164 days until the premiere of An Unlikely Fandom!
I'd previously mentioned having visited a Thomas the Tank Engine themed amusement park in the UK. It was very cool, even if I'm a bit old to ride the rides. The main draw for me was the building with the massive train layout made up of props that had been used in the show. I posted a brief video on the layout on Facebook when I visited it in August 2017, on YouTube which can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/rGYM0JNsFsw
I also noticed that you see more Thomas-themed stuff in public in the UK, even outside the Drayton Manor theme park - like this horse drawn carriage made to look like Thomas in another town in another part of England altogether.
Some fun memories from my visits to England.
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If you're interested in attending the An Unlikely Fandom premiere,
165 days until the premiere of An Unlikely Fandom!
My favorite Thomas and Friends character for most of my childhood was Duke.
Within the world of the story, he was an old engine on a narrow gauge railway that got lost - left behind in an old shed when his railway closed - and is later found and brought to a new railway.
My grandma bought me the ERTL die-cast toy when I was about five years old. (pictured below)
So you can imagine my excitement when I learned that some fellow fans had purchased the actual model from the show and had put it on display at a train show in New Jersey, August 2019. I got off work in Ohio at about 7:30 in the morning, and traveled all the way down to Edison, New Jersey to see him. We made it just in time for me to spend the last hour of the show checking out Duke and the other props! (also pictured below)
One of my favorite Thomas memories!
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If you're interested in attending the An Unlikely Fandom premiere,
166 days until the premiere of An Unlikely Fandom!
So today's Thomas-themed offering is this photo of me showing off a plush Percy I found on a random vendor cart in Hollywood.
At the time, I was considering doing a series of videos/ blogs/photos demonstrating how I can find Thomas paraphernalia anywhere.
In retrospect, I wish I had - as this was almost 12 years ago and I've found a heck of a lot of Thomas stuff in my travels. One of the many things I loved about England was the presence of Thomas absolutely everywhere.
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If you're interested in attending the An Unlikely Fandom premiere,
So, for today's countdown post - a humorous anecdote from my childhood. So, it was the early 2000's... 2002 if memory serves.
I am notoriously hard to surprise. Annoyingly so. My parents were always trying but I'd deduce/snoop/harass intel out of people about any gifts/surprises that were planned for me... particularly Thomas related - it was like I had a sixth sense for anything Thomas related. (Which reminds me of a time where I went thrifting for Thomas merchandise... but that's a story for another time ;) )
So, on this early summer weekend in 2002(?) Mom & Dad had told my brothers and I that we were going on a surprise field trip. I begged for a hint, but they were increasingly vague, hoping they could actually surprise us.
So we got ready and drove a couple hours; but Dad got a bit lost and asked for directions at a toll booth (GPS systems were not in everyone's pockets back then ;) )
Dad specifically asked for directions to a museum (I don't remember what kind of museum, but it didn't sound like something that required the level of secrecy that Mom & Dad were using) and the man at the toll booth said "oh you mean over there by the Thomas the Tank thing?" Mom and Dad looked at each other and I started SCREAMING with excitement in the back seat.
Mom & Dad tried so hard to keep the secret of the surprise, just for it to be blown by this hapless toll booth attendant.
It was a Day Out with Thomas event in Cuyahoga Falls. (So far, this is the only Day Out with Thomas event I've attended.) My brothers and I all enjoyed the day, taking a nice ride on the train pulled by Thomas himself and shopping through the merchandise tent (particularly for ERTLs that we didn't already have) l got my Sodor Canal Boat and one of my brothers got the D.Fusit Gunpowder Trucks.
I think we got pictures with Thomas and Sir Topham Hatt, but it will take me some time to find those if they still exist (I will try though).
A very good memory. 😊
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If you're interested in attending the An Unlikely Fandom premiere,
168 days until the premiere of An Unlikely Fandom! I had mentioned in a previous post that I've had the opportunity to see some Thomas the Tank Engine props and sets in person. I should say I've seen many, because at the last count (and depending how you're counting) I've seen at least 30 models used in the show.
