365 T-shirts - the reasoning

This blog should be sub-titled: a journal of my life in geek.

I get my geek on with things about which I am geeky: comic books, Baseball, Ultimate, science fiction, my favorite bands, books I have read and loved, and Jungian psychology to name some of the most frequently traversed subjects.

I began this project simply as a way to count my T-shirts. I own a lot of T-shirts. But how many do I have? Do I have 365? We shall find out.

When I started this blog, I thought about how each T-shirt means something to me. I bought it for a reason, after all. I set myself the task to post an entry about a new T-shirt every day as a way to simply write something every day, a warm up for writing fiction, which is my passion. Writing is like exercise. Warm ups are good for exercise. But after completing a month of blogging about T-shirts, I have learned that this blog serves as a journal; it documents my life in geek, sort of a tour of my interests in pop culture. The blog serves as a tool for self-inventory, for assessment and analysis of self and the origins of self, for stepping through the process of individuation in catalogues, lists, and ranks.

The blog also made me aware that I have some serious gaps in my T-shirt ownership, and I am in the process of collecting some new T-shirts for several of the great popular culture icons that I truly love. Stay tuned.

I was also a bit surprised that people checked out my blog and continue to check it, read it, and even comment on it. I am very appreciative of this readership. Please feel free to share your thoughts in my comments section. I will respond.

Also, please note that I have moved the original introductory text to the side bar. And now, I present to you the most recent entry of 365 T-shirts: a journal of my life in geek. Thank you for reading.
(Second Update - 1310.24. First Update - 1306.05 Originally Posted - 1304.25.)
Showing posts with label LOVE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LOVE. Show all posts

Sunday, August 28, 2016

T-shirt #366, pt-1 - More on Y&R



T-shirt #366, pt-1 - More on Y&R

Reprinting from Sense of Doubt blog.



Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #418 - Y&R - 11,000 Episodes

Hi Mom,

So, The Young and the Restless or better known as Y&R is celebrating 11,000 episodes as of September First (this coming Thursday).

Every time I watch Y&R, I think of you, Mom. And I am pleased to tell you that I am caught up. Often I have a huge back log of Y&R to watch. Though I have not watched Friday's (1608.26) episode yet, I am otherwise current with the show.

I often get mocked (criticized) for my Y&R fandom by people close to me, but I no longer care. I am open and leaving myself vulnerable to discuss this nearly daily pursuit of episodic fiction that is near and dear to my heart.

Starting in 1973, we watched so many episodes of Y&R together. Even when I was away at college, The Young and the Restless  is something I watched as often as I could and that we would discuss together when you took me out to lunch.

It was our lunch time thing. For years, I would break for lunch just before 12:30, and we would eat together and watch our soaps (eventually we added The Bold and the Beautiful for a 90 minute lunch time).

When you had your bout with meningitis and were in a coma, I started playing Y&R for you in your Intensive Care room. I hoped that the familiar sounds would be soothing to you, comforting, like they are to me. We continued this practice even after you woke up. For a long time during that hospital stay, you could not talk. But we communicated as best we could, and we talked about Y&R.

Back in 2012, when Y&R celebrated 10,000 episodes (see link at end of this blog entry), we watched much of the celebration together. Checking back in my calendar, I know I spent the day with you on September 8th and again on October 2nd, which was right around the time of the 10,000th episode. We would have Y&R marathons together. I miss those.

At the rate of just about 260 episodes a year (five each week times 52 weeks is 260, but 365 - 104 is 261; 104 is the number of weekend days in a year), it's easy to see how Y&R is gearing up to celebrate its next anniversary with 1000 more episodes to reach the new landmark of 11,000. Since the 10,000th episode both you, Mom, and the grand dame of the Y&R cast, Jeanne Cooper, have passed away.

