Saturday, August 18, 2007
Wheres ma vanilla bears at?
Cheers to my High School bros. I tried an appletini tonight in your honor, and then another.
It reminded of the "Girl drink drunk" skit from Kids in the Hall.
Now excuse me while I hang my pants on the back of the door so I can twosies.
BTW 200 posts...whoa!
It reminded of the "Girl drink drunk" skit from Kids in the Hall.
Now excuse me while I hang my pants on the back of the door so I can twosies.
BTW 200 posts...whoa!
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Oh...That's why
Have you ever known someone with a very awkward personality that has to have a reasonable explanation of its origin but is not readily apparent?
I met a boy at camp this summer, I'll change his name to Jick (Jasshole is too long) for the purposes of this BLOG.
Jick, most times, will not listen to what grown-up say. There are a number of reasons for this: 1-he needs to be right, 2-he wants to do what he wants to do. I was using every parental skill I had but was undercut by a softy-mom (or less tyrannical than me).
Halfway through camp 7 begs me to take the bus to camp rather than drive in a comfortable, air conditioned van with a DVD player and ample suspension. Boys find novelty in the darnedest places.
The bus had many amenities too: Back jarring bumps, arthritic flare-ups for those with the proper knees, deafening ambiance...everything you enjoyed as a child only now smaller, somehow, and more annoying. There was the hot bus driver-lady that is new since I was tortured by redneck ladies called maggot and guys named Ed whose hidden still one better not trip over unless they wanted to squeal like a pig.
The bus also carried Jick. Jick wanted all of the boys to pay attention to him. He did not accomplish this with antics but rather worldliness. He had a number of ways to do this. He talked about his Zune, PSP, DS Lite, PS3, XBOX, etc. at first I thought he was full of it but I later found out that he was indeed bragging about the things he did own. He talked, in detail, about a number of related technical aspects of gaming and computing. I had to school his superior ass when he said there were 100 bits in a byte. In a few aspects Jick is impressively smart and convincing.
Then he started to try to buy attention. He announced, "I have four rice krispy treats. Who wants one?" then proceeded to give and take them back based on some scale of friendship he must have thought was fair. Then he started talking about how much money he had on him, and how he was going to buy pop/soda/cokes for a bunch of people at camp. Silly me thought he was repaying a dept or doing a good turn. Nope. Another charming boy who I will call Merk came up to our group early that morning after we had arrived on the bus and said, "Some idiot is up at the coke machine buying everyone sodas." and he said this as only Merk can. That was morning one.
Morning two comes and goes and he tries to ensnare me with my opinion of who I think he should pick in his NBA 07 psp game.
Afternoon he has all of the kids in the back of the bus listening to him talk about all of the movies he watches. He explains to them that the rating system goes: G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17, X. Luckily he stopped there but then he starts to give examples of why certain movies where rated they way they were. I stopped the conversation before he could impart to 8 why Clearks 2 was R.
The last morning he simply listened to his Zune and sang Beatles songs, very loudly, all the way to camp. Luckily he didn't get to sing the Metallica playlist.
I came to realize that all this kid really wants, besides and iPhone, is to be loved. He tries so freakin' hard to fill whatever void he has with other people and things. He appreciates authority but doesn't know what to do when confronted with it. I'm not saying his family are bad people just bad at giving this boy real coping skills. I am judging them harshly, because I am a prick who knows Jick deserves better.
I met a boy at camp this summer, I'll change his name to Jick (Jasshole is too long) for the purposes of this BLOG.
Jick, most times, will not listen to what grown-up say. There are a number of reasons for this: 1-he needs to be right, 2-he wants to do what he wants to do. I was using every parental skill I had but was undercut by a softy-mom (or less tyrannical than me).
Halfway through camp 7 begs me to take the bus to camp rather than drive in a comfortable, air conditioned van with a DVD player and ample suspension. Boys find novelty in the darnedest places.
The bus had many amenities too: Back jarring bumps, arthritic flare-ups for those with the proper knees, deafening ambiance...everything you enjoyed as a child only now smaller, somehow, and more annoying. There was the hot bus driver-lady that is new since I was tortured by redneck ladies called maggot and guys named Ed whose hidden still one better not trip over unless they wanted to squeal like a pig.
The bus also carried Jick. Jick wanted all of the boys to pay attention to him. He did not accomplish this with antics but rather worldliness. He had a number of ways to do this. He talked about his Zune, PSP, DS Lite, PS3, XBOX, etc. at first I thought he was full of it but I later found out that he was indeed bragging about the things he did own. He talked, in detail, about a number of related technical aspects of gaming and computing. I had to school his superior ass when he said there were 100 bits in a byte. In a few aspects Jick is impressively smart and convincing.
