Blog 365

To Develop: Blog 365 Day 11 - Monster On the Cover Box

To Develop: Blog 365 Day 11 - Monster On the Cover Box

By Jiddoe S'Phatt

Warmest greetings! My name is Jiddoe S’Phatt. Welcome to day 11 of “To Develop: Blog 365”.

Inspiration to write comes from a number of places. For this blog I’ve been inspired by hip-hop artist Rick Chyme and producer David K. Manley of Man@Work Productions. Through a collaborative project titled #DailyPieces365 these two artists will release a new song every day for the next 365 consecutive days! Their impressive dedication has motivated me to write a new blog every day of 2018.

A little piece of me goes into each entry I write. I hope you enjoy this one!

----------

The first snowfall of the year is always so pretty. I can’t recall exact days it’s happened or where I was. I enjoy them for the moment then move on. They don’t stay with me.

Besides, the winter turns terrible so quickly in my home state of Michigan, it’s hard to look back and see that first snowfall when you’re blocked by 2-feet of the stuff.

There are other firsts I cling to.

Here’s one: The first time I beat the Nintendo game Blaster Master I was home sick.

I was in the eighth grade and suffering from a severe case of video game fever. I’d been playing this game regularly for nearly 2 years and couldn’t upend the final boss. Sometimes I couldn’t get past a boss along the way. I hate the giant, bubble-blowing crab at the end of Area 5!

After defeating the monster on the cover box you’re immediately challenged by this alien dude wielding a nasty laser whip. I’d fought him only a few times before this. During each of those encounters I had very little health to survive one strike, maybe two. On this glorious day of hooky it was like the bosses couldn’t touch me. I played this game through perfectly but was sad no one was there to see me do it.

I never thought to organize a hooky audience.

To Develop: Blog 365 Day 10 - Rimshot

To Develop: Blog 365 Day 10 - Rimshot

By Jiddoe S'Phatt

Warmest greetings! My name is Jiddoe S’Phatt. Welcome to day 10 of “To Develop: Blog 365”.

A little piece of me goes into each entry I write. I hope you enjoy this one!

----------

The amount of snow that accumulates overnight in Michigan is impressive. It’s also disconcerting when there’s just a few inches of it when you go to bed, then you wake up in the morning to a foot of it.

What’s more disappointing is when there’s already a foot of it and just hours later you’re faced with a foot more!

I grew up near the shores of Lake Michigan. During the winter we were punished by lake effect snow.

What is lake effect snow?

It’s basically a wet heavy avalanche that falls from the sky. I can’t give you its scientific definition, but I’ve lived through enough of it to advise you to trust my description. Again, it's basically a wet heavy avalanche that falls from the sky.

The snow mounts at such alarming rate it sounds like a bad joke when weather reports and meteorologists reveal how much has fallen. I can remember sitting in front of the television with my mother or grandparents listening to the forecast. The weather person on the nightly news would say we’ve received 12 inches so far. Expect up to 12 inches more overnight.

No rimshot follows.

The first snowfall of the year is always so pretty. It gets ugly from then on.

To Develop: Blog 365 Day 9 - 380

To Develop: Blog 365 Day 9 - 380

By Jiddoe S'Phatt

Warmest greetings! My name is Jiddoe S’Phatt. Welcome to day 9 of “To Develop: Blog 365”.

A little piece of me goes into each entry I write. I hope you enjoy this one!

----------

I am puzzled.

I’m working on my notebook computer while sitting in the recliner when suddenly I feel the urge to stand up. I look around my living room for a few seconds before walking over to the window behind me. I’m not wearing sox or slippers.

As I stop in the front of the glass my foot covers a small portion of the vent on the floor. The heat coming out of it feels nice on my toes.

I’m so confused.

This window overlooks my snow covered back yard. We really got dumped on. Our set of wood patio chairs and their matching table are completely buried. So is my son’s red crab sandbox. He and his dog like to chase each other through the snow. But the previous fall left a heap so deep I had to shovel them a play area. I actually took the time to shovel a maze for them to trek through. That’s covered now, too, and it looks as though I’d never done it at all.

Snow is dominating the scenery. It stretches as far as I can see in every direction.

I’m insanely perplexed!

This entire time I’m standing here staring out my living room window into the backyard I’m thinking how in the heck did I have time to write and publish 380 articles last year?

To Develop: Blog 365 Day 8 - Golden. Globes.

To Develop: Blog 365 Day 8 - Golden. Globes.

By Jiddoe S'Phatt

[WARNING: The following blog contains subject matter not suitable to all readers. Reader discretion is advised.]

Warmest greetings! My name is Jiddoe S’Phatt. Welcome to day 8 of “To Develop: Blog 365”.

A little piece of me goes into each entry I write. I hope you enjoy this one!

----------

The timing was right for something special to happen at the 75th annual Golden Globe Awards. When Oprah Winfrey took the stage to accept her Cecil B. DeMille Award for outstanding contributions to entertainment, I thought to myself here it comes. Previously slouched on my leather couch, I sat up straight as though my most stern teacher had entered the classroom.

