Wraithfodder's Lair

Only a year and a half...

wraithfodder — Sun, 17 Nov 2019 00:09:50 GMT

Yeah, been ages since I've been here as my fannishness has been confined to Twitter. Just nothing enthralled me, fannish-wise, till I found Project Blue Book (on History Channel) this year. Actually penned one piece of fiction, which is at https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13429989/1/Road-Trip as well as https://archiveofourown.org/works/21396175. Gotta admit submitting fiction has changed quite a bit since last fiction post (2007!). Working on another larger piece which I hope to finish. I always get bogged down in research.

Winter's here. Well, the temperatures sure are even if it's not really here. I'm sick of it already!

And that's it.

Expletive deleted Photobucket

wraithfodder — Mon, 10 Jul 2017 00:56:06 GMT

If you see NO pictures on my LJ, it's because those bastards (too kind a word) at Photobucket are now holding photos hostage unless you upgrade to a pricier package, starting at 'cheap' fee of $60 a year or $400 if you want more. It's insane. I have HUNDREDS of photos on this LJ. This sooooo sucks. It's given me a headache so not sure what I'll do but I wanted to keep them for posterity which now is, well, held hostage by PB.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

I did it

wraithfodder — Sun, 02 Jul 2017 15:21:37 GMT

Finally backed up my LJ to Dreamwidth due to the Russian nonsense going on. Looks like posts and comments went over, but to read them all looks like it requires a LOT of hitting the Previous entries button. Is there a calendar feature like on LJ? Hmm, I see a learning curve here. Darn.

Meanwhile, I'm over at https://wraithfodder.dreamwidth.org/

Since I'm so bad at posting, not sure if I'll start keep stuff there or make sure everything is just backed up there. Ummmmmm....

So, backing up LJ

wraithfodder — Fri, 30 Dec 2016 20:38:36 GMT

Was on Twitter when I tripped over posts such as http://www.metafilter.com/164293/LiveJournal-represents-social-media-without-borders talking about US/Russian stuff and Live Journal.

I do need to back up LJ. Eons behind on that. I hear Dreamwidth is good, but is there a way to backup everything, post, photos AND comments that other folk make?

Thanks!

Good riddance, 2016

wraithfodder — Wed, 28 Dec 2016 14:11:39 GMT

Have to say watching the news these days is awful. I won't get into the political stuff with the presidency, but four years can't pass too quickly for me!

However, first George Michael, then Carrie Fisher? ARGH!! I hate to say it, but when a rock star dies young, it sometimes is not too shocking but 53 is far too young these days. I enjoyed his music and have to say that Freedom and Wake Me Up Before You Go are my favorites songs that he did. But Carrie? Sigh. When they said she'd had a heart attack on a plane and it was 15 mintues of CPR to get a pulse, it did not bode well. And older women, women of my age (she was just a few weeks older than me!) do not do well with heart attacks. Symptoms are different and outcome, alas, worse. So damned sad. Again, too young. I was hoping to see old and crotchety and writing a tell-all-book about her unrequited love for R2D2 ;) And that photo of her dog, Gary, on twitter, staring out a window waiting for her to come home. Made me sniffle up something fierce. He'll be taken good care by her family, but Gary's lost his mom and constant companion. :(

RIP Carrie Fisher. You were definitely a bright and unique light in the universe.

And.. the Christmas tree is up!

wraithfodder — Wed, 30 Nov 2016 00:33:32 GMT

All 18 or 24" of it. I go tiny as well, it's been ages since we had a big tree, and now, well, I want the perfect white Christmas tree. I saw one, but at $300, I balked (I'm more like, oh, hey, $8 at Target, yes!). I have four little ones set up around the house now. And it sorta washed out as I used flash on white which mucked up the meter and I was too lazy, no, busy!, to redo it ;)

The penguin salt and pepper shakers make great decorations :)

Candle Cove: Channel Zero & Star Wars

wraithfodder — Thu, 17 Nov 2016 00:19:51 GMT

Did anybody else watch this SyFy series? I was very happy to see that this segment/series was actually limited run. They'll do another one Candle Cover: ______ I guess next year. This one was sufficiently creepy but not overdone in the horror/gore/ripping off limbs like Walking Dead department. Slow pacing, like the old days. Likeable cast, although I was sorry to see one character I like get stabbed to death by the murderous little children. Well done.

Still no show to get hooked on.

Meanwhile, wonder what I would have said eons ago had I known Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher had had an affair back in the Star Wars days. As Carrie Fisher pointed, it's so old that it doesn't matter. Aiee, does that make me feel old! ;)

And the state of TV is..

wraithfodder — Sun, 13 Nov 2016 12:49:36 GMT

No new shows that scream "watch me". I'd say the closest, which I really hope to heck is a limited run x-amount of episodes, done, finished, etc. is "Channel Zero - Candle Cove". Sufficiently creepy, good actors and no whining teenagers. Alas, I'm tired of them, which is why I turned off "Aftermath" as I just don't have time to waste about angsty teen love or whatever. I do like "Timeless" but keep missing it or they pre-empt or I don't know what. I hope it gets renewed and gets a better time slot. I'm watching "Dirk Gently" but must admit, if not for the Corgi, I might not come back. The whole holistic assassin and nasty bloody knifings if a turnoff. If I want gore, I'd be watching "Walking Dead."

As for the presidential election, I opted to watch "The Exorcist" but fell asleep. Alas, when I woke up I went to turn off tv and then got smacked in face with news that THAT person won. Ugh. Sleepless night. I endured months of hideous, ugly, vile, lying campaign rhetoric, so I would sooner stick my finger in light socket than vote for a man who denigrates women, mocks the disabled, lies (easy enough to sort 'em out), etc. I don't know HOW the US ended with perhaps the two most reviled candidates in history, but we did. I've watched enough post-election news coverage (mostly foreign cuz I think CBS basically STINKS) to know that people voted for Trump for a change (although I am positive that a certain percentage voted for him because they're biased enough to never vote for a woman - hey, I have run across people who think that, sad to say). However, the automakers will never go back to the heyday of incredible salary and golden medical benefits.Nope, the union folk will have to realize no one will pay for it. Coal mining? Extremely debtable. It will happen if someone wants to risk to investment, and who will want to risk that kind of money for a short-term risky investment, when natural gas is so cheap? (and if Trump gets his way, he'll sell off federal land to be dug up, drilled into, and injected with wastewater). The environment is not going to do well under his regime. And I work in the finance industry and there were a lot of happy faces as they expect him to deregulate everything, so we can go back to 2008. Yeah, that worked out well for everyone. As for folks saying trump will be great because he's a businessman didn't look to the huge picture; a man who runs his own empire can do whatever the hell he wants, a president cannot. Businessmen are also the main reason for outsourcing. Perhaps the gov't enabled them with globalization, but buisnessmen will do whatever they want to make shareholders happy and make money, and that includes laying off employees/offshoring. For years (BEFORE globalization) I watched them hire high-priced contractors because they didn't have to pay them benefits/retirement.

