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Here’s What My Brother Is Going To Buy Me For Christmas

Thursday, November 15th, 2012

The world turns, but the more things change, the more they remain the same. Take, for instance, the eternal struggle of what to buy me for gifts? As I did once before, I received the following message from my Brother:

Yo sibling! I’ve learned that the Christmas gifts you’ve gotten me are mighty indeed, and I want to reciprocate in kind. Any suggestions?

Well brother-of-mine, your sources are true, for I have indeed obtained some of the mightiest gifts you will ever receive from me! Since it is the wish of all men to one-up each other in terms of gifts, I understand your motive. Thus, I will humbly offer some suggestions…

Books Category

Blood Sword (books 3-5)

Well known as one of the best ever gamebook series, I only have the first two installments and the latter 3 continue to elude me. It’s not that they are particularly hard to find, more hard to afford. Prices online seem to range from ~$30 (for book 3, Battlepits Of Krarth) to $250+ (for book 5, The Walls Of Spyte). Yes, we all know they are being rewritten, simplified, and converted to the Virtual Reality system for a reprint, but – let’s face it – as a purist only the original version is acceptable as a Christmas gift 🙂

?????? Chronicle

I’m not going to lie – this one will be difficult! This is (of course…) the Japanese Fighting Fantasy doujin magazine that has published every two years (or so) since 2003. Details are scarce. Who publishes it? What’s in it? Where can it be purchased? Does it even exist? I have confidence the answers to all of these will be in my hand when I open my Christmas gifts!

Fighting Fantasy Second Age

When one completes their Fighting Fantasy collection, one must seek gratification elsewhere. Therefore, my attention has turned to the Czechoslovakian-only sequel series, Fighting Fantasy Second Age. Bernard’s going to have to work quite hard to find a book in this insanely rare series (book #1, Island Of Exiles, is shown above), possibly including (but not restricted to) personally scouring the shelves of used bookstores in Prague! But he will no doubt be motivated by thinking of my smiling face on Christmas morning 🙂

This…

It’s not particularly rare or expensive, it’s 33 years old, it’s (cough) ‘written’ by the best Doctor Who ever, and it has an awesome cover. I want it. Make it happen please?

Toys Category

Remembrance Of The Daleks figure set

I’ve got a pretty large collection of Daleks at this point, of all sizes, but I don’t have this amazing set. Sure it’s wildly overpriced and possibly impossible to find, being limited as it was to one store and released as a limited edition two years ago…. but hey, it’s Christmas!

Revoltech Yamaguchi MH Rathalos Liolaeus

This Japanese monster hunter toy is a little tricky to find… in the colour shown above. While I – and, let’s face it anyone – would love to own this, the impossibly hard to find limited ‘Silver Rathalos’ version is the one that would bring a tear to my eye on Christmas day! Could a young mans dream come true?

Material Handler Lego Technic

Remember that chat we had during the summer where I told you how every single Technic series includes a crane? Here’s another! You’re really going to have to pull out all the stops to get this for me for Christmas though, since it isn’t released until January 13, 2013! Maybe this one waits until my Birthday? 🙂

Dungeon & Dragons Trading Card Sets

TSR released factory sets of AD&D Trading cards each year from 1991 until 1993. Naturally, I’m mostly interested in the largest set – released in 1992 which contains 750 cards. Factory complete, sealed and unopened examples of these are wildely available. After all, who would want them now? And as I’m sure you know, this would be a fine gift for a fellow such as myself!

Music

Gone Petshopping (Pet Shop Girls)

Seriously… just go read last year’s entry again and understand I’m serious about this one!

