League Post: My Latest Obsession!

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 13th, 2014. (And yes, I am aware that I posted these out of order... I just don't care.)

The League is back!!! And this is the first official time I will be writing a League of Extraordinary Bloggers post on the new Really Rather Random Guy blog!!! What's the topic this week? Well... look right up above...

"My Latest Obsession"

But here's the thing... I've really been struggling with this topic! Usually I'm OBSESSED with a whole FLEET of obsessions! Obsessions that send me to eBay on searches for LEGO pieces to complete custom mini-figures:

or Happy Meal toys featuring the Ice Age characters... 

or even just the obsession of hitting Goodwill as often as possible in an attempt to make the next big "Find". 

Yep... just gonna keep trottin' this one out 'til I die.

But now, I find my passions cooling. My obsessions... waning.

What am I obsessed with? Not much at the moment. I was obsessed with Scooby-Doo for awhile, directly after discovering the new Mystery Incorporated series. 

But now that I've bought the second season on DVD and we're making our way through it... I feel a little less obsessed about it. I still LOVE it... don't get me wrong, but having the DVDs here and knowing we're going to watch our way through them makes me a little less anxious and fixated on all things Scooby-Doo right now. 

It's not close enough to Halloween yet for me to be obsessed with ALL THINGS SPOOKY (though I'm always in a little bit of a Halloween-y mood...) 

and I'm not currently trying to track down that VITAL piece to any of my many vintage action figure collections or mini-figure collections... or Horror movies... or Hotwheels... or PEZ... or comic books... or Little Golden Books... or FUNKO toys... or whatever... 

Pictured above: The room of a man with ZERO obsessions.

I ALMOST felt myself getting obsessed with tracking down more of the Sesame Street Fisher Price Little People figures... but then the eBay prices very quickly de-obsessed me with that. Right now I'm just not very obsessed with much at all. 

So what is a poor man-boy to do when obsession in all its forms has abandoned him???

Obsess over it. I guess I'll obsess over the fact that I have no obsessions at the moment. Or maybe... I'll come to the realization that I have SO many obsessions that they're all just duking it out right now in my subconscious to see who will be the next leader!!! I think Funko's ReAction figures are going to be a looming threat in the near future:

 as are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Half-Shell Heroes figurines but those are in the FUTURE...

Of course I loved the LEGO Movie, so getting more of those sets wouldn't be bad... 

I guess what I'm also realizing is that it's not really that hard to drum up a new obsession in no time... and I'll probably blog about it here when that happens... so just keep your peepers peeled here for more random obsessions to come!

Let's see what the rest of the League had to say about their Obsessions this week:

- Jathniel is obsessed with finding Spider-Man #33

- The Dusty Shelf wants to fill up with Fantastic Four comics and Megos!

- Calvin is obsessed with... Hugo. Brrr. Those cold, dead eyes.

- The Nerd Cantina is obsessed with Scarrrrrrry Stuff!

- That Yellow Duck is obsessed with The Big Lebowski

- Our fearless leader Brian at Cool & Collected is obsessed with Binge Watching!

- Pop Rewind is obsessed with McDonald's Orange Drink!

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!

League Post: Cryptozoology!

SO it's that time once again kids (In fact, I am almost too LATE!!!) for The League of Extraordinary Bloggers!!! What's the topic this week you ask? Easy! It's:



Awesome right? So I sat and thought for a bit. I own a bunch of books that detail various different local creatures that folks claim are real, like The Jersey Devil, Chupacabra, The Moth Man, etc. But I didn't really just feel like focusing on my "favorite" cryptid... so I decided I'd focus on one of my all-time favorite book series that revolves around cryptids: Rick Yancey's Monstrumologist series.

I know I've mentioned it in passing here or there on the blog before, but I don't think I've ever devoted an entire post to Yancey or his books. And now that there's news that the series has been optioned by Warner Brothers to become a movie or possibly series of movies, well I figure I better get on it. 

Artist unknown. Got this image from the Monstrumologist Wiki.

The first book in the series The Monstrumologist, focuses on the relationship between Dr. Pellinore Warthrop and his young ward Will Henry. The relationship is a dysfunctional one, and mostly features the good Dr. Warthrop hunting monsters and putting Will, who is about 12 when the series begins, in mortal danger at every turn. The first book features creatures known as anthropophagi, which are straight up monsters, through and through, characterized by their lack of a head, and face in the center of their chests. I should point out that the gore level in these books is HIGH. The characters are developed and feel real, and the emotional impact of the monster attacks (as well as some of the circumstances revealed as to how the monsters got on, or rather under, US soil) are tragic and horrifying in equal measure. 

http://matthewstarbuck.com/

The second book The Curse of the Wendigo, focuses on... well the Wendigo. We're not talking about some lumbering bigfoot monster, but an evil, infected human who hungers for human flesh. There is even more of an emotional punch to this story as questions of love, morality, responsibility, and humanity itself are explored in the shadow of the Wendigo. The "monster" is definitely played more as a dark side of human nature rather than a beast to be hunted and defeated. 