Sigh, very disillusioned with the US right now and how trump's idea of protectionism/isolationist is going to harm us (and others) in the long run. It's like living in a neighborhood and telling your neighbors to go away and don't bother me, and no, I won't lend you a rake or help you clean up after a storm. Well, tit for tat, no one will help US if we get in a bind because why should they. I feel like I'm now living in some warped dystopian bad tv movie. Blech.

On the plus side, Hallmark is showing lots of sugary Christmas movies, so I can escape reality there.

Godzilla!

wraithfodder — Sun, 16 Oct 2016 03:28:54 GMT

Found out about Shin Godzilla (or Godzilla: Resurgence as it's been termed in the US) being out for a mere two weeks, if that, from a friend on Twitter. Had to wait till it got closer to find out if one of the 400 theaters showing it was within driving distance, and it was! So my friend and I ordered tix through Fandago (costs a little more) because well, very limited run and we weren't sure of the attendance. We got to the movie early and there was one guy in theater thumbing through his smartphone. At about 30 minutes till the movie started, people started filing in. I'd say the theater was 90% full by the time the movie began, and we had no trailers, since this was limited run and a studio wasn't presenting it. @Funimation, who had a panel at New York Comic Con last weekend, put together the distribution deal.

Now, the first Godzilla from ye olden B&W days, rampaged through and stomped on Tokyo but slowly became more of a he's going to battle some other monster, or save us humans from another monster. This Godzilla? Bad-ass is what probaby best describes him.

I mean, yeah, all that red (which he had) and those hands/claws were creepy as were the really evil pointed teeth. He just stomped his way through Japan, and when the humans attacked? Well, let's say Tokyo is in need of a LOT of urban renewal. And the tail. You have to watch the movie to know all about his tail.

If you're a Godzilla fan, go and see it! It's finished on October 18th. The film is subtitled in English. Takes a while to get used to as there's a lot of rapid talking around meetings in the beginning.

Meanwhile on TV....
It's becoming reboot hell. I fear originality in Hollywood is just dead. This tv season... let's see, Frequency (Jim Caviezel version was good; this show may drag out angsty stuff far too long and perpetually change the present); Lethal Weapon (I'd leave it only to listen to Clayne Crawford's very smooth voice - show is pretty vapid, alas); MacGyver (gah, I tried, I REALLY tried but no, not for me), and oh, there's a Magnum PI reboot coming out soon - it's about his daughter and the seedy underbelly of Hawaii which sounds so unappealing, and a Dynasty reboot, and another War of the Worlds one, The Lost Boys, LA Law, the list just never seems to end.

There's absolutely nothing that screams must see TV anymore, nothing I can't catch a day or week later on video on demand on cable. I like Elementary, Quantico and The Strain, yet they're on against each other AND against Hearts of Space on NPR (radio) so the radio wins. Wishing something would pop up to grab my fannish muse but nada so far. I suppose that saves me money and I can go buy the Godzilla Christmas ornament instead ;)

New York Comic Con 2016

wraithfodder — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 00:16:51 GMT

This year, we managed to get Friday and Saturday tickets. Kept trying for 3-day or 4-day but it was impossible to obtain, so.... at least this year, no train breakdowns or disasters that ate up travel time. I'd leave house at 5:30am and get back at 10:30pm and then repeated it the next day. Don't know if I could have done that for a third day. Most of my time was spent walking. Took just under three hours to go through entire dealers room and the 'Block' (more artist dealers). Took two days to get into ARtists Alley to peruse their wares. It was PACKED. I think a lot more people were there, despite farming off many panels to Madison Square Garden, and two other off-site venues, which sorta sucked as if you went to those, they were first-come, first-serve, so you lose out on the Javits experience.

Took a ton of pictures, and instead of posting one or two here, below are the links:

Friday - https://www.flickr.com/photos/10668630@N06/sets/72157671556749284

Saturday - https://www.flickr.com/photos/10668630@N06/albums/72157673860446980

It was fun, despite the crowds. On Saturday, of course, it rained when we left. Got a bit wet but another fan gave me and friend disposable ponchos. Thanks! I was also sitting in fold-down seat on double-decker buses they used for transport. At one point, I stood up to look around corner, then sat down, but the seat had flipped down so I nearly hit the floor. Recovered quickly and popped back up, with other fans going "OMG, are you okay?" while my friend laughed. Guess those squats I've been practicing helped!

Met two other friends while there, and one sat at table right next to mine in main concourse, looked up and saw me and called my name. It was so weird, but otherwise, it's impossible to connect due to immenseness of venue and crowds.

Survived the weekend

wraithfodder — Sun, 17 Jul 2016 22:50:10 GMT

In last two weeks, did three library book sales. The first one is huge and everything is in alphabetical order, so was easy to find stuff. It was in a school gymnasium so A/C and auditorium and I did find some books but not a lot. The second one was held outside under tents as library doesn't have that much space. Found half a dozen books and a Tony Hillerman audiobook. Last one was a sidewalk sale at another library. Not a ton of books but found a cheap book on mac'n'cheese (I may never use but the pictures are yummy looking). The last two I cooked, aka sweltered as we're now in a heatwave. Heat isn't so bad but yech, the humdity.is awful. I'm sure it's a lot worse down south. I scored the compete Fawlty Towers DVD set, in perfect condition, for $4! Also found a Stargate Sg-1 book - "Do No Harm". Read it already, and well, although I love the series, the book didn't appeal to me, so goes back into my sale pile.

