2022 Update

For some reason, I ended up going back and looking at my original Stupid Movies post.  And for some reason, it bugged me that I mentioned the two original 10 movie packs which started the movie madness, but that those collections weren't in my possession.   

So I went and bought them...  again.   

Mercifully and thankfully Amazon had a couple of used copies that I was able to purchase for $10 each, shipping included.  So now I own 'Legends Of Kung Fu' and 'Fists of Fire - Swords of Death' collections again.   They definitely aren't in as good of shape as my originals would have been.  A clasp on one of cases is broken, the spline artwork on both of them have a bend mark and one disc in Fists Of Fire looks like is has a small scratch, but other than that they are in pretty good condition.  Yay me.

Guess I'll have to add them to the Stupid Movies counts.

There is other life stuff I could talk about... but nah.

2020 / 2021 update

Hey, it's been a while hasn't it.   3 Years!   Just wanted to give a few quick updates.

Item #1 - After three years, the sister-in-law has moved out of our basement to go back to living at her house. There's much bigger story there, but I'd rather not relive any of it.  While she may not exactly be in a better situation, things were not going to improve unless she moved out.

Item #2 - I'm still hoarding music.  I was on the letter R back in 2018.  It's now 2021 and I'm actively working on the letter U and sitting at 172 volumes.  The letters S and T were massive and combined were 60 volumes (vols 112 to 172)

Item #3 - The daughter's braces are off.  Yay!  She has two missing teeth, so we're still trying to figure out if she should get a plate or actually have implants (though that can't really happen until she stops growing).  Speaking of growing, my 12 year old son is as tall as me now.  By the end of the year, I think he'll be the tallest in our family.

Item #4 - We got a new car since our previous car decided to start having some issues.  We got a 2020 Ford Escape and are very happy with it.  Granted, I'll be paying on it for quite a while but I think it was worth it.  The 2012 Fusion that I mainly drive it still driving along after 160,000 miles.   Since I work from home now, I put way fewer miles on it.  In the past year, I only drove 3,000 miles.  

Item #5 - I can't believe we've been in Hamilton OH for 5 years.  I finally stained the deck and the 'stairs to nowhere'.  I went through 4 and 1/2 gallons of Valspar stain and sealer.  I think it looks decent enough.  The water is beading up again, so I know it's doing it's thing.  I got my driver's license renewed today as well.  I went ahead and got the Federally Compliant ID.  They stared at the birth certificate for a while.  I got it when I went to Mexico with my school's Spanish club back in 1990 or 1991.  Considering it's age, it actually looked pretty good, but I could tell they were having a hard time reading the embossed notary stamp which obviously wasn't done hard enough.  Thankfully, they ok'd it.  I really didn't want to have to go through the hassle of getting another copy of it from the county.  BTW, going to the BMV right when they open is the way to go, though checking in electronically is pretty nice as well.

Item #6 - I've added another set to the Stupid Movie Collection.   It's the Definitive TV Western Collection.  

I had been eyeing this one for a while.    This set combines four of the TV Western sets from Mill Creek into one (Essential TV Westerns, Ultimate TV Westerns, Western TV Classics, and Western TV Treasures).   This collection comes in a nice wooden box and consists of 48 discs and contains a total of 600 episodes.  Reading the reviews on Amazon, a few people had busted cases, but I was fortunate and mine was in great condition.

I already had the Ultimate TV Westerns box set, so for a while I was trying to gather up the other three.  I discovered that they had bundled them two at a time in two collections called Western TV Heroes.   Vols 1 and 2.  But no matter how I much I looked on Amazon and eBay, getting the other three was going to cost me as much as just buying the box set itself and I wouldn't have gotten the awesome wooden box.  So I decided to just raise the money taking many surveys. I finally broke down and just bought the darn thing since the other collections and this particular set started to be more and more scarce on eBay and the prices started to go up both on eBay and Amazon.

I occasionally like watching tv westerns, though I think the completist in my took over and I knew I had to have it.  I'm so weird.  In theory this should be my last addition to the Stupid Movie Collection.  Mill Creek has moved on to bigger and much better things.  Glad to see that things are working out for them!

Anyways, I'm pretty sure that no one but me reads this blog and that's okay.  But in case someone is reading this, I hope things are going well for you.  Take care!

2018 End Of Year Update

Well, 2018 has flown by like no ones business.

I've been mostly biding my time collecting music of all sorts.  Nothing new there really.  I have may more than I know what to do with.  I am in the process of archiving it.  I'm up to 112 DVDs full of stuff which is up to the letter R.  Of course, I now have a 'take 2' folder collecting stuff which missed the first pass.  It's a bit much.

Also, I added 3 more movie sets to the Stupid Movie Collection.

Back in April I added two more sets which were pretty much the last ones I wanted to collect. The first is Box Office Gold.  Out of 50, this set had 12 movies that I still did not have. This is one of the few 50 movies box sets which was not contained on 12 discs and instead was on 13 discs (similar to the All Stars Collection).  I had been eyeing this one for a while, but the price point was always around $30 which I refused to pay.  Eventually, I saw it pop up for $10 shipped and I nabbed it.  It was in pretty good condition with the exception of one minor tear on the cardboard box right where the velcro closure is (which is common).

In short order, at the end of April I purchased the Family Fun 50 movie pack.  This one came in a cardboard box. Based on my research, this one had 12 movies that I did not have yet.   Once a set gets below 10 movies  that I don't have, I pretty much ignore it since the price point to get those remaining 10 or less movies just doesn't make sense unless I can get it for under 10 bucks which is difficult (but not impossible) to do. I nabbed this one for $11 bucks shipped so it just squeaked in under the dollar per movie (that I don't have) threshold that I've set for any remaining sets I don't have yet.

