I had a similar, though better informed, experience with escolar. My wife and I were planning on having a nice anniversary dinner at an upscale restaurant in Austin, TX. Escolar was on their online menu, and I read up on it. The Wikipedia article is very precise in its description of its symptoms, and that it's banned in other countries. I thought, bah, it can't really do that to you...can it? It was one of two options on their prixe fixe menu, and I can cook a good steak myself, so it's what I ordered. After dinner, we walked a couple blocks over to a bar off 6th Street. As the lady at the door was going to take our cover charge, I suddenly felt like my bowels were going to violently void themselves. We ducked out of line and hurried back to the hotel. I made it just in time, and had one of the most unpleasant experiences I've ever had on a toilet. The symptom descriptions were very accurate.
I've had various naming schemes at employers. One, it was sea creatures (the name of the company was The Pond). Another, military aircraft (the owner was a vet who spent his Army years flying helicopters). Another, the staff picked so it was a mishmash, though our SpamAssassin cluster used names of successful US presidential assassins (though when we got to McKinley's and couldn't spell it, it was marking the end of the meme). Yet another, trees.
For my personal stuff, though, I use names of famous dogs, and I try not to recycle them. I've used Toto, Fido, Speck, Einstein, Astro, Scooby, Nipper, Laika, Strelka, and a lot more. My latest are Gromit (can't believe that in 10 years I'd never used it!) and Petey.
The story's icon inspires me: Pac Man should be revived as a first person eater!
Part of the greatness of Pac-Man was that you could see the entire board at once and plan your route accordingly. A first-person perspective would take that away. Sure, you could have a map, but that clutters the HUD and mars the immersion.
But, I haven't seen anyone mention the superb Pac-Man Championship Edition. It took everything great about Pac-Man, improved the visuals, and tweaked the gameplay just enough to make it new.
In less than a century, computers will be making substantial progress on ... the overriding problem of war and peace. -- James Slagle