(***BONUS POST***) My Experience With... The Solar Eclipse!

Because you're all such great readers (seriously, I was looking over the stats, you guys are awesome!), and because a phenomenal event happened on Monday, I decided to write this short blog post as a bonus. Ready, go!

I first learned about solar eclipses the way I'm sure everyone else in my generation did: Kindergarden class. I, along with my fellow wide-eyed small humans in my classroom, listened intently as Mrs. Johnson told us about how every several years, the moon can actually come out in the daytime and cover the sun! This sounded awesome, and the pictures and books she probably brought deepened our interest even more! The day getting dark in the daytime??? For a Kindergardener: Mind explosion!

Years passed, and school and life eventually pushed away the awe and wonder of the moon blocking out the sun. Maybe in my freshman year of college, I witnessed a part of a lunar eclipse.... until I got too sleepy and had to go to class the next day. I dunno, something.

Fast forward until about two months ago. A friend of mine was feeling a little bummed that he might not be able to witness the solar eclipse that was going to happen. I was stunned! I didn't even know there was going to be a solar eclipse happening! Then every newspaper, website, and news channel was talking about it... and wouldn't shut up. (Nice change from the constant barrage of White House talk, I gotta say.) I grew more and more excited, except I learned maybe a week before the event that I needed special glasses. So I partially gave up on the thought of spending upwards of $2 (I'M THRIFTY, OKAY??!!!) for some special glasses that I'd only use once.

Thankfully, my job was prepared, and had enough one-use solar glasses for every employee to use. I grabbed some (even for my Mom!), and kept them in a safe place.

Finally... it came. I didn't know how everyone in my office would handle the scenario. Thankfully, they were pretty much all as crazy as I was, so I ended up officially shutting down the office.

I was informed afterward that it would

actually probably be in another 50 years,

but I think my point was made, anyway.

Here's me outside with the glasses on:

And here's the crowd:

There was even a woman out there with a nifty little cereal box contraption for seeing a (very tiny) very cool way of looking at the eclipse!

I don't have the actual photo, so here's an example:

WHAT AN ANTICLIMACTIC MOMENT. You know those pictures I took outdoors... that was almost a full "eclipse." It did get darker, and the temperature dropped, but it looked like someone just slid the saturation down to about 75%. Still, I feel like I enjoyed myself.

What do you guys think? Did you see the eclipse? How dark did it get? Did you see the cool new video I put on my YouTube Page? lol. Peace!

What's your favorite natural phenomenon?

My Experience With... Supermarket Sweep

Okay, wait a minute. First, have you read these? If not, do so now.

• My Experience With... Doc
• My Experience With... Sue Thomas, F.B.Eye.

We good? Good. Continue.

#BringSupermarketSweepBack

Finally, we've come to the fun, less drama-filled portion of the Pax series (and also the last of the Pax series), my once-favorite game show ever, Supermarket Sweep!

I probably started watching this with my parents just on a fluke, and then got hooked! I don't know about you, but you really couldn't get any closer to perfection than this. Heck, even Buzzfeed has sung its praises, and I didn't know that anybody knew what it was!

The show itself started back in the 60s, but I watched its last revival in the '00s, when David Ruprecht (pictured above) was the host.

I had to -- yet again -- do some research on this... mainly because

it's been so doggone long since I've watched this show!!!

You start off with some clips of previous contestants before getting introduced to all the contestants -- 3 pairs -- , then before David Ruprecht comes out and gives a massive air high five.

Sorry, guys, no gif was available on the internet.

UNTIL NOW!!!

The contestants play through a series of games and quizzes to score points. These were typically very easy in difficulty. Maybe it's because you typically find these things in the supermarket. I dunno. My personal favorite game was Round Robin, a lightning round in which you had to fill in blanks or unscramble product names to answer the questions correctly. At the end of the first part of the show, people went out and went "grocery shopping."

I got to the point where I was really good at solving these puzzles. I even wanted to go onto this show with my Dad, once I got old enough, so I studied as many grocery store products as I could. I think they may have had a "kids' week," but I somehow missed it. I also strategized how to shop in the shopping portion. By the way, 1) get the ham. 2) get the oil. 3) if you get more than five of each item, they will not penalize you for the extra items. 4) just grab any of the bonus things 5) save the candy/coffee for last. They take up SO MUCH TIME!!!

