Dark Shadows captured the hearts of audiences back in the 1960’s as television’s first ever gothic soap opera. Since then, it has stayed with fans through the immortal video cassette, and has become a cult classic among newer fans. Now, with the upgrades in technology, we can also upgrade our television collection. If you didn’t already have Dark Shadows, or if you simply want to increase your copy’s longevity, then get yourself the Dark Shadows Collection 1 DVD.

The First Collection

Fans agree that this season of Dark Shadows was among the best, with some of the series’ best episodes, featuring the introduction of the sinisterly popular Barnabas Collins. The show had really gotten up to speed by this time in its run, with Dan Curtis’s “spooko” fully online. Special features on the DVD include the Dark Shadows Introduction, which tells the story of the first 209 episodes of the show.

Drawback of the DVD

Fans mourn in disappointed over the fact that, though definitely an improvement over the VHS of the show, the DVD begins late in the series, skipping out on all of the early episodes. Despite this fact, there are a lot of episodes covered in this collection. Some may argue, a bit too many. Each disc contains ten episodes, rather than the typical eight, so there is little bitrate devoted to each episode, making the quality slightly inferior.
It is unbelievable that shows our parents and grandparents loved are still floating around on VHS and now DVD, available for future generations to watch. Dark Shadows was wildly popular and original for its time when it first aired on ABC, and now we can pass it along, collecting fans along the way, reestablishing the show as the originator of the dark supernatural drama.

Mario Brother’s games were huge when I was young; they were the frontiers of video games. Imagine my shock and horror at the sad revelation that poor Mario is not a staple of some free online game sites!

Mario by Any Other Name…

Upon searching for a Mario games on the website, I was able to find some results; unfortunately, it wasn’t the results I expected. Super Mafia Land says ‘picture Mario meets Mafia’. Personally, I have a little trouble with that. Apparently I’m the only one because another game that came up was a similar Super Mafia Brothers. Some crazy thing called Lootie World claimed to be “kinda like Mario, but with beer and cookies’…really? Infinite Mario Brothers looks like a game that used to be on this site but has been removed. FOG (free online games) came up completely empty when I searched for Mario on their site!

At last, My Mario Has Come Along

Leave it to Bgames to come to my online game rescue. A Mario search here turned up 40, that’s right, 40 Mario games (and even a few Mario related games). Oh, Bgames; you’re my hero. Mario’s, Super Mario’s, Paper Mario’s, Driving Mario’s, and Infinite Mario’s were among the choices available to those of us old school-ers still wanting to live in just a tiny bit of the past. Every Mario game I was aware of (and some that I wasn’t) can be found on Bgames.

There are many problems of online dating sites – not knowing whether or not the person you are conversing with is actually a man or a woman, actually the age he/she claims to be, or whether or not he/she is a mass murderer in disguise just waiting to meet you. In fact, there are hidden dangers that are not as dramatic, yet heartbreaking just the same. For a person who is both vulnerable and open enough to wish to meet someone online (and millions of people are), he/she is also vulnerable of falling for someone who has a spouse just waiting for them to turn off the computer and come to bed.

Falling In Love with a Fantasy

It is the easiest way for a person to be preyed on (and yet still hurtful nonetheless). Somewhere, in some town, is a person who wants to be crushed on, who wants to woo another, who wants someone to wish for him or her – and so he/she finds someone else online, yet in another town (maybe even in another country) and begins working the magic on him/her. The vulnerable one responds (often the only single one of the two) and begins looking forward to chatting with him/her all day. He/she may even say no to other offers for dates and may become so fixated on this person that he/she feels that person is the only one who will ever do.

An Imaginary Relationship

This not only cuts the person off from trying to meet other people, it establishes an imaginary relationship. He/she may even feel that he/she would be unfaithful to the person online if he/she were to go out with someone in person. The vulnerable one becomes increasingly dependent on the other person’s attention and devotion, notes, comments and instant messages – that wanting to be with that person in person is all he/she can think about and wish for. A great majority of people online with spouses waiting for them in the backgrounds will never, ever, ever leave their spouse. Even if he/she says how much they love the other person, how much more the other person understands him/her than the spouse does, how much the other person wishes the spouse would be more like this person he/she has met – it’s still imaginary – yet the hurt and the disappointment is real. The vulnerable one will feel like he/she has been played, like he/she has wasted precious time pursuing and loving someone who was never available to begin with, and like he/she will never have what was dangled in front of him/her as bait. All people who are open and vulnerable enough to look online for love should be cautioned. No matter what a person says about love or about you, if he or she is not single, walk away.

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