She last saw Jackson at Elizabeth Taylor’s 1991 wedding.
“He seemed like his own funny self,” she says. “We snuck in and took pictures of ourselves next to her dress. We always seemed to revert to being little kids. It was a sanctuary for him, because he knew I never wanted anything from him but his happiness.”

I think some of us in the (virtual) kid community can identify with that.

“Dani lives in a nice big town where only little kids and good mommies and daddies are allowed! She’s a lucky girl and her mommy loves her just bunches and bunches!”

As we skated up and down the streets, looking like children, acting like children — in for a penny, in for a pound; I’m nothing if not a method blogger — my own memories kept returning, and I’m afraid towards the end I bent poor Dani’s ear about Candyland and Risk, or how me and my sister used to sneak into our neighbor’s yard and tiptoe through the courtyard, playing pirates or Robin Hood, or how I remembered reading every single Oz book when I was eight or nine…

read the rest at rikpfalz. Kanomi’s own post about it is here.

Excellent use of in-character, out-of-character text, Kanomi! I’m glad your day as a kid av brought back some nice memories.

-Big Adz

“What shall I call him?” he said to himself. “I think I’ll call him PINOCCHIO. This name will make his fortune. I knew a whole family of Pinocchi once—Pinocchio the father, Pinocchia the mother, and Pinocchi the children—and they were all lucky. The richest of them begged for his living.”
After choosing the name for his Marionette, Geppetto set seriously to work to make the hair, the forehead, the eyes. Fancy his surprise when he noticed that these eyes moved and then stared fixedly at him. Geppetto, seeing this, felt insulted and said in a grieved tone:
“Ugly wooden eyes, why do you stare so?”
There was no answer.
After the eyes, Geppetto made the nose, which began to stretch as soon as finished. It stretched and stretched and stretched till it became so long, it seemed endless.
Poor Geppetto kept cutting it and cutting it, but the more he cut, the longer grew that impertinent nose. In despair he let it alone.
Next he made the mouth.
No sooner was it finished than it began to laugh and poke fun at him.
“Stop laughing!” said Geppetto angrily; but he might as well have spoken to the wall.
“Stop laughing, I say!” he roared in a voice of thunder.
The mouth stopped laughing, but it stuck out a long tongue.

Maybe if I am good and I read my books and study, someday I will be a real boy.

(( Adz identifies with famous artificial boys, David featured in A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), and D.A.R.Y.L., a 1985 film by the same name.
In the photo, Adz stands and reflects on his limited existence. heheh. ))

By the way, it is a coincidence that my little brother is named David. However one of the first things I did upon meeting David was give him a “My name is David!” gesture complete with an audio clip from the film.

After the July 4 Milk N’ Kookies Show, everyone ran to the dance floor to dance. I ran into my cousin Gabe. He is my cousin because my Daddy Dom is Gabe’s mom’s brother. I think his Bob The Builder stuff is really cool. He has a really neat backpack filled with stuff like fat crayons, comic books, regular books, and a video game. He also has shoes you don’t have to tie. They have plastic straps. He also has these bright plastic bracelets on his ankles. When you take them off you can link them together in a chain! I’ve seen girls wear them mostly but I think the part about linking them together is cool and I am happy to see Gabe wear them because that means I can too I think and maybe the girls won’t laugh. I talked with Gabe a little bit while we danced to the music that closed the MnK show.

Adz Childs: Can you tell me whats in your backpack?
Gabriel Canning: sure, i got a magnifier glas, some crayons, comic books and a mini senso (or simon in the US i think) and a calculator
Gabriel Canning: pyromaniac comics is my fave ; )

Adz Childs: neat! what is the calculator for
Gabriel Canning: im lousy at that stuff, im better with languages, so i got it to help me calculate tricky stuff when needed

Adz Childs: oh okay.
Gabriel Canning: better than counting fingers and toes actually : )
Gabriel Canning giggles

(( Coincidentally, Night Morrisey, a friend of Elizabeth Barrett, Gabe’s SL mother, wrote a story about Elizabeth’s family, today, entitled, Virtual Family, Real Life. It is a very sweet story and describes this virtual family very well. ))

(( Tomorrow I am 29. I keep getting older. Adz stays the same age.
I like Independence Day quite a bit. My birthday over the years has almost always been wrapped into Independence Day celebrations. For example as a kid my cake was often red-white-and-blue colored, sometimes with toothpick flags stuck in it! Blow out the flags, yay! I never minded. My mom sometimes worried that she was shortchanging me on my birthday, but I never felt that way at all. I sometimes got strange questions. One of them was, “Did you used to think the fireworks were for you?” Grown-ups ask stupid questions of kids sometimes when they don’t know what to say. Early on, I co-opted Independence Day, or it co-opted me. What little boy wouldn’t want fireworks on (nearly) his birthday? Giving into it just meant that my birthday party was a huge picnic celebration over a four-day weekend, every year! Not that!
As a kid I always thought 4th of July was a pretty damn cool holiday. As an adult, I feel the same way. The fun ratio is better on Independence Day, compared to other holidays. No family pressure. No religious baggage. Good food. Nice weather. A healthy combination of fun and meaning. And it ends with colored lights exploding in the sky, and a sense of solemn pride and optimism. I am glad to share a birthday (nearly) with America.

-Big Adz ))

Avatars be kind to your players!