Quick Hits: What's On TV, And The Usual

On 12/04/2015 at 02:16 PM by goaztecs

Good morning and Happy Friday Pixlpeeps! The year is almost over, and I really should start Christmas shopping. Well there’s no sport in starting now, I will probably wait until Christmas week, when it gets interesting. So how have you people been? Anything fun I missed? Television shows? Games? Movies? I’m currently debating on going over to the new movie theater today to check out the latest Bond flick, or maybe just play more Need for Speed. We shall see. Let’s get this Quick Hits started!

Chris Watches…

Jersey Shore: Apparently today is its anniversary so MTV is showing a marathon of episodes. I’m not going to lie; I watched the entire run when it first aired, even though the magic was basically done after Season 1 when the cast wasn’t famous. (Yeah I watch a lot of bad TV). I’m shocked that MTV didn’t film it in HD, and I’m currently catching bits and pieces of the marathon, and what was I thinking watching past Season 1?

The Challenge: Oh my favorite reality/competition show is back. This time a cast made up of a handful of veterans of previous challenges (this is their job at this point) and a bunch of new folks are in Turkey to compete with a family member to win cash. Since this is MTV, and the Challenge, the booze is flowing, people are hooking up with each other, and it wouldn’t be a Challenge without some good ol’ fashion drunken rage. I’m disappointed that Bruno from Real World Skeletons isn’t on this show. Dude flipped out when someone ate his cheeseburger, I can only imagine if someone messed with his food on this show.

Extreme Cheapskates: I was channel surfing last night and caught an episode. First off WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE? Yeah I get you like to save a buck but one guy fished out a bag of popcorn, and a drink cup from the trash, cleaned the cup in the bathroom, and then brought the items to the concession stand for free refills. Before that he goes to an ice cream shop, asks for samples for all their flavors and then leaves because he had free ice cream. I’m sorry isn’t this all stealing? Also with the effort these yahoos put in being cheap, is it really worth your time? All this effort for what, saving a buck or two at most?

What gets me was this lady drove around looking for free balloons, asking stores if they were willing to give their advertising balloons to her for her son’s birthday. How much is gas? 3-4 bucks a gallon. She’s driving around for what 2-3 dollar Mylar balloons. She’s wasting fuel, and time when she could have just went to the party store, and picked this stuff up. She then goes to a bakery asks for pieces of cake that broken, flipped over, whatever. Buys those, and then not only asks for them to slap some frosting on it to make it look like a full cake, she then lowballs their price. Seriously WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE? It’s okay to be cheap by not supporting a local business? I think I found people I hate more than that yahoo with three wives (seriously how do these people stay out of jail?)

Agents of SHIELD: How good is this season? This is one of the few shows I feel get better each season. It is a shame that the “Winter Finale” is next week, but happy that a new season of Agent Carter is coming.

Chris Listens To…

I have a playlist of Christmas songs I haven’t played yet that I am finally getting to. There are currently 308 tracks on this list, which I am currently listening to as I type this update. As much as I like the Christmas Season, some Christmas songs are really bad *looks at the Britney Spears, NSYNC Christmas songs.

Speaking of Christmas music, my currently Smart Playlist of Holiday music is at 311 songs. My library of Christmas music sits around 1,814 songs. While looking through my library I noticed that I have a Taylor Swift Christmas album. I have no idea when I bought that. Maybe it was in that binder of Christmas CDs I bought last summer.

I listened to Adele’s 25 a couple of days ago and I don’t like current single Hello. She’s complaining that the guy she dumped won’t talk to her now and it hurts her feelings.

I love her voice and some of the more up beat pop songs in the album I really like. Hello, not so much.

As you good people may know I like listening to podcasts. In fact I just listened to one made by a couple of folks on Pixlbit. You know Blake, Joe, and Jamie, well in case you don’t here is a link to their podcast. I like it layout because its three guys talking about games, giving their honest opinions.

Speaking of podcasts the one thing I don’t like about iOS is how they handle podcasts. The podcast app is complete trash.

I don’t get how a company who prides themselves on products that work can fail at something as simple as an app that copy all the tracks in your podcast playlist. Here’s a quick overview of things that the native podcast app does not do. Other than not copying over every track, which is insane, there is no option within the podcast to create a playlist to play podcast in any order you choose. It will download podcasts you’re subscribed to, and it gives you a way to check out new podcasts but if you want to play them in a certain order, that’s just crazy talk. Why is it so broken? The sad part this isn’t the only thing that sucks in this latest update. iBooks doesn’t keep the playlist I create in order either. The app feels what I did was wrong, even after I named the book tracks by Disc number, and then track. My old iPod plays these files with no problem. Apple should stop tinkering with what works.

