My greatest "pull" from a pack of cards

 My nephews and I had this discussion recently. They collected Magic cards back in the day and could only think of the most expensive card they pulled as being their favorite. But for me, it was about completing my set!

This was mine. 

A refractor card I needed to complete my set. They came one per box so you had to get the right pack to get one and there were 10 different kinds in the set. I had all 9. Either by pulling packs or trading with others. 

But I'd NEVER seen this one anywhere so it was the most rare to me. I remember walking into the store and seeing only one pack remaining. I asked the guy when they were getting more and he said they weren't. I told him I'd been looking for sa hard to find card for the set but he told me they didn't have it. So I went ahead bought the last pack, opened it....and got it. I was so excited! 

Not only did it complete my set but the battle "game" they had on the back was played by my friends at the time. This hologram cards were the most powerful in the set and now I had all ten, making my deck nearly indestructible! I couldn't wait to face them in the next games we played.

But ironically it was at that exact time that everyone moved on to another game and stopped playing this one altogether. 

Broke my heart. 

All these years later, the gang came together over Christmas. We met at a local place where I brought my set and left it in the car...in hopes they'd brought cards too. Instead, we opened packs from another comic set and talked about the good old days. On the inside I was begging to have one more chance to play the game and bring out my power deck. 

But the moment has surely passed. 

Bummer. It wasn't even that great of a card game but I just wanted to pull out my big deck and shove it in their faces, that mine was the hardest to beat, 

...yes.

Anaconda (review)

 They rebooted the movie as a comedy. 

It works. 

Steve Zahn is completely underrated in hollywood, he's one of the best things about the film. It has few LOL moments, but other than that it's a one-and-done type movie. 

You watch it. You enjoy it. You don't love it. But you know you'll never see it again. 

If there's nothing better to watch, you might as well. Not a ringing endorsement I know, but it's the best I can do. 

Have a good weekend folks!

Ghost Blue Raspberry

 After losing the rights with Sour Patch Kids, Ghost went to rename their blue flavor as "Blue Raspberry" and by all accounts....it taste the exact same. 

I kinda thought it would, but since its "New" I had to give it a try. This will be a top seller I'm sure because everyone loves this flavor. For me it's fine. But there's still a handful of flavors I'd place over this one all the same. 

Interesting to see what will replace Redberry. If its already out I haven't checked. Been a busy couple of weeks for me. However, as they keep coming out with new flavors, I'll continue to give them a shot!

Spam

 Tried it for the first time a while ago. 

Sucks. Awful. I even tried different flavors when a friend of mine begged me to give it another shot. Even pan fried it as he suggests and it still tasted terrible. 

The horrifying twist? My kids love it. They ate the rest of it for me. (thankfully) They want me to buy more. I think I've had enough. Ew. How has this become relevant on grocery store shelves for so long?

Believe me, I can stomach mediocre meals but these?? Nope. Never again.  

Birthday Month

I've been noticing a trend the past couple of years where people are referring to their birthday month instead of the actually day. Thereby giving them a reason to celebrate every day of the month instead. 

Is this really becoming a thing? You think you're so special that you decided a day wasn't good enough anymore and you needed to take the entire month to celebrate??

My birthday is at the end of the month. I'm not really into celebrating it for the entire month of May, nor bragging to people about it. I don't even tell people at work. The only reason they know is because my boss keeps track of it to make sure everyone receives B-day wishes. 

Not that my birthday has ever been that special in the past 9 years anyway. I don't hate it. I just don't make such a big deal out of it. 

But maybe it's just me. Do you celebrate the whole month in honor of your date of birth? If so, do tell. What am I missing here? Or am I just being a grouch? (very possible I'm sure)  
 

May the 4th go away

 It's not a holiday to me. I don't care about what its become and I certainly don't want to celebrate it. But people who know me casually, still greet me with a text message every year with it. 

I don't mind. But at the same time, I could care less about it. The only thing I loved about Star Wars was its Expanded Universe. And (at this time) they haven't any plans to continue that story line, so for me, I have zero interest in anything Lucasfilm brings out. 

I only have one Star Wars shirt and two ties in my closet. Which a rarely wear and would give away in a heartbeat. Star Wars is just a thing of the past to me now. I'll always love the old books and stories but now that it's under Disney, I couldn't care less about the thing that meant so much to me in my earlier days. 

1994 Fleer

 For the last set I ever collected during my childhood, it turned out to be Fleer. The cards looked absolutely stunning and I had a feeling I was done with Topps for good after this. 

A card where the photo took front and center. Which at this time was already being done with other premium cards look Topps Stadium and Donruss Studio. But boy oh boy did Fleer bring the thunder with this one!

After that, I stopped collecting all together. Why? The baseball strike. When I saw greed take away the World Series that year I (and several others) stopped caring about the sport. 

To be clear, I never gave up on baseball. Just on collecting. And though I think this contributed to baseball cards losing their popularity it certainly isn't the only reason. 

These days Topps has the exclusive rights, so competition is lacking and (in my opinion) the product has too. It's impossible to collect a set on your own without spending 5 times the amount its actually worth. Cards are too expansive and the hobby's dead to me now. 

But whatever monster its turned into today, won't offset the fond memories I had growing up. 

Have a good weekend folks!