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| Blizzard for Christmas | |
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12.26.2009
12:35 PM | Link0 comments |
 It's hard to believe it's already the day after Christmas! To continue with our adventures, we spent an evening driving around local neighborhoods to look at Christmas lights, enjoyed Mom's delicious brownies made in a new pan (so every brownie has edges!), and played lots more Wii together (Mom has become a serious bowling competitor). The biggest news is that we had a totally white Christmas, since Oklahoma City was hit with an unexpected blizzard that left 14 inches of snow! None of us believed the weather forecast, but we ended up watching the snow fall and listening to the howling wind all day on Christmas eve. Dad and I did lots of shoveling and helping neighbors get their mail and get their garbage cans to the curb, and truthfully I had the best time stomping around in drifts that went up to my knees! Christmas day itself was wonderful, and I was amazed as usual by the huge haul of gifts that Santa brought (so many books and DVDs). After the unwrapping we watched the Disney Christmas Parade, and later enjoyed a wonderful meal (with lots of wine for me!). Today Dad and I have been doing more "snow work" and we're all going to see another movie in the luxurious Warren Theater later today. Hopefully my flight will get me back to Austin tomorrow, but I'm in no hurry to leave this magical Christmas wonderland! View photos: Christmas 2009 (Part 3)
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| Jam-packed Christmas | |
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12.24.2009
7:23 AM | Link0 comments |
 I can't believe how many fun activities my parents and I are cramming into this Christmas vacation, so here's another update on the fun! We went to Bricktown (part of Downtown Oklahoma City) to take a free holiday boat ride on the Oklahoma River and see some of the city Christmas decorations, then enjoyed seeing Avatar at the awesome Warren Theater (accompanied by great food and beer). To add to our casino repertoire, we drove to Tulsa to spend a few hours at the Hard Rock Casino, and it was cool to play some slot machines next to exciting memorabilia like the Jonas Brothers' pants and Britney Spears' miniskirt. Mom & Dad took the plunge and ordered their new kitchen countertop remodeling project, and then we drove to Pauls Valley to visit the truly amazing Toy & Action Figure Museum (which I had read about in Wired). The museum was even better than I thought it would be, and we loved seeing all the toys! During the evenings at home, we've all been opening presents (and I also received some great surprise gifts from my pals), playing bowling on the Wii (Mom is throwing strikes like crazy and can beat Dad now!), and eating Mom's wonderful meals like homemade chili and super nacho! I also got to setup Dad's new universal remote, and I'm really impressed with the results. Today is Christmas Eve and PJ Day, since the snow will be falling later today, so we're going to stay inside and try to play all the Wii games that Santa has been bringing (about ten of them!). The time has been flying by so quickly that we're not going to build the traditional jigsaw puzzle this year, but there's always next year! Merry Christmas, everyone! View photos: Christmas 2009 (Part 2) View photos: Toy & Action Figure Museum
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| Christmas in full gear | |
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12.20.2009
10:30 AM | Link4 comments |
 Another Christmas season with my parents in Oklahoma City has begun, and we're filling every spare moment with fun! Of course we've been to Riverwind Casino, where we enjoyed the Star Trek slot machines (Dad reached the highest Starfleet rank, so he can order Mom and I around now), and we've been shopping for new kitchen countertops for Mom (my main Christmas gift this year is helping them out on the remodeling cost). I've been eating Mom's Christmas cookies every five minutes or so, along with a huge spaghetti dinner, but this year I'm also minimizing the weight damage by working out on their treadmill every morning. To earn my keep I've been busy as Dad's personal Geek Squad: I swapped out the cable modem, backed up his MacBook, setup a new soundbar for the TV, completely hooked up a neighbor's AV system, and threw in a few How-To lessons for Dad, too! Dad got a Nintendo Wii this year, and it took about three seconds for Mom and Dad to both get hooked on bowling, so we've been having matches every night (Dad came as close to a perfect game as I think I'll ever see). We've been opening other gifts too, such as matching Santa shirts (to go with our matching hats), and I got a Star Trek Tricorder with cool lights and sounds! I also had fun building a LEGO Christmas Toy Shop (probably a new yearly tradition), and we all enjoyed going out to a local dinner theater for a "Dean Martin" Christmas show. We have many more holiday adventures planned - this sure is a jam-packed Christmas! View photos: Christmas 2009 (Part 1)
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| Crazy Christmas CDs | |
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12.16.2009
12:10 PM | Link0 comments |
  By this time in December, I'm listening to Christmas music non-stop, and my collection is full of the classics from my childhood (my parents got me hooked on the Ray Conniff Singers) and lots of contemporary stuff, too. But there are a few totally bizarre CDs that I love to listen to, even if they are a little out of character for me! Although I love Christmas with all my heart, for some reason I get the biggest kick out of irreverent, raunchy, dirty, hilarious Christmas parodies and spoofs! I've had Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics for a few years, and I love listening to the South Park characters totally destroy all the carols, especially the songs sung by Mr. Hankey himself. You have to be prepared for a unique experience when you listen to a CD with smiling turd on the cover! My newest CD is Have Yourself a Meaty Little Christmas featuring the characters from Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and I have been crying with laughter over this one! I can't decide which track I like more: Master Shake singing the soulful I Sure Hope I Don't Have To Beat Your Ass This Christmas or Meatwad happily singing Santa Left A Booger In My Stocking (with lyrics like "Santa pulled his mitten off and shoved his finger up the booger trough and pulled a gift down his nose chimney")! Maybe I'm a little deranged - I'm sure I look funny singing these in my car with a huge laughing smile on my face!Speaking of Christmas, the wait is finally over, and tomorrow I'll be flying to Christmas Town (which happens to be my parents' house in Oklahoma City). For the next 10 days I won't be writing many WEBmikey posts, but I can't curb my Twitter addiction, so you'll know what's going on (if you want)! |
