That is all.

Seriously, I just like telling people. Mainly because no one I know watched it when it was on. but we are all approaching the demographic at an alarming speed.

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H1N1 is just the flu. If I made it through, so can you. It’s just a President. If the last one didn’t destroy America, this one won’t either. Everyone needs to shut their traps, turn off 24-hour TV “news”, chill out, harden up and just do what needs to get done. Cinch your underwear up real tight, America, because we’re starting to make France look like some hardened UFC fighter.

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Hey, remember “out of control” with dave coulier? it turns out that it was the first original programming nickelodeon did back in the day.

it also turns out that dave’s co-star diz hasn’t done a lot since…and according to this flickr photo, she has been selling magazines on cahuenga for years. which makes me sad i never knew while i lived there.

yay diz!

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from indexed: Thank you for being a friend.

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Once upon a time, I was a youngster. I grew up as a very solid child of the 80s and the pop culture from that period will never escape me. And today, I close a chapter that has to be 20-some years old.

I would spend quality time at my friend Dan’s house after school. He and I took Tae Kwon Do together for years; we had been in Boy Scouts together; I think that first cigarette that I was forced into smoking once was one he and I shared.

And I recall watching G.I. Joe at his house, inbetween playing out in the yard or building models or listening to music. And there was this one episode, ‘No Place Like Springfield’ (and that’s a YouTube playlist, so you can play along at home), one where Shipwreck wakes up and finds that 6 years have passed, that G.I Joe no longer exists, that he has married the mermaid he always loved. (Just nod there on the last part.)

I remember this episode vividly. I also recall that i was was a 2-parter and, for whatever reason, I never saw the second half. Ever.

This has lived in the back of my brain for decades now. It was a surreal episode (and not in the ‘The Viper Is Coming’ way). Well, I’ve gotten the 2parter now and it’s sitting in front of me.

It’s going to be a shame to let this go, to have this resolved. There is little doubt that it will be a let-down. But I have to watch it.

Notes:

1. Wow, the theme song is super cheesy. No, it’s worse — it’s completely forgettable. But I remember most of the words. Also sad.
2. The episode was written by Steve Gerber. From Wikipedia: “He worked in television animation, working as story editor on the animated TV series The Transformers, G.I. Joe, and Dungeons & Dragons; created Thundarr the Barbarian.” I knew Gerber was rad (see: Howard the Duck — the comic, not the movie) but Thundarr? Wow.
3. Flying subs? Major Bludd? Cobra Rattlers? Man, this is back when terrorism was cool.
4. I love that Shipwreck sounds like Jack Nicholson. (Neil Ross does the voice.)
5. Ok, halfway through the first episode and I can tell exactly why this made such an impression on me. This is one jacked-up G.I. Joe episode. Look, I know we are talking about G.I. Joe cartoons here, but this is seriously messed up. So weird: Shipwreck wakes up in the future, passes out a bunch, has strange dreams, people melt, the Joes kick his ass. And then melt. Maybe this is based on someone’s acid trip? On to part 2, which I’ve waited years to see.
6. Ok, I have to admit: years ago, Dan told me he had seen the finale and simply said, “It was a plot by Dr. Mindbender.” So I know this much, I think. We shall see. Thus far though, the second part is way less cool than the first part. Oh, wait. I spoke too soon. Now there are ghosts and the Cobra woman is mounting Shipwreck. And everyone is screaming.
7. Ok, part 2 is def not a solid as part 1. Most of it is a chase sequence. Dr. Mindbender hasn’t appeared. At about 8:35 of the second part of part 2, someone animated a mouth that shouldn’t have been moving, so 2 people are moving their mouths, but only one is talking. Oops.
8. Wow, was nice to see a 7 year old with a grenade launcher trying to take down Shipwreck.
9. Wow. No Mindbender. And, honestly, a real downer at the end, when Shipwreck’s wife and kid turn out to be fake and melt and then burn up. That’s sad.

And so is my watching a 20 year old cartoon to see how the story ends. Happy Sunday morning everyone!

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Just to wrap up the items that were hanging over me last weekend:

1. My health. I went to the dr on Friday morning for the biopsy results. I’m fine. Well, there’s a caveat, but the spot she saw a few weeks ago is inflammation, not a growth. It means my colitis is flaring up in the tiny little spot they left in of my colon. This isn’t a huge surprise; I knew it was a risk all along. The downside is that: 1. I’ve got to deal with it (through meds) and 2. if this becomes a huge problem again, that piece of my would come out and then, as a result, bag for life. And there’s the bittersweet part of the news I got. But for now, it’s not a huge deal.
2. The new TV. Works and is nice. Bought a new universal remote, which is great. Except that the TV shipped with such a stupid dumbassery remote, that I can’t get all the functionality I need.
3. Kidney stone is unchanged.
4. And after just 2 days, the teepee was taken down. By the people who own the lot; they also kicked the rest of the homeless people out of the lot as well. I’ve been heartbroken.

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I’ve been in radio silence since Rachael got here. She left this morning, 7am on a flight back to Boston. Somewhat unsurprisingly, a bunch of thoughts and news and cruft has appeared in these past three weeks.

I’m sitting in Starbucks across the street from my apartment; this gives me the benfit of being out of the house and being forced to write. This also means that I will probably pen quite a number of posts this afternoon and dole them out accordingly.

I can say, without giving much away, that the last 10 days have been a shitstorm of all sorts of fun. Working backwards:

1. Rachael left. This is a total non-surprise, of course; it’s the least of my worries. But it’s annoying — it was tough to get used to her being around in the first place; it will be tough to get used to the apartment being empty again.
2. Our TV broke. Saturday morning, the TV was making a loud buzzing sound. It got returned to Costco. Nicely, they took it back with no fuss; the purchase was grandfathered into their old return policy. In fact, in the 2 years since we bought it, it meant we could buy a much nicer TV for the same amount. Sadly and frustratingly, through a serious of unfortunate events, it took 3 different TVs and 5 trips to Costco to wrap this up. (One was my fault when I didn’t read the plugs for the TV — though seriously, what TV made since 1980 is missing an “audio out” set of RCA plugs? Oh wait, the HD TV I just bought from Costco. Of course, the next one was defective when I exchanged it.)
3. My flex sig didn’t go as well as anyone would hope. This one is the real deal. I don’t want to dwell on this for a variety of reasons, especially right now. But I had my yearly flex sig (little camera, up the butt) and they found a growth. Yipes. I have an appointment on Friday with the doctor to discuss the biopsy results, but the doctor has already said that it doesn’t look malignant. This is good news, of course, but I’m still terrified.
4. My kidney stone has been a pesky bugger. It stopped being a pest as quickly as it started, but I had 3 or 4 days of non-stop peeing with much blood coming out as well. Yeah, you wanted to know that. Amazingly, no pain. But peeing gross blood is not pain-free. And sorry for springing that news on you.

I don’t know how much more I’ll talk about any of these things. I have some amusing doctor stories and can say that Costco was a joy to return things to, except for the lines. If Costco ever figures out how to handle lines of people within their store, it might almost be a tolerable place to walk into. But the return itself could not have been more smooth.

So a crappy few weeks, though there were some silver linings — like Rachael being here. Always look on the bright side, right?

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