Arcade enthusiasts rejoice.
Well, I got it, and possibly drove up/screwed up the going rate for used classic arcade equipment from the 80s at the same time! Now all I need to do is school myself on mechanical controller assembly, build a case, buy a monitor (hey, only RGB will do), call me crazy but I even want a coin-slot. I was telling myself before I got this that I wouldn't bother assembling the rest of it until I'm out of the apartment but now I'm not so sure--you know, I still need quarters to operate the laundry machines here, it would be a novel if oversized bank? :D
For the curious (who haven't bothered to check out my current game list already--which in retrospect makes me wonder why you might be curious now) can read all about it here! 8)
Posted on June 30, 2004 at 5:20 pm
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Should I be afraid?
Me: I've always wanted to surf.
Kel: I surf! We can surf together!
Me: Magic!
Kel: Ummmmmmm... question...
Me: Yeah?
Kel: Are you afraid of sharks?
Posted on June 30, 2004 at 10:30 am
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How do you prepare blowfish for cooking?
No innuendoes please, it's a serious question.
My cousin came in from Atlanta last week and rented a boat over the weekend. Last night he calls me up and asks me to google for information on how to cook blowfish. Try as I might, with as many strings as I can think of, I can't come up with one bit of information on actually "how" blowfish are to be prepared for a non-poisonous dish.
I did find several websites with mention of a law ordinance in Japan dictating that any chef preparing blowfish must be licensed to cook this food. I don't know what Ricky is doing with the fish he's caught--and I'm a little mystified that he actually caught blowfish to start with, I thought they were peculiar to the Asian waters of the Pacific--but something tells me he shouldn't be messing with this particular seafood.
Posted on June 29, 2004 at 7:50 am
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Long time no update.
Sorry about the inactivity. I've been, ahem, busy. And I wouldn't have it any other way, Kelly. ;)
Active games have been updated and are available to your right--the order has changed in fact, check it out. That's right, I'm playing some rather ancient arcade games again. Dunno what's up but I'm very obsessed with Konami in general lately.
The thought of owning an arcade game has crossed my mind again. The last time this happened I looked into it, and couldn't decide on any one single, significant or very important arcade game that was very obtainable. I would jump at a chance to have Thunder Force AC as that's one that defines my very soul, but I'd be lucky to find the marquee I think. (See what I mean? They can't get it either.) I had come away from the mulling-over thinking that I would just make a MacMAME cabinet, because that would give me access to a lot of the obscure crap that I love to death, but I've always been a little concerned about the versatility of fixed controllers for a multi-game hardware config like that--plus, I would need a secondary and powerful Mac to keep exclusive to the cabinet, which could get pretty expensive.
After spending the week/weekend with Life Force, though, I know exactly what I want for a single-game, fixed, genuine and real arcade video game. I played the heck out of that game when I was thirteen, I have vivid recollections of it at the arcade while dad was busy playing Ms. Pac-Man. I couldn't get enough of it and I only ever got killt in all the same places while playing, but I didn't care, it was way too fun. And I know dad, the video-gaming dumby, would do a real double-take if he were to actually see it at my place. He funneled enough quarters to it for me when I was twelve, he'll remember it. It may take a while to get everything I'll need but I'm in no rush. I don't have a time-frame at all and that's probably a good thing, it would be a little cumbersome to keep an arcade cabinet in my apartment anyway and I've got the game already on several platforms (including MacMAME) to busy myself playing while I assemble all the pieces. I may have already located the key centrepiece, in fact... I'll let you know by Wednesday.
Am I the only gamer who loathes the new "G4TechTV"? Now that G4TV's merger of TechTV is complete, it really seems like it's the other way around completely--as if TechTV has invaded G4TV. All of the good shows (i.e. G4TV's shows) are now shown during the day which is just wonderful, that's when I'm at work and can't watch. By 5-6PM they're showing TechTV stuff and almost nothing but. The airings seem a lot more malleable than before with different stuff in certain slots each day, but that's the general pattern--G4TV shows during the day, TechTV shows all night long. What's even worse, the TechTV shows are almost all reruns--it must have either taken them a lot longer to get everything situated for TechTV productions at the L.A. studio, or possibly next to noone relocated to L.A. to get those 100 job openings which would understandably delay production. I have yet to see a single Screen Savers that wasn't a repeat. At any rate, the days that I could turn the telly to G4TV and leave it there all day and all night for background noise or actual entertainment are long gone.
