josetann

Haven't had anyone stare at me on BF. Did have a lot of people ask us why we were camping out in front of Toys "R" Us the other week. Got tired of replying "PS3" so we started saying "Elmo." I think next time I'll start making random stuff up. "I just like standing in lines." "I saw this long line, figured there must be some kind of sale." "They're giving away free (insert hot product here appropriate to store, i.e. a laptop if you're at Best Buy) to the first 100 customers!" "This is a line? I wondered where all the other homeless people came from...."

Ha! Reminds me of when my wife and I didn't have a cellphone but were going in separate cars (actually we drove in one car to Illinois to pick up another car and drove back). Anyways we're chatting away, I say we probably need to get an oil change for the new car soon, and someone comes on the radio and says "10-4 on that oil change." I'm just glad we weren't talking about anything embarrassing!

I've used them, but there are a few disadvantages. One, they don't last as long as a fully charged cellphone. Probably not a big deal unless you're using them the night prior too. Two, if you use the stronger channels, you have to have a license. Three, two people can't talk on the same main channel at the same time. Let's say you're on main channel 3, subchannel 4. If someone else tries to use one on main channel 3, subchannel 7, it can cause you problems. The subchannels don't magically give you more channels to use, all it does is keep you from hearing someone else using the same main channel but a different subchannel. Two people cannot talk at the same time using the same main channel (hope that wasn't too confusing). Lastly, the way they "ring" is the one you're calling from will make the sound while it's transmitting. So you're ringing when you're trying to ring someone else. Just a bit annoying, that's all. Also there's no vibrate feature, so if it's loud in the store you may not hear it go off at all. We just use our cellphones with unlimited mobile to mobile, but in situations where you don't have a cell signal, those 2-way radios work great!

I wouldn't pay anything, at least not on BF. Now, how much would you pay for getting to stay in a nice warm tent at the front of the line, where you can kick off your shoes and take off your coat? Hrm, perhaps I should setup a few tents and charge rent. $25 per person per night sound like a good deal? :)

There's two things I want to get before Christmas to keep (so I won't count PS3s and the like). One is a nice high-end watch that can be passed down to my son. He was born this year, so I need to get one before the end of the year, then I can say I got it the year he was born (too bad I couldn't afford one when he was born). Second is a new laptop. Must have a nice screen, dual core, decent graphics, DVD+RW, wifi, and hopefully bluetooth (but that's not a deal breaker). I'd also like to have a decent battery that'd last more than a year and longer than 30 minutes.

Blu-Ray is more expensive, but with the PS3 coming out for $500 with a built-in Blu-Ray player, that's going to give a big boost to Blu-Ray (yes, I know the premium PS3 is $600, but the lower model still has Blu-Ray and isn't that crippled compared to the low-end Xbox 360). Yes, you can add HD-DVD to an Xbox 360 for just $200, making it the same price as the PS3, but not everyone who has a 360 will get the HD-DVD upgrade. Everyone with the PS3 has Blu-Ray. Personally, it doesn't matter to me, I'll either have a player for each format (if I keep a PS3 and get the HD-DVD upgrade for my 360) or I'll wait for a player that handles both. It's a bit different from the betamax vs vhs wars, it wasn't possible for there to be a player for both (unless it had two separate mechanisms, ala a dvd and vcr combo).

If you're going to get the Fly Pen, check out Wal-Mart's clearance section. The pen itself is not on sale, but a lot of accessories are. I can't guarantee yours will have it on clearance, but I've found items at multiple Wal-Marts near me, so my guess is it's nationwide. Never thought I'd ever need to buy fly paper in the clearance section!

Voltron, Defender of the Universe! I would say I still have it, but my original got lost (thanks little bro), but I got a knockoff of it from ebay. Let me tell you now...Blue Lion does great in water on TV...but in real life...not so great.

We don't have a Christmas Day breakfast tradition, but on Christmas Eve we all go to Shoney's. Used to be the Pancake House, forget why we changed it, but it's been Shoney's for a real long time. My wife generally has to work a half shift on Christmas, so it's hard to make plans for that day.

