Open Your Toys

Can you believe it? No, really, can you believe it? I can’t. Mrs. McFavorite and I started this after being married just under two years. We have since celebrated our 10th anniversary, had a beautiful daughter, seen her take her first steps, speak her first words, and now she’s in 1st grade. I had just […] The post Open Your Toys Cast – Episode 151: 10 YEARS… appeared first on Op...

Hey, we’re at 150 episodes! Mrs. McFavorite is back! I am absolutely ecstatic. How could it get any better? Well, the next show is our 10th ANNIVERSARY! Can you believe it has been 10 years of talking toys? It has been and for some reason, it puts a little damper on my excitement for this […] The post Open Your Toys Cast – Episode 150: Overshadowing… appeared first on Open...

Man, so close to getting it under 2 hours. I had such a good feeling about this one. Show notes only took my 30 minutes, it was just two of us, and still breached that 120-minute mark. Granted, it’s all my fault, but man, so close. You know what else is close? Our 150th episode […] The post Open Your Toys Cast – Episode 149: So Close… appeared first on Open Your Toys .

Timing is everything. I have some serious experience with bad timing, especially in the last couple of days. These instances are partly due to running late of which I am a maestro. However, it’s more about behavior in situations, called for or not. I don’t pretend to understand the finer implications or all acts in […] The post Open Your Toys Cast – Episode 148: You Picked...

Sorry it’s been almost a month. Especially considering this is our SDCC 2018 show, it seems like that was an eternity ago. However, I think it was worth the wait. It was really important for the whole crew to represent on what is still the biggest event for action figure collectors in the world. Mutha […] The post Open Your Toys Cast – Episode 147: It’s About Time… ap...

So for over 30 years, I thought the quintessential vacation song from the GoGos went, “Vacation holiday I want it // Vacation had to get away.” It was only after double checking the lyrics for this post did I discover the correct version as reflected in the post title. I was originally going to talk […] The post Open Your Toys Cast – Episode 146: Vacation, All I Ever Wanted...

Where the hell is mine? It’s been a year since I was laid off and still can’t seem to find it. Every day I get stuff done, it just never seems to be the things I want, nay, need to accomplish. Selling toys, redesigning the site, redesigning a bunch of other sites, updating my programming […] The post Open Your Toys Cast – Episode 145: Motivation… appeared first on Ope...

As I reveal on the show, I have graduated from my Full Stack Web Development Immersive. 480 hours of in-class time with over 400 hours of homework in 3 months. It was no joke. I took a couple weeks off, but now its time to get serious. My only major obstacle is ageism. I didn’t […] The post Open Your Toys Cast – Episode 144: Let’s Get it Started… appeared first on Ope...

I tend to pride myself on being considerate… and, I mean to an annoying degree. That is why it is upsetting when people are less so. We experience this in many ways. When driving you should be making every attempt to not alter another driver’s course. There are exceptions like merging, but not many more. […] The post Open Your Toys Cast – Episode 143: Oblivious… appea...

There are all different kinds of love. Some so amazing they are life changing and some we just want to forget. Shared experiences can shape what kind of feelings you have for someone. Being part of a family or a job where you’re on a close-knit team forces you to become intensely intertwined with a […] The post Open Your Toys Cast – Episode 142: I Love You Man… appeared fir...

Insert whatever you want at the end of that title. I tend to think it’s whatever we feel we don’t have enough of or that we think we may run out of. That could be food, maybe water, even opportunities. There are some universals out there. I don’t think anyone likes wasting money. I guess […] The post Open Your Toys Cast – Episode 141: I Hate Wasting… appeared fi...

There are enough exterior forces in this world working against you. The last thing anyone needs is to contribute to them. Life is hard enough. Why would you ever want to help it by thinking you’re anything but amazing? Now, of course, we have all things we would like to change about ourselves. Change is […] The post Open Your Toys Cast – Episode 140: Don’t Be Down on Yourse...