While I love library book sales, I'm tired of those dealers with their scanners. The second library sale (under tents) had staff repeatedly yelling at those people (because normal folk aren't grabbing and tossing). I'd love to ban them for 15 minutes; let the average folk come in, grab some books to leave. The science section looked like it got trashed by five year olds. That's where the high resale stuff is. They grab book, scan, toss. I got in there and managed to get a few books I wanted, but geez. I bumped into a couple later on who were grumbling about some guy bumping into them and not apologizing, and yup, it was one of those dealers. ON the plus side, nobody was hunting Pokemons ;)

Meanwhile, The Last Ship is back on and doing good. Most shows tend to get secondseasonitis and go downhill. Have found a guilty pleasure in CBS's Braindead, with alien creatures chewing up people's brains and taking them over. In Washington DC. If that were true, it would explain so much, but Washington, sigh, is such a mess. I can't stand the Presidential election news and tweets. Why can adults behave so badly and people still want to elect them? (I'm talking both parties).

And as much as I hate the heat and humidity, it's preferable to winter and cold temps and high heating bills and shoveling snow.

Despite all the bad reviews...

wraithfodder — Mon, 04 Jul 2016 21:15:33 GMT

My friend and I went to see Independence Day: Resurgence (aka I thought Brent Spiner's character died in the first film). Many reviews were, um, rather unkind, but since we saw the first, and Jeff Goldblum was in it, why not? Basically, take 50% Independence Day, mix with the CGI-overdone and who really cares about the chararacters 2012 and San Andreas, with a dash of White House Down (the one with Channing Tatum). I say that due to casting; Roland Emmerich likes to recast, so if he's doing Stargate movies, I expect to see the guy who swung the antique clock and gunned down aliens in IDR, in the Stargate flick. It was not a great, nor was it a horrible film. Could be my expectations are lower for all sequels but it had its moments; however, I really didn't care who died (except for the cute little dog).

Did see, via DVD, Zootopia, which was a scream. Fantastic animation, adorably cute animals. I had to suspend belief that the lead bunny character had over 200 siblings, and without predators, well, bunnies will overrun the planet in no time flat ;) But quite well done.

TV-wise, nothing grabs me fannishly, which sucks. I watch Zoo, but sorta root for the animals with some characters as they can be so dumb. Hmm.... it's summer. Oh, Last Ship is back. I do enjoy that one and there has been some 'headcount attrition' (aka killing off characters). The show Thirteen, on BBC America, is one of the reasons I hold on to that channel. It's excellent! I now have to catch on BBCA's The Hunt as of course, it's shown opposite Last Ship. And, sniff, Person of Interest. They kiiled my favorite character! But in some way, it made sense as that character started off the show pretty much doomed. The only spoiler I'll give, to avoid anybody anxiety, is that the dog survived. Alas, this also means that the cast will not be at New York Comic Con, not that I was able to see them the last couple times due to their presense being on a day I could not get a ticket.

And this year, I managed to score a Saturday ticket! While the servers did not crash this year, NYCC's plan on pre-verifying fans was shot to hell as scalpers had up the prized 3-day tickets on eBay and Stubhub within minutes, while I spent over an hour waiting for my chance. Got Friday and Saturday, at a more expensive tab than a 3-day ticket, but since I may not go again, I figured, why not. You can't do the con in one day, so this gives my friend and I time to do dealer's room, other rooms, and see some panels, except for the celebrity-laden ones at the Hammerstein. If you go there, you blow an entire day just waiting. Their Facebook page was full of irate fans, of course and I suspect when the they get the ones back from the scalpers and resell, it will get uglier as once you buy tickets with your pre-determined link, that's it. Can't get anymore. So I can't trade two expensive 1-day tix for the cheaper 3-day tix. They'll get theri act together once I no longer care to attend.

Otherwise, life is boring. Job, house, real life stuff. I'm attempting to get together a fannish garage sale, but I have so much other stuff to get through house first and may have tag sale and get rid of things. When you've got half a century's worth of stuff in a house, it mounts up.

Mediawest*Con 2016 trip report :)

wraithfodder — Sat, 11 Jun 2016 23:40:53 GMT

All under the cut, as I have rambled.

Another Mediawest*Con come and gone, and despite our muttering of ‘it’s out last one, finances,” we signed up again as well, it’s the only place we get to see lots of friends in one place. We used to drive, then did Amtrak, and after one hideously long sleep-deprived trip, I vowed I’d n ever do that again (at least to go to Michigan), so I flew. Last year was fine, and then of course, this year I see all these news stories about horrendous lines at LaGuardia and O’Hare, the two airports I go through, so I got to the airport early, only to whisk through TSA and didn’t even have to take my shoes off. I looked at my boarding pass and lo and behold, somehow I got randomly selected to be pre-TSA. Cool. Worked on the trip back too, although the Lansing airport is small so it’s not like you have a huge line. One thing I noticed during the hours sat waiting at airports is that Godzilla could traipse through with no one noticing as far too many people are glued to their smartphones. Me? I finally broke down and got out coloring pencils and psychedelic page to work on. Finished it at the con and it came out rather neat looking so, because I didn’t have time to do door decoration, used that and other pages I colored for the door.

Let’s see, while at con, ate far too much food (Cracker Barrel, Finley’s, Chinese, Steak ‘n’ Shake (twice or was it three times? Had the delicious raspberry chocolate shake. Ordered the big two pancakes, eggs and bacon breakfast at CB; couldn’t eat it all but it was yummy. Then stared with desire at certain items in CB’s store (octopus glass paperweight flamingo birdbath) all of which would not fit in carryon. Ended buying flamingo bag for $1.99. Yeah, like I need ANOTHER bag, but then, I knew it would fit in carryon. Got to Horrocks – bought a small, pricey but scrumptious goat cheese log covered with blueberries and cinnamon. When I got back, checked local Trader Joe’s but they don’t have it. They have blueberries and vanilla but the cinnamon. Yum! Will get that first thing next year if they still carry it.

We ended up at several stores, like Walmart, where I dithered on whether to buy the cat mug-shot t-shirt as it wasn’t my size, but then said ‘what the hell’ as it wasn’t even $5 and I doubt it would be in my Walmart (which it wasn’t). We hit Michaels (bought ANOTHER bag, this one with tropical motif with parrots, too pretty to use except as decoration) in search of a gold pencil for a friend. The coloring book phenomenon was everywhere at the con, and the coloring book party in the party suite was PACKED. We also went to Hobby Lobby, where another friend got a nice set of colored pencils for $9.99 which I said ‘nah, it won’t fit carry-on’ and then at the register, my friend said “Hey, they’re 30% off” and I’m sure everyone heard the squeak of my sneakers on linoleum as I did an about-face and ran back and got a set for myself (yes, they just managed to fit in the luggage). Didn’t buy anything at Barnes & Noble as nothing screamed “buy me!” but found the stuffed “Finding Dory” toys which were rather adorable.

