Week 30: Why do toys suck now?

I had no immediate emergencies this week.  My PC is working fine, my car is running great, and my air conditioning is keeping me cool.  (I’ll pay a huge amount to the electric company for the AC, but I’m not worried about that at the moment.)  So what to do this week for my days off?

Well, I thought I would drive over to the local Toys R Us store and see what kind of toys are out there for kids today.  I have fond memories of toys from when I was a young boy.  It seems like today kids just play with a lot of electronic stuff.  It’s not unusual to see a kid running around with a cell phone.  There are a lot of really neat video games and electronic things out there now, but part of me really misses the good, old fashioned Wiffle ball and bat kind of toys.

With that in mind, I went to Toys R Us looking for what’s good.  Sadly, I came away disappointed.  First, I didn’t find a Wiffle ball and bat.  I did find this:

A Swerve Ball.  So what am I supposed to do with this?  Just throw it back and forth with a neighbor kid?  I need a Wiffle Bat to go along with this!  What I want is a Wiffle Bat and ball!  Amazon has this stuff!  Check out this link:

Wiffle Bat and Balls

YEAH!  Now that’s what I’m talking about!  Unfortunately, I don’t think too many kids today are playing with those now.  That makes me sad. (And probably saves a few windows.  Yes, I’ve broken at least one window with a Wiffle Ball.)

I moved on in the store and found some toy condiments.  Not really my thing.  I’m sure there are kids who might like pretend condiments, but I’d rather have real condiments and real food. 

Next I came across what I can only assume was the dart gun/Nerf section.  There was some Nerf stuff and a few dart guns.  They didn’t look the same as they did when I was a kid.  And how about this:

Those little, yellow balls say they’re “High Impact Rounds”.  Who are you going to shoot with those?  Yes I know you can shoot little brothers, but you’re going to lose the gun once mom finds out!  High Impact Rounds, really?  What the hell?  And people wonder why kids today are so violent!

Where are the fun toys?  The toys I can at least play with my brother for a little bit of time before getting into trouble?  Damn!  I did find some Toy Story dolls.  Back when the movie came out in 1995 they only had Buzz Lightyear and Sheriff Woody dolls.  Now you can at least also get Jessie, Rex, and Bullseye dolls, too.  Sadly they’re $44.99. Can this stuff be any more expensive?  What happened to the plastic Army Men from the movie?  They used to come in buckets for a few dollars, didn’t they?

Ok, I did find a bucket of Toy Story Army Men for $14.99.  What the hell?  The best thing about the Army Men was that they were cheap and you could have a lot of them!  Now they aren’t even cheap anymore!  Again, how about Amazon?  I did find a small bag of plastic Army Men for $5.99.  That had 36 men, but how about a package with 1,000 plastic Army men in it?  Two sides, two colors!  Now this is more like it!  I’d love this as a kid and you’d have these things all over the house!

Here’s the Amazon link for the 1,000 if anyone decides they need that.  I may decide I need this one day!

1,000 Plastic Army Men

So I didn’t really enjoy my trip to Toys R Us.  I think the toys of today suck.  I looked at the selection of Hot Wheels cars and they just didn’t look the same to me.  What happened to all the realistic type of cars?  I couldn’t find any G.I. Joe stuff either.  Where did he go?  I’m not happy about that at all.  I may have to search Amazon for some G.I. Joe stuff. 

Kids don’t go outside and play the way they used to.  They don’t ride bikes up and down the street.  The world has become unsafe and the toys suck now!  I’m glad I grew up when I did.  I think the toys were so much better back then.  So why do toys suck now?  I don’t know, they just do.  Keep asking why until next week.

Week 29: Why I'm no longer afraid

If you read these blogs, back in Week 26 I wrote about being afraid my computer hard drive might have crashed.  My hard drive was fine, but the computer actually wasn’t.  It ran for a bit longer and then last week it died.  Well, not exactly death, a light would still come on, but nothing else.  I was panicking.  Oh no, what will I do without my computer!  I was right in the middle of final edits for my latest book!  Oh no! 

