Fryday Fourtoon: Numba Two

FRYDAY FOURTOON

I've decided to try to make this a regular feature (or semi-regular). I won't scan each and every fortune, I just wanted to scan that first one with the spelling error cause it was fun. But I will post a random fortune from fortune cookies I've gotten over the last few take-outs or deliveries when I remember to save the fortune to be able to quote. So for this week the Fryday Fourtoon is:

"A smooth long journey!

Great Expectations!"

*Fortunes and Lottery Numbers just posted for entertainment purposes only.

DVD Update: Leap February 2012

FEBRUARY 2012

NO new DVDs this month. Also I didn't watch any. At the beginning of the month I didn't watch anything because I watched other stuff or didn't watch at all, then when I wanted to watch something... First the DVD rental from Netflix I wanted to watch didn't work in my regular player, but it seems to work in the computer DVD drive. Then I discovered that my regular player just doesn't want to function properly at all. The red stand-by light stays on, none of the buttons work on the remote or the machine, yet sometimes my TV screen shows the start-up splash screen for the player. Sometimes the red light turns to orange but not green UGH. Sigh it needs repair or replacing. I have another player that isn't hooked up that I haven't used in almost 4 years since I've been in my apartment. The reason is the little player I had been using was a brand that could be made region free (I temporarily forget what they call that DVD tricking) the one that is not hooked up doesn't do that trick.

Maybe it is time to get a new player that can be wired to be region free.

Fryday Fourtoon

Take a good look at that fortune from a real fortune cookie I had about a week ago. The fortune for the cookie shown still wrapped was something else ("A wise man knows everything, a shrewd one everybody"). In case your monitor is too small or you are looking at this on your iPhone the fortune reads:

"You will be showered with good luch."

Talk about your misfortunes or your misspelling. Um I think they meant to say "luck" or maybe forgot the "n" for "Lunch"? That cookie did follow a good portion of Hunan Chicken. So it was either good luck or good lunch, well dinner actually.





*Fortunes and Lottery Numbers just posted for entertainment purposes only.

Finally S.W.A.T. Season 2 DVD Coming

Just got word from tvshowsondvd website that the long awaited Final Season 2 of the television Action Cop show S.W.A.T. (Special Weapons And Tactics Team) will be coming to DVD on 22 May 2012. It is about frackin' time. It was way back in 2003 the year the S.W.A.T. movie starring Samuel L. Jackson and L.L. Cool J with Colin Farrell and Michelle Rodriguez was released and brought out on DVD that Season 1 of the show was released by Sony. Why they couldn't have released Season 2 shortly after I have no idea. Oh wait it was supposedly because there was little interest and sales for Season One weren't high enough. Season Two will be released by Shout! Factory the same folks who finally released the Max Headroom series on DVD. The SRP for this 6 disc season set is $44.99 which is pretty typical a bit high but worth it. I prefer to pay between $20 - $30 for television show seasons but I have gone as high as $45 from time to time. The Original show starred Steve Forrest as the leader of an L.A. based S.W.A.T. team. It also starred Robert Urich as the cocky ladies man. The series ran from 1975-76 so the look and feel of the show is a bit dated by the 2010's/20Teens standards.

UPDATE: tvshowsondvd now has a pic of the cover art.

Super Bowl 46

CONGRATULATIONS New York Giants!

SUPER BOWL XLVI (46) was an exciting game to watch, especially the final 5 minutes or so. The game was kept close through out. The game could have gone either way and both teams missed some scoring opportunities and dropped passes that would have been huge plays that would have led to a score.

As for the commercials. I think one of the best was the second Coca-Cola Polar Bears, where the one goes out of the cave to get a coke and has to run past and play football against the other bears on the frozen pond. The Matthew Broderick Honda commercial was OK for a nostalgic trip down Hollywood's Memory Lane but wasn't THAT exciting and didn't need the extra attention it got pre-game during the week. The sexy Fiat commercial was also pretty good, where the geeky guy with a cup of coffee sees a hot babe that turns out he's looking at the car and fantasizing about the babe. There were a few others that were pretty good, but those I think were the highlights.

