The following takes place EST non-DST.
The Mission: Pick up birthday presents for Andrew and Lev, whilst scoring bonuses for myself.
Money in wallet: 170 USD.

4:00 A.M. - My alarm goes off. I shut it off and go back to sleep.

4:15 A.M. - My dad wakes up. I'm still sleeping.

4:25 A.M. - I get up, shower, brush my teeth, and get dressed.

4:27 A.M. - We drive to the Palisades Mall.

4:33 A.M. - We see the first other car on the road.

4:46 A.M. - We arrive at the mall only to find a line at Circuit City extending towards the main entrance.

4:47 A.M. - I get out of the car and get online. Due to a VERY disorienting line I end up losing my place and have to go to the back again. I spend the entire time listening to the conversation of the two ladies in front of me.

5:25 A.M. - After spending about 40 minutes online, I finally get inside Circuit City. I spend the next twenty minutes looking for the Sims 2, Call of Duty 2, and a Namco game compilation for the GBA. As I approach the PC games section, I can hear the crowd b1tching at the employees because they don't have vouchers to buy laptops. A small riot ensues.

5:46 A.M. - I have no success finding CoD2, but I get what I need and get online for the checkout.

6:09 A.M. - I purchase my stuff and get out.

6:11 A.M. - I meet my dad at Staples, after his efforts to get into Best Buy prove to be futile. He says he's going to look for some stuff for his office so I head up to Barnes and Nobles to return a textbook I bought a few weeks ago.

6:17 A.M. - I learn that Barnes and Nobles is closed until 10 A.M. I head on over to the EB Games which is a few stores down.

6:18 A.M. - EBG is only letting 6 people in at once. I get online behind some street punks and strike up a conversation with some dude behind me

6:31 A.M. - First major movement into the store!... About 5 feet.

6:49 A.M. - A woman starts asking us if any of us are here to buy Wiis. Apparently, 26 of us were.

7:00 A.M. - It's light outside now. Still no movement. The newspaper stand next to us opens.

7:18 A.M. - After an hour of waiting online, we've only moved about 15-20 feet. The store is still a good 30 feet away.

7:25 A.M. - My mom calls, asking me to remind my dad that he has a brunch meeting with one of his clients at 8 A.M. I give up my spot and bid farewell to the dude behind me. I go down to Staples to pick up my dad.

7:35 A.M. - My dad finally gets to the cashier and buys his stuff. We leave.

7:38 A.M. - We get to our car and give up our spot to some nice lady. My dad drives us home.

7:55 A.M. - We get home. My dad and I bring our goods into the house. I flop down on my bed and he quickly shaves, brushes his teeth, gets dressed, and leaves.

Objectives:
Find Lev's present: Check
Find Andrew's present: Negative
Score Bonuses: Check

Amount of money I should've spent: $70.
Amount of money I ACTUALLY paid: $15 (17 including tax)
Money left in wallet: 150 USD.


So, Black Friday was a pretty pimp experience for me. I didn't get all the stuff I wanted and I left with a wallet that was still the same size as I had brought it. Still it was fun, and I could totally see myself doing this again next year. You know, sans waiting online at 3 P.M.

So recently I had a chance to download and play the PC demo for Call of Duty 4. Mind you, this was no easy task, seeing as how my PC is over 5 years-old and running on its last legs. Despite all this, CoD4 was optimized for PCs that meet the minimal standards, as it ran fairly smoothly during my playthrough, save for a couple of instances where the game's FPS stuttered.

The core gameplay itself hasn't changed much since CoD2 and 3. You still have your rebounding health, frag grenades, a melee attack and the game also features the return of the sprint function (in singleplayer). Anyone who's ever played CoD2 on the PC should feel right at home, for the controls are the same, save for the Sprint action being set to shift and Melee being set to V. Either way, CoD veterans won't be alienated by the new control scheme.

The demo itself was short, as expected of a demo, but was a kick-@ss experience nonetheless. The demo has the player trying to secure a stranded M1 Abrams. Along the way, the player has a chance to experiment with the games night vision, the new Javelin AT weapon, and crapload of new weapons, ranging from the M4A1 to the G3, to the Dragnouv, the AK, and the W1200 shotgun. Any CoD veteran or just about any FPS fan should try out the demo. As for me, having experience both the demo and the 360 multiplayer beta, my purchase has already been set.

I am a genius.

So, my 360 hard drive just crashed yesterday. I called M$ tech support, and they're sending me a replacement. With all the crap M$ is making me put up with, they should send me a free wireless adapter. Or I should buy a PS3.

So, fresh start for me. I was formerly NJFragger, and after finding out that I have over a 1,000 hits on Google, I thought it'd be best to get a name that's more discreete. Anyhoo, thanks for reading.