Saturday, April 28, 2012

Wasp x1

I swear, I should get reduced rent or something.  Go out to get the mail and see a wasp flying around, no big deal, see them all the time.  It lands on the parcel lockers, ah, it's building a nest here.  Well, I know no one will take care of it until it's full blown and spread inside the parcel locker, which most also seem to lazy to ever get their mail out of (which is why I had a delivery at the door today).  So I head back up to the apartment.  Don't have any wasp spray, don't have any brake cleaner or engine degreaser (all three have the same effect on wasps and wasp nets, more or less they melt).

Ah, but I do have some WD-40.  If you know me, you know how I feel about WD-40.  It's a shitty lubricant that was never designed to be used as such.  It's good for quick and dirty repairs to potentiometers in things like Atari paddles, repels water and prevents corrosion but that's about it.  However, it will knock out wasps and cripple a wasp nest long enough to crush it.

So I go back out with the WD-40 in hand and there's a guy out there towing a pickup truck.  Don't know if it's just broken down or if the property manager is having it towed for being illegally parked.  Considering he had to pull it out of the space I'd say it's the latter.  Now he's moved the truck out into the middle of the lot to secure it for transport, which is right by the mail boxes.  I start spraying the nest, which the wasp is currently atop of and the two truck guy asks, "Wasps?"  Wow, someone else with a brain that actually gets their hands dirty and takes care of crap!  Anyway, after hosing it down for a couple seconds the wasp was incapacitated and the nest crippled I could knock it down with my foot and mash both objects on the ground.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Game Center CX in USA

After finally watching the "Game Center CX in USA" special episode, and thoroughly enjoying it as usual, I have two things to say (although it's probably old hat at this time)...

Why the hell take Arino and crew to that dump of an indie game store 4Jays?  Wow, the games and display monitors don't work - big surprise.  Staff that doesn't know crap about games, an owner who always seems like he's pissed off someone is in his store, and outrageously overpriced inventory.  Seriously, they didn't seem too proud that their "fine establishment" was being featured on international television, at least they weren't faking for the camera.  Also while I know that the segment was for quick plays of some usually not found in Japan NES games, why was StarTropics not mentioned?  There has to be a copy in there - a game developed by Nintendo, by Japanese game developers working in America, specifically for the American audience.  Never mind that it's my favorite NES / Famicom game, it truly is a unique specimen of NES / Famicom history.

Second, the segment in the laundromat with Ms. Pac-Man.  Really, no one could do research that the reason that Ms. Pac-Man was moving so fast is because the game had a "speed up" chip installed?  It makes me wonder how much research is really done for the games on the show that are featured.  It also goes to show how much we need something like the Video Game History Museum to act as an information repository, open to everyone.