Something that I have in common with a lot of my fellow Thomas fans is that I am very passionate about the preservation of the props and models used in the show I watched growing up. In my case, it started with Thomas, but it's grown into preserving any movie and TV artifacts - which is why I've got stuff used in anything from Marvel productions and Knives Out to The Last of the Mohicans and Lost in Space squirreled away to be displayed in a museum one day. (Only semi-related, but I was offered the opportunity to purchase the tugboats from Theodore Tugboat some years ago, I didn't have the money at the time though. 🙁)
I have not yet been able to aquire anything from Thomas the Tank Engine personally, but I am acquainted with several great people who have purchased props from the show and are preserving them for future generations to see. Definitely hope to see a lot more of them in the future and even help with preserving and displaying them!
Photos are mine, various years and locations. 🙂
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If you're interested in attending the An Unlikely Fandom premiere,
169 days until the premiere of An Unlikely Fandom! So, in yesterday's post I mentioned that from the time I was 15 until I was 21, I was involved in the editing of the Thomas & Friends Wikia. I wanted to talk a little more about that in today's countdown post.
So having been a Thomas fan for 13 years in 2008, I'd been browsing all the sites with Thomas content for a couple years when I first created an account and made some edits on the site. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, it's basically Wikipedia for Thomas. (If you don't know what Wikis are at all, it's a collaborative encyclopedia edited by the public)
In those early days, there was very little accurate information on the site and most of the pages were filled with fan fiction and troll activity (it's the internet 🙄). The way these sites work, there is an administration/moderation hierarchy - but there were no active administrators when I began editing. Being one of the few constructive editors in those early days, I quickly convinced the host site (then called Wikia, now rebranded Fandom) to allow me to adopt the site and I was granted the top admin position (bureaucrat, which means I could make other people admins and such).
From there it really took off, I established law and order, got more people to edit the site (I literally went out and recruited people all over the net) and got Wikia to run an ad for our site on the other sites once we had enough activity to qualify. You might be browsing the Lost wiki or the Land Before Time wiki and there was an ad for Thomas Wiki! Very exciting times.
We created hundreds and hundreds of pages about episodes, characters, locations and crew members. (I also want to note that I met one of my best friends online through Thomas Wiki, and though we've never met in person, we've stayed in touch for 15 years as of this year.) It just grew and grew from there.
After a year or so, my personal life, very tumultuous and traumatic, took me away from my wiki editing activity and when I did spend time editing wikis, I became involved with other ones that didn't have the number of editors and traffic Thomas Wiki had. (There was a British dinosaur sci-fi one in particular).
Thomas Wiki continued on under the leadership of others that I had promoted, some more controversial than others, but the site's popularity only grew. I got the chance to interview the head writer of Thomas & Friends for the site and learned that he actually used our site for reference on character and location histories when writing new episodes. (We later learned that the animators were also using our site, to keep the visuals consistent and accurate.)
So, that's a little bit of backstory on one of the most popular online communities that I've ever been a part of, and I helped found it. In more recent years, I've been social media manager for the Thomas Wiki, but more on that another time. The image included is a current screenshot of the Thomas Wiki homepage, located here: ttte.fandom.com
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If you're interested in attending the An Unlikely Fandom premiere,
170 days until the premiere of An Unlikely Fandom! It's been awhile since I've posted about it, but I'm a huge Thomas the Tank Engine fan.
Been a fan since Mom & Dad bought me the "Thomas Gets Tricked" VHS for my 2nd birthday, I started collecting the ERTL die-cast trains on my 3rd birthday, I began editing the Thomas Wiki (basically Wikipedia for Thomas) when I was 15, and when I was 20 I learned that the head writer of the show was using the Thomas Wiki as reference for his writing; I retired from being the admin of Thomas Wiki when I was 21... but I never gave up my love of Thomas the Tank Engine.