Before each episode for the past week, Y&R has been showing these interview chats with the cast as they reminisce about past stories and episodes and thank the viewership warmly for its dedication and loyalty. I was tempted to save these episodes on my DVR, but then I found that they are easily available online and so I embedded them here. I also posted the fun promo here as well.

You would have loved all this, Mom. I feel I share it all with you spiritually, but I wish I was sharing it with you physically, in person.

There are big plans for the 11,000th episode. Star Trek vet Nichelle Nichols will play Neil's mother, from whom he has been estranged for his entire run on the show. And Lee Phillip Bell, who co-created the show with her late husband Bill Bell will appear in a scene with her real-life daughter Lauralee Bell, who plays Christine Blair Williams, formerly known as "Cricket."

This is all explained here at SOAP SHE KNOWS - 11000 MILESTONE.


Y&R CELEBRATES 11,000 EPISODES - PEOPLE MAGAZINE - CAST PHOTO BELOW

1st Row (left to Right): Hunter King, Miles Gaston Villanueva, Melissa Ordway, Sean Carrigan, Mishael Morgan, Bryton James, Amelia Heinle, Jason Thompson, Eileen Davidson, Gina Tognoni, Peter Bergman, Eric Braeden, Melody Thomas Scott, Steve Burton, Sharon Case, Joshua Morrow, Justin Hartley, Melissa Claire Egan, Jess Walton, Tristan Rogers, Christel Khalil and Daniel Goddard
2nd Row (left to Right): Robert Adamson, Sofia Pernas, Michael E. Knight, Beth Maitland, Tracey Bregman, Christian Le Blanc, Doug Davidson, Lauralee Bell, Kristoff St. John, Camryn Grimes, Greg Rikaart, Mara McCaffray, Catherine Bach and Kate Linder

Not pictured: Chrishell Stause (current girlfriend of Justin Hartley) as Bethany Bryant.

Here's a great article by Candace Young, of whom I beginning to become a fan. She writes for SOAPS SHE KNOWS.

http://soaps.sheknows.com/the-young-and-the-restless/soapbox/381/deconstructing-yr-writers-seem-unable-to-move-on-from-staid-couples-stale-secrets-and-recycled-scenarios


Generally, I stay away from fan sites, mainly because of spoilers as I am often far behind on both Y&R but especially B&B. I think my record is 120-some unwatched B&B episodes on my DVR. I did not watch them. I would read recaps and watch every 12th episode or so.

So, two days after your death, Mom, I posted the first T-shirt blog post that I have posted in two years:

T-SHIRT #366.

I have been saving up content and ideas to do this HUGE Y&R post for the T-shirt blog, but maybe that's the wrong way to do it. Maybe I need to spread out the content over multiple parts. #366, pt.1; #366, pt.2; and so on. I will cross post this content to T-shirts as #366,pt.2.

I have made other Y&R posts on this blog as part of Hey Mom, but not many.

Hey, Mom! Talking to my Mom #4 - Last Y&R watched together aired Tuesday 1506.30.


Hey, Mom! Talking to my Mother #12 - I miss you

and then, because you would hate it and I would love to taunt you:

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #281 - Y&R - Victor goes to prison.

I have probably mentioned Y&R at other times that I did not save to the Y&R category. I am sure I have mentioned it as part of my Talking Again series. It's a constant theme in my life as I "watch" Y&R while working, just like we did together for all those years. Y&R is part of the soundtrack of my life. Its cadences and rhythms are a soothing music for me. And I do love it, as I love you, Mom.

But in all of this content and photos and things, there's something escaping me. There's an ineffable significance to this TV program and its place in my life, in our lives, Mom.

Maybe in the next Y&R post I make, I will figure out what it is and find a way to articulate it.

ENJOY these videos.




In case the following videos are ever broken, here's the page from SOAP SHE KNOWS that shares the interview videos.


