No Cards Today, Because I Wanna DANCE with Somebody!

 I look at all the blogs I follow, and I feel bad.  All of them talk about cards all the time, and I don't know the last time I had a blog specifically for cards.  When I say card collecting is on the back burner for now, its for a lot of reasons.  I've never been one to follow a hobby too long at once so usually one hobby replaces another.  Its not a surprise in the last couple years, VHS and movies in general have taken precedence over cards.  Even puzzles have too.  That said, I do have cards to show, I just need to gather them and make a nice post on them.  I've considered renaming the blog since I show off so much more than cards, but I haven't put much thought into it.  Maybe this summer if I redesign my blog I might do it then.  All that talk is for another day.  I had a few ideas for this blog post, but I made a trip to my local second hand store this week, and I wanted to show my haul from that.  I figure the sooner the better I'll have it fresh in my mind.  So today I have some movies, some toys, and maybe a surprise or two.  The title for this isn't about the basketball tournament going on, which I lost interest in after Mizzou was knocked out.  I always say #W4TG, or Watch For The Game on Twitter, where I promote enjoying the games for the love of them, not because how you fill out a bracket.  I haven't done a bracket in years, and I think this year the games have been really good.  Just after Mizzou lost, I was bummed and skipped the rest of the games.  I hope your team is still in and if not, I just hope its not a major school or one who always wins.  I'm not sure who's left, but no Arkansas or Kansas makes me happy.  Same with UCLA (take that Tyus Edney!).  Anyways, the title alludes to a find and I'll show why I'm happy about it in a bit.  So, let's dig in with what I found.  I've kind of retired the Savvy Loot theme since most of my finds are movies anymore.

This was an exciting find.  Now these aren't the battery powered stompers, but these are still a nice find.  The amazing part is it was 25 cents for all three.  The pricing has really been odd the last couple years.  These were a quarter.  A Miss Piggy stuffed toy (which I have one of) was marked $5.  I know they look up ebay before selling stuff (don't get me started), but I still think donated items should be cheap.  They'll make profit either way.  They really don't know if they want to be a donation place or sell new Amazon stuff (which seems like they are starting to do away with).  Now it seems they want to be an upscale thrift store.  Then again that prices people out.  So finding these cheap are good.

I remember having a few of these kinds before though a blue one is all I have now.  Oddly, I don't think I had any of these specific ones.  My favorite is the red truck.

The media section finally had a sign with the prices on stuff, no more guessing.  However I think they've changed prices on VHS.  Now books are 2/$1, DVD's (and I assume Blu-ray) are $1, Records are $1, VHS is 2/$1 and CD's are 4/$1 (or 25 cents).  I think they were doing 50 cents or 4/$1 on VHS before, but that's fine.  Might be a bit more selective, but I'll still find stuff.  I didn't find any DVD's this time, and didn't really look at records, but don't think anything good was there.  I looked at books, but nothing interested me.  So let's see the CD's I got first.  It is an odd mix.

I can't say I enjoy a lot of ragtime music, but I mostly got this for my mom and the fact that Scott Joplin has some local roots around here and I always wanted some of his music.  I listened to some of this and its not bad. I might listen to the rest later, but like I said, its mostly for my mom. Now to complete my ragtime collection, I need to find Michigan J. Frog, but I'm not in a rush to find it.

This might be the most random CD I've gotten in a while.  I haven't listened to it yet, but I had reasons to get it.  Mainly, I have a nephew in the Marines, so I thought it would be cool to check out.  My mom found a Marines coffee mug as well, so it made sense to get this.  I like how it mentions its not an official product of the U.S. Marine Corps.

Now to more "normal" CD's.

I like Amy Grant and I don't have much of her early stuff. I haven't listened to this yet, but I have heard of Father's Eyes (its on here Greatest Hits).  I'm not saying I'll rock out to this, but it is a nice addition to what I already have.  I have a couple others on my wantlist, though this one wasn't on there, its still a nice addition.

I think the newest NOW CD is Volume 84, and in the UK its in like the 200's.  I don't plan on owning all of them, but I do like the early ones when I knew (and liked) a lot of the songs.  I got this one for the S Club 7 song (don't judge).  They are making a comeback this year, and I'll check it out online.  If you like 90s pop, B*witched is getting back together this year too so I'm happy about that.  Now if Billie Piper makes a new album I'll be in heaven.  I also liked City High and Lifehouse, so I got this CD.  I forgot they edit the music on here, but the edits are odd.  I know its radio edits, but they edit the word "SMOKE", but not what they are smoking.  So Nelly is singing about riding with him and "EDIT an L with me".  City High is singing about a deadbeat boyfriend "somewhere EDIT rock now, in and out of lockdown". Odd.  The only songs I'm skipping is R.Kelly (never liked him), and Evan and Jaron (despite being a fan of their stuff and have an album), that song isn't that good.  Glad I have American Hi-Fi also.  My logic is if I find one song I like than its worth a quarter.  I figure this CD paid for the entire dollar of CD's I got.

