If you grew up in the 80's you still have some favorite music you still listen to from the 80's but you also have some favorite music videos you still remember because when we were kids MTV was actually Music Television. One of the most memorable videos was Take On Me by Aha. Not only was the video pretty darn cool and won a bunch of awards but the song itself was an international sensation and went #1 in 9 countries and the Top 7 in 7 more.
AHa - Take On Me from Eian Aldrich on Vimeo.
So enjoy this 1985 classic and feel free to sing along..cause you know you can't not.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
80's on the 18th....St Patrick's Day
A lot has changed since my days of having my 1 item of green clothing picked out for days leading up to March 17th only to forget it and end up having to wear a green piece of construction paper pinned to my shirt. They say the more things change the more they stay the same but I still attempt to wear that 1 item of green clothing; though I no longer make it bright green or claim the green grapes on my Fruit of the Looms to be my green escape card just in case I forgot again. That being said I have never participated in the partaking of drinking green beer or eating green eggs (only do that on Dr. Seuss's birthday) or got stupefied on Bailey's & Jamison. So yeah things are basically still the same.
It's too bad kids are missing out on St. Patrick's day parties with green cupcakes & punch, shamrocks and leprechauns but in today's fun hating political correctness school system they just have to suck it up cause they're there to learn period. Oh well at least McDonalds still has Shamrock Shakes; well until March 31st.
I actually sent a text to a friend who whole heartedly lives out being Irish on St. Patrick's Day...Jamison Whiskey, kilt the whole 9 yards. I sent him the message at 8:30 AM to tell him that he was living a farce because St. Patrick wasn't even Irish he was British. He replied with words I can not repeat here so he either 1. had been drinking for a few hours already or 2. hadn't been drinking long enough. He did break his phone at some point during the day so hopefully it wasn't my shedding light on his lack of understanding of his Irish heritage but oh well there's always next year so I'll remind him again then.
I know kids today still make an effort to wear their green so they don't get pinched. Luckily I've blessed my kids into being Eagles fans so they can wear their Eagles gear and have this day covered. Though nowadays every MLB, NBA & NFL team has special green St. Patrick's day gear to go along with their pink Breast Cancer awareness swag. But for the majority of people it's sadly just become another excuse to take a day off and party and who better to promote that than the pubs & bars.
Did you have a favorite item of green clothing you wore as a kid to keep everyone from pinching you?
It's too bad kids are missing out on St. Patrick's day parties with green cupcakes & punch, shamrocks and leprechauns but in today's fun hating political correctness school system they just have to suck it up cause they're there to learn period. Oh well at least McDonalds still has Shamrock Shakes; well until March 31st.
I actually sent a text to a friend who whole heartedly lives out being Irish on St. Patrick's Day...Jamison Whiskey, kilt the whole 9 yards. I sent him the message at 8:30 AM to tell him that he was living a farce because St. Patrick wasn't even Irish he was British. He replied with words I can not repeat here so he either 1. had been drinking for a few hours already or 2. hadn't been drinking long enough. He did break his phone at some point during the day so hopefully it wasn't my shedding light on his lack of understanding of his Irish heritage but oh well there's always next year so I'll remind him again then.
I know kids today still make an effort to wear their green so they don't get pinched. Luckily I've blessed my kids into being Eagles fans so they can wear their Eagles gear and have this day covered. Though nowadays every MLB, NBA & NFL team has special green St. Patrick's day gear to go along with their pink Breast Cancer awareness swag. But for the majority of people it's sadly just become another excuse to take a day off and party and who better to promote that than the pubs & bars.
Did you have a favorite item of green clothing you wore as a kid to keep everyone from pinching you?
Sunday, March 13, 2011
The Bracketmaster
That's what they used to call me. I was a calculated risk taker, a college basketball genius or more likely an idiot savant as I wove myself into the history books of March Madness back in 2002 on that fateful selection Sunday as I filled out my brackets.
Many of us...ok many of us men...will be glued to the TV sets this afternoon as college basketball conference championship tournaments wrap up and as teams across the nation sit on the edge of their bubble waiting to hear their names called to know they made the big dance. March Madness got its name for a reason. Not only is it maddening for teams to try and figure out if they've made the NCAA tournament but also what seed they are going to get and what region they'll be shipped off to and eventually have to face a favored team on their home court...sorry a little Michigan St vs Iowa State flash back that is still a bitter pill to swallow slipped out there. But the tournament itself can also be madness as the little schools that could attempt to knock off the Goliaths of basketball. The Richmonds, Santa Claras, Coppin States and yes even the Hamptons of the world (a 2nd tough ISU pill to swallow) know that anything can happen if the ball bounces their way a few times. Some fo the greatest moments in sports history happen in the NCAA basketball tournament. Last second 3/4 court passes for turn around jumpers, length of the court dashes for lay ups and left handed free throws in honor of a lost team mate. There would be more of these moments had the shots fallen but we as a society generally remember the winning moments...the game winning shots. Unless you're a Cyclone fan then you remember the lay up that rimmed out. So basically if you love college basketball then you love the NCAA tournament unless your team has a history of not making it then you might love it even more because you are not emotionally invested.
