Damnit! The Japanese did it again!

Today was our company get together for Customer Service week. Hoo-frickin-ray.

It was at the Fun Station, which is nothing like the Fun Station type places that I remember from my childhood.

You know the Fun Station. Every town that's anything has one. Video Games, Skee-Ball, Go Karts, Batting Cages, Putt Putt... I'd go on some more, but you know what I mean.

Honestly I thought that it would be pretty lame, but it did end up being a good time. Pretty fun to get out there with your co-workers, and not really be all stressed out from work. See people that you work with every day not wearing work clothes and the such. See everyone's kids.

I got my chance to be a semi social butterfly, which is a skill that I am trying to develop. So far, it's coming along nicely.

Now, I love me my arcade games. I remember going with my dad, back in the day, to the Westland Mall, and spending hours in the Fun-o-Rama. Back then arcade games only cost a quarter. You could stick a $5 bill in the token machine, walk away with $6 worth of tokens, and have a field day. That's because the arcade games were easier to play, less complex, way more fun, easier to score a free game, and all in all better than arcade games are today.

The only game in the entire place that I had played before was Galaga, which made me feel really old. Number 1, it's Galaga, which even though it's a great game, it's pretty Old School. Number 2, it had to announce, in big bright yellow letters on the front of the machine, that it was from the "Class of 1981". For crying out loud, I work with people who weren't even alive in 1981! When I made the joke "My Atari thumb is cramping up just looking at the game" many people didn't get it.

It's such a shame. I won't mention her name, but one of our co-workers did say, one day "What's Atari?"

OMG. That hurt. That hurt bad. I spent many a summer day glued to the green shag carpet in our living room, planted in front of our GIANT TV set (you know, the kind that was in a giant wood paneled box? No, TV's didn't look like they do today) playing Space Invaders and Pitfall until my eyes were crossed. When I couldn't see straight anymore, I went outside and played on the Slip n' Slide for a while.

Damn, those were good ol' days. I wonder how much it would cost to get an Atari console on EBay. Hmm.... I'm going to have to look into that.

But, back to Galaga. Do you know that it cost two tokens to play that bad boy?

And, another thing! You only got three tokens for $1. What the hell?!? What kind of allowances are kids getting these days so they can afford to play arcade games? I tell you what, when I was growing up I got $12 a week for allowance. And, this is when I was about 10 or 11. And, that money lasted me like it was a million bucks. That bought me the new copy of Tiger Beat, a cherry Slurpee, a pack of Nerds, a back of Bubbalicious, and I still had plenty of money left over.

So, now, at the arcade, they had two of those crazy Japanese dancing games. I played one of them with G., and was immediately addicted. I swear, I must have pumped a good $20 bucks into that machine. But, I tell you, that game was fun as hell. And, some good damn cardio. Beff and I have plans to go back and play that game some more. I think I may have sprained my L4 & L5, though. I guess that's the price you have to pay to kick butt on the Japanese Dance Game.

I get home, and all I can think of is this awesome awesome game. According to J, you can get this game for your X-Box.

I was on a mission to find this game for my X-Box so I can majorly kick some butt on this machine.

After looking around online, I find a game shop on my side of town that has both the game mat and the game in stock. So, off I head down the Parkway to buy this game. I go to the secondhand game shop down by the WalMart down there. They basically looked at me like I had a giant penis growing out of the middle of my forehead, and stated that they did not carry those.

I know that there is a game shop that has these in stock, because I called them before I left the house. The guy on the phone guaranteed me that they had them in stock. I remember seeing the address as being on the Parkway.

Oh, holy crap.

Yeah, you know where this is going.

It was the game shop... IN THE MALL.

Uggggh.

What was I thinking? Going to the mall on a Saturday afternoon? Going to the mall at all?

Damn you Japanese Dance Game and your crack like addictive ways. Damn you for making me need to have you right now. DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!!!

Now, I don't know what it is about malls that makes people walk uber slow. I hate that. When I walk, it's get the hell out of my way. If you're going to walk slow , move over to one side of the mall walkways. Don't spread all out in an uber slow moving line. MOVE YOUR ASS!

I hate slow. It's the new millennium. Everything should be fast! No, not just fast, uber lightning fast! Nownownow!

Maybe high speed internet has spoiled me. But, in my opinion, everything in life should move as fast as DSL. No, not as fast as the DSL ISP I have, because that can be dreadfully slow.

Ok, I'm off track.

So, I make my way through the (uggh) mall, and get to the game store. Get my game and game pad, head back through the (grrrr) mall, and go home. Plug the mat in. Pop the game in. Get ready to dance Japanese style. Oooooooh yeah, baby. Loves it.

You know what? That fucker is so damn hard and fast that I can't do a thing with it!!!!

Damn you Japan. Damn you and your wacky games. Damn you all to hell.