Yeah, I mean who can pass up a $150 computer with monitor, right? I'm sure I'll find a use for it, either for myself or for someone else. Same with Roomba, kept one and gave another to my mom, just couldn't pass up the deal. I too will browse the clearance sections and pick out generic gifts. Bought a bunch of picture frames, now that we have a baby everyone would love to have a nice picture in a frame. Lots of kids' stuff, other than future gifts for our baby I have a (much) younger sister and two brothers (plus a third younger brother, but there's just eight years difference so he's into stuff I like). I have a pile of digital photo frames I got probably two years ago, they'll come in useful this year. Plus we have about a whole house full of stuff (though I'm working on clearing it out). What we don't use ourselves we can always give to charity, especially kids' stuff.

Double check the ad prices. Are all the Wal-Marts in the same region with the same ad (might sound like a stupid question, but 20-30 miles can make a huge difference)? If one just opened within the past few months, don't even try, it'll probably have a huge crowd just cause it's still new. Other than that, it's best to go by previous experience. If you've hit several on past Black Fridays and notice that one seems to have a lot of the doorbusters hours after the start of the sale, then that'd be a good one to keep going to. Also, what other stores are nearby? Where I'm at there's four Wal-Marts within about 10-15 miles of each other (well, probably five, but I never venture out to the farthest one), but only one is near a Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, Sam's Club, Toys 'R Us, and K-Mart (one is right across the street from another K-Mart, but that's it). This year we'll have a Kohl's open for BF, and it's near the same Wal-Mart, so that's the section of town we'll concentrate in. Now if that one's out of something I want, I still have a few other Wal-Marts I can hit before I head back home. Wanted a $50 rolling tool chest a few years back, first two were out but the last one had it. Edit: It looks like I don't know correct grammar, but trust me I typed in Wal-Mart s with an s, but it changed it to Wal-Mart without an s. Argh!

Sometimes there'll be a small price cut, but generally on game systems you'll see bundles. So for that $200 you may bet the PSP and a couple free games and a memory stick or something along those lines.

I shop throughout the year, but find it hard to buy something in April to give to someone in December, so it often becomes a birthday present (requiring yet another present for Christmas). Sometimes it becomes an early Christmas present, but I still try to have a little something to give them on Christmas.

My mother-in-law probably invented that....

Everytime I get clothes, it's something I either don't want, or in one case was something I already had (even then it was a shirt I had for a year or two, so I was ready to "move on"). I don't buy clothes as presents, I'd get the wrong look, or the wrong size, or most likely both. Just try to buy a woman a pair of jeans. If it's too small then they cry because they're huge. If it's too big then they yell because you think they're huge. If it's the right size they cry and yell because you know how huge they are (I do not agree with them, but that's just what'll happen unfortunately). Now jewelry, can't really go wrong there. Even if it's "crap", it's good crap.

Oh, refurb ipods are virtually brand-new. I've heard of a lot of people getting them and swearing they were brand-new. Now they were buying direct from Apple and not overstock.com, but if Apple is the one that did the refurbishing, then about the only thing different between it and a new one is the price. I buy refurbished things all the time, long as it has a decent warranty and the price is right. If there was a problem, I'd just return it and get another, just like anything else.

Our cats get tuna. A really cheap Christmas gift would be a box of Q-tips. Plenty to last the whole year. We have a kitten that also loves to destroy rolls of toilet paper and paper towels, so that's another idea. Another of our cats likes twistie ties, the kind that come on a loaf of bread. All like the bouncy balls. Oh, and get a laser pointer too. You'll get exhausted just watching them chase after it. I've seen them at dollar stores before. All of our cats love this, and our dog Snoopy loved it, and my mom's dog loves it too.

This is the one that got my mom. She tried to dispute it, it asked for her card number, she gave it. Luckily she emailed me right away about it (she didn't know she'd been scammed, she thought someone really got access to her PayPal account and was going to wipe it out). She cancelled her card, so no harm was done (just a bit of inconvenience while waiting for the new one).

I just wrap them up and put them under the tree? You guys must be buying some really odd-shaped presents (a bike wrapped up under the tree might be a bit obvious). I guess for those special items from you-know-who that aren't wrapped, you'd need a good place. Haven't had a need yet, but if it's small it could go in the trunk of the car (when I was a kid I never thought to look there, which was fine cause that's never where they were). Larger and they'd probably have to stay with my parents, kids can always find the hiding spots, trust me!

