"For Sale: One Gigantic Amusement Park."

I couldn't believe my eyes when I picked up the Friday edition of the Arlington Star Telegram. Six Flags Over Texas is for sale! Even if I could afford it, the paper is telling people NOT to buy it. The reason: Six Flags has lost money for the last six years and could benefit from new management. Plus, and this I didn't know...Daniel Snyder, the owner of the Washington Redskins, also owns Six Flags! Looks like he doesn't know how to run either.

Anyways...on the off-chance that someone buys the most popular tourist attraction in Texas and bulldozes it to build condos, I will dedicate a post on my Spirit Of Texas blog to what would have been an important part of my childhood if we had gone more. Check it out today!

"Ice Age 2"

Pop Tarts



Fruit snacks

Can you believe all the merchandising for this movie? And this is just the tip of the iceberg! (okay, bad pun, I know) By the time this movie is said and done with, there's no telling how much of this stuff will be in existence. Ever wonder what the greatest toys ever made were? A lot of it depends on who you ask. If you ask me (ask! ask now!), I would say the Transformers from the 1980's, and that's just because I grew up with 'em. And...as long as we're reminiscing...

One of my favorite memories was watching this show called "Hulk Hogan's Rock 'N' Wrestling" back in the mid-80's. For those of you who remember, the WWF was huge. Wrestlemania would come to town and sell out the arena. Just as I started getting into this show, my parents enrolled me in some karate class at the local community college. I'm sure they did it because I was watching too many cartoons on the weekend. But come on, isn't that what it's for!? What's amazing is that I still remember what I was doing back then. I guess abstaining from drugs and alcohol was beneficial to my life after all. Some of the other shows that I enjoyed watching around that time were "CBS Storybreak", "Muppet Babies", and "The Wuzzles". Ahh, memories...

"What Makes A Great Weekend?"

For me, a great weekend consists of one major thing: forgetting what I did at work the week before. If I can go into work Monday completely unaware of what I did LAST week, it's great. Now this one major thing needs lots of minor things...fun things that we did that take my mind off what's comin' around the corner. Last weekend (Aug 6/7) was one of the good ones. What we did:

Saturday
5:38am: Woke up (bad combo of headache/bathroom trip will wake anyone up)
8:45am: Drove around garage sales with wife and kid looking for a crib...unsuccessfully (sigh)
4:15pm: Dropped the kid off at her grandma's house
7:15pm: Had dinner at Texas Cheesecake Factory (so yum!)

Sunday
10:30am: Had breakfast at IHOP...how do they get thise flapjacks so fluffy?! A mystery...
1:20pm: Saw "Wedding Crashers" in the new theater in Mansfield...by far funniest thing I've seen since...um...I guess "Meet The Fockers"...funnier though

As I write this I sit on the cusp of another weekend...not sure what's gonna happen...there's some talk of seeing "Charlie & The Chocolate Factory" but it's in the preliminary stages right now...if this is in any way interesting to you lemme know!!

"Do You Hate Your Job?"

Some of us do, some of us don't. Me personally, I think I fall in between. The job itself isn't too bad, but the pay could be better, and the employer (Pharmacare) knows that, which is why the majority of people who are there have been there for quite a while. They're comfortable. I'm comfortable. Some would call it a career rut, stalling point, call it what you will, but these days with people hit hard by economic turmoil, comfort has become hard to come by. As far as these guys go, I'm wondering, "How do you write a Playboy video anyway?" I would imagine "Get naked and hug all over your co-star" is a pre-requisite. I mean that's half the video right there! I guess there's a story that has to lead up to that though. My request for a transcript from this one was denied unfortunately, so let's make one up, shall we? :


(logger is in the water standing on logs guiding them to the sawmill)
(beautiful woman comes out of the water and gets his attention)
(logger jumps from log to log to get a better look at her)
(woman picks the biggest tree and lays down to wait for her logger)
(and...everyone gets naked and hugs all over each other)


Wow! That wasn't so hard! I think I found a career path I may have overlooked! I did that in like 10 minutes. Let's see if I can do one more here before the progeny wakes up:


(commercial fisherman drops his net in the ocean)
(net comes up with hundreds of fish, crabs, lobsters...and something very big...too big to be a fish)
(fisherman releases net on deck to find...a mermaid!)
(mermaid explains how she was trapped by the water and needed someone to free her)
(and...you guessed it...everyone naked and hugging)


These things write themselves, don't they? Ol' Gary and Christian have it made. Maybe I should e-mail Playboy this blog as a kind of resume`. One day...one day. BTW, in my movie "scripts", I picked those two jobs because they are considered the number one and two most dangerous jobs in the world. The way I see it, if you have that kind of prize waiting, I'm gonna make you work for it! What other jobs are considered dangerous? I know about cop, fireman, FBI, bodyguard, etc...but is there something people don't think about as dangerous? Leave a comment and tell me!

"The Three Musketeers...?"

Back in 1999 I found this in the bargain shelves of Toys 'R' Us. At first it looked like just another goofy toy, but upon closer inspection it appeared quite unique. These three members of the Fleet were packaged together for some reason. I hadn't planned on opening it up, but when the box got damaged, I figured "What the heck". Here they are along with their file cards which contain an explanation of how they affected the balance of time and space in their own way:


Reginald Barclay........Dwight Schultz

Fun Fact:
If this guy looks vaguely familiar, you may remember him as Murdoch from "The A-Team".



Jean-Luc Picard..........................Patrick Stewart

Fun Fact: Patrick actually has a full head of hair; however, he always wears an uncomfortable scalp cap so people won't be jealous.




Tasha Yar...............................Denise Crosby


Fun Fact: Denise is the grand-daughter of legendary singer Bing Crosby. All I can say is B-I-I-I-N-G!!!