When I was 24, I visited the UK and visited a Thomas theme park and got to see a bunch of the models and props used in the show. When I was 26, I went to a meet up of Thomas fans at a train show in New Jersey and learned that a fellow fan was shooting a documentary about us, the adult fans of Thomas the Tank Engine.
When I was 28, I made some small contributions to the documentary project and became an Executive Producer on the film. When I was 30, the premiere date of the documentary was announced and I look forward to seeing it with my fellow fans in 170 days!
Here's a photo of myself and our intrepid director Carty, summer 2021. :) I'll be counting down the days to the premiere with anecdotes and trivia about what it means to be a Thomas fan.
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If you're interested in attending the An Unlikely Fandom premiere,
This post was published unfinished on my "I Am Medley" blog as part of "2020" series.
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It was a nice day today, the sun was shining and it was much warmer than it had been.
Mom and I watched a few shows together and worked on some spring cleaning. We are working on cleaning up the kitchen right now.
Later in the evening, Mitchell came by and we went on a little ride to gather more firewood for a bonfire at Mitchell's house. We lit the fire and soon it was burning nicely.
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I've decided to start ending my blogs with songs that I like. I do not own or endorse the music or artists, unless otherwise noted. Please enjoy my selection of the day. Luke Combs is one of the
This is part of the "2020" series, originally published on my "I Am Medley" blog.
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So, I decided to avoid the stress of Aaron's court date. It wasn't necessary for me to be there, so I let Mom and Dad go and take care of it. Ordinarily, I'd have gone to provide moral support, but even though we agree with and support Aaron's decision that he no longer wishes to live with us, some of the local vultures that love to heckle us are likely to be there, and I cannot handle that.
So, I stayed home and ended up watching the premiere of Star Trek: Picard. I was pretty impressed with it. I've never considered myself a Trekkie, but I have always been a fan of Captain Picard. I ended up doing a brief reaction video and posting it on YouTube. I may even do a proper review video eventually, since this is both a fresh new show and very nostalgic at the same time.
After all that, I decided to whack off my hair and proceeded to shave my head. I wasn't quite finished with my haircut when Mom and Dad returned. They were planning on going back out for lunch, so I asked if I could tag along. We ended up going to JP's and getting the cod platter. Delicious as always!
After that we went home and I went back to work on my usual stuff, writing and designing graphics and the like. Mitchell messaged me and asked if I could help him out with some stuff when he got off work and of course I said yes.
First we went to the hardware store, where he bought a toilet and a drain auger and then we went back to his place. I let his puppy out for a little bit and cleaned some stuff up for him before carrying the old toilet out.
After we were done at the house, we rode over to Capraro's in Hopedale. I'd been there for a birthday party quite a few years ago, but never since. Mitchell bought me a sandwich for helping him out and we hung out for a bit, talking to the bartender and another customer.
After this, we went to Scio to fill up on gas. It was here that Mom tried to call us. I was a little puzzled, because Mom knows that service is spotty in this area and we'd only been gone for a grand total of 3 hours. I am usually pretty easy to get in contact with, but my phone has been out of minutes lately as I have not had steady work in a few months. So, I was a little worried when we got home, what had happened that was so bad that Mom had to call us?
It turns out that my grandma had passed away. Mom's mother, just a couple weeks after losing her dad. I wasn't super close with them, but it's devastating all the same, and hard to process that they're really gone. If anybody's reading this, please say a prayer for Mom, as I know she's taking this pretty hard.
So, that was the 23rd day of 2020.
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I've decided to start ending my blogs with songs that I like. I do not own or endorse the music or artists, unless otherwise noted. Please enjoy my selection of the day.
A rendition of Captain Picard's Inner Light Theme from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
This was originally published as part of "The Life of Zack" series on "I Am Medley.
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I used to think that getting a job in fast food would be stupid, but at some point I realized that the experience could be good for something - for example, I had an idea for a novel about a manager of a fast food restaurant, and working in fast food would give me first hand experience to write about.
