blech friday

i like how turkey day has simply become the kickoff to greed shopping…

…no more, no less. but with stuffing!

i remember when shane lived out in mcqueeny i had to leave turkey night earlier and earlier so i didn’t have absolute insanity driving around the outlet mall. just before midnight and the line would damn near stretch back to new braunfels (twelve miles away) to get in there.

really? are the deals really worth all that?

i’m a fan of doing time math in my head. not just figuring how long stuff should take to do, but how much money is that time worth? it’s funny – we all feel our time is worth money when we’re at work – but does it become free when we live the office?

mine doesn’t!

it’s like the HEB’s right now – if you pay for gas with an HEB gift card you save twelve cents per gallon…so now you’re supposed to go in the store, wait in line with all the people buying holiday fare, and buy a card – then go wait in line at the pump so you can save twelve cents. the other day i was putting in thirty bucks worth, which i know with or without discount was roughly eight gallons at current price. that would be a savings of less than a buck with the gift card – so if i said, “go in HEB, wait to buy a card, THEN come get in line for gas…i’ll give you a dollar!” would you do it?

no – you’d tell me to go fuck myself.

the big thing for black friday deals i heard a buzz about was the tv deals – the one i’m typing this on (a 40″ toshiba 1080p lcd) was the best buy bad-ass deal at just under $200 this morning, compared to the $500 i paid (including fed-ex saturday shipping i later found out) back when budnik was but a wee pup two and a half years ago. that’s pretty good – but each store is only allotted, like, four of ’em. so you have to be “that guy” who gets there on tuesday and camps outside the store looking like a vagrant and giving up family holiday time – although i’ve found most people that do this are buying them for themselves, not as gifts, or to re-sell for a profit, so maybe they didn’t really have anybody to spend it with anyway?

i’ve known people that miss work for this shit, and i just find that insane. did you save more than you gave up not being at work? and if you said you were sick, and then FOX 7 or whoever does a black friday bit and you end up on the news at five, nine, and eleven and get fired was it worth it? kinda ironic that a tv newscast could bust somebody skipping work to buy a fucking tv, isn’t it?

bottom line – there is nothing i need THAT FUCKING BAD and neither do you…and i’m not just saying that ’cause i have all my tv needs covered; ’cause technically they aren’t until i get that 55″ out of lay-a-way at the pawn shop.