16th of Blaugust - N - Nineties

I was born in the late eighties so the nineties were when I spent my childhood.

It was an exciting time where our society was changing. Analogue technology was still heavily used but was being phased out in favour of digital. Computers were still a novelty in our home at the start of the decade but was becoming essential to our everyday lives by the end of it. Most of us didn't even know what internet was in 1990 but it exploded to become something huge and fascinating. And that was on dialup speeds! I didn't have a CD player until 1997 relying on cassettes and records. It was around that time that my dad had been provided with a laptop and mobile phone from his employer. I still remember the phone. It was a Nokia 2110.

Yes, that is a pull out antenna. It didn't even have snake on it!

TV in the nineties was exciting as well. After I moved house in 1996 there was a rule of no more morning cartoons before school because before that it was almost impossible to get me away from the TV. That was because of Agro's Cartoon connection.

Yes, that's a Sailor Moon themed dress up!

Another show I was addicted to (and am even embarrassed to tell you now) was the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

So that was a glimpse into that marvellous time in my childhood, the nineteen nineties!

15th of Blaugust - M - Mahjong

Not much text to this one because I have classes and will being too busy also playing Japanese Riichi Mahjong. So I thought I would share a brilliant comprehensive resource for playing Riichi Mahjong. A warning though. All four videos easily add up to an excess of 3 and a half hours.

And now for part 2:

And now for part 3:

And finally part 4:

So there we go. Hopefully you know the whole game inside out. Although we preper to follow this sheet of Yaku which one of our fellow Blaugusters has compiled. So now you should be versed enough to play Mahjong in Adelaide.

But one word of caution: DO NOT EVER LET ANYONE CONVINCE YOU TO USE FLOWERS! EVER!

14 of Blaugust - L - Last Week Tonight

After Game of Thrones had wrapped up for another year there was a vacancy left in my Monday evenings. Before then it used to be a ritual. I'd get home from my Tafe class (usually an hour early because I had finished all the work) then go fetch the latest Game of Thrones from some corner of the internet (there was no way I giving a cent of my money to Foxtel after their attempt of extortion), sit back relax and watch some slaying and debauchery. Wheat was I going to do with my time after it was all over? Eventually I stumbled upon a few YouTube vids of another HBO show hosted by John Oliver (who used to appear on The Daily Show with John Stewart). The most famous one being it's roast of our Prime Minister, Tony Abbot.

It pipped my interest that this might be a show worth catching up on and I am so I grabbed every episode I could find and started watching Last Week Tonight. It's a weekly half our current events comedy programme where the host John Oliver has been allowed a free reign to cover whatever he likes. I like the approach he has taken by using comedy to highlight some really important issues that are happening in the world. He even had the guts to cover both the death penalty and poor prison conditions in the US. Here is his segment on Net Neutrality that shows exactly how deep the influence of how the government is deep in the cable internet companies pockets.

Here is his perfect summary of the climate change debate.

In the latest episode John Oliver did turned his focus on the Payday Loan system and how it exploits the vulnerable.

I highly suggest that you watch this series as it highlights many things that are wrong in our society and also doesn't treat their viewers like complete idiots. We don't need mind numbing faff to entertain us at all. It's definitely filled my Game of Thrones void. If you know how to get many US shows and don't exactly care of the legalities then go ahead and get them. If you want to take the safe route, then a huge amount of segments are on the official YouTube channel.

13th of Blaugust - K - K'nex thing I won on Sunday

On Sunday night I was at Ultracade, which was kinda cool. It was a game themed night at the La Boheme Cocktail bar complete with gaming themed music and retro tournaments. I managed to come second in the Super Mario Kart tournament and so I managed to score this with compliments to Shin Tokyo.

It's quite clearly a K'nex Mario Kart Wii motorcycle and because I was hard stretched to find something beginning with K to blog about it seemed to fit the mould. So I thought I would put it together step by step and you could all follow along.

Step 1: Put what clearly look like Lego bricks together.

Step 2: Add another layer of clearly-not-Lego bricks.

Step 3: Now we have some actual K'nex pieces. Make sure you attach that wheel good and proper!

Step 4: Attach giant moulded plastic bit to rear wheel bit. Don't forget your exhaust pipe.

Step 5: Now we attach front wheel to the ready supplied front section. Attach front section to back. Don't forget the handle bars.

Step 6: Put the Mario minifig-rip-off on your bike.

Step 7 (Not labeled as a step but it really should be): Attach your stickers and congratulations! You're done!

All in all it wasn't that hard to put together and felt more like Lego than a K'nex set. Is Lego really that popular that an already established toy brand has to rip them off?

Well that's another one down. Tune in tomorrow where I discuss a new show that I've been really into of late.