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Time in possession: About 6 yearsDescription: Grey Super Nintendo cartidge, good condition.Cost: Unsure, but I couldn't have paid more then 7$ for it. So, 7$ it is.Description: You see, now here is an entry that points out some flaws in this whole project. Really, something as generic as generic comes: This game is a generic shooter that I bought simply because I was collecting SNES games and I enjoy shooters. There's nothing spectacular about it, no story, and no real personal connection to it whatsoever. In fact, it's one of those games that I might accidentally buy twice, not really remembering that I owned a copy in the first place.What does that say about me? That I could own so many video games (and I do own hundreds of them, over 500 at last count, and climbing) that I can no longer appreciate them? When I was young and bought my first NES, the games I had for it were absolute crap: Mission Impossible, Werewolf, Wizards and Warriors 2 and, obviously, Super Mario/Duck Hunt. When the best game for your system is the one it came with, you've got something to think about. But you know what? I loved those games. I played them over and over, despite the fact that they sucked and that I sucked at them. Now I've got hundreds of games that sit in shelves, having been played once, tested, and then put down, possibly forever. This is my childhood dream, come true. It's certainly not as cool as I hoped it would be.What does that say about me?
Time in possession: In excess of 7 years. That's so very depressing.Description: Handcrafted clay sculpture, glazed blue, yellow and green. He looks pretty shocked. Part of one the right eyebrow has broken off, sadly. Maybe that's why he's shocked, who knows.Cost: Made in a grade 9 art class, so as free as free can be. That's right, I'm not even going to assign a random cost to it, such is it's material value. ... okay .05$Story: In junior high I used to doodle all the time, and one of the most frequent characters adorning the margins of my notebooks would be the blobs: A bunch of squishy little characters who consisted of a couple of big bulbous eyes, accompanying eyebrows and a small squishy body which usually housed simply a moth, although occasionally arms and the like would poke out as needed. My buddies Jason and Joel and I eventually started making blob versions of all our classmates and soon they were pretty much everywhere. For a quick visual reference, I've doodled out a quick blo
There you go, a standard blog, startled by a spider (I don't know why, but blobs were frequently surrounded by spiders. Probably because they are very easy to draw).So, when I had pottery in my first year of high school with Jason and Joel, what did I do but decide to immortalize our creation in clay. I did a pretty good job, considering, although you will notice that the colour scheme is a little funky. This is because I had no idea at the time that firing the glazes would change them from their initial colours. So, the body should be blue, eyes white and pupils and eyebrows black. Oh well.I still draw blobs from time to time, as does Joel, although I'm not sure if Jason does, having lost contact with him after high school. Still, it's nice to have this little memento of those younger days, happily drawing with friends and just having fun.
Time in possession: Around 9 monthsDescription: Black Giro bike helmet, with visor. Minor wear and tear including some small scratches and a small dent. Cost: Something around 45$, bought at Lifesport. Story: Last summer I decided to start riding my bike around town, my car being long since passed away and the bus service being quite insufferable. My ex-girlfriend left me her old bike and I was able to find my old bike helmet, and soon I was riding around town in what my friend Kevin lovingly referred to as the "death-mobile". The bike was a rusty piece of crap and my helmet pretty dumb looking, but it was a cheap way to get around town and I was happy. Eventually the death-mobile got stolen, and I was left at an impasse: What should I do now? I had a couple of crappy bikes lying around that made my old ride look awesome, but I wasn't ready to put myself through that kind of torture. Should I then maybe looking into just getting a Wal-Mart special? Finally, Kevin convinced me that the way to go would be to buy a really good bike. Sure, it would cost a lot, but the difference in the riding experience would be more then worth it. So, off I went to the local sports store and found a nice bike. Riding it around convinced me of its worth and soon I was lining up to get a 500$ bike, which became my grad gift, as opposed to the digital or video camera my parents and grandma were planning on getting me. And so, with my shiny new bike, I decided to also spring for a better helmet, as my old number was lacking in many ways. The difference here was also amazing. Much more comfort and definitely better aesthetically. Now I was flying around the city in style, making great time and getting super fit. And then my new bike got stolen. The opening night of my one man show at the Fringe festival was a huge success: The crowds were good, my friends enjoyed it and I was on top of the world. After a trip to the beer tent, it was suggested we all head down to a friends house to continue the party. We did, and for about another hour I was feeling as great as I possibly could. Then one of the party goers entered the house asking me where I had put my bike. My bike had been next to theirs: But it was no longer. Shit shit shit. I went outside and saw it for myself: Where my bike had formerly been is now nothing... except for my helmet, which had been left behind (Strangely enough, my lock had not also been left). And so, it remained the only part of my grad gift left. Fortunately, we were able to replace the bike as it had been insured, and so the Brent-Mobile Mk II lives... but that's a story for another day.
