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Post by The Captain on Apr 7, 2021 11:24:50 GMT -5
Step 6, toss the lot in the garbage, drive to Trader Joes, and buy a pack of peeled boiled eggs. JK don't do that. It's quite expensive per egg. And yet there are folks that willingly spend (waste) unnecessary money just for the sake of convenience/laziness. I'm amazed by this myself. My local grocery store will sell me unpeeled white onions at $1.29/lb or peeled ones at $2.29/lb (not even chopped, just peeled). Same with things like peeled and cut fruit such as canteloupe and pineapple, which are usually $3.99 whole or $4.99/lb cut. That's just some supreme laziness there. It takes ZERO effort to peel an onion, especially if you know what you're doing, so you're just giving them money to save you all of three minutes and maybe having to wash your hands an extra time.
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Post by The Captain on Apr 5, 2021 8:51:56 GMT -5
Has to be Spaghetti for me (and when I say "spaghetti", I include angel hair, fettucine, linguini, and the myriad of other individual pasta types out there, as they each serve a different, yet delicious, function). I've learned over the years how to do a large number of different things with pasta, be it a planned meal or just a "hey, I got some of this leftover and a little of that and a handful of those", and almost everything turns out well.
It's not that I don't like lasagna, but my mother made a very crappy version of it when we were growing up, and I think that is what turned me off to it. She made it how she liked it, but she has a dislike of cheese, so it was basically meat and a smattering of ricotta between the pasta strips, without the ooey-gooey drippy melty mozzerella that should have been holding it together like a little Italian brick. Couple that with her distaste for red sauce (she literally puts ONE tablespoon of red sauce on an entire plate of spaghetti to eat it) and it was about the most boring, bland, uninspiring lump of blah ever created. If we go to an Italian restaurant (which is rare, because I can do it better myself at home, and you'll NEVER catch me in a chain place like Olive Garden, which is just disgusting), I occasionally will get lasagna just because it's not a regular staple at our place.
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Post by The Captain on Apr 3, 2021 16:15:39 GMT -5
COVID Update:
I'm actually starting to feel like a human being again. Still kind of run-down, but I actually have motivation to do more than just sit or sleep (literally, I would just SIT, not read or watch TV or play video games, and stare at the wall). Been fever-free for almost two days now, and my oxygen levels are improving slightly (still not where I would like them to be, but on the move in the right direction).
Both of my daughters did wind up testing positive. They are both feeling fairly "normal" for them, although each is saying that things don't "taste quite right", and the younger one is a little more congested than the older. If this is as bad as it gets for either of them and I am the one who bears the main brunt of the virus in the house, then it will be perfectly OK with me. I couldn't bear for either of them to go through a fraction of what I have thus far.
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Post by The Captain on Apr 3, 2021 16:07:01 GMT -5
About 110 when I was 16. Was racing a friend on the local interstate from one exit to the next. We were stupid and reckless.
I rarely go above 65 these days, even on the highways around here when I can go up to 70 legally. Wherever I'm going will be there when I get there, so I leave a few minutes early and go at my pace, not anyone else's.
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Post by The Captain on Apr 3, 2021 9:19:50 GMT -5
Zirilan of the Claw is actually a very popular card for Commander, either leading or supporting Dragon tribal decks.
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Post by The Captain on Apr 3, 2021 9:16:12 GMT -5
There's just something "off" about this show. It doesn't seem to know if it wants to be a buddy comedy, a serious mystery/espionage story, a straight action flick, or something else entirely, but the various elements aren't coming together in any kind of cohesive manner. {Spoiler: Click to show} Part of what is infuriating about the Flag Smashers' plan/motivation is that the backstory for what happened after the "return" hasn't been well articulated. They keep saying that people were displaced by the returned folks and that isn't fair, but WHY were people displaced? Who is kicking people out of their homes and into refugee camps because of the returning folks? None of it makes any sense whatsoever.
They are COMPLETELY wasting John Walker. 10 seconds of screen time in the first episode, less than 3 minutes in the third. It seems the only reason he exists is so that the Bucky can bitch at Sam about "giving up the shield", when he should be a much-bigger part of the story.
