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Whats your camping story?
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AfterDawn Addict
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19. November 2006 @ 20:11 |
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Around 10:30am Wednesday morning my friends shows up. We chilled some and played a few games over lan. We headed out around 11:15am but there were only two people. We go to the mall to pass time and we do random things, like eating pretzels and mostly playing games in the arcade. At around 1:45pm we hgead over to best buy and sit down in line at place 5 and 6. Quite some time later (45 mins?), another person arrives. This is the guy we get to know most later, you'll learn more later too. A little after he arrived, we set up out tent. So my friend and I periodically entered and exited bestbuy, staying in for 30-40 minute intervals here and there to pass the time untill they closed. We played alot of Motorstorm and Ping Pong, and a little NBA 07. I also played a great Primus song "John the Fisherman" on Guitar Hero II. We then had subway. I went to the bathroom about 2 hours before close and on my way are some guitars. I played a bit and forget my cell phone on the shelf above them near the mics. I didn't realize unbtill after another round of Motorstorm that I lost it. I reported it to the greeter and he said he would call my mom when it was found. So it was found by some employee who works in that depot about an hour later. The store close soon after, and I went to the tent. After some talk with the people around we both went into the tent and used the butane gas range we brought to heat the inside of the tent to late-ish spring-like temperatures. Then we decided to sleep close to 11:00pm. I slept like crap, no more than 2-3 hours total, because of my friends snoring all night, people talking loud, and waking up in the early am's due to such low temps (20 degrees or so). So we woke up around 5:15am to go to ihop up the road. I only ordered soup, by my exhausted and cold body would not let me even eat half of it dispite the rumble in my stomache. We then went back and slept untill it was close to open. When it opened, we went in and spent a majority of its opening hours indoors, anything from playing Ps3 to 360, and relaxing the the home theater or massage chairs. I never had as much fun endlessly loitering. A game of ping pong and madden made me hate the 360 even more-so than i already did, because one player in ping pong is better than the other, and in madden play selections and in-game lag all pushed us away. After those games i never picked it up again, and resorted to playinf more Motorstorm and Guitar Hero II. When the store was about to close they told us all to use the restroom if needed. When they closed, I went outside with my friend and talked to the people around out tent (well a few behind, the guys ahead we never had too much convorsation with). They guy right behind us was a homeless guy (the one i mentioned before) who had been payed to wait there by a nice, rich black lady for some guy in her family. He was 21, and served two years stationed in Korea, and worked there as a bartender. He found on craigslist, a lady in the madison area willing to pay alot for someone to camp, and him and his love of videogames aswell as desire to get easy cash for otherwise wasted time, traveled several hours to get here by bus. The lady brought him warm clothing, gloves, food, tissue, milk, cereal, hot coco, hot water in a thermus, easy mac, and so much more. Throught the evening before and expecially the second night, he procured the name "TentMan" for bringing the tent he lives in when not at the co-op or other places and having everything anyone needed from this lady, he was like a vending machine of free stuff. My friend and I got to know him well, and we all and a few other talked a long time about random things. There was an orange he got that nobody wanted, so i proposed we make it our mascot of the night. It wasn't untill later than the idea took shape, and TentMan under my asking began to card eays and a smile, even making 3d eybrows and lips by bunching up the peal still on the orange. We named it "Blazed Orange" and it kind of resembled a high teenage mutant ninja turtle. So some more talking goes by and we all decide its time to sleep around 1-1:30 am. Went I woke up, i was freezing like you would not beleave. The tent screen was left a little open and it had alot of cold air flowing in. I turned on the butane range to warm up and got a little over-warm. Then about 15 minutes later someone comes out from Best Buy and says "It would be a good idea to start packing now" so we promptly do so. After going from so cold to so hot, and then so cold again, along with being so exhausted, i began to feel ill. TentMan's "sugar mamma" has he called her showed up to take his place in line They were suppose to pass out tickets at 7:00am but then began to run late. At 7:05 i couldn't take it and ran to the night across the parking lot road to throw up. I then got into the line and wait another ten minutes untill someone came to pass out tickets. I got #5 and my friend got #6. I waited for my mom to come with the money, and when she got there i waited in her car untill it was almost 8:00am, purchasing time. We both went in and then escorted everybody throught a specific path. We all then waited inside in a layed out line. They took us in threes to the back room near customer service and there were tables with everything you could need from games to cords and adapters, and on the final wall were all the Ps3's stacked nice. I pick up Ride Racer 7 and the 60gb, pay with no extended warrenty, and leave feeling the weight of the system in the box..its a good feeling. I took it home, set up it, and passed out after a firmware update.
thats my launch experience, how about yours?
But they all do sort of the same thing, and that is rearrange what you thought was real, and they remind you of the beauty of very simple things. You forget, because youre so busy going from a to z, that theres 24 letters in between... You turn on... tune in... and you drop out...
PS3 Username: Anubis66
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 19. November 2006 @ 20:21
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20. November 2006 @ 07:13 |
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Crazy story anubis.
