New Series: Rare Movies from the 80s

There were plenty of theatrically-released movies I enjoyed a child, like Condorman, Tron, Neverending Story, Explorers, and Cloak and Dagger, just to name a (very) few.

But some of my favorites were aired only on television, particularly the Disney Sunday Movie. I don’t remember which network aired them, but the show took a two-hour block on Sunday evenings. Sometimes they showed theatrical films; other times, they showcased some made-for-TV movies.

Some of these I consider essential parts of my childhood, and it surprises me many “triggers” I find for them in my life even now. For example, every time I have a breakfast sandwich from McDonalds, I’m reminded of a sequence of one of these cheesy movies.

So join me as I try to find as much information as I can on some of my favorites, and post about them as soon as I find enough info to make it entertaining and informative. Feel free to comment about your memories and favorites, as well.

An airplane etiquette tip for people with small kids

Now that we’re parents, we can officially criticize other parents — on legitimate grounds — for their poor parenting decisions and not be told, “Well, wait until YOU are a parent!”

For the sake of other passengers’ olfactory sanity, and as a gift to humanity in general, I can think of little or no reason that you should ever (EVER!!!) change your child’s POOPY diaper using the middle seat of your row.

Airlines went through all that hassle to install changing tables in at least one on-board lavatory for a reason. Deciding to wing it in your own seat is about as pleasant to the rest of us (even the ones with kids!) as if you yourself dropped your drawers and used the barf bag to do your own business out in the open because you’re too freakin’ lazy to go to the lavatory TWO ROWS BEHIND YOU.

Oi. Thank goodness for Rosanna’s French Vanilla Softlips chapstick, which make a great smelling salt in such cases.

Date on milk: expiration or sell-by date?

A topic of dinner tonight (positively thrilling conversation, here) was on the date stamped on milk cartons. Rosanna refuses to use milk when it within a couple of days of the date on the carton. She says it doesn’t smell bad but it doesn’t smell fresh.

I, on the other hand, don’t mind it if it’s not as fresh as it could be. To me, if it ain’t funky, it’s good to go.

But the main question: Is the date on milk cartons the “sell-by” date, or the expiration date?

What say you?

I’m Meeting The Beatles

We recently purchased The Beatles Stereo Box Set. I’ve known that The Beatles are regarded as the greatest band of all time, but I’m not familiar with the majority of their work.

It was Rosanna and her dad who really turned me on to them in the first place.

I’ll post some links to the songs I’m liking. It’s a shame that their work is still not downloadable digitally, which cost me an evening of importing.

Then there’s the album art, which I happened to find a great resource at IGN for this endeavor:

IGN: The Beatles Stereo Box Set Packaging

And yes, I figured with as much as I’ll be linking to Amazon, I might as well potentially make some money like Abraham Piper does. Poor seminary students need food, too!

Top Gun (NES) is hard even with an emulator

The advantage of using emulators to play through old NES and SNES games is that you can freeze your progress and revert right back to it.

For example, if you wanted to do something as pointless as make this jump in Super Mario Bros’ level 8-1 without getting the coins (who comes up with these ideas?), you could freeze your progress right before the jump and try it, and if you failed, you could “defrost” and it would return you right before the jump.

Basically, it’s like bookmarking your game. Anywhere.

So, this morning, I decided to play through a game I could never beat on the NES: Top Gun.

top_gun_nes_cover

Holy cow that game is impossible. I could get to the last level, but could never beat it.

Even with freezing and defrosting, this game proved to be one heckuva challenge before I beat it.

Anybody else beat this game back in the day?

A year-long funk of anemic writing

Have you ever gotten into a funk that’s lasted a while? You know, the kind where things that previously interested you didn’t hold your interest, and you couldn’t explain why?

I haven’t been writing as much as I used to, haven’t been reading as much as I ought to, and have not been able to understand why.

I’m glad to say that I think I’m coming out of that. Part of it was inspired by the fact that Rosanna got me a Kindle for Christmas, and also my break from school has allowed me to stop and think, “What do I want to be reading?” I’ve been reading so many required things that I’ve been doing hardly any pleasure reading outside of Harry Potter for the last year or so.

When I read, thoughts happen. Which means blogging happens.

So, thanks for reading my blog. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll post some more.