The X-Entertainment Blog

09/04/2007: Bag Of Skulls.

The woman enjoys autumn much the same as me, but for her, I have to think it’s at least partly due to my increased agreeability to random trips to Michaels. If you don’t live near one, Michaels is a chain of arts & crafts stores. I’ve already complained about the woman’s obsession with this place, and it hasn’t let up.

During the Halloween season (Christmas too, to a lesser extent), I only raise my Michaels hate flag at half-mast, because the chain offers a spooky smorgasbord of booing bric-a-brac, and it’s often stuff that none of the other stores around here carry. They also get a gold star for being one of the first places in town to sell anything Halloweeny, and the proof is in the blood pudding: It’s barely September, and I’m already buying bags of skulls.

(click here to see the WHOLE bag!)
In fact, that’s what the product is officially titled. “Bag Of Skulls.” The shoe (or skull) fits, as it’s five bucks worth of little menacing skulls neatly nestled in a black net sack — which itself has a bunch of smaller skulls built in! So many skulls!

What I really dig (ha!) about them is that they don’t kowtow to society’s usual call for all toy skulls to look perfectly gregarious. These are some seriously mean-faced skulls. After closer inspection, I noticed that they all have gigantic fangs, so they’re not even supposed to be human skulls. It’s a bag of monster skulls! I was on the fence about buying these, but a sack of monster skulls is definitely worth a fiver.

I can’t find my giant Spider-Man figure, but picture him palming one of these babies. Totally sincere Shakespearean Yorick pose just waiting to be designed. I so need to do it. Where’d I put that guy?

Posted by Matt. E-mail me!

It looks like someone raided a ginormous werewolf graveyard and stole their shrunken heads. These skulls actually look like the squishy stress balls that they give away at work.

I got stuck at Michaels yesterday, but I managed to keep her down to 15 minutes, a miracle in and of it self. How did I miss the sack-o-skulls?

Maybe Spidey is under your bed, that’s where I would be if I were a 12″ action figure.

I was in Michaels a couple days ago. The miniture towns were pretty cool but I think i could only stand to have them on for a few minutes at a time. Very noisy.

Good deal for 5 bucks. To my surprise, the first store near me to put anything Halloweenesque out was Party City (Party America, etc.). I heard from one of the clerks they started almost 3 weeks ago! Now THAT’S what I call devotion!

Already when I walked in a few days ago the place was playing Halloween DVD’s on how to decorate your spooky house, and Halloween music. Plus, costumes in almost every aisle.

Is that the Spiderman that came with the ninja costume? Because if it is I remember having him too.

Damn you all for having a “stay up all night” thread the one night I can’t stay up to be a part of it

The Halloween store I saw last Columbus Day seems to have reappeared in the same Westmont shopping center (or will - they were just hiring for the season the last time I was over there). The grocery store where I work just put their Halloween stuff out last week, though it’s not all out yet. I imagine the school supplies will probably be around for another week or two before they give way entirely to candy and giant moving skulls in black robes and plastic light-up pumpkins.

Actually, Matt, thanks for reminding me I wanted to take a look at the AC Moore on the other side of the same mall as the Halloween store for fall decorations. AC Moore is an arts-and-crafts store chain similar to Michael’s. I don’t hate it, mostly because, also like Michael’s, they have cool holiday decorations you won’t find anywhere else. (This was one of the only places I could find anything for the Fourth of July.) I wanted to see what their general fall decorations were like - it’s too early for me to think of Halloween decorating.

Hmm, I’m thrown by the “Ages 8 and up”. Would a 7 year old swallow some of the smaller skulls? Get twisted up in the net like a helpless fish? I don’t know but it’s bothering me.

I was definetly impressed with Michael’s selection of Halloween stuff. Prices aren’t bad, either. I plan on going and picking up some of the little glass potion bottle thingies that have clever, spooky labels.

skulls, skulls everywhere are skulls, breakin’ up the scenery, breakin’ my mind
Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the skulls?

Michael’s can also do cool Halloween framing..they actually carry orange steel frames and black mats for this purpose. i got a cool old concert poster framed this way.

I work at a Michaels up here in canada. We’ve been selling halloween stuff for at least 3 weeks now. In fact we’ve actually sold out of certain things including 6ft mummies that mumble when you walk past them.

I recently applied at Michael’s.
If all goes well, I will be working there in the smack-dab of the ‘Ween season.

Actually, if all goes well, I will be working at the Halloween Supply store next to the Michael’s…

I’m staying at the Marshall House in Savannah later this week for business and it turns out I got the reservation for the most notoriously haunted room. It was featured in ABC Family’s Scariest Places on Earth a few years ago. The lady that made the reservations did this on purpose.

I don’t know that I could do the village for Halloween, but i have a very deep window sill in my new place that is begging to be lined with cotton snow and mini houses come November.

Also, where is all the goddamn slime, stores?
One of the reasons I love the season is because my chances of finding decent slime products raises by about 25%.
I’m just not seein’ it yet.

You need to get her to be a craft snob, then she won’t want to go to Michaels anymore. Instead, it will be specialty store after specialty store and she’ll see the logic in not dragging you along on all of those separate trips to get that organic silk yarn or discontinued scrapbook paper or whatever she’s into. I’m telling you - my husband hasn’t had to enter a Michaels in years.

Technically, I have to admit Halloween is now less than 2 months away- but I still feel it’s too early to start getting exited.

However, that didn’t keep me from noticing 2 pieces of candy corn flattened on the sidewalk outside work. Not to mention the nearby coffee shop which now apparently also sells rubber skeletons and glow-in-the-dark eyeballs. Oh, and the farm I pass everyday now has pumpkins out along with a big Jack-O-Lantern sign.

I loves me some Michael’s. I like Hobby Lobby too, but they’re way too Fundamentalist to carry cool Halloween stuff. I’m Christian and all, but can’t we have some fun in this transient life?

I miss 2 blogs. You’re on fire, Matt. Making up for lost time is how I see it.

I too was dragged into a craft store today with my gf and her best friend, but we went in an AC Moore (a poor man’s Micheal’s) There are Micheal’s around here too, but this one was close to where we were.

But I did see a bin full of beanie babies, many kind of old (circa 97, 98 & 99). Sadly, I had them already, and back when they were popular, I paid WAY more than $3 for them.

And now, I will go to the last thread and read all 100+ comments. It was at 105 when I looked at it around 4pm.

I can honestly see myself buying 10 bags of skulls if I saw them for sale somewhere.

I just noticed the main page’s title…AWESOME Spaceballs reference! I freaking love that movie! Pizza The Hutt was just a great, disgusting character. Dom DeLuise voiced him well.

Also, yesterday I went to see “Mr. Bean’s Holiday.” I thought it was good, I was laughing the entire time. If you’re a fan of Mr. Bean, Rowan Atkinson, or just plain British Slapstick humor, go see it. Also, Willem DeFoe plays a self-absorbed filmmaker. (the movie that he shows at Cannes mostly consists of himself traveling up an escalator)

Lemon Drop Dead had made the move to a can; it’s yellow.
Gruesome Grape and Candy Corn are the same and I am pretty sure Strawberry S’Lime is the same, too.

I’ve yet to try a Jones soda, ever . The flavors always scared me away I guess. Are they good?

The regular, non-Halloween stuff is very good.
The Halloween stuff tends to be a bit too intense (or downright gross) to enjoy as anything but a novelty.

I was a little harsh on the Halloween flavors in my review; they’re not as wacky as the Thanksgiving flavors which are SUPPOSED to be disgusting. With the Halloween flavors, some are better than others. As a general rule, remember to drink them VERY chilled. Jones Soda by and large isn’t good warm. Not that any soda should be warm, but like, you can drink Coke if it’s warm…Jones, no.

still nothing halloween-esq over here in my part of the world.. sigh, hopefully soon. i’m dying for some mixed jumbo bags of fun size candy bars, you know the bags of candy you pay 10 bucks for.. sigh. its okay.. right?

I’m eating a salad as a late night snack because thats all I could find. This sucks, I should be eating Reese Pumpkins or something.

just microwaved a pizza and loaded up on cheez curls and chocolate chip cookies. woot woot.

Yeah, well at least none of you spent four hours (off and on) preparing a dinner that your significant other couldn’t even eat because the enchilada sauce had too much heat in it. That is what I get for following the recipe and putting in one whole jalapeno chile. Stupid book said the sauce was supposed to be mild, so I figured she could handle it. I love the heat. Her? Not so much.

Sup guys, So whens the next stay up all night thread? Im working a grave yard shift and its pretty boring from 2am till 5am so it be cool to have some one to chat to. I caught up on three of your post today Matt. Along with the good reading I got a nice vocab lesson (Caveat, and gregarious).

So along with the Halloweens fun times comes my sons first birthday! HE was born on Halloween last year but were going to celebrate it on the 30th this year so my little girl can go trick O treating. Were trying to come up with a good theme. Im thinking a traditional Halloween party. Any ideas for games we can play with the rest of the kids?

…then I bought them because they were shaped like pumpkins. And they were delicious.

Yeah, I’ll probably buy a bunch. For some reason, they never seem as good as the Reese Eggs, but maybe thats just my memories fucking with me.

Hey, check it out! I’m back on! First off, thanks Matt and Bill for helping me to figure out my little posting problem. ‘Preciate it.

Yeah, Michael’s is pretty good for Halloween. I gotta make a trip soon. I’ve heard the Party City near here is revved up now too. My dad works at Wal Mart and says they have some stuff in the back but won’t put it out for at least another week. They’re really letting me down. God knows they’ll have the Christmas stuff encroaching in on Halloween before October is over with, but they sure are taking their sweet time on the Halloween stuff. It’s just not like them to not start pushing a holiday or major event annoyingly earlier than is necessary. I want cheap Halloween crap, dammit! I’m going to be moving soon and I need decorations for the new apartment…….

