X-Mas Eve

It's Christmas Eve and I'm bored.  I drove back to Cranbrook yesterday and the drive was fine.  Road condintions varied from good to so-so, but on the plus side it was nothing but sun and blue sky from Nanton all the way back to Cranbrook.  Being the Saturday the roads were pretty busy though.  I left the house at 9:30am and got to Gold Creek at 2pm, so while it did take a little longer it wasn't too bad considering the traffic and roads.

I probably should've checked the weather conditions before I left as I just brought back my lighter winter jacket.  Now I'm back it's too damn cold and I should've brought my actual winter jacket, not that I plan on just standing outside or anything.

I haven't done anything now that I'm back and I don't really have any plans to do anything either.  I hooked up my PSOne and played it a bit.  Unfortunately, not all the games play smoothly, some have stuttering audio issues.  I'm not sure if it's the console or the discs are faulty.  Either way, it stinks.

Avery saw the PS1 was hooked up and wanted to try it, so we played Soul Blade and Quake 2, two games which played fine.  Avery doesn't play many video games, so he kind of sucks at it.  Although he did beat me a few times playing Soul Blade, but only he kept spamming the same move.  And holy crap the controls on Quake 2 were so awkward.  It must have been before the Dual Shock controller because the sticks did nothing.  You move with the d-pad and adjust the up and down aiming with the shoulder buttons.  As long as you were on a flat surface though you didn't really need this.  I'll try a few more games while I'm back.  I still have Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and Marvel Vs Capcom to go for a spin.

2017-12-22

We got ourselves an AT-ST today!  Kind of funny and cool looking at the same time.  It is neat how they can make the vehicles this small with so few parts and still be instantly recognizable.

With only two days left I know what kits are still to come out because they are on the front of the box and I haven't seen them yet.  The snowboarding BB-8 will obviously be the 24th which leave some boring sled thing for tomorrow.  But I'm heading back to Cranbrook on Saturday and I'm just going to do the last two days once I get back next week.  I'm sure you guys can wait until then right?

Extra pieces: 3

21st

For December 21st we have another mini figure.

No, he isn't a Death Star gunner with that goofy helmet, he's Imperial Ground Crew.  You can see a guy in a similar costume in Rogue One on Scarif base.  He does look cool, lots of nice detail on his torso.  Plus they even gave him a headset comm on his head.  

Tank You

If you are wondering what today's kit is then you are not alone.  I don't recognize this one and had to go look it up.  It's an Imperial Hovertank as seen in Rogue One.

In other news, Cody and I went and saw The Last Jedi today.  We went to the Westhills Theatre near our place because while normally it's closed for weekday matinees, it is open now for Christmas break.  We went to an early show and it was empty!  There were seven people in the theatre, it was so nice.

Anyway, I read things about TLJ being "too different" from other Star Wars movies, but in the case of The Phantom Menace that is a good thing.  Then again, there were complaints saying The Force Awakens was too similar to previous SW movies, it's pretty much a rehash of A New Hope.  There is nothing wrong with being different.

While the movie does have some flaws, like pacing and plot holes, overall it was pretty good.  I'd like to see it again in the theatre.  Also, thumbs up on the porgs, they got THE funniest scene in the movie.  Now to send Cam a spoiler filled e-mail.

Extra pieces: 3

Day 19

If you aren't sure what type of ship this is then you haven't seen Rogue One.  If you haven't, then you obviously should and also it's a Tie Striker.  They can be seen dogfighting with rebel X-Wings and Y-Wings over Scarif.

Y tho

We got another cool vehicle kit for December the 18th!

Despite the size it's still a pretty good looking Y-Wing!  Yes, they are slow as hell to fly and can't dogfight against Interceptors, but at least they got blasters, ion cannons and missiles!

Extra pieces: 6!

Burns

December the 17th's kit is another mini figure.

We got ourselves Imperial Officer, and going from his huge mutton chops, he must be from A New Hope because the 70's.  It's nice to get away from all the newer Star Wars stuff and get into  the original trilogy.  Hopefully, we have more of these in the coming days.

Friday the 15th

Looks like I'm running a day late, but I'll catch up...probably...eventually.  December the 15th is a...

It's not Star Wars related, but it is winter related, it's a boring old snow blower.  Kind of a disappointment really.

I guess being in the First Order isn't all about being front line cannon fodder, some guys gotta do the crummy jobs like sanitation (Finn!) and clearing the snow from various sidewalks and driveways around Starkiller  Base.  I guess it beats getting killed though.

