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Design for Opal Firestarter, a cacomistle in Boondoggle, now on Kickstarter https://d4k.us/KSBoondoggle1

Art by Nil Carmona

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#15 Natasha and Boris. They are just great foils for our heroes (heroes?). They are the equal opposites of Rocky and Bullwinkle in both height relationship and personalities. I need to see how the new show handles them, as I think it is impossible for kids nowadays to understand these two without living in the time of the Cold War. It’s incredible to think that the idea of a political war that could end up in mutual nuclear annihilation could be the stuff of jokes on a kid’s show, and yet, that was the genius of Jay Ward.

(Also, this week has been just sooooo busy, so again I must post two drawings to make up for lack of meeting a day. Tonight was the last of the craziness, so things should continue smoothy, enjoy.)

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I drew Rocky Squirrel in memory of June Foray. Her repertoire of cartoon voices was among my favorites! (Witch Hazel, Cindy Lou Who, Talking Tina from Twilight Zone, and so many more!)

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Last night on the way home from a anniversary shin-dig (see: party) I decided to go to Open Mic.

Perhaps a mistake. Or at least, it feels like it now. Or it doesn’t. 

I decided to do Words Fail from Dear Evan Hansen which, was not great. It was pretty horrible, honestly. I didn’t like it. I felt myself go off- and go up and down the octave. And I found a way to wash the bad taste out every one’s mouth thankfully, by doing every role/line in Little Shop of Horrors’ Feed Me (Go Git It).

But once I was done, I felt horrible. Miserable. My stomach was in knots. Words fail on how bad I failed that song from Dear Evan Hansen.  Like, it was not good. I was going up and down the octave incorrectly, flat on a note, sharp on others.

Now I was honest to the crowd; I had never done it line, no backing track and this will prolly suck and the content can be depressing. Soooooo... yeah. But i still felt miserable after doing it.

So once it was done, I wanted to leave immediately.  My clever plan to get the fuck out of dodge also failed due to my ability to want to talk to the host, a friend of mine, but alas, o the way out, i was congratulated a few times, but I wanted to leave so fast. So the moment someone came up and talked to my friend, I tried to bolt before another friend of mine stopped me.

The whole time though I was thinking “Dear god, let me get the hell out of this.”

Because I felt like an absolute failure.

And that was it.When I got into the car though, I realized that though i hated feeling this way, I needed failure.

It helps us move forward.

I only hope I can get over the feeling I still have in the pit of my stomach, but until then, I can only try to keep going.

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How Do YOU Spend Your Free Time?

So... Barack Obama, as President, first went golfing on April 26, 2009.

Donald Trump went golfing after three weeks of Presidenting. Now, the hilarity of the situation is he lambaste Obama the whole time AND... well, He’s Trump. The nation is falling apart.  Sincerely, it’s falling apart.

So... how do YOU spend your free time?

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Trolling A Troll

So, tonight I had a conversation, one that I was trying to honestly avoid but twitter is not the best place to make retorts. (Not really.) I took probably what was considered the easy way out with an “we shall agree to disagree” thing so I could just move on. I didn’t feel the need to talk about it.  But it urks me.  I am never one to simply walk away with out talking alot to get my point across before letting it be what it be. 

So here we go.

Internet trolling is something that irked me today.  Before we go further though.. let’s look at the Wikipedia’s definition of an internet troll...

In Internet slang, a troll (/ˈtroʊl/, /ˈtrɒl/) is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory,[1]extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the intent of provoking readers into an emotional response[2] or of otherwise disrupting normal, on-topic discussion,[3] often for the troll's amusement.

Okay, everyone on the same page? Good. Now before we go further, let’s be clear. This is clearly a first world geek problem, and I’ll tell you why here in a second.

Simply put, I feel that the TV Grim Reaper sometimes is an internet troll. Simple as that.

