Cartoon Day!

[Koliedrus]

Saturday! I love it so. The roof of my mouth falls to shreds just at the thought of a big box of Captain Crunch and a few hours of animation.

Time may have shifted the attention of my tastebuds from sugary-sweet to onions and garlic but my appreciation for animation reamains the... uh...

Ok. I went "onion and garlic" there, too.

But still, IT'S SATURDAY!!! Where I come from that means "Cartoon Day"!!!!

So, depending on your tastes, grab something sugary-sweet or pore-reekingly pungent and throw down some Cartoon Day gems.

I'ma look here (http://www.markfiore.com/animation.html) for a while but Cartoon Day is all about switching channels.

Don't forget to brush your teeth tomorrow no matter how much it hurts.

[River Rat]

I will have to pass on cartoon day.
A 13 hour night shift will do that to you.
I am however enjoying a nice cold beer with some chips and salsa right now.
mmmmmmmm breakfast.

[Koliedrus]

Cartoon Day doesn't sit still because of your feeble definition of "weekend". My own "weekend" is Thursday (somtimes Tuesday).

Saturday may not mean the same as it once did but it will always be "Cartoon Day".

Lose it and you lose.

http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/clonewars/index.html?A1

[Koliedrus]

What?! I'm the only one with slivers of flesh dangling from the roof of my mouth? I'll bet you guys don't know how to play Kick The Can either. Sheesh. I sure hope next Saturday's line-up is better than this one. You guys suck.

Ok, let's see... Sunday. Act too tired from yesterday's sugar-induced hyperactivity to go to church. Recover while the 'rents are out and let your imagination go batshit while there's still some weekend left.

I was born in a small town (sing it). The mayor lived next door. Well, actually in the house behind us but his son and I were best buds from before he was elected. On Sundays we would play Risk (the board game) for hours, take a Polaroid of the board so we could finish up the game at a later date (which never happened) and go on to something else.

We were Trekkies in a sense. The show was the best thing we'd ever seen and it made us interested in astronomy. Being kids, though, we had a natural tendancy to create our own little spur-of-the-moment episodes and act them out.

Seeing as how we had no props other than an upside-down wheelbarrow with buttons drawn on paper taped to it, we decided to save up our allowances for some props. We mail-ordered kits to build models of phasers, tri-corders and communicators. Soon, we had a "bridge" in my basement and heads full of questions about other planets.

My buddy's tag-along little pest-of-a-sister spotted us coming out of the basement with phasers drawn on whatever mission we'd contrived for ourselves that Sunday. The secret was out. She insisted on playing along or telling her mommy that we were being mean to her.

We had no choice. If we made her an enemy she'd cry so we inducted her as our communications officer with a grand (in our minds) ritual. This pleased her to no end.

"Stay here and keep an eye out for Klingons. We're beaming down to the surface of Jupiter." (shut up, we were kids)

And so, we left the Pest in my basement and went outside to battle imaginary creatures. Makes me feel a tinge of guilt in retrospect...

We saved up about ten bucks between us for the props.

Look at what adults do with $20,000: www.starshipexeter.com

I laughed, I cringed. I got tingles. I'm not sure if the tingles were solely from watching the actors, hearing the old sounds and music or a combination of memories I've yet to put together.

Anyway, it's Sunday. Time for your mouth to heal for a week and watch Star Trek.

Try to have something for next Saturday, dammit.

[River Rat]

I spent most of my time as a kid up on the hill (mountain) behind my house. My two best freinds and I were soldiers in a great
never ending war. Our enemies were always mighty but fortunately for us we had very versitile weapons. My BB gun could transform from a machine gun to a bazooka to a laser gun at any given momment. At some point I gained possession of the tool of all tools the almighty hatchet. Now not only did we have the most dangerous arsenal on any planet, we had the ability to manufacture a decent base of operations. One covert opp to dads tool shed later we had a broken handled shovel. We spent days on end building forts in the woods. Trip wires with claymore mines (old peice of fence attached to a can) Grenades (pine cones and or dirt clauds) you name it we had it.
Most of our missions involved us having to wade though countless enimies to get to our tank ( an old wrecked pontiac down by the creek)



Man I hadn't thought about that in years.
Those were good days.
thanks Kol:D

[Pianomahnn]

I was doing homework all day Saturday, old man. And after that I went to work.

