Anthony Malloy

If I ever write a story it will start like this.

The little building, square, squat, red tiles on its roof, had sat on the same patch of land for longer than anyone knew.

There were houses across the way, a park behind. Someone at some time had even decided to build a railway that hadn?t been used in many years. Wild plants and weeds grew up from the stones along the tracks but the lawn around the building was neat. Aldon Fishely, who lived had lived in number 29 for most of his life, thought he saw someone mow it every now and then, maybe they had a blue truck, maybe it was black. His eyes weren?t so good and on dark days it was hard for him to tell.

The only sign of aging on the little building was the peeling remnants of letters above the green door. ?Department Of? was all they said, the second line long gone.

All of this had gone unnoticed for a very long time.

That is, until James saw the building. For James was a ten year old boy, and ten year old boys notice many things that others choose not to.

Fair enough, but why is then that whenever kids have problems with the computer they call out ‘Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad’?

I’ve succumbed to peer pressure. From a 6 year old.

We were shopping the other day when Phee ran up to me. “Dad, come quick. I have to show you something.” She had caught sight of an optical mouse that glowed red. She picked it up and turned it over, mesmerised. “This is cool Dad.”

I tried to tell her that a tablet would be cooler but she was having none of that and ran off to find her mum to drag her back for a look.

So yesterday, in a concession to my aching wrist, I lashed out and bought a brand new optical mouse – one that glows. This morning I drag her out bed and in to the office. “Look Phee, a cool mouse.”

She picks it, smiles, turns it over and then turns to Rae’s computer, the one she will be allowed to use once I get her games installed.

“No Phee, you’re not getting one.”

It seems a glow in the dark cool mouse is only cool if you get to have one. She turned away and headed straight back to bed.

Given my stunning success with Donkey Kong, Rae leapt in to action this evening and went crazy on sold.com.au. If you want to see our sordid past in vhs, check out the 41 videos we have for sale.

Of course all the bad ones are Rae’s.

Can someone explain to me why, as of this minute, someone out there is prepared to spend $66 on a 21 year old computer game?

I must be missing something.

I’m sitting here watching my office mate peering at his computer screen through a magnifying glass in an attempt to read some small text on a graphic.

Whilst glasses would allow him to see it seems they would ruin his ‘image’. When your image is widely held to be a tragic, socially inept, desperate middle aged man you have to wonder why it’s worth maintaining.

And thanks to The Devil’s Advocate (imdb | buy at amazon | netflix) for the title to this entry.

I love ebay.

You can all put your wallets away. With three days to go both Singing In The Rain and Donkey Kong have bids. Donkey Kong went from $26 to $46 (what’s that in real money?) overnight and someone is willing to pay at least $10 for the DVD.

Time to raid the cupboards and see what other junk people may want.

If happiness is a good sleep in, a full line of dry washing, an old PC formatted, reinstalled and updated for Rae’s studies, coffee out, a roast dinner, a good game of hockey, beer in the fridge, a visit from a friend, two content cats, fresh sheets, a good hockey team and two Law and Order episodes to come this evening then, I guess, I’m pretty happy.

Buy my Nintendo Game & Watch Donkey Kong Multi Screen. Go on, you know you want to.

All proceeds will go to a good home. And in that home will be a new television.

While your at, buy our old copy of Singin In The Rain.

Curse this month of February and its 28 days. Today is day 28 which means we’ve reached the deadline.

I bought Rae a calander for Christmas that features a classic movie poster each month and this months is Casablanca (IMDB | Buy at Amazon | Netflix). We tried watching it a couple of weeks ago but fell asleep (just how old are we?) so tonight we’re going to start it straight after dinner.

Next month will be easy – its Singin’ In The Rain (imdb | buy at amazon | netflix) and seeing as how we just bought the 2 DVD Special Edition packed with extra features we’ll probably get March done on the 1st.