The TV Grim Reaper, for those not in the know, is a guy who was at one point, the cancellation bear. The Cancellation Bear is a twitter handle that used to report for TV By the Numbers. The guy who runs it was so good at his job at learning the figures and facts behind the ratings, that he began to amazingly (not really) predict shows failures and successes as renewals. He became adept at seeing the bullshit.

In a lot of ways, I dig that.

And the Grim Reaper, for good reason, gets inundated with tons of S.O.S. crap, or for those not in the know... Save Our Show crap. Lord knows I used to be one of those. I still tend to ‘have hope’ despite it being hopeless,  (my thinking behind The Muppets surviving their first season is a good example) but The Grim Reaper had it down pat.  He gets fans bugging him and trolling him. 

But at what point does the trolled become a troll?

Imagine that every day you post numbers in your feed. You had some sarcastic bite to it, because that’s what you do. People love it. And then fans of a show you posted low numbers of come at you with pitchforks.

All for reporting the ratings and stating the ever likely truth.

So, it makes sense to randomly post stuff back at them.

It makes sense.

And usually, as someone who follows the feed ,you can see the back and forth. It makes sense when he ‘goes after’ fans of the show. 

Other times... he will link to what he calls PRJedi mind tricks or bullshit and pokes the entertainment reporting websites. PR Jedi, aka, Press Releases that make you think one way about a doomed show, when in fact it is a doomed show. Example: A show with ratings that equal cancellation, they promote it as being a popular hit show, or it doing this in ratings, etc.

Some of these are great. He is usually dead on.

But every once and a while, I see a tweet that kinda just trolls back and no one is trolling him on.

Why do that?

The tweet in question was for the show Timeless.  A show that is gonna get canceled as he states in his reports. And usually... PRJedi bullshit is what it is. It’s bullshit. And he is great for snuffing that out. 

Before we go further, I guess I should throw out there that I’ve seen half an episode of Timeless on NBC. My sister-in-law loves it. I do not. And frankly, I didn’t even think of it, until I saw his tweet that is. (I actually had to look up what it was again because I didn’t care for it). 

So I have no dog in this fight (for this show, that is). I am not a fan and usually I tend to agree with him at going after people who troll him. (which I know isn’t right).

But in this case... there was no back and forth with fans pestering him about Timeless. The article he linked to did not really PRJedi it up with how great the show was, just plugging a guest start. So what. Look, I know the show isn’t moving mountains and will be gone soon, but it’s a product. They are selling it best they can, (and in some cases,depending on the actor, it’s been in the works that they will PR the shit out of an appearance anyway). 

Also, i used to, as a low-level (beyond low-level) writer for Examiner in Columbus, would get PR bursts from NBC and other networks under the Universal umbrella. Especially for shows like Timeless where they aren’t timeless, but doomed to fail, they start lumping their press releases together. It’s a waste of time to do single e-mails for all of these.

So more likely, this was the bottom of a feed that TV Line, which makes tons of traffic on Supernatural-like news, decided to post.  It isn’t sensationalizing anything. In terms of entertainment news, it is kinda news. How is it Jedi PR bullshit, honestly?

Which then leads to...

why the smart-ass comment?

Ultimately to me, his tweet seemed to entice fans of Timeless and piss them off. Which, fits the definition of an internet troll as stated above.

So... when does the adage of “An eye for an eye” not become sound? Was it ever really sound? Other things to take in to account:

I don’t care enough to take into account Timeless fans being jerks to him outside of the last 20 tweets. If they WERE bugging him, than maybe retweet another tweet by them and then post that one? Context is everything.

This is not the first time I am urked by him being unprovoked and trolling fans of a doomed show with no provocation. Again though, no provocation that I can see.

See first one. I still don’t care enough about Timeless.

Wait, you are writing a blog about it though? Don’t you care a little bit? Well, about how he is a troll. Not about the tv show. I feel that it is a factor that is easily replaced with ANY television show he is reporting on.

