Brown Can Do More For Me!

When I was in college, I didn't care which courier I used when I ship important things. Just as long as it was not the United States Postal Service, I was content. Then later on, FedEx gave me the opportunity to open an account, and along with that, a small discount on all shipping services as long as I prepare shipments online.

Things with FedEx were okay. I mean, they have never disappointed me. But at the same time, I have never had to rely on them too heavily, such as an emergency rush of a delivery, or whatever.

To me, whether I ship my things through FedEx, UPS or DHL, they are all about the same to me. Much like how careless I could give when deciding between bottled waters from Dasani or Aquafina. Despite my indifference in shipping preferences, I have always noticed that whenever I order things online, UPS seems to be quite generous.

For example, I ordered something online that would be shipped from California. I wasn't in a hurry to get it, so I chose the cheapest UPS service: UPS Ground. Now mind you, UPS 3 Day would be significantly more, but I wasn't in a hurry. But whenever I track the package, I could see that it was making its way pretty quickly to Chicago! And before I knew it, the package was delivered ahead of schedule. In three days! And that instance wasn't the only time UPS had delivered my purchases speedily. I've always thought that the reason why it was quick to get to Chicago was because UPS must use Chicago as a regional sorting facility.

Well, having known that all along, I still ship my own packages out through FedEx. Like I said, the choice didn't matter to me, so I always go with FedEx because I already had an account with them.

But this will cease and desist from this day forth! I will not patronize FedEx anymore. Nosireebob!

Why? Let me show you why. Last week, I sent a tiny package out to a dear friend of mine who lives near Tulsa, Oklahoma. Just look at the picture below, which is the tracking of my package...



Oh man, FedEx really knows how to make customers feel less of a customer. First of all, the package arrived on Christmas Eve, a day that FedEx still make deliveries. Sure, I can understand if they couldn't deliver my package (more like an envelope weighing less than a pound!) on Christmas Eve because they may have a gazillion priority packages to deliver that day. But what about December 26, or 27? They purposely let the small 1 lb envelope sit for two days just because I paid for the Express Saver service! What the hell?!? If it's already there, just deliver the damn thing! Why even wait? Just get the job over with!

Truth be told, I wasn't really pissed about that. I was simply annoyed. But what really made me want to abandon using FedEx is the fact that they left the package on the front door, citing my release authorization! (Look at the picture again.) If you're not familiar with courier services, the sender can authorize the courier to leave the package if nobody is home to sign it. Problem is that I have never made such authorization! WTF?!?

I did some research, and it said that my authorization signature is on file. What?!? Okay, if I were to go to a FedEx facility and process a shipment normally using their paper AirBill, there is a little box at the bottom that allows me to authorize FedEx to deliver without a signature. Leave that exception alone or unchecked, then FedEx will default to requiring signatures just as usual.

Well, when I prepared my shipment online, I didn't explicitly give them the authorization to deliver the package without a signature. In fact, I didn't even go through the Options screen, where I can specify COD, special day pickup/delivery, and delivery signature options. If I didn't go through that, how the hell did FedEx assume that I gave them authorization?

I even went so far as to look through my Account Preferences settings, but I could find no such default authorization for ALL my shipments I prepare online!

So, what's up with FedEx? I'm not pissed yet, but if that package gets stolen, then there will be hell to pay for FedEx! In the meantime, I will never, ever use FedEx for any of my shipping needs anymore. In fact, I'm switching over to Brown, also known as UPS, the company that started out over 100 years ago running illegal drug deliveries in Seattle. I don't care about UPS' tainted past, but it seems like Brown sure knows how to treat their customers right. At least they won't let a package sit for days just for the hell of it.

"You Sure Know How to Stuff Someone's Christmas Stocking!"

That was the first thing my manager said to me over the phone right after he had messaged me over our corporate instant messaging service to call him when I had a minute.

What would precipitate this, you might wonder. Well, I certainly did not send him a Christmas gift that he had always wanted. In fact, the statement above is more of sarcasm than anything else. Whether it was said in a jovial or serious tone was hard to tell, because of his deadpanning voice, although he did assure me that it was a joke after a five second silence.

