8-Bit Great Gastby for NES. Best thing ever?

That's right, Nicole Campos over at Nerdist.com found this little gem online.

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It's open source and available to play right over meah. Okay, so first I have to admit I never read The Great Gatsby (its on my Nook reading list. . . at least it is now. . . shut up!) but I don't think that really matters. I love it and its pretty straight forward: find Gatsby. . . I think. . . or whoever that smug douche with the white suit, blonde hair and blindingly shiny teeth over there is. . .

                                                                 Shiny-teeth motherf*****


At least I'm pretty sure that's what's going on and that he'll be at the end of each level.  I think. Again, never read he book and to be honest I spent most of my time trying to get screenshots so I didn't get too far in yet.  Anyway,  you complete the levels by collecting flashing coins and martinis. Also by destroying all enemies with your second boomerang-like fedora I'm assuming you keep in your snappy little vest.

That butler shouldn't be on the bookcase with that martini anyway. Irresponsible, that's what that is. 

And by enemies I mean butlers, flappers, washed-out-white-faced-Uncle-Sams, small malevolent Blue Jays. . . you know, whoever's around.

                         Dancing on slippery brick walls? This whole party is a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Oh and if you manage to grab a shiny gold fedora you'll suddenly dress snazzier/more like the mask for a minute. I can't really figure out the purpose of that, but again - does it matter? Not to me it doesn't! This game is nothing but good times. Except for the whole no pausing, no saving thing.  Dammit 8-bit.

Because I really did want to be Judy Funny when I grew up. . .

I found this list of key words/phrases in Beatnikese on good 'ol Tumblr.

Enjoy trying to fit those into your daily vocabulary. I know I will.   You dig?

Remy of FoodOddities.com is my ideal child

Now, all of my friends and even a few of people I vaguely associate with know at least these two things about me: 1) I remember where I've gone by what I've eaten and 2)  I will eat pretty much anything put in front of me.  If I could get a gig as the younger, female version of Anthony Bourdain I'd be the happiest girl in the world. Much like Tony, and his fellow traveling chef Andrew Zimmern,  I believe that food is the best way to experience and get closer to other cultures - not to mention a wonderful bonding experience. 

Another thing you need to know about me - my #1 fear about having a child is that they will be a picky eater. I'm pretty sure I've even had nightmares about it. I have never been a picky eater. Ever. I've been ordering sea snails and chicken feet in black bean sauce at chinese restaurants since I was 5 and using chopsticks on sushi since I was 3.  Waiters freaking love me; I make their day.  Going out to eat with my picky eater friends (you know who you are) and my friends' picky children (fortunately its only a few of them) is like slow torture.  I hate when people close themselves off to new flavors and experiences (don't even get me started on people who cover their food in salt without even tasting it first. What - what - what are you doing?) I imagine that having my own child be a picky eater would be as close to a living hell as I could have. 

So, imagine my joy today when I found 10 year old Remy here on Youtube.  To quote from his bio on his website:

"Remy is a regular 10 year old boy from the Midwest United States who discovered at an early age that he liked a lot foods that regular kids just wouldn't touch.  Like spinach. And asparagus. And Brussels sprouts, and sushi, and practically everything else he could get his hands on.

So he decided to test his limits online, trying food unfamiliar to most Americans and giving his honest opinion."

Here he is, younger, eating one of my favorites - raw oysters - at The Maine Avenue Fish Market is Washington, D.C.

And here he cooking himself some fried pig brains

AND another favorite, as previously mentioned, Chicken Feet

Oh my god, I love this kid!  Seriously! He's he's well spoken, willing to try anything and ADORABLE! I'd like to imagine that if I'd had the resources and Youtube as a child, I would have been motivated enough to do what he's doing. Go over to his channel on Youtube and subscribe, or go to his website. Right now.  DO IT. Seriously, it was hard to narrow it down to just those three videos. 

Bionic Eye is almost a real thing. Blind Mag, Anyone?

So I read this story, last night.  Some German company has designed a camera that can be implanted to help the blind see.


 "The device is designed in such a way so that it  fits under the retina and works like a digital film camera.

Here we have a 3mm sq array of 1,500 light sensors that sends pulsed electrical signals to adjoining nerve cells, which relay the messages to the brain."

Apparently, patients in Germany who have already had the implant are "now able to recognize tables and chairs and have developed the practice of walking." What an oddly depressing way to say the (formerly?) blind people can now walk into a strange room without bumping into something. 

But cameras implanted into eyes? Does that remind anyone of, I don't know, a couple different movies?  My first thought? Repo! The Genetic Opera

Yes, Repo! The Genetic Opera. The only movie I can think of to have Sarah Brightman and Paris Hilton in the same frame AT THE SAME TIME. And also the only "human puppet" scenes I can think of in a musical.

"Want me to do this bit while drinking a glass of water?"

