Monday, November 10, 2008

Joe Cool

Just a second ago, the 49ers lost to the Cardinals through a goal line stand. Personally, I would have gone with a play-action QB bootleg to the far left of the endzone. Then again, with the luck of the niners...you never know.

Which brings me to today's look back...the True Legends of the NFL. I'm not talking about the current generation of so-so players. I'm talking about the 80s and 90s athletes. Back in the day when you could hit as hard as you could. When you could actually celebrate after you scored a touchdown.

Before Peyton Manning, there was Joe Montana, the best of the best. When he was in the game, you knew that the game would be over with another W for the 49ers.

Before Terrell Owens and Hines Ward, there was Jerry Rice and Cris Carter, the elite wide receivers of the NFL.

It wasn't just them though. Ronnie Lott. John Elway. Brett Favre (the old Brett Fav-ruh). Dan Marino. These were and still are the greatest players in the NFL. Even if today's players are matching up to the numbers, they just didn't have that mystical lure of Montana Magic.

You don't have the great plays of old anymore.
The Drive - John Elway's 98 yard game-winning drive.
The Immaculate Reception - Franco Harris' ricochet catch scored for a touchdown to win their playoff game.
The Catch - Joe Montana's game-winning play against the Dallas Cowboys, Dwight Clark jumping this high. Props to Chris Berman, Eddie DeBartolo and Bill Walsh too, in their prime.
The Guarantee - Joe Namath's underdog guarantee to win in the Superbowl and become Broadway Joe.

Those were the days of impossible.

Of course, the current generation may never reach that epic level of the 80s, but lets hope they can create some more memories.

And of course, how to leave out Nike from the NFL. Vick...Owens...Poms Poms... (And no...no dogs, leave the guy alone)

Sunday, November 2, 2008

GUNDAM - 'Nuff Said

Of the many things that have followed me through my childhood, the two things that Japan has contributed to my life has been Dragonball and Gundam. Dragonball will be saved for another time, as it is my favorite anime and requires its own post. Gundams also require their own place, because its awesome. What young boy wouldn't like watching robots, guns and explosions.

My most favorite gundam of all is Wing Zero Custom. It was cool back then, its still cool now. The main character was an emotionless guy (reminds me of someone...) with an awesome gundam. Yes, his rifles are just as big as the gundam itself, its that awesome. The Gundam Wing series was from my childhood, and it was awesome. Then came the new generation.

Freedom Gundam. The Gundam Seed series that not only brought Gundams back into my life, but in HD. Look similar to Wing Zero, but thats just because both were awesome and blew stuff up. Can't do much better than that.

If you have spare time, its definitely a good investment to spend a few hours watching the series, because its not just some fanboy robots blowing each other up and peace occurring at the end because tahts the way it should be. Instead, it develops intelligently, utilizing possible scenarios that we ourselves may face in the near future. Sure maybe not big gundams and stuff, but there are political, racial, and even religious values that can be commented on, though some may be more apparent than others. It also helps to have awesome looking robot blowing each other up on a consistent basis. Transformers had the main characters fighting each other, and once in a while a main character dies. In Gundam, its not a question of if a character dies, btu when. It just adds to the series itself.

And of course, Kampfer. He just screams explosives with the bazookas on his back, primary shotgun, mini backup shotgun, explosive javelin thingies.

This leads us to the next series of Gundam, Gundam 00. More political implications, more explosives, more awesomeness. ***Spoiler***Spends an entire first season basically using a bunch of primary characters only to kill them off just to lead up to the second season showing the actual Gundam 00

***End Spoiler***

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Halloween Edition

Halloween used to be fun for me. Dress up as whatever you want, run around at night, bother adults and get them to give you candy. There were those adults that spoiled Halloween by given out pennies instead. Even worse was when some guy came to the door and said we don't celebrate Halloween...What?!?! I don't really care whether or not he celebrates the day, but still you have to hand out some freaking candy!!!

