Beanie Love

This is an article that I had written for RetroJunk.com. Original link here, RetroJunk "Beanie Love"

Every kid has their own special stuffed animal, a stitched-companion that you can always call upon when you are sad, angry or afraid of the dark. In the mid 1990's the "in" toys were the highly sought after Beanie Babies.

 

Beanie Babies were first appeared in New York's 1993 World Toy Fair and by 1995 became one of the hottest fads of the 90's. What made these tiny teddies so sought after? They were relatively inexpensive, cute and of course, they were highly collectible. When the Beanie Babies first hit the scene there were only nine cuddly creatures to choose from. 

Their names were Legs the Frog, Squealer the Pig, Brownie the Bear (later renamed to Cubbie the Bear), Flash the Dolphin, Splash the Whale, Patti the Platypus, Chocolate the Moose, Spot the Dog and Pinchers the Lobster. These Beanies first appeared in small gift stores in the Chicago area in January 1994. Shortly after this time they started to gain momentum in the popularity department. After the initial launch TY created a second series of Beanie Babies. This is when I first became involved with the plush pets. I was about 6 years old at the time and my mother, brother and I were about to go on a trip to Tennessee. My mother had seen on the news that the Beanie Baby fad was becoming extremely popular. With that she had found out that our local shopping mall was having a "Beanie Baby day", pretty much a 'Black-Friday' event for crazy people who need beanies. The mall promised to have all the newest Beanie Babies for sale in massive quantities. Mom, the super-woman that she is was determined to get some of these elusive critters for her two sons. So, off to the mall we went. I had never seen so many Beanies in my life. There were several colorful tables set up, each with a mountain created out of a specific Beanie Baby. I guess my Mom was determined to make her trip worth-while because she bough me and my brother three Beanie Babies each! I got Waddle (the penguin) Speedy (the turtle) and Quackers (the duck). I remember that some people were grabbing armfuls of the beanies and the cashiers made a limit of only two beanies of each species, per person. I suppose this was to weed through the people you see on t.v who use shanks to guarantee they get their sought after merchandise

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After my first few beanies I had so many that I swear they were breeding! My family members were always bringing me a beanie babies as gifts. I loved playing with my furry friends but of course, there was the issue of the "hang tag". All Beanie Babies had a hear-shaped hang tag that pretty much was a pseudo birth certificate.　Each heart had a big "TY" stamped on it (just in case you forgot about the plushie conglomerate) and when you opened up the little heart tag, there was a birthday of you beanie and a little cliche poem that gave you a glimpse of the Beanie Babies "personality." I had a very bad habit of taking the tags off of my beanies because I used to feel that the tag was hurting my precious plushie. My mom wasn't too thrilled with this because it then meant that the Beanie Baby was dare I say it, worthless. 

From the years of 1997 until 2000, Beanie Babies annually made a appearances in McDonald's Happy Meals. When they first appeared I remember that people were going crazy for these new "teenie Beanie Babies," but I'd be lying if I said that I didn't want them. So, when I was in grade school my mom would take me to McDonald's twice a week for a happy meal. The cherry on top was that my mom also would stop at McDonald's on her way home from work just to buy the happy meal toy. So much effort went into these little things so I could have the whole set of these happy meal prizes. On the plus side, I was king of the playground. 

I really liked these because one of the games that I would play with my Beanie Babies was "Family" and the teenie Beanie Babies were the babies. I would always have the Beanies have a wedding and then a baby. Looking back now, I guess I was a conservative- Republican in my childhood because I only allowed the same types of animals to get married *shudders*. But, my information was usually incorrect at that time. I also thought that when a Beanie Baby "retired" it mean that they were old, decrepit and close to death. My morbid Beanie Baby thought really have nothing on my roommate though. She said that when she was little her favorite game to play was "Beanie Funeral". Basically how you played was you would pick a beanie to get murdered, have a big funeral (with mourners and family) for the perished plushie and then create a drama story about how said Beanie Baby was killed. Fun huh?
 

