That's How It Happened

In my highly secular life, only one activity could be described as "meditative": pinball. Intense periods of play, particularly sustained sessions utilising a single credit, or even a single ball, can only be achieved by "entering the zone". This "zone" isn't one of spiritual enlightenment, more physical enlightenment; it is a mind state in which the mechanics of flipper and ball become all consuming, where the outside world has to wait, and where high scores count more than pee-breaks. I don't lay claim to any world records, but I can bust out an hour's play for a single credit on many of my favourite tables. I was thus astonished to learn of the achievements of one Scott Safran who set the Asteroids record in a single credit marathon of "72-80" hours in 1982. Since he was only a kid, and his parents were watching, we can assume young Scott wasn't wired on methedrine or any other cheap-ass eighties stimulant. No he did it for the love of Asteroids. A recent attempt to defeat this astonishing record was foiled when the machine gave out after just 27 hours. What makes this all the more amazing is that Asteroids isn't a slow paced sort of game; it requires incredible concentration and short range strategy, as well as machine gun like button bashing. I think this might be an everlasting world record.

In other important news:
Gates toppled from the top of the rich-list for only the second time this century. (qv Larry Ellison)

Budding Dr Evils bid their asses off for a kick ass tunnelling machine worth "one million dollars!".

Google fetishists remind us all why massive hard disks are so sexy.

Unexpectedly: I am a Grammar God!