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Eleven Things We Saw At The Fair

Sunday, September 23rd, 2018

Yesterday we all piled into our car – KLS, JK, her brother DK, YZ and myself – and went to a new fair! Well not exactly new, since it was the 101st year it’s been held, but for us this was our first visit to The Big E.

This is a megafair that is held in Maine and represents six eastern states. And it’s massive! Too big in fact, in that you couldn’t possibly see it all in one day. We were there 6.5 hours (it’s a 90 minute drive away) and probably only saw half of it. But it was fun, and here’s eleven random photos from our visit…

This dude gave a great talk/demo about sheep shearing! Note the other sheep peeping under the door waiting for their haircuts? A sheep fact I learned is that the world record for shearing an adult sheep is 37 seconds!

Here’s J and D after being turned into incredibly disturbing sheep/human hybrids. D is here on an extended stay from Korea and I reckon he was a bit mystified by the USA culture he saw yesterday 🙂

That’s a butter sculpture. It was stupidly large and detailed and I wonder what happens to it when the fair is done? (Yes it’s all carved from real butter and is made and stored inside a refrigerated room.)

It was a hard decision as to whether I would include the Yoda, the Gene Simmons or the ~~Fizzgig~~ Chewbacca/BB-8 (with actual LED eye) carved pumpkin contest entries but this one won mostly because it pushes the envelope (in my opinion) of what a decorated pumpkin can be.

That’s a pig with babies. It was bigger than me! Nearby there were baby goats and chickens and an extraordinary incubator as well as…

insanely big pumpkins! 1440 lbs to be precise! One wonders if the grower of this monstrosity could have snagged two awards if he’d decorated it to look like Jabba The Hutt?!?

A beautiful display of entrants in the honey contest.

There was so much food to choose from. This stand sold 18 inch corn dogs (Pluto Pups, for the Aussies) for $14 but we didn’t partake instead buying…

Turkey legs, gyros, lobster rolls, fries, roasted corn, grilled pork belly, deep fried battered corn, clam chowder, grilled root vegetables, chocolate/strawberry milk and maple coffee. (In addition to various samples.)

The midway was great, with loads of amazing rides. Alas I knew I’d get sick so I vicariously rode them by putting J and D on a few (they’re riding this Zipper in this shot). Damn my motion sickness ><

And finally, some quality airbrushed ride art. There was loads like this example (on a ghost train ride), but the weird lighting meant many of my photos were too dark.

It was a great fair and I feel there was even more amazing stuff we didn’t even see. We’ll return for sure next year, albeit probably on a weekday to avoid the insane crowds!

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Passage To Maouv

Tuesday, September 18th, 2018

I bought this at a local con some months ago:

It’s an old book and record set from 1975 and yes it still includes the record:

The idea was that kids would read the comic while listening to the record, and these things were very common back in the day.

This particular story involved the Enterprise transporting a telepathic catlike creature between planets only to be jeopardized by its mental powers when it escapees it’s cage and becomes terrified. It’s empty fluff of course, but would have made for a curious tv episode. Amusingly, it was written by Alan Dean “I’ll write anything” Foster!

When I bought this it was sealed in a protective sleeve and as soon as I opened it the stench of cigarettes overwhelmed me. This is a prime example of why collectibles that come “from a smoke-free home” are worth more on the secondary market!

Anyway let’s enjoy the story, albeit briefly. You’re about to hear this page:

Here’s the video:

Your first question is whether or not this is a performance by the original actors, and I don’t know the answer. I found conflicting information either way online but since my record player seems to have a perishing drive belt there’s a slight pitch offset on the audio which confuses things. (At the end of the video I set the pitch back to the default so you can hear the speed issue.)

I will say if these aren’t the original actors they’re very good soundalikes!

Your second question is what the hell is up with Uhura in the comic! That’s another I can’t answer…

Anyway it’s a good product overall and I was very surprised by the quality of the record. Even though it’s short (~16 minutes) it’s professional and very respectful to the show and I reckon Star Trek lovin’ kids in ’75 went bonkers for this!

