WHAT A WEEK….

I was planning on writing up a bigger post, and it’s still in the works, but I decided both rushing it and trying to start off with a big post was not the best idea. Work my way up into it. Works for me, and IT’LL WORK FOR YOU, DAMNIT!!!

Earlier this week, me and my friends made a trip over the state line, to the dark side of Kansas (also known as Kansas). What was going to be a two hour or so trip to a few stops became a 6-7 hour marathon, but I’ll be dipped if it wasn’t a fun time for all.

We started off with a trip to Nerd Nation, probably the best mom-and-pop videogame store in Kansas City (haven’t been to ALL of them, so I can’t say for certain). The selection in this store is incredible, and the staff is fantastic. I’ll have much more to say about this place another time, (hence why I’m not divulging too much about how the trip went). I really do owe it to them. And if you’re into retro gaming on any level; looking to pad out a collection or just hunt down a random classic from your childhood, this is the place to be.

After that, we also visited Fred’s Train Shop. One of our friends has had a fascination with model/toy trains since he was little, and we decided to treat him with a trip here. We were thinking it’d be some little dinky shop. OH HEAVENS NO. This was a time capsule in store form. Model trains are an expensive hobby for sure, and this store enforced that (though I came to find most of the prices were more than reasonable considering what they actually go for). I don’t know a Lionel train from a TYCO train, but to see a friend of mine geek out and gasp and get excited so much was so awesome. Catching the secondhand smoke from their own joy vicariously was worth the trip all on its own…..even if I had no clue what he was talking about. I just wish they had a Kansas City Southern shirt in his size, I’d have totally paid for it.

Our final stop was to the Pan-Asia Market. I’m always a sucker for foreign goods, even if just to try out stuff that’s not familiar to my palette and getting to see so many different goods that we typically don’t see stateside outside of snack challenge/weird food tiktoks was great. I also grabbed me some takoyaki and a brown sugar and salted caramel boba tea. Good stuff, even if the combination of those two items probably wasn’t…..proper. If you know, then you know why I don’t need to explain dairy products and “fried squid ball” is a bad combination. And if you don’t know, then….ya know…re-read that last sentence and ask yourself if that combination would play nice in your stomach. Ahhh, the mistakes we make when EVERYTHING on the menu sounds yummy.

All in all, it was a fun time to go with friends and dive into these super-specific niches we all share.

Own that weirdness and find people that’ll abide in it with you, and abide in theirs as they abide in yours. Abide. Abide. If you’re reading this post out loud in your head (just as I’m hearing it out loud in mine as I type), that word is starting to sound funny. Abide.

You are loved, you are appreciated, and you matter.

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Check out Nerd Nation at:
6224 Nieman Rd.
Shawnee, KS 66203
https://nerdnation.us/

And check out Fred’s Train Shop at:
8909 Santa Fe Dr.,
Overland Park, KS 66212
https://www.fredstrainshop.com/

“Allow myself to introduce……..myself.” – Austin Powers

Call this me trying to get back into writing. Not the first, second, or third time I’ve given this an honest effort.

Call this me having a fallback when I inevitably get sick and tired of social media; I’m off Twitter, I’m one stupid decision and a messaging app transfer from being off Facebook, and BlueSky isn’t exactly a clear sky itself. You think you NEED it until you go a few days without it, and you realize, no matter how ingrained you think you are in it, you’re really not.

But really, I just wanted an outlet for my thoughts that is within my grasp. If I want to write a short post explaining what this site is gonna be, away I go. If I want to write a LONG novel-sized thought-dump, I’ll go for it. If I want to write a review or endorsement of something I enjoy or even didn’t enjoy, I can. Though I promise, the “RANT TIME!” phase has passed and you will see more positive content out of me, and most of my criticism will go beyond “I don’t like it” foibles and into genuine criticism. And trust me, I graduated from college with a degree in writing; I know the difference between “criticism” and “being an asshole”.

Call this me having a place to cuss, I guess.

But call this my return to writing. Me putting fingers to mechanical keyboard keys printing words on a scr-…OK, now I sound like one of those hokey Oscar speeches. “Moving pictures printed onto film that tell a story”. Maybe someday I’ll win an Oscar, and only then will I EARN THE RIGHT to give that “vegan” speech….while I have a Savage-sized Slim Jim waiting off-stage, but not off-stage enough that the camera doesn’t pick it up. Then it’ll be the most awkward Oscar moment since that guy that sang “Remember Me” from Coco was flat the whole damn time. Oh, and that Will Smith slap thing….I kinda thought the song was much more awkward. Maybe Pixar will present the best animated film Oscar to itself again? Yeah, that happened too.

I get off track, people, that’s what I do.

My name is Edward Pendleton, and a LOT has changed since the last time I wrote regularly. Hell, a lot has changed in the past year since I stopped updating on Facebook regularly. But, perhaps, a lot hasn’t. Perhaps I’ve grown a bit, matured a bit, changed a bit……..but maybe not that much either.

Get in losers, we’re going shopping.