*snow blower noises*

Extra pieces: 2

December 14th

Yesterday we had the First Order Snowspeeder, so what does a snowspeeder need?

I got a Snow Trooper today, so now I have a driver for my snowspeeder.  Too bad that like the First Order Stormtrooper, this guy also doesn't come with a blaster or any accessory.  It's a good thing the Snowspeeder also came with an extra gun.

Up, up and away!

Lucky 13

If you are wondering what today's kit from the Lego Star Wars advent calendar is, it's a First Order Snowspeeder as seen in The Force Awakens.  Well, not really.  The Snowspeeder was originally going to be in TFA, but that particular sequence featuring it was cut from the movie.  If you own the movie you can see a Snowspeeder chase with Finn and Rey and some Snowtroopers as a deleted scene.

I guess Disney and Lucasfilm forgot to tell Lego and Hasbro that the Snowspeeder scenes were cut from the film because they went ahead and made toys for them anyway.  Lego did a whole kit for the Snowspeeder and I remember seeing Hasbro vehicles for it as well.  Even the Snowtroopers received several action figures and stuff, yet were hardly seen in the movie.

Extra pieces: 3 (one was a gun!)

Punch it!

Any guesses as to what December 12th's kit is?  It has a round piece?  You could guess, but you can probably already see the pictures below.

 THE MILLENNIUM FALCON

Pretty neat looking kit for being so small.  My favorite one so far, will something cooler come out?  Probably not unfortunately.

Extra pieces: 4

Note, I changed "Left over pieces" to "Extra pieces" because left over might sound like I didn't need or use them when I was supposed to.  Extra just means after fully assembling the kit I had a few extra pieces which is nice in case one day you lose a piece.

10/11

I was so tired last night that I didn't even turn on my laptop, hence no December 10th advent calendar post.  Luckily, that kind of worked in my favor as 10 and 11 go hand in hand.

December 10th...

A mini figure from The Force Awakens, but I can't remember his name.  He tried to scoop up BB-8 on Jakku and then Rey stepped in to help him.  In that scene he was riding a weird cyborg/robot horse thing, so I'm pretty sure that will be the kit for Dec 11th.  Also, the horse was on the front of the box, so I do know he is in there.

December 11...

Yep, it is the "horse" or if you want to get technical a "luggabeast".  If you've seen it in the Force Awakens then you know how it moves and how it would probably be useless as a mount.  Unless you aren't in any kind of a hurry.

The dude's name is Teedo!

8/9

When I got up this morning I thought about how I should do December the 9th's kit when I got home from work and then I remembered I never posted the kit from the 8th!  I actually put it together and took pictures, but then totally forgot to post it up.  So here we go with another two for one.

December the 8th...

We got another miscellaneous weapons/item rack.  I remember the other Lego Star Wars advent calendars I also had one of these filler kits, but at least you get some bonus blaster and tools out of it.  My biggest complaint with this one is that they should've thrown in a few more items.  You only get one blaster rifle and one wrench.  At least give us one extra item to help fill up that box.

Left over pieces: 0

December 9th...

I didn't have to look this ship and it's instantly recognizable as Rey's speeder.  Pretty good likeness on this one.

Left over pieces: 4

Dec07

Behind the door of December the 7th we have another mini figure!

It's a First Order Stormtrooper.  It's just him and unfortunately he doesn't come with an accessory of any kind.  I guess he doesn't need a blaster because he'll never be able to hit anything anyway.

Under the helmet he does look a little grumpy.  Unlike the previous mini figures he only has one facial expression, but normally you'll never see it, so I guess he doesn't matter.  I would still be funny just know that he is actually smiling under that helmet.

Left over pieces: 0

December 6th

Looks like quite a number of pieces for December the 6th's kit.  I hope it isn't too hard!

If you aren't sure what this is (it's a little blurry, my bad) it's a Troop Transport from The Force Awakens.  You can see it in the opening of the movie when it lands on Jakku at night.

There were a lot of pieces for a mini kit and it's seems more "complicated" than the usual kits from advent calendars.

Left over pieces: 3

Hey you guys, it's a guy!

December 5th kit is another mini figure!

I thought who I knew this guy was, but I  had look around online to find out I was totally wrong.  This guy is Taslin Brance, a background character in The Force Awakens.  He is a Major in the Resistance.

His head has two expression, a smug grin and an angrier scowl.  The Sabine figure from the other day also had two expressions, but I didn't notice then.  Maybe Major Brance is just mad because his hairpiece is a bit crooked.