Lauralee Bell (Christine Williams), Doug Davidson (Paul Williams), Tracey Bregman (Lauren Baldwin) and Christian LeBlanc (Michael Baldwin) are the latest stars to share their favorite memories from "Young and the Restless." Picking a favorite moment out of 38 years is "almost impossible" as Davidson notes. However Bregman jokes, "My hair alone, that could be a storyline just there!"

In the latest "Young and the Restless" video celebrating 11,000 episodes, Jess Walton (Jill Abbott), Kate Linder (Esther Valentine) and Jason Thompson (Billy Abbott) reflect on their favorite moments. Walton looks back on the "most wonderful relationship" she had with the late Jeanne Cooper (Katherine Chancellor) and the hilarious scenes they shared.

In this first video, Melody Thomas Scott (Nikki Newman) and Eric Braeden (Victor Newman) reflect back on the beginning of their characters and their favorite moments. Braeden remarks on a pivotal turning point for his and Scott's characters, "Once I had done that scene, I walked off the stage, I knew that it would open up a Pandora's Box for all kinds of emotional scenes."

Some of the videos were removed, so I had to re-do this on Sunday, June 18 2017.
















From 2012, the celebration for 10,000 episodes. I tried to embed the link to the video on that page, but it failed. So if interested, go to the page and watch the video there.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Reflect and connect.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

I miss you so very much, Mom.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

- Days ago = 420 days ago

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1608.28 - 10:10

NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

COUNTDOWN TO THE END OF THE BLOG YEAR - ## shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1608.28 - 10:10

Monday, July 6, 2015

Coming soon: T-shirt #366 - Y&R, for my mom

Coming soon: T-shirt #366 - Y&R, for my mom

Readers (and random people who stumbled on this by accident),

When I ceased daily transmission of this blog on Friday, March 21 2014, my plan was to resume after a hiatus with new material on an intermittent schedule as I had more t-shirts to feature.

The hiatus was meant to be short, like a month, maybe. It's been a year and a little over three months.

I was planning for my next post to be the one for this t-shirt, dedicated to my mother about the soap opera The Young and the Restless, which I have watched with her, often daily, since its debut in 1973, which is most of my life.

I last worked on this future blog post on 1309.17.

I will now deliver content on this t-shirt in a series of posts, though it may take me a while to generate it all.









My mother died July 4th, 2015 at 10:10 a.m.


Yeah, yeah, I know we're blurry. Blame my Dad.


Or think of me looking at the photo through my tears.


COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - ?? shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1507.06 - 12:04

Saturday, March 1, 2014

T-shirt #345 - Camp Fido - long-sleeve



T-shirt #345 - Camp Fido - long-sleeve

Just pictures today. It's about time I did something simple.

If it's not obvious, I love my dog: Satchel "the boo boo" Paige Tower.

Better known as Poopsy, Poopsy Doodle, the Doodler, Puppyness, Duh Boo, Her Booness, Boo Boo Puppy, and the Sneaky Pickle.

Okay, just a wee bit more text. CAMP FIDO is a great local business. This shirt is produced and sold by CAMP FIDO. It was one of my Christmas presents in 2013.



OFFICIAL BOILERPLATE TEXT OF THE LAST TWENTY POSTS COUNTDOWN: Hi. Thanks for reading. I am posting this "boilerplate" text everyday for the last TWENTY posts in the T-SHIRT blog year, which started on March 22, 2013. I will close out daily transmission on March 21st, day 365 of my T-shirt blog-tastic extravaganza spectacular. I will give myself a short hiatus of total non-transmission or  publication for an as yet undetermined period of time, though I am estimating about two weeks. After my blog vacation hiatus, I will resume T-shirt posts on a regular basis, also as yet to be determined (weekly? Twice monthly?) to finish blogging about all the T-shirts that were not featured in the blog year. At some point, once I feel I am rolling along nicely, I will begin regular posting through my main blog: SENSE OF DOUBT. T-shirt posts will direct to the T-shirt blog from SENSE OF DOUBT. I will continue to post THE WEEKLY COMIC LIST, the features of occasional T-SHIRTS I AM WEARING THIS WEEK, book reviews, comic book reviews, and other popular culture nonsense as I have been for a year now but all will go up at SENSE OF DOUBT and some will direct back here to 365 T-SHIRTS. Ultimately, I will begin Internet publication of my fiction, primarily the comic book satire episodic story called POP! among other projects. So, in summary, 365 T-SHIRTS will continue though intermittently. SENSE OF DOUBT will host my main blog presence and fiction writing as well as links to any T-shirt posts shared here. I hope you will continue to follow me in my journey as a writer and a content provider. Thank you for your kind attention and time you have spent with me on this and/or any other day this year. I am humbled and blessed by your readership. - chris tower, blogger, originated 1403.02





