From the time I was a young boy the release of a new Nintendo system has been a milestone in my life. First there was the original NES. I wasn’t quite old enough to be excited about it’s release, but I still got one! I have fond memories of guilting my parents into buying one and getting Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2. After years of good memories with my trusty Game Genie, it was time for the SNES. Still a young boy with no purchasing power, and with a price tag of $200, I was yet again unable to enjoy the splendor of a new videogame system at its release. Eventually though my NES and all that went with it was off in the mail to Funco, which would be the first of many videogame sales.

The sale of my NES led to the purchase of the SNES, and of course, Street Fighter II, Mario Kart, and Star Fox to name a few. As the N64 approached I was finally in High School. Still not a member of the labor force, I was again resigned to selling my beloved Nintendo system for its successor. My memory of this occassion is quite clear…we brought the system home from Toys R Us with the brand new Super Mario 64. It seemed as though videogames had been turned on their head forever. Nights of Mario Kart, GoldenEye, and NHL ensued during the High School years.

By the time GameCube arrived I was a proud employee at the library, saving my money for months before the launch. For the first time in my life I didn’t have to sell my old console. The GameCube and I had a great time, but it also saw my life change from a teen to an "adult." With that transition came a change in my videogame habits. Gone are the 2 a.m. gaming sessions that marked High School and College. Videogames have always been a part of my life, so I’m almost glad to see that excitement come around again with the pending launch of the Wii.

If I was in High School or College I would probably be running to Gamespot to try the Wii, but instead I have quietly been reading every article I can find on the web. I’ve cashed in my credit card reward points (that makes me old!) to finance this new purchase. I’ve once again leveraged my previous Nintendo console (though for different reasons than in previous sales). I’ve even bought Nintendo stock!  When exactly a Wii will be at Toys R Us and available to me, I don’t know. I sit here and patiently await the release of an exciting new Nintendo console…maybe I’m finally growing up?

Hmmm…no, not really….

There are yard sales and garage sales, but it seems the "ebay sale" has not become a part of our lingo yet. If it does, it will come to mean what a yard sale or garage sale does, except all done on ebay. I’m not one of those people that is constantly selling on ebay, but instead I sell a bunch of stuff all at once very rarely. Since now is one of those times, I thought I’d share my listing with you and the stories attached to each item.

1) 90 Used Tennis Balls in Great Condition

You may wonder why we have this many tennis balls to begin with. Originally we bought them on ebay for Stacie’s classroom to put on her chair legs so they would slide around nice and quietly. Literally a day or two after we got them, someone went through all the classrooms and put sliders on the feet of everyone’s chair. That’s nice of them, but now we had a box of tennis balls and no use for them.

2) Winegard Squareshooter HDTV Antenna SS-2000 Amplified

Originally when we moved into the townhouse I didn’t realize there was an antenna in the attic, so I got this guy and had it put up outside. About 6 months ago though they started to redo the roofs, and our antenna was "illegally" mounted. I knew it would have to come down, but "how" I wasn’t sure. I was hoping the roof guys would just take it off for me. One day though the next door neighbors were having their satellite dish moved, so I paid the guy $20 to just take ours off (because by then I’d put a new antenna in the attic).

3) Nintendo GameCube Console Indigo w/Controller/Component

I know, selling videogames can be quite shocking! The reason I’m selling it though is because I have a ton of AMEX reward points, and one of the best ways to renew them is for giftcards to Toys R Us. I did that today, and plan on using the money to buy a Nintendo Wii. The nice thing about the Wii is that it plays gamecube games, so everything in that listing I will no longer need. The only downside of this plan is that Toys R Us is the only place I can get the system, and who knows when they’ll have them in stock.

4) Nintendo Game Boy Advance SP Classic NES w/Case

What Nathan, two videogame sales in one post? Yup. I decided to sell this system and get Stacie a pink DS Lite. The DS can play old game boy games, so that makes this system unneeded. I’m hoping it fetches a premium for being a "limited edition" version. The DS can also talk to the WIi…for what reason I’m not sure, but it could come in handy.

5) Firefly PC Remote Snapstream Media Beyond TV USB

The least exciting of the listings, but oh well. Part of my HD recording solution was to buy Beyond TV to schedule and record my shows. For whatever reason they had to bundle this remote with it. Because I use the Snazio box downstairs to watch the shows Beyond TV records, I don’t need this remote. Not very exciting, but there it is.

This all reminds me of great ebay buying and selling of the past. Hopefully other people will be motivated to start this new trend of having an Ebay Sale.

Sorry..the light-hearted posts didn’t last very long.

In light of the government believing they should be able to tax certain products more than others (ie cigarettes and gas), I thought I would list a few things that should also be heavily taxed to deter bad behavior. After all, if the government can tax cigarettes because they’re bad for you, and gas so a bunch of guys can sit around and dream about alternative fuels, I think it follows logically to tax the following items:

1) Body Piercings – Piercing organs is dangerous, it should be discouraged.
2) Tattoos – It defaces God’s temple!
3) Motorcycles – You can die way easier than a car.
4) Fatty Foods/Obesity – Unhealthy lifestlyes should be discouraged.
5) Plastic Surgery – People should love themselves for who God made them.
6) Skis – You could die! (That one’s for Mike)
7) Videogames – They rott your brain.
(Insert the behavior you dislike here).

To all the people supporting the cigarette and gas taxes…if at any point in our country’s future a majority of the citizens support a tax on one of the above items, I don’t want to hear you complain. You did the same thing.