| Christmas Toys 1978 | |
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12.15.2009
7:06 AM | Link0 comments |
 By the time Christmas of 1978 rolled around, Kenner was cranking out the Star Wars toys by the ton, and of course I had already been collecting Star Wars action figures all year long! My Santa parents took the holiday opportunity to deliver some of the larger Star Wars toys, including the massive Death Star playset, which had a unique design to represent a multi-level “slice” of the space station. I went nuts with this toy, since there was so much to do with it, and I’ll never forget the cool trash compactor (filled with bits of foam garbage). I also got a TIE Fighter (sized so a figure could pilot it), and I loved carefully putting on the decals and then pressing the secret buttons to pop off the wings to simulate battle damage! Aside from action figures, I got the human-sized Stormtrooper Rifle that had some pretty cool firing effects and was a blast to hold. It was definitely a Star Wars extravaganza!But as usual, Santa brought even more amazing stuff, such as Electroman, which was a cool large action figure with a big light on his forehead and sensors to detect movement (he was the same size as the Six Million Dollar Man, so they went well together). I also got the Star Bird Avenger, one of the most innovative space ship toys I can remember, which changed its electronic engine sounds to match the angle of the ship, and it even had fantastic laser sounds and lights. I even got the Star Bird Command Base to go with it! I have no idea how all this stuff fit in my room. After 1978, Dad stopped using the old home movie camera, so I can only dream about the spectacular toys I received in 1979 and beyond. I know that when I read nostalgic toy sites like Plaid Stallions I am constantly reminded of cool stuff that I had, all thanks to my incredible parents (and being a spoiled only child). Every Christmas brings joy and happy surprises, and it’s been fun remembering my childhood treasures! |
| Pasta for Christmas | |
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12.14.2009
12:42 PM | Link0 comments |
 I feel extremely lucky to have so many wonderful friends in my life, so I decided it would be fun to get everyone together and buy them all dinner for Christmas! Since we're all growing up and there are several kiddies in the bunch now, we don't often get to all be in the same room together, so it was a really special night for me, and I think everyone had fun. We ate at Buca di Beppo, and there were 24 of us to completely fill the Velvet Room, which made for a nice semi-private atmosphere where we could be loud and crazy. The tables were overflowing with food and desserts, as well as six liters of Chianti! I got several surprise Christmas presents, but the real gift was just seeing everyone together having a good time! View photos: Christmas Dinner Party
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| Christmas Toys 1977 | |
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12.10.2009
8:00 AM | Link2 comments |
 When I hear the year 1977 mentioned, I immediately think of Star Wars, so you would think that Santa’s sleigh would have been overflowing with Star Wars toys this year. Actually, the toy companies had no idea that Star Wars would be such a success, so when Christmas rolled around almost nothing was available! However, Santa did manage to get me the Escape from the Death Star board game, which I thought was the coolest piece of cardboard in the whole world (I’m sure I played it a million times with my friends).Instead of Star Wars, 1977 turned out to be the Christmas of the Micronauts! I don’t even remember how I got into these toys, but suddenly they were all I wanted (just like my friends, cousins, and everyone else). Micronauts were a bit more expensive than your average toy, but my Santa parents got me all they could, including individual figures like Acroyear and cool vehicles like the Galactic Cruiser. But my favorites by far were Baron Karza (all black and Vader-esque) and his horse Andromeda, who had fantastic magnetic joints that gave them excellent posability as well as making them interchangeable (so you could turn the two into a centaur!). I was a Micronauts freak for years, and I really wish I had Baron Karza on my toy shelf today! |
| Christmas Toys 1976 | |
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12.03.2009
12:23 PM | Link0 comments |
 Although every Christmas I've written about so far was fantastic (and we haven't even got to Star Wars toys yet), I think if I had to pick one Christmas morning to live again it would have to be 1976. Every toy I received that year was simply spectacular, and I'm not the only one who thinks so, judging from all the fond memories other people have written on the web! I guess I'll begin with the biggest LEGO set I've ever owned (I remember it included lots of large green bases which were so useful), followed by the absolutely huge Earthquake Tower (a very strange toy when you think about it, but I liked it because it was almost as tall as me!). To add to my Star Trek collection, I got a cool Controlled Space Flight toy so I could fly the Enterprise (with a propeller!) around in circles, plus the magnificent Mission to Gamma VI playset for my Mego Star Trek action figures! It was such a beautiful set with a giant mouth (which reminded me of the episode The Apple), with a rubber band trap and a "living" plant monster (a green glove!). Next was practically a whole collection of Six Million Dollar Man toys in one shot, including the Steve Austin figure himself, the incredibly-named Bionic Transport and Repair Station (which was a big rocket), and the awesome Mission Control Center, with its cleverly designed inflatable dome structure! I had so much fun putting these together, applying decals and attaching tubes. But there's still more! This same year I also received the Space 1999 Eagle (definitely a Holy Grail for many collectors), which was so giant you had to fly it around with two hands. I was crazy about Space 1999 as a kid (I even drew my own comics of the show), so I really enjoyed this toy, and every time I'm in my parents' garage I am taunted by the original box (which is being used for storage)!But even with all of these great gifts, the best was yet to come with my beloved Star Trek Tricorder. This was the one toy I wanted the most that year, and my parents decided to pull the same trick from A Christmas Story by hiding it until the very end of Christmas morning. I can remember pulling back the drapes and seeing Kirk and Spock on that box, and I can't express how much I loved that souped-up cassette recorder! Throughout the year I began to record my own pretend radio shows (with lots of help from Dad), and of course I had a lot of Star Trek adventures as well. I'm kind of overwhelmed just writing about all this fun. What a Christmas! |
| Christmas Toys 1975 | |
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11.30.2009