Pictures of me with Satchel were taken by Piper.
Many of the pictures below were taken by my wife Liesel.
Rather than crediting her with each picture, just know that the good ones, those are hers.














COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 20 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1403.01 - 18:51

Monday, February 3, 2014

T-shirt #319 - Ultimate Centrals Regionals 2001 Orange Shirt



T-shirt #319 - Ultimate Centrals Regionals 2001 Orange Shirt

Yes, another Ultimate shirt. And why not? It's Ultimate Mondays.

I featured the blue version and long sleeved shirt of this design and from this tournament in T-shirt #277.


I am still in hiatus mode. But I am also still behind schedule and struggling to work ahead.

Is there really anything to say about this shirt? Not really. It's a nice burnt orange color, unlike the blue one I shared in T-shirt #277.

Today, a bit of text to make a post-Super Bowl point and a bunch of pictures. Atop the blog today, a stack of shirts waiting to be photographed (with me in them). Just a little preview of what's to come because this is the 365 T-shirts blog. I like having a lot of pictures in the folder ready to go. I also like choosing a shirt just for that day and getting the photos once the inspiration strikes. But as I close in on the end of the blog year, I suspect I will be a little less motivated by inspiration. In fact, soon, I may have an accurate count of how many shirts I have left. I suspect I have more than the number remaining in my year, which is forty-six.

On winning and attracting and receiving

The Super Bowl from last night was very disappointing, especially since I picked Denver, and Seattle spanked them 43-8. I feel badly for Peyton Manning.

People claim that prayer works. There's actual evidence that focusing positive energy on an outcome affects the outcome. This concept reminds me of a movie called The Secret, which I have seen several times. The film purports to be a documentary about the secret to prosperity, which is the law of attraction. There's some good content in the movie, and I have written about it the times I have written about gratitude (such as here in T-shirt #252).

I am more interested in the way to attract love and positive things rather using this secret to attract money. However, one person interviewed described envisioning checks in the mail rather than bills, and when he did, checks started to arrive, money for him in his mailbox, rather than bills to pay. I always thought this was an  stupid example, especially since the guy is an INVESTMENT BANKER.
So, of course, he's going to get checks in the mail.

Lately, I have been waiting for a check to arrive. I visualized daily, and ever day, for over a month, there were no checks. Then finally, today, there was a check. I think this shows that the mind attracts when it is NOT FOCUSED on the thing desired. Serendipity is much more powerful than visualizing and attracting and receiving consciously. This connects to how I met Liesel. I had been looking for love so much and had received so little. And then, when I did not expect it, when I was not looking, my life totally changed.

There's a power of the Collective Unconscious at work here, but the attraction, the magic, happens as a result of the consciousness turning AWAY from the thing desired and not actively desiring it. Only when the mind is occupied elsewhere can the thing materialize.

This also proves that Denver may win the Super Bowl next year.

And now some pictures.

On the left, a "selfie" from today. This is the shirt I am actually wearing. I am anticipating the release of the Veronica Mars movie, which is March 14.