Overall, if it wasn’t for his facts and figures, I would unfollow him in a heartbeat. There are enough assholes and bullies in the world. And I’m glad other people get off on him being that way to fans, and heck, I won’t lie. Sometimes I do enjoy him being prickish to other people who troll him. But... I guess as I get older, the people... the fans who are NOT trolling him... then I guess I just tire of a bully. And I tire of being a bully who finds it acceptable. And we have enough of that with the PEOTUS soon to be POTUS around.

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10 Albums: The Teenage Years Part 2

This is a continuation of the last post. Huzzah for you?

(Retread a bit: So a big thing going around right now on the social media was what were 10 albums that made lasting impressions on me AS A TEENAGER (with only 1 per band/artist.

Here’s the thing. I’m a big geek. All my albums are not as cool. There are some that I really love, but... yeah.

I originally got this from “John Sanford” a webcomic pal of Chippy and Loopus fame. So here we go, in no particular order the 2nd part:

The Beatles Anthology 1

I loved the Beatles but this... really opened my eyes to them. And yeah I loved “Free As a Bird” but there you go. That’s me. But the rest of it is pure gold.

Animaniacs - Original Television Soundtrack

Yes, I loved Animaniacs. I still do. And you know what? I fucking loved this show.  I mean c’mon.

II - Boyz II Men

Not afraid to say this butI dig the album. But my favorite track was the simple acapella version of the Beatles’ Yesterday.

Duncan Shiek - Duncan Shiek

This is very much a “Hey. Let’s Slit My Wrists To See Color” kinda album. And being I love to share the love (of color) here you go. A depressing as shit (but well done) track by the dude. Great stuff.

Stunt - Barenaked Ladies

My favorite band. My favorite album of theirs, even though I love their other albums. This was my first and thsi was my favorite. A huge impact on my teenage years going forward.

And for good measure click here to get my second favorite track from the album on youtube which won’t allow me to post it here for some reason... CLICK HERE.

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10 Albums: The Teenage Years Part 1

So a big thing going around right now on the social media was what were 10 albums that made lasting impressions on me AS A TEENAGER (with only 1 per band/artist.

Here’s the thing. I’m a big geek. All my albums are not as cool. There are some that I really love, but... yeah.

I originally got this from “John Sanford” a webcomic pal of Chippy and Loopus fame. So here we go, in no particular order:

F-R-I-E-N-D-S: The Original TV Soundtrack -

This was a gateway to me into other artists. I watched a lot of movies and this one blew the roof of of other artists out there. I never heard of Joni Mitchell yet, I heard of her music but not ‘her’.  It’s like seeing the sun but not knowing what the sun is/was. It was that way for a LOT of artists on this album. Including R.E.M. and my most favorite band ever. More on that in a second. K.D. Lang? Yes please!

Like, I generally loved almost every fucking song on this album. I still listen to it today, albeit in shuffle mode on a gigantic playlist! My favorite song though was this diddy:

Whatever and Ever Amen - Ben Folds Five -

Junior to senior year, I was becoming a bit angst-y. My senior year of high school sucked personally, and this was my angst music. I really loved the song Brick, but soon fell in long with the classics “Give My Money Back, Give Me My Money Back You Bitch. And Don’t Forget My Black T-Shirt”.  Also the catchy “Steven’s Last Night In Town”.  Since then, I have been a fan of Ben Folds and his five when he plays with them. I remember an old classmate of mine.. Bobby in choir senior year, listening to this during studyhall one day. That muthafucker JAMMED to it.  It was awesome. Good cd.

This next song was to me the most positive song on the album, and it just feels good. And as a teenager who was literally Duckie... songs like this spoke to me. (You’ll get a theme here, really.)