UPDATE: I can't believe I forgot to mention these two cool commercials:  The Elton John Pepsi commercial with him as King (or was it Queen?) where a girl sings R-E-S-P-E-C-T and asks for Pepsi for all and sends Elton into his Dungeon (as he had a previous character) and sitting in the cell is Flavor Flav. And one of the coolest M&Ms commercials with the candy characters they have ever had. A Brown shelled female M&M says that she hates when idiots think she is out of her shell, then the Red M&M guy sees her and says "Oh it's one of THESE Parties" and he rips off his shell.

Book Update: January 2012 Books

JANUARY 2012 BOOKS

I got a large number of books this month so I will not post individual covers for all of them. I got 3 of them from the Quality Paperback Book Club, 1 from Goodreads in the first giveaway that I won (I have entered many giveaways there but this was the first time I won one, it helped that the author was giving away 25 copies) and the rest from Ebay.

HARDY BOYS MYSTERIES: 

Many know that the author of these books Franklin W. Dixon was actually a group of authors for the publishing company, but that is a story that has been told before by others and can easily be found by a web search.These first four books I got from one seller on Ebay for and average of $3.00 a piece (some auctions and some fixed price I think) they were ordered in December and I think originally shipped in late December/early January but the post office failed to leave one of those little "orange" pick up slips. Fortunately you can still pick up packages showing you valid photo ID to prove you are who you say you are and you are authorized to pick up mail for your address. I got it 10 days after they had originally tried to deliver it.

USPS "Orange" pick-up slip

Hardy Boys #1 The Tower Treasure

So since I'm trying to rebuild my collection from my childhood, or at least some of the highlights I got the hardback copies of these books. They are the 1960s or early to mid 1970s versions at the newest. I don't plan on getting any newer printings unless the original publication was later for those later numbers. Anyway the Series library numbers I got are 1, 4, 15, 16. These editions are numbered only on the spine, later editions put the number on the front cover. Later still they added a "flashlight" banner to the top of the front cover. I found an excellent identification website The Hardy Boys Unofficial Home Page that can help you determine which edition you may have. It might not be perfect but it helped me tons.  Anyway the titles of what I got:

Hardy Boys #16 A Figure in Hiding

01 - The Tower Treasure

04 - The Missing Chums

15 - The Sinister Sign Post

16 - A Figure In Hiding

With the exception of "number one" I had previously owned the others, I even had two different editions of number 16.

Next I had gotten three books from QPB:

Evidence of the Afterlife by Jeffrey Long, MD with Paul Perry
The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer 

The Vikings: A History by Robert Ferguson - When I first saw this book in the catalog I thought I already had it because I have a hardback edition of another book titled Vikings by Magnus Magnusson that has a similar cover.

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E

Next I am building a library of television-tie-in books from a TV series I barely saw as a kid. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. which starred Robert Vaughn, David McCallum (who plays "Duckie" on NCIS), and Leo G. Carroll. The trick to this series is I also plan on getting the UK versions of some of the books which have a different numbering system and sadly didn't publish as many of them there. I am concentrating on getting the US editions first then perhaps as I can find them get the UK ones. There is an excellent website (from a guy in the UK that has a bunch of series listed on his home page) to see the covers of all these books The Man From UNCLE Books Gallery

The Man From U.N.C.L.E.  (later printings listed it as #1 and titled "The Thousand Coffins Affair" this edition only has that title on the inside) by Michael Avallone

02 - The Doomsday Affair by Harry Whittington
03 - The Copenhagen Affair by John Oram
04 - The Dagger Affair by David McDaniel
05 - The Mad Scientist Affair by John T. Phillifent
06 - The Vampire Affair by David McDaniel
07 - The Radioactive Camel Affair by Peter Leslie
08 - The Monster Wheel Affair by David McDaniel
09 - The Diving Dames Affair by Peter Leslie

The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: The Affair of the Goldrunners' Gold by Brandon Keith

The book I got as a freebie from the Goodreads giveaway by the author is a Sci-fi story Death Drop by Sean Allen. That is about all I know about it right now. I moved it to the top of my "to-be-read" list. When I am finished with it I will post a review there as soon as I can. Oh and it was signed "All my best" by the author..

