We installed a new camera in our backyard which operates on WiFi and automatically records when it detects motion. It works well and I think we’ll get at least one more (for the front) but this one is our new wildlife camera!
Here’s a quick edit of some of the videos it has recorded since I installed it just after Christmas:
It’s been life-threateningly cold outside recently, and naturally in such a hostile climate ones mind turns to thoughts of toasted sandwiches. So to facilitate such delights, I bought this:
This was a mere $12 from the worlds largest global superpower Amazon which is amazing value! I chose the smallest one because it was the smallest one and since there was no choice of colour we can be relieved it comes in a snappy and sophisticated green (or perhaps more correctly Pantone PMS 333?)
Here’s the device out of the box:
The instructions helpfully identify the relevant parts: ‘upper surface’, ‘lower surface’ and ‘operation light’. It’s not the most complicated contraption ever built, but luckily the manufacturers forestall user error via a handily included recipe sheet. I decided to attempt this one:
Alas I had no ham; turkey would have to suffice. With great care I preheated as instructed before arranging the ingredients:
And closing the lid:
And in less than a few minutes, I had a meal fit for an emperor:
But was it good? Well it was dry, and wheat bread tastes awful when toasted, and since I used provolone instead of swiss the cheese didn’t fully melt. But I ate it, and that’s what mattered.
I’m pleased to say that since the above I have secured ham and swiss and my second sandwich was a masterpiece!
KLS was braver than me, and decided to investigate two other listed uses of this nifty apparatus. Firstly she baked a cookie in it:
She had made the dough previously and it had been frozen in balls. She just threw a few in, closed the lid… and it did a good job!
Emboldened, it was time for something a bit more challenging: a pizza pocket!
This used crescent roll dough (which once again we had in the fridge), and as you can see she just tossed in random pizza toppings and crossed her fingers. She said it was great, and I believe her since she made another one for dinner!
$12 therefore, for gourmet dining in our own home. How can this not receive two – nay four! – thumbs up 🙂
It’s time for another selection of stamps from the order I made a couple of months back. This time, let’s look through a pack of 200 Australian Stamps.
That’s all of them, with the exception of a tiny amount of repeats. They span about 60 years from 1949 to about 2008. Here’s the oldest one, which was also the only pre-decimal stamp in the pack:
You can see in the first pic that Australia has a standard stamp size (that continues today) in which the vast majority of stamps are printed. The second photo shows the smaller size, with some smaller (older) stamps at the bottom. Australia does of course print stamps in other shapes and sizes than these, but they are usually higher denomination or for specific commemorative purposes.
Looking at this specific selection it’s clear there are a few recurring themes. One is sports, and the above photo shows many of those in the pack. I was surprised by the absence of cricket stamps, but a quick glance online shows they have existed and were simply not in my selection. There were several Olympic themed stamps in my pack as well.
Vehicles were another theme, and I recall collecting some of the plane ones in my youth. The car series is quite handsome!
There were several train stamps as well, from at least four different series over a couple of decades. Obviously a popular topic of Australia Post.
Christmas stamps were extremely common, and this picture isn’t even all of them. Over 10% of the 200 were Christmas stamps, and they’re such a tradition in Australia that they even print Christmas stamp stamps, like this one:
There were actually two different stamps commemorating Christmas stamps!
This got me thinking “How did this company get these Australian stamps?” I bought the packs from a stamp dealer in Canada and I assume his various country selections originated from the countries themselves? Are there companies in Australia that collect used stamps (from envelopes possibly?) to sell to dealers overseas? If so, this could explain the frequency of Christmas stamps since I would expect most Australians are likely to send Christmas cards than use the postage in the rest of the year?
The most common topic – and this has always seemed to be the case – is of course Australian wildlife. Check your postcards I’ve sent you from Oz over the years and you’ll likely see animal stamps on them, including perhaps some of those shown above!
A few other stamps caught my eye, such as these two from series about children’s novels:
Or this example of a stamp about stamps (sort of):
There were many other interesting ones but this post is already too long. As with the previous packs I had a lot of fun sorting these and looking up details on many of them.
I still have more packs to go through as well. What will the next one be? Check back in a month or so and find out 🙂
The PlayStation 2 (PS2) was Sony’s second game console, and was a dramatic upgrade to the original PlayStation. Released in the USA in late October 2000, I got my first PS2 a few weeks later from Working Designs, since I was then writing content for their website.
It was an extremely successful console – to date the most successful (although it will almost certainly be surpassed by the Switch) – selling over 150 million units in over 12 years of life. It has a massive game library and many extremely successful franchises that continue to this day began on the PS2. Historically, this will always be remembered as one of the most important game consoles in history.
Even though it’s still relatively young, some elements of the console feel archaic today, such as the use of dedicated memory cards for storage, the wired controllers and the lack of any built-in internet support. It did however play DVDs, and for many homes was their first DVD player, which was one reason for its great success.
Over its lifetime I bought well over 150 PS2 games, but I traded many in and my remaining collection (115 games) is shown above. Unsurprisingly this is mostly RPGs (since I was reviewing all of them in those days), and virtually every game you can see was beaten to completion.
The graphics hold up reasonably well these days: certainly much better than the original PlayStation. This was also the era in which cutscenes really took off since loading time and video quality had improved significantly over the previous generation. Playing the games now isn’t too great though since the (first generation) Dual Shock analogue controllers feel slow and stiff, and the memory stick system is clumsy.
The PS2 was also regionless, and this was the era in which I started semi-regular trips to Japan. That said I only bought two PS2 games while I was there, both of which I beat completely despite having not being able to read the text!
As I said there’s a plethora of incredible games on the system, including the mighty Final Fantasy XII, the Ratchet & Clank games, the first Monster Hunter and many others. But for me the Naval Ops series will always be remembered fondly. These are action games in which you develop and fight warships in combat. It starts off realistic enough, but by the end you have star destroyer sized submarines with wave guns and laser cannons. They’re all fantastic!
For an extremely popular system with so many great games there’s relatively few ‘holy grails’ on the system as far as collecting is worth, and the vast majority of games these days can be bought for less than when they first came out. The two shown above are probably the rarest in my collection, each worth over $100, which is modest compared to games on other systems.
As the PlayStation has evolved through the generations (now up to the PlayStation 5) the differences between successive iterations has become less and less. I feel the PS1-to-PS2 jump was the biggest, and for that reason remember this console more fondly than any other PlayStation. That said I’m not overly nostalgic about it (or it’s games) like I am handheld or Nintendo systems.
It was fun getting it out and firing up the games for a spin, but I think if the day arrives I decide to sell more of my collection it’s likely my PS2 games will be on the list.
Earlier this year LEGO released a set of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and I bought it online within moments of it being listed.
It builds in two parts, the console and the TV. I built the console first. It was a fairly easy build, but the engineering is impressive (amazing even) since it has a working cartridge tray (which locks into place) and the model reproduces to uncanny detail every aspect of an actual NES including all the plugs and sockets.
Here it is finished. You can see the (LEGO) Super Mario Brothers cartridge in the tray.
Next game the TV. While I would have been perfectly happy had the set been the console alone, the inclusion of the TV takes it to another level since they actually include a scrolling playfield to simulate the game itself.
This works by creating a belt mounted on tracks, which then turns via a crank mounted on the side. This works seamlessly and smoothly and is just another example of how clever LEGO engineers have become.
Here’s the TV interior with the scrolling belt attached:
This was a great kit to build, and for old school gamers such as myself the nostalgia value is through the roof. This is easily my favourite LEGO kit to date, and one I’ll likely keep assembled and on display for a very long time.
