Buzz buzz busy bee
I feel like I've been fairly busy these last couple of days! Or I guess, busier than usual. Friday especially, since I seemed to have crammed so much into just one day.
Friday was the big rummage sale that they have at one of the churches downtown every August. The last few were great & I found some pretty good stuff for cheap, but this year was a tad disappointing. I didn't find nearly as much, and I ended up spending more because they raised their pricing! I was really surprised. I mean...I know the proceeds of this sale every year go to charity, but some of it was a little on the crazy side. I could deal with the fact that they raised all the book prices (it USED to be paperbacks were 50 cents, hardcovers $1...now it's paperbacks $1, hardcovers $2), but some of their other pricing was just ridiculous.I basically bought ALL the embroidery hoops they had (which was a small pile of maybe 10, most of them in small sizes) for about $10...which means I basically paid $1 a hoop (which isn't terrible, but usually these are priced MUCH lower, like 25-50 cents a pop). Another example; Zack said his mom found a couch that they were trying to sell for $800 (a USED COUCH for that much? REALLY?), which I honestly thought he was joking about at first. (I mean, for that much you could get a small living room set brand new at those warehouse stores!) I also spotted this high-chair that they were trying to sell for $65:
Granted, it IS unique because someone went through all the trouble of painting it (which I think looks actually kinda neat, for a piece of kids' furniture), but you can find a plain wooden high-chair like that at a garage sale for next to nothing and paint it yourself for much less than that. o__O I was just like...whaaaaaaat? lol. I wondered if this year was rough on the charity house and they were trying to squeeze as much money out of this sale as they could?
Well, regardless...I didn't find that much this year really worth buying, anyway. I did find SOME things to blow a little money on, though. I walked away with:
-a 60's hardcover copy of To Kill a Mockingbird (I think it's a first printing, because it just has the print date of 1960 inside & nothing else [edit: looks like it's a bookclub version...ah, well] )
-a brand-new paperback copy of World War Z
-a few books to swap on Listia
-a small pile of embroidery hoops in various sizes
-a cute vintage Snoopy "Goodies" jar (which I've already put in the kitchen & filled with some of my snacks XD)
-a Wild Strawberry mug with lid for tea or cocoa
-one of those reusable shopping/tote bags that folds into a little strawberry
-an 80s Sanrio-ish looking pink plastic lunchbox (it's got a design of a teddy bear in a ballet outfit. Very Lisa Frank, lol.)
-and a pastel blue purse that looked practically brand new
Later in the day we came back for the tail end of the sale, where about an hour before they close, they give you garbage bags and it's pretty much "stuff anything into the garbage bag and it's $5 a bag". The only rules are 1. it can't be hanging out of the garbage bag (the bag has to close) and 2. you can't drag the bag, you have to be able to carry it out. Zack & I took advantage of that and stuffed a couple of nice, large picture frames in one bag, and a large plastic storage container in the other. (And lemme tell ya...thank goodness we had a ride home, because it was hard carrying those bags up to the lady with the register to make them look light enough not to warrant being separated into more bags. The things I do to save money~ XD) We already took apart one of the frames (it had some generic hotel-lobby art inside) and replaced it with the 2 Parasite Eve art prints Zack bought at A-kon:
Which is now hanging in our den. :D
So, nothing terribly exciting, but I think it at least was worth having to wake up early to go to it, heh.