You see, I finally received the long-awaited letter in the mail on Monday, Christmas Eve. The letter said something to the effect of, "Bla bla bla, congratulations, bla bla bla, welcome, bla bla bla, January 7." In other words, I have been extended an offer of employment at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, a premier employer in Chicago.

Anyway, excitement aside, the offer letter came in the narrowest of times. If I were to start on January 7, then Christmas Eve effectively would be two weeks exactly. So I had to put in my two weeks' notice this Monday, lest I ask to start on January 14 instead.

And because it is quite typical for people to be out shopping or spending time with families on Christmas Eve, I didn't want to call my manager on Monday afternoon. Instead, I emailed him my resignation letter, and ended with the offer for him to call me up on my personal cell phone at any time he feels like it. Of course I knew he was in for a shocker come Christmas day, but it was the lesser of the two evils, you know?

Unfortunately, I did ruin my manager's Christmas, because I saw last night that he had read my email. He just chose to communicate with me today. What can I say? This is an awesome opportunity. And here are the reasons why:

1. Northwestern Memorial Hospital: This is Northwestern Memorial Hospital! Not only is it a leading hospital in the nation, but it is also a company that takes pride in its community involvement, which is something I sorely miss with my traveling job that I've had for the past seven years.

2. Chicagoan Transition: I moved to Chicago on June 21, 2004, and I have never been able to enjoy the benefits of being a Chicagoan. In my line of work, I travel out of town four or five days a week, for almost every single week of the year. The only exception was this year, when I landed the Zurich/Farmers Insurance project, which kept me in the Schaumburg suburb for the most of January through July. Although that was good in the sense that I didn't travel, but that didn't count because it was worse than traveling out of town. Not only did I not get a meal allowance, but I spent more than an hour each way driving to and from work! My days were longer, and to make matters worse, a lot of the work involved my participation on weekends. I didn't handle the Tuesdays and Wednesdays as my weekends.

3. Personal Activities: Now I can partake in sports leagues! The only reason why I began running is because I found out pretty quickly in the first year of my career that it was quite hard to play basketball or football when I was on the road. Aside from the fact that I couldn't locate a gym or field, I also couldn't find people to play with. With running being a single person sport, I decided to get into it. But now, I can join sports leagues, which often have games during the week. On top of that, I now can get myself involved in volunteerism to better my community, something which I could never do.

4. Girls: Please don't get me wrong, as there is absolutely nothing wrong with the girls from out of town (or from Chicago for that matter), but I'm quite looking forward to dating girls here in Chicago. Granted, I've only been in a relationship with out of town girls twice (or was it thrice) in my seven year career, but it was certainly not easy leaving the girl on the weekends nonetheless. And on the flipside, when I wasn't seeing anybody from out of town, the girls here in Chicago either would suspect my leeward ways, or be sick and tired of not seeing me more often. Well, with my new local job, I get to hear the true reasons why I'm not a keeper for them. Maybe I'm truly a fugly looking ass? =)

5. Real Holidays: One thing about my line of work is that most companies would prefer to let their own employees off for holidays, and pay companies like IBM to send out someone to do something like a major upgrade during the holidays. In the last seven years, I have had my share of working through holidays, without extra pay. Well, come January 7, working through holidays will be no more. Guaranteed! In fact, I won't have to worry about having to do any major work during major weekends either, because Northwestern Memorial Hospital, being a major hospital in the downtown area, has a policy of change freeze during both holidays and times when the city expects lots of tourists, such as during events like Taste of Chicago and the Chicago Marathon. The idea is that during such times where there are many tourists, the hospital naturally will see more patients than it normally would otherwise, so the stability of their computer systems become more critical. One of the surest ways to maintain stability is to not introduce any changes, such as a system upgrade, during peak visitors periods! In other words, I get to participate in big Chicago events without having to worry about working! Yay!