The last one I got was from my wife for our anniversary, Great Adaptations.  I originally thought this was pretty much the Historic Classics set repackaged, but about only 15 came from that set.  The others came from a smattering of other sets.  The interesting thing about this set is that it comes with a code so you can get a digital copy straight from Mill Creek.  Interesting!

This past year has definitely been trying with the sister-in-law having to have a quadruple by pass and then moving in to our house, the daughter having to get braces and the father-in-law passing away.  Plenty else has gone on as well which has put strains on everyone.  But I guess that's how life goes.  Hopefully 2019 has a lot less suckage in store for me, my family and the in-laws.

Take care everyone!

(Stupid) End of the year update...

Well, another year has come to close.  I hope everyone has had a decent enough year.  I know that for me it falls into that category.  There were some good times (FINALLY getting to Walt Disney World) and a fair amount of 'not that great' times.  But we all survived so that says something.  Cincinnati is finally starting to feel a little bit like home now.  Still miss everyone.

This was one of my busiest ever when it comes to my stupid movie collection.  I'm not sure what got into me.  Maybe it's because I actually did my homework to an insane level and truly knew EXACTLY what I had and what I didn't have and how that related to all the stupid movie sets I didn't have. 

And with this update, I have to announce that I have 4 more movie sets for my Stupid Movie Collection.  (For the record, I added a total of 26 movie sets this year.  Waaaaayyyyy to many.) I took a tiny little break from the movies until some time in September when I got an eBay notification (I hadn't turned them off yet) which had a nice and low buy it now price.  With that, I got Hollywood Comedy Legends.  This 50 pack had 18 movies that I didn't have yet.  Not quite stellar but at the price it was hard to pass up.

My birthday came up and the Mrs. got me a set that I had been longing for (and that I had added to my Amazon list):  B-Movie Blast.  It had a little overlap with the Excellent Eighties collection, but still had a decent amount of stuff I didn't have.  Based on my notes, it appears that 29 were unique to my collection.  Not bad!

Somewhere shortly thereafter, I got a notification on a set that I knew still had a decent amount of movies on it came up and of course, like a turd, I bought it.  Thanks a lot eBay.  This set is called Tales of Terror.  It had 18 movies that I didn't have.  I have to admit that the cover creeps me out a little.

And finally, for our anniversary, the Mrs got the other pack that was on my Amazon list, Historic Classics.  This one had a fair number of movies that I needed (35 to be exact), though the theme for this one really isn't something I would normally gravitate to.  Regardless, I have it now and can check it off the list.  I can say that my eBay notification for 50 movie packs have been turned off.

I wish everyone the best in the New Year!   Take care!!!

D.

Stupid End of July update

I know I said I was done.... but I think I really really mean it this time.   I couldn't help it.  I still had the eBay search results showing up to my email.  I saw some prices that were really good.  Honest.

So I have three new sets for my Stupid Movie Collection:

Cult Classics (20 movies), Drive-In Cult Classics (32 movies) and Night Screams (50 movies).

Cult Classics 20 movie pack literally contains a bunch of what were considered some of the original cult classics: Reefer Madness, Cocaine Fiends, Test Tube Babies, etc.  Good stuff.

The Drive In Cult Classics 32 movie collection, contains stuff that would be considered to be Grind House type of stuff, I think: The Pink Angels, The Pom Pom Girls, Malibu Beach, They Saved Hitler's Brain, etc.

Night Screams is what I could consider a typical Mill Creek collection.  This is a collection of movies with a horror-like theme: Anatomy of a Psycho, The Devil's Sleep, I Killed That Man, Murder At Midnight, The Tell-Tale Heart, etc.  Most of it is in black and white.  This one surprised me the most because the artwork for this one is reminiscent of the kind of artwork used on the Treeline / early Mill Creek sets which came in the cardboard boxes.  However, when it showed up, I was pleasantly surprised that it was in a sturdy plastic case.

Anyway, that's what I got at the end July.  All of these collections I got used.  Some were a little more beat up that I am used to but I got a good deal on them and the discs seemed relatively unscathed.

I hope all is well with everyone.  I know that I'm really the only one looking at this page, so, um, yeah.  :)   Yay me!

------------:D.

No really... I think I'm done for the moment!

I know I said I was done getting movies for a little while in the last post.  I meant it.  I really did.

But then I went to Half Price Books in Hamilton and spied a couple more things that were reasonably priced.  And I left them there.

And then Father's Day came along and I went back out and got them. LOL!  I mean you could say that this was my Father's Day gift to myself, but I think I've been getting alot of gifts as of late, so... yeah.  Things.

One of the sets I got was John Wayne - The Tribute Collection from Mill Creek.  25 films with The Duke!  I got this one for 8 movies that I didn't have yet.  There was a 50 movie collection featuring John Wayne and various western trios.  I pretty much had 40 of the movies in that pack with the exception of a handful of John Wayne movies.  This movie set picked up all but 3 of them.  (Still need to find a collection which contains 'Range Feud', 'Texas Cyclone' and 'Two-Fisted Law')

The next collection is a mundanely named collection called '15 Martial Arts Movies' from the newly discovered TG Direct.  They were the same company that did the Samurai Warriors collection.  I did my homework on this one and determined that 9 of the 15 would be new to my collection. Now here is where it gets amusing.  When I opened up the set, all of the discs were marked 'Samurai Warrior' but still had all the new titles on them. It's like this company pretty much brands any of their martial arts box sets 'Samurai Warrior'.   Weird.

Both of those were 5 bucks each so I didn't feel too bad.  The next set I got only cost 3 dollars from the bargain bin: The Best of Chaplin.  This set contains 28 features!  Most of them are short movies, but still, pretty cool find.

So, for realz this time.  I think I'm done for the moment.

Have a Happy 4th everyone!