Halloween (spoiler) Nights

On Friday night, my friend Juliane and I got in the car and drove down a packed I-4 to get to Universal Studios to meet up with an old friend of mine - Dori- from summer camp and some of her friends. Meeting up with Dori was an awesome bonus and a great way of solidifying a date to actually go to Halloween Horror Nights. We had actually been wanting to go for a while, but picking a day was proving a problem. We had gone to Howl-O-Scream a couple weekends before and been decidedly un-frightened (don't get me wrong, I was entertained but not freaked out in the slightest) so our main reason for wanting to go to Halloween Horror Nights was to make sure our "fear switches" weren't broken. I'd been told that "Disney does Christmas and Universal does Halloween" and that when they do it, they do it large - so I was excited.

We stopped for lunch at Toojays because I decided I needed a large half-sandwich with some matzo ball soup and also that Juliane needed to try a potato knish. . . on a related note, no one seems to be able to explain what a knish is without thinking about it for a minute, saying "um" and then going on to say some things that make them sound entirely unappetizing. And apparently "delicious" isn't enough of a description for my friends.

"What is it? Uh. . . . . well . . ."

I then decided Juliane needed to try my favorite gelato place which was just down the road. When we pulled in I was extremely sad to find that it had closed down. I would have just gone right to the park then, but I was all set to creamy gelato goodness AND Juliane had never had it before (gasp!) and that simply would not do. So I half-unwillingly took her to the gelato counter in Whole Foods. I couldn't stop thinking about how much I miss that other gelato place. . . until I actually ate the gelato, then I was all good.

We got there a good hour before Dori and her posse did, so we decided to hit at least one house before hand. On our way there we passed through one scare zone. . . maybe two . . . I don't really know, that map was hella-vague. First there were commando guys with chain saws - who I loved. My favorite part? Them doing a good minute and a half scene to lull the audience into a

sense of security and draw them in closer, then ending it by playing hokey-pokey with their chainsaws and running at the by then über close audience. Hi-lar-i-ous. Then we walked through some other scene, the theme of which i really wasn't sure of - but there were a lot of sweet,

sweet costumes and a couple people on stilts in sweet costumes.

Then we made it to the first of two houses, Havoc and the Catacombs, and for god-knows-what reason decided to go into The Catacombs. Now, the theme of this house was pretty self

explanatory. I knew I'd be walking through catacombs. What I did NOT know what these these were catacombs filled with victims of the plague. I was only a little nervous until I saw a picture of this:

(after the jump)

Back to. . . normal??

Well, I am finished with the Disney College Program. Of course what always happens when I go go go happened - I got sick. I'm still sick, actually. Head's stuffed, can't hear out of my left ear, all kinds of fun. Plus its like 20 degrees out. This is Florida, right?

The last few weeks as a CP were pretty crazy. After a lot of back and forth, I was finally

approved to be a seasonal cast member - which reminds me that I still need to post my availability. I celebrated my birthday - or didn't really celebrate my birthday - by making "birthday dumplings" with Lily. I only got to mix the filling and try my hand at forming the dumplings (regular and won ton) as I had to go to birthday lunch with my parents at Bahama Breeze. But she brought them to work for me for dinner and they were pretty darn tasty. :-)

I had to work Glow that night, which I was dreading, but it turned out alright. I actually had

a lot of fun and came out with my lowest variance ever - go me! Then, after work, I went with Carmen Maria to Colton's for Christmas cookies and milk. Now, we thought he'd just bought cookies - but no. Apparently its his tradition to bake cookies, so he actually baked cookies. They were damn good cookies too!

They were some kind of amazing peanut butter cookie. To quote Colton: "They're called Jailbreakers. Its an inside joke between me and my sister. . . Actually, I don't really remember why we called

them that. . ." The night actually lasted for quite some while for I don't know what reason - it was a lot of fun but not a lot happened. For the rest of the program I

hung out at Colton's a lot, and I guess we were kind of "seeing"

each other? I don't really know what to call what was going on, to be honest. But I can say that I'm a little sad that whatever it was didn't start happening sooner.

I was terrified for New Years Eve. I'd heard horror stories throughout the whole program about

how terrible it was going to be - how crowded it would get and how messed up the stores would be (I was on a stock shift, so that bit of info was especially scary.) But New Years was honestly fun. Admittedly, I did have a bit of a panic attack when it took me 10 minutes to get back from

the shed to the store before the first set of fireworks (it usually take like 2 minutes.) Other than that it was nice. Don and I went outside to watch the special New Years Eve fireworks at 11:40 and I'm so glad we did, they were amazing! Other than that, the night was pretty uneventful.

Well, except for that huge group of Brazilians that came passed the store at around 1:30 - they had bongos and noisemakers, best party ever. After work we all met up at IHOP for what was not that good of a meal, but a lot of fun regardless.

In short, I kinda miss my college program experience - living with everyone, seeing people I enjoy being around every day - but I will not miss being treated like a CP. By that I mean I will not miss having a roommate IN my room, I will not miss inspections, I will not miss having to be out of my friend's complex by a certain time at night . . . though I suppose that actually means that I will not miss Price Management. So, I guess what I mean is - I don't miss the program, I miss the people.

Things are looking up

Well I talked to one of my mangers last night and it seems that it is still possible for me to go seasonal. Hopefully this will turn out to be true at the end of the month and I will be able to remain part of the company. Joy :-)
In other news I'm down to a Disney size 4. Double joy.