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What is your most recent purchase of interest?

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Khushrenada:
So, I know we've got the "recent gaming purchase" thread that seems to be popular among us members. Which makes sense since in the words of Buddha, life is about acquiring as many material goods as you can so that when you are dead you can have a U-Haul of stuff buried with you like the pharaohs did with their pyramids. We're still talking about them pyramids today so clearly they were onto something.

Anyways, since there is more goods out there that one can buy besides gaming products, I thought it might be worth creating another thread for all those other interesting knickknacks and doodad purchases a person makes that they may want to share about.

To kick things off, I'm a big fan of Time Life books. They've done a bunch of series of things over the years. I discovered them at the library and would check them out and read them all the time. Once I started getting my own stable cash flow, I looked into getting some of these series for myself since they're something I liked to go back to and found them so well done. Best of all, since there isn't really a huge market for them and people seem to want to unload them a lot (probably due to space, weight and people just not reading as much anymore), I've been able to pick up a lot of them for a relatively low cost.

Recently, I was just doing a check through my local classifieds on Time Life books because I'm looking for one to complete and set and just learned about another set I never knew existed and really interested me. However, I also discovered something brand new. At one point, Time Life released a 30 volume record collection called Great Men of Music. It's mainly focused on Classical musicians. I know there are great women of music too. It's just that as we all know now the future is female but the past is male and the present is gender fluid. Ha ha ha! I'm so clever.  8)  :rolleyes:

This is what the set looks like:



Each volume has a biography booklet that goes through the composer's life as well as listener notes for the various music on each record. There are also 4 double sided records included for each composer. 4 X 30 = 120 records. For an example of what that looks like here is the inside of the first volume on Tchaikovsky:



So, after discovering about the existence of this series, I was doing some searching on Ebay and, while people were selling them from various prices of 5 - 30 dollars depending on the seller, the shipping costs looked to make them too pricey for me to consider. But then I decided to search my local classifieds for the series based on its title of "Great Men of Music" instead of just by Time Life. To my surprise, I discovered someone very close by who had the complete set and was selling them. According to him, they had never been played and where kept mainly as a collectable. Inspecting some of the records, they were all in perfect condition so I snapped up the collection. I, personally, plan on playing them and look forward to going through the collection. Of course, I need to buy a record player now but there seem to be a lot of those for sale in classifieds anyways so I don't think it will be big hurdle there. Just have to see what's worth it for record players.

It's hard to say right now how good the collection is. Looking through the Tchaikovsky stuff, I was shocked to find out that the Overture of 1812 wasn't one of the musical selections among the 4 records provided. To me, that's the most famous piece he composed and generally the first thing associated with his name. So, then I decided to check the Debussy volume to find out if Clair de Lune was among the musical works selected for him and it was. It was a bit of a relief to see that they weren't leaving out all the top or popular works of an artist but it makes me curious as to the reasoning behind some of the selection process. I haven't checked the Mozart or Beethoven volumes but they've got so many highly popular and memorable works that I wouldn't be surprised if some were left out to include a few more obscure pieces to provide better context of their life and work. I'm also interested to find out more about some composers that I know more of by name than by any works of theirs I can think of like Puccini or Hayden. There are also a couple names I don't really recognize like Bruckner and Bartok but maybe if I hear their works then I may hear something I remember. I can't really see of think of any famous composers that are missing from this collection aside from Bizet but that's because, musically, Carmen is my favorite opera so that alone should have his inclusion but I'm not really familiar with anything else he did besides that. Aaron Copland is the last volume because Time Life probably wanted to have some kind of American element to this collection. In that regards, it is a shame George Gershwin couldn't have been included in this. He's got such a strong collection of works and songs but they probably don't fit the mold they were going with here. Thanks to Civilization IV, I became aware of John Adams but he would probably have been too new to include in this whenever it was made. It would also have likely been too radical to include someone like Bernard Herrmann or Elmer Bernstein who's main works were film score compositions but I think they are just as worthy.

That's about all I have to say on this purchase right now but that should be more than enough to kick off this thread.

Stratos:
Well, I have been interested in getting a tactical pen which was on my Christmas list, but no one got me it, so I treated myself to one that seemed to be of decent quality.


Tactical pens are a multi-tool of sorts in pen form. They are also pitched as a self-defense tool, but I don't ever see myself using it in a fight (would rather use my hands). This model includes a nice little flashlight, a glass-breaker tip, a multi tool point, and of course an ink pen.


It has no knife on it, which I like because I carry a separate pocket knife already. Also, I may leave behind my knife on occasion so having the pen is nice. It has a nice solid metal body and I like having that added weight. If I were to ever use it in a self-defense situation, it feels like it would certainly hit good if I found a soft opening in the neck or sides.


The price ranges from $16-$21 for this one. Seems to also be one of the few that are reasonably priced, contain extra tools, and is American made. Seems a lot of knock-offs from Hong Kong flood the market according to some tactical pen users (though I have no idea if this one is truly the "original" because several claim this).

Some if the "high quality" pens cost up to $60-$80, but they seem to only be for defense and writing (some even claim to be used by police or military in the field, but I'm sure a lot of that is just PR fluff).

If you find yourself wanting to carry a multi-tool and a pen around, this seems like a nice option. Though be warned, some folks claim that these have been confiscated inconsistently by TSA when trying to board flights. Seems to be related to how "deadly" the item appears to be, and some are obviously designed to cater to survivalists/wannabe military enthusiasts.

Stratos:
I actually had a few Time Life books that I got from a free book event a few years back (okay...it wasn't an event, it was the free bookshelf from my old college. I raided it constantly for interesting titles, but don't tell my wife!). Held onto them for years yet never read them. If I still have them I'll gladly contribute to your collection, though I did purge a number of books lately as I have "too many freaking books" according to my wife (three large IKEA bookshelves full and then some).


The music collection is pretty cool. Could be a fun way to learn more about some artists and lesser known works of theirs.

King of Twitch:
Awesome, I've got a few of those (Time-Life American Wilderness Series)--wilderness mini-travelogue with a natural history of the local geology and ecology.


Today I found at my local and very clutch thrift store an old training manual for new naval recruits, 1971 edition. Pretty cool to see the steering control console with all the switches and knobs labeled, and then... a simple steering wheel. My uncle was in the Navy around that time so I'm looking forward to telling him about it and maybe get some new stories in the process. I also wonder if a collector would buy this thing, or if it's top secret... :-X


In other news I got some action figures.


That tactical pen looks rad, I'll get that for my dad once fathers day rolls around. Have you used the glass breaker feature? If so, have you thought of doing a youtube series--Stratos Breaks Stuff With A Pen? I'd binge that.

BranDonk Kong:
This bad-ass mother fucker
https://www.amazon.com/NECA-Teenage-Mutant-Turtles-Leonardo/dp/B06XCZ21R3/

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