Rereading My Childhood – A Year With the BSC #33: Hearts for Old Farts

A Year With the BSC is an informal series wherein I explore the 1990’s CD-ROM video game The Baby-sitters Club Friendship Kit. The game is more of a personal organizer; it features with a calendar, an address book, a stationary kit, a flyer maker, and a personality profile. I’m focusing on the more interesting aspect of the game: the personalized letters and the journal entries. The full list of entries can be found at rereadingmychildhood.com.

You know what we don’t do anymore? Watch a movie just because an actor or actress we like is in it. I can’t think of a single person whom I would consider my favorite actor. There are definitely actors whom I would never want to watch in a movie ever (*cough*Louie CK*cough*), but there isn’t a single actor I would watch no matter what they were in. There are actors I like, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pine, other people not named Chris. But the ’90s were a different time – we had favorite actors.

This is all to justify the random name I entered when the game asked me who my favorite actress is.

Did I enter that Amy Poehler is my favorite actress? Yes. Would I watch anything she’s in? Baby Mama proved that the answer is no. Although, I like Abby’s idea – I should have put down Lisa Simpson. Or, more accurately if we talking about fictional characters on animated television shows, Tina Belcher.

How big are we talking? As big as the map that the kids of Stoneybrook made for Stacey when she moved back to New York? I don’t care how blind the elderly are, that’s just too big.

Yep, you wasted bandwidth on this .jpg.

No, I have chocolate and Edible Arrangement related plans for Valentine’s Day. At least, I do if my partner knows what’s good for him.

That’s actually surprising, Kristy. For me, it’s Halloween. It’s the only time I can easily get Halloween decorations. Or, as I call them, decorations. If I could, I’d have a spooky tree ghost over a graveyard of zombies all year round, but the “city” thinks that it’s “inappropriate” to have bloody body “parts” in the middle of “July.”

Rereading My Childhood – A Year With the BSC #32: Get Out Dat Hole!

A Year With the BSC is an informal series wherein I explore the 1990’s CD-ROM video game The Baby-sitters Club Friendship Kit. The game is more of a personal organizer; it features with a calendar, an address book, a stationary kit, a flyer maker, and a personality profile. I’m focusing on the more interesting aspect of the game: the personalized letters and the journal entries. The full list of entries can be found at rereadingmychildhood.com.

This week, Jessi asked an important question regarding meteorology.

Yeah, furry rodent, we gonna have more winter? You are our only source for weather prediction and I demand answers! The government shutdown is over, so you have to go back to work and tell us the weather.

Turns out the groundhog didn’t see his shadow and we are going to have an early summer. Which is either a nice change, especially for the people in the midwest or is a stark reminder that we’re destroying the planet with our gas and we’re going to get used to hotter temperatures . . . hotter temperatures than we’re used to.

And to answer Jessi’s question: dogs.

What the fuck is a “birthday tree” and why haven’t they told me?

Oh! It’s an actual tree! That’s a sweet gift, actually. If only they had said something. They could have in the journal. It’s not like Dawn is here to read it while she’s out there in California. It does suck that Dawn doesn’t get to be a part of the BSC during her birthday and we couldn’t hear from here on this day. Dawn-o-philes have the short straw, don’t they? I wonder if Ann M. Martin couldn’t write for someone from California and that’s why she unceremoniously left the series. I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.

I don’t know, Abby. Maybe she is bonkers and you don’t realize it because you’re bonkers too.

 

Rereading My Childhood – A Year With the BSC #31: Killing Trees

A Year With the BSC is an informal series wherein I explore the 1990’s CD-ROM video game The Baby-sitters Club Friendship Kit. The game is more of a personal organizer; it features with a calendar, an address book, a stationary kit, a flyer maker, and a personality profile. I’m focusing on the more interesting aspect of the game: the personalized letters and the journal entries. The full list of entries can be found at rereadingmychildhood.com.

I started a new school semester yesterday and Kingdom Hearts III just came out, so let’s get this show on the road! What’s going on, Dawn?

Okay, not Dawn. But this is Dawn adjacent. What is a “birthday tree?” Is it an actual tree? Do you have to carve your name in order to sign it? Is it a paper tree? Is it the stump of a tree like you see at weddings now? If that’s the case, wouldn’t that make Dawn sad since you had to kill a tree to get the stump? If it’s just a paper tree, isn’t that still killing a tree? How far does Dawn take this tree thing?

That was quite the flex there, Stace. From magnets to “What’s your favorite store?” My favorite store is any bookstore where I can buy some quality The Baby-Sitters Club merchandise from Scholastic. *whisper*yeah, just put the money over there, thanks*whisper*

OMG, Claudia. You’re misspelling things on purpose, aren’t you?

Rereading My Childhood – A Year With the BSC #30: The Late One

A Year With the BSC is an informal series wherein I explore the 1990’s CD-ROM video game The Baby-sitters Club Friendship Kit. The game is more of a personal organizer; it features with a calendar, an address book, a stationary kit, a flyer maker, and a personality profile. I’m focusing on the more interesting aspect of the game: the personalized letters and the journal entries. The full list of entries can be found at rereadingmychildhood.com.

