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I have the reservations made. January 31st til Feb 4th. I was comped a “Premium Suite” over at the Rio. However I’m pretty sure that’s code name for “Strip View” suite. Nothing fancy like what I had over at Paris last time. But then again, the pink/red suite at the Paris was a bit much. Not like I spend a lot of time in the hotel room.

It’ll be good to get down to Vegas again but I’m going to have to tap into the money I’ve been holding for a new Mac Pro. Then again, I’ve heard more hype at an ultra-portable laptop being released at Macworld San Francisco than updated Mac Pros so maybe I won’t need the money in January anyway. Guess we’ll see.

Wednesday night was a good night! After work Joe & I stopped at Lorenzo’s in West Chester and picked up the largest hoagies I’ve ever seen in my life. The “small” is a 12″ hoagie that feels like it contains 2 to 3 lbs of meat. I was able to finish half of it but I didn’t even think about starting the second half.

After dinner we were waiting for Jay to wake up and get ready so we played a bit of Guitar Hero 3 and I took lots of pictures of the cats.

We arrived at the rink about an hour early and Joe ran into some people he knew that needed someone to play Goalie for their Lacrosse team. Joe agreed to play even though he’s never played before. Pictures of him can be found here.

Jay’s game started up and they didn’t have too much trouble beating the #1 ranked team in their league. They won it and their prize was a beer mug! Click below to see the pictures from the game.

I finally got around to going through the pictures I took of Joe’s Hockey Team from October 27th. I just put the pictures up on Flickr. Click the picture below to view em. You can view all of my pictures on Flickr using the link on the right column.

I freely express my frustrations w/ Gamestop/EBGames to my friends but I’ve never really posted about it here. That changes today. The lovely event that took place earlier today really sparked me to post about it. Let me set it up for you:

I walk into Gamestop.

[GS] Hello sir, anything I can help you with?
[Me] Hopefully. I’m looking for Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles, do you have it?
[GS] Let me check for you… Yes we have one last copy here.
[Me] I’ll take it.

At this point the employee digs around in a drawer and removes the game from a paper sleeve. He carries the sleeve over to the display shelf and he removes the Umbrella Chronicles box. He then places the disc into the box off of the shelf and closes it. Then he walks back to the register and proceeds to ring up this “NEW” game for $49.99.

[Me] You’re selling me that as a “NEW” game?
[GS] Yeah, it’s new.
[Me] It has no seal. I saw you take the game out of that paper sleeve and put it into the display box.
[GS] Yeah it’s our last copy. It’s “NEW” though.
[Me] What stops you guys from playing the game in the store? Or even worse, taking it home to play and brining it back and replacing it in the drawer?
[GS] Uh… we don’t do that… *silence*
[Me] Can you at least give me the “USED” price w/ the warranty?
[GS] Nah, it’s a “NEW” game. It’s fine.
[Me] *sigh* Never mind. I’ll get it elsewhere and buy it “NEW” where it’s actually “NEW” and factory sealed.
[GS] Whatever–it’s your call.

There’s tons of things wrong w/ that but I still think the worst aspect is that some people actually would accept that full $49.99 price for that “NEW” game. Since when has this become an acceptable way of doing business?

I try to avoid Gamestop at all costs. I went there today because the 3 other stores I checked on the way home from work had no copies in stock. This is only one reason why I hate Gamestop but for now I guess it’s enough to get my message across.

Needless to say I’m going to buy it tomorrow when I’m at work from a local Target.

Find the Coffee Bean Man in the picture below. Yes he’s really there. Don’t be ashamed if you can’t see him at first–keep looking! He’s there, I promise. Post in the comments if you can find him or need help. Click below to enlarge the picture:

Well now that the rush is over I can say that the new premium outlets are quite nice! However is freaking cold there at 3am considering its outdoors! All in all it wasn’t as packed as we thought. I’ll have to go back sometime when I have more time to actually look around.

The key to the whole shopping day though was this VIP Coupon Book which is free to anyone that signs up online for it (philadelphiapremiumoutlets.com) or to anyone that has a AAA membership. It added additional savings on top of the usual sales so at most places we got another 10% off.

Well I’ve been helping Kyle out with his website lately and some of the features he wants to add have made an appearance here too. In fact the newest features are totally inspired by his requests. Hope you all enjoy them!

This year’s black friday might be the craziest one yet. Here’s the game plan:

(Thanksgiving Day)
10pm - Head out to the Premium Oulets
11pm - Find a parking spot, wait in line for opening
(Black Friday)
12am - Outlets open, craziness begins
4am - “Finish” shopping at the 120 outlets, head back to the “regular” retail stores
5am - Back in time for opening at the malls/retail shops
12pm - Head back home hopefully w/ all the early bird specials a person can handle!

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of going out on Black Friday to witness the masses give away their money on anything that’s a bargain but this itinerary is just insane. 14 hours of shopping!

Wish me luck.

I’ve updated the site and transferred over all the old content. Hopefully things aren’t too broken around here. My only gripe is this header image… seems a bit snowflake/flowery to me so that’ll get changed when I can find a suitable replacement.