My Search for a Nintendo Wii – There is Hope.

It all began a couple of months ago on Christmas Day when my daughter and son-in-law came to visit and brought their Nintendo Wii with them. I watched from the sidelines for a day or so but soon the intrigue of the game became too much for me and I knew I had to try it. My son spent a few minutes setting up a character who would have the name “Mom” – I got to pick all of my features including my hair style – this was almost as much fun as playing the game, and then we were ready to go. My husband and I were given the basics of the technique to the bowling and off we went. After only a couple of games I was hooked and after my son and husband played several rounds of golf, they too found themselves wishing for a Nintendo Wii. My daughter and son-in-law left and with them the Nintendo Wii and we were sorry to see all of them go. After a day or two of Nintendo Wii withdrawal, my husband and I decided we would take our Christmas money and buy a Wii and we headed off to the mall thinking, incorrectly it turns out, that we could walk into any store and purchase a Wii. It was, after all, past all of the Christmas madness and we were sure there would be Wiis everywhere. Boy, we couldn’t have been more wrong. After searching high and low, we returned home empty handed and discouraged. It was then I began my search for a Nintendo Wii.

 

I plotted out my strategy for finding a Wii and dove in. I began my online search with Amazon, for years my true friend for having those hard to find items but none were to be found. I then tried several other online stores but still had no luck. But I did not give up. I ventured back out into the retail stores. I went everywhere, discount department stores, specialty stores, electronic stores, even wholesale clubs but there were no Nintendo Wiis to be found. Where were they all? I enlisted my son and my daughter in my quest for a Wii and they also went to different towns, even different states looking for a Wii but had no more luck than I had. So after six weeks of searching everywhere I had nearly given up hope at finding a Nintendo but then I decided to do some research and find out what was going on. That was when I found the missing Wiis.

 

I read an article about the scarcity of the Nintendo Wii. Some people blame Nintendo for not manufacturing enough systems but what I found disturbed me even more. Over a thousand Nintendo Wii are for sale on Ebay – at dramatically increased prices. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. One guy had eight Wiis for sale on there and the bidding was much more than the selling price of $250. I was appalled to say the least.  I realized it was these unscrupulous lot who where sucking up the Nintendo Wiis for their own profit. They were controlling the market and controlling the price. Unfortunately there were people out there willing to buy a Nintendo Wii for an inflated price, I am not one of them. At that point I became even more determined to buy a Wii – at the price of $250 – come hell or high water. So I kept looking.

 

It was at this point when I discovered the Nintendo Wii Tracker. You can find it at:

 http://wiitracker.com/

After finding the tracker I did a couple of things. First I put the site on my Google Home Page so that every time I logged on to the Internet, the newest information where I could find a Wii on the Internet would appear. I also made the Wii Tracker page my second home page so it would open up also. I also signed up for ZapTxt – it is on the Wii Tracker home page – you just click and sign up and every time an online store has a Wii in stock you will receive an email. This feature did not work the first two days I had it so you might have to give it time. I also researched the History section of the Wii Tracker and discovered that my best bet for getting a Wii – without a bundle – was through Sears.com. If you don’t mind purchasing a bundle for $500, Toys R Us often has bundles for sale, which are a pretty good deal as long as you wish to purchase the extra games that are included. I decided to try my luck with Sears.com so I went to their site, set up an account, and sat down to wait. I would recommend that no matter which online store you decide to buy from, you should set up an account before hand so that you are not spending time trying to get your shipping and billing addresses in while the Wiis are disappearing.

It took roughly six days before I was able to purchase a Wii but I think that was excellent compared to all the time and gas I had spent driving around looking for one in the stores. I did miss an opportunity on Amazon.com – they had them in stock for seven whole minutes but I was busy helping my son with his lunch at the time. I paid $6 for shipping – I could not have driven to the mall and back for that so I didn’t mind paying it and it is far less than the $40 shipping they are charging the buyers on Ebay.

 

So there you have it – my quest for a Nintendo Wii. Hopefully this information will get out to every one out there still on their own personal quest for a Wii so that they don’t have to be cornered into buying one from an unscrupulous seller. We can only hope.

