Natasha Raulerson

Man-Candy Monday – 90’s Heart Throbs All Grown Up

I’m a baby of the 80’s, and a child of the 90’s. My hormones peaked somewhere in the middle of the latter decade. Suddenly I was at the local corner store buying Tiger Beats, Teen Beats, and whatever other magazine Beats were out there. At sixteen and seventeen I had posters all over my wall. (No judging allowed here people!) My first actor crush was Jonathan Brandis. He was the star of several 90’s movies including Neverending Story 2, Ladybugs, Sidekicks (my personal fav), and he was one of the stars of Seaquest DSV. Unfortunately, Jonathan committed suicide in 2003, so I don’t have any current pics to show of him, but here he was when I crushed on him hard.

Now, with that homage paid to my favorite 90’s heartthrob, onto the ones who have grown up into sexy beasts!

Devon Sawa. If you’ve ever seen the original Final Destination, you’ll remember Devon as the lead teen trying to avoid death. True facts, this movie is one of the few horror franchises that actually scare the shit out of me. He also starred in Little Giants with Rick Moranis, and was Casper at the end of the movie when he got to become a real boy for a night.

Devon in the 90’s

Most recently he can be seen tatted up and shirtless as a bad boy in Nikita. Rawr!

Does anyone remember a little 90’s flick called Angel’s in The Outfield? That is where I was first introduced to Joseph Gordon Levitt as a little kid just wanting his dad to take him out of foster care. But twenty years later he’s all grown up and making the ladies swoon with his slender figure, subtle smirk, and fine ass suit.

Angels In The Outfield, 1994

JGL has become a writer, director, and actor. He can be seen in movies such as Sin City, Inception, and Looper–among many others.

What 80’s and 90’s child doesn’t remember  Mark Paul Gosselaar playing Zack Morris, the most popular kid at Bayside High in Saved By The Bell? I loved that show growing up. Not including when they went to college, tried to have a new class and Zack and Kelly got married. Those things never happened. Well, Zack and Kelly probably would have married, but the movie was just terrible.

Saved By The Bell ran from 1989 to 1993, though if you count the earlier years with Hayley Mills, when it was called Good Morning, Miss Bliss, it technically ran from 87-93.

Though he now plays a lawyer on Franklin and Bash, it seems that Mark hasn’t lost his taste for the sunny ocean-side view..but man he grew into those pecks!

Who remembers scrawny little Charlie Conway from The Mighty Ducks?  (That movie is what got me into playing street hockey. I wanted to be a Duck more than anything!) I watched this movie over and over again, and I was so mad when Gordon didn’t get with Charlie’s mom!

The Mighty Ducks came out in 1992, with sequels in 1994, and 1996, with Joshua portraying Charlie in all of them.

His most notable adult role is probably Fringe, which is a weird and insane science thriller that’s since been cancelled, but the man filled out in all the right places with the kind of ruggedness I adore.

It’s seriously hard to believe how sexy some of these guys have grown up to be.  I was going to put Jared Leto up here, but he’s too obvious, especially since he’s about to play the Joker on the Suicide Squad. I opted for some of the less known (okay well JGL is pretty well known but how can I leave him out!) actors.

And that concludes this Man-Candy-Monday. Join me again next week, same time, same place!

Natasha Raulerson

Something Happened Saturday – The Men Made Bacon Explosion

If you follow me on twitter (@RaulersonWrites) you may or may not have seen all the pictures of the Bacon Explosion AKA Heart Attack On A Plate my husband and his friends made Sunday night.

Yeah, they think they’ve got it going on.  When I heard about this I was just like. Nope, walking away. Gonna get myself a sub and wake up tomorrow morning not feeling like crap or with three of my arteries in my heart clogged.

However, this was the scene!

wpid-20150503_183032.jpgAt least the beginning of it. What you think that’s ALL they put on it? No my friends, that’s just the bacon weave, 3 types of mixed breakfast sausage, siracha sauce and cheese.

There is MORE!

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Don’t forget the spicy italian sausage chopped up and laid across the top. What you see on the righ ton the cutting board is candy bacon. I should probably mention by the time this thing was all said and done there was about three pounds of bacon through out the entire thing. That’s quite a friggin’ lot. I know people love bacon, but I looked at it and didn’t know what to do with myself.

wpid-20150503_184319.jpg

I actually have a video of them rolling this all together once it was complete, but for whatever reason it will not upload to WordPress. And Instagram only allows 5 second videos. WORK WITH ME HERE PEOPLE! If I ever get it to work, I’ll add it in, but for now it’s just being mean.

Moving on! After quite a bit of cooking time in the oven it came out to look like:

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Yes, they are putting a siracha glaze on time before shoving it back in the oven to carmalize.

While that happened, they also made a Mac and Cheese mixed with the bacon grease and left over bacon.

