Bits and pieces (and Japanese trinkets)

At his request, N and I gave my dad a Ninendo DS for his 77th birthday (actually, he just requested Brain Age, having seen articles about it being used by seniors to ward off dementia, but I had to explain to him that he needed the DS to play it on). I don't know if you've ever been around seniors and video games (and please, comment here if you have!), but it's pretty funny to watch a 77-year-old try to figure out how to use a hand-held video game system (or any video game, though after an initial hesitation, my mom ended up being a ringer at Wii Bowling). Showing him how to use it was like teaching a penguin how to light a fire (work with me on this one). First, you have to explain what fire is. Along with wood, flints, and heat, for that matter. (Okay, enough of this lame analogy.) Anyway, once I got him up and rolling on it, he was laughing his ass off at having to speak into the game. All this laughing and not answering questions correctly caused him to have an initial Brain Age in the 80s, which did not sit well with him (though it's only a few years off of his real age). I left him with the game and the goal of getting his Brain Age down the 50s. My guess is that once he turned the DS off, he wasn't able to get it back on again. I'll let you know if I'm right after our weekly dinner (not OUR weekly dinner, but the one I have with my dad).

In other news, N and I had a little adventure this weekend. We made it to the California Science Center's Star Wars exhibit one week before it closed (as opposed to our usual, "Hey, we should go to that thing...what? Oh, it closed last week? Damn."). It was kind of lame and full of KIDS. And, they mixed in all this other stuff (I think the exhibit was called something along the lines of the Science of Star Wars--once again, I'm too lazy to do your Googling for you. Anyway, you could use the exercise) that wasn't even Star Wars-related. Like the Roomba. (No kidding.)

After we got the heck out of that kid-germfest, we drove around in the general direction of where we guessed Little Tokyo would be. We eventually found it, but man, downtown LA has all these little surprising pockets around every turn, like Pinata Row (I'm just calling it that, but that's what it should be called), which had dozens (nay, hundreds!) of pinatas all lined up on the sidewalk and hanging from every nook and cranny for an entire block! If I'd had my camera with me, I would've taken a picture. Oh wait, I did have my camera with me, but that laziness I'm known for caught up with me, sorry. When we got to Little Tokyo, we walked around a bit, picked a random curry restaurant for lunch, desserted on some frozen yogurt, and perused the shops. It was a nice little vacation in our own backyard.

In other news, I think I am hereby, officially, you heard it here first, denouncing my 3-year-old low-carb lifestyle. I think. I'll report back, hopefully not 20 pounds heavier.