My younger daughter's take on Sharon was "I don't like her any more. She seems rude." Couldn't agree more. Completely out of character and just non-sensical motivation; she is forced out of the US and SHIELD, so now she's a stolen art dealer in Madripoor. Aunt Peggy would be rolling over in her grave.
The utter recklessness of breaking Zemo out of prison, without knowing that he was a man of vast wealth and means and will eventually use them to get away from them was just another piss-poor play by Sam and Bucky. It's almost like they're writing them as incompetent bumblers to just move the story along.
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Post by The Captain on Apr 2, 2021 14:31:11 GMT -5
Twice a year I make a trip to Grove City, PA to hit up a comics/gaming shop there, as the owner buys lots of collections and just puts the boxes out unsearched; I make an entire day of it, sometimes spending 8-9 hours just flicking through piles of cards. It's all very relaxing for me, and since I've made better than $1000 profit each of the past two years doing it, it's worth my time and effort. If you ever want company for those excursions, let me know. I'd be happy to assist. I usually take a Friday off from work and go up. They open at 12:00 (maybe 1:00), so I typically leave home around 10:00 AM, hit one LCS on the way up, stop at the Taco Bell right across the parking lot from the shop for lunch, then head in. Was thinking about doing a trip later in April, maybe early May. I'll let you know when I figure out my plans.
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Post by The Captain on Apr 2, 2021 12:52:54 GMT -5
Looks like Melissa Benson was still doing cards up into the Urza's Saga block but nothing since then. I have a lot of her cards from the Portal/Portal 2 sets.
The Secret Lair cards by and large don't appeal to me, as they're just cash grabs. I did get the cats one they did a couple of years back for a Commander deck (they were adorable), and the Seb McKinnon one was a no-brainer for me. Wish I had ordered both the regular AND the foil (just got the regular), but having one version of them is good enough for now.
Alpha/Beta are particularly hard to find in local shops, but not impossible; I just got a couple, Ironroot Treefolk and Giant Spider, for $1 each last month, giving me about 8 total (most expensive I own are Beta False Orders and Beta Scryb Sprites, both of which are $23). Arabian Nights are probably the toughest to find in the wild; I actually don't own any cards from that set, although I almost bought a collection recently that included a few common cards from AN in it. Antiquities and Legends can be found, even in unsorted bulk boxes sometimes, but they're usually separated and go for a minimum of $1 each; I just picked up a fair amount of Legends for that price from a shop that a college friend of mine co-owns, although I stupidly didn't buy a couple that were grossly underpriced and when I went back, they were already scooped up. The Dark is easier still, and anything after that set is pretty much widely available everywhere.
As I mentioned previously, I do actively search through unsorted bulk bins for collection, but more usually resell. There are a handful of stores around here that just put out boxes of bulk and it's "whatever you find is yours". New Phyrexia has a couple cards that can be found in boxes like that for $.25 apiece (Triumph of the Hordes and Noxious Revival) that I can get upwards of $9 apiece for from Card Kingdom, where I buylist my findings. Twice a year I make a trip to Grove City, PA to hit up a comics/gaming shop there, as the owner buys lots of collections and just puts the boxes out unsearched; I make an entire day of it, sometimes spending 8-9 hours just flicking through piles of cards. It's all very relaxing for me, and since I've made better than $1000 profit each of the past two years doing it, it's worth my time and effort.