6. Park and Shop: Okay, this one may be kind of gay, but hear me out on this. As long as I'm an employee of Northwestern Memorial Hospital and living outside of certain designated downtown area, I'm eligible to get a spot in one of several downtown parking garages for $123 a month (pretax income)! I have access to my spot 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365.25 days a year! I might not even drive to work and opt to bike in during non winter days, but the prospect of having a prime parking spot reserved for me in the heart of downtown certainly will alleviate a lot of aches when needing to get to downtown without relying on the reliable CTA buses and trains. How awesome is this?

7. Almost a Dream Job: This is almost a dream job! When I moved to Chicago, I had every intention to work for Northwestern Memorial Hospital. But I had to wait, because I knew at that time that their hospital systems were running on Hewlett Packard's VMS operating system, and my expertise is on IBM's AIX operating system. I knew for a while that sooner or later, Northwestern Memorial Hospital will be making the switch, but it was only a rumor for years. Returning to healthcare is something I've always wanted, because there is something good in knowing that I indirectly affect peoples' lives. I enjoyed that dependency. Not to mention that there will always be plenty of eye candy at the cafeteria during lunch while watching fresh interns waltz in by the groups! Now, this is almost a dream job because my true dream job is to sleep-test every single mattress made by any of the major (preferably upscale) mattress companies or write/report for traveling shows. Seeing that I never run across such a job posting in the papers or on monster.com, I suspect that my dream job probably doesn't exist.

Now, on the flip side, there are definitely some cons in taking this dream job...

1. Visiting Cities: I will no longer fly out to different places across the Americas, and visit all the beautiful cities (and not so beautiful ones like Detroit or Cleveland). In my seven year career as a consultant, some of my memorable cities include Denver (where I dated Patrycja), Montreal Canada (where I had hooked up with a hot girl from a local dance club), Seattle (once while working for Cerner, and now while for IBM), New York City (where I dated Mariola), Baltimore, Toronto Canada, Petoskey Michigan, and New Orleans (where I had to escape Hurricane Evan the Terrible and drive for hours to Houston). Now, I'll be stuck in Chicago, and the only way I'll ever visit other cities would be personal vacationing.

2. No More Freebies: Definitely no more per diems or meal allowances. I have to pay for my own food from now on. On top of that, no more frequent flier points from Southwest Airlines (which I typically get about 10 free round trip tickets a year), and once my Southwest Airlines Companion Pass expires this coming February, I will never be able to fly someone with me for free. No more earning hotel points for personal use on vacations. Definitely no more Diamond VIP status at Hilton properties, which provided me with free upgrades to their best rooms, access to their Executive Lounges for free breakfasts, hors d'oeuvres and drinks at night. At least I can still redeem my hotel points for vacationing though...

3. Higher Cost of Living: Now that I won't be traveling, I won't be driving rental cars with gas paid for by my clients. I now need to budget in monthly gasoline expenses, which was pretty much negligible in the past. Furthermore, I'll also have to factor in higher expenses for toiletries, like shampoo, soap and toilet paper. As someone who is quite regular when it comes to human waste excrements, the frequent toilet paper buying will be quite painful.

4. Environmental Impact: A couple years ago, I justified the purchase of my Land Rover because it was the smallest SUV and that I wouldn't be driving it often while I am constantly out of town. But now that I'll be living in Chicago all the time, I can only imagine driving my Land Rover more frequently now. I don't want to waste money to buy another vehicle, but I feel the need to buy a hybrid vehicle. This is still a toss up right now.

5. Discounts: I know this may be trivial to some people, but I have come to enjoy the discount benefits from IBM and its affiliation with so many companies. I get significant discounts from places like General Electric, Panasonic, Apple, Sony, Sharp, mortgage companies on home loans, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Chrysler, Audi, AT&T, and many, many more. A lot of things I currently own were acquired, or services currently use came courtesy of the IBM discount program. I'm going to miss this very, very much.

6. Different Hos in Different Area Codes: Totally kidding here. ;-)

Well, overall, I think my personal life will definitely improve by leaps and bounds. And for the first time in my life, I'll probably get to enjoy more of the culinary wonders Chicago has to offer instead of experimenting with all sorts of foods from all over the country.

This is definitely a brand new chapter in my life which I can safely claim that I'll gladly embrace. I can't wait till January 7 arrives. My new life will be...

Wait for it...

Legendary!

Hey... It's December 25...

Merry Christmas to my readers!

I'm not even entirely certain if I have any readers out there, but if you do exist, my apologies for long absence. A lot of things have been happening, but I wanted to assure you that most of the things happening in my life are time sensitive, especially in a public forum where anybody in the world can read my life. All good things come to those who wait! =)

And I wish you a wonderful New Year for this holiday season! Be safe, and have lots of fun!

Yet Another iPhone Commentary

So last night, I met a nice guy (whose name shall remain anonymous) who was a staunch iPhone fanatic. He works in the technology field just like me. And we had a HUGE debate about my Nokia N95 versus his Apple iPhone, after a mutual friend explained that I was that iPhone hater who wrote that blog. Apparently, he had read my previous post reviewing the iPhone.

He started off with telling me how flawed my reviews were. As he picked one by one each of my points I had mentioned, the underlying theme of the debate had turned into technology. My argument was that 3G technology has been around for so many years, why would a bleeding technology company such as Apple not incorporate 3G? His response was that by including 3G, the iPhone will have to be thicker and the battery life will be shorter.

My response was that the inclusion of 3G in the iPhone wouldn't have made a significantly thicker iPhone than it is today. Furthermore, battery life should not be a factor, because everybody knows 3G inherently burns more energy. If you take the same car and drive down the same highway, but in one instance you drive it at 65 miles per hour in just the third gear, and in another instance you drive it at the same speed but in fifth gear, it becomes a no brainer that you wouldn't go nearly as far on the same tank of gas if you limit yourself to just the third gear. But you would have unbelievably high torque to work with.

Another reason why battery life wouldn't matter is because if Nokia's Symbian software could include the ability for me to set the phone to use just GSM, 3G, or combination of both depending on priority, why couldn't Apple have done the same thing? Steve Jobs' claim that the inclusion of 3G in the iPhone will drastically drain the battery. But that's assuming that it is operating on 3G only. Is there a need to be tied to the 3G protocol when you're not using your phone, just sitting there waiting to receive a call? No. A smart computer company such as Apple could have easily added similar toggle, just like Samsung has with its Blackjack, or any other company that manufactures 3G capable phones.

A point that no one in the iPhone camp want to even address is the fact that, yes, 3G protocol can eat up your battery juice pretty fast, but in real life, does it? Think of it this way... We all know from dslreports.com that AT&T's 3G network is capable of downloading at 1 Mbps (megabits per second), almost as fast as high speed DSL Internet connection at home. Not to mention that I have routinely hit that transfer rate for the most part of my web browsing time. But the older EDGE technology network (which iPhone relies on for its Internet browsing) only has the transfer rate of 100 kbps, which amounts to about 10% of the 3G download speed.

So if I were to go to a data-heavy website like MySpace.com, I might have burned up more battery juice at the rate I download the page, but it would only take me about 5 seconds to complete the page download on my N95. Compare that to the iPhone, which may take about 15 to 20 seconds to complete the page download. Sure, the battery consumption rate is slower on the iPhone than my N95, but you spend almost 4 times longer burning up the battery. In the end, isn't that negligible? It's like burning gas at 20 miles per gallon (rate) if you drive a distance of 20 miles at a faster speed, versus burning gas at 35 miles per gallon (rate) over the same distance but at a crawling speed. In the end, you spend more time burning gas just to cover 20 miles, even though the rate of gas burn-off is slower while driving slowly than driving fast.

Why can't iPhone lovers not understand this mere fact? Expert unbiased reviews have not deducted points off of the Nokia N95 in any comparison tests to the Apple iPhone because 3G uses more battery, mostly because they know this fact. But go to a web site that practically puts Apple on the altar as its god will always use this 3G battery utilization as a "winning" argument, never mind the fact that it'll take the iPhone longer to download the same content.

