Well a friend of mine said the last blog wasn’t as light hearted as they expected and that I owed something a little more upbeat. To live up to that this week’s blog is about many of the things (toys, cartoons, etc) I enjoyed over the years from childhood to now! And please bear with me. There’s going to be a lot of “no wonder you’re gay!” moments here.
Being a child of the 80’s was a lucky thing in my opinion. The 80’s had such fun stuff, both toys and cartoons. I think the very first memorable toy I can recall was Pink N’ Pretty Barbie. It belonged to a childhood friend of mine but I always wanted to play with it. Though I wasn’t always about girl toys when I was little. There was a time I was into Star Wars and I had a Millennium Falcon which for some reason I would play with in the bath… needless to say this sort of treatment didn’t make for a lasting Star Wars collection. I am sure it’s no surprise though that my favorite Star Wars figure was Princess Leia. Then there was the Transformers era. I think my favorite was Optimus Prime cause his trailer turned into this neat lil weapons platform thing. After that began the whole Masters of the Universe phase. My mother can tell you how many Castle Greyskulls she bought me over the years to replace previous ones that fell apart due to wear and tear. I mean I took these things outside, dirt got in ‘em, they got banged around when being carried places, you name it. Of course the homo-tendencies showed up again with She-Ra! And yes I had the Crystal Castle too…
In my early teens I discovered Dungeons & Dragons which really was a great game to play socially. I always looked forward to the weekend overnight gaming sessions with snacks and jokes and just generally good times. I’m still close with my gaming buddies to this day! My all time favorite character was Kyriani a half-elven mage. I’ve gone by the name Kyriani in online circles ever since and in most video games I’ve played she’s appeared in some incarnation. Of course that was also the era of Nintendo! For me it was this amazing thing to have a video game console in your home. Kids today probably don’t appreciate just how much they have today compared to back then. Games of that era that stand out were Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy and the obligatory Super Mario Brothers games.
Toys aside, there were also awesome shows one of the most notable being Jem and the Holograms! To this day I still listen to music from the show. Of course now it’s as mp3’s on my computer and not cassette tapes. I was heartbroken in 1988 when the show went off the air and I still have every episode on dvd. I also have a Glitter N’ Gold Jem doll still in the original packaging in storage. A little piece of the past I’ve held on to. He-Man and She-Ra also monopolized much of my TV watching during those days. Though watching those shows now I kind of cringe at how cliché and simplistic the dialogue could be at times lol. As I got older and drifted away from my previous interests others soon filled the gaps. Shows like The Nanny and Xena Warrior Princess became the new hotness for me. The Nanny was really the perfect show for me back then. She was always looking for love and didn’t manage to catch it till the end of the series. Then with Xena, which always makes me think of my friend Ree, you had that unspoken, teasing lesbian romance between Gabrielle and Xena which was just fun to watch.
I think around when I was 20 or so is when I discovered Sailor Moon. As funny as it may sound that was a transformative discovery for me and I still hold the show in fond regard. It all happened after a really bad night out. I don’t remember the details to be honest but I remember I was upset about something that had happened. I couldn’t sleep when I got home that night I was just sobbing. Then 6am rolled around and I turned on the TV and there was this blonde girl with long pig tails making me laugh my ass off! As horrible as I was feeling, Sailor Moon made me feel better and thus I threw myself head first into the show and merchandise. I even got other friends into it. I had t-shirts, toys, I even had an imported backpack which is still in my closet. Sailor Moon was always a “feel good” show for me to watch. I related very much with the main character Serena. Sailor Moon was another girl trying to find love and having a hard time of it which is why I probably relate… that and she had a big sweet tooth and was often whiny.
Today my entertainment consists of online games like World of Warcraft and City of Heroes which, considering my condition, give me a social outlet to engage in and keep contact with friends. Offline games I’ve found to be wonderful entertainment include Dragon Age, Dragon Age 2 and the remake of Final Fantasy IV for the Nintendo DS. I haven’t had much luck with tv shows though. They keep canceling the ones I like after 1 or 2 seasons! But ones that are still going include: Glee, Fringe, Bones, True Blood, Vampire Diaries, Being Erica, Being Human, Haven, and probably a few others I can’t think of currently. So that’s this weeks blog and now you know a little bit about the things I’ve been interested in over the years!
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