Post Thanksgiving Sales Tally

     My shopping on what is commonly known as Black Friday (which apparently has bizarre origins) tends to be pretty surgical- in that I pick specific items I can budget for and go specific places to get those items. This year was no exception, and it is usually a solid and workable strategy for me. It doesn't save me from the maddening throngs of Consumer Zombies, but it does allow me to navigate through them fast, and with Purpose

     So this year, I had a list of goals, and a list of locations. With a series of carefully planned surgical strikes, I set out for my goals. Let this stand as the Record of my heroic journey.


SURGICAL(Planned and executed)

• Supernatural Season 8- Walmart for $9.96 or BestBuy for $9.99- tried walmart thursday night, and it was a MESS- best buy this morning yielded the prize plus $15 discarded cash in the parking lot
• Arrow Season 1 -Walmart for $9.96 or BestBuy for $9.99-walmart, thursday night- and for some inexplicable reason they had their movies in the deli section, by the freezer cases-weird
• Jetwing Optimus Prime- ToysR'Us $49.99- I didn't have much hope on this one, for a very good reason: I have been to ToysR'Us for these types of sales before, and DID NOT have a good experience. I was pleasantly surprised to find him on the shelf this morning, and put him on Layaway

COLLATERAL DAMAGE(unplanned)

• The Incredible Hulk- Walmart $4.96 thursday night- saw it, wanted it, bought it
• Wrath of the Titans-Walmart $1.96 this morning-I bought the first one on a promo for like $3.96 some time back, and wanted the sequel.now I just need Remember the Titans- that's part 3, right? RIGHT???
• Sausage McMuffins and Oatmeal Cookies- McDonalds, $1 /$1 for three respectively

League Assignment: What Am I Thankful For This Year?

     I thought long and hard about this question. On the surface, a lot of folks might think I don't have a lot to be thankful for. Job wise, I'm just kind of skating by. I'm just divorced from my occasional guest blogger Sam. I have the Diabeetus and high blood pressure, and I'm afraid I'm going to lose another tooth soon...

     But I am thankful. For lots. 

•      I'm thankful for my Bird, Tango, and his mischievous nature. If I do anything with turkey this Thursday, he will probably be digging his beak into it right alongside me. He will be all of two years old this week.

He's Batman

• I'm thankful for my family and my friends. I'm thankful for more time to spend with my mom and dad. I'm thankful my divorce is final, and that Sam and I are amicable most of the time when we are not waving cutlery at each other(chopsticks in her case). I'm thankful I have a job which is steady, a car, an apartment, Internet access and food

• I'm thankful there is great TV right now like Agents of Shield and Arrow

• I'm thankful they have learned how to make a superhero movie(thanks Marvel)

• I'm thankful for Michael Bay and Hasbro and Steven Spielberg breathing new life into my Transformers, and the great things to come in my collection. I'm thankful for the great people who share my hobbies, like Seibertron and the great community there, and my good friends at Pax Cybertron

 

 

• I'm thankful-very thankful-for the folks who kept visiting my blog, hoping (while I was moping) for a new post. thank you for sticking by me until pulled my head out and started writing again

• I'm thankful for Cool and Collected, for this opportunity. I'm thankful for my fellow bloggers, AEIOU and sometimes Why, G.I Jigsaw, Retro Robot Review, and the Nerd Nook

New Authors in Science Fiction

and it's GOD.....

was in my local thrift store and found this...not sure whether they were indicating they thought the bible was fiction, or trying to cast out the evil of Twilight...

Totally Biased: Hari Kondabolu Reports on Sikh Captain America

He's right: if we can't accept a half black president we're not ready for a non-white Captain America.  But the worst of it was the guy who kept calling the Sikh Captain Amercia an Arab Captain America.  

.....And if I ever need to get rid of those Bumblebees...

thanks, Google Ads

a response to Late Swarming Bees

Sleepy Hollow- The Midnight Ride

warning- Spoilers!!!


the newest episode of Sleepy Hollow is out, and it's about Paul Revere, who was carrying a document on his midnight ride with secrets to defeating the horsemen...

     I have not finished the episode but I suspect that when the document is opened it will say...


Pot! Stew! Saturday!

 

 

Update...I still have no damn idea what that Geico Paul Revere commercial is about

Late Swarming Bees

Bees Generally Swarm in spring, but these were swarming in november...

 

 

I may need to invest in a hive and see if they make honey...

 

 

RTS, Generations Cybertron and the highly unlicensed Art Feather

TF Movie, Battle Blade, and Nitro
 

DOTM and CyberFire



TF Prime FE, RID and IDW Generations

 

These are not all of my Bumblebee...they are all the ones I have downstairs, and that is a lot of Bee

Laws of Cybertronian Physics, Willy Wonka Edition

The Fallen: Oh, you have much to learn, my disciple. The Cube was merely a vessel. Its power, its knowledge can never be destroyed. It can only...transform


into Rich Milk Chocolate...

Transformers-Milk-Chocolate-Reproduction-AllSpark

A Personal Pet Peeve

     One thing that never fails to astonish me is the odd reception I get as a bird parent (or Parront) when I tell people about my babies. it's an odd reaction people seem to have and I don't think it crosses over to other types of pet-companions

     When I tell a story about my birds, I almost invariably get a response story that starts out something like "....Oh, (I, my mother, my family) had a bird once but it died..." and what follows will be a description (including enough information for me to know how it would have been avoidable) of the birds death.If this was a one time thing, I don't think I would find it nearly so noticeable, but I can think of at least 15 people who I still associate with but do not tell bird stories to, for this reason.

     Dog people...when you talk about your dogs, do people feel compelled to tell you the story about "well I had him off the leash and I should have been watching for that garbage truck..."

     Cat people( not Cat People) do people seem to be compelled to tell you "...they still land on their feet off the fourth floor balcony, but those feet are now in the chest cavity"

     People with children (oh, yes he did) do you ever get something like "...I really should have been watching him around that fan..."

      An I will admit to you, my faithful and casual readers, that in my darkest (and sometimes not nearly so dark) moments I have been tempted to create from whole cloth a cautionary tale of "I had this pet/child but it died" just to see what sort of a reaction it would get from a non-parront. I do not do that, however because I am polite and empathic enough to figure out "they really don't want to hear that- they are happy about their pet/child and I should just enjoy the story and be happy too"

     I do a google search for dog people, I get multiple links about dog people vs cat people, why dogs are better than cats, etc. I do a google search for cat people I get the same plus Nastassja Kinski.

     When I search for bird people I get this:

 

Maybe people have to be bird people to get bird people. Maybe birds aren't really pets or companions in "Murican" Culture mean, just sort of a weird affectation. or Maybe I just don't get people who don't get me...

 

All I know is...when I share a story about my bird, don't assume I am wanting to become some sort of Cold-case Avian CSI for your loss. Just enjoy the story and realize that my Conure is Smarter than your Honor Student