Black Friday

[Tenigma]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

A great deal on a Blu Ray might be the only thing to get me to venture into the insanity known as Black Friday.

Kevy Baby, you might want to read the article from Slate called "Six Black Friday Bargains to Avoid." The first on the list is Blu-Ray players.

Originally Posted by CoasterMatt

A yottabyte is 1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176 bytes

OK anyone else get an image of Yoda eating that icky food?

Originally Posted by JWBear

Have you all seen the new chocolate fiestaware color? Yummy!

For some reason I have never understood the attraction to fiestaware. I know there's a big group of collectors, but for me, there are no other dishes as happiness-inducing as Corelles.

Originally Posted by madmonkeygirl

Nope i don't set foot out on Black Friday ever.

Me, neither. The closest thing I ever did was wait for the after-Christmas sales on December 26th. I got enticed into doing it with relatives from my ex-husband's side of the family; they are apparently huge into buying stuff at 50% off. But whoo lordy, it's crowded, cramped, and chaotic. Ick ick ick. Plus, it was cold outside. It thoroughly sucked. And for me, I don't want to buy 4 rolls of gift wrap at 50% off and save it until the next year. And fight people to grab them from the shelves. Crazy!

Originally Posted by katiesue

I love it. People going completely wonky. Buying stuff for no apparent reason other than they think it's cheap. It's a people watching extravaganza.

I agree, it's just nuts. But in order to people-watch requires being there in person, and I like to avoid it as much as I can.

Originally Posted by madmonkeygirl

I wish one year we'd just not do gifts but that won't happen considering my mom is the most giving person i ever know or known making sure there are gifts under the tree. Plus my new nephew his really first Xmas he'll remember so. But for me material things don't make me happy.

Why don't you lead an effort to create a specially themed Christmas this year? Give it a name, like "The Family Giving Tree" or something. Each person draw a name from a hat, and you can ONLY give to that one person. Everyone have a ceiling of how much they're allowed to spend (say $50), and bonus kudos go to people who are creative, and/or can craft/cook/bake their own gifts. Maybe even set up a food donation bin near your tree, to give to the local food bank. Maybe on Christmas day, bake up a bunch of cookies and then deliver it as a family to local homeless shelter or a senior care home.

For the kids in the family, make it so each child only gets ONE gift this Christmas. I know this may sound heretical but as an only child with no grandparents, I went years with just one gift under the tree. And you know what? I didn't get overwhelmed with too many presents that I all but ignored. I got the ONE gift, and I played with it. Why do we need to train children to believe they should expect a huge overabundance of material goods for Christmas? Teach them that it's a time of giving--not just of stuff, but of the heart, one's time, and one's charity.

Originally Posted by Disneyphile

Nothing like standing in line at 3am for 5 hours to save $20 on something that was $30 off six months ago, with the additional hope of having the remote chance of getting a very limited (i.e. quantity 5 - while supplies last!) item, and see people fight over it. 'Tis the season!

I agree... nothing is worth that much trouble.

Originally Posted by scaeagles

Freakin' morons in Long Island trampled to death a Walmart employee...

Yep, it's just terrible. People get so caught up in the frenzy of it that they don't realize they are pushing the people in front and squeezing the life out of them. Amazing how the supposed "best time of the year" brings out the worst behavior in people.