 

Not gonna lie. That was pretty scrumptious, even if I only had one bite.

Anyways, while the guys chowed down on that, I ate the aforementioned sub.

See, I do make good choices sometimes!

 

Natasha Raulerson

Sunday Snippet – My Short Stories

So, I write short stories sometimes. Little snippets that become stories, but I have no idea what do with them. They’re generally odd, weird, or strange–maybe all of the above. Some have a dash of morbidity, darkness, and macabre tones. I can’t say I’ve ever really written an upbeat short story. Generally, there’s blood death or weird creatures.

Though admittedly, the novel that landed me my agent was originally a short story idea that just exploded into a novel. The characters just wouldn’t leave me alone until I told their story.  Sometimes, short stories just have that effect. You think you can get into 5k words or fewer, but it just winds up spiraling out of control!  Yeah, you know what I’m talking about.

But the question remains: What do I do with these short stories? I’ve submitted some of them only to be rejected. Apparently I write better novels than short stories. They are two very different art forms people! Some have suggested Wattpad, others have suggested just adding a tab and putting them on my blog.

I’m not even sure people would be interested in reading them, but at this point, I’m wondering what could it hurt? Could it hurt? Should I do it? What are your thoughts people? Do you write short stories? Do you post them or submit them? If so where! I want to know these things! I want to learn and expand and hone this awesome craft of the short story! Which I may have help in the Fall in my Creative Writing class, but that’s very far away.

Thoughts?

Natasha Raulerson

Friday Fact – Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Month

It is May and it is Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Month.  My sister, Jennifer was born with this harrowing disease. I didn’t have the luxury of knowing her until we were fifteen, as she’s my 11201854_1577513212499571_4624422300814565407_nhusbands blood sister, but we were pretty damn close. We lived together, we did the girl gossip, I was at the hospital every day after school with her, and even moved to Jacksonville when she needed a double lung transplant. Yeah, the entire time I was dating my future husband, but family doesn’t begin or end with blood.

I watched her battle the disease for a decade. Until she had her transplant, Jenn never took a breath without coughing, she never went a day without breathing treatments or respiratory therapists coming to see her. There were times when her weight fluctuated so low she looked like a skeleton, and times when she filled out beautifully as a young a woman.

Jenn was a person who thrived on life. Even at her lowest point, she found ways to enjoy it.  The disease is incurable, and ultimately, after five years of a relatively normal life after her transplant, the disease claimed her three months before her 25th birthday.

Click the picture for a more detailed description at Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

 

If you’re not familiar with Cystic Fibrosis, in simple terms, it affects the lungs and the pancreas. The lungs fill with so much mucus that a person can actually drown in it. At some points, Jenn had a suction tube to hold onto so that when she coughed up balls full of it, the tube sucked it out so she didn’t swallow it into her belly or aspirate on it. Regarding the pancreas, well that organ provides the enzymes people need to digest foods. Without them, anything we eat runs through the body without any nourishing factors. Jenn would have to take two enzyme pills with every meal or anything she ate every day in order to digest the food. Even after the transplant, the enzyme pills were a must.

It’s not an easy disease. She’d had plenty of surgeries over the years. You can see the various types of scars from these beautiful women who decided to show their CF scars proudly! They are brave, strong women who have been through hell and back.

Click Here For The Photos

Every day I miss her. Every day I know my husband misses her more. There is no cure at present for Cystic Fibrosis, and even if you can’t donate money, just make people aware of it.  The more people who become aware, the more people who can pass on the word to those who can donate, or do something to help those in their community, or maybe it just connects people who have been through similar situations.

To those living with the disease, you are brave, strong, warriors.

Never Give Up. Never Surrender.

 

 

Natasha Raulerson

TBT – Mortal Kombat

In honor of the new Mortal Kombat X game that’s come out, taking place twenty-five years later, I thought I’d pay homage to the ORIGINAL Mortal Kombat played on Nintendo. Now, I’m sure many of you youngin’s are going, “What? You mean the Wii?”

No, no I do not mean the Wii. Once upon a time before the age of joy sticks on controllers (they came separately) there was only D-pads. Before Wii, Playstation, and even 360, there was just

THE NINTENDO

And on this amazing machine of the time, there was no digital capabilities or online friends, but there were awesome game cartridges, one of which included

THE ORIGINAL MORTAL KOMBAT

So, let’s check out a few of the original characters.

Liu Kang

In The 1995 Movie

Bio

Liu Kang NOW in Mortal Kombat X

Sonya Blade

1995 Movie

Bio

 

 

 

 

 

Mortal Kombat X

Johnny Cage

1995 Movie

Bio

Mortal Kombat X

Kitana

Bio

1995 Movie

Mortal Kombat X

And my FAVORITE

Raiden

Bio

1995 Movie

Mortal Kombat X

 

Now. Who’s ready to play Mortal Kombat X?