I stopped by Toys R Us the other day and found out they had a deal on Nintendo DS games. It was a buy two get one free deal. I thought to myself, “Cool! I’m sure there are a few that I’ve been looking to get”. I looked around and lo and behold the bargain bin had some nice choices and the deal held true even with the clearanced stuff. I decided to snag up Fantastic Four for the PS3 as well as Magical Starsign and Children of Mana for the DS. I couldn’t decide on a third game for the freebee so I went to the non discounted shelves and picked up Nanostray 2. I had been eyeing it for a while and so I figured it would be a good time to get it. All of these were a great deal but to top it all off, I found out at the register that the clearanced items were an additional 20% off so I ended up getting Fantastic Four for $8, Nanostray for the standard $20, Children of Mana for $8 and Magical Starsign for free! So with tax and all I left there with 4 games for less than $40. I’m pleased

Ok this has actually been completed for about a month now but there still seems to be way more on my plate than I had expected. This is really the first time that I’ve had time to blog about anything in a while.

I’m pretty proud of this accomplishment and I’m quite glad that I didn’t have any basement flooding issues. That would have been devastating considering the nature of this project. This is the first time that most of my collection has been on display as opposed to tucked away in plastic tubs. The tubs were great but it’s really hard to box up what you are really proud of. Things like this need to be displayed appropriately. As of now, this is the best I can do but I plan to expand this at some point down the road. When I get a newer/bigger house and can dedicate an entire room to gaming memorabilia, I’ll definitely expand the collection and display.

The pic above was taken from Union Park in Des Moines. You can see the wall that was built to hold in the water. I’d be pretty frightened if I lived just to the north of this wall. As you could imagine, if that wall fails, there’s gonna be a lot of unhappy people. Not to mention they would all be homeless.

I was not living here for the flood of 1993 but I hear that this year it is supposed to be worse. It’s pretty crazy to see how high the water is by roads that I frequent. At times it seems like I’m driving from one island to another since there is water on both sides of the interstate. I’m actually one of the lucky ones. I’ve had no water problems in my basement nor do the floodwaters impair my trips to and from work. To me it’s almost as if none of this is happening. It’s unfortunate to know that there are people out of homes because of the flood and there are many at a loss of personal possessions. What’s even crazier is that I have overheard people talking of end of days. Now I’m sure these people are somewhat on the chemically imbalanced side but it has made me pause to think about it. Anyway I just hope that things get better sooner than later. Even if it passes quickly, there is gonna be a huge mess to clean up

This will probably be the last update for the Basement since it’s actually finished. I may take some final setup snapshots with furniture and all later on but for now this is what I got. I tell you what… It’s great that I’m finished with this big project. Now I can actually get back to gaming in my spare time or what little spare time I have. There is definitely a weight lifted from my shoulders and there is a huuuuuge sense of accomplishment! I’ve never done anything like this before and I don’t think I did such a bad job. For the time being, big projects are not gonna happen. I’ll do little things like faucets and door knobs

Quick and dirty update. Everything is primed and ready for paint. Soon enough the electrician will install all of the receptacles and we should be good to go! I’ll finally be able to piece together my IKEA game cabinets and have my collection displayed as it should be.

All I can say is… don’t expect any updates soon

I finally managed to take a minute to do something else besides work and house chores! That in itself is amazing but I actually was able to go and enjoy the weather for a little bit. I went hunting for morels for the first time this season. Weather hasn’t been ideal lately but it seems that there are some that are growing. Unfortunately the ones that I found are tiny. All of them were about thumb sized. I only found enough to make a small snack but I’m hoping that I’ll be able to sneak out again later this week and get some decent sized ones. Well wish me luck!

Time has been scarce and projects have gone slow. The most unfortunate thing is game time is almost nonexistent. Curses to big projects with strict time frames! Well here is the most updated snapshots of the progress. As you can see, the mudding is almost finished. I just need to go over everything to make sure there are no rough spots. I’m figuring I’ll need to do quite a bit of sanding. It’s not going to be good for my lungs or the house. I’m sure there will be a fine layer of dust over everything by the time I’m done. Ahh dusting. Something that I truly hate.

I will have to admit that when it comes to games on the 360, I’m a little late in the game. I’ve only had my 360 for about 2 months now and because of that, only now am I really getting to play some of the awesome games available for it. Gears of War would of course be one of these gems. I won’t bother reviewing this since it is a rather old game and I’m sure there are a billion reviews available. Just wanted to note that it’s one of the definite must haves for any 360 owner. I’m only through the first chapter but I’m truly enjoying the experience. The only thing that goofs me up sometimes is that I try to play the game like Halo but it doesn’t play that way. I guess I should stop going back and forth between multiple games eh? ;P

Ok I’m actually behind on the update but I kinda need to put this somewhere. These snapshots are of the basement with the drywall attached. It’s actually looking more like a livable space now.

The corner shown above is the planned placement for the TV and the game systems. I’m kind of unsure how the TV will fit in this space yet since I plan to hang it on the wall and the window may interfere with (tv mount) placement.

The snapshots above are from the soon to be office. It’s not much yet but it’s way better than what was previously there. The damned chandelier is gone so no more bruising my noggin on that piece of crap! None of the tape or mud is on these pics but I assure you that it’s in progress. I’ll have snapshots of that up soon. Well work beckons. Until next time.