It was Yossie’s birthday last week (she turned 4!) and yesterday her gift arrived. Here’s a photo of it before it was opened. Can you guess what it is?
Not sure? Here’s a shot of the bits and pieces when opened. I bet you can guess now?
Immediately, Yossie Emi was interested!
Here’s the gift one-third built:
The pieces went together well. Nothing but the best from Armakat!
That piece is rope was an immediate hit with Yossie Emi. Here’s a shot of the finished product. It’s over seven feet tall!
Luckily, the birthday girl took to her new gift immediately:
Especially the topmost perch:
But in the end, it was the little goblin who reigned supreme on Yoss’s new cat tree!
It is a source of some frustration to me that in these days where everything seems to be available online and video formats are more or less a thing of the past, that the 1978 Japanese TV show ‘Saiyuki’ (known as ‘Monkey’ to Australians) has never been made available in the USA.
Monkey was based on the classic chinese tale Journey To The West, published more than 400 years ago in China. It told the story of a Buddhist monk who sets off for India to receive some sacred Buddhist scripture. Accompanying him on his journey is the powerful and brave Monkey King and Pigsy, a once-heavenly general reborn as a pig-man. Hijinks and adventures follow, and you can take my word that the novel is a good read even today.
Back in 1978 the Japanese made a TV show about the legend called Saiyuki, and it went on to become a big hit not only in Japan but also in Australia, the UK and other European countries as well due to a wonderful BBC translation. Here is a compilation of scenes from the show:
It was played non-stop during my youth and in fact up until me leaving Australia. I saw every episode countless times and loved them all. Sadly no NTSC version has ever been made available, and although someone (the BBC?) still holds the rights to the English language version, they’ve never put it on iTunes or any other download service available to Americans.
I’ve been thinking about the series a lot recently because I recently finished the excellent PS3 game Enslaved, which is also based on the same tale (a futuristic take this time). In fact Journey To The West has been inspiration for quite a few movies, manga, anime, TV shows and video games over the years, not the least of which is the famous manga series Dragonball.
Here’s Monkey himself in various guises, including the well-known Goku:
Here’s the good monk Tripitaka, who was so famously played by a woman in the original series that all later incarnations seemed to become female!
And here’s Pigsy (known as Oolong in Dragonball):
Those Enslaved graphics look almost too good to be true don’t they? Well they are not, and it’s easily one of the most beautiful and well-animated games I have ever played.
Monkey, Dragonball and Enslaved: 33 years separate these three very different – but all great – versions of a 400+ year old story. I’m sure there will be many more versions told in the future.
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 🙁