Magic Toy, I know people who think black pepper is hot. I scoff at them and continue eating my spicy food with great enthusiasm.

Also, the nearest Micheals is about 20 miles away from me. Along with pretty much everything else. I hate this town so much.

If I’m not mistaken, you’re talking about the milk chocolate eggs with half-melted chocolate inside? If so that shit is fucking great! …Or maybe that’s just my memories fucking with me.

Yeah, I’m telling you, Pary City is BOOKED. They have Halloween shit practically falling off the shelves.

Oh, and Magic Toy, don’t go changing the name. I think it’s cool the way it is–just my 2 cents.

On the Halloween front (the movie, not the holiday), I did take issue with a few things, like explaining Micheal’s origin mostly, because what always made him so scary and interesting was that there was no real reason for why he was the way he was. He came from a normal family and just one day snapped. That’s a lot scarier. But at one point the other night during the new movie, I turned to my cousin and said, “You know what, if these people were my family I’d kill them too.”

But, in the plus column, the movie’s chock full of horror cameos and Zombie’s usual cast that you’ve seen in his other movies. If you know a lot about horror movies you’ll spot a lot of folks. And it’s really cool that he brought Danielle Harris back to the series. Me being the big ol’ horror geek that I am I was constantly pointing to the screen, going, “ooh! It’s so-and-so!” (don’t worry, not loud though. It is my belief that people who make noise in the theatre should be punched in the throat).

Another underrated place to look for Halloween stuff is a hardware store like a Home Depot. They usually have a small section of expensive but cool like things eletronic candy bowls that’ll scream at you, moving decorations, etc.

Cotter,
I’m just talking about the classic Reese peanut butter eggs, but I think I know what you’re talking about too.

Cotter Yeah, playing with Halloween supplies while watching Halloween IIâ€¦that does sound pretty close to heaven to me! Good on ya.
Ghosted by DJ @ 09/02/2007 1:16 AM EDT

Yeah, the double eggs are great. I’ll have to look into the Reeses eggs, must have overlooked those. Then again, I’ve never been a huge fan of Easter. No memories of egg hunts or coloring with me. Plus there aren’t any good TV Easter specials if you ask me.

Hey, Toy, at least you tried to make something you thought she might enjoy, you just got tripped up by a misleading recipe. My ex used to be like, ‘tough shit’ if I didn’t want to eat his ‘burns going in AND out’ chili. Oh, and belated happy birthday!

Cotter and Tommy One of my guiltiest pleasures/addictions in life is Reeses cups/eggs. Reeses and Dr. Pepper might just be my 2 “stranded on a deserted island, cannot live without” necessities.

Oh, and maybe I’m slow or something, but I still don’t see how that quote requires the dropping of the “D.” Not that I mind…D or no D..whatever your heart tells you is right…just wondering is all.

Your user name in the post lacks the extra D. That’s what I started calling you. I later found out the extra D was present in every other post. I refuse to conform. I’m just a stubborn ass hole… and I like the sound of DJ better. Reminds of Full House and when Nick @ Nite wasn’t worthy of a spanking.

I also love Easter chocolates, but I just hate the holiday itself. Like I said, no good shows, memories, and I HATE the colors. They just don’t mix in my mind (purple and yellow, right?).

I also hate any kind of soda that isn’t fruity. I actually think Coke is ok, but I just never drink it for some reason. I kind of grew up with the mind set I hated it, so now whenever I see it I also think it will taste bad but it never does.

Hmmmm….interesting that a simple typo on my part could cause you take such a stubborn stance…I wonder what this says about you on some deep psychological level. Maybe you’re just easily persuaded and manipulated…maybe some form of OCD is involved….maybe it’s 1:06am and I’ve probably over-analyzed this waaaaay too much. I’m going with all of the above.

Yeah, and I agree. Nick @ Nite’s starting to slip. They’ve got Home Improvement on there now? What’s that all about? Oh, and is it weird that I always thought Kimmy Gibbler was really cute?

Yeah, it didn’t bother me at all that she didn’t want to eat it. As soon as I sampled the sauce I knew it was going to be far too hot for her. The funny thing is she had tasted it a few minutes before I did, had already discovered it was too much for her, and was contemplating how she was going to survive the meal without making me feel bad. When it burned my tongue (in a good way) I just turned to her and laughed and she smiled and said, “thank god you taste it too.” Then I got the Chinese carry-out menu from one of the drawers and told her to knock herself out.

It really didn’t turn out that bad. This is the first time I have ever attempted authentic Mexican cooking so a lot of the techniques are new to me. There will inevitably be some trial-and-error, but it was fun. I’ve been on a cookbook binge lately. You can find some pretty decent deals through Amazon and when you couple that with their super saver shipping it doesn’t damage the bank account too bad.

DJ D: Reeses cups and (especially) eggs are firmly entrenched on my top-10 list of the greatest things in the world, somewhere between the The Simpsons and a fine single malt Scotch Whisky. They made the list sometime during the early ’80s and have showed no signs of slippage, like me, after too much Scotch Whisky.

Did you check your pants? That’s where I find all sorts of things, like Legos.

Try allrecipes.com, Toy. Lots of good recipes for utterly FREE! Its where I get most of mine.

Think you may be looking a bit too into this. Although I’ve always had the thought I may have OCD. Never been diagnosed, though. Guess it’s just not enough to interfere with my daily life.

Yeah, Home Improvement was never big with me. The actors tried–they really did… the script just wasn’t and couldn’t ever be funny.

Moony: Agreed, the internet is a great place to dig up recipes. Still I do enjoy buying cookbooks. I suppose it is the “collector” in me that loves to see the genesis of a mini-library forming in my kitchen.

OK, let’s add some spice to this evening’s thread. How about a topic? What is your most underrated television show over the past decade? You know, that show that you loved, but for whatever reason never caught on and died a death it didn’t deserve.

While I have a few that could certainly qualify in my eyes… I’ll mix it up and say that I absolutely loved Home Movies. Brendan Small and Coach McGuirk were legendary characters, in my opinion, that just didn’t have that widespread appeal needed for longevity.

That was a great show that will live on in DVD form in my household for years to come.

Most underrated television show? Probably Firefly. Such a fantastic show, and it wasn’t given a fair shake.

Alright, I hate to post and run but I was just about to check in for one last time and split for the sack…but I’ll throw this out there and then I’m gone. I’m not even sticking around to see if it gets a response. I’ll just check back in tomorrow after work and see where all this went…but here goes:

Loved it. And I didn’t care for the movies all that much. I thought the second was good and had some great special effects but the third was just 2 hours of my life I’ll never get back. The only thing it had going for it was the obvious Jessica Biel eye candy but hey, if you’ve got net access you can get all that you want. And don’t even get me started on that guy that played Dracula–that Prison Break guy. Terrible! Just terrible choice!

But yeah, Blade: The Series was really interesting. I really thought it could have gone somewhere and had some great characters. Oh, that reminds me of another one: Invasion. It started out really slow but by the end of the season was getting pretty interesting. I hated to see that go.

I’m around. I’ve heard good things about Firefly but never got the chance to give it a go. So, ultimately, I guess I was a part of the problem. Sorry.

I like Firefly but didn’t see an episode until six months ago and I love Home Movies. Coach McGuirk is one of my favorite characters from anything. This will be a cliche answer and it isn’t exactly underrated because people love it, but Arrested Development. One of the best shows ever.

While we’re on the subject of Adult Swim, I’d say The Brak Show and Yu Yu Hakusho were also really great shows. And I don’t even like anime.

I also really liked Cow and Chicken, Dexter’s Lab, and A Pup Names Scooby Doo on the old Cartoon Network. God, those were the REAL Saturday morning cartoons. I really miss Cartoon Network and how it used to be. I think most of all I miss when they showed the Scooby Doo and various ’70s and ’80s Halloween/Christmas/Thanksgiving cartoons. Those were great.

Freddy’s Nightmares is also pretty good. I’d say some episodes are even better than the movies. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about Friday the 13th: The Series.

I never saw the series, but I used to be into the movies. What’s different (is the Snipes back)?

I absolutely adore the show Red Dwarf, but they don’t even play reruns of it anymore! Pffft. All hands on deck, swirly thing alert!

Last year the flavors were Candy Corn, Berried Alive, Spider Cider, and Gruesome Grape.

I liked The Brak Show but I think it was kind of hit or miss, some episodes I’d think were great and others I didn’t think were funny at all. Overall though I liked it. And I love old Scooby Doo, could watch that all day. I once stopped being friends with someone after they told me they liked scrappy doo. Completely unacceptable.

I remembered another one: Space Ghost Coast to Coast. True, I guess someone had to have liked it since they made so much of it, but I hardly ever find anyone that likes it besides me. Seems like most people have never even heard of it…

I remembered Space Ghost, but I always thought of that as very mainstream Adult Swim. True, it was one of their best shows, but it’s also one of their best known (by people ages 17+).

Ugh… I have a really bad ingrown toenail right on my big toe and I think I’m going to have to go to the doc tomorrow and have him slice it open

just got to work.. how is everyone? i’m pretty tired. just got a bottle of “game fuel” eh, its so-so, honestly .. i’ve had better.

maybe if i deep fry the bottle it’ll taste better… hahahahahaha… (sorry for the double post..)

Cotter-The Blade t.v. series replaced Snipes with some rapper, Sticky Fingaz I beleive, but
he used his real name so I can’t remember\be sure. Thats all my knowledge I’ve only seen the movies.

The Spiderman article is what really hooked me into X-E!!!! I hope you find him!!!! Think I’ll go re-read the crayon article now. Ahhhh, nostalgia.

you know Dan, i’ve been slowly swiggin’ this stuff (the “game fuel”) for the past hour and the more i drink it, the more i like it.. despite it being semi-warm because it was sitting in my car all night, it’s not really that bad…. i’m starving though, could really go for a tuna and bacon sub.. haha.

