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Archive for the ‘Family’ Category

New Old Australia Video: The Rest

Sunday, July 24th, 2011

Here’s the rest of the older videos I felt worth sharing. Apologies to AW for revealing his darker side to the world at large (in my defense it was the least embarassing AW video I had…).

As for my hairstyle… I have no defense 🙂

For starters, here is Dad drinking the world’s worst smelling beverage:

Jump backwards in time 8 years to see dad show off his new Gameboy. I wonder if he’s beaten that high score (5087) by now:

Here’s mum in the same year, never thinking this particular video would ever be publicly available worldwide:

We’ll call this next one the segue to the two left to come. Notice mum laughing in the background:

And then there’s this video for which I take no responsibility since it was shot by my brother:

Ok, ok I have to comment. What were we watching Adam? Was that wrestling? And were you referring to the wrestler Raven? It’s interesting how empty your shelves are…

By the way if you’re wondering about that hair, I present the official 0th worst photo of me ever taken, which was a self-portrait taken during that 2000 trip to Australia:

Word’s sort of fail me now, so I shall let my 2000 self do the talking in this last video:

Posted in Family, Games, Miscellaneous, Tech | 1 Comment »

Prerelease Deck

Sunday, July 10th, 2011

I played in the MTG 2012 pre-release yesterday with SFL and her bf. I was very underwhelmed with the cards I had pulled from my six boosters and threw together a blue/white/green deck with little expectation of success. To my surprise it took me all the way to the top 8 and a prize of nine boosters.

Here’s the deck, with comments on some of the cards. I only linked the cards new to 2012.

Creatures
Stingerfling Spider (every time I used this my opponents looked surprised)
Llanowar Elves
Garruk’s Companion (frequent target of Spirit Mantle)
Jade Mage (case it almost every game; never once created a saproling)
Runeclaw Bear (x2)
Lurking Crocodile (very strong in a format where many played blue)
Armored Warhorse (x2)
Alabaster Mage (VERY useful card, often made several creatures lifelinkers)
Elite Vanguard (x2)
Serra Angel (at 4, my highest power, but I never cast it)
Peregrine Griffon (useless…)
Aether Adept (never once cast)
Phantasmal Bear (never once cast)

Spells
Rampant Growth
Titanic Growth
Spirit Mantle (the winner…)
Mighty Leap
Stave Off (used this many times, it was key to a few wins)
Ponder (x2)

+ Islands (5), Plains (6) and Forests (6)

Note the complete lack of removal (Spider/Aether Adept excepted) and only two fliers. Note the lack of any rare cards at all (the only rares in these colours I got were Doubling Chant and Mesa Enchantress) and the general underwhelming nature of the deck as a whole.

But it worked, over and over again. I never had any real land problems, and since most of my opponents seemed to be playing blue (or at least had no removal) such things as using the Alabaster Mage to lifelink my guys or pumping the Crocodile with a Titanic Growth were very effective. In many games I won with more than 20 life, using just that one card.

The two most useful cards for me were Stave Off and Spirit Mantle. Stave Off saved my bacon a few times – including casting it on opponents creatures to prevent buffs and (twice!) stopping Mind Controls on my guys. Spirit Mantle is just brokenly powerful in this format where people tend to play many creatures. Every time I got it out and on someone (usually the Croc or Garruk’s Companion) I won shortly afterwards.

I did pull one mythic from my six boosters, this guy:

Yes he’s big and flashy, but my red cards were crap and besides… (whispers)… I’m not a big fan of playing red!

Overall it was fun (as always), although I find the pre-releases unusually tiring to attend. Sadly, I was not able to play against SFL either, which I was hoping since this may be our last pre-release 🙁

Posted in Family, Games, Otaku | Comments Closed

Farewell, Beloved Mosley

Friday, July 8th, 2011

No one knows how, 18 long years ago, that tiny mewling kitten was separated from her mother and left to fend for herself in this harsh, cruel world. No one knows how she ended up under that pine tree in Rochester, afraid and very, very sad.

Little did she know at the time this was the most fortuitous event that would happen in her life, because it so happened the tree was in the front yard of Jim & Joyce’s house (KLS parents) and they took that sweet, lost kitten in, and made her their very own.

Mosley passed away yesterday at the ripe old age of 18. Her’s was a life free of worry, in a home that knows how best to love their cats. Her days were spent resting, or chasing mice, or watching the birds out the windows, or just hanging out with her human and cat friends. A cat paradise, in other words.

Some years ago she became very ill and it seemed as if she was planning to depart this mortal coil. Even then she’d lived a long life, but – impossibly! – she recovered and enjoyed quite a few more years of catty fortune.

Alas, as with all things, age eventually caught up to Mosley. From our perspective her passing is truly sad, especially for a cat that has shared our lives for so long. But I’m sure, had she been able to, Mosley would have assured us that her life was truly wonderful, and given the chance, she wouldn’t have wanted to find herself stranded under any other tree…

Posted in Family, Pets | 1 Comment »

Me @ 20

Friday, July 1st, 2011

I love the above photo. Taken during a period in my life when few photos were taken of me, it shows me relaxing in MMcN’s apartment in about July 1992. It’s interesting in so many ways:

1) I’ve got long hair but no beard
2) I’m skinny!
3) I’m wearing a watch (that I have no memory of today)
4) My backpack is hung on the door behind me (note the ‘Sisters Of Mercy’ I lovingly drew on it)
5) The cigarette smoke indicates there was absolutely someone else there. Who was it?
6) What am I eating? It looks a little bit like a redskin…

It’s strange I only have one such photo like this. What else was on the reel of film? Who owns them now? Who even took them? (I could guess the answer was Elizabeth R.)

I love looking at old photos and wondering what the subjects are thinking, and what they can see outside the frame of the shot. It’s a little unusual when that subject is me.

Posted in Family, Miscellaneous | 2 Comments »

‘Unboxing’ Some 35-Year-Old Trading Cards

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

I went to a small local toy show the other day with SFL. It was fun, and there was a lot of strange things to buy. Here’s one of the three items I invested in:

The pack cost me $1.50. They were printed in 1976, so they were almost as old as me. And they were still sealed, as this snap shows:

If you read this regularly you’ll not be surprised I like trading cards, especially those of movies or TV shows I have watched. These were a good find then.

A couple of days later I opened the pack. Here’s what 35-year-old gum looks like:

KLS tried a piece and was almost instantly poisoned to death. In the interests of self-preservation, we ditched the rest!

But what about the cards? Here are the five I removed from this aeon’s old pack:

Before I opened it I said to KLS” “I hope I get one with the Eagle on it!”…

When I bought this pack there were two others. Before we left the show I returned to get the other two, with the intention of giving them away as Christmas gifts. To my surprise they were both gone!

When I exclaimed to SFL something like “But who the hell would buy these?” she just grinned at me like I was weird 🙂

Posted in Family, Miscellaneous, Otaku | 1 Comment »

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