Yes, never click on a link in an email (there's rare exceptions, such as signing up on a forum and needing to confirm your email account, but never ever do so with a link to your bank, paypal, or ebay). It'll look authentic, but just don't do it! Open a new window, go to www.paypal.com, and log in. I bet that payment doesn't show up anywhere. Now, what information did you give this bogus site? Was it just your PayPal account info? Then go in and change your password NOW! Was it a credit card to "verify" your account? Call up your bank and cancel it now. Whatever you gave them, you need to make sure that information is now invalid. My mom fell for one of these scams, and it's kinda my fault. She hadn't used ebay or PayPal for a while and wanted me to help make sure it was all up and running ok. She couldn't remember her PayPal address, so we had to request a new one. To confirm her identity, one of the things we could type in was her credit card number (it gave a list of things we could use, and gave the last few digits of the account number, so we'd know they already had the info and just needed it again to confirm). Well a week or so later she got an email from PayPal saying someone's email address was added to her account. She freaked, clicked the link, and it wanted her credit card number to confirm the account. She put it in but said it gave an error because she didn't enter her pin too. When I told her it was a scam, she still thought she was ok because the site gave an error because she didn't give a pin, I told her they most likely had the info she submitted, but were trying to get more. Luckily she went ahead and cancelled her card that day, but many wouldn't even have bothered.

Does he already have an Xbox (the original, not the 360)? If not, maybe you could go that route for now. I've seen them used for $100, the GameCrazy here even throws in 6 free rentals. All the top games will be backwards compatible with the Xbox 360, so no big worries there. Once the Xbox 360 has been out for a while, then you can get one. Getting an Xbox now, and an Xbox 360 a few months from now, will be quite a bit cheaper than buying an Xbox 360 right now on ebay. Plus, if your son is happy with the regular Xbox for now, then you can wait until the 360 drops in price. That's what I'd do. I wouldn't pay $800+ for the 360, just for the privilege of having it now and to play a handful of games that are out for it now. Get the original Xbox, some games like Morrowind and Fable TLC (don't get the original Fable, make sure it's The Lost Chapters, do note that it's rated mature due to language but compared to many of the other games out there, it's not that bad), and you're all set.

Many accept a copy of the UPC. At least one of them has to in this case, how are you going to submit the original UPC for both rebates?

I've been burned by companies so many times. Now I record all incoming and outgoing calls. This would have been the perfect solution in this case. Well, good luck!

Just got back from the Opryland Hotel. If you haven't seen it, you'd never believe how big it is. It's the largest hotel under one roof. They give you maps when you check in. They have four main sections. Cascades has some waterfalls, a large rotating lounge, and some outdoor restaurants (as outdoor as you can get while still inside a hotel). Delta has more restaurants, a lot of shops, fountains, and a "river". They have boat rides that go around the river. There's another large, but not as busy section, I think it's called the Garden Observatory or something like that. There's a skywalk that goes over it, or you can walk on the ground level. A few small waterfalls, some goldfish, etc. Then there's the Magnolia section, it's the original part of the hotel and has the convention center, some more shops, and several restaurants. We had a balcony room in the Cascades section, so after a hectic day we could just relax out there. Saw the Rockettes, shopped at Opry Mills, went on a horse drawn carriage ride, and did tons of walking. Got back home around noon, and Jeannie's still asleep (always need a vacation after a vacation). This is our first year of actually staying in a room at the hotel, but we've gone before just to walk around and see all the lights at Christmas (the hotel is a destination in and of itself). The week before Christmas we're going to Myrtle Beach. We went last year and it was quite hectic but still enjoyable. We signed up for two timeshare presentations plus we stayed in another hotel room between the two free ones, so there was a bit of moving around. Then between the second hotel and the third, a hurricane hit. That was the first and hopefully last hurricane I'll drive in. We found shelter in a gas station ten or so miles inland and waited the very worst part out. Hopefully this time things won't be quite as exciting!

Funny you should mention that...just bought this today: http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/jump.jsp?itemType=PRODUCT&itemID=9352