Picture #297: "I cook, YOU wash!"

It's a little sad that Oshkosh B'Gosh products are no longer made in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. This little fella? Mexicano. Still, he's very cuddly, when not trying to skip out on dish washing duties.

Today in NYC was GORGEOUS. And I was finally mobile enough to get out of doors during the daylight hours. Walked around Chinatown, enjoying the eats and treats to be had there (have I written about the glorious roast pork buns of Mei Lei Wah before?) Watched the various amateur Chinese opera groups performing in the park, as well as the tai chi practitioners in the pavillion going through their exercises. Explored some shops I hadn't seen in a while, delved into some shops I'd never been into. Grabbed some bok choy and mushrooms for dinner and then home to settle into some good ol' post-season football.

Nice day.

Picture #296: "I once caught a Venger THIS big!"

The 80's cartoon Dungeons and Dragons, while not particularly well-animated or written, was wildly entertaining for me as a youth. Seeing the creatures and the items of a game that I was quite fond of being (sort of) brought to life was greatly engrossing, and I spent many hours daydreaming about what I would do with a magic bow, staff or hat if I were in their position, whisked off to a magical land of danger and adventure. And just HANDED artifacts... yeah, WTF was with that, DM? Why not just hand them Baba Yaga's Hut or all the Orbs of Dragonkind?! Way to break the f-ing game! This show sucked! Just kill him already, Tiamat! (Anyway, this is a much longer rant for another time...)

This picture was actually taken New Year's Eve at my friends' John and Terry's house, who hosted a fabulous Nerd New Year's Eve party with games and bad movies. They've done a beautiful renovation of their place all by themselves, which is both a depressing reminder and a motivation to get working on fixing up and cleaning out my family's co-op which has been sitting vacant for some time now. (Long, angry story there...) It was also shortly after this photo was taken that I took ill - about 10 minutes to midnight. Good timing.

Speaking of which, woke up still sick but showing signs of progress. Somewhat good news as I had a performance of my Godzilla rap scheduled in the evening, and also because I'm tired of feeling like crap.

But the performance at the Nerd Nite Magazine Launch party went well and the evening was very entertaining. The presentation on the rise and fall of Atari was particularly enlightening. Did you know the creator of Atari, after being forced out of the company and made to sign a non-compete, went on to found Chuck E. Cheese's? And that Steve Jobs was the 40th employee of Atari? Good stuff! Sadly, I was unable to stay and dance very long, not just because my head was whirling from all the medication, but because also because my 8-year old guest was getting sleepy. Then again, so was I, so it was good timing once again.

Picture #295: "Yup, still sick."

I wonder how much longer the pencil has before it falls to technology? Will writing always be part of our primary education? If so, it's good to know that fancy eraser heads such as this little clown fish will always be a favorite amongst kids.

Erasers are great in that regard - they were one of the few toys you could legitimately just fiddle with all through class. Infinite in variety, singular in purpose. But have you SEEN what kids erasers are like these days? Little miniature foods, whole menageries of animals, robots, multi-sectioned, etc... pretty impressive stuff. (Pretty impressively high pricing, too...)

Anyway, as my little clown fish friend is telling me, I'm still sick. It's moved into the outskirts of my lungs now. Fun. Things are looking grim for my Nerd Nite performance tomorrow evening, but hope springs eternal.

Picture #294: "That's your 137th consecutive LOLCat page..."

"That's your 137th consecutive LOLCat page... May I have my computer back now, please?"

Yet another in the Littlest Pet Shop series of over-priced plastic figurines. Wait, this one came with a sticker AND a scooter? Never mind, then, clearly well worth the $20...

Day 4 of Sickness 2012 started off with my feeling nominally better, only to have it move into my lungs. Fun.

It also started with the inestimable joy of having to listen to the nearly deaf neighbor blasting day-time talk shows, such as "The View" and Rachel Ray, through the walls. The audio pattern is nearly unbearable: "Uptalk-Uptalk-Uptalk-'Whoooo!'-Screeching Applause." Repeat. I need to order a pair of John Carpenter "They Live" sunglasses so that I can see the hidden messages telling our brains to rot from the inside.

I spent some of the day revisiting old websites I've always loved but hadn't seen in a while, Regretsy and IkeaHackers to be specific. Regretsy, a site dedicated to highlighting the best and worst on the handmade products online market Etsy, is, of course, an internet phenomenon, and deservedly so, as the woman who runs it, with the net moniker of "Hellen Killer" is one of the funniest people on the planet. Ikea Hackers is, perhaps, less well known and trafficked, as it has a very narrow focus (should be self-explanatory), and gets overshadowed by more generalized sites such as Apartment Therapy (which is also awesome).

Anyway, those sites are awesome. If you're sick in bed, and have a light enough fever to be able to focus on letters and the words they form, they're a good way to pass the time.

Picture #293: "Nice try, boys."

Oh, these wacky monkey slippers... always trying to slip me up with classic slapstick comedy routines.

Spent the day entirely indoors, yet again, due to sickness. Got a minimal amount of work done as my foggy brain's ability to focus pretty much makes it only viable for playing basic games of Tetris... and taking photos of myself wearing monkey slippers.

Started doing some very preliminary work to prepare to perform for this Friday's Nerd Nite Magazine launch - vocal chords permitting, of course. It's sad to realize it's been nearly 3 years since I presented my Godzilla lecture at Nerd Nite and was encouraged to write a book on the subject, and have only managed to churn out a modest third of anything even resembling a tome. One of my numerous New Year's Resolutions is to work a little on this project every day, in order to rectify this particular life failure. Which I haven't - though I am giving myself a bit of a pass as simply being vertical at this point is a chore.

Picture #292: Conversations with my Toys

"Are you still sick?"

"Yes."

"How sick?"

"Well, I'm having a conversation with a plastic crab."

"Yeah, that's pretty sick."

Still sick, fever, voice gone, etc... but that's okay. It's not like I have a musical performance, ballroom dance classes and a new gig recording books on tape this week or anything... oh, wait... DAMMIT!

My companion here is from the Littlest Pet Shop series of toys. It's amazing what a combination of good design and slick packaging can do for the mark-up of a bunch of injection molded plastic figurines. This same figurine appears packaged in different configurations - with a postcard, with a sticker, etc... and each one, to kids, is different! INSIDIOUS!

Picture #291: Lazy Sunday.

There was a funny Facebook comment regarding this picture. Someone wrote, "I'm starting to think you live in an Etsy warehouse or something."

Good guess, but more like I know a woman with an 8-year old girl and a storage locker full of interesting, unused toys that she periodically cleans out and gives away. This giant rabbit doll is one of them. The knitting is part of a knitting kit I gave the aforementioned 8-year old for her birthday back in October. The bed... well... ;)

Spent most of the Sunday in bed... sick. New Year's Resolutions delayed.