Thanksgiving musings

The following is a spatter of random thoughts that have gone through my head throughout the course of the holiday. I may or may not attempt to chronologically sort them when I’m done, as I’m pecking this out on my busted iPad.

The above picture is my wailing niece. I wanted to have some sort of visual to accompany this post.

This trip is the first time that I’ve brought my own car into the Commonwealth of Virginia in quite some time. The last time I drove my own car on my old stomping grounds was when I still had my old Nissan and I still felt it had the legs to make the trips from Atlanta to NOVA. Part of it is refreshing and fun to drive my own car on old familiar roads, but another part is apathetic and piteous of the residents of Virginia, whom have apparently been beaten into submission of driving like sissies in fear of the overzealous ticketing and fine system in place here. Safety is one thing, but the legions of people camping the left, passing lanes, going the approximate speed limit are bigger hazards to other motorists than the occasional tryhard going 88 mph, I would hypothesize.

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Consumer anxieties and Brack Friday

Piggybacking onto my recent butterfingers and the cracking of my iPad3’s screen, I’ve been lightly scouring the internet for any deals for a new iPad, preferably an iPad mini.  Just earlier in the week, I found a particularly appealing deal for an iPad mini 2, for $199 at Staples.  I missed out, because there are people out there way more fervent and evidently not asleep when the rest of America is, because by the time I caught wind of it at 8:45 a.m., Staples was pretty much wiped clean of all iPad mini 2s.

I was dejected by this, and surprisingly way more than I probably should have been.  It’s like the seed of getting a replacement iPad so quickly had sown a rather large batch of hope, only for it to be snuffed out just as quickly.

Sure, I’m still going to be keeping my eyes peeled as the Thanksgiving week encroaches upon us, for hopefully an iPad that doesn’t cost retail, or at least has some sort of kick back, but in reality, I know that I shouldn’t really be holding my breath.  I’m getting the impression that iPad minis, especially are going to be hot ticket items this Thanksgiving shopping season, and if I get my heart too set on getting one, I’m only setting myself up for disappointment.

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Derailing tradition, much to my dismay

Well, if I felt that my recent lack of angst and anxiety were reason for having difficulty finding things to write about, consider it my brog’s lucky day as both angst and anxiety have returned with but just a few mere phone calls with my family, to put me back in a state of mind where I want to vent to people around me, but don’t really want to burden anyone, so it turns into ultimately a great big vomiting of words onto whomever wishes to read them.

I won’t get into extensive detail, but I’ve made no secret about my parents getting divorced, and as much as I’d have hoped it would have been an amicable and clean separation, naturally it was and is not, and suddenly my plans over the Thanksgiving break that I had leisurely looked forward to have turned into a period of time in which I am basically dreading.

Why?  Because I’m going home for Thanksgiving.

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The Blue Friday haul

I said to a friend of mine that one of the grueling challenges that I would have to endure this holiday weekend was trying to get out of it without making one major electronic purchase.  Because I am a compulsive consumer, somewhat easily swayed by the pressure and the hype of Black Friday electronic sales and advertising.

Furthermore, my primary television has an entire line of dead pixels on it.  Granted, it’s maybe ten pixels from the top of the screen, and it’s just one pixel on a 51” screen, so it’s really not that offensive and hardly affects any viewing, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s a permanent blemish, and the first sign that the television is going, and that I should consider a new one, immediately, on Black Friday.  Even if it meant dropping anywhere from $500-1,000.

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Maybe a Blue Friday this year

Blue Steel Friday, that is.

I know it’s pretty much the Armageddon of capitalism every year, but I don’t really mind Black Fridays.  Sure, they’re stressful, exhausting and I’ve had my massive share of failures in the past, but I’ve also experienced triumphs and successes in acquiring big ticket items for substantial discounts and/or rewards.  Whereas there are lots of people who see Black Fridays as miserable commercial holidays of chaos, greed and materialism, I often see them as opportunities to make some smart purchasing.

Especially now that most merchants have actually moved into the twenty-first century and actually do as much peddling online as they do in-stores, it makes things a hundred times more efficient and less stressful, since I don’t have to wake up at 3 AM in order to wait in a line to get something I really want.

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Steal from Walmart, get owned – to death

A sadistic part of me finds morbid amusement at reading about the tyranny and carnage that occasionally takes place during each year’s Black Fridays.  As unfortunate as it is that the worst stories that emerge from Black Fridays typically include death, I can’t help but be astonished at some of the lengths people will sometimes go to in order to get their grubby hands on particular doorbuster items.

I saw this story of a man getting essentially brutalized to death at Walmart, and was kind of half-surprised, half-not surprised at the fact that it led to an AJC link, meaning the incident took place in the greater Metro Atlanta area.  I’m never really surprised when some of the worst things happen in Atlanta, because that’s kind of how I perceive this place sometimes.

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Okay, it wasn’t really ruined

Despite my proclamation that Black Friday was ruined, in the end, it didn’t turn out so bad for me in spite of my judgmental claims. I started shopping on the afternoon of Thanksgiving, and while the food was cooking, I made a few purchases, and felt pleased with myself for tackling things that I wanted, at good prices, and eliminating the need to wake up at 3:30 in the morning the following day.

All in all, I have to boast the things I managed to procure without even having to leave my house:

  • 23″ monitor
  • Canon point-and-shoot camera
  • 32GB SD card
  • Three sweaters
  • One pair of jeans

I stayed up until almost 3 am, after all my company had left, and perused through the varying sales that were already in full swing or were just beginning since it had turned midnight on PST. I didn’t buy anything else for myself, but I was so drunk with online shopping, that I helped acquire other things that they were looking for.

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