Thanksgiving Shopping

11.30.2014

This year, due in large part to watching my spending due to lack of employment in August, I cut back on my DVD purchases. I watch a lot of movies, and over time I tend to watch them multiple times. When a new DVD was released that I could stand to not watch immediately, I would make a note on one of my Amazon wish lists to keep an eye out for a sale at a later date. One such movie on that list was little Tommy Cruise's Edge of Tomorrow. Normally I would have grabbed this movie on release day, but I went to the dollar movie and saw it. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but since I had seen the movie at the time of it's at-home release I could wait and try to catch a good deal - the Blu-Ray was available for $19.99 when it first came out, and normally a disk will stay that price the week of its release, then climb a couple of dollars the following month until eventually dropping below the new release price once random sales hit.

Thanksgiving/Black Friday was to count as one of those sales. Target's Thanksgiving Sale Ad showed the Blu-Ray Edge of Tomorrow for a great sale price of $6. Available in-store only. Starting at 6PM on Thanksgiving.

It had been a while since I put up with holiday shopping crowds, but this was a sale I had been waiting for. There were a hand full of other DVDs shown as being on sale that grabbed my eye - mostly TV shows. I decided I would brave the crowd and if I was able to grab the Cruise DVD I would grab whatever others I could find and make it as quick a trip as possible.

At 5PM Thanksgiving night I was in line at my closest Target in Madison. The line didn't seem too bad.

The line wasn't all the way to the end of the store (my cut-off point for where I was willing to wait in line), and although the line was long everything seemed organized to where it didn't feel too bad. After 20 minutes the line behind me grew.

I struck up conversations with people around me and everybody was after a TV. 1 couple was also there for a vacuum cleaner, while a group behind me was there for an XBox 1 and iPod. Me, I just wanted DVDs.

At 6 the door opened at we were allowed in by random grouping, I'm guessing to give people time to get buggies and get out of the way. I made a bee- line for the DVD section and was greeting by a woman with a buggy containing a vacuum cleaner (not the one the couple I was in line with were after) and a growing pile of DVDs. I quickly found the auxiliary DVDs I was after, but little Tommy Cruise was evading me. I asked Buggy Woman if she had seen Edge of Tomorrow, and she quickly pointed it out to me. There it was, $6 - 3 slots wide worth of display for me to go right by twice! I grabbed a copy and quickly thought about wandering the store to see what else was on sale, but the fervor of people zooming by with TV laden buggies made me rethink this and I just headed to the checkout.

The checkout line was as organized as the line coming in. Had there been people in front of me I would have waited until steered to an open register, instead I was just steered. The girl that checked me out did a good job - I was the first person she had ever checked out unsupervised. I had my stack of DVDs and was in and out of the store in 10 minutes, having gotten what I wanted. The best part was that I spent $90 while saving $162.

I've been using coupons and counting my savings a lot lately (I've had to, I think). I've gotten to where I kind of like it. I'm slowly (re)learning that I don't need immediate gratification, it's ok to wait a little. Especially if waiting a little can save some big bucks.


movies/tv/dvd

Tales of the Princess Bride

11.14.2014

There aren't many books I've read in one sitting. Omit technical books where I've skimmed 400+ pages as a refresher and there's only 1 book I've read in a day, Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers. I'm a notoriously slow reader, so it takes me a while to get through a book.

Now I can add one to the books I've read in a day, or in this case from 7:00PM - 11:30PM. Cary Elwes' As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride is not the second book I've gone through in a day, and the first non-fiction book I've done so with.

Lately I've been watching TV shows via Amazon's streaming video service (currently hooked on Covert Affairs thanks to Gina. I've also been going through my old trade papaerback collections of the 1980's GI Joe comics for my sporadic reading enjoyment. I saw a blurb about Elwes book a few weeks ago and thought it looked interesting. I love The Princess Bride movie, and the 2 stories I heard Elwes quickly recount involved Andre the Giant - I've heard lots of Andre stories through the years but they've always been wrestler-centric. This book quickly made it on my short list to get. Last week I was putting together an Amazon order, mainly because I needed to restock the protein bars I like, and I decided to sneak As You Wish into my order. It arrived yesterday morning - one of the perks of Amazon Prime membership is Sunday USPS delivery which I now assume includes holiday (Veteran's Day) delivery. I cracked open the book after eating dinner and kept it open until I was finished.

It's a good book, albeit a little heavy on the praise for everyone else that worked on the movie. But with that, you get the feeling that everyone on the movie loved what they were doing and got along well. There are stories about casting, rehersals, and most of all the ever present preparation for the greatest swordfight of modern times. For fans of the movie, this is a fun read, otherwise its content would be lost on you.


books/comics movies/tv/dvd

7 seasons of Californication Complete

09.28.2014

This weekend I wrapped up 7 seasons of Californication on Amazon Prime's streaming service. I never watched the show before all 7 seasons became available (for free), but it had long been on my "to watch" list as it fits in a special category which I tend to like: boobs & banter. Being a Showtime series, the boobs & banter lean toward the more mature side.

