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Covid Life

Monday, October 12th, 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.

Posted in Blog, History, Miscellaneous | 1 Comment »

Vintage

Saturday, July 18th, 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 🙂

Posted in Blog, Collecting, History, Miscellaneous, Otaku, Toys | 2 Comments »

Dice Dice Baby

Thursday, June 11th, 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, History, Miscellaneous, Otaku, Toys | Comments Closed

Paper Boys

Sunday, May 17th, 2020

In 1985 or 1986, Bernard and I got our first jobs. My memories are somewhat vague regarding certain details, but I seem to think it was Dads idea and he was instrumental in getting us a weekly paper run.

Every Wednesday we delivered a free newspaper called The Newcastle Star to a few hundred houses in a suburb called Redhead. Dad picked us up after school, we’d drive to a house in Gateshead to collect the papers, then drive to Redhead to deliver them. The three of us worked together and it usually took us several hours. I recall it was hard work, and not something any of us much enjoyed.

Redhead is an old sun-dried suburb known for its beach and looks very similar today to what I recall from then. We’d park our car with a bootfull of papers and each of us would pick a few blocks and walk around by ourselves delivering the papers.

The newspapers were big – both physically and by page count – and filling a shoulder bag with dozens of them made for quite a burden. They often came with a variety of additional advertising materials we had to combine with the papers ourselves, which increased the work time accordingly.

I believe we each settled on our parts of the suburb that we did every week, rather than switch it up. I myself walked the southeastern blocks closest to the beach, and my route included many of the lanes that run behind the houses. It was routine work: walk from house to house stuffing a rolled up paper into a mailbox or between fence slats or – if there was nowhere else to put it – putting a elastic band around it and tossing it into a yard.

I believe we ignored the – rare in those days – signs that said ‘no advertising materials’. Maybe due to some mechanism in place to verify the papers were actually delivered? At any rate the paper seemed quite popular in those days and even though I didn’t like delivering it I looked forward to reading it 🙂

It was tough work in summer, sweaty and tiring and I’m sure sunburn was common! But the truly wretched times were when it rained. We experimented with ponchos and other means to stay dry but nothing worked well and mostly we just got very wet while doing our best to keep the papers dry. Heavy rain often delayed our ability to deliver, but there was a deadline so sometimes we had to do it regardless.

Some other memories:
– There were several houses with evil, ravenous dogs! I hated these, and even sometimes ran past them in fear of my life 🙂
– We used to leave the car unlocked and the boot wide open so we could restock as necessary. In those days I suppose we didn’t consider thieves being a problem.
– I witnessed a dramatic car collision once at an intersection (near the church in the photo below) and was momentarily confounded as to what to do. But when the drivers got out and both seemed ok I walked on.
– A few times we were given actual product samples to deliver with the paper. These included washing machine detergent and some type of powdered drink. I think we just kept them ourselves – boxes of them! – rather than deal with the nightmare of carrying them 🙂
– One time the paper included a game piece for a McDonalds game that awarded actual prizes. Naturally we kept most of these ourselves and I recall eating free fries and hamburgers for some time…

If we didn’t enjoy it and it was difficult, physical work then why did we do it? The pay was good! Although dad drove us and did at least a third of the work he let Bernard and I split all the pay, and we got $30 or more each every week, which is close to $100 today. For a 13 or 14 year old this was amazing money in 1985 and I still remember using my first paycheque to buy two records (amongst other things) which were the first I ever bought ‘with my own money’.

My pay funded my video game, gamebook and music purchases for several years. It enabled weekly trips into Newcastle for movies/arcades/shopping and bought me more lollies and McDonald’s than I ever thought possible! I still own some of the things I bought with those wages to this day 🙂

In 1987 Bernard entered year 11 and chose to end the run. Dad and I continued alone for a while, but soon the Australian government started giving money to school kids (Austudy) and there was simply no need for us to work any more. I’m sure I sighed with relief after that final paper was delivered!

