Rewatching the Good Old Shows

Lately, old shows from the 1980’s and the 1990’s have been coming out on DVDs and frankly, I was quite excited by the prospect of being able to watch the shows I loved to watch as I was growing up. So, when the first season of Sliders became available for renting, I jumped at the chance to watch it all over again.

It was just as good as I remembered it. I enjoyed seeing Q-Ball and the gang “sliding” from alternate dimension to alternate dimension all over again. Some of the special effects weren’t all that convincing as it did back in the 90’s but the stories are still pretty cool.

Next, we tried watching Quantum Leap with Dr Sam Beckett “leaping” back and forth in time hoping that the next leap is going to take him back to the present. As with Sliders, the special effects weren’t up to par with modern-day effects (as expected, of course). Still, the stories were pretty interesting and I was always excited to find out what happens next (I’ve forgotten how all the episodes ended).

And latest one we’re watching is MacGyver. I found the show very educational as a kid in the 80’s and thought MacGyver was a very cool guy. I just started watching season one of the show and I started seeing things about it that just didn’t gel.

Like, who or what is MacGyver actually working for? And in the first episode, there was this explosion in an underground secret lab and the people there needed saving. So what does the government do? They didn’t call a rescue team. No. They called MacGyver. Why? And in the same episode, he got to kiss the girl whom he just knew for maybe less than an hour. Heck, the intelligent things MacGyver did was more plausible than some of the story elements.

Anyway, I can’t remember most of the MacGyver episodes. That’s why I’m watching them again. Right now, I’m still at episode three, so I can only hope that it gets better with every episode I watch.

Freebies for your mobile

Mobile phone expenses quickly add up and for budget-concious people like us, pre-paid deals are the best way to go because we could budget the amount we recharge and how long it would have to last. Sending SMS or texting instead of making a call is also a good way to save but could still blow your budget if you’re not careful and at times may leave you wondering if perhaps you should have just called the other party instead.

If you like texting and use a computer most of the time anyway, signing up for a free account at SMSPup.com could save you heaps. It’s a free computer to mobile texting service where you earn points to be able to send free SMS to any other phone in Australia. You’d need a valid Australian phone number and an email address to register. Text messages sent through this service would look like it came directly from your phone except that it would have a short blurb at the end saying that it was sent through SMSPup. The upside is that the receiver could instantly hit Reply in his/her mobile, compose the message and hit Send. You’ll then receive the reply in your mobile phone.

SMSPup will regularly send you advertising emails in order for you to earn points (1 point = 1 free SMS) but they won’t spam you with numerous advertisements. I think only received about 5 emails from them in the last month. Another good thing that could come from signing up with them is that you learn about promotions from various advertising sponsors. One recent promotion I received from SMSPup was about a new prepaid mobile provider named RevTel promising to send out a free SIM Starter Pack with $20 loaded for anyone interested to sign up. I did and received the promised SIM Starter Pack a couple of days later. If you want to port your number over, you could sign up for the $30 free pre-paid credit instead. But before you transfer your number, make sure that you check out their rates first. Although their call rates are competitive, they charge a 15c fee per day and a 50c fee everytime you recharge your account and calling customer care is not cheap either with its $2 flagfall and 9.9c per 30 seconds.

If you think the cheap call rates outweigh the cost of the fees or if you just want to try their service first, you could still sign up for the free no-obligation $20 SIM Starter Pack. At the very least, you’d have several days to use up for free text and phone calls before you decide.