Today my Sandcrawler arrived in the mail. It feels a little weird to have gotten something for myself so soon after Jenn's birthday, but we did agree that my quarterly bonus would be spent on my Lego collection, the bonus just came in mid October. Actually, the Sandcrawler only took up about half the bonus, the other half more or less went towards her tattoo. Anyway, what the Sandcrawler means, I think, is that for the first time since I've started collecting Lego as a hobby, my collection is up to date and complete before the next year. Next year is the last year I intend to collect, and so far there appear to only be two or three sets, all of which are quite inexpensive for Lego, that I want to own. I'm actually pretty excited to be so close to being done, the question is what will I do for a hobby afterward? These last couple years I've actually been more into Star Wars than Lego, and I'm also taking an interest in Hulk comics, but with the Star Wars movies complete and Hulk tpb's being relatively few, it will be hard to devote as much energy as I have to my Lego. So far it looks like I'll start buying video games, books, and dvds, like several other people do. Of course, the task I have set in front of myself for my Lego now is to photograph each set for insurance purposes, which means assembling and disassembling every set. A daunting task indeed. Having help for the Halowe'en party was actually a lot of fun, maybe I'll start having assembly parties, an activity I can combine with my homebrewing. For those of you who are wondering exactly how much Lego I have, here's some summaries from my database:

Number of sets: 425
Number of minifigs: 1048
Number of pieces: 85350

The set count is accurate, but the total for minifigs and pieces doesn't take into account the individual parts I've bought over the years on bricklink. I could go through my old receipts and add them in, but I think saying "over eighty five thousand pieces" makes the point well enough.

Just to start this entry with something that isn't Star Wars, here's a joke I just thought up after tidying dinner.

Q: Sometimes when you lift a pot roast out of a crock pot, a piece of meat falls off and lands back in the broth, and you can't find it again. Where does it disappear to?

A: Gravy Jones' Locker!

What, you no like? Maybe me not shutting up about Star Wars is not so bad after all. This is more of a Lego post anyway. Images of the 2007 lineup have been leaked. ( Observe behind cut. )

I've just spent about 20 hours in the last two days fooling around in the Gimp, and I've gotten the images for the box finished. Starting on the right panel, the rebellion and empire images were taken from this site, and made that panel the easiest to make, which is why it was done first. The images on the left panel didn't have as many high-res resources to be found on google image search, so I had to fool around with making vector based traces of tiny gifs and blowing them up. These two panels were finished a few weeks ago, so yesterday afternoon I started the front panel. I'd already image searched the lightsaber handles, and it was just a question of erasing whatever was around them, whenever they weren't available as gifs with transparent backgrounds. Making lightsaber blades in the Gimp is tricky if you don't know what you're doing, fortunately this person does know what he's doing, and made a script for the Gimp which turns any selected area into a glowing blade lickety split.

Finally, the top image. The Star Wars logo was found as a screen cap of some kind with just hollow outlines of the letters. Upon closer inspection, when I started doing effects with the letters I noticed that the lines weren'e at right angles or straight. So I lay down some guide lines and made a vector drawing of the logo, filled it, and manipulated it into the bezeled gold chrome logo with supernova effect that it is now. It was actually easy once I knew what to do, but figuring out what I wanted and how to achieve it was tough, and I'm very proud with the result. The two fighters are actually toys, and I drew the contrails behind, again using vectors, and a gradient fill.

Lastly, I wasn't sure if I wanted a plain black background, or a starfield. These images started plain, but now that I have them with and without starfield, I think the extra texture makes the image look a lot more finished. Let me know what you guys think though, I'm interested to hear what other people think looks better.

The last eight hours or so have been spent building a template for the flat box pattern, which was time consuming because my computer was chugging with the image size. Once I've finally made up my mind which images to use (also whether or not to bother putting anything on the bottom, maybe Jenn and I in our costumes?), I can just paste them on to the template and get them printed.

Which reminds me, Derek, could you get me a quote if you're still at the copying/printing place? The image is 23"x24", 300dpi, and I want really heavy, glossy paper, 74 pound being around ideal.

Here's the two images:
( cut due to largeness, although they're approx. half the working size. )

So, now that I'm three dvds away from having all the Star Wars movies and tv shows ever made, I find myself wishing it were in a fancy boxed set. The obvious solution is to make my own box. I've already started doing some stuff in photoshop, and I need to talk to Derek about a price quote and what kind of sizes and weights of paper he could hook me up with (at least 20x32 inches at 300dpi, ideally 74 lb or higher, uncertain if it's possible...) In the mean time, as I work with cardboard and occasionally get bored while the machine is running and I've done all I can to finish the last set and prepare the next, I decided to make a little prototype.

( six large-ish pics behind this cut )

This last week has been a rather full one for me. Friday, after working my usual 12 hour shifts for the previous two days, I spent nearly the entire day grocery shopping. First, I walked up to the Try 'N Save with our wireframe cart for a caselot sale, where I loaded up on juice, Eggos, tinned mushrooms and Alphaghetti. I came back home, unloaded and got a bite to eat, and hopped on transit out to Delta. I had a quick visit with my mom, and got to see my brother for a bit when she picked him up from work. I snagged a ride to Save-On-Foods and bought the rest of the groceries I needed to pick up that day, and took transit back home again. It was pretty late by the time I got in, and the rest of the evening was spent goofing around on the computer and/or TV.