In between going to the rummage sale and then coming back a few hours later for the bag-stuffing thing, I ended up making a trip to Hastings (it's like Borders) because I wanted to check out something. Zack had been browsing there the previous day, and spotted something that had piqued my interest: a copy of "Princess Mononoke" on DVD that looked newly released. I had been excited when he told me, because I thought that meant that Disney had indeed renewed the rights to it. But when I got home and did a Google search, I had found absolutely nothing. Not a single word about it. I new it HAD to be newer, though, because the copy Zack had found had the blue boarder around the top, like the newer releases Disney recently put out. I looked on Amazon, eBay, RightStuf...didn't find a copy of Princess Mononoke that looked like that, let alone any info on a re-release. I even tried tweeting "Aint it Cool News" via their anime sub-division & they basically told me there's no way it was new, it was either the old release that someone altered, or a bootleg. But Hastings doesn't sell bootlegs (if it doesn't scan properly into their system, they don't take it in for sale or trade). So I went to see for myself, and sure enough...there were two copies on Hasting's anime shelf, so I bought one:
It was sealed & shrink-wrapped, and the cover & slipcase looked and felt exactly like the other Disney Ghibli DVDs I've bought before. So I told Zack, "If this is a bootleg, this is the most elaborate bootleg ever made." XD When I got it home, I wanted to see what was on it, and sure enough, it was legit. It had all the current Disney logos & trailers (the first trailer was for "Brave"!), and the movie (in dual-audio). I looked up the barcode info and strangely, it's exactly the same as the old release, which just confused me more. XD Sadly, even though this is definitely a re-release; it's also apparent that this is not a remastered version. The picture quality is comparable to the old DVD version, and given the fact that the "extras" are the same (which I believe is a single "making of" special and the original trailer) I'm inclined to believe they just took the old version and redid the packaging job...making it kind of a bare-bones release. (Though I gotta say, I was never a big fan of how they plastered all that praise on the old cover in huge letters to try to convince people to buy it even though it was a cartoon, hurr derrrr, so it's nice to have a cover that's a little more nice looking & matches most of the other Ghibli releases I have. Which, in my mind, is with the extra few dollars it cost in comparison to the old one.) I still wonder why I can't find any information on this re-release about it, though. It makes me wonder if Disney really DID get the rights back, or if they're just trying to crank it out without people noticing & passing it off as something they already had the rights to? Or it could be possible my Hastings is dumb & they set these on the shelf before a release date? Either way, it is a bit mystifying to me, but hey--I got a copy of it now, so I don't really care. XD If anyone else spots these while out shopping, though, I'd love to hear about it out of curiosity!
In between all of that, I also got to Skype with one of my longtime penpals for a while, so Friday ended up being pretty busy (and sort of exhausting)! Yesterday was not quite as busy, but I did end up doing even more Skyping (ahhh, Skype...you make it possible for me to talk to awesome people again ;3; ilu) as well as watching a bunch of TV. Haha, ok, well, not really TV...I downloaded Crunchyroll's new PS3 ap and signed up for their free 30 day trial offer, so I've been trying to get as much watching out of it as possible until I have to cancel it (since I can't afford to get it at the moment, as nice as that would be. ;__;) I wish Netflix had streaming subtitled animu like this (which is basically how their app is set up...almost exactly like Netflix, but a little more basic). I started watching "Working!!" (released here as "Wagnaria"), which is actually super cute--it's sort of like a mix of Azumanga & K-on, but it takes place in a family restaurant similar to a Denny's. And it's really short, too, so I'm already on the second season. I also made Zack sit down & watch the first 3 episodes of "Madoka Magica" (since I thought he might like it, and I had been wanting to rewatch it). I put a couple of other things in the queue to try to watch as well, including "Polar Bear Cafe" since so many of my friends seem to like it. So hopefully I'll get to watch that as well. It's nice to have stuff I can watch on the TV while working on embroideries & such instead of having to sit in front of the computer (which I'll miss once this free trial is up. ;__;)
