Avoiding The Crazy

I know I've spent like...three posts talking about Black Friday,
But if all goes well, this should be my last post related to the subject....til next year.

You know what's weird?
Working a Black Friday.

It came with a lot of anxiety for me last year,
Because I didn't know what to expect.
I'd heard the tales. The mobs. Etc.
But last year, I saw a different story. Like 20 people, waiting outside the doors (in the freezing cold as I recall)
And it wasn't too busy after that...though I remember having a short shift last year so I avoided it all.

This year.
I hear it was super busy.
And I'm a bit disappointed that I wasn't scheduled to work the opening shift. When all the crazy happened. Because I wanted to see the crazy.
I hear there were 50 people or so waiting outside this year.
Probably because it wasn't that cold.

And then, There was a rush. like a constant stream of people going through the registers...sometimes three or four registers at once, for like...4 hours. O.o

Totally crazy!

And lucky me,
I came in on the tail end of the mad rush.
Woot!
So I only had to deal with the crazy for like thirty minutes before it died down to a more normal Friday rush.

We did great business throughout it all. ^^ We had the number one sales in our district for Black Friday ^^ Woot.

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Dream

Me and my family had the ability to travel between different worlds. Though each 'passage' came with its own risks. Some worlds we hadn't visited recently and so they were a bit more rundown, risky, and well...old in their methods. Anciently old. Others were sleek, fancy, and futuristic as those worlds had more travel and so methods to get to that world quicker were designed...at a price. Certain rulers now controlled those portals, and made people pay to travel. They were in effect, trying to shut down the 'between worlds' commerce and keep everyone on their own planet. But me and my brother, were trying to prevent that. My parents and sister escaped through a portal before the Queen after them found them. It was one of those risky portals, where we weren't sure if it would really work because it was so rickety. Unfortunately, we didn't get through unscathed, as the Queen caught up to us as we were attempting to go through, and turned us into finches. My brother wasn't dissuaded from it. He'd taken a class from the Queen -it's a magic thing, like Hogwarts- and had had the transformation done on him before, so he was used to it. Unfortunately, you can't use magic on yourself to change back, you have to have someone else change you. Which is difficult...if the person who changed you isn't willing to change you back. As it's difficult to tell people that you're meant to be human and not a bird. Still, we had to try, we had to find our family....and survive getting caught by the Queen....

Then the unholy tones of daylight pulled me away....
and I became myself again. :)

 -S.N.D

The Waiting Game

It may just be a good thing that I have Rent due soon.
Why?
Because Black Friday totally got into my blood.

And all I wanted to do yesterday was go out and
BUY
BUY
BUY
BUY!!!!!!!!

But I had to restrain myself.
Particularly with buying my laptop.
And then with rent combined....

My account just plummeted.

To the point where I could only shop at a couple other places. (Which I did!)
Before I had to call it quits for the day. :( (boo)
Otherwise I would be in deep deep trouble when Rent came due.

And now...I really know what it feels like to be a poor college student. lol.
To have to wait for your next paycheck...for like a whole week.
To be grounded from spending money on anything else.
For a whole week.

It's a feeling I haven't felt in a while.
And it's not my favorite.

But oh, the deals of Black Friday. I'm still really excited over what I got. ^^

Mostly because I haven't seen most of it yet.
Because I did a lot of my shopping online.....
So it hasn't come in the mail yet.
Sooo I'm still really really excited!! :D

I can't wait!
I may be poor. 
But I can't wait! ^^ 

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

The First Black Friday

I've heard the stories.
Really, the horror stories.
People fighting.
Yelling.
Screaming.
Running.
Trampling.

It sounds like my sort of nightmare.
I dislike crowds.
Particularly, mob like crowds.

And What is Black Friday All About?

Yah. Mob Like Crowds.

So until this point in my life...I've avoided them.
I mean, there may be great deals.
But, if my life is at risk....

I don't care if it's 98% off....if I'm at risk of being maimed....it's not worth it.

However....

I saw this Ad....At Best Buy.
For a laptop.
A touch screen laptop.
A laptop that can disconnect the screen and become a tablet....

and I was like
()_() OOOOO MUST HAVE!

Why?
Because the laptop I'm currently typing this blog post on is.....well....
Ancient
in laptop terms.
It's like 4 years old.
I got it like right after my first year of college.

Soo it's old.
The keys are wearing away,
The screen is wiggly and unsteady...

Basically, even though I don't 'need' a new laptop.
I would love a new laptop.

And this 'door buster' laptop I was looking at...was saving me like $200.
()_()
Sooo expensive laptop...for not as expensive price.

GIMME!

But.
There was a problem.
When I went to go buy it online...
It was listed as an "In Store Only"

()_() But. But. But. But!
I could picture it.
The tents.
The angry mobs.
The chaos.