Although there were still some very popular and highly sought after Beanie Babies (Cubby the Bear,Garcia the Bear based off of the late Jerry Garcia and Princess the Bear dedicated to the late Princess Diana) The craze lasted through 1999 and slowly declined after the Ty company's announcement that they would no longer be making Beanie Babies and made a bear called "The End". I remember seeing the 'The End' at our local Christmas shop that year. I felt no need to buy him because he seemed like nothing special. Although that ebony bear was supposed to mark the end of the Beanie Baby franchise, to me it never really seemed like they died out. Still every card shop you went to (still to this day) you would always find some Beanie Babies. It's kinda nice to still see the things from my childhood. 

Following on the coat-tail of Neopets and Webkins in 2008, Ty decided it was time for Beanie Babies to go online. This new version of Beanie Babies was called Beanie Babies 2.0 (good thing they weren't cliche). Now when you buy a Beanie Baby 2.0 you also get a code to access a interactive Beanie Baby utopia. I suppose that the generation will get a little more bang' for their buck since you now get to play with your Beanie on the internet as your friend. But, to be honest I really enjoyed my senseless, imaginary play over the new beanies that are out today. I think that I might just have to dust off and open that old cardboard box of my old friends that live in my closet. 

~The Disney Prince

Because cute doesn't need a reason

     Have you ever gone to a store and you find more things that you want to buy for your friends more than yourself? I find that this happens to me all of the time. What makes my problem interesting is I buy the things for my friends and after awhile they start to feel uncomfortable accepting so many gifts or feel that they have to reciprocate. I personally just like getting people that I care about little gifts. To me they mean "here is a little something that reminded me of you that I think you will like." It shows that I was thinking about them. Anyway, the reason for this little candid moment into my psyche is because today is Easter, so I made a small basket for my best-friend. Usually when I do nice things for him he feels in some way he will have to do the same, but my reward is just giving the gift. *Segue* In my opinion you are never too old to get an easter basket. You can make a pretty nice basket for someone you really care about for well under $15.00. So of the best tips that you should keep in mind are to know what sweets your person really likes, keep your eye out for candy sales and think of a little non-food item that you think they would like. 

I had some eggs filled with jelly beans that I had already used for a class. Then I just bought two of my friends favorite candies (Reeses and Cookies'n'cream) I had also seen a shirt of The Flash for only $6 dollars at the sore, so I snatched that up too.The final touch to my basket was I got him some Pokemon cards (he's a huge Pokemon nerd.  ^_^)

Not too long ago I had found a Wartortle keychain on the internet for really cheep, so i ordered it. I ended up placing it in one of the plastic eggshells as an extra little surprise when he is looking for some candy. I like to put some non-food items in the basket, that way after all of the candy has been eaten there is still something else to enjoy after the holiday is over. Together the basket ended up only costing $15.00. Not too bad considering that I bought a shirt, keychain, Pokemon cards and a lot of candy. Of course you can make your basket as simple or extravagant as you want. The who point f making a basket is to let someone special to you know that they are loved.

 Me and a couple of my friends from Japanese class decided to fill about 80 plastic eggs with candy to pass out on Good-Friday. After we were done with the plastic eggs we decided to watch Tangled and take a trip down memory lane by dyeing easter eggs.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Guilty Pleasures

We all have "guilty pleasures". It's that thing that you really love, but may be taboo or considered weird. I have many guilty pleasures (Barbie, anime, the Disney-channel) but one of my biggest guilty pleasures is POKEMON! I just cant get enough of the little monsters.

Like every kid that grew up in the 90' I have a ton of Pokemon stuff. I collected all of the Pokemon "beanie-babies", binders full with all of the trading cards and of course, all of the game-boy games. I went home for a week on spring break. There I was reunited with some of my childhood treasures. By looking at my collections of these Japanese creatures I realized how spoiled I was as a child.
Pokemon are my guilty pleasure because most people deem it immature for a 20 year-old man buying childrens' toys. I cant help but go ga-ga over these creatures from the past. Now that i am an adult it is much better because when I see that there is a new Pokemon doll out, I can buy them all at once, unlike when you were a child and your parents would only get you one. It is a bit reassuriung that my best friend has the same love for pocket monsters. I am able to go with him to the toy store and buy some Pokemon cards and open up them up in the car and brag if you got the better card. 
I recently realized how much of a hermit I was the other day because I hadn't left my house for two days because I received the new Pokemon Black game for as a birthday present.
I think that I will continue to buy and collect these little creatures. They make me happy and they help me reconnect with my childhood.

