Is it Late Night or Early Morning

I'm sitting here on my couch at 1 am with a wonderful night breeze blowing the curtains around.  I know I should go to bed so I can get up early and enjoy the day with my family but I know that if I go upstairs I'll just lay there and not sleep.

I've been working very hard the last few days on my manuscript for The Wrestling Insomniac book that I am going to self publish.  Any doubts I had about it doing this are completely gone now.  I know how hard I've worked at it and It is something that I am going to be proud of.

I've even found some pictures to insert along the way.  Not many mind you, but they were all taken by me so I don't have to worry about copyright issues.  Even as I am working on this book I'm already thinking about the next one.  I have so many more posts that I know would be great to include and many of those are about shows I've attended, wrestling title histories, and breaking down wrestlers time in a promotion.  Like Chris Candido's three months in WCW or Bret Hart's final matches.

Another thing I have been doing the past couple weeks is watching a lot of movies.  I watched a spectacular one tonight on Amazon Prime that I'm going to write about tomorrow.

This year has definitely not gone as I thought it would.  Vacations have been cancelled, concerts have been postponed until an unknown date.  Also my first AEW show was supposed to be in April, was postponed until August and I'm positive that, that isn't happening either.

However I feel that there has been a lot of good this year.  Working from home with my wife for the last two plus months has actually strengthened out relationship.  We've managed to hit the Drive-In twice for two classic movies and plan on going to more as we can.

Also I've gotten a lot of inspiration from my pal Brandon, and I like to think I've inspired him a bit too this year, when it comes to this blog and other aspects of being positive.

This blog, for instance, I don't advertise it like I do my other blog.  I write this one for me and the few people that I told about it.  If they chose to read it, great, if the don't, well that's fine too.  Doogie Howser didn't write his journal for others, even though we at home were privy to it, he wrote it for himself.

Until Next Time!

Wrestling Book

With college being done I started looking at writing again.  I never wanted to self publish, but I have a few stories that I love and am passionate about that I haven't found the right market for them yet.  I decided to take these stories and when I have enough of them self publish them on Amazon with their Kindle Direct Publishing.  This will allow me to have some closure in these stories so I can move onto others. 

Then the thought rolled in my head about taking a bunch of the entries from The Wrestling Insomniac blog and self publish a collection of them in a book.  As I started compiling a list blog posts to include I discovered that, not to toot my own horn, but I had written some pretty great articles about different events in wrestling over the years.

For the last couple of days I have spent re-formatting these posts into a manuscript and I must admit that I am getting pretty excited about it all.  I'm far from finished but so far I have 97 pages or about 34,500 words.

I'm not sure how many pages is enough though.

Either way I'm enjoying this and If people buy it, great, if they don't well that's great too!

Until Next Time!

Cotton Comes To Harlem

I originally posted this on another blog but am re-posting it here today as the film was originally released 50 years ago on May 27, 1970.

FILM REVIEW

I recently found this movie on Netflix and for reason’s I can’t figure out I decided to watch the flick.  Released in 1970 I’m not sure if this film is considered Blaxploitation or not, but it does feature some great lines such as “Honkies on the wood pile” & “Is that Black Enough For Ya?”

This film, based on a novel of the same name, is about the Revered Deke O’Malley and how he is here to save his fellow black man by taking them back to Africa aboard his ship The Black Beauty and charging them handsomely to do so.  You’d never guess it but the good Revered is a crooked and just wants that money for himself.  ON the case are tow hard nosed NYPD Detectives “Coffin” Ed Johnson (Raymond St. Jacques) and his partner Gravedigger Jones (Godfrey Cambridge) whose facial expression never changes through-out the film no matter what is happening.  Coffin and Digger treat Harlem likes it’s their own wild west town, they rule the roost and everyone else be damned.

White people play the dupes and apparently no one is afraid to hit a lady when she expresses her opinion. At the end of the day though, I enjoyed the flick.

The only actor I recognized was Red Foxx of Sanford and Son fame who had a bit role.  Apparently Clevon Little made his feature film debut, he’s better known for playing Sherriff Bart on Blazing Saddles, one of my all-time favorite movies.

Back in the day this flick was an overnight success and even generated a sequel two years later “Come Back, Charleston Blue” once again featuring the antics of Detectives Coffin and Digger.