The person with the highest grocery bill went to the final round... WHICH WAS SO STINKING HARD!!!! You have 3 clues to get to the $5000 prize, and it was glorious each time someone found it (which was somewhat rare).

This was the game show to end all game shows, in my opinion. Great host, great vibes, fun games, and just challenging enough while still being very relatable to everyday life. Move over, Jeopardy!, you've officially taken 2nd place.

I'll tell you one thing, if someone ever needed to bring this show back, just saying, I'd totally be available to host!

Just give me at least two weeks, first.

I do have a full-time job.

Plugging time! YouTube Page

What're your  top 3 favorite game shows?

My Experience With... Sue Thomas, F.B.Eye

Hey, everyone! Round 2 of Pax week!

(Read last week's post on Doc)

I don't know for certain at what point in my history that I took up a casual interest in ASL (I know I was a little kid when I got an ASL dictionary), but I think Sue Thomas F.B.IEye definitely increased my interest.

The show centers on Sue Thomas, a deaf woman who ends up being an F.B.I agent. She has a best friend / roommate named Lucy, who learns ASL / interprets for Sue from time to time, and an adorable Golden Retriever named Luke. The show hosts a slew of other characters including a cute love interest named Jack; the ever-snobby but golden-hearted Bobby; wise Dimitrius, Myles, whose character escapes me right now; and Tara, the computer whiz of the group.

One cool thing about the show is that Sue Thomas is played by Deanne Bray, who is actually deaf in one ear, with residual hearing in the other.

Yeah, I just looked it up. You would've, too.

While a hearing (non-deaf) person playing a deaf person would've been just as cool, it was nice that they actually got someone at least hard of hearing.

In any case, it was a good mixture of heavy (enough) drama... somewhere between Adam-12 and Law & Order (the original series), plus lots of light-hearted comedy. Plus a LOT of ASL stuff. I learned words like "lazy" and "horse," and I know the difference between "shoes" and "sausages," as well as "coffee" and "make out."

You've gotta watch those episodes, they're amazing.

Sue Thomas also featured way more than Sue Thomas herself as far as deaf people. Several episodes featured ASL conversations. In fact, one of my favorite moments in the series was when Sue was arguing with another deaf person about something, and they panned the camera back and forth like an intense argument between hearing people, and put in subtitles, so you could understand. It was great because you felt the intensity, while only hearing the occasional brush between hands.

I kinda miss this show. I don't remember it as much as I do Doc, but I remember watching those two back to back every Sunday night during my tween years. And they used to advertise the HECK out of that combo. I'm surprised there wasn't a crossover... or at least one that I can remember.

Deanne Bray is still very active in her work, and episodes can be found on YouTube.

There go my plans for the next four years. ^_^

Next week, I'm laying off the drama and introducing the absolute coolest, wildest, wackiest, most amazing game show ever to grace the airwaves!!!!

#Bring****************Back

Plugging time! YouTube Page

What's your favorite language that you don't speak natively? Can you sign?

My Experience With... Doc

I have mentioned before that ALF helped me in my TV transition from more juvenile shows to more mature programming. Since I only saw a few episodes in my early youth, I obviously needed a lot more help.

Enter PAX TV!

Welcome to the PAX Mini-Series.

PAX (which became Independent, then Ion television), was a then-small station which featured family-friendly programming, small game shows, and Christian/faith-themed shows -- plus a ton of infomercials -- back in the late 90s and early 00s. Shows like It's A Miracle, Touched by an Angel, Diagnosis Murder, The Weakest Link, and Shop 'Til You Drop were some of the shows that were aired on the station, and that's only to name a few. I did watch quite a bit of their shows, but for this miniseries, I'll introduce you to two of my favorite dramas and one game show.

Part 1: Doc.

The show was the BOMB back in the day! I remember spending Sunday nights from 8-10 watching this show and another show (that I shall feature this week). Doc lasted from 2001 to 2004, and centered on a country doctor named Clint Cassidy who moved from Montana to New York. He's charming, warm, loving, a winner among patients... and HE WAS SMOKING HOT!!!! Keep in mind, these were the days before I started watching Hannah Montana, so I didn't think of him as Miley's daddy.