Anyways, now that I'm out of college and such, I realize that its not all that great to begin with. First off, its not a holiday because we do not get the day off. Holidays are days when you get to rest from school/work. Therefore, Halloween was never a holiday, just like St. Patrick's Day. Columbus Day was a holiday until I went to college. And now that I'm out of school, winter break and summer break and spring break are no longer holiday break times. My 3 months of summer break is now replaced with 4th of July and that's it.

So back to Halloween. Costumes used to be cool. I remember the generic one that every kid wore in elementary school: The Ninja Turtle. The other popular one was the Power Ranger. I remember my favorite costume. I was the Monopoly Guy, complete with Monopoly Money running out of my pockets. The costume wasn't as great as the one in the picture, it was better. It came complete with a big rubber mask that smelled like gasoline, and after 5 minutes, you had to take it off or suffocate.

So now that I've demoted myself to handing out candy to the kids, I'm expecting some lame kids to show up at my door. Then again, there's the adults only costumes too. Not that its a bad thing, I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't mind seeing people in these "costumes", so long as they fit the costume properly...then again, it is Elvis...

So, have a great Halloween, start a petition to make it a holiday and I'll be first to sign. For kids, have fun collecting candy; for adults, have fun doing whatever adults do on Halloween.

And please stay away from my house, I'm busy playing video games or something. So stay away...unless you look like this:

Happy Halloween!!!

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Pre-Pre-Pre-PSAT?!?!

Tick, Tock, Tick Tock, TICK TOCK TICK TOCK. Scribble scribble scribble TICK TOCK TICK TOCK

TIME!!! PENCILS DOWN!!!

One thing that many of us will never want to remember is the day we took our SAT's. Of course, the 1600 is now no longer good enough for the American College Board who administers the test. Thus there is now a 2400 score. If that is not bad enough, there is now a Pre-PSAT (Pre-pre Standardized Aptitude Test). So now, 8th graders ready to go to high school are put back into the line of fire to take a practice test that prepares you for the fake test that prepares you for the real test. It's a tought time, all just to get you ready for the real thing junior/senior year.

I remember my SAT experience. The night before the SAT's, my testing site (also my high school) didn't receive enough testing materials, so it was cancelled. So much relief that night; we were at a shopping mall running with pure ecstasy. Then the real day came. I had to wake up early in the morning and fill out my name in the bubbles and stuff. I felt bad for the people with really long names. My name is relatively short, so you jsut have to fill in the black circles at the top when you finish your name. But what if your name was like Zachariah Williamson-Thomas-Montana or something like that. It's bad enough that you have to keep going up and down the list finding your letters, but for people with really long names, there's a limit to how many letters you can use. So, you name ends up being Zachariah Williamson-Th.

So then you finish filling in the bubbles and get ready for the test. Not only does that take forever, but now you're given an hour to complete a section, while the only things you hear are the ticks from the clock, scribbling from pencils, and fingers hitting the buttons on calculators. Then the proctor says time. You either get a break or you go straight into the next subject.

You finally finish the testing. Most of use are more relieved at the fact that we finished rather than being anxious about what score we got. You get home and relax, but then you're still working on college applications!!! What a horrible time: trying to figure out what you want to be in life while also figuring out where to do it. Hippie California? Mahalo Hawaii? Stuck up New York? Emptiness Ohio? Where you go could decide what happens to you, so you have to apply everywhere you want to go. Then you visit the places and you realize that some places are better than you thought, while others are complete garbage. So then you apply and again, you wait.

Then you get you're acceptance/rejection letters and cry about how hard you worked to get in/rejected. So then you pick your college and finally, you experience senior year for what it is. That time during April till the end of the school year is the only time where you can do no wrong, so long as you don't fail or do something really wrong. Then you're finally off to college, preparing for the new life that awaits you.

Definitely a time I would prefer not to experience again. But then again, there's always grad school...ugh.

I was planning to write about something else regarding animated robots and stuff blowing up, but then a friend of mine has been preparing to apply to grad school, so this topic seems to be a lot more pertinent.