It was bound to happen eventually, folks! I forgot to do this on Tuesday, so it’s late. So let’s get this started with a letter from Jessi.

Controversial opinion, I know. I don’t care much for Italian food. There are too many carbohydrates and I’m always hungry two hours later.

Cool story, Kristy? Like, do I need to know this? Is it still down there? Isn’t it your job, as the babysitter, to fix the toilet?

Uniforms are fine. Ask me this question when I was twelve and I’d probably call this fascism, completely ignoring the fact that uniforms help reduce school violence and come with many other benefits. Maybe not for high school, but middle schoolers should absolutely have uniforms. They’re monsters.

First of all, you can’t “say whatever you want.” And there are other ways of expressing yourself. Clothes are great and all, but calm down. You’re in middle school. You’re not making a statement on the Senate floor. Y’all could do with some uniforms.

On a side note, I wonder why everyone was so concerned with school uniforms when I was a kid. It was, like, the biggest threat to our expression. I conjecture that it was a concern of the white, male Baby Boomers who wrote these stories and games. School uniforms were their biggest concern because their economy was bustling, they could go to school without putting themselves in tremendous debt, they weren’t getting shot during health class, and healthcare was a buck a month. Of course school uniforms would be a concern – they had no other concerns.

That’s very close-minded of you, Mallory.

Rereading My Childhood – A Year With the BSC #28: Welcome Back, Jessi!

A Year With the BSC is an informal series wherein I explore the 1990’s CD-ROM video game The Baby-sitters Club Friendship Kit. The game is more of a personal organizer; it features with a calendar, an address book, a stationary kit, a flyer maker, and a personality profile. I’m focusing on the more interesting aspect of the game: the personalized letters and the journal entries. The full list of entries can be found at rereadingmychildhood.com.

Looks like Jessi has returned from her suspicious absence. And she’s not talking about what happened. Instead, she changed the subject.

Not to be confused with the Red Shoe Diaries, the soft-core porn starring David Duchovny.

Man, people trying to create good art has ruined the models watching melodramatic basketball industry.

First of all, Logan’s brother is named “Hunter Bruno?”

Second, Abby just allowed her charge to outright lie after his gluttony. It’s implied that they weren’t supposed to eat the cake because then they wouldn’t have had to lie to Logan. What the hell, Abby?

Third, the only people who wonder what they would do if they were invisible are creepy dudes who want to peep on women in the shower, insecure people who think others talk about them all day, and Russian agents trying to destroy America. Our president fills all three of these!

That’s cool. Make the black girl perform for everyone else under the guise of celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and then don’t let her talk about the experience herself. Also, she gets one line about the performance. And Logan gets his own line about “flashing slides” and Claudia gets her own line about the lighting.

I love how the rest of them just clapped and clapped. Like maniacs. During everything. Even when no one else was clapping. Even when the ushers asked them to stop. Even while security dragged them out of the theater. Even as they stood by their cars, no one willing to stop clapping to open the door. Even while the psychiatrist evaluated them. Even while the hospital orderlies showed them their rooms. Even while . . .

Rereading My Childhood – A Year With the BSC #28: Creating a Habit

A Year With the BSC is an informal series wherein I explore the 1990’s CD-ROM video game The Baby-sitters Club Friendship Kit. The game is more of a personal organizer; it features with a calendar, an address book, a stationary kit, a flyer maker, and a personality profile. I’m focusing on the more interesting aspect of the game: the personalized letters and the journal entries. The full list of entries can be found at rereadingmychildhood.com.

It was a slow week for the BSC.

Claudia starts the year by resolving to work on her spelling by . . . making spelling mistakes. I know this isn’t a school paper but maybe you could start, I don’t know, looking over your spelling whenever you write something. Just to create a habit?

Why can’t the BSC ever remember the names of movies? Are you talking about The Little Mermaid, Stacey? Did you really forget the name of The Little Mermaid? Are you worried that if you mention one of their films, Bob Iger himself is going to burst through your wall like the Kool-Aid man and slap you with a Cease and Desist?

On a side note: Where’s Jessi?

Rereading My Childhood – A Year With the BSC #27: What Happened to Jessi?

A Year With the BSC is an informal series wherein I explore the 1990’s CD-ROM video game The Baby-sitters Club Friendship Kit. The game is more of a personal organizer; it features with a calendar, an address book, a stationary kit, a flyer maker, and a personality profile. I’m focusing on the more interesting aspect of the game: the personalized letters and the journal entries. The full list of entries can be found at rereadingmychildhood.com.

Happy New Year! Here’s to hoping that 2019 is better than 2018!

Let’s see what the BSC has been up to this week.

Mary Anne is crying while forgetting the title of the utterly ubiquitous It’s a Wonderful Life, that’s on trend.

The BSC is going to have BSC Night Camp instead of telling some parents that they just can’t go the New Years’ Eve Stoneybrook Orgy. Yes, yes, the usual.

And we get to learn about Kwanzaa . . . from Claudia? Why did they leave the cultural education to the least educated member of the BSC? Why couldn’t Jessi just tell me about Kwanzaa? Why did it have to be the only other POC in Stoneybrook?

