novocain, and my bottom lip weighed 88 lbs. I'm still looking for my testicles? I'm offering a significant reward for their safe return.
Toy #12 - Play Doh Why Chosen: Even though I wasn't the most artistic kid growing up, there was something fun about playing with Play Doh. There were no instructions, so there was no right or wrong thing you could make out of the stuff. There was a time when my brother and I like playing with the stuff so much that my grandmother made us a batch of this stuff at her house. I still never got the Fun Factory that I wanted as a kid (see commercial below), but there was no shortage of cookie cutters to use while playing with this stuff.
Worst thing to happen to this toy: We were pretty rough with this stuff. If there was something that you made out of it and wanted to save it and show it off at a later date, it would dry out and be useless. That was the #1 cause of losing Play Doh, having it dry out. Also mixing the colors wasn't the best idea, you'd never the get the original color back. Lastly, some of this stuff did get caught in the carpet or on the furniture.
Where are they now?: Without a doubt, in the trash.
If I could play with them now, would I?: No, the stuff smelled bad and would leave your hands smelling weird. I'll probably never touch the stuff again, I kind of feel the same way about Silly Putty.
Relevant in today's times: Yes, this toy will never go away.
Why Chosen: One of my all time favorite line of toys growing up. I even found a picture of the first ever figure I had, RamJet. Transformers were awesome, they were robots that transformed into planes/vehicles. What boy at the time wouldn't enjoy it. There was also a cool cartoon series (see intro below) that was popular in my youth, I watched it almost as much as I watched He-Man. To show my ever loving allegiance to the toy franchise at all ages, they had a modern day cartoon series back in the early 2000's that I would watch after work and before classes my first year of grad school.
Worst thing to happen to this toy: These toys were so full of small pieces, they broke off all the time. I remember at one point in time there being a box full of spare parts, broken pieces, and weapons. These toys were made to look at, not really play with; it's sad because I enjoyed them so much.
Where are they now?: Some combination of thrown away, donated, and sold at a garage sale.
If I could play with them now, would I: Maybe for a short time. It would be fun to try and fully transform them from one form to another, but that would be all the fun I would have with them now.
Relevant in today's times: YES, probably the most so of any toy I've blogged about so far. With the two movies made that have made a crap-ton of money and a third on the way, I'd say that the Transformers are going to be awhile for a long time. News broke today that Megan Fox won't come back for the third one; it's a sad day for men everywhere.
Why Chosen: I grew up with my dad playing golf a lot, so it was natural to try things that he did. Usually, we only played min-golf on vacations and it was always a lot of fun. The really fun part about playing indoor golf like this was the creativity in designing your own holes (like the commercial shows below). My brother and I would take turns designing a course to play and it usually involved having the first few holes upstairs and criss-crossing rooms to make a challenging course and the remaining holes would be downstairs. There used to always be a hole that involved starting at the top of the stairs and finishing somewhere downstairs. Doing the opposite way, starting down and going up would have been foolish as I'm sure something would have gotten broken (there is no Nerf pitching wedge).
Worst thing to happen to this toy: Since we had fun with this, I really don't think anything bad happened. I don't think anything was ever broken; I'm sure the people at Nerf would have liked to know that.
Where are they now?: Sold at a garage sale or given away . . . no clue really.
If I could play with them now, would I?: No, I prefer the real, overpriced, outdoor version. Plus, I've grown up and graduated to real golf. I'm still not a great putter, so I guess all the indoor golf was played for no reason.
Relevant in today's times: Not the indoor version, but I have an iPhone app called "Mini Golf" and you can't miss an outdoor version at any tourist town in America. Go to Panama City, Orlando, or Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg if you don't believe me.
Why Chosen: These were fun toys, but I have to admit that I was a Hot Wheels kids when I was really young, but these were so much better when I was a little bit older. I had a lot of these little cars, they really were about the size of a quarter. I also had a lot of the corresponding things like the other picture above, a toolbox that turned into a small city. There were other automotive items (gas can, distributor cap, can of oil, etc) that turned into things that could make everything combined turned into a big city.
Worst thing to happen to this toy: These things were actually pretty durable, kind of surprised for things that were so small. I treated these well because I liked them so much and was a little older (5th-6th grade) when there were really popular. If there was anything bad that really happened to them, it would be in the next section . . .
Where are they now?: I remember my parents having a garage sale when I was in high school and letting them put these up for sale. There was a pretty big box full of all this stuff and it should have gone in the $20-$30 range at the minimum. My dad didn't really know too much about all this stuff and sold the entire box for $5. I was on a school trip the day of the garage sale, but remember hearing about it when I got home. I told him that was for way too little and my mom agreed, but she wasn't around when he made the sale. To this day, that sale still gets brought up from time to time when I'm at home with my parents. I'm too old to really care about it now, but someone got a great deal that day.
If I could play with them now, would I?: I kind of already have in the last 6 months. I found one carrying case of these in the top of my closet when I was at my parents house at Christmas. I didn't pull them out and play with them, but just opening up the case and seeing most of the vehicles again brought back a lot of memories.
Relevant in today's times: In some ways it is. I don't think that small toy cars ever go out of style, but this actual line of toys aren't around any more. How many of you remember the guy from the commercials? He was parodied on an episode of Family Guy within the last couple of seasons.
Why Chosen: After remembering how much fun I had with the Remote Control Car from one of my blog entries last week, it had me thinking about the indoor version we had (see above video). This was quite large and a lot of fun to have set up in our basement playroom. Getting it set up and running was a lot of fun, I wish it had a vertical loop where the cars go upside down but at that age unless I was going to go out and buy one myself, this would have to do.
Worst thing to happen to this toy: The worst thing about this toy was that sometimes while the cars were going around the track, they would just stop. I figured out at the time that it was for one of two reasons. 1) Somewhere along the track, the metal connecting the different track pieces would come apart just enough to disrupt the electrical circuit. 2) The track pieces would be unevenly connected to where there was just enough of a dip/rise between the two pieces where it would act like a speed bump. In either case, you'd have to sometimes inspect every piece of the track and find out where the bad connection was; sometimes easy, sometimes not.
The worst thing that I ever did to this toy was that if you had the trigger on the control pulled all the way back when it was going up the hill (as seen in the commercial), the car would keep going up and fly off the track; sometimes it would hit the wall. Nothing ever broke off of it, but it might fly off the track intentionally sometimes.
Where are they now?: No clue, most likely donated to a thrift store or sold at a garage sale.
If I could play with them now, would I: Yes, it would be a lot of fun if my parents still had it but I wouldn't go out and buy a new one.
Relevant in today's time?: Yep, you can still buy racing kits like this, but they just aren't as popular as they used to be.
I couldn't find an actual picture of this toy, but to stick with my blog entries always having pictures, I present two more Berenstain Bear books that will never be published.