I sent both a text and email to a friend hoping he could maybe help me.  I was pretty upset.  And then I calmed myself down and began remembering that I had taken a college course in PC repair for just something like this.  I didn’t want to take my computer somewhere and have someone else fix it for me, but for some reason I've always had an unreasonable fear of opening up my PC.  I realized I needed to do this myself.  Computers really aren’t as complicated as you might think.  At least PC towers aren’t.

And so I began to think about it.  The computer didn’t seem to be getting the power it needed.  I checked the symptoms online and confirmed my suspicions that I had a bad power supply.  All I would have to do was to change it out.

And so I did the first scary thing, I opened up my PC.  In the college class one of the first lessons we were taught was not to be afraid to open up your computer.  Put things in, take things out.  It looks really complicated, but it’s basically just a bunch of parts connected.  Pull out the bad part, plug in the new part.

Looking at all the wires inside, they were all zip tied together.  What wires were connected to what?  I couldn’t just disconnect the wires because of the damned zip ties!  I tried to cut them off with a knife, but that was difficult and dangerous.  So I let my computer sit until my days off.  I would get back to it then.

Once my days off arrived, I drove to a place called Fry’s and found a new power supply that cost me $75.  It seems like a lot, but it also seemed like a really good power supply.  I also stopped at Walmart and bought some tin snips to cut the zip ties.  That would make things much easier.  I arrived home and got to work.

Red wires, yellow wires, there were all kinds of colors!  I clipped all the zip ties off and unplugged everything that was connected to the power supply.  Then I carefully pulled it out of the case.  I opened the new power supply and it looked much nicer!  No red and yellow wires everywhere.  I plugged everything back in and was then ready to put the side back on and give it a try.

There was a photo of the inside of my computer here, but thinking about it, I don't know if there are any serial numbers, or anything that I shouldn't be posting.  Better safe than sorry, so I removed the photo.  Trust me though, my PC's inside looks great!

I put everything back together and it wasn’t as scary inside my computer as I had thought it might be.  I plugged it in and pushed the power button and my PC flared to life!  I was thrilled!  Part of me wanted to put more stuff into my computer!  I’m no longer afraid to work on things in there, so maybe now I’ll need to save up for a solid state drive (No moving parts, so no failure or loss of data supposedly). Maybe a Blu-ray player?  I don’t know, I’ll have to think about it.  For now though, I’m no longer afraid of anything breaking in my computer because if I can replace the power supply, I think I can fix anything else inside there, too!

And as for the red and yellow wire failed power source?  That went into the trash can.

       So for this week why am I no longer afraid?  Because I know I can fix, or update anything on my PC now!  Quite a boost in confidence!  Until next week, don’t think there’s anything you can’t do.  And keep asking why.

Week 28: Why I'm starting to dislike Disney

I grew up loving Disney.  When I was a kid, my parents even took me to Disneyland quite a bit.  We had wonderful times there!  I’ve been there so far back that I can remember when we had to use tickets.  Tickets as in A, B, C, D, and E.  You only got 2 E tickets and so you would have to plan out what E rides you wanted to go on for that trip.  Oh those days were so fun!

Disney parks are still fun, but things are changing.  They’re changing and not for the better.  At least that’s my opinion.  There are good changes and bad changes, but I think the bad changes are becoming more prevalent than the good ones.

One good change is the Magic Band.  At Walt Disney World in Florida you can now get a Magic Band to wear around your wrist that will be your park entrance ticket as well as your room key if you’re staying at a Disney hotel.  You can attach a credit card to the band and even use it to charge things in the parks.  So basically you don’t even have to take a wallet or anything with you to any of the parks, you can just wear your Magic Band and you’re all set!  These things are even water proof so no more trying to keep track of your room key while you’re at the pool swimming.  You just wear the fantastic Magic Band, grab a towel, and head out!  This whole system sounds fantastic to me!

The bad changes, though…ugh.  They hit pretty hard.  Disney is deciding to take things away.  They’re deciding to make things more “PC” in the parks.  One of the first changes I was unhappy about was years and years ago.  Someone decided that in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride it was “sexist” for pirates to chase women.  The ride was changed around so that pirates no longer chased after women, but now the women chase the pirates around.  It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.  There is a whole scene in the ride where the pirates are auctioning off women, but they’re now supposed to be afraid of women? 

