mb7241
10-30-2010, 12:16 AM
I crashed last night...I was too tired to continue, after my auctions and such. I was asleep by 10:30 PM. Something woke me at 1:30 AM, though. I tuned in to the Weather Channel to find out there was a reasonably high chance of severe weather today and that a wind advisory had been issued, effective from 7 AM to midnight EDT. So, after doing a bit of straightening up in my room (my strategy guide shelf now has guides on all 3 shelves), I stayed simultaneously on the Internet (I bought and paid for a Chrono Cross PS1 game and guide from Sailorneorune right here for about $22 shipped at about 8 AM...this would factor in later in the day), tuned in to the Weather Channel and my weather radio, watching the weather progressively get worse, and slowly watching the map light up with tornado watches and warnings. I decided to go back to sleep at 9 AM, and I left the weather radio on, unsure if I was going to get to go anywhere for game hunting today. At 9:59 AM, I was partially awakened by the "buzzzzz-----buzzzzz-----buzzzzz-------beeeeeeeeeeeep" that signifies a severe weather alert. Half awake, I listened, as it said "The National Weather Service in Morristown has issued PDS tornado watch 723 for the following counties in Tennessee...Bledsoe..." As my conscience faded slightly, I didn't catch the other two, but I did pay special attention to the PDS tag, which stands for "Particularly Dangerous Situation". At that point, I knew something was up, and a few seconds thereafter, my alarm went off (I'd set it to 10 AM). I reset it to about 11 or so, and went back to sleep.
Later on, at 11:30, I called my fiancee to see if we were going anywhere today. We were, and she said she'd be here in 30 minutes. About 12:45, she showed up, and we went out for the day (I took my weather radio and my camera). After eating a slight bit at Taco Bell (1 taco and a cup of water...that's all I could stomach, as I'd eaten some Campbell's Chunky Soup while waiting for her), we went to Lee's Used Books, one of the local stores. I instantly noticed the place had been rearranged since I'd been in there a few weeks prior, with some of the games now in a case situated just inside and to the right of the front door. I checked through them and saw a Super Mario Kart (SNES) for $4.95. I wanted to tell them to set it aside for me, but for some reason, I didn't...
After nosing around a bit more by the game cases, I went to the shelves where the PS1, PS2, Xbox, GC, Wii, etc. games are and saw copies of Thousand Arms (PS1; no manual, card, or stickers, and it was marked as "Scratched") for $10.95 and Persona 3 Fes (PS2; complete) for $9.95. I picked them up and made my way to the guide section.
This is where it got a bit more interesting. Several new guides had been added since the last time I'd seen them, including a handful for RPGs. I skipped over a nice-looking Xenosaga II (PS2) guide ($8.95 :/ ), and I looked a bit lower and saw guides for Legend of Dragoon (PS1; $1.95), Chrono Cross (PS1; $1.95...remember I said I picked up one of these earlier in the day from someone at DP), Star Ocean: The Second Story (PS1; $1.95), and Valkyrie Profile 2 (PS2; $5.95). Immediately, I scooped up the four of them, and from there, I just nosed around a bit more, picking up a CD along the way (Apologetix - New & Used Hits), and waiting for my fiancee to make her selections (I'm not usually one to rush people), and after she'd made her selections, something in the case piqued my curiosity...a Wii remote with a nunchuk.
As I was waiting by the case, a woman in her early 30s, with her son (probably 5 or 6 years old) asked the guy working there to get a game from the case for her... As it turns out, she wanted two games...the aforementioned Super Mario Kart and Pac-Man 2 (SNES). I was a bit disappointed, but after he'd gotten the games out for her, I asked to see the Wii remote and nunchuk. I looked curiously at it for a minute, before flipping it over to its backside to look at the price...it was $9.95. So I told him I'd take it as well.
