Black Friday

[filkertom]

This would be me, not shopping.

Times past, I've been out there at the CompUSA or Best Buy or Target. Not today. Nothing I need on sale, nothing I want on sale, ten degrees Fahrenheit. I think I'll have some young person bring me a pizza for lunch. I have an album to finish this weekend.

And how are you managing the day?

Comments

[yaspis.livejournal.com]

So far so good, although I did buy a third-hand tablecloth. But it was pre-arranged, so it doesn't count, right? :)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Doesn't count. It's the camping-out-waiting-for-sales-beat-the-rush thing I'm thinking of.

[jenrose]

I suppose people do this, but I never do. Ugh.

I have enough "find good deals" mojo that I just never bother waiting for that kind of sale. Except for one specific store and not the day after thanksgiving. (JoAnn's 50% off coupons. Don't ask.)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've done it in the past. If you want some really stupid deals -- for instance, this morning Best Buy apparently had a ow-to-middling-power computer and monitor for $140 if you got there early enough -- it can be great, and great fun. But I don't really need anything right this second, and none of the gifts I want to get people are worth chilling my ass in the dark for.

[kimpire.livejournal.com]

...ENTENMANNS MAKES THE BIG KIND OF OATMEAL RAISIN COOKIES AGAIN!

*has died and gone straight to heaven*

[swanofgrey.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm going to get off work here in about an hour and a half, go home, sleep until 7ish, clean my house a bit, and then go back to work.

Shopping on Black Friday is not in my vocabulary. My sanity and toes are worth more to me than any sale.

[starsongky.livejournal.com]

I've got a couple more hours of work yet (though our hotel's so slow that "work" is mostly knitting & LJ), home to sleep most of the day, up & grab something to eat, watch "Numbers" and back to work again. With any luck gazerwolf will have the tree up & decorated by the time I get up. Love looking at it, hate fooling with it.

[unkbar.livejournal.com]

Well, I will be going shopping tonight.

The vicissitudes of work have had me working at a customer site in Frankfurt, Germany for the past two weeks, including weekends and Thanksgiving day.

It's been tough duty -- but now I'm less than 24 hours away from wheels-up for home Saturday morning.

Last night we got a dusting of snow that has given the city a new look. Tonight, Frankfurt's Christmas market opens in the old part of the city. I intend to join the crowds, drinking Gluehwine, eating traditional Christmas junk food, and shopping at all the little fairy-tale buildings and kiosks that have been erected in the Romer square.

[kiarrh.livejournal.com]

I find myself grateful that I'm too poor and too sane to take part in the feeding-frenzy, especially after listening to coworkers discussing plans to be be at stores at 4 a.m. before coming in to work.

None for me, thanks.

I'm getting ready to go in, with my NaNoWriMo project loaded into my Ipaq to work on as office-volume allows. The most buying-of-stuff I intend to do is $2.09 gas somewhere and dinner out.

[jss]

Up at 5am, at work by 6am, here for the so-called half-day through noon, then home via the grocery store to get fresh produce and the last of the stuff for Saturday's annual Gluttony Day party at my place.

The number of people camped out at the mini strip malls between home and work... surprised me. We're talking stores like CompUSA and Office Depot, not huge department stores. Traffic was busier than I've seen it this early, though since it's pre-6am and in an area I've lived in for about 2 months and change, that's not a huge sample size....

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

I'm at work and have been for about fifteen minutes. On the way in, I passed an Office Depot with a not-full lot and decided to run in to pick up a thumb drive they had on sale that was larger than my current on. Entered the store, learned they had already sold out of them, left the store. Total time from engine off to engine on, 3 minutes. Don't think it counts.

[ericcoleman]

I'm heading off to work here in a few minutes. And later in the day I am heading upstairs (my studio is in the warehouse where I work) to work on my album.

[lapislaz.livejournal.com]

Am loading the car for LosCon. Y'all have fun now, y'hear?

[ashi.livejournal.com]

I'm typing this comment from my room at LosCon. :)

[jenrose]

Not sleeping, to start it, unfortunately. MOst of day sacrificed to the moving gods. Not moving house, for us, but moving MIL's stuff all over town from the Big Trailer. They pulled out 100 year old wedgwood last night. And a signed Robert Frost book with an original RF poem hand-written in it, dedicated to my dh's maternal grandmother. Astonishing stuff. Mall crap pales by comparison.