Check out the trailer

Later Readers

College Grad

Sunday night my final assignments were due and today they were graded, although my grades have not be officially finalized I do know that in my final two classes I walked away with A's.  Two years ago in a bid to get a better job in the State my wife said I should take some classes to earn a degree, a couple days later I got an email from my Union about a free college benefit and I took advantage of it.

I started my first online classes at Eastern Gateway Community College in August 2018 to earn my Associates Degree in Business Management.  EGCC is not just and online college, they have two brick and motor campuses in Ohio and even have sports teams, Go Gators!

Each sixteen week semester was broken into two 8 week sessions so classwork was doubled each week.  I was a full time student taking five classes a semester in the Fall of 2018 and Spring of 2019.  I took two classes over the summer of 2019 to make my finals semester easier.  I had five classes again in the Fall of 2019 but only four classes in the Spring of 2020.

Taking these classes the last two years was very time consuming!  It was also a struggle at times to stay motivated, especially after I got the job in the AIU in September 2019.  However it was all worth it and in 8 - 10 weeks I will receive my degree in the mail.  I've accomplished something I never thought I would, earned a college degree.  I took twenty-one classes with fifteen A's and six B's for a 3.76 GPA.

Now that, that is finished my plan is to return to writing.  Yes I have two blogs that I write on, but I have done any creative writing since I started college.  Creative writing is an entirely different process for me than writing on my blogs.

After years of trying I was finally published in October 2016. "The Legend of Thaddeus Bilodeau" can be found in Tales from the Grinning Skull Vol 2.  I know people self-publish, and that's great for them.  However I wanted someone to read my work, like it, and pay me money for the rights to put it in a book.  I want that to happen again.

So I'll keep writing here, and on The Wrestling Insomniac, and I'm going to read some more, but I'm also going to focus on being published again.

Until Next Time!

The Television Miniseries

Television and people viewing habits have changed a lot over the years.  When I was a kid sitting down and watching television was a family event and every night had their own line up.  Today my wife and I rarely watch live television, we have an antenna with 21 channels, no cable, and we stream everything.  When we do watch live TV it's typically the news or when I watch football.

The last live TV special that we watched was Grease the Musical which aired on Fox January 31, 2016 and it was three hours long.  We loved it and was hoping Fox would so more live musicals.

Television miniseries also used to be very popular when I was kid and even into my early 20's.  I'm not talking about limited television series that have 6 - 10 episodes.  I'm talking about the television movie miniseries events like Lonesome Dove!  Originally airing over four nights in 1989 from February 5th to the 8th, each episode was 2 hours long and 26 million people tuned in to watch it!

I don't think a miniseries on network television today could draw those numbers or even half that.  Honestly I feel that miniseries that I'm talking about on network television or a thing of the past.

Many consider the first television miniseries blockbuster to be Alex Haley's Roots which aired in 1977.  Others include The Thornbirds, North & South, Centennial, The Winds or War, and more.  Most of the long works are based on books.

Centennial is 900 plus page book that my wife enjoyed and encouraged me to read.  Honestly I enjoyed many parts of the book just not all of it.  We have never watched the miniseries because at 26.5 hours over twelve episodes it's too long!

1983's V miniseries is one of my all time favorites!  It's about Alien Visitors ( hence V) that publicly have come in peace but secretly want to take over the Earth.  A sequel was released in 1984 and two television series has also been made, first in 1984 & the 2009 reboot.

Stephen King probably has had more television miniseries made out of his books than anyone.  In fact those were must see television!  I'll talk more about those in another post.

Until Next Time!

Book Review: Spellbound

If you've read this blog then you know that I have had the urge to read some Christopher Pike and I have recently done just that.  This is a spoiler free review. 

Spellbound
Archway Paperback first printing April 1988, 211 pages.

The story takes place in the fictional town of  Timber, Wyoming and like most of Pike's stories features high school students as the main characters.