And I had to take a step back....is it worth it? Worth the possible fights?
My enthusiasm dampened...
I still decided to try it.
I reeeaaaaalllllyyy want it.
I mean I'd been to Best Buy like...four times in three days to 'play' with the laptop and see if I really liked it. And I did.
I kept coming back...that had to mean something.

And the final 'tipping' point....
Was that the 'door buster' happened at 10am Today.

Ten.
Not 3am.
or midnight.
or 7 am.

Just 10am.

And I was like......
Hmmm maybe....just maybe...it won't be as crazy.
I mean, all the people have been shopping since yesterday evening.
So the crowds may be thinned out.

So with trepidation,
I commenced upon my journey.
Leaving my nice warm bed, and family, and pets.
To make the very long drive back to CollegeTown.
Why not go to a closer store?
My thinking was...well....I've been in the CollegeTown Best Buy recently.
I knew where everything was.
So if it came down to a mad dash into the store....I would know the general direction to go.

My whole drive down I made backup plans.
I felt confident I could get one,
but I was prepared for the disappointment of arriving too late.
I mean, I was only going to get to the store like...45 minutes before the doorbuster time.
I pictured tents. Lines of people. me being waaaaay in the back.

Yet...I couldn't shake my confidence.
I was going to get one.

The parking lot, upon me pulling in...was fuller then normal.
But I didn't have to park waaay out in the boondocks.
I got a rather close spot.
And I also saw that....O.o there was hardly a line.
The tents I saw outside the store like 2 days ago....had vanished.
There were maybe 8 people in line as I walked up.
EIGHT.
When I pictured at least thirty.
My confidence rose again as I took my place at the end of the line.
Unless....you know...they only had like 1 laptop...and if all the people in front of me wanted that particular laptop....it would have been a waste of time.

And....the first guy in line...told me he wanted the laptop.
*gulp* Uhoh.
Then he added. "Oh yah, I went into the store and counted them, there's like 22, we're good.
O.O Really? Truly?
And then more miracles...
People left the line.
Until I was the 4th person in line.
Dun dun dun.
And then like thirty minutes before the time.
A lady came out.
Asked what we wanted.
And everyone said...'the laptop'
But there were only 4 of us in line.
And 22 laptops.

I got the purple ticket.
()_() Purrrrrpleeee.
Which basically guaranteed that I would get the laptop! (as long as I got it within a 3 hour window)

I was totally having a 'Charlie' moment.
I had the 'golden' ticket. I just needed to get through the 'chocolate factory' and get the 'grand prize' in the end.

Yet, with that ticket in hand, it didn't seem real.
Would I have it? There had to be a trick....really....
I ended up venturing cautiously into the store. Free to wander and browse the other deals while I waited for the 'ding ding ding' hour.

It finally arrived!
And with a little tiny bit of confusion on where I was supposed to get the laptop. (I had to stand in another line to get it.)

I GOT IT!
IT WAS IN MY HAND!
I PAID FOR IT
I WAS WALKING TO THE DOOR!

(totally paranoid that it was going to be stolen from my hand)
And I got stopped by the guy 'guarding' the door.
I showed him my receipt. (I think he has to do that to everyone.)

AND THEN I WAS FREE!
Me and my laptop made it safely to my car! ^^
YES.
I had survived the Black Friday Shopping event!
Woot!

No crowds. Nice people. No fights. No injuries...
Wow.
I'm a bit weirded out by it. ^^

Hehe, but I gots it! I gots it!

Sooo excited. ^^

And you know what's random.
O.o I was standing there in line.
Mentioning that this was an 'in store only deal'
and the guy in front of me was like "no it's not, I just checked, you can get it online too."
>.>
<.<
WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CAN GET IT ONLINE NOW TOO!!?!?!?!

All that anxiety, the standing in lines....the braving the Black Friday....
and you tell me that it's now available online?

*glares*

^^ Heh. But I don't care.
I guess that the laptop was only available online when the doorbuster happened...or something.
In any case.
I'm just glad to know that if I'd been unable to get my laptop on location...it was online...
I only hope that I would have gone to look once more at the laptop I couldn't have and see that it was available to get online. *shudders* If I hadn't known....ooo

But that is a total 'what if'' scenario.

BECAUSE I GOTS IT!!

Now...to wait til Christmas to open it. ^^

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Grateful Teachings

I will ever be grateful for the teachings of righteous parents who instilled in us the lessons taught to us in the Word of Wisdom.
In addition to their teachings, we were taught carefully by Primary, Sunday School, and priesthood teachers.

I particularly remember a Primary teacher reading a story to us from the Improvement Era.
I had the Historical Department find it for me, and I found it was worth repeating.
The story was taken from the October 1928 Improvement Era and is about Creed Haymond, a young Mormon who applied and was accepted at the University of Pennsylvania. He was an athlete known for his speed, and because of the way he acted and participated, he was chosen to be the captain of the track team.