During this debate about the inclusion of the 3G chip, I theorized that the true reason why Apple did not include the 3G chip is probably because they want the iPhone to be as profitable as possible. Currently, any cellular phone manufacturer who includes 3G capabilities pay a small fee to Qualcomm, because Qualcomm holds the patents on some, if not most, of the underlying 3G communication technologies. It's either that, or they pay Qualcomm to use Qualcomm's chips in the cell phone. Either way, it eats into the profitability of a cellular phone. But my friend wouldn't hear of this.

Now, I suspect this is the case, because Apple only decided to bring a 3G-capable iPhone to the market "sometime in 2008" well after Nokia's legal battle with Qualcomm has commenced. Qualcomm feels like they deserve to be paid licensing fees for the use of their 3G technology, whereas Nokia's argument is that such a universally broad application should become public domain. Of course, the legal battle between these two companies is far from over, but I strongly suspect, as do Steve Jobs, that Nokia will prevail in the end. Once Qualcomm's claim to key 3G technology becomes public domain, Apple can include any 3G chipset they want for a lower cost than now. Of course, once the legal battle ends favorably for Nokia, well, the price of existing 3G phones will drop like flies from the sky, and future models will start selling for cheaper. My whole point here is that I don't think it is mere coincidence that Steve Jobs would hint at a 3G version of the iPhone when the legal battle between Nokia and Qualcomm got heated up in the last two months.

On a final note regarding 3G, Steve Jobs have also said that he is waiting for a company to provide a 3G chipset that could use lower power. There are some in the industry who believe that Broadcom's new BCM21551 chipset might be the answer to Steve Jobs' prayers, but let's not forget that companies like Broadcom do not sell their products exclusively to a single original equipment manufacturer. In fact, when Broadcom announced its revolutionary chipset, they have also indicated that they have sent samples of the chip to several companies. So by the time the iPhone includes 3G with lower battery consumption than it is today, let's not forget that companies like Nokia will probably be using the same thing from Broadcom or similar from another chipset manufacturer that will even out the playing field. All of a sudden, the same Nokia N95 manufactured after the adoption of the new chip becomes less power hungry! (Just like the same Xbox 360 built after October 18, 2007 suddenly became less power hungry, because Microsoft began using the Falcon motherboard. Same product, but a vast improvement due to the availability of better raw materials.)

Now, another sore point of discussion I had with this friend was regarding the browser. I don't understand why Apple fans seem to claim that the Safari browser is entirely Apple's brainchild. Only Apple fanatics who are also true technology enthusiasts will realize that the Safari web browser is based on the open source development of WebKit. I told him that for almost three years now, the Symbian S60 operating system (which Nokia has implemented on the Nokia N95, as well as the majority of the N series) has always included web browsers based on the very same open source WebKit. In fact, Nokia's decision to ditch their own home-brewed browser for the open source WebKit was announced on November 2, 2005!

What I could not get across to my friend was the fact that Nokia for a while has been able to browse the full Internet long before Apple's claims in their iPhone advertisements that the iPhone is the first to be able to browse the real Internet Internet. His defense? He doesn't watch TV, so he isn't aware of the specific television advertisement I was referring to. Never mind the fact that all of Apple's iPhone advertisements are available for viewing on Apple's website.

What bothers me the most is that most people share the same misconception as my friend, that the Safari browser is purely Apple's own technology. And even on Apple-centric websites, they have written in articles in such a way that they call the open source WebKit the "Safari WebKit," as if WebKit was a product of Apple! How would you feel if you put Shell gasoline in the Honda, and begin calling the same gasoline the Honda gasoline? And then further perpetuate the misleading fact by talking about other products, like a Land Rover, that it copied Honda by using the Honda gasoline? Seriously! WebKit is not Apple's product, much like the gasoline is not Honda's product!!!

Of course, my friend thought the Safari browser was based on the KDS, which I thought was kind of weird in the fact that KDS is a shell environment for Unix. I countered the fact that it was based on the same engine as Mozilla, which of course he disputed. In reality, the Mozilla browser is not based on the open source WebKit. I thought it was because a few months ago, Mozilla has publicly opined that they might ditch the Gecko engine and base Mozilla 2.0 on WebKit. I thought the decision had been made, but a quick research revealed not to be the case. So I was wrong in stating that the Safari browser uses the same technology as Mozilla-based browsers.