Da Fourth

I've got one hour and fifteen minutes before it's officially December 5th, so I better get this done quick.  I don't want to have two posts in a row be late.

It's a gun and a big one too!  It just takes are regular gun and attaches a bunch of crap on it including a quadripod (if that's even a word) because the gun is so big a tripod couldn't handle it.  Obviously not from a specific movie or show, just a gun.  Hopefully, they'll be a figure tomorrow to use it.

Left over pieces: 1

Thr33

It's December the 4th and I'm already falling behind on the advent calendar.  I never even turned on my computer yesterday, so I'm just getting around to the third today.

Bag 'o bits

It's a ship, but I don't recognize it, so it's probably not from any of the movies.  After some looking around online I found it's called The Phantom, a star fighter from the Star Wars Rebels TV show.  Makes sense since the first two kits were also from Star Wars Rebels.

Left over pieces: 4

Day Two

December 2nd on the Star Wars Lego Advent calendar is...

A mini figure!

I'd be happy if they did an advent calendar of just 24 days of Star Wars mini figures.  That would be pretty awesome.

Anyway, after much work I assembled the bits of Sabine Wren.  She is a character from Star Wars Rebels and easy to spot apart from all other SW characters just due to her hair!  If you didn't know she is Mandalorian, so you know she is a bad ass.

Leftover pieces: 0

One down, twenty-three to go

I GOT A STAR WARS ADVENT CALENDAR!  You already knew this if you saw my Instagram, but after the past few years of not having one I finally broke down and caved in.  I had seen them at London Drugs and at work, but they were both $49.99 and I was like that's too much.  I was hoping they'd get cheaper and then I was in London Drugs today and saw it was marked down by $10 plus I had a $5.00 off voucher, so I went for it.  They probably would've gotten cheaper into December, but I figured I didn't want to take a chance and miss out on them.  So here we here again with another month of posts for twenty-four days in a row.

Just by looking at the front of the 2017 calendar it looks to feature characters and ships from more recent Star Wars properties like The Force Awakens.  As an old school Star Wars purist I prefer the original trilogy stuff, but at least there isn't any crap from The Phantom Menace in here...I hope.  Still I was pretty much sold as soon as I saw a snowboarding BB-8.

The cover flap opens to reveal a snow covered Starkiller Base above what looks to be Jakku.  

Here we go!

Once I put all the pieces together I ended up with The Ghost, the ship from the TV show Star Wars Rebels.  I'm pretty sure it's the Ghost anyway.  Come back tomorrow to see what comes out for December 2nd!

Leftover pieces: 4

Tees

I was getting gas at Petro Canada a few weeks ago and as I went inside to pay I noticed a big banner over the front window promoting a Reese's/NHL t-shirt giveaway.  I'm all for free shirts especially if they have peanut butter cups on them.  I paid for my gas and got a package of peanut butter cups.  I bought a package with an NHL logo on it and figured that was one of the ones to try and win a free shirt.  I opened it expecting to find a PIN code inside the label or something, but there was nothing.  I was mad I didn't have a chance to win a free shirt, but consoled myself with some delicious peanut butter cups.

I did some "research" and it turns out this is an online contest where you buy and two Reese's products and go to https://reesetime.ca/en-ca/AgeGate and then enclose a picture of your receipt for a chance to win a shirt.  I gave it a try and...

I WON!

I'm not sure how they can figure out that you bought two Reese's products just by uploading a picture of a receipt.  Maybe they go through the winners and if there is any funny stuff you get disqualified. 

I went through the whole process on my phone because that's what I used to take a picture of my receipt.  There are three different t-shirt designs to choose from and you get to pick a 1st choice and 2nd choice.  After I submitted all my info for my free shirt I realized that nowhere did it ask me what size shirt I wanted.  Maybe I missed it?  Maybe they are all the same size?  I imagine they will probably all be L or XL, but I guess only time will tell.

If you want to try and win a shirt then you'd better get on it because there only a limited amount to be won.  My recommendation would be to hit up Dollarama and get two packs of Reese's Pieces or Peanut Butter Cups because it's cheaper than 7-11 or where you buy candy.  Also, have a calculator ready to answer the mathematical skill testing question.  But I totally didn't need one.

Bonus disc

So last week I mentioned I went to the thrift stores and Phoenix comics and got a bunch of stuff I never mentioned what CDs I got from the thrift store.  I meant to, but then I forgot which is fine because then I can drag it out into an entire post.

I got those four CDs for $1.00 as part of the bizarre pricing structure at WINs.   I can't believe I didn't already own that Smashing Pumpkins CD or maybe I do and just forgot about it.  I'm pretty sure I don't though...probably.  Also you can never have too many Selena Gomez CDs.  The Ice Cube album is currently playing in my car and is pretty good.  It's more of an EP though with only seven tracks.  Turns out there was also an unadvertised bonus inside the case.

The Ice Cube case also had this "Dance/Rap May/02" disc stacked on top of it.  At thrift stores you always gotta check the cases to make sure it has the proper disc inside it and sometimes you'll get lucky and get an extra disc.  At the same thrift store a while back I bought the DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince CD that also came with an extra disc inside it.

I popped the CD in my computer to see what was on it and while it holds 14 tracks, they don't come up with any artist or song names.  Most of the songs are from that 2002 era rap/hip hop stuff, but then out of nowhere is older stuff like Young MC, Tone Loc and then the one song that is completely out of place is Lust for Life.  I guess someone saw Trainspotting.

Forget going and buying brand new CDs when I can go buy four CDs for a $1.00 at the thrift store.  It's way cheaper and nice to catch up on albums I missed out on.

Late to the party

Well I finally got on the hype train and watched Stranger Things.  I liked it, I really liked it.  Despite hearing nothing but good things about it upon it's initial release on Netflix, I still had no interest in seeing it.  I read positive things online and had people tell me face to face what a good show it was.  When I heard they did a Season 2 that would be released the end of October I just said I would watch the first season right before the second season came out.  And then I didn't it.

Cody had watched Season 1 when it was released and then watched Season 2.  He asked if I had seen it and of course I didn't bother.  On Thursday night we watched the first two episodes of season 1 because Cody wanted to rewatch it after seeing season 2.  After those first two episodes I was like, okay I'm digging it.  Friday night we watched two more episodes and then I was like "Screw it" and I binge watched the remaining four episodes.  Cody couldn't keep up, so I watched second half of the first season without him.

I'm looking forward to watching Season 2 now, but I might wait a bit before watching it.  I need to let Season 1 digest first.  I'm also thinking about making a trip down to Chinatown because they had it there on bootleg DVD.  I'd prefer to watch it on DVD because I still hate streaming.

I didn't make it through a single episode with out some kind of freezing, buffering or picture quality switching from 1080p to 180p while the feed catches up.  It's incredibly annoying and really takes enjoyment away from whatever you are watching.  I had the same problem watching the Defenders which was a lot worse.  I swear one episode was in HD for 5 minutes while the rest was like watching a second generation VHS tape.   What are we paying Shaw cable for it we can't even stream a movie on Netflix without it looking like garbage? 

Maybe if I could figure out a way to rig up Netflix on my little Free Soup TV the lack of being able to constant stream HD wouldn't be a problem.  Hey Cam, is it possible??

Today's new...Part 377

I haven't been out and about hitting up my regular spots in a while, so I had the afternoon off today and went to the thrift store, Phoenix, the other thrift store and then got lunch to go at the Vietnamese place by the "other thrift store".

That is my haul from today!

The first thrift store I went to I got the Transformer DVDs and the three pack of die cast cars(by the Scoobs).  I only bought the cars because there is an old beat up A-Team van in the bag, the others will be going back to the thrift store.  DVDs are 2 for $2 on Tuesday, so I got those two Transformers even though it's technically three discs.  One case has the complete season one on two discs and the other case has the third disc of special features.  Best part of the special features is the vintage Hasbro commercials and a PSA.   I do own the original Rhino release, but I'll probably watch a bit of it and then pass it on to Mike and Eli.

At Phoenix I went in looking for the Wildstorm 25th Anniversary hardcover, but they didn't have it.  I still ended up leaving with a Funko Pop Scooby-Doo, the smaller loose Scooby-Doo as well as DVDs for Dirty Pair Flash and Strange Days.

Then at the other thrift store I got some CDs, a blu-ray and a t-shirt.  They sell CDs/DVDs for $1 each or 4/$1.00 which is some really weird math.  It's crazy cheap though, so you always get at least four.  Of course, it was really  busy and it was hard to look, so I grabbed the four CDs and a fifth movie that I ended up paying $1.00 for but it's only a dollar, so no big deal.  

The movie is the FIFA 2010 World Cup Film and I only bought it because it's in 3D.  Specs on the back says it's 720p, why isn't it 1080p?  I'll check it out and see what it's like.

When I was browsing the CDs this younger 20-ish guy was looking at CDs too and he reached for a copy of Sloan "Twice Removed" and I told him that it was a good album.  He said he had only heard one of their songs on the radio, but wasn't familiar with the band.  Then we just talked about how it's only 25 cents a CD, that it's just so cheap and easy to get bands you haven't heard before.  Then I also recommended Garbage and Metric to him and he said he hadn't heard of any of those bands.  I thought it was a bit weird like, what rock did this guy just crawl out from under?  When I left he said, "Thank you sir for your recommendations." and I was like I gon slap this foo.  He wasn't being rude, he just so polite and seemed a bit naive it's not something you expect from "kids" today.  He was probably religious or raised in cult or something like that, I dunno.

The shirt with the knives on it is actually a Metric shirt, but it's only a medium.  I got it for Logan who also probably doesn't know who Metric are, but that's because he's an ignorant kid.  I'm sure he'll still wear it because it's got knives on it.

And tonight was Halloween and Cody had to work, so I was giving out candy.  It was rainy, but I still had a few kids show up.  I gave a kid and his brother some candy and they said thank you and I said you're welcome then when they were leaving he told me to "Have a good trick or treat." and I replied "You too."  A bit later another little guy came to the door and said "I want candy." and his dad who was standing back a bit down the walk said "You are supposed to say trick or treat."  I said, "That's close enough!" and gave him his candy.  I should've gave him extra candy.

No soup for you!

I just thought I'd let you know that I'm back in Cranbrook, but I'm leaving tomorrow.  I was originally hoping to come back to Cranbrook this coming weekend and stay for a bit longer, but due to stupid stuff at work I was only able to come back for four days, Saturday the 21st to Tuesday the 24th.

I wish I could've stayed a bit longer, but I said hi to everyone and got my winter tires on which is major bonus.  If it had snowed and I didn't have my tires then I would've been walking for the rest of the winter.

This afternoon Willie and I hit up our usual spots, in fact some spots we went to twice!   That's because we saw something we wanted, but didn't get it and then caved in later on and went back to get it.  Willie was too cheap to pay $3.00 for a mug, but he found out it was half price, so he went back and bought it. 

I saw a TV/VCR combo at Bibles For Mission, but decided to keep looking because the Salvation Army usually has decent selection as well.  Salvation Army did have two small TVs and one was $5.00, but I ended up going back to Bibles and getting the other TV because it was $5.00 as well, but now I can watch VHS tapes on it.  Plus it has the added bonus of custom artwork on it.

Yes, it does say "FREE SOUP!" on it.  I'm mostly hoping to hook up my old PS1 to it and play some games, so the VHS capability is a plus.  It doesn't have a remote, so I'm really hoping it "knows" which input is selected and will change accordingly because there is not a button on the front to select video source.  There is a "Picture" button on the front, but that is just for settings like colour, brightness, contrast, etc.

I did dig out an old anime VHS tape out of a box and watched it and it worked fine.  I'll have to wait until I get back to Calgary to hook up my PS1 and try it out though.  Bummer it only has a mono audio input, but I have an adapter for that.

We also went to Aabco which you already know if you saw my Instagram because I put up a cat picture.  They are way off on their electronics pricing as they had a TV the same size as the one I got but for $39 which is nuts since it wasn't even a good brand.   Salvation Army is usually the best, but this time I got lucky at Bibles.  Finally, I can watch Nukie and The Double O Kid.

AAAAYYYYYY!

Clown Harder

Above is a picture of a "sad clown" painting that I bought years ago at the thrift store.  I'm pretty sure I wrote about here or maybe on MySpace back when that was a thing.  Now, I can't remember which thrift store it was at, maybe Good Will I think.  They actually had three different sad clown paintings, but since I didn't want to be greedy and take all the sad clown paintings for myself I just got the one above and left the others.  It has had graced the walls of our various domiciles since I brought it home.

I recently got the Die Hard blu-ray boxset and last week Cody and I watched Die Hard 2: Die Harder.  After we watched the movie I checked out some of the specials features which included four deleted scenes.  One of the deleted scenes was an extended scene where McClane meets Marvin the janitor.  In the scene McClane discovers Marvin has been living in airport basement and goes into his room.  Cody spied something on the wall in Marvin's room.

I didn't see it at first and had to pause and rewind to see it.  It's like the same face, but with no background.  It's still pretty cool, but now I'll never get rid of that sad clown painting.  Not like I was ever going to anyway!