I agree, it’s one of those that your not sure what to think at first but it slowly grows on you. Me? I have my regular green Dew big slam and a bag of Munch ‘Em’s. A tuna and bacon sub sounds better though

i love tuna and bacon.. ugh, i’m so hungry.. where is everybody today? working probably..

honestly Dan, its like the only thing that gets me through the day. BUT! on a happier note, today is like friday for me as i have the next four days off.. !! yayyy!!!

It really helped me get thru yesterday and I’m hoping it’ll do the same today. I have a nice 14 1/2 hour day ahead of me today. Any big plans for the time off Andrew?

got nothing really going on, my girlfriend is going to her cousins wedding so i’ll be stuck home without her for a couple days.. i’m thinking about buying a Wii… i also need to get a new phone, i want one of the Sprint Moguls, they look pretty awesome….

Annette - Seriously, you’re the only one you know who’s heard of Space Ghost? I was up taping that show for at least a year before Adult Swim was even announced, and bought the action figure… it’s still one of my favorites. And I concur of Firefly.

I need to break down and get a Wii, if nothing else it seems like the majority of the posters here have one so it’d be cool to already have contacts online. That was one of the coolest things I miss about my old Dreamcast, playing Phantasy Star Online with friends.

And as far as shows that were cancelled that I miss, I really like Dead like Me. They show it on Sci-fi every now and then but it’s usually not in order. And the Blade tv show was pretty good. And yeah I miss Red Dwarf too.

i love playing online with my friends, i have a xbox 360… the Wii seems like so much fun….. and its pretty cheap too!!

I need to catch up with my gaming gadgets. I’d love to get a 360 and a Wii but the wife….not so big on the gaming. She likes the Mario Kart and Mario Party games but thats about it.

yeah, my girlfriend isn’t so much into the games either… sigh, eh, what can you do? on a side note, i need to go to the comic book store sometime this week and get some new reads. it’s been literally months since i’ve last gone down to the one in my town and hung out with the guy who works there. sigh, he probably thinks i’m dead.. haha.. up until a couple months ago i went in there every week.. it’s great, we talk about star trek, dungeons and dragons, magic the gathering. ugh.. i’m such a nerd.. — anyone remember the old board game “DARK TOWER”??!!?… awesome game, i actually happen to own one. its in pretty decent condition too!!!!

Yarr. Terror Claws Cole tried to be like everyone else and stay up all night. Made it to 2:00 then woke up at 6:00 with allergies. Guess i’m just an XE misfit.

I haven’t been to a comic book store in awhile either. It seems like every time I do I come out with a lot less money than I went in with. At one time I actually used to work for Mile High Comics out here. Great job, got me hooked on Magic and all kinds of new comics I’d never read before. Too bad it didn’t pay better. And as for the Dark Tower, I actually came across a site not long ago that lets you play it on-line! I’ll have to see if I can find it again and post it if anyone is interested.

whoa, play DT online? thats awesome! oh, and i think we are both in the same boat as far as going into a comic book store and coming out with A LOT less money.. whenever i go in there i come out with tons of junk i don’t need. haha… mile high comics? thats pretty awesome..

Terror Claws you made it longer than I did. I came home from work, read the article and the replys up to that point and I was out by 12:00.

And Andrew I think this is the link, http://www.pbmcube.com/pAS/games/Dark-Tower.
It’s hard to NOT come out of the comic store with all kind of extra goodies. I just wish I had the will power to not get that extra graphic novel or that hard to find action figure.

Arrested D and Home Movies are definitely on my list for awesome but underappreciated. Right now one that I wish more people were into is My Boys on TBS. I think it’s the name, it makes it sound like way more of a chick show than it is. You’ve got Jim Gaffigan being hilarious as always, plus Johnny Galecki as a recurring character named Troutie, what’s not to love?
I’m glad I’m not the only one tempted into Hamlet impressions when faced with anything from sugar to shrunken werewolf skulls.

Jones Soda doesn’t have new flavors or can designs for the 07 Halloween season? Damn that sucks. It’s like finding out candy corn is made of people.

Andrew, I’m sure once my deep fried Mountain Dew wears off I’ll be crashing.

John Doe
Dresdan Files- Can’t believe they cancelled it.
Cupid
Friday the 13th, the Series
Night Court- I know it was on for 9 years, but it seems to be the one that gets forgotten when talking about classic NBC comedy shows of the 80s.

This bag of skulls will only entice more kids to join their brothers in a nightmarish epidemic that’s sweeping across the nation. Ocular penetration. Check out this link for more info:

Night Court….what a great show. It’s one of those that if I see it on in reruns I’ll still watch it.

Friday the 13th was kinf of hit or miss for me. I never understood how the cursed items tied in with the franchise. But in it’s defense it’s been a long while since I’ve seen it.

Ooh! I got one! “Madigan Men”. I actually found it entertaining. I believe it was one of the last attempts at a TGIF lineup (long after people had abandoned ABC Fridays.) John Hensley was fabulous in it as the son. I also think “Married to the Kellys” got a bad rap. It looked like another silly, stupid sitcom, but the couple of times we watched it we laughed out loud. I was sad when “Freaks and Geeks” got cancelled. Luckily, I finally got the box set for my birthday this year. I really enjoyed “Studio 60″ and felt like, with another season, Aaron Sorkin might finally get in the groove (I can’t argue with the critics complaints, but I saw the bones of a great show.) I think it was so built up that people took pleasure in exclaiming it a failure and worthy of cancellation. I could go on and on…

So as it turns out I did stay up really late last night, but I didn’t happen to sign in to XE. Instead, I was reading through the entire run of Transmetropolitan trades, which I borrowed from a friend’s boyfriend’s roommate. I’d never read it before, but I think I’m in love. Expect future posts to be liberally sprinkled with Spider Jerusalem quotes.

I don’t really watch a whole lot of TV, and most of what I do watch is the History Channel and the Discovery Channels, but I’ll jump on board the Firefly train. A friend of mine in high school finally forced me to watch it, despite my reservations. See, she was a Buffy fan to begin with, while I saw that show as a nigh-bottomless maelstrom of suck. Firefly is something completely different, and it’s beautiful. If you haven’t watched it yet, do yourself a favor and rent the DVD set. Make a weekend of it. You won’t regret it.

If there was an underrated [as] show, it would be this one. It’s one of those shows that seemed totally random and lame at the beginning, but by the 4th episode, it was revealed as a serialized cartoon, so every episode got better when you tuned in each week to see what will happen to Killface, simon, Xander/Awesome-X, The Xtacles, etc.

The 2nd season started last week and already it’s so freaking awesome. No one I talked to that likes [as] hardly even watches it, let alone heard of it. Thanks to Television Without Pity’s message board, I found dozens of fellow fans.

As for Space Ghost & Brak Show…they, along with Harvey Birdman, ATHF and Sealab 2021 (Sealab’s creators now make Frisky Dingo) MADE [adult swim] what it is today. And I never really got into Home Movies, but I like John Benjamin and he’s great in every show he’s on.

Invader Norbert your right, Frisky Dingo is a great show. I wasn’t sure about it at first but once I actually watched it I was hooked. I wasn’t aware the guys who did Sealab 2021 did Frisky Dingo but looking back on it I can see the similarity in the humor.

I think my favorite show (that was?) on the swim would be Aqua Teen. Although it’s not exactly underrated… now that there’s a movie and all.

But I think I’d say the 3rd season of ATHF on Adult Swim were the best times. It went something like this;

Futurama, Family Guy, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Robot Chicken, Sealab 2021, Harvey Birdman, Home Movies, and then it would repeat.

I can’t really think of any shows I loved that were underrated off of the top of my head. I can think of lots that were overrated though! Oh I know, I had a strange love for Roswell when it was on. I still can’t explain it but there it is. Also back in the 80’s there was a show called “Golden Years” that was based on a Stephen King story that I really liked but it was killed shortly after it started. That was sad.

Today is sucking for me because I have to be the A-hole and take away my nieces social life until her grades come up. I hate this job! At least with my 3 year old I can train her up from the beginning but with my niece she came to me with bad study habits already so I have to reprogram her so she can graduate High School. Effin A man…why do I have to be the bad cop? Get your sh!t done and you can play all you want.

Cricket I feel your pain. I had to do this with my nephew on multiple occasions and it’s not an easy thing to do.

Bag O’skulls…. that is one of the most metal things I ever seen. That and the mention of blood pudding, not really metal but British.

Xander not cashing the check for a whole year was probably the only smart thing he’s done. And Killface? Global Warming.

I am vibrating for the release of Metalocalypse Season 1 and Dethalbum this month. Do you folks like coffee?

Actually, looking back at the old ‘Ween Jones can designs, Strawberry S’Lime does have a new design, sort of. It’s a red can.

I just got here, but I think I’m gonna leave now to watch some episodes of Firefly. XD Or perhaps Space Ghost.

So I saw Rob Zombie’s Halloween last night, and guess what? It was actually really good! A huge fan of the original movie, and I still loved this one. I kinda liken the movie to Daniel Craig’s version of James Bond, if that makes any sense.
Zombie breaths new life into this franchise, which is more then what Busta Rymes was doing.

Most underrated cartoon: Count Duckula. Actually, I don’t know if it was underrated or not because I wasn’t conscious of stuff like that then, but I sure as hell wanted to see more of it. One season was just not enough.

As far as Halloween stuff sightings goes, Big Lots has had isles upon isles of stuff out for the last three weeks. Unfortunately, I have not had the time to see it myself, but I hear it’s quite a spectacle to behold. Our Michael’s is getting stuff out chunks at a time. So far I’ve been impressed with their home accents (candle holders, wreaths, etc) but not much else. But then I haven’t just swam through the decorations either.