Games

Rune Factory 2 and 3 (DS)

I practise self-flagellation daily for missing both of these. I played the first, loved it, and somehow not one but two sequels snuck out without me realizing. Once I had found out of their existence… BAM! The resellers had hoarded and driven the prices up to levels this poor college professor could never afford 🙁

Wizardry Gaiden III: Scripture Of The Dark (Gameboy)

Despite my greatest hopes, the Wizardry titles I requested for gifts last year never eventuated. At the time, I withheld this one from the list, since it’s so… painful. Back in 2006, I managed to acquire the first two Japanese Gameboy Gaiden titles. Both are boxed, in perfect condition, and beloved by me. And yet, the third has ever eluded me! This fact has been known to keep me up at night, and if only for the good graces of my brother, I could eternally sleep soundly were it finally in my hands. And yet, the task may be Herculean indeed. For this game, now 20 years old, has become almost a footnote in history. Let us see if it can be unearthed?

The Legend Of Zagor Boardgame

You know how sometimes you have this awesome dream that you own something awesome and have an awesome time playing with it? Well in my dreams, it’s always The Legend Of Zagor boardgame. This near-mythical conversion of an FF book into a game includes a computer voice! Here’s hoping the first thing I ever hear that voice say is “Happy Christmas from your beloved brother!”

And there we go, a relatively short and modest list of items intended to assist with my Christmas shopping. Times-a-wasting, so get to it! 😉

Posted in Blog, Books & Comics, Family, Gamebooks, Games, Miscellaneous, Music, Otaku, Tech, Time, Toys | 6 Comments »

Connecting iPad to a wifi network

Friday, November 9th, 2012

(This post is for Dad, so he can refer to this on his vacation.)

Connecting your iPad to a new wifi network couldn’t be easier!

Start by going into ‘Settings’ and selecting ‘Wi-Fi’ on the left:

On the right, under ‘Choose a network’, you’ll see a list of available networks:

Connecting to a network is as simple as selecting it from the list. The one you have selected has the tick next to it (check mark, for Americans). Once you select one, it will take a few seconds before the Internet becomes available.

If there are many different networks in your list, ask your friend for the name of his.

Once you’ve selected a network, you may be prompted for a password if it is locked. This is not your Apple password; this is a password for the network. Ask whoever owns it if you need a password 🙂

If you still have questions/problems, give me a call!

Posted in Family, Tech | Comments Closed

Return Of The Trophy Challenge!

Tuesday, October 30th, 2012

In the history of this blog, no two posts have generated as much controversy and commentary as the legendary ‘Trophy Challenge’ entries (*). You can review them here and here.

Two years have passed since that last post with nary an update! Dear readers, it pains me to say that the competition fizzled. My opponents, like craven dogs, simply gave up. They stopped logging on, they let their PS3’s die and didn’t buy a replacement, and worse of all they admitted defeat. The challenge was over…

Or was it…?

Good readers, you’ll be overjoyed to learn that the challenge didn’t end, it merely moved! We collectively turned our backs on pS3 trophies as a measure of our merit, and instead wholeheartedly adopted Apple’s Game Center as our new flagship. Happily, I can report all such original contenders have once again rekindled their competitive streak, and unendingly seek to raise their Game Center achievement total above all others. (Of course some of them seemingly sought to hide their participation behind new usernames, but it was a work of trifling deduction to match them to their old PS3 ID’s)

In addition, a fresh face has entered the contest. This person – let’s call them ‘Bearbles’ – has sprinted from the starting line like a raging horse, and has truly and quickly become a force to be reckoned with in the hallowed halls of my Game Center friends list.

At last, the update we’ve all been waiting for: Here, my beloved followers, is the most recent standings, using the same user names as were used in the old challenge:

The above chart shows total Game Center score. With great humility, I will direct your attention to my name, on the left.

And yet, what if we inspect average score based on the number of games played:

I tip my hat to you Bearbles. You are a force to be reckoned with in the sport of Game Centering. If you can keep that average up and play the same number of games I have, your total score would verily dwarf mine.