   

High School Basketball And Small Town Politics – Not A Good Mix

It was Senior’s night last night at our last home basketball game. There were balloons and gifts for all the players. Pictures were taken; parents and grandparents were in attendance. The Seniors were excited about the whole affair and had a great time except for the actual basketball game itself.

 

With two minutes to play in the game, all the Seniors sat on the bench and watched the last home game that any of them will ever play in, be played by the Juniors. Now, it doesn’t take an Einstein to figure out that on “Senior” night the “Seniors” should be playing, does it? The game wasn’t close – we were getting destroyed – and while it would have meant so much for the Seniors to be playing, after all, their parents and grandparents were there, the coaches sat them all down on the bench and let the Juniors finish out the game. In what universe does this ever make sense? What moron came up with that idea? Only the three idiots that we have the displeasure of calling “coaches.”

 

I must tell the truth, I know very little about small town politics. I see them in action but I don’t understand them, they make little, if no sense at all to me. The town is run by people without any real background in Town Management, basically, if you’ve lived here a really, really long time you can get elected to an office. Which is how I think the three stooges came to be basketball coaches. They grew up in this little town and went to the high school here. Our head coach never even played basketball in any form and weighing over 400 pounds, he cannot even stand up during practices. He sits in the bleachers and eats and watches’, occasionally throwing out what he considers words of wisdom. His brother is the assistant coach, yes that’s right, nepotism at it’s finest. I don’t know if he ever actually played the game either but he is, after all, on the town’s water board, so that should qualify him to be a basketball coach, right? He only knows three plays and knows even less about the physical training that goes into playing a sport well. The Junior Varsity coach actually played basketball at the high school level but from what I gather, he wasn’t very good at that either. So there you have it, our coaching staff. No real training, no real experience. And exactly what are we paying these three morons for? Our team won 4 games this year. If any of the rest of us did our jobs that badly, after so many years, we would be fired. Hey guys, get a clue. If you haven’t figured out how to coach basketball after all these years, ya probably aint’ ever gonna figure it out! Perhaps you should be man enough to step down and let the town hire people who actually know something about the game??

 

My son gets discouraged. After playing the game for 12 years he learned nothing playing at the high school level and any hope of playing after high school is gone. He actually knows more about the game than these coaches and it kills him to have to play for these morons. But he does it. Unfortunately, I have watched the light of the love of the game go slowly out of his eyes over the past couple of years and that is something I will never forgive these coaches for.

 

Small town politics. Somebody should wake up.

HATE – Are You Sure?

hate [hayt]

v (past hat·ed, past participle hat·ed, present participle hat·ing, 3rd person present singular hates)

1.  To dislike somebody or something intensely: to dislike somebody or something intensely, often in a way that evokes feelings of anger, hostility, or animosity 

 

Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

  

Over the past few months I have read various forums, blogs, etc. regarding the New England Patriots and I am bothered by what I am reading there. A few folks have written in to say that they “hate” Patriots fans, or that the entire world “hates” the Patriots. I find myself quite disturbed by how some people casually throw that word around.

 

I thought about all the things I truly hate in this world, as I don’t throw that word around casually. These are not in any particular order.

 

1. Pedophiles, pedophiles that murder children, child molesters, and child murderers. (I put these in a single category – I believe there is a very special place in Hell for them.)
2. People that intentionally injure or kill domestic pets.
3. Osama bin Laden
4. Global Warming
5. World Hunger

  

And I guess that is truly about it. These are the things that if I had the power I would wipe out from the face of the world. You will note there are no sports teams, players or fans on my list. There are also no politicians, celebrities or any other people in the media on there. I save “hate” for those very special things – things and people that I believe harm mankind and the common good as a whole. I would never put a sports fan or team in the same category as the killers of Polly Klaas or Adam Walsh. Would you?

 

Of course, there are many things I wish I could change, many causes that I back, many things I believe in.

 

Be careful when you use the word ‘hate’ so offhandedly. When it comes to “Hate” or “Love” for that matter, these labels should be reserved for those people and things that truly deserve the title.