kbobam

Thanks guys, and Winnie, for the thumbs ups. I was feeling bad about not having posted anything for a while, so I was hoping to do something that would 'stand out' a little.

Ha! I think maybe Steph already agreed with me, but did it more creatively. Since I seem to be frequently 'out of the loop' by nature, I had to look up 'Gobstopper'. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everlasting_Gobstopper

Oh! Don't say 'just' when talking about one inch Akros! There's something particularly appealing about them. A few of us (you know who you are) are sort of secret 'cult' members! But I'm not allowed to talk about it! Perhaps I've said too much! Some of my favorite marbles belong to what I'm going to call the 'type' you're showing here. They're especially interesting in my book, because in one sense the deep reds sort of 'clash' with the other colors. But when you look at them another way, the other colors are performing as 'wingmen' to emphasize the beautiful Akro oxblood. ( :

I'm in a good Saturday Night mood tonight, and was hoping to make amends for all my recent posts which had a sort of "Close the damn door! What are you trying to heat the whole world?" attitude. So here's a tuber I just found. It's 'Top 10 Cutest Pets' title is a little misleading. There isn't a single dog or cat. It's about interesting 'alternative pets'. Might just be my mood, but I found it really interesting and fun. ( : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F5JkpZh73I

Ha! Those last two work so well together!

They made it clearer early this morning with one of their 'moving logos'. The 'old' one appeared, then little hands with cloths showed up and wiped it away. Next, 'Crayolas' drew in the new one! This is 'commie hippie' stuff, dang it!

(Warning! This is a 'Drunk Uncle' no pulling-punches post) What do you think of the new Google logo? Makes me think of 'New Coke'. Change for change's sake, even if it's ridiculous. And I'm just so tired of how it seems like 'everything's' being altered these days to appeal to young stupid people. In this particular case, the design seems to take this concept even further by being particularly suited for grade-school children. Of course the actual Google logo is pretty irrelevant in the overall scheme of things. But somehow it symbolizes many important concepts to me. Like how our kids growing up with gps's can't actually read a map. (This would be a good place to end this post, but not for 'Drunk Uncle'!) Hey! Have you ever thought about how silly it is that you'd rather slit your own throat than live a day without your 'stupid-phone'? Someone somewhere is certainly going to come up with a 'phone bomb' at some point. And this otherwise great country will be on its knees. Doesn't that bother you? In spite of the early warning, I apologize if this was more 'opinion' than you may have wanted right now!

Ha! Now I get it!

That's the stuff okay. But I still don't 'get' it. Low fat half and half still just sounds like a 'creative advertising' way of selling a blend of skim and regular milk. ( :

Close enough! Peanut brittle is one of the greatest things in existence, as long as you consider the current state of your teeth and adjust accordingly! ( :

Actually, I'm not a big 'candy' person. But I do get a 'craving' every once in a while. Want to remind everyone that if you've never gone to 'The Dollar Tree' for candy, you don't know what you're missing. They have so much stuff! I'm pretty sure they have more candy varieties than any other type of product. And although there are some 'off-brands', there are even more classic names that you already know and love. Got the malted milk balls you see below the other day. I was going to put a quarter in the picture for 'scale', but I forgot. I think you can still see that this is a huge 'theater-sized' box. They have many of the traditional 'movie' varieties. What? You're actually thinking it would make sense to sneak some of these in the next time you go to 'the pictures'? Well, geesh. Personally, the idea of maybe being sent to 'theater jail' terrifies me, but if you have nerves of steel and enjoy living life 'on the edge', I say 'go for it'! Halloween is also just around the corner, and let's face it. Doesn't matter how rich you may be, if you 'stock up' in advance and also save a little money in the deal, then that's a wonderful thing you'll feel good about. Which leads to another helpful hint! While you're intelligently pre-planning and saving money in the process, you should also buy a bunch of the 'theater boxes' along with more 'appropriate' Halloween candy. This will allow you at some point to exclaim to yourself or others "Oh shoot! What was I thinking?! These big boxes are no good for trick-or-treaters because the candy isn't individually wrapped! I'm just going to have to save this for myself! Dang!"

