Red, White, and Lots of Blueberries

    I can't remember when I had my first blueberry. It may have been in high school, or quite possibly college. I know that sounds fairly late in life to try something so common, but I am quite the picky eater. Blueberries just weren't that big a thing when I was a kid.  Sure, they were around, but it took some time before I tried them, probably on one of my new food kicks that I used to go on all the time when I just got bored with everything else.  However, once I tried the actual fruit, I was hooked. I began trying everything that was blueberry-flavored. To a point.

    My initial dislike of blueberries may come from something my mother once forced me to try, blueberry cream cheese danish. While I might have liked the fruit, the cream cheese was just not something I could tolerate. I guess I tried a few other things before I got to the actual berries.  I mean, blueberries aren't even blue on the inside. The flesh is whitish, generally speaking. Very ripe berries might be darker, but I am starting to lose my train of thought.

    The first blueberry product that really took my interest was Pillsbury Toaster Strudel. Blueberry wasn't one of the original flavors, I think. I tried strawberry, but I didn't really like the flavor of strawberries when heated. Blueberry, however, is superb. Even as new flavor came out, I would return to blueberry. The only other flavor that caught my attention was Wildberry, which was a mix of strawberry and blueberry, maybe a touch of another. That one was discontinued, although a Mixed Berry limited-edition came out for last year, with special strawberry icing. Alas, the promotion ended. The current one features a strawberry/cream cheese with blue blueberry icing, a first. Haven't seen this one in store yet, just the apple pie flavor, but I'm still on the lookout.

    I also tried dozens of blueberry cereal bars. I almost stopped after the first one I tried because it tasted horrible. Maybe it was a spice in the filling, but I couldn't stand it. I occasionally tried a different flavor in the beans, and while it wasn't the type of filling I liked, it didn't taste as bad. I kept trying new bars, but they were always discontinued after a time. There was even one with blueberries and cream cheese that I actually could tolerate. Almost all of them now gone. The few left that I alternate are just barely better than the previous one, which is still the industry leader. There is one that is quite similar to that flavor to an Archway blueberry cookie, which was my absolute favorite in the world, before the current owners pared down the varieties and eliminated it. That's just the story of my life.

    I've had blueberry danishes, scraping off some of the cream cheese when necessary. I've made my own blueberry muffins, and even coffee cakes, from mixes, but the best ones were discontinued. I'm a fiend for blueberry jelly doughnuts whenever I can get them, but they are hard to find lately. I try other bakery blueberry products, with mixed results. 

    One type of product that has just come out are ice creams with blueberries. Years and years ago, I remember trying a blueberry and blackberry ice cream from Pet. (This was before I started trying blackberries by the way. Also, a fairly strong favorite.) However, Pet is no longer carried anywhere anymore, if it even still exists. Even if it does, that flavor is long gone, but other brands have brought out something new. First Bluebell has brought back its Red, White, & Bluebell flavor, which is a mix of strawberry, vanilla, and blueberry flavors swirled together. Fortunately, I live on the eastern end of the range and can get this flavor, only in half-gallons. I don't know if I would like it enough to get that much. I mean, I loved the Dr Pepper float flavor, but the banana fudge was lacking a bit. Still, blueberry ice cream. Another store had a 'gourmet' store brand with a 'huckleberry' flavor in pints, but quite expensive. Technically, huckleberries are just larger, wild blueberries, so I might like them. Not so sure about it being a store brand, but the prospect is almost too tempting.

    One thing I don't get is cheesecake. Not even blueberries can change that. I also try to steer around anything with lemon. The flavors match well enough, but the combination is not a favorite. Personally, blood orange might be the better citrus choice, but that is so rare that I would skip it for the most part.

    Thank you 'berry' much for being here today. See you next week.

Paint the Town and Country Shopping Center Red, and More

    As I mentioned before, the shopping center where my store is located got sold to a hospital. Still kind of worried about why a NPO wants with a retail establishment, but whatever. In doing so, the new owners have decided to make some renovations to the center. A major one was been repainting the marquees and support pillars in the hospital's signature gray. However, the individual units are not being painted gray. No, they have been repainted in a bunch of different colors. Six in all.

    First, there is a terra cotta orangey red. Really in your face. It gives a strong Southwestern feel. Next is a light orange, close to apricot. Very pale, but still recognizable. After that is a creamy, yellow neutral. Very close to butter, yet darker than ecru. Fourth is a minty green with just a touch of blue. Fairly unnatural, but somewhat appealing. That is followed by a light, sky blue. Nothing remarkable about it. Finally, there is another blue, mixed with grey and a touch of purple. It's very close to the accent color of my store's interior. For the sake of explanation, let's call these six colors, in order, as follows:  red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. (I also forgot the Oxford comma. Very necessary.)

