I Appreciate You

08.03.2004

Last week I got a big kick out of an auction for some toy space ships from Space: 1999 on eBay. The auction was posted by a guy in Japan, who evidently used an online service to translate his Japanese to English for posting on his auction. As a bonus, he was giving 3 mini-movie-posters (selectable from 9 available) to the winner of the auction.

Here's the text of the listing (the images haevn't been archived anywhere...):

This is EAGLE : Transporter, Rescue and Hawk.
This is SPACE1999 series presented by Konami TOY.
It is ATSB-PVC(acetyl tridutil citrate)
But not use phthalate.
I send sealed in plastic.
Sorry , there is not TOY Packege.

Condition is NEW.
One toy Size is about 12x5 cm or 5x2 inches


I send JAPANESE MOVIE FLYER( Mini poster 18x26 cm or 7x10 inches ) together to you.
I appreciate you.
I choose three sheets.
If you hope,you can choose.
When you pay,Please choose three sheets via PAYPAL message or email.
I do them in the roll.

There is so much there that brings joy to my life. The latest sayings in the office have become "I appreciate you" and "If you hope, you can choose", followed distantly by "I do them in the roll".

Now I'm keeping an eye out for the next batch of auctions from this guy. I appreciate him.

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Painting 099

08.02.2004

I can't paint. Whatever gene most people have that allows them to paint a room, I'm lacking (maybe it's the P chromosome). I can paint models (at least I think I can paint them), but when it comes to household painting, I'm useless. Ask Gina. I managed to add time to her painting when I tried to help. In an effort to right all of this, I'm trying to learn how to paint. Evidently the hard way.

I have a back bedroom that I use as a library, or a junk room, depending on how everything is arranged. I wanted to paint the room a dark burgundy, thinking it would lend itself to the whole library feel. Since it's a room nobody uses or sees, I thought this would be a good project to learn how to paint on. So, painting supplies, a gallon of primer, and 2 gallons of paint later....

... and I still suck at painting.

I'm getting better, but it's harder than I thought. The paint roller muscles, used in conjunction with the P chromosome, are sore. Real sore. I'm a big, burly-man, yet I find myself humbled by this measly roller. A coat of primer and 2 coats of paint and I've got muscles saying "owww... owww... ow..". And I think I've got at least 2 more coats to go!

But this is a learning experience. Each coat of paint is a learning experience. Right now that's about $20/experience. I'll be glad when class is over.

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Robots Unite

07.29.2004

I got a new toy this week - a Robosapien. I'm not really sure why I got one. This seems to be the latest nerd toy going around, and there seem to be a few cool programs and hacks to go along with it.

A part of me wants to pit the Robosapien against the Roomba, my veteran houshold robot. I can see it now: the Robosapien walks around knocking things over, the Roomba rushed to vacuum it up. It's like a robotic version of The Odd Couple.

But now I have a new toy, and as such I have to figure out what to do with it. Maybe I can program it to sweep? Then it could be a stalwart companion to the mighty Roomba!

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Book Search

07.28.2004

The internet has finally failed me. Unfortunately, I don't really think it's the interet's fault.

My latest quest has been to find a book from my childhood. The problem is I don't know the title or the author of the book. Yep, that makes it more difficult.

Around 1980, I got a book that was a puzzle/brain teaser book in disguise. The book was the entrance manual to the Space Force Academy, and each chapter told a sci-fi little story follwed up with a puzzle or brain teaser to solve. The chapter I remember most had line drawings of various everyday objects from different perspectives, because things would float around weightless in space, so you would have to learn how to recognize things. They had needle-nose pliers, rolled up tube of toothpast, and a comb among other things.

There was also a chapter on recognizing ships based on their running light configuration. The book would show front, side, and rear views of their fictional ships, with each ship having a rudimentary running light configurations (usually circles with varying degrees of filledness - yes, filledness!). At the end of the chapter there would be pictures of various circles all spaced out, and you would have to piece together the orientation of the correct ships and try to figure out what was going on.

The front cover (which was perforated) had a decoder wheel on it for the chapter on alien languages. What would the Space Force be without aliens to battle? The one picture I remember from the inside was a "Space Force Wants You", Uncle Sam styled picture that took up a whole page. The artwork was really good - all black and white, done mainly in pencils (again, from what I can remember).

The closest I've been able to come to finding it has been Steven Caldwell's Space Patrol, which I remember getting around the same time. Not the same type of book (no brain teasers in this one), but it had some interesting ship designs.

If anybody has an idea as to what the name of the book might be, let me know (I'm sure with my description it'll be found in no time, right?). All of my searches have let me to StarCom toys, 1950's comic strips, and more Star Wars/ Star Trek games that I really knew existed.

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Send in the Games

07.27.2004

I've been playing some more videogames lately. Non-wrestling games on top of that (even though there's still 1 more I need to play). Hoping to scratch the Grand Theft Auto nerve, I picked up a copy of Driver 3. Unfortunately, I suck at the game once you have to get out of the car (I can't help but get killed). Fortunately, there's a free-driving mode and some cheat codes that pretty much open up the game if you don't want to follow the story line. In this mode, I really like the game. I keep thinking I'll jsut pick up the controller and while away 10 minutes or so, but by the time I look at the clock I've been playing for an hour and a half. If only god mode worked in the story mode I could actually play the game all the way through!

Ever on the lookout for a good motorcycle game, I saw a review of MX Unleashed on Tech TV, or G4TechTV, or whatever you want to call them now. It seemed to have a good mix of features, so I figured I would give it a try. Once again, cheat codes to unlock everything came in handy, because I tend to like the freestyle mode better than the career racing section. The gimmick of this game is that other vehicles are unlocked (trucks, monster trucks, helicopters, and biplanes). Although it's neat to try out the other vehicles, they're not that much fun after about 10 minutes.

Both of these are good for a short little diversion, which luckily is just what I was looking for. Now I've got to get Jer to play Driver 3 to see how much fun he has as he wantonly mows down passers by with a machine gun (he's probably looing forwart to the new GTA game - hopefully in September - than I am!)

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