My little corner of the internet to celebrate the things I love. Ok, in all honesty it’s because no one will listen to me rant about superheroes and spaceships for any longer than 2 minutes at work. So, yeah…
I’ve loved tattoos since I was a kid. Not sure what specifically drew me to them but by 17 I got my first. I thought it would be fun to post about some of my favourites here.
These are from the last 10 years. I’ll update in the future with my older ones but for now it’s a fun place to share.
Just found a pic of my very first tattoo.
As always, thanks for reading.
Great question! thanks for asking… wait, no one was asking? Well fine, I’ll continue talking to myself…
The Geek Room is a collection of well… geeky things in my life. Video game culture, comic book, pop-culture, tattoos, doodle. You name, it will probably be mentioned on this page. The Geek Room is also what we called our basement TV-room years ago when Zombie and I started collecting. In a way, it’s the room that saved me from myself and gave me direction.
So first let’s introduce you to the room itself. Although I plan to go into greater detail in the future let’s look at how it started and where it is now.
It’s a weird little panoramic shot but you can see the beginnings starting to take shape. The Spider-Man poster on the left is the centerpiece of the room featuring my favourite artist’s most iconic cover (or at least one of). After my separation I hadn’t touched this room much, using it for Xbox and WiiU occasionally. When I returned home from work my father, who was visiting from Ontario, had hung the laminated artwork centred at the back of the room. My eyes lit-up when I saw it, inspiring ideas of how I could make this room a showcase for my hobbies and passions.
At the time of the picture I had just started collecting more physical media. You can see the old tube TV on the left on top of an old stereo tower that we’d had in my childhood home. Early on in collecting I’d longed for the consoles I had missed out on during my PC era; the Gamecube, PS2, and OG Xbox. I hadn’t missed out entirely on this era but I hadn’t owned those systems for long before trading them so it was time to rebuild my arsenal. I’ll speak about this in future articles but I was very lucky, starting my collecting a couple of years before the pandemic, keeping costs low. (ie. paid aprox $30 each for the above hardware).
On the walls you can see the beginnings of artwork, mostly oddball items my Dad would pick up in discount bins in the States. He taught me to hunt for deals but he always supported my nerdy hobbies. If you look closely by the door you’ll see some “Light Guns” from various platforms adorning the wall like a small armory. I had always liked the idea of a room full of sci-fi and fantasy weapons and made gathering cheap accessories I could hang with Command Strips (those things are the best). A humble 50-something-inch TV sat looking small at the far end of the room.
The room hasn’t changed much in the last couple of years, small add-ons and collectibles are dropped in here on a semi-regular basis and admittedly we’ve run out of space and have started spreading the nerdiness around the house (Zombie’s suggestion, and a great one).
So that’s enough about the room itself, what about this page? Well here is where I want to talk about all that geekiness. Here I can go on and on about the release of a movie or game and I don’t have to worry about my audience’s eyes glazing over with detached interest. Here, I can argue about the correct order to watch the Star Wars films and, if I want, shut comments off because this is my domain.
Expect to see lots of posts about Loot Runs, our name for when we go out and get deals. I’ll expand this section to include artwork, design, photography, writing, and more over time and I hope, if you stumble across it, it will bring you a smile. I don’t expect everyone to be into the same things, but hopefully it will be a nice distraction to read about someone’s passions and perspectives (that sounds like an awful book title)
I’m still working out how to end these articles as they often dissolve into me rambling and forgetting why I started them. So until I do I’ll say:
Thanks as always for reading my fellow Internet Nomads, hope to see you again soon.
Yet another impulsive add-on to our collection comes thanks to our favourite local pawn shop. Sakuna of Rice and Ruin (Divine Edition) for the Switch. A little more than I normally like to spend but tax refund season is on and goddammit; I deserve it!
With a beautiful (and only slightly beat-up) shiny box including a 3-disc soundtrack, artbook, and collectible I couldn’t resist this $45 collectible.
Of course I immediately watched tons of reviews when I got home to relieve some of my buyer’s remorse. It’s a cutsie (yes, that’s a word now) game with side-scrolling action paired with farm simulator. As you can guess from the title the farming specifically involves rice and, according to the reviews, goes into great detail. Placement of seeds, water-levels, supporting wildlife, seasonal (yes, there are seasons) maintenance, harvesting, and preparing the rice are all detailed inclusions for this game mechanic. These somehow play into additional combat abilities too.
So, will I play it? Probably someday but it’s not high on my list of priorities with Zelda games taking up my time lately. But gosh-darnit it sure does look purdy up on the shelf!
As always, thanks for reading my Internet Nomads. Hope to see you again soon.
An unexpected visit to my favourite pawn shop this past Thursday resulted in some impulse purchases.