But we all become emotionally invested when we fill out our brackets. Some of us may just enter the office pool for a buck or two and forget who we even picked and usually just take the highest seed if all else fails because you weren't even aware Weber State or Sienna were even colleges let alone had basketball teams. Others get invited into pools by their buddies and end up entering one in their name, their wife's, brother's kid's and maybe even their dogs with as many scenarios they can think of with each having a different one of the favorites winning. Gotta cover all your bases. Some may have what is called a sheet of integrity and go with 1 outcome but could be entered into various pools. Others yet enter every free bracket challenge on the Internet...from ESPN to CBS Sportsline, Fox Sports, Sports Illustrated, Yahoo and Sportingnews. My apologizes to the several hundred others I left off as these were just a few of the ones I could remember my passwords for.
I fall into that last category if you hadn't figured it out. Mainly from what happened in 2002 as I'm trying to recapture the glory I obtained by winning the national Sportingnews.com bracket challenge. I got the 1099C to prove it as the computer I won has since died. I still remember calling my wife to tell her "dude we're getting a Dell". You remember those commercials right? My winning should have given me a free ticket to enter any fantasy sports or challenge for every sport imaginable but I guess someone forgot to tell my wife.
I remember entering a few times into this particular bracket challenge but there was 1 entry I was particularly proud of because I knew it'd be the one that no one else would enter; not even the Missouri fans had this much faith in their team. The way this challenge worked was what ever seed the team was given (1-16) got multiplied by the round they were playing in. So you basically get bonus points for picking the lower seeds winning...the higher number is the lower seed. I know it's backwards but that's the way it is. Here's how this all played out.
I had watched Missouri in the Big 12 throughout the year and had to put aside by disdain for Quinn Snyder and his used car salesman look because the team got hot in the conference tournament and I had a feeling they were going to make some noise. Then when they got the 12 seed I was beginning to question my gut feeling but I stuck with it after reading the rules on this bracket challenge. I almost picked the West region perfect. My only miss was UCLA upsetting Cincinnati which actually helped me out with Missouri then upsetting UCLA in the 3rd round (sweet 16). This was after Missouri had upset Miami in the 1st round and then Ohio State in the 2nd round only to fall to Oklahoma losing out on a chance to go to the Final 4. So I nailed 3 of the 4 Final 4 teams and I was thinking this is cool I'm in the top 1%. I remember hearing an interview on the local sports radio of a college kid at ISU that was in 1st going into the sweet 16 and he ended up tanking the 2nd half...that's what you get for being a Duke fan I guess which is why I always have them losing at some point. Most people had Kansas, Duke or Cincinnati winning it all that year. But in that championship game I was a Terp
During the game I figured I'd check the rankings and see how everyone was sitting. I got through the 1st couple pages of standings and none of them had Maryland winning the championship so I began to think I might have my best finish ever. Then after what was an extremely low scoring game I started looking even closer. I didn't think it could be right but it was looking like I was going to finish 2nd in the country. I stayed up for hours checking and double checking the math. How much longer till it updated? Finally there it was for all the world to see I finished 2nd in the country. But then later that day I got an email informing me I would be bumped to the top spot because the winner was not of age so was disqualified. So even though it was by default I had won. I remember even trying to tell them I would be leaving on vacation to get them to send me the forms I had to fill out earlier but nope they sent it as they had planned. We got a ton of use out of that Dell and upgraded video cards several times....we still actually use the monitor on our new computer today.
Unfortunately I have been unable to capture the success I did during that fateful run of the tournament and I continually tank it before the sweet 16 is up. Don't get me wrong; since then I have picked a perfect region every year but it's the other 3 that tend to give me problems.
Sorry I gotta cut this short all the Bracketology shows are on and then it's time to enter as many tournament challenges as I can.
