Bowling in the FUTURE
The other night I was presented with conclusive evidence that we live in the FUTURE. It was a normal Saturday night out bowling with some friends. Actually, it wasn’t normal since I never go bowling, but everything else about that Saturday night was fairly normal.

We were at a bowling alley within one of the local casinos at 8pm in the evening. As is customary according to some kind of bowling alley rule book of operations, since it was evening, the entire alley had to be bathed in blacklight for the enjoyment of COSMIC BOWLING. This isn’t the futuristic part. It’s just garish and kind of annoying.

Here’s some of the futuristic part. At the helm of our lane there were two touch screens mounted atop poles like the dashboards from the Enterprise on Star Trek. There weren’t even any chairs in front of them. You had to stand there tapping in your name like you were piloting an intergalactic spaceship.

At the bottom of the screen there was a button that said “Intercom”. I wondered aloud if there were servers that came around to take drink orders or if we could press the intercom button to do so. Without any hesitation one of my friends, Kim, pressed the button and proceeded to say hello to the screen. Within seconds a voice erupted from the device.

“How may I help you?” asked a feminine voice from the intercom.

“Uh, can I order drinks through this thing?” I asked.

“No sir, you have to go to the bar to order your drink,” replied the voice sounding slightly miffed.

“Oh, okay. Sorry! Thanks! Sorry!” I apologized.

It didn’t seem too outrageous to think that perhaps we could order drinks and perhaps food over the intercom. After all I live in a city where toilets routinely flush themselves. Anyhow, I gritted my teeth and forced myself to WALK over to the bar to order a couple of drinks.

Here’s the REALLY futuristic part. We were well into our first game. One of my friends, we’ll call him Superbowling Guy, was doing really well. Superbowling Guy had bowled five or six strikes in a row. The bastard. On one frame his ball struck the pins in such a way that one of the pins weeble-wobbled sideways out of position. But it didn’t actually FALL DOWN. When the pin retrieving unit lowered to count the pins it jammed against the out of position pin and then retracted without getting an accurate count. This left us in a conundrum. We wanted his score to be accurate so we manually entered his score into the scoresheet, but the instant we hit enter the remaining pin was cleared out with a full ten pins being dropped into place. This, of course, made it somewhat unfair for him.

So, we decided to once again press the intercom button. When the operator responded we explained the situation. I expected nothing to come of it, but then the voice asked us an interesting question.

“Which pin was left?” asked the alley operator.

“It was the five pin,” responded Kim.

“Okay, give me second,” said the operator. A few seconds passed. The lane machinery descended and swept all of the pins away. The machinery raised, descended and raised again, like a giant robotic chicken ass, leaving behind a single five pin in its correct position.

“Oh my god,” gasped Kim.

I was dumbfounded. We were all dumbfounded. It was as if we had just witnessed a miracle. It was all we could do to not just sit there and keep exclaiming “Oh my god” at each other. I mean, oh my god.

Vacation
I’ll be going on vacation in a couple of days. Hopefully I’ll have a few laughs, see some things I’d never seen before and be able to relax a bit with a couple of drinks on a beach somewhere tropical. I probably won’t have much access to a computer, but if I do maybe I’ll post a picture or two.

FUNDRAISING UPDATE:
Up to $260. Yay! Thanks Nicole! MANY many thanks to those that have donated so far. For those interested in donating, please do so soon. The goal is to have $600 by the first week of October. Thanks!

Pumpkinman Triathlon Fundraiser for the Nevada Wilderness Project
In October I will be participating on a relay team in the Pumpkinman Triathlon in Las Vegas. My teammates will be accomplishing the swimming (1.5k/.9mi) and cycling (40k/25mi) portions of the race while I will be doing the running (10k/6mi) part.

We’re doing this event as part of a fundraising effort for the Nevada Wilderness Project. Our goal is to each raise $600 by the beginning of October for the project’s work to keep Nevada’s beautiful wild lands pristine for everyone to enjoy.

So if you’d like to help support this great project please sponsor me in the race! ANY amount would be TERRIFIC. There are two ways:

1. On-Line
Go to www.wildnevada.org and just click on the “Donate” link on the top of the homepage. On the donation page fill out the donation form and select my name (Ramsey Hong) on the list under Pumpkinman Triathlon so that they know you are donating for me! You can also read about the cause and our race.

2. Mail
Send a check with my name on the memo line to:
Nevada Wilderness Project
8550 White Fir St., Reno, NV 89523

Many thanks in advance for your support!