James Mason's Blog -or- The Journal of Contemporary Lunacy

Compare the pair (and more) So many versions/ports/translations of Final Fantasy VI, which leads to the inevitable question: which is the version to spend 60 hours playing through? It's a question that's been asked all over the net with as many opinions as there are interested gamers. It can actually be quite fascinating, there are comparisons based on translation, looks, censorship (or the lack thereof), nostalgia, system of choice, and more. As an aside, The Legends of Localization site has a wonderful breakdown and comparison of the different translations (complete with video), and is well worth having a look through. It's certainly not a choice I've been able to make 100%, but I have ended up settling on a SNES play-through using the (admittedly flawed) RPGOne re-translation. I've also sunk a lot of hours into (but not completed) the GBA and PSX ports. The GBA is (IMHO) the best of the official ports, but it does require some patching to restore the ori...

Queenstown, NZ This was the one major part of NZ's South Island that I had yet to visit and I was blown away by the geography of the area. High peaks, mountain ranges, a gorgeous lake and towns nestled between the shore and the slopes. The highlight for me was the hike to the summit of Ben Lomond. The 360 degree views at the top made the effort in getting up there well worth it.

After spending a night in Queenstown (it rained), I got up early and drove up to Cradle Mountain NP (it rained all the way) and enjoyed some mixed weather (to put it mildly) while walking. The weather ended up forcing a change of plans - I was originally going to do a loop that went near the summit but the weather up high at and beyond Marion's Lookout was just so brutal that I ended up turning back (about 30 mins after the lookout). The change did work out reasonably well as I took the relatively sheltered trail past Crater Lake to Ronny Creek then back to Dove Lake. It was a bit of a shame to have not much of a view at all from Marion's Lookout (it took 10 minutes of waiting for it to clear enough to see anything) and Cradle Mountain itself was invisible until mid-afternoon. Still, a really nice area to do some walking with an amazing variety of plant life and scenery.

After warming up with a walk to the pinnacle at Hobart's Mt Wellington the day prior, I ventured a bit farther into the wilderness and tried the Eliza Plateau portion of the Mt Anne track from Condominium Creek (20km down the unsealed C607, itself 30km along B61 from the nearest town at Maydena). It's almost a constant climb after a brief walk through a marsh. Quite challenging as the track varies, sometimes just following a watercourse that has gouged a path down to the rock. The views over Lake Pedder were wonderful and only get better they higher I climbed, at which point more and more of the surrounding mountains became visible. The weather turned nasty as I headed back down (it seemed to change every 15 minutes anyway - rain, sun, wind, cloud) and it poured a which made it a real slog and obscured a lot of the view, which was a pity. Despite the ending, it was still a worthwhile and enjoya...

It really was the long (wrong) way but I finally arrived in New York on Thursday morning local time after leaving Sydney Wednesday morning (Sydney time). A one night stop-over in Ho Chi Minh City padded out the scheduled a bit (arrived Wednesday evening and didn't depart until 24 hours later) but also allowed for a bit of rest. There was method to my madness though - this was to take advantage of some incredible Qatar Airways business class fares that were only available departing Vietnam. These were some lovely flights, especially the DOH-JFK leg in a shiny A350 - even though it was a 14 hour flight! The seat, food, service and in-flight entertainment were all top notch, a wonderful way to fly. The Path Less Traveled Doha by Night Final Approach to JFK from the Tail Camera

Found out the hard way last night that it is _not_ a good idea to walk from Ho Chi Minh City's airport to the airport hotel, no matter how short a walk it seems on Google Maps! After several wrong turns and following paths that disappeared, the way involved crossing three chaotically busy roads (apparently busier than usual due to people celebrating Vietnam's win the AFC U23 Championship by riding around on scooters waving flags and screaming) which appeared to have pedestrian crossings that were completely ignored by drivers (not that I'm familiar with how crossings work here). So yeah, I've booked the shuttle bus on the way back...

A very busy travel year by my standards, involving some 56 flights (up from 27 the previous year). I visited the US for the first time, had a couple short trips to NZ and also headed to a number of Australian cities - some for the first time, some that I just hadn't seen for a decade or more. Statistics Flights: 56 segments Distance: 48,682 miles / 78,346 kilometers Flight Time: 4 days, 15:35 hours Unique Airports 25 Carriers 15 Countries 3 Vehicles 19 Distance Total flown 48682 mi Around the world 1.96x To the Moon 0.204x To Mars 0.0014x Journey records Longest AKL↔SFO, 6529 mi, 11:33 Shortest SEA↔PDX, 129 mi, 00:31 Average 869 mi, 01:59 Airport records Northernmost SEA (47.45°N 122.31°W) Southernmost IVC (46.41°S 168.31°E) Westernmost PDX (45.59°N 122.6°W) Easternmost WLG (41.33°S 174.81°E) Firsts Quite a few new travel experiences for me in 2017, the stand-outs were: First time in Business Class on VA, QF, N...