The downside of having one’s husband come home from working on Norwescon at three in the morning is disrupted sleep. The upside of disrupted sleep is sometimes remembering dreams. Last night, they made the presidential candidates conduct their next debate dressed as boxers wearing red clown noses. Obama came off the best, although I remember some debate over whether it was actually appropriate to vote for a president who looked that good with his shirt off. Then he started speaking and all doubts vanished.
After that I was stuck in a demon house with the reunited Spice Girls, which I’m pretty sure is a metaphor for the nationwide real estate meltdown.
I played Rock Band over the weekend and found it surprisingly fun. I say “surprisingly” because I don’t usually like video games. Even Wii bowling was only “okay” — I really missed the visceral satisfaction that comes from rolling an actual bowling ball.
Rock Band pleased me by being played in a group, physically active (you play standing up), and the game of it involved pattern-recognition and timing things to music. Plus, if you are playing the guitar and time it right, you get an instant visceral reward — you actually hear the guitar part. (I think I gave myself tendonitis with our all-girl Metallica cover band version of “Enter Sandman.”)
I find it interesting that these modern-style video games — Rock Band, Wii, Dance Dance Revolution — actually are moving in the direction of the elaborate full-body simulations speculated in early cyberpunk.
Just like we did, eventually, get camera phones.