I've mentioned the show to Jerry as I was getting caught up in watching the series, describing it as spoiler-free and using my special blend of obtuse references that only I can make up on the spur of the moment.

It's a show where the guy from the X-Files is a drinking, sexed-up writer of some fame who has a teenage daughter with the chick from George Clooney's version of Solaris. Even though the show is really about the relationship between father and daughter, my favorite part is the banter between the father and the bald guy from Sex & the City who married Charlotte. There's boobs a-plenty, although some shows only have the boobs in the "previously on..." prelude.

See, a synopsis that doesn't give a damn thing away yet tells exactly what the show is about, assuming you know who was in X-Files, Solaris, and Sex & the City.

After watching 84 half-hour episodes (12 episodes per season), I can whole heartedly say I enjoyed the first 5 seasons. The last 2, meh. The final one I would have been ok skipping completely, but halfway through season 7 I decided the completest in me had to watch the whole thing.

The surprising thing I like from the show ended up being the guitar/instrumental music used in the opening and closing credits. The opening credits theme got on my nerves originally, but somewhere along the way I started to enjoy it. I think I was mentally playing Guitar Hero as the guitar riffed away. The end credits switch up the music, sometimes it's a known song (or a cover), other times it's an instrumental that sounds vaguely familiar.

This isn't a show for everybody. Honestly I can only think of 1 person I would suggest might possibly enjoy the show, and he's mentioned at the top of the post. The prevalence of boobs and thesaurus of 4-lettered euphemisms peppered throughout would offend most people I associate with. Not me though. I'm indefendable.

Does that mean what I want it to mean? I bet it doesn't. Mu$*a F&*.... I mean, drat!


movies/tv/dvd

Dead Walking Season 4... No, 1?

08.28.2014

This evening, after having a pretty good day, I decided to eschew my normal routine of watching and coding along with some Unity tutorials and instead popped in disc 1 of season 4 of the Walking Dead, freshly delivered to my stoop yesterday. At the end of the first episode I was completely lost.

The gang is back at the prison. There's a whole gaggle of people milling about and I don't understand who they are or why they got there.

Somehow I've skewed story lines between the comic and the tv show. I knew it would happen. I remember it happening a little when I was watching a couple of episodes from season 3. But I've got some Walking Dead Dementia/Alzheimer's going on now.

Is would make the most sense to either re-watch the last episode or two from season 3, or more easily go online and look at season summaries. But this is an opportunity for me to start over and re-discover the episodes. I like Walking Dead as it captures what I like about the zombie genre - you're not going to win, just see how long you can survive. I think I remember most of what happens in the first season, but I'm going to start over with episode 1 anyway.

I watch movies multiple times and enjoy them. I've watched the entire run of Friends and Frasier multiple times. Why should I feel so bad doing the same for Walking Dead?


movies/tv/dvd

Star Trek Enterprise Part Deux

03.29.2014

While hip deep in actual work for the past month+, I've been re-watching Start Trek Enterprise in my down time. With 43 minute episodes that I've seen before, there's less chance of accidentally getting sucked into a watching marathon.

I watched parts of the first season when it first aired in 2001. Once the series was released on DVD in 2005 I finally watched the whole series. Since then, I don't think I've watched a complete episode. It was with a little trepidation that I started over with episode 1 as I didn't have the fondest memories of the series. Much to my surprise, I've been enjoying this 10 year old sci-fi series a lot more than I think I did in 2005.

Firstly, outside of the pilot episode it seems I don't remember any of the episodes. While this may mean the specific plot points were forgettable, it also means for the past month it's felt like I've seen all new episodes. Next, I don't remember as many CGI special effects in the show. Or space battles. Pew pew pew!

Yesterday I finished up season 3, which (as I remember) wrapped up the big story arc of the show even though the season finale ended on a cliffhanger. We'll season what happens over season 4 as I have free time this coming week.

Once I finish Enterprise (for the second time, ever) I've got my normal backlog of DVDs that have been released over the past month. There's also a couple of TV shows in that mix for me:

  • Game of Thrones, Season 3 - This is one I've been looking forward to and know it will lead to a weekend marathon where I watch the whole season. This batch of shows is the reason I started watching Enterprise again, as I knew I didn't have a weekend I could waste in front of the TV.
  • Arrow, Season 1 - I got this on sale for $15 at Target. I'm led to believe this is the Green Arrow version of Smallville. I liked Smallville. I had planned on waiting until Arrow had produced more seasons before trying it out (nothing worse than getting enthralled in a show and then having it suddenly cancelled/unavailable), but for $15....
  • Boardwalk Empire (Seasons 1-3) - Another sale pickup that I've just been delaying getting into.

I've got plenty to do in my free time. I just need the free time again.


movies/tv/dvd

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