Popped into Edinburgh yesterday for a spot of shopping, had absolutely no luck though. I was looking for old computer games (surprise surprise) and all that I found was over-priced, rubbish, or both.
I was in one shop (well I say shop, it was more a room containing piles of electronics and records, I could barely even get the door open) and saw an Amiga 500 hanging (quite literally) off one of the shelves. No games or box or anything, but I thought I'd ask about it anyway. £80! Like fuck anybody in their right mind would pay such a price. £60 he said, though, if you're willing to forgo the power supply... Obviously I left in good haste.
All I could turn up in all the shops I was in was sports titles, for the most part, and not even good ones. Really not what I'm interested in buying...
So, obviously, when I got home I got onto eBay and bid on a shitload of stuff there. I have a disease :(
Thursday, 30 December 2010
Monday, 27 December 2010
Should probably be kept away from eBay
Hope you all had a Merry Christmas! Mine was fairly decent, delicious turkey dinner two days in a row isn't something I'm going to complain about! I got a lot of CDs, couple of DVDs and smelly stuff, sweets and other things. Here's a picture of some of the CDs:
I've been going a bit eBay mad, bidding on a fair few things and making offers here and there, if I win everything I'll be a couple of hundred down easy, oh well. It'll be worth it to get all those new old-games and shit ;) If I win any, I'll take pics and post up on here.
Looking forward to getting my Neo Geo Pocket Color but it won't be for a good week and a half at least, thanks to the complete lack of post this time of year. Think there's only 3 days of post coming in the next week or so, and there hasn't been any since Friday! Be looking forward to normal service resuming after the New Year.
Speaking of the New Year, I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do for it. Could just go to the pub but I'd rather not, but it might be the only option, don't know of anyone who's having a house party or anything.
Oh well, wish me luck on my eBay travels!
I've been going a bit eBay mad, bidding on a fair few things and making offers here and there, if I win everything I'll be a couple of hundred down easy, oh well. It'll be worth it to get all those new old-games and shit ;) If I win any, I'll take pics and post up on here.
Looking forward to getting my Neo Geo Pocket Color but it won't be for a good week and a half at least, thanks to the complete lack of post this time of year. Think there's only 3 days of post coming in the next week or so, and there hasn't been any since Friday! Be looking forward to normal service resuming after the New Year.
Speaking of the New Year, I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do for it. Could just go to the pub but I'd rather not, but it might be the only option, don't know of anyone who's having a house party or anything.
Oh well, wish me luck on my eBay travels!
Thursday, 23 December 2010
Merry Christmas Eve-Eve
Well, I did end up winning a Neo Geo Pocket Color, but it was a different auction!
Looking forward to getting it and playing it but it won't arrive til the beginning of January, ach well. If anyone knows any decent games for it I should be getting, drop me a line. It comes with Sonic, Metal Slug and some baseball game. What I'm not looking forward to is working 9-6 tomorrow, but I'll live. Christmas Day should be good, bit of turkey and probably a couple of CDs, maybe a wee book or two, and of course, a tradition of mine, getting a stand-up DVD and watching it on Christmas Day night. It's usually Billy Connolly but he hasn't had a DVD in a while, but he does this year so it can be back to proper tradition!
Boxing Day shouldn't be too shabby either, more turkey and if all is well then a bit of football too. I don't really get excited about Christmas or anything but the turkey dinners can't be beat!
Here's a wee picture of my boxed SNES games, for the hell of it:
Not pictured is my big box Super Metroid, doesn't fit on that shelf, you might have to click on it too to see it all properly.
Looking forward to getting it and playing it but it won't arrive til the beginning of January, ach well. If anyone knows any decent games for it I should be getting, drop me a line. It comes with Sonic, Metal Slug and some baseball game. What I'm not looking forward to is working 9-6 tomorrow, but I'll live. Christmas Day should be good, bit of turkey and probably a couple of CDs, maybe a wee book or two, and of course, a tradition of mine, getting a stand-up DVD and watching it on Christmas Day night. It's usually Billy Connolly but he hasn't had a DVD in a while, but he does this year so it can be back to proper tradition!
Boxing Day shouldn't be too shabby either, more turkey and if all is well then a bit of football too. I don't really get excited about Christmas or anything but the turkey dinners can't be beat!
Here's a wee picture of my boxed SNES games, for the hell of it:
Not pictured is my big box Super Metroid, doesn't fit on that shelf, you might have to click on it too to see it all properly.
