I love my dead grey console: part 2

Before I launch into today's segment, knoweth, reader, mine servitude to the Finnish Navy was completed several weeks ago. & w/ nearly six years of back pay in markaa in hand, I have granted myself a short sabbatical¹.

W/ amplitudes of time, I've picked up the practice, gleened from Fat's retail binges, of popping by the closest Goodwill w/ regularity. The primary target of this exercise has obstentively been cartridges for my pink pearl GameBoyAdvance, but, as these things will go, my net has harvested many other peanuts of the sea.

Bad news first, tho. Let's talk about the one that got away. Last week Portland was in its last heaves of what can only be called a Indian Summer. W/ a bicycle sewn together from spare parts, I hit the road, making a decent 5 mile loop w/ a final stop at the Goodwill². I'm not looking for anything particular other than aforementioned GBA cartridges. I wander the aisles 1st - selecting a few knick-knacks - before checking the glass cabinets where they keep stuff like, uh, 3 DrillDozers in thier boxes, clearly still shrinkwrapped... Okay, what else?

What's that in that bag? Oh, a Dreamcast w/ all the cables & controllers, priced for $29.99.

The sight of this, frankly, floored me. I stood there, nervously shuffling, for about 20 seconds, before retreating to the checkout line w/ my previously selected items. This clumsy response proved totally idiotic, because tho' I decided (rather quickly) I should buy the Dreamcast regardless of whether I would actually ever play it, it took me a full three days to get back to the Goodwill, by which time, of course, it was gone.

Somewhat crestfallen, I sulked into the aisles. Only to discover a PSOne for $9.99! Albeit it had no cables & the top lid seemed a little wonky. But hey, what's a Hamilton in the name of science? I've always wanted one of these! A trip to the book aisle then yields a new copy of the canonical Breaks of the Game. I round out my trifecta by grabbing one of those still-in-box DrillDozers for $9.99.



"But D.D.," you may ask, "don't you already have a Playstation?"

I do. But the sentimental SD Ultraman-stencil-adorned grey box hath been retired to a shelf above my window, flanked by Stikfas & other plastic forms of escape.


Besides, the PSOne is a fourth of the size of the original Playstation, & the PSOne is just so damn SLICK³.

-d.d.

¹ Or "practice retirement," if you will.
² A glorious day! The kind made for errand-running. Borrowed photos returned to a comrade. A trip to Fred Meyer's for publishing supplies. A visit to the CD/Game Exchange on Hawthorne (better than EB et al.) where I scored a much needed GBA-to-GBA/Gamecube cable. From there a liesurely ride down Harrison/Lincoln to the goodwill.
³ Also of note: the PSOne has the other potentials of an optional LCD screen & a battery pack making it portable. These will cost $, but assuming this little PSOne does, in fact, work, then at least my foots in the door for a measely Hamilton.