    Probably fortunately, these six colors cycle in a pattern among the eighteen units at the center.  In fact, I hadn't realized that the center had that many units, not counting the former supermarket that was the anchor at the east end. Going from east to west, the colors cycle yellow, green, red, blue, orange, violet. Units supposedly didn't get to choose which color they got; they just got whatever color was next in the cycle. I say 'supposedly' because one unit may have got to pick green for their unit. I find that strange, as the unit is a boutique with a pink color scheme inside. The two colors have a watermelon feel, which might work on some level. Maybe. My store got the yellow. This so happens to be just a tad brighter than the original ecru that was the original interior color for my store before we repainted a long time ago. At least the contrast makes the store a little brighter.

    Of particular note is the church. (Yes, one unit of the center is now being used for a church. It was previously a dialysis clinic.  Before that, it was a drugstore and the main display for a Sears franchise. [The two even switched out in the early 70s.] The Sears took up many of the units before they were divided a very long time ago.) They didn't seem to get any favors out of this.  While not a traditional white, they were able to get the lightest color of the six made available, the orange. Of the other five colors, only the yellow would've been even barely appropriate. The church has the largest wall space of any unit at the center, at least for the side facing the parking lot. The most western unit probably has the most wall space, if you include the side facing the road as well. 

    The weirdest thing is the unit directly controlled by the hospital, the one with the scrubs store, as well as the center manager's office, is blue. While not the official color of the hospital, it is the most notable. Now, while I admit I haven't been to that many places, I don't remember seeing any shopping center with such a wide range of different colors for each unit. I'm not sure it works, but that may be point. More opinions on this at a later date.

Goggling Gaggles of Geese

    I have been noticing that a once rare trend has slowly been taking off. Or rather putting on. See, I've noticed people dressing their ceramic geese, or perhaps ducks, in various costumes to celebrate various holidays and seasons.

    The first time I remember seeing this was almost twenty years ago. A house on my way to work had a goose on a pedestal by the steps to their porch. Then they got a second one, or maybe they had two all along. Anyway, the woman who lived there would sew up costumes for them, depending upon the season. I would eagerly await to see what she came up with as holidays rolled around. Then, one morning, the geese were gone. For some reason, someone stole the geese, costumes and all. Now, I couldn't sure if the geese were attached to the pedestal or not, but the birds were gone. This is when I found out about the background of the geese, through various means. After some time, the geese were recovered and the perpetrator was jailed. The first new costumes for the geese were a police officer uniform and a striped convict suit. Soon, a tiny gosling statue was added between the two, although it rarely got its own costume.

    The woman would later die, but the geese remained.  The new owners of the house weren't into decorating so much, and the geese would be naked. I believe that no one is currently living in the place, as giant weeds have slowly overtaken not just the yard, but even the dirt road to the trailer above the house. The weeds are so tall that I can't even tell if the geese are still there, or even the pedestal and steps. I can barely tell that the house is still there, if it wasn't on a small hill. That's how tall those weeds are.

    For many years, I barely saw any costumed geese anywhere. Then, last summer, I noticed that a house had places a pair of geese, one on each side at the top of the steps to the porch. Last summer, the geese were in swimsuits, one even had an inner tube. Over the next few months, the geese would be dressed in clothes representative of the various holidays, which many in actual costumes. For Christmas, one goose was Santa Claus, while the other was just in a red, white, and green dress. Or was it a reindeer. I think I remember a goose as Christmas tree? Anyway, one had bunny ears for Easter

    I'm finding it hard to remember, as so many other houses now are doing the exact same thing. While the original goose lady made many of her costumes, it now looks like an entire industry has popped up to make sure geese don't stay naked. Just this morning, I saw over a dozen places with at least of their geese in get-ups. That's right, some of these homes have so many geese that not all of them are dressed. The home from the last paragraph have their geese in old-timey swim ware complete with bathing caps. Another house has one goose graduating in a cap and gown; its partner is still in the farming gear she has had since after Easter. Multiple geese are in red, white, and blue, dressed like Uncle Sam. One even has attached wings, spread out and holding flags in each side. One house has their goose dressed as a giant ladybug, with translucent wings unfurled behind it. 