Four us took in the matinee at local theater and saw Captain America: Civil War. Enjoyed it but it was a Greek tragedy of sorts at the finale; even the end credits had fracture lines running through it. Can’t wait for next movie however. My friend found a cool Captain America shield keyring at Hobby Lobby and bought it. Speaking of Captain America, went to the party someone held. Was just going to swing by and check it out – it was very well-attended – but then I saw…. Cupcakes. So I had one, and then another (one chocolate, one vanilla, had to, er taste test), and it was downhill from there. I stayed. They had some contest, one was to find the hidden Bucky’s in the room. Much to my surprise, I won the contest, and got a great little bobblehead Bucky and thought to myself, “This WILL fit in my carry-on SOMEHOW!” By the time the party broke up, I’d won three of the contests. Much to my embarrassment, I must admit. I was positive that someone else would win the ‘toss the Captain America paper plates into the Captain America hamper’ contest as I’d only managed a measly two, but it was enough, so I came home with a Captain America plastic cup, towel, bobblehead, coloring book, bag, fantastic fuzzy blanket (wore it briefly like a cap to another party). As they were going to toss the paper plates used in the contest, I said ‘waste not want not’, took them and rimmed my hotel room door with them. It was a rather neat effect. And the individual who brought the Captain America-themed motorcycle (parked in lobby) brought it again this year, done up with more artwork.

At one point we were putting flyers up on the glass windows by the lobby and this fat squirrel came down to look at us and suddenly there were half a dozen people all staring at the tree and taking photos. After a while, the squirrel realized we weren’t going to feed it so left.

Alas, no big Michigan thunderstorms. Anything headed out away dissipated over the lake but one night we got a torrential downpour. I went outside and spotted a gorgeous sunset. Lovely shades of red, orange, violet and more. Fortunately the weather held out for the trip back as who wants to fly in a thunderstorm? When we landed in LaGuardia the pilot announced “at least we didn’t have to divert to Pittsburgh” which meant we probably dodged some nasty storm system.

One of the huge (and yes, it was that big) surprises in the art show was a life-size Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon! Yup, this guy made it, brought in a used Twinkie van he’d bought and you could pose with it. It was fantastic!!! I thought I took down his contact info but will have to find it. I hope-hope-hope he comes back next year.

Did not buy much this year due to finances and carryon restrictions, but scored a neat Godzilla glass holder (from Matthew Broderick version) which fits certain cups very nicely ;) as well as the cat t-shirt. Because Agent with Style appears to have gone bottom-up, not a ton of zines plus my fannish interests have waned and my main reason for the con is other fans, although when I came back home, I had urge to watch Stargate SG-1, so have been binge-watching DVDs of it. Ah, it was a great show. Shame SyFy has fallen down to wrestling and endless repeats of Resident Evil.

As planned, did get to the hotel’s hot tub and swimming pool. Both, alas, have seen better days. Peeling paint, etc. When I went to the hot tub (which I had all to myself) I was rather astounded to see what looked like roof shingles around it and on the steps. I swear, that’s what it looked like but it wasn’t as it was soft underfoot and definitely non-slip, unlike the older painted concrete around the pool. Had to tread carefully there. Note: I think I finally got all the chlorine smell out of my suit. Maybe hit a sports store to get special stuff to remove it as I don’t want suit drying out. It’s very annoying to put on suit a year later and hear the elastic stretch out but not back. Ack!

All in all it was more a relaxacon than anything else. Watched a ton of Avengers movies, some Stargates, some Minions, ate too much and generally had a good time.

Hoping that a lot of folk will be back next year!

PHOTOS:

1) We left the hotel in a slightly less better shape than we found it (actually, it’s the old Days Inn and it was down to nada before the con was half over)

2) Breakfast at Cracker Barrel.

3) I want! (Octopus)

4) Or the crab. Cute!

5) Can we say “Miami Vice retro”?

6) Could not pass up this t-shirt at Walmart.

7) Plushies.

8) Inquisitive squirrel

9) The perfect stick figure family decal for a car!

10) Oh yes, these pens were fine and dandy. Took photo so I could order ‘em online.

11) Sunset after big rainstorm.

12) Another shot.

13) Toothless and his master ;)

14) My door decoration

15) Captain America motorcycle

16) Captain America keychain – metal. Heavy. Nice.

17) Very funny poster on door

18) One of the congoers…..

19) Some of my Captain America party booty

20) Oh, my Godzilla cup holder and it’s new cup. Does this not scream movie tie-in? Minions meet Godzilla???

And I came home, had to mow the lawn the next day and weedwhack the nasty weeds, and got a wretched case of poison ivy on my leg (no photos so as not to scare everyone).THE END.

Deep Sixing the VHS Tapes

wraithfodder — Wed, 13 Apr 2016 21:56:09 GMT

Yeah, that time has finally come.I'm slowly tossing VHS tapes. In my preliminary sorting, I found the wretchedly awful "Lucky Pierre" episode of Dynaman, a show which aired in the 80s, I think. sorta like Power Rangers. This episode was about a giant French frog kidnapping Japanese brides. I kid you not. A true classic. Not on YouTube (removed, alas). I remember showing it to James Doohan in my hotel room at a Pennsylvania Con eons ago. He just sat on the floor, drink in hand, jaw dropped open as he couldn't believe what he was seeing...

Also found Peter Cushing's Island of Terror, which I tend to describe as 'mutant turtle creatures rampaging UK island, sucking the bones out of is population'. ;)

Meanwhile, shows that are out on DVD are going, although it will be a while before I toss Magnum PI, or Riptide. Got rid of half of Miami Vice as I replaced with DVDs. Combat! goes tonight, but I'm sitting there staring at the one tape of Black Jack Savage, which isn't out on DVD. If I can't find a fan who wants it, to the garbage can it goes!

What's most fun about old tapes is the old commercials, the news footage. I found a news item of a British soldier, dressed up as a gorilla, skydiving for charity. The chute failed, and he plummeted to ground. Amazingly, he survived with no lasting damage. Checked YouTube but not there. One thing about old TV commercials is that they seemed a lot nicer in tone. These days, it's all drug ads, or in-your-face type ads (may be just the market I'm in, but I miss nice ads).