My nerd friend has definitely got the grades and extra-cirriculars to get in to any school he wants. his essays and interview are probably his biggest hurdles. Still I believe that he is one of the strongest candidates in the United States because of his commitment to excellence, maximum efficiency, and the fact that he can probably beat up any of the other nerds applying to grad school too.

So good luck to my nerd friend applying. I have confidence that you will do great, and if you don't get in, its time to crack some administrative nerd skulls.

To all of you dealing with applying to grad school, college, high school; to those of you taking SAT's, PSAT's, AP tests, Pre-PSAT, Practice Pre-PSAT, STAR tests; to those applying to get jobs; I leave you with this: Stay strong, persevere, never give up hope...and of course (<--You think I would post a blog without a link???).

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Autobots, Transform and Roll Out!!! For Bo and Terry

I write this blog as a dedication to Bo and Terry. Congratulations on your marriage.

On to the business end. If you know what an Autobot is, then you're either a guy or a really cool girl that watches cartoons.

The Transformers franchise has been a big part of my life because it combined the fantasies for boys: Cars, robots, things getting blown to pieces.

Of course, there's my favorite: Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. Bonus points for those that know Peter Cullen as Optimus' voice actor. Every episode, the Autobots would fight the evil Decepticons, led by Megatron (the gun, not the movie airplane/spaceship/sea urchin thing).

Anyways, I loved watching the original cartoons and movie, where Optimus dies. Sad sad day in the life of children all over the world that saw the movie.

Of course, the Transformers series that I remember most is Beast Wars. Who could forget Optimus Primal and Megatron, descendants of their Autobot and Decepticon counterparts. It was a really great series when considering the amount of effort they put into producing the shows. Back then, CGI was fairly new, and to be creating dozens of episodes at a time was quite difficult. Still, they had some really cool characters that will not leave me for a long time.

Then there were some missfires like Beast Machines and such, but just another reason why the 80s and 90s were cooler than the present. Basic CGI and a strong story line is all you need. It also helps to have the oversized Optimal Optimus.

Of course, Michael Bay made Optimus look awesome in the movie too. And Megan Fox, not a car to robot transformer, but hot to hotter one.

Monday, October 20, 2008

TGIFSNICK

This one may not apply to some of you people, if you lived under a rock. The early 90's was a time when there was no such thing as reality tv shows. The closest thing to reality tv was Road Rules and The Real World. It was a great time to watch tv for fictional drama, not stupid lame romances of Flavor Flav and those other D-List stars.

Yes, the early 90's had more than just TV shows. We had TGIF and SNICK.

- TGIF
The Friday night set of shows. Sure there were the good old shows of Family Matters and Perfect Strangers. But TGIF really stepped up with Boy Meets World and Step by Step. These shows were for families, but also aimed towards teens. They went through high like Saved by the Bell, but they were more towards my generation. Sure there were some weird episodes, but there were also good ones. Of course, they went to Disney World too. They went through a lot of serious episodes too, like Shawn's dad dying and Corey's baby brother close to dying before Shawn came back and everything was better. Great Show. There was also Sabrina the Teenage Witch, which was successful for awhile. Thank Goodness It's Friday.

- SNICK
Of course, after you watched tv Friday night, Saturday night kept the weekend R&R going. Clarissa Explains It All, All That, Kenan & Kel, Are You Afraid of the Dark? These were great shows for kids. Clarissa was like Boy Meets World, All That was a kids version of Satuday Night live. Kenan and Kel was a kids sitcom. Are You Afraid of the Dark was the scary show the end the night and give you nightmares. I remember watchin all of these shows, even Bozo the Clown from Afraid of the Dark.

Of course, these shows were great to relax during the weekend. Now there's nothing left to watch except Tila Tequila and those other crappy shows. I hate reality tv shows, they're lame and overexploited. TV networks just try to milk it as long as they can, and of course we buy it...

When will we return to sitcoms?

Friday, October 17, 2008

Back to School!!!! NOT!!!!!!!!

