Playing With Sharp Objects

We celebrated Thanksgiving this year with the usual family feast, only to rush out at 7pm to our closest Circuit City to camp out overnight for a number of electronic goodies. Specifically, we were waiting for the Compaq C717NR for $299. It included Norton Internet Suite 2007, a free router, and an all-in-one printer, both of which were quickly thrown up on Ebay. Some pictures of our evening below.

This is the second year in a row we have done Black Friday. Last year we attended one at Best Buy but we were way back in a line that wrapped around the whole mall after arriving around 4:30am. This year we came prepared with a tent, which kept us out of the wind that everyone else complained about, and many layers of clothes.

We were 9th in line at the start of the evening, but somehow the group at the very front seemed to multiply as the evening went on, even though they were the ones keeping the list of people in line. A few confrontations over the list and the line jumpers came up and everything was smoothed out again. About 2am I made a run to Dunkin Donuts for a Box of Joe full of hot chocolate for a little warmth. We went to sleep about 2:30, but it was pretty restless sleep for all of us on the hard concrete. About 3am some more line jumpers showed and someone was complaining loudly so we all got up. At 3:30 we made the decision to pack the tent away in the van, after which an employee came out to announce that vouchers would be handed out and everything needed to be packed up.

Around 4am they began handing out vouchers for the limited items such as the laptop. I got voucher 14 of 24 for the laptop while my son got 10 of 24, and a friend got voucher 1 or 9 for an Acer desktop. Around that time more line jumpers showed up at the front, but by that time everyone in line was exhausted and no one wanted to argue any more. I had what I came for so I gave up that fight. A few of the guys waiting in line were just there to flip the vouchers for cash at the back of the line and walked away with $200 for their efforts that evening.

After getting inside at 5am, we got to the head of a longer line for the laptops, but were in the heat so that didn’t matter. Waiting in line for everyone else to finish up took 4 hours so we were finally out the door at 9am.

All around a fun event that we’ll prepare better for next year. I’m thinking inflatable mattresses and enough chemical handwarmers.

After a bad experience with a Mini Accessories vendor, I decided to make my own grille badges. My first attempt can be seen here.

I used a Stapes Item# 386943 magnetic inkjet sheet and am spraying clear enamel on top. I’ll be cutting out these guys and displaying pictures of the badges mounted on the grille over the next few days. And we’ll see whether the badges survive staying on the grille holder for my 50 mile commute. My first testing showed that the badges stayed on for a short stretch at 50 mph. The nice thing is, I have the Photoshop file saved, so if I need to get a thicker magnetic sheet, it is not a problem to make more. Once I know that these will stay on, I will move on to making something more original.