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Operation: Capital Gains

Sunday, December 30th, 2012

Very early (I woke at 3:45!) this morning, we boarded this train, bound for the Australian capital city of Canberra.

The train was clean and comfy, which was good because the trip was 4.5 hours in length. Adam read 4 newspapers, while I watched Australia go by out the window:

The first half of the trip was all cows, and the second half sheep (as the above show). The landscape – aside from the Great Dividing Range – was exactly as you see above. I only saw one Kangaroo, not too far from Canberra.

Our first stop was the Royal Australian Mint, where all Aussie coins are made. A charming lass led a 45 minute tour, and we spent some time perusing the displays and shop. It was fascinating stuff, with such things as ‘Kookaburra pennies’ and $300k + rare coins from the 1930s. Worth a visit if you’re ever here.

Afterwards we headed to the seat of Australian government, known as Parliament House:

Opened in 1988, this is a massive and impressive building that I was surprised to discover is almost completely open to the public. Here’s where the politicians do their jobs, for instance:

Here’s one example of the many striking artworks in the building:

And here’s a majestic portrait of the great Paul Keating, my favorite Australian prime minister:

We took the chance to stroll from Parliament House to our hotel, a walk that took us over Lake Burley Griffon on a bridge. It was mid afternoon and the heat had picked up quite a bit.

By the time we got to the hotel (which is swanky), we were both ruined and retired early. Being old has its disadvantages 🙁

Posted in Animals, Art, Trip | Comments Closed

I Boldly Went

Tuesday, December 4th, 2012

Yes, my friends, from an equally mysterious source, I very recently managed to obtain this fine treasure:

OMG part 2! It’s a factory sealed box of Star Trek trading cards all the way from 1992! Look at the sheen of the pristine shrink-wrap! What fabulous treasures must be sealed inside?

Let’s find out:

Oh, alluring black and pink and blue! These packs just scream ‘Open me!‘ don’t they? Interesting how the divide between the TNG and OS packs is horizontal now compared to the series 1 box isn’t it?

Here’s a closer look at two of these little pouches of loot:

And here are the exact cards from the rightmost pack in the above photo:

A ‘Vulcan Lyrette‘?? It’s difficult, in English, to describe just how truly terrible most of the OS series cards in this set are. I loved looking at and reading each one of these marvelous cards! Here’s a shining example:

If we had a merciful God, I would be joking. Alas, I am not 🙂

Oh, but the TNG cards! They are wondrous! Doctor Leah Brahms! The last tragic moment of Tasha Yar’s life! Lwaxana Troi! Doctor Pulaski! Even the wonderful, wonderful Q! Surely a better card set couldn’t possibly exist?

And then there’s this work of art:

Yes my friends, resistance to the charm of these cards is positively futile!

So, my original offer stands. I purchased these not only for myself, but for each of you as well. I just know you want some of these, and my condition is trifling.

Simply, in 100 words or less, complete the following sentence in a comment:

“Excluding the obvious choice of Reginald Barkley, the Star Trek: TNG character I most identify with is _____________ because ____________ “

Serious answers only please! Let’s join the United Federation of Planets together 🙂

Posted in Art, Blog, Books & Comics, Family, Miscellaneous, Movies, Trading Cards | 5 Comments »

Retro Comic Advertisements (part 2)

Wednesday, November 21st, 2012

I recently came into possession of, well, lets say many old comics. A good chunk of these will end up being Christmas gifts, so I’m not going to discuss the comics themselves here. But, as I did once before, let’s look at some of the advertisements for a trip down memory lane 🙂

Here’s one from a 1978 comic, and as far as nostalgia goes this one is high up on the scale:

Very cute, isn’t it. What with the fan club being based on Yavin, and “prices slightly higher outside the solar system”! And, the inclusion of an iron-on transfer gives me another blog idea…

Here’s another period SW advertisement, this time from 1984:

A few Christmas’s ago I believe I gave out some of these kits as gifts? Adverts for model kits are very common in 198X comics by the way. As I said to KLS: “That’s what kids did before video games!”

Or maybe they did this:

So much cringe-worthy content in the above ad. And that’s even before you realize what it is actually for! Go on, read it and weep 🙂

Here’s another in a similar vein, this time from 1989:

Ignoring for a moment how ludicrously verbose this ad is (Was it written by someone on their first day of work?), let’s consider this is for a handheld LCD game in 1989! That’s years after consoles had caught on, and in fact even the same year the Gameboy was released. Hard to believe this was money well spent.

Let’s switch gears, and revisit an ad which I suspect was targeted at girls (based on the comic it was in) from 1978:

OMG! Witchcraft?!?! Go ahead and read it! Amongst other things, this ad claims to teach you telepathy, mind control, ‘inhaling cosmic energy’ and THE ABLILITY TO CONTROL TIME (on page 126, no less). Holy smokes I wish they were still in business because I could make things happen if I had those powers!

Speaking of making things happen, here’s another way to make money, again from 1978:

I really have no comment, except to say that younger readers perhaps don’t understand the appeal of the above ad since they didn’t live through stuff like this:

What’s that you ask? More fanclubs? How about this one:

“Alf’s favourite menu”? The mind boggles…

Oh, here’s an ad for…

… a cardboard box! I wonder how many could they have possibly sold?