Art by Frank Cho

The third book in the series sets Dr. Warthrop and his charge on a quest to find a beast that creates nests from human flesh. The nests cause an infection in anyone who handles them that drives them to behave much like aggressive zombies. So this is sort of Yancey's zombie book in the series. The twist at the end isn't EXACTLY a twist... but as with the other two books in the series, the book is more about the humans in the story even more than the monsters. This book explores the nature of compulsion, and asks the question of what truly makes a monster a monster?

The last book in the series is The Final Descent and I haven't finished reading it yet. So... I don't have much to say about it. Er... more on that later.

And to keep this slightly true to m Goodwill hunting theme... some other related books that I'll be reading at some point after I've finished Yancey's series are The Cryptid Hunters series by Roland Smith:

There are currently 4 books in the series, and I've found the first two at Goodwill. 

The series follows a set of Twins who travel with their Uncle, hunting cryptids. I guess the Chupacabra makes an appearance in the 3rd volume. So I'll be sure to track that one down as well. 

Let's see what the rest of the League is tracking down in the wilds, getting blurry photos of:

- Adam Nori who happens to be a paranormal enthusiast, definitely had some thoughts to share on the topic. 

- G.I. Jigsaw shares a selection of cryptid toys you can hunt down for yourself. 

- The Nerd Nook reminisces about an 80's family-favorite cryptid... 

- Revenge of the Toybox goes looking in some Dungeons and around some Dragons for a fantasy cryptid.

- Our fearless leader Brian over at Cool & Collected takes us on a magical mystery tour of his favorite pop-culture bigfoots (feet?)

- Primordial Badger's Media Hoard understands that sometimes if you can't find the cryptids... you have to make them yourself. 

- That Yellow Duck gives us a pretty awesome Who's Who of Cryptozoology. Some of these I wasn't aware of yet, and now I have some internet trawling to do! 

- Super Powered Fiction gives us a little taste of cryptids we may see in print in the near future... 

And that's all I've got for tonight kids! I'll be back soon with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies! So until then, Happy Hunting! 

League Post: Top 10

I can't even remember the last time I participated in a League of Extraordinary Bloggers post... so I figure it's about time. I picked a nice one too:

Pretty straightforward and simple. Come up with a Top 10 list! So what am I going to go 10-1 on here? I thought I'd talk about: 

The top 10 mini-figures in my personal collection at this time. (This means my top 10 could literally change tomorrow, but for today, this is it.) So here we go! 

First, Some Honorable Mentions:

All of these guys came VERY close to making it on the list... but ultimately, they all lost out to the rest of the guys below (Actually, I lied. One of these guys did make his way into the top 10!!! Jeez! He's insufferable! I must have either included him here by mistake, or else he PLOTTED his way into the list somehow without me realizing it!!!)

10. Kenner's Real Ghostbusters Gulper Ghost

Thought I'd go ahead and get these guys out of the way out of the gate. I could fill more than half of my list with the six mini-figures I owned as a kid that I made an obsessive Super Hero team out of. Instead I thought I would pick my (current) favorite of the six and let him represent the whole group in his way. And that would be Blob. Yes, he is more popularly known as "Gulper Ghost" and he was packed in with the original Egon Spengler action figure from the Real Ghostbusters line. But to me, Blob was the "Thing" to my super-group. He was the monster with a heart of gold. He was a shapechanger, made of slime, and he is probably the absolute only character out of the six pictured above who is absolutely 100% genuinely the original figure I grew up with from the very beginning. All the others were replaced when I was a kid because I broke or lost them, or replaced as an adult with repros or bought online (the only other one I can't be sure of is the blue Teri-Bull, who might be the original... or may be a replacement after I lost mine as a kid). 

9. Fisher-Price Imaginext Plankton

Oh how I love Plankton. He is the absolute most neurotic and self-loathing villain in the history of kids' cartoons. Full of self-loathing and pure envy, Plankton has cooked up more self-destructive plots than any wily coyote or prehistoric squirrel could dream of. And the look and feel of this Imaginext figure is simply brilliant. Putting tiny little plankton up at the top of the imaginext body as if piloting a robot is a perfect design, and I applaud whomever it was at Fisher-Price that came up with the concept, especially considering that Plankton can detach from the main body on a little roller-skate-style cart for a quick getaway. 

