Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts
By Alyce Wilson
July 10, 2006 - Further Fourth of July Fun
The Batman and The Court Wizard discuss video games, a favorite topic.
This is a continuation of my write-up of the July 4 party at The White Rabbit's house. For the first part, click here.
I'd noticed that The Video Editor had set up DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) pads downstairs, and I asked him if he was up for a game. He said he definitely was, because he wanted to work off some of the carbs he'd eaten.
So we made our way downstairs, but at a bit too leisurely a pace, as it turned out. By the time we arrived, The Dormouse and The Court Wizard were playing a space battle game.
The Video Editor and I decided to hang out and wait for them to tire of their space game. In the meantime, we talked about a number of health related issues. The Video Editor has diabetes, and he credited The White Rabbit with saving his life.
The two friends had made plans to attend an anime convention together, and The White Rabbit dropped by his house to finalize plans. The White Rabbit noticed that The Video Editor was very ill that day, complaining that he was very thirsty despite drinking a lot of water and that he was having sugar cravings. So The White Rabbit insisted that he go to the doctor as soon as possible and actually forced him to do so.
When the doctor examined The Video Editor, he told him that if he'd waited until after the weekend to come in, he might have slipped into a coma or even died.
The interesting thing about this story is that later on, when The White Rabbit came down to say hello to us, I told him that The Video Editor credited him with saving his life. The White Rabbit said, "Really?"
We recounted the story for him, and he said, "Oh, cool."
It occurred to me that The White Rabbit himself might not always realize how positive an influence he has on his friends; he just helps them as a matter of course. That's one thing I can say about this circle of friends in general: we've got each other's backs.
When The Court Wizard and Batman had tired of their space battle, the Video Editor set up a game called Guitar Hero, since there was a lot of interest in playing it. I also decided to give it a shot.
The game is a lot of fun. It's similar to DDR in that you have to match patterns to music. But in this case, your controller is guitar shaped, with five different colored buttons on the neck and a button you strum on the body. It took a little while to pick up, but before long I was doing fairly well on the easy songs.
I let some people trade in who knew what he was doing, such as The Dormouse, who blew us away with some fancy guitarwork, such as holding it behind his back.
The Dormouse proves he's a guitar hero.
Then we started DDR. By this time, Agent Smith was also eager to play,
and we promised him that we'd let him rotate in with the two of us. I
had to borrow some socks from The White Rabbit, because I'd just been
wearing sandals on bare feet. The Video Editor had just bought new DDR
pads and said it wasn't good for them to play on them barefoot. Fortunately,
the White Rabbit had just done laundry and could spare a pair of black
socks for me.
We started on a version of the game I didn't know particularly well. All the songs were new to me, but I was sight-reading fairly well, I thought. In addition to Agent Smith, The Dormouse also traded in with us.
After we'd played that version of the game for awhile, we put in the version that The Gryphon and I have, and I got to do some songs that were familiar to me. I played against The Dormouse for awhile and was surprised to see how well I did in comparison to him, because when I saw him play at New Year's, I was really impressed with his footwork.
I face off with The Dormouse in DDR.
The Video Editor said some amusing things to me in the course of our conversation.
He told me that he was taking his doctor-recommended diet very seriously
and had lost about 50 pounds. I could tell that he was swimming in his
black Otakon T-shirt.
I agreed that the best way to lose weight is to commit to a lifestyle change and surprised him by revealing I'd lost about 80 pounds since 2000. He said he couldn't imagine me being 80 pounds heavier: "You only weigh about 110 now."
I snickered. I could have set him straight, since I've made no secret of what my weight is. At this point, I'm at about 148, which is five pounds heavier than I was at my sister's wedding last year. I've been struggling to take off more than 10 pounds of holiday weight.
At another point, The Video Editor was showing off on DDR, getting down on his knees and hitting the pads from there. I said, "Oh, I can't handle the hard songs," imitating what he'd said just a short time ago, "but I'll get down on my knees and show off now."