Good Will Hunting - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Oh my. Senior year. Again. Not a great year for me. And so, surprise surprise, the depressing melancholy of Elliott Smith was like an arrow through the fucking teenage heart that was my own.  The whole soundtrack from start to finish was a great CD, again, opened my tastes up to some classics like “Baker Street” by Gerry Rafferty, but alas. My favorite track and the one that spoke to me the most, outside of “Angeles” was this one:

Magnolia: Music from the Motion Picture -

This came a bit after I graduated, but being the youngest of my class, I literally turned 18 like a few months prior. So, fuck it, it is on the list. And it also really like, shaped who I am as a fan of music. Amiee Mann is one of those artists who like... speaks to me. While her last album, I’ve sadly not heard much of, but I have a few tracks and I dig them. (Need to finish the album).  She was one of those people I heard in “Jerry Maguire”‘s Soundtrack, didn’t really know it was ‘her’ though (see another theme developing?) and my friend Nathan (not that one. Another one.) really loved her album “I’m With Stupid”.  And I can’t say I blame him. While he has seemingly moved on her, I have not, and still to this day, I always give Aimee and her music a shot because nine times out of ten, I dig it.

Batman Forever: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

I love this album. And while I don’t love U2 anymore, I love this song and the other tracks on here, I mean, Flaming Lips? but Fave track is (don’t hate me) is the U2 one.

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Hopeful Sadness

I’m not really proofreading this one guys, so... apologies. But, the wife is asleep and I have no one to really ‘talk’ to right now. So here we go.Alone in the void with my thoughts....

One of the great joys in doing "The Magically Unauthorized Misadventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle” or “It’s All Been Done Radio Hour” podcasts, is I get to do one of the many things I love, which is, I get to do silly voices to entertain people. While it isn’t at a national level, the admiration and respect I have for people in the industry is heaps and bounds. Or really, it knows no bounds.

Now, there were two things that really ‘clicked’ for me as child that wanted to do voices, etc, and that was the film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, where Michelangelo was doing the impressions.  I started to mimic Robbie Rist in the film.

The other, was Animaniacs.  One of the biggest things ever for me was access to America On-Line, back in the day and the KidsWB! section of the AOL platform opened open the world of who was doing voices.

It was here I was cemented at being a voice chaser of some form. And it is where I learned that Jess Harnell, Tress MacNeille and Rob Paulsen were the voices of Wakko, Dot and Yakko.  And also: Rob was the voice of Pinky from Pinky and the Brain.

Now, going a step further, he was Raphael, my FAVORITE ninja turtle in the original 1980′s TMNT cartoon. AND he did other voices too. So many that it is hard to pinpoint but... one of my favorite things to do was to try to mimic voices on Animaniacs. Then others soon followed. (Taz-Mania, amongst many others.)

Through the years, I’ve always followed the whole gang from Animaniacs, including their writers. But my favorite set of voice actors (Though I love them all) has been Rob Paulsen And Maurice LaMarche.

I remember my favorite bit outside of seeing youtube clips here and there, was the Nerdist episode featuring them both.  I told so many people to listen to it. It was not only hysterical, but moving and insightful.

Now, soon there-after, Rob had started his own podcast, called “Talkin’ Toons” and he talked to people in the industry, all friends of his, others maybe not as close but, still, he opened the world up more. For me, it was an extra scoop into the madness that I love called Voice Acting. For others, it was the first stop into a whole new world of fun, zaniness and backstage antics of their favorite show.

But at some point, like any normal listener of any podcast, due to time constraints, I would subscribe to a small number of podcasts, but based on the content, I would listen to that first. Higher priority, etc.

Nerdist, for me is like this. But so did Rob’s podcast.  And like my iOS’s podcast app, if you haven’t listened to a show in a while, it temporarily stops downloading new episodes.

Rob’s podcast was a victim of this and by the time I did my usual ‘check back in’, I noticed he hadn’t updated in a long time. Rob though, had kept on twitter and on facebook, posting videos and what have you. But soon, I had noticed Rob looked a bit different.

