chimeralife

This is why I don't write much. People don't stick to the facts. Many are great at throwing out character judgements. And that is not a judgement, it is a truth. Me-I have 7 kids and 4 grandkids. I have fitted 6 of the kids with BF laptops over the last three years and will try to outfit the older grandkids this year as their parents can't afford them and it is becoming more and more necessary for children to have access to a computer at home for their school work. Yes the prices on the laptops are falling, but not enough that I can pass up a starter one for the children in my family. Since I work every other weekend from 7am to 7pm I am not always able to get to the store for the interim sales. Also the small items like cruzers add up. I am lucky enough to be able to arrange my schedule ahead of time and dedicate this paycheck each year to BF shopping so most of my Christmas shopping will be done by Friday pm. We feel it is fun. We choose to spend our time this way. We don't try to convince others they need to go or not go. End of story.

Gee. I sure wish my BB would pay me to stand in line. Then I'd be good coming and going. I am very disappointed in the tenor of some of the remarks expressed in this thread. Who are any of us to judge someone doing something that is not hurting or putting out anyone but thierselves? and to those who want a lottery, I do feel you want the inexpensive stuff but are not willing to pay the price, time chill etc. for it. If someone wants something bad enough, they work for it, they don't get a ticket and hope they are the lucky one who gets it for free. That would be stealing from those who put in the time and effort. For my family it is fun. We camp and talk to other like-minded individuals and watch out for each other. It is a family day, more than sitting around a table and stuffing ourselves. We can do that anytime, this is one Magical moment that my Kids remember and tell stories about forever. I am glad many of you aren't feeling the need to get out there. Why? Pure relief that I won't have to fight you off at the stores I'm going to. Less of us means more for Me! No matter how everyone spends the day, Happy Thanksgiving. i know I am thankful for me and mine. And I look forward to my friends I know and will meet in line

Right now I'm using the doorbuster HP from BB BF two years ago. 512, single core, 80Ghd. It does everything I need it to, but I'm getting the 14" and upgrasing this year. I'll prob give it to my nephew. I expect he'll have it going as long or longer than I have. I love the simple on/off for the touchpad. It is the seller for me. I write a LOT and was always dropping my thumb on the pad. Also I have dropped this thing more times than my cell phone and it's still ticking. I actually had to buy a power cord cause last time it went down it snapped where it goes into the laptop. And it still works fine. ps that dang cord cost $85, almost a third of what I paid for the computer. Yes, I could have gotten it cheaper if I shopped around, but I was under a time thing. I just wanted to point out to the uninformed that HP's can be solid performers.

Last year I bought BB gift cards and each of my teenagers had one to get what we all wanted. And then when they checked out they asked if they could just pay for it altogether and the clerk didn't have a problem. (I had to leave to pay for what my other daughter had waited for at another store, one of the reasons I gave them the gift cards in the first place.) Two years ago we got three of the HP's and they let us buy them all at once. No one has ever checked my ID for more than paying purposes. The clerks don't care. They just want to check out the 2000 crazed shoppers as quickly as possible. As long as you are quiet and draw no attention to yourself you are gold. ps-they have always said one per household I believe. Oh, and every bit of what we have bought is tagged with my reward card. So teh addage is as true here as anywhere: it is easier to ask for forgiveness then beg for permission

I have been at our BB for the last two years and they handled it the same way. We sat in line with a chair for each person waiting, and other things to make life more comfortable. Sometimes the manager would do a drive by, say hi, etc. Between 3-4am we put our accessories away and the workers start to arrive. This is the time we had to be the most vigilant because it gets a little busy and the anticipation builds as we all get excited. And suddenly 'friends' appear from nowhere. Not so bad when you are in front but I started 12th last year and ended up being 15th. They really start arriving after the tickets. So I was probably the 30th in the door for the non doorbusters last year. Luckily my kids knew exactly where and what to get and run fast, so I was saved. About 4am they come out with a bullhorn and give the directions. Which are, they have a rubbermaid box holding all the tickets. As they go down the list they ask what you want and hand the tickets out. First come, first serve. Last year they also gave us a map of the store and had numbered baloons to show us where the small stuff was tucked. It was way cool. I also did do a Wed afternoon recon. Then it's just trying to stay warm and keep the friends away till they open the doors. If you watch Chuck and saw the BF show last year-it's almost exactly like that. Ditto send someone to stand in line within 10 min of entering the store. Doorbuster ticket items were kept in back, the smaller stuff 1s 1st come 1st get on the showroom floor. and sometimes they got 5-10. Thats what you run for. Like the memory cards and DVD's and such. It has been fairly fun and the workers have been great here. It has become a family tradition, my DD's look forward to the ads and planning as much as I do. They are in high school so they get it. Keep the spirit. Have fun. If you let yourself start to get mad it can ruin the entire experience. You'll get annoyed enough when you are sprinting through the store. Save the adrenalin for that snatch of the last cheap SD card on the rack. You'll need it.

Does Staples let you buy some of their stuff online? We don't have one near here but they do have a couple things I would like.

