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Easter 09jawaproWed 15/04/2009 10:39 PM
Hey guys - have a good Easter? I did.
We went camping. First time in yonks. Probably since the Great Geek Migration at the start of last year.
We headed West to a place called Arthur River. We actually camped about 6 ks south of Arthur River itself, but close enough.
I love the west coast of Tassie. It’s been years since I was out this way - but I love it. Might not be as popular as the East Coast - but that just improves it’s appeal to me.
Klutz decided to join us (my family) for the long weekend - so we loaded up the Maverick, my Scooby-doo, and a trailer and set out.
The camp site. The slight hill in the background is all that was between us and the beach. We had to take a slightly longer way around to get there, as there was a creek going around in front of the hill.
We gave Dad’s new surf rods a whirl - but as expected, we caught nothing.
Most of the weekend was spent relaxing, reading, and flogging everyone else at monopoly (at least, that’s how I spent it). I was still recovering from the cold/flu thing, so it was great to be able to relax.
The most energetic thing I did was decide to climb the hill between us and the beach from the beach side (to avoid the creek) and take a photo of the campsite from the top.
Turned out to be harder than I expected. What appeared to be the top of the dune from the beach wasn’t - and to reach the top we had to push our way through some thick coastal scrub.
^ Klutz following in my tracks.
^ The top of the dune.
After crossing the top of the sand dune (which was larger than expected too) we finally found a place we could see the camp.
^ Klutz looking thrilled.
^ The view from the top.
So that was my Easter. How was yours?
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Trip to MelbournejawaproTue 07/04/2009 10:00 PM
Sorry about the lack of posts - but all last week I was in Melbourne at a training course for work.
As with last time, I stayed at the Oak on Collins - which is pretty flash for me. I'm not exactly an expert on hotels though - but it's nicer than the Coniki ones we stayed at in Europe. Cost more though I guess.
The training course itself was pretty good - except I got a migraine on the first day and ended up staggering to the hotel, checking in, and then wasting the rest of the evening trying to throw up. The rest of the week improved from there though.
I'd grabbed my mp3 player before I left, but hadn't grabbed my headphones - so once again, I had to buy another set. So I asked around, and discovered that there was an Officeworks just around the block from the training centre. So I went and got my headphones - but that's not the important part of the story. The important part is what I found when I went for the walk.
On one side of the street was an EB. It actually felt like the right place to find an EB - and I was actually thinking that before I saw it. Odd - but it felt like an EB street.
On the other side of the street was another store - called Minotaur.
This shop turned out to be a Geek-fest.
Heaps of comics, anime (blah), books, sci fi, fantasy, collectibles - pretty much heaven.
If only I was a millionaire....
For that matter - if only I had more space to store things....
Far and away the best collection of Star Wars books I've seen in a shop lately.
A bigger range of Dr Who stuff than the Dr Who museum in Cardiff!
The Minotaur.
Anyway - between the 2 shops, and a DVD sale at the local Target- I managed to come back with a few suvineers :)
The course finished early on Friday. I'd organized with work to have the weekend in Melbourne - so I'd be coming home on Sunday night.
I dragged my suitcase down the street to the train station and caught a train out to Traralgon to visit Ben, Bec, Mike, and Gabi. No real reason - it was just a good chance to catch up with them again.
The train was supposed to take 2 hours, and took 5 thanks to the electrical storm frying some signals. Good thing I started early. My mp3 player's batteries survived for about 4 and a half hours - so it could have been worse.
I spent the weekend hanging with Mike and family and generally relaxing. They took me off for a tour of the local market and shops and things (where I picked up even more stuff).
On Sunday afternoon I caught a train back into Melbourne, and managed to find a tram heading back to the Spirit terminal, and caught the ship back to Tassie in time for work on Monday morning.
Unfourtuantly on Sunday afternoon somewhere I came down with a cold - and I've been pretty under the weather since. Hopefully I get over it before Easter.
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Bad News...jawaproSat 28/03/2009 11:17 AM
Turns out that EBGames was lying when they had RA3 Uprising listed on their website. It's not being sold retail in Australia after all.
There are now three options for that game. You can buy it from EA's website (which is not exactly a system I'd trust), you can wait an unknown amount of time in the hope that it will come out on steam (a system I do trust), or you can say 'screw it' and download an illegal version (bittorrent - another trusted system). Now, I haven't pirated games for ages. Well - I still have some dodgey rips and things - but I also OWN all those games. The rips just mean I don't need to install the game each time or carry millions of CDs around with me.