I’m on the planning committee for a Halloween convention we’re having in OKC. We’re doing a “zombie crawl” through the downtown culture district to drum up interest (imagine a pack of barhopping zombies) and I’m completely stumped for a costume. I’m thinking something along the lines of hot geek zombie… Suggestions?

There was a lot of underrated crap that was shown on FOX back in the era where any show that didn’t get tops in the ratings immediately got cancelled… I gotta admit I liked some of ‘em.

Dan: Actually, there is a popular story that they were going to do a episode (maybe in the pilot maybe) that would reveal that the reason Jason kept coming back from the dead was because his hockey mask was cursed. But the people in charge of the movies nixed it. If you look past the title, it was a great show.

Other shows I loved:
The Critic
Out of Control
Roundhouse
Welcome Freshmen
Nick Arcade
Space Cases
Remember WENN
Rocco’s Modern Life

Thanks for the info JLAJRC. That would have made a really cool episode, too bad they nixed it. I forgot about Rocco! That was another great show!

JLAJRC,
Nick Arcade was a hilarious show! Matt should do an article on it (if he hasn’t already). The contestants would have to fight their way through a real live videogame (Blue Screen) and it was funny to watch how terrible they were.

Yeah, Nick Arcade was hilarious. The end game they played was painful to watch. I had forgotten all about the show until I caught it on my television’s guide the other night and watched a few minutes of it. The poor girl at the end had no idea what she was doing and her partner never even got a chance to do anything. She wasted the entire time limit on the first screen.

She is probably scarred for life from the sheer embarrassment. Thankfully I don’t think anyone besides me, and maybe ten other people, ever saw it.

I guess I’m one of the 10. I had forgotten about it too until it was mentioned here. I remember them “jumping” boulders and things like that.

Cricket I’m not sure you saw my question to you in the last thread since it was asked towards the end, but did you ever try your hippie soda?

Magic Toy I sent you Mace? I didn’t even make that and I’m not sure who sent it to me, but I hate Mace and never even play with him. I meant to re-send you Butt-Head.

Meh I had more to say regarding underrated shows but it’s quitting time and I gotta take a leak like nothing else right now.

Another under rated (in my opinion) show was I think called “Heist”. It was on NBC briefly last year. Kind of like Oceans 11, where the guy recruited the team of thieves to rob Rodeo drive. It wasn’t arond for very long but I thought it was a pretty good show.

Does “the woman” not have a name? Or is she just too inhuman to deserve one? Sorry to be a dick, I just have a hard time believing that you get away with referring to her in such a demeaning manner.

Unless you’re being slightly humourous and she’s cool with it and all. Although I don’t find it funny.

She does have a name, Michelle. And I wasn’t intending to be demeaning. Sorry if I offended anyone.

fistpittingnork: Mace popped down in to my Mii Plaza right after Bobby Hill. So… send me Butt-head when you get a chance and I’ll delete Mace.

BTW, regarding the Mountain Dew: Game Fuel… I still haven’t tried it yet! I do have a two-liter chilled in my fridge as we speak that I bought last weekend. I can’t really explain it… I guess I just haven’t “gamed” all that much lately, or at least not enough to require such an extreme fuel.

Maybe I’ll play some Geometry Wars tonight. Perhaps with some MD:GF I can finally break the 500k point barrier and regain the top spot on my Friends Leaderboard.

mr. smith: I do the same thing when talking referring to my better-half on message boards and discussion threads. I can’t speak for Matt, but I do it because unless she is there posting herself I feel she deserves a certain level of anonymity. She has read what I write and doesn’t find the way I refer to her as offensive at all. I think people in serious relationships who truly care about each other wouldn’t worry about such trivial things. Chances are if something like that offends the person you are with, the relationship itself might have other issues that need to be addressed.

I love the skulls, Matt, and definitely would love to see Spidey holding one. I hope you find him - his hilarious review of the crayons was my first read here.

Do you guys remember the short-lived “Tales From the Crypt” gameshow? That show also made extensive use of blue-screen games. Also, it was funny that a show based on an adult series on HBO would become a kids show (although there was a short-lived cartoon also).

I also liked the tv version of “Weird Science.” That and Duckman ruled.
There was also another kids show on the old fox family channel called “I was a Teenage Werewolf” or something, that despite it’s silly title, was actually a fun show.

My fiance very jokingly calls me his “old lady,” which always elicits an eyeroll from me, but I am 2 years older than him, so I guess it’s true. lol But I don’t let him call me “woman” without a retort.

I wasn’t sure, just wanted to make sure I wasn’t stepping on any toes is all. Thanks Annette.

‘Kay. I was just wondering since most people would be pissed if they got called “the woman” or something similar to that.

I was. And I wasn’t paying attention to names at all. XD Oh dear, I’m blind…

No, I don’t refer to her as “the woman” in real life. In real life, I call her by her given name. Shabaniqua.

Oh, and Magic Toy: Bullseye! I rarely refer to my friends or co-workers or family by name online, here or elsewhere.

Being able to say “I’m going down to the craft store to pick up a Bag of Skulls” is too awesome for words.

And I totally missed your post, Magic Troy, because I am both blind and senile. But good point.

The best part of Nick Arcade was the host, Phil Moore.
His improvising songs to the theme music and time-up music.
Brilliant. That shit was so ridiculous.
One I recall was “I got back first ’cause I ran a little faster, doo doo doo doo doo da da da!”

You know the hosts of so many of those shows - Nick Arcade, Legends of the Hidden Temple, etc. - went home every night and drank themselves to sleep. You can tell they hated it. Doesn’t it suck that Nick GAS is getting (has already gotten?) the boot? Get the Picture was on there too.

OK so I have not tried my new Hippie Soda yet for reasons I am almost afraid to admit on here. I have actually quit soda (covers head and ducks to avoid being pelted).

With all this talk about old TV shows, I ought to bring up something I heard on the radio today:

They’re holding open auditions for Gladitors and contenders at the Gold’s Gym in Venice Beach, for you folks here in SoCal.

American Gladiators will never reach its true potential until they build several robot Nerf lions.

I found more information on American Gladiators casting online. Just go to http://www.nbc.com/casting to see a list of dates and places for auditions. Someone here should try out and report back (not me).

Cricket, I quit soda too. So you’re not alone. I actually feel a whole lot better since I started drinking water all the time.

FINALLY got back on here today after a looooong day at work, where I got cursed out in French and hung up on. Granted, part of my job is to speak to French speaking Canadians on the phone all day, getting cursed out in French is just no fun (if you’re cursed out in French, does that bring new meaning to the phrase, “excuse my French?”)

Anyways, as far as Blade, yeah it was good but had no one from the movies in it. It did have a badass little girl who looked about 10 or 11 but was actually several hundred years old and was supposed to be one of the few purebread vampires left. She was pretty much treated like royalty and everyone was really scared of her. She had a bodyguard carry her around everywhere on his shoulder and was just super badass.

As far as Adult Swim goes, I think it kind of has gone downhill in the past few years, but for some reason I’m really fascinated by The Tim and Eric Awesome Show (kind of funny but mostly disturbing) and I can’t get enough Squidbillies. I think it’s one of the funniest things on TV ever…ever. Maybe it’s because I’m in the south and it kind of rings true, I think it’s freaking hilarious.

Does anyone else remember Misfits of Science (with a teenage Courtney Cox) and a show called Otherworld? I think there was only like 8 episodes, but I remember watching it. It was about a family that somehow went through a portal and ended living in an alternate dimension of Earth.

I don’t think I should even get started on comics. I’m a bonafide comic geek with a severe Batman obsession, making my weekly visit to the store every single stupid Wednesday for many years now.

Man, now I’m really looking forward to American Gladiator coming back. Not because I’m going to watch it on a regular basis, but because Robot Chicken or someone will probably end up doing a skit with a Roman gladiator going on the show. “WHO WILL COME AND FACE MY BULGING SHINY MUSCLES AND GIANT NERF Q-TIP AND oh, I’m terribly sorry, I seem to have gotten my entrails on your shoes. My bad. Blaaaargh.”

Wha?? Okay, I’m changing the spam settings now. Andrew, please e-mail me if something is working buggy for you. You’re like the tenth person this week!

My underrated show? Space Cases. (Thank you, JLAJRC for listing this one.) Actually, I agree on most of the shows you guys have listed. Like Home Movies- all my friends hate that show, and I don’t know why. Good calls, people.

well, today at work i posted something about comics and then every time for the rest of the day it kept on saying i didn’t have access to this page. it bummed me out totally .. i thought i got banned for talking too much… sighhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!! how is everyone anyways?!!! just microwaved a pizza and i’m currently watching the wonder years … !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yayyy!!!!!

Doing better now Andrew, my 14 hour day is almost up! Gonna grab a bite to eat and head for home.

Yep. It’s been a long one! I do have to thank Matt for not booting me off for posting too much though. Being here helped today be tolerable.

It’s cool. Just try to remember to let everyone get a word in! :) We try to avoid two-way conversations. Sno prob, tho.

I’m in favor merely because it greatly increases the chances of me seeing the episode where Al thinks he’s in a soundproof room but really isn’t.

fistpittingnork, I don’t know. I never was much of a Home Improvement fan really. I don’t think my shit’s got anything to worry about. It’s not going anywhere.

It was actually called “Big Wolf on Campus.” Yes, I watched it too and it was incredibly cheesy. The werewolf makeup seemd to becomg more wolf-like in season 2

How could they not love a sci-fi show that had Bill Mumy, George Takei, and the original Black Power Ranger?! Madness…

And if Phil Moore was the host of Nick Arcade…then what show had Omar Gooding?

