Holly Jolly Finds

It was exactly two weeks ago that I covered my October trip to McKay's (a paradise for lovers of all things physical media), and now I'm here today covering my trip from earlier this month.

There's not much for me to build up this time. After striking out in the music department the last couple of times, I was really hoping to get some new (to me) music this time, but despite that being my primary goal (spoiler alert), I struck out again. I did alright in other areas though, so I guess it worked out okay in the end. I don't know why, but I seem to be having zero luck finding music (on any format) lately, no matter where I go. The same goes for toys as well, although that's more of a matter of me not willing to pay the current stupid-high prices for everything. With the music, I'm just not finding anything of interest, even amongst the overpriced stuff. But you didn't come here to hear about the stuff I didn't (or couldn't) find, so...

Nothing says Christmas quite like Dracula, eh? This was an impulse by from the middle grade bargain section. I had never heard of it, and it's got plenty of wear, but for 10¢, I couldn't leave it behind.

I just recently started seeing these Omnibus' for the Aliens and Predator series', and am kind of surprised that it took them so long to do these. This is only one that I'll be able to get, because I already have too many of the other books to justify anymore. I hadn't come across any decent copies of these three books, which is the only reason I didn't already own any of them. This will save time, and money, as just two of the individual books usually cost more than this did.

Going back to my last McKay's post, Cocoon is another title that I enjoyed more in book form than I did on film. It was able to breathe a lot more as a novel. And after reading the first one a couple of years ago, I was hoping that I'd come across the sequel at some point. This copy is a little rough, but it was cheap, and I didn't want to risk waiting a few more years before finding another.

I have owned Daniel Cohen's "Encyclopedia of Monsters" since I was about ten years old. It was a very important book to young me, an as such, is one of my more cherished possessions. The appearance of this book is exactly the same as "Monsters", save for the different title and subject matter, and it's kind of trippy to see the "same" book, but different, after all these years

More Daniel Cohen! I've read way too much about Atlantis, Stonehenge, and Easter Island, over the years, and subsequently don't really have a lot of interest in them anymore, but there are some other less trod topics in here as well, and those were enough for me to add it to my basket.

Someone had obviously picked this book up, walked around for a bit, then changed their mind about it. And as people are prone to doing, they couldn't be bothered to go put it back where they found it, instead sticking it on the nearest shelf at hand. Lazy people annoy the shit out of me, but this is one instance where I'm glad that at least one was wandering around the store, for I've been meaning to read this for the longest time, but always forget to look for it. I've seen all of the pre-2000 film adaptions, so I'm looking forward to finally reading the original source material.

Here's another book that I've been trying to find for a while now. It was printed in multiple editions, which altogether had to total at least a million copies, and yet for some reason, I have not been able to find a copy in the wild. There were actually there this time, one from before the film, and one from after the film. I wanted the pre-film copy, but it was in worse shape than the post-film copy, for the same price, so I ended up going with the one in better shape. I've been avoiding the film for years because everyone always talks about how different it is from the book, and how much better the book was; so I wanted to make sure that I read the book before seeing the film. I'm about 3/4 of the way through it right now. And I gotta be honest, it's a little disappointing. It was really good until about the halfway point, and now it's just dragging. I actually got to where I'm at about a week ago, and decided to take a break before I make the final push to get through the rest of it -- which I'll do after I finish the book that I've since started.

Only one Bobby Stine this time, and one that I wasn't familiar with to boot!

My heart really wasn't in looking through the bazillion bargain ($1.95 or less) DVD/Blu-Ray's this time, but after finding two things of interest during a cursory search of just one section, I figured that that was a sign that I needed to power through the whole enchilada; so I did.

I went through a "mob phase" during my early teens. Don't ask me why though, as I have no idea, it was just a thing that I was really into for a year or two. Even after all of these years, I still have some minor interest in the subject, just not enough to override any of the other things that I have more interest in; meaning that there just isn't enough hours in the day for me to squeeze in the mafia. Sorry boys, I just don't have enough time for you! That being said, 10 hours of entertainment for only $1.95 seemed like too god of a deal to pass up.