Many of us...ok many of us men...will be glued to the TV sets this afternoon as college basketball conference championship tournaments wrap up and as teams across the nation sit on the edge of their bubble waiting to hear their names called to know they made the big dance. March Madness got its name for a reason. Not only is it maddening for teams to try and figure out if they've made the NCAA tournament but also what seed they are going to get and what region they'll be shipped off to and eventually have to face a favored team on their home court...sorry a little Michigan St vs Iowa State flash back that is still a bitter pill to swallow slipped out there. But the tournament itself can also be madness as the little schools that could attempt to knock off the Goliaths of basketball. The Richmonds, Santa Claras, Coppin States and yes even the Hamptons of the world (a 2nd tough ISU pill to swallow) know that anything can happen if the ball bounces their way a few times. Some fo the greatest moments in sports history happen in the NCAA basketball tournament. Last second 3/4 court passes for turn around jumpers, length of the court dashes for lay ups and left handed free throws in honor of a lost team mate. There would be more of these moments had the shots fallen but we as a society generally remember the winning moments...the game winning shots. Unless you're a Cyclone fan then you remember the lay up that rimmed out. So basically if you love college basketball then you love the NCAA tournament unless your team has a history of not making it then you might love it even more because you are not emotionally invested.
But we all become emotionally invested when we fill out our brackets. Some of us may just enter the office pool for a buck or two and forget who we even picked and usually just take the highest seed if all else fails because you weren't even aware Weber State or Sienna were even colleges let alone had basketball teams. Others get invited into pools by their buddies and end up entering one in their name, their wife's, brother's kid's and maybe even their dogs with as many scenarios they can think of with each having a different one of the favorites winning. Gotta cover all your bases. Some may have what is called a sheet of integrity and go with 1 outcome but could be entered into various pools. Others yet enter every free bracket challenge on the Internet...from ESPN to CBS Sportsline, Fox Sports, Sports Illustrated, Yahoo and Sportingnews. My apologizes to the several hundred others I left off as these were just a few of the ones I could remember my passwords for.
I fall into that last category if you hadn't figured it out. Mainly from what happened in 2002 as I'm trying to recapture the glory I obtained by winning the national Sportingnews.com bracket challenge. I got the 1099C to prove it as the computer I won has since died. I still remember calling my wife to tell her "dude we're getting a Dell". You remember those commercials right? My winning should have given me a free ticket to enter any fantasy sports or challenge for every sport imaginable but I guess someone forgot to tell my wife.
I remember entering a few times into this particular bracket challenge but there was 1 entry I was particularly proud of because I knew it'd be the one that no one else would enter; not even the Missouri fans had this much faith in their team. The way this challenge worked was what ever seed the team was given (1-16) got multiplied by the round they were playing in. So you basically get bonus points for picking the lower seeds winning...the higher number is the lower seed. I know it's backwards but that's the way it is. Here's how this all played out.
I had watched Missouri in the Big 12 throughout the year and had to put aside by disdain for Quinn Snyder and his used car salesman look because the team got hot in the conference tournament and I had a feeling they were going to make some noise. Then when they got the 12 seed I was beginning to question my gut feeling but I stuck with it after reading the rules on this bracket challenge. I almost picked the West region perfect. My only miss was UCLA upsetting Cincinnati which actually helped me out with Missouri then upsetting UCLA in the 3rd round (sweet 16). This was after Missouri had upset Miami in the 1st round and then Ohio State in the 2nd round only to fall to Oklahoma losing out on a chance to go to the Final 4. So I nailed 3 of the 4 Final 4 teams and I was thinking this is cool I'm in the top 1%. I remember hearing an interview on the local sports radio of a college kid at ISU that was in 1st going into the sweet 16 and he ended up tanking the 2nd half...that's what you get for being a Duke fan I guess which is why I always have them losing at some point. Most people had Kansas, Duke or Cincinnati winning it all that year. But in that championship game I was a Terp
During the game I figured I'd check the rankings and see how everyone was sitting. I got through the 1st couple pages of standings and none of them had Maryland winning the championship so I began to think I might have my best finish ever. Then after what was an extremely low scoring game I started looking even closer. I didn't think it could be right but it was looking like I was going to finish 2nd in the country. I stayed up for hours checking and double checking the math. How much longer till it updated? Finally there it was for all the world to see I finished 2nd in the country. But then later that day I got an email informing me I would be bumped to the top spot because the winner was not of age so was disqualified. So even though it was by default I had won. I remember even trying to tell them I would be leaving on vacation to get them to send me the forms I had to fill out earlier but nope they sent it as they had planned. We got a ton of use out of that Dell and upgraded video cards several times....we still actually use the monitor on our new computer today.
