You knew it was going to happen one day. A woman in Brazil was saved by her breast implants. It seems her falsies slowed up a bullet that would have otherwise been fatal. What makes it newsworthy is that the plastic surgeon who was called in to fix the mess went ahead and gave her larger implants. The woman was happy because she says she looks even more beautiful. It just makes me wonder, do they charge by size and she couldn’t afford ones as big as she wanted the first time?
Archive for category Fun
Philip K. Dick’s classic novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, was made into the movie Bladerunner. In order to make the movie, a lot of the book was left out. Movies are short stories, not novels. Sadly, the movie doesn’t really capture the question that Dick posed throughout his work: “what is real?”, although it did do a reasonably good job at capturing the “what is human?” question specific to the book. I’m only bringing this up because my boss mentioned that he was buying an electric dog for his kids for Christmas. In the book, people were expected to have pets; because there weren’t enough animals to go around, many people had to have electronic pets, like Rick Deckard, hero of the novel, who owns an electric sheep. Well, Sony has electronic dogs, that exhibit dog like behavior. The more you pay, the better the behavior, although they also have models that take pictures for later viewing and such. The more expensive ones apparently will even recharge themselves. Despite the work, we’ll be sticking with the natural one we have.
The Sims
Dec 12
My daughter is a big fan of The Sims. Sometime back she described the game to me hoping I’d play it too. I asked her if I had to tell my sims when to eat, when to go to the bathroom, when to clean up after themselves, and when to go bed. Yes she replied, and added you even have to tell them what to wear. Sorry I said, but that’s too much like being a parent. I guess that’s why it’s so popular with the teenage crowd – while they may still be under mom and dad’s thumb, at least they can have complete control over a sim. She did persuade me to build a sim house – that’s more like what I want out of a game.
Now The Sims are going online. I’ve never gone the online gaming route — not even with Diablo — mainly due to a strong fear of getting my butt whipped by a nine year old kid who has the time to devote to games I can’t play as much as I want, but still play too much of. I suppose it will be different with The Sims since, as far as I can tell, there’s no way to get your butt whipped. I’m sure there is, and no doubt it will be in such a way that teenagers will pick up on it immediately, but us old folks will never divine. Like Phil used to say, be careful out there.
I lost a lot of time this weekend to Civilization III, which I got Friday for my birthday. Yep, 41 and still playing games. I was gaga over versions 1 and 2, although it was SimCity that convinced me to buy my first Mac. The Fruit of the Murphy Loins also like it, so now the squabbling over computer time, the whining about why they don’t have their own computers, and complaints about the old computer not being able to run it have begun. The only game of mine I don’t let them play is Diablo II because all the killing and sets are too graphic. So all three of us are building our civilizations to withstand the tests of time, and swapping tips, techniques, and info. It’s another gardening game, but what a beautiful garden. Unlike a real garden, this game gives your brain a workout, not your back. When I think of how much time I’ve spent playing Sid Meier’s games (Civilization 1-3, Colonization, Railroad Tycoon 1 & 2), I think “time well spent!” I’ve spent hours at a time telling myself and my wife “one more turn!” That’s a phrase that should go on every gamer’s tombstone.
One Definition of Chutzpah
Oct 11
There are a lot of definitions of chutzpah out there, but I’ll take this one: To steal your neighbors goods, sell them at a three day yard sale, and provide receipts. The Rutland Herald provides the details; only I supply the Yiddish.
It’s been awhile, but I played Tropico last night. It has a knack for getting me in trouble with the Other Fearless Leader, since I spend too much time playing it, or as the case was last night, I messed up taping Friends while playing. And my excuse, delivered in a lousy Spanish accent, that the people need their el presidente doesn’t go over at all with her. At all. Tropico is a fun game where you are in charge of a small Caribbean island. You build the buildings, you set the wages, and you can ruthlessly suppress the people or get voted out of office (your choice!). Most people would call it a strategy/simulation game; I call it a game about gardening. To me, it’s a sublimation of the gardening drive, as all the activity involved is best understood as gardening – designing, planting, weeding, watering, eliminating pests, and expanding your garden. There are a bunch of games like this, starting with Sim City, the granddaddy of simulation games, and including Warcraft, Master of Orion, or Age of Empires to name a few popular titles.
I could tell the joke, but then you’d laugh yourself to death. OK, that’s a riff on a Monty Python routine, but seriously folks, a British (natch!) university decided to find the world’s funniest joke. Laugh Lab set out to run a scientific experiment to find the world’s funniest joke. According to The New Scientist, not only did they find the joke, they found out that the duck is the world’s funniest animal. They also found that different countries had different senses of humor, and that Japan was a joke free zone. The winning joke, submitted by a psychologist in Manchester, England:
A couple of New Jersey hunters are out in the woods when one of them falls to the ground. He doesn’t seem to be breathing, his eyes are rolled back in his head. The other guy whips out his cell phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps to the operator: “My friend is dead! What can I do?” The operator, in a calm soothing voice, says: “Just take it easy. I can help. First, let’s make sure he’s dead.” There is a silence, then a shot is heard. The guy’s voice comes back on the line. He says: “OK, now what?”
I’m sure those of you who’ve been paying attention immediately see how to make this joke funnier: change it to start “A couple of New Jersey duck hunters are ….” Adding the world’s funniest animal is bound to make the world’s funniest joke even funnier.
The Rams lost again today. It’s just amazing how they went from outstanding to lousy in one offseason. Well, they turned lousy just in time for the Superbowl and they’ve stayed lousy ever since. At least we have the Cardinals to root for. I suppose the Rams being lousy isn’t all bad — now I’ll have my Sunday afternoons back, not chained to the TV, watching the game.
