Eric Lima : Mr. Back-In-The-Day,King Of The 1980s

Yesterday I just turned 35 years old and to commemorate this,I decided to do another post on my blog about the decade that I ran amok in: the decade of decadence,the 1980s! It was this decade that I started to learn about anything and everything in pop culture. The music was what got me going in the '80s...the first album I got  was Thriller by the late,great King Of  Pop,Michael Jackson. It was from there that I got to listen a lot of songs on my cassette radio at that time. From Cyndi Lauper to the Thompson Twins,I enjoyed either singing or dancing to them. Back then,rap was not my thing, but some rap songs are cool like Whodini's "Friends" and Newcleus' "Jam On It" but for me,it was all about pop music back then. Nowadays,I just like '80s music because I can groove to them. Wrestling was huge in 1985 but back then,I thought they were too scary with facepaint on but I am appreciating the '80s era more now than ever. Video games were HUGE in the '80s,I got a ColecoVision AND a Nintendo Entertainment System,they were both huge back in the day. I enjoyed playing the heck out of both systems! My friends usually come over and have some fun playing video games with me,we always have a blast playing! My friends and I in my old neighborhood always play baseball,no matter what season we are in,if it's a nice day and no snow...baseball time! Also back in the day,I was part of an after-school program known as YMCA Latchkey Program. I have met lots of awesome people there,in fact few of them I have reunited with on Facebook. There was one field trip that I went with the program on and that is an amusement park that once existed in Warwick,Rhode Island and that park was called Rocky Point. I had so much fun there,except going into the House Of  Horrors,I never wanted to go in there again but it will remind me of Rocky Point. Now I had a hobby back in the '80s. Actually,my first hobby was collecting Garbage Pail Kids cards. I always buy them at a variety store in my neighborhood called Frasier's and the packs were ONLY 25 cents! I was happy when my name was on one of the cards! Then as I grew older,baseball cards were my thing and thanks to my counselors at Dennison Memorial,I am a proud member of Red Sox Nation! Then along came Nintendo and the rest is history! There was a place where I love to do some shopping,that place was none other than my current workplace...the Dartmouth Mall but back then it was the NORTH Dartmouth Mall! There were a lot of stores that I loved like Child World,Woolworth's,Captron(World Of Nintendo) and Zayre! Zayre was the place where I bought my first deck of playing cards. Child World was the place where I bought my first He-Man/Masters Of The Universe action figure and it is the lace where I also bought my first Nintendo Entertainment System. K-Mart was once across the street from the Mall itself and I also bought the action figures there! Speaking of He-Man,TV played a role in my pop-culture knowledge in the '80s. He-Man,Ghostbusters,TransFormers,GoBots,Kidd Video were just some of the shows I like to watch back them but thank God for YouTube,I can relive those memories all over again by watching them on there,LOL! Game shows were big for me.....it was all about The Joker's Wild,Tic Tac Dough,Bullseye,Strike It Rich,Finders Keepers,Press Your Luck,and Remote Control! Those game shows were a lot of fun to watch! From mid-'85 to the end of this decade was where my life forever has change when my father & I found the Lord and started a brand-new family with new mom and her little daughter. I thank God I enjoyed the '80s,now I can smile a little bit more now and I WILL NOT STOP SMILING! :)

2011--Another Good Year

Hello. 2011 is about to come to a close and with the help of pictures and my keen memory,I am going to do a quick recap on my life in 2011:

February 7th--Power Rangers Samurai premeired!
February 14th-- The WWE return of The ROCK!
March 6th--Got a brand-new 32" big-screen TV for my birthday!
May 18th --Got new eyeglasses!
June 29th--TransFormers 3 came out in the movies!
July 29th-- The Smurfs came out in the movies as well!

