In sixth grade, Chris, Austin and I started writing a book called "The End of the World". It was about how my friends and I went on Double Dare and won a trip to Cape Canaveral space camp. Somehow, we happened to be on a space ship at the moment when the world ended and we launched into space. It was just me and my friends and the girls at school that we liked. There were graphic descriptions of sexual acts we performed with the girls and illustrations as well. It was total trash. It was eventually discarded because Austin would have it at school and would joke about showing it to girls I liked. There were some close calls. So, eventually I got my hands on it and destroyed it. Shortly thereafter I began to write another "End of the World" novel. This one was "R" rated rather than "X" rated. I will post memories about that one in the future.

I remember Dad came back from a trip to California once and he gave me Super Mario Brothers 3 for Nintendo when he got back. That was a very exciting and unexpected moment.

When I was in fifth grade I started writing these books called "The Adventures of Rover Robot". Rover Robot was this character I created who was from Uranus. He came to Earth on his spaceship which crash landed. It was inspired by "E.T.", "Batteries Not Included" and "Short Circuit". I was really into science fiction as a kid.

Throughout the series other characters were introduced such as "Redrina Robot", Rover's sister as well as a robot pet dog. I think that Austin and my brother and my cousins all made appearances in the books as did "Johnny 5" from the Short Circuit movie.

Rover Robot was what really got me into writing. The stories would usually be half a page of writing and an illustration at the bottom. This format continued on through "The End of the World" book series.

Rover also . . . Read More..

I remember in band class I used to sit next to a trombonist named Jeff Smith. I must have been in last chair or something at the time to be sitting next to the trombones. Anyway, Jeff offered to sell me a Super Nintendo game called "Final Fantasy II". I can't remember why I actually bought it from him. I don't think I had heard of it before. I never played a role playing game before that except Zelda. I believe I bought it from him for $20.

Anyway, I immediately fell in love with it. I loved that you could name the characters. I also liked that it was the first video game that I played that had a real story with characters with different personalities that you actually cared about. I think I had started to write "The End of the World" already and so I was kind of in that fantasy zone already. Also, the graphics and music were unmatched at the time. I couldn't believe that there was actually a musical score with synthesized . . . Read More..

I remember when Shemp was younger, I used to look forward to letting him go outside through the front door in the winter. I enjoyed tossing up snowballs into the air and having Shemp fetch them. He would always catch them like they were a treat or something even though when he bit down, the snow would dissolve in his mouth. I remember that Shemp would chase us around in the snow and get pretty rowdy. He would actually chase and attack you if you ran and provoked him. I would wear gloves though so he wouldn't bite my hand. Those were fun times when it was dark and quiet outside and you would just hear the snow falling. The other night I took Shemp out because he sounded like he was going to throw up or something. I didn't have any gloves on but I picked up some snow and tossed it. He caught it.