Saturday morning I played Jedi Knight 2 on the computer for a bit. I'm finding that game really difficult, so I've taken to using cheat codes to replenish depleted health and armour. I rented that game for my Xbox back when I first had it, and I recall the controls being much easier to deal with then. Insert laments of selling my old Xbox here. Jenn got up from her nap around noon and we made up Haggis and roast potatoes for lunch. Neither of us had ever eaten Haggis before, and I had one in the freezer so it was our adventure for the day. I discovered that I don't like liver at all, and since Haggis is basically liver meatloaf served in oatmeal with the consistancy of drywall filler, we were only able to eat a third of it and tossed the rest. After we finished lunch we set to work giving our place a good tidying and cleaning. By the time we were finished, it was time to head out. We met Marcella at the River's Reach Pub for a fundraiser for the Roysl City Humane Society. It was $20 per ticket, but it was for charity, and the ticket inluded all the salad and pizza you could eat, as well as one drink. The food was nice, but the drinks turned out to be generic red or white wine, or Molson Canadian. I went with the Canadian, unde the pretext that it might be good if it ws free with admission. No such luck. I wound up winning a powder blue t-shirt that has the Royal City Humane Society logo on it, which happens to be a doggy, a kitty, and a bunny. Tres macho. Fortunately, I've been wanting a new work t-shirt, so it's perfect for that. That night I had difficulty sleeping due to evil magic in the stomach from too much pizza. I vowed then and there so stop stuffing myself so obscenely at all-you-can-eat type places, as I am obviously not the machine I was as a teenager.

Sunday morning Jenn and I got out to church again after a five week absence. We heard about the reverend's experiences at different Unitarian Universalist Conferences, and learned that the next major one will be in Vancouver. If it happens during one of my weekends off, I think I just might check it out. After the service, we bought some organic coffee and bussed home to host tea. Jenn and I bought some Quiznos subs for lunch on the way, which I'm thinking might make for an enjoyable after-church tradition in the future. Tea was good, if small, only Derek, Russel and Mimi showed up. Derek wanted to make a mask for the masquerade, and there was lots of material so I decided to make one too. Jenn and Mimi did most of the work, but I found it fun to sit there and get the plaster applied, too. After tea (and washing plaster and vaseline off my face) I took a little trip out to Army & Navy to get some insoles and a cushion for the computer chair. When I got home, Jenn and I cooked up dinner together. She made mushroom rice and deep fried boneless pork ribs, I made chow mein with shallots and green onions, and a chicken, pepper and tofu stir fry. We had Jenn's dad and step-mom over for dinner, and they supplied white wine and chocolate cake for dessert. It all went together very well.

Monday and tuesday I worked again, the only thing of interest that happened was my bus home on tuesday either went by ten minutes early or didn't come at all, so I got home half and hour later than usual. Insert rant against Translink here.

Wednsday I worked an overtime shift, which meant I was off at 3pm. I took transit straight to Coquitlam Center, and hit the Best Buy, where I picked up He-Man Season 2 Volume 1, the new Bloodhound Gang CD for Jenn, and a universal remote. I grabbed some groceries while I was by the Save-on-Foods and caught a bus home. That night I got the universal remote set up so we now only need to use the one controller instead of three to watch DVDs. We still need to use the stereo remote for listening to CDs or the radio, and we still need to use the DVD remote for dubbing or other specific tasks, but we rarely do those things so it's alright.

Thursday I spent the whole day with Jenn and Georg, which was good. In the morning they helped me dismantle some Lego sets I wanted to put away, then I played more Jedi Knight 2 to give them some girly gabbing time. After that they were nice enough to help me get a beer kit started brewing, one of those Australian Lager kits they sell in the grocery stores. The extra two pairs of hands were great for reading instructions and getting the sanitizing and mixing done lickety split. The one odd thing was that the instructions in the kit didn't mention primary and secondary fermenting, so we racked the beer into the carboy right away and stuck it in the storage room to stay warm beside the furnace ducts. We'll see how it turns out. After cleaning up, we walked out to Chopsticks, the chinese smorgasbord around the corner, where I promptly forgot and accidentally broke my vow about not stuffing myself. We came home and hung out a while longer. My upstairs neighbour brought down a package for me which had arrived upstairs, and it was the Princess Leia Unleased Statuette that I had won on eBay, which I opened right away and set up beside Aayla Secura so that I now have a girlfriend from both the classic and prequel trilogies of Star Wars. I put on some He-Man while the girls worked on makeup, and things went much later than I would have liked, but it was my fault for not setting a time limit earlier, I should know what Jenn and Georg are like together, by now. In the end it wound up not mattering how late Georg stayed, because I was destined to be very nauseous and unable to sleep that night. I really shouldn't eat at that smorgasbord, whatever I'm alergic to in asian cooking is used in abundance there, and this is the second time it's beaten back the barrier of alcohol that usually protects me.

Today it was back to work, and that's what I'll do all weekend. Tonight Jenn is off at the masquerade I can't attend, so it's just me, Samurai Jack, He-Man, and the three pizzas I ordered. Don't worry, I won't eat them all, I intend for a bunch of it to be lunches for Jenn over the weekend.