[holzman.livejournal.com]

Sleep in, go out for breakfast, then off to Games Workshop at the local mall to see how they employ their wares to fulfill their promise to "do everything they can to keep me in the store and protect me from the evil grandmothers in the rest of the mall."

[aiela.livejournal.com]

I slept poorly last night. Now I need to head off to do a data import at the office of the place I'm working part-time. Then meet up with my MIL to see Walk The Line. Then help her rehang pictures after she had the house painted.

Then I'm coming home and snuggling up with a book and having a relaxing evening. Tomorrow, I'm going down to Ford Field with my MIL because she wants to watch one of the HS football finals games. I hate football, but she's recently widowed and she wanted to go.

At some point I need to buy shoes - my new part-time job is at UPS, on my feet four hours a day, and I can't wear tennis shoes. So I have to find something comfy to wear.

Oh, and that horrible end of semester rush to finish up projects for all my classes. It never ends.

[ixias.livejournal.com]

I recommend buying green Superfeet shoe inserts. Found them at REI and small independent shoe stores. Maybe a sporting goods store? They've really helped with the hip pain and cost around $30, a lot less than custom orthodtics.

[alicetheowl.livejournal.com]

Hey, my work sells those!

And they're available online through my place of employment. (http://www.diamondbrand.com/cgi-bin/DiamondBrand.storefront/438768e700751b7a273fac100331066e/Search/Run)

Apparently they're one of our biggest sellers.

[joshuwain.livejournal.com]

I think I'm going to go see some movies, either rent 'em or view 'em in a theater. "Capote" sounds good, as do "RENT" and "Zathura". And, since I missed them on the big screen, I may pick up copies of "Charlie & the Chocolate Factory" and "War of the Worlds".

Oh, and I'll also spend more time working on NaNoWriMo.

Any other suggestions for my movie goodness Friday?

[joshuwain.livejournal.com]

(By the way, we've only met at one convention in the past and corresponded a few years ago, briefly. I hope you don't mind that I've added you to my Friends' list and jumped into the conversation like this...)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Don't mind at all. I don't know if I have a unique perspective on FList, but... without meaning to get all snooty about it, I am something of a celebrity in some circles. I've got lots of people on my FList I've never met, with whom I hang & bang all the time. (Going to more cons this year, I've finally met some of 'em. ;) As long as someone is not downright obnoxious, I'm good.

Re: Movies -- well, there's always the new DVD of the original King Kong. If you do go to Best Buy, they had a few things for $5, including Poltergeist. If you haven't seen Harry Potter, Wallace & Gromit, or Good Night and Good Luck, those would be excellent theater choices; elsewhise, I'd rent March of the Penguins (which I haven't seen, but have heard absolutely nothing but good about) or Mr. and Mrs. Smith (which I haven't seen but plan to very soon, 'cause it looks fun as hell).

[joshuwain.livejournal.com]

Oh, you are -most certainly- "something of a celebrity". In fact, when we met at DucKon all those years ago, I remember being really impressed by how fun you were to chat to, albeit briefly. :) If you are a celebrity, you are a very approachable one!

Last night, after getting home from Thanksgiving at Mom's, I went out to see "Good Night, and Good Luck." and really enjoyed it; one of the best films this year, no doubt! The others I've seen ("Harry Potter..." down with friends while at MidWest FurFest last weekend) but I like the idea of seeing if I can find a copy of "March of the Penguins" this weekend: with all the snow flying outside my window right now, it would seem appropriate!

Thanks, Tom; and maybe -one day- I'll see you at CONvergence in Minneapolis! :)

Yours,
Sylvan (Dave)

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

Right now I'm listening to a recording of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" performed on a pipe organ (via the Pipe Dreams radio show, captured from WDAV's MP3 stream some time back) and reading some e-mail that was sent at a reasonable afternoon hour in the distant time zone it originated in.

I'm certainly not shopping. I'm going to do some music practice and snuggle with my girlfriend.

Get that darn album finished! I want to *buy* it. *That* kind of shopping isn't a problem! :)

[natashasikorsky.livejournal.com]

I avoid retail establishments between Thanksgiving and mid January, except during bankers' hours. I was tempted by the 10% off everything sale at Guitar Center 8am-10am, except I don't need anything. My Christmas shopping involves getting a gift certificate and a card for my mom, which I'll do on a Wednesday morning in a couple weeks. I won't even do my grocery shopping outside restricted hours.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

I hate dealing with big crowds and traffic, especially in stores. I've never seen a sale that would motivate me to the self-flagellation of shopping on Black Friday (a term I never heard before this year, but even the news media are using it) even if I didn't have more important things to do. Which I do; I need to stop reading LJ and get my ass packed for Chambanacon!