Given all the unjust decisions, misconduct, and mistreatment of women in Hollywood that’s been brought to light, Oprah was undoubtedly the right person for this moment. She’s been a champion to and for women for decades. Oprah’s also not shy about putting anyone, especially men, in their place.

Oprah gave an inspiring speech about equality and diversity. She proclaimed time was up for women to sit silently as men abused them and professionally marginalized them. It gave me chills and brought those on hand at The Beverly Hilton to their feet. This was a tough act to follow, yet what happened next was certainly something special. Dare I say it was golden?

Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman and iconic film maker Ron Howard took the stage to present the Best Director award. With the crowd still riled up from Oprah’s speech, Portman surprisingly announced “And here are the all-male nominees.”

The audience was floored. Laughing, I slouched back into my couch and thought Natalie Portman has balls. She’s got balls the size of… What’s something big? Globes. She’s got balls the size of globes.

To Develop: Blog 365 Day 7 - A Link to the Past

To Develop: Blog 365 Day 7 - A Link to the Past

By Jiddoe S'Phatt

Warmest greetings! My name is Jiddoe S’Phatt. Welcome to day 7 of “To Develop: Blog 365”.

A little piece of me goes into each entry I write. I hope you enjoy this one!

----------

I own a replica of the Master Sword from the video game series The Legend of Zelda. It’s a pretty cool looking novelty. To keep it that way it rarely leaves its box. I store it in the back of my walk-in closet next to another box full of stuff I’ve refused to part with. Each item packed inside acts like a time machine.

One of those is a gold copy of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Seeing it reminds me of exiting the highway with my buddy Nelson riding shotgun as we approached Toys R Us. There was a long line of people outside the store who hadn’t pre-ordered the game like we did. We laughed because we knew we were by passing the congestion. We walked in, grabbed our copies and headed back home to play them.

The box also holds an unopened Hollywood Hulk Hogan nWo toy car. It takes me back to playing Top Gear Rally on Nintendo 64. The game allowed you to custom design your own vehicle. Being a fan of WCW Monday Nitro, I spent hours creating my own nWo car. The finished design was too sweet.

Another among its contents is a hardcover copy of Hogan’s book My Life Outside the Ring. I’ve had it since its 2009 release and only finished the first chapter before packing it away.

One of these days I’ll finishing reading it.

To Develop: Blog 365 Day 6 - Even Kissed

To Develop: Blog 365 Day 6 - Even Kissed

By Jiddoe S'Phatt

Warmest greetings! My name is Jiddoe S’Phatt. Welcome to day 6 of “To Develop: Blog 365”.

A little piece of me goes into each entry I write. I hope you enjoy this one!

----------

There’s a box inside my closet full I stuff I’ve refused to part with. Each one of them dates me.

One of those items is a copy of video game The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for Nintendo 64. It was a big deal for my buddy Nelson and me to pre-order it from Toys R Us so we’d receive the limited edition cold cartridge. It harkened back to the gold Zelda’s from the original NES.

The night before it released we joined two of our brothers from TheGrooveSpot.com – Mark Smith and Joe Kelley (R.I.P.) – in Grand Rapids to attend WCW Monday Nitro. We had an awesome time! Before the show we ate wings at Hooters. While there Mark got hit on heavily by one of the Hooters girls.

Then while watching Nitro from our front row seats Mark got hit on heavily by Nitro Girl Fyre aka Teri Byrne, too! She even kissed him!

To end the show Bill Goldberg carried Big Show (The Giant) around the ring before finishing him with his Jackhammer slam, then to everyone’s delight scuffled with Kevin Nash and Bam Bam Bigelow (R.I.P.). We all left happy, especially Nelson and I, because we knew more fun was in store the next day.

All the stuff in that box dates me. But these are memories I’ve refused to part with.

To Develop: Blog 365 Day 5 - Violent Poultry

To Develop: Blog 365 Day 5 - Violent Poultry

By Jiddoe S'Phatt

Warmest greetings! My name is Jiddoe S’Phatt. Welcome to day 5 of “To Develop: Blog 365”.

A little piece of me goes into each entry I write. I hope you enjoy this one!

----------

One of the coolest gifts I’ve ever received is a replica of the Master Sword from video game series The Legend of Zelda. It’s sturdy and sharp too, but it’s nowhere close to being my mightiest gift. That honor goes to the first notebook and ink pen I was given. Writing in that thing led me to blessings and on adventures no video game could ever replicate.

I’ve never actually stabbed anything real with my Master Sword. On the video games I’ve sliced countless tree and plants, beasts, armored soldiers, pirates, and even a few frighteningly aggressive chickens. While writing in my notebook I’ve tangled with far greater challenges than violent poultry. Two of those is organizing ideas and listing my journalist goals before taking them on.

I can remember reading a ridiculous number of story ideas from my notebook to MLive’s iconic columnist John Gonzalez. Back in the day he was my features editor at Grand Rapids Press Newspaper. He’d look at me as though I was attempting to go too over and beyond. And I was. I knew only a few of those would ever make it to print in the Press, but I had backup to cut through my journalist goals list.

Those goals were to be published more times and in more publications than the previous year.

And I slayed them.