It's been (about) a week since the last post about my collection dilemma, and while I only got two responses, they were very good responses. So now I've decided (with Jenn) to commit to finishing the collection. On the plus side, the 2006 line so far seems to be mostly re-releases, with only three sets that I want to buy so far, the grand total estimating around $150, which is no big deal. This does take into consideration two sets which aren't released yet, but we'll see how many more come out. The bad news is that five episode three sets, which haven't been out for a year yet, are already sold out online with no plans to produce more. This means unless they are found somewhere soon, I'll probably be paying double what they're worth to get them new on BrickLink. So if anyone happens to see these sets anywhere randomly, please pick them up for me and I'll pay you back plus a 20% finder's fee. ( Here's what I'm looking for: )

When I was looking at my loot on boxing day, I came to a realization. For the first time in over ten years, I got no Lego for Christmas. What was really odd to me was that I didn't mind at all. In the past, no matter how much Lego I got on Christmas or my birthday, I always thought "Yeah, but I wish that shirt was a twenty dollar set that's still on my 'to get' list." But not this year. This year I was gifted some awesome stuff, and wouldn't trade any of it for Lego. This made me question the personal value of my collection. I can't figure out what the appeal is, I just know it's there. And I have a lot of Lego. Follow this link for a table of all the sets I currently own. But there's still more needed to complete the collection, and I'm not sure if that's what I want. So now it's time for me to figure that out. The first thing I did was research if there's any kind of mental illnesses associated with collecting, and I found these three articles (two of which contain similar text in the middle, but wrap up differently):

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/18/AR2005111803061.html
http://www.insideflyer.com/articles/article.php?key=2168
http://www.journalism.ryerson.ca/online/replay/altlife/rsimonetta.htm

Having read these articles, I decided that there's nothing truly wrong with my hobby, as it doesn't really negatively impact my life, but the dilemma remains.
Then I went on to make a pros, cons, and possible solutions list. Jenn has gone through and bolded items which she finds to be important. Now, I'm sharing that list in my livejournal, and I invite anyone who reads this to share their thoughts with me, especially if they've ever wanted to or have discarded a large collection of personal items. Basically, I'm at a crossroads, and I want to get as much input as I can before I make any decisions. This is a lot more intimate than I usually care to get in my LJ, but I really want more viewpoints here.

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Reasons For the Lego Collection:

1: I have invested a huge amount of time and money in it
2: it gets a positive reaction from people
3: I am afraid that losing it would be like losing part of myself
4: I may, in the future, become nostalgic and appreciate it more
5: most of it is now rare and difficult to replace, which makes it special
6: I feel like I might not be unique without it
7: I'm not sure if I'm actually tired of collecting or just randomly depressed about something else whenever I'm in the mood to get rid of it
8: whatever gap in my life that it filled in the past may need to be filled again
9: there is a final limit of what I want to collect, and when I reach it my income will be free to spend on other things
10: all that's left is Star Wars, which is something I love with or without Lego (but with is better)
11: I have enjoyed creating my own models (vignettes, the Remembrance Day dioramas, the obstacles for a miniature battle game...)
12: if I finish the collection and decide it was a bad idea, I can always sell it and get my money back, whereas not finishing it and changing my mind would mean shelling out nearly twice as much later

Reasons Against the Lego Collection:

1: it seems unhealthy to define part of myself by having a large amount of a particular type of thing
2: sometimes I feel like an addict, I don't know why I do it, but I feel like I have to
3: I haven't enjoyed assembling for several months now (seems more like a chore than a hobby)
4: if I were to lose it in a fire or a natural disaster it could not be easily replaced
5: even when I have something assembled, I keep it under a dust cloth where I can't see it, and I rarely have guests to display sets for
6: even disassembled, it nearly needs its own room
7: it is expensive to maintain
8: it is a frozen asset I can easily liquidate
9: I want to spend money on other things, like comics, dvds, an X-box, and most importantly debt reduction so Jenn can get a daytime job and I can see her more
10: if I died tomorrow, it would be difficult for my wife and family to sort through and deal with the collection, unlike books, dvds and video games, which all have designated second hand stores or are accepted by pawn shops or charities
11: selling it would free me from having to worry about where to keep it, whether or not to assemble any or all of it, how much to insure it for, and how much of my money it's tying up

Possible Courses of Action:

1: finish collection (only Star Wars sets from 2005, 2006, and 2007, current wish list roughly $800 before taxes)
2: finish collection by selling specific "less interesting" sub-themes (Sting Rays, Royal Knights, Spyrius, etc.)
3: stop collecting after purchasing only Revenge of the Sith sets from 2005 which represent significant parts from the movie (estimate: $200 before taxes?)
4: stop collecting immediately (which will leave me with no "post colour change" sets, which is fine, but also no Revenge of the Sith sets), and keep the collection
5: stop collecting immediately, and sell all but the most liked of sets (may or may not include Star Wars sets)
6: stop collecting immediately, and sell everything except the building lego
7: stop collecting immediately, and sell the entire collection
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That's about it. The mood I'm in greatly affects the solution that appeals to me most, and I want a solution I can justify and live with. In the end, the decision is mine alone, but like I said, extra points of view would be greatly appreciated, and a big help for making my decision.

Long time no update. Jenn's birthday went incredibly well, her blog has most of the goings-on. One thing that sticks out in my mind is that I got to use the charcoal chimney I bought for the first time, and wow, that thing works like a hot damn. It really is amazing how having the right tools for the right job makes things so much easier. No lighter fluid, no messing around, just stick paper in the bottom, charcoal in the top and let it burn. My beer was generally well-recieved, I think the general consensus was "not great, but drinkable", which was really all I was hoping for. I wish a little more of it got drunk though, I still have about 15 bottles to finish up on my own. Unless I have guests who want to share with me.