We rang out (I ended up refusing Thousand Arms, as I saw the discs and believed it was too scratched to even play, much less play without skipping), and then my fiancee noticed a PS3 behind the register (160 GB for $199.99) and said, "Didn't you want a PS3 for Christmas?" I was like, "Well, yeah, I guess..." I looked at it...come to find out, it was one of the slim systems...but the model number was -2001A, which implies a 120 GB system, and there was a GameStop sticker on the box it was in that also said it was 120 GB. So we managed to get it for $189.99. The guy working there suggested we test it and bring it back if it doesn't work...more on that later.
After this, we dropped off what we bought at Lee's in the car, and we walked over to Goodwill a few doors down (against winds strong enough to make me stagger a bit...and I'm no lightweight...sustained winds for much of the day were 20-30 mph, with a gust or two breaking 50 mph)... They'd had about 400 CDs in there about 2-3 weeks earlier, but not one of them was there now, which was something else strange. Scanning and looking for video game stuff, my eyes chanced to look into the book section. There in the top row of books, another Chrono Cross guide, albeit in slightly worse condition, for the incredibly-insane bargain price of 29¢ (that's 70¢ cheaper than their standard paperback books), as well as a couple Newtype (anime) magazines ($1.99 each...passed), and a Magic: the Gathering card encyclopedia (Volume 4...though I forget the proper title...it was $4.99 o_O, and needless to say, passed). So my entire Goodwill visit was for one strategy guide...totaling 32¢ after tax .
We hopped back in the car, I noticed the odd darkness to the sky and turned my weather radio on, and then we went to the post office to check her mail. While she was in the post office, that unmistakable ominous set of buzzes and one long beep came across...this time with a much more sinister message:
"The National Weather Service in Morristown has issued a tornado warning for...Bradley County in East Tennessee...Hamilton County in East Tennessee until 3:30 PM. At 2:54 PM, National Weather Service Doppler radar indicated a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado. The tornado is located 8 miles east of Harrison...or 8 miles northeast of Chattanooga...and is moving northeast at 50 miles per hour..."
I didn't panic, I remained calm, and within two or three minutes, my fiancee was back outside and in the car. When the information came across again, I turned up the volume and let her listen to it. By this time, the clouds west of us were getting quite dark and ragged-looking indeed. I even noticed a bit of rotation in the clouds as we were headed toward the south end of town (and out of harm's way..for the time being). On the way, I had put the radio in alert mode, and not long after we pulled away from the Central Park (restaurant), with our nice 44-ounce vanilla milkshakes and hamburgers in hand (no hamburgers for me, though...I wasn't hungry)...
"Beeeeeeeeeeeep-------The National Weather Service in Morristown has issued a tornado warning for...Bradley County in East Tennessee...Hamilton County in East Tennessee...southern McMinn County in East Tennessee until 3:45 PM. At 3:09 PM, National Weather Service Doppler radar indicated a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado. The tornado is located near Cleveland...and is moving northeast at 50 miles per hour..."
We went to Rite-Aid on Dalton Pike, at the south end of town, where the sun was shining against some very dark clouds over downtown Cleveland (you don't want to see that on a day with severe weather in the forecast...) and it was a muggy 85°. We went in, she bought a couple things, and we hopped back in the car and headed for her place (at the far southeastern corner of the county...1/2 mile further south and you cross a state line...1/2 a mile further east and you cross a county line), where the weather wasn't nearly as bad (mostly cloudy).
We got in there, I set down my stuff, and we tested the PS3, only to find out it doesn't output video with the standard AV cables (now that I think about it...I know why it didn't)... While we were at her house, it started raining... We went back to Lee's (I left much of what I bought today there, as well as my camera and weather radio), and she returned it and got her money back. While in there, the guy who sold us the PS3 pulled out a box of cables to try and compare the AV cable we got with the system with another AV cable that was in the box. I ended up asking him about the cables, if they were for sale individually (as they weren't priced like everything else in the store was). He said, "Yeah. Tell you what, if you want them, I'll cut you a deal on them." I picked out 5 different cables (Wii AC adapter, a Wii AV cable, a PSP AC adapter, a DS Lite/DSi/PSP AC adapter (more like a USB cable with the 3 system connectors on one end and a standard USB on the other end + a Samsung USB AC adapter), and a GBA SP/DS AC adapter), and he said $7 for the lot. I accepted and bought them immediately.