-------------:D

Record shows are cool (or Justice has been served)

Yesterday I went back to my old stomping grounds of Columbus Ohio and went to the Colleen's Collectables Record show which has been going on for decades.  The went to my first one with Todd and Ian in 1992 I think and it was at the Veteran's Memorial building in the main section.  It was crazy huge and crazy packed and it was awesome.  Fast forward to June 10th 2017 (hey, it's my 25th anniversary of going to record shows!) and the record shows are a little smaller and held at the Haimerl Center on Morse Road but they are still awesome.  With the resurgence of vinyl, they probably could get a bigger place but they've been holding them at the Haimerl for probably 10 years so why change something which works. 

I met Todd at the show we chatted briefly before going on our individual hunts.  Todd was looking for Concrete Blonde's Bloodletting on vinyl while I was on the hunt for Bobby Sherman's self-titled first album and the 6-sided die-cut soundtrack for the movie 'The Andromeda Strain'.  I was about 3/4 the way through the show and fully in the zone, blinders on, not seeing anyone in my path really, just records. I walked up to one of the tables and starting perusing the CDs that a seller had out (along with some LPs) when the seller said 'I wouldn't look too closely, so of those might be yours'.  I looked up and wouldn't you know it, there was Ian.  He was peddling his goods (as he has on several occasions in the past) at today's show.  So all three of us were back at the show again!  I ended up buying the Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe CD from him.  Good stuff from some people who were members of Yes at one time or another.

My haul consisted of the following:
LP - Bobby Sherman - Bobby Sherman (I got it in MINT condition.  Awesome!)
LP - Styx - The Grand Illusion
LP - The Alan Parson's Project - I Robot
LP - Jonathan Edwards - Honky-tonk Stardust Cowboy
LP - Elvis - Moody Blue (on clear blue vinyl!)
LP - Elvis - Elvis' Christmas Album (on the budget Pickwick label. I grew up with this one!)
LP - Ted Neely - 1974 A.D. (portrayed Jesus in the movie Jesus Christ Superstar)
LP - Jesus Christ Superstar movie soundtrack (See what I did there?  Came from the same seller.  $2!)
CD - Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe - Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe (from Ian!)
CD - Queen - Greatest Hits I & II

After the Show, Todd and I went to B.C. Roosters and got some chicken and talked for a couple of hours.  After that we went to the Ohio Thrift Store and wandered around for a hour, Todd of course taking several photos of items that were too bizarre to believe.  Good times and conversation!

I then went and had dinner with my friend Kevin at Potbelly.  we talked for about 3 hours, closing the place down.  More good times and conversation!

Then I drove my butt back to Cincinatti to my wife who was waiting up for me so she could see my haul from the record store. 

What a great day!

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

In other news: In the previous post I mentioned how I was planning on getting a 50 movie pack called Frontier Justice but that the seller sent the wrong item and I couldn't get an answer from them about if or when then were going to be sending me my set.  So, after 2 1/2 weeks of crickets from the seller I put in a refund request with eBay and it was granted.  This was on Wednesday.  So on Friday, I get this email from eBay: 'Your package has been delivered' and this was confusing because I hadn't purchased anything else.  So I clicked on the link in the email and it referenced the order which I had been refunded for.  It was a new tracking number and everything.  Sure enough, when I got home, there was my Frontier Justice box set.  So now I have the box set but really haven't paid for it (well, other than the $2.63 cents that I paid to ship back the wrong item.)  After much deliberation, I decided that I would pay  the seller the remaining money due for the purchase.  It just seemed like the right thing to do.  I don't need the bad karma. While their communication could use a great deal of work, the seller, at the very least, did provide me the product which I paid for.  And for that, they deserved to get paid.  Justice has been served and I have 50 more movies to add to my stupid movie collection.

Thanks for reading.  Hope all is well with everyone.

Later!

-------------:D

This stupidity is a crime

Well, I had no more than created my last post when I was already out purchasing more movies for my stupid movie collection.

One of the first things I did was to get the Iron Fist Frenzy 50 movie pack.  In the last post, I mentioned the 'Kickin' It Shaolin Style'.  This was basically 1/4 of the Iron Fist Frenzy.  I started figuring out that the cost of picking up the other 3 sets was probably going to be more than just getting the Iron Fist Frenzy set and getting two extra movies to boot.  So I got a good deal on Iron Fist Frenzy eBay using the Best Offer option.

 The next set I got because the wife was at half Price Books in Hamilton and saw a couple of sets while she was perusing the DVD section.  One of them was a Mill Creek collection which was 20 movies from the Warriors 50 pack I already had.  The other was a 12 movie pack called the 'Samurai Warriors Collection'.  At first I figured that it was probably going to just have movies either from the Martial Arts 50 movie pack or from Iron Fist Frenzy.  But when I started researching, I figured out that 1) it was wasn't a collection from Mill Creek, and 2) there was very little overlap with my other martial arts collections.  'Woo hoo!  Pick it up!' I told my wife. And she did 'cause she's awesome like that! The transfers in this collection seem to be pretty decent, but the packaging is just awful.  It's basically a piece of folded cardboard with slits that the DVDs sit in.  At least Mill Creek makes individual cardboard cases for each disc. I've relocated the DVDs in this collection to some old Microsoft sleeves to better protect them.

About that time, there was another 50 movie pack that had no overlap in my collection called Frontier Justice that I purchased on eBay.  More on that later.

Then I started looking farther down on my lists of sets.  The next candidate was a set called Crime Classics.   I picked that up on, you guessed it, eBay.  This set had only 10 movies that overlapped with my collection.  I got an ok price on this one if I remember correctly.  It's kind of the sister set to the Dark Crimes 50 movie pack I already have.  Not sure which one came out first, though just based on it's simple name, I'd guess that Crime Classics came first.  As far as I can tell, this Mill Creek collection never got a plastic case release; only a cardboard case like the original Tree Line and early Mill Creek sets.

