Hunter Gatherer

It is on this very morning that I was awakened by a child. I moved the child to a sofa, and checked the time. 4:30 AM. Perfect. I dressed, gathered some reading materials, and headed out. Out to the darkness. Out to some rainfall. I added a track jacket to the mix. Out to the car. Out to hit Kmart before someone else took my spot. Dammit.

Given that hunting makes no sense in Orlandont, and gathering is so manual labor, I embrace the present day fulfillment of the hunter gatherer impulse: shopping for elusive or deeply discounted items. Today the prey was the Wii game console. Stores had become tightly lipped about when shipments were coming in, mostly due to disappointed customers should the shipment pass quietly through the night with no product for sale. Alas, I happened into a Kmart on Saturday night. I asked the electronics guy if they had any Wiis. No, but we'll have some tomorrow. Really? Yes. It's in the sales circular for tomorrow, 6 am.

Well. There you go. For some reason folks underestimate Kmart. When I arrived, all these suckers were waiting at Circuit City, which opens at 8 or 9 am. Me? I went to Kmart. There wasn't much of a line. I picked up a Wii on Thanksgiving day. I was number 8. Maybe they had nine vouchers, which they hand out 45 minutes before store opening.

Well, there were a total of 7 people in front of me, but two formed a couple that only needed one Wii. Another group of 3 friends were only going to get 2, but I told the hold out to get the voucher. He was waiting, might as well get it. Well, he did. And I would've been screwed had they not 7. Next time, keep your mouth shut. He offered to sell his voucher for $20, which I considered buying from him, but decided against it. It was greedy, and sketchy, and so forth...

Well. I was handed voucher number 7. No more. Everyone else- out of luck.
The doors opened at 6 a.m., and I purchased my Wii.

I contemplated going down south to hit a best buy for another Wii, but I started talking to the manager and he was an awesome resource of the history of Orlando music, rock n roll, punk rock, amps, and psychedelic music from the 60s. It's one thing to read the books. Another to have lived it and have that perspective on what was what. He spoke highly of recording to tape and sound bleed, which digital doesn't allow. Should I go buy a nagra and use that? If only it had crystal sync and it all made sense... I wound up leaving at 7 am, and figured the lines were already locked, a storm was passing through, I had the fulfilled the hunt for a wii, go home and don't get greedy.

And my reward? An earlier gather of a 37" HDTV was tested out the night before. A child saw it, and the enthusiastically embraced my hand and started kissing the back of it. "Thank you Thank You Thank You I love you I love you I love you." I spent the rest of the day trying to accomodate this trophy.

Speaking of HDTVs, 37" is enough. 40 is almost too much. I purchased an up-rezzing DVD burner for $55 online. That's worth it. See, it uprezzes dvds from 480 to 720P. This goes to the HDTV via HDMI, which reads it at 720P, which is the highest resolution it can capably display. Yes, it has 1080i, but that's only useful for viewing HD Dailies from the HV20. And yes, it works perfectly. It's like a private screening room. Immensely helpful for turning me on to a tripod. All that shake and stuff- not good at that size. Plus it allows me to scope for flares, faults, and so on. Which is why you screen dailies in the first place. As it's ALL DIGITAL, you don't have the compensation and potential for obscuring faults with celluloid to digital process. The camera connects to the HDTV through the second HDMI cable input (I leave it connected and available solely for the camera- the first is for the HDMI DVD player.) You view the footage. You go on! Awesome!

Speaking of Awesome, I finally skipped my ebay avoidance. It's not as bad as I imagined. It's actually fun.