11:51 AM | Link0 comments |
 I think the toys I remembering playing with the most throughout my childhood would be my Mego 8-inch action figures, which had incredible cloth clothing and plastic accessories. I had so many of these I can’t even begin to count, including almost all of the super heroes and villains, as well as characters from Star Trek and Planet of the Apes! In fact, I loved them so much, I’ve recently been collecting reproductions of these classic toys) In 1975, Santa brought not just one, but two gigantic Mego playsets to use with my figures, starting with the USS Enterprise. This representation of the bridge included control panels and the captain’s chair, changeable view screen images, and the totally creative Transporter effect (which let you spin a figure around quickly, then press a button to make them disappear!). Next was the Batcave, which was so much fun to play with since it provided an official garage for my Batmobile. Mego worked so many details into this set, such as the Batpole and Batsignal, and there was even a collapsing road sign on the secret entrance! Santa also brought a rare and interesting piece of Disney park memorabilia that year, since I got the Haunted Mansion Board Game that so many collectors are after today. I remember really enjoying this game, and the artwork was really cool (now if I only knew where it went!). Along with other smaller toys, I also got a simple little game called Bas-Ket which let you launch ping pong balls into nets (which I just discovered can still be bought today). I remember playing this one with Dad, but the main reason it deserves mentioning is because I think it’s been buried in my parents’ garage for years, so someday I may get to play it again!
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| Thanksgiving 2009 | |
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11.27.2009
5:46 PM | Link0 comments |
 Happy post-Thanksgiving everyone! I had a fantastic holiday, starting with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade as usual. I really enjoyed the new Sailor Mickey balloon, as well as the cool Spider-Man balloon (excellent pose!) and Santa's new float! The rest of the day was spent with the King and Queen of Thanksgiving, Chris & Eliza (I guess that makes Emiliano the Prince of Thanksgiving), along with other good friends (it was nice that Matt & Kumiko could join the fun this year). As always, the food was delicious, and I did a good job health-wise by only eating one plate (however, there were no restrictions on champagne and wine!). It was a smaller crowd this year, but it was nice to see friends I hadn't seen in a while, including Tom, Kristin & Carlos, and Eliza's sister Laura. I had fun giving Chris & Eliza a little poster I made of some previous years' "basting shots" (I always take the same picture of Eliza basting the turkey in the oven), and it was great to play with the kids Emiliano, Sofia and Bella. I extended my holiday to Friday also, watching anime and building my LEGO Star Wars Tantive IV (a truly exquisite design from Episode IV, one of my favorite ships). It's been a great couple of days, and now the weekend is here! View photos: Thanksgiving 2009
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| Three Small Things 11.24.09 | |
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11.24.2009
6:57 AM | Link0 comments |
 Last weekend I met my parents in Waco for our usual pre-Thanksgiving visit, and even though it was rainy and foggy, the weather cleared up just enough for Mom's trip to the family cemetery so she could put out new flowers. We had a nice pre-Thanksgiving dinner with my Great Aunt Bobbie and Cousin Clinton in Stephenville, along with early Christmas gifts, and also went out to eat a couple times with my Aunt Geneva. I definitely earned my keep in my role as family tech support, too - I hooked up my aunt's new printer and installed drivers on Windows Vista, showed my cousin how to use his new Blu-ray player (a beautiful LG model), and upgraded Dad's MacBook to Snow Leopard, which was a crazy experience that ended up successful! (The install kept hanging with two minutes remaining, but finally finished after the third try, which was a holiday miracle!) View photos: Waco 2009It's kind of a shame, but since I type all the time, my handwriting is worse than ever, and even my signature is terrible since I don't write checks! I've already got my Christmas cards ready to send, and I made the weird decision to scan my signature (which I repeated until it was legible) and print it on labels to stick inside the cards. I was already printing labels to share my online info (website, Twitter and Facebook), so it was easy to make a set with my signature (using Avery's amazing Design & Print Online, which is perfect for generating a set of identical labels). It looks pretty convincing, so maybe no one will notice! I recently finished re-reading CS Lewis' classic Mere Christianity (I didn't own a copy, so PaperBack Swap came to my rescue as usual) since it was quoted often in the last series of talks at my church. Even though I had read it years ago, I really enjoyed it again, since Lewis' style of writing sounds like a conversation over a pipe and pint. I love his metaphors and explanations of various concepts, which are always fresh and creative, and I can easily see how they translate into his incredible Narnia stories! Labels: family, holidays, photos, small things |
| Christmas Toys 1974 | |
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11.17.2009
12:20 PM | Link0 comments |
 Santa decided to go for quantity this year, so I got a huge variety of great toys, starting with lots of board games (which meant that Mom & Dad had to play with me a lot, being an only child). I loved the Rube Goldberg magic of Mouse Trap (one of the best games ever that's still sold today), and more often just built the contraption to see it work rather than follow the actual rules! I also got a fun memory matching game called Husker Du (Dad enjoys memory games, so we played that for years), and believe it or not, a board game inspired by the TV series Emergency. Moving on to bigger toys (the tree was dwarfed by the huge boxes my toys came in that year!), there was Skittle Bowling (a sequel to Skittle Pool that I got the previous year), a giant Texaco Service Station playset, a cute Snoopy and his doghouse toy, and the awesome Ricochet Racers, which were cars you could actually fire out of big rifle-like launchers! Finally, I got some practical/educational stuff, starting with a real typewriter (which I really wanted from the way I'm hugging it in the home movie!) that I used to type letters to my cousin Tom Bill in Ohio, plus one of those cool Science Explorer circuit sets that let you connect wires to make LEDs light up or create sounds. My musical encouragement continued with an almost full-size toy guitar, and a future toy addiction was born in 1974 because I got my first giant LEGO set that kept me busy for hours a day!
