vilakins | Shall we play a game?

Behold, a post that isn't about art! It's hardly surprising though; RL is pretty boring these days.

We watched Wargames last night. It's one of my favourite films and it's been years since I've seen it. It's held up amazingly well, not looking dated at all except for the computers, and it's hard to believe it was made shortly after Blake's 7 which looks as if it's from a different era. The staff at NORAD include women and people of colour; none of the sexism that sometimes came up in B7.

It's a brilliant film, and I love General Beringer with his preference for people over machines, and his "Hell, I'd piss on a spark plug if I thought it'd do any good!" The cast is perfect, with Barry Corbin as the rather lovable general and John Wood with his thin, intellectual face and sardonic, detached look as Falken.

It reminded me of when I worked as a programmer for the Health Department, where we used to play Global Thermonuclear War ourselves, even though (or perhaps because) it was well after the fall of the USSR. The building we worked in was a solid concrete bunker with slit windows designed to be too narrow for a person to get through, and with rotating security firms providing guards, and swipe cards for all employees to get in, set to different levels of security (e.g. I couldn't actually get into the computer room). I used to think it was overkill for medical records, being young and innocent, until a colleague uncovered the frequent hospital visits of his neighbour for removal of various self-inserted items. Anyway, one day I left a printout of my missile sites (I was playing the USSR) on my desk and it was gone in the morning. Someone said a guard had it, so I went to see. Yes, one of them had found it in the night and put it in the safe and wasn't releasing it to anyone without sufficient authority. I let him keep it. He obviously thought the place wasn't really the Heath Department, and I bet it totally made his week. :-)

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He obviously thought the place wasn't really the Heath Department, and I bet it totally made his week. :-)
LOL!

He probably talks about it even now. ;-)

Ahahaha, that's a great story.

Later, one of the guys went to Parliament to see someone there about a project and was getting very respectful looks and almost salutes in the corridors. He found out later that his security card, which he'd taken with him, looked like the top level ones there with its red background. :-) I only had a blue background on mine.

I'm quite fond of that movie. One of the few good things to come out of the '80s. :)

It's excellent: great pacing, dialogue, and characterisation etc; as good as most current films. It's on my favourites list.

Wonderful story!

That was a fun place to work too, full of eccentrics. I should mine it for writing.

You're lucky that the guard didn't report you for a breach of security, leaving an obviously Top Secret document out on your desk like that. :)

[grin] He probably did!

It was on TV here a couple of weeks ago. While I was watching, Stephen Fry twittered along the lines of "Greetings, Professor Falken." So we know what he was doing, too.

And here's a tragic insight into my instant messenger life

29/08/2009 15:25:22 Matthew BR [Home] Greetings, Professor R.
29/08/2009 15:25:22 Matthew BR [Home] Do you want to play a game?
29/08/2009 15:25:27 BR [Home] Matthew :)
29/08/2009 15:25:32 BR [Home] Matthew How about ...
29/08/2009 15:25:38 BR [Home] Matthew Global Thermonuclear War
29/08/2009 15:25:50 Matthew BR [Home] Are you sure you wouldn't prefer a nice game of Tic-Tac-Toe?
29/08/2009 15:26:00 BR [Home] Matthew No ... Global ..
29/08/2009 15:26:05 Matthew BR [Home] Select primary targets.
29/08/2009 15:26:20 BR [Home] Matthew Crawford, Texas
29/08/2009 15:26:25 BR [Home] Matthew :D
29/08/2009 15:26:25 Matthew BR [Home] Confirmed.

Ahahaha, love it! Why Crawford, Texas?

I think my friend had a bad experience...

Ah. Reminds me somehow of that old joke:

"How do you get rid of stains?"
"Drop a bomb on it,"

If you google Crawford, you'll see why. :)

You got it! :)

Ah! But it will be several decades too late.

Hee!

I loved that movie. I think I spent most of the 80s watching it. Well, all right, once a year, at least, when it showed up on TV.

A friend of mine has a Nuclear War card came. It's a ridiculous amount of fun, even though (or possibly because) usually everybody loses. :)

I've played Nuclear War (the game). It was fun but you're right. It does tend to end in a mass attack on one another.

It's worth watching once a year! I was worried it wouldn't be as good after not seeing it for a long time, but it so is.

I've never heard of the card game! Ours was computer-based, though it didn't have cool graphics like the Wargames one. It was a bit unnerving seeing Auckland nuked in the film, though I'm with Falken: ground zero is better.

I love that movie! Oh Matthew Broderick is so adorable in it. Once upon a time I had a wave file of "Shall we play a game?" that would play when my old desktop booted up. It was amusing yet creepy.

Ha! Awesome story! I'll bet it did make his week...maybe even his year. I'll bet there are many interesting stories associated with that job. :)

I should find that file!

There are a hell of a lot fun stories from that place. It was full of eccentrics like the one who lived in a van in the carpark and used the building's showers etc because he had more money for his extreme sports, and someone was growing marijuana between the windowless back of the building and the steep hillside. The practical jokes were wonderful and often quite involved, but too long to go into here.

I bet he still thinks about it as the best week at work EVER ;0)

He probably does. I hope no one told him.

Shall we play a game?

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