Flashback Friday: catchphrases

What were my favorite catchphrases or words in the 1980s? They were as follows:

• Rad
• Grody to the Max
• Gnarly
• Psych
• No Doy

I will now use them in one long 1980s rambling stream of consciousness: 

"So we like went to the arcade at my dad's bowling alley and played this rad game called Paperboy, afterwards we went to eat pizza and we saw this kid eating his booger right in front of us and it was like totally like grody to the max. We so like decided to leave and go to the movies and watched this movie called Sixteen Candles which was like totally gnarly and that guy who plays Jake was like so ugly...Psych! He was like a total hunk...no doy."

Do I use any of these words or phrases currently? Absolutely not (psych!)

(photo via)

Fave celebrity home tour: Mike D

Who knew a Beastie Boy had such good design taste? I know the Beasties can throw a funky fresh beat down, but who knew one of them can design an awesome toile wallpaper. 

Yes that is toile and yes that same guy who rapped about brass monkeys and funky monkeys created it. 

So What'Cha Want? I want his Tord Boontje Blossom Chandelier. It's made of Swarovski crystals and LED lights and it's simply gorgeous. 

Okay, now this bathroom is where I can see a Beastie Boy writing some kick-ass rap lyrics on the wall. Another glorious Tord Boontje hanging light fixture completes the look. 

Go check out the rest of Mr. Diamond's wonderfully designed Brooklyn town house at NYTimes. I'm just getting over the fact Mike D designs toile and now discovered by reading the article that he is also a dad of two and living in the suburbs! You go Mike D.

Random Cuteness Wednesday

I don't normally share or pin other animals, besides ducks (since I had ducks as pets growing up), but this adorable bird just caught my sugar sweet eye:

(via)

I would name him Mr. Blue or Blueberry or Smurf...and I would pinch his furry, puffy cheek everyday.

Flashback Friday: Dad

So here's the thing: my dad at 75 years old has questionable fashion sense. His clothes are a little too loud, too much bling, and for some inexplicable reason he likes to brag that he got a piece of clothing for $5 at the local Ross (He's the Macklemore of geriatrics - only he doesn't wear granddad clothes, but young man clothes). 

So here's the other thing: I'd rather have my dad dress the way he does and still try to look stylish than give up and wear typical old man's clothes: trousers hiked up to his armpits, comfortable SAS shoes and a reliable old polo shirt is off-limits to him.  

My dad always tries to look different and I love that about him. The above photo of my dad is one of my favorites. Everything about this look was your typical 1960s attire, but even in his twenties my dad wanted to stand out hence the orange socks. Brilliant.

Keep shopping at Ross old man and bling it to the cows come home. 

Happy early Father's Day.  I love you.

Random Cuteness Wednesday

Is there anything cute about the human heart? with it's veiny, throbbing, muscle mass? No? How about if we put a cute face on it and literally make it a "heart of gold":

Presto! a cute muscle organ! Uncommon Goods sells these adorable plushies out of the unlikely things: body parts. 

Trust me, you'll never look at a prostate the same way again.

What a cubicle dweller dreams of...

I got a new job that requires me to be on the field with a more flexible schedule, so apparently all my day-dreaming in a cubicle will now be done outdoors...

My sister led me to this local San Diego artist named Christy Pepper Dawson who makes these whimsical illustrations and pieces.  Her Office Dreamer piece perfectly encapsulates what I feel like everyday on the job. So even though, I will now be out of my three and half walled world, I will never stop daydreaming.

(via)

Flashback Friday: Atari

Remember this?

Remember this?

If you don't, then get the hell outta here you little punk! I want only us old-timers who remember Atari and Pong to reminisce. Who needed Candy Crush or Angry Birds when you can hit a slowly moving pixel square back and forth for hours. Graphics, smaphics...two small vertical lines, a pixelated dotted line and a tiny white square was technology at it's finest. Our pre-mobile devices brains could only handle so much back then.

Our medulla oblongata started developing beyond the simple concept of trying to get a square past your opponents vertical line and we progressed to more complex games like Breakout and my personal favorite - Pitfall:

Eventually we began thinking we were expert video gamers by trying to trick the system. Case in point, the game E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, has gone down in history as one of the worst video games ever. People found it hard to understand. Falling into those damn pits was monotonous and virtually hard to get out of them. But you know what? my siblings and I figured that game out so fast that we got bored with it and started finding ways to have E.T.'s space ship get stuck on earth (basically kill E.T. on the landing spot and have Elliott go to E.T. to revive him right when the space ship lands, the space ship will get stuck and the game crashes - genius right?). 

I'm sure when my kids are old enough they will see what their parents used to play back then and laugh uncontrollably, but I know that we were revolutionaries back then and that little simple Pong game started the whole app craze that we all get obsessed about now.  So thank you little white pixelated dot for making it happen.