After this, we went to eat at Stevi B's (local pizza buffet place), on the north end of town across the plaza from Target off I-75 exit 27. The sky was getting a bit dark, as it was about sundown when we went in there, but it wasn't raining... After eating, we came out of there and walked across the parking lot to Books-A-Million (by this time, it had started raining lightly). We went in there, and my eyes were immediately drawn to a brand-new video game section they had in there, specifically, a Wii Play box set on the top shelf with a $12.99 price sticker on it. As I walked around, I kept my eyes on the windows, noticing the increasing rain. The Wii Play would turn out to be my only item of interest in there, so I bought it and a Millionaires' Club discount card (another $20, though it did knock off $1.30 from the Wii Play box set). Next thing I knew, we were dealing with said increasing rain as we walked toward Target (a couple hundred yards up the sidewalk from where we were). We walked briskly, and we got soaked along the way.
After browsing and drying off at Target for a bit, examining their clearanced games section, etc., we went back outside, only to find out that the rain had turned into a Niagara Falls downpour, and a cold one, at that (as it was a fairly warm rain beforehand). We ran back to the car, still parked in front of Stevi B's, some 300-400 yards away, and we got in the car, thoroughly wet, and a bit cold. From there, we headed home. Today was certainly one of my more interesting days for game hunting...if not for quality of what I bought, certainly for the weather involved.
-------
Summary:
Lee's Used Books, round 1:
Persona 3 Fes (PS2) - $9.95
Legend of Dragoon (PS1) guide - $1.95
Chrono Cross (PS1) guide - $1.95
Star Ocean: The Second Story (PS1) guide - $1.95
Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria (PS2) guide - $5.95
Wii remote + nunchuk - $9.95
Apologetix: New & Used Hits CD - $4.95
120 GB PS3 (for Christmas present) - $189.99/ended up returned non-working, though I figured the problem out as I typed up this massively long post)
Goodwill:
Chrono Cross (PS1) guide - 29¢
Lee's Used Books, round 2:
Wii official AC adapter, Wii official AV cable, GBA SP/DS official AC adapter, DS Lite/DSi/PSP 3rd-party AC adapter, PSP official AC adapter - $7
Books-a-Million:
Wii Play (Wii) box set w/Wii remote - $11.69
Millionaires' Club card - $20
Later on, at 11:30, I called my fiancee to see if we were going anywhere today. We were, and she said she'd be here in 30 minutes. About 12:45, she showed up, and we went out for the day (I took my weather radio and my camera). After eating a slight bit at Taco Bell (1 taco and a cup of water...that's all I could stomach, as I'd eaten some Campbell's Chunky Soup while waiting for her), we went to Lee's Used Books, one of the local stores. I instantly noticed the place had been rearranged since I'd been in there a few weeks prior, with some of the games now in a case situated just inside and to the right of the front door. I checked through them and saw a Super Mario Kart (SNES) for $4.95. I wanted to tell them to set it aside for me, but for some reason, I didn't...
After nosing around a bit more by the game cases, I went to the shelves where the PS1, PS2, Xbox, GC, Wii, etc. games are and saw copies of Thousand Arms (PS1; no manual, card, or stickers, and it was marked as "Scratched") for $10.95 and Persona 3 Fes (PS2; complete) for $9.95. I picked them up and made my way to the guide section.
