I just got some nifty updates to my ever growing collections.

First off, last week I bought from my best friend an old working Odyssey 2 system. What is that you may ask? It's the sequel system to the very first interchangeable cartridge system, the Odyssey, from the Atari generation of consoles. It came in third, apparently, and considering just how many consoles came out at that age, that's quite an accomplishment. It tried to be a computer, having a built-in keyboard and a glut of edutainment games, but it has heart. Being an ancient system, it's a bit of a pain to set up, considering all it has is the old coaxial connection and all TVs but one have impossible to reach (or in the case of our main gaming TV, none) coaxial leads, so I can only play it on the one. For now. Once I have the proper connectors, it will be able to be played right next to the others.

So today we had a community yard sale. I love community yard sales. Especially one where games are involved. Because, really, those who sell old games at yard sales have no clue what they're really worth. Case in point, in this yard sale I got a whole glut of hard-to-find, valuable games. Super Mario All-Stars & Super Mario World, Goldeneye, Vagrant Story, Arc the Lad Collection, Tekken Advance, Half-Life, and an UNOPENED Star Ocean: The Second Story (which I'm going to try to sell for $150). All for the low price of FREE!. That's about $250 worth of games for nothing. She just wanted them out of her house, and since we're friendly with her she just gave them to us. Got a code book magazine circa 2001 as well. Gods I miss those.

Unfortunately there was this asshole who was also after the games, going so far as to take a pair right out of my hands (Super Mario World 2 and Mario Paint). I secreted those that I mentioned away as discreetly as possible. I get the last laugh because I get the $250 games for free and he had to pay money for a bunch of dirty sticker-covered games and systems.

Also bought an old Goosebumps book for 75 cents. And a free unopened Off the Wall album. Ah nostalgia.

Also went out and finally bought a pair of long boxes for my vast comic book collection. Six feet of pure comics. I'm actually somewhat surprised I actually fit them all in. But they're both stuffed to capacity and any new ones I get will not have room.

Ah addictive collecting. Isn't it just grand?

BONUS: Did you know that if you mix Diet Coke and apple juice it tastes like white wine without the bitter aftertaste?