He.. didn’t look as spry as he did considering his age. He looked his age, or a bit older.  As someone who had a family member with cancer, my first thought was that he had cancer. But... despite the beauty of social media being we can cross boundries and interact with our heroes, in this case, I didn’t think I should have.  It wasn’t appropriate, IMHO, and it was his business. And Rob, as per his previous posts and overall vibe, I felt would have told the fans. So... we moved on. New TMNT episodes here and there, and Rob would post videos, tho not as often, about clips of him doing voice work. 

Right before Christmas, I think it was, on twitter/facebook, Rob announced he was going to say what happened to the podcast.

My concern was that somehow the Jon Lovitz Podcast Theater somehow legally screwed him like it did Kevin Smith, or something crazy like that. how horrible would THAT be? Years later, legally embroiled in some kind of snafu.

Would he be able to podcast again live elsewhere?

So joy be it that today, Rob released his podcast again, explaining where he has been. And maybe, it was around the 3:20 mark, I began to get an itch of something... worrisome. My worry became real and between 3:45 to 17:42, I was moved to almost tears. It’s funny. Voice over actors, if you follow them, you grew up with them. When you have kids, or if you’re a big kid, you know their voice still, to this day.  It never leaves you. And so, I got a bit dusty near my eye holes when Rob announced why he had been gone for so long. As an act of decency, I won’t directly repeat it here, but I suggest you listen to it.  It left me sad in a hopeful way.  Maybe it won’t affect you the way it did me, but... this guy was and IS one of my voice acting heroes and a fucking wonderful human being. Actually, he is one of the most awesome-but annoyingly cheerful guys you’ll ever hear talk. So seriously. Check it out.

http://techjives.net/2017/01/10/134-happy-new-years-with-rob-on-talkin-toons-with-rob-paulsen/

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Reflections

As I sit here after a full day of writing.. (yay), and I attempt to move on to drawing (key word here is attempt) and I left still reflecting 2016. 

Some 2016 has come to an end.  It was not the greatest year.  2016 was a year that I lost a job. I lost a friend.  Money got super tight. My very newish car got hit. Creatively I’ve been a bit wounded as well. 

And then all the celebrity deaths. Death is never justified, but sometimes people do pass too soon. Carrie Fisher in-particular, along with Prince and Bowie, were pretty damn huge to me.  Fisher even more so, as it felt like her entire life she had this struggle, and it wasn’t a private one to deal with, but on the public stage. And she had her amazing wit and mind to combat it all. Truly, it was a wonderful to see her start to become her own person in today’s culture.  Kinda like Shatner, who rose from the ‘the bad actor from that sci-fi show’.  He became well loved, a classic actor from Boston Legal, and yada-yada-yada. And now the sci-fi show is considered kinda cool. 

Same thing was happening with Carrie Fisher.

Hrm. What else happened in 2016?  Well… I realized that trying to be a creative person and trying to be a creative person in a relationship is downright exhausting.  I love both, but the two come into conflict with each other a great deal.  It also doesn’t help that creatively I work on a weird lazy as it comes level, that if I try to push creativity sometimes, and by creativity here, I am meaning ‘writing’, it feels forced and it just doesn’t work as well to me. Or for audiences as well. But you get the point.

On top of that, I’ve realized in 2016 that I still have issue with criticism. Now, constructive criticism I am taking better, though there is still room for improvement BUT-  I am not good with people in general just talking about how they feel in general in a hurtful way.  Instead of just confronting it and letting it go, it is really eating at me and influencing me creatively which is no good. No bueno! Now, some of this is tied to the fact of how I am wired as a human being… I’ve always been a passive aggressive person so it’s more of a matter of… how do you not only combat that in your personal life, but also creatively as a creative person?

So with all that internal creative strife, now try to balance a wedding (one of the few good things that happened this year), and the general holiday season around that, and the whole concept of date nights, and spending time with your loved one. 