Cool Year-In-Review, Kristy, but what happened to Jessi?

You say you’re her best friend, Mallory, but you are a part of this cover-up! I will not rest until Jessi Ramsey is found or there’s a podcast about her disappearance. I will have an answer!

Or I’ll drop it next week when Jessi has an entry about snow or school lunches. See you then!

Rereading My Childhood – A Year With the BSC #26: Sweet Camp Moolah

A Year With the BSC is an informal series wherein I explore the 1990’s CD-ROM video game The Baby-sitters Club Friendship Kit. The game is more of a personal organizer; it features with a calendar, an address book, a stationary kit, a flyer maker, and a personality profile. I’m focusing on the more interesting aspect of the game: the personalized letters and the journal entries. The full list of entries can be found at rereadingmychildhood.com.

Merry Christmas, everyone! I’m writing this on December 25th itself and I hope you’re having as great a day as me!

This week, Mallory Pike sent me a letter.

One of the questions in my profile is “Do you share a room?” Since I technically share a room with my partner, I chose “No.” However, I think this means something different to Mallory.

Meanwhile, at Camp Snowflake, the kids are getting a little rambunctious.

What do you mean “fortunately,” Mallory? The kids were attacking each other and their food, but it started snowing, so everything’s okay? That doesn’t make any sense. If you want to be a writer, you should really think about your adverbs.

Also, the weather here was rainy, and I liked it very much. Thank you for asking.

You guys should really think about not doing a camp all the time. Summer Camp. Spring Break Camp. Winter Break Camp. Camp Camp. God, you’d think some Camp Corporation would move into Stoneybrook with all this opportunity for camp profits. Camps are money making schemes, right? Like, the people who run the camps are just flush with cash? The most camp experience I have is with the movie Sleepaway Camp and Mel really wanted that sweet camp moolah and that’s why he wouldn’t shut it down after the first attack.

I don’t know, Abby. All the money in the world? I’d be a super villain. I guess I’d have to pour it all into impenetrable fortresses and minions. And diabolical schemes. “You’ll never catch me, Baby-Sitting Brats! My doomsday machine will trigger before you can get the shutdown sequence! Mwa hahahahahahaha!”

Rereading My Childhood – A Year With the BSC #25: Camp Word-That-Has-New-Connotations

A Year With the BSC is an informal series wherein I explore the 1990’s CD-ROM video game The Baby-sitters Club Friendship Kit. The game is more of a personal organizer; it features with a calendar, an address book, a stationary kit, a flyer maker, and a personality profile. I’m focusing on the more interesting aspect of the game: the personalized letters and the journal entries. The full list of entries can be found at rereadingmychildhood.com.

Oh, boy! I’m finished with classes for the semester and just in time, too! The BSC was chatty this week.

I know, right? The holidays are a busy time! It must be nice to just hang out and make traditional foods.

Well that seems sweet. We can all gather around and relax for a few minutes before the traveling and familial obligations and gift buying. I think we should eschew the commercialism of the holiday by refusing to buy gifts and just being together with our families. If we-

Oh, boy. We couldn’t have one event without Kristy coming up with some money making scheme? And why is it always a camp? I have never been to a camp in my entire life – day or sleepover. Who are these kids going to camp?

And the name. Some right-wing crazy person during his podcast (because he got kicked off the radio for being racist) that it’s a liberal indoctrination camp where they make everyone gay kiss and rue God, or whatever crazo-s think we do with our spare time. Why can’t the BSC just take a few days off for themselves and maybe force the parents to spend quality time with their children during these fleeting years during a season that professes to be about family?

Oh, okay. I guess I’m too late. Well, tube it up, Sean. Your parents are paying for it.

Yep. Let’s not forget about what this season is actually about: waiting for gifts that you don’t need that were paid for by someone who doesn’t have the money. Happy Holidays!

Rereading My Childhood – A Year With the BSC #24: Vice-President Search

A Year With the BSC is an informal series wherein I explore the 1990’s CD-ROM video game The Baby-sitters Club Friendship Kit. The game is more of a personal organizer; it features with a calendar, an address book, a stationary kit, a flyer maker, and a personality profile. I’m focusing on the more interesting aspect of the game: the personalized letters and the journal entries. The full list of entries can be found at rereadingmychildhood.com.

It’s finals week for me but not for the BSC, apparently! For them, it’s holiday card time.

Looks like Abby is vying for vice-president again, trying to edge out Claudia. But you know what? I think Claudia doesn’t spend enough time on her studies, so maybe Abby should take over vice-presidential duties.

If they only had five clients, then a holiday photo would make sense. However, the BSC has, like, twenty or so charges. You try to wrangle twenty kids for one picture. I don’t think that’s a good idea, Abby. Now I see why you should be vice-president, either. Mallory’s idea is actually do-able. Maybe she should be the new vice-president.

Remember when we didn’t all have computers in our purses? Before we all had personal laptops? When there was one computer in the kitchen? And you had a sign-up sheet for computer time next to it? And you had an Epson printer that printed one line three times every five seconds so it took a full ten minutes to print one chapter of your Final Fantasy VIII fanfic? Those were the days.