Not Our Food

The Young One spent the weekend in Boston attending PAX East, a convention focused on games (computer games, board games, hand-held games, console games) As with any convention she picked up schwag (promotional items) Going through her schwag bag when she got home, she said, "Here, you might like this."

This was a packet of flavored oatmeal, but not just any oatmeal. Extreme gaming oatmeal. I love the alien cowboy robot dude which is why she thought I would like the oatmeal. The slogan on the back of the package reads: IT'S NOT GRUEL. IT'S FUEL. :-D Someone should have shouted this to Oliver Twist. Maybe he wouldn't have had to ask for more.

From an  old programmer's point of view, oatmeal isn't neat (as in tidy) to eat around a computer keyboard. And probably less likely with gamers because you need two hands to work the controller. Food for us old programmers had to be neat, portable, and could be eaten with one hand. M&M's, nuts, raisins, chocolate, gorp, crackers, peanut butter or cheese filled crackers would fit the bill. Not too much of a mess and a can of air would take care of any crumbs that occupied the nooks and crannies of the keyboard.

Oatmeal, though more nutritious than M&M's, would have made a horrible mess on the keyboard if some slipped off the spoon. No diehard programmer or gamer would take the time to sit at a table and eat properly. The only way oatmeal would make a superior snack was if it was baked into cookies. With raisins or chocolate chips, or butterscotch chips or M&Ms. A bowl of oatmeal? Not our food.

Are you a fan of oatmeal or oatmeal cookies?