My wife, god love her, considers sittin in the same room while I nap or she naps ‘quality time’.  If I am writing though, it urks me. Creatively, I find it hard to write when someone is doing that.  Or she wants background noise on. And I don’t work well like that.  So then I am sequestered in my man cave/basement for hours at a time to work.  But my creative process is I procrastinate until it all comes pouring out.  So then… with my dwindling amount of time available… how will that work?

And we haven’t even thrown kids into the mix yet. Oo boy. And then there’s that.

So far, my procrastination has worked out wonderfully.  Hm. Maybe I feel the need to draw now?

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Pardon The Dust...

I just am getting back to all this ‘stuff’.  I miss blogging sometimes. And then other times.... I don’t.  

So I am thinking about dusting this off. If I don’t, well, it’s dusty. Either way, it’s dust-ridden.  Hopefully I will blow and the dust will go flying and I can wipe it off. But if not? Well then. We’ll see.

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A Preview of Raph, Leo andamp; Don - Page 7

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Who's Got The Power? Uh, Not Me, Apparently...

WARNING: The following (lengthy) tale is full of first world problems. If you have a tiny violin, please, by all means, jump into my nightmare, it's a cool improv jazz song, so come play along. Lemme tell yah a story: My new mixer came in yesterday. So I picked it up today. Apparently, they said 'hey, let's sell a mixer online' and then when they get it, we can not give them the power supply.  Realistically, why, when you buy used, would I buy a mixer without a power supply? But I digress. So, re-reading the fine print on the website, which said no firewire or USB cables or microphones but all other cables included. I ordered.  So, yeah, no power supply received. Called online, they are saying that the store I bought it used from has, get this, one power supply there, but I would now need to purchase it (USED) for $50.00. I could order a new power supply but it is on back-order until November through this retailer. Oh, goodie. And I didn't even tell you the new $$ for the power supply. Note for the folks playing at home, I can get a new supply for $40.00 online elsewhere. If I order it new, it would be above the used cost. Backtracking a bit, I woke up on time for work today and had a mostly okay day. It wasn't great, let's be real, but then again, it could have been a lot worse (My credo in life sometimes) but, really, when it comes down to it, I was also just frustrated/eaten away at a bunch of little things, and so my bright spot of the day was an evening of fun casual conversation with friends later at 8 tonight, but before that, a fun romp to the comic book store and then, yes, picking up my board. My trip to the store to pick up my sound mixer has just made my day irritatingly fun-tastic. Full of win. Awesomesauce. Or whatever the hell. and the feeling that pinged my brain when I picked it up to realize I had no power cable was "This is why you never buy used." I then thought a visit to the comic book store would be nice.  Even though I completely expected only two books, my feeble attempt at brain-matter and intellect thought in a catchy Animaniacs-style verse: "Look at this store, there's comics gallore! Though you've been here a hundred times before, You'll leave with lots of books you won't know what to do with anymore!" But no. I only have the two books in my pull list. Like I expected. And alas, I am just friggin' bummed. So here I am, $40.00 poorer, irritable that I bought used (thought the mixer sho' does look purty) and really excited to pound some grape. So I think we all learned something today. I do not like buying Used no matter WHO it is selling it to me,  and I really felt the need to just write a mini-blog post. Now... Nick is gonna get go drunk on wine and company. Maybe I'll post again later tonight and you can see words I use real good.

[sadlystrangerthanfiction]

"Routine, youtine, we all love Routine."

My days used to be work Monday thru Wednesday, Work Friday and Saturday while Thursday and Sunday would be days off.

  My days off, albeit Thursday or Sunday, would consist of time with mom and dad, or my friends, or meeting someone for dinner or shopping or done chores that needed done.  And I’d have my own time to do them. 

  Things move pretty slow and leisurely at my pace.  Sometimes I am on fire like a rabbit running a race. But nine times out of ten?

  I am the turtle. And not the plucky teenage mutant ninja variety turtle either that I really dig.

  No, I am laid back. I get to things when I get to them.

  Routine.