Oh! I was also pleased to get an email "call back" on that Gundam Wing parody thing I auditioned for! I'm actually stupidly excited about this, lmao. I really would love to work on it because what little I've seen of the script sounds funny. I have to record more lines before I know anything else, but I guess we'll see how it goes, eh? ;D I also got a role in someone's original flash animation project...it's nothing ground-breaking, but since it's an original thing, I'm looking forward to doing something that's not a fandub (yay for potential legitimate work!) Once that project is more in full swing, I'll post links or something (as long as, y'know, the person actually goes through with it this time...*crosses fingers*)
Ok, so, uh, this post is already getting super long and jumbled, so I think that's enough for now. x__x lol. If you read it all, I applaud you and apologize if I sounded weird, since I've been up since like 6am and I'm still in a sleepy daze. XD;
Friday was the big rummage sale that they have at one of the churches downtown every August. The last few were great & I found some pretty good stuff for cheap, but this year was a tad disappointing. I didn't find nearly as much, and I ended up spending more because they raised their pricing! I was really surprised. I mean...I know the proceeds of this sale every year go to charity, but some of it was a little on the crazy side. I could deal with the fact that they raised all the book prices (it USED to be paperbacks were 50 cents, hardcovers $1...now it's paperbacks $1, hardcovers $2), but some of their other pricing was just ridiculous.I basically bought ALL the embroidery hoops they had (which was a small pile of maybe 10, most of them in small sizes) for about $10...which means I basically paid $1 a hoop (which isn't terrible, but usually these are priced MUCH lower, like 25-50 cents a pop). Another example; Zack said his mom found a couch that they were trying to sell for $800 (a USED COUCH for that much? REALLY?), which I honestly thought he was joking about at first. (I mean, for that much you could get a small living room set brand new at those warehouse stores!) I also spotted this high-chair that they were trying to sell for $65:
Granted, it IS unique because someone went through all the trouble of painting it (which I think looks actually kinda neat, for a piece of kids' furniture), but you can find a plain wooden high-chair like that at a garage sale for next to nothing and paint it yourself for much less than that. o__O I was just like...whaaaaaaat? lol. I wondered if this year was rough on the charity house and they were trying to squeeze as much money out of this sale as they could?
Well, regardless...I didn't find that much this year really worth buying, anyway. I did find SOME things to blow a little money on, though. I walked away with:
-a 60's hardcover copy of To Kill a Mockingbird (I think it's a first printing, because it just has the print date of 1960 inside & nothing else [edit: looks like it's a bookclub version...ah, well] )
-a brand-new paperback copy of World War Z
-a few books to swap on Listia
-a small pile of embroidery hoops in various sizes
-a cute vintage Snoopy "Goodies" jar (which I've already put in the kitchen & filled with some of my snacks XD)
-a Wild Strawberry mug with lid for tea or cocoa
-one of those reusable shopping/tote bags that folds into a little strawberry
-an 80s Sanrio-ish looking pink plastic lunchbox (it's got a design of a teddy bear in a ballet outfit. Very Lisa Frank, lol.)
-and a pastel blue purse that looked practically brand new
Later in the day we came back for the tail end of the sale, where about an hour before they close, they give you garbage bags and it's pretty much "stuff anything into the garbage bag and it's $5 a bag". The only rules are 1. it can't be hanging out of the garbage bag (the bag has to close) and 2. you can't drag the bag, you have to be able to carry it out. Zack & I took advantage of that and stuffed a couple of nice, large picture frames in one bag, and a large plastic storage container in the other. (And lemme tell ya...thank goodness we had a ride home, because it was hard carrying those bags up to the lady with the register to make them look light enough not to warrant being separated into more bags. The things I do to save money~ XD) We already took apart one of the frames (it had some generic hotel-lobby art inside) and replaced it with the 2 Parasite Eve art prints Zack bought at A-kon:
Which is now hanging in our den. :D
So, nothing terribly exciting, but I think it at least was worth having to wake up early to go to it, heh.
