sindel: the original hair whippin' willow smith

i'd like to take this opportunity to talk to you about how video games have been shaping who i am ever since we got that beautiful sega genesis when i was five years old. it was a gift to my sister; at first she was pretty distraught that it wasn't a super nintendo (as was i...if you can't play duck hunt then what's the point in living?) but we soon learned to appreciate the sega in all its 16-bit glory. we spent hours playing sonic the hedgehog, collecting chaos emeralds and battling the evil doctor robotnik, that sneaky bastard. we hung out with intergalactic stoners toe jam and earl and endured hours of seizure-inducing elevator rides to the various levels of a place that was supposed to be planet earth (but clearly was not). we enjoyed hours of battletoads, a poor man's version of the teenage mutant ninja turtles only instead of being named after famous artists they were named after skin conditions: rash, zitz and pimple (proliferating the stereotypical image of wart-laden toads). but perhaps the most character shaping game of all was mortal kombat...while we weren't technically "allowed" to play MK, my mother was in grad school at the time so pops let us do pretty much whatever the eff we wanted. aka scar us for life unintentionally by letting us watch things like the garbage pail kids and jaws, and by telling us we were going to eat worms for dinner, and by letting us eat so much candy, and by playing the spooky sounds tape when it wasn't halloween and terrifying me to the point that i would run out of the house screaming. but that is besides the point. the point is that we could play mortal kombat. i don't even know who i'd be if i'd have encountered good parenting on a daily basis! so thank you dad for your mild negligence (okay okay he wasn't THAT bad, but still...) ps, i'd just like to say that all of these video games shaped my love of beats and bleeps and all things electro from an early age with their technotastic soundtracks, and for that i am grateful (as you should be, too).

what am i getting at with all this video game talk? well to be honest, i could go on rambling but i'll spare you. but this discussion was spurred by willow smith's SMASH HIT 'whip my hair'...i am a huge fan of this song for restoring my faith in tweens; it would complete my life if willow smith would beat up the entire cast of iCarly sindel-style. oh right oh right oh right that's why we're having the video game discussion...sindel, fightbitch extraordinaire from mortal kombat, is the original fiece hair whipper. observe:



do you see? mortal kombat (etc.) has been inspiring youths from all walks of life, willow smith and myself included. okay that's all. hooray for video games and hair whipping and parents.