New Year Brings Big News, New Games & New Endeavors

It has been quite some time since my last blog post here at 2old2play. Since the arrival of 2013, much has taken place in Waterborn's World. If you follow my Twitter or Facebook feed, then you know that I have a online Cooking Blog & Video Series callled "Cooking In the Great Outdoors". Last November, I once again auditioned to be part of a national television show in conjunction with my work on CITGO. After submitting over 60 pages of applications, a live audition, several on-camera interviews and creating a video audition, I was happy to find myself well-poised to move on to the next stage and begin filming for the show (the name of which must remain unconfirmed do to NDA agreements that I signed). At the last moment, and after having secured 3 months of leave from my job, I was notified that I would not be on the show after all. Needless to say, I was surprised and not a little disappointed. However, not being the type of guy to give up, I kept my head down and continued to work on my blog in hopes of catching  a culinary break at some point, but more on that in a bit.

Monkfish Katsu, the recipe that ALMOST got me on TV

The first big adventure of 2013 took place in January when I drove over 2,000 miles to see family in Myrtle Beach, SC and I picked up a new game cocktail arcade game (Space Duel) for a friend and fellow New England collector.

Space Duel Cocktail Game

My friend, who goes by the handle doctorquest, repaid my assistance with the gift of his previously owned upright version of the same game, which has since made its way into the basement arcade.

Space Duel Upright in Waterborn's Arcade

While out of traveling to Myrtle Beach, I received a call from my wife, telling me that our dog, Jackson, was suffering from internal bleeding and heading for the emergency vet. It turned out that his condition was brought on by consuming some contaminated dry dog food (Natural Balance Kamb & Rice for Large Breeds). After making sure that Jax was not in a life-threatening situation, I began to deal with both the pet supplier (Petco) and the food producers (Natural Balance) to determine what had caused the bleeding and to make sure that no additional tainted food was on the market, posing a threat to other pets. Thanks to the power of social media, I was able to connect with both companies quickly through Twitter and have to report that Petco did cover the vet bills. We are still working with Natural Balance to confirmed what happened to Jackson. Since this incident, Jackson had a recurrance of the internal bleeding two weeks after the initial outbreak. We have since moved him off of prepared dry dog food and are feeding him an all natural, raw, homemade diet and he seems to be recovering well.

Jackson in recovery, checking out the Space Duel Cocktail cab.

Back to the subject of food & my cooking blog. Earlier this week, Kitchen Surfing, a culinary crowdsourcing site that featured local chefs who do in-home catering, launched in Boston and I am one of the feeatured "chefs" for the launch. I put the word "chefs" in quotes as I really view myself as a cook, not a chef, having no official culinary training or food industry experience beyond tossing pizzas in college. I am very excited about this new endeavor as I may actually be able to start earning some money via my cooking. I also received confirmation today that I will be producing a monthly article on REI's National Blog that focuses on outdoor cooking and my work through CITGO. So keep you eyes on both sites and following my culinary adventures in the coming months.

Star Castle for the Atari 2600

Full Circle: Back to games. Yesterday, I FINALLY received my copy of Star Castle for the Atari 2600 console. This cartridge, which was created by D. Scott Williamson via a Kickstarter campaign, brings this arcade classic from 1981 to the original home console. The cartridge itself is very cool in that it is made of clear plastic & contains LED lights which illuminate the cart when an explosion takes place in the game. Check out this video for some of the game play and the light show.

http://youtu.be/uGJOn--Q1cQ