Burn, Chewie, Burn!

Along the lines of a previous post of Cheap Slivers Premium Deck, I found the Fire & Lightning Premium Deck at the Dungeon of Magic (located in the Royal Arcade, Bourke Street Mall, Melbourne City). This all relates to the game Magic: The Gathering (MTG).

In the same way the Slivers deck was cheaper than what I have seen before, the Fire & Lightning deck was also cheaper than I have seen before - being $30. In case you are wondering what the package looks like, here it is:
This led to an interesting revelation from Chewie. I was buying some cards to top up my deck when he accused me of cheating (while we were in the store).

I asked him "Why?"

He responded by saying I should have used my (customized) Kamigawa ninja deck as it was. I told him I built it myself by merging some pre-constructed decks with some of my own ideas. At this point is where the revelation struck Chewie - the game / deck is fully customizable to the way you want to play it. He tried to make an argument that I should have played the deck as it was (again). I said I could not as it has already been altered. At this point, the store attendant suggested to Chewie that he could also customize his game by purchasing some of the products he had for sale.

So, to be "fair" until Chewie gets a better understanding of the game, I will use either the Fire & Lightning deck or the Slivers deck on him "out of the box". Any other suggestions on how to be fair?

A carton of Quai54s

In a follow up to Quai54s, here is an image of the shoes before I disposed them:

I only took this picture, as I rarely buy the same shoe more than twice. I have bought some of my favorite shoes, in quantities of two, as I find myself liking an item (and this does not directly apply to shoes), then finding out a few years later on that I would like another item, but they no longer produce them.

In the case of this particular shoe, I was far from impressed by it. I do not appreciate the look for the Air Jordan V, and I did not like the colour scheme employed by this shoe. If other people like this shoe's look, then that is fine with me too. I do not have an issue with that - I will not judge or discriminate against your tastes or choices. This particular shoe is not the shoe for me.

Cheap Slivers Premium deck for MTG

I have been on hiatus from playing Magic: The Gathering (MTG) for a few months. Jarvo is busy doing what he's doing, and KittyKat has lost interest in playing with her current deck, and finds no time to make up a new one. Step in Chewie.

Chewie asked me about the game a few weeks ago, and I finally dug up some decks I have played with. One is my usual deck (blue and black ninjas), and the other is KittyKat's deck (with the annoying Chaos Confetti strategy). Chewie did not have a deck, so we went off to the Dungeon of Magic (located in the Royal Arcade, Bourke Street Mall, Melbourne City) to pick up a starter pack for himself.

That is where I stumbled upon this:

This is the MTG Slivers Premium Deck (click on the link to have a look at the card list). When it was first released in Australia, it retailed for $55. Currently on ebay.com you can find them from $40 and upwards - and that does not take into account shipping. The price at Dungeon of Magic is $30. That is a brand new box - not second hand. You can find about 3 or 4 of the cards in there that sell singly for around $10. This is great value, and if you play MTG, do pop on in to take advantage of this special.

As for the future, when Chewie gets up to speed, I'll blog about some of the games we have.

Is Nike toying with their sneaker buyers?

This article is not about a particular shoe, but more about getting shoes in Australia. When I'm referring to shoes, I am specifically referring to sports shoes - usually from Nike, and sometimes from Adidas, that are released in some parts of the world, but not in Australia.

To sum it up - "it's pathetic that Australia gets ignored for certain shoe releases". I currently have a appreciation and a hatred for the shoe resellers. I'm mainly talking about the people that camp out in front of shoe stores when certain limited releases occur, and buy shoes only to sell them later for a marked up profit.

Take for example, the Air Jordan XIII - Ray Allen PE. This shoe retailed for USD$175 in the United States of America. Apparently there were stories that it was going to be a limited release of around 2561 shoes - to coincide with the 3 point record breaking of Ray Allen. People camped out for this shoe, and in some cases, 4 days in advance. I would like to have this shoe, being a long time supporter of the Boston Celtics, but I am not willing to pay the $500+ prices that some people are trying to charge for this shoe. I have even seen in some ebay entries prices of $1100+. This is totally insane.

While these resellers make a massive markup on these types of shoes, the unfortunate truth is that sometimes, being in Australia, you have to deal with them to get shoes that the major sports goods companies do not bring over here.

Something else I would like to make a note of is the amount that has been released. Initially the shoe was set to release in Miami and Boston only. Then it released in some European shoe stores. Then it released in Hong Kong. For such a limited release, it has had a very international market. From my rough calculations, there is still around 1800+ shoes that have not been accounted for. I hope that Nike is going to release these shoes in Australia, in the similar fashion that the Quai54s were originally a Europe-only release, that saw its way to Melbourne.