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Post by The Captain on Apr 2, 2021 11:23:31 GMT -5
Probably far more than you EVER wanted or expected to learn about my history with Magic, this evening or ever. Actually, I'm always fascinated when you discuss this. Don't ask me about my collection. I've been playing since Unlimited and, unlike the way I collect comics, I buy just to play mtg. No card holders/protectors, no mats to play on. I've got a ton of dual lands sitting in my decks, and the white unlimited borders are practically black from playwear. No regrets. Not that I amassed the kind of cards you did. Just bought probably half a dozen Revised booster boxes back in the day. Of course, back in college, I tried to sell my extra dual lands in a massive lot on ebay. This is when they were commanding about $80 a piece. I sold a lot of probably 12 of them, but my friends and I had always called them MIXED lands, and this was a time before providing photos on ebay was common practice. Oh, I explained exactly what was included in the description, but no one bothered to read the description. I started the bid low, assuming it would go high, and it closed for the starting bid of $40. Being the honorable fool that I was, I didn't cancel the auction and let the buyer have them at that price. Still hurts to think about today. Anyway, my entire family plays Magic these days, and I love it. Just preordered a Strixhaven booster box the other day for us all to enjoy. I sold a few valuable cards that I knew I wouldn't miss on ebay last summer, but there's nothing all that valuable in my collection beyond the dual lands I won't part with. I've tried teaching my daughters, and while they like the game, they're not rabid about it. I had made some inroads with my neighbor across the street early last year, as I found out he and his sons play, but then COVID happened, so that went nowhere. I actually told my wife I'm at a crossroads right now with my collection. My favorite shop to play at is 30 minutes away, and I only get up there once a month maybe. The last few sets have been underwhelming for me in terms of interest (the last one I really enjoyed was Throne of Eldraine, but Ikoria held zero appeal, Zendikar Rising was OK, Kaldheim isn't really my cup of tea, and Strixhaven isn't grabbing me yet, although I may give it a chance with a few drafts). There are specific cards in each set that I want for Commander, but I'm not running out to buy a box when I only really want 3-5 cards from the set. I do buy some of the set-based Commander products (I got the Elf deck from Kaldheim, primarily for the face Legend and the Wolverine Riders, along with some of the other rares), so I'll see what comes from Strixhaven in that regard. So, I'm pondering maybe keeping maybe 6-8 of my Commander decks and selling off the other cards in my collection that I likely won't be using. I don't play Blue in any deck except my Black/Blue Zombie deck, so there are a lot of blue cards (Rhystic Study, Propaganda, etc.), multi-color with blue (Muldrotha, Yarok, bunch of older stuff when I wanted to build a discard Commander deck) as well as multi-colored lands with blue (Breeding Pools, Hinterland Harbors, Sulfur Falls, etc.) that I could move for money. There are also a lot of Reserve List cards in my collection that I doubt I will be putting in a deck any time soon, and then I could use the proceeds to buy some older cards that I want (stuff like No Mercy, Oppression, Attrition, maybe some beat-up dual lands just for play purposes). What I have started doing is collecting specific artists' work. I have almost a complete set of Seb McKinnon's regular cards and am working on the foils now. His art is simply incredible. He's running a Kickstarter right now for a movie he is trying to make, and supporters can get playmats, signed prints, and the like, and he's actually doing a brand-new sketch based on supporters' input that will be available. You can check out his KS here: Seb McKinnon Kickstarter. I'm currently in for 3 prints, which will be his Secret Lair version of Damnation, Promise of Tomorrow, and the new sketch, which is a Phyrexian angel figure. I'm also high on Wylie Beckert, who has been doing work for WotC for a couple of years. His first work was the alternate art for Fae of Wishes from ToE, and he had some in both M21 and Ikoria. Nothing in Kaldheim, but it looks like he has a couple of cards in Strixhaven. I also buy any Alpha/Beta/Unlimited cards I can find on the cheap, along with Arabian Nights, Antiquities, Legends, and The Dark; first copies are put in a binder, extra ones go in the Sell pile. Oddly, a lot of Fallen Empires and Homelands cards on the Reserve List are hot at the moment and can still be scooped up out of bulk boxes for cheap, so I've making hay on those. Ice Age through end of Urza's Saga block are also moving pretty well right now as well, so I'd been pounding the pavement hard (prior to getting sick) and buying up lots of rares/uncommons from those sets to fund my other interests in the game.
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Post by The Captain on Apr 1, 2021 21:13:21 GMT -5
I started playing back in 1994 with Unlimited. Didn't spend a lot on cards at the time, then skipped Arabian Nights, Antiquities, and Legends, picked back up with The Dark, and played consistently up through around 2004.