So, in early 2016 I started putting applications in at various fast food establishments in my area and one of them called me back! A couple days after my interview, the manager called me and let me know that I could come in for orientation later that week. I couldn't find my social security card, so we had to reschedule once. After watching all the training videos and receiving my uniform and copy of the company policy book, I was informed that I would be starting in a week.
I could hardly wait!
I thought it would be really cool to work in a kitchen and cook rather than dealing with customers all day every day, like I did at my gas station job. So, it was very cool at first to be back in the kitchen flipping burgers. My responsibilities included salting the meat, making sure I cooked fresh meat regularly, chopping the old and dry meat for chili, frying chicken in the deep fryer and grilling chicken on the grill.
I also had to sweep and scrub the parking lot, scrub the floors in the kitchen, put away deliveries when they came, take out the trash, drain the fryers and put in fresh oil; among other things...
But first, as soon as I was done training to do all of that, I was stuck on floor scrubbing duty. Two or three shifts a week, where I'd come in and scrub the floor for hours, give the main grill guy a half hour break and take the trash out. It was awful! Until I learned to bring headphones and listen to music while I worked, and then it became a lot more enjoyable.
Eventually, the crew was spread thin enough that I got my chance to be a proper grill guy and I graduated to cooking for 20 to 30 hours a week. I wasn't allowed to listen to music while cooking, so I took up humming and singing, much to the annoyance of some of my more, uh, cranky coworkers.
I have this thing - everywhere I work, I want to learn everything that I possibly can. Because knowledge is power and knowledge can also mean more hours. No one just gives full-time hours anymore, you usually have to prove yourself, starting with about 6 hours a week until they'll give you 32 to 40.
So, I insisted that I be taught every job in the restaurant. No one took me too seriously, but bit by bit, I learned the different positions in the kitchen and persuaded the manager to give me some hours training on the register. Once I got my register training, I went back to flipping burgers and the occasional day of floor scrubbing.
It all came together one day when one of the cashiers walked out... I got to work an extra shift that day. Overnight, I went from around 24 hours a week to around 40 every week. I was pretty pleased with my foresight.
Speaking of foresight, I was always preparing for things that no one else was. I remember one time the manager started yelling at me, and I snapped out of whatever reverie I was in and found that I had cooked way too many french fries! Moments later, a horde of hungry customers descended on us and bought every last fry. That wasn't the only time that happened, but it sure was the funniest.
Of course, there were a few times when I just screwed up and cooked too much, but there were plenty of times when I saved the day by preparing for the crowds before they appeared.
I worked for about a year as a grill guy, another year as a cashier (which includes all kinds of other responsibilities, depending on which register you're on: it could be scrubbing the tables and chairs down or washing dishes and baking potatoes) and another half a year doing a little bit of everything. In the end, I made a lot of new friends, learned a lot for my book and finally got fed up with the whole experience and call it quits (though in defense of fast food jobs, it was mainly an interpersonal conflict that caused me to quit and go back to working midnights at the gas station).
I have countless little anecdotes from my time in fast food, and they'll probably get blogs of their own in the future and be referenced through out many of my future works.
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I've decided to start ending my blogs with songs that I like. I do not own or endorse the music or artists, unless otherwise noted. Please enjoy my selection of the day. An underrated track from Pink Floyd that I thoroughly enjoy. I remember listening to it on breaks at work.
This is part of the "2020" series, originally published on my "I Am Medley" blog.
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Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I stayed busy as usual, with my usual projects. I wanted to do something to commemorate MLK, so I created the below #FactOfTheDay graphic for my Fact of the Day on Facebook and Twitter.
That is one of my favorite MLK quotes. He has always been a hero of mine.
I feel like a lot of people talk the talk, but he really walked the walked as well. (See what I did there? I thought it was pretty clever.)
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I've decided to start ending my blogs with songs that I like. I do not own or endorse the music or artists, unless otherwise noted. Please enjoy my selection of the day.
This is part of the "2020" series, originally published on my "I Am Medley" blog.
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Life is just flying past, and sometimes the days just blend together; but one thing that stands out and brightens my day is a good sermon or Bible study and good fellowship.