    In all fairness, this trend is a little easier to take in than having your giant Halloween skeleton up year round and dressing it up for different holidays, just so you don't have to take it down. I imagine it's less expensive too, as these ceramic birds are only a foot tall or so. Still, everyone deciding to clothe geese at the same time is somewhat freaky. Cute, but kind of weird.

Popping up out of Nowhere

    I'm back to my regular schedule, and it is time for a favorite of mine. Today I'll talk about the newest sodas out in the market. Each one of them is different for me, but in totally different ways.

    First is Cherry Sprite. No, not Cherry Limeade Sprite Chill, which is a different product available in many places. This is just Cherry Sprite which is an exclusive limited edition flavor found only at Food City brand stores. Normally, I don't drink Sprite, or any Coca Cola product. However, I felt that I needed to try this as I never knew a smaller regional market like Food City would get a major exclusive. At first, I thought that this would be like Cherry 7-Up, a cherry-flavored drink from a company mostly known for lemon-lime.  I was wrong, as this is just regular Sprite with cherry added. While some people like the flavor combination, I didn't. The mix of the two flavors didn't work well together, as the lemon-lime overpowered the cherry, whose notes barely registered. After the original bottle, I didn't try it again.

    Next comes something even more out of left field for me, Dirty Mountain Dew. I rarely ever have Mountain Dew. Usually, it is just a quick blast from a fountain added to my usual Dr Pepper/Pepsi mix, and very rarely at that since the flavors rarely work right. However, I have a slight partiality to cream soda/vanilla flavors, so I decided to try it. Mountain Dew has had multiple flavors for twenty-five years now. (See Code Red/cherry, Live Wire/orange, and Voltage/raspberry.) I have never tried one before, just because of the flavor. Not even the watermelon-flavored Major Melon that just got discontinued for Dirty Dew. Personally, I don't see why vanilla is getting added to everything, but why argue. The color is a pale greenish-yellow, which is somewhat off-putting. I opened the bottle and got a strong whiff of vanilla. I wasn't expecting that. The cream soda flavor was pronounced, but not overwhelming. The regular lemon-lime of the Mountain Dew blended seamlessly with that of the cream soda. It reminded me or lime sherbet, even though I rarely have had it, and I didn't really like it the few times I've had it. The flavor was just different enough from anything else I tasted that made me want it more. (Maybe it was the extra caffeine.) Anyway, I have wound up getting some more bottles for extra testing and tasting. I even got the zero-sugar one by accident to try later on today. I mean, my mind is blown that I like this so much. Not enough maybe to buy a carton or six-pact at once, but possibly a few more times.

    Finally, Dr Pepper has brought back the Coconut Cream flavor for the summer. Keep it away from me. I just hate coconut that much.

    I am looking forward to the battle of the root beer floats as Mug and A & W both bring out their root beer/cream soda combos soon. Which I find odd, as root beer already has some vanilla notes naturally. Oh well.

My Video Game Library: Bonus Stage

    Normally, I would call this extra post an addendum or errata. However, since we are talking video games, bonus stage sounded cooler. Here is the post where I clarify some details I missed in the main posts of this series, as well as correct some mistakes. I did a lot of research this time around, so any mistakes are from bad memory and are somewhat intentional. Let's start.

    I mentioned that I played games at friends and family members' homes, but not what they were. My next-door neighbor had an Atari. He had that horrible port of Pac-Man, Pitfall, and the game with the tanks (Combat?). An older cousin had a Coleco. He had Donkey Kong, a basketball game, and poker.  A slightly younger cousin may have had an Atari as well. I think he had Space Invaders and Centipede, but I played the least amount of time with him, so I might be forgetting some. My best friend in grade mentioned some sort of Indiana Jones/Raiders game while talking with a mutual friend, but I never went to his home to play any. Either he didn't want me there, or my mother wouldn't allow me to go. Both options were equally possible. Finally, I went to one friend's place in high school, without anyone knowing. After some sports type stuff, he went back to his room, where he had an NES. Some guys were playing baseball on it, so I couldn't get a chance to play before I had to leave.  

    I tried to mention everywhere I bought my games. If I didn't mention a location, it was probably due to the fact that my mom got it for me as a gift. (Christmas, birthday, late birthday, etc.) She usually got them at a local Walmart. Mostly Prestonsburg, but sometimes Pikeville or one further out if it couldn't be found closer. Since I wasn't usually there, I can only guess at these assumptions.