Japanese Fairy Tale

One of the final projects I had to do for my Japanese course was create a fairy-tale in Japanese. I decided to create a "yaoi-Cinderella story". I scanned the picture into my scanner after I had already clued them to the book pages, so they look one-thousand times better in real life then they will on the blog. I hope you enjoy it.
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Once upon a time there lived a young prince. His name was Ariel. He was a very kind and selfless person. He was beautiful outside and inside.

むかしむかし、若い王子が住んでいました。彼の名前はアリエルでした。彼はとても親切で、献身的な人だった。彼は外側も内側も美しい人でした。

One day the king saw the prince kiss the horse caretaker. He was so angry that he said that he never wanted to see the beautiful prince Ariel again.

ある日、王さまは王子が馬の管理人にキスをするのを見ました。彼は、とても怒って再び美しい王子アリエルを見たくないと思いました。

The prince Ariel was sad that he upset his father and he knew that he could never get back his father's love. So he decided to pretend that he killed himself and would run away to another kingdom after his fake funeral.

王子アリエルは、彼が父親をがっかりさせたことと、彼は父親の愛を取り戻すことができなかったことを知って悲しかった。そこで彼は、自分自身を殺したふりをして、彼の偽の葬儀の後に別の王国に逃げるふりをすることに決めた。

A few months passed since the prince had left his home. The prince's new town was talking about a party that was being help for Prince Marius to find a bride. The prince wanted to go so badly because he had not been to a party in a very long time. So, he decided to dress up as a “princess” and go to the party.

君主が自分の家を出ていってから、数ヶ月が経過した。王子の新しい町で王子Mariusが花嫁を見つけるためのパーティーのことを話していた。彼は非常に長い間パーティーにいけなかったので、ひどく行きたがっていました。だから、彼は"王女"としてドレスアップして、パーティーに行くことを決めた。

The young prince arrived at the party and was having a very fun time, until a strange man decided to  dance with him. This “strange man” was actually prince Marius

若い王子はパーティーで到着し、とても楽しい時間を過ごしていた、見知らぬ男が彼と一緒に踊ることにした。この"見知らぬ男"は実際には王子マリウスでした。

After dancing and talking for a very long time, Marius kissed the beautiful  prince Ariel. The young prince was shocked. Then, Prince Marius said “you are the most beautiful and kind girl here, I want you to be my wife”.

長い時間踊ったり話したりした後、マリウスは美しい王子アリエルにキスをした。若い王子はショックを受けました。その後、王子マリウスは"あなたが最も美しいと親切な女の子、私はあなたを私の妻にしたいです"と語った。

The young prince began to cry. 'I wish I could marry you,  but I can't.” I have a horrible secret. I came to your party in a disguise. I am not a princess… I am a prince.” Prince Ariel I've known that this whole time. I still love you and want to marry you if you love me”.

若い王子は泣き始めた。 '私はあなたと結婚したいですが、私がすることはできません。"私は恐ろしい秘密を持っています。私は変装してあなたのパーティーに来た。私は王女ではない... ...私は王子ですと話した。 王子アリエル言った、私は、この全体の時間を知っています。私はまだあなたを愛し、あなたが私を愛していれば"あなたと結婚したい。

The young prince said “I love you” and they were married, and lived happily ever after.

若い王子は、"私はあなたを愛しています"彼らは、結婚していつまでも幸せに暮らしました。

Made-up Holiday

Yesterday was a Japanese holiday called "Hina-Matsuri" or "Princess Day", basically it's a girls' festival where you treat the daughter in your family to some sweets and small gifts and you decorate your house with princess dolls that make up a royal court. For more info click HERE.

