I’m shopping for replacement refrigerator water filters for our Whirlpool fridge, and found the correct type on Amazon.com. My question is who would want to buy USED water filters? I suppose you can get anything on Amazon, but the question is why?
Used water filters
Once upon a time, I used to like Best Buy. I remember walking into my first store sometime around 2000. It was big and brightly-lit. It was gorgeous. The selections were wide and all-encompassing. The smell of ozone and the technology all humming away; it was intoxicating. Do you remember the awe when you walked into a Best Buy? I know others felt the same way, as Best Buy was elevated in the minds of consumers while it ate up the foot traffic and market share from competitors like Circuit City.
In recent years, my love for Best Buy has diminished. While I won’t ever turn down a visit to the brick-and-mortar retail store, I won’t buy anything there anymore. Why? Uh, have you noticed that it is severely overpriced? From electronics to DVDs to accessories, everything can be purchased for less online. I suppose that whole rant is not entirely true. If you had an immediate need, needed purchasing advice, or wanted to touch and feel a product, you would go to the store. In the summer on our road trip, somewhere in Michigan on the way to the Detroit-area, we stopped and purchased a 2-in-1 mobile power inverter from a Best Buy. In that instance, yes, having an actual store was convenient. There was no way we could have waited two days to have something shipped.
For the most part, though, I think Best Buy is overpriced and not worth a trip. Best Buy also doesn’t negotiate, as I tried to get a lower price on an HDTV when I was shopping for one in early 2010. Also, I don’t think the sales reps give good advice either. Case in point, I went to the South Brunswick Best Buy on Tuesday night to purchase some alcohol-free screen cleaner for my Panasonic HDTV. I’ve noticed a growing number of screen smudges (the kids), but my eyeglass cloth has always removed them. On Tuesday, I found my daughter had drawn on the screen in white crayon while I was otherwise occupied. I went the cloth, but not much success. GASP! Anger! FRUSTRATION!
Monster TV Cleaning Kit
I drove to the Best Buy, and found that the price on the Monster TV screen cleaning kit (well-rated but previous customers) was $19.99 + tax. Meanwhile, I used my phone to check Amazon.com’s price, and it was $15. I’m a member of Amazon Prime, so if I waited two days, I’d still save myself at least $7-8. I decided I could wait two days, on principle. I ordered the screen cleaner from Amazon right there in the aisle. Meanwhile, a sales rep was “assisting” a woman next to me on HDMI cables, and convinced her to purchase an HDMI for about $80.
The conversation went something like this:
Sales Rep: “Here’s the cable that you want.”
Ill-Informed Customer: “But it’s $80.”
Sales Rep: ”Yes, but you want to pay for quality. Now come this way, and we can ring you up” [or something like that.]
Joel: [Palm of hand slapping my own forehead.]
I wanted to stop her from paying an exorbitant amount for an HDMI cable. I purchased mine from Amazon for maybe $7-10. However, I didn’t want to cause an altercation with the sales rep right there with her holding her hand through the process of bamboozling her. Sigh.
Buyer beware, my friends. BTW, the screen cleaner worked like a charm.
AA 757 skids off runway on 12/29/2010
Wednesday morning in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, an American Airlines 757 slid off the runway in snowy conditions (additional info here and here.) My friend Mike (who is also my friend Doug’s older brother) had been vacationing in Wyoming for two weeks. He wasn’t on that particular AA flight, but was due to fly back to NJ Wednesday afternoon. The original Wednesday plan was that after the movie, Doug & Kathy would drive 10 mins over to Newark Airport and pick him up.
After the Wednesday accident, the Jackson Hole airport was closed down, and no AA or United flights were going in or out that day. Mike was able to make arrangements to catch another flight the next day (Thursday) to O’Hare, but ending in Philadelphia. Since I live only an hour from Philadelphia, and Mike lives 15 mins from our house, I volunteered to pick him up. I left for the Philadelphia airport around 12:30am, and dropped him home in NJ without issue. By the time I got home, it was 3:15am. What a long day!
I give this song only for a rapping Seth Green, and appearances by Stan Lee and Katee Sackhoff. Stan Lee is a cameo machine!
Geek and Gamer Girls Song – Watch more Funny Videos
Egads, I’ve been so behind on uploading photos. Without much further adieu….
Joshua's graduation
I like mass transit a lot, but mostly trains, not buses. However, one problem can cause delays, and you can be really stuck. Case in point: this evening, there’s been some sort of electrical power failure at NY Penn Station, and there are NO trains coming through to Newark.
I hope I get home in a reasonable hour tonight.
Train delays at Newark Penn Station
Found out about the new WordPress forr BlackBerry app now available on RIM’s Appworld store. Downloaded it last night, and I’m writing this test blog entry from the train this morning. Let’s post this now and see what happens. I’m not into Twitter, so if this works, then it would be cool microblogging option.
Here we go. 3… 2… 1…
Since I was writing about weird things I’ve watched on television recently (recently, because I’ve watched a lot of tv in my years), let me show you this remix video for Shamwow. Read those last few words back to yourself. A remix video for Shamwow. Shamwow is that spongy shammy that you see selling on tv. As part of the commercial, they are now showcasing a remix of just the commercial, and featuring people dancing.
Catchy, no? It’s almost as catchy as the Picard video that I’m still enthralled with to this day.
It’s amazing the weird stuff you can find on the television at odd hours of the night. Have you flipped the channels recently? There is some strange stuff out there. I’m most stupified by the themed exercises on tv or for purchase. I suppose that most people are not inclined to work out on their own, so they need some gimmick to motivate them? From what I’ve seen of these two examples, I’m uncertain about the aerobic qualities.
This is a show actually on during the weekday. I was flipping channels and stumbled onto this in the onscreen guide. Does this help you lose weight? I’ve seen plenty of fat Indians dancing bhangra at wedding receptions, so I have my doubts. And who is losing weight and getting toned from that “mouth” exercise?
I saw this commercial while watching Hostel on the Chiller channel. I love how one of the exercises featured in the tv commercial reinterprets guys in the club dancing and pretending to be spanking some woman in the midst of intercourse. And erotic dancing on a chair? Best is the pole dancing workout, as seen below. A “fitness pole”? If you walked into someone’s house, and you saw a stripper pole in the living room, your first thought is, “Oh, I wonder who is doing Flirty Girl Fitness?!”
On second thought, I should buy this for my wife as an early Christmas gift “for my wife.”