Then things went a little sideways.  In my research, there are some 50 movie packs which I already own 85% of (ie, I already have 35 of the movies).  For some reason, I got it in my head that there were some older 20 movie packs which might be able to fill in the gaps instead of having to purchase a 50 movie pack (at a 50 movie pack price).  I didn't get very far in researching this, but did stumble upon one collection called 'Billy the Kid' which was a 20 movie collection of Billy the Kid movies.  I picked this up on eBay for a cool $4 and it contains 14 movies which are new to my collection.  Yee haw!

So, what about the Frontier Justice set.  Well, things got a little complicated.  The seller sent me a DVD set but not the one that I wanted.  I'd like to have 4 Laurel and Hardy movies, but I really wanted to have the 50 movie set that I ordered.  So I opened up a ticket with eBay and promptly sent back the erroneous collection with word that another person got my order and was shipping it back to the seller the next day.  So, I waited.  After a week I sent an email letting them know that per USPS they received the DVDs I sent back and wanted a status on if the other person shipped back my DVD set. Another week went by with no reply from the seller.  I sent another email asking for status.  And more crickets.  So I had to escalate to the eBay Police who within 10 hours (while I slept) got my money refunded.  So, I should have had the set, but things didn't work out.  I truly believe the seller had the collection and simply sent it to the wrong person.  And maybe the other person who got my order just held on to it, or hasn't shipped it yet ('cause they wanted to rip the movies first) or it got damaged or lost in the mail.  I dunno.  But I hold no ill will to the seller.  Stuff happens. And after more than 100 eBay transactions over the years, this was the first one which went wrong, so, I'm okay with that since I got my money back (sans the return shipping price since I did that outside of eBay's return system).

So, yeah, another (50 + 50 + 20 + 12 =) 132 movies for my stupid movie collection.  I'm sure there will be more in my future, but I think I've got enough for the moment.  Plus, I need to leave some collections for other people to buy me for various holidays which might involve presents for me!

Take care everyone!  Hope you all are doing well!

--------------:D

Getting stupid at wholesale and warehouse prices

So as sometimes happens, when you awaken the collecting beast there is going to be carnage.   I had innocently enough went to the Ollie's in Sidney and picked up a couple of sets.  I told you about that.

What I have to tell you about is what has occurred in the past month.  I had no more than written my last blog post about picking up those two sets when I had a little bit of spare time at work and innocently enough went on eBay.  The next thing I knew, I had 4 more sets (Combat Classics, Timeless Family Classics, Cowboy Legends and the Legend of Rin Tin Tin) coming too my house.  The sad thing was, I had just done my homework.  But I didn't have my homework with me at work, so I was trying to go off of my memory.  Well, that worked out about half was well as it should have.


The Combat Classics had about 50% overlap (ie, I got 25 new movies).  The Timeless Family Classics didn't fair so well.  Out of the 50 in that set, only 11 were going to be new.  Luckily I got that set for a sweet $3.09 with shipping.  The Cowboy Legends had very little overlap (somehow, I've lost my original list which contained which ones I had and which ones I didn't).  And the Rin Tin Tin set which contains 4 movie serials which each contained 12 little fifteen minute episode I picked up since I could save 20% my ordering it with the Cowboy Legends.

And it should have ended there.  But of course, it didn't.  Since I did a bad job on the Timeless Family Classics, I started wondering about what other sets were out there and what their overlap would be.  Some I knew about sets I hadn't done my homework on and also discovered some other sets I hadn't know about at all.  But the wheels kept turning and I kept doing homework.  I finally found out that there were about 3 or 4 sets that I could get which have very little (< 10 movies) overlap.  And eBay was on the mind, so I started looking around again.  I ended up finding Gunslinger Classics for a decent price.  I was set to click on the Buy It Now when I noticed there was a 'or Best Offer' button.  Figuring I had nothing to lose, I offered the seller $2.50 + $3.00 shipping... and 2 hours later they had accepted it.  Woo hoo!

And it should have ended there... but NOOOOO.   I found out that Half Price Books was going to be having their warehouse clearance sale.  Nothing over $2.  So today I took off work and me and the Mrs went there.  And I found a few more things.   I picked up three 12 movie packs (Gorehouse Greats, Under Fire (action/war movies), and Kickin' It Shaolin Style) and a couple other things (Victory At Sea which is a WWII documentary and NASA - 50 Years of Space Exploration).  I also picked up a book on Hollywood Musicals.

So, I've updated my Stupid Movie list.... again.

I'll admit, there are still a couple of sets that are on my radar.  I may or may not have searches on eBay that I am currently following.  But it really is ridiculous.  The latest calculations show that I would have to watch one movie and one TV show EVERY DAY for FIVE YEARS in order to watch everything that I have.  Now, there is a little bit of overlap in there, but I've done quite well so far in avoiding overlap, so maybe it'll only take FOUR AND A HALF years. RIDICULOUS!

I am a very silly, stupid man.  And I love my stupid movie collection (but not as much as my wife who puts up with my silliness).

Talk to you later!
=============:D

WWWW Sailing in a sea of stupidity WWWW

Hello nobody! It's been a while. Things have changed a bunch. About a year ago I moved to Cincinnati (more correctly Hamilton) Ohio. I have a new job, obviously. The world is as crazy as ever, which means my madness with stupid movies has not slowed down at all. I mean, why would it. It's the collector in me that just keeps going.

I actually posted a silent update a year and a half ago (Dec 2015). I added The Swingin' Seventies 50 pack and the Cowboys and Bandits pack to my collection.