I would receive Austudy until just before leaving Australia and never worked again until I moved here. My first and last Australian career then: a paperboy. Hell in it’s day, but somewhat fondly remembered now.

Next time I visit I’ll go to Redhead and walk my route again for old times sake. I hope it triggers memories I haven’t even been able to remember for this post…

Posted in Australia, Blog, Family, History, Time | 2 Comments »

My Collection: Game Boy Advance

Sunday, December 1st, 2019

The Game Boy Advance (GBA) was Nintendo’s follow up to the massively successful Game Boy handheld console, and would continue to cement their dominance in the handheld market. The GBA sold over 80 million units in its lifetime, and is fondly remembered as a fantastic handheld with a very strong game library.

The GBA was released in Japan in March 2001. My first GBA was a Japanese version (in the milky pinky color) that I bought via my Working Designs connections in April, but I didn’t buy any games for it until the US release in June. I initially used it just to play Game Boy games since it was reverse compatible, and I expect when I got my first GBA game I was astonished at how good it was.

That’s my first model on the left, next to two Game Boy Advance SP units (both bought in 2003). The SP update was a landmark in design and is the obvious precursor of the DS. While the initial GBA model lacked a backlit screen and used AA batteries, the SP was rechargeable and had a fully backlit screen. In its day the SP was incredible.

In total I’d own five GBA’s; the three above, a second launch model traded in when the SP was released, and this:

That’s the GBA Micro released in 2005. It’s tiny and can’t play original Game Boy games, but it has an amazing screen, massive battery life and is the most portable handheld console ever made. It also failed since consumers had already moved on to the DS, and GBA Micro’s are worth a pretty penny these days.

All told I bought about 150 GBA games during its lifetime, and still own 145 of them. I took almost all of them out for a look today and here they are:

As I said the game library of the GBA contained some true masterpieces. At the same time though it contained the usual shovelware for kids, and of the >1500 games released for it I’d say easily 1000 are forgettable. But when the games were good they were exceptionally good, and you can bet I owned and played most of those. Some highlights from my collection:

There were lots of Yu-Gi-Oh games released for the system, and not all were translated. But the average quality of the nine that were is extremely high, and by the latter games we were getting annual installments of a very well done simulation of the TCG that featured well over 1000 cards, strong AI and robust story modes. I played these religiously, and always wondered why we never got equally good MTG games?

Megaman continued onto the GBA in the Zero series (which is great) but the original-to-the-system Battle Network series was a great hybrid of action and card game that improved with each of the six installments. I bought them all, and in fact the last game I ever bought for the system was this:

Yes I never opened it! I wonder what it’s worth these days?

The GBA was very similar to the SNES as a console and many games were ported over including most of the Final Fantasy series. Since FFVI is one of my favorite games of all time, it’s unsurprising I consider this one of the gems of the system,

And speaking of gems, it’s difficult to say which of the three Castlevania games for the GBA is best since they’re all incredibly great. So great in fact I’d say these are collectively the top three GBA games, and a must-own for any serious GBA collection. (Sadly they’re all very expensive these days; and if you want boxed copies of all three expect to pay $500+)

Speaking of serious collections, I suspect my GBA collection represents a good chunk of the value of my total collection these days. For starters the system features some very good games that suffered from poor marketing or distribution (most of which I own), and for seconds most people in those days trashed the boxes and just kept the cartridges (but not me). This means I own in near mint condition quite a few games that cost me ~$20-30 almost 20 years ago that are worth quite a lot more now.

In fact almost every game I own seems to be worth more than I paid for it and some much more (one game is >$500). I doubt I’ll ever sell though; the GBA is absolutely one of my favorite consoles of all time and there’s a lot of memories in these games.

As you may know the GBA was replaced in late 2004 by the Nintendo DS and the last piece of GBA software I bought was in 2006. It only reigned for five years, but in its day the GBA was nearly perfect 🙂

Posted in Collecting, Games, History, Otaku, Retro, Tech | Comments Closed

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