Unfortunately I have been unable to capture the success I did during that fateful run of the tournament and I continually tank it before the sweet 16 is up. Don't get me wrong; since then I have picked a perfect region every year but it's the other 3 that tend to give me problems.
Sorry I gotta cut this short all the Bracketology shows are on and then it's time to enter as many tournament challenges as I can.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
80's on the 8th.....the one thing I won't eat
I have to tell this story quite often on why I won't eat the one thing that I won't eat and it goes back to when I was a kid. I love food. I enjoying cooking but more importantly I can really pack it away to the point I probably could have joined the Major League Eating & International Federation of Competitive Eating League. Granted I might not have been at the same level of a Joey Chestnut or a Richard LeFevre but I could have held my own. I actually ate the Belly Buster at Rube's Steakhouse and got a free t-shirt out of the deal. Just think of John Candy in the Great Outdoors...minus the gristle. Though technically I ate more than the actual one because they were out of the 54oz version so I had to go with 2 28 oz sirloins. I even went back to the salad bar for more food while everyone else was still working on their petite steaks.
But back to what I won't eat but sticking with the movie theme. I have seen Funny Farm and I know what mountain oysters are but I have to say I have not been presented with that particular opportunity so I don't know if I would go through with that challenge or if I would make my list 2 things long on what I won't eat. So when I ask people before I eat something that has the appearance of a walnut (sometimes pecans are tricky that way) or something that traditionally has them in it the 1st question I get in return is Oh are you allergic? And my response is always the same....No they're just disgusting nasty vile things. Well no I don't always say that but pretty close and it usually paints a pretty good picture of my feelings towards them.
Now for the story behind my aversion to the dreaded walnut. As a kid my grandma lived in the country. On the property is a gravel pit that is still one of my favorite places to go and to bring my kids. The fishing is great but it mainly brings back a lot of great memories from my times spent there. There is only 1 negative thing about this bit of land and that is the insane amount of walnut trees in the grove. You're thinking ok what's so bad about walnuts? Well 1st off the name walnut means foreign nut if that ain't enough to describe them then I don't know what else could. The nice looking in the shell walnuts or the out of the shell nut itself you see in the store is not where my problem lies; it is with the husk that covers the shell. This nasty leathery greenish looking covering will stain everything it comes in contact with including your hands. It's powerful stuff that is even used as a fabric dye. Just try carrying around a 5 gallon bucket picking up rotting greenish brownish stinking nasty walnuts and see if you ever want to see let alone eat them again.
I can't look at a walnut without thinking of those times as a kid out in the woods wondering how many ticks I was going to have to have burned, smothered or yanked off me and just how long were my hands going to stay that color which just ruins my appetite. So I am quite alright with 7 layer bars becoming 6 layer bars, banana bread staying banana bread and brownies are for sure perfectly fine on their own. That's pretty much it in a nutshell....so to speak.
But back to what I won't eat but sticking with the movie theme. I have seen Funny Farm and I know what mountain oysters are but I have to say I have not been presented with that particular opportunity so I don't know if I would go through with that challenge or if I would make my list 2 things long on what I won't eat. So when I ask people before I eat something that has the appearance of a walnut (sometimes pecans are tricky that way) or something that traditionally has them in it the 1st question I get in return is Oh are you allergic? And my response is always the same....No they're just disgusting nasty vile things. Well no I don't always say that but pretty close and it usually paints a pretty good picture of my feelings towards them.
Now for the story behind my aversion to the dreaded walnut. As a kid my grandma lived in the country. On the property is a gravel pit that is still one of my favorite places to go and to bring my kids. The fishing is great but it mainly brings back a lot of great memories from my times spent there. There is only 1 negative thing about this bit of land and that is the insane amount of walnut trees in the grove. You're thinking ok what's so bad about walnuts? Well 1st off the name walnut means foreign nut if that ain't enough to describe them then I don't know what else could. The nice looking in the shell walnuts or the out of the shell nut itself you see in the store is not where my problem lies; it is with the husk that covers the shell. This nasty leathery greenish looking covering will stain everything it comes in contact with including your hands. It's powerful stuff that is even used as a fabric dye. Just try carrying around a 5 gallon bucket picking up rotting greenish brownish stinking nasty walnuts and see if you ever want to see let alone eat them again.
I can't look at a walnut without thinking of those times as a kid out in the woods wondering how many ticks I was going to have to have burned, smothered or yanked off me and just how long were my hands going to stay that color which just ruins my appetite. So I am quite alright with 7 layer bars becoming 6 layer bars, banana bread staying banana bread and brownies are for sure perfectly fine on their own. That's pretty much it in a nutshell....so to speak.
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