Okay, I’m an online kinda guy. Y’all know that. I’ve written articles on how to get the best bang for your online buck and I’ve been shopping over the internets for years and years and years and years.
1. YOU DO IT ALONE
This Christmas I missed most of the hustle and craziness in the stores, that’s supposed to be a good thing, but I still missed it. So I went out into the melee a couple more times than I should have, considering I had already bought gifts online, and I ended up going way over budget on presents just so I could visit shops and carry stuff around.
2. WE DONT SHIP TO WHERE YOU ARE
There were soooo many things I wanted to buy for Christmas this year, but living in Canada meant it wasnt going to happen. Saks, Nordtrom, Target. They all had GREAT gift ideas, but not living in the USA meant “No Shipping For You!”
3. WE SHIP TO WHERE YOU ARE, BUT YOU’RE GONNA PAY
Okay, so they will send something from Edmonds, WA to Vancouver, BC. But guess what? It’s gonna cost $20. Seriously? It’s salt and pepper shakers. You’ll send it to Chicago for free, why do I pay $20? Cause I live internationally, that’s why. Oh, and get ready for the duty. I bought a Livestrong cycling jersey this fall. $90 for the jersey, $55 in duties and brokerage fees. Sick.
4. ITS GONNA TAKE A WHILE
Our Christmas tree had more than a few empty spots under it this year. The coolest gifts were ordered at the beginning of the month, but still havent arrived. Books from Amazon. Tshirts from Threadless and others. You’d think 3 weeks was enough to get from Texas to Vancouver, but no. I mean, if we lived in the US, they would overnight it for free, but on top of paying extra for shipping, you have to wait an extra long time. Want to make sure your gift arrives on time? Order it now. For next year.
This all sucks, but there are a couple of easy things to do to solve the problems:
1. Rip down the stupid 49th (for online shopping purposes only). Cmon, make us all one big online economic union.
2. More Canadian retailers need to get on board and have better online shopping sites. (*ahem* Holt Renfrew, Lululemon, Harry Rosen …) The Bay is trying, but the site doesnt have everything the store does. Heck, even Amazon which sells everything on its US site, still only sells books and dvds on its Canadian one.
So things could be better. But they’re not better yet, and that’s why online shopping sucks.
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Must’ve been because of the care we used to hang our stockings by the chimney. I didnt sleep all night, I am so excited to have sugarplums for breakfast!
They’re trying things differently by launching their big Boxing Day Sale today. It actually started 45mins ago.
Cool, I would like a $60 iPod Shuffle and a $65 8G SDHC Memory Card please.
But instead of being whisked away to a checkout, I’m stuck in a 404-ish limbo. Check this out:
Huh? What the hell is that? I’m online and waiting in line? Ummm… I’m online so I dont have to freeze my ass for 35hrs like every other boxing day jackass. So I wait. Inline. Online.
This is messed up.
**Update** Been at it for over 30 mins now and just got this message:
Guests are over for our Christmas Eve dinner and I’m sequestered upstairs trying to buy a cheap iPod. That’s not very merry, and frankly neither is this experience.
Don’t think it’s gonna happen.
Nice job, FS. Asshats.
**Update 2** It’s now almost 10:30p, some 5 1/2 hours after the sale started and they’ve only sold 400 of the extra cheap iPod shuffles. Something tells me lots of people got screwed on this, gave up and went to bed. Good news, I got my iPod and SD HC dirt cheap. Now I get to go downstairs and wrap presents.
Still not happy I sweated over 45mins of disconnects and stalling and crap at 5p though.
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It may be the final weekend before Christmas, but the stores want to remind you to save some for after Christmas.
Future Shop has a flyer out this weekend advertising their big sale for the 26th, but their website has the in-store handout- with even BIGGER deals. A 2 pack of 2G SD cards for $40? Those would cost you $90 if you bought them today.
They have web only deals too. iPod Shuffle for $60? That’s $30 off - that never happens. A 56″ JVC for $1300? Woah. Portable LG DVD players for $80! (I remember when I bought one of these for a Christmas gift 6 years ago. It cost me $700. Swear.to.God.)