 The last minute addition is just a small one, well a big one a big little one actually. Journey To The Center Of The Earth - The Fiery Foe by Paul S. Newman a "Big Little Book". When I was a kid my brother had a copy of this book. I'm not sure if he snagged it years ago upon move out of the family home or if my mom had put it into a giveaway box years later. I think it was the former. Anyway this copy I got from Ebay for $8 (the shipping was free) it is in very good condition but has that really musty old book smell. I might try that putting it in a plastic container with an unscented clothes dryer sheet to see if that trick works I don't want to try the kitty litter trick as I have no cats and would feel strange buying kitty litter. LOL.

DVD Update - January 2012

JANUARY 2012 - DVD UPDATE

For January it looks like I just have two DVDs and I didn't spend a single dime on them. I got them from a "yankee" gift exchange party.

Leatherheads (2008)

I've only seen bits and pieces of this movie. It is one of those dramatic "feel good" sports movies where a group of ragtag players end up beating the odds and making history. I'm not sure if this is based on a specific historical events or just based on the early days of football in general.

Time Bandits (1981)

 This is a comedy/adventure classic from the demented directing of Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame. I forget how many times I've seen this film the basic story is about a 10 year old boy who gets mixed up with a band of time traveling thieving dwarfs who have stolen a cosmic map from the Supreme Being (aka: God) to collect historical wealth.

Book Update: December 2011 Books

DECEMBER 2011 BOOKS

I got a bunch of books back in December pretty much all of them were through Ebay. I even got two editions of the same book (originally for the different covers). I noticed after I received the second one that in addition to the title being switched a bit there was a chapter that had been updated/changed with the second edition. So cool and all that for double dipping that one.

Doctor Who: The Stone Rose

As I mentioned last month (Book Update: November Books) this book Doctor Who: The Stone Rose by Jacqueline Rayner was on order and due to arrive in December which it did. I also mentioned that it is for the Sci-Fi Adventure Book Club I belong to at Goodreads. We start reading then discussing this book in March (September is another Doctor Who book).

Doctor Who Annual 1978

For who knows how many years World Distributors LTD has been cranking out hardcover annuals for Doctor Who. In the UK the tradition of Annuals for TV shows is very popular, even when shows end up getting cancelled after only one year (and thus one annual).

Doctor Who Annual 1981

Lookie another Doctor Who Annual from World Distributors LTD. This one I noticed is highlighted as an example of the different editions WD LTD publishes. They produce a local UK edition that gets branded with the year on the front cover and spine and also on the title page inside, plus a unit price is put in the corner on the title page. They also make an international version that doesn't have the unit price on the cover page and doesn't have the year printed on the outside cover. I noticed I have the international version.

Peter Pauper's Pun Book

Just a Pun little book published in 1962 edited by Robert Margolin. The Peter Pauper Press also printed another little Pun book I think with the title "The Liitle Pun Book" with a red cover I'm certain that my family had a copy of I think we also had a copy of this pun book as well, but I'm not 100% sure.

Between A Heart And A Rock Place

This is the autobiography of Pat Benatar. As a Benatar fan I had to get this. Somewhere I've got the only other two books on Pat Benatar that had been published. I'm not sure exactly where those are right now.

NCIS Series by Mel Odom

These next three books are part of a series of books that follow a team of NCIS agents. The series is not associated with the TV show in anyway. I do think that the show inspired the author Mel Odom to write these books. Odom apparently has military background and according to his bio on the back cover he has a background in forensic science. The books are published by Tyndale House Publisher's Inc. which specializes in Christian Fiction.

Paid In Blood (NCIS Series #1)

In this first NCIS book by Mel Odom we meet a team of NCIS agents who are based out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Most of the characters had military careers before transferring to NCIS. The team leader Will Coburn has to balance family problems with his workload. The team has to track down terrorists who are into smuggling not only drugs but nuclear weapons. This book does tend to get a bit preachy, more so than the second book in the series does so far (I'm about 40% though reading the second book at the time of posting this). I enjoyed this book even though it had nothing to do with the NCIS TV show. The only thing I didn't like about it seems to be a common complaint of it being a bit too preachy.