8. Hasbro Super Hero Squad Kang the Conqueror

Gosh, Hasbro had so many (now defunct) mini-figure lines that were going strong just a few years ago. Super Hero Squad (Marvel), Galactic Heroes (Star Wars), Combat Heroes (GI Joe), Robot Heroes (Transformers), and Adventure Heroes (Indiana Jones) are all great toylines. And I wanted to include some from ever line... but I decided to choose just one to represent them all. And that figure turned out to be Kang here. He is decidedly NOT a favorite character of mine in the comics. But this mini-figure? The color scheme, the stance of feet and pose of the guns, the grin on his face that tells you just EXACTLY how many f*cks he gives? All perfect. He just looks like he means business. Thanos and Iron Man and Thor and Kitty Pryde all have some pretty great figures dedicated to them as well, but Kang the Conqueror just NAILS it. 

7. Pint from a Cheap Bag of Skeleton Pirate Toys I Found This One Time

Back in January of 2013 I did a whole post on a set of cheapy-charlie Skeleton Pirate figures that I bought for .99 cents at a salvage/overstock store. I wrote silly backstories for all of the skeletal pirate crew, and I don't think I've ever had so much fun writing a post for this blog. But I did it because I genuinely LOVE this cheap-@$$ set of pirates, and I wanted at least one of them to be on this list. Back in 2013 I gave this little guy the name "Shorty" but he disagreed with me and insisted that his name is actually "Pint" which makes so much more sense in a perfectly ironic sort of way. See, he's pint-sized, and he's holding a pint of grog... so yeah. And I LOVE HIM. How many undead alcoholic kids toys can you name? Yeah. I thought so.

6. Applause California Raisins Michael Jackson

I honestly debated with myself for a very long time over which Raisin to include in this list. I ended up on Michael Jackson here because he is a personal favorite, and arguably the most recognizable and prolific of all the characters represented by Applause in plastic. I had to track this one down on eBay as the final one I really wanted for my collection. I have such great memories of hunting for these figures in specialty shops when I was a kid. Stores more like Hallmark stores and gift shops than your traditional toy stores. I was never into the smaller figures they produces for Hardees, though I had a handful of those as a kid as well.

5. Character Toys Scooby-Doo Mystery Mates Velma Dinkley 

I didn't have to consider for very long whether I would include Velma in this list or not. I would have KILLED as a child to own a mini-figure (or ANY figure, for that matter) of Velma. As the nerdy brains of Mystery Inc., Velma was the plain-jane compared to Daphne Blake's ginger bombshell. And THAT was why I was so deeply, madly in love with her! I actually love that I own the entire Mystery Inc. gang from the Character Toys Mystery Mates line, even if I did have to track Fred and Daphne down on eBay. 

4. Mini-Mates Real Ghostbusters Boogieman

As diverse as I really wanted this list to be, I just had to include another Ghostbusters themed mini figure. Mainly because THIS was the figure that finally got me to buy a Mini-Mates line and LOVE it. Overall, I do NOT like Mini-Mates. But when I saw how spot-on they had reproduced the characters and that THE BOOGIEMAN (their spelling, not mine) was included? I snapped up all four of the main Ghostbusters, and the Janine/Slimer "ready for bustin'" 2-pack. And I have THIS GUY on my shelf. He is one of the creepiest villains from the show and he just kept coming back! Seeing him on the show with his giant teeth, his doorframe-stretching body, his hooves and spiked hair, and his malignant bow-tie just gave me chills. 

3. Garfield in Disguise PVC from BULLY Toys

I was randomly trawling through eBay on day when I discovered this toy. It actually came on a keychain (but that was the nature of the 80's, where they would take any random PVC figurine, drill an eye-hook into its brain, and call it a keychain) but I quickly removed that and put him on my shelf. Apparently this figure was produced in the 80's by a German company called Bully. So it was most likely not produced and sold here in the states? I don't know. I had never seen it before, and in all my googling since then I have not found another like it. But for me, Garfield IS my childhood Halloween. I was never a big Charlie Brown fan, to be honest, and the Holiday specials I clamored for were the ones starring this lazy orange lasagna-eating cat. So having him in his Halloween costume, sitting on my shelf is a singular delight. 