How long have you been in school I could have been in my 19th year of school if I hadn't graduated from college back in May. From Mother Goose Preschool to Star of the Sea Kindergarten-8th Grade to Gateway High to UC Berkeley. It's been a long ride and I'm finally done for the time being. One thing I won't miss about school is...........school supplies.

Remember when you were in elementary school and your teacher gave you a list of supplies that you needed to have for the school year? It was usually the same list, but you rarely ever used everything they told you to buy. There were of course the generic items like pencils and stuff, but there were other items that I remember too.

Peachie Folders - Do they still sell these things? I never got to buy one because my parents didn't think it was worth paying extra money for a folder, so i got the generic kind. Still, everyone should have seen these folders from one point of their life or another.

Five Star Binders - I'm not really sure what the appeal was for these binders, but I got one =). My parents bought it for me and I was happy because I thought I was cool for having it (I am beyond cool now...shut up). I just remember these were really popular one year and everyone was getting one, or else you would be a loser.

Pencils - There was the generic #2 pencil. Back in the day, there were no electric sharpeners, just hand cranked sharpeners and those little plastic ones. Some of the new kids may have never seen these antiques, so just so you know, we actually had to work to sharpen out pencils. Then came the mechanical lead pencils with the 0.7 or 0.5 lead. These were cool to have because you never really had to sharpen them. But then i would run out of lead because instead of writing, I would shoot the small pieces of lead at other people. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'll be happy to show you.

CRAYONS - Everyone has to have had a box of crayons, and everyone has had Crayola. Most people had the generic box, but some had the super pack with the sharpener on the back. Whoever had that superpack was awesome forever...until he lost all the crayons.

Markers - Same as crayons, but not as glamorous. Crayola has a sort of monopoly on the kid coloring supplies. Having the big box didn't have the same aura as the crayons, but still got some popularity.

Erasers - Back in the day, kids used erasers to write again. Nowadays, kids have a new eraser. Kids used to have all sorts of erasers, from cool to weird...And don't forget the extra eraser add-on to the pencils.

Binder Paper - Of course, you had to get college ruled, because wide ruled would get you points off...

Watercolor kit - For art class, I had to bring in a paint set. Of course, crayola wins again. back in our day, you had to mix colors with other colors or water to get teal or pink or grey. Now, they come with them all...lame you have to learn how to mix colors.

Anyways, that part of my life is over. I went over most of elementary and middle school. College may be another post, so we'll see. College was mostly books anyways. All my supplies came from going to career fairs and events...

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Bayside Tigers!!!!!!

Alright, if you know what the title refers to, then good job, you know your late 80's, early 90's shows. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then click this.

That's right. Saved by the the Bell! Even if you didn't watch it when it was one of the biggest teen shows during its time, I'm sure most of you have seen it in syndication since its so popular. For some, it provided insight on what high school would be like. For others, it was what high school should have been like, but never was. In any case, Saved by the Bell was popular because it appealed to so many young adults who wanted to live lives like those characters.

When you were in high school, there were plenty of these people roaming around your school. Maybe they didn't hang out togather, but they were around.

-Zack Morris, everyday popular guy trying to get ahead in life sing scams and just hanging out.
-A.C. Slater, the All-American athlete who was always macho.
-Samuel "Screech" Powers, the lovable dweeb who turned out to be smarter than anyone in his class.
-Kelly Kapowski, captain of the cheerleading squad and overall hotness.
-Jessie Spano, overachiever of all things academic and super feminist, also former drug user.
-Lisa Turtle, rich girl with limitless amounts of money and clothes.

And of course:
-Mr. Belding, principal of Bayside High and mentor to the main cast.

All of you have probably seen most of these characters at your school. Some more than others. But when you got home to watch TV and tuned into Saved by the Bell, you knew that you would immerse yourself into Bayside High, wishing you were in school with them.