Aside from that, things are moving along. Getting used to taking transit to work, it's not too bad. Gave my statement of what happened to ICBC yesterday, just have to wait for them to attribute fault and then I can look into cancelling my insurance. I have the stuff for paying off the car (which seems to have devalued $5000 in a little over a year), so I just have to make an appointment to get that taken care of. I can't wait to have this over with.

In other news, here's something amusing and sad I read about in the newspaper. And here's something I found trying to track down the previous item.

Also, Lego has bought a license for Batman, sets to come next year. I definately won't buy this. I hope that by the time I have kids to buy toys for Lego will be making their own original stuff, expecially for their Space theme, which hasn't had anything new since Life on Mars in 2001, which wasn't very much like regular Space Lego. The last of that kind of thing was Insectoids in 1998. As much as I love Star Wars, I want to see something original happening again.

UPDATE: 2HRS LATER

ICBC called, they've attributed 25% of the fault to me because I admitted (and witnesses verified) that I entered on the yellow. This is low enough that my insurance premiums won't be affected, and I'll get 75% of my deductable refunded to me. This is good enough for me, so I'm not going to challenge it. All that remains is to cancel the insurance and pay out the car.

Talked Jenn into buzzing my head the other day. She likes my hair longer, but it drives me nuts. Used the longest setting on the clippers, just because I like to put pomade in it and force it to part when it's really short, however it is too short for even that.

Made cookies today. Didn't have any brown sugar, so I substituted white. The result was burnt edges and a flavour like butter cookies only sweeter. Combined with the white chocolate chunks and berry Mike and Ikes I threw in, the result is almost revoltingly saccarine, but they're still cookies, thus edible.

In other news: Vikings. Like I said, anything made after 2003 that isn't Star Wars I'm not going to collect. But these are tempting to buy and put away for kids. Won't do it, though. Nuh-uh.

First, an update from my last post: that set I won turned out to be a 1:10 scale technic Ferrari racer set, with working pistons and moving steering and such. Not something I really wanted, so I gave it to Tim for his birthday since I remembered him telling me about a similar technic model he had fond memories of when he helped me assemble the Life on Mars sets. The money I saved on purchasing his gift I used to buy a He-Man figure on eBay to replace my old one who's arm had broken off. Win-win situation.

THE MOVE

Packing! I had lots of stuff in boxes at my folks' place long before the move, and kept putting more stuff over there. We booked two U-Hauls, one for Tuesday, June 28, and another for Friday, July 1. We were hoping to get the keys by tuesday morning so we could move in before the end of the month, but that didn't happen. Instead, Russel let us move all of our junk into his living room and we stayed at my folks' place for a couple days. On tuesday Jenn and I had about 5(I think) people helping us, and it took about 5 hours to load the truck, partially due to last minute packing of odds and ends, partially due to divvying up stuff with Kim, partially due to waiting for the freaking elevator. To illustrate the magnitude of these delays, unpacking the truck at Russel's took 45 minutes, with just Russel and me doing it alone. Then I went to my folks' place and cleared out my old room enough for Jenn and I to sleep there for three nights, which took me untill 1am, and at 5am I got up to face a 12 hr shift at work. Needless to say, it sucked. It sucked so much I tracked down my boss and asked to have the next day off for cleaning, which he let me take. So thursday morning Jenn went straight to the old apartment from work, and I came by and took over vacuuming and shampooing. It seemed like I pulled up a beach's worth of sand from the carpet, and couldn't figure out why at first, but I eventually realized that it was just cat litter everywhere. Freaking cat. We got it all done, but the landlord couldn't come that day, so we made an appointment for the next morning. Later on I got a call from the new landlord, he had the keys for me, so I threw some stuff in the car and got the keys. Russel had been offering the use of his trailer on friday, which I was unsure of because of the weather, but it was looking good as I drove out, so I cancelled the second H-Haul and called Russel to take him up on his offer. He phoned me a short while later offering to take the bed over that night while we knew we had good weather, which sounded good to me, so my Dad and I made a trip with a few essentials and got that taken care of. Friday was the big move, which was over in about two to three hours, and it would have taken less time if the landlord hadn't given me one key that didn't work (the other was with Jenn, and I had to retrieve it). Derek showed up to help take in the last couple boxes, and I bought him and Russel lunch at the spaghetti factory for helping. I got Jenn from my folks' place that evening, and bought my family pizza for all their help. With the move done, it was time for unpacking, and the purchasing of things we were missing (wooden spoons, cookie sheets, cordless phone, toilet scrubber and plunger, two futon couches, etc...) thereby eradicating a surplus of dollars from Jenn's tax return. Our first sunday tea was July 16, and we had a mad scramble to get the place clean and assemble my barbecue, but we got everything ship shape without any snags. Tea was a great success and we had one of our new neighbours out, which was cool. After I fired up my grill and drank beer and ate burgers and was a very happy man. Since then, just little tweaks getting things a little homier, putting up Jenn's Welsh flag in the bedroom, reassembling the Star Destroyer*, that kind of thing. We're still needing stuff, but we've settled in enough for now.