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| Christmas Toys 1973 | |
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11.10.2009
7:56 AM | Link0 comments |
 The next Christmas in this series should be 1972, but that remains a mystery year regarding toys from Santa! Dad had to go overseas with the Air Force during the holidays, so there are some home movies of family gifts (the usual underwear) that we opened early that year, but no footage of the toy haul. I bet I got some great stuff, too! It doesn't really matter, though, since I completely scored in 1973 with so many toys that I can barely mention them all!The most cherished toy of the bunch was my Ready Ranger Backpack, which was a clunky orange and blue plastic box (worn on your back) that opened up to reveal all kinds of pretend equipment for high-tech wilderness adventure, fighting fires, spying, or something like that (I was never quite clear on the mission!). I completely loved all the doo-dads and the way they collapsed into the case, and I was so excited about it that this is the only toy I remember getting up in the middle of the night to play with by flashlight! (This is a good time to mention that I'm a huge fan of PlaidStallions.com, the absolute best site on the web for 70s toys memories!) There were many other toys to enjoy in 1973, most of them huge, like the original Skittle Pool, the Big Jim Sports Camper and figures (I had lots of fun with these, but they look incredibly goofy now!), a semi-remote control spaceship called Solo Flight, a set of Tonka road construction vehicles, the Visible Man model (with removable intestines and liver and such), and finally a giant Mickey Mouse ventriloquist doll that probably could have paid off my mortgage if I still had it! What an incredible year for Christmas fun! |
| Christmas Toys 1971 | |
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11.05.2009
11:53 AM | Link0 comments |
 This year's Christmas was pretty unique, since my parents and I spent the holiday season with my Dad's family in Ohio and Kentucky. This meant that my Santa-parents had to covertly hide all of my presents in the back of the car for the drive, and I never suspected since I was a dedicated Santa-believer who was convinced Santa knew where I would be waking up on Christmas morning! Along with my huge stocking, I received several classic games this year, including Don't Break the Ice and Operation, plus some kind of interesting battle tops game. But the best gift of 1971 was my Fisher Price Family Play Farm set! This gift was wrapped and under the tree before Christmas, and I would actually sit in the rocking chair with the huge box in my lap and kind of sing songs about how great this present was going to be (how embarrassing!). I loved toys that had a million pieces, so I was thrilled with all the farm animals, the family, fence pieces, the silo, and of course the giant barn with the classic door that made a cow moo when it opened! Lots of people have fond memories of this fantastic toy, but it's not easy to find really good photos of the vintage version (Fisher-Price still makes a similar set, but the design has been updated). But I was still able to find this great page dedicated to the vintage set, as well as some nice images on Flickr!
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| Disney's A Christmas Carol : 3 of 5 | |
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11.03.2009
5:37 PM | Link1 comments |
 It's nice to start getting into a Christmas mood with holiday movies, and I was able to see this new version of the Dickens classic at a sneak preview, thanks to my pal Melinda who is always lucky with preview passes! My opinion of this movie is right down the middle - there are things I love about it, and things I hate, which puts my review solidly in the center of my rating scale. I guess I'll get the hate out of the way - I am really against motion capture CG animation and Robert Zemeckis' bizarre opinions about the future of filmmaking! Although the characters in this film look much better than they did in The Polar Express, they still constantly look cross-eyed, with no attention to eye lines (they always seem to be looking "through" things), and might as well have been marionettes in most cases. Scrooge himself looks fantastic - I think they spent all their time getting him right and just let the computer crank out everyone else with no refinement. I was also appalled at Zemeckis' showboating floating camera moves, which only please himself and drive the audience crazy like they are stuck in a video game. Besides the opening sequence (which includes goofy moves like flying through a wreath), there's one sequence with the Ghost of Christmas Past that goes nearly 15 minutes without a single cut. I don't care if he thinks it's cool - it can only be special if it's hard to do in real life, so doing it in CG is just annoying. But now for some good points! I was really pleased and surprised that they stuck to all the original Dickens dialogue (most of the time I knew the line before they even said it), which prevented Jim Carrey (whom I dislike terribly) from ad-libbing and cheapening the whole thing. As I mentioned before, Scrooge does look incredible, and his exaggerated character design is great. I also liked all of the spirits, especially the creepy way that the Ghost of Christmas Future was mostly shown as a living shadow. The final scenes of the movie when Scrooge is filled with glee on Christmas Day are really well done, with just enough happiness to kick off the Christmas spirit in anyone. Overall I enjoyed myself, but mostly because I love Christmas movies and this classic story, not because of any of the filmmaking techniques that were being paraded on the screen. I only hope that audiences will enjoy the Christmas message while realizing that films using this technique have simply got to go!
