I'm not a good writer, never have been and never will so I will leave the writing to the experts (not Dustin Diamond)...the guys over at Vulture.  Even though I liked Big D much better as Screech than his current sell out self, I will be reading this book!

Sometimes a book deal comes along that you never knew you were waiting for, but, once it's announced, you realize it has been your secret wish all along. Which explains our reaction to the news that Dustin Diamond, whose high-pitched nerdy exploits as Samuel "Screech" Powers figured prominently in nearly thirteen (!) years of Saved by the Bell incarnations (plus that infamous sex tape), has jumped on the tell-all bandwagon. Behind the Bell, which Gotham Books preempted from Objective Entertainment's Jarred Weisfeld, promises to detail "sexual escapades among cast members, drug use, and hardcore partying," and for those of us who spent untold hours in our formative years memorizing "I'm So Excited" and the entire back catalog of Zack Attack, this is the greatest book deal in the history of the universe.

 

But Diamond, with an assist from veteran ghostwriter Alan Goldsher, will really strike pop-culture gold if he can answer our most burning question: What if Miss Bliss had moved to Bayside with the SBTB gang instead of Principal Belding? The course of television history might have been irrevocably altered. —Sarah Weinman

I ventured out to Brooklyn last night (and miraculously didn't get lost, though I got stuck in the massive thunderstorm) to visit Barcade --part bar, part arcade. 

The Beer: I was immediately impressed by the vast selection of beers on tap (24 draft, 1 cask conditioned), though sadly they lean towards serving hoppy IPAs which are my least favorite of all the types of beer.  I sampled the following brews: The Fisherman's Brew (Cape Ann Brewing Company, Glouster, MA), Docs Draft Cider (Warwick Valley Winery & Distillery, Warwick, NY), Sunset Red (Chelsea Brewing Company, New York, NY) and my favorite of the night, Chicory Stout (Dogfish Head, Milton, DE).  Just reading the description of the Chicory Stout should make you salivate: A dark beer made with a touch of roasted chicory, organic Mexican coffee, St. John's Wort, and licorice root. Brewed with whole-leaf Cascade and Fuggles hops, the grains include pale, roasted & oatmeal. 

On a side note, did you know that dogfish head makes liquor too?  They have vodka, rums and my favorite, jin (gin distilled with pineapple mint, jumiper berry, green peppercorn and rosemary botanicals.).

The Games:  Many of the games were popular a bit before I started playing arcade games so I only knew a few of the games that were there.  Games played: Ms Pacman, Frogger, 1942, Pengo, Out Run, Asteroids, Punch Out, Contra (Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start, Select), Gauntlet, Rampage, and my new favorite game Tapper!

Others that we didn't play: Super Mario Brothers, Tetris, Donkey Kong, Rolling Thunder

Some games were in better shape than others, but all games are $.25 which is amazing. Between the two of us, we spent $10 in games and gave us about 2 hours of gaming enjoyment.

This past weekend was a scorcher, the average temperature was roughly 1 million degrees so I decided to head to the beach on Sunday.  To my surprise, Long Beach was 1 million minus 15 degrees and generally pretty pleasant in comparison to Manhattan.  I couldn't wait to get into the water but when I got down to the water, there were jellyfish all over the beach.  The ones that were washed up were white ones (non-stinging to humans), but I have a somewhat irrational fear of jellyfish so I got freaked out.  My phobia has a solid ground if anyone's interested, it's not totally irrational like Triskaidekaphobia (fear of the #13).  It all started when I was really little I got stung in the eye when I was swimming in the ocean in Malaysia (I now have an eye twitch to remind me not to open my eyes underwater) and as an adult I've been stung by a number of moon jellies (allegedly non-stinging) and have gotten crazy welts.  Some of them are so bad that I've been told I'm allergic so I now always dive with a full wetsuit no matter what the temperature is.

After sending in my tester, the conclusion was that further out there were many red ones too and if you hung out in the water for 10-15 minutes you would definitely be stung. That was a dissapointing find.  A 1 1/2 hour trek out to the beach and I coudln't even go in the water.  No wave surfing, no swimming, just sitting on the beach and having kids toss sand on me.  The interesting thing was that with all those jellyfish out there, nobody seemed to care.  People played in the water as if there was nothign wrong.

The Times ran an article about it.  Here is what one person said about the outbreak of jellyfish: “I thought the water was radioactive or something,” and this from somewhere else “I looked over and in this massive soup of trash and debris was this beautiful pulsating jellyfish,”

Botom line is that jellyfish are my (Green) Kryptonite!  I would wish death upon jellyfish but then what would the turtles have to feed on?  And I love seeing turtles when diving. 

So I was recently sent a link to "Stuff Asian People Like", a parody on one of my favorite blogs, "Stuff White People Like".  I was reassured that I am a twinkie for reasons such as:

•   Besides your nationality, there is little to distinguish you from white people
•   Your significant other is not Asian and never has been
•   You have few Asian friends, if any
•   You are embarrassed at family events because you cannot speak your language and everyone has to switch to English to communicate with you
•   You have no idea that the other types of Asians on this list even exist
•   You think Hello Kitty is dumb and do not know what Sanrio is
•  You are the only Asian on this list that does not know what Bubble Tea is
•   You drive a Ford or some other domestic car and if you drive a Honda, it is stock
  

While I do not actually own a car and I not only know what bubble tea is and I have consumed (and enjoyed it) on many occasions, most all of the rest does apply. While I was on the site,I took the "How Asian Are You" quiz and found out i was 53% asian.  Though in fairness to me, the quiz made no sense at all.  A sample question was "Cute stuffed toys & Sanrio" and the answers were either "Yes" or "No".  Yes or No what?!?  A sentence fragment cannot be a question!  Do I like cute stuffed toys & Sanrio? or Do you own cute stuffed toys & Sanrio? Do you keep cute stuffed animals & Sanrio on your bed?  Those are legit questions.  Clearly a SuberFob wrote this quiz.  See below for defining characteristics of a superfob

•   Your command of the English language is minimal and you don’t care
•   You like dim sum chicken feet
•   You do not own a single CD, VCD, Video game, or DVD that isn’t bootlegged
•   Your only hangout is Chinatown
•   All the lights in your house are fluorescent
•   You dry your cloths outside your window
•   You need a haircut
•   You either smell like cigarettes or food