TOP 5 MMO GAMER GRUB

This is in response to my good friend Joel Tan's meme Top 5 MMO Gamer Grub.

Me and Joel go a long way and the grub he posted explains why in almost 17 years of gaming marathons from playing Dungeons & Dragons, to Robotech, to eventually Perfect World we never really ended up fighting about the food.

Here are my choices. Please note that before I was a blogger or a tech journalist, I spent four years as an assistant editor for a health magazine, so excuse the jargon and the tone.


1) Coffee. Black as night. No Cream. No Sugar. The dairy taste of cream might trigger sleepiness from your programming as a kid to drink warm milk before beddy-bye. Too much sugar and boom, your pancreas over reacts, and floods you with insulin--sugar crash. Good bye all energy reserves, hello pillow!

2) Water. Dehydration kills, and not taking any non-diuretic liquids while gaming eventually will. I try and have a bottle nearby to take a sip out of every now and then. Also helps when you burn your lips on the coffee mug. Taking controlled sips prevents having to go to the loo. The trick is to keep hydrated not over hydrate and cause a flush.

3) Ice diluted Mountain Dew. The water in the ice cuts the amount of sugar in Mountain Dew so as to prevent sugar crash. This is the alternative if it's too warm for coffee and the closest to actually drinking those "energy drinks" which contain too much caffeine and have too much chemicals and actually induces taking a wiz. Why Mountain Dew? It contains the most caffeine of all sodas, and is classic gamer fare in any platform.

4) Soda crackers. Take your pick, but make sure they are salty enough. The salt helps your body retain the liquids you take and its taste off-sets the sweetness of soda, the bitterness of coffee, or the blandness of water. The crackers also help calm the acids of your stomach.

5) Pizza. Easy to eat, easy to digest, filling, only one hand required. As simple as a sandwich, as filling as a hotdog. No cooking required and available 24/7.

Though I have mentioned five already, I would like to suggest carbo loading an hour or two before a game marathon. Not only does it provide long term energy reserves, but a raid on a full stomach just works better. A large plate of pasta with a heavy sauce, a substantial sandwich, or rice and your favorite savory viand should do the trick.

Check what the other peeps invited by Joel think: PJ Punla, Mon Macutay, Darrick Regondola, and Robert Sanchez.

FAST GEEZER

For a time in my life, I was a motoring journalist. My favorite memory of that time is when an old geezer kicked my ass on the Subic International Raceway when I was testing new tires that BF Goodrich was launching in the Philippines. That man was the legend himself--Pocholo Ramirez.

I just passed the starting line and was on the straight-away when from out of the pit came out hurtling Sir Poch. I said, “Here is my chance! All I have to do is try to keep his line and I could race like a pro!”

I of course, failed miserably at it and by the third turn was eating dust. By the time I reached the second to the last turn Sir Poch was already behind me. I drove into the Pit so that he wouldn’t get the chance to overtake me. The fact that he was in front of me and then was behind me meant that he drove the track in half the time it took me.

That was as exhilarating as it got. My worst memory was also with Sir Poch on the same day. I took the TV crew of then ABC 5 around to take establishing shots. During one turn I managed to skid 720 degrees into the gravel past the fast chicane. Were I not able to control the spin, we would have ended up on the concrete barrier rather than the gravel trap.

Past the start, the same old geezer who just made me eat dust and kicked my ass was waving me into the pit, even though it meant going against traffic. I thought he would bite my head off, and I deserved it if he did. But to my surprise, he simply said, “Are you ok? Good. Look, you were just tired, that’s why you made the mistake. That was good driving, take a break then go again later. Ok?”

And for that I will never forget Sir Poch. It was an honor to have interviewed him, covered with him, drove in a convoy with him, and raced with him. He will be missed. Vaya con Dios Senyor Poch.