I've had Stargate on video for many, many years. I hadn't really ever thought about upgrading it, but decided to do so after finding this fancy-pants edition for 95¢. Now I can get a rid of the video, and have a smidgeon of extra space.

I still had cable back in '05, and distinctly remember all of the television spots leading up to the premiere of this miniseries, but for whatever reason, never saw it. I can't figure for the life of me why I didn't, it was my kind of subject matter, and it had a solid cast. It's almost like I temporarily disappeared into the Bermuda Triangle, and have zero recollection of my time there (kind of like Uncle Fester 😄).

Despite the many offerings in the bargain section, there usually isn't a lot of old stuff to be found, so I was pretty surprised to come across this one. I mentioned on my 'Penny Sleeve' blog a long time ago that I'm a big fan of old musicals, and will pick up just about any that I don't own, or haven't seen. I don't keep them all though, as there were plenty of stinkers, but I do own my fair share of them, including Gold Diggers of 1933 and 1935. 

This is the first time that I've found a 70's martial arts flick in the bargain stuff, and there's no way that I wasn't gonna take it home with me. Just like with the old musicals, I'll give pretty much any 70's or 80's picture from this genre a chance.

Like I said at the beginning, no new music, but I feel like I did pretty good otherwise. 

And as is often the case, I hit a few spots in Crossville on the way home, only one of which yielded any goodies, that being the Book Cellar...

Few things remind me of childhood more than giant Reader's Digest and Time Life books. Someday I really need to sit down and figure out how many more are out there that I don't have, because I would've bet at least a dollar that I had all of the woo-woo books from Reader's Digest, and yet, here's one that I didn't have. It's always nice when you can find them with their dust jackets too, as they are often missing.

Strangely enough, after finding this book, an old memory came back of me reading at this school way back when. I can't remember when that was exactly, but I do know that book didn't come from the school library itself, it was one of those books that was on a shelf in the classroom. I don't know if that's still a thing that is done, but I can recall books in the classroom at least until sixth grade. In fact, the last book that I can recall reading from a class shelf, was in sixth grade, and has been one of my most sought after books for many years now. Unfortunately, it's been out of print for decades, and is stupid expensive on the secondary market (I've never seen it for less than a $100).

I'm not sure if I remember this film coming out or not. It's not the most original of plots, so I may've seen the trailer and forgot about it, or I never saw the trailer and therefor never knew of it's existence. Either way, I'm more interested now in this novelization than I am in the actual film.

It wasn't from this particular day, but since I'm talking books and stuff, I'm gonna shoehorn one more thing here at the end...

My mom was volunteering at sale recently, and one of the benefits of doing so, aside from helping people out with a sale whose earnings went to a very good cause, was that she had access to, and the ability to purchase, stuff before the general public. There was a smattering of just about everything there, kind of like a giant estate sale. As is often the case, when she's around a bunch of stuff like this, I got sent a bunch of photos to see if I was interested in anything. Despite all of the stuff, aside from this book, which I think is gonna be really good, there wasn't much for me. Lots of neat things, but most of it I can easily live without.

Okay, I'm done now. And I promise, no more of these posts for at least a month, I'm serious!

Christmas miracle?

                                                                              

The Bristol Herald Courier 12/26/33

I think Miss Putthoff may've forgot to "put off" the gas when she took the bread out of the oven.

Watch those digits!

There are a LOT of ponds and lakes in my general area. So many in fact that a lot of folks have them on their properties, myself included. And when I say pond, I'm not talking about some fancy coy pond, no, these are just holes in the rock shelf that runs not too far below the topsoil for many miles in all directions. Obviously, said holes fill up with water, and you got yourself a pond. Or, if they're big enough, a lake. 

And since I live in a still relatively undeveloped area, it should come as no surprise to hear that a lot of wild things live in said ponds and lakes.