A lot of things have happened over 2011 but the year went by so fast,I haven't been able to keep track of everything this year,lol. I have learned to post pics on Facebook by my new phone that I got in Decmeber last year,plus it snowed in all of January. I finally got an XBOX 360 & I got Marvel Vs Capcom 3. Then a new video game store in my city called Games To Gold has some of the old-school systems like NES,Super NES,PS,PS2,Sega Dreamcast,Sega Saturn,Sega CD,and EVEN A SEGA MASTER SYSTEM!! While there,I bought a Sega Saturn and thanks to my grandparents' Christmas gift of a $50 gift card courtesy of the folks at Amazon.com..I was able to purchase/acquire the one lone game of the DarkStalkers series that I do not have and that is DarkStalkers 2 aka NightWarriors : DarkStalkers' Revenge! I also will have completed my first full calendar year working at the Dartmouth Mall as an exterior housekeeper since I started back in June of last year aka 2010. My old workplace,Ruby Tuesday has undergone changes again but this time the district manager,Derek Butler,who caused everything there to be turned upside-down,has been demoted (probably due to the fact that over 3/4 of the Ruby Tuesday Dartmouth crew that worked for Chris & Toni have quit the place because of the new management's way of thinking--that is my take on that matter.) Plus,Allen Frazier has been fired from there and replaced by a gentleman named Steve,making Steve the 4th RT Dartmouth GM in the last fiscal year for that restaurant.Met the man,however, and he is really nice--Anthony Martone returned for a 3rd time to be the kitchen manager and Eric Tremblay returned there to be the floor manager there. I am hoping that those 3 gentlemen keep the restaurant going or else that restaurant may end up in the same fate as the Ruby Tuesday in the Silver City Galleria....gone. Speaking of other malls,since the start of 2011,I have not been to any other mall until earlier this month when my brother-in-law,my sister,my nephew, and I took a trip to the Emerald Square Mall this year to do a little shopping & browsing and I am going to admit this right now : the Emerald Square Mall looks a LOT better than the Galleria & Swansea Malls.......COMBINED!! My former boss has opened up a new restaurant in Wrentham called the Commonwealth BBQ Company. Some of the former RT Dartmouth employees are currently working there now. I miss my Ruby Tuesday peeps!The Boston Bruins finally won the Stanley Cup this year,making the city of Boston to first city to achieve all 4 major sports championships in 1 decade! But the Red Sox collapsed in September and Terry Francona was fired after 8 years and 2 titles with the team as GM Theo Epstein left as well. Well,the WWE not only saw the Rock come back but Kevin Nash & Booker T returned at the 2011 Royal Rumble and Trish Stratus returned to be a trainer for the returning reality show Tough Enough.But there was a significant return besides The Rock,the return of the old-school version of the Intercontinental Championship,courtesy of Cody Rhodes. There was a few debuts and one of them happened to be one of the former NXT Divas,AJ. Aksana also debuted on SmackDown,Kharma also debuted this year. But there were also departures,but most notably..John Morrison & Melina. Kane returns with the mask once again but also John Laurinaitis debuted on TV as the EVP of Talent Relations,Michael Cole continues to be more of a jerk on TV than usual. TNA has gone wacky to say the least. Christmas was a decent one for me this year,I got a Sony Home Theater System--really cool!! Plus,I bought a webcam AND debuted my new show on YouTube called "The People's Lima" ,check it out...you get to hear my views on a lot of subjects including a weekly segment of the show called "Slapnut Of The Week". Well,I will end this blog by saying this : Make 2012 YOUR year,never give up,keep on going,and keep the faith,my friends! God Bless and let 2012 make you smile!

Melina--An Awesome WWE Diva!

