Why I shouldn't be allowed near video games etc.

anthrochica dice:
I really want to get the Sims
anthrochica dice:
but I feel like I will treat it as a social experiment
apropos dice:
i am deeply frightened by realtime games that keep going even when
you're not playing
anthrochica dice:
I know what you mean.
anthrochica dice:
But I am more frightened of the Skinnerian/Milgram shock scenarios I
fear would develop in the anthrochica version of the Sims.
apropos dice:
hahaha
anthrochica dice:
seriously, it's like you get to Play Anthropology
apropos dice:
i've never played the sims or really looked at it but i think i know the idea
anthrochica dice:
or Psychology
apropos dice:
yes
anthrochica dice:
you can make them do different shit and do "ethnography"
anthrochica dice:
I mean, you could test ev-psych scenarios on them!
anthrochica dice:
cooperation/punishment etc.
anthrochica dice:
N could be what you wanted it to be!
apropos dice:
interesting stuff... more and more 'scholars' are writing on video
games, but as it's not something i'm involved with i find it a little
hard to get into
apropos dice:
i put scholars in quotes because it's such a silly word
anthrochica dice:
right, but I wouldn´t treat it as an ethnographic phenomenon, I would
play wicked ethnographic games with it!

a little later:
( click for more total nerdiness )

Brain is on random

There are plenty of completely absurd and nonsensical Soviet pop songs. There's a power ballad about a man who has a ticket for the ballet, but not for the tram car, and has nightmares about the tram car chasing him down in the street as all he can do is plead "I only have a ticket for the ballet, not for the tram car!" There is a protopunk tune about a soccer ball that falls in love with a hen but once they get married she won't let him play. There is one where the energetic refrain can be translated as:

Oh why why why, why why why, why why why
Was the streetlight green?
Because because because because
It was in love with life.

You think I am kidding? I am not.

So, in honor of my tentatively planned trip to Rapa Nui (shhhh), I give you a selection from one of the most perplexing and beloved pop songs of my childhood, concerning the fate of a young woman from Easter Island and her unfortunate lover.

In Russian it goes...

U devushki s ostrova Pashi
Ukrali lyubovnika tigri
Ukrali lyubovnika v forme chinovnika
I syeli v sadu pod bananom.

I kazhduyu pyatnitsu, lish solntse zakatitsya
Kogo-to zhuyut pog bananom...

In translation it means

A young woman from the Easter Island
Has had her lover stolen by tigers
Her lover was stolen,
Her bureocrat lover,
And eaten in the garden under the banana tree.

And every Friday as soon as the sun sets,
Someone is being chewed under the banana tree...

Back to the rainforest at the crack of dawn.