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Escalator Mystery

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

In the latest issue of Keroro Gunso, there is a scene in which one of the characters pauses before riding an escalator. He was waiting for the step with the footprints on it.

The escalator in the manga was not like the one above (in Singapore), but only had one pair of footprints on one of the steps. It was a typically strange scene in Sgt. Frog, but it triggered in me a memory!

From now on this post is dedicated to BW and AW and MMN and anyone else that grew up in Newcastle: Didn’t we have a wooden escalator in one store that had – on one step only – a pair of painted footprints?

I’m thinking it was probably in David Jones in Newcastle, but may possibly have been in the old Store building. The escalator was not one of the free-standing ones – it was against a back or side wall of the building with another wall built alongside (so it was a bit of a tunnel). As I said the stairs were wooden, and one of them had painted (yellow) footprints.

Is this memory real? I hope someone can verify that it is. But if so, then what was the purpose of the footprints? Why only on one step? Why only on one escalator?

Posted in Family, Otaku, The Unknown | 3 Comments »

The Year I Buckled Down And Grew Up

Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

2010 was a shocking year in one respect: my game collection. The pie charts don’t lie, so here they are…

The above shows total game purchases during the year, broken by percentage. I only got 75 games in total during 2010 – a drop of about 25% from the previous year. Of that total the largest amount was 40 games for the DS. Many of the games for PS3 (28 total) were games downloaded from PSN (and not retail games).

There is the breakdown by cost. You can see PS3 edged out DS by a little, mostly because the retail games are about twice as much. The total dollars spent was almost a 50% reduction on 2009, and in fact was one of the lowest for any year since I started keeping records (1993). I spent a little less than $1300 on my gaming hobby during 2010.

In short: 2010 was a relatively inexpensive year for me as far as game buying was concerned.

The factors? I can think of a few:
– Cheap downloaded games (I rarely buy PSN games costing more than $5)
– Less time to play games, due to me being busier teaching than in previous years
– I spent an inordinate amount of time playing just three games. In fact, gameplay on these titles equals about 7% of my life during 2010, which means it would have been a much larger percentage of the time spent actually playing games (I estimate 50%)

I suppose I should start tracking iOS games as well, and had I done that this year there would have been maybe $20 spent in total.

And so we get to my ‘game of the year’ award. It’s not as obvious as it perhaps could be, but after some deliberation I would have to say this guy wins:

Monster Hunter Tri is a beast of a game, made by men for men. Playing this game is like spending time in the world as it should be.

And in 2010 I spent hundreds of hours in that world 🙂

Posted in Family, Games, Otaku | Comments Closed

The Impossible Dream

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

It started in Sydney, when my departing plane was delayed by two and a half hours due to a ‘malfunction’ (never fully explained to us). Boo to United for poorly informing us, since at one point (on the board) the flight was described as ‘cancelled’.

That’s how I feel right now, +1 day after finally getting back here, jet-lagged and very tired. I just finished the most essential class-related work, and am going to go rest soon.

Upon our late arrival in Los Angeles the plane departing for Chicago was delayed as well (due to ice in Chicago). This meant I was able to make the connection, although even then it was known the Albany one had no chance.

I think that goat will remember me for ever. “Never”, did he think, “did I think a human would ever pick me up!”. And for that simple act he came to love me 🙂

United put me in a hotel in Chicago. A spiffy one, better than anything I’d probably pay for myself. And yet it was lost on me for I had no clean clothes and simply washed what I had in the shower and went straight to bed. Only I didn’t sleep, just playing DS all through the night and drying my clothes with the hair dryer.

Even now, +3 days from leaving Oz, do I recall the delicious taste of grilled – always fresh, not frozen – chicken sandwiches. Many things change in life, but that memory will remain always.

The flight from Chicago the next day was similarly delayed. As it turns out our first plane broke, and we had to wait over 3 hours for a replacement. Then we were detained further still. I spent almost 5 hours seated on planes just yesterday, and only 80 minutes of that was actually in the air. When I finally got home to Albany, I almost thanked God.

I must make a correction – I inaccurately described these guys as Rosella numerous times on this blog. They are in fact a different type of Parrot – a Rainbow Lorikeet. I originally described them as both in the video, thinking the two names were synonymous but they are in fact different birds (google Rosella to see how equally beautiful they are). At any rate check out this guys plumage.

If any bird described to be called Rainbow surely this is the one 🙂

Posted in Family, Miscellaneous, Pets | Comments Closed

Last Day

Sunday, January 16th, 2011

I got up bright and early yesterday and went into the city to catch a ferry to Manly. I have done this on each of my last four trips to Australia, and it seems to have become a tradition. I love the ferry trip, so it hardly bothered me that it was raining:

I was on an early ferry and it was almost abandoned. The gigantic ship was a bit eerie with so few on board. I wandered all over enjoying the trip from many different railings (upstairs and down).

The rain was less at Manly beach, more like a pervasive sprinkle. The surf was powerful and unwelcoming, with no flags erected for swimmers. Only surfers were braving the water:

Despite the lack of swimmers, it was a crowded place even at 9:30 am. There were hundreds of people along the stretch of the beach, walking, running or eating at cafes. I walked halfway down the beach to the north before the rain picked up, and then walked all the way to the south and half way along the coastal walk toward cabbage tree. It was a relaxing walk, with a strong breeze helping to overcome the heat (even present in the overcast weather).

At the point where the corso meets the boardwalk, a pagoda is decorated with images of the sand-art of a famous sand sculptor who lived in Manly during the 1930s. He would create lavish sculptures – often even painting them – and charge admission for people to see them. He also sold postcards, and these are now the only evidence of his talent. Which was – to say the least – significant:

I was spend the middle of the day shopping for last minute gifts in the city, then spend the afternoon watching a superb cricket game with Adam. During this period (watching the cricket) I drunk 4 440ml bottles of Solo, and ate a generous amount of lollies. I ate pies for dinner. It was a good afternoon.

But on the ferry back to Sydney from Manly I took the following self portrait:

As you can see I was in a good mood (I love exploring Sydney by myself) but I am also very, very tired. 2.5 weeks of non-stop exertion has more than caught up on me and it is now time for a vacation!

Unfortunately today I return home, and tomorrow I must spend most of the day preparing for work. I haven’t even begun to write the lecture I will be giving less than 48 hours from now!

So I am packing now for the trip, and doing my best to ignore the fact that it will all end quite abruptly and I will be thrown back into the school year. Australia has been fantastic, but like every vacation, it has ended too soon 🙂

Posted in Family, Miscellaneous | Comments Closed

Yes, More Gamebooks

Saturday, January 15th, 2011

Today was a mix of used bookstores, Japanese stores and bootleg Korean DVD shops. It was also swelteringly hot and humid, and by mid afternoon both Adam and I had “a touch of the sun”. This led to zombification in his apartment around 3 pm 🙂

Here’s some graffiti spotted in Chippendale:

It’s a wall on which stencils were permitted to be used by permission of the owner (Bernard, this is not too far from where you used to work). Look closely at some of the remarkable stencil graffiti on display. My favourite was this guy: