My First Black Friday

The reason for me attending Black Friday this year was kindly due to my brother-in-law, Ben. I should probably let you know that I'm a big super-hero fan. Nerdy, I know. So, with that being said, one of my favorite shows of all time is Smallville. I had all the seasons up until season 6. But since seasons are so expensive (usually around $40-$50) and I'm now having to live off of a college student budget I haven't been able to purchase a season since. However, Thursday night at Thanksgiving dinner Ben changed that by informing me that all Smallville seasons (up to season 9) were on sale at Best Buy for $10. That's when I immediately decided that I would take the plunge and take part in my first Black Friday experience.

When I got to Best Buy, it was a mad house even though it was close to 1PM. I thought I would miss the huge crowd, however I was entirely wrong. People were running this way and that. Huge carts were being pushed left and right. I was yelled to move out of the way around 6 times. The words "excuse me" were said in the most obnoxious of ways. I almost left, but then I remembered I was on a mission.

My friend, Bethany, who I dragged along with me, and I immediately headed to the DVD/Television section. I almost cried (a little over-exaggerated, but you get the point) when I saw that Smallville seasons 7, 8, and 9 were all sold out. However, as I turned the corner I saw the display and beamed. Right in front of me stood seasons 7, 8, and the very last one of season 9.

Friday I purchased three, I repeat, three seasons of Smallville for $30. It may have been one of the best days of my life. (Again, a little bit over-exaggerated)

Black Friday

So this past Black Friday I unfortunately went out shopping in the madness because my friend wanted to go out to Aurora Farms which is an outlet mall by my house. He has never been out on Black Friday and I tried to warn him that it is going to be cold, thousands of rude people, and lines out the wazoo but he still wanted to go. So my attempt to dissuade him from going out so that I did not have to failed and we went out about 11:30. The outlet mall is like 10 minutes from my house but because of traffic it took us at least 30 minutes to get there not a good start. Because the parking lot was so full at Aurora Farms we had to park in the condominiums parking lot right next to the outlets and this is where the story becomes fun! As we are walking to the outlet mall we are talking and this old lady living in the condos was standing by her open window and started yelling and cussing us out because according to her we were yelling and people were trying to sleep. She had a very "colorful" vocabulary you could say and after it was all said and done and she threatened to call the cops on us I responded with happy Thanksgiving to you too!

I should have known that was just going to be the start to an awful night and sure enough I was right there were so many people out there that it just made me sick. And the lines that I saw were easily worse then any line I have ever stood in for a roller coaster it was ridiculous! Then to make matters worse the only reason I went out was because my friend wanted to buy some Christmas gifts, but he ended up not getting anything because he did not want to wait in the lines. So I pretty must wasted my night outside getting cussed out and ran over by people when I could have been in bed sleep! So needless to say Black Friday will not be seeing CJ Holmes anytime soon at all.

Black Friday!!!

This is my second year participating in black Friday. I ask myself why do I do this? Why do I decide to wake up early and compete with hundreds of other grumpy shoppers? This year was interesting because I decided to shop Walmart's midnight sale. They had several things on sale, from video games, toys, dvd's blue rays, and etc...I already have an addiction of buying Walmart's five dollar dvds, so when I heard Walmart was having a $1.96 dvd sale I had to go! I was amazed to see the number of people that were there at midnight. It was like vultures hovering around a dead animal. When midnight finally struck, we were allowed to start looking through the dvds and make our choices. I swear the lady next to me dropped like five dvds on the floor because she was in such a hurry. I was able to pick out ten movies that I wanted and was very happy with my choices. I picked up the Lord of The Rings Trilogy, The Bourne Trilogy, I Am Legend, i Robot, Fools Gold, and Casino Royale. I honestly probably would have bought more, but crowds make me uncomfortable especially when people are being pushy. This year I decided not to go to the 5am sale because I did not see anything I was interested in buying. My brother is a manager in electronics so I was able to get details from him on how it went. He said people were lined up well before midnight for the deals on TVs, laptops and the other major deals. He said these customers were definitely dedicated to get what they wanted, and waiting was not an issue for them. I just find black Friday interesting, so many people go crazy and do things they normally wouldn't do, just to save some money. But in the end it has to be worth it, we continue to do it year after year.

God bless the USA

The thanksgivings and Christmas season are a time reuniting with loved ones and sharing good times. More importantly its a time to be a glutton in every way possible. I decided to spend my black Friday sleeping in watching Seinfeld (I was a glutton too, a lot of Seinfeld). With that said I am frustrated with everything about black Friday. Physically it is grueling. People get up at early hours in the morning to buy something (not to end hunger or for a selfless reason) and wait until the store opens. Depending on the location it is cold outside and could have bad weather. Not to mention that people are walked on and trampled during these festivities. Mentally it is also taxing. First you have to be in a mental state to get up and take on the weather to buy a product. Also it goes to show how retail stores control a large chunk of our society.