I got a new CPU for the old MDD tower last week. All I really need for it at this point is a hard disk to install, then swap the CPU and see how it goes. I want to pull the 40GB disk out of the current MDD and put it in there but this is going to involve swapping some things around--I want to put a new 200GB Seagate disk (hmm, maybe a couple?) in here and change the order of the boot disks, which has resulted in a lot of file-copy and shuffling around (tossing away old/un... used [?] pr0n) before that happens. I set up the tower in the living room, charged a new battery backup and, just for kicks, tried powering it on with the old CPU still installed. To my shock, it actually worked! This is a little perplexing to me; I thought I'd had some bad solder on the volt points, because it wasn't booting last Christmas when I gave up. Not sure what to make of it, but I do think it points to good things for the new CPU. It will be the same speed as the new tower I got (to replace it!) with a GeForce 3. I'm going to load it down with RAM, install another 802.11g card with it and it will work out as a perfect LAN second-gamer computer for... my favourite opponent. ;)
If it turns out that I damaged the logic board (still seems a likely possibility to me) I have already located another. Two good computers beat one awesome one (G5) for the time being. :)
I've been seeing the new commercials for I, Robot and getting pretty psyched. I'm not a Will Smith fan at all but I positively love Isaac Asimov, and believe it or not I've only read one novel, and it wasn't I, Robot. No, I read The Naked Sun, which is actually one of the later Robot novels. When I was a senior at Memphis Prep I had the opportunity to goof off at my study hall time and took to spending it in the library. The school library had a subscription to Asimov's science fiction digest and I read it cover to cover every day once I discovered it. I don't recall ever reading another of his stories there, but the short stories he picked out for publication were a lot to my liking, not insulting to my intelligence (Hello Star Trek), and his editorials and replies to reader letters were just brill. I couldn't get enough of the guy, and now that it's trendy to mine his wealth of material for film, I really personally regret not having taken the initiative to pick up anything else of Asimov's. Translation: I'm heading to the B&N as soon as possible to get a copy of I, Robot to devour before seeing the film. Which will also happen, as soon as possible, right Kel? (Psst--opens July 16. ;)
Posted on June 28, 2004 at 8:31 am
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The Beyonder's power of suggestion.
I love comic books. I learned to read from Spider-Man when I was two years old. I read anything I could get my hands on, comic books were convenient and readily given to me.
When I was ten years old a comic book that cemented the now-destructive paradigm of the miniseries crossover started, the Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars. The Secret Wars was the massive work of Jim Shooter, one of the last truly great comic writers in the classic sense. There are lots of good modern writers, but Jim is the last and the latest that I can think of who does things the established way, the Stan Lee way. And I say the paradigm is destructive because there have been so many copyists since then who simply couldn't pull it off as well as he did.
The Secret Wars detailed the battle of all of earth's heroes and villains on an alien world far across the universe, placed there by a creature from another universe known only as "the Beyonder." The Beyonder existed in a universe where he was everything, there was no other creature, matter, or force there than himself, and it had always been that way, and across the unknown span of time he became godlike in his own way unlike ourselves. Through some cosmic event the Beyonder managed to "see" into another universe, and became curious. The battle he placed the earthlings for was for his amusement, entertainment, or learning alone, with whatever other motives unclear, but there you go.
At the end of the Secret Wars, Doctor Doom somehow managed to steal Beyonder's godlike powers from him and every wish he made became a reality. The Beyonder--not killed--stayed very close to Doctor Doom under the guise of a minion, and through the power of suggestion managed to make Doom believe that somehow he could have possibly lost against his adversaries, even with his newly acquired powers of omnipotence. From these imaginings and self-doubts Doom lost control of the Beyonder's powers, at which time the Beyonder retook them from him and brought the series to an end.
I don't know how else to explain this, but I think I've acquired the Beyonder's powers.
This is a slow realisation that is becoming more clear to me every day. It started out years ago, right after I read the comic, very simply. I would think of a song in my head--five minutes later when I turned on the radio the song would begin. (Usually, right on cue.) More recently I was talking with Kelly last week and the conversation included a few movies. In succession, each day for the next three days, all three of these flicks were showing on my cable stations when I sat down to watch the telly each night.
The intersection at NE 131st Street and NE 13th Avenue is a two-way stop--not a four-way like most of the rest of the neighbourhood. I like to cut through there going west on 131st so I don't have to stop, it makes the drive to work a little faster. But for some reason today I couldn't help but think that I should slow down a touch--what if someone on 13th Avenue were tooling along and didn't notice they were supposed to stop there? I didn't think about it and kept going.
I had to step out earlier today to fetch a package FedEx didn't leave at my apartment yesterday and on the way back I came to the office by way of 13th Avenue (not 131st Street) and there I see a red Corvette, askew in the intersection, broadsided by an older white Mercedes-Benz on the other end of 13th Avenue that obviously didn't slow or stop for the two-way intersection.
Could the Beyonder be making suggestions to my imaginative unconsciousness to regain his powers?
Posted on June 10, 2004 at 8:11 am
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