[ash-blackwell.livejournal.com]

The term "Black Friday" has been around for years. It refers to the day that most retailers actually clear operating expences for the year, thus "go into the Black" on the ledgers.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

Since kit_kindred DID ALL THE DISHES, I have nothing to do today except read. And maybe scrub the stove later.

And how are you managing the day?

[liddle-oldman.livejournal.com]

Digesting!

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

I don't have the day off -- I'm here trying to work. :-)

[catlin.livejournal.com]

Marsha will have been at the predawn shopping... and she has incredible trouble walking for long periods these days. Has to use a cane and stuff. I have yet to see a year though where she did not go out first thing in the predawn to go to kohls, or sears, or wherever.

[atalantapendrag.livejournal.com]

Mailing out BPAL and buying feminine hygiene products, if I can haul myself out of the house.

[kshandra]

If a) I wasn't still sick or b) it wasn't pissing down rain, I'd be schlepping down to the local moviehouse to see RENT (I'm still disappointed that I was too miserable to go opening night). Said moviehouse is a 20-screener attached to the local mall, so it's possible I'd get swept up in the ravening hordes while I was there, but no sale-camping here.

Instead, I'm swilling down rooibos tea and playing online games until my eyeballs fall out.

[ororo.livejournal.com]

I slept in, read a little bit of Les Miserables, a little more of Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix and have been practicing random acts of housekeeping.

[youngcurmudgeon.livejournal.com]

My friends had a potluck today; I brought a turkey made of chocolate. It originally had caramel corn inside, but my family stole it.

Seeing Chicken Little with a friend, having dinner with another friend. Technically, the day started at midnight as Walk the Line was just getting out. So, basically, today is good. :-)

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

*icon love*

[skaramine.livejournal.com]

Banging away at my novel. I should be done by tomorrow night. :D

[minerva-fan.livejournal.com]

Dude, hard to hit the sale when you have no cash. If it weren't for the fact that I needed rice from the grocery store, I wouldn't have bought anything today.

[ashi.livejournal.com]

Sitting in my hotel room at LosCon, planning to go to the ice cream social early to get some non-dairy stuff.

I'd do more to celebrate Buy Nothing Day (http://www.adbusters.org/metas/eco/bnd/) if I weren't at a con... but I didn't do any shopping, except for a membership for Worldcon 2007 in Yokohama.

[shatteredglobe.livejournal.com]

After sleeping until 1pm, I schlepped on out to the mall to buy something I've needed for a while, but the stores I looked at didn't have it in stock, so I left the mall empty-handed.

Right now I'm looking at tigerdirect.com and outpost.com for random geeky things. :)

[satharn.livejournal.com]

As odd as this sounds I'm putting up Christmas decorations. My cousin has to work tonight since she works retail so this is the only chance we get to get things set up.

[ash-blackwell.livejournal.com]

I won't enter a store until 10:30 tonight when I will pick up a larger crockpot from work (Target) before clocking in to replenish the shelves from all the silly people who have crammed into the store all day.

[sylverwolfe.livejournal.com]

i worked, from 3-10:30. fortunately, borders is smart enough to NOT have stupid sales at oh-god-thirty in the fricken morning. unfortunately, the city of louisville decided their light-up-louisville parade was gonna go right past my store, right when i had to be at work. i ended up getting to work almost an hour early to be sure of finding a place to park. it was just shy of twenty degrees today, so all the foot traffic that came into my store went right to the cafe, where i helped the three regularly-scheduled employees by ringing up customers and being pleasant while the three others worked their butts off making hot chocolate for probably a few hundred folks. still, it could be worse.

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

I'm writing this from my hotel room at Darkover. We were here all day yesterday, but setting up the art room and some merchants does not lend itself to reading LJ... I got to the On The Mark hour and will be at the Clam Chowder concert this evening. And I saw people leaving the merchant area with copies of And They Say I've Got Talent...

[sifractusfortis.livejournal.com]

I stayed home. Black Friday is a commercial plot to make people crazy.

Oh, I did go to work -- but then again, I work at a wine bar where the first person who suggested we put on Christmas music got dogpiled on and lightly abused.