josetann

Best deal on Black Friday itself was getting an iPhone 13 mini for $400. Went to Walmart and got the 12 mini locked to Straight Talk for $300 plus tax. Then went to Best Buy and traded it in toward an iPhone 13 mini for another $70 plus tax (T-Mobile gave an extra $200 trade-in value).

I got four iPhone SE (2020 version) from Cricket (AT&T owned MVNO) for free. The deal was you paid $60 * 3 months upfront and got the phone free. I plan on keeping the plan for a while, so the phones are essentially free. They limit you to two free phones per 180 days, but my mom lives nearby so we used her address for two of them. Once all four were activated we merged them into one account and are paying $100/mo for all four lines. The iPhone SE is decent, definitely an upgrade from a 7. You still have the physical home button, which can be pretty useful when out and about with a face mask (as a fingerprint works fine regardless of face mask usage; gloves would be an issue though). I also jumped on the buy one get one iPhone 13 deal at Costco (T-Mobile lines), and since all four lines were new I should be getting another $400 that will nearly (but not completely) cover the monthly fees for the period I have to keep the lines active. Already got the main b1g1 rebates, just waiting on the $100 per line that will take longer.

I don't buy gifts for anyone but our kids. Problem solved. We'll have meals with our relatives, spend time with them, bake Christmas goodies for them to take home...but no store-bought gifts anymore. Though with us being so far away this year...can't even do that...I guess some free phone calls are all they're gonna get. First year doing this, a few still bought us gifts...when they didn't get anything they quickly got the picture (or slowly...I mean we did give them lots of advance warning). They still get gifts for the kids...cause I'm not going to dictate who can and can't give gifts to our kids. Well, I can't dictate who gives US gifts either, but I can let my preference be known (my mom still gives us some cash, I'd rather she didn't but it makes her happy, so there ya go).

Simple solution! Get a couple years of experience under your belt, start travel nursing, and make sure you're always on a travel assignment far away during Thanksgiving (and any other time of the year you need to be away). "Gee family, I really really wish I could make it home for Thanksgiving, but even if I somehow got the day off, I'm 3,000 miles away. Maybe next year...." Ok, an even simpler solution is to just work a normal staff job and volunteer to work that day. Shouldn't be hard...you'd probably be made to work most major holidays anyways, especially if you're the newbie. "Sorry guys, I'd love to make Thanksgiving/Christmas/other major holiday, but darn it, people are so inconsiderate and get sick/have babies/etc. even if it's a major holiday, and being the newbie I gotta be the nurse who's there taking care of all those inconsiderate patients. My manager is confident I'll get Thanksgiving off sometime in the next decade though!"

I think I may have turned anti Black-Friday. I don't think I went the past three years at all (my wife did two years ago). I realized I was a bit too much into it when I was contemplating having Thanksgiving dinner in the parking lot of Best Buy. Not worth it.

A speedy core i7 laptop with a large drive, lots of ram, all packed in a small package (14" screen would be nice, 15.6" would be ok I guess).

I changed the oil in the RV.

Well, it's not entirely accurate, but good enough for the average consumer I guess. Basically, 720p and 1080i ARE two separate "options." If you watch a lot of 1080i content, you may want a set that has 1080i as it's native resolution. True, the vast majority of HDTVs (and I'd wager every single one manufactured today) will have no problem letting you view 720p and 1080i, but it'll end up either upconverting or downconverting at some point. If I was looking at multiple TVs at about the same price range, then I might worry about something like native resolution. Otherwise it's not a big deal in my book. 1080p is best, period. If you're upgrading from a non-HD TV, then you will be quite pleased with a set that has a native resolution of 720p (I'd say about half of broadcast HD you can watch is going to be 720p anyways, but I don't have exact figures).

I don't ever go by the "original" price. Amazon has it currently for $159.99, so $0.99 more. But remember there's no shipping and probably no tax too. Unless you must have one today, I'd wait. Might want to keep an eye on refurbs, I've seen decent deals on Amazon now and again (and don't forget checking woot.com daily, sometimes it seems all they sell are gps, roombas, and sansas).

The cpu is from 2003 or sooner, see here: http://www.samsung.com/global/system/business/semiconductor/product/2007/8/11/259693s3c2440x_rev21.pdf Also of note, the cpu is ARM based, not x86. Meaning, no matter how much ram or disk space you throw at this netbook, it will NEVER run Windows XP, Vista, or 7 (or even 2000, Me, 98, 95, etc.). Windows CE is somewhat related to Windows Mobile, if that helps. Most netbooks out there have a processor that's x86 based, meaning you can install "regular" windows on it. Some still come with a slower Celeron, most now come with an Atom, but both are x86 based. Even if it came with linux installed, you could still wipe that out and put Windows XP/Vista/7 on it. Not so with this "netbook." Ok, here's a better analogy. I mentioned the Dell Axim above. If you had that, then you have a good idea of what this is capable of, just with a bigger screen. If not, then imagine a smartphone from a few years ago running Windows Mobile. Take out the phone, increase the screen to 7", and throw in a keyboard and a few ports. That's basically what this is.

It'd be ok for very basic sites, but don't expect it to work well for sites reliant on java, flash, or anything like that. Windows CE is the same OS that many PDAs used to use (such as the Dell Axim). If you ever had one, then you pretty much know what this netbook can do.

