possible hiatus?
so apparently urbana is coming up. oh and merry christmas.

due to these somewhat unforeseen circumstances, i am now announcing a possible maintenance check aka lack of posts until the january 1. so maybe 40 posts in 46 nights or something instead. not definite, but it's got a relatively high chance of happening.

so today was spent going to the mall with the familia. no, not inside, mind you, because the mall is closed. but we, like any other normal family, fought the bitter cold to take some pictures outside of first colony mall.

yeah. i'm not kidding.

anyhow, leaving for dallas at 10:30, which is in about an hour, because peter, xiao, my sister, and i gots a flight to catch at 7am. you see, we wanted an extra day to frolic in st. louis.

if you are going to be praying anytime in the next week or so, feel free to pop one up there for me. i'm not really feeling it yet. not in the urbana spirit. on the contrary, i'm actually still pretty tired from this past semester and am just looking for some rest. unfortunately, right after urbana ends on the 1st, i come back home for one night and then head on back to austin for work training on the 2nd.

but enough feeling sorry for myself. before i forget, happy belated birthday to money man bryan yu.


also, happy belated to melody chien, who has told me to not call her a sketcho anymore. or just for today, i can't remember.


and just so no one else feels left out of the birthday shoutouts, happy (belated) birthday to everyone here.

the social experiment
stopped by first colony mall today with peter in an effort to get rid of the $600 beast of a machine, thinking amdist the christmas eve frenzy there would be one desperate parent looking to make their spoiled kid happy, only to find that the ps3 was harder to sell than a bible on 6th street.

so peter and i are calling it a "social experiment," well, cuz it just sounds better phrasing it that way than saying it was just a waste of 2 hours of our time.

i was in charge of carrying it around the mall the entire time for a chunk of the profit, but this turned out to be my biggest workout of 2006. not only was the thing 25 pounds, but the freaking strap broke after 10 minutes, so i was lugging it around like a big belly.

but anyways, here's a sample of the conversations that occurred:

guy: wow where'd you get that?
me: bought it a few weeks ago at best buy -- you interested in buying it?
guy: oh how much are you selling it for?
me: $750.
guy: what? aw come on, man.. (walks away in disgust)

i got this reaction a lot today, but i can't for the life of me understand it. do people not know that this thing is sold out everywhere? do they not know the retail price was $650 after tax? so is asking for a mere $100 profit really that absurd? am i supposed to offer coupons and discounts?

but i continued on my trek..

guy: how much you get that for?
me: bout it for retail price of $650, but i'm trying to sell it.
guy: oh really? how much you selling it for?
me: $750. you won't find a better deal anywhere else.
guy: oh..do you have an xbox360?
me: not with me..

uhh yeah...you want an xbox360? let me check my storage room to see if i got any left. what's going on? i was holding a ps3 box with 2 hands. does it look like i got another system stowed away in my back pocket or something?

we finally find some lady who's really interested in buying it. but she just keeps questioning peter as to why he would wait 2 days in line to sell it for just $100 profit. i think she got mixed up as to who the seller and buyer were, cuz it sounded to me like she was trying to drive the price up. but anyways, after much delay..

lady: i'm going to call my brother in israel, and i'll get back to you.
me and peter: okay...

30 minutes later, she tells us she doesn't want it.

what i really wanted to do was just smash the ps3 and be done with it. we walked around a while longer, then finally decided to leave. on the way out, one of the best quotes of the day..

guy: you looking to sell that?
me: yeah, for $750.
guy: oh f*** that.

and that, my friends, concludes the social experiment.


bah, humbug.