Below, I have included a picture of my pal Tom Meyers (the Loc or Lord of Chaos), my wife Liesel, and me at Food Dance from Friday night January 31st celebrating good news that Liesel received that day (which may not yet be for public transmission) and Tom's imminent interview with a prospective employer.




Next, because I am a bit obsessive about documentation, I have several pictures of my birthday cards (also Ivan's cards as he is a "grandson"). My family has always been big on cards. I wrote about the card Liesel gave me in T-shirt #302: Green Lantern.





The next two pictures document the upcoming T-shirts to some extent. The first picture shows the stacks in my office and the recent gifts of cool, retro, re-issue toys and a Star Trek game.



There are not enough Satchel pictures on my blog. The last image is one that I found on the Internet to go in my first computer program in my C# programming class.


HIATUS TEXT: I am taking a short hiatus. A "hiatus" for the 365 T-shirts Blog does not mean that there will not be shirts or that I will skip posting on any forthcoming day. There will be shirts. But the shirts will not be exciting or the featured shirts will not require me to write a small novel to properly generate the content I feel is sufficient. I created a category for my hiatus so as to group together those "easy" shirts that I consider to be "hiatus shirts." The goal of the hiatus is to fill in many blog days with easy shirts in order to complete longer love letters to beloved popular culture icons on more special shirts and to write more complex entries AHEAD OF TIME. The daily grind is becoming too much and causing me to fall behind and to be forced to post incomplete entries. I am hoping that a series of hiatus shirts will allow me to catch up, get ahead, and stay ahead. Ideally, I would like to be writing the bulk of each entry three days ahead while always working on at least one other. I have a lot of great shirts to share before the end of my blog year (after all I was just given SIXTEEN shirts for my birthday). Stay tuned. I promise to post the more interesting and longer T-shirt entries as I finish them. Thanks for reading. BTW, this is the standard HIATUS TEXT that I will include in every "hiatus shirt" entry.

COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 46 shirts remaining

- chris tower - first published - 1402.03 - 20:11
final publication - 1402.04 - 8:11
(ooooh... weird synchronicity. Blog entry and update published 12 hours apart!)

Saturday, January 18, 2014

T-shirt #303 - Space Ghost with Red Collar






T-shirt #303 - Space Ghost with Red Collar



I originally posted this blog entry the day before my birthday. I am completing it a few days later, which allows me to have photos and videos from the day I originally posted it.

Birthdays have always been special in the Tower household. My mother always put on quite an elaborate show in celebration of our birthdays growing up and then into adulthood, so that we would feel extra special and loved. Not that we had any doubt that we were extra special and loved. And by "we" here I mean my sister and me and my father.

Unfortunately, I do not have any digital copies of any of my childhood birthday celebrations, though this should come along some time in the next year or two.

Our family has always celebrated birthdays in a way that makes me feel very special. I have photos and videos from several birthdays on this page. The photos of me in the featured shirt come from my 44th birthday in 2006. Farther below, you will find a video and a picture of my cake from my 2007 birthday as well as time lapse videos from my current 2014 birthday.

Also, in addition, to being about birthdays, today is also about SPACE GHOST.

So far, I have written about SPACE GHOST twice though not in much depth. Given that I am behind schedule, I am unlikely to deliver much depth today either.

T-shirt #69 SPACE GHOST COAST-TO-COAST BLUE

T-shirt #169 SPACE GHOST COAST-TO-COAST BROWN

T-shirt #69 features a nice picture of me with my parents from May of 2013.

I also wrote the following text.


I love capes.

Space Ghost has a cape.

I love Space Ghost.

This blog (the whole project not just this entry) is a unique vehicle for self-inventory, for making categories, for reflection. More on this process as I proceed. Maybe it will inspire others for similar reflection and self-inventory. Maybe some of the entries will remind people of pop culture icons long forgotten or make others ask: "who the Hell is Space Ghost?"