Principal Characters

Cindy Jones: senior, main character of the story, girlfriend of Jason Whitfield

Jason Whitfield: senior, alleged murder suspect of Karen Holly

Alex Jones: Cindy's younger brother, love interest of Joni Harper, runs track

Joni Harper: new girl in town, native of England, living with her Aunt after the mysterious death of her parents

Pam Alta: Cindy's best friend, bit of a slut

Bala: Foreign exchange student from Africa, grandfather was a Shaman, is living with Pam and her family

Ray Bower: Alex's friend, runs track, also love interest of Joni Harper, former boyfriend of Pam Alta, add and R to his last name and you have Ray Brower the dead kid from Stephen King's Stand By Me

Karen Holly: Dead girl, former best friend of Pam Alta, was friends with Joni Harper, used to date Ray, was the girlfriend of Jason Whitfield at the time of her death

Cindy has only been dating Jason a few weeks, after Karen had died of course.  Some people don't believe Jason's story that a Grizzly Bear killed Karen while at the same time the don't think Jason did, but he's hiding something.

As these characters are all in high school the setting of a majority of the story is centered around the school, during lunch time, at a track meet, at the big football game.  The story itself takes place over a couple weeks from the first page to the last.

Like most stories with law enforcement procedures I'm critical of how they play out in the fictional universe.  This one is no different, when Cindy is called as a character witness for Jason during his hearing it never would have unfolded the way it did in this book.

Overall I enjoyed the book, it's not one of my favorite stories of his but it's not his worst in my opinion.  What I enjoy most about Pike's books are they are simple and quick to read and primarily offer a decent story.

I just got me order that has Chain Letter and the Final Friends series in it yesterday.  I'll probably start with Chain Letter next.

Until Next Time!

Childhood Treats

Writing about the Jolly Rancher stix got me thinking of other candies and snacks that I loved as a kid.
Some of them you can still get today, some aren’t around, and others have versions available but they
just aren’t the same.

Planters Cheez Balls

These are the greatest baked cheese snack ever, Jax Cheese Curls are a close second.  My Aunt Clara

is who introduced me to these, she always had them at her house. There was something special about
them because they came in a can instead of a bag.  I”m not sure when they disappeared but it was a
sad, sad day. Others have made cheese balls but none have compared to Planters.

Bonkers

This fruit chew was a staple of my kid diet.  I would go down to New Mills Market and buy these and

Garbage Pail Kids.  The candy was a single fruit flavored chew with a tangy filling making it different
from a starburst, now and later, or similar.  At times there were stickers inside the packaging like WWF
or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Currently Leaf Brands is attempting to bring the candy back they have apparently began beta testing

the candy with a select group of lucky recipients. I will be sure to buy them if and when they return.

Frooties

These fruit chews are similar to Tootsie Rolls but were first produced in the 1970’s by another company.

Eventually Tootsie Roll did buy them out and continue to produce them without changing the candy.

I used to get this at Kitty Korner store on the weekends I was with my did.  A true penny candy they

cost just 1 cent and they had a eight different flavors with Blue Raspberry being my favorite.  You can’t
find them in many places in my area today. However whenever I am in Littleton, New Hampshire at
Chutters candy store, home of the World’s Longest Candy Counter, you can still buy these for a penny
a piece.  Last I knew they had 10 different flavors, my favorites currently include Cherry Limeade,
Lemon Lime, and Mango, but they are all great!

Mars Bar

Currently one of my favorite candy bars is the UK Mars bar which is made up of nougat and caramel

covered in milk chocolate.  Some will have you believe that in the US this is called a Milky Way, those
people are exceptionally wrong! Although they sound similar in concept it’s like say all apples taste
the same, they don’t.

This Mars bar launched in 1932 is made of nougat with almonds coated in milk chocolate.  Discontinued

in 2002 it was replaced by Snickers Almond and caramel was added, it’s not the same. In 2017 Ethel
M. Chocolates a subsidiary of Mars Inc re-launched the original American recipe of the Mars bar,
of course now it’s costs $2.99 for a single bar, plus shipping.

Jamie Farr of MASH fame used to star in the commercials for them.

Candy Cigarettes

Because smoking was cool in the 1980’s!  These white hard sugar sticks with a speck of red on the end

representing the cherry.  These were sold in packages similar to current cigarettes because they wanted
to get that brand recognition even as a child.

Later you could find bubble gum ones that had a thin paper wrapper with flour in it so you could blow

on them and make the flour puff out the end like smoke.

