Retrovision

I just finished ordering Clarissa Explains It All: Season 1, an old Nickelodeon show and one of my favorites as I was growing up. Hopefully it will get here before the summer is over so I can watch it with the other interns.

Ordering the DVD put me in a reminiscent mood and got me thinking about all of the shows I used to watch on Nickelodeon. Here are a few that I used to watch all the time:

Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Salute Your Shorts, You Can’t Do That On Television, The Adventures of Pete and Pete, Hey Dude (intro video), The Secret World of Alex Mac, Doug, David the Gnome, Wild and Crazy Kidz (theme song), Rocko’s Modern Life, The Elephant Show, Guts, and All That.

Am I forgetting any?

Update: Thanks for all the comments so far. I totally forgot about the following shows: Legends of the Hidden Temple, Ren & Stimpy, Double Dare, Ahh! Real Monsters, What Would You Do?, and Gak. Keep ‘em coming.

• The Last Kiss, a new movie starring Garden State’s Zach Braff looks like it has an awesome soundtrack. 07/20/2006

Jury duty, part two

Before I begin, I would first like to highlight this rather hilarious comment from Shawn regarding the new header image:

Farmer 1: “Did you plant any JAKEBOUMA.COM this year?”
Farmer 2: “Sure did! If you look off into the distance, you can even see it growing on the horizon!”
Farmer 1: “Well sure enough, looky there!”

Thanks, Shawn. Excellent use of stichomythia, I might add.

Seriously, though. I went in for jury duty on Monday morning, and after watching a horrible 18-minute video from 1983 about the “value” of being a juror, we waited until called into our respective court rooms for jury selection. It just so happened that we were called into the exact same court room where my trial was held, and just to heighten the irony, the defense attorney in the room was the same one who defended my case. I was hastily excused from the room and instructed to return Wednesday morning for another selection process.

Unfortunately, I was supposed to leave Wednesday morning for a trip with my junior high students to the Mall of America and Valleyfair. So on Tuesday afternoon I called the Jury Clerk and politely asked for an exemption. After telling me “Sir, jury duty is inconvenient for everyone,” she told me she’d speak with the judge and call me back. After “trying” to call me “all afternoon”, she “finally got a hold” of me at 7:45 Wednesday morning and said I was excused - fifteen minutes before the bus left for Minnesota.

So I am blogging now from a Super 8 in Bloomington, MN, with five 7th grade boys asleep on one side of the room while I anticipate having a bed to myself. Life is good.

• The Fray released a new live album on iTunes today, Live at The Electric Factory Bootleg No. 1. 07/18/2006
• Precipice Magazine recently interviewed author Brian McLaren about his book The Secret Message of Jesus and the emergent conversation. ” By getting a fresh look at what Jesus meant by the kingdom of God… we find ourselves being able to gratify desires - Spirit-inspired desires, I believe - to care about God’s creation and its future.” 07/17/2006
• West Des Moines, Iowa is the 71st best city that offers “big-city opportunities and amenities — with a lot more green space and a lot less stress,” according to CNNMoney.com. This profile page has some interesting stats on the WDM. Two other Iowa cities made the list; Cedar Rapids at 64, and Iowa City at 74. 07/17/2006
• Watch the trailer for The Prestige, the new movie from director Christopher Nolan (Memento, Batman Begins). 07/17/2006

Jury duty

I have been assigned to jury duty beginning next Monday. Although I’ve been selected several times, I couldn’t do it for various reasons. I was supposed to do it during the week of Rosebud so now I am instead signed up for next week.

My only experience in a courtroom was when I was sued by an angry old woman whom I bumped into once on an offramp. This *minor* traffic accident apparently gave her thousands of dollars of dental damage, and marital relational problems. Long story short: we won.

If I make it past the draft on Monday, I think it will be fun to be on a jury.

• Would you believe you can trade in your old CDs for a brand new iPod? You need to send 35 CDs for an iPOD shuffle, 65 CDs for a 2 gig Nano and 175 CDs for a video iPod. 07/08/2006
• The word ‘google’ with a small ‘g’ has been added to the 11th edition Merriam-Webster dictionary as a verb. The definition: “to use the Google search engine to obtain information … on the World Wide Web.” 07/08/2006
• A new-and-improved wall plugin design by University of Notre Dame student Julia Burke. The “upward-angled faceplate allows users to better orient themselves and a cord’s prongs before bending over or reaching behind furniture.” 07/02/2006

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