I can still remember vividly several trips to Toys”R”Us as a kid. Now, of course, I probably went there over a hundred times, but if you’re like me there are just a handful of times that really stand out. One is very sad. I was 12 years old My grandma passed away while I was […] The post Open Your Toys Cast – Episode 139: I Don’t Wanna Grow Up… appeared fi...

Lately, negativity has just been really getting to me. I think it was a little easier to overlook it when my life was on an upswing. Now that my life is less than perfect, my sensitivity to it is magnified. I don’t know if it’s because I am trying my hardest to maintain my own […] The post Open Your Toys Cast – Episode 138: Why All the Hate… appeared first on Open You...

So Toy Fair is this weekend and it always brings a rush of news. I remember being in that rat race. Not that we were ever a contender, but I still felt the pressure to get you guys news as fast as possible from the cons we frequented. There’s something that feels so good about […] The post Open Your Toys Cast – Episode 137: What’s Your Hurry… appeared first on Open Yo...

So there is a lot talk about using your platform. A platform can really be anything. It doesn’t need to be a national stage. It can be something as simple as parenting your kids. It’s an opportunity for your voice to be heard. What you do with that is key. There are universal truths all […] The post Open Your Toys Cast – Episode 136: Your Platform… appeared first on O...

Finally, some progress. I spent all last week unsubscribing from emails. I turned off all my Facebook group notifications except for from friends and of course our group. Since I had not unsubscribed from email and more importantly, I had Facebook emailing me every post from every group, I was receiving over 300 emails a […] The post Open Your Toys Cast – Episode 135: The Reckoning&#82...

Remember a couple of shows ago, I talked about a new site? Well as you can tell that hasn’t happened. There has been a lot of other things that needed to get done, that just haven’t got done. Every day I wake up, get Lil’ Miss McFavorite ready, take her to school, come home, clean […] The post Open Your Toys Cast – Episode 134: End of the Line… appeared first on...

By that title, you might think this is another poor me post. Actually, I just think it’s funny and if you can’t smile at Christmas, when can you? I think I got that from my friend Carlos. His birthday is actually on Christmas. I thought I got a raw deal with the 21st. However, the […] The post Open Your Toys Cast – Episode 133: Merry Kiss My Ass… appeared first on Ope...

So this has been planned for the past year, but as with most things in my life, it just kept getting put off. Well after a couple of months of job hunting it is very clear I need to update my skillset. This will be my first real project (i.e. not a tutorial, online course […] The post Open Your Toys Cast – Episode 132: Incoming… appeared first on Open Your Toys .

Well, it happened again. Awhile back you heard me whine about losing my new iPhone. That was at the start of my unemployment. Well just as things are getting really tight around here financially, I did another dumb thing. As with my iPhone, I was rushing. This time I backed into a car. It was […] The post Open Your Toys Cast – Episode 131: In a Hurry… appeared first on Open Your...

Sometimes the harshest mistress is reality itself. She is real and inescapable. Trust me, I’ve been running from her for months. Well, she has caught up with me and it’s finally time to do what I need to do. You know what? It feels good. I think we can rationalize just about anything to ourselves. […] The post Open Your Toys Cast – Episode 130: Reality… appeared first on Op...

Every year about this time I really regret not doing something more elaborate for Halloween. More elaborate decorations, more elaborate costume, just a more elaborate Halloween in general. After all, it is my second favorite time of year. For my first favorite, Christmas, I go crazy. Mrs. McFavorite loves Halloween too. It’s probably her favorite […] The post Open Your Toys Cast &#8211...

Fuckers fuckers fuckers! Yeah, that’s right, you heard me. I don’t even like using profanity when I write, but in this instance, it serves two purposes. The first goes along with what I was saying in my last post. The sense of community was insane at TFCon and just like Stifler’s little brother we were […] The post Open Your Toys Cast – Episode 128: TFCon DC 2017… app...

So this was supposed to be up about a week ago, but in retrospect I’m glad it wasn’t. Why? Simply because what I witnessed this weekend was perhaps the greatest proof of why this so important. We have been meaning to start / promote our new Open Your Toys Group. The Realm of Collectors (ROC) […] The post Open Your Toys Cast – Episode 127: Community… appeared first on Open Y...