Tonight, we went to church and Bro. Guy preached a great sermon about protecting your field.
Basically, in short: We all have an area in life, a field if you will, that is our responsibility. In the old days, people would defend their fields with everything they had.
We need to pray for and be the best influence we can be in our "field," our jobs, schools, etc. and the people in them. We need to be the best we can be, praying and working to defend our fields.
It was a powerful sermon and I can't do it justice here.
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I've decided to start ending my blogs with songs that I like. I do not own or endorse the music or artists, unless otherwise noted. Please enjoy my selection of the day.
This is part of the "2020" series, originally published on my "I Am Medley" blog.
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After WinterJam last night, we rushed home so I could get sleep before we went to our church's Men's Prayer Breakfast. I was to give the Bible Study/Message at the breakfast.
I just started going to this church consistently a few months ago after I quit my job, before that I had only visited a few times. I had been to one or two of these breakfasts over the past few months and had been asked to give the message this month. The men's breakfast is held at Carrollton Ponderosa once a month.
I was very excited about giving the message!
But when we woke up this morning, the weather was terrible! We were worried that we wouldn't be able to make it. We did make it though! Despite the snow and the ice we made it to Ponderosa. Only a handful of people made it, but it was good. (I always enjoy eating at Ponderosa too!)
Anyway, I spoke on this world not being our home and how a proper focus on the world to come makes us more compassionate and loving people in the here and now.
I based the whole thing on Hebrews 13:14 and supported it with several other verses.
I was honored to get the opportunity to speak and look forward to doing so again.
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I've decided to start ending my blogs with songs that I like. I do not own or endorse the music or artists, unless otherwise noted. Please enjoy my selection of the day.
This is part of the "2020" series, originally published on my "I Am Medley" blog.
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One of the highlights of my year is always attending WinterJam. WinterJam is a concert that tours the states with roughly ten different Christian musicians. The lineup is different every year with the exception of Newsong, who founded the tour. In my area, they perform in the same venues every year. I've attended in both Pittsburgh and Cleveland, but Pittsburgh is my favorite.
Selfie at PPG Paints Arena
I thought I would be in Australia by this time, so WinterJam this year was kind of an afterthought, but it is a silver lining to still being in Ohio. We went to Pittsburgh this year, the PPG Paints Arena.
The artists included Andy Mineo, Riley Clemmons and Crowder. Newsong played a shorter set this year because several members of the group were ill.
The arena was so crowded we had to sit in the upper levels this time. This was the furthest away we'd ever sat, and I felt a little wobbly at that altitude, but it was awesome. You could feel the sound reverberating through the building.
One of the highlights when Crowder headlines the tour is always how all the musicians on the tour come out on stage and perform the final hoedown with him. This year he also performed a few songs with Riley Clemmons.
As you can see, I snapped a few pictures with my cell phone, but the venue doesn't allow larger cameras, so I didn't chance taking the Canon PowerShot in. (Though I seem to remember taking it in there once before without an issue.)
I had a blast and though I hope to be in Australia by this time next year, I will look forward to attending another WinterJam in future!
Pittsburgh skyline from the parking lot
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I've decided to start ending my blogs with songs that I like. I do not own or endorse the music or artists, unless otherwise noted. Please enjoy my selection of the day.
This is part of the "2020" series, originally published on my "I Am Medley" blog.
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Today was much the same as yesterday, I spent a lot of time working on things I was behind on - and looking forward to future projects I'm working on. The highlight of my day is when my brother Mitchell stopped by and asked me to give him a haircut.
Mitchell often grows his hair down to his shoulders, but he decided today that he wanted to try it short for awhile. He messaged me before he got off work to make sure I was home and then came down for a haircut.
Before
Mitchell is always on the move... He's a ball of energy, and refuses to sit still. It took everything in him to sit long enough to let me whack the hair off. I managed to snap some before and after pictures though!
After
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I've decided to start ending my blogs with songs that I like. I do not own or endorse the music or artists, unless otherwise noted. Please enjoy my selection of the day.