    The algorithm on Facebook picked up on my recent interest in video games. One of the articles it picked out involved older retailers. That's when I remembered Babbage's, an old video game store. I'm pretty sure that the GameStop at the Huntington Mall was originally a Babbage's and that is where I actually got those games from. In fact, there is a good chance that the unknown game store at the Fayette Mall in Lexington was a Babbage's as well. It just wasn't open as long.

    I need to mention two stores that I have visited many times, but never buying anything. The first is Page 3 Game Zone. They have sold used and new games for many years, but I've never bought any there. I've bought hundreds, if not thousands, of other things there (comics, books, cards, even a small paint brush for miniatures), but video games. Then there is CM Games at the Fayette Mall. They also have new and used video games, among other types of games. While I've visited many times, I have yet to buy anything at all there.

    As I mentioned at the start, I was skipping giving some games a post, for various reasons. The first is Duck Hunt, which would be obvious as it game with the NES. I hated the light gun, and I easily beat the game by standing a foot or two in front of the television screen. Another NES game, I am too embarrassed to mention, but it included "cookie" in the title. I almost remember playing Dr. Mario in color somewhere, but I don't remember buying it separate.

    While nearing the end of this series, I finally remembered a PS1 game that I had totally forgotten about. It was a game based on Magic:  The Gathering. I liked the game, mostly the back story and collectability of it, but I never played it in public. I asked for the game as a way to play it, without getting embarrassed in public for my bad skills. However, since I didn't have internet access back then, I could only play the story mode.  None of the rules made any sense. I may have gotten far into it, but I don't remember. It was just too weird. I might come back to this in next year's update.

    I mentioned the video game-based cartoons I watched regularly, but not other media. I was planning on it, but I ran out of time that post. I have never followed any live action television series based on a game. I don't go to theaters, so I have never seen any type of game-based movie. The closest I've gotten to watching a full movie is with Wreck-It-Ralph on Disney, and not the entire movie all at once. (Yes, I am immature for my age.) And it just barely can qualify as a video game movie.  I might have gotten a few comics on video games, for free in hand-outs, but I have never collected any series.

    And that is just ab out all for this post. Come back this Wednesday, as I return to my regular schedule. See you then.

My Video Game Library: Afterthoughts

    Well, I've come to the end of My Video Game Library series. I have played a lot of games over the year, losing a lot of times, but winning quite a bit too. Not as much as I would have liked, but I won.

    I remember a television series on TBS in the 80s. It was a "game show" involving people competing on arcade games. Each round, one of the players would win the chance to determine which of the arcade games they would be playing and who they would play against. While they would usually pick games they would be good at, they would occasionally choose a game they had never played before. One time, the contestant chose one of those animated style games, like Dragon's Lair, only this one involved these two thieves trying to make a getaway. Both players were wrecking their cars all over the place. Neither one gained any points that round, I think. The player who did the best over the show won the prizes. It has been so long since this show was on that I can't remember much else about it.

    Flash forward to the 2000s. I was just flipping through the channels, when I caught a computer game competition on one of the ESPN channels. One of the games was the Aztec/Mayan-themed one where you have to shoot balls at a series of other balls as they spiral inward towards the center to eliminate them. I am guessing that whoever got the largest cumulative score over all the games they played would win. While I never tuned in, I've even heard about shows about teams competing in these massive battle Royale style games, such as Fortnite, for real life prizes.

    Nowadays, students in both college and high school can compete in video games for actual recognition, as if it were varsity sports. When I decided to try to get into gaming, I had no idea that it could turn into something for real money. The idea is so alien to me. However, the realization is also scary for me. It's similar to how I felt when I realized in my mid 20s that I could have been an athlete in school. I had the ability to compete, but not the compulsion to do so. I mean, I only have played basketball once outside of gym class once in my life. I just don't have the right body type to enjoy it. However, with just a little push, I could have gotten into baseball, maybe even football. Heck, if my school had track, I would have tried out immediately. Unfortunately, it didn't start until after I graduated. 

    Now, I could get money just for playing games. It feels wrong on some level. While I don't play those battle-style variety of game (too violent), I have seen contests for other games that I do play. Unfortunately, I never seem to be able to make it far in those. I almost qualified in a Candy Crush contest but I could never play enough to make it far. In just the past week, Golf Clash has started a competition for money, tied to various gameplay features. I have both of my accounts registered, but I don't think it will amount to anything. I am still unsure about the rules, but I doubt that I am skillful enough to contribute much to it. Still, I guess I'll try. 

