PixlBit

Good morning and Happy Friday Pixlpeeps! It is a humid morning here in Southern California, and I’ve hit the point where I no longer walk to the neighborhood gym. I take the minute drive to the clubhouse gym because it has become either too hot or now too humid. A couple of days ago we had a lot of thunder but little to no rain while the surrounding mountains got hit. Since its July we only have maybe a month of this funky weather before it goes back to just being hot. Sounds fun doesn’t it? Anyways let’s get started with this edition of Quick Hits!

Chris Watches

Game of Thrones – HBO (Black Bars/No Spoilers Edition):

 

How good was this season finale? It is easily the best so far where we finally get some movement where the move to control the throne is finally happening. Was anyone else getting a Darth Vader vibe from Cersei dressed in black? I’m calling my shot: Jamie is going to end up killing Cersei and once again be The King (and now Queen) Slayer. I don’t think Jon should trust Sansa, she’s quietly making moves in the background, and possibly working with Little Finger. Arya is full on Batman now, and I do like the fan theory that Jon, Tyrion, and Dany are going to be the three in charge when it is all over. If this series is going to continue for two more seasons I wonder how it’s all going to play out. I wonder if Melisandre will come back, what happened to the kid in the row boat in the middle of the ocean, and will we see white walker Hodor?

 

Big Brother – CBS

 

There was a second eviction last night where Jozea got bounced from the house. I couldn’t stand him so I’m glad but there is a new twist: the folks who got kicked out will compete against each other to get back into the house. I’ve seen this before on Top Chef, and the Challenge and I like it because it’s a shock to the rest of the contestants and adds more drama. Speaking of drama, who doesn’t like a little racism on their shows

 

I guess Bronte never noticed the South Carolina tattoo that James has, or the fact that he calls himself the “Redneck Asian.” She maybe good with numbers but damn girl, she is dumb when it comes to the obvious. 

 

Chris Listens To…

The Tony Kornheiser Show had its last episode on air, and starting in September will move exclusively to podcast. It’s bittersweet because I did like that it was a radio show, and Mr. Tony would complain about the sales weasels, and have commercials for local spots around DC. The positive is that it will still be on podcast and it will be still the same show. I do hope he brings back Death Star Radio. La Cheesery!

Since we are at the start of a new month I’d like to update you good people on my goal of ripping all my records to iTunes. During the Month of June I have added 91 albums (919 songs) to my iTunes library

 

And I have added 14 singles (52 songs) which is made up of a mix of 7” and 12” singles

 

Last week I was at 11,112 tracks that I haven’t listened to, and at this point, before syncing my phone I am at

 

I’m at a good pace and hopefully on track to listening to everything before the year is up.

 

The Fourth of July Celebration has started early and the local casino here had their huge fireworks show last night. Since it is a five minute drive from my house we can see everything from the backyard and I wanted to share one of my pictures

 

Thanks for looking at my picture!

 

Pickups!

Games

So I finally got around to depositing my paycheck and I jumped on the game that I wanted to play since hearing about it being an X-Box exclusive

 

It was $38 on Steam but during the Steam Summer Sale they had it in a bundle with Just Cause 3 for $50. Since I already owned Just Cause 3, Tomb Raider went down to $29 after the 25% off and that’s when I bought it. I decided to forgo the 60fps and just crank up the graphics to high and play it at 30fps. This game looks really good.

 

On Tuesday morning while reading through Twitter while waiting for my alarm to go off I saw that Newegg dropped the price of the digital copy of this game to $30. For a release day game I thought it was too good to pass up, even if I said I wasn’t interested in it a couple of weeks ago

 

The main story of the movie is short (10 levels) but there are the usual free play stuff along with other levels that can only be unlocked by collecting gold bricks. The new features breathe new life into the series and most likely once I’m finished with this entry I’m going to play more of it. I haven’t picked up the Season Pass yet and there is really no rush to spend the extra $10 right now.

I’m still debating on a couple of other Steam games to pick up before the sale ends, including Transformers Devastation at $13, along with a couple of $2-3 games.

 

Music

I hit the mom and pop shop last week and spent a good hour hitting my two favorite sections and I think I came away with some good stuff.

From the Buy 5 get 3 free $1.99 section I got

 

I like Sugarland because of Jennifer Nettles’ voice. I wanted to give this live album a listen because they cover a couple of radio hits like Irreplaceable, which is really good, and Love Shack (not my favorite). The album is solid. Rick Astley purely for the nostalgia and before being Rick Rolled. I might need maybe 3 more albums to complete his released albums discography.

 

I wanted to give this Modest Mouse album a listen. It wasn’t bad, but it’s not one of my favorites. I thought this Go-Go’s CD was going to be live cuts but it was basically just a regular Greatest Hits comp, which I already own 99% of the songs on it. There were a couple I liked that were new to me so it wasn’t a total loss.

 

I found a couple of songs on this Lil Kim album but definitely not an album I can call a favorite. Billy Ocean is all 80s to me. Tons of his songs remind me of growing up and watching bad movies (remember License to Drive with the two Corey’s and Heather Graham?)  Lots of tracks from this Greatest Hits now call my Growing Up Playlist home.

 

A couple of times I thought about hitting purchase on Amazon for The OC Mix 1, but I could never do it, and thank goodness I found it at the local Mom & Pop. This album reminds me of just after college driving around and visiting friends in LA and SD. Funkmaster Flex’s Mixtape wasn’t bad. A lot of short two minute tracks.

From the vinyl section of the Mom & Pop

 

I always wanted to listen to Richard Pryor’s stand up and now I have a copy of his greatest hits.

 

I love Carole King’s voice so this album was a no brainer especially since I didn’t own it.

 

I love Heart and added another album of theirs. I beginning to think I could possibly complete their discography.

 

I bought this promo three track 12” because of the Vanessa Mae track. It also has songs by N’Sync and Salt N Pepa. I have an Ultimax CD and I think they’re geared towards DJ’s (you DJ folks could give a better answer)

My final record pickup was this one

 

I knew nothing about them but I liked the cover, and saw that Herb Alpert was somehow involved, so I bought to check it out. Its that funky late 60s/early 70s music that my grandparents would play. I dig it.

So for $20 I got a bunch of new music and filled some holes in playlists and discographies.

 

The local Hot Topic had their records on a box on the floor with a $10 or less sign so I checked it out. I really don’t care for Disney picture discs so those were no go’s for me, and a bunch of bands I’ve never heard of (I think the employees picked over what they wanted because there used to be a ton of metal albums the week before when they were still on display) but I went for this album because someone on YouTube said it was worth checking out

 

Turns out the record came out to be $5 so I think I got a steal.

 

It has a cool blue marble finish

 

And as a bonus it came with a CD version so I didn’t have to rip it

 

Toys

Nothing fancy but while roaming around Walmart (they still have tons of the Beatles 6 car set) someone left this beauty on top of the car bin in the aisle

 

It has a bluish/purple color and it’s another Batmobile to the collection.

Alright Pixlbit I am off to either hit the gym or play some Lego Star Wars. Have a good weekend, and Happy Canada Day to you folks in Canada.

That’s all for now, more later!

-Chris

 

For this week’s song I went with Leann Rimes because she yodels in this song (plus the song is fun). Have a good weekend!