The Rules of the Game

For some reason, deciding on a place to eat is a difficult task. The normal scenario, as most people have experienced goes something like this:

Person A: Where do you want to eat?
Person B: I don't care. Anywhere. Where do you wanna eat?
Person A: I don't care either. I'm down for anything.
Person B: Do you wanna get Chinese food?
Person A: Anything but Chinese food! I'm so sick of Chinese food!

etc...


I've devised a solution to this rather trivial, yet persistent problem.

Like the vast majority of solutions that I think up, this one takes the form of a game.

Rules:

1) There are two players. (More than two players is possible, but the difficulty of "winning" increases geometrically with each additional player.)

2) Each player has a note pad and every round, each player writes down the name of a restaurant.

3) After writing down the name of the restaurant, the players reveal to each other what they wrote.

4) If the names match, they eat at that restaurant. If not, repeat the process until the names do match.


These are the only rules. You can repeat the names of restaurants, you can communicate to the other player what you intend to write for that round. Anything is possible.

This game is good for several reasons. First off, it forces both parties to think about places to eat instead of one person throwing out ideas while the other rejects them. Also, if you really want to eat at a specific restaurant, lets say Taco Bell, all you would have to do is write down Taco Bell for every round. If the other player's resolve for Burger is not as strong as yours for Taco Bell, a victory is assured. Finally, it's really fun.


Last night Justin and I played this game.



My choices are on the left, his on the right.

Round 1: D&A Cafe v. Be My Guest
Round 2: Genki Ramen v. Q
Round 3: D&A Cafe v. Pho Hoa KY
Round 4: Philly Cheese Steak v. Thirsty Bear
Round 5: China First v. China First WIN!

We ended up going to China First as dictated by the game. It was delicious and a good time was had by all!

Heath Ledger is Dead / Bitter End Quiz Night

Call me callous, but the first thing I thought of when I heard that Heath Ledger was dead was "Oh God, I hope they finished filming Dark Night!!"




Every Tuesday night, The Bitter End hosts a quiz night. This entails answering general trivia questions as well as identifying songs and pictures of celebrities.

My favorite part of the night, however, is the Team Name Competition. The team with the best name gets a free round of shots. During my first quiz night 2 weeks ago, I thought of the team name "Ghangis Funk." It got almost no reaction from the crowd.

The names that ended up getting the most positive reactions were the dirtiest and almost always referred to the host's (Tim's) mother. Here is a sampling of tonight's names, be warned, they are pretty crass:

• "The Dow Jones went down so much today that I thought it was Tim's Mom."
• "If Tim's Mom was Iraq, I wouldn't pull out either."

Tonight's entries also included obligatory Heath Ledger references:

• "Ten Things I Hate About Myself: #1 - I ODed"
• "I can't quit Tim's Mom's mangina, so I'll guess I'll take these sleeping pills"
• "Tim's Mom's vagina is so gross that Heath Ledger fucked her in the anus and then died."

That last one doesn't even make sense.

If anybody is interested in going, The Bitter End is at 5th and Clement and Quiz Night is every Tuesday at 9pm!

Ninja Town, USA

There is something to be said about anticipation. All you have to do is look back to the moment right before your first kiss to see how powerful an emotion it is. Anticipation is hope, fear and limitless possibility wrapped up in a single moment. It's intoxicating.

The people who created Ninja Town are well aware of this and have created a product that capitalizes on this phenomenon.

The product is simple. You buy a box. Within this box resides a small, ninja themed, plush toy. One does not know what kind of ninja one will get until they open the sealed box and remove the toy from a non-resealable opaque bag. Think baseball cards.

At the back of the box, there is a list of 12 different ninjas that one might be be able to get. All the different ninjas differ in rarity. The standard black clad ninja is present in 20% of the boxes while the "Ol' Master Ninja" is so rare that its percentage in the ninja population simply listed as a question mark.

Recently, some friends and I have become enamored with these little fuckers. At a New Years Eve party I went to a few weeks ago, a riot nearly erupted at a the white elephant gift exchange when somebody produced a relatively rare "Baby Ninja."

At $6 a pop, these guys are not cheap for a small plush toy. This past Sunday, a few of my friends went to Park Life on Clement (think Giant Robot) and bought some of these these dudes. My friend Justin has a serious addiction to these toys. After opening his box and receiving a toy that did not satisfy him, he enlisted the help of a friend to go back to the store and pick him up another box, so as not to embarrass himself, or his family name.

Here are the two Ninja Town plushes that I own.

"Ninja Business Man"- The tiny cell phone is especially cool.

"Ninja Poo" - It's a piece of poo.

Finally, here's Ferd after he got the coveted "Ol' Master Ninja."
You can't FAKE that kind of happiness.