Time in possession: Roundabouts 5 years
Description: Black Sega Genesis video game cartridge, fair condition. Label has significant peeling and fading. Fortunately, the kick-ass game within remains functional.
Cost: 7$ from a local pawn shop.
Story: Every kid has a friend with cool toys. I don't think I ever was that kid (which might explain why I now own so many games) but I certainly had more then a few friends who were. One of those friends was Justin.When I was younger, I had very few games, which was exactly the opposite of my friend Justin, who would have a new game every week, something that defied logic in my head. I was certainly jealous: He possesses in abundance what I could only dream about. But he was a generous friend, and so when I would visit I would be allowed to try out his games, if not quite to the level that I might wish were the case. Still, a play of a game at Justin's house was usually enough to whet my appetite for more, and those are the memories that flooded through my mind when I, years later, discovered this copy of Rocket Knight Adventures at a pawn shop or flea market.It's a great game. A really fun game. Probably one of the best for Sega's Genesis system, one which a childhood loyalty to Nintendo had made me particularly slow to warm to. But you know what? I think I liked it better when I was playing it for brief moments at Justin's house. Owning the game, being able to play it whenever it fancies me... It's not quite the same. Funny, that.
Time in possession: Probably about 3 years
Description: Grey Super Nintendo Cartridge. Good condition. Photographed really poorly. I mean, really, looking at is is giving me a headache. I'm so sorry.
Cost: I'm going to say something like 15$. It was bought in a wholesale lot off of eBay, so that's a decent roundabout price.
Story: Collecting Super Nintendo games was, for a good couple of years in my life, a bit of an obsession. It was one activity that managed to accomplish some of my favorite activities: Re-living the glory days of my youth, owning that which had previously been denied to me and adding to an impressive collection. In the end, it never really amounted to much, but the thrill of the chase, searching down an elusive game, that was definitely a different kind of high, something that made the occasionally frustrating and fruitless pursuit a little more enjoyable.
Congo's Caper here was one of the many games that I had read about in my childhood subscription to Nintendo Power, the pages of every issue quickly read and re-read dozens of times until they were reduced to mere tatters. As such, there was a romanticized idea of the game in my head with very little basis in reality, as sadly was not uncommon, as was evidenced with one of my previous entries, Robotrek. Perhaps it was because I was at least 20 when I got my hands on a copy, and when I was dying to play it at 12 my laundry list of video game ideals would have been quite a bit different.
Still, it's a handy game to have around, if only to toss at a little cousin or nephew when they grow tired of play Super Mario World.
Time in possession: Just under a year.
Description: 4 disk set featruing all 13 episodes of Joss Whedon's cruelly short lived TV series Firefly. If you look at it just right, you can see the aura of squandered potential. It hurts my brain.
Cost: A birthday gift from my sisters, so free, although Amazon.ca lists it as 55.98- I have a funny feeling that they paid less.
Story: Joss Whedon has a pretty intense following that is somewhat threatening to outsiders. For good reason: He created Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, two huge TV hits, along with writing a bunch of other hit projects, including Toy Story and the blockbuster comic Astonishing X-Men. Still, I spent a good deal of time on the outside of his unadulterated fan boys, looking in and wondering what the hell they were getting so hot and bothered about. I mean, I had watched and enjoyed the first 3 or so seasons of Buffy, and I thought Angel was cool enough, but I certainly wasn't falling over myself to see everything he made. This would all change.First of all, around 2005 my buddy Cory started raving about Astonishing X-Men, which had just started to tear things up on the comics scene. Having good childhood memories about them and being in the midst of a renewed interest in comics, I decided to check it out and was really impressed. Whedon really captured some fun group dynamics and I was hooked. Then people started talking about this show Firefly, an unjustly cancelled masterpiece that had just come out on DVD. I still wasn't convinced, but after the 4th or 5th person told me how awesome the show was, I decided to ask for it for my birthday. My sisters were kind enough to concede to my request.And so, shortly after getting the shiny new box-set, I popped in the first disk and before I knew it I had lost 4 hours and was itching to see the rest of it. In two days it was over and I was still hungry for more. So I watched all the episodes that have commentary. I watched them again with my little sister. And then again at my ridiculously late birthday party. I was hooked, but without any way to get a fix. Thankfully, Serenity, the movie based on the series came out on DVD and managed to give me some smidgen of closure, but Whedon had turned me into a believer. Now I was one of those crazy Whedon fans, and loving it.I hate that Fox cancelled Firefly and Arrested Development, two of the best TV shows I've ever seen. But at least I can have them on DVD, ready to watch whenever the fancy hits me. I do wonder however what DVDs do to re-runs....
