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Author Micah Cambre

niche

I used to want to fit in. I remember wanting that acceptance, eager to please the few who “mattered”. I didn’t lose morals or values over trying to fit in, but I did make some effort.

I eventually became more mainstream in high school and into college. I bought the same thing as everyone else; I consumed the same music, movies and tv as the rest of my peers. GAP, Old Navy, Taco Bell, Nike… You know how it goes. All the name brand items that we all own.

California really has changed me in many ways. I’ve not only started consuming less mainstream, I’ve started to thirst for niche. Those things that not many others have or see or do. I want that experience you’d never be able to get, or wear that shirt that was only made once. I’d rather try out the local hole in the wall than pick up the McCrack. Is there a cool little documentary playing in the theater? I’d much rather see that then the latest romantic comedy. Hilary who? Britney Who? I’d much rather (re)discover Elliot Smith or Arcade Fire or Tortoise.

Water cooler talk is mainstream. I want that opening my eyes experience more and more. I guess you don’t know what you’re missing until someone else tells you. I’d like to be that someone else.

earthquake!

And so it was.
One second long.
Quite a jolt, enough so that I was caught off guard.

At about 12:30pst, I felt my very first earthquake ever! It was so short that I thought that there was a large machine outside that was dropping something heavy on the ground and just jolted the area, but it was actually an earthquake!

Now that I’ve experienced it, I hope I never again experience one. I’m done, thanks.

jury duty

I got summoned for the first time ever.

May 29.

Luckily, the courthouse is only 6 minutes from my house. This makes it less bad.

presenting my new tooth

new tooth crown
Today marked a momentous day in my life. I left the dentist with a brand new, permanent crown. The reason this is such a huge occasion is because I’ve had a bonded, half-chipped tooth in my mouth since I was 9. Today, that status has finally changed for good.

What is so weird about this new crown is knowing that I will never again see the tooth that was again. As I laid there in the chair, nervously gripping my shirt and arm, I grabbed the mirror the dentist gave me. His inquiry as to whether I wanted to see what was left was light-hearted because of a guy’s nature to want to see gross things. And, indeed, it was quite nasty. I had some blood around what was left of my chiseled down front tooth. It was nothing but a stub of what it used to be.

Now I’m left with this shiny, smooth new fake enamel of a tooth. And luckily, it matches all my other teeth so well that you would have no idea it wasn’t real. Technology really is amazing.

This is kinda of a closure to a life-long chapter that revolved around my accident. It was a silent transition.

marketing cartoons of the eighties

Wow, I watched my first episode of the classic show Voltron since I was probably six or seven years old. I find it hard to believe that I watched this so often more than twenty years ago.

I was absolutely a kid of the eighties cartoons. Voltron is one of my earliest cartoons in which I was obsessed. I wanted so badly to own all of the five lions that made up Voltron. Sadly, the closest I ever got to owning Voltron was a smaller, static version of Voltron which didn’t come apart.

Loving cartoons of the eighties was less about the cartoon as it was owning the latest, greatest toys: Voltron, Transformers, GI Joes, Thundercats, Silverhawks and so many more. I think my most treasured toyline was the Silverhawks since they were so shiny and metallic.

I was a total sucker for eighties marketing to children.