One year, when my Gramma came out to spend Chritmas with us from Montreal, she couldnt get a flight until the 27th. So we waited 3 days to celebrate, until she was in town. Damn good idea. Do all your shopping on the 26th.
Hmmmm … Jen’s Ukranian… I’m thinking next year we wait until January to pass out the presents!
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Jen had a Christmas Girls Night Out this week and so Le Grand Monsieur and I stayed in.
An aside .. I’m not good with babies, I’ll admit that. I’m kinda just waiting until he’s 2 or 3 or 4 or more communicative. I love my son, don’t get me wrong, I just don’t have the patience for his babiness. I’m working on it, so this night was a good practice of my new patience.
Zacharie pretty much fell asleep as soon as Jen left, so I didnt move. I didnt really want to spend the night watching tv, but that’s where I was and I didnt want to risk a waking screaming baby.
A couple hours in, though, and I was hungry since I hadnt had dinner yet and it was just about 8. So I tried to place him down, but he woke up. Fine, I dropped him in the exersaucer while I had a salad and made another bottle for him. When I was done, I picked him up and smelled it.
Woo. Someone needed a change. So a quick change, bottle, bed again and I will have escaped the night - no worries!
But here’s the thing about babies and their diapers. When you scoop up a child and have them sit in the crook of your arm you treat their diaper like a jelly donut - you’re squeezing it right at the bottom. Zacharie must have had a full load, because when I laid him down for a change it was everywhere. Like up to his shoulders everywhere. I didnt just squeeze the donut, I stomped on it, rubbed it in and then stomped on it again.
Now changing a baby with a wet diaper is easy. Whip it off, cover the pee pee with a cloth so there’s no spray, wipe and whip in another one. A blowout to the shoulders is a different story. He wants to kick, so you have to go one handed on the clean up while you hold him still. So off the diaper with one hand, hold him with one hand all the while trying to wipe all the way to his shoulders AND cover the pee pee so there’s no spray.
It wasn’t going so well. I couldnt cover up and he peed all over me. Then it was all over. I had given up. Trying to take his top off over his bottom so I didnt get sh*t all in his face and hair while he was squirming without getting any on me, just wasn’t going to happen.
So I gave up. I was going to get dirty, that’s all there was to it. I stripped him down, dropped him in the tub, stripped myself off, scrubbed him up and the whole while not a scream.
Once I got him rechanged, I fed him his bottle, we cozied up in bed and he fell right asleep again.
Boys night in. Good times.
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I went out this morning to pick up the final few scraps of gifts for my list.
Most of my gift buys were done online, and that made it a little weird this year. I feel like I’ve missed out on the hustle and the decorations and the craziness of the season. There’s just something about the activity of a mall or downtown this time of year. Sure, it can be stressful, but at the same time there’s excitement and electricity in the city.
Do things online and you skip out on that stuff. There’s still 3 days left, I’ll probably head out in to the mania one more time.
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His previous disc, Play, really didnt gain a lot of traction when it was released. So he licensed the music out to various commercial and filmmakers and we started hearing his music everywhere. It gained steam and became one of the biggest sellers of the year.
Same sort of thing happened this year with Feist. Until her song, 1234, was used in an iPod commercial, nobody was paying her any attention in the US. Now she has one of the most downloaded songs online and 4 Grammy nominations.
But back to Moby for a minute. Moby, like Cory Doctorow, realizes that art is useless unless we’re exposed to it. So he’s offering up his music for free. Moby is a workhorse, he cranks out tunes constantly, and it’s been a dream of his to score a movie. So, instead of knocking on Hollywood doors, he’s written a hard drive full of movie music, and is offering it up for free.
the music is free as long as it’s being used in a non-commercial or non-profit film, video, or short.
if you want to use it in a commercial film or short then you can apply for an easy license, with any money that’s generated being given to the humane society. [source]
Not a bad trade off for budding filmmakers. You get the coolest soundtrack in class, and Moby gets his music heard.
I’m setting up an account and I’m going to use the tracks for Zacharie’s home movies. lol.
The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?
It may be the final weekend before Christmas, but the stores want to remind you to save some for after Christmas.
Jen had a Christmas Girls Night Out this week and so 
Moby’s a pretty cool cat. 
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