Time in possession: 3 years? During one of my several eBay sprees.
Description: Sega 32X system, minus cables. Works fine and is in decent condition. A wonderful reminder of Sega's excess and subsequent fall from grace. Also, one of my key "You've got one of THOSE??" comment-grabbing items.
Cost: Pretty cheap- I don't think I paid more then 20$. At least I hope so.
Story: As the end of the 16-Bit video game console wars drew to a close (for those of you not in the know, that would have been the competition between the Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo and Turbo Graphix 16 systems, all of which are now conveniently enough download able onto the Nintendo Wii system) there was much speculation as to what the next set of systems would be like. History now shows the next wave to be the Sega Saturn, Sony PlayStation, Nintendo 64 and to a much lesser extent, the Atari Jaguar. So where does this thing come in?
The Sega 32X was supposed to be a genuine 32-bit system (like the Saturn and PlayStation), but rather then a totally new console, it was an add-on to the previous generation's Genesis. The Genesis was no stranger to add ons- It had also had a rather poorly received CD add on which ending up being indirectly involved in the cancellation of Nintendo's planned CD add on and as such as the creation of the Sony PlayStation (hereafter the PSX). But that's all a totally different story. I'm sorry, you probably don't care about any of this, but this is what happens when I read a whole bunch of books about the history of the video game industry. I'm a dork. ANYWAY, to make a long story short, the 32X sucked. It didn't do 3D, which was what people were flocking to the PSX for, and it didn't even do whatever the hell else it was supposed to do well. On top of that, it looked ridiculous on top the the Genesis. For those poor (both in luck and money) folks who had both add ons to their genesis, they were left with a freakish Frankenstein-esque console that really only had a couple of good games that people with a plain old Genesis couldn't play.
So why did I buy the thing?
When I saw the opportunity to own a 32X, I really couldn't resist. It wasn't a lot of money (as I recall) and at that point I had only really known about it through reputation. So, I took it home, dusted off one of my Genesis systems, and plugged the sucker in. It didn't work. I realized it needed another power bar, so I dug one out, plugged it in, turned it on. It didn't work. Then I realized that it needed a cable connecting it to the Genesis for the visual inputs. There, I was stuck, and have been to this day.
As far as can figure, the system works by having some of the work being done by the Genesis, which it then superimposes it's own image on top of. For instance, in the Star Wars arcade game (the only game I have bought for the system) plugging in the Genesis shows me a HUD, while plugging in the 32X shows me a star field. It seems to me that that would be ridiculously hard to program for, which might explain why only a handful of games were made for the monstrosity. It currently sits on my shelf, a reminder of Sega's folly. And my own I guess. Anybody want to sell me the connector cable to one of these things? I don't really want to play it, but it would be nice to have the option....
Time in possession: About a year.Description: Video game card for the Nintendo DS portable gaming system. Includes box and manual. Excellent condition. Also, Sudoku-tastic.Cost: 30$ new.Story: Weird, my first really new item that doesn't really have any long history. What the hell is this story going to be about? I guess we'll see.When I got my Nintendo DS, I was excited by the possibilities that its touch screen presented. While I, like most, was sketical when it first came out, a succession of excellent games won me over to the system and made me want to play it. Brain Age came out shortly after I finally got my hands on it and I picked it up, a descision easily made since it was released at a bargain price.The idea behind Brain Age is that your brain needs excercise to stay fit: Therefore it has a succession of activities that do just that, help you flex those mental muscles. When I was in school, I hated doing "Calcule Mentale" (mental calculations), a weekly math quiz that followed me around through several grades. Why is this any different? Well, in some ways it isn't. There is actually an activity which is just that, doing quick math as fast as you can. I guess the real selling point is that while the game judges you on your performance, you have several other areas to work in as well with much more interesting games (Counting people entering and exiting a house for instance, something that gets a little harder when they start flying in and out of the chimney as well as the doors) . Also, the little floating head avatar (of the guy who came up with the idea) is hilarious, with his various barbs and encouragement.Strangly enough though, I found myself playing it mostly for Soduoku. So yeah, I was using about 200$ of electronics to play that game in the paper.
