Two things I did at the beach

Perhaps I should say, two *unobvious* things I did while we were at the beach.

I played _Super Mario Kart_ on a _Wii_. I suck at _Super Mario Kart_. In fact, I think I just suck at most fast-twitch games, period. They just move too fast for me. In _SMK_ this manifested as a tendency to run into walls and off the road. Oh, well. Just as in college, where I would happily drink beer and watch Patrick and Joe play _Sonic the Hedgehog_, I was perfectly content to watch and enjoy.

I also played _Rock Band_. I suck at _Rock Band_, too. Interestingly, I suck at _Rock Band_ because I’m unable to disengage from the music and play it as a game. I know too much about how to play, I end up far too attuned to trying to figure out the actual music, and thus lose sight of the real task, pressing buttons in time with lights on screen.

In fact, on the couple of songs that I had never heard, I was able to do OK. On the songs I was familiar with, I could do decent once I had the patterns of the song down. On songs I am intimately familiar with–those that I actually play myself–I was a disaster.

If you’re in the same basic age bracket as I am…

(nearing the bottom of the slope leading towards 33, in my particular case), then I suspect you will have at least a moment of nostalgia (perhaps combined with some quick calculations about just how easy it would be to afford) when you see this “Atari 2600 console with 10 built-in games, all in a slightly oversized "classic" joystick”:http://www3.jcpenney.com/jcp/Products.aspx?DeptID=446&CatID=12110&CatTyp=DEP&ItemTyp=G&GrpTyp=PRD&ItemID=0816230&ProdSeq=2&OffSet=2&ProdCount=3&Cat=plug+%27n+play&Dep=toys&PCat=video+games&PCatID=1174&RefPage=ProductList&Sale=&NumMatches=3&RecPtr=&Search.

Wow.

Courtesy of Jerry, expert finder of amusing time-wasters