The most recent batch came in April 2017. I subscribe to the Mill Creek YouTube channel and saw that they had started releasing some new 50 packs with cool titles like 'Mad Scientist Theater' and 'Killer Creature Features'. About that time as well, Coke was ending their My Coke Rewards points system which we had a few hundred points entered in already and needed to spend. With the points I knew I could get a $10 gift card and, at the same time, knew that Walmart sold many of the Mill Creek sets at a good price. So, I did my homework. Unfortunately, I own so many sets now that there was too much overlap (meaning only about 10 movies per 50 pack could have been new) so I didn't end up getting either of those (or any of the other 3 new 50 packs). But of course, they were also recommending some of the 20 movie packs. I took notice of a Musicals set among those. I did my homework and there was NO overlap with any of the sets I already had. Plus, it looked like it actually had some decent movies in it. I ordered for the swell price of $12.18. After it arrived, I did a little more homework. All of the movies were from Columbia Pictures and several of them were even nominated for Oscars. One of them even had 6 nominations including Best Actor in a Lead Role! Looking at the IMDB scores, most of them were in the mid 6's (out of 10) which is actually pretty good. I think the worst films in the collection had a 5.1, 5.7 AND 5.8 rating. Not bad.

Of course, whilst looking for a suitable boxset to purchase from Walmart, I did some much needed homework on the new and existing sets I didn't have from Mill Creek. The new collections on my radar are Iron Fist Frenzy, B-Movie Blast, and John Wayne and the Western Trios collection (in that order). The Iron Fist Frenzy collections contains all new stuff. The other two have a little over 30 new movies. Combat Classics, Cowboy Legends and Hollywood Comedy Legends are on the list after those three since they would have around 25 new titles each (so about 40% new stuff).

Once I started doing homework, the collector was awakened again. About a week after getting the musicals collection, I had to got back to Anna for some family stuff. In Sidney there is an Ollie's. I was a bit early to get into town (and I knew that they frequently have Mill Creek sets), so I stopped in. So glad I did. I picked up two more sets. The first is called Classic Sci-Fi TV which has 150 episodes of some sci-fi TV shows that cames out in the 50s and 60s. Good stuff. Very little overlap with the other TV pack and other Sci Fi packs I already had. I had seen it a few times at various Half Price Books stores but they always had it for 19.99. Too much for my blood. I picked it up at Ollie's for $5.99. Nice!

The other one is an odd ball. It was in the typical 50 movie pack, but once I picked it up I could tell it was different. It was simply called 'The Best Of Spaghetti Westerns' and was from a company called Timeless Media Group (I think they may be in cahoots with the Shout! Factory group). I already have the Mill Creek 44 Spaghetti Westerns collection, so I didn't hold out much hope for it. I turned it over and saw the price... $2.16. I didn't need to think any more. Even if it only had 3 new movies, it was still worth the price to me. Upon further inspection when I got it home, I determined it was a 10 disc / 20 movie set, there was only 1 or 2 movies I already had and the ones in the collection were usually ranked in the 6's which is pretty good. I put one of the discs in while writing up this post, and the quality on the two movies on that disc were impressive. Very bright colors, and widescreen with no cropping from what I could tell. I'm excited about this one!

So, another 40 movies and 150 TV episodes are getting added to the collection. Insane. I am really insane. But I'm sure the madness will continue on.   To see a full list of the stupid movies I have, go to my Stupid Movies post that I continue to update.

Hope all is well with everyone. Feel free to drop me a note or leave a comment.


--------------:D

And yes... the movies keep on coming.....

Well... it's time for my yearly update.   It's been a year since I started my latest job.  Things are going well there with things looking up for the company.  We still have a lot to do, but if luck is on our side, we'll be doing some really cool stuff.


I had a good Christmas with the music and videos overflowing!  Of course, one of my presents was another 50 movie pack called 'The Sensational Sixties'   Not too much overlap with the current sets I have (maybe a 20% overlap).    Later in 2014 (after my June post), I got two more sets: Alfred Hitchcock - A Legacy Of Suspense which has 20 of his earlier films, and 1001 Commercials which contains over 16 hours of commercials.   The quality of some of the commercials is pretty atrocious, though there are some which are decent.  Obviously, the B&W ones fair much better than the red/yellowed out ones from the 60s and 70s.  I've added my later acquisitions to my master list here.


Hope all is well with everyone out there.   Drop me a line and let me know how things are going.


-----peace out!

Hello... I'm still stupid

Boy... life can sure be crazy.  Since it's been so long, I'm only going to attempt to give the world's most brief update.

I have a new job.

They kids keep growing. They are currently taking swim lessons.

I picked up a small set of Alesis electronic drums which are awesome and quiet.

I still go out on occasion to spot satellites but grew tired of trying to write about them all here.  I'm easily spotted over 1000 objects in the sky.  I still take note of them on paper.  I also put them into a spreadsheet, but I'm about a year behind at the moment.

And, in the past two years I've picked up another eight of the 50 movie packs (Sci-Fi Invasion, Decrepit Crypt of Nightmares, The Excellent Eighties, Dark Crimes, Martial Arts, Family Classics, Comedy Kings, and Pure Terror). You can read all about my collection of this movie packs HERE.

Hope all is well with everyone.  Sorry that I am so incommunicado.  There don't seem to be enough hours in the day.  It's all a blur at the moment.  Time passing by at the speed of light.  But I still think about everyone.   Drop me a line if you'd like, though it's very possible I won't see the email until a week or so later.  I barely check my email anymore.

Peace out everyone!

Hey..... I'm alive.... and back with something weird

Yeah... I'm still alive.  I'll post more info later on... but I came across something weird whilst listening to The Beatles 'Let It Be' using headphones.

