Dominoes

I remember setting up dominoes as a kid when I was home sick from school. I remember having lines of them crossing under the table, over books, around obstacles, spiraling, straight, curved, expanding, shrinking, even loop-de-looping. Man, it was frustrating when they would fall over before you were ready. When your pinky toe accidentally hit the one on the end and they all fell over before another human being could appreciate you actually did set up 987 dominoes across the entire kitchen. I miss those times. I set up a few on my grandparents table just for old times sake. It's good to be a kid again.

Wiiiiiiiiiii

This past weekend I got a chance to play with the hottest toy of the year--the Wii. Thanks Em. And i have the lingering "claw" hand to prove it. Ha ha.

You get to make a mini you, known as the Mii. Unfortunately, we were not really adept enough to make one look exactly like me. I suppose I don't transpose into mix-and-match pre-fabricated digital body parts so well. But that's okay, Mii's are only used in the sports such as tennis and golf.

Most amusing though, was the Rayman Raving Rabbids Game. You embark on various trips and perform different tasks to beat your opponent (or the computer), like shooting little rabbits with plungers, chucking spit balls at the teacher when his back is turned, shaking up colorful potions, goofing off at work while the boss is in the other room, gliding down hills in carts, and swiveling the chair in a photo booth. Note: some of the messages taught in this game are deceptively cute while tip-toeing into the morally questionable... But anyway...

None of us hurled the device into the television either.

For Nintendo itself, it's fessing up that the wrist straps on the wave-me-like-a-madman remote control aren't up to being waved by a madman--or even your typical 13-year-old game player.

Wiiiiiiii fun.

You Sunk My Battleship

I had a strange urge to play Battleship this week. You know, that Milton Bradley game you played when you were nine. I don't know why I had to play this game after years and years. And I don't know why I remembered it existed. It was strange.

In the classic Battleship, you arrange your naval war ships in a grid and try to take out your opponent's ships before they take out yours. When your ship is full of red plastic you make a hideous bombing noise and say, "You sunk my battleship."

Wikipedia's history of the game is actually interesting. Excerpt:

In The Dillinger Days, historian John Toland writes that prisoners in solitary confinement in the Indiana State Penitentiary played a version of Battleship during the 1920s, marking squares on their cell floors and calling out attacks from cell to cell. "For years the more obtuse guards wondered what was being plotted when they heard men calling: 'B-7.' 'Miss.' 'C-8.' 'Destroyer sunk!'"

If you have the unexplained desire to play too and can't challege or um, bribe someone into playing a game with you, you can always use the not as fun computer version.

Free Rice... and Words

Coolest website ever. I wish I had found this before I took the GRE's.

A word pops up. You click on the correct definition. For every vocab word you get right, the United Nations World Food Program distributes 20 grains of rice to impoverished peoples. The money comes from the advertisers on the site and everybody wins. You learn words, corporations get advertising, and hungry people get rice. I'm just guessing, but the last one is probably the best.

-I dare you to beat my score. Suckers. My highest is 40 as of right now, but I probably average at the 36-37 range.

I am a vocab beast, I dare you to surpass my mad skill. Do it. Click on the green.