So at this point, I'm not Dancing yet.  I am about to though when I look at the VHS.

"Hey palie, there's somebody's name on that Death Wish box." Sorry Chuck (we're close I can call him Chuck). I noticed it after I got home.  I have to imagine Death Wish 5 got a VHS release, so I want to build the collection.  The third is my favorite, and 4 might be my least, but I was still happy to find it.  Red Dawn I don't own otherwise, so I wanted a copy, though wish it wasn't a rerelease, but oh well. The same with Demolition Man, I needed a copy of it, so glad to have it.  Both I would like on blu-ray one day, but I've held out on Demolition Man for so long, no rush.  I only watched Red Dawn in the last few years, so that one I haven't enjoyed as long, so I might get it upgraded sooner or later.

At this point I have 3 movies, I always like getting 4, so that leaves one VHS left, and the reason I WANNA DANCE!

I will let you know I don't watch Bill Dance.  In the 90s it was on TNN every weekend, and every weekend I would skip past it.  I had no desire.  I haven't fished in probably 30 years, and never was that good.  However this "caught" my eye *groan*.  I had to see if this was a tape I thought didn't exist.

As people on the thrift store finds page on reddit would say "I FOUND MY WHITE WHALE!"  The story I first heard about 2-3 years ago, Jerry Reed was fishing with Bill Dance.  Bill never keeps the fish, he tosses them back.  Well Jerry caught a good fish.  He wanted to have it mounted on his wall.  Bill said "we toss them back".  Jerry said "I'm keeping it".  The keep fishing.  When Jerry isn't looking Bill released the fish.  So they get back to shore, and Jerry's like "where's my fish?" Bill told him he released it, and Jerry chased him off the boat.  That is how the story goes.  I've seen 2-3 minute clips on Youtube, but always hoped it would be available in longer format, but never expecting to find it.  I never knew it was released on VHS, always assumed it was just a TV taping, thus the scarcity.  When I grabbed the box, I saw this and almost let out a loud WOO-HOO!  I haven't watched it yet, but plan to soon.  This was worth the entire trip, and I am so happy I found it.  It's little things like this that will keep me searching for VHS.  They released anything and everything on VHS, and were much more selective on DVD.  So as VHS tapes degrade, a lot of media is getting lost.  That is why I like finding the oddball stuff opposed to the blockbuster movies.

After this we made a trip to Dollar Tree, and while they have DVD's, I didn't find much.  I bought one movie, and it was only because I was curious.

David A.R. White isn't a bad actor.  He's a Christian who makes a lot of Christian movies, but most of them aren't any good.  He's done the God's Not Dead movies but also a lot of lesser known ones.  I figured for $1.25, its like renting a movie and if its good I can keep it.  If it isn't I can always donate or sell it. I hope a few other movies of his show up (especially the Revelation Road trilogy).  I have a feeling the Dollar Tree movies are going to thin out soon, but there's always thrifting.

I think I'll wrap it up here for today.  I might have to fish and Dance the night away.  Maybe not.  Before I go I wanted to share a link.  The past few weeks I've started making a weekly music playlist on Youtube.  This is the first week I made it public.  There isn't really a rhyme or reason to it, just search for a song and then either listen to what they suggest or other songs that pop in my head I want to hear. Last week I made a playlist of St. Patrick's Day songs (Dropkick Murphys were featured heavily).  This week is mostly 90s rock.  Next week I might do a wrestling one with theme songs and songs used for PPVs since Wrestlemania is coming.  I like to have a theme when I can, but some weeks is just random.  I might have a 60s country song followed by a 2022 rap song.  Whatever I want to hear.  I figured I'd share the link, and each week I'll share it on my Twitter feed. I still want to build up my subscribers on Youtube, so figured this might help a bit until I start uploading more commercials again.  The songs I pick are usually ones you don't hear on radio rotation (I don't do Spotify, so radio and Youtube is how I consume music mostly).  I don't get how classic rock plays the same 15 songs when they have 5 decades of stuff to choose from.  Anyways, here is the link- https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWO8LKbggWruz8S5EoBY3bBzN8YCUgzOo

Well, now I'll wrap it up, thanks for reading and hope everyone has a great weekend.  I hope to finish another puzzle, and maybe next time show some recent ones I've finished.

