Whose Cuisine...?

Friday, April 12, 2002

I plugged in the Namco Classics cartridge for Amy Eisenman tonight so she could battle Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Sue as the tenacious Ms. Pac Man. The nostalgia of these retro-games, recreated arcade pixel-perfect in my living room, is powerful. I can almost smell the mixed odors of ozone, carpet cleaner, and melting artificial mozzarella cheese food product from the Showbiz Pizza Place. (Don't remember Showbiz? They were the losers in the franchise wars that eventually resulted in the ultimate supremacy of Chuck E. Cheese across the nation. Even the Chuck E. Cheese theme song was stolen from Showbiz when they merged. It used to be "Show-biz pizza. Where a kid can be a kid." Nowadays, they substitute "Chuck E Cheese's." for "Showbiz Pizza." It still sounds strange to me. Wow, this is pretty long for a parenthetical comment.)

After she and Scott left, I played a couple of rounds of each of the games on the cartridge: Pac Man (I rule, but it's the same maze over and over again), Ms. Pac Man (I still rule, and a little more variety), Galaga (ugh, I can make it through about 6 levels), Galaxian (double-ugh! I really can't play this game). It is a comfort to me that I am approximately as good (or bad, depending on your point of view) at games like Pac Man and Galaxian as I was back in the '80s. I'm not sure why that's comforting, but it is. Proof that some things don't change? Life may throw me for a loop, but I will always suck at Galaxian.

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Thursday, April 11, 2002

We heard back from the director of the writer's track at DragonCon the other day. Nothing is set in stone and I don't have much in the way of details, but I think there's a very good chance that Scott and I will appear on a panel at the convention. This will be a terrific platform from which to launch our book; hopefully we'll be able to finagle a book signing and/or reading in addition to the panel appearance. If ever you were going to haul your butt to Atlanta for the country's largest sci-fi convention, this would be the year to do so. Consider this your invitation to the book launch party.

My mother says that she's not exactly going out of her way to tell people that her son will be on a panel at a science-fiction convention. I can kind of see her point, but I still think it's cool.

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Wednesday, April 10, 2002

Sick Day

I've been sick for the last three days. I went in for the morning on Tuesday but found myself coughing and sniffling and honking at my desk. This is fine when you're alone in an office or even a cubicle, but when you share an office with someone you quickly become self-conscious about just how much phlegm you're producing. So I went home again that afternoon, after postponing the talk I was supposed to give today (Wednesday) until next week. This morning I decided to ride it out one more day, just get the rest and fluids that the doctor always prescribes for such things. It seems to have worked.

When not sleeping or staring dazedly at the television through cold-medicine-glazed eyeballs, I learned how to use my new cd burner. Iomega's Predator was going for a fairly low price (about $150), so I snapped one up and joined the 1990s, at least in that respect. My Mac resembles Frankenstein's monster – it should be dead, but I keep shoving new parts into it and it keeps marching on.

Now burning mix CDs and backing up data is fine and all, but what I'm most interested in is Video CDs. I'm tired of the stacks of tapes with old TV shows that I watch once a year, usually when I'm sick or bored. If I could get those stacks of tapes down to corresponding stacks of CDs, now that would be something. So I've learned how all that works – it basically requires hours and hours of processing time, but the end result is an hour or so of adequate video on a CD, that will play in most home DVD players. Apart from archiving all those episodes of "Let's Bowl" and "Invader Zim," this will also be great for the occasional home video. Since I don't have that DVD burner (yet!), it will be nice to be able to send out the latest holiday or vacation video on CD instead of tape.

But enough with the geekspeak. Cooking lately has been practically non-existent. Reheated leftovers and dinners out with out-of-town guests have been the order of the day. I did make a chicken pot pie the other night, but that has been about it. (I did make the crust in that heavy-duty food processor Jen & Geoffrey sent us. Thanks guys!) I'm hoping to get back on the horse here later this week, but getting sick kind of kills the motivation to create culinary masterpieces.

This afternoon, when I started to feel better, I grew tired of wallowing in my own filth and actually began to tidy up the place. While dealing with the kitchen, I noticed that there were two lizards who had found their way in through the cracks around the edges of the window screens. They were just hanging out on the inside of the screen, happy as clams, if clams are happy. I shooed them back to the outside, lest they become playthings and (eventually) afternoon snacks for certain feline marauders we know.

Christina and I had dinner with Michael at Anna's last night. It was quite a sight, me snuffling and coughing into my baked ziti while a sunburned "Mr. P" (as some of his students call him) regaled us with tales of third grade terrors.

I think that's all I've got for now, except for the obligatory media report.

Just watched: Soul Survivors – I really wanted to like this one. Really, I did. It has Eliza Dushku, Luke Wilson, and Casey Affleck. And man, does it ever suck. As horror films go, this one is even worse than The Dorm That Dripped Blood. Hey, maybe that's because they were made by the same person!

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Monday, April 08, 2002

I'm a bit under the weather this week; a sort throat and cough combined with snotty nose conditions make for a grumpy me. Took the afternoon off from work to do some extra snoozing. I'm supposed to give a talk on Wednesday; I hope I have a voice with which to do it.

Yes, we had a good old time at Dinosaur World, even if their gift shop employees are a bit grumpy, in an Old World European sort of way. Please take a look at the fabulous photos we got there. Christina has been shouting her version of Horshack's "Ooh! Ooh!" every time we passed DinoWorld, coming back from Orlando. It was nice to finally make it to one of the better tourist traps in the area.

Cosmic bowling was something of a disappointment – I mean, it was cosmic and all that, but there was a birthday party of about thirty ten-year-old boys in the lane next to us, doing their best to act goofy and impress each other. Their behavior was distracting, and I bowled a couple of shitty games before retiring for the evening.

A special shout out to my father and sister, who, if they are reading this, are doing so from an internet cafe in London. By the way, Geoffrey and I are just letting the orders pile up. Process and ship? Why bother?

Just Watched: Haiku Tunnel – I think my brothers Geoffrey and Nicholas could readily identify with this movie. If you liked Office Space or Clockwatchers, this one will definitely speak to you. And it's set in a law office, so I think it will have extra special meaning for those of you currently working in – or looking to work in – such an environment.

In the CD player: Heaven or Las Vegas – it has been twelve years since I picked this CD out of the "to be reviewed" pile at the Triton Tribune, my college newspaper. (You know, I tried to find a link for the Trib, or even the current incarnation of the paper, called just The Triton, but I came up empty. Seems Eckerd is still dragging its way into the 1990s.) At any rate, in those twelve years I have been unable to decipher even part of the famously incoherent lyrics from the Cocteau Twins. At this point, I have my own words. Hit me with your airplane, baby.

On the Tube: Let's Bowl is back! I like Amanda's new hair. The new music during the bowling isn't as good as the old stuff, but at least Wally seems to be working on his patter. Let's see if the addition of Mike Nelson to the writing staff can help out this season. I should really write a Tuber article on this show.

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