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| Double gig Halloween 2009 | |
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11.02.2009
12:57 PM | Link0 comments |
 Just like last year and the year before, my band The Greatest American Heroes (Austin's favorite TV theme song band, of course), rocked the Carousel Lounge at our special Halloween show this weekend! We wore our official uniforms from the show that inspired our name, and nearly everyone in the crowd was in costume, too! There were so many great outfits, and we were able to get lots of people "into the show" by asking them to participate during an appropriate song. The Blues Brothers showed up for our introduction to Good Times (which has a Blues Brothers feel), Gomez & Morticia Addams led the crowd in snaps for The Addams Family, a couple of Brokeback cowboys were there for Dukes of Hazzard, Wilma danced during The Flintstones, Wonder Woman was there for Wonder Woman (of course), and we even played a surprise version of Old Time Rock & Roll (which we learned on the spot) for our friend Grace who was dressed as Tom Cruise in his undies from Risky Business (the band claims no responsibility for heart attacks caused by this incident)! One of our former vocalists Dana was visiting in town from Washington DC, so she was there to sing several of her old tunes, wearing an awesome GAH-TV remote control costume (so clever). We gave the best costume prize to a guy who did a completely perfect Chris Farley impression, and the crowd was totally generous with tips (and they threw some Blow-Pops in the tip jar, too).The next night, my jazz combo Casa del Swanko played at Satellite Bistro, which was totally relaxing and fun, especially since it had been quite a while since our last show. Since it was officially Halloween, Matt wore his Yuri Gagarin costume and did all of his banter in a hilarious Russian accent (thankfully, he sang with his usual smooth voice). Kumiko showed up in her Tricia Takanawa (from Family Guy) costume with some other friends who were dressed up as well. The band had a delicious free meal, a couple drinks, and a great time with our friends, which is the real reason we love to play! View photos: Halloween 2009
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| Christmas Toys 1970 | |
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10.30.2009
10:43 AM | Link0 comments |
 Christmas this year was dominated by probably the physically largest gift I ever received! My Santa parents figured a four-year old should learn how to drive, so they got me a kiddie-sized dune buggy! It was a beautiful, red, battery-powered monster (none of those crappy pedal cars for me!) with real working headlights, and it could actually go forward and reverse. I remember driving it around the house (mostly from seeing myself in home movies), and I think I was stunned speechless by the whole thing! In addition to my "real" wheels, I also got a set of several Hot Wheels cars, a wind-up walking Charlie Brown (that I always made Mom wind-up for me), and another toy piano (I either needed an upgrade, or maybe I had broken the piano I got in 1967). There was also a toy rifle and William Tell dart game, and finally my highly anticipated stocking. According to the video evidence, apparently I was super excited about getting Chuckles candy this year!
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| Christmas Toys 1969 | |
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10.26.2009
11:08 AM | Link1 comments |
 I'm sure Santa brought me lots of other toys for my third Christmas, but the space under the tree was dominated by three big ones! I got a classic red wagon with cool wooden sideboards (my huge teddy bear from 1967 was sitting in it), and a fantastic school desk with an attached seat and a flip-top that was filled with art supplies, plastic alphabet letters, and all kinds of other fun (and educational) stuff. But the best gift of all was my Show'N Tell Phono-Viewer, probably one of the most entertaining toys ever (and I'm not the only one who feels that way - my pal Barron also loved his Show'N Tell). I guess kids today would get a portable DVD player, but in 1969 this was serious tech! The Show'N Tell looked like a TV with a record player on top, but it played filmstrips that were vertically inserted into the top. As the record played, the filmstrip would advance to the next frame in sync with the story, so it was like a magical TV show! I know I spent hours and hours watching the same things over and over, but what is truly amazing is the titles that were available. Believe it or not, I had filmstrips of literary classics like Moby Dick and even Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, and I can actually remember them (I know for a fact I was a little spooked by watching Juliet die). I'm really thankful that my Santa parents gave me such a wonderful gift, and I'm proud to have been a Shakespeare fan at only three-years old! By the way, I discovered some fantastic scans of an old Show'N Tell catalog, so you can see the incredible variety of filmstrips that were sold. I wish I could watch these today!
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| Christmas Toys 1968 | |
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10.23.2009
11:50 AM | Link0 comments |
 Moving on to my second Christmas, Santa continued to focus on some classic toys that every kid should have. The biggest gift of 1968 was my red tricycle, which I rode both inside and outside! Of course, I peddled it around on Christmas morning, and I know throughout the year I often tried to ride it in the backyard, where it would always get stuck in the grass. I also got the usual wooden board with pegs that could be hammered through, as well as a plastic horse (that one seems a little unusual, but I'll just call it my first action figure!). Another interesting gift that year was a toy phone - of course, kids today get toy cell phones, but mine was a big rotary model! I'm sure I pretended to call Santa Claus or someone like that with it. This year marked the start of my love for "giant mesh Christmas stockings full of junk", which always had a million little plastic toys and all kinds of candy, and I started getting one of those every year after that (it seemed like they kept getting bigger, too!). I wonder if they still sell those?