Just because a majority of people dislike a "bad behavior," it doesn’t mean the government should deter them.

I haven’t posted about this game since back in January when I was begging people to give me their videogame systems. Since then I’ve been playing a dynasty with the Long Beach State Dirtbags, and I just finished my first season. We finished about 6 games above .500, second place in the Big West behind UC Riverside. I’m now entering the regionals and playing BYU in my first game.

One of the best parts of the game is recruiting and building your team. During the season you recruit High School and Community College players to come play for you. There are four main guys I recruited very heavily, so it will be interesting to see if they all come and play for me next year. During the off-season players also progress at random, some improving their skills and some declining.

My team this year has been an excellent pitching team with a so-so offense. Two of my starting pitchers are Juniors and one is a Sophmore, so that pitching should continue next season. Hopefully my off-season recruiting helps to improve our team hitting. I did have a 3rd team all-american (sophmore pitcher with a 1.35 era).

I will keep you posted on this most fictitious outcome of college baseball.

Despite the lack of time available to me for playing videogames, I can still get excited about them. This week is the annual Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3). All the big videogame makers get together and put on a show for the media and let them try out new games and all that stuff. Mike and I snuck in one year.

This year is a big deal because both Sony and Nintendo have new consoles on the horizon. Sony has PS3 and Nintendo has Wii (pronounced "we"). If you’re interested you can visit IGN and check out their E3 coverage.

Now for my 2 cents on everything. PS3 is from $500-600 depending on your model, which is an insane price for a videogame system. If there are any redeeming qualities I would have to look to the Blu-Ray drive inside. I’m really excited to see what people think of Wii once they get their hands on the controller. The Nintendo conference looked really cool, but I wasn’t overwhelmed. Because Wii isn’t a huge graphical jump over Gamecube (and it’s not supposed to be), I think simply watching a game isn’t that impressive. I’m hoping that once you hold the controller in your hand and get used to the brand new controls it will be a truly unique experience. Sony added a "tilt" sensor to their controller at the cost of a rumble device. I think it’s an attempt to take some of the wind out of Nintendo’s sail, but it’s too little, too late. It will work for flying games, monkey ball, and marble madness…but that’s it. They’re trying to tell people that a rumble feature is "so last year," but I think they’re wrong.

Nintendo has an amazing marketing team. The positioning that they’ve come up with for their new system is hands-down the best of the three. They’ve been able to distance themselves from the competition in a sector that was drowing in copycats. They aren’t competing with Microsoft or Sony in terms of graphics or ports anymore. Now they’re competing based on the fun factor. Nintendo is also insisting that this will be the system to bring videogaming to the masses. Your Mom, Grandpa, and red-headed stepchild will all be playing this system, flailing about like a bunch of idiots in front of the TV, and oh will it rock. The marketing guy in me is very impressed with Nintendo.

Since I upgraded my computer (which I’ve yet to post about) I’ve been checking out some new games. Lately I’ve been playing a game called The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. It’s a very open-ended RPG set in a medieval world. The emperor is assassinated in the beginning, and you are thrust into a quest to solve that mystery and save the world.

The cool part is that the whole thing feels like a real living and breathing world. You can go anywhere and talk to anyone. You design your character and decide what skills they will have. So far I’ve played about 7 hours, and most of it has just been wandering around exploring. You can pick up a book off a shelf to read and it will be 24 pages long. Doesn’t seem that long, but there are books everywhere, and this is a stinkin’ videogame! You can attack someone and the guards will come running if they hear.

So combine this game with the Dodgers losing every game, and my posting may suffer somewhat.

Much of my weekend was spent relaxing and playing videogames. Ever since I upgraded the computer I’ve been having a great time playing computer games. I started the original Half-Life, hoping to get caught up on the backstory before I begin Half-Life 2. The disappointment though is that 2-3 hours into the game there is still practically ZERO story. There was an experiment, it went bad, now there are alien things everywhere. Also frustrating are that some parts of the game are just painful to try and pass, to the point where it’s not enjoyable. I also started playing Oblivion, an open-ended RPG set in a fantasy world. Not only is the game beautiful, but it’s totally engrossing. You create a character, specialize in certain skils, and can pretty much do whatever you want. While at first it feels almost too open-ended, it slowly becomes very real feeling. Instead of finding the path to turn on the fuel pump like Half-Life, you have complete control over what you want to do next. I think I will either play another couple hours and get bored, or I will be sucked in for countless hours more.

Besides this Stacie and I had dinner with Andrew and Sarah one night. They brought over microwave pizza and we watched a movie. We went to eat with my parents at Marissa’s. Then we went to Disneyland with Stacie’s parents. I even got my first minor sunburn of the year! Ok, off to teach.

I want to play MVP ’06 NCAA Baseball. Let me borrow your PS2, I will play it until PS3 comes out, and then I will give you back your PS2. This is an amazing, once in a lifetime opportunity. That PS2 on your shelf collecting dust? Recently give up videogames as a New Year’s resolution? Don’t fret, for I am here to use your PS2. You just tell me I can borrow it as long as I want, and I will come over and pick it up. No work for you, and best of all, it’s completely free! Usually you would expect to pay an arm and a leg for a service of this type, but you can take advantage of this offer now for nothing! I will even buy the game myself (a $30 value) and charge you nothing!

Post a comment to take advantage of this great offer!