In between going to the rummage sale and then coming back a few hours later for the bag-stuffing thing, I ended up making a trip to Hastings (it's like Borders) because I wanted to check out something. Zack had been browsing there the previous day, and spotted something that had piqued my interest: a copy of "Princess Mononoke" on DVD that looked newly released. I had been excited when he told me, because I thought that meant that Disney had indeed renewed the rights to it. But when I got home and did a Google search, I had found absolutely nothing. Not a single word about it. I new it HAD to be newer, though, because the copy Zack had found had the blue boarder around the top, like the newer releases Disney recently put out. I looked on Amazon, eBay, RightStuf...didn't find a copy of Princess Mononoke that looked like that, let alone any info on a re-release. I even tried tweeting "Aint it Cool News" via their anime sub-division & they basically told me there's no way it was new, it was either the old release that someone altered, or a bootleg. But Hastings doesn't sell bootlegs (if it doesn't scan properly into their system, they don't take it in for sale or trade). So I went to see for myself, and sure enough...there were two copies on Hasting's anime shelf, so I bought one:
It was sealed & shrink-wrapped, and the cover & slipcase looked and felt exactly like the other Disney Ghibli DVDs I've bought before. So I told Zack, "If this is a bootleg, this is the most elaborate bootleg ever made." XD When I got it home, I wanted to see what was on it, and sure enough, it was legit. It had all the current Disney logos & trailers (the first trailer was for "Brave"!), and the movie (in dual-audio). I looked up the barcode info and strangely, it's exactly the same as the old release, which just confused me more. XD Sadly, even though this is definitely a re-release; it's also apparent that this is not a remastered version. The picture quality is comparable to the old DVD version, and given the fact that the "extras" are the same (which I believe is a single "making of" special and the original trailer) I'm inclined to believe they just took the old version and redid the packaging job...making it kind of a bare-bones release. (Though I gotta say, I was never a big fan of how they plastered all that praise on the old cover in huge letters to try to convince people to buy it even though it was a cartoon, hurr derrrr, so it's nice to have a cover that's a little more nice looking & matches most of the other Ghibli releases I have. Which, in my mind, is with the extra few dollars it cost in comparison to the old one.) I still wonder why I can't find any information on this re-release about it, though. It makes me wonder if Disney really DID get the rights back, or if they're just trying to crank it out without people noticing & passing it off as something they already had the rights to? Or it could be possible my Hastings is dumb & they set these on the shelf before a release date? Either way, it is a bit mystifying to me, but hey--I got a copy of it now, so I don't really care. XD If anyone else spots these while out shopping, though, I'd love to hear about it out of curiosity!
In between all of that, I also got to Skype with one of my longtime penpals for a while, so Friday ended up being pretty busy (and sort of exhausting)! Yesterday was not quite as busy, but I did end up doing even more Skyping (ahhh, Skype...you make it possible for me to talk to awesome people again ;3; ilu) as well as watching a bunch of TV. Haha, ok, well, not really TV...I downloaded Crunchyroll's new PS3 ap and signed up for their free 30 day trial offer, so I've been trying to get as much watching out of it as possible until I have to cancel it (since I can't afford to get it at the moment, as nice as that would be. ;__;) I wish Netflix had streaming subtitled animu like this (which is basically how their app is set up...almost exactly like Netflix, but a little more basic). I started watching "Working!!" (released here as "Wagnaria"), which is actually super cute--it's sort of like a mix of Azumanga & K-on, but it takes place in a family restaurant similar to a Denny's. And it's really short, too, so I'm already on the second season. I also made Zack sit down & watch the first 3 episodes of "Madoka Magica" (since I thought he might like it, and I had been wanting to rewatch it). I put a couple of other things in the queue to try to watch as well, including "Polar Bear Cafe" since so many of my friends seem to like it. So hopefully I'll get to watch that as well. It's nice to have stuff I can watch on the TV while working on embroideries & such instead of having to sit in front of the computer (which I'll miss once this free trial is up. ;__;)
Oh! I was also pleased to get an email "call back" on that Gundam Wing parody thing I auditioned for! I'm actually stupidly excited about this, lmao. I really would love to work on it because what little I've seen of the script sounds funny. I have to record more lines before I know anything else, but I guess we'll see how it goes, eh? ;D I also got a role in someone's original flash animation project...it's nothing ground-breaking, but since it's an original thing, I'm looking forward to doing something that's not a fandub (yay for potential legitimate work!) Once that project is more in full swing, I'll post links or something (as long as, y'know, the person actually goes through with it this time...*crosses fingers*)
Ok, so, uh, this post is already getting super long and jumbled, so I think that's enough for now. x__x lol. If you read it all, I applaud you and apologize if I sounded weird, since I've been up since like 6am and I'm still in a sleepy daze. XD;