Category: History

Covid Life

  • October 12, 2020

The purpose of this post is to document the surreal world we’ve now become used to, and to compare life in America today to Australia. I wonder if things has gone this far down there?

Going out now requires a mask. You can’t go anywhere without one, nor would you want to. It’s the best defense against covid if you’ll be near strangers!

Some shops limit the number of people in them, whilst others remind you of the rules upon entering. It’s virtually impossible where I live to visit any store without being confronted with Covid signage.

Once you’re inside any decent sized store you’re continuously reminded of the rules. You’d have to be willfully ignorant (or just malicious) to not be aware of what is expected.

There’s even reminders on the price checkers, shopping carts and cash register screens!

If for some reason you just shuffle along with your eyes on the ground don’t worry: signage on the floor reminds you of social distancing and the one-way rules for the shopping aisles:

And of course the direction signs are on the aisles as well:

The products for sale have changed as well, mostly to accommodate a society that eats more meals at home than they have in decades. But the biggest obvious change is in hand sanitizer. Where before there was a tiny section, now it looks like this:

And it goes on and on. It’s difficult to pay with cash now; stores have all adopted touch-free payment systems. Stores have self-serve cleaning sections at the entrance to clean carts and hands. Meat, fish and deli counters are mostly replaced with pre-packaged portions. PA systems remind shoppers of social distancing rules.

Even the loos have rules posted!

Looking at it objectively it’s so weird and if you could pull someone through time from a year ago they’d be flabbergasted by what they see. But for us of course this is now the new normal, and the day this all goes away will be the new strange.

Let’s hope that day isn’t too far away.

Vintage

  • July 18, 2020

This little guy is over 40 years old:

He’s our Jawa Star Wars figure, which was probably purchased in about 1978. I saw ‘our’ since B and I used to mostly share these as I recall, although some figures were bought in pairs so we both had one.

This guy was one of the earliest we bought, and was one of at least a pair. Originally he had a little gun as well, but that’s long-lost by now. He took part in many elaborate Star Wars dioramas we made both indoors and out, and as with the others figures shown here today miraculously survived being melted by fireworks in the mid 1980s.

We also used to throw our figures into ponds, take them to the beach, and even tie them to parachutes and throw them off our roof! It’s a miracle he’s in such great condition.

That’s an original Yoda figure, from about 1980. As with the Jawa we had two of these, and this guy is in extraordinary condition considering his age. I always loved this figure due to its tiny size and large amount of accessories.

I remember we used to occasionally get one Star Wars figure each when we went shopping, but when the Empire figures hit shelves in 1980 dad bought us a whole bunch at once, including this guy. I can remember being overwhelmed as a kid by all the new figures before I’d seen the film, and had fun imagining what roles some characters would have.

That’s the final vintage figure I have, a guy named Squid Head from the Return Of The Jedi line that came out in 1983. I always loved this character (who was on screen for only seconds) and it was one of my favourite figures from that film. This figure I recall as being distinctly mine, although I don’t recall why.

I remember a trip to Sydney with B and dad in the early 1980s. We stayed in a bright apartment and went to a nearby mall every day. We played video games at a tiny arcade and dad let us each select some Star Wars figures from the toy store. I think that’s when we got Squid Head, because I recall playing with him (I would have been 11) in the garden patio of the apartment.

I asked dad about that trip last year, but he couldn’t remember. I wish I knew more about where we stayed and exactly when.

When I came to America I didn’t bring these guys with me: Bernard sent them to me years later. Back in the day we had loads of Star Wars figures, but some were melted and some sold off. Maybe these were saved because they had cloth parts? Maybe just because they’re cool? I wonder if B remembers?

Whatever the reason I’m glad they survived, because they’re now amongst my oldest possessions. Each of them trigger many happy memories of my childhood, and I’ll treasure them forever 🙂

Dice Dice Baby

  • June 11, 2020

Around 1983, I got my first Dungeons & Dragons set. Inside, along with the rule books, were these six dice:

They have 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 20 sides, and all are used when playing D&D. Yes these are my exact dice: although the rule books are long gone I kept the dice and they eventually made their way to me here in the US (thanks B!). The dice weren’t inked and came with a crayon used to fill the depressions and make the numbers more visible. You can still see nearly 40-year-old crayon in my dice:

Interestingly the particular D&D set I got (the famous ‘Red Box’) was packaged with dice of many different colors so it’s not unusual that my 6-sided is a different color from the others. Some sets even came with pre-inked dice or (as a result of shortages) a coupon to send away for dice. I feel sorry for the kids that bought the box set and had to wait weeks for dice so they could play!

I recently learned that these original dice are somewhat collectible now, and although inferior to modern equivalents could fetch $50 or more online. I’ll never sell mine of course; they’re one of the oldest of my original possessions I still own.

Speaking of modern dice, here’s a set:

These are solid metal, precision made and (apparently) balanced to be truly random. I also suspect they could damage a hard surface (look at the sharp corners) so you’ll want a dice mat if you’re going to use ones like these. I bought these after buying AW a set for Xmas and thinking they were quite nifty. Since he actually plays D&D I assume he’ll use his more than I will mine 🙂

The last die in I’ll share today is this weird example:

It’s a 100-sided die! This is designed for rolling percentage values but is very impractical since it’s so spherical it takes forever to stop. I did some distribution tests a few months back and found the results to be comparable to the Excel random number generator and random numbers as given to me by about 50 of my students, so I assume this is a mostly random tool.

In the mid 1980s an inventor patented a unique type of 100-sided die with an internal braking mechanism he called the Zocchihedron. You can still buy them today but they’re quite expensive so I went with this cheaper, solid example. My guess is if you really have a use for a 100-sided die go for the patented one and save yourself time on every roll 🙂

Do you need any dice rolled? Leave a comment and tell me which one and I’ll tell you what you got…

  • Posted in Games
  • Robert