The annual meet of the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America was held at Harvard Stadium at the end of May 1919.
To Cambridge came the greatest college athletes--1,700 in all.
In the tryouts, Pen had qualified 17 men.
Cornell, their most feared rival that year, had qualified only 10.
The Penn team was in position to be crowned the champions.
The scores were made on the first five places--five for first, four for second, three for third, two for fourth, and one for fifth.
Naturally, the team that qualified the most men had the greatest opportunity to win the meet.

The Penn coach was in high spirits the night before the meet.
He made the rounds of his team members before he retired.
He came into Creed's room and said, "Creed, if we do our best tomorrow, we will run away with it."

The coach hesitated.
"Creed, I'm having the boys take a little sherry wine tonight.
I want you to have some, just a little of course."

"I won't do it, Coach."

"But, Creed, I'm not going to get you drunk.
I know what you 'Mormons' believe.
I'm giving you this as a tonic just to put you all on your metal."

"It won't do me any good, Coach; I can't take it."

The coach replied, "remember, Creed, you're the captain of the team and our best point winner.
Fourteen thousand students are looking to you personally to win this meet.
If you fail us we'll lose.
I ought to know what is good for you."

Creed knew that other coaches felt that a little wine was useful when men have trained muscles and nerves almost to the snapping point.
He knew also that what the coach was asking him to do was against all that he had been taught from his early childhood.
He looked his coach in the eye and said, "I won't take it."

The coach replied, "You're a funny fellow, Creed.
You won't take tea at the training table.
You have ideas of your own.
Well, I'm going to let you do as you please."

The coach then left the captain of the team in a state of extreme anxiety.
Suppose he made a poor showing tomorrow.
What could he say to his coach?
He was going up against the fastest men in the world.
Nothing less than his best would do.
His stubbornness might lose the meet for Penn.
His teammates were told what to do, and they had responded.
They believed in their coach.
What right did he have to disobey?
there was only one reason.
He had been taught all his life to obey the Word of Wisdom.

It was a critical hour in this young man's life.
With all the spiritual forces of his nature pressing n on him, he knelt down and earnestly asked the Lord to give him a testimony as to the source of this revelation that he had believed and obeyed. Then he went to his bed and slept in sound slumber.

The next morning the coach came into his room and asked, "How are you feeling, Creed?"

"Fine," the captain answered cheerfully.

"All of the other fellows are ill.
I don't know what's the matter with them," the coach said seriously.

"Maybe it's the tonic you gave them, Coach."

"Maybe so," answered the coach.

Two o'clock found 20,000 spectators in their seats waiting for the meet to begin.
As the events got under way, it was plain that something was wrong with the wonderful Penn team.
Event after event, the Penn team performed well below what was expected of them.
Some members were even too ill to participate.

The 100- and 220-yard dash were Creed's races.
The Penn team desperately needed him to win for them.
He was up against the five fasted men in American colleges.
As the men took their marks for the 100-yard dash and the pistol was shot, every man sprang forward into the air and touched the earth at a run--that is, all except one--Creed Haymond.
The runner using the second lane in the trials--the lane that Creed was running in at this particular event--had kicked a hole for his toe an inch or two behind the spot where Haymond had just chosen for his. They didn't use starting blocks in those days.
With the tremendous thrust that Creed gave, the narrow wedge of earth broke through and he came down on his knee behind the line.

He got up and tried to make up for the poor start.
At 60 yards, he was the last in the race.
Then he seemed to fly past the fifth man, then the fourth, then the third, then the second.
Close to the tape, heart bursting with strain, he swept into that climax with whirlwind swiftness and ran past the final man to victory.

Through some mistake in arrangements, the semifinals for the 220 were not completed until almost the close of the meet.
With the same bad breaks that had followed the Penn team all day, Creed Haymond had been placed in the last qualifying heat for the 220-yard dash.
Then, five minutes after winning it, he was called upon to start the final 220, the last event  of the day.
One of the other men who had run in an earlier heat rushed up to him.
"Tell the starter you demand a rest before running again.
You're entitled to it under the rules.
I've hardly caught my breath yet and I ran in the heat before yours."

Creed went panting to the starter and begged for more time.
The official said he would give him 10 minutes.
But the crowd was clamoring for the final races to begin.
Regretfully he called the men to their marks.
Under ordinary conditions Creed would not have feared this race.
He was probably the fastest man in the world at that distance, but yet he had already run three races that afternoon--one the heart-stopping 100-yard dash.

The starter ordered the breathless men to their marks, raised his pistol, and with a puff of smoke the race began.
This time the Penn captain literally shot from his marks.
Soon Creed emerged from the crowd and took the lead.
He sprinted all the way up the field, and with a burst of speed and eight yards ahead of the nearest man, he broke the tape, winning the second race--the 220-yard dash.