By 2002, I'd acquired, relatively cheaply, either cash or trade: Black Lotus, Mox Jet, Mox Pearl, Mox Sapphire, Ancestral Recall and Timetwister (2/3 of the Power 9) Library of Alexandria (at the time, the unofficial "Power 10" card) Playsets of the following dual lands: Badlands, Bayou, Plateau, Savannah, and Underground Sea. Multiple copies of the following dual lands: Scrubland, Taiga, Tropical Island, and Tundra. Complete Set of The Dark Playsets/Multiple copies of Power Artifact, Force of Will, Lion's Eye Diamond, Tolarian Academy, Yawgmoth's Will, Grim Monolith, and Memory Jar. Individual copies of Mana Vault, Wheel of Fortune, All Hallow's Eve, Concordant Crossroads, Lake of the Dead, Vampiric Tutor, and Gaea's Cradle.
That list of cards, in today's value, is incredible. The P9 were all Unlimited but the Black Lotus sells on Card Kingdom for $26K, Mox Sapphire is $9500, Ancestral Recall is $8500, Timetwister is $8K, Mox Jet and Mox Pearl are both $7500.
Revised dual lands are as follows: Underground Sea is $1000, Tropical Island and Volcanic Island are $900, Bayou and Tundra are both roughly $625, Badlands is $525. Taiga, Savannah, and Scrubland are all roughly $385. Plateau is the "cheap" one, at $325 per copy.
Library of Alexandria is $6300.
The rest of the cards I listed range in price, per copy, from $90 (Mana Vault, Memory Jar, Vampiric Tutor), growing to $150 (Force of Will), making the way to $200 (Lake of the Dead, Tolarian Academy), bouncing to $250 (Concordant Crossroads), climbing to $325 (Yawgmoth's Will), hitting $400 (Grim Monolith), passing $500 (Power Artifact and Wheel of Fortune), skipping past $700 (Lion's Eye Diamond), cruising to $800 (All Hallow's Eve) and topping out at $1100 (Gaea's Cradle).
The set of The Dark is valued at approximately $1800 today.
These are just the REALLY valuable cards I owned. There are simply too many others that sell today for between $40 and $90 to list. Above is literally over $100K in cards that were in my possession in 2002. I had sold all of them by 2005 for approximately $900 (I got $60 for my PLAYSET of Underground Seas, a figure that would be $4K today.), except for All Hallow's Eve, which I hung onto for another 8 years or so and sold for $300 (it had been a birthday gift in 2001 from one of my college roommates and frequent play partners, as he knew I had wanted that card for a long time and made some trades to acquire it for me), but it was just sitting in a binder looking pretty.
Sure, hindsight is always 20/20, and I had ZERO way of knowing if the game would still be published or produced 15 years later. I was not playing much if at all at that point, as the gaming opportunities in my part of the city had hit a rough patch, so it was not viewed as a loss at the time, but still:
My kids' college would be paid for. My mortgage would be paid off. I'd own a Werewolf by Night #32.
This is why I won't sell these "hot" comics. Partly because I cannot be certain I will be able or willing to pay future prices for them, especially if they don't drop back down, and partly because I got burned once by dumping things I didn't think I would care about again but would love to have today, some to simply sell at their current value, and some to keep for play purposes (Commander is SO much easier when you have dual lands, and I would really love to have the Gaea's Cradle for my elf deck and the All Hallow's Eve for my graveyard reanimation deck).
Probably far more than you EVER wanted or expected to learn about my history with Magic, this evening or ever.
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Post by The Captain on Apr 1, 2021 17:50:34 GMT -5
Too many people don't get the golden rule of pranks. They should be harmless, and both the prankster and recipient should be laughing after the reveal. Otherwise it's not a prank. It's just being mean. Prank: Shaking up a can of Coke, giving it to someone, watching it cover them with soda when it explodes. Not a Prank: Pulling the pin on a grenade, giving it to someone, watching it fill them with holes when it explodes.