Went to TARGET tonight and did not see any Halloween JONES Sodas. They had some stuff out but not much. Still trying to get rid of the “Back to School” crap.

I always think that every year will the be the last I get excitied about Halloween; mature, grow out of it, etc. The fact that I spent 15 minutes geeky up my MySpace with a Halloween motif *sigh* says that it will be at least one more year.

You guys should see E. Claire. We haven’t even gotten our decorations out yet but she has already been reading her BISCUIT’S HALLOWEEN BOOK and she even busted out the 1977 (not a joke) Jack-O-Lantern candy bucket from the garage. Between that, the GREMLINS, learning about the Presidents, and the SIMPSONS, I am worrying if I am warping her…

Warping can be a good thing, especially if she’s the only kid on the playground who can sing the Dr. Zaius version of Rock Me Amadeus.

I’m indifferent to Home Improvement; it was a decent show but not one I need to see again.

I do think, since they cover so many years now, if Nick at Nick or TVLand would do something like certain decades on certain nights, or even move through the years throughout the night. It grates on me they keep moving their schedule around. I used to fall asleep to Three’s Comapny every night but then the kept moving it. So now I’m back on Adult Swim before bed, but god, how many times can I watch the same Futurama episodes?

Shuanfu That sounds like a pretty good idea, especially the having different decades on different nights thing.

I’ve had this idea for a long time for an All 80’s Network. Basically, all 80’s all day, 24/7. In the mornings would be stuff like Donahue and whatnot. Afternoons would be your Dallas and Knots Landing and such and so on. They could just get the rights to all these shows and basically show the programs at the time of day they were originally shown. You could have stuff like Friday Night Videos on Friday nights obviously, and you can just imagine how kickass Saturday mornings would be. Why doesn’t someone do this? I say we all throw in some cash and get it going.

Speaking of ROCK ME AMADEUS, it was always my wish to walk down the aisle to that song at my wedding; giving head nods of acknowledgement to everyone in the crowd. Then I found out that (A) grooms don’t walk down the aisle and (B) I was marrying someone with a lot more sense than I had.

What would be cool is if they put the shows on their orginal nights and, when possible, at their original times….

What if they did it on a monthy basis? Either a month of the 70s, then 80s or each month one week of each decade….

Oh, earlier I was going to say Heathcliff was one of my fav underrated cartoons.

Matt’s mentioning of “Alas, Poor Yorik” reminds of a question. Why does everyone know the line as “Alas, Poor Yorik; I knew him well”. It’s “I knew him, Horatio…”

This wasn’t really an underrated show, but I remember when I was a kid I watched Barney into this awkward stage where I knew I was too old to be watching it, but guiltily watched it anyway.

I am the very model of a modern Major-General,
I’ve information vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical,
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical.

thats for matt - al in the sound proof room..i love home improvement because they do the holidays right

Does anyone remember “The Highwayman” with Jackofrom the Energizer commercials? He had the truck that turned into a helicopter.

How cool is that? The girlfriend text me “there’s a girl in the garden.” I am going to be at a haunted Inn but for now I am at an old barracks and I keep hearing weird conversations down at the end of the hall. There is only three of us here. One of the guys is snoring in his room.

I actually went out and bought a region free DVD player three years ago just so that I could own the UK release before it was even available in a theater here in the States. Yes, I am a bit sick.

Anyone remember the old Nightman TV series? For some reason that was the one show on during the weekend that I always attempted to stay awake for, although I think I only ever caught about 10 episodes or so. The other I remember is the Swamp Thing TV series on USA Friday nights.

Yes it was. It was relatively inexpensive, and since my day-to-day DVD player decided to die a couple of years ago, the region-free/intended-to-be-spare DVD player became my only machine. For only running me less than seventy bucks it has been well worth it.

It was also pretty cool to have the Japanese cut of Kill Bill vol. 1 and the DVD release of the Dawn of the Dead remake (before it was available on video here) as well. This is without making mention of the OUTSTANDING UK series Spaced which is easy to get online, but sadly only available on R2 DVD.

Every movie buff should own a region free DVD player. Especially considering how easy it can be. I’m talking ten minutes of research on the internet, a fifteen minute drive to Target, and less than a $100 deduction from the bank account sort of easy.

Dan I remember “The Highwayman”. That guy was strange, and during his Energizer days he was all over tv.

Nightman sounds vaguely familiar, but I think I’m confusing it with M.A.N.T.I.S. Anyone remember that one? Oh, here’s some more I liked:

I did a student exchange in England back in ‘99 and lived there for the semester and got turned on to Red Dwarf and a couple of Australian soap operas like “Neighbours” and some other one I can’t remember the name of now. Everyone really thought Red Dwarf was the funniest shit in th world but I didn’t really dig it quite as much. But I’ve always really liked “Are You Being Served” and “Absolutely Fabulous” though, especially Ab-Fab.

Right, so I know this will probably end up being a double post unless someone jumps in there before me, so if so I apologize ahead of time. I just wanted to get this last bit in before I head to bed.

I’m really digging Doctor Who right now and I think I’m going to go back and Netflix the first couple of seasons cause I wasn’t watching it as much when it first started coming on. I didn’t like that Christopher Eccleson left the show at first but I’ve come to like this new Doctor a lot more than him so I really don’t want to see him go anwyhere anytime soon. I miss Rose though. Martha Jones is interesting and hot and all but Rose was just sex on a stick.

Oh, and just thought I would mention this in case anyone was interested in this sort of thing. Before I came back to X-E a few minutes ago I noticed on one of the news sites that the famous tenor Pavarotti died this evening, maybe about an hour or so ago. It said he had had cancer for a while and has been sick for quite some time. He was one of “The Three Tenors”. Opera’s not really my bag, but just thought I would throw it out there. I’m sure it’ll be all over the news tomorrow.

So, that’s it for me. I think I’m checking in for the night. Talk to you kids tomorrow. Later.

Cameron, I’d venture a guess there’s a common source the misquote comes from. Maybe even that Warner Bros. cartoon with the gophers?
Ryane I’m happy to find another fan

Still on the subject of underappreciated shows, I picked up the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia DVDs today. Though it was the last copy they had, so it’s not actually that underrated. Still no Dexter DVDs to be found

George Takei was on Space Cases? I’d love to see that show again.

Wow, i’ve been reading here for almost 4 years, and finally pick tonight to post something!

Im glad im not the only one on the “Halloween hunt”. Me, and my girlfriend went to the Dollar Tree about 3 days ago looking for their famous set-up. Sadly, there’s nothing yet, but I managed to bust 1.06 on a toy replica of the human body. I figured it was as close to “halloweeny” as I could get…

Manimal - I labored under the delusion that grooms walked down the aisle for a few years - it was because of The Muppets Take Manhattan, in which Kermit and Miss Piggy walk down the aisle together.

I just sent my son to Kindergarten. There ought to be a support group for this. There were kids and mothers crying everywhere. I held it together, and my son had no problem saying goodbye. He could at least faked a frown.

Hey Matt, I just watched a video about how claw machines work inside and out. Click my name for the video…. Fricking awesome. They also show how to internet-enable one, if you happen to have one at home.

So Matt, it occured to me we haven’t gotten an update on your Pokemon in awhile. Did you manage to beat the game?

DJ D I love Ab Fab! I must admit though that it was better on the first run around. It has not been the same since they started it up again and made another go at it. To this day I love to call my sunglasses POP SPECS even though they aren’t really. I was even tempted for a bit to name my daughter Saffron but finally thought better of it in the end.

I looked around on the Google once and found a way to unlock my portable player and reset the region code to “0″, which means it’s now region free. There was even a code to let it play VCDs, which is kinda interesting.

If you look on edonkey/emule you can find most every episode of parker lewis can’t lose. Crappy VHS bootleg tapes, but still… Its funny to watch it now, it is such a snapshot of my high school era (late 89-93). And i never realised how bad of a ferris bueller ripoff it really was too hehehe.

And also “Are You Being Served” is frigging awesome! I started watching it on pbs like 15 years ago and still enjoy it to this day, they made a “sequel” called “Grace and Favour” that featured them all again, this time running a bed and breakfast type place in the english countryside, they’re all a good 15-20 years older. And have you ever seen the “Are You Being Served” Movie? it was also quite awesome.

Ah, Parker Lewis Can’t Lose… I think I have mentioned my huge pre-pre-teen crush on Corin Nemec before, but it’s hard not to get nostalgic about a short-lived show like that. I tried to watch an episode a few months ago and nearly laughed my ass right off.

And I, too, am an Ab Fab fan. That episode where Edina and Patsy and Saffron are in Marrakesh or wherever and Edina is trying to convince Saffron (her daughter) to smoke weed with her… hilarious!! My friend and I still act out that scene when we’re drunk.

Today I threw out a can of Spaghettios that had an expiration date of 2005. I know Matt has eaten things even older than that and is still among the living, but I’m just not like that.

So, what’s the oldest or weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten? I’ve just gotten into sushi. Granted, it’s basically the fake kind that doesn’t use raw fish, but that still counts in my mind.

Regarding Home Improvement being on Nick At Nite: No sir, I don’t like it. For God’s sake, they’ve been showing it in syndication for years already. Do we really need it on cable too?

I mean, I’d be alright with N@N going in a different direction if TV Land was any good, but the sad fact is that it sucks. I mean, with such a huge amount of shows to choose from, the only thing they seem to show is stuff like Bonanza! Come on! Where’s Taxi? The Mary Tyler Moore Show? Get Smart?

Also, this is nitpicky but I don’t like the new logo, either. It just doesn’t fit. I can honestly see them ditching Nick At Nite in a few years and just letting Nickelodeon take over the whole damn thing.

