Here’s the previous post if you missed Part I.
As I write and edit this post, the memories of a great Thanksgiving feast has been swiftly superseded by the traditional binge shopping event known as happy, happy Black Friday. The internets have been clogged, innocents have been tragically implicated, and civilization takes another step closer to the capitalistic anarchy idolized by desperate retailers.
Not to say that I’m above the shopping frenzy, of course; I just prefer to wrestle for the overhyped (cyber?) door-buster deals in the comfort of my room. Having hedged my shopping funds on my persistance of hitting the F5 key instead of, say, my endurance against the lack of sleep in the frigid morning airs, I was able to nab me a cheapish HP 1000 Mini netbook within two hours of multi-tab, multi-browser clicking.
Incidentally, the live.com search deal that made the price possible still works for eBay, who’s currently featuring a 30% cashback offer.
Anyway, back to that console guide…
In these troubled times (), video games - specifically, consoles - are supposedly the stocking stuffers of choice this winter. The theory goes that money that would have gone to vacations and gasoline are instead funneling into the more mundane home entertainment sector; that is, people are looking to buy new TVs and things gadgets that hook up to ‘em.
Of course, 
It helps that HDTV prices have followed the stock market’s lead, and the season of excessive shopping starts with everybody’s favorite overcrowded sale-fest, the soon-to-be epic Black Friday. Since I’ve had a few friends ask me about TV’s and consoles recently, I figure I should write a console purchasing guide, for those who are confused and intimidated by the machines lined up in the store.
I was going to do one big post, but realized there was so much to put down that I split the original into three big posts.
And for those who don’t like reading (spoilers!) - the final, conclusive recommendation for a console this winter is…It depends.
Hm. It’s been a while since I posted.
Busy with the move-in and unpacking and clean-up and all. Buying this place has been akin to running a marathon, and the feelings throughout this process ranged from excitement to anxiety to frustration to relief to exhaustion. Actually, I’m currently at “disbelief”, as in, I can’t believe I’ve kept so much crap over the years.
Anyway, since my unit came with a full set of furniture, I snapped a few photos of its pristine, untainted-by-my-own-stuff, model-home-like state (). The upshot is that when it’s time to go, I’ll have a blueprint as to exactly how make a home look like nobody has ever lived in it before.
Click here for the rest of the set. If I never have a housewarming it’ll be in preservation of the impressions provided by these images.
