When stuff just works a little bit- but not really.

Well, they say that things go down in threes. First it was the fridge, then the LCD monitor at Amber’s shop and I have a funny feeling that there may indeed be a third thing to come. I don’t want to tempt fate however by saying that everything else is fine…OMG, there I go. My boss is always saying that I mozz myself by saying that it’ll be a piece of cake. I must admit, it seldom is when I say this.

Well hands up who remembers this game?
This used to be at the Barwick Place Shops when I was in early years at Moe High School. Fantastic fun this one. From memory, it had two joysticks for controllers instead of buttons. Another game we spent mums hard earned cash on was this one… Double Dragon. A classic beat em up that had everyone spending up big time. It was at the Elizabeth St. Fish ‘n’ Chip Shop where again, mums hard earned cash gave us important life skills such as avoidance of cargo boxes thrown by Mr T. look-alikes, or the evasion skills required to beat up top heavy, whip-toting crack whores and their knife throwing pimps. Ahhh, those were the days, when good old fashioned values were hard-coded into arcade machines for the benefit of a brighter future.


Alas, I detect a touch of cynacism in you my young padawan. -Ok then, maybe arcade games are not as educational as I would like to think, but at least arcade games have a strong social element:-) BS I hear you say. well you see, we would virtually line up waiting for a turn on these games, but we'd be 'shooting the breeze' while we did it. You know talking about stuff or giving advice on how to get through the next level. Good fun it was. Better than hanging around on the streets I suppose.

I especially liked the games like 'Bad Dudes Versus Dragon-Ninja" A timeless classic if there ever was one. There were a couple of games around that had laserdisk technology like 'Dragon's Lair' but they were very expensive to play. Now they say we are going through a console revolution where the next craze of video entertainment is in XBox 360's or Playstation 3. For my retrospective taste, I only hope that game developers are able to preserve some of the elements that made up the old style gaming revolution. Yeah the graphics were crap, but they had style.They had um...dare I say... playability. And not only that, you could say that their replay value was high as well. But thats enough on video games for now.


Well I had a crack at repairing the Scrap To The Max LCD monitor today. I removed the screws from the bezel and proceded to do the only thing that I could. Stare blankly at the PC Board and its connectors... Crikey Moses, now what??? I sat in contemplative mood. Should I check this or that, or should I pull this thing off and... You know what I mean. There's not much that you can do with a printed circuit board and even less with a Liquid Crystal Display. After rigorous unplugging and replugging of anything that would come off, out or be physically jiggled in any direction, I happily began the task of putting it back together. There is always an overwhelming sense of achievement that goes along with pulling shit apart. And occasionally, there is the added satisfaction of knowing that you made that all important difference....

Violla, It looked like its former self. It was still beige, still stood upright, and as I plugged it in, it still made that unmistakable electrical crackle that you sometimes get with these things. Now let me check........yep no screws left over, no parts left behind and unfortunately... absolutely no difference to the state of things either. Damn! 30 minutes wasted on this stupid f@@@#ng thing. Ahh well. It was worth a try. Perhaps I might give it another look tomorrow. Well thats enough ranting and raving from me today, see you again tomorrow. (unless I see you again tonight) Bye!