In the middle of the song there is a guitar solo.  And in the middle of that guitar solo there was a 'boop' beep thing, like someone pressing a button on a telephone.   Well, the MP3 of that came from, well, I don't know where.  So I thought, maybe it's just screwed up.   I already had a MP3 previously in the day of The Rolling Stones' "Statisfaction" that sounded like it had been slowed down by like 10%.    Anyhoo... so I went out to youtube to find another recording of it from the album.  And.... the 'boop' was there too.   Have a listen (esp at the 2:20/2:21 mark --- boop!):
HERE

I checked for other videos on youtube and it seems there were two versions of this one.  Both seem to be studio versions, but the guitar solos are completely different.  But I did find yet another version with the 'boop' in it.   Weird.

Edit 01/27/2013:  I checked Let It Be from the The Beatles '1' album and it's not this version.  I also checked Let It Be from the Archives 3 album and it's not that one either.  I suspected it might be from the Past Masters Vol 2 album since there were alot of quirks with those albums, but I checked that one as well.  Not it.  I checked the Blue Album (The Beatles 1967-1970).  Not it.  I checked the Let It Be album proper... BINGO!!!!  Thanks goodness I figured that out. It was interesting to find the one the Let It Be, the album it came off of, is different than the one that was put on the Blue and 1s albums.  Weird.

Records and Xtreme stupidity

Note:  This post is not in chronological order :)
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Got to hang out a little bit with Ian on Sunday.  We went to Hound Dog's pizza.  It is always tasty tasty.   I got my usual, Hound Dog pizza (regular crust) with Bacon and Howlin' Hot Pizza Sauce.   I got the small (10") and still only ate probably half of it.  When I was still at OSU, I would get a LARGE and eat the entire thing myself in one sitting.   Things have come a long way since then.  After pizza and conversation we headed over to Use Kids Records.  It's Used Kids.  It doesn't change much.  I still really like the new store.  It's not as cramped and they are being more selective about what they put in the Dollar Bins.  I perused for ... I don't know how long and came away with an odd Barry Manilow album I didn't even know existed which had this terrible promo sticker on it which read something like 'Take the challenge: Listen to this Barry album with any current contemporary artists.  We think you'll see that song for song Barry is still relevant as ever." Or some weird shit like that.   I also got a few more Olivia Newton-John albums, which may complete my 'need' list.  When the albums went bad, I took photos of all the ones I had, so I need to check with the photos to see if there are any missing.  I also picked up five Bobby Sherman records.  I don't know why I pick them up, honestly.  I think it all started when I picked up that (horribly re-produced) Bobby Sherman Christmas album at Big Lots about 10 years ago.  It was so gawd awful that I loved it, so I've been picking up Bobby albums ever since.  I picked up a few more, to the tune of $22 bucks.  I went through the majority of their dollar bin stuff.  It's been a while since I done that (or even wanted to).  Poor Ian doesn't have a record player, so... in rare form... he bought nothing.  After we were done, it was 3pm and I had to head back to M-ville.  It was a good time!

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Last Tues, M and I had to head to Cinci to go to a funeral (no fun).  But on the way to Cinci, since we had a little time to waste, we stopped at the Half Price Books in the Fairfield Commons area (fun!).  While there, I found two movie packs I had been looking for.  One was the Burnt Rubber 20 movie pack.  This set features all movies about cars or racing.  I think I probably own 3 or 4 for them already, but I liked the idea.  I got that one for $4.99.  The other was Hollywood Legends 50 movie pack.  I think I paid $7.99 for this one.

Now, normally the story would end here.  I got some more movie sets and that usually would curb my appetite.  However, that was not the case that day.  I had just gone through all my vinyl LPs and found that some of them were toast due to the flood in my sisters basement.  And I was looking to replace them.

So, after the funeral we went to the Half Price Books that is in the Hamilton area.  Don't ask me exactly which one since I'm not from the area and my wife does all the driving.  Anyways, I went in looking for LPs.  And I found TONS of them.  I completed the majority of my Barry Manilow needs from the 49 cent bin, and all of them were in very good condition.  It was awesome.

And the story should end there, but it doesn't.   The last time we were there, I noticed the Warriors 50 Movie Pack, but it was $9.99 and the last time I watched one of the Hercules movies that was on the Sci Fi 50 Movie Pack, I just wasn't that interested.  However, out of curiosity I checked... and they had just reduced the price to $7.99.  *sigh*  I told the wife that I wasn't going to get and she basically "Just get it! Sheesh!".

And the story should end there, but it doesn't.  After (re)finding the Warriors set, I looked up a could of shelves and found another familiar looking box.   It was called Prime Time Crime - The Stephen J. Cannell Collection.  I had NEVER heard of this one.  And I have pretty much liked everything that Mr. Cannell has ever written.  This box set contained the whole of four series that he did which never quite caught on: Missing Persons (18 episodes), Broken Badges (7 ep), Palace Guard (9 ep) and UNSUB (8 ep).  Plus, an episode from a few other shows he did.  You may have heard of some of them: 21 Jump Street, Booker, Cobra, The Commish, The Greatest American Hero, Hunter, Silk Stalkings, Tenspeed and Brown Shoe and Wiseguy.  This one is AWESOME.   The Mrs and I are both giddy to watch these 'failed' shows.  This was also for $7.99 I believe.


And the story should end there, but it doesn't   As we were leaving, something in the discount caught my.  The familiar 'fatty' case.  And there sat another set I did not know existed, Spaghetti Western 44 Movie Collection, for only $5.  So I picked that one up as well.

In one day, I picked up five movie packs.  Now THAT is Stupid Extreme!!!

SpaceX Dragon approaching

My wonderful lil N, who I normally curse at 4am, got me up just in time to rush outside and see the ISS pass overhead with the SpaceX Dragon trailing close behind.   AWESOME!!!!!!! AWESOME!!!! AWESOME!!!!  I didn't even plan on setting an alarm because, well if my wife WASN'T up at 4am, I sure as heck didn't want to be the one to wake her lil N up.  But, as habit would have it, Lil N was up at 3:55am (and quickly walked back upstairs).  I was smart enough to set out my clothes and gear and so I was able to quickly put on my clothes, head outside, get my bearings, check my cheat sheet, look up and see the two traveling overhead.