SPACE GHOST COMIC. There have been a few comics featuring Space Ghost. I have at least one more Space Ghost shirt, so I will have another chance to catalogue and review. I like this one by Joe Kelly and Ariel Olivetti very much.

Would there have been a Buzz Lightyear without a Space Ghost?


For T-shirt #169 (do you like the unintended and random number connection between 69 and 169), I explored many topics, including mail call. I discussed the parlor trick CD that came in the mail (a Kickstarter I had funded), The Parlour Trick, fun with Ernest Cline author of Ready Player One--one of my favorite books of last year and maybe of all time--a call to stop the killing in Syria, and a review of the awful City of Bones book. Not much on Space Ghost.

But today... maybe a bit more on Space Ghost once I get rolling and all.



BIRTHDAYS AT MY HOUSE

Birthdays at my house were always like national holidays. Normal activity ceased and everything focused on the birthday boy or girl. My mother set impossibly high standards for how to make someone's day super special, a standard I strive to meet with my wife and kids and rarely live up to.

Since my mother's coma and meningitis, we have all carried on trying to make birthdays extra special events for everyone in the family, but none of us could match the special care and thoughtfulness of my mother, Marjorie.

SPECIAL CAKE

One element of special birthdays was our special cake. We always received a specially baked cake, our favorite, baked with care by our mother and then decorated with great artistic talent by our father.

I only have one example of the many examples currently in a digital form (see above). There's a cake of my favorite superhero of the time: NOVA. I would guess that to be from around 1976-78 as the Nova comic was published during those years. I would guess that it might be my cake from 1977.

My father works very great with frosting. I hope in time to get more of his cakes on the Internet as they were truly amazing works of art.

In the photos of more recent birthdays, we did away with the special cake decorations. In the photos of me from 2006, in the Space Ghost shirt, it looks like I am leaning over a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting: a cake known in our family as the "wacky cake." The 2007 cake is my father's favorite, pineapple-upside down cake with frosting. My father loves frosting. This year's cake (seen in pictures below) is my favorite cake, known as the lemon "poke" cake because holes are poked in the cake and a lemon juice (from real lemons) mixture is poured in. The cake is baked with lemon jello to make it more spongy.


BIG CANDLES and CANDLE TRAIN

Added 1401.28: I came across this photo above of the Daredevil cake. I had forgotten the big candles and the candle train that accompanied our birthday celebrations. There was a large white candle with our ages printed along the side. The idea was to burn just that year's worth at each birthday celebration. There was also a candle with a clown face (seen above right, just barely), which we burned to the point that there was little left of the candle. At the bottom of the photo, you can barely see the tips of a small train with cars made of wood, linked together with metal eyelets: one train car for each year. Once was passed the age of the original wooden train cars, my mother bought plastic ones, but ultimately, we had to give up the train as she could not find more cars to add. I still liked using it, even if there was not a car for each year (which by now would fill the damn table). Also, I like noting my mother's care with all these elements. I believe the candles are sitting on either circles of cardboard wrapped in foil or inverted plates wrapped in foil. The cake sits on an inverted metal pan or pan lid wrapped in foil. These preparations are further evidence of the boundless spirit of my mother's love for us and for being a mother.

NUTCUPS

As a way to make our birthday even more special, my mother would assemble "nut cups," which contained our favorite (chosen by us) nuts and candies. I am partial to cashews and fruity candies, though I do like whoppers as well (malt balls).

You can see an example of the nut cup next to the Nova cake in the picture as well as how we carried on the tradition (my sister in this case) in the photos of me in my Space Ghost short from 2006. See? There's a nut cup next to me.

Very sweet. Literally and figuratively.

I think this is a tradition to which we need to return.

