Thanksgiving Shopping

11.30.2014

This year, due in large part to watching my spending due to lack of employment in August, I cut back on my DVD purchases. I watch a lot of movies, and over time I tend to watch them multiple times. When a new DVD was released that I could stand to not watch immediately, I would make a note on one of my Amazon wish lists to keep an eye out for a sale at a later date. One such movie on that list was little Tommy Cruise's Edge of Tomorrow. Normally I would have grabbed this movie on release day, but I went to the dollar movie and saw it. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but since I had seen the movie at the time of it's at-home release I could wait and try to catch a good deal - the Blu-Ray was available for $19.99 when it first came out, and normally a disk will stay that price the week of its release, then climb a couple of dollars the following month until eventually dropping below the new release price once random sales hit.

Thanksgiving/Black Friday was to count as one of those sales. Target's Thanksgiving Sale Ad showed the Blu-Ray Edge of Tomorrow for a great sale price of $6. Available in-store only. Starting at 6PM on Thanksgiving.

It had been a while since I put up with holiday shopping crowds, but this was a sale I had been waiting for. There were a hand full of other DVDs shown as being on sale that grabbed my eye - mostly TV shows. I decided I would brave the crowd and if I was able to grab the Cruise DVD I would grab whatever others I could find and make it as quick a trip as possible.

At 5PM Thanksgiving night I was in line at my closest Target in Madison. The line didn't seem too bad.

The line wasn't all the way to the end of the store (my cut-off point for where I was willing to wait in line), and although the line was long everything seemed organized to where it didn't feel too bad. After 20 minutes the line behind me grew.

I struck up conversations with people around me and everybody was after a TV. 1 couple was also there for a vacuum cleaner, while a group behind me was there for an XBox 1 and iPod. Me, I just wanted DVDs.

At 6 the door opened at we were allowed in by random grouping, I'm guessing to give people time to get buggies and get out of the way. I made a bee- line for the DVD section and was greeting by a woman with a buggy containing a vacuum cleaner (not the one the couple I was in line with were after) and a growing pile of DVDs. I quickly found the auxiliary DVDs I was after, but little Tommy Cruise was evading me. I asked Buggy Woman if she had seen Edge of Tomorrow, and she quickly pointed it out to me. There it was, $6 - 3 slots wide worth of display for me to go right by twice! I grabbed a copy and quickly thought about wandering the store to see what else was on sale, but the fervor of people zooming by with TV laden buggies made me rethink this and I just headed to the checkout.

The checkout line was as organized as the line coming in. Had there been people in front of me I would have waited until steered to an open register, instead I was just steered. The girl that checked me out did a good job - I was the first person she had ever checked out unsupervised. I had my stack of DVDs and was in and out of the store in 10 minutes, having gotten what I wanted. The best part was that I spent $90 while saving $162.

I've been using coupons and counting my savings a lot lately (I've had to, I think). I've gotten to where I kind of like it. I'm slowly (re)learning that I don't need immediate gratification, it's ok to wait a little. Especially if waiting a little can save some big bucks.

Permalink movies/tv/dvd

Thanks

11.27.2014

This is the day when we're all called upon to reflect back and recognize the things we're thankful for. I generally recognize how good my life is. Even though I've been unemployed for 4 months, that doesn't change that I recognize the goodness.

I've got a great batch of friends. They put up with me and my quirks. Some have been putting up with them for 30 years. Others have less time served, but that just makes the experience of me that more intense. I can be myself around everyone I call a friend, which is the measuring stick I use for that tag. I don't have many friends that I've known less than 10 years. Maybe that makes me picky?

I've got batches of family that I don't see often, which I think is good because most of my family couldn't handle me in large doses. I have a cousin I see every 4-6 weeks to cut my hair and she catches me up on family gossip on that side of the family. I talk to my grandmother less often than I should, but my lifestyle is so far out of her life experience I get the feeling she never really knows what I'm talking about ("I do computers" is mainly what I know she equates with me). That doesn't mean I don't love my family, I do. More than I realize sometimes.

I still talk to Mom. She's been gone almost 6 years, but I'll still walk around the house and talk to her - usually when things are going really, really good. I'm glad I do that.

I have a job again. I'm thankful for that, just to have some income. It's not a job I particularly care for, but that's a story for another day. With any luck I can soon replace it with a job I've been after for the better part of 2 months.

Now I'm about to head out and celebrate a new Thanksgiving tradition with Gina that we've been talking about doing for a while - watching the Friends Thanksgiving episodes (my favorite is the one with Brad Pitt as the formerly fat guy... I'm Brad Pitt in Friends!). That brings me to who I'm most thankful for - Gina. She takes good care of me, puts up with my quirks, and motivates me to take care of myself. She does all this and probably doesn't even know it.

Permalink random

Tales of the Princess Bride

11.14.2014

There aren't many books I've read in one sitting. Omit technical books where I've skimmed 400+ pages as a refresher and there's only 1 book I've read in a day, Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers. I'm a notoriously slow reader, so it takes me a while to get through a book.

Now I can add one to the books I've read in a day, or in this case from 7:00PM - 11:30PM. Cary Elwes' As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride is not the second book I've gone through in a day, and the first non-fiction book I've done so with.

Lately I've been watching TV shows via Amazon's streaming video service (currently hooked on Covert Affairs thanks to Gina. I've also been going through my old trade papaerback collections of the 1980's GI Joe comics for my sporadic reading enjoyment. I saw a blurb about Elwes book a few weeks ago and thought it looked interesting. I love The Princess Bride movie, and the 2 stories I heard Elwes quickly recount involved Andre the Giant - I've heard lots of Andre stories through the years but they've always been wrestler-centric. This book quickly made it on my short list to get. Last week I was putting together an Amazon order, mainly because I needed to restock the protein bars I like, and I decided to sneak As You Wish into my order. It arrived yesterday morning - one of the perks of Amazon Prime membership is Sunday USPS delivery which I now assume includes holiday (Veteran's Day) delivery. I cracked open the book after eating dinner and kept it open until I was finished.

It's a good book, albeit a little heavy on the praise for everyone else that worked on the movie. But with that, you get the feeling that everyone on the movie loved what they were doing and got along well. There are stories about casting, rehersals, and most of all the ever present preparation for the greatest swordfight of modern times. For fans of the movie, this is a fun read, otherwise its content would be lost on you.

Permalink books/comics movies/tv/dvd

A distinct lack of updates

11.02.2014

This coming Friday I have the interview I've been hopeful for since starting my 2014 job search. As such, I've been studying since the interview was scheduled, hence part of the lack of updates for you two people who read this to check in on me :)

With any luck, both the interview will go well and I'll have something of interest to post about. As it is, the rest of the week will probably be pretty silent here.

In the meantime, feel free to enjoy a little Sam Smith.

Permalink rambling

Thought of the Day

10.20.2014

It's an odd feeling when you're sitting in a job interview and hear through the phone "I'm looking at russellmania.com now..." without suddenly feeling very paranoid of what random trains of thought have made it here since 1999.

Granted, the site's been redone a few times so whatever content existed 15 years ago is gone, but since 2008 the content has been fairly consistent.

If nothing else interviewers will get a sense of my true self by reading here. Wrestling-watching board-game-playing gastric-sleeved-walking movie-collecting nerd. I think that sums me up pretty well. None of that has anything to do with prospective work, though. I'm still sticking to that summation regardless.

Permalink random