2. Reis O'Brien Customized Dex-Starr (Imaginext Catwoman Accessory)

THIS right here ladies and gentlemen, is one of my absolute favorite possessions. I wrote about it when I originally got it, back in January of last year (that was a big January for the blog, I guess). But long-story-short, I am obsessed with the idea of the multi-chromatic Lantern Leagues. The Greens, the Indigoes, the Reds, you name it. I don't read the books regularly, but I love collecting the mini-figures. The various concepts behind the powers and colors and emotions are such a cool idea that I decided early on that I NEEDED a Dex-Starr. And when I found the Imaginext Catwoman figure, and it included an awesome black-cat figurine that looked like it was supposed to be Dex-Starr... I knew I had to get someone to customize it for me. And that someone turned out to be Reis O'Brien, who once ran the (now dormant) Dork Horde blog, and now works MAKING TOYS over at Funko! I traded Reis some of my duplicate California Raisins and he painted a little black cat figurine into Dex-Starr for me! He is honestly THE highlight of all my Lantern mini-figures. 

1. Funko Horror Classics Mystery Mini SAM from Trick R' Treat

There is no other mini-figure I own that I love as much as this one. He's perfect in every way. He's menacing, he's adorable, he's Halloween in all its glory, he's angular and stylized but not in an annoying way, and he is one of my hands-down-absolute-favorite pop-culture icons. Sam from Trick R' Treat is one of the most perfect visualizations of a Halloween horror villain ever conceived. And even with his big stitched-on smile and button eyes, the menace in that jagged crescent of lollipop is still unmistakable. Sam here just makes me smile. There is not a day goes by that I don't glance at him or pick him up to give him a closer look. The day I found him (at Hot Topic) I actually found 2 of him on my first try. I wasn't disappointed to find the duplicate though, as I quickly turned the second one into a Christmas tree ornament, wearing a little Santa's hat. More than nostalgia, more than the cool custom seen above, more than Saturday morning cartoons... I love Halloween, and Sam IS Halloween in every sense of that phrase. And this toy is AWESOME.  

So that's my top ten! Let's see what the other League Members counted down from 10 for: 

- Knives Tales gives us a list of her Top 10 Short Stories!

- Go Play Listen gives us a Top 10 of the DVDs on their shelf! 

- D.I. Treasures gives us a rundown of Top 10 Cereals!

- Awake Oh Sleeper treats us to a Top 10 Movie Monsters! 

- Pop Pop! It's Trash Culture shows of a Top 10 Videos!

- AEIOU and Sometimes Why delivers the Top 10 Songs that would have been great additions to the Guardians of the Galaxy Soundtrack!

That's all I've got for tonight kids! I'll be back soon with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting! 

League Post: It's Just Not Summer Until...

I'm finally getting my butt in gear and doing another League of Extraordinary Bloggers post! So what is the topic this week you may ask?

What is it that defines "Summer" for this Goodwill Geek? Hmmm... let's think. I have a few I can think of right off the bat. Like... 

The constant hum of fans around the house! Maine in the summer time is actually pretty hot. Not as hot as the southern states, sure, but we're not the frozen tundra that people seem to think we are. Day or night at our house, we keep these things going as long as we're home and in the room we're trying to cool off for any period of time. We sleep with them going all night long, which makes it so that when Fall comes, and we pack the fans away, I actually have trouble falling asleep without the white noise going in the background.

The doors of our house stay open pretty much ALL the time, except when we're either not there or sleeping. What's weird is how much like a sauna the house gets when it is several degrees cooler outside some days.

Tiger lillies! These things are ALL around our house, and exploding this time of year. And they're one of my favorite flowers. There are also a handful of songs that just never fail to make me feel like Summer is HERE. I don't have as many of these as I do Halloween or Christmas songs... but here's a few. I realize some of these feel a bit "On the nose" when it comes to Summer listening... but that's the kind of unsubtle guy I am.

They Might Be Giants are an all-year sort of band for me, to be sure... but this song is LITERALLY about the Sun. Doesn't really get much more summer-y than that. And I love jumping around with my kids to this song!

Yes, it's SUPER cheesy and cliche... but I can't hear anyone even SAY the word "Summer" without bursting into this song. I mean this almost as near-literal as I can, too. I'm one of those weirdos who finds lyrics that match almost everything people around me say and then just... sort of... belt them out. 

I am a HUGE Louis Armstrong fan. And this version of "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess is slow and sleek and sexy. Ella Fitzgerald's vocals are like nothing else on this planet. This whole song makes you feel the slow, sweaty, tired pressure of a Summer heat. 