Here's mine:
My brother set up tent tuesday evening and put his name and mine on the PS3 list thing. He said that I was driving from the twin cities to meet him, but I had to pull over at a motel for lack of sleep...so I'd be there the next day. Which was a lie. But hey, all's fair in war and...something, I forget. So after school (which sucked, because I had just pulled two consecutive all-nighters just so I would be able to skip the next 2.5 days) I picked up yet another energy drink (I must have drained a gallon or so of them) I went and pumped gas into my car, got ice for the cooler, etc..I then began to drive to the fargo best buy. That might not seem a big deal to you, but I'm pretty young and prior to that I had 0 experience with driving in urban areas...I made it through alive though. When I got there I met my bro and put everything I had brought into our (very small and cold) tent. We were 27 and 28 in line. For the next day, we spent our time sleeping, going inside best buy (usually playing table tennis, madden, and that Middle Earth game for the 360, motorstorm and nba for the ps3, and guitar hero 2...), and eating snacks. My brother had to leave every once in a while to go to class...glad nobody kicked us out. While at Best Buy, I also check out their tvs..and saw that the cheapest one there capable of 1080p was 2000...which almost made me cry. At 10PM on thursday, we officially lined up in chairs. My bro and I got permission to take down our tent, and then we got back in line. I almost froze that night....it was probably the coldest I've ever been (for the longest time). I stayed in line, but my brother went out to the car for a while to warm up. By the time the Best Buy ppl ushered us inside the store, we were 26 and 27. There was 24 60GB and 10 20GB, so we were hoping that at least two people ahead of us were going to get a 20GB. Plus we had heard that at least two were planning on it, so our hopes were up. Well...luck wasn't on our side...and we got 2 20GBs. I also picked up Resistance and said screw it to those Best Buy replacement plans (Sony will just replace it for free, right?). As I drove home I smoked a victory cigar (a Swisher Sweet, which happened to make me feel sick...) Then I played one of my PS3s for a bit and went to school. Yesterday I put one 20Gb on ebay... here
Since I couldn't wait for the second wave to come out and I had to play one of my PS3s, I plan on selling it (for maybe 400?) once the second wave comes out, and getting a 60Gb.
All in all, I'm glad I camped.
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20. November 2006 @ 07:51 |
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I ended up getting my PS3 at a new Wal*Mart about 30 minutes from my house. I had been asking people to give me cash to I could buy them one too but no one that I talked to really gave a damn :\...
Basically I showed up with a friend of mine at the walmart on wednesday 11/15 at 2 am. We were the first two in line. I brought along my tv, ps2 running hdloader, and a couple of chairs. We put everything into a cart and strolled inside. As soon as we got into the store we were confronted by the night manager (a flamer if I ever saw one) and started giving us crap about being there too early. I told him that I had personally spoken to a manager the day before, and that it was fine. That asshole called up another manager to verify and pretty much, yeah I did have permission. Then we began waiting...
My friend and I were situated in the layaway section next to electronics safely tucked away from sight of all the customers. Layaway does happen to be the area where all the workers clock in so we were pretty much scrutinzed by all the employees. You can pretty much guess the crap they'd ask: "why are you here?", "you're waiting for what?", "you guys are crazy" etc... Sleeping there wasn't so bad the first night. I had a crappy director's chair and I decided that it wasn't cumfy enough. I went down to sporting goods and got a nice folding chair with a leg rest and needless to say, I slept very well.
People didn't start to show until about 10 am on the 15th. From what I heard, pretty much all the walmarts got 10 PS3, 6 of which were the 60 gig and 4 being the 20 gigs. The 20GB units were to be all rain checks though. By 6pm, all 10 slots for the PS3 had been taken (everyone was there.)
Layaway was getting kind of packed so the store director arranged for us to be put outside in the elements. We were put at the side of the building, set aside from everything recognizeably walmart. They were nice enough to make 2 big cardboard barricades so that we weren't in danger of cars or anything like that. For that night and the night after, temperatures dropped down to about 35-40 degrees. I live in Texas and I'm proud to say that I an one Mexican who does not like the cold. My parents were nice enough to bring me a blanket that night. My friend's chick also was able to bring her big ass tent too. :) On the wasy out the the camping spot i had noticed a huge 80ft extension cord, perfect for using my tv and ps2. Me and the rest of the people gamed for the next couple nights.
At 1pm on the 16th we were ushered into the store and were assigned seats in a isle infront of the electronics department. I rock, paper, scissored my friend for the first PS3. I lost :\...
I got my PS3 at midnight and left in a group to our cars. We had heard that people were getting shot for these thing in other parts of the country, so we didn't want to take any chances. After gaming for about an hour we did a few shenanigans. It sucked while we were outside waiting and then having people pull up to us and asking us the same questions over and over again. "is this line for the PS3?", "did you know that there are only 10 PS3s available?", "Do you want to sell yours on ebay?", etc... My friend and I figured we'd share the wealth of stupid questions with the other stores that were selling PS3
We visited all the targets, bestbuys, and circuit citys in the area to ask them the same questions to try and piss them off. Then when they got agitated we would yell, "f*** you we already got our PS3s Bit***s!" waving out empty PS3 boxes in the air. That would have been more fun if the people we were yelling at weren't either nice or asleep. We did have alot of fun that night.
BTW... I ended up sneaking off with that badass chair and extension chord from the walmart *tee hee* ;) Take that walmart for screwing over small business.
..::Brought to you by the fine people at T-Fish inc::..
 This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 20. November 2006 @ 07:58
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AfterDawn Addict
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20. November 2006 @ 07:58 |
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yeah, i forgot to mention some guy cam up offering to sell out ps3s on ebay for a 10% cut. he passed out flyers, of which we proceeded to light for a fire after he left. also, a guy was going around town filming a mocumentary of the ps3 launch, and he did an in-depth interview with tentman and a few others. it was pretty cool. this was all on the 2nd night i believe. i hope he makes a film out of it and i an show you all my friends i made there and how it all was like. some guy also came up around 12:45 gloating about his ps3 and waved it around and sped off. we were tired of people coming up to use and saying sh!t throught megaphones and shouting obsceneties out there window, so we ignored this guy.
btw, nice stories. sounds like everyone had an intereting time.
But they all do sort of the same thing, and that is rearrange what you thought was real, and they remind you of the beauty of very simple things. You forget, because youre so busy going from a to z, that theres 24 letters in between... You turn on... tune in... and you drop out...
PS3 Username: Anubis66
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 20. November 2006 @ 08:00
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