Veryfine

A New England favorite, based in Massachusetts you could find these glass bottles juices at just about

every store around when I was a kid.  The labeling was simple and the flavor was delicious. In 2004 they
sold to Kraft Foods and now it’s not like it was. I moved on to Nantucket Nectars for my juice needs, but
now I don’t drink juice much at all.

Thanks all for now.  I’ll do a part two down the line.  What are some of your favorite snack and drinks

from kid-dom that are not around or not the same anymore. 

Until Next Time!

Scoobynatural

I have been a fan of the TV show supernatural since episode one, however around season tenish my passion for it began to falter.  Quite frankly the show ran it's course and should have ended.  Sure occasionally a great episode would pop up here and there but by the season 13's mid-season hiatus I was done. 

When the show started back up I never finished the season and haven't watched an episode since.  It was announced that season 15 was going to be the final season so I figured that I would finish it at some point
  

The other day I started back watching from where I left off and it was Supernatural as I remembered it, nothing spectacular.  Then episode 16 Scoobynatural came on!  Holy cow it was awesome! They did a fantastic job on combining the two shows and it filled me with nostalgia.

Dean & Sam rescue a shop owner from a possessed giant stuffed dinosaur.  He gives Dean a big screen TV and this TV is "cursed" sucking them into the classic animated show "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!" specifically from season 1 episode 16 "A Night of Fright is no Delight".

If you have Netflix you just need to go and watch it, I loved it!  We got a lot of classic Scooby moments, including a chase scene with the classic Scooby Doo theme playing during the chase.  Of course Dean was hot for Daphne and Velma was hot for Sam and his broad shoulders.

They even got the current Scooby-Doo cast voicing the characters, Frank Welker as Fred Jones & Scooby-Doo, Grey Griffin as Daphne Blake, Matthew Lillard as Shaggy, and Katie Micucci as Velma Dinkley.

It's hard to believe that Scooby-Doo debuted in 1969 and is still cranking out new cartoons today.

Until Next Time! 

X-Files Returns!

I originally posted this on an old blog back in 2016, I decided to repost it today because the final X-Files episode of the original run aired on May 19, 2002.

This is a spoiler free zone, so read with confidence that I haven't ruined anything about the  new episodes.

I cannot fully explain just how excited that I am that the X-Files have returned to television with all new episodes.  Granted it's only 6, but still that's 6 new hours with Mulder and Scully!  I have worked very hard to avoid any and all released footage, news, spoilers, and everything about the new series.

Obviously it's impossible to avoid everything but I have succeeded for the most part. 

I remember watching it when the series originally debuted I was 14 years old, the perfect age to absorb a show like this, I never missed a week!  Back before re-runs and the on-demand TV world we live in now people bought books that were episode guides recapping and breakdown each episode.  When it came to the X-Files I owned those books.  I even bought a few of the VHS releases before there was DVD. 

As much of a devoted fan as I was the later seasons that didn't feature Mulder weren't as good to me but I never missed and episode.  I watched both movies in the theater.  Currently I own all 9 seasons from when they were originally released and both movies on DVD.  They have since re-released the seasons with different packaging and lacking the bonus features for the majority of the seasons.  I also own the Lone Gunmen season on DVD. 

I have watched the first episode 2 times now and while the 2008 movie was good but a bit of a disappointment, this first episode is nothing but amazing!

First off they use the original opening and then they jump right into the deep end of the pool with both feet tackling the alien conspiracy and government cover up mythology.  So much is packed into this episode it feels much longer than the 43 minutes that it is.  The episode ends very strong!

Episode 2 is on Hulu now so I will be going to watch that one and I will be right back.  

BRILLIANT! 

Classic monster of the week episode, I know I said it was spoiler free, but it's just one spoiler, it's their first case officially back with the FBI.  Written and directed by James Wong who wrote some of the best episodes on the original run along with Glen Morgan. Scully and Mulder's son William is touched upon in this episode.

Back in the day I found an address for the X-Files production office on the internet and mailed both David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson and letter and I got official X-Files photos signed by both, not pre-prints like they started sending out once the show exploded.

I cannot wait to see what the next four episodes have for us.  