This one isn’t so bad, the old pirate running away from the “large” woman.  It does seem to make fun of large women, though. Then we have the iconic women auction in the ride.  There is a line of women being sold and a very large woman on the selling block.  Nearby stands a redheaded woman as the pirates all around yell “We wants the redhead!”  They’re clearly waiting for her to hit the action block and it’s a funny, iconic scene in the ride.

I LOVE this scene!  And now they’re going to take it away.  I’ve heard it’s been decided to make the redhead a pirate.  Maybe she’ll be running the auction selling off the other women?  I don’t know, but I don’t like it! Why would you change that scene?  What will be next to go?  Will they take away the burning of the town part?  Maybe that promotes riots and someone doesn’t like it?  Eventually Pirates of the Caribbean is going to become just another Small World ride where everyone is happy and singing and dancing!  I won’t even go into the Johnny Depp changes!  Oh, why can’t they just leave good things alone?

They took away the iconic hat at the Disney MGM Studios…or Hollywood Studios…or whatever the hell it’s called now.  They can’t even decide on a name for the park!

I loved the hat and the pin shop that was underneath it.  Too bad, because it’s been torn down.  People didn’t like that it obstructed the view of the Chinese Theater.  Did people like the Chinese Theater?  TOO BAD, that’s going to be refurbished now and the Great Movie Ride inside of it is going away, too!  Did you really like that ride?  TOUGH!  Better hope you have some video of it like I do!

New parks are being built for Disneyland and Walt Disney World.  Walt Disney World already has Pandora in the Animal Kingdom park.  That is based on a movie about a company trying to destroy a native people and steal their resources.  And now it’s featured at Disney!  HOORAY!  Did I like the movie, yes.  Do I think it should be in a Disney park?  No, not really.  Who the hell thought this would be a good idea?  Apparently it’s a success because the park is now jammed with people waiting hours to get on the two new rides.  I’m personally just not thrilled about it.

Did you like the Tower of Terror at Disneyland?  Too bad, that’s gone.  It was turned into a Marvel Comics Guardians of the Galaxy ride.  You can still ride Tower of Terror in Florida, but for how long? 

The next big thing will be Star Wars Land and Toy Story Land.  A Star Wars Resort hotel is supposed to be built.  They’re getting away from Disney things and moving on to things like Star Wars and Marvel Comics.  I wonder what the parks will look like in another 50 years?  Will there be any Disney stuff left?  So much of it seems to be going away now.

People sometimes ask what time period you would go to if you had a time machine.  I think I would go back to maybe 1980 or so and visit Disneyland.  Maybe go back to 1987 and visit Walt Disney World.  Am I sounding really old not liking these changes? 

So why am I disliking these changes to a theme park I can’t afford to go to more than once every few years now?  I don’t know.  Until next week, keep asking why.

Week 27: Why is vacation ending?

I’ve been on vacation for the past week.  It was fun, but why does it have to end?  Well for one thing, I think I need to get moving and not just lay around and relax all day.  That’s nice, and I may enjoy this for my “twilight years”, but for right not I’m not retired.  I need to get out and do something besides play video games and watch YouTube.

Now don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed my time off from work.  It was a lot less stress and I didn’t really have to deal with a bunch of stupid people.  But I didn’t really go anywhere and just stayed home and relaxed.  I’ve had vacations that were much harder to go back to work after they were over because I was exhausted after a long trip and needed a vacation from my vacation.  Take this vacation for instance:

Oh yes, that is a helium balloon taking me high up into the sky!  I was a little stressed during that ride as I kept imagining the cable in the middle holding the balloon in place snapping and then the balloon floating away with me in the basket.  Would I end up in Oz?  Maybe dead after the balloon went too high and popped and I plunged to the ground with all the other screaming people in the basket?  It was both quite frightening and quite a thrill at the same time!  You need a rest after things like that!  Here's a good shot of what the balloon I was riding in looked like:

That was during a vacation trip to Walt Disney World in Florida.  Trips there are both very fun and very exhausting!  Yes it was fun going up and seeing everything from high up, but it was also a bit stressful. 