In any case, his whole closing argument was that all my points of review on the iPhone was all flawed, basing purely on the fact that consumers are willing to get the iPhone because they are well aware of the limitations iPhone has. To this point, I strongly disagree that any of my arguments are flawed, because if a consumer never has owned a real smartphone like some of Nokia's offering and then make the jump to the iPhone, it is by far a huge step forward including the limitations. But for early technology adopters like myself, for whom the N95 is his fifth real smartphone in as little as four years, it is certainly a hard pill to swallow and accept the iPhone when you know that all the features you've relied on just don't exist in the iPhone. Can you imagine having lived with a mouse on a computer for several years, but then Apple makes a sleek new computer but left out the mouse, leaving you with just the keyboard? Once you're accustomed to certain new technology features, especially for years, and especially when such features are already common standards from most manufacturers, it doesn't make any sense whatsoever for Apple to exclude those features in the iPhone.

That is why I maintain that the iPhone was a rushed project. Apple should have waited longer before launching the iPhone. I suspect that they couldn't wait a day longer because the Nokia N95 was already a one year old smartphone. I also suspect that Apple knew that Nokia has been developing a touch interface for years now that they thought if Apple rushes through the iPhone development and become the first to put a touch interface product in the market, then it doesn't matter who came up with the idea first. And in business sense, that is absolutely true. But it all still boils down to the fact that the iPhone, other than its touch interface, is still a far inferior product than any of the "new" generation of smartphones from Nokia that has been around for a couple years.

Who knows? Maybe Steve Jobs will finally realize his mistakes (making his target sales goal and fattening up the company's bottom line with an inferior product hardly counts as a mistake, right?) and fix everything that is wrong with the current iPhone come 2008. But I'll wait till that day comes before I pass judgment. If it passes my standards and expectations of what a converging smartphone should be, then don't be surprised that I might simply ditch my Nokia N95 for the Apple iPhone 2.0.

Stay tuned for a future review of the second generation iPhone. =)

A Break, Finally...

December brought a much-needed reprieve this time around. I was just a tad bit tired of traveling. Don’t get me wrong, Seattle was lots of fun, but the weekly commute was getting tiring. Instead of spending Sunday afternoons vegetating in front of the television watching the various NFL games, especially my beloved Bears, I was spending my Sunday afternoons cabbing it to the airport, and spending perhaps no more than 20 minutes standing near the entrance of an airport bar peering in at the television set.

I was originally supposed to fly to Seattle the first week of December, but something came up on the client's end that pretty much ended up with me being asked to cancel my travel plans. I worked from home instead. Then the second week of December is entirely dedicated to my first ever Mexican trip. Who can complain about going south for a week in the dead of the brutal Chicago winter?

Although the third week of December is not a vacation time for me, I won't be traveling still because I'll be "stuck" in Chicago attending a much needed training class. This is good, because the class will definitely increase my skill set and ante up my marketability. I certainly can't complain about that.

Then the final week of December will be spent on yet another vacation. You see, the problem is that at IBM, if I don't use up all my vacation time by the end of the year, I lose it all. Sure, it sounds like I'll be taking quite a lot of vacations in the month of December, but I definitely won't be able to use up all of my 15 days of vacation though. In fact, I'll be wasting about 12 hours of vacation, if I were to continue with my currently scheduled time-off.

But it's alright, though. Cos I certainly ain't complaining. =)

Why Don't Wii Play

So yeah… I blame my friend Changren for something... One thing.

The last time I played a video game was back in middle school. The first and last video game system I have ever "owned" was the NES, the Nintendo Entertainment System. If there is ever an item representing old school, that would be it.

Later on, in 2001, my first roommate in Kansas City bought a Microsoft Xbox system. He had some kind of a fighting game, along with Halo. He offered me to play Halo with him, and I sucked. Not only did I get some kind of a thumb pain syndrome, but the sheer number of buttons on the Xbox was a little bit daunting. Intimidating would be a better word.