I have to say that I did have portions of all the characters in my high school. My class (class of 2004) had roughly 100 students (that's right, 100). We had our jocks playing on the sports teams, but there were only varsity teams and no cut... We had the popular guys and gals that everyone wanted to hang out with, but then again everyone pretty much hung out with each other. We had the nerdy kids, because everyone was smart in my class. We had the hot girls, but we also probably had some ugly people...and no cheerleading team....We had the small crew of weird people, but people thought they were interesting in their own way. We had rich people, and poor people, and we stimulated the local economy with hundreds of dollars of lunch money running around getting food at various places.

All in all, I would have to say that high school was a great experience, but it differed from what Saved by the Bell showed me. Still, you could never stay away from those teens from Bayside High.

And then there were the vacation specials. Remember the Hawaii episode? Remember when they got jobs at the Malibu Sands Beach Resort with Mr. Carosi? Remember when Zach and Kelly went to Vegas to get married? All these were great episodes that took the cast out of school and into other adventures. It was great fun to watch them on TV and even grow up on TV. It didn't work out so well with the college years, but the original still stands the test of time. When you hear that theme song, you immediately recognize the show. When you hear any of the cast's names like Mr. Belding or Screech, you still remember the crazy moments you watched.

Maybe there is a show that is on now that I probably don't watch enough of. But a teen sitcom of that caliber may never again be as popular as Saved by the Bell was and still is.

And of course, how could I not talk about Saved by the Bell without talking about Zack and Kelly.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Sports Commercials

This one isn't really about commercials of the past. Rather, its about the quality of commercials that I have seen relating to sports branding, specifically Nike.

If you know me well enough, then you know that I HATE Nike. Most things that I get from Nike are either returned or worn because of other obvious reasons. I'm an adidas (not Adidas) guy, and I love pretty much anything adidas. I've had 4 generations of the same shoe and still going strong. If only the red devils wore adidas...but I digress. I'll the rant on why I hate Nike for throwing out money at players and such for a later blog or something. One thing I do have to give props on for Nike is their commercials. They don't give blatant endorsements on the products they try to sell, but instead they just show subtle glimpses of athletes using the new merchandise (If you look closely, #11 Dwight Howard is the only adidas sponsored player, the others are Nike. Look at how his adidas shoes are blocked by the coach and he covers the Nike logo on his pants).

I was thinking about Nike commercials awhile back when they made two really good commercials. One was called "Leave Nothing" with Shawn Merriman and Stephen Jackson. The other one was "Take It to the Next Level" with a whole lot of Nike sponsored football players (Fabregas, Rooney, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho). It's not just that they sell the products, or that if you wear their gear then you automatically get better (though many think this...)

Today I saw yet another new Nike commercial called "Fate". The kid running around avoiding things and speeding away is LaDanian Tomlinson. The kid with the big hair smashing tables and people is Troy Polamalu. Really good setup for the climactic "battle". And yet, even after they collide, you see them both get up and Tomlinson pats Polamalu on the head, both giving a sense of approval of the other. Awesome. Really great commercial. They didn't try to sell their gear (NFL jerseys are made by Reebok btw). No talking, just showing a really good story of two probowl players.

As much as I hate Nike, I have to respect their marketing ability. They really know how to get to you, even though they didn't directly try to sell their merchandise. If only adidas had Reggie Bush making some of those commercials instead of hanging with Jared Fogle on the Subway ads.....and make some cooler commercials.

Anyways, since I was on youtube, I thought I would share with you some of my favorite commercials.

- Tide: Talking Stain
- Gatorade: Winning Formula
- Zazoo: Wear Condoms

Commercials don't have to be star-studded, multi-million dollar ads. They just need to be memorable in one way or another...or another...

Friday, October 10, 2008

Saturday Morning Cartoons

Remember waking up on a Saturday morning to watch your favorite cartoons? Remember Bobby's World? Batman? Superman? X-Men? Spiderman? Pokemon? Digimon?

