Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Bid early, bid often


I have wonderful, happy memories of this machine. It was the first time I'd stayed up all night, drinking beer and playing head-to-head computer games. James Bond, Golden Eye and shouting "I got you!" and "No, you didn't, fucker!" are all hazy memories that I will treasure for a long time.

I also used to have a stack of other games which I had rented from a [large, litigious video rental company] in Ireland, shortly before returning to Australia. The owner of the long-term hostel I was staying in (see "Heeeeeere's Emery") was something of a small-time sleaze-bag. A pleasant enough fellow on first meeting, but after some time it became apparent that he ran casual, non-HI-certified hostels so that he could meet young, single women who were travelling the world and open to new experiences and drinking too much. That, and he never repaired the place. The second floor landing which I put my leg through one day remained a large enough hole to consider scrapping the first flight of stairs and installing a fireman's pole for four months. Because of the events described in
Heeeeeere's Emery, I joined the local video store, obviously before they became aware that allowing transient backpackers to rent movieJust before I left, I popped around to the local [large, litigious video rental company] and rented as many New Release Nintendo 64 games as I was allowed, packed them in my suitcase and boarded a plane to Thailand. Unfortunately, those games are almost gone and Super Mario Land and Body Harvest are all that remain. Plus two controllers.

The bidding has begun at $15.
If the winning bidder is a previous commenter, they will get a special prize and three points!

***
GTH - Shippy for hilarity. Mele for hilarity, hotness and trying to her husband incarcerated.

14 comments:

  1. Ah memories. My mum always made us hand down our old consoles to our cousins who then proceeded to trash them. I want my NES back!

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  2. I'm sure Ben would trade you for the XBox.
    In fact I'LL trade you for the XBox!

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  3. DO NOT SELL THESE

    as you know I have cleaned out a lot of houses over the last year, and there are lots of things that should be thrown out/given away/sold...these are not such things.

    Having said that, if you still decide to remove them from your life remember that I have two little boys and loooooong summer in a two bedroom apartment in front of me.

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  4. If I read rightly, then said two boys have access to the great, great, great wireless grandson of this little black duck.

    If they hunger for Ninternatives, read the title!

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  5. Count me out. I have no use for video games. I totally suck at them.

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  6. I hate to sound like a mum and all, but I still can't help thinking that you're gonna regret this.

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  7. Done, $20 - I suck at Golden Eye, but I'll be hunting for NBA Jam or Hangtime, or whatever it is.

    I was only thinking the otherday that I should start looking in Cash Converters for a N64 and the greatest console BBall game going around. Seriously, I was.

    I also have an X-box, but have you seen how hard it is to play these new BBall games?! Technology, pha.

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  8. GTH: Your new competitive future now that you have decided to remove your N64 and have figured out that the arthritis in you fingers has restricted your competitiveness of your golden eya - bowling competition against/with your Sri Lankan counterpart.

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  9. River - In that case, I URGE you to get into a N64. The king of simple systems, fun on a digital bun, [insert further high-pressure sales technique], etc.

    3rdCat - Why? Why the regret? I'm sensing from your previous comments that you yourself are the one filled with regret after ridding yourself of a Nintendo before its time. Well, let me solve those problems with the offer to you alone of a renegotiated international postage price ... place a bid ... send an email ... Super Mario wants to save you!

    Shippy - The one to get when you win is Mission Impossible. Great missions, difficult gameplay, skillful stuff.

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  10. Franz old man, I'd rather read a book.

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  11. GTH:- Franzy taking life at a slower, quieter pace now.
    P.S. When did you borrow my straw hat? I didn't even notice it was gone....

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  12. Two words:

    MARIO KART

    ....'nuf said!


    (Mind you, Goldeneye on multiplayer with "licence to kill" turned on was a HOOT!)

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  13. ToOS - There's still time left! (although I may have to adjust postage price to Bubblegum Central).

    ReplyDelete
  14. I think, that you commit an error. I suggest it to discuss. Write to me in PM, we will communicate.

    ReplyDelete

An explanation of The Joy Division Litmus Test

Although it may now be lost in the mysts of thyme, the poll below is still relevant to this blog. In the winter of 2008, Mele and I went to live in Queensland. In order to survive, I bluffed my way into a job at a Coffee Club.
It was quite a reasonable place to work: the hours were regular, the staff were quite nice, it wasn't particularly taxing on my brain.
There were a few downsides: In the six weeks or so that I worked there, there was about a 90% staff turnover (contributed to by my leaving). This wasn't seen as a result of the low pay, the laughability of staff prices or the practice of not distributing tips to staff, rather it was blamed on the lack of work ethic among Bribie Island's youth.
However, one of the stranger aspects of the cultural isolation that touched our lives during our time "up there" was the fact that nobody at my work had heard of the band Joy Division.
The full explanation is available here.
But please, interact a little further and vote in my ongoing poll. The results are slowly mounting up, proving one thing: people read this blog are more well-informed about Joy Division than anyone who works at the Coffee Club on Bribie Island.

Have you heard of the band Joy Division?

Chinese food, not Chinese Internet!

Champions of Guess The Header

  • What is Guess The Header about? Let’s ask regular “Writing” reader, Shippy: "Anyway, after Franzy's stunning September, and having a crack at 'Guess The Header' for the first time - without truly knowing what I was doing mind you - I think I finally understand what 'GTH' is all about. At first I thought you needed to actually know what it was. Don't get me wrong — if you know what it is, it may help you. I now realise that it's more Franzy's way of invoking thought around an image or, more often than not, part of an image. If you dissect slightly the GTH explanatory sentence at the bottom of his blog you come up with this: “The photo is always taken by me and always connects in some way to the topic of the blog entry it heads up.” When the header is put up, the blog below it will in some obscure way have something to do with it. “Interesting comments are judged and scored arbitrarily and the process is open to corruption and bribery with all correspondence being entered into after the fact and on into eternity, ad infinitum amen.” Franzy judges it, but it's not always the GTH that describes the place perfectly that gets it. “The frequent commenters, the wits, the wags and the outright smartarses who, each entry, engage to both guess the origin and relevance of the strip of photo at the top (or “head”) of each new blog and also who leave what I deem the most interesting comment.” It generally helps if you're a complete smartarse and can twist things to mean whatever you feel they should mean - exactly the way Franzy would like things to be twisted." - Shippy Blogger and GTH point scorer.
  • Nai - 1
  • Lion Kinsman - 2
  • Will - 2
  • Brocky - 2
  • Andy Pants - 2
  • The 327th Male - 3
  • Mad Cat Lady - 3
  • Miles McClagen - 4
  • Myninjacockle - 4
  • Asheligh - 5
  • Neil - 5
  • Third Cat - 5
  • Adam Y - 6
  • Squib - 6
  • Mele - 6
  • Moifey - 7
  • Jono - 8
  • The Other, other Sam - 14
  • Kath Lockett - 15
  • Shippy - 19
  • River - 32