by Chris McGinty
I’d like to start by wishing Nathan a Happy 4/20. We sometimes wish each other Happy 4/20, but since neither of us smokes pot, I’m not sure why we do. As I recently ranted about, I’m not sure why we humans make a big deal about particular days.
Chris’ April Goodwill Bins Pre-Haul Vlog (and some actual haul stuff too).
But that’s not why I’m here. I wanted to write a real quick post about Nathan’s blog post from yesterday and his most recent haul from the “Goodwill Bins of Even When High on Novocain Nathan Can Find Cool Stuff.”
The Pizza Bag – Actually, far be it from reliving the old days, I could have used that bag for Uber Eats delivery. The low end bags that I have are sometimes not up for the task of hauling pizza, a thing that I do sometimes still have to pick up. In fact, some of the Papa John’s in this area use Uber Eats to expand their delivery area without having to send their own drivers on an hour long adventure.
This delivery bag is actually from one of my bins hauls. I had to wash it, but it’s in pretty good shape still.
Now, in Nathan’s defense, the low end bag that I bought probably cost me less than a dollar (and probably 30 minutes or less) because they have no real padding. The Papa John’s bag might have been a bit more costly, and a bit more racist. Actually, John Schnatter recently got the tape of him using a racial slur released, and it turns out he was using it against people who say it. The problem was that he said it while condemning those who use it as a serious slur so he’s also racist. I’ve never really had a favourable view of Mr. Schnatter anyway, and it’s nothing I can logically explain; but if I’m being fair about the guy, there is a defense of what happened.
And that’s why John Schn… wait, who was I defending and why? Oh right. Nathan might have paid significantly more for that bag than I did for the one I found out there, because they are bigger, tend to use heavier materials for the bag, and have additional padding to keep your pizza hot.
Living in Oblivion CD – I had to look this up, because I thought it was something else at first. It looks like there are compilation CDs with that name, but let’s talk about what I thought it was at first.
Anything Box – Living in Oblivion
I have this, I believe on cassette. One of the reasons for my recent inauguration of my new ongoing blog series, Chris McGinty, Borderline Hoarder, is because I need to get my music collection organized, so that I can always find what I want to listen to. The problem with having a large collection is sometimes the inability to do anything (except maybe box it… haha haha. Not that funny. Huh?) with it except maybe look lovingly at it. And you can’t even do that if you don’t have it properly displayed.
I did see Anything Box at Lost 80s Live in 2019. Well, I saw some form of Anything Box, like one guy from Anything Box.
Anything Box at Lost 80s Live w/ Special Guest Vocalist, Lady Taking Video with Her Phone
A lot of the times with these shows you’re getting some reformed version of the band with members who are allowed to use the name, and sometimes they’re not even allowed to use the name except to say that they were once in the group. It’s a real legality mess. As I’ve told Nathan, Christopher Anton, who was a temporary replacement for Kurt Harland in Information Society, is very involved with Lost 80s Live and often plays keyboards for bands that don’t have their full lineup.
Some Choice Performances Uploaded from Another Attendee with a Phone
The Debit Card – Be careful with these to make sure they are gift cards. I found someone’s bank card out there once. I put it right back. Luckily, I was wearing the gloves. I haven’t seen a woman out there yet that I’m willing to go all Bonnie and Clyde with, so I don’t want my prints on anyone’s bank cards. Speaking of Bonnie and Clyde, I saw some version of Berlin at Lost 80s Live too. Their video for “No More Words” breaks one of my core rules for music videos, which is don’t overdo sound effects and interruptions (although, to be fair the use of gunshots isn’t as disruptive as I remember it).
Berlin – No More Words
And that’s why John Schn… what was I talking about? Oh right. If you do in fact find a gift card that doesn’t have someone’s name on it, and it’s expired, there are some odd legality issues to cards expiring. Basically, you can usually get the money back, unless the card charges fees when you don’t use it. The reason that gift cards are pushed the way they are is because somewhere around 3% of the dollars on these cards is never used. Now if you remember from COVID-19, that’s not bad at all. 1% certainly doesn’t lead to half a million dead Americans… I’m getting kind of deep in this lighthearted blog post, ain’t I? =)
I put a smiley face at the end of that paragraph, so you can’t be mad at me now.
There’s another figure that is $3 billion of gift cards go unused each year. This doesn’t mean they’re never used, but it gives you an idea about how much money these businesses get to use until you finally get around to actually eating at Rosa’s.
We won some amount of consolation prizes for this entry. Nathan and his wife used the gift card (or they contributed to the $3 billion a year).
The McDonald’s Toys – How dare you, Nathan? How dare you? Actually, he has made it pretty clear that there are some McDonald’s toys that he doesn’t mind if I buy. He’s just sick of the Han Solo, Chewbacca, Iron Man, and Incredibles stuff. The only reason I’ve been ignoring his pleas to quit buying these toys is because they’re so light and they’re being sold by the pound. They’re something we might have to sit on for a while though, and I’m sure that’s part of the reason he doesn’t like them. It ties up revenue, even if it’s not a lot of revenue. It ties up storage space, which gets used up a lot quicker than you would think when you’re reselling. It’s the reason that Joshy Tornado will hold garage sales so frequently to get rid of the stuff that’s not selling.
A Hairy Tornado Video about a Garage Sale He Held
Anyway, this is all I got for today. Remember at the start of this when I said it was going to be a quick post? This is how my brain works. I can read a 450 word post by Nathan and write a 1,200 word response. It’s probably why years ago when my friend Loren and his former wife found out I didn’t know what blogging was (it was relatively new at the time) they were like, “If anyone should blog, it’s you.” I should have gotten started on it sooner, but they were right. Speaking of which…
Chris McGinty is a blogger who hasn’t been out to the bins for a while. He’s taking a little bit of a break while we try to sell down some of what we already have. In fact, he seems to be waiting until the last minute to do his monthly eBay listings again. He’s going to have to call himself Dobby and punish himself if he doesn’t get to work on that soon.
The ‘gift card’ is actually a ‘reward card’ and I called the number and it said it was expired with no balance. Also, the pizza bag was in someone’s cart already.