What ever happened to the morning cartoon shows? It seems like Disney Channel and Nickelodeon took over the kids shows with Hannah Montana and whatever Nick shows these days. I remember those Saturdays where I had no responsibilities and I would wake up early just to watch cartoons and chill. I would watch TV for like 4 hours straight. Then, I got sent to Korean school, which went from 9:30a-1pm. There goes my entire morning. But there were the summers and holidays where I didn't have to go and I would just watch cartoons all day.

I feel out of touch now because I don't know any of the new cartoons and shows. I don't really know who Hannah Montana is, and for some reason Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are like space ninjas in another dimension. Where are the Ninja Turtles that fought the Shredder and the Technodrome? I'm not sure, but I feel like kids these days are deprived of a lot. Not just local channel cartoons, but also Rugrats, Doug, Rocko. All they have now is Spongebob.

Then again, I feel like I've grown up to the post-teen/adult stage. No longer do I wake up early in the morning for Saturday morning cartoons. Now I stay awake for late night cartoons: South Park, Family Guy, Futurama. I still watch the Simpsons, but only because I think they will one day return to prominence.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Happy Meals

I went to lunch with Ivan today at Subway. I was waiting for him to finish his order, and I looked around to see the kids menu. Low and behold, I saw the Subway "Happy Meal" variant. What do they have as toys? CD of some show.

What ever happened to the real Happy Meals???

Remember going to McDonalds as a kid and buying a Happy meal for $2? You get a cheeseburger, small side of fries and a small drink. You get a toy, and it all comes in a cardboard box. You could play with your toy (Hot Wheels, Barbie, some other toy) while you ate. Sometimes, you could even get a special box that became a mini toy set by turning the box into a car garage or something.

Nowadays, the toys don't even come as toys. It's some kind of crappy game CD that sucks. You can't play with it while you eat unless you use it as a coaster. Has the decency of society dropped so low that a Happy Meal for kids isn't even properly accompanied with a toy?!?

Same with Burger King and all those other places. Bring back the real toys and put those CDs back where you found them. McDonalds just takes the hit because everyone knows what a Happy Meal is. $2 was the price when I was a kid. $2 can barely get you a sandwich now...........

Monday, October 6, 2008

Everyone's favorite blocks

I was at work today I saw one of the researcher's kids playing in the lunch room with legos. LEGO: One of the greatest things to come from the Danes.

One of the gripes I have with the current generation of Legos are that they are kind of all prebuilt as a giant robot or something already. What happened to the lego days where you get like 20 pieces, get another 20 pieces, and then make an airplane or train or something.

I remember the lego kit I had, Fort Legorado. Is that not cool or what? It came with like 10 good guys and 3 bad guys. The soldiers had rifles and the captain had a big white ten gallon hat. The bandits each had dual revolvers, and they all had bandanas. I played with my legos for hours, pretending to shoot the bad guys and then take them to jail...even though they were already dead....shut up I was a kid. The cool thing was that you could use the pieces for the fort and make smaller little bases for the good guys and bad guys. Then I played war and that was an awesome time too.

What the heck is this??? These aren't legos, you cant make anything creative out of that except another robot. You could turn the fort into bases, rafts, bridges, things like that. This stupid robot can only change into another robot. That's lame.

Anyways, the kid I was watching had a pretty cool Lego set. I don't know how he brought it into the building in one piece, but it was this one. That is an awesome lego set. That black thing on the bottom right is one of those air smashing things that shoots the missiles. Cool stuff, but still not much variety in what else you could build with it.

BTW, from yesterday's super soaker thing, this was what I had, and this is the backpack cannon without the backpack. I still can't find that bazooka...

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Super Soaker

Going along the lines of NERF yesterday, I thought it was only right to think about Super Soakers too. What ever happened to the giant water guns? I remember having a Super Soaker 50. You pump it up and fight for like 20 seconds before you have to pump again. Then you run out of water and have to find a bucket of water or a hose and refill to get back to war.

