Just forget the words and sing along

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Another Day, Another Blown Paycheck

Well, I went off to the city today for a day of adventure and checking out the movies, but as I always do, I spent too much money, so it's time to recount my purchases!

First up, I never feel guilty about spending too much money in the city if I buy something I need.  So, first up, I bought another of those hard-to-find filters for my vacuum cleaner.  You might remember my last excursion to the city when I hoped to stock up on those filters, but only found one.  So today I was finally able to buy a second.  I think vacuum cleaner filters will replace socks as my go-to for my "thing I actually need that I must buy so I don't feel guilty spending a lot of money."

From there, it was off to Best Buy, to do what I always do in Best Buy:  stare longingly at HDTVs until the day I can afford one.  And while I was there, I also managed to pick up the latest DC Comics straight-to-DVD animated film, Superman vs. the Elite.  I hope to spend my lazy Sunday watching it, and as I always do, I'll review it for the blog, so watch for that in the next couple of days.  I usually avoid buying the Best Buy exclusives, because it's usually an extra $2 for some trinket that just gathers dust, but this time out, I thought, "Eh, screw it."  The exclusive you get at Best Buy is an action figure of Manchester Black, the villain of the piece.

Then I slipped next door to Michael's, the gigantic crafts and framing store.  I figured today would be the day that I'd finally bite the bullet and do something I'd been wanting to do for a long time.  I have a few movie posters that I'd always wanted to frame and hang up because, you know, I'm an adult now, so Scotch-taping them to the wall is probably not the mature way to display them.  And as I was browsing in Michael's, I saw that the gigantic poster-sized frames were on sale. 

First thing I did when I got home tonight was make sure the frames would work, and I framed some posters.


How can you tell I went to college in the 1990s?  Got the requisite poster of a 1990s indie film.  Last year, Kevin Smith had a big blowout sale at his online merchandise store, so I got the Chasing Amy poster for dirt cheap...probably still Smith's best film.  I swore, though, I wouldn't hang it up until I got the frame so I could show it off properly.  Now, whenever folks come to visit, Joey Lauren Adams will be staring at them.


Hands down, the teaser poster for Return of the Jedi is my favourite of the Star Wars movie posters.  Once upon a time, not long ago, there was a lovely little poster store in West Edmonton Mall called The Poster Centre.  I was browsing one day, and lo and behold, there it was, the teaser poster for Return of the Jedi.  So, I quickly snatched it up.  I was still in college at the time, so it hung in my dorm room.  It was hanging on my wall, stuck up with Scotch-tape, and I knew I wanted to get it in a frame some day while it was still worth framing.  So there it is.

Once that was taken care of, it's off to West Edmonton Mall, and a browse through HMV. 

Now, if you're my friend on Facebook, you'll see I've run into a bit of a routine.  Whenever I see the gigantic Blu-Ray set of The Lord of the Rings: Extended Editions for around $50, I post the link and say, "Ooo, that's a good price," and begin debating whether to get it or not.

And while I was in HMV today...ooo, that's a good price.


So I got it.  Seriously, that's the cheapest I've seen it outside of an Amazon.com one-day sale.  As for the films, I think they're good, but not great.  I've always been on the fence about getting the extended editions.  I mean, I've never been able to power through the books because they're so long and boring.  That's why I like the theatrical versions of the films...they've cut out the boring stuff.  I figure for the extended editions, all they did was put the boring stuff back in.  And, as I've blogged before, I'm not in a big rush to upgrade my DVDs to Blu-Rays because I don't have an HDTV to fully enjoy Blu-Ray.

But dude...the cheapest I've ever seen it.  So I got it.  Not sure yet if I'll spend my entire Sunday watching the trilogy, but I'm thinking about it. 

And then, it was off to the movies!  The movie I was after today, Prometheus, the big Alien prequel-spinoff thingee.  I'm starting to see what some trekkies are saying in that it's a bit of a ripoff of Star Trek V.  That being said, it's nice and spooky where it needs to be.  It does get rather gory in some places.  And there's still quite a few unanswered questions about the film.  It tries to tackle some big ideas, but doesn't quite pull it off.  I found it enjoyable nonetheless.  As always, there'll probably be a full review on my main site in the next day or so.

And that was my day in the city.  I didn't quite blow my whole paycheck, but I spent a little more than I wanted to.  

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