A new kind of Trail

January 31, 2008

I loved Oregon Trail. Let’s face it - we all did. I was in grade school, and we had one computer in our room - an Apple II. We also had two games - Oregon Trail or a choose your own adventure quiz for Madeline L’Engle’s The Wrinkle in Time. When it was computer time, the choice was obvious - we all scrambled for Oregon Trail.

It had everything we could want in a game - guns, adventure, personalization. Your friends would end up with a broken leg. You always tried to ford the river. You always lost all of your oxen. You always wondered what the hell Independence Rock was supposed to be; after all, 4-bit glory didn’t do it much justice.

It might not have even been 4-bit. Regardless, it was awesome.

Well, I’ve just stumbled upon its heir apparent.

Thule has created a wonderful little user-generated/lifestyle site called Thule Road Trip. It’s everything you’d want in a subsite - great pictures, a dedication to the brand and tons of fun distractions. It even has a list of “Road Tunes” available for free download.

Best of all, it has Thule Trail - a remake of Oregon Trail that takes you and your family from Chicago to the (fictional?) Atlantic Music Festival in California.

Choose your vehicle. Check the map. Stock up on supplies (CDs and games for the kids, bags of food for the ride). Hunt for food with your pellet gun, if you run out. See scenic outposts like the largest Pickle in the world. Compete in biking, kayaking and snowboarding contests. Pick up smelly hitchhikers.

It’s Oregon Trail for the rugged yuppie. It’s pretty brilliant. And it’s a fantastic time waster.

Ask my co-workers. I played through the entire game this morning (in the guise of advertising research, obviously).

Check it out. And good luck - at our stop in Vegas, Sierra fell in love and left the family.

(And for a longing look back at what Oregon Trail meant to us as kids, check out this article from Classic Gaming.)

Tags: Random Links, Advertising/Marketing, StumbleUpon |

Comment

TCM to screenwriters: We don’t need you, thanks

January 30, 2008

I support the writers during their little strike as much as the next person. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find this ad funny.

Click to enlarge

The copy reads:
This is a message from TCM to all the Hollywood screenwriters on strike:

Keep it up, guys.

After all, the greatest movies have already been written.

That’s good copy, my friends.

Tags: Advertising/Marketing, Writers, Movies, Television |

Comment

See ya, Santana

January 29, 2008

Goodbye, Johan.

Today the Twins almost nearly probably finalized a trade (pending contract extension and physical) that sends arguably the best pitcher in Twins history - Johan Santana - to the Mets for…well…some people I’ve never heard of.

The Twins couldn’t afford to keep him - he wanted max dollars, and he certainly probably maybe deserved them, and after re-signing The Laughable MVP Justin Morneau. But it’s still too bad to see such a great player go to New York. Again. For a bunch of guys only the scouts have heard of. (New York’s #2, #3, #4 and #7 prospects, reportedly, for what that’s worth).

This is what makes baseball so different from other sports in the offseason - and not for the better. Trades involve future Hall of Famers for no-name AAA prospects; people you’ve never heard of are packaged together, with no frame of reference. Free agents are signed almost randomly to teams that you have no reason to watch. If deals aren’t penned in time, it goes to a lawyer to figure out. It’s as if you need some kind of Bill James encyclopedic mind to understand it.

I don’t like the baseball offseason. Not at all.

See, when the Timberwolves shipped off their greatest player ever to the Boston Celtics, you at least knew who the Timberwolves were getting in return. It wasn’t equal, but it was at least recognizable.

But this? Well, I guess that’s baseball.

Two Cy Young awards. A multiple-time All Star. More wins, better ERA and more strikeouts than anyone - ANYONE - in baseball since 2003. For four unproven guys.

Good luck, Johan. I miss you already.

Tags: Sports, Baseball, Minnesota Twins |

Comment

The science of sleep

January 29, 2008

There was a time that I took sleep for granted.

When I was in college, sleep wasn’t a privilege - it was a God given right, it was the very thing I was owed after a long day of whatever it was I did in college. During the summer, I stayed up until whenever I wanted, and I slept in until whenever I wanted. Sleep was my slave; I its master, forever at my bidding. I turned it on and off like a new faucet.

When I moved back to Sioux Falls, things didn’t change. Sure, an occasional early morning substitute teaching call cut my sleep short, but I was still in full control of when I could sleep. Nothing could stop me. The calls could be turned off. The world; my oyster, with sleep the gritty sand I could either keep or wash out.

I didn’t think about sleep. I didn’t need to. I owned it. I made the decisions. So I never treated it as something I had to worry about.

And then, fatherhood. Sleep - this act I had previously regarded with only a blind eye - became crucial. As if tired of the neglect, sleep rose up and left me standing in a nursery with both eyes squinting and a night-light piercing through what was left of my drowsiness.

“Oh, Corey. How cliché! New parents don’t get sleep! Boo hoo - what’s next, ‘cherish every moment’ or ‘they grow up so quickly?’”

Stop that. It’s all true. Every cliché becomes absolutely true. Especially the sleep thing.

Especially that.

I took advantage of sleep. I figured I’d always have it, whenever I required it, at my beckoning call, and I treated it as if it was nothing more than breathing, nothing but an involuntary act that I could halt if necessary. Sure, also like breathing, I always needed it - would be forced to resume if my body willed it - but it was movable. It was a forgotten need. I was blissfully ignorant.

Most of us feel the same way. Sleep is what we think it is - a time of rest that can be driven by whatever schedule we choose.

It’s when you add another schedule. That’s when it gets screwed up. Up four times a night. In bed at 8:30. Up at 5:45.

I used to be in such control. I took advantage of sleep. I treated it like no one should be treated. And now, when I need it most, sleep is showing me who’s really in charge.

Tags: Vilhauer, On..., Sierra |

1 Comment

The Week at Misc. Asst. - 1.28.08

January 28, 2008

I was about to cry about a lack of posts a few weeks back. Then I checked Misc. Asst. last Monday to find two brand spankin’ new posts! Boo yaa!

1/19
“Music and Your Past” - Mirza
What feelings do your favorite albums bring up? Better yet - what nostalgic memories do they bring back to life?

1/20
“I’m a Rabble Rouser, I Rouse Rabbles” - Tim
Rabble rouser Tim rouses rabbles about those who don’t rouse rabbles because it’s safer to keep the rabbles unroused.

Enjoy, friends.

Tags: Misc.Asst., Blogging |