Either people missed it, or initially got excited until they found out what it was. The OS is Windows CE (not XP, Vista, or 7). Some quick research revealed it probably has a mere 2GB SSD drive, and 128MB RAM. Not much of a deal.

I would have no problems taking my kids with me. Neither have been yet, and probably won't again this year (things came up last year and looks like we'll be skipping this year too). My oldest camped out for the Xbox 360 at Target, but he didn't get one (some stupid rule about only giving tickets to people who've already been born). He also helped camp out for two Wii preorders (one of which was also a PS3 preorder) and again for the actual PS3 launch. He made an excellent line holder, and we were more than prepared (nice tent, small heater that kept it warm enough you didn't need a coat inside, etc.). Don't worry, he did get a tickle me elmo out of the deal :) Now, if we had problems like many places do, I would never consider letting him go out on BF (or any crazy event where people are lining up days in advance). People have been pretty civil, no big rush on the doors when they open, and at least at Best Buy they only let so many people in at a time. Might be a bit crowded, but again everybody stays civil. Oh, and about being dressed appropriately. I'll dress them as much (or little) as I/they think is needed, not as much as some random stranger (or even family) thinks. I've had the audacity to let my 1yr old out with just a diaper on in the middle of summer (and my wife's been asked if he was cold...he wasn't in the least). Both kids would kick off socks when they were infants, and of course we'd be asked where their socks were (true, they may end up sockless even in winter, but we carry a small blanket to keep them warm). Heck, it's in the 60s today and most people were wearing long sleeves or jackets, and my son was out playing with long shorts and short sleeves (he'll tell you when it's cold, and he didn't say a peep about it). Anyways, unless I see something that is way wrong (such as a child with no jacket/pants shivering and crying while in line outside below freezing, in the rain, parents not keeping track of them, etc.) I'm not going to worry about it too much. Now, feel free to look at what I do and say to yourself "that's something I'd never do", just don't come up to me and shout that to the whole world.

Don't tell my wife, she's already freaked out enough about our drive back home to Tennessee (currently in Alaska). Her mom told her about snow in Montana, but I pointed out we'd be going through the Dakotas instead. Oddly enough, here in Anchorage there's no snow, and the snow on the mountains we had the past couple weeks is melting. We're in the 50s and the low tonight is 48 I was sure we'd be playing in the snow by now!

True, but you can probably convert your dvds to divx or some-such and store them on your netbook. Hard drive size depends on the model. Most with really small drives are SSD (no movable parts, should handle vibrations and rough handling better). Many come with regular drives though, mine came with 320GB. As much abuse as mine gets, I should have purchased an extended warranty. Using a netbook with a regular drive as a gps in an RV going on the Alaska highway is a bit rough on the poor thing. I had three regular drives go out on the trip up, and these were in devices not even powered up (the drive in the netbook survived though). As much as these are apt to be tossed around, an SSD drive is great (and as I stated before, an extended warranty should probably at least be considered).

I was just at the Wal-Mart off Old Seward the other day, didn't see anything. I'll probably have to run out by Kohl's and Target since they've got their stuff out now. Oh and I did see that Fred Meyer's had a few things out. Not much, but I did pick up a Charlie Brown Christmas tree for $15 (bought one years ago for much more, but this one comes with the blanket!). With the temperature falling and snow on the mountains, it's definitely starting to look a lot like Christmas (at least to this Tennessee boy). Already went through a whole thing of hot chocolate!

At least one of the Costcos in Anchorage has half an aisle or so of Christmas stuff. Didn't notice anything at Sam's Club last time I was there, that was a couple weeks ago though. Haven't seen any Christmas items in Wal-Mart, Fred Meyer's, or Target yet.

Ace Hardware. September 7th.

A buck a dump.

Define "awesome". If you want that unadvertised desktop from Best Buy for ~$150, you might want to start camping out now. If you're just looking to pickup some cheap dvd box sets, then you can probably wait until sometime late October.

Roombas. With kids we just can't keep the house clean enough to run the things.

Well, all tents need stakes to be properly setup, but there are many that don't require them in order to keep their shape (generally dome tents). Basically, what you want is a tent that you setup first and then stake down, vs one that you have to stake down first and then setup the poles. Just make sure if it's windy outside and you have to leave for a bathroom break, that there's enough inside the tent to weight it down. Otherwise your tent may end up across the street (hopefully near the front of the line at another popular store).

RV Planned on taking it last year, but due to family illness we had to skip TG and BF. Assuming we don't get stranded on the way back from Alaska, should be back in time to use it this year. Of course we'd still be in line too, so at least one tent, plenty of blankets, heaters (camping heaters plus a couple electric, if we can keep the gen running on the RV), maybe some chairs, etc.

We're in Anchorage until sometime in October. It's supposed to cool down to the mid-60s next week, but the weather's lied before (It was supposed to be mid-50s last week, but instead was more 70s)! Once we get some snow I might have to head north to North Pole, AK. That should put everyone in the Christmas mood! After this assignment's over it's back home to TN (where the temps were awfully close to 100 shortly after we left, and let's not talk about TX where we were at before).

Unless something drastic happens, we'll be off the entire holiday season. My wife has taken up travel nursing, so if ya don't wanna work the holidays...don't take a contract then! It'll be the first Christmas in a while that we don't have to worry about how work will screw up our plans again (they always liked to pull the "everyone has to work a half shift on Christmas" routine, vs rotating).