I took this one day last week while recording some game video for the site (hence the wireless PS2 controller), and busted my setup just to capture this photo of a couple of my best friends being very sleepy.
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Not sure why these pictures flared up so much – sure, it was noonish and the sun was bright, but the light level in the photos (despite my trying to bring things down to a sane level in Paint Shop Pro) makes it look like a comet was passing directly overhead at the same time.
Othello and Xena lounging around the doorstep and in the front yard.… Read more
When I wake up and it looks like this outside, it’s usually not a good sign. It’s also usually April or May. In this case it was in the middle of January. … Read more
And you get to trick said superhero (and or heroine, if you’re addicted to that sort of thing) out however you like thanks to the nifty online “construction kit” found here.
I was kinda amused at how close I was able to come to a self-portrait with this thing.
WARNING: You can lose hours of your life to this thing.… Read more
Everyone talks about the pond behind our barn, but you never get to see it. Not that you can really see it here, but take my word for it, it’s behind the brush. Really. Xena’s checking it out here, but it’s too cold for a swim.
Two days after Christmas, I discovered that we have a new family member too: our very own bona fide Barn Kitty. … Read more
Can I go out there? … Read more
Welcome to my yard. The rain’s been pouring down, I haven’t been able to get a lawn mower out into the yard (the lack of a lawn mower in my possession may have something to do with this, according to some sources), and now we have grass tall enough to provide Ewoks with camouflage.
What do you get when you let the grass get too tall?
You get a cat who doesn’t even have to leave the side deck to graze.
The grass isn’t the only thing that needs mowing. I never thought I was allergic to much until I found that my whole pasture is filled with these little yellow fellows.
We need to get the horses living over here with us something fierce, if only to save me from my own allergies. In the meantime, smart money in the stock market is on whoever makes antihistamines.
The barn’s a fairly modest affair, with room for three (four if we do some major work on it), and the storage outbuilding is even more modest. But damned if the barn doesn’t have real live electricity. And a pond right behind it stocked with catfish. Yum!
To paraphrase an immortally bad MST3K episode, “this is where the Dish lives!” – though its signal will be blocked soon if I don’t stop writing this and start cutting some grass.
Security services are provided by Xena, giving me her best “Yum, you look pretty tasty” look.… Read more
To my surprise, one of my favorite hangouts at my new house is in a canvas deck chair on the back deck, with my best buddy by my side. Here’s Othello, surveying all that he commands from atop the deck railing.
Actually, this was on a Sunday morning as we were sitting outside watching a storm roll in – though I completely failed to capture any lightning with the camera.
Which is okay, because the first decent bolt that appeared scared us both right back into the house.
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I’ve just finished having a minor spiritual experience.
My Odyssey, with all the goodies, overlays, light gun, game cards, accessories, etc., arrived at work tonight. It was all I could do not to ditch my duties and open the box right then and there. Ever since I got my first cartridge-based machine, the Odyssey 2, I always wondered what the original Odyssey was like. I’d read lots of stuff about how it came to be (vis a vis Ralph Baer and the Brown Box), how well it sold, what came with it, and so on.
But what was it like? That’s what I always wondered. What was it like to play it?
About a month ago, I saw an eBay auction for which I put up a fierce fight and paid pretty dearly after getting the wife’s somewhat puzzled and reluctant blessing on the whole thing, and so here it is. (I made an agreement with the seller that it might take me a week or two to gather the necessary dough, which was OK with him because he wasn’t sure how to ship it and would need time to figure that out – very classy guy.)
So here it is. I’m going to plug it in and play it some tomorrow (well, okay, later today since it’s well after midnight), and before I do that I’m setting up a camcorder on a tripod to record the “magic moment.” But for tonight, I just opened the box, very slowly, very carefully, like the lid was hinged. I think I heard Raiders Of The Lost Ark music in the background somewhere. I held my breath.
Even Othello looks up to it in awe. (As security chief of my house, Othello gets first dibs on inspecting anything of mine that comes in the door. If you’ve ever sent me a game, just know that he’s checked it out before I’ve ever gotten anywhere near a console or an RF adapter with it.)
First impressions?
I know there are 99,999 other Odysseys out there, and some of ’em even work, so this isn’t really that much of a grail, but to me, it’s a personal grail. I’ve made the journey back to where it all began. And now I can tell the story going forward, not backward.… Read more
