Let me tell you my black friday story, a precursor to my rant.
Very earlier this morning, before I went to bed, I shopped – for myself. Turns out Amazon had some great deals today, so I bought two things. One, will be claimed as a gift to myself, Left 4 Dead for the 360 (can’t wait to play it, I’ve been really into gaming lately). The second was a great find, since Sara needed an iPod dock/speaker system for a secret santa gift, an awesome deal since those types of systems are always over our SS budget.
…stay with me you anti-consumerists…
In the evening, we conformed the traditional way and went to a brick and mortar store. Turns out we found Avery something we’ve been looking for for a while and some long overdue cloths for my wardrobe – all for rock bottom prices.
So for all of those condescending people that think everyone should resist from purchasing something after Thanksgiving through the end of December, what the @#$%?
Why can’t I buy something, for a discount? Regardless if I were to buy it any other day of the year, especially on sale. Shouldn’t the point be: don’t buy anything at anytime, ridiculous but would make sense.
If you’re not familiar with the commandments of the BNC, here we go:
Session 1: Take a risk, don’t conform to those in the spending spree. Mary, the unwed mother of Jesus, went against the grain. Think about it.
Out of all the things the bible teaches, you’re clinging to “consumerism”, labeling me and practically everyone else as a conformist. Really? Mary? She’s the one you choose to be the the example of non-conformity in the bible, really?
Session 2: The best gifts come in no packages. The Christmas story is all about flipping the system on its lid.
So punk rock but true. The best gift is love and showing affection, however, the better gift is a package given with love to show affection. Oh man, did I just flip the lid that was just flipped?
Wonder how the packaged foods for starving children around the world fit in.
Session 3: Image is everything? Well, don’t get pegged as a mindless consumer, be a rebel this Christmas.
This is the part that pisses me off the most, it’s pretty obvious why. How patronizing can you be?
Then there’s the quote in the image, I think it should read: “where did I say that you should make ridicules rhetorical questions in my name?”. Better yet, “where did I say that you should judge others actions instead of saving the world?”.
Let me say, I do believe our consumerist society is a cancer to our well being, lthe “financial crisis” is proof. And I’m not a capitalist, but I will spend money and whether it’s for the betterment of God’s people or myself is my decision.
Lastly – give me a break, IMO these “movements” are a lost cause help – their points are lost in the condescending message for the sender to feel righteous*.
The solution: bless one another and give the “right” gift, love one-another and don’t be condescending and judging, and in doing so celebrate His gift this Christmas the most.
*these types of things remind me of schoolyard name-calling, where you bring down another to feel better about oneself and actions.
Bringing the Wii with us to Boise for the holiday was of course a hit. Our cousins have been playing, one who’s 3.5 bowled a turkey his first three throws. Pretty amazing since he didn’t even know where the buttons were. Check flickr later.
Zelda has been a great night cap for me. With it being an hour ahead of CA I stay up to 1am with everyone else snoring away they don’t realize I’m on a mission to save Zelda and get the third shadow mask.
On Friday the Opera browser was released. It passes the Acid 2 test which is impressive but the rendering and load times are excellent. This site actually looks like it’s supposed to. Youtube, as you might have heard is the best thing ever. Video sites like Youtube and Google video are going to get a lot more of our attention. Lately they they both haven’t been sites to browse, now it’s going to be fun to just channel surf.
Soon I’ll be setting up a wii portal with wordpress and this plugin that Jared directed me to. It’ll be nice to just have a bunch of bookmarks, new links and video’s all in one place to quickly go to.
For the many that want a Wii for Christmas and don’t, I’m sorry.
With Christmas coming with one night’s sleep I’d like to thank all of you. Not the “you” that Time magazine refers to but the people that actually read my site or know me personally that don’t bother to come here because I geek out too much. Thank you.
We’ve had a great year and these last few days have followed suit. We’re just relaxing and enjoying it. I’ve posted nothing just keeping up with my feeds and e-mail on the downtime and I’m surprised. Normally I’d be filling more time on the computer. Instead it’s here and there and loving my girls and enjoying the view.
The picture below was taken last night at some garden of lights thing here in Boise. It’s not great but the only one with us three that looked presentable enough. The rest are coming to flickr soon.
What a day.
I woke up at 4:30am this morning to head over to BestBuy so I could buy a Wii. Turned out a ton of people were there, I’m not good with numbers but it seemed like a thousand, more logically more then 500. I was wrapped around the front, around the side and all the way past the back of the huge store. After being amazed I went to Costco to see when they opened and the parking lot was half full because Fry’s was lined up too. I never knew so many poeple woke up that early for those crazy sales, and they’re a scam anyways. Oh, Target was wrapped around the side too, for what? I have no idea. Maybe the 19″ LCDs for $50 which Sara ended up passing up for some weird reason.
