Deals: iTunes freebies, Amazon Criterion, other DVD, Lego sales

(Earlier posts are still active, with a Tuesday post containing more DVDs and video games, and Monday's deal filled with Harry Potter, more Lego, and the awesome Buy 2, Get 1 Free video game sale.)

iTunes free songs this week includes songs from Megadeth and Angels & Airwaves. They're worth nabbing at that price.

Over on Amazon, the DVD and video game sales continue.

The Deal of the Day is the Blu-Ray Superman Movie Collection for $55.99 (57% off). Aside from the first two movies and Kevin Spacey's wonderful scenery chewing from the most recent one, there's a lot of good bonus material here (the serials, the Fleischer shorts, alternate cuts, etc).

But the best deal is a bunch of out-of-print and rare Criterion DVDs from 35-70% off! This includes things like Alphaville, Tales of Hoffmann, Forbidden Games, Last Holiday, Contempt, and some of the Essential Art House box sets for $30 a pop!

The first season of one of my favorite shows, The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman, is going for $5.43. Get it if you like awkward, over-the-top stuff that skewers much of the Hollywood mentality through shallow, narcissistic characters.

There are a whole bunch of HBO sets on sale for anywhere from 35-60% off, including True Blood, The Pacific, Entourage, Band of Brothers, Hung, In Treatment, Eastbound and Down, Bored to Death, Big Love, Sex and the City, and, um, Goodnight Moon and Other Sleepytime Tales. For serious.

Season 1 of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is $14.53 (52% off).

Married WIth Children: The Complete Series is $35.99 (45% off).

Shaun of the Dead is $10.23 (49% off), on Blu-Ray, $5.23 (60% off) on DVD.

Various editions of Captain America: The First Avenger (or, as you and I and everyone not paid by the studio calls it, "Captain America.") are on sale for 40-46% off.

For folks who want cheap movies, DVDs under $5.50 include V for Vendetta, Blazing Saddles, underrated gem Trick 'r Treat (also $7.99 on Blu-Ray), Corpse Bride, and Gremlins.

Finally, for the people who like Lego, the Lego Space Center is $58.84 (16% off), the Lego Shuttle Expedition is $99.99 (not on sale, but below the other retail pricing by about $13), the Lego Police Station is $84.98 (15% off), and the Lego Space Earth Defence HQ is $71.99 (20% off). All ship free, too.

Google updates

1. After six days, I finally have my gmail back! Of course, a good ton of stuff bounced, and there's still lots of damage control to be done, but at least I have my account! Now, since every time I delete it's a slow, painful process (I just deleted five messages, and it took about twenty seconds), I'm going to try to tame the account gradually, and will set up forwarding to a backup account there (not to my new account, since I want to get rid of the massive amounts of back that's clogging my gmail inbox).

2. On the Google Reader front, I'm playing with RSSFrog, NetNewsWire, Opera, Newsblur, and even Google Reader itself to see which one works best for me just to consume news. I actually started using Reader years ago before it allowed sharing, and at the time, it was the best RSS reader out there (sorry, but it's true). Now, I'm trying to figure out what I need out of a reader and which is best. I did try River2, but have already eliminated it as a reader for me.

As for sharing, I've moved to Pinboard for now. I love the interface, and the ability for it to both pull in items I ask it to share with a bookmarklet, and links from both of my Twitter feeds. If you were following me on Reader and want to see my links, there's an RSS feed now that you can add to your reader of choice.

3. For all my snarking at Google over the awful Reader decision and my mail crisis, I do love G+ Hangouts, which I'm using for work to help organize a SIG. My co-organizer is in a different state, and our presenters are at a bunch of institutions.

In lieu of content

Have a new (as yet untitled) Mumford and Son song:

ETA: Embed seems to be failing. Try here.