Apoopoodebooo.

[Billyman]

Downloaded some porn and went drag racing. :D

[Koliedrus]

Originally posted by Pianomahnn
I was doing homework all day Saturday, old man. And after that I went to work.

Apoopoodebooo.

Homework and work. On Saturday. No time for cartoons and I'm the old man?

Maybe you're right. I need to get my priorities straight. I'll work on it. Nathan and I wasted our Sunday morning while the girls were at church with a Supersoaker ful of warm water (plus reloads) and a plastic dinosaur. He'd set it up on the edge of the tub, I'd knock it down, he'd get soaked.

Ok. Weekend's almost over. Work work work.

[Billyman]

Did I mention some of which was anime? Does that count? :p

[Koliedrus]

In SPF, yeah.

Tell you what.

Since Billy opened that door, this thread goes to D&D.

Link away. We don't read minds (well, only kinda sorta).

[Pianomahnn]

:(

[Billyman]

Well that was stupid.

Who in the fuck said anything about links?

Yet another knee jerk.

[Koliedrus]

Just opening it up for adult content. Put your head back on.

[Mudflap]

Kol, I have one word for you: Bicycle

Oh man, I couldn't even begin to count the number of bikes I went thru as a kid. I would roam for miles and miles on my bike. Sometimes solo, sometimes with an impromptu gang of other kids. When it was time to go outside, I'd hop on my bike and start riding. It was like a recon mission with no objective. The best adventures were had by chance. Curbs were bunny hopped. Loading ramps were jumped. "No Bicycles" signs posted on the sidewalks downtown were summarily disregarded. Boat docks on the river were obstacle courses. Down the pier to the end, turn around without touching a foot to the planks (most piers were about 4 feet wide), and ride back to dry land. Ramps were constructed from scrap boards propped up on cinder blocks and bricks. Get up some speed, hit the ramp, try to land on the back wheel first without wiping out. Ramps and gravity did in the frame on my yellow John Deer bike before I was 9. Hell yes, I had a bicycle made by John Deer. The two tubes of the frame broke clean in two while I was riding down the road. The handle bars and front wheel went one way and me and the rest of the bike went the other until I wiped out.

Holy shit, I'm gonna be late for work! I'll finish this post tomorrow.

:p


*Muddy goes to work and foils the schemes of many a coniving inmate*

Ok. Back home with no more errands to run till this afternoon. Where was I? Oh yeah....rambling about riding bikes as a kid.

Helmet and pads: not worn. Spoked wheels: FOOEY! I threw some Sears/Roebuck brand mag wheels on my Huffy and started a trend in 3 different neighborhoods. Huffy's are sucking bikes, btw. I eventually upgraded to Haros, Hutches, Redlines, Mongooses, and Schwinns. Schwinns were fun because their frames had lifetime warranties. We did our very best to trash a Schwinn frame. It never happened. Chrome finishes were preferred over painted.

Eventually, bikes became more than transportation and symbols of street shredding social status. We started doing tricks on them. Quarter and half pipes were constructed after midnight lumber excursions. A strip of PVC pipe on the lip, pedal your ass off, and grab as much air as you dared without wiping out in a tangle of chromoly, plastic, rubber, and dislodged teeth. Off the ramps provided opportunity as well. Any way that you could manipulate your bike, hop around it, flip it, or any other insane manuever WITHOUT touching your feet to the ground was great fun. Off the top of my head, the names of the ground tricks I mastered were: Boomerang, cherry picker, rock walk, surf board, front wheel hop, and about a half dozen other tricks of which I can't remember their names.