Until Next Time

At the Drive In

This past Saturday, May 16th, Wesley, Kate and I headed to the opening weekend of Pride's Corner Drive In for a screening of The Wizard of Oz. With all the events and businesses shut down because of the corona virus it was to be able to go out and do something. 

We didn't go alone, we wagon trained down with Jesse, Linda, & AJ and Paul, Amanda, & Sammy even parking next to each other .  You had to buy your tickets in advance online and they have to cut capacity in half so they only had 160 spots.  Both days sold out in advance! 

 

Almost all of the drive-ins in Maine opened this past weekend, but all were showing movies that were in theaters this past winter except for Pride's Corner.  

Wesley loved the movie, he was so enthralled with all of it.  I haven't seen it in a few years and there are some parts that I had forgotten, which is nice.  

Channel 8, the local ABC affiliate, was there and Vanna made an appearance in the piece.

This Wednesday & Thursday Pride's Corner is screening National Lampoons Vacation, love this movie.  Can't wait to see what they are playing this weekend.  I really hope they play The Evil Dead at some point.  I saw it on the big screen a few years ago at the Nickelodeon in Portland, I really want to see it at the drive in though.  

Until Next Time! 

G.I. Joe Flag Points

One of the best things about getting a new GI Joe action figure or vehicle when I was a kids wasn’t
just getting the new toy but also collecting the Flag Points that came with those toys.  The number of
Flag Points varied based on what you bought, figures were less than vehicles, and the number on the
vehicle was based on the size and cost of the vehicle.

Single figures had one point

Accessories like packages of missiles were ½ a point

Vehicles the size of like a Dreadnok Swampfire were 2 points

Larger vehicles like the Conquest X-30 had 4 points

Initially when you could first redeem Flag Points you’d send in high number of Flag Points and only

pay for postage.  Like in this Cobra Commander mail in, 5 flag points and 50 cents for postage and
handling.

Later you would send more money and less flag points.  Like in the insert below showing a Cobra Ferret

is only 2 flag points but you needed to include $6.50.

My all time favorite flag point redemption was the 8 inch Sgt Slaughter figure and that’s because it spilled

over into the other favorite action figure collectibles at that time, wrestling figures.

What I had thought for years was that the mold for this Sgt. Slaughter figure was actually made by the

LJN  company to include Slaughter in their WWF Wrestling Superstars action figure line. When LJN halted
their figure production they sold the mold to Hasbro who then produced the figure.

According to the Wrestling Figs Podcast with Matt Cardona and Brian Myers this was a Hasbro creation to
to capitalize on the wrestling figure craze.

Until Next Time!

Monster or Humanoids From the Deep

I originally posted this on an old blog but and re-posting this today as the film was first released on May 16, 1980.

WARNING THIS REVIEW CONTAINS LOTS AND LOTS OF SPOILERS!

The other night I was trolling around Netflix and came across Humanoids from the Deep with a cover box art bringing me back to my days at Movie Gallery and what we called the glitter box rule.  I read the description of the flick and though, why not!

Humanoid from the Deep aka Monster is a Roger Corman produced flick, if you don’t know the name Roger Corman then you are a not a true fan of schlock cinema.  

Filmed on the California coastal town of Noyo in 1979, released in 1980, the flick is about mutated salmon, that’s right mutated salmon that have morphed into humanoid like creatures that run amok on this coastal town raping young ladies for the purpose of reproduction.  Survival of the species, if you will.  

Sadly the locals at first blame those damn Indians or one Indian in particular who is trying to prevent a fish cannery from being built by the evil Canco Company, the very company who’s growth hormone research on salmon created the aforementioned Humanoids!  

However once they discover the true culprits the band together to stop them.  Lead by local Jim Hill (Doug McClure, you may remember him from such films as Firebird 2015 A.D. and The House Where Evil Dwells) and Canco’s own Dr. Susan Drake (Ann Turkel) they manage to erratic all of the vile bastards from the face of the planet, or so they think.  

The film concludes with alienesque like one of the rape victims “giving birth” to a humanoid offspring as it bursts from her stomach.

At only 80 minutes in length they manage to cram in camp, sex, violence, racism, and mediocre special effects into a great little flick!  I can imagine this would have been a fun flick to go and see at the drive-in back in the day!

You should really check it out!

Mike

Video Store Memories

This was originally posted on another blog and I've decided to re-post it here.

