Toys

One of my favorite toys as a child (and yes, even as an adult), is Lego. The bricks are great fun for stress relief and they require at least some amount of imagination. I have sets back from the early 70s all the way to a pristine, in-the-box collection of all of the Harry Potter-related sets (I don't know why I'm keeping them in the box, other than to say I have them... maybe I'd let my kids play with them?).

But the toy villain from my youth has got to be the Rubik's Cube. They musta' released a billion versions of that thing in the 80s. And if 9 squares/side wasn't bad enough in about 10 different sizes (from microscopically small to desk-size large), the 12 square/side version (Rubik's Revenge, I believe it was called) was awful. Then they released them in ball-shaped versions, triangle-shaped versions... even a thing called the snake.

So I'm quite happy to see that someone took the time to build a Lego Mindstorms (computer-controlled Legos) set that is designed to solve a Rubik's Cube. It works by color-reading each side, generating a solution set and executing it. Check it out:

Pandering to my generation

I was walking with one of my MBA class teams through an open-air mall the other day (don't ask why... not relevant to the story). These types of malls always pipe-in music, and today's selection was "Maneater" by Hall & Oates. I mentioned that if getting older wasn't enough, I'd noticed that advertisers realized that I'm in my mid-thirty's too. I suppose they believe I have money to burn, because there are just WAY too many ads that use 80s music.

The lone female in the group says "So....... you must have all been born in the 70s, right?"

"Yes," we collectively reply. "When were you born?"

"1987."

Ouch.

Anyways, here's the list of songs that I've heard that are featured in various ads on TV and radio.

• "All Out of Love" - Air Supply - Denny's Breakfast
  
• "Blister in the Sun" - Violent Femmes - Wendy's
  
• "Cruel Summer" - Bananarama - Kellog's Special K
  
• "Da Da Da" - Trio - Volkswagen
  
• "Don't You Want Me" - Human League - Chips Ahoy
  
• "Final Countdown" - Europe - Nintendo Wii
  
• "Hungry Like The Wolf" - Duran Duran - Old Spice (my personal favorite because it also has Bruce Campbell singing it at a piano)
  
• "I Melt with You" - Modern English - Taco Bell Cheesy Melt
  
• "I Melt with You" - Modern English - GMC Acadia
  
• "I Want Candy" - Bow Wow Bow - Pringles
  
• "Love My Way" - Psychedelic Furs - CBS Cold Case teaser
  
• "Making Love Out of Nothing at All" - Air Supply - Wendy's
  
• "Maniac" - Michael Sambello - Kia
  
• "Money for Nothing" - Dire Straits - Toyota
  
• "One Thing Leads to Another" - The Fixx - LendingTree
  
• "Our House" - Madness - Maxwell House
  
• "Over the Rainbow" - Israel Kamakawiwo Ole - eToys.com
  
• "Rockit" - Herbie Hancock - Visa Checkcard
  
• "Tainted Love" - Soft Cell - Levi's (ok, this one is from a few years ago, where they bring a pair of jeans back to live... but still)
  
• "Talk" - Talk Talk - Cingular
  
• "Tarzan Boy" - Baltimora - Listerine (also from a few years ago)
  
• "We're Not Gonna Take It" - Twisted Sister - Bee Movie
  
• "Whip It" - Devo - Pringle's Pack-It
  

What other songs have you heard that bring a smile to your face, but don't really cause you to go buy any of their products?

Running for President

Do you remember being young? Ok, forget the fact that you still want to believe that 30-50 is young. I mean, REALLY young... the first 10 years of your life. Everything was based on age and it seemed that there were SO many things to do just 1 year away.

Here's the list I can think of.

"When you're ____, you look forward to ____."

9 ... 10 (double digits)
10 ... 13 (being a teenager)
13 ... 16 (learning to drive)
17 ... 18 (being able to vote - and registering for the draft if you're male, because it's ok for you to die for your country, but don't have the maturity to drink quite yet)
19 ... 20 (no longer being a teenager - which by then is WAY ripe)
20 ... 21 (being able to buy alcohol)
21 ... 22 (actually being OLDER than 21)
22 ... 25 (quarter century, can now be a US Representative)
25 ... 29 (don't quite want to be 30 yet)
29 ... 30 (ok, now it's time to be an "adult", can now be a US Senator)
30 ... 35 (halfway to the current estimated average human lifespan, can now be President)
35 ... 40 (now it's just a fight against time)
40 ... 50 (the big "5-0")
50 ... 55 (something to be said about being as old as the speed limit - 70s/80s version)
55 ... 60 (getting ready to retire?)
60 ... 65 (1990s+ speedlimit issue again)
65 ... 70 (if you're still healthy, you're pretty happy, I would hope)
70 ... 80 (trying to outlast your children? Naah... just want to see another generation of your progeny)
80 ... 100 (ok, at this point, you're just trying to stay alive to meet Willard Scott)

So, in 3 days, guess which one is me. Yep... and I think I want to run for President!

Oh, and don't think I haven't thought about staying alive forever.

Holy cow

Wayyyyy too cool.