Is It Friday Yet?

 Normally I have no complaints about the week, they all seem to run together.  Though this week has been one I'm ready to be over.  Had some issues with the apartment this week, which has finally started to work itself out, so I can move on from it.  Because of those issues, I had to move my entire movie shelf and a bunch of my stuff, so its very cramped.  Silver lining though is that despite probably not being able to put the stuff back for a bit, at least when I can, I'll be able to give everything a nice spring cleaning.  Not trying to specifically dance around the subject, but there was a water leak.  A few hiccups throughout the week, but its been decided, that a section of the carpet will be replaced with tile, and everyone seems to be happy with the outcome.  Until then though it wouldn't be wise to put everything back.

With all that being said, I've wanted to post for a few days now but have been preoccupied.  So now as I start to write this, nothing I have to post was a big deal or all exciting.  Well a couple things might be, but most of it is mundane, so I might find a few other things to show as well.

I think today I'll show the fun stuff.  Last week my friend stopped by, and he gave me a birthday gift.  He said it wasn't much, but I disagree.  It is really cool, and not only that, it displays well too (once I can put it in its rightful place.

He always gives the best gifts, and this was no exception.  He bought this 250 piece puzzle, which I finished in about an hour (the hour of 2 AM) and it looks really cool.  Even better is the box it came in displays really nice and is handy in case my nieces and nephews visit and want to do something.  He even had Mario wrapping, which not knowing what was inside allowed me to do a subpar Mario impression, which made the gift even better.

My favorite part is it is inside of a tin, which even without the box displays well.  It looks like a NES cartridge and combines my gaming and tin collections. I was discussing with my friend which Mario game was my favorite.  I only really played NES, so among the original 3, I couldn't decided between 1 and 3.  I never cared for 2 that much, but if they ever made puzzles for those or any other that are packaged like this I'd have to consider getting them.

Last post I mentioned getting a Chromebook.  Since then I've used it a bit, as I didn't plan on using it all the time anyways, but without the events of the week, might have used it more.  I'm easing into it and learning a few things.  One thing it has allowed me to do is sync my photos from the computer to it but even then, I'm not sure I'll use it to write blogs.  I like to crop and edit the photos I use, and it seems there is extra steps when using the Chromebook.  My goal is to use the Chromebook for most of my internet stuff, and then keep using my desktop for any other stuff I need to do and blogging.  I even looked into getting a chromecast for the TV so I can mirror the screen.  That would allow me to watch Youtube without using the roku app that has a ton of commercials.  I don't think I'll do that anytime soon though, I have other things to do and might be busy doing that first.

Before I thought about the Chromecast, I finally used the gift cards I got for Amazon at Christmas.  It took a while because there were a few "needs" yet nothing "fun" so I wanted something fun to arrive with the needs.  In the end, I was happy with the results.

I BOUGHT PLASTIC!  Well, I mentioned a few months back I won a signed Funko from Gabriel Iglesias.  Since then I haven't displayed it because the apartment gets real dusty (we live fairly close to a Co-op, or to some a grain elevator), so I wanted to get a Pop protector before displaying it.  I was originally going to get a pack of 24, but decided on pack of 6 because not only do I only have one Pop, but because I don't plan to build an empire of them, at least anytime soon.  Plus it saved me a bit of money to spend elsewhere.  As I was cropping photos I realized I didn't take any of the protector in its finished state or how he's protecting the Pop.  It really is a piece of plastic, and it does the job so I'm not mad.  At least I don't need more until I get 5 more Pops, or find something to display in these.  That is if I feel like getting the plastic in its square shape (which I don't).

The next two items were things I've wanted for a year, and finally got them.  The first is a phone case.  I like the phone I have but Samsung A11 cases aren't the most stocked or I guess discounted.  I've had my eye on a few, but I'm cheap.  I found this one and got it.  I'm not going to say I'm glad I have it, as it doesn't seem much like an upgrade on the one I had, and the screen protector seems a bit small, so I haven't installed it.  That said it was a fair price and it should do its job and I can keep the other one as a backup.  The final item is a tablet cover for the Fire tablet I got for my mom.  These versions of the Fire tablet I guess had a different size or shape because you needed a specific case for it, maybe because of the button settings or camera.  Anyways a couple months ago we found one while Savvy shopping for 50 cents, but it was much bigger and not great, covered the camera, and buttons.  I knew I would get a better case, and found this one.  So far my mom likes it and its much better.  I especially like the grips on the back and its much easier to hold.  It's a perfect fit too.

