Super-Awsome Find of the Week, installment 12

As a former Blockbuster employee, I fully support this message.

Super-Awsome Find of the Week, installment 11

The lament of a video game villain.

Super-Awsome Find of the Week, installment 10

I always knew geography was awesome.

Super-Awsome Find of the Week, installment 9

Faithful followers of NU14 will remember a story I told a few weeks ago. It was a true rags-to-riches tale in which a woman found an original NES and a few games in her attic, posted them on eBay, and soon discovered that one of her games was among the list of Video Game Holy Grails which sold for over $13,000.

You remember this, right?

Now that we have that super-awesome story fresh in our minds, allow me, if you will, to tell you an even superer, even awesomer story.

Like the last story, I am going to ask you to put yourself in someone else's shoes. This time around, you are an eBayer who goes by the handle vals2girlz. You have a decent eBay score and repertoire—usually selling things that can only be described as "chickish"—but are by no means a power seller. Oh, and you hail from the sprawling metropolis of Olathe, Kansas.

A GoogleImage search of "Olathe Kansas" brought up this picture.

One day you read a story about a woman finding a game in her attic and selling it for a cool chunk of change. This sparks a memory in your mind that your children used to play video games and you have them all in a box in the basement. You go downstairs and start searching through the box, not expecting to find much. Imagine your surprise, then, when you almost-but-not-quite literally strike gold: your very own copy of Stadium Events—the same game you had just read about.

pay dirt

But what is this? You quickly notice that not only do you have a CIB—complete in box, for those who don't speak eBaynics—copy of the game, but yours still has the factory seal on it. That's right: you have the only confirmed factory-sealed Stadium Events in the entire world. Imagine the level your surprise would jump to upon discovering that.

At this point, you are probably as surprised as you will ever be, right? I would have thought so as well—until I looked at the price the auction closed at: forty-one thousand three hundred dollars.

That's right—$41,300... for something you didn't even know existed a week ago.

Hey: at least you offered free shipping.

Yeah. That's super-awesome.

Super-Awsome Find of the Week, installment 8

While the Olympics are super-awesome in their own right, leave it up to Stephen Colbert to make them super-awesomer.

**February 23rd Edit**
As could be expected, NBC doesn't know the meaning of "free advertising" and has asked that the previously-attached video—Bob Costas' interview with Stephen Colbert—be taken down.

Le sigh.

In its stead, let me present you with something almost as super-awesome from another Costas-Colbert encounter:

Super-Awsome Find of the Week, installment 7

This week's super-awesome find comes in the form of an almost-unbelievable-but-totally-true-and-rad news story.

Imagine you are an average mother who sells things on eBay—under the handle of lace_thongs35—in her spare time. From troll dolls to Disney pictures, you specialize in retro merchandise. Imagine you then find your children's old Nintendo Entertainment System with a few games in the attic and decide to put the whole lot up for auction. Nothing out of the ordinary thus far.

Just an NES and some games...

If you have thus far placed yourself in lace_thongs35's shoes, you can certainly imagine her—and, by proxy, your—surprise when the bidding jumped from $9.99 to $6,500 in the first three hours of the auction. If that was the case, perhaps you would instantly jump to Google and see if perhaps, not entirely unlike the Michael-Bay-ruined franchise, there was more than meets the eye to your items.

Surely something must be amiss...

At this point, a quick Google search later would reveal that one of the games you were selling in its complete form was the rarest licensed NES game available for purchase in North America. In fact, your copy of Stadium Events—or more importantly, the box the game came with—ranks number 6 on the 20 Holy Grails of Console Gaming list, and is one of less than 10 thought to be in existence.

Taking this new knowledge under your belt, you probably wouldn't be as surprised—though you would be ecstatic, no doubt—when your little NES lot went from being something meager you hoped to get a couple of bucks from to having a final selling price of over $13,000.

Yeah. That's super-awesome.