Please Help! I was going to get the Canon A720 for a friend, who wanted to be able to take good pix of her daughter playing Softball, on BF at CC. Since almost all her shots will be outdoors, the lag time with flash isn't an issue. Now they have the A710 with a printer for $239 until Saturday. Should I get that instead? She has left the camera selection up to me, with an @ $200 price point, and I don't want to disappoint her. TIA

For those with BX priveldges: Just got the BX flyers and on Saturday they have a Toshiba 15.4" 2GBDDR2 120GBHD for $499. I may wait a day for one of the computers I need, since the Friday model is $499 before rebate.

"Which is the best laptop?? It is gor my teenage daughter, mostly school work, Internet use, pictures..stuff like that....I listed all the specs on each one... Thanks!!" Here I broke it down to basics 1 TK-55 1GBDDR2 512mbL2cache 120gbhd NVIDIA® GeForce® GO 6000M graphics and 288MB of shared videomemory 2 TL-58 1GBDDR2 1gbL2cache 160gbhd ATI Radeon™ Xpress X1200 graphics and 319MB of shared video memory 3 TK-55 1GBDDR2 ??? Cache 160gbhd NVIDIA GeForce Go 7150M (UMA) graphics with up to 287MB total available graphics memory All the cards fall into class 5. So no real diff. Per notebook check at: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Comparison-of-Grafic-Cards.130.0.html Class 5 Low End Graphics Cards - Only older games can be played fluently with these graphics chips (if they were not too demanding). Shared memory graphic cores in this category got the advantage of less heat production and longer battery runtimes. For office, internet, image correction, and video cutting tasks these graphics chips are still useable without any restrictions. You didn't list the cache for the 3rd and since no prices are mentioned I'm guessing they are pretty equal. For me and mine, with just these specs and no druthers about brand, appearance, or store bought at- I'd pick #2. MHO

My daughter got the Casio from CC last BF and LOVES it!! It is small enough to slip into her pocket and she gets great shots on it.

The original question didn't say 10 chairs, even I agree that is a bit ridiculous. With everything there is moderation. There is another post going on saying you should have everyone sign in. I'm not too up on this suggestion, either. Getting way too into my business to sign up like I'm at a school open house. The one thing we all seem to be saying in a million different ways and with high levels of aggression is -Make friends with the people around you so you can cover each other's backs. Biggest way to stop trouble before it stops.

Last year the line started filling up around midnight. Ditto for CC. Don't know what is going to happen with the outlet mall opening at midnight. of course, a lot of people forgot we had a BB because we didn't get the ad in the paper. So that held it down nicely.

I got the external hard drive last year. They were gone within half an hour after opening. People were so excited they were grabbing the wrong one and being disappointed at the register.

The 22" westy wasn't a ticketed item at our store but they were gone within a half hour of store opening because of people snatching them up. I saw people with two or three. I got one myself and we love it. There were still people waiting to get into our store over an hour after opening because there were only 4 registers and they were following fire codes.

After a few hours you get pretty chummy with the people by you in line. I even brought my laptop and played a few movies. passed the time and entertained those around us. We had no problem leaving the line to get food or go to the bathroom. I even drove twice to check on my kids camping at CC down the road. Nobody starts getting real anxious and noteworthy until the ticket time draws near. At least that was my experience last year.

Live and let live. Geez you guys, this is the beginning of the CHRISTMAS SEASON!!! Get there earlier and then you will be in front of your nemesis. Otherwise suck it up. Yes, I had a chair out for my husband who was cleaning up the Thanksgiving dinner mess. (I'd rather sit in a cold line, he'd rather clean the kitchen-match made in heaven!) But I got there first. And the next people to show up didn't show for 3 hours. And they had a couple of chairs for family members taking care of the smaller children till grandma could get there. And so on and so on. Either you can get there early or you can't. Last year was my first year I could do an overnighter. So I got there early to be FIRST! Then I ain't complaining about nobody but the guy trying to scam my tickets off me at 430. Beat it Buddy!

Our BB handed the tickets out at 4am, one guy, the manager, had a big plastic file tote on a cart and all the tickets were in there. you told him what you wanted and if there were tickets left he pulled them out for you. went down the line that way till there were no tickets. They came out at about 3-330 and told us how it was going to work, so we were pretty excited by then. Guess they plan on getting the crowd going earlier this year. I dragged my DH and my BiL with me so we could get laptops for our 3 oldest kids. Completely worth their bellyaching in my book. $279x3<=2grumpy men.

At out BB last year the 22" Westy wasn't a ticket item so first in grabbed what they wanted. I do believe someone else posted last year that it was a ticket item in their BB. If it is a ticket item it is one per person. Got anyone you can bribe to stay with you? I dragged DD so I could get laptops for our daughters.

I paced and paced then pushed out the door at 6pm t-giving because I couldn't stand the thought I would miss out by just a few minutes. I was first in line at bb, my kids were first there at cc, but when line moved were 4th or 5th in line. A lot of people came up and asked us when we got there, so I will probly have to go earlier this year.

The feeling in the air is energizing! And last year I hooked my kids so they spend more time on this site than I manage, I believe. Everyone has a list, a set at BB and a set at CC. Definitely starts the season out with a big Bang! They are as excited about spending the nite for the laptops as I am. Dragging DH with me (he's not so excited.) I can't believe it's only two and a half days away!

We generally use white non-flashing, then multi-color flashing. That way there is always something on and it is soooo pretty because there is no such thing as too many lights on a tree.