As a kid I always loved going to the video store to rent movies.  The first thing I always did was run
to the wrestling section to see if they had any new wrestling videos and then wander around the
various sections looking at the cover boxes trying to find the right movie.  Sometimes the biggest
hurdle was figuring out if a movie was available or not because Maine was full of mom and pop
style rental places who displayed their stock differently.

Because of the cost of a rental copy back in the early to mid 1980’s a lot of stores kept the VHS’s
behind the counter to deter theft.  Some stores you would take the coverbox off the shelf and bring
it to the counter to retrieve your rental so you’d spend a lot of time asking the clerk if they carried
a certain title to which they would say yes but it’s check out.

Other times a round metal tab with a number on it would hang from a nail below the coverbox, you

would take the tab up to the counter to retrieve your rental.  This made things a bit easier as you could
tell if they carried the movie or not, just that no tab meant it was unavailable.

Later on some places would have a plastic case around the cover box with the tape inside which you

would take to the clerk to rent the movie and that is what you brought home. You would squeeze the
bottom of the case on both side to “open” the bottom so the tape could slide out.

Finally, how it was when I worked at Movie Gallery and pretty much the standard for most places by

the mid 1990’s was behind the coverbox on the shelf was the rental copy in a black plastic case.

We could spend an hour or better walking around the new release wall, grabbing the hot new movies

and then trying to decide what else looked good to round out the four pack, because it was the
best rental price.

There were some rules when it came to renting movies, a new release with less than two copies
typically meant the movie was foreign film, a knockbuster or a dud.  Also always stay away from
the shiny glitter box, I fell for this ploy a few times myself. You could have just called them shitty
glitter box because that was the type of movie you were in store for if you brought one of them
home with you.  

Think about it, you’ve been looking for a long time for one last movie, this cover box reflexing off
the fluorescent lighting keeps catching your eye and the more you pick it up and read it the more
interesting it might be.  Wrong! Sadly there is no way to determine this now when scrolling though
Netflix.

What’s that?  What’s a knockbuster, why I’m glad you asked.  It’s when a major studio releases
a film, like Twister, and another studio releases a film of similar theme like Tornado relatively
close to one another. Other examples of this include Dante’s Peak and Volcano, Armageddon
and Deep Impact, Olympus has Fallen and White House Down, the list goes on and on.

When I was a kid though, there was nothing more depressing than finally deciding on your rentals
and discovering they had no VCR’s available for rental.  That’s right, my Dad didn’t own one so
we always had to rent one. Finally he wised up and would call first to reserve VCR until he
eventually bought one.

It saddens me that my kids will never experience what it was like to experience the joy and wandering

around a video store.  I mean yeah we have Redbox and with on-demand and streaming they never run
out of rental copies, but it’s just not the same.

Next time I’ll talk about my all time favorite job; the 18 Months I worked at Movie Gallery.

Until Next Time!

Christopher Pike Books That I Want

So here is reference for not only the Christopher Pike books that I want but the cover art of the editions that I want. - 

Updated on 5/15/2020 because I bought a lot of 11 books on Mercari for cheap!

Die Softly

Whisper of Death

Chain Letter

Slumber Party

Weekend

The Last Act

Gimme A Kiss

Midnight Club

Master of Murder

Road to Nowhere

Tales of Terror 1

Tales of Terror 2

The Grave


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Pike_(author)

X-Files Podcast

Several years ago I got into podcasting, it started with a wrestling podcast and later my buddy John and I started up What Did You Watch This Week, a weekly show where we cleverly talk about what we watched that week.

I was super into podcasting and wanted something that I could do alone along the lines of the Twilight Zone Podcast, and I thought about doing and X-Files podcast.  I love the show, it would give me a reason to start watching the show from the beginning again.  Then Kumail Nanjiani started the X-Files Files podcast 2014 and that, as they say, ended that.

However, I recently started re-watching the X-Files again and got to thinking about that podcast I wanted to do.  Kumail hasn't released an episode since February 2016.  There is another X-Files podcast out there, but this isn't Highlander, there doesn't have to be only one.

Before I get going on a new podcast though I should really get my Wrestling podcast back up.  I've recently posted two new episodes and have people lined up to record more, I just need to record them.