On August 5th,2011--the WWE has released,in my opinion,one of the most electrifying Divas in sports-entertainment & pro wrestling today--Miss Melina Perez. Needless to say,I was shocked & heartbroken,when she debuted on SmackDown in April 14, 2005 and when she did what is now called her signature ring entrance,I was in love with her. I always thought she was the most BEAUTIFUL WWE Diva in that company's history and,in my mind & personal opinion,I still do think that to this day,no matter what anyone else says. Now,there was a lot of talk about how Melina is a bitch,Melina sleeps around,Melina this & Melina that. Now,I am going to defend her by saying that after chatting with Melina,I believe that she is only human,like all of us are. She makes mistakes like we do in life. Melina is the sweetest person I have had the honor of following on Twitter. Melina has worked very hard to achieve her dream of making it to the WWE. She has fulfilled her dream but I do not believe she is done yet. I think she has a lot more to offer. She added some spice to the Women's/Diva's Division when she arrived on the scene! Her trademark primal scream makes her opponents cringe in fear,her awesome finishers can knock out the toughest of contenders. Her beautiful smile can light up a room! She is the most wonderful person I have ever seen in the ring and I thank Melina for what she did for the WWE and I am proud to be a Melina fan aka Melinquent! I am honored to be a MELinquent! Her rivalries with Mickie James & Trish Stratus are classics and,later on with Beth Phoenix & LayCool. When she debuted,she was a manager of a high-octane tag-team known as MNM,which consists of Joey Mercury,Johnny Nitro(John Morrison) & Melina,then as their manager. Their gimmick was cool,being A-Listers that claim to hobnob with celebs like Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes,Nick Lachey & Jessica Simpson,Ashton Kutcher & Demi Moore,Britney Spears & Kevin Federline,and even Paris Hilton. In their in-ring debut match on April 21,2005--they defeated then-WWE Tag-Team Champions Rey Mysterio & the late-WWE Hall Of Famer Eddie Guerrero to become the 1st tag-team in WWE history to win the Tag Team Championship in their debut match. After 3 title reigns,the team split up and Melina & Nitro headed over to RAW where both Nitro & Melina had success when Nitro captured the Intercontinental Championship and Melina captured the Women's Championship during their time on RAW. During that span,MNM reunited to do battle against another high-octane tag-team in the Hardys (Jeff & Matt). It was an awesome matchup and rivalry. Afterwards,MNM parted ways again and Nitro continued to work his way up the ladder on RAW while Melina continues to be the queen bee of the Women's Division until she ran into a buzzsaw named Beth Phoenix. An ankle injury kept Melina out of action & out of the title picture for a while and in the meantime,Beth Phoenix has taken Melina's position as the Queen Bee by capturing the Women's Championship from then-champion Mickie James. When Melina came back,the fans rallied behind her as she picked up where she left off by targeting Beth Phoenix. At the Royal Rumble 2009,Melina dethroned the Glamazon to become the Women's Champion for a 3rd time. Then she was drafted to SmackDown,where she lost the title to Michelle McCool but thanks to RAW guest host Nancy O'Dell in a tri-branded trade,Melina returned to RAW to unseat then-Divas Champion Jillian Hall,who defeated Mickie James a few seconds before Melina knocked her off. But during her title reign,she suffered a torn ACL that kept her out for the better part of 2010,but she returned at Summerslam,dethroning Alicia Fox to become a 2x Divas Champion only to lose the title to LayCool to unify both the Divas & Women's Championships at Night Of Champions. Since then,she stood in the background of the Divas Division until her release this past Friday. I hope Melina reads this so I can let her know that you are SWEETEST person and NO MATTER what anybody else says about you,I ALWAYS believe that you are a great person and a great wrestler in the WWE. I believe all of the WWE Universe WILL see you again someday,whether it is in TNA or back in the WWE,it doesn't matter. Know this,Melina: You are ALWAYS & FOREVER WILL BE the shining star in our hearts! :)

Paulette Vieira (née Costa): Once A Good Friend

This next blog would prove to be very difficult to write. The 1990s decade was a decade that changed my life forever. But there was one individual that changed my demeanor as a teenager, this particular individual has, in a way, made me change my outlook on everything. When I first met this girl, I never thought much if her but when she started attending our church's youth group at the time, I started developing a crush on her. Her name? Paulette Marie Costa. Needless to say, little did I know, I was going overboard in my crush on Paulette but I was too stupid and ignorant to realize what was going on. My parents were upset about this, her parents were upset about this ,my friends were upset about this ,and I was being, for a lack of a better term, a total jackass about the whole entire thing. At this rate ,I wasn't thinking about the consequences of this whole fiasco at the time. People started making jokes about this, I kept on running my mouth about her, and my attempts to impress her were too Urkelesque. One time, the youth group had a youth dance and I was having a good time and waiting for the right moment to ask Paulette to a slow dance. Once the time came, I asked her--but she turned me down and instead slow-danced with another friend of mine named John Kiess. I was not too pleased about this obviously and people asked me if I wanted to talk about it and I refused to do so. My night, to me, was ruined at that point. But, like a stubborn mule, I refused to give it up, however. 

But in 1995,a lot of things has happened in that year that put me in a lot of stress and it effected my behavior. In April of that year, I moved from the West End to the North End of New Bedford, in June of 1995,I landed a job as a dishwasher at Ruby Tuesday. Then at church, there was a new couple--Paulette & a friend I made at the Christian school, Ruben. Ruben used to give me rides to Bible studies but since he started dating Paulette at that time, I accused him & her for stabbing me in the back. I basically snapped! It was almost to the point of hatred towards the two of them. I was forced out of work by my parents to see a psychiatrist about this situation but I didn't like it at all. To me, work was the thing to keep my mind off that situation. After the shrink visit, I went back to work and started crushing on my female co-workers instead in order to get Paulette out of my system for good and it was working for almost 6 years. 

