Tuesday, December 29, 2015

7dp Year in Review: Top 3 posts of 2015

Here we are, in the waning days of 2015 and everyone is looking back on the year that was. It's a natural time to look back and remember some of my favorite posts of 2015. Lets go with an arbitrary number like...I don't know, 3?

Yes! 3! That seems like a perfect choice.

The Top Three 7 Dollar Popcorn Posts of 2015


  1. 7 Dollar Popcorn Awakens the Force - December 20th, 2015:

  2. A fairly solid, if light on content, look at my initial thoughts after seeing Star Wars: The Force Awakens.


  3. Sometimes the Force Sleeps In - December 26th, 2015:

  4. I saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens again on Christmas and had a few more thoughts to share. Another post where we can note it's brevity.


  5. 7dp Year in Review: Top 3 posts of 2015 - December 29th, 2015:

    A look back at the year that was. To be fair, it's a pretty distant third.

Saturday, December 26, 2015

Sometimes the Force Sleeps In

Yesterday was Christmas here in Virginia. It was Christmas in other places too, if social media is to be believed. My R2-D2 stocking was hung by the chimney with care, and filled with an appropriate amount of candy. We made a ham and cheesy potatoes and thought about what we should do. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is, apparently, still showing, so we went to see that.

This being the second time seeing it, I found it easier to just relax and enjoy the movie. And I did enjoy it much more. I still think it's a movie with a lot of flaws from the start to the finish. I say that because I have specific issues with the beginning and end of the movie specifically. I think part of the problem, for me at least, is what do you expect a Star Wars movie to be? There are 6 already. That's a lot of baggage to carry around. There are so many tropes at play in the first 6. Is that what makes Star Wars what it is? Or is it less about hitting each of those thematic notes and more about having a space adventure about the battle between light and dark?

I don't have an answer for that. I guess we'll see what happens with Episode VIII

Sunday, December 20, 2015

7 Dollar Popcorn Awakens the Force

Um...Hi! It's...it's been a while. A long while. Yikes. Um, yeah, I'm alive. I'd just, you know...been busy...doing things.

Like seeing the new Star Wars!

Yup, that's right, I was one of the select millions who saw Star Wars Episode VII: The Wallet Opens. 

It was...well, it was ok. That's good though! Of the 6 prior movies, most of them were less than ok! So, an ok movie is actually a step in the right direction! And, I plan on seeing it again, which is also good.

A couple of not really spoiler-y notes:

C-3PO has the best line in the entire movie.

I love that the Millennium Falcon has a new deflector dish! I wonder if Lando paid for it?

Daniel Craig was great. 

I love that it wasn't just the further adventures of a bunch of white dudes.

Lightsabers are still cool.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

More Random Internetness

funny celebrity pictures - A little water in the basement?
see more Lol Celebs

Monday, February 27, 2012

Randomly Found on the Interwebs


Thursday, January 26, 2012

I wanted to leave GoDaddy anyways

There's no one to blame but myself.

You may have noticed that 7dollarpopcorn.com no longer gets you here. Apparently, everything went to shit with my account at GoDaddy and since the site was registered to an email I rarely check...I never got the notification that there was an issue.

Considering how little I do here any more, it's hard to say that the loss of the custom domain will hurt the blog itself much. Hell, I've done more damage over the past couple years than changing the URL ever could. No, the worst part is everything I had registered with an email linked to that domain. That's going to be something that takes a while to sort out. 

Like I said, it's all my fault. So, for now (and probably the foreseeable future) 7 Dollar Popcorn will be located back here at 7dp.blogspot.com (like it used to be).

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

An open letter to Netflix

Dear Netflix,

Hi. I'm sure you have no idea who I am. I'm just some guy who lives in Detroit and uses your service. I have for years actually. I've been a big fan since...well...2002 actually. That's a long time. Actually, I hadn't thought it was that long, but I suppose it has been. 2002 was my first free trial. I remember getting the snowboarding classic, Out Cold.

Sorry, I'm getting a warm wave of nostalgia here when I think about it.

Out Cold really has nothing to do with this though. What I'm getting at is that I'm a customer. I have been for years. Hell, 7dp has been fueled these past years by your service. And while 7dp has gone a bit on the back burner for me of late, my use of Netflix has not.

About a year ago I switched my plan around. I went from 3 discs to 1 disc and streaming. The problem was, I found myself using my 1 disc more than the streaming. I kept finding that the things I wanted to watch (TV shows mostly of late) just weren't available for streaming. And if what I want isn't available, then it doesn't matter what you're charging, does it? It's not a good deal for me. So, when you made the pricing change over the summer, I dropped the streaming service (since I didn't use it) and went to the two disc plan. It's worked out fine for me.

But now, I'm not going to be a Netflix customer anymore. Not because I decided I didn't want to use your service anymore, but because you decided I wasn't the kind of customer you wanted. You spend years building up brand loyalty amongst your users and then...what? What the hell is Qwikster? Seriously. It's a nonsense word that means nothing in regards to the business itself. It sounds like the name of an internet start-up that failed by 2005.

When a radio station switches formats, they can't air any of the old commercials that they sold. The reason being that all of that money was spent to advertise based on the old format, demographics and ratings. The sales staff then has the unenviable job of having to go out and sell the new format without any ratings information. This is essentially what you're doing here. You've flipped the format. Netflix is a known entity. Qwikster is not. You can say it's just like Netflix...but you can't back that up yet.

Last week you had a company that offered two services that complimented each other. Today, you have two companies that people aren't sure of. The people who only use the streaming service, they're unaffected. Every other customer though is. And the people that this will affect most are the ones who paid for both services. Now they have to pay to two sites and maintain two queues.

This just seems like a big step backwards, not a step forward.

Sincerely,

smacdonn
7dollarpopcorn.com