Birthday Weekend
Monday, March 22, 2010 at 8:18AM Today is my daughter Gillian’s 12th birthday. It is crazy to think that she is already a dozen years old. We had a crazy Fiesta party on Friday night with several of her screaming friends and even 4 boys. Yikes.
I was DJ Ninja all night, laying down the funky fresh, jammy jams. It was actually a lot of fun to see Gillian having a blast and being the center of attention. Surprisingly enough the cops didn’t show up. I had the music cranked and luckily all of our neighbors were cool about it. We all had a blast!
Tomorrow is my 37th birthday. It is crazy to think I am going to be 2 dozen plus 1 baker dozen worth of years old. ;) So on Saturday I received an envelope in the mail.
When I see an envelope address with “Ninjabetic” on it I always wonder what the heck the mailman must think. Anyhow this particular package was from my friend Scott Strumello. I finally got to meet Scott last Summer at the Roche Summit and I was so happy that I did. He is a smart, funny, down to earth, great guy and being able to call him a friend is something I am thankful for.
In the envelope was a Post-it explaining the origin of the package. A friend of Scott’s has a 12 year old daughter who was telling him about these great books (as if they were new) that he should read.
She mentioned a title and well…
I guess I came to mind!
The cool thing is that I LOVED these books. LOVED! I remember having a bunch of them when I was a kid and somewhere between moves and yard sales they all disappeared.
I have never read "The Secret of the Ninja" but with 29 different endings, I am sure to be entertained for a long time!
So thank you so much for the early birthday present Scott. I know that was not the reason you sent it but I am calling it my first present of the year!
Reader Comments (6)
Those Choose Your Own Adventures were AWEsome! Had multiple different ones back in the day. What a cool gift.
Looking them up online, came across a list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Choose_Your_Own_Adventure_books.
You'll see that Secret of the Ninja came out in 87, followed by a sequel in 1989 Return of the Ninja. There were also Master of Karate, Master of Kung Fu, and Master of Tae Kwon Do.
Sweetness. Think I'm about to make a trip to the half-priced bookstore in search of some of these classics, for 50 cents or so!
There is this awesome book festival that comes to town every year that sells books for about 50 cents a pop. All kinds. It's held in a giant warehouse. There is a line to get it. It is amazing. ANYWHO, I was in the YAL section buying books for my classroom library and there they were, a plethora of choose your own adventures. So I own about a dozen if you ever want to borrow any! LOL! No Secret Ninja though!
I couldn't let this opportunity pass to say happy birthday, even if I had no clue it was coming!! If you recall, the formula for these books had been copied, and there were effectively knock-offs, some good, others lame. But a few years ago, the original authors then bought the rights to the book titles and resurrected them a few years ago, thus their resurrection, including "Secret of the Ninja". Perhaps in our free time we can develop a "Secret of the Ninjabetic"!
Choose Your Own Ninjabetic Adventure: A. Ninja goes to Roche Summit in Indy. B. He doesnt, but goes to Orlando for CWD Conference instead. C. Doesn't go to either, but launches campaign to host D-Meetups nationwide.
Ultimate choice: Bacon, or ... Wait. There's a choice that's NOT bacon????? That must be a quck-ending route.
That's an awesome DJ Ninja picture :) hahaha.
Dude, I bet that party was a BLAST!!! I totally wish I could have been there rocking out with you guys.
Man - that book looks awesome!