Sandals. I pretty much wear nothing but sandals until Fall comes. Same for my wife. My daughter is all about the flip-flops, and my two boys are pretty much barefoot unless we make them put shoes on.

The pets spend a lot more time outdoors this time of year, especially since Pumpkin the bunny lives in a pen upstairs in our daughter's room, and would probably bake if we left him up there all day long.

Pumpkin and the AT-AT I've brought into the family have been getting to know each other pretty well actually.

In the Summer we also pretty much relinquish our backyard to the ants. They get REALLY bad and REALLY aggressive. These two pictures are from the kids' SLIDE in the backyard.

Mowing the lawn is a test of fortitude in the sweltering heat and wave upon wave of fire ant attacks. It's for real a total Empire of the Ants back there:

I posted this for both of you. You know who you are.  

The sweet, delicious taste of freezer pops. Whether you call them Fla-Vor-Ice or Otter Pops... these things are a STAPLE of Summer. As is...

I am always sad to see these tubular freezer pops (seemingly filled with various types of automotive fluid when you pick them up unfrozen) disappear from the grocery stores every year. I should really stock up. The sweet golden one pictured above is pineapple flavored. 

And speaking of pineapple flavored... here is my new favorite Summer beverage. ACE Pineapple Cider. Adults only. This is hard cider of which I have become a fan. I'm all about the Fox Barrel, the Angry Orchard, the Original Sin, the Johnny Appleseed, and now the ACE. Please drink responsibly.

Or don't. 

I'm not your mother.

You will be hard pressed to find a day when the Goodwill Geek's family doesn't go swimming. We have a pond called Webb's which is just a seven minute drive from the house. So we spend quite a bit of time there. The boys got new floaty rings this year, and they LOVE them.

And finally, it's not really Summer until we've made one of our trips out to Sand Beach. Sand Beach is out on Mount Desert Island, and takes us about an hour drive to reach. We don't go every weekend, but we go fairly often. It is deliciously cold, and salty, and sandy, and refreshing. Here's a poem I wrote for my daughter about 4 years ago about our trips to Sand Beach:

Sand Beach

Sandy beach and sandy butts.

Sandy feet and sandy guts.

Sandy eyes, and sandy hair...

We are sandy everywhere.

Sandy beach with water cold.

Only swim if you feel bold.

Better off in warm lagoons,

to splash and laugh like crazy loons. 

Sandy beach and sandy fun

seems to fly... and then its done.

In the car, we wave "adieu"

Sleepy. Happy.

Sandy, too.

--Derek Ash, 2010

There's actually so much more than all this that just screams "summer" at me... but I'm just glad that Summer actually IS HERE. It was such a long and painful winter for me that the Summer is such a relief. And of course another Fall and another Halloween is just around the corner... but for now I am content to sit on the beach in my sandals with my ice-pop running down my arm. 

Let's see what says "Summer" to the rest of the League, shall we? 

- Go Play Listen shares some Summery tunes. 

- The Nerd Nook takes us on an entire tour of Summer!

- Jathniel talks about Summertime in Sin City. 

- Our fearless leader over at Cool & Collected talks about the Summer necessity of the Big Budget Summer Blockbusters!

- The Geeky Vixen has her own (kick-ass) list of Summer essentials, including movies, roadtrips, and to hunting! 

That's all I have tonight kids! I'll be back soon to show off some Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting! 

League Post: Shelf Expression!!!

It's once more League of Extraordinary Bloggers time again!!! And what pray tell is our topic this week you may ask? Well ask and I shall answer!!!

It's pretty cut and dry this time around kids, Brian occasionally sets photography challenges for those of us that blog for the League, and this week I wanted to encapsulate my ENTIRE collector's sensibilities in one arranged shelf photograph. So of course I went with a 4-tiered knick-knack shelf. Take a look:

I'm hard pressed to find a property that I enjoy not somehow represented here. Sift through this chaotic mess and you will find shreds of my childhood mixed with things beloved by my inner child of today. Cartoons, advertising mascots, comic book characters, horror icons, and toys just for the sake of toys are all included in this menagerie. I took this one all-in-one-shot shot but I also took break down shots of each individual shelf in the 4 levels of my brain right here in display. Thought about talking all of this to DEATH... but I think I'll just let all of the images speak for themselves from here on out. 

Let's take a peak-see at some of the other League members' Shelf-Expression, shall we?

- Nerdy Life of Mine

- Revenge of the Toy Box

- Cool & Collected

- Stunt Zombie

- Erik Johnson Illustrator

- Midnight Monster Spookshow

That's it for tonight kids! I'll be back with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies soon! Until then, Happy Hunting!