How You See Yourself

My friend Gallagher was in town recently. He was passing through to visit his brother on his way to Seattle, where he's moving. Gallagher just finished teaching in Japan, where he got to legally hit kids and help them with the pronunciation of words like "penis."

We met, one evening (he was here for about a week), at The Kettle Black. I, personally, think The Kettle Black has the best wings ever, but I don't know a lot about wings. Gallagher and his, at the time unemployed, brother had just spent the day drinking martinis. Gallagher said martinis are great because they taste so bad, and last so long. They are, indeed, a terrible drink.

After a few beers we got on the subject of how we are perceived by other people. We talked about the quirks that we notice about ourselves that we were certain other people noticed about us, and subsequently attributed to our larger, over-arching character, and then decided to play a game to potentially resolve some of these pending questions.

Editorial Note: This game should really only be played if you're drinking. Played sober, this game could ruin friendships, lives, and potentially result in tearful explanations about why you "are" the way you "are." None of these things happened when Gallagher and I played, but that'd because we were drunk.

The game is really pretty simple. You just sit at a table with someone (maybe multiple people if you want to get freaky-deaky) and start listing qualities about yourself. If the other person(s) recognizes thinks of those qualities when they think of you, then they bang on the table--like a buzzer, or one of those bells that summon dry cleaners to the counter.

And these can be good or bad traits, in fact, it's better if you vary them. It's really a fascinating look at how you are viewed as a person, and you might be surprised at what you learn.

After a couple of rounds, we finished our wings and played Big Buck Hunter for about three hours. Incidentally, Big Buck Hunter is the greatest arcade game ever produced by anyone... ever.

Editorial Note: Girls don't like Big Buck Hunter.