Yes, after my hour expedition I cam home and went back to sleep while Sara and Martha looked around town for Wiis and stuff. About 2pm rolled around Alex Uribe called me and told me that Toy’s R’ Us is putting some Wii’s out and I’d better hurry. I pretty much rushed as fast as I could and contemplated running a few lights. I got there in time before the “last one was scoped up”. I called Martha and she was on her way already so I asked again just to make sure and they had some in the back, probably hiding for the employees so they brought 3 more out and one was scooped and Martha got the other (don’t tell her kids BTW, it’s their Christmas gift). Awesome.
We played it for a little today before going out again just to return some stuff and do some normal shopping. I also needed to get some wiimotes which ended up being impossible. Walmart had the last one in Ventura and Oxnard, maybe even Camarillo since Target said they were out. And yes, I was that desperate for a remote that I bought it at walmart, I hate that store.
So now, I’m off to play some Zelda and budget out my purchases and get a ton of stuff ready for eBay. The list so far: Dead Rising, ?Burnout, Nintendo DS and games, Car Pioneer stereo with iPod kit, new iPod adapter for my new car and my old 10gig iPod. I wonder if there’s more for me to sell. I’d really like to keep my 360, at least for a little while.
Looks like the eBay market is saturated with PS3s. The days of a 3K system are no more.
It really says something when people are camping just to sell the system on eBay. It could be one of the hundred reasons why the PS3 isn’t a good choice but I think people intentionally made a job decision to camp for 4+ days to make what they thought was going to end up as a $400+ a day untaxed job. A smart move for the kids but they should have paid more attention in economics class. The good news is people don’t want a ps3 and the lines that I saw this morning for the Wii makes me think it’s the system kids are getting for Christmas. That means Nintendo is back and the console wars have begun. Wii in 06-07′, PS3 in ‘08 and the 360 will continue to be second with better games and a better home strategy. Actually I could see the 360 beating them all if enough HD lovers couldn’t wait for the PS3 that they originally wanted or awoke to the fact the ps3 has no good games and wont until Q3 ‘07.
Sony just announced PS3 launch details as follows from the conference floor: “Today we’re pleased to announce the global PS3 launch details. We will make PS3 available via a two-configuration plan. One with a 60GB HD. And the other with a 20GB hard drive. Japan’s date: Nov. 11. In Japan 59,800 Yen. The 60GB PS3 will have an open price which retailers will set. In North America [to launch Nov 17]: 20GB for $499, 60GB for $599. 2 million to ship worldwide during the launch window. 4 million by end of calendar year 2006. By March 31, 2007 they’ll have shipped 6 million worldwide.”
E3: PS3 launch details – Joystiq
Looks like the 360 was a deal at $399 for the high end system and $299 for the low end. Don’t get me wrong though the price is still pretty good since it has a blueray player, HDD and (last time I heard) DVR functionality.
I don’t know about the 360 launch but it seems like stores will be in store for another shortage and with the retailers being able to set the high end system’s price I would imagine seeing the retailers charging an arm-and-a-leg for the thing because you know how rich kids parents are around Christmas.
On other news the controller specs were released and it looks like they stole the Wii’s “secret weapon” with it’s X-Y-Z, pitch, roll, yaw and lateral motion detection. Although the Wii has a lot more involved I like Sony even less, which has been dwindeling since the root kit fiasco and other craziness of recent.
After reading on joystiq that Target was selling there DSs for $99 I had to do it. But a lot of people were having problems; Target not honoring the deal, no matter how many managers you talked to. Supposedly it was a misprint and the fine print says they don’t have to honor anything.
Since I had the horrible … Read More »
November 23
I’m thinking about selling my PSP.
The best buy Xbox 360 launch was the worst experience I ever had. Planning to wake up at 6am I went to bed early last night to have the opportunity to stand in line at 630; I didn’t sleep at all, just too much anxiety I guess. Like a kid on Christmas eve.
So I arrive at best buy at 630 to count the line and I’m 75th, knowing the inventory was 84 I was golden, I could at least get a core system. Jason M. arrived shortly after and he counted me at 80th, WTF? Thinking it was a mistake I waited until 750 and counted again. 84th now and furious, I politely walked up to the door and asked the manager, Henry Lo, please pass out the tickets because people are cutting. His response was, “We will pass them out when we are ready”, I replied, “What do you mean you can just pass them out now…it will take 10 minutes…you have to do it anyways, why not now?…people need to know if they should leave or not…I’m on the verge of not getting one because people are cutting”. He then gives the excuses that people will counterfeit the tickets. What a bullshit answer, no one is going to copy the tickets then get back in line with the same number as the guy next to him, I told him this and he still didn’t care.
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