MechWarrior was a favourite series of mine back in my PC Gaming days, especially the Mercenary off-shoot because you could take on missions and loot fallen mechs for money and parts. At $20 I was happy to add to the collection despite knowing it will be an investment of time if I start playing. It’s too bad this game doesn’t have a PSVR2 mode. Can you imagine being inside the mech?
The second pick up was Freedom Fighters, a much-loved cult classic from the PS2/Xbox/GameCube era. I don’t have a large GameCube collection so adding this gem for $20 was a no-brainer.
As always, thanks for following my nerdy journey Internet Nomads. See you next time.
Here’s a couple of pick ups over the last week, most from Ontario
Zombie and I visited my parents in Ontario this past week for her March Break. We usually have some great meals and do some shopping on our visits and this one didn’t disappoint. During one of our previous visits we found a respectable pawn shop in town and easily convinced Grandma we had to go. They have a decent selection of Xbox One and PS4 games and it’s a great way to fill out some low-cost wishlist items. I found Assassin’s Creed Chronicles; a trilogy of side-scrolling games in the AC universe. Also picked up Mad Max, a game I digitally own but had on my pick-up list, always preferring a physical copy. These games were 2/$25 so $12.50 each (and no tax),
We also hit up the local GameStop, always fun because of the familiarity, but nice to see new discount bins and merch. I found Star Wars: Jedi Survivor for $25, a great price considering it runs $50 normally.
We were back in town ON Friday and decided to check a less frequented pawn shop. Not a bad visit here, I picked up Far Cry 6 (XboxOne) despite already owning it on PS5. My justification was the great price AND I owned all the other Far Cry titles on the Xbox platform.
Finally, at the Value Village in my parents’ town we found this unopened Carnage Lego. It was pricey ($99) but my dad used his seniors discount for %30 off (so $70) and I didn’t feel as guilty. THEN I checked online and found the set was discontinued and selling for, on average, $200 CDN. All in all, a great find. And yes, I opened it and am half-way through building it. What an awesome addition to our Geek Room.
Although we did many things on our trip, this summarizes the vacation loot we scored. As always, thanks for reading Internet Nomads!
Probably just as a means of managing my travel anxiety I impulsively bought something that I wanted but wasn’t sure I would spend this much on. But it is the deluxe edition with a steelbook, soundtrack, art book and that did tip the scales.
Presenting final Fantasy VII remake for the PS4.
Okay, at this point I feel like I need to make a confession in a Catholic church or something. I’ve never played final Fantasy 7. I’m well aware of its cultural significance and impact on future final Fantasy games as well as role-playing games in general. I’m aware that it’s almost always on top 10 lists of greatest games of all time. I’ve also emulated it on multiple devices in the past to give myself the opportunity to play it but have never actually sat down to do so. The announcement of a remaster came up many many years ago, I noted it but decided I wasn’t going to be an early adopter. I didn’t have that nostalgic sentiment that wanted to see the story retold through modern lenses. But it didn’t change the fact that it was on my bucket list of games in my life I’ve wanted to complete someday. When the new one was finally released I did what I always do, keep my eye on the prices at the second hand shops. So when we entered our regular haunt today and I spotted the Deluxe Edition sitting in the rack, in what I must say was a very good condition box, I grabbed it and continued browsing. Usually this is a sign that I’m thinking of picking something up but if I see something I want more I’ll put it back down. Nothing changed on this trip, there was nothing else I desperately wanted in the collection and said ah “Fuck it”, and picked it up.
As with any purchase of this price I have buyers remorse. It happens every time. I’m very glad to have this in my library and I’m planning to play it in the near future. From articles I’ve read having the physical PS4 version will entitle me to the Integrade upgrade for PS5 at no cost. That’s going to allow me to play it on the PlayStation portal in bed, greatly increasing the chances of me completing this game. We’ll see though after the trip, I still have Far Cry 4 to complete.
As always, thanks for reading Internet Nomads, see you next time.
As my father would say, today was “light duty”. Got the basic errands done and stopped by the pawn shop to browse. Picked up these for a great price.
$2 for Assassin’s Unity was an easy buy. I picked it up years ago digital for, and I remember this specifically, $1.87. But I have so many physical Assassins’ games this was a no-brainer to add to the library. Dishonored: Death of the Outsider came about partially because my daughter convinced me to watch Arcane on Netflix. That art style and aesthetic reminded me of the Dishonored series. At $6 I said, why not?
This brings the Xbox one collection to 96 physical titles. I’m not specifically chasing numbers but I’m so close to 100 that I’ve been watching for Xbox One titles on the cheap. It seems to be a really good time for it.
wickedchadwick 
You must be logged in to post a comment.