And the rest of the garbage can will be filled with poison ivy vines. Been ripping 'em out (wearing long gloves) and hope not to get it.

I really need to post more often

wraithfodder — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 01:50:19 GMT

Good grief, it's been months since I last posted. At least it hasn't been a year. Fannishly I'm still in limbo. No show screams "must watch!" like the old days, which sucks.

But what sucks more is repeating what happened three years ago. Well, three years, two months, when a car rear-ended me. And guess what? It happened again! ARGH! This time it was a Honda Pilot which drove into me, sqooshing the trunk and sorta scalping the bumper. Had it been a CRV I'd have a few hundred in damage. As it stands, it's shy of $6K in damage. I hate this stuff. I'm not at fault, other driver got ticket (and no doubt, increased car insurance) but in some respects, she got off better as the SUV showed nary a scratch, whlie my poor Civic....

And I keep getting hit by Hondas. If it has to happen again, hope it's a Fit and not the humongous Ridgeline. At least the car wasn't totalled cuz I can't afford a new one.

New York Comic Con, or I'm getting that Godzilla!

wraithfodder — Sat, 24 Oct 2015 01:44:11 GMT

And I went to New York Comic Con (aka #NYCC on Twitter) and survived...

Was only able to get Friday tickets, after miserable experience back in May trying to buy them online but only to have the servers crash. I wasn’t the only one with the bad experience.

Anyway, left house at 5:30am to get friend to get to train station to go into NYC, whereupon there’s the NYCC shuttle bus, the one that takes off every 15-20 minutes, but this one sat there for half an hour. Because of the new line rules at the con, getting there early was important. At least for me, it didn’t matter too much as I was only doing the show floor (dealer’s room) and no panels, as the ones I wanted to see got moved to another building (the Hammerstein). Since my friend is disabled, we went into the line with the press, the VIPs, etc. and we could look down upon the seething mob of humanity (aka fans) waiting to get in. Of course, that day it rained on and off. Smart fans brought umbrellas.

My only real goal was to get the limited edition Funko Pop 6” Godzillas, one of which glowed. Fortunately Toy Tokyo’s booth was in the Block, the more creative sales area, but when the doors opened, people just RAN in. We found ourselves screeching to a halt with about 50-70 people in front of us. ARGH! Worse, the booth was late in opening.

So I went down to check and was informed (on several trips there) that they were behind schedule, that the line was moving, that the line was still moving. I think the con people encouraged them to open despite not being totally ready as the line was spilling out in the atrium area. Some guy came down the line eventually, looked at me and my friend (with her walker) and asked if we were in the line. Tired of standing, I sorta whined “yes” (in my best “if I stand here any longer I will expire on the spot” voice). However, the guy looked at my friend, muttered something her being a liability (as in the walker maybe ,or that she might pass out, or something) and said “follow me.” So we were both taken to front of line and guy there looked at me and said “why didn’t you say something?” and well, the rules of medical badges is that it does NOT let you cut in lines. However, we took advantage of our good fortune, got our Godzillas (I had friend buy one extra for me as you were limited to one each and I had sorta promised someone on Twitter I’d try to get him one. After that, nearly two hours(!) we got lunch. Met a friend (who got to meet all the Firefly folk, lucky!) and then, spent next 4-5 hours making my way to rear of show floor. It’s MASSIVE.

But first I went back into the Block, got a cool coffee t-shirt…

Wanted to buy these, but, sigh, too pricey.

Did get another Tentacle Kitty. Good grief, they are cute as all heck.

And cuteness just abounded with various stuffed anime-themed stuffed criters.

Then there was a giant hamster. At end of my trek, I broke down and got one. A pure impulse decision and it’s huge and now it’s sitting take up space on the couch… Picture down below. It's pink.

Maybe next year I’ll get a zombie alpaca…

And then there’s the cute but sorta weird things you see at NYCC…

And I found myself taking photos of stuffed critters in people’s backpacks.

Jurassic World was promoting there at the con and had a guy in the raptor outfit who was incredibly talented. He posed for photos. He tried to ‘eat’ the Pikachu, which had people screaming “not the pikachu!”

This guy probably just lost out on the Funko Pop exclusive limited edition toy line. One guy spent five HOURS in that line. After doing Toy Tokyo, I said, that’s if for me…

Progressive Insurance had a booth; it gave away a Flo wig, and apron. Apparently Spiderman partook of their freebies ;)

These were the Progressive unicorns, or protector something. I’d have to find out on Google. Around 6:30pm on Friday, they were doing impromptu dancing in the main lobby. They were pretty good. What happens at NYCC doesn’t stay there ;)

And I scored a collector’s NYCC Geico Gecko. Just had to sell my soul… gave them my name and address, posed for an idiotic photo, but to get the gecko, I had to do karaoke. It was too cute to resist.

My giant pink hamster.

Oh, my el cheapo costume as I went in Godzilla t-shirt and jeans. Figure that the pre-‘infected’ people on Fear the Walking Dead wear normal street clothes, too, so why not?

Let’s see, we left around 7:30pm, on the second to last bus back to Grand Central. Ran into someone else on the train back who also went to the con. Lucky guy managed to score 3 or 4-day ticket but didn’t do all days as it was tiring. I ran into several people (younger than me) who said the same thing.

Got home, got to bed around midnight, up at 6:00am (darn work time) and was doing fine till around noon, when I just crashed for a few hours. We vowed next year to get multi-day tickets but then we said that this year. Maybe next year I’ll take a day off from work and just have 2 computers running…. I wish.

And new TV season begins..

wraithfodder — Fri, 02 Oct 2015 01:53:38 GMT

Well, the last TV season ended and the new one begins. Can't say Under the Dome getting the axe bothered me, as it got too weird for me and the ending just seemed too contrived. Sigh. Zoo wasn't too bad,although last season with about a hundred zoo animals? in a city street seemed, er, overdone, but it's fun summer fodder.