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| Christmas Toys 1967 | |
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10.20.2009
12:29 PM | Link0 comments |
 It might be a little early to start writing about Christmas, but I thought I'd get started on this series of posts just to be sure I finish it before December 25th! Since my dad used to be a real home movie buff, I'm extremely lucky to have tons of magical childhood events captured on film, which includes reel after reel of me ripping open toys in my pajamas on Christmas morning. It's so much fun to study these Christmas movies and try to figure out what all the gifts are (which is sometimes difficult due to film quality), and I absolutely love reminiscing about all the fantastic classic toys I enjoyed, thanks to my extremely generous Santa parents! So I'm going to mention the main toys of each of my early Christmases, and I plan to cover at least 1967 through 1978.I was born in January 1967, so by December 1967 I was old enough to do more than gurgle, and I got lots of classic baby toys that most people will remember, starting with the standard Fisher-Price Corn Popper (I can't believe they have been making that toy since 1957 and you can still buy it!). I also had the typical pole with rings on it (which I kept trying to eat like doughnuts), a wind-up music box "radio", a pretty cool fire engine to push around, a weird ball filled with chickens that would peck as you moved it, plus a huge teddy bear that was bigger than me! I also got a toy piano and a wind-up drummer boy, which no doubt got me interested in music right away. Of course, during most of the morning I ended up playing with boxes and Christmas ornaments more than the toys. As I "grow up", I'll have lots more to say about my beloved toys, but 1967 was just about the best first Christmas anyone could ever want! |
| Wrapping up Christmas | |
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12.27.2008
11:04 AM | Link0 comments |
 Christmas was absolutely spectacular this year! I was a little greedier than usual with my wish list, and Santa Dad went crazy and bought everything I wanted! I have so many DVDs, books and games that you'll be reading my reviews of them here on WEBmikey for months. I got a couple of huge gifts that I didn't really expect: a Kodak Zi6 (so I can play around with shooting some HD video) and the Star Wars LEGO Motorized Walking AT-AT! I can't wait to start enjoying all my presents! After all the gift ripping, I enjoyed the Disney parade (first year to see it in 40-inch HD), watched some Looney Tunes DVDs, played Nintendo DS games, ate candy and drank beer until naptime, then woke up for an incredible Christmas dinner by Chef Mom!Thanks to Christmas falling on Thursday, it's been nice to stay here with Mom & Dad a few more days. We spent more time at the casino (no winnings, but we had lots of fun), saw another movie, and we've been spending each night watching more old home movies. Tomorrow I have to head back to the real world, and I know it will take me a while to adjust, but at least I'll have cool DVDs to help me through the transition! Even though I'm crazy about the stuff I got, the biggest gift of all has been living in a magical Christmas world for the past few days. I love coming to this world every year to spend time with my wonderful parents, where everything is glowing with fun and excitement! View photos: Christmas 2008
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| Christmas nostalgia | |
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12.23.2008
7:20 AM | Link0 comments |
 Christmas is still marching on here in Oklahoma City, and we've been doing fun holiday activities like driving around to look at Christmas lights (the best house of all is actually in my parents' neighborhood!) and going to an amazing concert at church featuring Steve Green! We've also completed our yearly tradition of watching all the old Christmas movies (including my newly edited editions), and it's always fun to see Mom & Dad younger than I am now ripping open their presents. It's also interesting to see myself going nuts over vintage Star Wars stuff, and here I am over 30 years later still getting Star Wars merchandise for Christmas (and loving it)! There's been a nostalgic theme going on, since Mom dug out my old baby clothes so we could look at them, and Dad discovered some old toys of mine (which I immediately photographed to post sometime soon). We even found over 40 VHS-C tapes of even more home movies that I've been dubbing to MiniDV, so I have a lifetime of editing ahead of me! We've also seen a movie in the fabulous Warren Theater balcony, we're still working on the annual jigsaw puzzle, and today we're making our second trip to the casino, looking for a Christmas jackpot!
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| Christmas catch-up | |
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12.21.2008
1:48 PM | Link0 comments |
 Christmas is completely underway, so I thought I should take a break from building the yearly jigsaw puzzle with Dad to update WEBmikey! Things got off to a foggy start when Rudolph's nose didn't show up to help my flight get to Oklahoma City, so I had to spend the night in Dallas, but thankfully everything went smoothly the next morning and soon I was with Mom & Dad in Christmas Town USA! Mom got a new beautiful tree this year with more lights, plus new pearl garland that looks spectacular. Right away I got started with the usual holiday technology services - this year I hooked up a better wireless router for Dad, then got the new DVR going and trained everyone on how to use it. Mom has been meeting my holiday calorie requirement with hamburgers and homemade chips, eggs benedict, and macaroni and cheese! Of course, we've also been opening gifts each night and watching home videos of Christmases from years ago. It seems like we've had so much fun already, and there's so many more things to do - I'll try to write more often so I won't forget to mention it all!
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| Disney Christmas spirit | |
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12.04.2008
8:01 AM | Link0 comments |
 Every year I like to watch my small collection of holiday DVDs, and this year I've been getting through them kind of early, thanks to a cold that's been keeping me stuck in my rocking chair for the past few nights. But blowing my nose can't keep my Christmas spirit down, especially when it comes to Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas and Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas! The first DVD was a low budget production with cheap animation quality, but I love the stories! Goofy and his son Max have some really emotional moments, and Mickey & Minnie's version of Gift of the Magi is so great that watching it made me make a donation to Toys for Tots right there on the spot! The second DVD was originally controversial since it presents the classic Disney characters in full CG, but I'm still really impressed with the results. The opening ice skating battle between Minnie & Daisy is spectacular and funny, and the story of Pluto running away (to the North Pole) and Mickey wandering the town searching for him is so dramatic. I also always watch Mickey's Magical Christmas, which is essentially a long episode of the House of Mouse TV series. Most of the DVD is pretty bad, but I still watch it since the second half includes the classic Mickey's Christmas Carol, which I always enjoy. I always laugh at the giant from Mickey and the Beanstalk playing the Ghost of Christmas Present, and the way they used all the Mr. Toad characters is pure genius. It's also cool that so many of today's star animators worked on that film when they were just getting started at Disney!