Wednesday, 22 December 2010
Anxiety
Man I hate the last hours of eBay auctions when I'm in the lead, it's always inevitable that I'll be winning the item until the very last second when I'll be outbid by a penny :(
But maybe this time will be different! I hope so anyway, I really want to win that damned Neo Geo Pocket Color!
But maybe this time will be different! I hope so anyway, I really want to win that damned Neo Geo Pocket Color!
Monday, 20 December 2010
Another Eventful Day
I probably should've updated this over the weekend but I couldn't be bothered, it seems. I wasn't even really doing anything yesterday either, although I was busy Friday and Saturday so there's my excuse.
On Friday I went and saw It's a Wonderful Life, my very favourite-est film, and it was the first time I saw it on a cinema screen. Obviously it was fantastic, the picture was clearer than I thought it would be too. It was at the Filmhouse on Lothian Road in Edinburgh. The film's still running until Christmas Eve so there's still time for you to pop off and see it, it'll probably be the best thing you do all week and a welcome rest from Christmas shopping ;)
Anyway, last time round I said I'd get onto the music I've been listening to over the course of the past year, so here I go. I'll try and keep it varied, not just focus on the same genre but inevitably I'm sure some styles will be favoured over others, that's just my personal preference shining through.
Once again this'll be almost entirely older albums and artists I've only recently discovered, rather than brand new material released this year of which I've not actually even listened to that much of. I will start with the few newer albums I did listen to, though.
The best of the bunch from this year would be The Tallest Man on Earth's latest full-length The Wild Hunt. We're treated to much of what we've come to expect from him, intricately fingered acoustic guitar music underneath his unique vocals. Love is All and the titular track The Wild Hunt are my personal highlights, and seeing them performed live back in November was just wonderful and even better than on CD.
Two other decent albums were Rinoa's post-rock/emo album An Age Among Them and the soft sounds of Pearly Gate Music's self-titled album. If you want to get a flavour for either album, check out Sol Winds (Rinoa) and Navy Blues (Pearly Gate Music). Meursault's latest album All Creatures Will Make Merry was also good, but nothing compared to their first album.
On the more mediocre side of things was Weezer's latest full-length, Hurley. Naming an album after a character from Lost and having the album cover be a picture of his face just seems uninspired, lazy and boring to me. The music of the album itself is fairly in keeping with this sentiment. Although there are flashes of the Weezer of old there is never anything more than that, any of the halfway decent songs seem to depend on catchy choruses to get them through, with the verses merely there to act as borders between choruses (the first track, Memories, is a great example of this). Probably their best album since Maladroit, but it's probably not even half the album that was, and an even more resounding failure when compared to the untouchable Pinkerton and Blue Album.
I've mostly been into post-rock this year, listening to mainly to Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, Joy Wants Eternity and This Will Destroy You. My favourite post-rock album is probably The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place by Explosions in the Sky. The second track, The Only Moment We Were Alone is absolutely fantastic. Other than that I've listened to a bit of singer-songwriter and folk-ish stuff such as Jackson C. Frank, Woody Guthrie, Tim Hardin and Van Morrison. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's album Architecture and Morality has seen a lot of play as well, along with Grateful Dead's American Beauty.
I haven't really played many games this year, the ones I bought were Red Dead Redemption, Fallout : New Vegas and, as usual, the latest Pro Evolution Soccer. Red Dead Redemption wasn't a bad game, but it grew tiresome very quickly. Every mission seemed to be the same, go to location, kill bad guys, leave location whilst killing bad guys who happen to be chasing you, end mission, repeat. New Vegas was practically the same game as Fallout 3 but it was still very enjoyable indeed, thanks to the new world and storyline. It was big enough to not just feel like an expansion to Fallout 3, but not so different that you might not feel aggrieved paying full price for it. This year's Pro Evolution Soccer is an improvement on the last installment, with improved and more accurate passing, more polished graphics and an online Master League mode being the most prevalent improvements.
I spent about a half hour today cataloging some of my computer games, I got my Super Nintendo games done, I have around 50, 20 of which are boxed with instructions. I'll do N64 and NES next when I can be arsed, I have less of them though. I should do my CDs and records too but that would actually take forever.
Off to play football in a little bit, fantastic. Next update should be in a couple of days, maybe post my SNES games or something. Ciao!