Otherwise,

WANTED:

• 2 x size US 11 Air Jordan XIII (13) - Ray Allen PE 414571-125
• 1 x size US 8 Air Jordan XIII (13) - Ray Allen PE 414571-125

Shipped to Melbourne, Australia.

All reasonable offers for sale will be considered!

Air Jordan V Quai54s

Art is associated with beauty, and as the saying goes "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". Art has a component of the subjective in appreciating it. This can also translate over to design. I have never been a big fan of all the Air Jordans that have come out, but I thought I would give these a chance to grow on me, being the Air Jordan V Retro - Quai 54.

I do have a pair of Air Jordan Is, VIs, a few VIIs, a XI, a few XIIIs, a 2009, a 2010, and a few 2011s. I am interested in getting some more, but the Vs were never apart of that interest.

There are essentially two versions of this shoe made for the Quai54 (a street basketball tournament that is usually held in Europe) - a white version (as shown below in the images), and a friends / family release being a black pair. The black pair is limited to around 50 to 60 pairs. This article is about the white pair, which was somewhat of a general release. These were initially going to be a Europe-only release, but for one reason or another, they found their way to Melbourne, Australia.

The shoe is a high quality leather Air Jordan V. The "23" on the outside heel is replaced by the Quai54 logo, but the rest of the shoe appears to remain true to the originals (with the exception of the word "Jordan" replacing the word "Nike" on the bottom of the outsole). The tongue is made out of 3M reflective material, which was initially designed to reflect camera flashes when photographers would take pictures of Michael Jordan in the motions of making a dunk. Quality was good, as the paint work appeared to be in the right areas, as well little to no excess glue found on the shoe where it was not supposed to be.

I cannot comment on how they feel as I never wore them. They were not very endearing for me (and I know this is opposed to the current opinion of them), so I decided to dispose of the shoes, but not before I took some pictures:

These shoes were obtained from the Footlocker on Swanston Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. If you would like to obtain them, you can try the Dead Stock Society web site - as the guys there may have some different sizes still in stock.

Rondo's 2011 Hyperfuse PE

The Hyperfuse shoe has influenced the way Nike has made shoes. The fused upper materials have appeared in other lines of shoes, and it sprang from the original Hyperfuse from 2010. This article is about the Nike Zoom Hyperfuse 2011 - Rondo PEs.

As mentioned in some of my previous articles on the Hyperfuse (being the original Hyperfuse in 2010, the Rondo PE Hyperfuse 2010, and the Rondo PE Hyperfuse 2010 Low), the upper is made from a fusing of 3 types of materials:

1. Stable base layer that acts like a skeleton for the shoe's upper.
2. Breathable mesh layer.
3. Durable outer skin layer to protect the shoe from scratches and damage.

It is a totally synthetic shoe.

The midsole is made up of phylon and a Zoom air pocket at the ball of the feet. It is comfortable, and from wearing this, Nike have fixed a minor problem with the 2010 version by making the 2011 Hyperfuse slightly wider. There was a lot of suggestions that the 2010 Hyperfuse was too narrow, and if people were buying it, to go half a size up. I would have to say that everyone's feet are different, and I found that it took about 3 weeks of wearing for the 2010 Hyperfuse to get truly comfortable. There is a less of a wear-in period with the 2011 Hyperfuse, as they feel comfortable immediately.

Other than that, the new 2011 model feels slightly heavier (as I have not weighed it properly on scales), and the upper of the shoe is slightly different. The mesh windows have been rearranged, and there appears to be more arch support on the outside of the shoe. This might be a way to give extra lateral support to what is already provided by the outriggers on each shoe. The traction feels about the same as the previous model.

These shoes were obtained from the Footlocker on Swanston Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

IE users not that smart

In an interesting article on mashable.com - it appears that users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer have a lower IQ than users of other browsers.

Who would have thought this?

I do not know of how reputable the survey was, but I offer some insight to the article's findings. If you make something for the masses, by the law of averages, you are going to have a mix of smart people, average people, and not so smart people use it. This will "even" out any sample and mean that what you have is a typical indication of IQ in this case. Make something more obscure, and not readily available, and only people that read and are willing to learn will try things.

Therefore, it may make some sense that Microsoft's IE average users are lower in IQ (over a large survey spread), than people that use Firefox, Chrome, or even Opera, and Camino.

The best thing this survey does show is that we are not forced to use only one browser, but everyone has a choice.

Apparently, the survey has been labelled as a hoax, but it still has me appreciating browser choice!