Then he started to try to buy attention. He announced, "I have four rice krispy treats. Who wants one?" then proceeded to give and take them back based on some scale of friendship he must have thought was fair. Then he started talking about how much money he had on him, and how he was going to buy pop/soda/cokes for a bunch of people at camp. Silly me thought he was repaying a dept or doing a good turn. Nope. Another charming boy who I will call Merk came up to our group early that morning after we had arrived on the bus and said, "Some idiot is up at the coke machine buying everyone sodas." and he said this as only Merk can. That was morning one.
Morning two comes and goes and he tries to ensnare me with my opinion of who I think he should pick in his NBA 07 psp game.
Afternoon he has all of the kids in the back of the bus listening to him talk about all of the movies he watches. He explains to them that the rating system goes: G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17, X. Luckily he stopped there but then he starts to give examples of why certain movies where rated they way they were. I stopped the conversation before he could impart to 8 why Clearks 2 was R.
The last morning he simply listened to his Zune and sang Beatles songs, very loudly, all the way to camp. Luckily he didn't get to sing the Metallica playlist.
I came to realize that all this kid really wants, besides and iPhone, is to be loved. He tries so freakin' hard to fill whatever void he has with other people and things. He appreciates authority but doesn't know what to do when confronted with it. I'm not saying his family are bad people just bad at giving this boy real coping skills. I am judging them harshly, because I am a prick who knows Jick deserves better.
Old Skool
Reflections on 'Transformers: The Movie" (circa 1986). BTW I won't call this a spoiler.
7 picked up the video at the store the other day. He doesn't remember having watched with me a few years ago. We were lucky enough to get a reissue that has been remastered, has special features, etc.
I remember when we watched it a few years ago thinking how violent the movie was. Good guys dieing right and left. More shooting than 'The Matrix' by a huge margin. Then there was the language. For those of you to don't remember or have the edited VHS; Spike says "Shit" and Ultra Magnus says "Damn it". This time around it seemed more tame. I'm not as uptight of a parent as I used to be but still on the conservative end of the spectrum compared to others (that is foreshadowing for a coming post). After our viewing I visited the iTunes store to look for Stan Bush's 'The Touch'. One lyric is "...when all hell's breaking loose..." maybe nostalgia got the better of me when I bought it for them (don't get me wrong, I'll rock out to it too). My kids might say 'hell' soon but it's better than say a little girl picking up ANY habits from the Ho' inspired Bratz dolls.
I remember being awe-struck with Prime died. I remember loosing interest in the whole thing. I was old enough at the time to realize the movie (while a neat thing) was a commercial for all of the toys. Nothing underscored this more than the Galvatron toy looking so damn stupid. This was nothing new but call it the end of an innocence. I will always remember the birthday I got Optimus Prime for a present and how it was one of the coolest things ever!
I wonder what 7&8 will remember about their toys. They won't remember where they were when they saw this movie. Optimus is still very much alive for them in the toy isle, another upcoming cartoon series and the 2007 movie (which I won't let them see for some time). They will remember something else. Here's to that memory being of a hero (real or imagined) that they respect now and in 20+ years.
7 picked up the video at the store the other day. He doesn't remember having watched with me a few years ago. We were lucky enough to get a reissue that has been remastered, has special features, etc.
I remember when we watched it a few years ago thinking how violent the movie was. Good guys dieing right and left. More shooting than 'The Matrix' by a huge margin. Then there was the language. For those of you to don't remember or have the edited VHS; Spike says "Shit" and Ultra Magnus says "Damn it". This time around it seemed more tame. I'm not as uptight of a parent as I used to be but still on the conservative end of the spectrum compared to others (that is foreshadowing for a coming post). After our viewing I visited the iTunes store to look for Stan Bush's 'The Touch'. One lyric is "...when all hell's breaking loose..." maybe nostalgia got the better of me when I bought it for them (don't get me wrong, I'll rock out to it too). My kids might say 'hell' soon but it's better than say a little girl picking up ANY habits from the Ho' inspired Bratz dolls.
I remember being awe-struck with Prime died. I remember loosing interest in the whole thing. I was old enough at the time to realize the movie (while a neat thing) was a commercial for all of the toys. Nothing underscored this more than the Galvatron toy looking so damn stupid. This was nothing new but call it the end of an innocence. I will always remember the birthday I got Optimus Prime for a present and how it was one of the coolest things ever!
I wonder what 7&8 will remember about their toys. They won't remember where they were when they saw this movie. Optimus is still very much alive for them in the toy isle, another upcoming cartoon series and the 2007 movie (which I won't let them see for some time). They will remember something else. Here's to that memory being of a hero (real or imagined) that they respect now and in 20+ years.
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