Pickups

Games

Once again Target has some new stuff in their clearance end cap and I found a couple of games

I don’t know much about Knack but for $10 it was worth a try. South Park I heard was a lot of fun and something I can get into. It was also another $10 game.

Music

From that same Target end cap I found this album

It seems like Target is slimming down their music section, which is a shame because physical media is always better than digital media.

From the local Goodwill they now have buy 3 get 1 free on CDs which brings the price down to a more reasonable price. If they would just sell CDs at $2 again they wouldn’t have a bunch of CDs.

Monster Disco is one of those Music Space compilation CDs from the original artists. Natalie Ai Kamauu is a Hawaiian singer. The interesting thing about this album is that it is autographed. I haven’t heard of her but I always seem to pick up Hawaiian CDs because I like the music.

Juliana Hatfield is a single and it has four songs. I couldn’t remember if I owned the album these songs came from so I bought it. Country Strong Soundtrack was purchased because I like Gwyneth Paltrow’s singing voice. I never saw the film or listened to the soundtrack so this was a blind purchase.

I bought this digital album from Amazon

I wanted one song from it but since it was cheaper to buy the entire album of 100 “Must Have” Christmas songs I said why not. Anyways during checkout I noticed that Amazon took $1 off and I ended up getting this album for nine cents.

This was the first Christmas Album I bought when I got a CD Player back in high school. At the time it was a $15 dollar CD and I only wanted one song (the rest of the album wasn’t bad.) Anyways since that CD is all scratched up and I never got around to buying a replacement, I saw this on Twitter yesterday and downloaded it for free

I believe it’s still available and the only difference between the Google Play version and the CD is that the Google Play version has an extra track.

Toys

While picking up my games and CD from Target I noticed they had the new case of cars on the pegs and I am missing the Batmobile with the snowflakes on the card so I went to look for it. They didn’t have many of the snowflake cars but I did spot this one, which I also wanted

It combines video games and die-cast cars. It’s a cool little car to add to the collection. It’s a shame they only had one, but I’m going to check Walmart later on today.

Alright Pixlbit I must be off. There is a chorizo burrito calling my name for breakfast. Have a good weekend!

That’s all for now, more later!

-Chris

For today’s song I decided to go with one song that reminds me of the 90s watching MTV and waiting for my ride to high school

I used to watch a lot of MTV and this was a band that I thought had such a cool sound and completely different from what I heard from the local radio station (they went one summer where the top hit was Coolio’s Gangsta’s Paradise. I hate that song.) This was the song that got me to listen to STP. You will be missed Scott Weiland.

KnightDriver

12/04/2015 at 04:14 PM

Zoolander 2. Can't wait.

Yea, no way to make a playlist with podcasts. So stupid. I hate that.

I was looking at Knack the other day. I think it was supposed to be good, but I forget exactly. Need to look into it again.

goaztecs

12/09/2015 at 11:41 AM

Oh I can't wait for Zoolander 2. The original was so much fun.

I actually found a way to create a list within the Podcast app. What I did was setup a station and added all my podcasts that I have a subscription to. Whenever a new one comes out, it gets added to the list. The thing is to hit edit and then arrange the podcasts in the order you want. After its played it gets erased.

12/09/2015 at 04:52 PM

Zoolander 2, I hope it's good. I loved the first one too.

I'll try that. Thanks!

Matt Snee Staff Writer

12/04/2015 at 05:02 PM

damn dude, you watch some seriously fucked up reality shows. The worst I get is when my dad makes me watch this golf channel reality show.

Of course, watching sports is kind of like watching a reality show.

That Mario van is sick!

12/09/2015 at 12:01 PM

Hahaha yeah I do, is the Golf Show Big Break? I used to watch that when it was set in Hawaii

The Challenge is fun to watch. Bill Simmons calls it America's 5th Professional sport.

12/09/2015 at 01:20 PM

yeah Big Break. even that is hard to take sometimes.

Cary Woodham

12/04/2015 at 09:45 PM

My favorite Christmas songs are "Do You Hear What I Hear?", "Snoopy's Christmas," and when The Muppets sing "12 Days of Christmas" at the start of the John Denver Christmas special.

I want that Mario car! A few years ago, I think Matchbox did video game character cars with games from SEGA and Namco. I believe there was a Nintendo one, too. My favorite was the Space Channel 5 van with Ulala on it.

Hey did you get a chance to read my LEGO blog? I know it was really long!