Anyway, after just playing Halo on Xbox for about a quarter of an hour, I simply gave up. Screw this! I threw the controller on the floor, and exclaimed, "This is ridiculous! How the hell do you keep track of eight buttons on a freaking controller?!? What happened to the two buttons, just A and B buttons?!?"

So yeah, playing Xbox for 15 minutes hardly count as real playing. So the NES is the one and only system I've ever played. Now, fast forward to Thanksgiving 2007. Instead of staying home in Chicago and doing the whole turkey dinner thing, I chose to fly out to Seattle on a last minute whim and go kick off the skiing season with my friend Changren and his girlfriend at Whistler, British Columbia.

The plan was to drive up to Canada on Thanksgiving Day, relax that evening, ski on Friday and Saturday, then spend Saturday evening and Sunday morning chilling in Vancouver.

It was during the time while we were at Vancouver where the whole incident happened.

I'm kind of technology savvy. So I have known for a while that the new generation of video game systems has already come out from both Microsoft (Xbox 360), Sony (Playstation 3) and Nintendo (Wii). Yet, I am not one of those people who play video games. When I heard in the news about how long lines were when each of the aforementioned gaming systems went on sale, I laughed heartily. "Those foolish idiots," I'd say. Or something similar.

But while I was in Vancouver, we all went to Changren's friend's place, who happened to have a Wii. To kill time, we all started playing a little bit of Wii Tennis. Although I have never played the game before, but have the training in real tennis, I thought it would not take me long to beat my friend, who is a self-proclaimed "Best Wii Tennis Player."

Needless to say, I kept on losing. But the bigger amazement was the fact that the Wii was easy to play with. I knew how to operate the controller effortlessly in less than 15 minutes, compared to the myriad of confusing buttons in the Xbox I encountered back in 2001!

Alas, despite the short learning curve of the Wii, my friend whopped my ass in Wii Tennis repeatedly. I even tried going for best out of five instead of three, but still lost. And my desire to beat my friend suddenly turned into a scary craving for the Wii. I have lived all of my adult life pretty satisfied without some mind-numbing entertainment device that is hooked up to a television. But as soon as I returned to Chicago, I have suddenly resolved to getting my hands on a Nintendo Wii.

Unfortunately, a quick look-see through many websites and local retailers revealed that the Wii is so hugely popular, despite being out for a year now, that it is sold out. Worse yet, many respectable retailers are practicing near-illegal sales tactics: Bundling the Wii with a bunch of stuff, most of which are not desirable like crappy games, and selling at a higher "bundle" price. It may be a good deal if you so happen to enjoy all the games they bundle, but most likely they're simply crappy games I would never buy.

Facing such a situation like a crack addict unable to find affordable crack, I grew anxious and twitchy. Before long, I became desperate. A browsing through CraigsList revealed that those wanting a quick profit have managed to buy tons of Nintendo Wii and offer them for sale at a significant markup. A $250 gaming system going for $400 up to $550?!? Holy crap! That was worse than daylight robbery! I simply didn't realize that there was such a huge demand for the Nintendo Wii.

Then on Saturday the first of December, Rosa and I happened upon a Best Buy in Evanston while on a targeted shopping spree. I walked around the store secretly hoping that perhaps the demand for Wii affected only Chicago, not a tiny little suburb. Unfortunately, I soon knew enough that the inevitable had happened. Out of stock.

I was ready to give up and leave the store, but Rosa convinced me that I should talk to a store employee and see if perhaps they had any Wiis in the back. I was quite skeptical, but decided to ask an employee nonetheless, only because there were a couple of them talking amongst themselves who were within a few feet.

Of course, the answer was obvious. They were out. As I said my thank you and began to leave, one of them piped up and said, "But just so you know, we are getting 18 Wiis tonight, and they will be on sale tomorrow morning."

WHAT?!?

After asking repeatedly if they were for real and in fact will be getting stock, I got really excited. The thing that sucks about the whole situation, though, is the fact that I would have to go wait in line at the butt crack of dawn. And with just 18 units for sale, chances were pretty good that there will be more than 10 people camping out at the store that evening.

