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		ah, probably the only true obsession of my youth. if i had to write a resume before i was junior high'ish age (and wanted to be truthful), under hobbies i probably should've written in large bold letters 'cartoons.' whenever i reminisce about the glory days of my tv viewing, and recall the 3 hours spent each weekday watching cartoons, i look back with only pride. everyday was filled with joy for that one hour in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon. the disney afternoon (though not always perfect, provided 'gummy bears', the great 'darkwing duck', and other notable shows) and the peak of wb cartoons (while they were still on fox with the quite illustrious lineup of 'tiny toons', 'batman' [the original one, not the newer, suckier one], and 'animaniacs') filled those afternoons with entertainment and education. for most people the first classical music they are ever exposed to is from some 'looney toons' derived cartoon. and much if not all of the history i knew (or at least remembered) as an elementary schooler was gained through cartoon watching. i cannot stress how beneficial cartoons were, i mean what kid would know that donatello and raphael were sculptors if there wasn't ninja turtles named after them. weekday cartoons have held pretty steady presence throughout all of my memorable life. aside for the rise of live action shows, which pleasantly have died off (except for something like the sixth incarnation of "mighty morphin' power rangers"), saturdays were home of some of the greatest cartoons (the networks could strut their awesome cartoons like all the superhero stuff was all pretty good 'the tick' [possibly the cartoon held closest to my heart because it got pulled before i saw enough of it], 'spiderman' [far better than all other real superhero cartoons bar-none], and 'wild c.a.t.s.'). but a lot of the really cool cartoons were syndicated stuff that played on random channels, like 'exosquad' (a series that i really wish i watched more because have fighting robots and a genetically created slave race is pretty cool), that show based on nintendo games, 'conan the barbarian', 'beast wars' (i thought that it got pretty cool towards the end), and 'mighty max' (you gotta remember those cheesy toys and the kid with the magic red hat). on a somewhat related note, i have to say that i'm irritated by all (who are 18 or younger) that wax on about how great the cartoons from their the early '80s ('my little pony', 'carebears', 'he-man', 'voltron', and other stuff). they are all just a bunch of posers because they really can't have any memory from that time (well maybe if they were super babies they could) and just say they remember those cartoons to show that they too were human and watched cartoons, but then promptly dropped all interest in cartoons to watch 'saved by the bell' (not that there's anything wrong about that). so now, with that technicality taken care of, just a random rant on "gi joe": my god was that movie scary. they really shouldn't be showing that movie (or a lot of the 80s kids movies) to kids, but when i was a tender age of 7 i remember watching that movie and getting completely freaked out by the whole thing. i was having nightmares about cobra commander turning into a snake for weeks all because of that movie, so try to avoid exposing your kids to that movie in the future. cartoons are good, and it is pure blasphemy that they rot the brain, they enrich the brain with culture that would be hard to find anywhere else. and since i couldn't find anyway to incorporate "eek the cat" into my tirade, and it is such an important part of my mentality, it gets its own section here.