i’ve got a lot of different hobbies and as long as there’s been internet forums dedicated to these hobbies, there’s been an outcry on them to support your local bike shop/hobby shop/electronic store/etc.

local hobby shops like hobby shack (now hobby people) used to be a place i could go and get answers to my questions. there were nice old guys in there that were happy to help and had a wealth of information and this type of service used to keep me from saving a few bucks online. but the guys that work there now (at least at the hawthorne store), are fucking idiots and they’re rude too. i had a question about a new type of battery and this fat, balding guy named aaron j. started spewing all kinds of nonsense that didn’t make any sense but he just assumed i knew nothing about the subject. after 5 minutes of going around confusing himself he was like “well i don’t have 2 hours to educate you on electronic science to completely explain it. you should read about it online.” well, i already had read all about lipo battery packs online and was hoping he could answer a few very specific questions, but he didn’t even have a general grasp on the subject — and he was giving me false information to boot! he wouldn’t really stop talking so i just started walking away and his parting words were “read the manual,” great. other than emergency purchases i’m going to stay away from hobby people, and be forewarned about false advice from aaron j.

and don’t get me started on radio shack! a place i used to be able to go and get answers to real electronics questions is now a place where i don’t dare talk to any of the ghetto kids that work there that only want to get me to sign up for a cell phone or a radio shack line of credit. i really don’t see how that place is still in businesses actually.

on the other hand, bike shops aren’t nearly as bad, as most of the people that work there are usually riders themselves and can answer my technical questions. i do my best to patronize them as often as possible, although it seems that high-dollar items are often much less expensive online and sometimes i find it hard to resist.

eric sent me this link, and i joined the class action lawsuit by filling out the form online for taka’s engagement ring that i bought a couple of years ago. there’s only about $135 million to be dispersed, so who knows how much money i’ll actually get back. looks like it could be $1-2k, but i’m not holding my breath. if the diamond was less than $10,000 you don’t even need to have a receipt.

If you bought a piece of diamond jewelry — or jewelry with a diamond in it — between Jan. 1, 1994, and March 31, 2006, you may be eligible for a refund as part of a recent settlement of a class-action lawsuit alleging that De Beers, the big South African diamond company, had cornered the market for diamonds for decades, keeping prices artificially high.

In settling, De Beers is shelling out $295 million to put the trouble behind it — $135 million of which is earmarked for consumers rather than wholesalers.

the full article on msn.com: buy a diamond? get a refund

you can join the class action lawsuit here: https://diamondsclassaction.com/

my new apartment didn’t come with a fridge so i had to buy one and eric pointed me to pacific sales. great prices and non-pushy sales people helped me quickly find a fridge i liked, and they delivered it for free today. i had expected since the delivery was free that they’d just drop the box off in my kitchen, but they took it out of the box, installed all the handles and plastic pieces, plugged it in and even wiped it down since it has a stainless steel finish and smudges easily. anyway, big ups to pacific sales yo! =p

i went to radio shack today and bought some connectors that were $2.99 and came out to $3.24 with tax. i gave the lady $3.25 and she then asked me if i needed my penny back. wtf is that? of course i didn’t need it, but i wanted it. the chick was cute and i didn’t wanna seem like a chump so i let her have it, but what kinda wack customer service is that?

damn, i remember saying only a few months ago, that i bet that the next gen dvd players would be down to $200 by christmas. this morning, walmart had an early black friday-like sale and had the toshiba hd-a2 hd-dvd player for less than $100 so i couldn’t help but pick one up on my way to work.

i’ve got to imagine that toshiba is selling these at a loss. i’m sure they’re also phasing out this particular model, but a year ago they were selling this for $700 so unless they were making a huge profit before, or have improved their production technology 7-fold, i bet they’re just trying get players out there and help win this dumb format war. i had planned on waiting until there was a clear winner, but at $100, i can afford to have this just be collecting dust in a year or two if hd-dvd loses, and since metal gear solid and final fantasy are coming out next year for the ps3, i’m bound to also have a blue-ray player anyway.

i went to the walmart on carson/cherry in long beach and they seemed to have plenty in stock at about 8:30am. i was in a hurry to get to work though, so i didn’t have time to get my wallet stolen.

peep this action out: the action item cd at fingerprints record store in long beach. And no, i didn’t just sell mine back.

well, first of all taka’s back. she didn’t pass some government regulated safety test during her training and she got booted. she’s obviously disappointed, but i’m happy to have her back :)

on friday morning, me, taka and ben met up with shal and helped her take her first load of stuff down to her sd pad. it’s a really fancy, modern place in a super swanky building. it’s got floor-to-ceiling windows and you can watch the baseball game from the roof. it’s pretty insane. after we got all the stuff moved in, we went to the mall and ben waited in line for 3 hours for a gay iphone while the rest of us just did normal shopping. the funny thing about the damn line was that after all that waiting, there were still plenty of iphones left. one of the first people that were able to buy the phone actually walked past the line and sold some dimwit their iphone for $900. had he just waited for the 15 minute line to go through, he could’ve saved about $250. but that’s the insanity of apple fanboys.

that evening we walked to a local pizza place and then to another “standard”-ish bar which was cool, but by then i was pretty hammered. i don’t even remember walking back to shal’s place :)

i’ve done most of my holiday shopping online this year, which has made it a nice hectic-free experience. most stores have free shipping promotions, or paypal or google discounts which make it much cheaper to just order online than to bother with b&m’s. i also check up on slickdeals.com a few times a day, and there’s always a 10% or 20% coupon for some store (today i used a 20% macy’s and a 12% staples) that i regularly shop at.

even the typical nighmare stores like fry’s haven’t been so bad. today i went there to pick up a power supply for my pc (i think the ps is the problem, i’ll come out +$15 ahead if it’s not…) and found a fancy super quiet one for $50. fry’s has started to discount their open box items, so it had a sticker for only $40. there was also a placard saying that there was a $30 mail in rebate, but when i paid for it, she said there was no rebate. i was like ‘gah, f’ing fry’s’ and went and pulled the placard and took it back to the register. the manager came over and said that the rebate had expired (it said so on the placard, but that’s not my problem), and would just give me $15 cash instead. that was actually fine for me, since i hate mir, and only seem to actually get the money half the time. anyway, the $15 he handed me was completely seperate of my cash receipt for the power supply, so if it turns out the ps isn’t my problem and i have to return it, i’ll actually make $15 :)