Feaverish

My first computer (not counting my beloved Speak & Spell) was an Apple IIc, and last weekend, while watching Defrasne eek out a last-minute victory over Bjørndalen in the men’s 12.5km pursuit biathlon, I had an overwhelming desire to play Winter Games on a 9” monochrome green screen. (I also had a great idea for a spin-off sport, which I call “bikeathlon.” Seriously, if there was a sport where I could just ride around shooting stuff I would quit my job today to train full-time I am not even kidding.)

Anyway, it turns out my yen for last-gen gaming isn’t very unique. There are lots of sites out there dedicated to Apple II emulation.

Of the myriad titles available, Captain Goodnight is probably my favorite (though I definitely spent more time playing Ultima IV—it took me months to figure out that my pirated copy of the game was missing a disk you needed to win). On the surface, Goodnight looks like a standard 007-esque side-scrolling shooter, but it’s not. For one thing, you have unlimited lives and there are no degrees of difficulty (only hard). It’s a race against the clock, where one second of real time equals one minute in the game, and you have 100 game-hours to win (despite being told in the briefing that you only have 24 hours. Whatever.). You can’t save your game (unless you’re running an emulator, of course, which you probably will be), and a running commentary of cheeky sarcasm mocks your every setback. Using planes, helicopters, tanks, boats, submarines, and your feet you shoot your way across the Islands of Doom (Odom, Modo, and, well, Doom Island) trying to stop the evil Doctor Maybe.

It’s all terribly frustrating and hours of fun, and it’s weird that Captain Goodnight seems to have been mostly forgotten (there’s not even a Wikipedia entry for it). So go play for a few hours this weekend and maybe it’ll come back into the collective consciousness. (I don’t even know what that means.)

Another show, another poster. The final version was cropped a bit into standard 11×17 poster shape, but I think it looks pretty snappy running off the edges and whatnot. Click on it for a really large version you can put up on your wall, or make into a t-shirt, or just keep in your Top Secret Crushing on Feaverish Diary and Scrapbook™.

I think of all the senses, hearing would be near the top of my “Do Not Lose” list. Obviously sight’s the big one, right? Sight would have to be the last to go. But smell? Meh. If you’ve ever taken an afternoon visit to my company’s bathroom on Pink-Chicken–Chili Fridays you’d be willing to live without smell.

Losing your sense of taste would be horrible, but you’d probably just be like “Well, at least I can still see.” Sense of touch? Hmm. Are we talking full paralysis here? Or like you can still move but just not really feel anything? Like mostly numb? ‘Cause that might not be so bad.

With touch I think we notice the negative experiences more than the positive. I mean, how many things can you think of that feel good? Relations amoureuse (as I imagine someone from France might say)? Naturally. What else? Monkey back rubs come to mind (as recipient only! Nothing chafes the thumbs worse than coarse monkey flesh), as does the splintering give of safety glass when the car that just cut you off gets your bike’s U-Lock hammered righteously and repeatedly into its windshield. Most of the time, though, we just feel, well, nothing—neither good nor bad—and only notice our sense of touch when stubbing our toe or catching a watermelon in the groin.

What I like about hearing is how it’s automatically selective. Like, how you can tune out familiar sounds, but still rely on your ears to alert you when something goes wrong. Think of your humming refrigerator. You never notice the hum, but you’d notice if it stopped. The same goes for an airplane’s engines, or, as I experienced a few minutes ago, the splash of urine in a toilet bowl. Evidently I’ve been subconsciously trained to expect the sound without ever consciously listening to it, since I noticed, after peeing for a few seconds, that my stream was not making its customary splashing noises, and was instead being blocked by—and thoroughly soaking—my apparently too-long shirt front.

Woo! Jim tagged me, so I am it. Fortunately I wrote this entry as soon as I saw the meme going around, so all I have to do is hit publish.

Four Jobs I’ve Had
1. temporary Christmas-help UPS package delivery guy
2. car dealership courtesy driver
3. camera shop cutie
4. copyright buccaneer

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over
1. Rushmore
2. His Girl Friday
3. L’auberge espagnol
4. Raiders of the Lost Ark

Four Places I Have Lived
1. Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, France
2. Yaoundé, Cameroon
3. Fresno, California
4. Portland, Oregon

Four TV Shows I Love to Watch
1. The (British) Office
2. Surface
3. The Simpsons
4. Cash Cab

Four Places I’ve Been on Vacation
1. Pentwater, Michigan
2. a lake in Maine whose name I can’t remember
3. New York
4. Toronto, Canada

Four of my Favorite Dishes
1. Plato Cubano at Pambiche
2. Tacos (my own)
3. ไก่ผัดเม็ดมะม่วงหิมพานต์
4. Pine Cone Fish at Typhoon!

Four Websites I Visit Daily
1. Bibliodyssey
2. Girls Are Pretty
3. Toothpaste For Dinner
4. Daily Type

Four Places I Would Rather Be
1. Paris (with L)
2. in an Eric Rohmer film from the 60s or 70s (with L)
3. in a hot bath with a cold beer (with L [and maybe a grilled cheese sandwich])
4. riding my bike on a warm summer evening (with L)

Four People I’m Tagging
1. ms. firecracker!
2. Buzz Anderson
3. The Twice
4. Slippers