The early 1980s are when action figures started in a big way (1977 actually, with Kenner’s 3.75″ Star Wars figures). Of course this led to Masters Of The Universe, and the many knockoffs by other companies. Such as these guys:

They look so much worse than I remember. And yes I do remember ladies and gentleman, and if I ever find my sticker collection I’ll explain all in that post 😉

Speaking of Masters Of The Universe, check this gem out:

I had a rage attack when I saw this one, gibbering on about how there was no way the screenshots could have possibly looked like those obviously painted images on the bottom right. So I did some snooping, and let’s see if I was correct…

I rest my case!

I end with one last ad. In comics of the 80s, it is quite common for ads to contain superheroes, probably to get kids attention even better. This is a classic example of one such ad:

Let’s ignore for a second the fact that Superman apparently can move at sublight speeds and has a computer-brain and consider what is being sold here. A Magic Snake is a piece of plastic that can be folded into 23 trillion shapes and looks about as much fun as, well, reading the comic this was printed in. Even with the assistance of Superman, it’s hard to believe what sort of child would have found this product interesting…

Yes, I’ve had it for 30 years 🙂

Posted in Art, Blog, Books & Comics, Family, Games, Movies, Otaku, Tech, Time, Toys | 4 Comments »

Let Me Share These With You

Sunday, November 11th, 2012

From a very secret source, I managed to recently obtain the following:

OMG! It’s a factory sealed box of Star Trek trading cards all the way from 1991! Isn’t it strange how the TNG card says ‘Patrick Stewart’ and the TOS card says ‘James T. Kirk’?

Oh well, let’s look inside:

ZOMG! Exactly half the box is packs of Next Generation cards, and half is Original Series cards. Such organization! (And yes, that’s my desk visible behind… note the coaster AW)

Here’s a closer look at the two different types of packs:

I opened exactly one of each type (the ones in the above shot, actually). Here’s the very first card I pulled from the first pack:

Gadzooks! A nifty hologram of the Enterprise! I imagine these are ‘rare’, and I was very lucky to get one in only the first pack. I wonder how many others are available in the packs in this box?

Here’s the rest of the cards from the pack:

Yep, they look next-genny enough. Nice pictures, lots of words on the back. Real fanboy (or, fangirl) stuff here folks. Here’s front and back detail of a card most fans would treasure:

Lovely stuff!

I ripped into an original series pack as well. Some real delights in there! Here’s a standout card:

Good old Tiberius himself! (Or is that a doppleganger?)

At any rate…

Let me share a few packs with each of you 🙂

I realized, upon buying this magnificent bounty of endless entertainment, that posting about it on the blog would lead to feelings of jealousy and despair amongst many of you. To fend off such things, you can have some packs for free! But there is a very small catch…

To get some free packs of Star Trek cards, simply complete the following sentence in a comment:

“The true and honest reason why I believe every single Star Trek episode is better than every single Doctor Who episode is…”

Depending on your reply, you may find your Christmas parcel stuffed with a few extra Roddenberrian goodies this year:

Posted in Art, Blog, Books & Comics, Family, Miscellaneous, Movies, Trading Cards | 6 Comments »

Poster Boy (part two)

Tuesday, November 6th, 2012

Earlier this year, this post caused a few chuckles. Who doesn’t love terrible old photos?

Certainly not me! So with pride, two more:

Lovely aren’t they? Thanks to my brother for fishing these out of an abyss 🙂

Now, some analysis. Obviously these two photos were taken at the same time as before, and painful as it may be to admit, the calendar dates it as 1987. The bottom picture (these were taken in my room) shows bits of the same posters as before. But there is now more to be seen, so much more!

For starters, in the top picture, in which I’m pulling off an early Monkey D Luffy look, the wall behind me is plastered in vaguely homoerotic art. Most prominent above me is a Depeche Mode poster (circa 1985), but I can also see Duran Duran, U2, Howard Jones, Nik Kershaw and (dare I admit it?!) Wham. Can anyone decipher any of the other posters?

Ignoring my outfit for now (and frankly, for ever), let’s investigate what I hold. In my right hand is my yellow (yes, yellow) Sharp QT12 cassette player. This may have been my second favourite possession in those days. In the other hand? Well, lets just say this poster is proof for anyone who doubted this post (specifically the third-last paragraph).

But, as much as you’ll guffaw at the photo with me in it, the true gem for me is the lower of the two photos. Here we see a very rare example of my artistic skills of the day! On the dresser and back of the door you can see four pictures that I drew. The one partially cut off is an Alphaville picture, possibly the cover of Forever Young. The other three show my renditions of the following…

The white dragon from Caverns Of The Snow Witch:

The cover of Afternoons In Utopia, done in a very minimalistic style:

And a ‘Mezzodaemon’ from Fiend Folio:

If you look very closely, you can also see gamebooks in the little bookshelf in the lower left (under a statue of Mary)!

I love this photo. All the same sorts of things I rave on about now are right there – 25 years ago. I just love that I was drawing massive drawings of monsters from gamebooks and sticking them on my wall.

Next time I see some college nerd strutting his stuff, I can say with confidence “Let me tell you kid, I was drawing mezzodaemons even before you were born!” 🙂

Posted in Art, Blog, Books & Comics, Family, Gamebooks, Games, Miscellaneous, Music, Otaku, Time | 2 Comments »

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