Things That Start With B

Well, since I liked typing out my previous "Things That Start With" entry, I've decided to do something I haven't done before: daily blogging!

I'm going to spend each day for the next 25 days posting an entry about things that start with the other 24 letters. Today is B, tomorrow will be C, and so on 'til we get to Z on June 30th. Regardless of whether I have another post that day, these will be posted. Keeps the mind flowing.

And now, my Things That Start With B.

Boardwalks: Yes, as I've mentioned here various times, I enjoy Boardwalks. There is just a certain atmosphere about them that I just enjoy. I normally hate the beach, but I like things that are associated with the beach, which is kind of weird. I like those Beach Towns like Myrtle Beach & Coney Island (hell, several Long Island towns are beach towns), little kitschy beach stores that sell dumb tourist items like Bottled Sand and have little tanks that have sharks swimming in them, and Boardwalk itself, with all the shops and attractions that are found along it. I guess it's the atmosphere itself that I love, and not so much the beach.

Like I said in the last post, I've always wanted to see Atlantic City's. I want to see exactly why it's the most expensive property on the Monopoly board. Maybe find Baltic & Mediterranean Avenues too to see if they're really $30 a night slums.

Banjo-Kazooie: One of my favorite N64 games of all time which inspired quite a few sequels, including another favorite of mine, Banjo-Tooie. Basically the plot of this game is that Banjo, a bear and his friend Kazooie, a Breegull who lives in his backpack, must travel to Gruntilda the Witch's lair to rescue Banjo's sister Tootie from having her beauty stolen. Along the way they must collect Music Notes (their version of Coins), Jigsaw pieces (the game's equivalent of Stars) and Jinjos (little lizard creatures that give you a Jigsaw, or Jiggie, if you collect all 5 in each world). You also get to transform into several creatures like a Termite, a Bee, a Walrus, a Crocodile, a Pumpkin, and a Washing Machine (which was only activated by gamesharking a Cheat code and you couldn't actually use it fully until the sequel).

All in all, it's a solid gaming experience with several strange levels including a forest where the seasons change depending on which door you enter, a haunted house with an annoying demon that haunted the dining room, a Bay with poisonous water, a sewer where you enter a giant mechanical fish, and the obligatory Desert, Swamp and Snow levels. Even Grunty's Lair was amazing in itself. And the overall game became even more epic when the sequel was released. But, hell...that game was difficult, but it was challenging to say the least. I was both happy and saddened that the influx in cheat codes in Banjo-Tooie made dying so much harder.

I met my best friend in Middle School through discussion of Banjo-Kazooie. I haven't seen him in six years. He ended up finding me on myspace a year ago.

B-52s: One of my favorite bands, for good reason. For those of you who have made it this far in life without listening to "Love Shack," "Rock Lobster," "Cosmic Thing," their cover of the "Rocko's Modern Life" theme and/or "Roam"...then you are a cyborg and must be killed. Or deaf, in which case I apologize for that. They have quite a unique sound, with strange lyrics belted out by the sultry duo of Kate Pierson & Cindy Wilson, with the unique pitch of Fred Schneider's voice that must be heard to be believed. Try to impersonate him, it's a bit tough. Even Tom Tucker from Family Guy has attempted it, but admitted that his impression needed work. If anyone saw The Daily Show earlier this week, Jon had Fred on to read/sing excerpts from Scott McClellan's book. Awesome, I would love to hear him read an audio book of something, I'd definitely buy it.

Whatever is happening, it always seems like they're having fun, and I believe that these good times have resulted in the prevention of having the band members age a day. It amazes me that the band has been around since the late 70s and every member looks and sounds exactly the same.

I've always loved them and I had recently discovered that they had released a new album "Funplex" a few months ago, which looks to be just as great as previous outings. Here's a video of the titular song:



Bacon: Those little strips of pork, I absolutely despise this stuff. It amazes me how not liking this stuff put me at risk of Geek License Revocation. I mostly hate how it smells, it simply makes me queasy sniffing it while it grills. I'm also not one to cite health reasons (hell, I frequent buffets and White Castle, eat scrambled egg sandwiches with cheese and sausage, and I've been known to eat 24 buffalo wings in single sittings), but my heart begins to punch itself whenever I see it on a burger, much less hear a story of how someone managed to order a plate of bacon at a Friendly's and actually get it.

Jim Gaffigan might love this stuff, but I don't like it one bit. Hell, I don't even like Kevin Bacon that much, and I tend to stay at least 7 degrees away from him at all times. You like it? Fine by me, more for you.

Beaming For Bunnies: The very blog you're reading right now! A question that I hoped that you yourself have asked was "how did he come up with the name?" If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you'll see where I got the inspiration. The one point of it that I have yet to mention is why and how the name came to be.

The full context is this blog entry at X-Entertainment.com where Matt, the site's humble overlord, describes his Easter findings, which includes a stuffed bunny inspired by those Cadbury Creme Egg ads with the clucking bunny. I'm one of those people who, when they hear some random phrase, immediately thinks "That sounds like an awesome band name!" and nothing ever comes to fruition about it. The phrase "Beaming For Bunnies" elicited one of those moments, but it just didn't feel like "Band Name" material. It seemed more like an Album title, or in this case...the title for a blog.

Barack Obama: Usually, I'm not one to get political, but you can't ignore the amazing fact that we have our first African-American presidential nominee ever, along with a strong showing of the first serious Female-American candidate. Whichever point on the politcial spectrum that you lie on, you have to admit it's pretty awesome.

What I find amusing is when various news reporters interview Clinton supporters about who they're going to vote for now that Hillary isn't going to be the nominee. A fair amount of them had responding by saying that they would vote McCain. What I love most is the awkward pause that occurs when they were asked "why," when they knew that they had to admit that the wouldn't vote for him because he was black. Sigh.

That's it for today, check back tomorrow for C!


*Yes, I got the Ice Key in Banjo-Tooie. It's how you get the Giant Glowbo.