Penn had lost the meet, but their captain had astounded the fans with his excellent runs.

At the end of that strange day, as Creed Haymond was going to bed, there suddenly came to his memory his question of the night before regarding the divinity of the Word of Wisdom.
The procession of that peculiar series of events then passed before his mind--his teammates had taken wine and had failed; his abstinence had brought victories that even amazed himself.
The sweet simple assurance of the Spirit came to him: the Word of Wisdom is of God.

L. Tom Perry -"Run and Not Be Weary" -October 1996 General Conference

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Packing in a Hurry

So, a while back,
Actually, like the last time I visited my parent's place.
I went through a whole bunch of stuff, including clothes I had left there.
Said clothes were PJs.
And I thought I'd taken them all with me....all the ones I wanted.

But no.
Apparently, with one set of PJs, I told my Mom "Let's just keep these here in case I forget to bring a set."

Now that she reminded me, I do remember vaguely saying that.

lol I must have been clairvoyant.

Because I came home for Thanksgiving.

And what did I forget?

Yep.
My PJs.

But all was not lost!
Because mom whisked out the pair I'd left behind!

Woot!
I gots PJs. ^^

Yay for my mom being so prepared! ^^

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

To Go or Not to Go

So I've been thinking about participating in Black Friday stuff this year.

Because...you know...it seems like fun.

It's almost like Christmas...if only in the "I wonder if I'll be able to get this!" sort of way.

But seriously, there could be a sense of excitement for it.
Staying up all night, waiting in lines, waiting to get that one gift that you saw on an add that you reeeaaaaalllllyyy want because it's a good deal.
Plus all the people you could talk to...

But then I think of the dark side.
Mobs.
Screaming people.
Fights.
Back Stabbing.
Craziness in general.
Broken items.
And sleep deprivation.
Maybe even cold

And then I'm like O.o is it worth it?

Obviously it is for some,
but for me....and my dislike of crowds and shoving people and the real likely hood of me getting trampled to death....

I'm not so sure.

Plus there's also this thought.... "will there be a better deal closer to Christmas?"
Do I buy it now?
Or wait and hope it goes down lower later?
Will Cyber Monday bring a better deal?
Or no?

Maybe I should stick to online Black Friday?

Who knows.
All I know, is that I'm giving myself a headache trying to decide if I want to brave the craziness or not for a 'door buster'...that most likely won't be there when I get there....or maybe it will, you never know if people want what I want.....

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.

Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Dream

I was at work cleaning out fish tanks, when I realized, I'd misplaced which tank I'd placed the speck in. You know the speck that had the whos from Whoville in Horton Hears a Who? Yah. That speck. And it had been lost! I was about to go into full blown panic attack when....

The unholy tones of daylight pulled me away....
and I became myself again. :)

-S.N.D

April 1997 General Conference Sunday Morning

Thomas S. Monson -They Showed the Way

• If only all could read and all could understand! But some could read, and others could hear, and all had access to God through prayer.

Richard G. Scott -Jesus Christ, Our Redeemer

• Except for the Atonement of the Holy Redeemer, the demands of justice would prevent every soul born on earth from returning to the presence of God, to partake of His glory and exaltation, for all make mistakes for which we cannot personally appease justice.
• Part of that testing here is to have so many seemingly interesting things to do that we can forget the main purposes for being here. Satan works very hard so that the essential things won't happen.
• Be wise and don't let good things crowd out those that are essential.
• Study the things you do in your discretionary time, that time you are free to control. Do you find that it is centered in those things that are of highest priority and of greatest importance? Or do you unconsciously, consistently fill it with trivia and activities that are not of enduring value nor help you accomplish the purpose for which you came to earth?
• Don't give up what you most want in life for something you think you want now.
• You can progress much more rapidly here on earth with your mortal body in this environment of good and evil than you will as a spirit in the spirit world.  

M. Russell Ballard -"You Have Nothing to Fear from the Journey"

• (They) never set out to be heroes...yet they accomplished heroic things.
• If you will be faithful, you have nothing to fear from the journey. The Lord will take care of his saints.
• Certainly it was hard to walk across a continent to establish a new home in a dry western desert. But who can say if that was any more difficult than is the task of living faithful, righteous lives in today's confusingly sinful world, where the trail is constantly shifting and where divine markers of right and wrong are being replaced by political expediency and diminishing morality.

Gordon B. Hinckley -"True to the Faith"

• We must grasp the torch and run the race.
• There are some who still scorn. Let us live above it. There are still those who regard us as a peculiar people. Let us accept that as a compliment and go forth showing by virtue of our lives the strength and goodness of the wonderful thing in which we believe.

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi