Noriel's Time Killers


This is what happens when you don't have a job and have too much time on your hands

Well, well, well -- there you are at home with nothing to do. Yeah, you could study, but who wants to do that? I don't have a job right now, so the only logical thing to do is to waste time. Granted, I waste a lot of time just watching TV and going online, but those are too easy. I at least want to waste some quality time, you know?
Oh yeah, I can't forget the most important rule about wasting time:

WASTING TIME NEED NEVER MEAN WASTING MONEY!


Here's a list of time killers I employ:

Hotwheels Collectible Card Games
Heavy Gear Scanners
Designing Web Pages

Collect Hotwheels

Do you remember those little cars that you used to destroy when you were little? I used to have a field day just rolling them at each other at full speed. I was always satisfied to hear that metal to metal noise. Wouldn't you know it, these little die-cast buggers are actually worth some money! I couldn't believe it when I saw it. Hell, I love collecting things and these are pretty much universally found. I never knew that there were different series and different first-edition releases when I was a kid, but now I know what to look for. I never knew how addicting these little cars were until I went out with my roomate to a Wal-Mart at three o'clock in the morning and wound up coming home with 20 cars! Hell, these things only cost about 74 cents, why not load up on them? I now have over 150 cars that I have displayed on the walls of my bedroom. Perhaps one day I'll have a picture of them on this page. All I can tell you is that searching through a whole rack of Hotwheels for the first time is very satisfying because all of the cars will be new to you. When you've been collecting for a while, however, you may start to get a little annoyed at the slim pickings left behind by the scummy collector/scalpers that have beaten you to all the rare cars on the racks. To get you started, check out the Hotwheels web page. There they have pictures of some of the cars that you probably won't see on the racks because they've all been snatched up by the dealers. What scum... The major time-killng comes from searching all over the city for the "secret stash" of Hotwheels that always goes untouched by collectors. You'll also be figuring out the times when the all-night stores stock their Hotwheels so that you can get a jump on the competition. I'd tell you places to go, but then I wouldn't be able to find any Hotwheels on my time-killing outings.

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Take up Collectible Card Games (CCG's)

If you know what these are, then you've probably been playing these in your spare time. If you don't know, read on... Collectible card games, or CCG's for short, are games that you play with cards. Geez, I hope I can explain this correctly. You basically have a game that requires you to buy a ton of cards so that you can beat your opponent. These games range from fighting CCG's to strategy CCG's. Magic: The Gatering was the first CCG, but I've never played it (it costs way too much money for me, and I can't keep up with the expansions). The CCG's I have played are Shadowfist, Legend of the Five Rings, and Heresy: Kingdom Come. Once you delve into the world of CCG's, you'll soon see yourself devoting a lot of time constructing decks, buying cards, and just looking at the cards in your collection. I collect sports cards, but these seem a little boring to me because all they do is sit there. At least with CCG's you can use your cards to conquer the universe, take over the world, stomp your opponent into a bloody pulp, or whatever the goal is in the CCG that you're playing.

Just to show you that I am always looking for a new game to play, I've also started playing On The Edge and Doomtrooper. I guess that I should have you know that I picked up both of these games up pretty cheaply. On the Edge starters only cost me $1.50 and boosters were .50. Doomtrooper starters cost me $7.95 and boosters ran me about $1.50. The Inquisition expansion to Doomtrooper cost me about ONE CENT a piece!!! Where do I get these deals, you ask? Now do you really expect me to tell you? Just look around and hopefully you'll be at the right place, at the right time, with enough money to buy out all of the stock. Wasting time never means wasting money....

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Take up Heavy Gear

Heavy Gear is a Role-Playing/Tactical game. I think it's one of the best out there. If you're familiar with Role-Playing Games (RPG's), then I think you'll like Heavy Gear because of the Silhouette System employed by the game. Heavy Gear is a game set in the distant future on a planet called Terra Nova. Terra Nova was once a colony of Earth, but they are now independent following a revolution against the home world. On Terra Nova, the terrain is more rocky that on Earth, so most of the fighting vehicles are Heavy Gears, which are humanoid fighting machines. You might as well check out the Dream Pod Nine web page, because you'll find out a lot more information than I can give you. They'll probably do a better job at explaining the game, too.
I play the tactical part of Heavy Gear, and I use miniature models that I love to paint. I spend more time painting than I do playing, but you can see the results. I think it's better to have a better-looking army than to have a crappy unpainted squad that can kick butt. Shoot, you may have kicked my ass, but at least my mini's don't look like crap.

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Get a Scanner

No, I don't mean a scanner for you computer, although those would be fun, too. What I do mean is go to Radio Shack, or wherever you think you can get a scanner, and go buy yourself a scanner radio! Hey, it's loads of fun when you can listen to what the police are up to. Not only can you listen to the police, but you can also listen to the following parties: There's a lot you can do with a scanner, but you'll have to find out on your own. The airport is also a great place to scan, too. One important thing that you'll need when playing with a scanner is to have a frequency list. Here is a link to a really good frequency list. I'll have links to scanner pages when I update this page.

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Make a Web Page

Where do you think all of my time's been spent? I bet I've spent at least six hours a day working on my web page. I mean, you can never be satisfied with what you have. I guess this goes for just about everything, but it holds true for web pages especially. Geocities is gracious enough to offer free web pages, and they are the ones allowing me to have this page as well. Just follow the link at the bottom of the page.
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Email me if you have any interesting time-killers that you do.

© 1997 nacorda@lonestar.utsa.edu

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