Of course, Hasbro couldn't stop the trend as is, and they kept making larger ones like Super Soaker 100, 150, 200, 250, 500. Then the mother of em all, or what I thought was the biggest one...There was one with the backpack and you pretty much never had to refill your gun because you were running around with like 5 gallons of water.

I hope someone creates biodegradable water balloons too. I had a huge water balloon fight with my class in middle school, and we had to clean up for like and hour afterwards. ??? Water balloons are for throwing at people and then you're done, no clean up.

Kids these days will never know, now that Super Soakers aren't all that popular anymore....stupid WoW...paying $20 a month to be an online character. You could've bought a bunch of those Super Soaker cannons and stuck the back packs together.......

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Show Me the Money!!!!!!

So today I realized how just much money has to be spent in order to live the American dream on a daily basis.

I went with my family to my sisters new condo out in Mission Bay. I won't tell you the price, but lets just say that its not for the middle class. Even after paying such a hefty amount, all you get is a one bedroom condo. Looks nice, but think about if you lived in the Southeast. For the typical Bay Area home, you could get like 2 nice houses out in the midwest and southeast. I'm not saying that those places are bad, just doesn't make sense that we have to pay so much more for less.

Anyways, about an hour ago I went to my mom's friend's coffee shop. Its really nice and you should go check it out. Prices are decent and the environment for the hip crowd. Its on the corner of Geary and Palm. They have really comfy chairs too. They just started the coffee shop and invested a lot of money into it, and they're really nice people. Just trying to live the American dream.

I guess I still haven't reached the point where I figure out that money decides where I'll end up living. Then again, this isn't what I am planning for; rather I plan for what will happen after I die and where money means nothing. Its a great thing to aspire for, but with the American dream drilled in my head, its hard not to try and work harder for more money.

On a semi-related note, I take you to another nostalgic view on life. Today's lesson deals with NERF. If you lived during the 90s, you should know NERF, Nickelodeon Slime, and the mad cool 1.4MB Floppy Disks. Anyways, I had a few of Nerf guns when I was little. I remember I had one gun called Eagle Eye. It was a medium sized gun with a red light, not laser, on the bottom to help guide you to your target. I remember aiming at windows and seeing how well I could hit where I wanted. If I ever lost any darts, I would cry because you knew your parents would never buy you more, and then you would be even more frugal with the darts you have left.

So today, I was hanging out for a bit and I saw some kids playing outside with NERF guns. First off, what happened to the NERF guns that you can hold with two hands? The first kid had a like a sniper rifle that could split into two handgun style guns. That was cool, but then the other one... Seriously, he other kid was running around with a freakin NERF bazooka!!! What?!? No!!! This 10 year old kid had a weapon bigger than him and it was blasting the darts all over the place. There are three problems that I see with NERF today.
1 - The darts I used to play with had suction cups, so you knew where you hit the windows. The new versions have no suction cup. It's just the foam thing. Massive lameness
2 - Bazooka?!? Thats totally not fair. NERF is designed as airsoft guns for kids. Gun does not equal bazooka. Bazookas launch explosives, not bullets or slugs.
3 - These kids had reload boxes with hecka ammo. The kid with the rifle had three clips laying next to his bunker ready to go once he ran out. Bazooka boy was just throwing his ammo and blasting it at the other kid. My NERF days had max 4 darts. These kids each had 50 darts easy. NOT FAIR!!! Kids are so spoiled these days.

Anyways, thats my rant for today. I guess I'm doing it because I'm getting older, and I didn't have super rifles or bazookas with unlimited ammo. I feel like going to Target and buying a bunch of NERF guns just for the fun of it. I have the money now. I'll buy all the ammo I can and beat those kids. Yea I'm 22 years old, so what? NERF guns were for my generation, not these punk kids with rich parents...........bitterness....

Later

First entry...HERE WE GO!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi.

My name is Jino. This is probably going to be your ordinary blog, but it will also provide you with some insight on certain things you see on a daily basis and some things you don't. I can't promise much, but this blog is designed much more for me to look at 10 years in the future and recollect the times I had in my 20s. Some of my posts will be nostalgic on the 90s, while others could be rants of how current technology puts us in our own world where physical contact with other human beings is no longer necessary to communicate.