I've become lazy and am watching half the shows on video on demand. Anything after 10pm is usually relegated to that, except for The Strain, which I try to watch live to see what's going on. I am watching Fear the Walking Dead, and oddly, I'm waiting for the characters to be devoured as none of them appeal to me (the dog did, but well, very short-lived the poor critter was). Just curious as to how they'll segue this to Walking Dead, which I haven't watched in ages. Scorpion seems to have survived the transition to season two without too much radical change; can't say the same for Sleepy Hollow. Still enjoy the characters but for crying out loud, did they let a drunk Edward Scissorhands style the hair? Abbey's hair looks dreadful (yeah, I know, it's a style) and Ichabod's looks a little hacked. It's a lot more evident when the show's credits show the original hairstyles. It's shallow, but I have overwhelming desire to do something ;)

Quantico is interesting. Watching the first one and hey, there was Brian J. Smith from Stargate Universe, and he didn't last long, and it looks like Jake McLauglin from NBC's defunct Believe might be toast, but then they might have lied. Limitless seems fluffy, but I'm okay with that. I'll catch up when I can. Big Bang Theory is still amusing. NCIS is changing direction a little (OMG, GIbbs has a normal haircut!) and of course, it's against the Flash, which I'll be catching up on as it's against NCIS. Oh, Z Nation is bleeding characters (bye bye Mini Jack from SG1) but Murphy will no doubt survive and even though the character has done some very bad things, I love his snarky humor and voice. I keep missing Doctor Who so will catch up on that. And even though I gave up on CSI after William Petersen departed, I'll watch the two-hour finale eventually (did see last five minutes).

Due to football (blech), both Elementary and Person of Interest are delayed till, er, October and maybe 'mid-season' for POI...

Otherwise, nothing exciting. House work - waxing floors, painting, trying to declutter. Hoping the hurricane diverts and does not make landfall as the leaves are still on the trees - worst time to arrive. We do need rain but I'd prefer it not come with hideous damaging winds.

New York Comic Con is a week away and although tickets are sold out, the comic book store in NYC is still running contests to give away tickets. However, you've got to follow this and that, but unfortunatley, have to pick up tickets in city during the work week, which isn't happening with my work schedule and budget, so it'll be one day only, and I hope my goal of getting the Funko Godzilla toys is a success. They're my only real goal ;)

I really don't know how people find time to do twitter, facebook, instagram, live journal, etc., etc.Of course, if I had a newer PC, it might all go faster! ;)

and summer is over...

wraithfodder — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 23:52:20 GMT

Well, okay, it's got two days left, or three, can't recall.

I actually got to a beach three times this summer - a record!! I'd love to do it every week but there are no free beaches here :( Sigh...

TV-wise, well, let's see. Nothing has caught me fannishly, like Stargate Atlantis. Virtually everything on SyFy is meh to me, although I do watch Z Nation due to its strange humor, but it's not a keeper, or must-see live TV. Waiting for NCIS to start up to see how Gibbs fares. I know he'll survive, of course, but it will be fun to watch his team angst all over the place. I like The Strain, Longmire (alas, it went to Netflix which I don't have so I hope it comes out on DVD), Person of Interest (probably it's last season), Oh, Elementary is fun to watch and I watch Hawaii Five-O occasionally and it never fails whenever I turn it on it's the same one. It's not the same since they blew up a nuclear weapon off the coast. I mean, that was 'jump the shark' big time...

Can't think of any of the new shows that scream 'watch me' but I suppose I'll check out a few. It's gotta catch me within two episodes or I'm gone. I'll check out the final CSI just for old time's sake.

Only caught poison ivy a few times this summer (yeah!) and didn't have to mow near as much due to the drought. Alas, there are some brown patches in lawn, which I came to realize are the result of the very cute but rather destructive bunny rabbits. Darn, they're so cute...

Will be going to New York Comic Con, despite all the hassle of getting tickets. Their servers suck (I think I whinged about this earlier) so the three-day ticket I had my hands on evaporated due to a crash and all I could get was a Friday. Then yesterday they announce they're selling them at a comic store (only ONE store, in NYC, so all the other tri-state stores were left out in the cold). Lines formed at 3pm for a 10am opening. Despite hundreds if not a thousand fans showing up, they still have tickets left, which shows that NYCC apparently gave that comic store a ton of tickets that the rest of us poor souls were unable to buy online. Grrrrr.

And otherwise, wow, my life is boring. Can't think of much else but the job, house work (oh oh, I finally bit the bullet, got Johnson's Paste Wax, and it does about as good a job as Preen (discontinued for no good reason I could find) on the hardwood and tile floors, so I spent a few hours waxing today, and also waxed the car. Hopefully that's a portent of rain to come.

I need to downsize, so gotta figure out how to sell fannish collections, even if they're sellable.And VHS tapes, ha, I don't think anybody wants those anymore!

9/21 ADDITION: Oh yeah, I watch ZOO (okay), Under the Dome (about time it got axed, alas), Mr. Robot (which I find fascinating for the psychological stuff), and Whispers, which I liked, so I assume it got killed by ABC.

The dangers of the summer months...

wraithfodder — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 00:44:55 GMT

Yes, it's summer. The snow has melted, the ice is gone, and now, the dangers of lawn mowing approaches. Not poison ivy, ticks or even rocks, but the rarely seen.... LAND SHARK!

What happens is I carve up the watermelon to look like a shark, then once we've basically carved out and eaten the innards, I put the shell of the shark outside, and then the local wildlife have their fun with it....

The eyes, of course, were gone and the insides scraped pretty clean. I'll check it out tomorrow morning to see what's left. It was moved several feet last night and upside down so something took it's time. I suspect the bottom teeth might get noshed on.

Yeah, things are boring in the 'burbs so you make your own entertainment...

And the TV season thus far...

wraithfodder — Sat, 27 Jun 2015 23:46:48 GMT

Since there is no true 'season' left on TV, everything seems to start willy-nilly whenever it wants, on whatever platform it wants, which is probably why I forget to watch stuff, and gave up on Walking Dead because I missed two episodes because I hadn't realized it had started up again, so now OI'm several seasons behind. I figure I'll wait till the finale of the series and see who survives until the bitter end...

The Last Ship's second season began last week and was off to a good start. As long as it doesn't slide into any 'conspiracy' plotlines I'll be fine. Actors are great, nothing is over the top, and to show how much I haven't watched ABC in the last, er, um, decade? I had no idea Eric Dane had been "McSteamy" on Grey's Anatomy (although I did actually watch the episode, via video-on-demand) when they bumped off "McDreamy". Never tick off the executive producer, or head writer, or whoever.