On Friday I went and saw It's a Wonderful Life, my very favourite-est film, and it was the first time I saw it on a cinema screen. Obviously it was fantastic, the picture was clearer than I thought it would be too. It was at the Filmhouse on Lothian Road in Edinburgh. The film's still running until Christmas Eve so there's still time for you to pop off and see it, it'll probably be the best thing you do all week and a welcome rest from Christmas shopping ;)
Anyway, last time round I said I'd get onto the music I've been listening to over the course of the past year, so here I go. I'll try and keep it varied, not just focus on the same genre but inevitably I'm sure some styles will be favoured over others, that's just my personal preference shining through.
Once again this'll be almost entirely older albums and artists I've only recently discovered, rather than brand new material released this year of which I've not actually even listened to that much of. I will start with the few newer albums I did listen to, though.
The best of the bunch from this year would be The Tallest Man on Earth's latest full-length The Wild Hunt. We're treated to much of what we've come to expect from him, intricately fingered acoustic guitar music underneath his unique vocals. Love is All and the titular track The Wild Hunt are my personal highlights, and seeing them performed live back in November was just wonderful and even better than on CD.
Two other decent albums were Rinoa's post-rock/emo album An Age Among Them and the soft sounds of Pearly Gate Music's self-titled album. If you want to get a flavour for either album, check out Sol Winds (Rinoa) and Navy Blues (Pearly Gate Music). Meursault's latest album All Creatures Will Make Merry was also good, but nothing compared to their first album.
On the more mediocre side of things was Weezer's latest full-length, Hurley. Naming an album after a character from Lost and having the album cover be a picture of his face just seems uninspired, lazy and boring to me. The music of the album itself is fairly in keeping with this sentiment. Although there are flashes of the Weezer of old there is never anything more than that, any of the halfway decent songs seem to depend on catchy choruses to get them through, with the verses merely there to act as borders between choruses (the first track, Memories, is a great example of this). Probably their best album since Maladroit, but it's probably not even half the album that was, and an even more resounding failure when compared to the untouchable Pinkerton and Blue Album.
I've mostly been into post-rock this year, listening to mainly to Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, Joy Wants Eternity and This Will Destroy You. My favourite post-rock album is probably The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place by Explosions in the Sky. The second track, The Only Moment We Were Alone is absolutely fantastic. Other than that I've listened to a bit of singer-songwriter and folk-ish stuff such as Jackson C. Frank, Woody Guthrie, Tim Hardin and Van Morrison. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's album Architecture and Morality has seen a lot of play as well, along with Grateful Dead's American Beauty.
I haven't really played many games this year, the ones I bought were Red Dead Redemption, Fallout : New Vegas and, as usual, the latest Pro Evolution Soccer. Red Dead Redemption wasn't a bad game, but it grew tiresome very quickly. Every mission seemed to be the same, go to location, kill bad guys, leave location whilst killing bad guys who happen to be chasing you, end mission, repeat. New Vegas was practically the same game as Fallout 3 but it was still very enjoyable indeed, thanks to the new world and storyline. It was big enough to not just feel like an expansion to Fallout 3, but not so different that you might not feel aggrieved paying full price for it. This year's Pro Evolution Soccer is an improvement on the last installment, with improved and more accurate passing, more polished graphics and an online Master League mode being the most prevalent improvements.
I spent about a half hour today cataloging some of my computer games, I got my Super Nintendo games done, I have around 50, 20 of which are boxed with instructions. I'll do N64 and NES next when I can be arsed, I have less of them though. I should do my CDs and records too but that would actually take forever.
Off to play football in a little bit, fantastic. Next update should be in a couple of days, maybe post my SNES games or something. Ciao!
Thursday, 16 December 2010
New Dawn Fades (hopefully not)
I've decided I'll write in this bloody thing again, and try to do it frequently as well. I've said that before in the blog-world but this time I bloody well mean it. I've said that before as well, bollocks...
Anyway, 2010 is drawing to a close now, Christmas is nearly upon us (or is it? It's cancelled if you believe tabloid newspapers, all the online shops won't be able to ship us our goods on time! There's still a full 7 days of post still to come, calm the fuck down!) which means new shit to play with, watch and listen to. It's not been a bad year, and since it's nearly at an end I think I'll have a wee look back and consider the stuff I've experienced for the first time over the course of the year. By which I of course mean music, films and the odd book. I don't imagine any of them will be new releases, in fact the majority will be fairly old indeed.