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| Turkey time | |
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11.28.2008
2:53 PM | Link0 comments |
 What a great start to the holiday season! Yesterday I enjoyed the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade as usual, especially the new Buzz Lightyear float! After that I stopped by my pal Melinda's house to say hello to her family, and then went to Chris & Eliza's for the yearly feast. There were fewer guests than previous years, but since there are so many kids to play with now it still felt like a full house! By the time I got home the turkey had done its job and I was asleep on the couch instantly.Now that Thanksgiving has come, I'm totally in holiday mode! I put up my simple Christmas decorations (including my mini-ornament tree), loaded up my iPhone with Christmas music, and I'm already breaking out my Christmas DVDs so I can watch them all before I go to Oklahoma City in two and a half weeks. It's also nice to enjoy some of Mom's holiday baking (which I got in Waco during our recent pre-Thanksgiving visit), so the only thing missing is some cold weather - I can't believe I had to run the air conditioner today! View photos: Thanksgiving 2008
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| Heroes Halloween 2008 | |
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11.02.2008
12:51 PM | Link0 comments |
 Every Halloween my band The Greatest American Heroes plays a special show at the Carousel Lounge - actually, it's not much different from the show we do every month, but at least we're in costumes! This year we got matching outfits of the band's namesake, the actual Greatest American Hero from the original TV show. We looked pretty crazy together - it was like an ocean of red with blonde wigs. Actually, I was pretty embarrassed of my costume figure, but we still played a great show. There were tons of great costumes in the crowd, including my pal Matt's perfect Captain Kirk, who was unexpectedly joined by two other Enterprise crew members! There was plenty of dancing and the tips were generous, so it was a Halloween success. I didn't take as many pictures as I should have since I was feeling costume-uncomfortable, but you can still get a taste of the action with these shots! View photos: Halloween 2008
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| Christmas wrap-up | |
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12.28.2007
5:28 PM | Link0 comments |
 I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I'm back in Austin now, trying to get used to reality again, but I'm still enjoying that Christmas afterglow from the past few days. Before Christmas, we finished the jigsaw puzzle (which was really cool looking!), made another trip to the casino, and enjoyed a nice candlelight service at Mom & Dad's church, which was so nice. On Christmas Eve, my parents finished opening their gifts from me, then we watched A Christmas Story (which we do every year) and laughed at Ralphie's pink bunny suit for the 100th time. The next morning, I got to open up my incredible pile of gifts - I got so many DVDs this year that when I was packing them in my bag it looked like I had robbed Best Buy! I also got a special surprise gift - a wonderful figurine of Mickey Mouse with Santa! After the gift unwrapping, I got to watch the Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade on Dad's new HDTV, and it looked spectacular! The entire holiday was fantastic, which makes it even more difficult to get back to my everyday routine, but I think I'm finally coming around. I'm already looking forward to Christmas 2008, though! View photos: Christmas 2007 View photos: Visit to Pops
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| Happy PJ Day! | |
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12.22.2007
10:21 PM | Link0 comments |
 Did you know today was PJ Day? I hope everyone enjoyed spending all day in their pajamas like Dad and I did! Each holiday season we always take a day to stay at home all day in our PJs, and today was the day since it was snowy outside. We started the day with Mom's magnificent Eggs Benedict (my favorite breakfast!), and then spent most of the day working on a jigsaw puzzle (another yearly tradition). This year I bought one called Famous Flying Machines, and even though I thought it would be kind of easy, it was actually tough - we only finished about half of it, so I hope we can finish it in the next few days. Dinner was Mom's incredible spaghetti with homemade sauce, plus pecan pie and pipe smoking!Last night we watched 15 years of Christmas home movies, talking through the whole thing, laughing at our young looks, and of course, drooling over all the cool toys that I could sell for thousands of dollars if I had them today! I really miss my Six Million Dollar Man stuff, Star Trek figures, Micronauts (I miss you, Baron Karza!), and Star Wars merchandise (including the Death Star playset, that I just recently saw on sale for over $7000! |
| Holiday fizz | |
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12.20.2007
10:19 PM | Link0 comments |
 Welcome to the Christmas report, part two! My parents and I usually do the same fun things each year during my visit, but this year we went on a new adventure. We drove to a Pops, a fun restaurant on historic Route 66 that has over 500 kinds of soda available! The building is really unique, both inside (where they have thousands of soda bottles on shelves all over the walls) and out (where there's a humongous soda bottle monument complete with bendy straw!). We had a nice lunch and bought some souvenirs, and tried four kinds of yummy soda. We've also been continuing our casino visits, both at Remington Park (where I enjoyed the Alien movie themed game) and at Riverwind again. Mom discovered a game called Pistol Packin' Penny, and she and Dad both turned their pennies into some nice cash! I always get Mom & Dad some DVD games at Christmas, so in the evenings we've been playing Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader and 1 vs 100, which are both really fun. But I think the biggest gift hit so far is a set of giant refrigerator magnets that let Mom build a huge snowman on the fridge! As always, Christmas with my parents is definitely a time of sheer relaxation and joy!
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| Indiana Jones and the Christmas Jackpot | |
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12.17.2007
10:11 PM | Link0 comments |
 It's time for the official Christmas report, part one! I made it to Oklahoma City with no weather problems, enjoying the convenience of my dirt-cheap, non-stop ExpressJet flight (highly recommended!), and Mom & Dad greeted me at the airport with my usual tin of Christmas cookies to get the holidays rolling! The first major order of business was hooking up a new HDTV, my big gift to my parents this season, and I'm happy to say that Dad is already a 16:9 junkie. So far we've been to the movies together, and today we had fun at Riverwind Casino playing the slot machines. We were almost ready to leave, and I decided to just play a few bucks on a cool Indiana Jones slot machine, and suddenly I hit the Ark of the Covenant progressive bonus, so I won about $400! What an awesome surprise Christmas present - I was amazed! Speaking of presents, we've also been opening a gift every night like we always do, so I've been having fun playing a new Nintendo DS game and reading a new book. Of course, I'm also eating Mom's delicious cooking and goodies, drinking beer and scotch, and generally having a blast thinking of nothing but holiday happiness!