Time in possession: I can actually date this one pretty accurately: One and a half years and a couple of weeks.
Description: Plush donkey, floral patterns with a blue ribbon on gold painted block of wood. Slightly peeling paper label proclaiming "JENNY 05". Its eyes speak of an untold sadness that would utterly destroy a lesser award.
Cost: Won, so free. Let's call it 2.50$ for it's various parts.
Story: Winnipeg, my hometown, is the proud staging grounds for one of the largest (the second largest, and it's a close race) fringe festivals in North America: The Winnipeg Fringe Festival. Being an actor, it stands to reason that I should throw myself into such a festival with reckless abandon- I have, but for the longest time, I didn't.
I'm making up for lost time: I did 2 shows in '05, 3 in '06 and am currently lined up to do another 2 this upcoming year. But I'm getting ahead of myself: Despite my aspirations towards acting and the festival in general, for years I would fail over and over again to participate. It wasn't until my friend Seb approached me with the first couple of scenes on a play he was working on that I finally got into a project that would go the distance from planning to performance.Part of the secret was that I was determined to make it happen and having somebody (Seb) to let down drove me onward. Also, I had been told repeatedly by my Prof that year to take part, and so I was set on getting the show done. As time went on I assumed many of the responsibilities for it: Along with co-writing and doing much of the directing, I produced the show, did the publicity and otherwise whored myself out to ensure that my creation was going to be as much a success as possible. In the end, things worked out pretty well. Seb's couple of scenes became Coffee, a romantic comedy starring the both of us and a handful of awesome friends. While the show was met with mostly tepid reviews, our audiences were very appreciative and plentiful enough to pay everyone off quite decently for their hard work. Even better, during the final night of the festival we were awarded this, one of the annual Jenny Awards. I'll back it up again: The Jenny is an independent paper that is produced during the festival, which reviews show and posts audience reviews of shows, to essentially serve as a forum for festival goers to share their opinions on the various shows and the event at large. On the last night of the festival, as a sort of closing party, the people in charge of the Jenny take over the Kings' Head Pub (a popular drinking hole right in the middle of the proceedings) and hand out awards while everyone gets shit faced and enjoys the last moments of the festival together. The shows are grouped haphazardly together, usually according to their title (Shows about Jesus! Shows starting with N! Shows that remind me of my horrible childhood!) and the winner is chosen by whichever show gets the most noise upon it's mention. So, essentially it's a drunken popularity contest. But whatever.ANYWAY, to make a ridiculously long story short(er), we managed to win the "Food" catagory, thanks in large to the help of the cast of my other show that year, the huge-casted Illuminati: The Musical! Seb and I agreed to share the award, although it has been sitting in my room ever since. That's a problem with this project- What if Seb sees this entry and wants it back? He'll have to kung fu fight me for it.
Time in possession: 7 or 8 monthsDescription: White plastic frame containing several plastic containers/shelves. Has wheels for ease of movement. Sturdy. Is full of so much of my crap.Cost: Given away by a friend of my sisters, so free. I'll say 30$, although I'm probably under estimating.Story: During the spring last year Morgan, a friend of my sister Regan, was staying over at my house for a few weeks as she was between houses. During that time she slept in the main room of the basement, essentially giving me a next-door neighbor. She was a good house guest, and upon her leaving left the family with some of her things- Namely a case of flavored water (which was very slow in being used) and this tower, which I eagerly took on. This is lame, but I love "storage solutions". I'm kind of anal that way, despite the perpetual mess that I'm usually entombed in.Morgan had used the top containers to store make up, and so upon taking the tower I had the unenviable task of cleaning up the various messes left. I had taken a stage make-up class in University, but it didn't quite prepare me for the ridiculousness that was getting rid of al the make up. I mean, really. The worst part of the ordeal was finally (FINALLY) cleaning it off to find that much of the greasy mess was now lodged underneath my fingernails. Exquisite.It now resides in my closet, holding a whole manner of items and various knick knacks, probably a whole months entries in of itself. My favorite thing about it though is that it is designed in such a way as to only hold a certain amount of weight, which prevents me from over burdening it, which is something most of my bookshelves cannot claim. Looking at the picture now though, I do see a couple of empty shelves... I wonder what I'll put in there?
Time in possession: About 6 years