This is where it got a bit more interesting. Several new guides had been added since the last time I'd seen them, including a handful for RPGs. I skipped over a nice-looking Xenosaga II (PS2) guide ($8.95 :/ ), and I looked a bit lower and saw guides for Legend of Dragoon (PS1; $1.95), Chrono Cross (PS1; $1.95...remember I said I picked up one of these earlier in the day from someone at DP), Star Ocean: The Second Story (PS1; $1.95), and Valkyrie Profile 2 (PS2; $5.95). Immediately, I scooped up the four of them, and from there, I just nosed around a bit more, picking up a CD along the way (Apologetix - New & Used Hits), and waiting for my fiancee to make her selections (I'm not usually one to rush people), and after she'd made her selections, something in the case piqued my curiosity...a Wii remote with a nunchuk.
As I was waiting by the case, a woman in her early 30s, with her son (probably 5 or 6 years old) asked the guy working there to get a game from the case for her... As it turns out, she wanted two games...the aforementioned Super Mario Kart and Pac-Man 2 (SNES). I was a bit disappointed, but after he'd gotten the games out for her, I asked to see the Wii remote and nunchuk. I looked curiously at it for a minute, before flipping it over to its backside to look at the price...it was $9.95. So I told him I'd take it as well.
We rang out (I ended up refusing Thousand Arms, as I saw the discs and believed it was too scratched to even play, much less play without skipping), and then my fiancee noticed a PS3 behind the register (160 GB for $199.99) and said, "Didn't you want a PS3 for Christmas?" I was like, "Well, yeah, I guess..." I looked at it...come to find out, it was one of the slim systems...but the model number was -2001A, which implies a 120 GB system, and there was a GameStop sticker on the box it was in that also said it was 120 GB. So we managed to get it for $189.99. The guy working there suggested we test it and bring it back if it doesn't work...more on that later.
After this, we dropped off what we bought at Lee's in the car, and we walked over to Goodwill a few doors down (against winds strong enough to make me stagger a bit...and I'm no lightweight...sustained winds for much of the day were 20-30 mph, with a gust or two breaking 50 mph)... They'd had about 400 CDs in there about 2-3 weeks earlier, but not one of them was there now, which was something else strange. Scanning and looking for video game stuff, my eyes chanced to look into the book section. There in the top row of books, another Chrono Cross guide, albeit in slightly worse condition, for the incredibly-insane bargain price of 29¢ (that's 70¢ cheaper than their standard paperback books), as well as a couple Newtype (anime) magazines ($1.99 each...passed), and a Magic: the Gathering card encyclopedia (Volume 4...though I forget the proper title...it was $4.99 o_O, and needless to say, passed). So my entire Goodwill visit was for one strategy guide...totaling 32¢ after tax .
We hopped back in the car, I noticed the odd darkness to the sky and turned my weather radio on, and then we went to the post office to check her mail. While she was in the post office, that unmistakable ominous set of buzzes and one long beep came across...this time with a much more sinister message:
"The National Weather Service in Morristown has issued a tornado warning for...Bradley County in East Tennessee...Hamilton County in East Tennessee until 3:30 PM. At 2:54 PM, National Weather Service Doppler radar indicated a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado. The tornado is located 8 miles east of Harrison...or 8 miles northeast of Chattanooga...and is moving northeast at 50 miles per hour..."
I didn't panic, I remained calm, and within two or three minutes, my fiancee was back outside and in the car. When the information came across again, I turned up the volume and let her listen to it. By this time, the clouds west of us were getting quite dark and ragged-looking indeed. I even noticed a bit of rotation in the clouds as we were headed toward the south end of town (and out of harm's way..for the time being). On the way, I had put the radio in alert mode, and not long after we pulled away from the Central Park (restaurant), with our nice 44-ounce vanilla milkshakes and hamburgers in hand (no hamburgers for me, though...I wasn't hungry)...
