This past weekend, I went up to New York to see friends. It was a lovely weekend, not counting the gusty winds and moments of chilliness. It was fun to hang out with BF again after a 12-week block of self-imposed separation. Central Park welcomed us eagerly decked out in its Spring loveliness. We walked by several bodies of glistening water and admired the visage of laughing children, sleepy babies and amiable benchwarmers. Jason bought this new game called Brain Age which amused us for the better part of our ride into New York. I clocked in at 61 my first time!! Thankfully, I quickly went down to a brain age in my 20’s after some practice.
After brunch on Saturday, a group of us meandered down to Battery Park, near the Statue of Liberty. At one point, a couple of us needed to go to the bathroom and we seized on the brilliant idea of choosing the Ritz Carlton. The bathroom was really nice -- they had cloth wash-towels, as befitting their ritzy status. At first I was feeling a bit sheepish, but then soon shrugged it off and just strolled in as insouciantly as I could manage. How would they know the difference?
Highlight of the trip: hanging out at this Korean bar/lounge in Korea town. Stuff was pricey but we all got a big kick over the ice cream which was served in a bowl made of pure ice and fruit. The whole ensemble was quite stunning, prompting members of our group to wax philosophically and entrepreneur-ally about starting an archaeologist workshop. I had a watermelontini which was delish. Poor Jason, by then, was suffering mightily from his allergy attack and taking pity on him, we retired early for him to take his medicine.
But overall, it was really great to just kick back and relax with friends.
10 comments:
Had the archeologist workshop evolved to an escort service by the time you left, or was that later?
(Hope you don't mind I am reading this blog too, now...)
oh of course not! glad to have another reader, always. yeah, that did evolve somewhat mysteriously into an escort service. (scratch head...)
Heya Viola, I'll let Jason tell you all about it, as I'm not too familiar with the mysterious world of video gaming. (I am good at delegating tasks to others though, haha)
It's for the Nintendo DS. I'm not sure if you would want to buy one just for Brain Age. The DS also has other interesting games. The DS MSRP is $129.99 which comes with Animal Crossing (Another game you may enjoy). Brain Age is $20. So I don't know if you want to spend the loot on that. I'd suggest getting it. There are all sorts of games to suit your fancy and it does make long trips go by rather quickly. There's this other game called Nintendogs which is like a virtual dog simulator. It's like an advanced version of a neopet. What makes the DS different from other game systems is that you can actually write on a touch screen to interact with the system rather than just pushing buttons. It also has a mic which is utilized differently for different games.
Maybe, but it's a bit gimmicky too. It's just a fun little teaser. I guess it helps your brain stay sharp in terms of little arithmetic puzzles and such. But Viola, you may achieve the same effect by reading a wide variety of books.
There isn't much empirical data to support whether it actually keeps your brain sharp. There isn't really any to disprove it either. I did see a short thing on MSN videos about how studies have shown that crossword puzzles does nothing in helping you remember. The thing is, I think we use different parts of the brain for different functions. Doing crossword puzzles obviously will not help you remember your grocery lists better. Nor will doing math problems. If you want to get better at memorization, you just have to do more memory training. The same thing goes for reading. You'll get better at reading but that doesn't mean you'll get better at other things. As for whether Brain Age works, I have no idea. All I know is that it's fun so it accomplished its job in my eyes.
okay true enough, you have a point there.
emily, fantastic wkend.
what happened to the eat drink and be merry blog? it's not working anymore.
It's DEAD!
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