I decided not to participate in black Friday. To me the deals did not over weigh the hardships. Black Friday is the most celebrated holiday, it should be the new Independence Day.

I Never Want To See Food Ever Again. Ever.

As this thanksgiving comes to an end, and my body recovers from all the food that it painfully consumed, I can’t help but look forward to this year’s Christmas. I do love to eat, and watching football? Well that shouldn’t even be a question. Christmas, however, allows me to do something else with my family; surprise them with gifts. I’m one of those people who really enjoy finding the perfect gift for a family member and loves seeing real smiles when they get something they wanted. Last year I bought a Wii with my parents and surprised my grandpa with it. Now my grandpa is not one of those videogame playing grandpas; however, he recently was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and the Wii is known to help control the symptoms (crazy I know!). He was so-so on the gift but after I showed him how to play, he has been nonstop. He even beat me in bowling and has taken his golf game to a whole new level. He misses playing golf.

But this year, I look forward to planning my gift ideas and seeing how much money I can pull together for the presents. I think this year I’m going to try online shopping and see if I can get some good deals and save money if I plan ahead. Also I’m going to try and buy stuff before break if I can, which means it will be mailed to my place in Anderson instead of back home. My dad is a sports guy and is really into cycling and swimming, as he used to be a very good cross-country runner. Cycling equipment is expensive, but if I buy online and stay up on the savings deals I can find a coupon to my liking. My mom really likes her chick flicks and Christian music so ill be keeping my ears open for specific ideas. I like to buy electronics at Best Buy, but sometimes their prices are a bit too high and I have to settle for shopping around and comparing prices. Again, buying online will help this problem too. My sister will be the tricky one. She is having a baby in 7 months which means the baby technically won’t be born around Christmas…but you can still give a baby gift then right?? I’m hoping so because that seems like the most blatantly obvious Christmas idea for her. I’ll have to look up baby toy ideas online once again to find out my choices of purchase. I’m thinking a little football…or rugby ball. Girls like those too right?

40% Off is Hard to Pass Up

So, I am now back from my Black Friday experience. I made it through two hours of it. One of these hours was spent at Express. They had 40% of everything in the store before noon. One problem, the one sweater that I wanted in the store, they didn't have my size. Go figure right? I guess that's what I get for not going at 4am when they opened. But, luckily the 40% off was online also, and I was able to purchase the sweater when I got home.

The thing that annoyed me most about the experience was the lines. Yea, I accepted them and moved on, but boy do they clutter up the store. We ended up weaving our way around enough people to find some items to buy and saving around $120. I'd say it was worth it.

One thing that I noticed on the way to the mall was that the restaurant Old Chicago was having a "Man Cave Party" today starting at 11am, pretty good idea. All of the guys can go eat and hang out while their wives shop. Now, I saw plenty of men enjoying their shopping experience this morning, but the "Man Cave Party" idea fits the stereotype that the women are the shoppers.

I have to say I'm glad I partook in Black Friday, but I will end up buying most of my Christmas presents the week before Christmas. Yep, I'm one of those last minute shoppers.

Pre Black Friday Shopping

On the Tuesday before Black Friday my mom, dad, and I went to the mall. Did we buy anything? No, nor did we have intentions to. We knew that there were going to be some great deals on Friday, so we wanted to scope out all of the stores without the entire crowd. We used this time to try clothes on and decided on items that we were going to buy. Now we aren't crazy Black Friday shoppers who go out at midnight for deals or even get up at 4am. We'll roll up to the stores about 10am and see if we are still lucky enough to still get some deals (or if the stores still even have what we want).

I love to shop, but I still get overwhelmed. Black Friday is one of those days. I feel like I need to go shop because everyone who loves shopping goes shopping on Black Friday, but there are so many people that sometimes I just leave because I can't find what I want and the stores are so cluttered. Now I know this is a preconceived notion I have that everyone who loves shopping goes shopping on Black Friday, but I think I go because I want that since of belonging. By going I give myself group membership in the group "Black Friday Shoppers."

I am writing this right before we leave to go check out the deals, and I know some people have already returned from their shopping extravaganzas. You 3am people, more power to you, now we'll see if I can handle at least an hour of this madness.

Customer Service

This past weekend, my fiancé and I went out for dinner to TGI Fridays. On the trip there, I called in advance to get our name down on the waiting list. Once we arrived, I came to find that we were not actually on the list at all. So we ended up waiting a bit and finally got a seat. Our waitress was very nice and friendly, and she took our drink and appetizer order. She then came back with our drinks and ended up spilling mine all over the table. It didn’t get on me or anything so I wasn’t upset about it at all. It was no big deal. We then proceeded to order our meals. We had a coupon for buy one entrée, get one free, so we decided to use it. However, my meal soon came and my fiancé’s did not. I waited for a bit for him to get his meal, but it didn’t come out. Finally, our waitressed noticed and went to figure it all out. My finance, not wanting my food to get cold, told me to go ahead and start eating, so I did. To our surprise, the manager came to our table and apologized for the inconvenience. They had lost my fiancés order and were in the process of making it. He offered to make me a new, fresh plate so that we could eat together or an appetizer while we waited, but I had already started to eat and we had already eaten an appetizer. Therefore, my fiancé tried to pull the, “it would be really nice if you could take of the price of our appetizer or drinks” card and the manager said he would see what he could do. Minutes later his meal finally came out. The manager returned and said that he had taken off the price of his meal and appetizer and returned the coupon to us to use again. He also gave us a fifteen dollar gift certificate for our next visit. I was pretty shocked at their generosity. I’ve had things like this happen to me before, but no one has ever resolved it in this way. He was very polite and quick to respond to their mistakes even though we never complained about it. Needless to say, our not so great experience was compensated by how well the manager took care of us. I’m sure we will be returning again in the near future.

Proud Parents

Today I received extremely exciting news: I am a mom.

Well, kind of.

I am a mom in the closest sense that I plan to be for a while. A proud mom of a baby hedgehog. I have wanted a pet ever since I have moved from home. Residing in the dorms presented a problem with this desire. Now, however, I finally can have a pet of my own. Today, Olivia (the real mom) had her babies at 11:00 a.m. I will be gaining custody of Sonic the week before Christmas, officially making me a proud parent.

My boyfriend and I, after a long discussion, placed our names on the waiting list for a baby boy out of this most recent litter of hedgehogs in Lafayette, IN. Now, this was a huge decision on both of our parts (mainly mine because I will have custody and he will only have visitation rights). As it is with any potential pet owner, it is definitely a high-effort decision. We had to make sure we knew how to care for Sonic, what to feed him (fresh vegetables, eggs, and cat food), where he should stay (in a guinea pig cage), if he can be potty trained (surprisingly, yes in a litter box when he is out to play), what kind of family history he comes from (healthy and non-aggressive), and a variety of other factoids. The information we sought was a result of making a high-effort decision. The perceived risks of this purchase were great when we began our search. Knowing that the baby hedgehog was going to be expensive, we wanted to lower the perceived risk before purchasing; we did this by information search. Now that the perceived risk seems to be minimal in our minds by purchasing Sonic from a well-known breeder of the hedgehog world, we made our decision and anticipate excitement and enjoyment as we begin our journey as first-time parents.

(Picture courtesy of Jennifer Jack, Facebook)

French Blues

Most people who know me know that I love to purchase a fresh new pair of kicks. Recently there have been rumors about the retro 13 Jordan “French Blues” coming to the sales racks and this past week it was confirmed. They will be re-releasing the French Blue 13’s on the 26^th of November the day after thanksgiving. The last time that these shoes came out was back in 2005 and before that it was 1998. Never owning a pair of these, I feel obligated to get them this go around. The best part of this news is that my job will be getting them, so it’s guaranteed that I have the opportunity to get them. Like always when it comes to something I want, the price of the product is always ridiculous. The retro 13s will be $159.99 before tax. I know some people are thinking that isn’t that much money or others are thinking who in their right mind would want to pay that much for a pair of shoes. Well I do and I will have them the day that they come out. Normally I wouldn’t care that much about getting them except my job won’t let employees(me) get our discount on the shoes since they are considered an exclusive Jordan, and the problem is that I have just enough money to get them after tax. After I purchase these beautiful kicks I will be rolling in lint/dust because I will be broke!! Who cares though, because on the bright side I will have the shoe I want.

The Moss Effect

I was born in the great state of Texas. I have been a Texas longhorn fan since birth, but unlike every other Texan kid I rooted for the Houston Oilers instead of the Dallas Cowboys. Now every football fan knows that the Oilers later moved to Nashville and became the Tennessee Titans, and my fan hood moved with them. The NFL is a worldwide business boasting the greatest entertainment event every year in the super bowl. Being a huge Titans fan, i look to the new addition of Randy Moss to our receiving core as a huge addition to the team. Randy is a pro bowl wide receiver and will bring revenue in the form of jersey sales and getting people to the games. For a team that hasn’t been to the super bowl since 1999, something new was definitely needed.

The team is already starting to make commercials showing the new star receiver in his jersey and catching slants over the middle. In his first start this Sunday, he had one catch for twenty four yards but also drew a penalty on defensive pass interference for another thirty yard gain. Two of the biggest reasons Moss was brought in was to open up running lanes for Chris Johnson so defenses can’t stack the box against him, and to allow slot receivers and tight ends to get open while the corners and safeties are dealing with Moss. Granted, Moss only had one catch in the game and his age might be catching up with him, but there is no doubt that having him for the rest of the season will be a great investment bringing in revenue for the front office and catching touchdown passes on the field.