Anyway, still annoyed that A&E jettisoned Longmire, but refuse to get sucked into Netflix right now, so I'll check the library and see if they've gotten Longmire season 3 on DVD yet. Then bingewatch :)

On the new stuff, I'm going to check out Mr. Robot. I saw a few minutes of it and it looks intriguing. As I liked the Matt Damon movie Proof, I've checked out the series and it's decent. I'm watching virtually all shows on video on demand these days (one day I'll replace the DVR - don't care to give Cablevision more money to RENT one of theirs). Although it should have been a limited run series, The Dome is back so I'm checking it out. It's an hour of nonsense, and oh hey, the book Zoo is now a limited run series (yeah, we'll see about that) and I read they've changed some of what's in the book, so, alas, maybe more conspiracy crap, but I'll check it out to see how it turns out.

I have tried both Killjoys and Dark Matters on SyFy, and I always fall asleep watching it! HOwever, I'll have to check it out via video-on-demand (just better picture quality too) because David Hewlett guest stars in three episodes. Have to admit I need to check out more shows made in Vancouver to catch up with Stargate cast members. They pop up here and there. Wish that SGA were back or they'd make a movie, just as long as Mallozzi has zip to do with it. Dark Matters is too dark (literally) and reminds me of SGU. I swear the cast, costumes, etc. between the above two shows are interchangeable. Do they only have black leather for people to wear??

Realilty-wise, the snow has melted so now I mow lawns, and worse, hack back weeds, which grow so friggin' fast they must be from an alien planet. It's humid half the time, so painting parts of the house just can't get done. Sigh. It's a bumper crop of chipmunks and the lawn is riddled with holes. Only danagerous if you wear high heels ;)

Ah, saw some movies: 1) San Andreas. Total nonsense, where you just suspend belief and go "oh, it's just like a SyFy movie but with people w ho can act'. Limited number of cast, overdone SPX, sketchy cellphone coverage. Jurassic World was better. I rooted for the dinosaurs and alas, thanks to TV ads, many 'surprises' weren't, but the way the big nasty dinosaur was, so that was fun. And well, Chris Pratt was fun to watch, and if you just shrink raptors down to about 12-18", they'd make a good guard dinosaur around the yard. ;)

David Hewlett interview :)

wraithfodder — Sat, 13 Jun 2015 16:39:17 GMT

Pretty much self explanatory :)

MediaWest*Con 2015 :)

wraithfodder — Sat, 06 Jun 2015 01:16:02 GMT

So I'm a few days late....

And another MediaWest*Con has gone by, and unless finances/real life interfere, we plan to do 2016 as well.

After last year’s horridly long Amtrak trip, I flew. Took the cheapest one I could find that fit my schedule, so I ended up with Delta, who changed my flight times at least four times. Oh joy. And I flew from LaGuardia to Detroit, then Detroit to Lansing; on the return went from Lansing to Minneapolis and Minneapolis to JFK. Hadn’t been to Minnesota so decided, why not? Nice airport! Lansing was nice too, LGA pretty decent, but JFK just spits you out of plane, funnels you to luggage and out on sidewalk, where everybody instantly lights up a cigarette. Water/coffee were decent prices but across the board food was average $10.

The con was low-key; not sure of attendance but less than in years past, I think. However, ran into a bunch of people I knew so that was good. Attended a couple Person of Interest panels (where I discovered that POI has been sold into exclusive syndication on WGN, a channel which of course Cablevision does NOT carry. Grrrr.) Got to the pool almost every day and the Jacuzzi. I think I was one of a few fans who actually went into the pool, as well, we’re all in the AARP age category now. Walkers and canes abounded, and over-50 discount at Denny’s!

Fell off my eat-good diet, so had fried fish and mac’n’cheese at Cracker Barrel, pancakes & eggs at Denny’s, Mudslide at Finley’s, followed hours later by strawberry shake from Steak ‘N Shake (not a good idea, as I found out later, burp), donuts (oh my gosh, the selection in the con suite was astounding!), mini desserts at Finley’s (hot fudge sundae, strawberry cheesecake), oh, a berry crumble with ice cream from Cracker Barrel. And Chinese food at a place in Minneapolis airport. Sure that was calorie-laden!

Didn’t buy much at the con as I’m not into fanzines at the moment (too much reality) but did get a great squirrel t-shirt courtesy of a friend, a squirrel mug and shot glass from Minneapolis airport (that shop was dangerous to my wallet and if I hadn’t been doing ONLY carry-on, I would have bought more!). Did get a nice Dalek necklace, and some cat pins, which I really can’t use until winter when I wear something to pin them to. And friend gave me great little Indiana shotglass. Love humorous shotglasses. Found a mini Godzilla bag (only one, alas) that goes well with the Godzilla robe my brother brought me from Tokyo (the Godzilla hotel).

Did do a door decoration on the fly. Printed photos with no idea what it would be about, and decided after a mudslide and lack of sleep to do healthcare in the Pegasus Galaxy, subjecting the Stargate Atlantis crew to the new healthcare mandates ;)

Oh, there were furries at the convention! Only two, but hopefully more next year as the two I saw were fun!

And that’s it for this year.

Came home, next day mowed lawn (um, could not see squirrels!), did wash (luckily caught it before darks and whites run together), and went to work on Thursday. Think it was that day or Friday night when it POURED 4 inches in about half an hour and I had to wetvac for two hours. No fun.

Some photos from the trip…

Godzilla bag, plus on top of it - frog in drink pin :)

Sky-shark. It actually came out clearer in the picture. Looked like a shark fin cutting through the clouds.

Sky and clouds. Very pleasant.

Yeah, plane seats (Bombardier 900 or something) is pretty tight. Made me think of sardine cane, but managed to get carryon suitcase (9x14x22) and bag (slightly smaller) in overhead and under-seat places. Geez, no room for both feet.

View at night on way back into tri-state area.

U.S. Air Force planes at Minneapolis airport.

Sky and clouds.

Donuts in the con suite. Just a few.

The Edmund Fitzgerald beer. Looked cool but was too ‘stout’ for me and friend. Nope, it’s raspberry vodka for me!

Part of a door decoration. A Captain America motorcycle that was parked in the lobby. I put an Art Auction slip underneath it and the bids were funny.

The pool. My room is on 2nd floor, upper left.

CHEESE! Just one of four huge bins of cheese at Horrocks, a market across the street from the hotel.

OMG, I want this shirt. Tokyo Burns, or something like that, which friend got off Tee Fury. That’ll teach me not to read all their emails. Darn.

