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If you enjoyed The King of Kong (as I did), you should check out this Harper’s article (PDF) about Billy Mitchell and his Pac-Man records. The author talks to Billy and Walter Day quite a bit, and follows a Jamaican immigrant named Abdner who tries to break the Ms Pac-Man record. The author was working on the story while King of Kong was filming, and he was even invited to the screening of Billy’s infamous Donkey Kong videotape designed to steal Steve Weibe’s thunder at Fun Spot. (For the record, the author doesn’t think the tape was doctored.) I think it’s very interesting to get another view of the guy, especially since it was very easy to write off his villainous portrayal in King of Kong as a consequence of editing. The author of this piece is definitely kinder to Billy, but he still admits that the gigantic ego, defensiveness, and scheming are all true-to-life.

Man. I got a little blister on my left toe during my 20km run on Sunday, but at least I wasn’t bleeding through my shoes. YIKES. (Note to self: Always wear socks.)

“Beware the lure of casino carpets.” HA! The first time I ever went to Star City, the Snook told me in all seriousness that the extremely ugly and distracting carpeting was a deliberate choice to “hide the vomit stains.” (Link courtesy of Lynnette.)

Kevin‘s posting photos from the Democratic National Convention. I wonder if he can hook me up with one of those sweet Obama action figures…

Obama disses Cubs fans (he’s a White Sox supporter) and summarily decimates his chances of Kelly McMahon or the Garbericks voting for him. That said, I think it’s pretty cool that he did some trash-talking for his team as opposed to giving a safe politician’s answer.

Man Drought?
The funning thing is, I think this article about the “man drought” facing single women in Australia’s urban areas was supposed to make me feel sorry for the women. But instead the demographer’s formulas for determining the pool of eligible bachelors just left me feeling really sorry for the guys. “From a pool of 1.32 million men aged 15 to 24, he took out all men who said they were married, in a de facto relationship, gay, have children from a previous relationship and who earn less than $70,000 a year. It left a pool of only 60,000 men…” So if you have a kid or your make less than $70K a year, you’re supposedly unmarryable. That just sucks. I submit to you men that any woman with these criteria isn’t someone you wanted to be with anyway.

Those WERE the droids I was looking for…

Note to self: Get ingredients to make bangers and mash tonight. That picture has induced serious cravings.

WALL-E
Tonight the Snook and I joined Kunaal and some other folks in Bondi Junction to see the very first Australian screening of WALL-E. Afterwards director Andrew Stanton and sound designer (and voice of WALL-E) Ben Burtt appeared to talk about the film and answer questions from the audience. The movie was… great. I was already primed for it to be great, thanks to this amazing MetaFilter comment. (It’s not a spoiler.) But the movie still surpassed my high expectations. I had to have the Snook give me a tissue about halfway through. Yeah, I was tearing up quite a bit. And the ending? When he can’t remember? SOB. Oh, and I loved, LOVED the final credits, with the whole history of humanity/art thing. I really recommend the movie. I feel like I need to see it again, just to look for the tiny details I missed because I was so engrossed in the story. (Like afterwards, an audience member asked Andrew Stanton about Sigourney Weaver being in the film, and I was like, “What? Where?” Totally missed that one.) Kudos to PopcornTaxi for throwing yet another great event. Stanton and Burtt was fascinating, and I was too interested in their talk to remember to ask my own question. (It was going to be a snarky one to Burtt about Jar Jar Binks, so probably best that I didn’t.) Seriously, you really ought to see this movie. And take somebody you love. And hold their hand.

Energy Gel Reviews
When I decided to start experimenting with energy supplements, I asked the Snook to pick me up some at the health shop near his office. I also got some from our local GNC store. I really wasn’t sure what to expect. Energy gels and goos are notoriously unpalatable. Here are my quick impressions of the ones I’ve tried.

• PowerBar Gel (Chocolate) – Rating: 6/10. I tried this one a few months ago (before the Sydney Half) and described the taste as “medicated chocolate toothpaste”. It was very thick, almost like cake frosting that had gone bad. That said, I managed to get it down without gagging, and I definitely noticed a mental boost when I used it.
• Endura Gel (Vanilla) – Rating: 9/10. I had this gel halfway through the City2Surf two weeks ago. I was prepared for it to be awful, but I was pleasantly surprised by the taste and texture. “Hey, this is good!” I said to the Snook as I happily sucked on the packet. The consistency was thinner than the PowerBar Gel, which made it easier to ingest quickly. I didn’t notice any dramatic positive benefits, but it didn’t seem to do me any harm either.
• Endura Gel (Citrus) – Rating: 5/10. I was actually looking forward to sampling this gel on my long run yesterday, based on how much I liked the vanilla flavor. Unfortunately the Citrus is… not as good. The instant I tasted it, I immediately thought of lemon-lime dishwashing liquid. It was exactly that consistency and flavor. (Not that I’ve tasted dishwashing liquid, but you know what I mean.) And once I had that image in my head, I couldn’t get rid of it. Someone without that association may find this gel tasty, but I’ll never be able to use it now.
• Elite Fuel Supply Squeezepacks (Tropical) – Rating: 1/10. Dear god, this is AWFUL. I could tell even before opening it that the consistency of this one – unlike the others – was extremely liquid. It felt like an unfrozen Otter Pop. Unfortunately the pleasant childhood associations ended there. I thought, “Tropical! How bad can that be?” It was like the worst medicine you ever tasted as a kid. I actually shuddered involuntarily after the first swallow, it was that bad. (I was near a water fountain in Centennial Park, and another runner was having a drink at the time. I looked at him and blurted out “THIS IS THE WORST THING EVER!” before I could even stop myself. He just gave me an odd look and ran off.) I couldn’t even finish the thing. I choked down about two swallows and then squeezed the rest out into the water fountain. NEVER AGAIN.

Anyone have any energy gel favorites that I haven’t tried yet?