But during one Sunday church service, in 2001,my pastor called Ruben & Paulette up to the podium to make a special announcement and that announcement was that they were engaged. Needless to say I had a feeling that day like this would come. I sat there & said nothing, my father wanted me to go and congratulate them and I refused. When I got home, I decided that sitting at home in my room and sulking wasn't gonna help me out, so I decided to hop in my car and head to my then-workplace Ruby Tuesday at the time to order a Blondie & a root beer, then my original plan was to head to the Millennium Fun Center Arcade at the Harbor Mall to play some Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 to get my mind clear but I missed the exit while singing the Power Rangers Time Force theme song along the way down Rt. 195 westbound and ended up taking Exit 3 to the Swansea Mall. After I visited the Swansea Mall, I headed back to the Harbour Mall to the play Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 at the Millennium Fun Center Arcade. My mother commended me on getting out of the house and clearing my mind instead of sitting at home in my room and sulking about the situation, I told her "I needed to get out of the house." My father didn't understand. 

Months went by and I started to accept the fact that they are in love with each other and they are getting married until December of 2002 when Paulette's mother, Isabel, announced that Ruben & Paulette ended their engagement and broke up. I was shocked and I wanted to say something to them but I was thinking they still don't want to talk to me. So, fast forward 2 years later, Paulette met another man in college, got engaged to him and eventually they got married in October 2004. I was depressed but I had to move on, the Red Sox ended up winning the World Series weeks afterward, as a result, I did not care about anything else, I was happy. The name of the man Paulette met was Daniel Vieira and they have 2 beautiful children-Nicholas & Emily. The reason why I wrote this blog is at one point I was angry at Paulette, I blamed her for my bad luck with women, I cited her as the reason why I do not have a girlfriend. Ever since 1995 I have not spoken to her in 16 years, I started being Ruben's friend again via Facebook. I tried adding Paulette as a friend on Facebook, hoping to put all the crap that we went through away and bury the hatchet once and for all but she rejected my friend request yet again. Unfortunately, it is sad that she still hates my guts & won't forgive me to this day. She does not understand me at all. All I want is to be friends--JUST friends with her, that's it. But she holds that grudge against me to this day. She needs to understand that I am NOT looking to have a crush on her again because she is married now and she has a great life and a great future. I just wanted to be friends again, I don't care if we speak to each other again.  I consider Paulette a friend, a sister-in-Christ, and someone who has a heart for others. Whatever the reason, I am sure she has her reasons. Besides, I look back at this and I will say this: All that happened between myself and Paulette was MY fault. I was being way too obsessed with her & I outright disrespected her and I was being selfish and that is why Paulette is the way she is towards me to this day. I wish I had behaved differently around her but it is what it is now. This is unfortunately the price I paid for all this. 

But if I decided to talk to her now, I would tell her that it was all MY fault, I blame myself for this friction between myself and her. But I see this situation this way: If it is God's will for me and Paulette to be friends again, then great. If not, then we remain our separate ways and go on with our lives, simple as that.  I hope she reads this one day and comes to an understanding that I am not the same idiotic teenager who had the puppy-dog crush on her. I am the man who is trying to make his future bright and trying to live the good life each and everyday possible. I just want to let her know that I have changed for the better and I hope that Paulette & I would once again become good friends. 

I sometimes talk about this situation to help others who have been obsessed with someone they like as a warning to them to BE CAREFUL because it could hurt the individual they like AND themselves but, unfortunately, there are some not-so-nice individuals who still think that I still have a thing for Paulette, which , obviously, I do not anymore and these not-so-nice individuals would attempt to mention this situation just to make me look bad when I already learned my lesson from this situation. Because of those individuals, I have decided not to talk about this situation anymore on my YouTube channel because the idiots will make jokes of this and I do not appreciate that at all and I am sure neither does Paulette, nor her family and my family & friends as well and as a result, I had to ban Paulette's name from being mentioned on my YouTube channel. I have moved on from this and also I have learned a lot from this situation as well. Nothing wrong with learning from your past and people like the internet trolls, bullies and haters need to understand that, if they don't, they won't be able to understand me anymore because I will block them. Finally, I see this situation as this: This was God's way of telling me that I should be more focused on praising & worshipping Him, instead of chasing Paulette. This whole situation has helped me to learn that there are more things in life than just Paulette. To this day, I never worry about Paulette because I believe that she is doing fine and she is safe with her husband and family. I never necessarily needed her to make my life "whole" nowadays, per se. I'm just having fun being me and doing my show and chatting with my new friends!