The past weekend was spent doing a bit of spring cleaning around the house. Considering we moved into our place back in September, it was kind of sad how many bins of junk we still hadn’t unpacked yet. (Admittedly, they’re almost all mine.) In my mind we were waiting to get the rec room finished, but I finally got sick of having to step around stacks of boxes in our laundry room.
Most of the “junk” consisted of old video game systems, toys and collectibles (ie. nerdy crap that I don’t really need, but still felt attached to). The video game systems I am keeping for the time being. You know, for “research purposes” and all of that — although in truth I do occasionally dig them out and play them from time to time. I think a lot of old games from the 8-bit and 32-bit eras do hold up surprisingly well today. And it’s cheaper than rebuying them on the Wii Virtual Console, right?
As for the toys, well, I think most of that stuff is going to go. I’ve got a bunch of McFarlane Movie Maniacs figures still in the package and I really don’t have a place to put them. And Star Wars Episode 1 figures that I bought when The Phantom Menace came out… what the hell am I going to do with these? What can I say, I was seduced by The Dark Side of The Hype. I’m definitely keeping a few choice picks for now though, including my Tick figures and M.A.S.K. collection. And Specialman. You can’t get rid of Specialman. Needless to say, my cubicle at work is quickly becoming a junkyard of all the crap Alicia doesn’t want in the house anymore.
Does anyone have any experience selling stuff on E-bay? I’m not sure if it would be worth the cost of shipping in a lot of cases but I might give it a whirl. Here’s a short list of some of the stuff I’m unloading:
- Pentium 533 with 15″ monitor
- Gamecube with controller and memory card
- Record player (I think it works)
- My vinyl collection (not very impressive)
- Kiss Alive figures MIB - Gene Simmons and Ace Frehley
- New Masters of the Universe figures MIB - Trapjaw, Beast Man, Man at Arms, Skeletor
- McFarlane Movie Maniacs MIB - Snake Plissken, Ash, Evil Ash, Michael Myers, Lord of Darkness (from Legend)
- McFarlane The Matrix Sentinel model (loose)
- Assorted Star Wars figures (some loose, some MIB)
- Austin Powers Dr. Evil figure MIB
- 3rd Generation 20GB iPod with Powerpod and iTrip
- Lots of 80’s Cartoons on VHS: G.I. Joe, Silverhawks, M.A.S.K., Visionaries, Transformers, Voltron, and more!
Any takers?
Greg recently informed me that the Mississauga IceDogs, Don Cherry’s OHL team, are going to be relocated to St. Catharines next year and will become the Niagara IceDogs. It will be cool to have a high calibre hockey team in the city again, and I plan on checking out some games — I just question whether this area can support it in the long run. Previously we had the Toronto Maple Leafs farm team in the 80’s (The St. Catharines Saints) who relocated to Newmarket, and the Niagara Falls Thunder OHL team also bolted due to poor attendance.
If you live in the Niagara Region, here’s a website that could become either a godsend or a curse, depending on how you look at it. This site lists the results of all health inspections conducted for local restaurants, complete with details on what the specific infractions were (if there were any). Beware… you might never look at your favourite watering hole in quite the same way again!
William Gibson has a new book coming out in August called Spook Country. I didn’t read his last one (always meant to but never got around to it), though I’m still somewhat curious. It sounds like he’s getting away from the far distant future and focusing now on something close to the present day, which could be a nice change of pace. I like his imagination and his writing style, but sometimes his books can be exhausting. I tried reading Count Zero a while back and gave up about halfway through. Lev Grossman has a short blurb on Spook Country here.
Another backwards message in an episode of Lost? This one to me sounds like it was used more for ambience than anything else, but still… they’ve gotta know that the hardcore fans are going to dissect every last detail. Would they really throw in something like this and not put any thought behind it?
Boing Boing posted last week about the coming out of L.A. Times sportswriter Mike Penner. In his case, however, it’s a vastly more complicated situation than simply being gay. He has announced to the world that he is a transsexual under going a sex change, and will be changing his name to Christine shortly. While awareness and support for transgenderism are starting to become more prevalent in the world, it just kind of struck me how frightening it must be to make an announcement like this while working in the world of sports. Read his/her column in the L.A. Times for the full story.