I'd say that at least half the properties in my "neighborhood" have a pond, so it's especially common to have one right around here. I've never measured it, but mine is probably around 20' x 10', and 4-5' at it's deepest point. It can vary quite wildly in size though. Three of the seven summers that I've been here, it's dried up completely, and pretty much every fall or winter it swells to half a size bigger with all of the rain that we get. 

Last week was one of those swelling weeks, as we had many, many inches of rain that ultimately led to some minor flooding. I thought it was gonna be much worse, so no complaints from me, well, aside from it being all dreary out for most of the week. 

On he second day of  rain, I happened to look out at the pond just in time to catch a bit of movement behind it, and even though I was pretty sure of what I had seen, I ran and grabbed the binoculars to confirm my suspicion -- which they did. It was only misting at that point, so I put my rubber boots on real quick, and made my way over to the source of movement.

That my friends is a snapping turtle, and at close to 18" across the back, a nearly full size snapper at that. As per usual, I took a few photos, most of which didn't come out very well thanks to the mist that was falling. This one turned out pretty well though, note the tail on the right.

Tempted as I always am, I resisted the urge to pick him or her up, so there's not a lot for scale here. An addition to the already stated measurements, I'd hazard a guess that this one was in the 25-30 pound range.

This is zoomed in a little too much, but at least I got semi-decent shot of that little dinosaur tail.

I think that this the fourth or fifth snapper that I've been fortunate enough to encounter since moving here, although this was the first one that has been over at the pond. Usually the pond only houses frogs and dragonflies (with the occasional sandhill crane stopping by as well) during the spring and summer, so it was pretty neat to find that this big cutie is most likely wintering in their this year.

EXTREME CLOSEUP!

I realize too that I should be including a picture of the pond itself in here, but it's really dreary over there during the winter what with everything being dead and all, and I don't have a good picture of it during the spring, so I'll try to get one in a few months when everything starts greening up again and stick it in a post then.

I've been putting aside some money to get a couple of decent trail cams next year, one of which will be going over by the pond, so hopefully in the future I won't have to be looking outside at just the right moment to see who's stopping by.

Spooktacular finds

It's amazing how quickly time seems to pass these days, one moment it's the middle of October, and the next it's already a week into December. I don't get it, I really don't. 

It doesn't feel like I've been sitting on the stuff in today's post for over seven weeks, but I guess I have. 

So, it was back in October then that I found myself in Knoxville for my monthly (to semi-monthly) trip to McKay's (Heaven on Earth for lovers of all things physical media). The details have already begun to blur, but I do recall that the drive was pretty uneventful (which is a good thing), and that I was treated to the fewest amount of people in the store that I had ever seen. I don't know what I did to deserve that, but it was really nice. If only every time could be like that. Usually it's just waves of people, and at least one screaming child that takes way too long to be dealt with. But there was none of that on this particular occasion. It was so strange to be able to freely walk down any aisle that I wanted without having to squeeze by anyone (the stores only flaw is that the aisles are kind of narrow, even for someone like myself who doesn't take up a lot of space). I'd say that I wish that it could be like that every time, but they'd probably go out of business if it were. And faced with that alternative, I guess the hordes aren't so bad... in small doses that is!

I usually lead off these posts with either the first thing that I put into my basket that day, or the best thing overall; today though I'm starting with the most unexpected get. My favorite book section at McKay's is the paperback TV/Movie tie-ins. Like every other section, there's ebb and flow, but it never seems to get too low. On this particular trip, it was practically overflowing. Kung Fu is one of those shows that I associate with childhood, as I grew up watching the original series in syndication, and then followed Kung Fu: The Legend Continues in real-time. Because of that connection, I couldn't not get this. It's also worth noting that this book was only 90¢.

And from the same section, I hit the V mother lode, finding books # 2,3,4,5,7,8, and 9. After reading, and greatly enjoying the first book a few months back, I was really hoping that they would have more of the series. And with this great run, I could now read at up until at least book #6 (I've been reading them in-between other books and just recently finished #3)

At this point, I pretty much grab every film novelization that I come across, or at least those that I don't already have. They rarely disappoint, and in a lot of cases, are more enjoyable than the actual film itself. I don't if that'll be possible in this case though, as I do enjoy the film quite a bit.

