League Post: My Life in 1X1

All right... the time has come. I am officially getting ready to delete the content from Really Rather Random Guy (dot blogspot dot com) and in preparing for that, I wanted to import a bunch of the content that I know will then be lost forever, by bringing the posts over here to Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks (dot blogspot dot com). So, with that in mind, I thought I would preface these entries with the fact that they are indeed OLD blog posts from an OLD, now DEFUNCT blog, and cross my fingers and hope that folks will still want to read them.

I should also point out that the "League of Extraordinary Bloggers" is also OLD and DEFUNCT. This post was originally published back on March 29th, 2014.

Wow, I've been out of the blogging loop for a little while now... since the last post on here is from a League post... the week before last. 

I can't even begin to tell you all that's been happening here in Really Rather Random Land... but suffice it to say I've barely had time to catch my breath. But enough about all that for now. I'm here to write about this week's League of Extraordinary Bloggers topic! And as you can see above the topic is an interesting one. We have a photo challenge this week!

Arrange items that describe you within a 12″ x 12″ space and take a picture. 

So here you have it. Now... full disclosure... this is not EXACTLY a square foot. The surface I grabbed to set everything up on was slightly shorter than a foot up and down and slightly longer side-to-side... so it's not a true square foot... but I was in a hurry so you'll have to forgive me for being close-but-not-quite. 

Some of the highlights:

1. Anything Halloween or Horror related. You'll find Jack Skellington, Sam from Trick R' Treat, Garfield from his Halloween TV special, and various other little Devils, skeleton pirates, zombies, and Horror Icons in the mix. I am such a big kid when it comes to Halloween and Horror, both for similar but sometimes different reasons. Halloween is all about darkness and light melting together like orange candle wax, blurring identities and swirling danger and fun together like autumn leaves on the wind. Horror is all about tension and relief, shock and electricity, and reminding yourself that you're alive. The best horror and the best Halloweens are a perfect balance of wry humor and fear and the sense that when it's all over you'll still be (mostly...) safe and sound. 

2. Anything Comic book or Super-Hero related. Imaginext Harley Quinn is a new (and beautiful) acquisition in my collection, and you'll also find a custom-painted Red Lantern Dex-Starr done by Reis O'Brien (of the now OLD and DEFUNCT Lair of the Dork Horde blog) a Super-Hero Squad Iron Man figurine, and of course one of my all-time favorite and personally iconic issues of Uncanny X-Men, #234. Comic books saved me as a child. I rode out some of the hardest, loneliest, horrific and painful times of my childhood with my nose (and the rest of my face... and let's face it my brain) buried in a comic book. They allowed me to celebrate my otherness, my misfit nature in a way that no other medium did at the time. Comics play out in your mind like reading a book does, but it also bolsters the imagination with visuals that support and enhance the experience. 

3. Saturday Morning Cartoons! Well... cartoons in general. You'll see some classic in there, like Velma from Scooby-Doo, Egon from Real Ghostbusters, Darkwing Duck, Finn from Adventure Time, Lil' Leo from TMNT, Scrat from Ice Age, and Emmet from the recent LEGO movie. Bert from Sesame Street is in there, and I lovingly include Garfield in some of my warmest childhood cartoon memories too. Animation is sooo important to me, as is anything created with a child's imagination in mind. 

4. Toys! So many toys are represented here, (too many to talk about ever single one) including my burgeoning love of LEGOs, my fondness for old action figures and mini-figures from my youth, and pretty much any cool, plastic representation of any character I have loved. Cheap toys, expensive toys, bootleg toys, licensed toys, vintage toys, brand new toys, it does not matter... I just LOVE toys. You may notice I have included every single one of the old gang that I used to play with almost exclusively, including Petey Graffiti, Chicky Baby, a green LEGO man, a yellow Ghostbusters Ghost, a gray and purple robot, and a blue MUSCLE man... their story can be read here. They were six of my absolute favorite toys of all time. Fisher-Price Little People, Construx, Adventure People, Battle Beasts, Dino Riders, Funko Minis, Imaginext figures, Mini-Mates, cereal premiums, fast food premiums... they're all represented. 

5. Books, science fiction, childhood, nostalgia, Goodwill... you name it. I have a couple of examples of Star Wars toys in there, one fairly old, one relatively new. California Raisins which were an obsession that branched out to many other food-related mascots... I even have ol' Ronald McDonald in the mix as well as a mini PEZ dispenser, childhood obesity be damned. Petey Graffiti is in there to represent a dual love of the toy itself but also Garbage Pail Kids in general, which I collected like an ADDICT as a child. I have a flyer from a Goodwill store (you guys do know I like shopping at Goodwill, right?) and while not my favorite book from the Borderlands/Bordertown series, definitely my favorite cover from that series... which is quite possibly my favorite book series of all time. 

This foot by foot picture is a snapshot of the geek me. There are lots of other square feet I could fill with my family, or my job, or the secret wishes that I make in the night of what I wish my life could be. But one square foot can't hold all of that, so I just went with the geeky stuff. 

Let's see what the other members of the League have squared away:

- D.I. Treasures

- AEIOU and Sometimes Why 

- Cool & Collected

- Achievements in Gaming

- Happy Haunted Sunshine House

- Stunt Zombie

- Jathniel

- The Nerd Nook

I guess it's hip to be square! Anyway... I'll be back soon! Keep your peepers peeled for more randomness right here!