I really think it's a pretty interesting holiday, So I decided to change it a little bit and celebrate the holiday in my own way. Since, you are supposed to spoil the "princess" in your life, I got some small gifts and treats for my Best-Friend here at school. Since the holiday is centered around the dolls, I decided to get my friend a "doll" as well. I got him a really cute panda beanie-baby. Then at the Asian market I bought some "dai-fuku" (sweetened red bean cake) to help maintain the Japanese holiday element. To make it seem more like a western holiday, I also got bought us a raspberry-butter-cream cake to split and mini ice cream cups.

It was a lot of fun to have all of these sweet treats especially because me and my friend had a horrible week and an ever worse day. It was the perfect remedy to make everything all better.

The Real Little Mermaid

Anyone who know me know that I am HUGE Disney fan. My all time favorite Disney is The Little Mermaid.
A lot of people don't know the the real story of the Little Mermaid. 

The Disney Version:

A young beautiful mermaid princess saves a young prince from drowning and falls in love with him. Since there love is forbidden Ariel goes to the sea-witch, Ursula to become a human. In doing this Ariel gives up her voice and must marry the the prince within 3 days or she will belong to Ursula. Ariel makes headway in getting the prince to fall in love with her, but Ursala tricks the prince in to marring her instead. Ariel turns back into a mermaid. King Triton takes pity on his daughter and gives himself and his kingdom to the sea-witch in place for Ariel freedom. Ursula creates a storm in which Prince Eric is able to steer a sunken ship into Ursula's heart, killing her and restoring King Triton to his throne. King Triton then realizes that Ariel truly loves the princes and changes his daughter into a human and they all live happily ever after.

The Original Hans Christian Anderson Version:

A young beautiful mermaid princess saves a young prince from drowning and falls in love with him. Since there love is forbidden the Princess goes to the sea-witch to become a human. As payment for this spell the sea-witch cuts out the mermaid's tongue. As part of the deal, if the mermaid princess does not marry the prince, she will then die and turn into sea-foam as the day sets on the prince's wedding. Now as a human, every step that the mermaid princess takes will feel as if she is stabbed with 1,000 daggers. After some time the prince vows to marry the maiden who saved him from a ship-wreck. The prince assumes that this maiden is a young girl who found him on the beach after the mermaid princess had saved him. He then marries her. The mermaid princess is invited to partake in the prince's wedding. As the day is setting the mermaid princess's sisters swim up towards the wedding ship. They have traded their hair to the sea witch for a magic dagger. The mermaid princess must stab the prince to death and rub his blood on her legs and then they will transform back into a tail. The mermaid princess cannot do this because she loves the prince so much. In her distress she stabs herself with the dagger and jumps off the wedding ship to her death. She then turns into foam among the waves. But, since the mermaid did a bivalent act, she is granted a soul and goes to heaven.

I love both versions of the story. But, the original version is much more powerful because it showcases the concept of sacrifice for true love.

 I got the idea for this post fromof something I found on funnyjunk.com Link

Pineapple Upside-Down Birthday

My best friend's birthday is actually Valentine's Day, a day where we both have class, So I decided to take him out the day before for an early birthday-day. So, we went about a hour out of where we live to go to a bigger city. Our main goal was to go shopping, but we mostly just ate. Sine we are just used ti cheep college food, It was nice to have something different. We ended up eating a bagel on the way to the city, cold-stone ice-cream, candy at the movie theater (I took him to his first "double-feature", where you sneek into another movie before you leave) and then we had Olive Garden. We had salad and soup (with like 5 baskets of bread-sticks), a HUGE main pasta meal, and ended our meal with some taramasu. But, it didn't end there. My best friend really doesn't like his birthday because he doesn't like getting older, so I did my best to make his birthday special for him. I made him (by request) a pineapple upside-down cake.

Here's the recipe I used http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/pineapple-upside-down-cake-v/Detail.aspx
NOTE: The recipe calls for yellow cake mix, but a "golden butter" cake mix/recipe works much better.

First you need to spread the butter and brown sugar mixture evenly between the two pans. Place crushed pineapple in one pan and pineapple rings in the other. Make sure the pan containing the pineapple rings looks nice (you can also add cherries in the holes of the rings).