    The idea of playing for money, though. Just beyond me, but if that's what I can add to gaming to change the experience, so be it.

    Come back this Saturday for one final post in this series focusing on errata and bonus information.

My Video Game Side Quest: School

    That's right.  I played games at school. 

    Although not an actual game, or a "real" computer for that matter, my first experience of games at school was in first grade when I got sent over to second grade for my reading lessons. I can't explain it either. Anyway, there was this thing called a Systems 80. It had a monitor with four or five buttons under it. You would put a strip of tape on a punch card, stuck int into the system, and a series of pictures would pop up as an audio track would play over some headphones attached to it. You were given prompts and answer questions by pressing the buttons. When done, you took out the card and presented it to the teacher who would grade it, based on the holes on the tape that corresponded to the buttons you pressed.  

    I didn't get to be at a real computer until fourth grade when I was part of the inaugural Talented and Gifted program (TAG) at my school. We had special advanced lessons involving a number of different topics. Among them were advanced number theory, learning French and ASL (the former using a Systems 80 at times), helping to paint a mural for the school library (some of the details I did got painted over later), and computing. We did some basic coding, in BASIC, and played games during our brief periods at the screen.  (We also played board games designed to teach, well, advanced game playing. Chess was one, but anything without dice was allowed. We particularly loved a game about evacuating a volcanic island.) One of the games was probably Oregon Trail. I never touched it, but I think others did. I tried a sci-fi game once, but it was too complicated to figure out what to do. There was also a trivia game. You had to match up pairs of answers. For instance, one question asked about superheroes and their secret identities. The name 'Lamont Cranston' was on both sides. I didn't know yet that The Shadow used the name to hide his original one, which I can't remember right now.

    High school didn't have as many opportunities. At the end of my sophomore year, maybe junior, I wound up wandering around campus, ending in the typing lab with of bunch of guys playing the diving section of an Olympics game. No one knew the exact buttons to play, and the game acted up anyway, so winning was never an issue.  We were just goofing around. There were other sports, but I don't remember much about them, if we played them. There was also a version for winter sports. We were just as clueless for the figure skating portion.

    Anyway, that experience led me to take typing my senior year. I also thought it would be a way to get me on the yearbook staff. Unfortunately, I found out too late that you need a year of typing to make the staff. Not only was my dream shattered, but I had to suffer the indignity of being the only senior in a class full of freshman. At least I frequently got to use the computer, or the Mac that showed up later in the year, for lessons. The backspace key makes drills so much easier. (I only used it twice, at most. I swear.) I usually arrived early enough to see the actual yearbook staff, who took accounting, as they were finishing up. Sometimes, they were playing games. One was a lemonade stand business sim; another was poker. I played neither, but I sometimes offered suggestions.

    At least my dream of being the editor of the school paper survived, even if we barely touched our textbooks. And teacher didn't even know they had been changed that year. Or that an entire section of the class got detoured into doing a major project for the twentieth anniversary of Earth Day (I actually took control of the school for a brief time due to this, but that is for another post.) instead of making the paper. The class met in the computer lab. There was some overlap with the computer class beforehand, so some students would be finishing up the games they were playing when I got there. I remember helping out some people solve a case from Where in the World is Carmen San Diego? (I actually asked for the NES port for Christmas, but my mom never got it.) I would help someone else with a haunted house text-based game, but I couldn't solve one puzzle until well after the game.

    As editor, I mostly got to use the Mac as my computer. While I searched a lot through it, I don't think I ever found any games. That doesn't mean I never 'played' with it. As I may have mentioned once in a post, a friend and I were goofing around instead of working just before winter break. We wound up altering some clip art of Santa Claus into a punk rock 'Satan' Clause. What did you expect? We were kids. (Technically, my friend had been eighteen for a few months, but since we didn't go to grade school together, I was unfamiliar with his birthday. And I would turn eighteen a few weeks later. However, we were still in school, so we were kids. What matters is we didn't get in trouble when we were caught. So there.)

    The only time I was at a computer at community college was during a computer science course my second year. We barely made it to the actual computers in the lab/s (a second lab was started in a former nursing lab room halfway through the semester). One of the lessons involved a tutorial that could be considered a type of game, involving learning how to move things on screen. Everything else was mostly drills. For my last two-and-a-half years of college, I never used a computer. The lab at the school was in the basement level of a building I rarely went to. The library wasn't even fully computerized yet, but I didn't need the help for research. I'm an expert on that, usually.

    And that ends the side quest. Wednesday ends this series, so come back for the big finish.