I vow, loving readers, that I will update these standings periodically. And such updates will no doubt be necessary, for an even darker horse is waiting in the winds. A veritable Mycroftian in the world of competitive-achievement-score-accumulation, he is even now preparing to obtain his first iOS device and has no doubt already set his sights on unseating up to Foosrazzle, probably Bearbles and even – dare I say – the current undisputed King of Game Center Achievements – myself 🙂

* – Boldfaced lie

Posted in Blog, Games, Miscellaneous, Otaku, Tech | 3 Comments »

NYCC Day Three

Saturday, October 13th, 2012

The cell signal’s a bit slow here at the hotel, so I didn’t go back to read last years comic con post. But I reckon if I did then Saturday would have included mention of the same thing we encountered today: the crowds!

It was like half of the otaku in America was at NYCC today, and we were in the thick of it!

We started early by sitting in the front seats of a Moyoco Anno panel. She’s the creator of several manga series I’ve enjoyed, including Happy Mania and Flowers & Bees. She was reserved, amusing and very polite, as she discussed (via a translator) her career and influences.

One particularly funny moment during the panel happened during the audience Q&A. Here’s a photo:

He even tried to ask his question with the mask on!

We saw a great many other ‘celebrities’ today, including Tom ‘Draco Malfoy’ Felton, Burt Ward, Adam West, Blair Butler, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Booker T, Brutus Beefcake, the Bella Twins, Kelly Kelly, Joel Hodgson, Nicholas ‘Zander’ Brandon, Tera Patrick, Lou Ferrigno and this lovely girl:

Sadly AW, I couldn’t get her autograph since the tickets had sold out in advance 🙁

Conventions like this are about seeing creators and celebrities, about playing games or seeing movies in advance, about meeting other fans and seeing cosplayers, but also (and importantly), about buying stuff! And believe me when I say a large portion of the shows many halls are dedicated to vendors selling all manner of things. What sorts of stuff do we buy at NYCC?

Well, for starters, figurines:

Clothing (such as bathrobes):

Wigs (of any colour):

Art (paintings, posters, prints):

Curiosities (most of the ‘steampunk’ variety):

Toys (including collectible ones):

Stuffed animals (such as Monster Hunter themed):

And model kits:

Today’s vast crowds also included even more cosplayers, and sadly the human density made it tricky to get photos of most of them. But, as with the previous entries, three highlights from those I saw today:

The last one was a tree person from last years Doctor Who Christmas special. The middle one gets points for originality with her ewok costume. And the girl on top? Well I’m not sure who she is dressed as, but she was tall!

Tomorrow is the last day. We’ve spent hundreds so far (including many Christmas gifts for the usual suspects), but there’s still cash burning a hole in my wallet! Will I cave and spend $100 on a Gundam kit?!? That would be crazy, wouldn’t it? 🙂

Posted in Art, Books & Comics, Games, Miscellaneous, Movies, Otaku, Tech, Toys, Trip | 1 Comment »

NYCC Day One

Thursday, October 11th, 2012

We had an early start today, then hopped on a train for a mini-vacation in New York City. As we have the last several years, we’re going to the New York Comic Con!

Today is KLS’s birthday as well, so that makes this little trip even more special 🙂

The show runs Thursday through Saturday, and we’ve got 4-day passes. We got to the city a few hours before the doors opened which was fortuitous, since I had to visit the Australian consulate. With that out of the way, after stops at a few shops (I spent $70 on the new Monster Hunter Jsoanese art book at Kinokuniya!), we headed down to the convention center.

For some reason I had assumed the lines would be small on this first half-day of the con, but as you can see that was hardly the case.

As usual, sensory overload was what followed. Hundreds of exhibitors filling several halls across 3 levels of a gigantic convention center…

Movies and books and comics and games and clothes, toys, cars, food and art. Free stuff everywhere, and even more (do much more!) for sale!

And then, the cosplay:

The major highlight of today was seeing the next Monster Hunter games so prominently featured at Capcom’s booth. I lined up to play the 3DS version and it was awesome. The WiiU version was also playable and has beautiful graphics. I can’t wait for these to be released.