5 posts tagged “qotd”
I have a vivid memory of the Taco Joint down the road from me getting a new Asteroids machine. I had played Space Invaders before, but was never that excited about it - but Asteroids - that was a game! My cousin and I would pour quarters into it for hours. For weeks, we were to afraid to even use the thruster, but eventually took a chance, and got pretty damn good at it.
Then along came Donkey Kong - at the pizza place a block north, and Asteroids was old news. Donkey Kong was the most amazing, bizarre, frustrating and fun thing Evar! We had no idea what we were doing - even when we figured out how to play the game, we had no good idea what the story was supposed to be. Then there was the explosion of machines, but Asteroids and Donkey Kong will always be my faves.
At any given time, I recall being excited to go play one of the following games: Space Invaders, Asteroids, Donkey Kong, Tempest, Donkey Kong Jr., Joust, Pingu, QBert, Xevious, Defender, Robotron, Pole Position and Tron.
These days, it's PC games for me. Half Life 2 just can't be beat, even though I've played through the whole thing. It's a lot of fun watching my little kids get into games too - how good they are at them. Barbie Pet Rescue is actually pretty fun!
No, I don't have a nickname (unless you count "Papa"). I do, however have a lifelong battle against a particular nickname - "Al".
My name is Alan. I am a big guy. "Big Al" comes up so regularly, so easily... and I hate it every time. It's as if the nickname were genetically designed to make me cringe. I always correct people as soon as I hear them call me "Al", even without the "big" - I really can't stand it. It's just not me.
Oh, and it was totally hilarious when Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al" was in heavy rotation. Ha. ha. ha. It was funnier every time it came up, every time someone heard the song while in my presence and made some remark. Every time someone started singing the song when I walked into a room.
You can, however, still call me Betty.
Very messy, small dark developer cave of a workspace, 1/3-height wall cubicles. The racks on the other side of the monitor are noisy servers. Scifi robots and spacecraft on either side of my monitor. Bo-ring. You can't see my Mac, offscreen left.
The second image is an aerial shot of my
building just south of downtown Boston. (Boston.com) The long building
in front of it is the Children's Museum with the giant Milk bottle next
to the waterfront. Also visible is the tea Party Museum with ship in
the middle of the channel.
It's amazing how you can pick and choose which branches to traverse on your way back in time. My Dad has researched the Taylor family back to parts of England in the early 1600s and other families in Germany.
On my mother's side, there is one branch that hits a distinct dead-end - my Grandfather's Great Grandmother was a full-blood Native American named Wah-se-con from the Sac and Fox tribe (relocated from Michigan to Iowa/Kansas/Oklahoma). She married a French-Canadian trapper name Jean Rubeti and had at least two girls named Margaret and Sophie. Wah-se-con and Jean were killed in a horse-cart accident in 1851, and Margaret (age 6) and Sophie were then raised by Christian Missionaries in Iowa. Margaret was my Great Great Grandmother.
Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dillemma", also my "Timex Alarm Clock User's Manual", my latest copy of WIRED, and a Barbie doll (my daughter's, honest).
The Omnivore's Dillemma will really make you think about corn in entirely new ways. My wife wants me to "shut up about corn already".
