Nostalgia: it's what's for breakfast.

I was in Ashwaubenon this morning officiating for a swim meet. It was towards the end of the meet; I was sitting at the end of the pool (probably not paying as much attention as I should have, but it was the 500 free; sue me) when I heard a certain melody.

Ever been sitting somewhere and heard a snippet of song that took you back? Well, one of the parents sitting behind me had Chopin's Mazurka as her ring tone. This did not whisk me away to a dark concert hall, or to a piano lesson, or even to my dorm room as I listen to my Chopin Pandora station. Nope. Instead, I was reminded of one of the most awesome computer games I had the privilege of playing as a kid: The Lost Mind of Dr. Brain.

I have very fond memories of this game. The premise is that you are trying to piece together the mind of the great scientist, Dr. Brain, after a failed experiment. Why anyone would want to switch their mind with a rat (even one named Rathbone) is beyond me, but it made a pretty kick-ass game. There were memory puzzles, music puzzles, spatial problems, and a sort-of cross between a Rubik's cube and Boggle. I attribute my knowledge of the periodic table abbreviations to the Pentode.

I've been wallowing a lot in childish things lately. Maybe "wallowing" is a poor word choice. It's really more like "reveling." And by "childish things" I don't mean tantrums and Barbies, which I never actually played with as a kid. I mean kid's books, puzzles, cartoons. You know, all the awesome stuff we remember from when we were young. Getting my hands on children's books is a snap, thanks to Borders. Every time I close during a weekday, the last few hours is painfully boring. So, instead of doing something useful with my time, I've been grabbing a book off of the shelf, plonking myself down behind the register, and reading.


Books read so far:

How to Train Your Dragon Book 3: How to Speak Dragonese
Mr. Popper's Penguins
A Series of Unfortunate Events books 2 & 3
Some other Lemony Snicket book involving a talking latke
A Wind in the Door


Occasionally I peek around the corner or above the counter to see if anyone has come into the store. There has not been thus far, which is a good thing since I probably look like a complete weirdo trying to play peek-a-boo with customers. On the other hand, it would give someone a really entertaining story.

P.S. There's a series of YouTube videos of some guy playing through the entire "Lost Mind of Dr. Brain" computer game. I shit you not. The guy narrating tries to make upping the difficulty level a feat of badassery. Hilarious.