November 27, 2006

Amazon is doing this thing where users can vote on what is going to be on sale, and then on Thursdays they offer 1000 of them at a pretty decent discount. Last week it was for the Xbox 360 Core System. I was a pretty good deal at $100. Christopher is dying for one, so he got himself set up at the computer and prepared to get one. I think it shocked him that he couldn’t even get the page to load. Well hell, 50k people hitting a site all at once to purchase took up an awful lot of bandwidth. Personally I think that the number was MUCH, much higher than that, but it’s a pretty good round number.

I was checking out some of the forums over there and there are a bunch of whiners claiming that Amazon did a bait and switch, or that the people who got one used bots or were hackers, and even one claiming he is filing a class-action lawsuit. They are all dumb-asses. The whole thing is akin to Wal-Mart at 6am on Black Friday. Lot’s of people there at the same time, pushing and shoving and all trying to get the same five toys that are left in stock. Most people left disappointed. That’s life. I thought that the whole thing was a pretty darn good idea, and even if Chris didn’t get the system, at least he tried. No loss, other than a few minutes of sit-down time at the computer. Much better than people clubbing each other over the head for a few damn toys.

Technorati : Amazon.com, Christmas Gifts, Xbox 360

I managed to sleep through the kids getting ready for school today. I vaguely remember at least one of them waking me up, but went right back to sleep. Managed to nap until about 8:30 or so. Very nice.

Since Divx converter does not work in Windows Vista, I am experimenting with Xvid and AutoGK on my PC to see if I can compress a couple of shows that I want to keep. I also have several movies from Netflix that I want to rip and compress that we have not seen yet. Seems like an awful lot of work just to watch a couple of videos that I will end up deleting later anyway, but space is at a premium on my entertainment PC, and I will keep a couple of them for the kids to watch. over and over and over again. Then I will get sick of them and delete them.

I had thought about decorating the house for Christmas today, but I am going to skip that. Maybe next week when I actually have two days off. Today I am going to plan Ruth’s birthday party. Kind of late, but I haven’t had much time away from work due to the holiday. Just a few friends and some beer for the adults as it is my birthday as well. I am looking at the links that my wife sent me and still don’t have a clue what to do, but will find something cool. Maybe I will drive to the party store in Carrollton tomorrow afternoon for some more ideas. Cheap is always good.

I did order her a birthday gift, should be here Wednesday. Some game called Cranium Hullabaloo and an Aquadoodle drawing mat. Hopefully the wife hasn’t already gotten her anything, or else this will be a Christmas gift instead.

Speaking of Christmas, we are going to take the girls to see Santa on Sunday afternoon. One of the cooler things that we do as a company each year is something called Santa’s Sleigh. We will set up at one of the restaurants in the parking lot. Some years we have rented an RV, others we set up a tent and stuff. We have food and Hot Chocolate for everyone, and all of the kids get to sit in Santa’s lap and they each get a gift. All of the children of our employees that are under ten years old participate. It’s pretty fun, and for a lot of them, it’s the only trip to see Santa that they will get. I damn sure won’t take my kids to the mall to see Santa Claus. That’s one of my childhood memories that is really cool, but nowadays it is a great big goat fuck that I try to avoid like the plague.

Technorati : Birthdays, Christmas, Goat Fucks, Sleep