A Blog By Any Other Name

After work I trudged up to the attic to find The Book. I was certain it was up there somewhere and it was getting imperative I find it soon as I need to make cookies. Need. I've got a beautiful new kitchen and I can't recall how to make my famous maple cookies. Nor Ethel's Sugar Cookies. And I hadn't laughed at the recipe for Trix cereal balls in several months.

After several boxes of antiques and Christmas decorations I did find an old plastic tub with items from Eugene. One of them had old t-shirts, a music box with plastic hair ties, a collection of calligraphy pen nibs, and a paper-clipped bundle of papers from high school.

I climbed back down the ladder with the papers and joined CrafterKat and Critter at the dinner table. "Guess what? I had a Blog in the ninth grade!"

CrafterKat laughed. "That would be called a Log..."

I only vaguely remember writing in a journal in the ninth grade--we were given a topic each day and had to write for the first ten minutes of class. The more of a page you filled, the higher points you received. And somewhere in there we were to use the journal to craft a short story that took place on a river. Mine had an Indiana Jones feel to it and the only bit I recall vividly was the exotic Asian dinner I made up consisting of a large water snake from said river.

CrafterKat and I reviewed them after dinner, chuckling at my precise cursive scrawl and comments that were written in the margins. This one takes me back (the links are all 21st century--remember we couldn't do this on paper back then...):

September 12

Video Games

Video games seem to be the "in" thing right now.

I enjoy playing video games but probably not as much as most people my age.

I have an Atari at home and I have the cartridges Pitfall, Asteroids, Circus, Super Breakout, Space Invaders, and a couple others.

My favorite is Pitfall. You are the man named Pitfall Harry and you're looking for treasures, gold, silver, a diamond ring, or money bags. But you have to watch out for alligators, snakes, fire, lakes, scorpions, rolling logs, and of course pits. My highest score is around 75,000 points.

My favorite arcade games are Centipede, Galaxian, and Donkey Kong. The game I despise the most is Pac-Man.

What's the use of a little yellow sphere gobbling up tiny white specs? Ghosts are chasing you. So what? That is one game you really waste quarters on.

~ Jewel Geek

If memory serves, I really only liked Galaxian because it was a) like space invaders and b) Duran Duran played it when on tour. Pac-Man was stupid because 1) I didn't get it free with my Atari console like other people did which bummed me out and 2) I always got eaten by the little ghostie things. Circus was the cheap version of Super Breakout. Since my parents didn't want to shell out $45 for Breakout, I got this rather lame game where you had two circus clowns jump up from a see-saw and punch out colored blocks, er, balloons. I did eventually get Super Breakout but only after much gnashing of braced teeth.

12-9-83

Journal 4

My favorite television station is MTV!

I think its great to "see" songs by your favorite artists. Mine are Duran Duran, Men at Work, INXS, and others.

When you get too see your favorite groups move to words it can do wonders for you!

The VJ's (video jocks) all have there own personalities.

Alan Hunter--my favorite likes mooses (he has moose and mini moose to talk too), fruits (he is one), and the uncensored version of Girls on Film.

Martha Quinn--she looks like a mini mouse with make-up.

Nina Blackwood--considering she was a Playboy Centerfold at one point in her career, I don't really like. Simon LeBon does though!

Mark Goodman--he's okay. When he came back from Calif. he played two D.D. songs in one hour. I was happy.

(over)

J.J. Jackson--No he's not related to Michael but he was the first to premier "Thriller." My friends and I call him Whopper.

~Jewel Geek