Bikes were great and one of the highlights of my childhood. Much more so than Saturday morning cartoons (Voltron rocked). Even so, I think my mind journeyed back to where Kol intended it to go. Good times.

My Hutch Trickstar is in my mom's attic. Its in excellent shape for a bike that was put up over 15 years ago.

Ok. I'm done.

[Koliedrus]

Aw HELL yeah! Now were talking "after school"! Best damned time of the school-week!

My bike was a hand-me-down green Schwinn given to me by my brother. Before he turned me loose on it, he showed me how to flip it ("belly it up", in his words) and go at it with tools.

We had three dogs at that time and leash laws were still a thing of the future. How they reacted when they saw that I could go faster than them... :) Suffice it say that exercise was a daily routine and Dutchess (the leader) allowed me to lead her pack to places unfamiliar to her.

One summer (1978), my mom went to visit our family in Germany. Before she left, she gave me an envelope and told me that I couldn't open it until her plane was over the ocean. When it was, I opened it and found one blank check and one note.

"Mikey,

I will be home before you know it. The check is for your brand new bicycle. Daddy will help you pick one out but you will need to help him. Find one that you love. When you ride it think of me and I will be thinking of you."


That's the jist. Man, did I put the dogs through their paces even after mom came home. When school started back up, Dutchess and Pepper (the brainiac of the pack) would wait at home while Devil met me at the bus-stop, took either my hand or my jacket in his mouth and led me home to OUR bike. How they elected the German Shepherd to that task is a mystery that will forever make me go, "Wow".

How could I NOT lead them on a journey?

The four of us went to places both familiar and out of our experience.

I saw my bike as a crutch originally; something that would allow me to speed along with the Dutchess Pack.

When Dutchess gave me a doggy-smile and a neck-hug, she promoted me. We think she was the daughter of a grey wolf but that's never been confirmed.

It was my honor to accept leadership of her pack. I'll never forget it and have only just documented that experience.

Prep for the holiday and get ready for the Cartoon Days to come.
Thanks for reading.

[ms. bing]

when i was a kid, i played and watched cartoons and all the usual kid stuff, but more than likely if anyone wanted to know where i was they would find me in a soft, quiet spot with a book.
i remember being able to go in my room, or the hay barn, or my parent's room, or anywhere with a book and stay all day. i'd read the whole thing cover to cover.
the best time was sneaking out of bed at night after my parents were asleep and going in the living room. i'd read all night.
i was about 9 or 10 when i discovered "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner". that changed my life.
after that i was on to poe, then bronte. i read "Wuthering Heights" something like 10 times.
shakespeare was my best friend. as a kid i liked the sonnets and, of course, "Romeo and Juliet" and "Hamlet".
i also read the children's classics, like "The Island of Blue Dolphins" and the narnia series.
i remember the day i realized i had been through everything in the children's section in our closest public library. i decided to turn to mom's books.
i read the jean m. auel books, even though i didn't understand the sex stuff. i started reading stephen king about the same time.
i don't remember being that turned on about tv, video games, or even playing outside. alot of times i would take my bike into the woods with a book in tow so i could read under a tree, or i'd take a notebook and sit down to write.
guess i've always been a literary nerd.

[Barbie]

I remember we used to watch Loony Toons at 10AM - Bugs Bunny was always my favorite - and right after that from 11 - 12 was American Bandstand.

[Koliedrus]

Tuesdays have always felt like Limbo days. At least Monday is something you can dread. Tuesday is just Monday+1. Bland.

Its only benefit was that the beginning of the week had past and the tests on Friday were still comfortably far away.

Well, that and they'd serve beans and onions as a sidedish. One guy would go from table to table, see an untouched bowl and ask if he could have them.

He was a classroom disruption by 1:30.

He stopped when our fifth-grade teacher sent him outside. In the rain. Teachers could get away with that shit back then.