So let's start with...FILMS
While I've been to the cinema a fair bit more than usual this year (9 times, by my count!), I don't think any of them would get into my top 100 (except Back to the Future, but that doesn't count). The best film other than that was probably Toy Story 3, which, while good, wasn't anywhere near as good as the first film. I also felt it relied far too heavily on nostalgia, and I was actually fairly disappointed when I saw it after having it built up by everyone else I had known who had seen it, expecting to be reduced to a gibbering pile of teary goo but instead being treated to a solid 7/10 children's action film with bits of "Don't you wish you were a care-free child again? Isn't it hard to let that go?" sprinkled in. While I admit I was affected by these sequences, and obviously it would be nice indeed to be 8 again, it just wasn't enough for me to make up for the repetitive nature of the action sequences. I know that Woody and co have to get from one place to another but why does it always have to be such a bloody mission for them to get there? It doesn't really engage me, but I suppose most people enjoyed it.
I missed the other big blockbuster of the summer, just didn't get the chance to go see it. I'm talking about Inception. I'd quite like to see it and will eventually on DVD, although I doubt it'll be the 5th best film of all time or whatever preposterous position it is on the IMDB top 250.
Enough about the films of this year though, the films I most enjoyed seeing were ones released long ago. I watched a fair few, some exceeding my expectations, others falling fairly short. Off the top of my head, the best films I saw this year for the first time were, in no order:
Casablanca, Seven Samurai, Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Planet of the Apes, the Princess Bride, Ponyo, Gran Torino, the Manchurian Candidate.
Good but not great were a Nightmare on Elm Street, the Conversation, (500) Days of Summer, the Wild Bunch, Se7en, the Outlaw Josey Wales, Pale Rider, Hang 'Em High.
Smelly piles of stinky shite included the Graduate.
My favourite was probably Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It's just a superbly written film, and since I had been getting into Westerns at the time it was just the perfect film for me to watch. The chemistry between Paul Newman and Robert Redford is outstanding, so I'll be looking into watching the Sting, the other film they starred in together which is also meant to be very good indeed.
Speaking of superbly scripted films, Casablanca was probably second favourite. The whole thing is just gold, and the scene in which the patrons of Rick's bar fervently drown out a small knot of German's singing "Die Wacht am Rhein" with an emotional and powerful rendition of "La Marseillaise" is my favourite in the entire film. Whenever someone asks me what I'm doing tonight, the reply is now always "I never make plans that far ahead".
Of the good but not great films, the Wild Bunch probably disappointed me the most. It was generally rather dull, peppered with the odd good scene, but I felt the whole thing went on entirely too long and I can't really fathom why it's so highly regarded. Its saving grace however was the absolutely spectacular shoot-out at the film's end, which alone made up for the mostly rather average scenes that preceded it.
Se7en started out well, but the ending felt like something of a cop-out to me. I won't go into it though in case anyone who's reading this (as if) hasn't seen the film yet.
As well as the films I saw for the first time, I also rediscovered love for films I hadn't seen in quite a while. Raiders of the Lost Ark is the most prominent of these, I forgot just how fantastic it was. It's the perfect action film, I'd love to see one of its quality made today.
I've still got plenty of films to watch, in fact I think I've more now than I had at the start of the year, even with me watching a fair few.
In terms of television I didn't really discover anything new. Lost ended and, as expected, the ending was a massive pile of shit. By the show's end it was so far removed from what made the first two seasons great that it was almost beyond recognition. The Simpsons continues to be soul-crushingly awful (upwards of 12 years now and counting!), whereas How I Met Your Mother continues to be watchable. The Inbetweeners was also good without being anything special. Louie was a very good new show that I watched this year, featuring the comedy of Louis C.K, although the best episode of the series wasn't funny at all but more of a terrifying look at his religious upbringing. As for old shows only just discovered by me, Freaks and Geeks takes the top spot. The cast is just absolutely fantastic, drama and comedy is mixed wonderfully and the soundtrack is also great.
Anyway, I think I've gone on for longer than I had anticipated, so I'll leave music for another time. There's still another 2 weeks of 2010 left, after all.