I want to buy Uprising - but I don''t trust EA's download system. From what I've read, it's fairly flakey anyway - and what happens if I want to install it again later? On steam - that's fine, it will redownload - but will EA's system?
I'd even pay full new-game price like EB was originally listing it at if I could get an actual disc from a store.
Gotta say EA - Bittorent is looking pretty attractive. So much for combating piracy eh? Still - my hopes are currently pinned on Steam. Come on EA - Steam is the only digital download service that gamers trust and respect - stop trying to start your own.
In other news - my modem is dying I think. It keeps droping my LAN connection again. That was what happened to my old one until it completely lost the LAN connection - and I had to replace it. I loved the old modem before that, so I bought another one the same from ebay - and now it's going the same way. I think I'll still stick with Linksys - but I'll get a different model next time.
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Of Couches and Swords...jawaproSat 21/03/2009 12:08 PM
Once again - I find that I haven’t been posting very often. I’ve been busy - honest!
First up - I’ve finally got friends in Devonport now (Tim, Tom, James, etc) which is great - but I kept running out of seating space when people came to visit. Especially after the camping chair I had been using broke (three times).
So I needed to get some more seats - but my grand plan of shopping on the long weekend Monday was laid to waste by the fact that second hand shops are all shut. I would have thought it would be a busy time for that sort of shopping - but I was wrong.
Thankfully, Stuart Coles and family came to the rescue. They were planning to come over anyway to see photos from my trip and check out my house (the boys loved it - toys and things everywhere). I mentioned that I was going to try and buy some more seats, and they said they had a spare couch they didn’t need.
As you can see - Neptune approves of it.
My spare room has been a storage room ever since I moved in. I’ve had a pile of boxes against the far wall. Before I tidied them up, it wasn’t so tall, but spread across half the room instead. This photo was taken while Tim was living in the spare room - so it’s not quite normal, but it’s close.
I decided that I wanted to clean it up - so I could see if the Hockey Table would fit in that room, giving me room for at least one more seat in the lounge room (as well as making the Hockey Table more useful - currently you have to move it before you can use it).
So for the last week I’ve been going through boxes and relocating things, throwing things out - and generally reorganizing.
It takes a while. That's my excuse for not blogging more often.
Now - my sword.
I promised earlier I’d post about my sword.
You see - when I wanted to go to church camp as a Viking, I was prepared to spend a little bit and get some decent stuff, because I’ve wanted a Viking costume for a while.
Tim had built himself an awesome sword. It’s solid steel - and although it’s not very sharp, it’s solid enough you could easily run someone through with it. And it’s extra cool because he made it himself. Tim doesn’t do things by half - scroll down a bit and check out the Viking helmet we made if you haven’t already seen it.
Anyway - Tim’s sword was brilliant, but I wanted one I could keep, so I hit ebay. I’m not skilled enough to build it myself.
So here’s my sword. It’s not great quality and would probably shatter if you actually tried to dual with it - but it looks darn impressive, and is quite deadly. Unlike Tim’s, mine is sharp.
It’s not sharp enough to shave with, but it’s well and truly sharp enough to cut stuff. The end’s a pretty sharp point too.
I was very careful at Church camp. This is not a sword to be swung around and played with. It needs to be handled with respect.
I was quite surprised. This sword only cost me $35 plus $30 for overnight courier. That's pretty cheap for a sword, and it actually did arrive the next morning (pretty amazing for someone who lives in Tassie).
There - now you’ve seen my sword - don’t try and rob me.
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RA3 UprisingjawaproMon 16/03/2009 10:05 PM
Red Alert 3 has an expansion pack!
I don't have it yet.
That might seem like the universe has gone upside down - but there are reasons.
EA (the publishers of RA3) decided that they were only going to sell the game as a download in the US. Rather annoying - as lots of people still like owning the disks (me included).
The online only idea is forgivable - if they had used Steam. Steam is a program that lets you buy games online and download them to your computer. Steam has managed to do the impossible, and create such a system that people (gamers) actually trust and approve of. EA want to get people using their own systems - but it's a stupid idea. I've seen heaps of forums with people saying they won't buy it until it comes out on steam or as a cd in shops.
I'm one of those people.
I don't trust the EA shop. What happens if the download fails. What happens if I want to download and install it again later? Steam solves these problems - but I don't trust EA to.
Fourtuantly Australia actually gets a retail version. In a couple of weeks a boxed version of the game will go on sale in Aussie shops - so I'll wait for that.
But EA are still ripping people off. They're charging full price for an expansion pack. It'd better be good....
Note: The Japanese chick on the cover is some mind-control unit. She's pretty useless though. I'd much rather have Yuri back.
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