12/09/2015 at 12:03 PM

I'm not a Peanuts fan but I like that song! I remember seeing those cars. I wasn't into buying cars at that point but I thought they were cool. The Mario car I saw on Reddit, and I just happened to find at Target. I think the local collector didn't want it.

I read your blog, and I enjoyed it. I should finish Dimensions soon just to justify my purchase on release day.

Super Step Contributing Writer

12/04/2015 at 11:00 PM

RIP Scott Weiland. Did not know people hated Gangsta's Paradise. I dig that song. Also like STP though.

Y'know ... I dunno if I've really heard proper Hawaiian music.

I hate how sad the CD sections of big box stores have gotten. Hate even more there's no more CD Warehouse. At least Hastings has cool stuff, but it's so pricey usually. Almost bought Slipknot's 5th album at Wal Mart until the cashier realized it was censored.

THANK YOU for linking The Lower Level. We're still ironing some things out, but I am glad you enjoyed our rough first entry. In some ways I like things rough, feels more raw that way.

Anyway, if iTunes is any indication, I bet I wouldn't like Apple's podcast system either.

I had kinda the opposite reaction where I like "Hello" and "Water Under the Bridge," but not the samples I heard of other tracks. I'll be honest, I wasn't paying attention to "Helo" lyrics, but ... that sounds like kind of a typical girl thing to me at this point. At least two girls I'm friends with were upset their boyfriends were too ok with them dumping those guys. Ok then ... Also, the guy in "Why you gotta be so rude?" is a total d-bag, but I still like that catchy song. Pretty much same thing with "Hello" for me.

I need more punk rock Christmas tunes. Loved the free copies of Bad Religion's renditions of "Angels We Have Heard On High" and ... I forget the other one. Taylor Swift could be good too. Aren;t Tony Bennet and Gaga doing a Christmas album, or do I just think that cause of the Barnes & Noble ad? I saw Tony Bennet with Amy Winehouse in a documentary I rented from Red Box other day. Is it me, or is that guy not singing? Seems like he's just talking kind of singily in an old man voice to me. The Christmas Spotify playlist I saw was FULL of Michael Buble tracks from that album he did couple years back. Mariah Carey was in there too, of course.

Spectre is pretty good, but not as good as Skyfall. Hunger Games is only movie on my list until Star Wars. Merry Christmas season, man!

12/09/2015 at 12:20 PM

That song was played so often here I couldn't stand it. What makes it worse is the local music store and radio station got together and got the guy who sang the hook to sign autographs and when my brother went to get his signature he was kind of an ass.

I really like this song. No idea what she's saying but it always reminds me of the area. Also Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (Brother IZ, I had to Google the spelling) sings in Hawaiian. He's known for Somewhere Over the Rainbow, and if you ever watched BJ Penn, he used Brother Iz's music as his entrance song

I hate that about Walmart. Why is ok to sell bullets but not CDs with cuss words? Heck they have Grand Theft Auto on the shelves with the non edited songs but its horrible to sell a CD that drops four letter words. No problem with the podcast. I like what you guys do, and I wouldn't worry about it being rough. Its new and who knows that might be part of the charm. When you guys get it rolling will it be available on iTunes?

Speaking of iTunes I finally figured out how to create a podcast playlist in the dang thing. It would be nice if Apple explained some of the features. I like iTunes, probably because I got used to it and I'm in the thick of the Universe with iDevices.

I hope Tony Bennent and Gaga do a Christmas Album. I liked their other album, and I think Gaga is one talented individual. Hahaha I never noticed but you're right, he does sound like he's just talking in a swinging manner.

I hear that a lot about Spectre. I still haven't seen it, but here's hoping to being able to check it out on Friday. At some point I will watch the first Hunger Games movie. I blame me reading the books a year before the movie. I do like Jennifer Lawrence, and the story was good, but I just can't get myself to sit and watch it.

Merry Christmas season to you as well!

12/09/2015 at 05:52 PM

Yeah, I wouldn't want to meet the people behind the song and it did get played a lot, but still. I like it. lol

Nice songs. I don't know if I've seen BJ Penn fight, but the song sounds familiar. I totally get liking native music. I loooooove Irish stuff.

I hope it gets on iTunes, idk what Blake's plans are or what hoops must be jumped through.

I just don't like iTunes cause it gives me problems w navigating.

So I thought they were only teamed up specifically for a Christmas album. oops. lol

I understand what you mean. In some cases, I've liked HG movies better than books, but the HP movies were all kinda eh for me, despite loving the books.

PixlBit