DECORATIONS

Our homes was decorated extensively for birthdays, which is a bit challenging as my birthday is not long after Christmas. Crepe paper streamers, balloons, special cardboards on the walls (featuring our favorite cartoon characters) as well as matching paper tablecloth, napkins, plates, and nut cups bought especially for birthdays in the birthday celebration section of the store or at the Hallmark or Birthday specialty store. This attention to what we liked and the theme of our birthday carried on into our adult hood. The year my mother came down with the meningitis (2000), I turned 38 years old, and I am not ashamed to say I still had a birthday with all these trimmings hosted by her and my father still decorated a cake.

MY MOTHER'S WRAPPING

My mother's wrapping of presents was a work of art. She carefully chose special paper, which she hunted for in stores year around on her frequent shopping trips. She would add bows, ribbons, special cardboard cutouts of our favorite cartoon characters or of Santa Claus and others ate Christmas. Each present bore a tag, even on our birthdays when the presents were all for us. The tags also had special things written in them, but most often: "To Christopher With Love Mommy and Daddy."


UNWRAPPED GIFT PICTURES

Sometime after the event of the day, though sometime later that same day, but not always, we would pose for pictures with our gifts as seen above and to the left. As you can see, when my sister was young, she posed too even when it was not her birthday because she got presents, too! Yes, so she would not feel left out (and the same for me with her birthday), she would receive a few small presents on my birthday so she would have something to open. I was treated to the same on her birthday.

THE LIST OF GIFTS

In addition to posing for pictures with our gifts, which has morphed in our adult years to just pictures of us with the gifts after we unwrap the packages, we would write down or our mother would write down for us (when we were young) what we got as gifts. My mother wanted these lists as records. She wanted to avoid repeating gifts the following year. She wanted to use the list as a budget guide for the following year. She wanted to keep the list to consult in case she got a good idea, so she could repeat it the following year, such as our elaborate and thoughtfully appointed stationary boxes, filled with stamps, special sticky note pads, pens, folders, bookmarks, and other office supplies and school supplies, again, for which she shopped throughout the year and stashed her purchases. I think my mother also just liked having the lists as keepsakes. I still make lists of my gifts because I know she wants me to and for many of the same reasons. It's nice to be able to look back at the lists years later. They have come in handy while creating this blog. I have been meaning to type the lists from the last few years into computer files.

WRITING IN BOOKS

My mother liked to write in the books we received as gifts as another record keeping and keepsake measure. I shared one such note in T-shirt #119 that appeared in my Doctor Strange book. I re-present it here.



DESSERT TO SCHOOL

Around the time of our birthday, our mother would make a load of treats and bring them, herself, to school to share with our classes. This got me beaten up, so it was good she stopped this practice just around junior high.

PARTIES

We did have parties as kids, though neither my sister nor I were possessed with large numbers of friends. Though we both can remember a year or two with parties and large numbers of kids, our best times were with a friend or two over as guests for play dates around the time of our birthday.

However, for my 18th birthday, my parents hosted an elaborate event in which we had a quest of live action role playing for myself and nearly a dozen of my friends. Yes, I was and I am a geek.

I can never capture in text how wonderful my parents were as parents and how much they showered us with love and special treatment. I am probably spoiled rotten, but I have come to realize just how special all this treatment was and I do not expect it. I am honored and blessed by whatever I am given, and I cherish the memories of my idyllic childhood. I try to share this special treatment now, with my family, though I cannot live up to my mother's standard of excellence, but I can try. Because the true gift is giving and the true love is seeing how you make other people happy. This is what my parents taught me. I am not spoiled. I am blessed. And I much prefer giving than receiving.

PHOTO LOG OF BIRTHDAYS

Comments will precede the photos.

Blowing out candles on my 2014 cake. I no longer need to wish for what I always used to wish for. I have it. I am loved, and I am blessed.


Posing with gifts from 2014. A Battlestar Galactica patch for my geeky shirt creation.














Yes, those are shaving cakes. I still lather up in a cup and brush the lather on my face: old school. And no aerosol cans to dispose of.

You're going to get some shirt previews. In the next, WONDER GIRL! Not to be mistaken for WONDER WOMAN. No, that's Donna Troy's.