Egg nog is a funny one for me. I run hot and cold. Some years I don't even want to look at the stuff, and in others, I can't get enough! Ha! Just thought of something! Not all that long ago I had a 'special moment'. Was at the store and saw 'low-fat half and half' for the first time. What does that even mean? Pretty sure I literally exclaimed out loud "Oh give me a bleeping break!" People seemed to be suddenly giving me a somewhat 'wider berth'. ( :

The 'skim milk base' reminded me of an interesting thought I once heard. Personally, I haven't bought any 'milk product' besides half-and-half for the past twenty-five years or so. But I've been starting to realize lately that this could possibly be because of the 'you can't teach an old fart new tricks' concept. It just seems that milk, like other things, should have a lot of fat to make it taste great! But I'm remembering now something I've heard from various respected 'chefs' and similar people. Any of the different 'fat-level' milks are sometimes the absolute best choice for preparing certain dishes. It's a question of 'balancing all the flavors' correctly! ( :

Oh God! I'm completely doing an lol dying sort of thing even though it doesn't 'become' me.. This is hilarious!

They look great! JoAnne, you might want to consider getting a black light bulb from your local big orange box store. They have an ultra-violet bulb in that modern (to me) 'squiggly' style. Because it fits into any traditional lightbulb lamp, it might make the 'lighting process' for photos a lot easier for you. They're around five bucks. Another thing I like to mention when the subject of black light comes up is that flashlights and other devices that use LED bulbs aren't always the best choice for 'marble people'. The 'frequency response' of the light isn't the same as the bulb mentioned above. So you might be short-changing yourself. A bulb based on the old 'gas in a tube' design will often give you a brighter overall 'glow', and sometimes make certain areas in the marble glow that the flashlight won't. Sorry for the nerdy lecture! Hoping it might be useful for at least a small number of people!

Aha! Thanks for the responses. It's a very neat marble type! I can see now that the opening title wasn't necessarily stating an I.D. as much as asking a "Wouldn't that be something?" question.

I'm feeling a little guilty for responding to the original post in a 'selfish' way, and sort of ignoring the 'just for fun' part. It's definitely been fun seeing all the other emoticons, even when I don't have my own personal need for them here. Hope people continue to post them for any and all reasons! ( :

The overall 'flow' of this entire conversation is very vague and confusing to me. This is likely due to my general lack of marble knowledge. I have no idea what a chalkie or chalky is. I'm guessing that Steph does, and her response is indicating that she hasn't heard specifically of a black one. But I don't really know. Ric made this comment, which certainly seems straight-forward. "....the only thing I can say with confidence is that it's not a chalky." This seemed incredibly significant to me. I was surprised that no one responded to it directly one way or the other. Are the other responders to the original post all in agreement with him? Seems like establishing whether the original identification was 'generally accepted' would have been a logical 'first step' here. Probably this entire topic makes complete sense to most people automatically. I guess I just felt some need to mention that this one somehow stood out in not fitting a 'pattern' that would be of good use to 'newbies' and 'I don't remember what I did yesterday' people like me.

Was there ever a significant 'Peanuts' moment when Charlie Brown had a bag over his head and looked very much like the emoticon? I always think of him when I see it, but don't know why.

Ha! I can't believe I forgot about the rolling head! Having a good variety of smile/laugh types is a great thing. With only a few choices, you sometimes wind up not 'smiling' as often as you might, because you don't want to be repetitive.

Let's not forget that the shipping is free!

Yep! Those first two are the ones I'd most like to see. There are probably a couple more I'd like to have around, but I won't remember them until two seconds after I hit the 'reply' button. ( :

These are 'cool', but first we have more need for a few of the 'oldies but goodies'. Like the 'arms-out shrug what the bleep huh'. And the 'slaps oneself in the face' Granted, I may be in more need of that last one than most people! .

Whoops. You're absolutely right. I was confusing interestingly named rock star offspring. ( : Boy, if I really was an attorney, I bet I'd be a great one!