If it hadn’t been for Nick At Nite when I was a kid, I would never have known such classic tv as The Munsters (my favorite show EVER!) or I Dream of Jeannie or Bewitched. Now that was classic tv. Now, while I liked Home Improvement when it was on and have been known to watch it when I’m bored, I do not consider it classic tv. It has at least another 10 years before it’ll even be close. Same goes for Roseanne.

I honestly don’t care if they put Home Improvement on BET, as long as they play the show later in the day where I can actually catch it, that’s all that matters to me.

It still (or may not now due to Nick at Nite picking it up) plays on WGN at 4 & 4:30 central time, but I work until 4 and miss most of the first episode, and that’s only when I turn the tv on first thing when I get home, which is rare my tv gets turned on anytime before 5:30 when The Simpsons comes on.

I do wish somebody would show Get Smart again. I would also like to see Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Gilligan’s Island, Honeymooners, Looney Tunes, and Merrie Melodies. Granted some of these play during the day, but in reality most people work a generic 9-5, mine being 7-4, and obviously aren’t home to see these shows.

Pink Panther cartoons, Woody Woodpecker shorts, and others like that would be nice to see again, too.

Personally, I’ve given up on television schedules improving anytime soon, and plan to just buy all those classic shows on DVD when I get the chance.

Special K I completely agree with you on Home Improvement and Roseanne. As well as Full House. They may be modern classics or whatever, but I don’t think Nick at Nite is the best home for them.

I they need to make a Generation X channel for those shows, as well as Cosby, Family Matters, Blossom, Saved By the Bell, etc… (including cartoons, Animaniancs, Rocko, Ren and Stimpy, and so on…) Leave Nick at Nite for the shows I mentioned above, along with Leave It to Beaver, Munsters, Addams Family, and others from the 50-70s era.

Annette I don’t care much for the new logo either, but that splatter reminds me of Double Dare which is a plus.

Of course I don’t work for Nick, nor while I ever, I’m sure, so what does my opinion matter?

Some of the classic cartoons like Merrie Melodies and Pink Panther are on Boomerang, although they’re starting to show more and more stuff from the last 10 years instead of the 30-50 year old stuff they were showing a couple of years ago.

Actually JLAJRC if you keep at it you might find yourself graduating past the California rolls into the honest to goodness fishiness. I know I did, anyway. If you like asparagus, Philadelphia rolls might be a good stepping stone into the fishy fray.
Hi James, welcome! kb, that made me laugh. Does he have practice playing tough from preschool or anything?

That is my goal as well, Annette, but it costs a fortune! But I guess that’s a fortune I’m willing to pay to watch a secret agent use his shoe phone. lol

Special K - OKC
Me - MWC
Jedoc - Norman
Kingklash - Can’t remember, somewhere further out from us I believe

And we haven’t met at Chuck E Cheese yet?! What is wrong with us?!?! I challenge all of you to a skeeball match!

If anyone has the American Life Network (I believe that is what it’s called) they play alot of the old, classic shows that used to play on N@N and TVLand. ION (formerly PAX) does the same thing.

Manimal, my husband’s cousin walked down the aisle at his wedding. He wanted to walk in to the death march from Star Wars and he got his wish.

When TV Land first started, it was awesome. They thrived on showing long forgotten shows. Their lineup kept changing, but it was great because they would show programs that didn’t have enough episodes for syndication, so there was no other hope of seeing them. I’m not sure when they became so watered down, but it sucks.

I loved Home Improvement when it was on, but it doesn’t stand the test of time for me. I can’t sit through an episode anymore. It’s kind of sad, really.

I would love to see an all 80’s tv channel with nothing but 80’s, sitcoms, movies cartoons, music videos and even 80’s commercials!!!!

just bought family ties season one and st. elsewhere season one. - does anyone else like these shows?

I used watch St. Elsewhere evry week when I was younger. I didn’t always understand it but I liked it! And I used to have the biggest crush on Mallory when Famiy Ties was on.

Hurrah! You can find old episodes of Two Stupid Dogs on YouTube! Proof positive that we’re living in some sort of futuristic wonderland. Well, that and Roombas.

Tales from the Darkside is one that I try and catch whenever SciFi does their typical 3-4 hour marathons. My favorite episode has always been the one with the trick-or-treater and the old man.

Tales from the Darkside for some unknown reason made me think of Rescue 911. I’d watch grainy re-runs of that.

I watch that, growing pains, whos the boss, step by step, the hogan family and family matters all the time still.. takes me back to middle school days.

fistpittingnork: I had completely forgotten about Rescue 911. I would gladly watch repeats of that and Unsolved Mysteries again. Always loved the UFO and Haunting mysteries Unsolved would run.

Cricket Ab Fab is the greatest! My friends and I quote it to each other all the time. One of my friends is obsessed with and owns it all on DVD and can quote like every word of every episode. You should have named your daughter Titikaka, or whatever Saffron’s Asian friend’s name is. She’s hilarious….Then again, there’s always Bubble.

djspacecase I had no idea there was a sequel to “Are You Being Served”! Or that there was ever a movie. Wow, I gotta check some of that out. Oh, and did you know Corin Nemic’s in a new movie about Richard Speck, the serial killer..direct to DVD of course.

fistpittingnork I used to love me some Double Dare back in the day, epecially the obstacle course. Family Ties was my show too. And I’m really digging that the Chiller Network is reruning Werewolf. It’s almost like a dream come true.

I DJ’d a wedding for some good friends of mine last year and they did the whole Star Wars thing. It was great. Right after the you-may-kiss-the-bride part, they turned to the audience, everyone clapped, and I pumped in the Star Wars music. Everyone started cheering and suddenly this guy stands up and does this great Wookie yell! Best wedding I’ve done ever.

Special K, I live in the god-forsaken town of Lexington. It’s about 20 miles south of Norman.

ok here’s a good question, who here has already bought candy corn, indian corn, or pumpkins? and for part b which of the three is the best? it’s a halloween candy staple. i just bought some today I was so excited to see autumn mix, I personally am partial to the pumpkins.

I usually hold off on punkins till about a week or two before Halloween on account of the rotting and everything. I have a punkin buying/carving ritual I do every year that involves taking pictures and listening to a cd of horror sound effects.

Out of the 3, which is the best? I don’t know, part of me wants to say candy corn, cause I loves me some candy corn, but I gotta go with punkins. Candy corn tastes great and all but you can’t make it look scary. Well, I guess you could, but I just can’t be bothered. I’m a little embarassed to say this being the Halloween junkie I am, but what the heck is indian corn?

AMC Quail Springs is going to be showing old movies! This weekend is Back to the Future. It’s pretty damn expensive to go to the night shows, but the morning ones are looking good.

I can’t help but suddenly get into the Halloween mood a little bit now, because I’ve listened the Michael Jackson’s Thriller album twice in one day..

Annette thanks for the news! I wasn’t aware of this. The Shining on the 26th? Awesome!

I’ve got an interview this afternoon for a job doing librarian-style work in a historical documents archive on campus. The job interview includes a spelling test, which is making me giddy with joy. I mean, the bad news is that I appear to be a massive geek, but the good news is that the world seems to be going along with it.

I call my wife ‘Mrs Robinson’ as a reference to the Graduate. She takes it in stride as she is 7 years my senior and gets an extra chuckle considering her mom named her after the daughter in the movie.

Underrated tv series => Viper… man when that car changed from standard to defender mode the hair on my arms stood up…

I’m in Anadarko, the county seat for Caddo County. Indian Corn is also known as Witch’s Teeth and is the brown, yellow, and orange variant, and usually tastes of chocolate. One of my nephews loves candy corn, and he really loves the stuff that comes out around Hallowe’en. That is when it tastes the best, he claims. I have to agree. MMmmmmm….. candy corn and mallowcreme pumpkins……

Wow, didn’t realize there are so many Okies posting here!(I’m in Moore/OKC) Sounds like Matt need to go on tour and come visit us!!!

While you are working on Halloween. You could be getting a jump on Xmas as well. I was at my local Target and saw they already have the Playmobil Advent calenders out. They had two in fact

Have you turned the crank on their Halloween jack-in-the boxes? It plays the Ghostbusters theme.

FOB Danny: because I was stressed out to the max last weekend helping his mother prepare for her wedding, my sweet and wonderful fiance snuck off to Wal-Mart and brought me back a back of mellowcreme pumpkins. We ate the whole bag in two days. In my opinion, the pumpkins are by far the best, but they seem to have a very different flavor from the candy corn. And I don’t care for the feeling of small triangles in my mouth.

Annette: sounds like an X-E Oklahoma field trip if you ask me! With enough planning, I’m convinced we could all meet on October the 19th for Friday the 13th! How X-E is that?! (Does it make me a nerd that I’ve uttered that phrase more than once in real life…?)

That sounds like all kinds of win, but I’m hoping to God I’m not still here in October: my fiance is in Texas and by all rights, I should be there with him right now. :\ But I would like to meet up with some people sometime.

I’m actually hoping to go see my fav 80s movie ever this weekend there, Back to the Future, but hopefully I can find somebody to go with me as the lady is getting her “hurr did” so that’s out and nobody else I hang out with is that nerdy to go see a movie that comes on TBS 10 times a day.

Of course I’m the geek of my group anyway, somebody tells me I’ll be the only one in my group tonight at Oktoberfest wearing a Marvel shirt and Nintendo boxers. I will also mention I’ve used “X-E” in that same context, Special K

Any of you Okies heading out to Oktoberfest tonight? If so, I’ll be the dude wearing a green Marvel t-shirt, come up and say hi if you see me. Look for me standing in the beer and food lines.

You know, I even proof-read that last post and I STILL f’ed up. “somebody tells me” = “something tells me”.

Sorry guys for always doing this. Matt’s going to start charging me rent before too long.

Honestly, I can’t really go anywhere because I only have 20 bucks to my name and no car.

