Friday Night Holiday Festival

It's almost Christmas!! Picked up a prime rib today for the Big Steel Keg smoker treatment on Sunday. Looks good, and there will be pictures.

My very best wishes for all the readers over the holiday and into the New Year. Great readers are what make me continue to work harder all the time. I appreciate it.

Market Observation
Not much to add. Still right where we were yesterday, only a little higher. No where near stopped out on the TZA position I have and will hold into next week.

The Megabucks Christmas
My last two Christmas tales were not meant to be sad. They were just memorable ones that I wrote about. How about a feel good story then?

One year when the Massachusetts Lottery came out with Megabucks, my parents won one of the smaller prizes! I think it was around $3000, which was monster money for our family. I believe it was 1985 but I get years mixed up sometimes. They won in November and I think they blew it all on Christmas presents. It was insane.

I got the biggest Transformer toy ever made, Omega Supreme:

And best of all, I got my first BMX bike, a Columbia Pro Am! I was able to find the exact bike with a picture search in Google:

I had a longer post in mind but no one can compete with Brian Lund's post from today The Greatest Gift I Have Ever Received so check that one out.

Friday Night Entertainment
Getting you ready for the big holiday weekend.

Fun with Pictures
Get you laughing.

Black Bart is in trouble now!:

see more epicfails

Scottish folded ear kitty!:

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

Film Clips
Holiday edition!

A classic comedy film that is set around Christmas time is "Better Off Dead". Sorry for the poor quality but you have to see the face squeezing CHRISTMAS part at the end:


A new era holiday classic is "Elf" and here is a great scene:

"You smell like beef and cheese, you don't smell like Santa", LOL

I never saw "It's a Wonderful Life" until high school and I think that was better because it meant all the more by then. Here is the Potter speech:

No equal. Nothing like that Stewart fellow.

Rock Blogging
Some tunes to send you on your way?

Got a request for "Call and Answer" by Barenaked Ladies and I am glad I did. Never heard it before and it's mighty fine:

Amazing tune, love it.

Twisted Sister and "Heavy Metal Christmas":

Ozzy tattoo! Nice!

This is great! Metallica's "Enter Sandman" to Christmas lights!:

Feeling a Pokemon seizure coming on.

On this holiday I would be wrong to not be in the mind of my dear friend, that I miss so much, Soleil. I miss you my friend and I miss all the help you gave me. Wish I could have helped you more. Florence and the Machine with a really nice acoustic version of "The Dog Days are Over":

Miss you.

Back in college a bunch of scientists formed a band. This tune rocks! I have zero music talent but I did help them set up. Who else had a T4 phage picture on the drumset? Man Bites Back and "Ghetto Starlight":


Last song! Grab a girl, a drink, or anything else!

My favorite by far Christmas song is Bob Seger's "Drummer Boy". Just so perfect:

Tear every time.

Have a good night.

Bikes and Boards

Note: This partial post was originally posted on August 5, 2010. Not much to write about market wise, so here it is.

(Tonight's post was inspired by reader Watchtower who offered that he wanted a Schwinn Stingray more than anything as a kid, but it never happened. Here is the model in question:

That is a fine bike!

Of course this got me all nostalgic about the means of transport in my youth. Maybe you will take a ride down memory lane?

BMX Bicycles
As soon as I could, I loved riding bikes. Not unique, I know. My first bike was this crappy thing that had plastic wheels and was made out of tin foil I think. I took it over a 3 foot jump, landed, and the frame broke in half and stuck me in the leg (no stitches needed!). I was not put off on my bicycle career by such a thing.

Skipping ahead, I wanted to share the hottest bikes from my golden years of BMX riding. Maybe you had one? Maybe you wanted one? Maybe you will have no idea what I am talking about? The last one is likely, but it is my blog!

Names like GT, Haro, Mongoose, CW, Redline, Kuwahara, Diamond Back, Dyno,

A few bikes of special note:

While I never wanted a GT Performer, this bike really set off the BMX/Freestyle bike mania:

Curvy frame!

A real Hutch BMX racing bike was out of reach for any mortal kid not from a rich family as these babies were BIG Bucks but the best available:


Another bike I never saw in real life, the Kuwahara Ripper:

Nice.

Ok, you know a Porsche is a "super car" in terms of performance? Well I worked 6 weekends one summer with my dad doing railroad work, mostly rail installations, to get the dough for a top of the line racer. The Bike "Pistol" Pete Loncarevich rode to numerous victories. The bike I always wanted, a Haro Group 1 RS-1:

I loved that bike! I had it one half Summer and the next Spring I left it out one night, ONE NIGHT, and it got stolen of course. I used to sleep with the bike in my room and I forgot one freaking night. Geez.

Skateboarding Decks
Stuck with no bike and looking at quite a few weekends of work to get a new one, I passed the time building half pipe ramps and doing a little skateboarding instead. We "liberated" wood from various construction sites (I never said I was a saint!) and decks were way cheaper than bikes plus near impossible to steal from under my bed at night. I actually grew to love boarding, but I was never any good at it.

Decks are a true artist medium as every rider used his own board as a medium for expression. The graphics were really wonderful. A few selections for your perusal (most pics from the great site Skates on Haight).

My first deck, a Powell Yellow Ripper:

I have no idea why, but I liked that one!

A great friend of mine communicates his love was a Santa Monica Airlines deck, this is the Bulldog:

Very nice.

The legendary Tony Hawk and his revolutionary bottle nosed deck:

That thing was cool as all get out.

A Steve Caballero Dragon Deck:

I like it!

Finally, the baddest deck art I have ever seen, the Tommy Guerrero Flaming Dagger board:

This was by far my most wanted board. Amazing artwork.

So what happened? I had enough saved up to buy a Guerrero (they were red by then) but I had been bitten by the boxing bug! The gym was 12 miles across town so I had to buy a second hand 10-speed bike to get across town (lots of hills, city traffic) and I needed something quicker than a skateboard and more adjustable than a BMX bike. It happens!

Well, sorry to get off track. Anyways, I like this break from the usual stuff so I hope you do as well.

Have a good night.