One thing about me is for sure. I'm not a morning person, and even as a crack addict shaking violently for the next hit, I probably wouldn't be waiting in line in the freezing rain for a bag of crack. But I found a way out. You see, another friend of mine had wronged me severely that I thought he could quite possibly make it up to me as he had promised. He could go wait in line for me!

Surprisingly, my friend agreed. But having a sense of doubt that he would be there in line as I had asked, I decided to go there myself. Besides, the prospect of getting my hands on a Wii was so nerve wrecking that I tossed and turned sleeplessly throughout the night. Even though I myself was late in getting to the Best Buy at Evanston, I quickly noticed that my friend had just gotten there too. But he wasn't in the line. Instead, he was texting in the car, while his brother tagged along. He wanted to let me know that there were more than 18 people in the line, and he was giving up and heading home.

So I told him that I was going to take my chances, and that he could leave. No sense for him to be out there in the cold when I was already there. I thought that there was a good chance that A) the store would only sell one unit per customer, and B) not every single individual in line was there for a Wii. I was pretty sure that the big family of five was probably only buying one, but I wouldn't know for sure. So I took my chances.

About an hour before the store was to open for the day, an employee came out of the store with a stack of paper, telling us that he will be passing out certificates guaranteeing those who possess them will be walking out of the store that day with a Wii, and that they wouldn't need to wait in line.

I got really nervous. With just 18 units and almost 30 people in front of me, I thought I was screwed. As I watched the employee inch slowly down the line, I counted the certificates. I hoped against hope that the people in front of me were groups or families who only wanted one. Then I counted 18. Crap!

But strangely, he was still passing out certificates. But I wasn't sure how many he had. Then suddenly, he stood in front of me, and gave me one. Hooray! But after the employee passed out a certificate to a guy at the end of the line, I noticed that he still had some in his hand. I asked him, "Just exactly how many do you have?" "We have about thirty-something left."

I instantly thought, "Maybe I can score one for my sister too!" So I called Rosa, woke her up, and asked her to get to the Best Buy, since she lived pretty close. And my other friend was probably back in bed, so I didn't bother calling him. As time went by while waiting for Rosa to show up, people started to trickle in, hoping to score a Wii. They were mostly shocked that they got one, because they seemed pretty dismayed at the line already there, despite half the people went home with their certificates (which were good till noon that day). Some didn't even bother getting in line, and instead turned around and got in the car. Normally, I would have helped them out and told them that they had more certificates, but not knowing how many were left, I wanted to make sure I get one for my sister.

Finally, Rosa showed up. And surprisingly, she got a certificate. In my jubilation, she reminded me repeatedly that I owe her big time, which I acknowledged. And then, my other friend called. Apparently not wanting to let me down, instead of returning home, he went to the Best Buy on Fullerton to get in line. I told him not to worry about it, because I had gotten a certificate.

Before I knew it, he was back in Evanston with his brother, waiting in line. There were only three certificates left, and my friend and his brother got two. And a funny thing happened. As the employee stood there with the last and final certificate numbered 78, everybody could see there were people just rolling in to score a Wii. Two cars drove past the employee so they could park, and a third car with kids were there by the curb. They wanted the employee to hand the last certificate to them, but the employee told them that they had to go get it.

Excitement quickly built up, one of the guys who had finally parked the car started walking over. The people at the end of the line started screaming, "Hurry up! He's only got one left." To everybody's amazement, the kids didn't even get out of the car. Instead, they were debating and asking the employee to just go over and hand over the certificate. Then the guy who had just parked finally started running over, and snatched the certificate. The kids then asked, "Do you have any more?" They were given a rude awakening. Everybody in the line could not believe that mere laziness stood in the way of them getting a Wii. Unbelievable!

Long story short, the store finally opened, and I got a Wii. And it is fun and crazy addicting. I cannot believe that in nearly 30 years of my life, I have never waited in line for anything, until now. Well, I don't count waiting in line for the embassy to open so that I could get a visa to Malaysia, as for some strange reason the embassy only process a set number of visa requests a day. Weird.

Anyway, that is the story on how I accidentally got the Wii. By pure chance. And I didn't even see the Sunday ad for Best Buy either.

Sa-wiit!!! =)