2013-2021 • Paw Blocker

My Protective Althetic Wear custom-made blocker back in 2013 when it was new, and now. Still going strong, just not as clean! The rest of my gear is at Smokey’s Skate Shop getting repaired and overhauled for the second time. Three games a week will do that. I’d get the blocker re-palmed, but that doesn’t last so long and I never really notice anyway. Wearing sport gloves in addition negates that need for me, until it gets really bad. Otherwise I’d be getting re-palmed every couple of months.

062621 • Thrift Store Finds

Well, a few weeks after declaring that thrifting wasn’t a thing we were going to do anymore (because there’s no more room for my libraries to grow, and Dad was trying not to buy stuff anyway), we hit four thrifts this week as he was looking for something particular for a certain price. Two things, actually, and we found one of the two. But I’m not going into a thrift and leave behind some good finds! I think we’ll be back on the wagon after this trip!

What a great batch of books, and every single one was half-price! Usually I have to put a bunch of full-price books back, because they put those out in anticipation of Half-Off Saturday. These are all great, but The Battle for North Africa is the one I’m interested in most of all. The campaigns there are a subject I don’t know that much about. I’d be okay reading any of them at any time. That’s the problem with my library, there aren’t any weaker books to weed out.

The Grieg: Lyric Pieces by Leif Ove Andsnes was a nice find, since he’s one of the pianists I collect and actually make a point to listen to.

The two Bach: The Keyboard Concertos discs are items I’ve seen before and wasn’t able to get; I collect Angela Hewett’s recordings but don’t specifically listen to her like I do Hélène Grimaud, but I do listen from time-to-time and always wanted these particular recordings. Amazing that I found them at a thrift!

I have many renditions of Brahms’ A German Requiem, but it was a favorite of my Mom, and an amazing work anyway. Everybody should have a copy.

All of these were only two bucks apiece… and all but Ronin was still in the shrink-wrap! None of these are filler, either… Cliffhanger is one that I re-watched a few years ago, and I’d forgotten how good a movie it was.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture, I’m not a Star Trek fan, but the originals are things I can watch and enjoy as I grew up with them. (Except Star Trek 5 and 6, my interest stops after #4). The original series is great! ST: TNG, Deep Space Nine and Voyager are really hit-and-miss, and I stopped after a few episodes of Enterprise. Since then I’ve sampled what has come out since, and wow. It’s like every franchise out there, not just Trek, is being run by people who just don’t understand what they are dealing with. They have great music, special effects, acting, props, costumes, design… and there can be great scenes and ideas (Force Awakens‘ Tie Fighter chase of the Millennium Falcon, abandoned Star Destroyer wrecks, for example) but the stories are awful and packed with social politics on top of that. I’ve learned not to get too upset about it as there are far bigger issues to deal with in life, and a lot of other things to be doing than getting all upset that people are ruining movie and television franchises. It’s just the way things are.

Ronin is one that slips through the cracks… it’s actually a really good movie. The car chases are fantastic, and by fantastic, I mean Jade and Bullitt kind of fantastic, not Fast & Furious fantastical. Plus, De Niro. I watched this one tonight!

USS Indianapolis is one of those movies like Greyhound that I was just waiting for to arrive at a good price, except I’d forgotten about it. I know that the actual ship USS Indianapolis has an amazing story, I have a few books about it, but I really have no idea what I’m going to be seeing. Looking forward to watching this one soon!

Jason Bourne leaves only one Bourne movie left to finish the five-movie set for me… I need #4 (the one without Matt Damon) and I’ll be good. I last watched the first three movies a few years ago, great series! Interesting how it is an action/spy kind of movie, like John Wick or The Equalizer (Not the new series with ‘Queen Latifah’, I’m talking about the two movies with Denzel Washington) yet, like those, it is it’s own thing entirely. (The new Equalizer is one of those franchises that isn’t being rebooted very well. Wow. It is so bad!) I watched the original Equalizer with Edward Woodward back in the day, and that is one of my favorites from back in the day that I still don’t have on physical media.