THE MOVIE

So I've seen Episode 3 of Star Wars three times now, and that's enough for me untill it hits DVD and I can afford a big expensive box of all six movies. The first time I watched it I was absolutely shocked by how dark it was. I knew George Lucas wanted to make it dark, but I was expecting it to be as dark as Episode 2 was romantic. It confirmed a few theories for me (who killed Dooku, what happens to the droids), and answered a couple questions (exactly how does Obi-Wan get Anakin's lightsaber, how does Anakin take the news of being the chosen one), and also gave me something new (how does Obi-Wan know to join the force in Episode 4 but Vader does not). I still don't believe in comparing the old trilogy to the new one, because they're different movies made in different eras with different values portraying different themes with a different crew, and it can even be argued that George Lucas is a different person, the older, experienced and highly successful artist revisiting an old masterpiece instead of the young visionary flying by the seat of his pants, dodging cancellation by a hair drawing on his favourite classic movies for inspiration. In other words, STOP COMPARING APPLES AND ORANGES PEOPLE! Overall, Episode 6 remains my favourite original movie, even more so now because I felt that Anakin was a pawn of the force and I'm glad to see him redeemed. My favourite prequel movie is Episode 1 (and while I'm not a Jar Jar fan, his frothing-at-the-mouth critics can bite me), because it's so bright and colourful and it has my favourite prequel character, Qui-Gon Jinn (and if I ever buy a Force FX lightsaber, it will be his), although my favourite duel and space battle are both Obi-Wan vs Jango Fett, and my favourite fighter is the Episode 2 Jedi Starfighter. Final verdict: I like Star Wars, but I'm glad the movies are done with and I can geek out about other things like HE-MAN! (October 18th! I'll be at CNL when the doors open, getting my grubby little meat hooks on that DVD!)

THE PAIN

I am now the subject of the four most recent records in the first aid book at work. The first one wasn't a big deal, just nicked my pinky on a sharp piece of metal, put on a bandaid, no big deal. The second one was saturday, July 9, I tripped and fell chest first on a hard edge and bruised some ribs. The doctor said nothing was broken, no internal injuries, all the pain was from inflamation, just take ibuprofein three times a day untill it goes away. Sunday July 24, I lost my patience and put my knife in a pinch point to cut some paper, my right index finger got dragged in and a big flap of skin got torn up when I pulled it out. Again, the doctor said it wasn't too serious, just poly sporin and a bandaid, but I missed the last two hours of work because of it. Today around 10am, I was cutting paper with a retractable knife, when the knife slipped and I stabbed myself on the inside of my left forearm. Blood spurted out, and my skin folded in and I could quite clearly see the fatty tissue I had stabbed right into. This made me nauseous, but I started to feel better once I had it covered with gauze and couldn't see it any more. I took a cab to the clinic, waited an hour, got a tetnus shot, I was told it was really superficial, not a big deal, the laceration was only 2cm long, but he gave it seven stitches anyway just so that I don't have to worry about tearing it again while I'm back at work. I've taken the rest of the day off, although there's no reason why I can't go back on tuesday, so again, it's not that big a deal. The thing is, any one of these things are not that bad, but they're all mental mistakes of just not paying attention or being aware enough to work in a safe fashion, and all three happening in the course of two and a half weeks is not good. When I got back from the clinic the boss called me into his office to ask me if something was wrong that I wanted to talk about, but really my life is pretty good. The only thing I could think that would be causing this are the problems I have getting to sleep at night. Even when I go to bed at 8:30, which I did last night, after being up since 5:00am and working a 12 hour shift, it still took me at least 2 hours to get to sleep, and I just felt mentally and physically sluggish after I woke up, which is probably why I stabbed myself. I had already made the decision to see my doctor tomorrow while I was waiting in the clinic, because I haven't slept well since the move, and when I told the boss this, he was glad that I was aware of my problem and that I was taking the initiative to do something. My appointment is for tomorrow afternoon, hopefully I can get some good advice about my sleeping habits.

*As an aside, I have learned that Mega Bloks is a Canadian company, which makes them suddenly far less evil in my mind. While I have no compulsion to start collecting Mega Bloks (despite how cool the Ninja Turtle sets are), I do want to get the USS Enterprise to go with the Star Destroyer.

I just received my AT-TE in the mail today. Once I receive the other two packages, my collection will be complete up to 2004. Then it's just a matter of deciding which Star Wars sets I want for the next three years, and I'll be done collecting new sets. Like I said before, I'm not going to stop collecting entirely, but since the sets I want are now old and marked up already, I can take my time hunting them down. Also, there's a finite limit to what I want, so I can be more relaxed and take my time. Furthermore, I can start making my own customs, like gluing a hand, brick, and chainsaw together to make a chainsaw hand for an Ash minifig, or ordering pieces to make a hyperdrive ring for my Jedi Starfighter.

So a couple people have asked me what I want for my birthday. Well, what I actually want is a minifig scale AT-TE, but those are sold out everywhere and if I want one I'll have to pay double. In that case, what I want is money with which to buy an AT-TE. Yep. Money. I promise I'll spend it on something I really like and I'll think of you when I'm enjoying myself. ;p

So I've caught some images of new Lego sets. I did say I'd collect Star Wars episode 3 sets, so it's ok for me to drool over these images:

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=112317

But these are Vikings, in the new gray and brown colours, which I've told myself I'm not allowed to collect! But they're cool! But I want to stop collecting! But they have longboats, beards, and sea serpents! But I want to start spending my money on other stuff! What's an addict to do?