I'm watching the live feed of the rendezvous now!!!!  Live feed started at 4:30am.  The actual 'grapple' is set to occur at 7:59am.

Go SpaceX ... and other stuff

Congrats to SpaceX for the successful launch of the Dragon capsule towards the International Space Station (ISS) on May 22nd.  While the oroginal launch date moved a couple of times, this was due to SpaceX doing their due diligence, once to make sure that the docking software was fully tested and another time due to a faulty valve which caused out-of-range readings 1 second after ignition (which also proved that the auto-shutdown software was working correctly since it is all automated in the last 15 seconds of countdown).

On Weds, the Dragon did a flyby within 1.5 miles of the ISS and responded to commands sent by the ISS crew which are all milestones that SpaceX had to meet.  The Dragon is set to be berthed to the ISS sometime tomorrow (Thursday, May 24th).  It's a 'berthing' because the dragon is only going to get close enough for the ISS peeps to grab it with the robotic arm which will then maneuver it into position.  A 'docking' is when the spacecraft itself connects to the ISS without any physical help from the ISS crew.

Here is a video of Dragon flying under the ISS during the flyby (short 1 minute video)


Here's a link to the full SpaceX coverage of the launch.  I've cued it up to a point after Dragon is in orbit.  My favorite part of this video is seeing how HAPPY the employees are that the rocket launched, the Dragon was in orbit and the solar arrays deployed.  Happiness = awesomeness :)



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I got the IKEA shelves put together.  YAY!  I went through my records and am getting rid of aboutr 75% of them.  There were about 4 boxes that were damaged from the flood at my sister's house and, at first, they appeared to be mostly okay (showing water damaged) but quickly it became clear that they were funkilicious with my nose and throat not taking kindly to me unleashing that craziness.  So, I boxed and taped all of those back up.  Unfortunately, among the casualties were my Barry Manilow and Olivia Newton-John collections.  Luckily, before the move, I had separated out all of the albums I gre up with.  Those were all in a box which were untouched by water, thank goodness.  Upon inspection of the damage, I found only a few records which I grew up with that were not separated out (Kiss - Alive, Kiss - Alive II, Queen - The Game).  There were also LPs that I grew up with which belonged to my aunt.  Those too were spared the water onslaught.   All my 45s were also above the flood plane.

Those IKEA shelves are the shiz-nit and are PERFECT for LP storage (and other stuff too).  I found a few chat rooms where LP snobs concurred that the shelves were great.

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The Red Bull Stratos project is coming along.  I believe they are doign a test jump from 90,000 ft early summer and then making the world record / super-sonic attempt in late summer.   The site is still at RedBullStratos.  They posted a link to THIS awesome story which also goes over some of the history of high altitude parachute attempts, all the way from Joe Kittinger's still record attempt in 1961, to several other individuals who have attempted and failed, to the current Red Bull Stratos project.  Good stuff!  Best article I've read on it yet.

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 I don't think I mentioned that I will be getting a signed copy of Ben Fold Five's new album when it comes out.  They are funding it via PledgeMusic.  I was lucky enough to find out about it only a few hours after the site went live.  Some of the 'levels' of pledging are limited and they run out.  I think they may have ultimately done 100 signed copies of the new CD for $15.  I got in when there were only 50, which sold out quickly and then they posted another 50.  Anyhoo... HERE is a link to the PledgeMusic page for the new BF5 album.  There are still things to be had including some exclusive stuff coming out @ 3pm on Thursday 5/24 (including getting a personalized version of a song, which I'm sure will cost a pretty penny).  

Juliana Hatfield has funded a few albums this way as well.  I think she has one up right now for doing a covers album.  She's done this a few times so she has some unique stuff that you can get when you pledge X amount.  For example, you can have her personally answer 20 questions from you for 20 bucks... AND you get a download of the album when it's complete.  What else... you can get a 'Song to order' which I think means you tell her what song to put on the album.  That'll run you a cool grand.  She also does artwork, so she sells artwork, custom silk-screened T-shits, etc to get pledges.

Nataly Dawn from Pomplamoose did this as well through a different website with a similar concept called Kickstarter.com. KickStarter covers more than just music.  It covers everything.  Want to start a clothing line, set it up.  Today's featured KickStart is from a guy who does cheese and cracker plates called "Cheese and Crack".  No lie. For $5 you can get a personal Thank You on Facebook.  For $100 you can get a Cheese & Crack party plate which serves 10 people delivered to your home... well... as long as you live in Portland OR.

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I'm still losing a little weight.  I've kinda plateau'd again.  I was down to about 167, but then in 2 days the Wii claimed I gained 5 lbs, which means that the goal I set up to lose 5 lbs in a month is now more like 10 lbs.  *sigh*  Oh well, that's how it goes.  Luckily, the Wii allows you to change it part way through in case you've set too lofty of a goal, which 10 lbs in a month is at this point in the game.   I'm still shooting for 155, so at 172 (after my weird two day 5 lb gain) I still have a ways to go.  Luckily, I'm not delusional and thinking I can lose that in like 2 more months.  I will be quite happy if I can pull that off by end of the year honestly.  I lost TON of weigh in the beginning (20 lbs in about 3 months).  There are some people who have tried for YEARS to lose that much weight.  I've just taken a road that works for me.  In the beginning I was working out probably an hour a night, 6 days a week.  I work out closer to 30 minutes a day, 6 days a week now.  I have my little routine and when I feel I've been extra bad I'll throw in an hour or hour and a half workout.  The main thing is that I've stopped eating everything in sight.  I was pretty much miserable 24/7 and popping antacid non-stop because my body was unthrilled with what I was continually putting into my stomach.  I've learned to eat within reason and to not 'eat on principle'.  I still need to work a little bit on eating while I'm watching TV, but at least the THOUGHT is there that I shouldn't be stuffing my face, so I'll either eat something healthier (say a whole red pepper with some zesty greek yogurt dip) or I'll just have ONE bowl of chips.  It really is the little things sometimes.