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| Fa la la la la | |
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12.15.2007
7:02 AM | Link0 comments | At last, Christmas vacation is here! Yesterday was my last day of work until after Christmas, and last night was my last band gig for the year, so now I feel totally free! Later today I'll be flying to Oklahoma City to visit Mom & Dad in Christmas Paradise, and I can't wait. It looked like there was going to be a lot of snow to worry about, but so far the airport isn't reporting delays, so I think I'm OK! I'm definitely feeling the Christmas spirit now - I watched most of It's a Wonderful Life this week, and I watched the brand new Disney Holiday Magic show on the Travel Channel at lunch yesterday, which was really fun. I'm sure they will repeat it over and over, so be sure to watch it if you're a Disney fan! Of course, I'll have my trusty MacBook while I'm on vacation, so I'll still be writing a few WEBmikey posts when I'm not opening presents. Countdown to eating Mom's Christmas cookies: less than 9 hours! |
| Fred Claus : 3 of 5 | |
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12.10.2007
6:44 PM | Link0 comments |
 Even though I enjoyed the quirky trailer for this movie over a year ago, I wasn't planning on seeing it due to all the bad things I had heard about it. But I was kind of in the mood for a holiday movie, and my pal Melinda asked me to go, so I figured I would just try to enjoy it, fully expecting to be giving it my not-so-good "2" or even "1" rating. But while I was at the theater, I was definitely surprised to find myself laughing out loud and even feeling plenty of holiday spirit! Fred Claus starts with the interesting idea that Santa Claus has an older brother, and then quickly explains that when someone becomes a Saint (as in Saint Nicholas), their entire family freezes in time, which explains why Santa's brother can be living in modern day Chicago! Fred goes to the North Pole because he wants to borrow some money, and we get to see just how dysfunctional the Claus family is, along with the workshop, all the elves, and Santa's hot blonde secretary who just happens to be normal sized. Unfortunately, Santa's operation is being checked out by an efficiency expert, and Fred doesn't make things any easier! Lots of things are predictable - it's obvious that Fred is going to have to deliver the toys, and it's easy to figure out that Kevin Spacey (the efficiency expert) was a bad kid who just needs some Santa love, but I still enjoyed the crazy plot! Best of all, they even managed to get some holiday emotion out of me, especially when all the elves gather around a giant snowglobe to magically watch the whole world open their Christmas presents - a nice idea and well done! If you love Christmas movies, ignore the bad ratings and check out Fred Claus while there's still time (or just wait for it to be on TV next year)!
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| Balloons, butternut, benkyou | |
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11.24.2007
7:33 AM | Link0 comments |
 I'm really enjoying this Thanksgiving holiday! My pal Tom came over with breakfast to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with me, and I thought the new balloons were cool, although Shrek seriously had a "pull my finger" pose, and Scooby Doo's nose was deflated. Hello Kitty looked great, though, and I always like seeing Pikachu, since he makes a great balloon! In the afternoon my pals who were still in town met at Chris & Eliza's for their annual Thanksgiving feast, which was especially incredible since she's going to give birth in just a few weeks! The food was awesome, and I was touched that Eliza made her yummy butternut squash soup just because she knows I look forward to her Thanksgiving soups. Yesterday I stayed at home all day to study Japanese (since the JLPT is barely over a week away!), and I met my goal for the day of re-taking both the Level 4 test from 2006 and Level 3 test from 2004. I can score really high on the Level 4 test now, which proves to me that somehow I have improved since last year, which is usually hard for me to see since each day of studying is a challenge. I took breaks by watching Jpop DVDs and a little anime, reading some comics, and doing a few other things around the house. It's been relaxing and fun for the past couple days, and now I have two more days of weekend to enjoy! View photos: Thanksgiving 2007
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| Christmas magic | |
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12.26.2006
8:55 PM | Link0 comments |
 I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! The final days of my Christmas vacation were simply wonderful. On Christmas Eve, my parents opened the rest of their gifts from me (and loved everything), and then we watched A Christmas Story together just like we have for the past few years. On Christmas morning I opened all of my presents, and I couldn't believe how much Santa brought me this year! I got enough DVDs, books, and Nintendo DS games to keep me busy until June! After all the unwrapping, we watched the Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade and ate candy, and after that Dad and I watched some Disney True Life Adventures while I drank wine until I needed a nap. When I woke up, it was time for Christmas dinner, and Mom cooked everything perfectly as always! My entire vacation was really incredible and so relaxing, and Mom and Dad gave me another magical Christmas just like they have for the past 39 years. Enjoy the final group of Christmas photos, or take a look at all of them together in the complete set! View photos: Christmas 2006 Part 5
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| Christmas Eve-Eve | |
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12.23.2006
10:06 PM | Link0 comments |
 It's amazing how fast vacation days pass - it's already Christmas Eve-Eve! My parents and I are still having lots of fun together, and I'm still enjoying tons (literally!) of holiday food. We went to see another movie and made a quick stop at Crossroads Mall, which is always fun to see since I went there a million times when I lived here. We've still been playing games in the evening, and now we've added Derby Day to the mix, so we can bet on virtual horses and scream at the TV while they race! Yesterday I had a nice surprise visit from my old high school friend April, who stopped by for some fun conversation. We caught up on lots of stuff, and it was wonderful to see her again! It won't be long now before I'm ripping all the rest of my presents open! View photos: Christmas 2006 Part 4
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