John and I have established a good pattern of recording every Monday night for What Did You Watch This Week and I'm trying to establish the same pattern for The Wrestling Insomniac Podcast.

I finish up school in a couple weeks and I'll more free time, there's other stuff I've been wanting to do like write more fiction and read more so I guess we shall see what happens.

Until Next Time!

Christopher Pike, the author not the captain

It's amazing how some memories stand out to you.  When I was 11 my Nana took me to the Little Professor Book Store at the Topsham Fair Mall here in Maine.  I was staying at her house for the week and she thought it would be nice if I had a book to read.

I ended up picking out a young adult horror novel called Die Softly by Christopher Pike.  It's about a teenager who wants to take photos of the cheerleaders in the locker room and his camera captures more than he could imagine.

I loved the book reading it in two days and I was hooked on his work.  My Nana took me back and bought me two more that week.  Over the next few years with her help I managed to buy all his previously published books.  Even into my 20's I would get his new releases as they came out.  They weren't all gold, some were better than others, but I always enjoyed them.  Even today I get the urge to read them once in a while, they are a quick and nostalgic read.

My collection of books was ruined in 2008 when my basement flooded with four feet of water. So I only have a couple of his books.  When you go to current book stores they have his newer work which I haven't even tried to read.  Also I've noticed they've made collections of his work.  Like The Final Friend's Series was three books that they have made into one large omnibus.

The urge hit and I wanted to read Whisper of Death again.  Honestly I can't recall the whole story, I know it's about two teens who go out of town for an abortion and when they return everyone has disappeared.

I looked it upon and found I could buy a copy anywhere from $64.95 to $851.90!!  I'm not kidding!    Many of those mass market paperbacks that I owned that came out from 1985 - early 1990's are going for a decent price.  Not all, but a lot of them.  Whisper of Death seems to be a very hard one to find for some reason.

Hopefully we can go to yard sales and flea markets again some day and I can get some of these books on the cheap.

By the way, Christopher Pike is a pseudonym naming himself after the original captain of the USS Enterprise before Kirk.

Until Next Time!

Kindle Fire 10

A couple years ago my wife bought us both Kindle Fire 7 tablets for Christmas during an Amazon Black Friday sale.  I never wanted a tablet in the past and didn't think I would use it much.  I was wrong!  I used it all the time, especially at work on  the midnight shift in dispatch.

About a year and a half later we decided to order Wesley a tablet for the educational games that he enjoyed playing on his mother's.  Instead of buying him a new tablet we bought me a Kindle Fire 8 and gave him my old one. 

I was very happy with my 8 and even though my wife had bought herself and ipad 10 I had no interest in a bigger tablet.  My buddy Rood and Cousin Paul had encouraged me to get a Kindle Fire 10 as you can read comics on it much easier as it's a full page on the screen instead of partial pages.  Also I never intended to use my tablet as an e-reader because I like to hold books in my hand, however I stumbled across several books that I wanted to read but physical copies were upwards of $40 whereas the kindle editions were $5.

Last fall I applied for a new job and decided that if I didn't get the job that I would buy myself a 10 when Black Friday rolled around.  If I got the job though I wasn't going to buy it because I figured I would use it much, much less.  I got the job.

While working from home due to the Covid-19 Pandemic I have been giving the house a deep clean and discovered three Kindle Fire 7 tablets, two won't even turn on anymore and a third works but no one uses it.  Amazon has a trade in where you can mail in your old tablets, only two at a time, and they will give you $5 for a broken one and $10 for a working one plus 20% off a Kindle Fire upgrade.  I wanted the $15 in Amazon gift cards. 

When I got the notification that my tablets were accepted and I was issued my gift card and coupon I thought, let's see how much it would be.  Well the Fire 10 was on sale for $109.99 and they gave me 20% off that making it $87.99.....so I bought it! Well I ordered it, the only color they had left in stock was a white one and I didn't want that. 

They estimate that it will arrive June 20th.  And I'm good with that as I don't know how much I'll use it exactly.  I'm using the hell out of my Fire 8 right now, but I'm also not in the office most days.  It was too good of a price to pass it up.

I did just get a ton of free trades from Comixology so I know I'll be reading some comics at the very least.

Until Next Time!