Blood Evidence (NCIS Series #2)

So far this second NCIS book is just as good as the first and it isn't as preachy as the first one was, but does have a little bit of the characters thanking God and praying for stuff. This time the team is involved in the reopening of a case of a murdered 16 year old girl whose mother is a Naval Officer and stepfather is now a big political figure on the rise. At the time of this posting I haven't finished reading this one yet.

Blood Lines (NCIS Series #3)

The third book in the NCIS series. I don't know much about the plot to this one yet I'll find out soon enough when I start reading it.

City Of The Dead (Seven Wonders Novel 2)

This is the second book in the Seven Wonders Series of books by T.L. Higley. This one takes place in ancient Egypt and centers around the main architect for the Great Pyramid of Giza. It is a first person narration which at first annoyed me some but I got used to it as I read through it. Even though I had heard this book is Christian Fiction it doesn't seem like it. The closest it seemed to get is when they talk about a group of people that are of the one and talk about one god. To me that didn't seem preachy but it could be considered a veil to Christianity, except that the time this story takes place these people would most likely be Jews.

The Hardy Boys And Nancy Drew

This is one of those "old" books by Scholastic Books Published in 1977 this book tells some of the behind the scenes of the television series of The Hardy Boys and the Nancy Drew Spin-Off Series.

Nancy Drew And The Hardy Boys

This is the same book as the book above except that the chapter on the actress playing Nancy Drew has been updated changed. It also has a different cover. It also was printed in 1977.

A Pound Of Paper: Confessions Of A Book Addict

This book by John Baxter is simply one man's journey of book collecting. I am currently only a little less than 20% though reading this book. It tends to get a bit slow, especially when he goes on a tangent about a certain author or a book seller or collector.

The Hardy Boys Detective Handbook

This is one I had as a kid and I'm pretty sure I read it at that time. It was one of the "hand-me-down" books from my brother(s). I recall they had 20some Hardy Boy books and when I started getting into them I added about 10 more or so to the collection. I think the originals from the collection went with my brother and his wife ages ago. I decided recently to try to rebuild a collection of them. More Hardy Boys fun for January. Anyway this book is more sort of a reference type book that tells how some aspects of police business is handled or was handled back in the late 50s early 60s. There have been a few updates over the years I think I also had the 1974 edition of this book at one time.

DVD Update (November and December 2011)

UPDATES for NOVEMBER and DECEMBER 2011

Wow! I noticed I had forgotten to mention my November DVDs when getting ready for this update that was supposed to be just for December UGH. I probably won't do much more than mention the titles since there are quite a few for November, not so many for December. Sorry due to the volume of November discs I will not add the covers, maybe I'll get back to doing that for my January list.

NOVEMBER 2011 Discs

Casper
Captain America: The First Avenger
Doctor Who: The Movie R1 (double dip I already had the R2 Version)
Green Lantern
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Forbidden Planet (50 Anniversary Edition)

Doctor Who: The Five Doctors 25th Anniversary Edition (Another double dip I have the regular old release with just the DVD update version, this has the original broadcast version and the DVD update version)

DECEMBER 2011 Discs

The Smurfs (2011)
The Incredible Hulk (3 Disc Special Edition)
Cowboys & Aliens (2011)
V: The Complete Second Season - This is the 2009 reboot series. Unfortunately the 2nd season was the final season for it and I hear the ending was left hanging. Dag nabit.

New Year's Eve 2011

Another year in the books bye-bye 2011 and hello 2012. I'm not one to make new year's resolutions mostly because I would never write them down and after a few weeks forget what it was I was going to try to do or not to do for the year. I guess I do have some ongoing resolutions though: Get better organized, try to keep up with all the various intenety things I do (yeah like that one will happen).

Soon I will post up the December DVDs and Books. I got a ton of books in December. I went Ebay shopping happy. I was going to try to do those tonight for the last entry/entries for the year but fell a bit behind in planning things. OH well "the best laid plans of mice and men".