TOP 10 TUESDAY: Childhood Toys

Have you ever thought about your favorites? Perhaps it's cars or movies, authors or vacation destinations.

Here's my Top 10 Childhood Toys:

1. Matchbox cars and trucks. Hands down my most-played-with childhood toy. I still have the carrying case with many of the original vehicles. If only I had the little cardboard box they were in when you bought them. They would be worth much more.  As a big kid, I've continued with my collection and it numbers well over 300.
2. Tinkertoy Construction Set. I spent hours creating one structure after another. Patterned after Ferris Wheel construction, Tinkertoys were originally made of wooden dowels and discs.
3. Spiro-Graph. A birthday gift from an uncle, the Spiro-Graph was a series of plastic geared shapes with holes for colored ink pens.  You used the pen to push the shapes along the gears to create all kinds of patterns.
4. Steam Engine. An actual table-top steam engine.  You put water in the boiler and then ignited a fuel disc to heat the water to the boiling point.  Once you had steam, you could open a valve to make it run. There were add on pieces that connected with drive belts, just like life-size versions.
5. Ventriloquist Dummy. His name was Willie Talk. Maybe if I had stuck with it, I would have been another Jeff Dunham.
6. Lionel Train Set. Every kids needs a train set. I was lucky the house where we lived had a large basement, so I had my train set up on a 4 x 8 ft. table.
7. Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots. I never owned the Robots myself, but my cousin did.  We always played with the toy that allowed us to "Knock your Block Off."
8. Drawing pads. Not much of a toy, but I think I went through a pad a week.  I used to like drawing house plans. Yeah, I was a junior architect! Maybe that's why I studied graphic arts in college.
9. Snap-together Road set.  I don't know what else to call this, and it seems like a lame toy, but I used to build roads for my Matchbox cars all over the living room.
10. My Bike. Of course, in the summer I used to ride my bike. My favorite was had a banana seat, chopper handle bars and a sissybar on the back.

When I look back on these toys, I see a theme: imagination and creation. Do kids today get that from their playthings?

Weird World Records

If you're a regular user of Google search, you have most likely seen a few "Google Doodles."  Those are the fun little headers honoring various anniversaries or events.

Saturday's Doodle honored the 125th anniversary of the World's Largest Snowflake.

Really?

My first thought was, "How do they know that?" My next thought was, "Is someone still tracking this oh-so-important bit of information for a record-breaker?"

Then I really got thinking, which was a good thing at 5:30 am on a Saturday morning... "What else do people record that really doesn't need to be recorded?"

Since I was already on the Google site, I searched to find the Weirdest World Records.  I think there was a world record of replies for web searches.

And since you're still reading, I'll share a few of what I found to be the weirdest, along with my comments.

Largest Airplane Ever Eaten. Michel Lotito, better known as Monsieur Mangetout (Mr. Eat Everything) is basically a normal guy, except he eats things like metal and glass. Have others really attempted this one? Doctors found his stomach lining is twice as thick as normal stomach lining.

World’s Fastest Strip Down. A man in Japan who can take off all of his clothes in just seven and a half seconds! Wanna see the video? It's G-rated and looks to be from "Japan's Got Talent." Video

World’s Largest Maze. Farmer Tom Pearcy created a tribute of the 40th anniversary of Star Trek. It covers 32 acres. This is actually pretty cool, but I don't think it's the latest record-holder. It seems like everyone who builds a maze makes "The World's Largest Maze." 


World’s Longest Eyebrow. Leonard Traenkenschuh of Port Townsend, Washington, has a three and a half inches eyebrow hair (and still growing!). I once saw a guy with the BUSHIEST eyebrows -- they had to be a world's record.  He was at a funeral I attended (no, he wasn't the deceased). I could barely contain myself.

Most Rattlesnakes in Mouth. Jackie "The Texas Snake Man" Bibby is THE Snakeman. His world records include most live rattlesnakes held in the mouth (8), sat with in a bathtub (81), and shared a sleeping bag with (109).

Okay, this is where I draw the line on world records.

Guinness World's Records has published millions of copies of their books over the years.  People simply love setting records.

Ever wonder why people set weird world records?  I suspect it has to do with all the Guinness Draught (beer) they're drinking when they're trying to set these records!

Birthday Boy

Last July I celebrated the 11th anniversary of my 39th birthday. For readers scratching their heads or reaching for a calculator: I turned 50.

My 50th Birthday Cake... a camping bear!

I spent it camping in Canada relaxing and enjoying the summer's warmth. Really, it was just another day.

Today is my great-nephew's eighth birthday. He's been celebrating for a week!

Last weekend his parents loaded up he and his sister (who secretly idolizes him) along with two of his friends into the SUV and headed to East Lansing for an MSU hockey game. I'm sure hot dogs and nachos were part of the birthday/hockey game celebration. (MSU lost in a shoot out. Boo!)