My “Claws” t-shirt, which I wore on the last day, and the stewardess on the first Delta flight loved it.

Best items gotten - squirrel t-shirt from friend, adorable cow udder shot glass; and mug and shot glass from Minnesolta airport..

The storm clouds gather, before 4 inches of rain came down.

What a week...

wraithfodder — Thu, 14 May 2015 02:41:13 GMT

Good grief, I haven't posted since March??? Must have been the weary winter of freezing temps, shoveling snow, chiseling ice, well, fortunately, NOT so much of climbing up ladders with hot water to kill ice damns, er, dams.

And now it's Spring, er, Summer, no, Spring. Weather is having issues with what it wants to be. So now I'm mowing lawns.

This week was fun. Picked up glasses, arm broke off. Gah. Took over an hour tonight to install the wretched Windows updates. What were they installing??? The hellish 3 hours wasted trying to get 3-day, no, Saturday, no, ANY tickets for New York Comic Con. I ended up with a Friday ticket. What a nightmare. The folks who run the con have absolutely no IQ when it comes to listening to the wailing masses telling them NOT to sell all tickets in one day (so they did) and then their servers crash and instead of posting ON THE WEBSITE, they only post to Twitter or Facebook, ignoring the fact that many people are at work on Wednesday afternoon and some are blocked form stupid social media stuff. They tell people not to click on the "buy tickets" thing on website, but to go another site entirely (which, by the way, keeps crashing). Totally inept. Hundreds of tickets on StubHub and eBay. This will be my last year going to that con, I fear. A root canal is less painful, really!

Fannishly, well, ABC cancelled Forever, which sucked (but at least it ended on an upbeat tone); Person of Interest got another season, but there are rumors of 13 episodes only. Otherwise, wow, not much on TV is of interest. I do like Scorpion, Big Bang Theory, The Flash, Gotham, Sleepy Hollow, but none of them tickle my fannish funny bone. I love to watch, but that's about it. Sigh... And although NCIS ended abruptly,we all know Gibbs will survive, cuz NCIS can't survive without Mark Harmon.

Only a week till Mediawest*Con, and Amtrak's disaster has almost screwed that up for a friend who of course has tickets on that particular line that is now in pieces. She's got a backup plan via Greyhound to catch up to an Amtrak connection, while after last year's hideous Amtrak trip, I opted to fly, so Delta keeps changing times of my fliglhts. Aggravating, but I think they're done. I hope. I think. Maybe....

Boy, I miss when I actually looked forward to Friday night TV - Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis. Now it's, well, I can't recall what is on SyFy anymore. Helix was interesting, but it got axed. Oh well, I can look forward to Under the Dome (derivative, but entertaining) and The Zoo, in which animals turn on people, which might be entertaining. Please let some bankers get eaten.... :)

Cabin fever, part IV

wraithfodder — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 01:49:09 GMT

Not that there were other parts, but I see one more flake of that wretched white stuff, I'll scream. SNOW SNOW SNOW. Of course, now it's sleeting. Hopefully won't take out the power as it's gonna be cold, but then it will warm up to rain, maybe fog, then back to sleet and snow. And Spring is just around the corner, so they say....

So my winter is shovel snow, climb ladder, clear ice from gutters, put out extortion cube of suet to keep woodpecker from banging up the house, only to have fat squirrel suck it dry. ARGH! I shall have to make a DIY squirrel guard to keep that rodent from sucking dry the food block that keeps the bird from drilling holes in the house.

Mediawest*Con programming has begun, so there's new work. Wow, less than three months away! Maybe the snow will have melted by then... ;)

TV-wise, have not seen anything I'm too excited about, except the second season of Broadchurch with David Tenant starts this week (ack, gotta find out WHEN) so shall watch that. Alas, Longmire season 3 is on Netflix, so I guess I'll get the DVD down the road.

Almost done with audiobook of latest Pendergast audiobook (Blue Labyrinth) by Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child and alas, sat too long on my butt and now I'm 4th in line to get the next C.J. Box book (Endangered) out of library, so opted for audiobook version instead.

Am getting a little excited for Avengers: Age of Ultron, which I just discovered debuts a few weeks before MediaWest*con, so hoping that movie will be at the theater out there and we can go see it in a group on the new IMAX screen I think should be done by then.

Alas, no pets yet. I keep visiting a local cat shelter and just pet the cats, which the folks there don't mind as they want the cats to be socialized. It's a free-roaming shelter. They had a huge six-toed cat which got adopted. A real gentle giant. And there's this young cat that like to hop in my lap and chew my jacket (which fortunately already had holes so no big deal). One day...

Meanwhile, did you see the flying weasel picture? A real hoot, and it's real!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/safariandwildlifeholidays/11446267/Incredible-photo-captures-weasel-riding-on-the-back-of-a-flying-woodpecker.html

Purge time! Due South goes, well, south...

wraithfodder — Sun, 01 Feb 2015 15:27:43 GMT

Well, I've finally bitten the bullet and am doing some decluttering, which is long overdue and it seems like in next year or two, we'll probably sell the house as the taxes are too high, the house too large. I know WHAT house I want, but it was in magazine, and I'd have to build it, and well, I sorta don't have a half million to do it ;)

So today, Due South goes bye-bye into the trash. Just the VHS tapes, as I have entire series on DVD now. Stargate already went, except one box of redundant Stargate Atlantis VHS, which I need to let go of, since I have the series on DVD. What I should do is when I see a good sale on Blu-Ray on SGA, get that. Of course, would help to have Blu-Ray player, and a TV that does not double as a boat anchor. Oh yes, and that gets me ranting... the major networks (CBS, etc.) are now saying, well, "screw you" to anyone without a modern rectangular tv. I get a nose off to the side, I can't even read the text on the news now as it's just half the word. Gah!! At least the local affiliates haven't gone that far... yet, but it's just a matter of time. What I want is the 60" 4K TV my brother up north has - it's GORGEOUS.

Alas, have found boxes of Due South related movies on VHS - stuff I taped off tv, movies with Paul Gross, David Marciano, Callum Keith Rennie, etc. Averse to chucking those just yet as I'm sure some are not on DVD and would prefer to see if anyone would buy them for nominal fee plus shipping. That's the trouble when you have space to store boxes, and VHS tapes were cheap, and the combination means... too many VHS tapes!!!