Get ready for some METAL MEN content. That's the shirt for the Iron robot.


Birthday at Pattiwood, my parents new condo with my wife, Ivan, my Mom and Dad, plus my sister Lori and her husband Noel. Getting ready to blow out those candles.


Get ready for some METAL MEN content. That's the shirt for the Gold robot.



My mother is laughing in the next photo as my sister distributes cake but not BECAUSE my sister is distributing cake. :-)

RECOGNIZE the next one? Famous comic book sorcerer. I already mentioned him in this blog. :-)


Now, we stop back to 2006 and the birthday that I received and immediately donned the Space Ghost short.  But first the Quickdraw McGraw Bobblehead and some pint glass that I cannot identify in the picture. Underdog perhaps?




More with the Bobbleheads! Baba Looey and Quickdraw McGraw! And yes, I am saving those bows for re-use.

















BOOKS!! There's Boondocks if you can spot it, and several others that relate to my writing: Parallel Universes, a couple of books on magic, and one on cataclysmic and prehistoric meteor strikes that pummeled the planet.

SPACE GHOST COMICS!! These are not mine. I got this picture off the Internet, but I do own all of these.




ABOUT SPACE GHOST

Reprinted from T-shirt #101 - the Jetsons.

Space Ghost is a top my Top Ten favorite Hanna-Barbera cartoons. Also, note Quickdraw in the honorable mentions, so hence the bobbleheads.

I am also mad for the Herculoids, but I have no shirt to feature them. I am adding a Herculoids video to this HUGE blog just because. So there.

TOP TEN LIST OF FAVORITE HANNA-BARBERA PRODUCTIONS


  1. Space Ghost
  2. Jonny Quest
  3. Atom Ant
  4. The Herculoids
  5. The Jetsons
  6. Fantastic Four
  7. Wacky Races
  8. Super Friends
  9. Birdman and Galaxy Trio
  10. Moby Dick and the Mighty Mightor

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Yogi BearQuickDraw McGraw, Top Cat, Scooby Doo, Hong Kong Phooey, Harlem Globetrotters, and Josie and the Pussycats.



SPACE GHOST RESOURCES

SPACE GHOST WIKI

SPACE GHOST FAQ

SPACE GHOST COMIC VINE

SPACE GHOST REDDIT

SPACE GHOST TUMBLR

SPACE GHOST GALLERY NERD LUNCH

SPACE GHOST FAN FICTION

SPACE GHOST COMIC REVIEW - BASEMENT REJECTS

SPACE GHOST TRIBUTE - ALEX TOTH

SPACE GHOST TOONPEDIA


I am not sure I need much more to create a Space Ghost love letter. Between all the art, the links, and the videos, you should see the love. It's vibrant. Check out Space Ghost for yourself if you don't know anything about him. He's awesome.

Now where's my Space Ghost pint glass. Time for a BREW.

SPACE GHOST VIDEOS

The original Space Ghost opening




SPACE SPECTRE (1981)





"THE OVENS OF MOLTOR"





Space Ghost Episode 2 - Gargoyloids 






Space Ghost Episode 3 (Nightmare Planet)






and because I don't have a Herculoids shirt... alas alack.

The original Herculoids cartoon






































MY BIRTHDAY VIDEOS Some special videos. Not too exciting here unless you know me. But I did post them to You Tube. First the 2007 birthday. Then 2014 in time lapse and finally some gaming from earlier this month in time lapse. Whew. This is a lot of content. I am tired.

My Birthday 2007 Tower Family Space Ghost Shirt


My Birthday in Time Lapse 1401.18 




My Birthday in Time Lapse 1401.18 - pt.2





Gaming in celebration of my birthday 1401.05


COVER GALLERIES

COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 62 shirts remaining - chris tower - first published - 1401.18 - 20:56
final publication - 1401.21 - 19:58