I’m sure somebody here remembers Jello 1-2-3. I think I may have found a product that’s the exact same thing. It’s called Trio Treat by Dr. Oetker and it looks pretty similar! I am so excited!!!

God. Abc is showing the weirdest charlie brown ever second only to that one where linus’ girlfriend gets cancer.

I remember that that one, when Linus’s girlfriend has cancer. That was so depressing. That and when Snoopy ran away. Was that the same one? Which ever one it was I had to fake something in my eye to hide sissy tears when I was 7.

As for under rated shows I must go with Dexer’s Lab. For some reason I love that show. Especially when they slowly move their eyes to the raise of a violin note.

Thanks for the heads up on the Charlie Brown. I’ll have to throw that on to record. I’m going out to see Shoot ‘Em Up now. The reviews seem to be either love it or hate it, so hopefully it’s good. Anybody know anything about that new slasher movie Hatchet? I heard the director talking about it on the radio and it sounded really interesting.
Something new I’ve learned today: It is virtually impossible to leave the house when “The Hot Tub” episode of Seinfeld is playing. That wake up guy was trouble!

As is my obsession come September, I was at Target today checking out how their Halloween section is coming along (almost complete w00t), and these immediately struck my eye.
Ghost Dots! Click my name to see a scanned box.
I am without a working camera right now, so there are no pics of the actual candies and I didn’t think smashing one into my scanner would do the translucent little blobs justice. As that ol’ Homestar Runner cartoon said, “They taste the same, but look different!”

I am getting anxious for Target this coming week. I think I may just buy an early edition of the Sunday paper tomorrow to see if they have anything in the ad.

Went to Party City and Michael’s tonight and I’m even more jazzed about Halloween than usual now. I was like a kid in a candy store with hardly enough money to enjoy it, but I’m going to start getting stuff soon. I got word yesterday that I got the job I applied for last week and they want me to start training next weekend. It means moving back to Columbia (an hour and a half away), but I can get back to my dj’ing duties including my radio show so I’m pretty jazzed about that.

While all the Oakies are forming your own little Oakie army, I gotta ask, are there any more South Carolinians out there or am I the only one here?

fistpittingnork Be not ashamed of your geekness. I at one time owned over 2500 comic books before I made the terrible mistake of selling most of them. I’m slowly building that collection back up and have no problem with it. I too share your love of “Back to the Future”. That’s one of my can-just-about-quote-every-stupid-line-of-it movies. God, to see that on a big screen now would be pretty sweet!

Late to the obscure show party, but I just remembered one show that lasted maybe 5 or so episodes that has stuck in my mind for years. It was called ‘Quest’ and consisted of five or so people who were selected by some rich (possibly dead) guy to complete a treasure hunt throughout the world. The main thing I remember is that John Rhys-Davies was the butler-type guy running the contest.

I hated ‘Snoopy Come Home’, which was the one where Snoopy’s former owner had cancer so he ran away to go see her. Every time I’ve ever seen it I friggin’ cried at the end…and I usually LIKE shows that make me cry. I think I was mad at Snoopy for being a disloyal little bastard.

Oh, btw, I notice that neither of the new Advent Calendars seems to have a Santa…

Wow, I don’t remember these episodes you guys are talking about but you’re starting to make me see Snoopy in a whole new light. Jeez…You keep this up and I’ll start looking at him the same way I look at Scrappy Doo, that obnoxious little bastard. On second thought….no, I don’t think I could ever hate Snoopy that much.

I am so ignorant of this whole Advent Calender thing. I’ve only just discovered what one was from reading X-E. What’s the origin of the tradition. Is it related to the Adventists (just guessing there)? Is it a Catholic thing? I don’t have a clue. But I gotta say, you’re making me want to go out and get one. They look like a lot of fun.

Scrappy-Doo deserves some credit. Valid that “Puppey Power” is the cheesiest line in Scooby history, Scrappy has helped the Scoobs get out of some pretty awkward situations.

I’m sorry, but just try and tell me this isn’t awesome with a straight face;

Ok, I’ll give you that he’s pretty brave and has a huge set of “kibbles and bits”, but I still say that his arrival on the scene officially marks the “jumping of the shark” of all things Scooby related.

And I wasn’t kidding about the whole Advent Calender thing. Can anybody clue me in on if there’s any significance or symbolism to it?

From Wikipedia: The origins of the Advent calendar come from German Lutherans who, at least as early as the beginning of the 19th century, would count the days of Advent physically…In December, 1839, the first verifiable public Advent wreath was hung in the prayer hall of the Rauhes Haus (relief house) in Hamburg, although it had been a family practice in parts of German-speaking Europe since the 17th century.

Sort of on topic, but not really–when I was a kid, every year we used to get a December calendar that had Santa’s face on the top half and the bottom half was the calendar and it was in place of his beard. Every day of the month you would glue a cotton ball on the square for the day and when the month was over you had a big Santa head with a square shaped cotton ball beard. Good times.

Also, I used to be able to decorate the apartment we lived in from top to bottom with loads of Halloween decorations but then later my mom got super religious and wouldn’t allow it. To this day she thinks anything and everything Halloweenish is of the Devil and I get constantly reminded of how I’m going to hell for celebrating it.

Imagine the Hell of being 6 years old and not being allowed to Trick-or-Treat or attend your 1st grade Halloween party because of your religious parents.
I can only remember going trick-or-treating twice before the parents went nuts.

Man, that really sucks. Somebody above mentioned something about forcing their kids to go trick-or-treating (might have been you-I don’t remember), and I totally second that! I don’t have kids, but if and when I do they are so gonna love them some Halloween.

My earliest memory of Halloween is dressing up for Kindergarten as Yoda. I remember the rubber band on the mask kept breaking and the costume was like 16 sizes too big.

Blarg. Parents who don’t let their kids do Halloween stuff for religious reasons just angries up my blood. Not because I have anything against religiosity, mind you, but because it just shows such a determined lack of both common sense and historical awareness.

I mean, if you read up on the history of Halloween and the history of Christmas, they’re startlingly similar. Both take place on what had been major pagan holidays, as a sort of concession to the people they were trying to convert. Both retain all kinds of pagan symbols and traditions, for mostly the same reason. And both have been enmeshed in secular society for so long that they’re perfectly capable of standing on their own no matter what you believe spiritually.

The only real difference that I can see is that Christmas is the celebration of the Nativity, which is something more or less everyone can get behind, whereas Halloween-as an extension of All Saint’s Day-relies on a theology that some later Protestant sects wished to distance themselves from, particularly the whole sainthood bit. So when you’ve got whole denominations not celebrating a holiday, you’ve got generations of parents trying to explain to their kids why they don’t get to dress up like a Power Ranger and score free candy, and eventually you get to our present sorry state.

And the worst part is that in this case, I’m not confident that education will help. Based on some people I’ve known, this information is just as likely to make them take away Christmas instead of restoring Halloween.

Sorry, I know this isn’t really the sort of discussion this board is for, and I really don’t mean to offend anyone. But it just irks me that so many people have a perfectly good 2000 year span of quirky, fascinating history with which they can calibrate their beliefs, and they seem to be content to ignore it all.

I learned a long time ago that, sadly, many people in the world decide what they want to believe and then decide that anything in opposition to that belief -historically or even religously ‘accurate’ as it may be- is wrong in their eyes. It all comes down to who taught them or how they learned those said beliefs. I just wish they would also do a lesson on how to respect other’s ideals and beliefs as well….

As someone who is both a Christian and heavily into mythology, I feel like I should weigh in on the topic.
For me personally, there are few things I like better than a good old-fashioned Halloween season complete with costumes and candy, even at 26. And there are a lot of so-called Christians who are completely ignorant and damage their children much deeper than the simple social shame of not trick-or-treating, but it is, nonetheless, their choice.
Others may not be as ignorant - they may know the history and still believe that it is simply not an activity that they want their children to participate in, and are not fanatics about it.

The thing about the Christian faith is, it’s mysterious and constantly evolving, and needing to be reinterpreted for each generation; they have a choice, then - just as we all choose to celebrate it - to not be involved. Ignorant or not. I’m not offended by anything anyone has said - in fact I’m mostly in agreement. Just my two cents.

I would like to chime in on this suddenly serious subject.
The past 2-3 years, I have felt more conflict about celebrating Halloween. I was raised in a Baptist church and still live in the Bible Belt. I dressed up and went trick or treating every year and even went as the Grim Reaper to our church’s fall festival in 1989 .
But Halloween has changed in a lot of people (i.e. Christian’s) minds.
My parents are more religious now than there were when I was a kid so they do not “do” Halloween anymore but they don’t give me static about dressing my kids or our yearly Halloween Party at my in-laws (no, we don’t dress up but we do decorate).
I think as I grow older and as a Social Studies teacher, I tend to look at what Halloween means. The biggest conclusion that I can come to is that it is a way to deal with death which we are all ambivalent about (if not terrified). This past year, Mrs. Manimal’s uncle lost his battle to cancer and his death is a shadow on this year’s Halloween Party. Ghosts, tombstones (even funny ones), etc. are unfortunate reminders to a mourning widow and 3 college-aged children he left behind.

One of the basic tennants of Christianity is that the old “be in the world and not OF the world” and there can be no more blatant example of this than a celebration of death, blood, scary stuff, and evil (???).
Think about all the stuff that goes along with Halloween: Is any of it positive? You got Jason and Freddy slicing people up, eyeballs in stew, etc.

A lot of this stuff is regional too. I know a lot of people in different parts of the country will have a different perception if you are not a Southerner. I am guessing that a lot of areas outside the South will laugh or be full of contempt for the sentiments down here. Well, there is not much I can do about that. CLICK MY NAME FOR INSIGHTFUL CENSUS DATA

But then you look at the historical roots (see Jedoc and Shuanfu’s posts above) and one thinks about just the campy Americana and commericialization of it all. Shouldn’t those traditions be perserved? Are we going to subject to the tyranny of a select minority?? This is a capitalist country and there is a lot of money to be made and jobs created due to the black and orange shenanigans of late October. What would happen if Halloween went away?