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=112327

The safari continues. I was perusing the pages of From Bricks to Bothans, and caught wind of the AT AT imperial walker being reduced from $150 to $100 at Canadian Toys R Us stores. I contacted the nearest one, and a man there confirmed a sighting, and told me there was an entire herd. I grabbed my hunting Visa, and dashed to my trusty automobile to make the 15 minute trek to the Coquitlam store. The AT AT's were all very tame and didn't spook, and at first glance I thought there were only four, but there was another grouping out in the aisle as well! Perhaps their typical feral nature had been quelled from prolonged exposure to children. I must admit that it didn't feel very sporting to stand casually by them and see what else was on sale while they stared at me vacantly, but in the end I gently inspected the closest one to find its hide to be flawless, and carried it to the checkout where I could make my gruesome kill. I am positively embarassed to admit this, but I felt much more like a consumer in a large store than a Great White (bargain) Hunter, considering the ease with which I captured my quarry, but I suppose that without easy hunts you wouldn't know to take satisfaction in completing the more challenging ones.

Seriously though, how can I afford all this Lego with Christmas and a Wedding coming up? The answer is: I can't, really, but these are good deals. So I have developed a strategy to minimize my losses.

First of all, I've decided to stop collecting. I've been wondering a long time about how I can justify buying toys for myself when I eventually have children, and I think it will just be easier if I stop collecting before that time. For those of you who haven't heard, the Lego company changed the tints of their light grey, dark grey and brown bricks this year, so none of the new sets match colours with my old sets. This seems like a perfect cutoff point, so that when I eventually have children, their Lego will be a different colour from mine, making it easily distinguishable (not that mine won't already be seperated and stashed away not to be touched under penalty of death, or at least bed without dessert.) The only trouble is, where does that leave Star Wars if Episode III sets have not come out yet? Well, when Episode II came out, they stopped making Episode I sets, and I'll bet that Lego will stop making Episode II sets once Episode III is out. That only leaves the classic trilogy, but for the most part Lego is only redesigning sets that came out in 1999/2000. So my strategy for the next three years (because the license expires in 2007) is to only collect Mini sets and Episode III sets. If they come out with something cool that there is no minifig scale set for yet, like a TIE Interceptor, I might get it, but we'll see. As for UCS, I've got my Imperial Star Destroyer, X-Wing, TIE Interceptor and Rebel Blockade Runner. The only other UCS set I would want would be the Jedi Starfighter (it's currently my favourite ship), but I don't think Lego will make one. As for Technic Droids, I'm not sure that they'll have any setworthy new droids for Episode III (unless they do General Greivous), so again, we'll see what comes out.

So that leaves the question of money. Well, I have a couple things I can sell. First is the rest of my dive gear. I'm not sure if the tanks, hoses and broken regulator set is worth anything, but the computer should get me some cash. Also, I've decided to sell my Xbox on eBay. When I bought it, I remember saying that I'd sell it if I needed money, and it's come down to a choice between the Xbox and my Lego collection. The Xbox 2 will be out in a couple years, and the value of my Xbox will only go down. Whereas the value of my Lego will increase, so it's kind of a "duh" decision from a financial point of view. Furthermore, while the Xbox is paid for, I've played all my games, and I don't feel like replaying them, so to play new games will cost more money, either to rent or buy them, which makes getting rid of the Xbox a decision that will save me from spending money on at least a couple things that aren't Lego in the future. Hopefully, this will pay for the stuff I've just bought. As for what's left to bring my collection up to date for this year, there's only six sets, which are listed on my website at: http://www.geocities.com/bumbot/lego/wishchart.html. I'm sure I can leave those untill after Christmas for a few resons:
1: Maybe I'll get lucky and won't have to buy them for myself,
2: They're still relatively new (all released in 2003) and should be available for a little while longer, and most importantly
3: I should start buying presents for other people. Duh.

So that's it. After I've completed my Star Wars collection, no more new Lego for Steve. So what will I do then? Well, I've got tons of sets to rotate displays throughout the year, many bricks are in mint condition and can be dispersed into my building bricks for getting back into making my own models again, and ultimately, I don't have to totally give up collecting sets I don't own. I've always liked going through bricklink and looking at sets that would fill out incomplete themes for me (like M-Tron or Blacktron 2), but I've only ever bought a couple of the smaller ones because I had more current sets to track down. But once I'm no longer adding new sets to my collection each year, I can finally begin to hunt this more elusive game, which will be more expensive, but it will be a finite goal, which I can spread out over years, thus only spending a little money at a time. And once I have children of my own, I can buy Lego for them, stalking prey to present to my offspring, and watch them love and enjoy Lego the way I did as a child.

The Great White (bargain) Hunter shall soon slow down his activities, but need never retire.

Yesterday was a good day. The previous day I had purchased the UCS Rebel Blockade Runner and Cloud City playset, and yesterday morning I found the invoice in my inbox. I paid immediately using Paypal, and was happy to discover that the exchange rate for that day was 81%. After shipping and exchange the total was just under $280 Canadian, and if I had bought those sets from the online Lego shop I would have paid $450 Canadian before shipping and taxes. Woot! Then I went to the Star Wars website and watched the Episode III trailer, since it was the first day it was available to people who aren't Hyperspace members. It was cool. I went to work, and wound up being the first person to work on a new machine that punches out coasters. Not exactly fun, but a change from the job I usually do, and I was working by myself, which I enjoy because I can go at my own pace and I don't have to try and be pleasant (as opposed to spacing out and thinking about the implications of the Star Wars Episode III trailer.) Carl, who is a lead hand at work stopped by to see the new machine in action, and he is also a Star Wars fan, so we had a short conversation that went like this:

Carl: Hey Steve, {tech}.