  It’s really all this is, is routine. We all have one.

  But I’ve never quite functioned well outside of routine. I remember after high school, despite how much I was happy to enjoy my freedom to do nothing, where I would wax poetic about how nothing is good enough for me, the fact was, I missed high school. Not necessarily why you’d think though.

  I missed it, simply because the routine it provided me was oft missed in my day to day.

  My day to day now consisted of waking up, and well, slacking. My late teens into my twenties until I moved to Cincinnati, consisted of a blur. A blur of feeling uninspired; big dreams filtering into a tributary of nothingness… going from my job to home and from home to whatever activity I had planned.  If I was clay, I felt like I had no mold. I was shapeless.

  Sometimes, every once and a while, I feel that way still. And when I do, I begin to lose track and shape of things, and for someone who has lost a lot of weight and got used to a routine, something very important, it can be very dangerous.

  The moment the routine is shaken, it can hold a bit. But if it is shaken too much, too much can be just that. The levy brakes, and you succumb to the waves of defeat.  And defeat is of course, in my case, are unhealthy choices. And it starts with small ones, but they continue and strive until almost everything you do has unhealthy choices.

[sadlystrangerthanfiction]

Get to the Point.

::tapes microphone lightly::

Hello, is this thing on?

Oh- hi there.

Welcome back to my blog. I've not updated it in awhile. Huge set of apologies to you on that. If anyone is actually listening anymore? Maybe? Maybe not.

I guess I wanna tell you about my day yesterday. For those reading this, today is Friday. Yesterday was Thursday. For those reading this today and today is NOT Friday, just imagine that it was. No seriously, try it.

Imagined it yet?

Good, because not to blow your mind but you just time traveled with the ability to appease some idiot blogger AND, more importantly, with power of your imagination. So let's give ourselves a big ol' high five, yes?

Thursday was an interesting day.  I visited Cedar Point in the first time in what was, well, a year. In that time, I've gained 20 pounds. I've also though gotten a raise which means not as much more money as you'd think but also, a lot more time.  I've also gotten a girlfriend. I've had a number of many great things happen to me, but it's thrown my routine off. (More on this another day.)

  So I was a bit nervous on going back to Cedar Point.  Even without gaining the weight, there were two rides I could not get into last time, and that was because, despite all the progress I had made, I am a tall guy with broad shoulders and the excess weight I loss was hanging on me still skin-wise around my hips and legs. Which means I still have pretty wide hips. Meaning those seats and buckles? Yeah, they're a bitch.

It still says something that a man who went from 550 pounds to 250 or 270 can still be reduced to that feeling that Vince Converse gave you almost every single day of your life until graduation because, well, you can't get into the damned roller coaster. 

Oy.

So, with that said though, Here are "Some things I've learned today at my adventure with Cedar Point":

When your feet hurt or ache they no longer recover as fast as they used to.

I remember having energy for kings island and cedar point before at a young age. All this boundless energy. Now it feels like the statement "I'm getting my third wind" (which was a real statement tonight I uttered at 9:45pm) is disappointing.

Man oh man, when your feet start to kill you, you realize buying those amazing shoes at Road Runner Sports with the insoles were totes worth in the long run despite short term hurting your wallet.

My young teenage self would be giddy that I rode a lot if the rides in the front cars.

My teenage self would be sad that the phrase "I'm too old for this shit" came out if my mouth

The title prolly should be "Some things I've learned today on my adventure at Cedar Point". Oh well.

Next time just take some Icey Hott with you.

The company makes it. Last year I went with DJ Meat, this year, with 3 others. This was the second year i went with good people involved and I loved it. Also- thank your amazing girlfriend profusely for driving to and from. It was a thankless job.

The Maverick, again steals the show after what almost was a late night mutiny due to being a long day and a longer than advertised wait time.

I was dead to the world for a few hours and that's okay.

I'm unsure how to end this list.

I like pie.

::::drops mic:::::