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Post by The Captain on Apr 1, 2021 17:13:07 GMT -5
I wouldn't sell my Bloodsport either unless I was selling the whole run of Superman (1986) that I have...I think 1-82....that's when he returns in that shiny cover. I got that run for peanuts several years ago...probably around 30c per book or so in new bags and boards which was a plus.
Wasn't a fan of 90s Superman after that...the long-hair Rambo look didn't suit him. And don't get me wrong....I lurves me some Rambo and metal bands with long hair....but it didn't suit Supes, sorry.
This is my thinking as well. I have tons of these hot books in my collection that I could sell for exponential returns on what I paid for them, but my questions are: 1. Why break up full runs? 2. Did I initially buy them as investments or as collectibles? 3. If I did sell them, what would I do with the money? Buy other comics? Thankfully, I don't NEED the money for anything right now, as my side-hustle of buying and selling Magic: The Gathering cards nets me about $700 profit every year, so I'm going to hold onto the books, not in case they keep going up, but because if I sell them, I'll never get them back in floppie form. Maybe owning them in a collected edition would offset the loss, but it would make little sense to sell a single issue for $50, then have to buy a $40 Epic Collection so that I have the story to read again, although $200+ in sales, then a $40 Epic could at least be justified.
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Post by The Captain on Apr 1, 2021 15:19:07 GMT -5
Reasons why I hate April Fool's (and by extension people sometimes)-someone made a 911 call for an active shooter at one of our local factories as an April Fool's Prank, except no one knew it was a prank until a lot of people panicked and starting scrambling to find the status of their friends and family. I truly hope the prankster is caught and sees some serious jail time for inciting panic. -M Oh, man, that is HILARIOUS! /s I mean, it's not like we didn't just see mass public shootings in Atlanta/Acworth, GA (spas) and Dallas, TX (night club) and Houston, TX (night club) and Boulder, CO (grocery store) and Cleveland, OH (restaurant) and Atlanta, GA again (mall) and Virginia Beach, VA (party) and Philadelphia, PA (sports bar) and Yazoo City, MS (night club) and Orange County, CA (office), all of these happening in the PAST 16 DAYS, the last one on that list occurring JUST YESTERDAY. Whomever called that in, if found, should be forced to undergo serious psychological evaluation, because they're either sociopathic or profoundly ignorant of what is happening on a near-daily basis in America.
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Post by The Captain on Apr 1, 2021 11:57:09 GMT -5
Holy crap! I hope that's as bad as it gets and the recovery escalates as fast as the illness. Out of curiosity, how do you know your oxygen is low? Did you just go to the hospital after trouble breathing, etc? Talked to my PCP yesterday afternoon. He suggested getting a pulse oximeter to monitor it, and if I was consistently at 93% or lower to seek emergency care. Wife went out after dinner, bought one, put it on my finger, and I was reading between 89-91, so it was off to the ER. Tests all came back negative for whatever problems they were looking for (no blood clots, no pneumonia, no kidney issues), so that's great news. On another positive note, since I don't really watch TV (at least current shows) and I'd planned ahead for that eventuality, I took an Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection with me and was able to get some reading done. Just read issues #53-55, which was a great storyline with Doc Ock, especially when he moves into Aunt May and Anna Watson's spare room to "lay low" and Aunt May takes his side against Spidey. It's goofy, to be sure, but compared to a lot of Silver Age DC, it seems positively realistic. I'm back home now. Will be on a steroid regimen for the next six days to reduce inflammation and strengthen my lungs, and will be on oxygen when ambulatory or sleeping for the foreseeable future. I'm feeling OK today, which is far better than I did yesterday.
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Post by The Captain on Apr 1, 2021 6:43:58 GMT -5
I got my first hug in three days this afternoon, from my older daughter, and it was glorious. We're all off on Friday and we're going to watch movies and eat junk food. A prize worth enduring almost anything, to be sure. Enjoy, enjoy, and feel better soon! From the "Life moves pretty fast" Department: Shortly after my previous post, my oxygen % numbers dropped to unsafe levels (89-91 range), so I am currently in our local ER after spending the night for tests and observation. Going to be getting an oxygen set-up to take home with me for a few days while my lungs work to get back to full strength. It's always something..
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