The Recession Continues or Impulse Buying

I'm an impulse buyer.  Nothing triggers my impulse like the the word sale.  I got a text message from a friend today that a local f.y.e. store is going out of business.  They'll be closing their doors on the 31st of this month and everything in the store is discounted significantly.  Of course, this means that plenty of crap was marked up to be marked down but there are definitely some decent deals to be had. 

Apparently f.y.e. stores all over the country have been closing for the past year or so.  Definitely check your area to see if any are closing near you.  CDs and Blu-Ray discs are probably your best bets.  No way in hell NBA 07 for PS3 marked $59.99 and only 40% off is a good deal.  I've read that deals vary from store to store though so you might catch better deals in some locations.  I don't know.  I hate f.y.e. and I've only been inside of their stores a total of 3 or 4 times, including today's trip.

Here's my haul for the day:

50 First Dates - Blu-Ray - I love this movie.  I love all Happy Madison movies, actually.  I've probably seen this movie 8 times already. 

Battle for Terra - Blu-Ray - I wanted to take my son to see this film at the International Children's Film Festival last summer.  I found out about the showing a little too late and when I tried to get tickets it was already sold out.  Was shocked to see it on Blu-Ray so I had to cop it.

Incubus: Look Alive - Blu-Ray - I'm a big Incubus fan.  (Shout out to Chico Fontaine for puttin' me on.)  I had great tickets to see them  at Radio City Music Hall last year that I didn't use.  My dumb ass was so excited that I didn't even read the damn tickets properly.  I thought they were playing at Jones Beach so I drove to Jones Beach.  I get there and, in true moron fashion, I'm driving around for 10 minutes in PITCH BLACK night like, "Where the hell is everybody and how come I don't hear shit?"  I finally have some semblance of a synapse firing and check my tickets.  You should have seen my face when I realized I was at the wrong venue.  I was too upset (and pretty much too late) to drive back to Manhattan to catch what I could of the concert.  This disc will make a nice companion to my Red Rocks disc.

Weeds: Season 4 - Blu-Ray - My wife bought this.  I have no idea what it is.  Read the back of the case though and apparently suburbanite white lady sells weed.  Clever.

Slumdog Millionaire - Blu-Ray - I've been trying to catch this movie for the longest.  Missed it in theaters.  Missed it on premium channels I don't know how many times.  Now I own it. 

None of these over $17.49.  Booyah!

3rd Times the Charm

The fam and I decided that we wanted to go see the apparent phenomenon that is the film Avatar. Word on the street is that it MUST be seen in 3D. Even better in IMAX. So I logged on to Fandango and tried to book tickets for a showing about 2 hours later. Didn't happen. Sold out.

The next day, I get a text from my boy Riddle just before noon. "Avatar?" "Hell yeah!" I replied and jumped over to Fandango again. 7:00 pm showing....sold out. 10:35 showing....sold out. Damn!

Ok. Now I have it figured. So after an evening of laughter, food and Mimosas at my Mom's house, I walked back into my place around 9 pm. First order of business; BOOK TICKETS! I got tickets for the next day; 10:35 showing.

We know we have to get to the theater early to get good seats. So we get ready, head out and arrive at the theater an hour early. We turn the corner to the IMAX theater and what do you know? There had to be at least 75 people on line already! Cot zang.

Side note: Serious LOL moment when a group of about 5 people realize after waiting on line for more than an hour that they did not have tickets for IMAX 3D. They were quickly banished by security. I'm willing to bet they thought they could pull a fast one.

So after a 45 minute wait we're allowed into the theater.  I got top row seats. Dead center.  Booyah! The movie starts and I'm treated to the most engaging and socio-politically relevant fantasy movie I've seen since 'The Matrix'.  That's all for another post though.

Heavy Rotation - Amanda Blank

I just discovered this girl a few days ago.  I was actually looking for info on when a new Santigold album might drop.  I glanced over her blog posts on her MySpace page and she mentioned in a post from August of last year that she had a friend who had an album fresh off the presses.  I figured that she wouldn't cosign anything wack, so I immediately hopped over to YouTube for some tracks.  The above track is the first I heard and I was already in love.  I copped the album at the iTunes music store and I'm impressed with the whole CD.

If you're into Santigold, M.I.A., Lilly Allen, etc. you'll definitely like this album.  It's full of heavy rhythm tracks, spaced out synth sounds and raw ass girl talk.  No homo. 

Step Your Dice Game Up

These are precision dice.  Yes, that's right....precision dice.  Produced by Zontik Games, these dice are engineered to offer the most fair rolls possible.  It's done by filling the die with material that is the same weight and density as the material that the die itself is made of.  In other words, the paint that's used to fill the spots on the die is precisely weighed so that it exactly matches the weight of material that was removed to make the impression.  This makes each face uniform.  In less lux die, a six side weighs less than one side I assume.

You'll find these die in Zontik's high end board games.  I'm talking upwards of 5 stacks for a chess set!  That's all well and fine if you got it like that.  What works my nerves is coming to the realization that, apparently, every pair of dice I've ever rolled in my life have been bastard dice that weren't giving me a fair roll!  That's some ol' bullshit.  You know how many Monopoly games I could have completely dominated if I just got a damn 3 so I could land on Boardwalk?  You know every time that happens everyone just stops "playing" and turns their strategy to "saving" so they can pay up when they land on Park Place or Boardwalk with a hotel on them.  From now on, I'm sticking to games with a spinner.

The Aviary version 2.010

2010 is officially here! It's crazy how quickly it seems that 2009 flew by. I had a ton of ups and an equal number of downs but everything worked out in the long run. I didn't do the cheesy resolution thing but I did make a mental note to myself that I want to do a LOT more writing this year. As a result, I will be keeping up with my blog regularly and sharing more of my story with the world.

This blog was originally supposed to be a collaborative effort but that didn't work out as planned. So, I'm flying solo this year. Thus, The Aviary version 2.010. I hope to gain a few readers that find my experiences interesting enough to stop by my blog periodically to read, learn, share and comment. Here's to a new year, new opportunities and new outlooks.