Super-Awsome Find of the Week, installment 6

Those who know me know that I am not exactly a fan of Dan Brown nor The DaVinci Code. Those who know me best have heard multiple commentaries from me regarding the book/movie's story and dialogue, and the fact that the main character is the biggest bounceboard character in history. The entire book/movie can pretty much be summed-up as follows:

  Nondescript Uneducated Character: "What's that?"
  Robert Langdon: "Oh, that is the blah blah blah, which means blah blah blah."
  NUC: "And what's that?"
  RL: "Oh, that is the blah blah blah, which means blah blah blah."
  NUC: "Oh no! Someone's trying to kill us!"
  RL: "They're probably trying to kill us because of blah blah blah, which means..."

In fact, the only merit I was able to pull from The DaVinci Code is that it gave me a new curse word to yell—shouted ever so awesomely by Sir Ian—whenever something goes awry.

"LAAANGDOOOOOOON!!"

That being the case, I did find something this week that is along the same lines, but actually is semi-credible. A few years back, an Italian musician/computer scientist took a good look at DaVinci's The Last Supper and noticed that the placement of the hands of the apostles and the bread on the table looked an awful lot like notes. He then imposed a staff atop the picture—and arranged the notes in reverse, as DaVinci did all his writing backwards—and ended up with Renaissance-era sheet music.

the REAL DaVinci Code

Now, I know that a lot of you are probably skeptical. Truthfully, I don't know if I am 100% convinced myself. It is hard, however, to deny that something wasn't going through DaVinci's head when you listen to how well the supposed music harmonizes and flows.

Super-Awsome Find of the Week, installment 5

My apologies to those who have seen this before, but if you haven't, be warned: it is awesome.

Super-awesome, even.

Super-Awsome Find of the Week, installment 4

As I haven't had much time to find something cool on the World Wide Series-of-Tubes, this week's find comes in the form of something I saw yesterday while looking to the west. I took the following picture:

Now, granted, that doesn't look like much... until you look at the next picture.

That's right: I have photographic proof that Falkor the Luck Dragon exists.

Rrrraaaaarrrhhhhhh!!!

Super-Awsome Find of the Week, installment 3

Much like last week's super-awesome find, this week's find has something to do with William "My Friends Call Me Bill" Shakespeare. Allow me to direct you to Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 1.

my well-read copy of Hamlet

Now, some of you may be familiar with this scene, as it is here where Hamlet delivers his ever-so-famous-but-yet-oft-times-misinterpreted "To be or not to be" monologue. I, however, would like to call your attention to this scene for a different reason. Take a look at line 259:

Did you catch that? (If not, perhaps you are not caught up in your nerd-lingo.)

Though there are many theories as to the origin of the word "woot", I think it is pretty cut and dry here—clearly, Shakespeare invented it 410 years ago.

w00t indeed, Bill.

Super-Awsome Find of the Week, installment 2

This week's super-awesome find comes in the form of a play. Specifically, a play inspired by William Shakespeare and the Coen Brothers, aptly called "Two Gentlemen of Lebowski".

The entire script can be found here, but let me present to you a few choice moments:

JOSHUA: This Wednesday thou and I a-courting go!

WALTER: And wherefore 'fair', when ye be nihilists?

WALTER: This be what befalleth, Laurence! This be what befalleth, Laurence!

THE KNAVE: Beshrew me, who is this gentleman, Maude?

Super-Awsome Find of the Week, installment 1

As we enter the new year—but not the new decade, as was clearly pointed out by sixteen-year-old-me in the editorial I submitted to the Deseret News back in 1999—NU14 is going to undergo a change or two. For starters, you have my word that unless I am physically unable, there will be a new entry every Tuesday and Thursday. (Granted, this isn't so much a change as it is a confirmation as to the frequency of entries.)

Pictured: sixteen-year-old-me

Additionally, over each weekend, there will be a new segment: Super-Awesome Find of the Week, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. I will try and keep them as fresh and as unheardof as possible, with the goal being to introduce readers to some of teh internetz' ever-expanding awesomeness. Though this is a bit of an oldie-but-goldie, allow me to present to you the first entry:

Samuel "Great and Terrib"L. Jackson