So I got to see Chuck Palahniuk for a short while the other day. I did that thing that I do where I skip out of work for a half-hour or so to do important things (BBQ, etc), and he was reading the first chapter from his new book. Y'know, the one about the guy and the swimming pool? Apperantly Chuck actually met the guy in a sex addicts meeting when he was doing book research for Choke. Also surprising is that you can read a stories about masturbation gone horribly, horribly wrong in a public bookstore, with children wandering around care-free, their ears carefully muffed by the hands of their fainting mothers. There is now a bloodstain on the carpet where an audience member of less than admiral fortitude dropped when the story got to the good part. Unfortunatly, I couldn't stick around long enough to get my book signed. Sarah was there for the whole thing, at the end of the line and everything, and she didn't get for book signed for about 4 1/2 hours. Nuts.
I picked up The Sims 2 from Matt's new work, and it's pretty rad. The Body Shop utility, which lets you make your own custom sims is pretty rad. My only complaint is that you can't adjust your sims for hight or girth. I guess that would take a miracle of animation to have them interact with each other though, so I'll let it slide. For kicks, I might make a sim for everyone in the blog collective and take a funny picture, or make a funny video or something.
There are a couple of birthdays coming up soon. One of them is mine. One of them is not. Some people have been asking me what I would like for gifts. I don't really want anything big this year. You guys spoil me annually, so try to keep it small this time around, okay? Small things are nice, like iTunes gift certificates and such. It's true that I'm moving out, but I'm pretty sure that between me and three roomates we can scrounge together whatever appliances we'll be needing.
One final thing: What is the meaning behind the prefix "mag"? Magnets, Magnify, Magazines. What is the connecting theme to qualify them for the same prefix? Just a thought.
7 Comments:
Not to sure about the mag prefix thing, but you can't forget the words magnum, magnesium, maglite, magnaphone and magnadoodle.
Just to clear things up about that PacMan link you gave. It said that they changed the name from puck man to PacMan because of its closeness to Fuck. Um, just so you guys/gals know thats false. The original character was in-fact called "paku-man" in japan because of the onemotapea (words for sounds) that Japanese people use for eating. In english we say "munch, munch" but Japanese say "paku, paku". Its the sound he makes when eating the pellets and Power pellets! Some dufuss in an American office thought it was Puck-man and thats why the crazy mis-translated copy of the PC version is called "Puck man". Its also why some people give the origin story that way too. BTW, don't fuck with video game history while I'm in the house...Sommersaults, that's how I roll.
P.S. Sorry to use up so much space.
Just like the reason Donkey Kong is named the way he is! ...mostly.
Honestly, I always thought Pac-
man was saying "wakka-wakka-wakka" when he ate. That's how it works in my mind at least.
What's the deal with Donkey Kong? I mean, we've all learned by now that he's not a donkey.
Same hilarious mistranslation. It was supposed to be Monkey Kong (if what I heard is accurate), but the "M" turned into a "D" somewhere down the line.
"wakka-wakka-wakka" ?! What are you playing? Fozzy-bear-man?!
Um..sorry I'm gonna have to call you on the Donkey Kong thing. Miyamoto took Kong from the obvious 1930's movie King Kong. (which, later at the peak of DK's success, Universal un-successfully sued Nintendo over)
"Donkey" has a couple of reasons to it. One story that helps keep Miyamoto in a good light has him deciding on the name "Donkey" because it reflects the stubborn aspects of this antagonist to the then-named "Jumpman".
The other story, which I lean towards, has Miyamoto picking the word "Donkey" from an old Japanese-English dictionary as the colliquial english word for "stupid". I tend to believe this story because I've seen a lot of poor word choices for english advertising here, and you can tell that they just tried to directly translate it.
Oh, and I've got a source (there are many) for more info if you wanna read up for your self.
DK History
Mike, if you'd take a quick look around the internet, you'd see that Pac Man and the sound "Wakka-Wakka" are pretty much synonymous.
C'mon now, you're not going to argue with me AND Futurama, are you?
Ok ok. I'll admit that due to the limitations on the sound in the 1980's Pac-Man does indeed sound like a wave-form, muffled "wakka-wakka" sound. After checking those sites and then d/l an original sound byte I have to agree. BUT, it was meant to be the onemotapea "paku-paku" for eating.
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