Oh and if you’re wondering they managed to avoid disaster due to a feline crew member who was able to calm the alien cat down before it enslaved everyone:

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My Collection: Neo Geo Pocket Color

Saturday, September 8th, 2018

Neo Geo was well known for high-end and arcade quality home game consoles when it decided to enter the handheld market, and expectations were high for the Neo Geo Pocket Colour when it launched in mid 1999. I bought mine later that year with six of the launch games. I immediately fell in love with it.

That’s my original handheld – I chose the ‘anthracite’ color – in it’s box. I hadn’t played it for many years before preparing this post, and had forgotten just how much I loved it.

The system is smaller than the original gameboy, and very lightweight. Though entirely plastic it feels very solid and professionally built. Special mention must be made of the tiny 8-way joystick that utilizes microswitches than click when used. It’s extremely satisfying. Oh and if you wonder about the specs, they’re printed right under the screen!

The screen is reflective rather than backlit, which was fine in those days but is charmingly old fashioned now. The contrast however is excellent and there’s almost no blurring. Here’s a shot of the bioryhtym calculator included as part of the basic OS:

The games came in cardboard boxes (as did gameboy games in those days) with the cartridge itself in a tiny plastic box. Manuals were full colour.

The cartridges are on the small side. Of course compared to Switch and Vita games they’re not but in those days these were quite a bit smaller than the competitors games:

The Neo Geo Pocket Color failed as a system, due mostly to the financial woes of the parent company. It was demonstrably a better system than the Gameboy and was priced competitively but poor management coupled with competition from the juggernaut known as Pokemon helped seal it’s fate in less than a year. As the months passed games became increasingly difficult to find (this was before such things were easily purchased online) and I recall it was a bit of an effort to buy games into early 2000.

All in all I managed to obtain 14 games:

Most are boxed; some are not. All were purchased new. The reason for the lack of boxes is that there were games that had been produced but not distributed when the system was pulled from stores in early 2000 and boxes for those games were never made. I bought them online (for almost nothing) years later.

As you can see there are many Neo Geo arcade ‘ports’. These have been mostly redesigned to fit the different style of control and display, and are almost without exception excellent. The Metal Slug games in particular play very well, and Gal’s Fighters is probably the best handheld fighting game I have ever played. The standout game though is Card Fighters Clash, a strategic collectible card game with astonishingly good graphics. I loved this game to death, and am strongly considering (yet) another playthrough from scratch for old times sake 🙂

As with most of my games, my NGPC collection is in virtual mint condition and is complete with all boxes and manuals. I don’t think much about it though, and was surprised in preparing this post to see how much this once-clearanced and mostly forgotten system has appreciated. Consulting my database I see that I paid a total of $389.71 for the system and the 14 games I bought (the system cost $70, the games averaged $22 apiece). And yet these days the boxed system alone is ‘worth’ about $180 and one of the games (Evolution) may even fetch more than that! A brief tabulation at one of the internet price charting sites values my collection at just shy of $1000 so I’ll be sure to keep it safe and sound for many years to come 🙂

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Calm Before The Storm

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2018

I saw this turtle from Waikiki beach. He was chilling out near the shore while a paddler and snorkeled swum nearby.

Here’s another turtle floating at the beach, and yes this means we took the phone in the surf (in a waterproof case).

KLS drinking her $7 ‘frozen’ coconut, purchased at a roadside stall.

Me browsing used vintage postcards. They were overpriced and most had been written on.

We got a car and drive around the whole island. This was taken on Pupukea beach, where the waves were rough and the wind unforgiving!

We also visited the Dole plantation, which featured a train ride and giant hedge maze. While there the power to the entire area went out and they had to close the gift shop and restaurants!

There’s a powerful hurricane heading towards us right now, which threatens the entire state. Obviously this will affect our trip as well, and the immediate future is unclear. Hopefully the next post will still show clear skies…

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