Then, of course, there was fun at school where he shared birthday brownies with his classmates -- and Gram who is the elementary secretary.  Maybe the kids sang Happy Birthday to the birthday boy.

Yesterday, was a family celebration with a couple great-grandparents, two pairs of grandparents, a great-anut and a couple great uncles, mom, dad, sissy and the family dog. He was bouncing around the house, filled with excitement.

I should have a tenth of that energy and be so excited about another birthday.

It's fun to watch him, and all my great-nephews and nieces, growing up. Some change their looks during the weeks and months between seeing them.  Others are growing up before my eyes.

I count my blessings I can be part of it, and it's a joy to be part of birthdays that are not just another day.

One thing leads to another

Last night I had to reinstall my anti-virus software, which was necessitated by an impending expiration date.  Of course, couldn't get the website to accept two different credit cards.  GRRRRR.

So, after screwing around for far too long, I found a sales and service  contact number, so I called.  Ann answered.

After explaining my problem, Ann told me that the online credit card processing is "done in Germany and doesn't work so well. We process your payment in California."  My credit card number is so well traveled!

Ann also told me that I would be emailed to an email address they have on file, by 7:00 pm Eastern Time.

I had a sinking feeling.  I've been avoiding that email account.

Well, here goes nothing. I logged in and voila!  I had over 3000 unread messages. Over 2200 of them were sent to me since January 1.

I have a serious problem. There's no activation code for my anti-virus.

But while I was searching, I managed to spend nearly two hours clicking and reading and unsubscribing and clicking and reading and unsubscribing and... DELETING.  Anything over three weeks old is gone.

Sorry if you sent me something.

Finally, sometime around 9:15, the activation code arrived and I had a topic for another blog entry.

It's not always bad having Words with Friends

A couple months ago, Alec Baldwin got kicked off an airline flight as LAX for refusing to turn off his cellphone.  He was busy having Words with Friends.

Well, I guess having isn't quite correct.  PLAYING Words with Friends is more like it.

WwF is one of the many games Facebook users can play with one another.  It's basically online Scrabble.

I play it from time to time, but have really lost interest when I can never win.  I'm busy putting up words like dog or me for single-digit points, while my opponents are hitting triple word scores dropping tiles to form words such as: acquest (An act of asking politely or formally for something).

Seriously?

Far be it from me to suggest that any of my Facebook friends would cheat.  But I will say there are at least a half-dozen website devoted to cheating at WwF (like wordswithfriendscheats.net).

Sometimes I play the game a little differently... and shoot for a score UNDER 100 points.  I've not succeeded at that.

But with the rack of letters shown in the picture at the right, I don't think any site could help me cheat.

Do we need a pill for a broken heart?

Death is part of life.  We don't like to talk about it and none of us are really ready to face the heartache it brings.  Depending on our relationship to the deceased, their death can bring a nearly overwhelming flood of emotions, pain and sorrow.

I think that many people who will tell you that all those emotions, pain and sorrow are part of the natural grieving process.

So how is it possible that grief could be considered a disorder?

Proposed changes to the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), has launched a debate about the definition of depression. Psychiatrists say the current wording, which excludes "bereavement," hurts people who need help coping with their loss.

If the bereavement exclusion is removed, medical professionals could prescribe medication for depression. But isn't the death of someone you care about even a little bit, depressing?

When I first got into EMS I read Elisabeth Kübler-Ross' book On Death and Dying where she outlines the five stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. Passing through one stage into the next is how we all grieve until we find acceptance with the situation.

This is how we grieve!

I think it will be dangerous for people to be taking medication to avoid grief, when we have a natural process to get us through.

Statically Speaking

I'm excited by having succeeded at posting a blog entry for eight consecutive days.  I've caught myself thinking about skipping a day, but I know myself well enough.  One will turn into two which will turn into 20 and before I know it, it'll be a defunct blog. (I already have one of those floating out there in cyberspace!)

This can easily turn into a habit!

What's more exciting are the statistic provided to me by the Blogger software which hosts BNB.

Click the graphic to enlarge.

With a few clicks of the mouse, I can see graphs and diagrams and sources viewers used to come to the BNB blog.

As you can see from the graphic here, during the first seven days I've had 125 pageviews.  The number amazes me pageviews amazes me.

More amazing is are the pageviews from Japan and Venezuela.  THAT astounds me!

Sorta.

Largely, the viewers of the BNB blog come to to the site via Facebook, so I have a sneaking suspicion the views might be that of my Facebook Buddy Andrew Rummel who lives there. But I have no way of knowing.

Venezuela?  I'm guess that BNB was seen from those countries by someone clicking the "Next Blog" at the top of every Blogger Blog.

It's also interesting to see the browser and operating system used during the pageviews.  Mobile Safari browsers are (I believe) from an iPhone, while the Android OS is from another handheld device. Readers are checking out BNB while on the move!

Regardless of the stats, as long as I have one reader a day, I'll (try) to keep posting.

Happy One Week Anniversary BNB!