They're not always priced well (my opinion), but when they are, I will also grab any of the Aliens or Predator books that I don't already have. 

All of the DC and Marvel books are in with the TV/Movie tie-in stuff as well. There's usually quite a few of the 90's Marvel books in there, but not so much with the DC. Maybe the occasional Batman book, but that's about it. I didn't even know that there were any JLA books, let alone any that were written by Christopher Golden. This one was priced a little higher than I would've liked, but after noticed CG's name, I had to have it. He's definitely one of the better, if not the best, writers of superhero fiction.

Moving away from the TV/Movie tie-in section...

I'm always happy to find some new Bobby Stine books, although I already had "Blind Date". I thought it sounded familiar, but the cover threw me off because I didn't recognize it. As it turned out, mine had a different cover, hence the confusion. I've since made a list of what I already have, so hopefully this won't happen again. Although, truth be told, since it was less than a buck, I probably still would've bought it just for the different cover.

I've got most of H.G. Wells' stuff, but didn't have this collection; now I do, and it only cost me 25¢ in credit to get it!!!

Despite having collected cards for a huge chunk of my life, I've read very few books about collecting cards. I was slightly hesitant to get this thanks to it's $4 price tag, but I sure am glad that I took the chance, as it was pretty darn good. I especially liked the chapter(s) that covered collecting back before there were price guides; I can't even imagine how much more enjoyable that must've been. I don't want to spoil too much, but to any of my card collecting friends that that see this, and haven't already read it, I would highly recommend you doing so. 

That's it for books, on to the DVD's...

This pack came out of the bargain section ($1.95 or less), and while I already have about half of them on other sets, the other 10 or so films for $1.95 seemed like a pretty good deal.

Their animated series' wasn't in the place that it's been for a while now, which led me briefly to believing that they had somehow gotten rid of it. Turns out, they just moved it upstairs. I pretty much like all of DC's animated Batman stuff, so if the price is right, rarely think twice about picking up one of the newer ones. This was definitely one their more adult-oriented features, but it was still good.

X-Men: The Animated Series is pretty much the epitome of my childhood. The theme song, the animation, the voices, they're all permanently engrained in my brain. The series was released on DVD in five volumes some years ago, and despite having wanted them since, the hefty retail and secondary prices had prevented me from acquiring any until now. I don't know if I can say that my patience finally paid off, or if it was just a matter of being in the right place at the right time, but either way, I was able to get Volumes 1 & 2 for much cheaper than I had ever seen them...

My only complaint about these sets, and it's a very minor one, is with the artwork that's used on the covers, especially on V2. That is not the same style of art that was used in the series, and I'm not sure they did that. If it was to try and appeal to the younger crowd with more modern artwork, they're probably gonna be really disappointed that show didn't look like that -- and if you were trying to appeal to the older crowd, aka the ones who watched the show way back when, then why wouldn't you use the same style of animation that was used in the show? Like I said though, it's a minor complaint, I just don't understand it, that's all.

Not a bad haul, if I don't say so myself. As is often the case, I hit the the Book Cellar and the thrift store that's right next to it on my way home. The Book Cellar didn't yield anything that I couldn't live without, nor did the thrift store. I did however find one thing on the free table that's by one of the doors at the thrift store.

Even though I'm not a huge fan of the film, I did used to own it on video. I hadn't seen it for a while, so I thought I'd treat this freebie like a rental, in that I'd watch it, and then drop it off on the table the next time I was there (which I've since done). This movie has a lot of problems, but the last act is still pretty good. I'd really like to read the book someday, as I suspect that it's gonna be much better than it's big-screen adaptation.

I wasn't in the mood to do the drive, so I skipped McKay's during November, but was there again just a couple of days ago. Knowing that I was so far behind in posting about October's trip, I had thought that I wouldn't do a recap if I didn't find very much this month. Unfortunately (for you), I brought home more than a few things, and in an effort to get caught up, will probably be doing another one of these sometime in the next few weeks.