| Home -> July 1997 -> Silliness |
I like being silly. I like to play games. Sometimes I can look kind of foolish. I don't mind, if I want to be silly. When people want to look serious, and wind up looking foolish, however, real embarrassment happens. Unless you have the strength to just laugh along with everyone.
Take this past weekend, for example. I spent the majority of it playing Ultimate in weather that alternated between thunderstorms and sweltering heat and sunshine. I had the right gear, brought bananas and oranges, even wore sunscreen. Brilliant. I also managed to see the Jackie Chan movie, "Operation Condor", and play some Robotron. Well, actually, I played only one game on Sunday night. It took a good hour or so, and I cracked the 2 million plateau for the first time.
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To prove it, I present a screen capture of the high scores displayed.
My score is 2,244,000. The one next to the name "Stevie G". Maybe
you don't care really, but I do. Robotron is a difficult game to play.
Even more so on a keyboard, which is how I play it on the Mac at home.
As a kid, I watched and marveled if people could play that game well.
Same thing with Defender, another game I could not master.
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So it feels good for me to finally conquer these challenges. Besides,
the game is a real rush. At right, I tried to capture some game action,
but only caught the beginning of a Brain wave. Truly thrilling stuff,
and I'm not the only one that thinks so. Arguably, the designer of those
games, Eugene Jarvis, had a strong influence on the development of
computers in the 1980s and beyond.
Seriously.
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As I said, Somewhat foolish. But at least I look silly while playing games. The National Safe Kids Coalition is in danger of looking silly while trying to be serious adults. Remember, that causes the real embarrassment.
Nestlé is releasing a new product called "Nestlé Magic", a plastic egg with a small toy inside, wrapped on the outside by chocolate. Sounds like good fun, and indeed, as it happens Nestlé is only knocking off the Kinder Eggs that Europeans have had for years. My girlfriend, Nina, confirms that they are a hoot.
Well, the National Safe Kids Coalition, chaired by C. Everett Koop (you remember him), feels that the toys are not exactly safe, and that some may confuse the toy with the chocolate. This seems a bit over board. Maybe downright silly. Now, I know anyone can claim, "If just one kid gets hurt, this is nothing to laugh about." But come on. Not even kids could be so dumb, right?
Well, maybe not. In addition to playing Ultimate in the rain, and becoming a Robotron hero this past week, I did something else silly. Dumb, even.
See, I played Ultimate in the rain again on Tuesday night (summer league), even diving in a foul pool of standing water. Soaked as I returned to my car, I ditched my clothes in a bag in the trunk. I felt proud of myself for having the bag there for being prepared.
Well, after dumping that bag of wet clothes in the washing machine, retreating upstairs for dinner, then returning, I found a surprise waiting for me. All through the load of clothes were square brown chunks of...grass? They were fibrous, and pliant, but not grass. What could they be? I flicked a lot of the stuff from my clothes before putting them in the dryer, then I noticed the smell. Not a bad smell, but a definite scent. Close to fabric softener, but more fruity.
Banana?
Then I remembered. That bag I was so proud to have in my trunk for such an occasion was the same bag that had me prepared for the weekend tournament with fruit. I finished all but one banana, and that had now been cooked by hot water, completely dissolved, and mixed forever with my playing gear.
Now that is dumb, that is foolishness, and that is embarrassment.
But I got a good laugh out of it.