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I'm officially yammering now, so I'll just STFU.  I hope all is well with everyone.   Have a happy Memorial Day!!!

Vaca ... and more stupid stuff

The Mrs and I just got back from our little mini-vaca sans kids. My parents watch the kiddos. We didn't go anywhere exotic. Since we only had 4 days, we chose to stay local in the Cinci area. On Thurs we traveled to Cinci, got checked in, did a little shopping, and ate at Izzy's for a Corned Beef Reuben. It was awesome and tasty!

Friday we went to the Waffle House. It had literally just re-opened that month and it was very clean and the people we (as always) very nice. It was super tasty and amazingly enough I didn't stuff myself silly. After that we shopped around and hit a Half Price books store where, for $5 I purchased a still-seal copy of Ultimate TV Westerns (150 episodes) on 12 discs. Yes, the stupidity has continued, and has been added to the stupid movie / tv list. After that, we caught a Cincinnati Reds game versus the Washington Nationals. The lost 7-3 in a game where the Reds went through no less than 5 pitchers (boo), however M got a free Mom's Day purse / bag thingy (yay!), we got a free show from a magical act called 'Quick Change' which was a man and woman who quickly changed clothes (yay!), we got a free fireworks show from THE Rozzi Fireworks company (boom! awesome! yay!), and because of some fluke, our pitchers actually struck out 11 people and therefore we each got a free small 4 topping pizza from LaRosa's _and_ a free one scoop cone from UDF (yum! woot! yay!). So while the game which started with the Washington Nationals scoring 3 runs at the top of first inning was a bit of suckage, there were many wins whihc we gained as well.

Saturday, we went to the mantinee showing of Les Miserables at the Aronoff Center. M got the tickets and knew we were in the balcony. What we didn't know was that we were in the second balcony... and in the very last row. The only thing behind us was the back wall. The sound was great. But if you're asking me how the acting, aside from arm flails and running about, I couldn't tell ya since we couldn't really see their faces. But, despite that, it was still a good show. After the show we went out to dinner for our free pizza and ice cream. Then we went to Jungle Jim's (a ginormous foodie store) where I picked up a few beers and hot sauces. I knew that Cinci had a bottling plant for Hudepohl but I had never actually had the infamous Hudy Delight, so I wanted to try some. First we technically went to Meijer, but all they had were 12 pk cans and I honestly just wanted a six pack to try... so we went to JJ's. At JJ's, I picked up a 6 pack of Hudepohl Amber Lager and a 6 pack of Hudepohl Festival Bock. Neither of which are their primary brands, but whatever. I also picked up a 12 pack of Shiner Ruby Redbird, which is brewed with Texas Ruby Red grapefruit and ginger. I only really wanted a 6 pk but all they had were 12's and at $12 I figured, what the hell. I also picked up some hot cause... one was on sale for $1.99 and I can't remember it's name... but it looked interesting. another is a hot sauce I haven't seen since college and was probably my first true hot sauce, called Gibb's Nuclear Hell. It was hot and chunky and nearly every day I would have a processed chicken patty with a dab of Gibb's Nuclear Hell covered with cheese. And it was awesome as hell. :P

Sunday, we went to her parents house to celebrate Mother's Day and her dad's birthday. We also went to Ikea where I picked up a couple of awesome bookshelves for my LPs. Her dad cooked up some steaks for lunch which were awesome. Then we came back some to our excited kids who missed up very much. Then I worked out where the Wii laughed at me and said 'You gained 3 lbs chunk-o' so I did some yoga and ran for a 1/2 hour. And then I blogged. And now I'm done. Talk to you later!

Even more stupid...

I took back the Suspense 50 Movie Pack because, well, I already owned it. I thought that I saw the Mystery 50 Movie Pack, but I was convinced that it was $19.99 since I seemed to remembered it being in the shrink wrap. So, I checked and it turns out I was mostly right. It was new and it did have shrink wrap... but it was only $5.99!!! W00t 4 Darrin Stupidity!!! Add another movie set to the list.

Egads... when it is gonna stop???

I'm just that stupid

I posted before about my love of BAD movies. I have many of those 50 movie packs. Well, I picked up two more. Good golly. On the plus side, one of them, the Suspense 50 movie pack, I already have as part of the Action 100 movie pack... so I will be taking that one back.

The other one, The Way West, I picked up for $6.39 at Half Price Books (Suspense was also the same price). It is what is sounds like, a bunch of cowboy movies starring all of the greats: Tex Ritter, Jack Randall, Bill Cody, Bob Steele, Roy Rogers, Ken maynard, etc etc etc.

I must be stupid since this puts me into the 750 movie range. I haven't calculated out the total hours and all that crap yet. But I'll add it soon enough.

Egads.

Here's hoping Half Price doesn't have another collection I don't already have for $5.99 again.

Go SpaceX

The latest on SpaceX is that the mission to send cargo to the International Space Station is slated for April 30th @ 12:22PM EDT. I am excited about the possibilities if this all goes off without any big glitches. They're already working on making the Dragon capsule man-ready (actually, they've designed it all along as being for human flight, but they obviously can't just throw humans in there and 'see how it goes'.

Here is a 60 minutes interview with Elon Musk (founder of PayPal and owner/CTO of SpaceX). Good stuff.