Does anyone remember the old school text adventure games, the ones where you got really frustrated by the limited vocabulary of the program and resorted to simple commands like "stab doctor" or "kill kitten" only to have said kitten kill you instead? I believe I mentioned before the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy version and a java adaptation available online, but games could not be saved. Screw up and you had to start all over. But now there is a version here where you can save, although if you don't register for an account you must pick a unique save file name and remember it.

It's a lovely time waster. But if you try it and get stuck, here's a walkthrough for you.

I can't hear the animal activists' screams over the "meeeeew" of the hapless kittens. My high score is 1094. Can you beat it?*

Speaking of animal abuse, a blogger wrote about supermarket toys, you know the cheap one they stick in one aisle of the grocery store to tempt kids. One toy he saw was called "Explore Planet Earth Stretch Animals".

What amuses me is the attempt to throw an ecological angle on the abuse of toy animals. I have a vision of a young man, inspired by the "Explore Planet Earth" toys he used to play with, taking a trip to the rainforest, hiking into the untamed wilderness, seeing a gorgeous poison dart frog, picking it up and stretching the hell out of it. Take that, edutainment! [1]

And that reminds me of the blue law; I may have mentioned this in my journal before. Few people seem to remember it, or I don't know enough people who grew up in the souther US, but I recall Sundays at the supermarket well. They'd stretch rope or tape across the toy aisle, and though you could slip under, there was often an employee around to reminds you that section was closed, or mom or dad would come along to drag you out. It was enough to keep most children out of the toy aisle, but I always wondered why. Why deprive people of something that obviously brings them joy: toys? It wasn't until I was older that I learned it was actually a law, and it wasn't until the 80's, I believe, that they stopped enforcing it -- or the repealed it -- in my hometown.


*P.S. I have been defeated. Ekat got 1,613.

P.P.S. I beat her with a score of 2155!

Because we all need distractions form work, homework, or whatever else we should be doing:

Today was Monty Python day, at least for me it was.

• Arguement Clinic
  
• Fish Slap
  
• People Falling out of High Buildings

Sort of a knock off version of Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! / Elite Beat Agents, is this little mouse speed game ekaterini showed me. How fast can you click? The site has other flash games that are good time wasters.

Books are good consumers of time too. I was looking into the recent occurrences of people abandoning babies in Japan, prompted by this article about drop off babies, when I happened upon a book called Coin Locker Babies. I’ve only read one other book this far by a Japanese writer, The Windup Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami – recommended to me by silrionowe. So I’m curious about this one which has some good reviews. I don’t suppose anyone has firsthand knowledge about it?

I saw a photo of a wedding party today. Oh, the dress was a nice sundress, and I don't expect every wedding to be the Cinderella, white dress, whole nine yards event, but the whole thing made me think more of a prom or somewhat special occasion rather than the special day, especially considering it was an event the couple talked about for years. The actual planning appeared to only happen that year.

My super cool wedding dress, my mom and I took a cheap ass white sun dress, dyed it, added the tulle to the bottom, and the cute little belt. Onii and I made the veil out of the extra tulle, weaved dyed raffia, and a few little birds linning the top. Unfortunally I don't have any pictures that include my feet because my shoes are the cutest, I almost died wearing them, but it was so worth it. When I get the professional pictures you'll see how deadly adorable they were.

In theory, you get married once, so shouldn't it be more than a sundress and cargo pants? I mean, look at what the groom is wearing! I see more care, attention, time, and money put into cosplay outfits; even a theme wedding would have been more unique -- goofy in some cases but memorable. A wedding is the ultimate dress up opportunity, after all.

Reading the news and then MMO scamming gossip gives me a headache. So instead I'll just go play Bible Fight. I'm not particularly coordinated when it comes to fighting games though, the quick combos confound my befuddled fingers -- #$&%*@# Satan, when I say "jump", I mean jump! -- although I did do reasonablely well calling down a plague of frogs upon my opponent.