Thursday, November 17, 2011

Phil McKraken


When I first conceived of the idea of having a blog at all for myself, back when blogzilly was first hatched back in February of 2009, it is ironic because the intent was to actually do a lot of different 'thematic' blog posts. Then, things just changed when, as you may or may not know, my 15 month old son went from an average, everyday kid one day...to something totally different the next.

When that happens, when your life radically changes, whether it is from some tragic accident, maybe the loss of a loved one, or even a good thing, like winning the lottery, you go through this period of time where things almost aren't real. And I don't even know what to CALL that period of time.

I guess it depends a lot on what happened to you, 'natch.

For me, even though I have a written record from February 2009 through the summer of 2011, that period of time just feels like a strung-together clump of stages. Hard to describe what I mean. Maybe one day I'll try harder. Bottom line is, that my plans for blogzilly began to change. And I don't really regret it. I needed to choose a clearer path, I simply had to, for the sake of keeping it together as best I could, know what I mean?


I started to, less and less, write about games, toys, movies...all the stuff I loved (and still do love) and I put a lot of things I had started on the shelf.

Thanks to this place, I can now start pulling that stuff off the shelf and taking a look at it again.

But HOLY CRAP it is dusty...




Originally, back when I built the Wayback Machine on blogzilly, it was so that I could revisit some of the old posts that were created on the Palisades website. I managed to get a few of them on the blogzilly site before I started to fade into more of a focus on life as a Special Needs family, but the intent is the same, though it will be expanded, here.

I want to grow it to include some all new stuff, like I did when I started it back with the Jim Henson Statue Ceremony, but also to go back to Creatus Maximus, a very short-lived venture for me, post-Palisades, but something that Luke was very much a huge, HUGE part of, even though it barely went anywhere, mainly because I ran out of money, to be quite honest. But mainly it will be Palisades-centric.

Today's Wayback Machine was, originally, scheduled to be about Eddie Wires.


In case you do NOT know who Eddie Wires was, he was a prototype painter, and dear friend, who died on August 12th, 2010.

He is on my mind often enough as it is. He is on my mind even MORE when The Walking Dead is airing new episodes. I had some stuff I was going to show from the old days on him here, but it started getting out of control long.

And too deeply personal.

SO I am holding off. Maybe I will publish it another time on my own site. Maybe not. I had some stuff I wanted to write. Stuff I needed to write. Stuff I hadn't written about him before. I wrote it. But sometimes you don't ALWAYS have to publish what you write.

But I started thinking about other old friends, old friends from the old days at Palisades Toys, those I haven't had contact with in a while, and I went and dug this out. We used to run a Daily Bit on the Palisades Website called Fan Friday. Here's one of them. Hope you enjoy it.

Friday, March 19, 2004
Fan Friday is about you. It is designed to be a place where you, the Palisades supporter, can be featured or feature anything YOU want. So be sure to e-mail me your text and photos to me at klilly@palisadestoys.com and I will run them on a first sent, first served basis! Feel free to tell us as much as you want about yourself, who you are and what you are into!

Today’s FF Bit? Phil Reasoner, otherwise known as philnjill on the Message Boards. Phil is one of those folks who has made the journey, all the way from Seattle, to visit the office. Cooler still, he sent the office a bunch of pizzas the following day in order to THANK us! Now that is what I call a TOUR!!

Anyway, here’s Phil…

Hi all! My name is Phil Reasoner and I’m a Muppets collector! On forums, I’m known as either philnjill or, before the crash, Darth_Dug. I’m 38, married to my high school sweetheart and have four wonderful kids: Maranda, Lydia, Alexander and Sophia (ages 8 yo - 6 months):

I was born in Kansas City, where I met my wonderful wife Jill 20 years ago this past December. We both went to the University of Kansas (we were there the year KU won the NCAA championship!) and we married 2 days after graduation in 1990. I took my Architecture degree and my new bride to a place we picked completely out of a book and sight unseen to live: Seattle. I “did” Architecture for a little over two years before going back to Accounting, which I had done prior to getting my degree. Eventually, I worked for a company as not only their bookkeeper but also ended up as the Network Administrator – something else I had done prior to college. Five years ago, I began work for a large payroll company and today I install high-end database applications on SQL and Oracle platforms across the country for Time and Attendance tracking.

Growing up the oldest of four kids, our entire family was devoted to the Muppets. We watched every episode we could – I have many fond memories of that time. So, when I first saw the Muppets in ToysRUs, my resistance melted away after the second viewing! Today, I’ve got just about every single piece (opened of course) with the exception of White Tux Rowlf and the Wedding Set. I’ve also collected many of the Sideshow busts. Here are pics I recently took of my collection – I had built shelves prior to the latest releases and they looked great – now I’m out of room again and have to build more shelves!

Check out all the collection photos!


























I also have a nearly complete collection of Star Wars, LOTR and all the Art Asylum Star Trek. I recently completed a diorama for my Geonosian collection. My desire (someday when I have more space!) is to build quite a few more dioramas. In the meantime, I write quite a few reviews for Artoosnews.com on figures as they are released.


Thanks Phil! Hey you came back a second time and no PIE!! What gives!?! But thanks for the munchkin clothes.

And remember folks...I am running out of Fan Friday Bits, so keep them coming. Send me your stuff! And remember it can be about ANYTHING. If I get no more submissions, I will be forced to run pictures of my collection of Shrunken Heads or something.

I have GOT to believe that those of you who read this have lives outside of the Muppets and outside of the Message Board. This space is designated to showcase you and your lives, who you are and what you do, BEYOND the toys and the boards. It does NOT have to be your Muppet collection! Have any of you won awards, had a kid, bought a house, hell even went out on a date or done something where you took some pics? See, even Phil sent a pic of his family...how cool is THAT!?! That’s what we are talking about...YOU!

This is your space…USE IT!

See Ya Next Friday!
Ken (ResidentLilly)
Product Development

UGH. I can't stand the way I used to write. So...sickeningly happy. No, scratch that. Just not being myself. But it's understandable. I was writing FOR a company, so I could not fucking swear, dammit, and that puts me in a bind, and I needed to make sure I did not do anything that was overly controversial.

But my oh my, how the times they have a-changed.

I prefer the approach to writing these kinds of things I have now. Much more real, wouldn't you agree?

OUT.

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