So many issues. This is why the Christmas controvesies are so much simplier. Pro-”Merry Christmas” or Pro-”Happy Holidays”. Pro-Nativity scene or anti-Nativity scene. Again, Christmas is a celebration of something positive whether you believe in it or not. Halloween…the burden is heavier.

Sorry to come off so heavy but I don’t have a blog or a diary so this is my stream of conciousness on the topic of Halloween today. What say you X-Ers?

1. After the part where I say “death which we are all ambivalent about”, I meant to bring the point home that Halloween is a way to laugh or deal with death. Same way we laugh at F13 kills; it’s a way to deal with the horrific images that for some reason are entertaining.
TERRIBLE BUT TRUE STORY: We went to go see SCHINDLER’S LIST on a school field trip. I was a sophomore and we sat by the senior guys who made jokes the whole time. Now I understand that that was their way of detaching and not choosing to cope with the seriousness of the subject matter.

Maybe that’s what Halloween is all about: It’s a way to cope with mortality. Or it could be about candy; who the hell knows?

2. After reading Lori’s post, I guess I should have insisted on FALCO for my wedding.

Manimal - Good to see that there are other people who actually think things through before subscribing wholeheartedly to one belief or another. Halloween, as far as I am concerned, is subjective; for some it is about all of the grim stuff, for others it’s about candy…one of my friends only lets her kids go as “good” characters (though her 5-yo got to go as Darth Vader this year, claiming complexity of character).
Plus, once again, it comes down to parental responsibility - you have the final say in what your kids are exposed to about the holidays. I love that you went as the Grim Reaper to church, I will be laughing about that for days.

One time, at a younger age, I was forced to attend Church around October. They decided to tell us about how Halloween was rooted in evil and that the Devil was using it to play some smoke and mirrors on us.

The ignorance made me puke, and I never went back to Church. Never will. Hail Satan!

Manimal
I concur with Jessica Marie. You must decide what you feel is right. As some may or may not know, I am in the process of becoming a Nazarene Pastor/Chaplain and I’ve been attending seminary for a couple years. That said, you can research my Wesleyan background for theological views if you wanna know where this is coming from. That said, I love Halloween, and have since long before my conversion (was not raised Christian). There may have been some nefarious purpose long ago, but the great/bad thing about capitalism is it tends to crush the meaning and life out of EVERYTHING until it’s just a cash exchange. Bad for Xmas, Good for the Ween. In my opinion, Halloween’s negative purposes were robbed of effectiveness by Christians and then killed off by Wal-Mart selling cheap costumes. In my opinion, does it celebrate spooks/zombies/evil magic? Perhaps, to an extent. But these forces are seen as impotent in our age.
[Begin Pastor Mode]
That said, as a Christian I believe the Spirit leads us and convicts us in the way we should go. Seek your answer in prayer and listen to the conviction God lays on you.
[End Pastor Mode]

But that’s the thing: I don’t like feeling conflicted.
We ARE having the Halloween party, E. Claire and Allie ARE dressing up and going trick-or-treating, I will probably decorate my classroom again this year like I have the 3 previous years (although I can see some angry mamas running up on me with that someday and ending it).
I am usually pretty decisive and know what I believe and how I feel about things. This is the one issue that really bothers me because I LOVE HALLOWEEN but…
Another thing is now that E.Claire is 2.5, she is getting scared by all of the Halloween stuff in the stores. I tell her it’s okay and all in good fun but…
but
but
but
“Everybody I know has a big but. C’mon Simone, let’s talk about your big but.”

Cole, I was raised Nazarene but have since drifted away from it into Non-Denominational Land. I know that all Nazarenes can’t be as crazy as the ones I grew up with– going to the movies means you’re going to hell? I’m sorry, no.

Anyway, I already said this but I didn’t get to do many Halloween-y things as a kid either. :( I plan on making up for that when I have kids.

With all this talk of religion and Halloween, I have decided that I am going to put my ordained minister-ness to use and start a Halloween religion.
Not with any paganism or Satanism or even any spiritual beliefs at all.

1. Wait all year for Halloween.
2. Go apeshit when September rolls around.
3. Come November first, repeat step 1.

*kicks soapbox out of the way, and stands with one foot on Jack O’Lantern, one on goofy paper-mache skull, and holds styrofoam tombstones in one arm like Ten Commandments, with witch’s broom in other arm*

Good afternoon, boils and ghouls. I go by the name kingklash ’round these parts, and I was born on November first, in the year of our Lord, Nineteen-hundred and Sixty-nine. On the Day of All Saints, for which the Eve of All Hallows was named. I am a self described “Lapsed Baptist” and staunch defender of Hallowe’en. The above postings have covered many valid points in overall atitude in favor of one of my favorite holidays, so all I can offer is a personal perspective.
Even though I am born and bred Baptist (chicken and rolls every First Sundy), I wa also raised in certain ethnic traditions,some Choctaw, some Arapaho (dad’s side), but mostly Comanche and Kiowa (mom’s side, as we live mostly in the area), and we were taught certain things about the spiritual side of our world. I could go into a deep, anthropological and historic description that sounds like so much new age rhetoric, but I’ll just quote my Comanche Grandmother: Only bad people have anything to fear from ghosts. The way we were brought up, God gave us certain dominions which include being able to tell the spirits to bug off. So, what kind of lessons is your church giving if you think movie monsters and foam fubber body parts is a E-ticket to Hell? My Faith, my Church, my God, and my Heritage make me stronger than any thing that shambles out of the graveyard. Dressing up as a spook is saying, “This is all you mean to me. Now take a piece of candy and go back to your hole, you knucklehead.” Now they can’t be too smart if costumes stared off as a way to confuse bad spirits, don’t you think? Now, watch this drive…

*jumps back, and uses broom to whack the heck out of the skull, breaking it open, scattering candy and toys all over X-E.*

Well, if I go by what I’ve seen in my college years, then Halloween is the holiday when all the girls can get away with dressing like a slut.

When can’t girls get away with dressing like sluts?
Not that I’m complaining.

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience. Have you heard of our money back denomination guarantee? No, just kidding, that doesn’t exist. Actually, from what I hear, that all changed in 1986, as my wife went to see Willow as the first movie they could see. The old school reason was movies are bad mmkay? But now they’ve chilled. Movies good.

And there’s a big difference in “Maybe you shouldn’t do X, Y or Z” and “You’ll go to hell.” We Nazarenes just have a code we try to live up to, but it doesn’t have much to do with the “Final Destination”. Trying to keep it halloweeny, folks, I’m trying.

And come to my church, I’m not crazy. I’ll let ya know when I get hired. BTW - folks are in Tulsa, for you XE Okies. I consider myself an XE Okie also.

I grew up in a very conservative Baptist family and I totally see where people are coming from on this argument. I have no desire to weigh in on the subject because I am hungry and a bag of glow in the dark wrapped Fun Size Snickers is really all I can think about.

Look how normal we are, talking about religion and not killing one another. Inspiring.
Manimal - I know exactly what you mean about not wanting to feel conflicted; I am such a black-and-white person, but if there’s one thing I’ve been dealing with lately it’s the greyness of the mystery of God and faith. Makes me miss Catholic school. Except for the dress code.

Well, glad we got that all sorted out. Next: Thanksgiving. Harmless nationalistic holiday, or demonic orgy of balloon idolatry?

look at this link you guys, this is a Nickelodeon cooler I bought at goodwill for a dollar last weekend copyright 1991, it’s a small kids cooler, pretty neat! Thought you would appreciate it.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a55/Goobian/Picture174.jpg

Goob: Oh, holy crap. My best friend had that as a lunch box in first grade. I only had the three channels at home, and Nickelodeon was this magical faraway land of green slime and vaguely naughty cartoons.

His family had satellite, which is why his lunch box had a sombrero-wearing surfer dinosaur thing on the front and mine was tan and had a picture of a cotton boll on it. My uncle got it for free from a company that sold him defoliant or some damn thing.

Ironically, not only did I hit the soft-sided lunch box fad several years too early to do me any good, but a 70s era brown cooler with a picture of cotton on it would have been unbelievably hip and ironic in high school. I was ahead of my time, that was my problem.

Wow, that’s a groovy cooler. A friend of mine gave me this sort of tote case/carryon type of thing (kind of hard to explain with showing the picture). It’s got a handle of course and buckles like what you would find on a briefcase, but it’s all soft. Anyways, it’s a good 20 years old and has a rockin’ picture of Optimus Prime on the front of it. She said she found it at a thrift store and automatically thought of me. I’m going to use it to carry all my sketches and things in.

A few years ago I mentioned to another friend in passing that I at one time had a grey Members Only jacket that got lost when I moved and that I kind of missed it. Not a week later she randomly shows up at my door without warning and carrying–sure enough–a grey Member’s Only jacket exactly like my old one that she said she found at a thrift store. I’ve got the best friends ever!

p.s…How come I’m getting the “Slow down cowboy” message and this is like the only one I’ve posted in the last few hours? Weird, that.

awww Jedoc if you lived nearby it would be yours, I mean a buck’s a buck. It’s not worth sending cross country though.

and DJ D Cool stories. That sounds like an awesome bag you have. I want a retro jacket, those with the rainbow on it, around the shoulders you know what I mean? On that 70’s show they got to wear some cool threads.

I actually work at a Michaels.
The Halloween stuff went out the start of July. There’s Christmas stuff out at ours.

I get to do the demos for thing. Flaming knives to crave foam pumpkins. Hot Knife: How is that not amazing?

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