This Sunny Delight commercial was on a lot when I was 10 or 11.  I used the now-famous “purple stuff” line in an improv set with Lemar McLean a few years ago and managed to crack myself up.

I was a big fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon and owned the helicopter and truck toys above.

The helicopter had a button that made those gloves on the landing gear move back and forth, as if it were boxing.  The truck, besides looking cool, could fit all my TMNT figures plus a couple of G.I. Joes, too.

This page has a bunch of great pictures of these toys.

Whoa, I definitely would’ve wanted this as a kid.  I kinda want it NOW.

(via Gizmodo)

I had narrowed down several careers for myself by the time I was 5 or 6 years old:

• Scientist
• Architect
• Comic book artist
• Ghostbuster
• Superman

I definitely DID NOT want to have to do the following when I grew up:

• Be in front of people in any capacity.
• Be on-stage.
• Act or entertain.

A list of songs I would have included on a mix CD, circa 1996 - 1998.  Pretty much exclusively rap and R & B.

1. “Mo Money, Mo Problems” by Notorious B.I.G. featuring Puff Daddy and Mase — Still one of the catchiest songs ever.

2.  “We Tryin’ to Stay Alive” by Wyclef and The Refugee All-Stars — The Carnival was a seminal album for me and this was my favorit song on it.

3.  “Brick” by Ben Folds Five — This is about abortion, right?

4.  “Sock It 2 Me” by Missy Elliot featuring Da Brat — Maybe the best female rapper ever?

5.  “Let Me Clear My Throat” by DJ Kool — This was a big song, especially when I would go to Rock Steady Crew breakdancing shows in 8th grade.

6. “All About The Benjamins” (Rock Version) by Puff Daddy, featuring The Lox, Lil’ Kim, and The Foo Fighters — More rockin’ than the album version, in my 8th-grade opinion.

7. “Nice and Slow” by Usher — Classic URshur.

8.  “Fu-Gee-La” by The Fugees — The Score is still one of my favorite albums.  I still listen to it constantly.

9.  “Wonderwall” by Oasis — Still one of my favorite songs and great to play on guitar.

10.  “Bittersweet Symphony” by The Verve — Even now, this song still holds up.

11.  “All My Life” by K-Ci and Jojo — ALWAYS slow-danced to this song during dances.  ALWAYS.  Probably my favorite song at the time.

12.  “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” by Green Day — Why wasn’t this our graduation song, Epiphany School 8th Grade Class of 1998?

I was a ring bearer for a lot of weddings when I was younger.  Filipinos tend to go all out for their weddings, so I was often made to dress up in some “princely” costume to match the fairytale vibe of the event.  (See picture above.)

Some other pictures of my career as a ring bearer:

One of the cartoons I really enjoyed watching was Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light.  The Premise (from Wikipedia):

Set on the planet Prysmos, located in another dimension, the Visionaries consist of two groups of knights — the Spectral Knights and the Darkling Lords, both of whom have their magical powers gifted from Merklynn after successfully completing a quest to reach Merklynn’s shrine on Iron Mountain. Each character had a different animal totem power that reflected their personality by allowing the knight to temporarily transform into that animal. Some knights had power staves with different powers such as destruction and could be activated by reciting a special verse. The knights without staves could infuse vehicles with magical powers, such as the dagger assault vehicle’s magical dungeon (Darkling Lords).

It’s a convoluted premise for a cartoon, but I thought it was awesome as a kid.  Visionaries was trying to follow the success of G.I. Joe but launching a toy line concurrently with the cartoon, but it was nowhere near as successful.

My cousin brought me the entire series on DVD a few years ago while visiting from The Philippines.  Above is part 1 of the first episode.

This is a picture of me as a baby in our living room in The Philippines.  That was our TV. The flowery drapery is covering a piano.

More to come…

My family lived in The Philippines when I was a kid, while my dad lived in New York to work.  (This was in the mid to late-’80s.)  He would often tape Saturday morning cartoons for us and send his copies in BetaMax.

I mostly remember how slick-looking the commercials were during those cartoons.  I wanted to buy EVERYTHING they were advertising, even the girl toys.  I was completely under the advertiser’s spell.

But they DID advertise pretty awesome toys.  The G.I. Joe Defiant playset was one toy I distinctly remember salivating for.  It’s pretty ridiculous.  First of all, it’s huge and you could put all your G.I. Joe’s in there.  (I definitely owned a Flint, and maybe a Destro and a Duke as well.  I never actually owned a ton of Joes, but always wished I did.)  Second, it’s actually 3 toys in one — the shuttle, the mobile crawler, and the space station — plus it came with 2 other action figures.  Third, it just looks fun to play with.

The first time I saw it, I couldn’t believe such a toy existed.  But this type of commercial just fueled my childhood theories of how awesome America was.  I was convinced every boy in America owned one.