Random Stuff Episode 1: DVD Update & Ebay

Random Stuff Episode 1:

Updates: DVD & Ebay

For quite a while now my regular DVD player attached to the TV in my living room I have not used because it gradually stopped recognizing DVDs. It accepts audio CDs but sadly the laser that reads DVD video information has been broken for something like 2 or 3 years. It has been even longer since I watched DVDs on a regular basis. When this problem started back whenever at first it was just an occasional DVD disc. Then it became every DVD disc I would put in a disc and it would give me a "no disc" error. I noticed I could put an audio CD in and it recognized that and played the audio from them, but didn't recognized DVDs. I had purchased a cleaning disc that is supposed to help, but it didn't. However  I have still been buying occasional DVDs via Ebay and elsewhere, but mostly from EBay.

I have a CD/DVD ROM player on my ancient Windows XP laptop but ages ago whenever I would view videos the computer would overheat and crash. I also have an external DVD ROM Drive but that is a pain to have to plug in all the time plus I had the overheating problem with that laptop so I got out of the practice of DVD viewing.

This lack of a DVD player problem was on the back burner for a long time. I finally got a really cheap DVD player from Best Buy ($37 and some change including sales tax). I was going to get one at Target for about twice as much, but my Target no longer carries DVD players or DVDs and I don't like buying electronics online or trust getting electronic equipment shipped. Ironically that is how I got my Chromebook. My biggest concern with that isn't with the risk of damage during shipping but rather the porch pirates when it gets delivered. Anyway now I have a basic DVD player again. I hooked it up and the first disc I watched was a Doctor Who episode on DVD. Felt good. 

Also related to the DVD issue and my past computer problems, which my Chromebook has helped recover from somethings. My lack of activity for my DVDProfiler cataloging. I need to get things updated and try to see if I can transfer the base program from my ancient XP to my Chromebook. I don't want to have to download the program and learn that I have to pay for it. I think I paid for the software ages ago to have an account tracking more than 50 DVDS. I have way way more than that in TV series alone. A few years back they added an Android app. Not sure if you can add stuff on it, but I can at least see my online collection on it. 

 

I sold another card on Ebay on 29 June for $6 ($2 plus $4 shipping I don't use the Ebay Standard Envelope or PWEs when selling) the last sale was on May 3rd for $7 total.

The Return of Apple Pop-Tarts?

"When I was younger just a bad little kid..."

Original Frosted Pop-Tarts Flavors

OK forget those "Little Shop of Horrors" lyrics. I'm reaching back to when I was a kid and a favorite snack food. Not really a "junk food" snack but one of those sort of good for you things. I'm talking about Kellogg's Pop-Tarts. When I was little just about all the flavors they made had two versions the plain "good for you" unfrosted version and then the frosted version of that same flavor. 

Original box design for Frosted Dutch Apple Flavor (1968-1970something?)

Many of the same flavors available today were around back then; Strawberry, Cherry, Blueberry, Brown Sugar Cinnamon, Chocolate Fudge, and a few others. My favorite of all time was one that is discontinued for whatever reason I don't know the Frosted Dutch Apple.

Newer box design for Frosted Dutch Apple Flavor (1970something to 1980something?)

I recall it had a deep rich flavor with plenty of cinnamon flavor. Also back then when they said FROSTED they meant FROSTED. Good tasty frosting as well. Now the frosting is just a light glaze sometimes not even that and has barely any taste to it. Of course any sweet food stuff made before the mid 1980s was sugar ladened with real sugar not some chemical substitute. The newer sugar substitutes and lower fat sugars have ruined the sweetness flavor of many things. The pastry part of modern Pop Tarts sometimes is a bit dry, or too floured flavored, or possibly unsalted?

I don't recall when they pulled the Dutch Apple flavor (early 1980s?). I didn't notice it right away it may have been at least a year or two before I realized it was gone. Isn't that the way it always goes? Then for many years there was no such thing as Apple flavored Pop-Tarts or for that matter much of  anything apple flavored. Maybe there was an Apple Flavor scare like in the late 70s Red Dye #3 or 6 or whatever red dye was supposedly bad for you.

Recently while doing a Target Run I noticed an Apple flavored Pop-Tart box, it was a true Kellogg's Pop-Tarts not some off brand or the Target house brand. The flavor "Orchard Apple Cinnamon", um OK not DUTCH APPLE but hey it was frosted so I had to get a box and give it a try.

