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Due to faulty memory of an aging brain, I expected the conversation to be about this thing:

Oh well. Back to the home for me.

Are video games art? They sure are, but they are also design, and a design approach is what we chose for this new foray into this universe.

For what it's worth, MoMA (The Museum of Modern Art in New York) disagrees with you (and with Roger Ebert). They've started a collection of 14 so far and will be having an installation in March.

For those who might be interested but don't want to read their post, the games they have so far are:
• Pac-Man (1980)
• Tetris (1984)
• Another World (1991)
• Myst (1993)
• SimCity 2000 (1994)
• vib-ribbon (1999)
• The Sims (2000)
• Katamari Damacy (2004)
• EVE Online (2003)
• Dwarf Fortress (2006)
• Portal (2007)
• flOw (2006)
• Passage (2008)
• Canabalt (2009)

Over the next few years, we would like to complete this initial selection with Spacewar! (1962), an assortment of games for the Magnavox Odyssey console (1972), Pong (1972), Snake (originally designed in the 1970s; Nokia phone version dates from 1997), Space Invaders (1978), Asteroids (1979), Zork (1979), Tempest (1981), Donkey Kong (1981), Yars' Revenge (1982), M.U.L.E. (1983), Core War (1984), Marble Madness (1984), Super Mario Bros. (1985), The Legend of Zelda (1986), NetHack (1987), Street Fighter II (1991), Chrono Trigger (1995), Super Mario 64 (1996), Grim Fandango (1998), Animal Crossing (2001), and Minecraft (2011).

@SarahLiz Do you mean the pin puzzle? If so:

Spoiler

It's pretty involved - something about figuring out values assigned to each pin. (Personally, I had been looking at the puzzle all wrong and was trying to wrap the wire around each one without using a pin twice - which now that I think of it doesn't make much sense considering it's a keypad needing a combination :p) Others have done a better job explaining it, so I'll just say that there's another way in that involves stepping outside and using some teamwork and a bit of heavy lifting. Yes, the pin puzzle is optional. But it *does* earn you an achievement.

[close]

You might want to start keeping an eye on Groupon/Living Social to see if anything pops up that you'd like to do. It seems to be often hair salons and mani/pedis, but sometimes fun things to do or restaurants to try pop up (and maybe you get get a mani/pedi!) Sometimes hotels are there, too.. I think?

I'm sure you have plenty of ideas of things to do or see, but if you'd like more, TimeOut New York tends to have pretty good event listings (sometimes cheap-to-free).

And I'll second the airbnb idea. I have a friend who swears by it as a way of finding lodging at an affordable price, and another who lists a room on there and loves it (I'd recommend her, but she prefers longer-term guests). However, you should look at booking those *now*.

I'll just leave this here.
How to submit a podcast to the iTunes Store

*walks away nonchalantly*

Apologies for being woefully negligent of my duties 

Indeed, we appear to have a victor:
Sane Co.!
Congrats on a job well done (and under the deadline, too!) The reins are yours, sir.

Also, a special thumbs-up to Eric for making me cringe throughout his piece. Excellent!

Looking forward to it 

*relaxes to the sound of crickets softly chirping*

(Still have one more week!  )

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrentsâ€"except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.
--Paul Clifford, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

Your purple prose just gives you away...
-- Unbelievable, EMF

Purple prose kind of gets a bad name, usually used to describe overwrought passages found in trashy romance novels, when it is actually overwrought passages found in *any* material 

The nuts and bolts, according to Ye Olde Wikipædia:

Purple prose is a term of literary criticism used to describe passages, or sometimes entire literary works, written in prose so extravagant, ornate, or flowery as to break the flow and draw attention to itself. Purple prose is sensually evocative beyond the requirements of its context. It also refers to writing that employs certain rhetorical effects such as exaggerated sentiment or pathos in an attempt to manipulate a reader's response.

Your assignment, should you choose to accept it: cobble together some violet verse. The topic and just about everything else is at your discretion. Take a mundane activity and pump up the plum factor- perhaps describe in near Shiva-like levels of creation and destruction how to make a birthday cake. Possibly challenge yourself to go over the top and make the longest lilac-laden sentence you can craft.

Make it silly, make it dramatic, but most importantly... make it purple.

I tried to poke some pixels into a prize for the author who most lets the aubergine flow:

(If you want. No obligation, really. This is as close to a "trophy" as i can get.)

Note: Extra credit given for mentioning or referencing something purple in story.

Oh, goodness, thank you so much!

I very much enjoyed everyone's entries, both feeding my love for TNG and putting me in awe of such length written with a strict rhyme scheme

I hope what I come up with is just as fun..

(I admit I failed a little, though. My intention was to call attention to the plight of the coins, not the goombas. Because that's not a strange thing to do or anything )

you could, for some odd reason, remove your head and trade it to people or buy a new one....or, in my friend's case, lose it.

Looks like Sophia's playing that game, too 

@ budgerigar - clever, I liked it - although I'm not completely sure Super Mario Bros counts as a work of literature?!? 

Heh, thank you. And while I certainly took liberties with "work" and definitely with "character"... I don't see "literature" specified 0:)

But, if you insist...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Super-Mario-Brothers-Fantail-Strasser/dp/0140900373

An odd little tale that I had a bit too much fun with 
-----

We huddle together in the darkness, as if we had choice in the matter- the confines of this place are almost comically small. A sharp, metallic tang pervades the air, but as we wait, as we have done for seemingly countless days, it has been slowly joined by what is by now a near-tangible sense of foreboding. We have done nothing to deserve this. We have done nothing, period. And we continue to do nothing until the moment an unnatural hush settles heavily upon us and we finally hear the sound we have been dreading.

He is coming.

Everyone is still... waiting, hoping that he passes us over. But we have no blood on our lintels, and our moments are numbered. And then that number reaches zero.

One by one we are forced out, violently, that unspeakable noise announcing the moment each blinks into nothingness. Some try to take grim hope that perhaps our fate is not pointless, and by giving up our existence we are, in a small way, helping others to continue on. But I see their silver lining for what it is: insult to injury. There is nothing noble about this forced sacrifice. The good of the one does not take precedence over the good of the many, and if it takes a hundred of us to even make the smallest difference... I know with every fiber of my being that it is not right, it is not just.

Once even I was tempted to feel some sympathy for the sad little man who batters this world at his whim, but in my final moments my heart is hardened and my resolve is steeled.

I curse you, Italian plumber. For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee.