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??