Before I go on, I'd like to introduce myself to those of you who do not know me, and even to those that know me personally. I found one of those generic list things that you fill out for favorites.

Name: Jino (Really, that's my name. I could have thought of something cooler like Achilles or something, but I guess my real name will do... :P)
Location: SF Bay Area (No place better, socal "hella" sucks. Don't kid yourselves. Its smog, not fog)
Age: 22...Sadly people look at me and say that I'm 25+...........Seriously, do I look that old???
**Favorites**
Actor: Ryan Reynolds (Van Wilder, Definitely Maybe)
Actress: Kate Beckinsale (Pearl Harbor, Underworld)...dude you know she's hot
Animal: Wolf. Since I was 4 years old.
Band: Foo Fighters
Board Game: Grape Escape. I played for 4 hr straight, then it broke.... ;(
Color: Blue
Comic Book Movie: 300 (Yes, it was originally a movie)
Comic Book Super-Hero: Cyclops (Born leader, cool specs)
Director: Ridley Scott (Gladiator, Black Hawk Down)
Doll: Doll?!? Boys play with action figures!!!
Fictional Character: Dr. House
Movie: Anything Pixar (Toy Story, Wall-E)
Book: The Bible (Nuff said, yamean)
Singer (Female): Carrie Underwood
Singer (Male): Jason Mraz (At the moment, sadly I don't listen to much music)
Theme Song: Futurama (Danny Elfman)
Writer: John Steinbeck
Video Game: Halo
Number: 17
Song: The Last Goodnight - Pictures of You
Food: Pizza (American style, gotta have sauce, none of this cheese and veggie only garbage)
Sport: Football (aka Soccer. Grab yer boots and meet me on the pitch, yea?)
Sports team: Manchester United Football Club (Glory Glory Man United!!!)
Drink: Long ago, there was a Clear Pepsi drink called Crystal Pepsi. Sadly no one remembers it. Now I only drink water.
Candy: Mr. Goodbar
Ice Cream: Cookie Dough
Season: Winter
Item of Clothing: The infamous blue and white plaid shirt. Sadly it has too many tears.
Word: HEY!!!
Place: Anywhere with snow.


So back to my reasoning for this blog. I got the idea to create a blog from Philip Wang, the Wong Fu guy. Lame right? He made a lot of sense though. If you can find some, read some of the one page papers you wrote back in middle school or even just one year ago. It's really cool to see how much you have changed not only in your thought process, but also the topics that are most important to you at the time. I remember when I was in 3rd grade, my teacher gave me an assignment to write about my favorite tv show. I remember very clearly that my favorite show was Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Thats right, not morphing its morphin. Cool people don't use the g). I used to love that show. During lunch I would play with my friends and I would always be Jason, the Red Ranger. Any show I watch, its always the leader that appeals to me the most. Usually theres a cooler hero like Raphael is to Leonardo, but when its time to be clutch, the leader always has the cool head and know exactly what to do to beat the bad guys. I remember turning on the tv to FOXKIDS to watch Power rangers every day. I loved that show, and it will always be a part of my life.

I know that Power Rangers has had a huge effect on your life as well. That or your parents forced you to learn piano or something. But now that I look back to those days more than a decade ago and so much has changed. I recently graduated from college and my favorite tv show now is SportsCenter (typical guy answer, right?). I will always cherish my childhood, but my mind is no longer encapsulated by just the fantacized world of Gotham City or Metropolis. I now focus on the latest scores for the Niners and Giants, hoping that one days we will return to our days of glory once again, you just wait.

Anyways, I encourage you to start journals, diaries or blogs. It may seem dumb or a waste of time, but think of what you will have 10 years from now. When I turn 32, I'll look at this blog and meet myself when I was 22 and still trying to find my place in this world.

Hopefully, I will keep up the posts and make them entertaining for you and myself.

-Jino