Steve: {tech}.

Carl: {tech}.

Steve: Hey, have you seen the new Episode III trailer yet?

Carl: (Makes an inquisitive grunt like Tim Allen.) Well, I saw the little thing on Episode III that's on the box set DVD, but I haven't seen a trailer.

Steve: It just came out today on the Star Wars website.

Carl: ...I'll be in my office. (exit)

After work I picked up groceries, then went to Royal City Centre to buy tickets for the Trews tomorrow night, and came home. Jenn and I had chicken noodle soup and pizza pretzels for dinner (man, was that good) and Derek and Tim came by to visit. And it was good.

Specifically, I need a pith helmet for when I am being the Great White (bargain) Hunter. Yes, today I left the apartment in hot pursuit of that rare game, the Lego bargain. You see, on monday, I was in the Toys R Us and caught the trail of a BOGO* on Spiderman and Harry Potter sets. The trick with BOGO's (for Lego, anyway), is to get two sets which cost around the same amount, since the cheaper of the two is 50% off. There was one Spiderman and one Harry Potter set that I wanted to capture, both going for $30, but alas, only one was in stock. Tuesday I checked in Metrotown, but again, only one of the two was there. Today, I caught wind of some clearance items in Zellers from FBTB**, and since I was going to the Save-on-Foods and Canadian Tire in Whalley anyways, I decided I would stalk through the Toys R Us and Zellers in those vicinities. First the Zellers. I parked far from the entrance, lest my motorcar's engine should spook my quarry. Quickly, but with little noise, I made my way to the Lego Aisle, whereupon I spotted the Hailfire Droid, labeled as being marked down to $34 from $69. I took a moment to find a box whose hide was intact, and snatched it up. The commotion must have scared away my other prize, for the Super Battle Droid was nowhere to be found. No matter. I took my capture to the till, where it rung up for $17! Apparently, the 50% off discount price was on sale for 50% off! I resolved that I would find that other Droid, and recalled seeing one at the Zellers up the hill from the very place in which I reside, and was off to the Toys R Us. My prey had hidden itself well, camouflaged among similar boxes, but not well enough to elude my seasoned eyes, and I quickly bagged both Knockturn Alley and Spiderman's first Chase (which has the model of the same car that was used in the Evil Dead trilogy). I noticed that Knockturn Alley had been reduced before the sale, and once again my savings surpassed my expectations. I allowed myself a brief reprieve from the hunt, and purchased groceries, bicycle parts and beer, but it wasn't long before I found myself back in New Westminster, prowling for my last prize of the day. Because of its proximity to my home, this particular territory of unpurchased Lego is very familiar to me, and the Super Battle Droid seemed to know it had no chance of eluding me this time, and simply lay inert as I confidently approached and grasped it by the side, hefting it into my clutches. I wondered if the 75% off I received at the other Zellers had been a mistake, but I was shown the truth of the matter when at the till I was charged $12.50 for a set originally worth $50. Thus, I returned home triumphant and victorious, my heart swollen with joy and pride at my accomplishments. Who says being an AFOL*** is boring? Not I!

* "Buy One, Get One" type sale
** From Bricks To Bothans, a Star Wars Lego fan site
***Adult Fan Of Lego

PORT ALBERNI:

Monday night, after I blogged, I ordered the last of the Orient Expedition sets I needed to finish the collection from the Lego website. At 50% off, I kind of figured I had to. I stayed up kind of late getting packed, which was good because I was in a real rush tuesday. I came home from work, had some dinner, sold my gear, showered, loaded up the car, deposited my cash, came back for forgetten directions, all within an hour. Jenn and I wound up being early to the ferry, which was good. After the ferry, the drive was long, wet, and boring. We arrived around 1am, and I crashed pretty much immediately, having only been up for 20 hours. Despite this, the bed was so uncomfortable I was awake at 7:30 the next day, and that was that. Steve (Jenn's dad) gave us the grand tour, and we went into town to check stuff out. It was very much the typical small town. We went to the pub in the quay for lunch, where I was feeling bold enough to try eating a hamburger. It arrived, and the patty was really thick, so I had to ask for a steak knife. Even cutting off small pieces, it proved to be quite a task, and I think it took me around half an hour to eat it. That evening I took a stroll around the property, had some dinner, and Steve, Robin, Jenn and I played Creationary (see Jenn's blog for details). Thursday morning we left really quick so as to see my aunt in Nanaimo before boarding the ferry. We only got to visit for an hour, but it was nice to see her and she gave us some chicken salad sandwiches for the ferry that were quite delicious. We came home, and Jenn had plenty of time to prepare for work, ending our island oddysey.