Last but not least… these weren’t quite ready for prime time but I thought some might get a kick out of them, so I’m posting them here: photos from our recording of the latest episode of the Film Junk Podcast. Enjoy.
Tell me more about this record player….and your record collection….
My vinyl collection is pretty limited. Mostly 7″s from bands like Man or Astroman, Pennywise, Foo Fighters, The Pointed Sticks, Sloan, Marilyn’s Vitamins, gob, Less Than Jake… you know, the punk rock years. LPs from some surf bands like The Space Cossacks, The Bomboras, Los Straitjackets, and a few older things like Bruce Springsteen and The Who.
The record player is old but it’s barely been used. I think it works, I’ll have to try it out.
K - this may be the most points I’ve ever tried to cram into one comment — but considering this was the most I’ve ever seen in one post, it only see fair.
- When I moved last September (don’t worry - half our stuff is still in boxes too) I sold off my record collection to the guy who runs the Accent Gallery & Custom Framing on Merritt St. Their number is 227-2823 (that’s the business number - I don’t have the home and for obvious reasons I wouldn’t post it in a comments field if I did.) He was a super nice guy and gave me a fair deal. I think he gave me $60-$80 for two milk crates of LP’s, most of which were run of the mill crap (though a few were pretty decent and rare-ish albums).
- I’m sure you’ve thought about Entertainment Overload when thinking of parting with old games/movies/music - but did you realize they also offer a pretty solid selection of toys? Like the kind of toys you’re looking to get rid of? I’d say pack a box and make a trip down to Tremont. God bless EO.
- That link to the restaurant thing is going to keep me up at night. I’m pleased to see that most of the places I eat at passed with flying colours, but was also surprised that A) the smaller restaurants seemed to pass while bigger places like Boston Pizza has problems and B) Private Eyes, the scuzziest place in town, still hasn’t had an inspection. Probably because it would require a flashlight and a speculum.
- Seeing as we have the same TV (your flickr shows a pic of you guys playing Wii Tennis) I can honestly say that breaking out old school systems on there is SO not an option. Anything sort of component cables looks like crap, so suck it up and drop a few bucks on the VC. Punch-Out is on there, what more could you want?
- Speaking of the IceDogs, in the last theBBPS podcast I was actually saying how much I’d love it if EA (or better yet, 2K) would pick up the OHL rights — even if they just made it bonus content (maybe a downloadable OHL teams pack?) Same for the CFL. I mean - if the FIFA games offer dozens of leagues, why in the hell couldn’t Madden?
K - I think that’s everything.. phew. that was a lot of comment.
Oh! No wait! I almost forgot. I’ll be putting up another blogging-related post later today at fjetsam — I know you like them, so make sure to come check it out.
Hey thanks for the heads up on Entertainment Overload, that will be a lot easier for unloading toys than Ebay.
An OHL licensed hockey game would rule but there’s no way there’d be enough interest in it. (Same with CFL.) The Canadian market is pretty small, and the Ontario-specific market even smaller. College sports are huge in the U.S., and soccer is huge everywhere, so it’s not quite a fair comparison.
I do have another crappier TV to hook up my old consoles on. I prefer to use the original controllers where possibly, although my NES is pretty unreliable at this point.
And I’ll be sure to check out your next post at fjetsam today.
I’ve sold some stuff on eBay before, it’s ridiculously easy. And as the seller, you don’t have to pay for shipping - you charge the buyer for that.
Hmm that is a good point. I guess as long as I’m getting something at all for it, it’s still worthwhile since I’ll be getting this junk out of the house.
Frightening? Petrifying more like it. But it’s not as if Christine had any alternative. She’s a sportswriter, always has been, always will be, it’s part of her very being.
Also a woman with a masculinised body, and that’s what makes it complicated.
There’s a good explanation of this common congenital condition on the net, which explains the medical facts in simple terms. Until the late 90’s, it was thought to be psychological not biological in origin, which is why so many of us tried to tough it out.
Yes, me too. There’s tens of thousands of us in the US, and some of us don’t try to hide now.