"Beeeeeeeeeeeep-------The National Weather Service in Morristown has issued a tornado warning for...Bradley County in East Tennessee...Hamilton County in East Tennessee...southern McMinn County in East Tennessee until 3:45 PM. At 3:09 PM, National Weather Service Doppler radar indicated a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado. The tornado is located near Cleveland...and is moving northeast at 50 miles per hour..."
We went to Rite-Aid on Dalton Pike, at the south end of town, where the sun was shining against some very dark clouds over downtown Cleveland (you don't want to see that on a day with severe weather in the forecast...) and it was a muggy 85°. We went in, she bought a couple things, and we hopped back in the car and headed for her place (at the far southeastern corner of the county...1/2 mile further south and you cross a state line...1/2 a mile further east and you cross a county line), where the weather wasn't nearly as bad (mostly cloudy).
We got in there, I set down my stuff, and we tested the PS3, only to find out it doesn't output video with the standard AV cables (now that I think about it...I know why it didn't)... While we were at her house, it started raining... We went back to Lee's (I left much of what I bought today there, as well as my camera and weather radio), and she returned it and got her money back. While in there, the guy who sold us the PS3 pulled out a box of cables to try and compare the AV cable we got with the system with another AV cable that was in the box. I ended up asking him about the cables, if they were for sale individually (as they weren't priced like everything else in the store was). He said, "Yeah. Tell you what, if you want them, I'll cut you a deal on them." I picked out 5 different cables (Wii AC adapter, a Wii AV cable, a PSP AC adapter, a DS Lite/DSi/PSP AC adapter (more like a USB cable with the 3 system connectors on one end and a standard USB on the other end + a Samsung USB AC adapter), and a GBA SP/DS AC adapter), and he said $7 for the lot. I accepted and bought them immediately.
After this, we went to eat at Stevi B's (local pizza buffet place), on the north end of town across the plaza from Target off I-75 exit 27. The sky was getting a bit dark, as it was about sundown when we went in there, but it wasn't raining... After eating, we came out of there and walked across the parking lot to Books-A-Million (by this time, it had started raining lightly). We went in there, and my eyes were immediately drawn to a brand-new video game section they had in there, specifically, a Wii Play box set on the top shelf with a $12.99 price sticker on it. As I walked around, I kept my eyes on the windows, noticing the increasing rain. The Wii Play would turn out to be my only item of interest in there, so I bought it and a Millionaires' Club discount card (another $20, though it did knock off $1.30 from the Wii Play box set). Next thing I knew, we were dealing with said increasing rain as we walked toward Target (a couple hundred yards up the sidewalk from where we were). We walked briskly, and we got soaked along the way.
After browsing and drying off at Target for a bit, examining their clearanced games section, etc., we went back outside, only to find out that the rain had turned into a Niagara Falls downpour, and a cold one, at that (as it was a fairly warm rain beforehand). We ran back to the car, still parked in front of Stevi B's, some 300-400 yards away, and we got in the car, thoroughly wet, and a bit cold. From there, we headed home. Today was certainly one of my more interesting days for game hunting...if not for quality of what I bought, certainly for the weather involved.
-------
Summary:
Lee's Used Books, round 1:
Persona 3 Fes (PS2) - $9.95
Legend of Dragoon (PS1) guide - $1.95
Chrono Cross (PS1) guide - $1.95
Star Ocean: The Second Story (PS1) guide - $1.95
Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria (PS2) guide - $5.95
Wii remote + nunchuk - $9.95
Apologetix: New & Used Hits CD - $4.95
120 GB PS3 (for Christmas present) - $189.99/ended up returned non-working, though I figured the problem out as I typed up this massively long post)
Goodwill:
Chrono Cross (PS1) guide - 29¢
Lee's Used Books, round 2:
Wii official AC adapter, Wii official AV cable, GBA SP/DS official AC adapter, DS Lite/DSi/PSP 3rd-party AC adapter, PSP official AC adapter - $7
Books-a-Million:
Wii Play (Wii) box set w/Wii remote - $11.69
Millionaires' Club card - $20