NEW Orchard Apple Cinnamon Pop-Tarts

IT is OK, not great, and I was a bit bummed when I saw the green apples on the box design. This flavor is a bit tart, thus the green apples instead of red ones I guess. I hope someday they do bring back the Dutch Apple flavor as close to the same recipe as possible.

Note: All images except for the new Orchard Apple Cinnamon image were found from a Google search for "Kellogg's pop tarts frosted dutch apple". Orchard Apple Cinnamon image scanned from my test box.

CD Update: January 2013

CD UPDATE: JANUARY 2013

For the month of January I got one lone CD, it had been a while since I've gotten one. Anyway this one is the latest one by Pink "The Truth About Love" I got at Target. I got the Deluxe Edition that has 4 bonus tracks, there is also supposedly a "Fan Edition" that has a DVD and even more bonus tracks I'd like to try to find that one. 

The first single released from this album was Blow Me (One Last Kiss). I've seen the video for it and there are two versions of the video one in color and one in black and white but with some colorized red near the end.

I think I agree with those who have said that this is P!nk's Best album yet. As with the last few Pink albums there is a Regular Version, a frCensoreding Version (since she has a tendency to record songs with some filthy words you can't say on radio), a Deluxe Version and a Version with a DVD. The DVD version is usually the Deluxe Version not so in this case the DVD Version I think is what they call the "Fan Edition". The confusing thing is all the covers usually look alike, but have subtle differences.

This is the regular version of the CD.

This is the Deluxe Edition of the CD (the version I picked up).

This Deluxe Edition has four extra songs. I like the extra songs but I don't know if I really needed them. Well YES I guess I did. When I get a regular version of a disc that also has a version with some bonus stuff I feel I missed out if I didn't get the one with the bonuses.

That reminds me I really should pick up the bonus filled edition of Her Greatest Hits.. So Far CD. I stupidly got the regular version, because 1) I had forgotten there were two versions, and 2) Target didn't have the bonus version at the time I picked up my copy. A few weeks/months later of course they had the bonus version.

DVD Update May 2012

MAY 2012

Just a quick one as it is almost the last hour of the month of May eek! and it has been ages since I've done one of these since it had been two or three months since I've gotten any new DVDs. So most of what I got as usual was from Columbia House DVD Club I won't go into detail of how much I got things for because I just want to make this one a quick one. Anyway here is what I got:

From COLUMBIA HOUSE:
NCIS: Eighth Season
NCIS: Los Angeles: The Second Season
Primeval: Volume 3
Logan's Run: The Complete Series
Doctor Who: The Complete Sixth Season
S.W.A.T.: Firefight - Got to look for Season Two of the Original Series which is supposedly now out.
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

From TARGET:
The Cat In The Hat (2003) Starring Mike Myers - Got it for $5bucks.

Now I can relax a little bit and log these DVDs into my collection. I also need to make an update for the books I got way back in February. I haven't gotten any new books since then, but have my sights set on a couple to get soon. I hate when I get so lazy I fall behind in things. UGH.

DVD Update - August thru October

 AUGUST - OCTOBER 2011

It has been many many moons since I've updated any of this blog, ACK the last few minutes of October are passing me by. This update has just August and September DVD purchases since I didn't get any in October, although I do have a couple of discs in transit from Columbia House.

NOTE: At the time I started working on this post my Amazon Associates link thing wasn't working properly so I couldn't add the links I wanted to, perhaps I'll have to edit later to improve this entry.

 

Source Code

First up in August I went to Target and got a DVD that I had forgotten I also had on order from Columbia House. It was the Sci-Fi Action Time-Loop movie Source Code. It is a blind buy. The first thing about the film from the trailers I've seen is the main plot of having to go back into the past just before some tragic event and try to make it right, re-doing it if you fail. Sort of along the lines of the 90s TV Show Seven Days.

 

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Moving back a little further through time we have the Third installment of The Mummy Franchise The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. I haven't watched my DVD of it yet but I have seen the flick. Got this from Columbia House.

The Jerk: 26th Anniversary Edition

This Classic Steve Martin comedy I got for real cheap at one of my local Safeway stores. Excellent comedy with the classy Bernadette Peters. They worked well together, too bad it was only because they were dating at the time.

Termination Point

A sight unseen very B-grade Sci-fi Time Travel movie. Perhaps straight to DVD starring Lou Diamond Phillips and Jason Priestley. Again a very cheap purchase from Safeway.

National Lampoon's Pucked

Yet again a Safeway sight unseen B-Grader this time a Sophomore or perhaps Freshman comedy from National Lampoon called Pucked looks like a parody of high-school Hockey flicks with a girls team. These movies can be very Hit or Miss.