Anyway, 2010 is drawing to a close now, Christmas is nearly upon us (or is it? It's cancelled if you believe tabloid newspapers, all the online shops won't be able to ship us our goods on time! There's still a full 7 days of post still to come, calm the fuck down!) which means new shit to play with, watch and listen to. It's not been a bad year, and since it's nearly at an end I think I'll have a wee look back and consider the stuff I've experienced for the first time over the course of the year. By which I of course mean music, films and the odd book. I don't imagine any of them will be new releases, in fact the majority will be fairly old indeed.
So let's start with...FILMS
While I've been to the cinema a fair bit more than usual this year (9 times, by my count!), I don't think any of them would get into my top 100 (except Back to the Future, but that doesn't count). The best film other than that was probably Toy Story 3, which, while good, wasn't anywhere near as good as the first film. I also felt it relied far too heavily on nostalgia, and I was actually fairly disappointed when I saw it after having it built up by everyone else I had known who had seen it, expecting to be reduced to a gibbering pile of teary goo but instead being treated to a solid 7/10 children's action film with bits of "Don't you wish you were a care-free child again? Isn't it hard to let that go?" sprinkled in. While I admit I was affected by these sequences, and obviously it would be nice indeed to be 8 again, it just wasn't enough for me to make up for the repetitive nature of the action sequences. I know that Woody and co have to get from one place to another but why does it always have to be such a bloody mission for them to get there? It doesn't really engage me, but I suppose most people enjoyed it.
I missed the other big blockbuster of the summer, just didn't get the chance to go see it. I'm talking about Inception. I'd quite like to see it and will eventually on DVD, although I doubt it'll be the 5th best film of all time or whatever preposterous position it is on the IMDB top 250.
Enough about the films of this year though, the films I most enjoyed seeing were ones released long ago. I watched a fair few, some exceeding my expectations, others falling fairly short. Off the top of my head, the best films I saw this year for the first time were, in no order:
Casablanca, Seven Samurai, Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Planet of the Apes, the Princess Bride, Ponyo, Gran Torino, the Manchurian Candidate.
Good but not great were a Nightmare on Elm Street, the Conversation, (500) Days of Summer, the Wild Bunch, Se7en, the Outlaw Josey Wales, Pale Rider, Hang 'Em High.
Smelly piles of stinky shite included the Graduate.
My favourite was probably Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It's just a superbly written film, and since I had been getting into Westerns at the time it was just the perfect film for me to watch. The chemistry between Paul Newman and Robert Redford is outstanding, so I'll be looking into watching the Sting, the other film they starred in together which is also meant to be very good indeed.
Speaking of superbly scripted films, Casablanca was probably second favourite. The whole thing is just gold, and the scene in which the patrons of Rick's bar fervently drown out a small knot of German's singing "Die Wacht am Rhein" with an emotional and powerful rendition of "La Marseillaise" is my favourite in the entire film. Whenever someone asks me what I'm doing tonight, the reply is now always "I never make plans that far ahead".
Of the good but not great films, the Wild Bunch probably disappointed me the most. It was generally rather dull, peppered with the odd good scene, but I felt the whole thing went on entirely too long and I can't really fathom why it's so highly regarded. Its saving grace however was the absolutely spectacular shoot-out at the film's end, which alone made up for the mostly rather average scenes that preceded it.
Se7en started out well, but the ending felt like something of a cop-out to me. I won't go into it though in case anyone who's reading this (as if) hasn't seen the film yet.
As well as the films I saw for the first time, I also rediscovered love for films I hadn't seen in quite a while. Raiders of the Lost Ark is the most prominent of these, I forgot just how fantastic it was. It's the perfect action film, I'd love to see one of its quality made today.
I've still got plenty of films to watch, in fact I think I've more now than I had at the start of the year, even with me watching a fair few.
In terms of television I didn't really discover anything new. Lost ended and, as expected, the ending was a massive pile of shit. By the show's end it was so far removed from what made the first two seasons great that it was almost beyond recognition. The Simpsons continues to be soul-crushingly awful (upwards of 12 years now and counting!), whereas How I Met Your Mother continues to be watchable. The Inbetweeners was also good without being anything special. Louie was a very good new show that I watched this year, featuring the comedy of Louis C.K, although the best episode of the series wasn't funny at all but more of a terrifying look at his religious upbringing. As for old shows only just discovered by me, Freaks and Geeks takes the top spot. The cast is just absolutely fantastic, drama and comedy is mixed wonderfully and the soundtrack is also great.
Anyway, I think I've gone on for longer than I had anticipated, so I'll leave music for another time. There's still another 2 weeks of 2010 left, after all.
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