AGAIN WITH THE CRACK:

So last night, I was woken up by my cell phone ringing. It was Kevin, from the A shift at work, obviously drunk out of his gord, and proclaiming it openly. I wasn't sure what he was after, but he started calling me an idiot, so I let him go and went back to sleep. Shortly thereafter, Carl, the lead hand, called me and told me Kevin had been murdered. "Oh no!" I said. Carl went on to explain Kevin had been murdered by his own mustache, as he was so blind drunk that he passed out and suffocated on it. In fact, Carl had been concerned for his safety, and had put Kevin up to calling me and insulting me so that I would go over to his apartment (as, unbeknownst to me, Kevin lives in the same building as I do!), seeking to pick a fight, but instead keeping him safe. Carl demanded to know what kind of coward I was that I wouldn't protect my honour, so I explained that while I was sorry Kevin was dead, I don't pick fights with people who don't know what they're saying, and if I had known he was in danger I would have gone only to help. That ended the conversation, but it was very difficult to get back to sleep, thinking that I could have just half an hour ago prevented the death of someone I knew. This morning I woke up not wanting to go to work and look Carl in the eye, then I wondered if I had dreamed it, because why on earth wouldn't Carl just ask me to look in on Kevin? Then I realized that there is no Kevin on the A shift, let alone one with a mustache, let alone one that lives in my building. Finally, I checked the call log on my cell. No calls last night. Definately a dream.

FRIENDLY NEIGHBOURHOOD SPIDERMAN:

I've been watching my brother's copy of the old Spiderman cartoons, just a couple to unwind before bed. Despite their crappiness, they make me want to do a supers roleplaying game, as does every other superhero show I watch. But I can't get plots together. People can't get together. Some of my friends are GURPophobic. Then I realized that if I formatted the game like a Silver Age superhero cartoon, with ridiculous villians, terrible dialogue, and predictable plots, I could use TOON to play a supers game, and details like what was actually happening and character continuity would be irrelevant! I'll pitch the idea to tea (through Jenn or a note) and see if anyone besides Rick bites.

Yesterday was the first annual official vampire day in Brazil. Why? Because only 2% of the poplulation gives blood, and the government figured this would help.

Boy, long time no update, huh? Nothing much to report really. The Leo party was fun, although I showed up late because I was busy assembling the Wild West, and drinking ensued. Drinking was followed by drunken dream. It was the day of the wedding for Jenn and I. Dinner was over and it was time for Jenn and I to cut the cake, but Jenn was somewhere else. The head cook dude told me that this cake was supposed to be tart, but how tart it was could be adjusted immediately before being served, so after cutting and tasting the cake, we would position our plate a certain way to indicate how we wanted the tartness adjusted. Then he showed me the cake, and it looked like it was made from equal parts bread pudding and boiled peas. I ran off to find Jenn, told her what was going on, and asked if she knew anything about it. She told me that she had requested a Soggy Cake (what, you've never heard of that? it's traditional british type thing), and the lady she had spoken to brusquely said "we'll give you (this), and it will cost (this)".

I woke up and had waffles. Tea was supposed to be cancelled, but it happened anyway.

Wednsday Jenn, Derek, Rick, Sean, Colin and I met up for fish and chips at Cockney King's. It was good. Then we played Deadwood, using Wild West minifigs for pawns. We had to stop early because I offered to drive Jenn to work, and on the way back I picked up the Lego Studios set with the webcam and movie software from Toys R Us, where it was marked down by $150. Unfortunately, the software is incompatible with Windows XP, but Lego has made new software and I'm just waiting to hear from them on how to get my hands on it.

Thursday night Jenn and I stayed in and rented Hellboy and Kitchen Stories. Hellboy was good, but Kitchen Stories was the movie of the night. Good old Norwegian art film on crack, about a swiss study on the kitchen habits of batchelors. My Dad must see this movie, so folks, if you're reading this, go rent it (it's a new release) and watch it together.

That's about it. Time for dinner.

Yep. I've put together the Rock Raiders, and they're on display now. I picked up a new Lego set I bought for parts online from my folk's place, and I've found and ordered a few more sets/parts, and ordered Star Wars Tales 17, 18 & 20 (I have to find 19 with an art cover somewhere else.) I baked cookies with white chocolate chips and rootbeer flavoured jelly beans. I found Bicentennial Man (book) for cheap. And guess what! I played more KOTOR! It's actually kind of handy, gives me something to do while I'm waiting for laundry, or instead of sleeping. Meh.

Last night I went to Jenn's and we watched A Mighty Wind. I'd seen it before, but it was worth seeing again. This morning I booked a reservation for our honeymoon at Oyster Bay Resort. Then Jenn and I went to Metrotown and watched Shrek 2. It was funny. I want to say more, but I can't discuss the interesting stuff without giving away plot. Then we went to Toys R Us, where we saw Creationary, a pictionary type game using Lego bricks instead of sketches. We also picked up some bulk bricks for our collections (Lego for me, Duplo for her) and something for Jenn's nephew's birthday. Then I came home. I've decided to put more stuff on my website in the Lego section, which requires some LDraw work on my stunted little PC. So now I'm doing stuff while I'm waiting for renderings. I've already checked my Lotto numbers, and nothing came up, which was fortunate since I forgot to buy a ticket. I've also checked my email, and I've gotten a response to the problem I reported with my game. Basically, the response said that they wouldn't answer my question because they don't answer gameplay questions, so check the web for a walkthrough, or look at the support section of their website, or just read the manual. I read the manual and checked their website before sending in the problem, so now I've looked at walkthroughs. I am convinced that the game is messed up, so I'll try playing it once more before emailing tech support back and explaining what's going on in smaller words.