HE WAS JUST SO SMOKING HOT.

His trials and triumphs are usually found among his friends and colleagues, most of them at Westbury Clinic. Nancy, the gorgeous blonde nurse who pretty much everyone shipped with Clint; Derek, a loveable doctor with a heart of gold and a miracle baby (I'm not putting out anything else here, you've gotta watch the show); Oliver, the doctor who despises Clint for whatever reason; Donna, the boss who is definitely a type-A personality, which makes her so much funnier when she cuts loose for one reason or another; Tippy, a perky rich divorcee who's every bit as ditsy as you could think of; Nate and Beverly, a cop and his wife; and Raul, their adopted son.

This was my favorite show for a long, long time. With a Christian theme throughout, I knew I was getting a great moral along with an awesome drama / comedy. It was kind of funny how real some of the scenarios felt to me; I almost prayed for some of the "patients" sometimes!

I was kind of sad when the series itself ended, but I thought it was a nice, satisfying ending.

Years passed, until this past July. My mother informed me that they were airing reruns on getTV.

Yup. You guessed it!

It all came flooding back to me! My childhood, the music, the Sunday nights, my initial attraction to Doc Cassidy, the letters at the end of the show, the diary entries that spawned from this... the only thing I could say is that the cinematography wasn't as brilliant as I remembered it. I didn't care. I still watch it to this day. ^_^ If you can catch it, you should totally watch it. It's a rather cute, uplifting show that's worth the time.

Plugging time! YouTube Page

What do you wish could be brought back from your childhood?

My Experience With... Robots (film)

This movie was interesting for me. I definitely wanted to see this when I first saw the trailers. However when I saw it.... ehh. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't going to make my top 10. Heck, not even top 50.

Robots takes place in a land where pretty much everything is sentient in some way, shape or form, as long as it's mostly metal. I wouldn't do like many critics and think too much about the semantics on what's animate and what's inanimate. For one thing, your brain would hurt. For another thing, it would probably kill half the jokes in this picture. The story starts with a dishwasher named Herb Copperbottom who is excited to become a father. He and his wife literally build their baby boy, Rodney. The family is an average working-class family, and Rodney usually gets hand-me-downs as upgrades as he gets older.

In Rodney's youth, he gets inspired at a parade honoring a famous CEO named Bigweld, whose company hires and promotes inventors. From that point on, Rodney focuses on his inventions, many of which are failures, but his spirit never dampens. He even makes a little robot named Wonderbot to help out his dad. When Wonderbot malfunctions, he nearly costs his dad his job. It's at that point that Rodney makes the decision to move to the big city and work for Bigweld. His parents are reluctant but let him go.

Rodney arrives in Robot City and tries to get into the door, but gets shut out by the doorkeeper. After several futile attempts, Rodney loses a part, which gets stolen by a robot named Fender, who is voiced by the late great Robin Williams. He is part of a group of outmodes (robots whose parts are no longer manufactured) that is taken care of by Aunt Fanny.

"Why do you call her Aunt Fanny?"

"Can't call her Aunt Booty."

It turns out that Bigweld Industries is not the company it once was in its heyday, and Bigweld is nowhere to be found. It is run by a VP named Ratchet, who is only concerned with upgrades. He's also manipulated by the psychotic mother to end all psychotic mothers. No, seriously. She makes Madea seem sane.

So why wouldn't I like this movie? Zoom ahead in time over ten years: I watched it again more recently (it was part of a DVD package with Fantastic Mr. Fox) and I cracked up! The movie was pretty good (again, not top 50, but still good), Fender was hilarious, the pop culture references certainly were dated, but still funny... I guess I was not a big fan about some of the more *ahem* mature humour featured. I'm still not totally crazy about it, but I wouldn't completely discount the movie. It's a PG film, but I think it's actually earned its rating. I would say that this is great for older teens, at least. Either my taste in movies changed from over 10 years ago, or I saw different elements that I liked better.

Who'd've thought? (<<--- And yes, that is technically correct spelling.)

And of course, this:

I think this was my favorite part, even back then.

What is something you like that you didn't like years ago?

Plugging time! YouTubePage