I didn’t do too bad eating while I was on vacation this week.  I had a bit of fast food, but nothing crazy.  While on my trips to Florida and Walt Disney World I would pretty much eat whatever I wanted!  Even crazy stuff like this:

I don’t even remember what that was called, but it was huge and delicious!  I finished every last bite, too!  I was full to the brim!  I didn’t get anything like that this vacation.  I had a bit of chicken and some pork chops, but nothing like a pork shank!  Sadly they no longer serve these at Walt Disney World.  I don’t know why they stopped because they were my absolute favorite meal that I’ve ever had there!

Enough about food.  Yes, I ate a bit more sensibly this vacation than I would have on a fun trip somewhere.  And I relaxed more and wasn’t walking here and there trying to go everywhere and see everything during my week off.  I relaxed and it felt great!

Anyway, to keep this from getting too long, I didn’t really go anywhere for my vacation.  I did take a short trip to an IKEA store and that was fun for the 3 ½ hours I was there with my niece.  Maybe it was just fun because my niece was there?  We always have fun.  But I really only needed to decompress for a week.  It’ll feel good to get back to work, even if I’d rather be lounging around.

So until next week keep asking why, and I’ll try and figure out why vacation had to end.

Week 26: Why am I afraid?

Computers have become our lives now.  There are people out there who don’t have computers and don’t rely on electronic things I know, but I’m not one of them.  My life now runs through the electronic stuff I have.  That doesn’t mean I’m one of those zombies walking around staring at my cell phone all day.  It simply means most everything runs through computers for me now. 

When I go to work I spend all night using a computer.  The cameras I watch are controlled by computers.  I type log entries all night on computers.  And when I come home, I use my personal computer.  Or play with my Playstation 4 which is basically a computer used to play games.  I pay my bills using a computer.  I even order things with a computer.  Everything is electronic! 

So what happens if the electricity goes out?  What happens if one of my major electronic things like my personal computer stops working?  What if *GASP* the hard drive on my PC fails and I lose everything?  I thought that had happened on Friday.

Sometime Friday my power went out.  I know this because the fan in my room was shut off and it only goes off when the power is out.  I woke up hot and bothered.  After turning my *electric* fan back on, I walked out to where my computer is and of course it was also off.  So I tried to start it back up.  It wouldn’t start.  I was frozen with fear about that!  If the hard drive had went out I would lose a lot of stuff!  Photos, writing, all kinds of things I had on there!  I walked into my bathroom and threw up!  How could this be happening?

If my hard drive had went bad, I was not only out of all the saved stuff I had, I was also without a personal computer until I could install a new hard drive!  SHIT!  (I wouldn’t lose the book I had just written because I’m smart enough to back things like that up somewhere else.)  My poor computer just kept trying and trying to start, but nothing was happening!  Finally I wanted to have mercy on it and held in the power button to just shut everything down.  It didn’t shut down and seemed to be doing something else.  My computer was fighting!  Holding the power button down hadn’t shut it down, it had somehow given it the strength to fight on!  And then it flared to life on my monitor! 

So to make this long story short, my hard drive didn’t fail.  Everything is still working.  I’m quite happy about that.  But still, I worry about what will happen one day when my hard drive does actually fail.  It might, it might not.  You never know.  It’s a lifetime crap shoot.  I gamble with the hard drive every day.  Hopefully I’ll keep on winning!

And what if the power goes out someday and doesn’t come back on?  What the hell would we do in life then?  Have you ever even thought about that?  Where would you get your food from?  Grocery stores without power can’t sell food!  It’s insane to think about.  How about reading about it?  How about this:

Like this cover says, “What could you do?”  What happens to our lovely electronic society when there’s no more electronic stuff?  I’m sure British folks on a small British isle would handle it much differently than the crazy people in larger cities.  Take a look for yourself, though.  Read this book and think about what would really happen.  You’d certainly be asking yourself why then, wouldn’t you?

Click here to Buy Playing Havoc

Read this book and then ask yourself what you would do in that situation.  It’s one of my favorite books.  Would you survive, or would you become an animal and die in a few days because you don’t know how to survive?  Ask yourself why.

And keep asking why until next week.