He said, "Go ahead."
I corrected him: "No, that was your internal monologue. Perhaps you don't recognize what it sounds like when it's externalized."
He played along: "Oh, yes, my internal monologue does sound like a little girl."
The Cheshire Cat and Agent Smith, who were also in the basement, piled on, saying things like, "You have to watch out when the little girl voice starts telling you to kill the neighbors."
This reminds me of a funny conversation I heard on the back porch at some point in the afternoon, between The Cheshire Cat and The Warrior Princess. They were joking about how there needed to be a new holiday called "Explody Day", where you could set off fireworks just like on July 4, but on a day that was cooler, like in October. Sounds like a good idea to me.
I stopped
playing DDR when I had about an hour to go before I had to leave. I'd
agreed to work that evening because a lot of people were taking off, and
I didn't want to lose the money (since I'm self-employed, I don't get
vacation time). But my schedule was lighter that evening due to the holiday.
The
Warrior Princess garnered even more of my respect and admiration, if that's
possible, by bringing both a ripe, juicy watermelon and also delicious
corn on the cob. I was fortunate enough to have some of each before I
had to leave. I also had another of The Gryphon's calzones, choosing a
different flavor this time.
Before leaving, I got a picture of The Pop Junkie, who was being silly in the kitchen. Love his shirt! I also got him to let me take a normal picture of him, where he wasn't being silly. Then again, for him, that's not so normal.
See if you can guess which one is the silly face.
The Pirate showed up just before I had to leave and was showing off his new camera. He let me take some pictures with it, so I took one of him and then one of The Paper and The Gryphon preparing some meat to barbecue. The camera was pretty sweet, considering it only cost about $400.
Then I had to get going. I told everyone that if people were still hanging out when I got done, I'd come home. I'm actually glad I went home when I did. Our dog, Una, surprised me by freaking out at the sound of fireworks outside. She even tried to climb into my lap while I was working. So I comforted her until she started taking a nap.
By the time I finished work, things had calmed down outside, and what's more, it had started to rain, which would probably also eliminate most of the firework activity. I left the radio station on for Una, hoping it would have a calming effect.
The rain got really intense on the way there, and the uneven pavement in the various construction areas produced unanticipated hydroplaning conditions. I took it easy and slowed down, trying not to use my brakes a lot. The whole way, I was listening to Hasidic reggae music by Matisyahu. It was like I had somebody praying for me.
When I arrived, many of the guests had left but a few were hanging out, talking quietly on the porch: The Cousin, The Gryphon, and The Court Wizard. I grabbed a drink and joined them.
Before long, a Scrabble game upstairs had finished, The Pirate having whipped everybody soundly, and the players joined us. The porch started to get sort of loud and overcrowded, as everyone talked about pop cultural topics such as web comics and movies. Among the people still there were The Con Ops Guru, Pimp Daddy, The Cheshire Cat, The Dormouse, The March Hare, The Photographer and of course, The White Rabbit.
A short time later, people started to say their good-byes. We hung out a little bit longer, until The White Rabbit started buzzing around, cleaning up things and getting rooms prepared for his overnight guests, such as The Cousin and her family.
So we left, taking with us some of the food and drink, as The White Rabbit couldn't use all of it. There were even some veggies left from the tray I'd brought, since people stopped eating it when the dip ran out.
Fortunately,
the rain had stopped, and our drive home was less scary than my return
trip had been. Una was relieved to see me. According to her, our neighborhood
had been under attack for several hours. It was only her barking that
had scared the enemies off, apparently. Our cat, Luke, had assisted in
scaring them off by hiding under the bed in the guestroom, so they wouldn't
realize anyone was home.
More from the July 4 party:
Moral:
Dogs would not celebrate Explody Day.
Copyright
2006 by Alyce Wilson
What
do you think? Share your thoughts
at Alyce's message board (left button):