To Infinity, and Beyond!

My biggest hobby as a kid growing up was Lego's. My brother and I have over 200 Lego sets combined. I have really creative instincts, so Lego's were the perfect thing for me. I would build giant cities and ships and devote every inch of my bedroom floor to building new sets. I took a break from buying Lego sets for 3 or 4 years, until I was notified that Lego came out with a new theme for their sets: Toy Story. I immediately went to Lego.com and previewed all of their new Toy Story sets. I started drooling. The Toy Story trilogy are my favorite animated movies of all time. It was impossible for me to resist these new sets.

Every year for Christmas from about age 6 to 16, I asked for anywhere from 3 to 6 Lego sets. My mom asked for a few Christmas ideas for me, and I couldn't help but to put a Toy Story Lego set on my list. Lego made sets from each of the three movies. It was impossible for me to decide on just one set, so I ended up putting four sets on my Christmas list. The decision was rather high effort because of several aspects. First, I narrowed down the sets to put on my list through noncompensatory decision making. I eliminated all sets that I figured to be overpriced for their value, then I eliminated the remaining sets that were unappealing to me.

The remaining Lego sets went through a compensatory decision making process. I read consumer reviews on all the sets, and analyzed the cost-to-benefit ratio of each set. I had very high motivation, ability, and opportunity for the decision. Finally, after much thought, I narrowed it down to four quality Toy Story Lego sets to put on my list. I was very satisfied with my decision, and I can't wait to see which, if not all, of the sets I get for Christmas. Hopefully I was a good boy this year.

Choosing the Right Horn

In writing these blogs, I have noticed that I tend to more High-Effort purchases than other Low-Effort purchases. I am not entirely sure why this is, but in examining my behavior as a consumer I tend to make expensive purchases after saving money for some time; just an interesting side note. Anyways, almost a year ago I bought a new trumpet…cost was $1,100, which was really a steal. It was originally purchased for $1,800 and was really in mint condition. It had been in a case for most of its life. When I began looking for a new horn, I had a few factors influencing my exposure. My mother, for one, because she is a professional trumpet player – she plays with the Lafayette Symphony and Terre Haute Symphony Orchestras and also with the Indianapolis Brass Choir. She is well known and respected in numerous circles in the trumpet field. She has only played on one type of trumpet her entire life, and sort of pushed me in the direction of Bach Stradivarius’, originally. Another thing affecting my exposure to different brands was time restraints and location. I don’t have time to drive up to Chicago trumpet manufacturing plants and stores in Bloomington, Indianapolis, etc. Not with 23 credit hours, a fiancé, a dog, and now 3 jobs. It was just was not possible. I managed to try a few horns in Muncie, Indiana but ended up buying a horn that another trumpet player here in Anderson was trying to sell. Not that it matters to many people, but it a Schilke S22 large bore B-flat horn. I actually have an exact copy of it in C, as well, which is ultimately the reason I purchased the B-flat that I did. I don’t think I can call it brand loyalty, or even habituation, but I know that it was a good quality instrument from manufacturers that I trusted.

The "Big Question"

Recently I bought an engagement ring for my now fiancé. It was another High-Effort purchase on my part because of the cost involved and the limited funds that I had to work with. Because it was High-Effort, I shopped around quite a bit to try to find the best value for my price range. While I was looking at different styles of rings and diamonds, I did a lot of perceiving through vision. Size obviously attracts attention, but color and quality are really what makes the difference. I looked at the Shane Company downtown, various mall jewelers (don’t ever do that), and finally found one at the Helzberg Diamond store in Plainfield, IN. The diamond was not quite as large as I had wanted it to be, however it was not too small, either. The clarity and quality of the diamond is what made the difference, along with the customer service and protection plan that was included from the store. As a side note, we were on the beach at sunset in Siesta Keys, Florida on New Years Eve, all dressed to go out to dinner with her parents, aunt and uncle, and grandparents when got on one knee and asked the question. After a few seconds of silence and a small tear only one word was audible: “Yes.”

Who Let the Dogs Out??

Two summers ago my then girlfriend, now fiancé, and I bought a puppy. Her name is Bella and she is a half Yorkie, half Shitzu mix…we think. Belle was found on PetFinder.com’s web site. People post pets wanted for adoption from numerous pet adoption agencies. We searched many different breeds – how hyper they were, how much they shed, life expectancy, size, you name it. It was very High-Effort on our part because she is a part of our lives now (Kata, my fiancé, calls her our baby if that tells you anything). We almost bought a different one; a rat terrior named Toby. At the last minute the adoption agency gave Toby to a different family, and Kata was devastated until we found Bella. I don’t think we could have found a better dog to add to our family.