Then you simply cover your pineapple with half of your cake mixture. Be sure to remember which pan has the rings and which has the crushed pineapple.

I also added a thin layer of cream-cheese frosting between the two cakes to hold them together and to add some more rich flavor. 

Happy Birthday John!

Valentine's Day!

I realize that Valentine's day was last week, but now it's time to talk about it!
For valentine's day I spent over $30 in chocolate and treats. I tried to do something special for all of my friends. So, I made grab-bags filled with a bunch of a bunch of sweet treats. I wanted to try to give some of my closer friends a special valentine, So I printed off special cards to attach to their treat-bags. 

(Pokemon, Law and Order S.V.U, and Left4Dead Valentines!)

My best friend got a gift-bag filled with some of his favorite things (Cookies'n'Cream chocolates, Reeses hearts, York-mints and the Valentine's day classic, a box of conversation hearts). He LOVES Pokemon, so attached a Pokemon themed valentine's day card.

To spread even more love, I also baked up some red-velvet cupcakes for my Japanese class. I added some sparkly conversation hearts to make 'em a bit more festive. They seemed to go over pretty well. <3

Childhood McDonald's

My friend and I were talking tonight about the "games" we used to play in high school. Neither of us were very social (she wasn't allowed out of the house and I didn't like the people in my high school. So, we would talk on the phone every night for hours, and when you spend that much time talking to someone, you develop really weird topics to talk about. The most shameful game you can ever play was our favorite, it was called "Going to McDonald's".  Basically how you "play" is you pick a amount of money and decide how to get as much food as possible with said amount of money. The dollar-menu made this game especially appealing, ( especially Apple pies are 2 for $1). Sometimes we would even throw a few curve balls into the game like (as you walk in to McDonalds you found a ten-dollar-bill!) to which we would both scream with excitement. Looking back now it was now wonder I was so fat, one of my favorite games was talking imaginary trips to McDonald's.

Another milestone in my fatter years was when McDonald's came up with the "Mighty Kid's Meal", basically it was a Happy-Meal with more food, plus you still got the amazing gotta' have it toy. I remember when I was in elementary school everyone had the "teenie" beanie babies. My mom took me to McDonalds just about every other day to get the coveted plushies. Because of that my adolescent self became super popular and even get to join the beanie baby club at recess. It's funny, even now I sometimes will get a happy meal, it's such a quick and perfect sized meal, also a perk that I still get a toy.

Dino-Party!

Yesterday I through a Dinosaur-themed part for my roommate.I ended up making quite a lot of cake. I made some "funfetti" cupcakes and added little dino party-favors on top. I also made a dinosaur shaped cake. It was made from using to 8-inch cake pans with Hershey's "sour cream cake" recipe and a white chocolate frosting (which ended up becoming more like fondant because I needed a thicker frosting for this cake).

Double-Decker Snicker-doodle Cookies!

These cookies are a favorite of my best friend. He loves anything thing with cinnamon. Not only are these cookies tasty, but we're still in winter and the cinnamon gives you that warm holiday feel.
So, the easiest and cheapest (under $3.00) way to makes these is just buy the Pillsbury cookie-mix.

The Prepackaged mix comes with a packet of cinnamon-sugar to roll the dough balls in, but I personally like to add this into my batter and make my own cinnamon-sugar. It gives the cookies a richer flavor.

To make your own cinnimon sugar,m simple add a a few heaping spoonfuls of sugar and add some cinnamon. The ratio us completely up to you and taste.

Once you've made the sough, take a heaping spoonful and roll it into a ball. Then roll that ball into the cinnamon sugar.

Line your baking sheet with some aluminum foil, that way there is not clean-up. Also, no need to grease the pan. The is a lot of butter in these, so they won't stick.

Bake until they come slightly golden brown on the edges.

After you cookies have cooled throughly, take a pastry bag and go around the perimeter of the cooking, creating a dollop in the middle. I like to use a large star tip because I think it look nice. But, you don't have to use tips or a pasty bag, the back of a spoon works just as well.

Then place another snicker-doodle on top of the iced cookie and there you have it, a Double-Decker Snicker-Doodle! So easy and fun! 

Enjoy!