So far, everything is good, and while a bit boring, gift card money well spent.  So now I needed some fun.  What to get?  I thought about a few things- a vhs to pc converter to copy vhs tapes to my computer, a few movies on DVD or blu ray, a fan for my old computer (but that wouldn't be fun or even solve the problem), random crap?  Who knows, that's why I took so long to decide.  At one time I had a dry erase board in my cart that was a large size to do large puzzles on.  Good price but a bit boring.  Then the price doubled and got even higher, so I removed that.  Once I found a monocular.  You can use it with your phone to zoom in even more, which would be fun.  It was on sale and would only need to add a few bucks to the gift card.  However I thought if I would use it that much.  I decided not, plus it went back to the original price which was 3 times the price.  So finally I decided what to get- puzzles.  I spent more times on puzzles than almost anything else the last year, so why not at least browse.  So I looked and found about 10 or so I somewhat liked.  A couple pricy ones, some really cheap.  Still deciding I thought I'd look at the Funko Pops knowing I'd have a way to protect them.  I almost got one or two, but went back to puzzles.  Finally I decided I would get two, and after pricing it out, think I owed 3 bucks out of pocket.  Not a bad deal.  So what did I decide on?

This one looked fun, and even though I like photo puzzles over drawing or painting ones, this one is an exception.  It makes me look forward to my town's 150th birthday festival coming up in June.  While this puzzle could be more exciting than what they have planned, both should be fun.  We got started on this puzzle and had the outside finished as well as a few other pieces when we started having the issues in the apartment.  So we took the puzzle down since the troubled area was where we was putting the puzzle together.  I think we'll get back to it later today and might not take that long.  I can't wait to finish it and take a picture to show the finished outcome.

This next one I was super happy to find, and spawned an idea of a theme month of puzzles.

I am so ready to do this puzzle.  We put it off second because we figured we'd finish the other one first and about the time we finish this one my sister would visit.  We could jump the gun on this but think we'll hold off.  Either way, whenever we get to it, it will be worth the wait.  Might even have to get a Reese's or two to celebrate.  My mom always says she wants an Almond Joy but can't eat the almonds anymore, so I thought this would be a way to appease her.  She liked it.

The other reason to do this second is to kick off a theme month of puzzles.  We've never done a theme outside of doing snowy ones in the winter and summer-y ones in the summer.  For this month however, we will be redoing some older puzzles as we celebrate a month of food.

I think we might even have more, but this was all that was handy.  I think the toughest one last time was the M&M one.  The Cracker Jack one took a while, but wasn't really hard.  The pizza one is quick, and honestly I don't remember doing the pretzel one, but know I did.  Even starting a few days late, I think we should have these all finished before Easter which was the idea to begin with.

We decided to do a few easier/quick ones because we just completed our first 2000 piece puzzle.  It was fun, but large and took a while.  It wasn't as much exhausting as it was just wanting to finish it towards the end.  We have 3-4 more that size and will get to them in a month or two.  At this point I think we still have about 12-15 puzzles we haven't done yet and I'm sure we'll find more.  We usually keep all the puzzles we finish, but if we have a garage sale this year, we might purge a few.  As of now we have room in storage for them, so no real need to purge them yet, but I'm sure we'll find more to add to the collection this year.

To be honest, this was a fairly easy 2000 piece puzzle.  The worst part was just the fact we couldn't turn it around to work on the top or the sides like we are use to.  Instead to work on the sky, we just turned the table around for a while.  It actually took a week or less, which was shorter than some 1000 piece ones we've done.  I think this will be a fun one to do again in the future.

It's been a long week, lol.  I just realized that one was only 1000 pieces.  That's because THIS was the 2000 piece one.  It was also a fun puzzle and I'm not sure where the photo is for this one I know I took a few.  This one did take a while, but it wasn't really hard. I think the toughest part was the trees and the water.  Even then it wasn't bad once we got in a groove.  This was one of the cheap ones we got a few months back.  I really need to find the finished pic.

This will be one we work on once food month is over.  It was another recent one we got discounted.  I should have showed it last time but missed it.  Sorry, my mind is all over, did I post the 2000 piece picture last time?  Maybe I need check this stuff out first.  Oh well.  Maybe I should wrap this up.

I think I will stop here, I have a few more things to show, but I'll do that next time.  By then I should have a puzzle or two complete, and some of those older food puzzles I'm sure I've shown on here before.  Thanks for reading, and I hope everyone has a great weekend.  I think I'll learn a bit more about the Chromebook, work on a puzzle and do a little house cleaning.  Hopefully the weather will be nice next week so I can go to storage a few days.