That was the August fair next the two September Flicks I got.

Thor

First up from Columbia House as the Director's Choice of the Month pick one of the latest Superhero flicks from Marvel Comics Thor. Looks to be 10 times better than that Hulk vs. Thor Made for TV movie from the late 1980s.

Zulu

The last entry was a DVD I got from one of my friends so it was a Freebie. He upgraded to Blu-Ray so he gave me this copy. This historical action Classic starring Micheal Caine might make one want to chant weird things.

July DVD Update

Here is my DVD Update for the month of July.

These first three DVDs were ordered in late June. Two were released on the 28th but Columbia House didn't ship until the 30th the last day. The other one was released on 21 June and was my Columbia House Director's Choice for July. It arrived on the first of July.

The Adjustment Bureau: From the previews of this it seems like a sort of Inception meets Dark City sort of movie. I generally don't go for Matt Damon adventure movies but this one looked like it would be pretty good and it has some nice eye candy in Emily Blunt.

Warehouse 13: This is season two of the show.  It introduces the character Helena Wells AKA: H.G. Wells as a bad character who redeems herself later on, or tries to.

Sucker Punch: I think this movie is based on anime characters or a video game of some kind? Not sure, but I really liked the previews when I first saw them.

Blazing Saddles: 30th Anniversary Special Edition: Classic Mel Brooks. Classic Gene Wilder. What else could you want? Actually I'll have to find a comparison of this edition to some of the others. I might have to dubble dip.

June DVD Update

OK Time for the DVD stuff I got in June Starting with some Doctor Who DVDs I hinted at in the May report that I technically ordered and paid for via Paypal on 30 May. They came in on Thursday 02 June, but I couldn't pick them up from the post office til Saturday 04 June.

Doctor Who: Dreamland This is the second Animated Doctor Who DVD that I know about and have. (The first one is Doctor Who: The Infinite Quest with Martha Jones as the companion) Both animated adventures were shown on TV in the UK but not here in the States. This adventure though has two new companions not in the television series, they are one time companions or "one-offs" I suppose (I still prefer to say "one-of"). I have watched this one and it is a fun watch. The animation is computer generated and is a little choppy and jumpy in some spots but once I got into the story I hardly noticed the problems with using computer animation. This DVD has a bonus disc that contains the 2009 mini-series Doctor Who Greatest Moments. I'm not sure if this has been shown on US television or not. BBCAmerica has shown the occasional Doctor Who Mini-Series or inserts the interview clips from these things (Doctor Who Confidential - the extra bits they put on some of the DVDs) so often I can't keep track of which have been shown.

Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol This is the 2010 Doctor Who Christmas Special. Yes it is based on the Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" story. It is not bad, it is very enjoyable even if a little predictable.The producers of Doctor Who probably at the fan's requests have wanted to do a Doctor Who Christmas Carol for many years.

Doctor Who: The Complete Specials This is what should have been Series 5 (Season 5 for Americans who get confused by the use of the word series) of the Doctor Who reboot series. It is the final DW "series" for actor David Tennant as The Doctor (he makes a cameo in the next DVD I got).

The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Complete Third Season As I hinted at above for the specials DVD this DVD has The Doctor show up to help out Sarah Jane Smith.

 

Doctor Who: The Complete Fifth Series Season 5 of Doctor Who the first season with Matt Smith in the title role will Karen Gillan as his traveling companion Amy Pond.

Star Trek: The Animated Series Before there was The Next Generation and a few years before The Motion Picture there was an animated series of Star Trek with the Classic Original Crew (TOS - The Original Series). The cartoon series lasted 2 seasons "finishing" the original five year mission of the USS Enterprise.

Highlander: The Source I haven't yet watched this movie so I forget if it is a prequel or series ending sequel for The Highlander Franchise.

Highlander: The Complete Animated Series I vaguely recall seeing an episode or two of this series on afternoon television. I don't recall if it was a weekday when I was off of work or on a Saturday afternoon. It might have been a Saturday morning.

On an outing to Target I picked up a couple of animated (well one of them is live-action with CGI animation) discs.

Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel I've got the first one might as well get the second one. Need to watch them.

Hey There, It's Yogi Bear! Hard to believe that this was the First full length movie for Hanna-Barbera. I haven't seen this in it's entirety for ages. I've seen a few clips here and there but not the full thing.

Well that is if for the June DVD's close to my biggest month of 13 DVDs August of 2009.