I joined the legions of shoppers 6a this morning, in blatant ignorance of International Buy Nothing Day. I fared well, targeting the less sought stores of Radio Shack and Home Depot. It was the right choice. Reports from friends at Wal*Mart seeking ludicriously cheap laptops came back empty handed and with stories of screams, arguments, trampling, and tsunami-like crowds that shifted counters from their spots on the ground. Some shoppers even got maced today.

I came back with:

1 Plantronics M2500 Bluetooth Headset This fine piece of work, which has an MSRP of $90 and rock-bottom street price at $30, was offered for $10 after rebate at Radio Shack today. (Yes, my rebate forms are already filled out and in an envelope).

1 Hampton Bay Full-Spectrum Desk Lamp. Somewhere after Xbox 360s and flat-screen TVs, full-spectrum lighting is the new hot item in the home. These lights notoriously give off light in all wavelengths, resulting in a whiter light and improving personal well-being due to its simulation of natural light. Let me strongly emphasize whiter light. This thing is so pure, white, and bright that it’s surely reaching into the realm of the supernatural.

It’s really struck me this year how extremely fortunate I am. In the last couple days, my friends and I have been sending links back and forth of things we’re considering. Things like $2000 TVs, new digital cameras, and technical clothing at REI which were once far into the realm of the absurd are now more than just possible–it’s fantomable. I look back at all the factors it took for me to get here and conclude that I am blessed in uncountable ways. At the same time I look at all the people that want such small things in comparison and I almost feel wretched. There’s a lot of need out there. This year, for the first time, I can comfortably give to those in need and I plan to do so.

I have a lot to be thankful for this season.

After spending the last three days at a leadership retreat in the Levenworth area, I returned in time to watch a hugely upsetting Apple Cup today from the Dawg Pack seats. \*gnashes teeth\*

On the other hand, I spent the majority of my evening playing Settlers of Catan and Xbox 360. One of my MS friends working in Xbox (who shall remained unamed) has managed to get one to bring home to their apartment. I had the privledge of spending several hours with it tonight, three days before the official release date. And I didn’t even have to freeze my tail off while standing in line to buy one, \*pshaw\*

The Verdict: AWESOME!

While great, it’s not just the graphics. While great, it’s not just the gameplay. Xbox 360 really gets this whole hybrid service concept, the whole idea of integration, and the whole idea of a living room centerpiece. In fact, I’m FAR more excited about the 360’s capabilities in the photo, music, and video departments than its capabilities to play games. iPods work the moment they’re plugged into a USB slot on the front. A built-in wireless network card lets the 360 tap into my network and access computers where I’m sharing out files via the Media Center extender, which means you can DJ right off your Xbox, streaming music from a PC.

The Xbox Live integration is fantastic. Other than mutliplayer functionality with fully-featured 360 games, there’s a selection of updated-for-360 arcade games from back in the day (one acronym: HDTV!) that you can download on demand. There’s enough there for hours of solid lightweight entertainment. Trials are free, buying costs about $6.25 each. Scoring and leaderboards can be tracked on a worldwide basis via Xbox Live.

It’s interesting to note that my friends and I actually spent more time with areas of the Xbox that had nothing to do with actual Xbox gaming titles. Video consoles are no longer just a gaming box–it’s a platform. Kudos! Now I just need a condo, an HDTV, 6.1 sound, and $400 bucks to land one of my own.

I’m again blogging on the plane, though admittedly this time I’m not posting while in flight.

The last week has been an amazing time. Since my last post, I left Iguaçu Falls to headed off to the infamous Rio de Janeiro, where I surprised Lisa by showing up a day earlier than I had originally planned (Iguaçu Falls, I’m using the Brazilian spelling, while cool, had naught to offer me for a third day). I swung into the Rio lifestyle in a hurry after Lisa was able to tack me on as a guest on a Rotaract cruise in Rio’s bay that was happening that night. It was a bit of a tough night—not only do Latin parties go late, but the language at this party was Portuguese. Lisa fared much better than I, but sign language, good intentions, some alcohol, and a small crowd of English-speaking exchange students goes a long way.

Rio was a five day whirlwind of fantastic times. Vasco vs. Athletico futbol game, favela tour, Lapa Stret Party, Santa Teresa, Christ the Redeemer, Pao do Açucar, beaches, açai, sucos, feijada, churassco, the list goes on and on.

The favela tour was an eye-opener, but not in the expected way. A favela is a place where the poorest of the poor live—in the case of Rio this is about 20% of the population. The favelas had been described as a Very Bad place, but I had a hunch from my other travels that this was probably a little over hyped. This turned out to be true—there are many friendly faces and very genuine people there. What surprised me the most was the quality of the conditions, which was to say, quite good! Lisa comments that some of the places in the favela are nicer than her apartment in Montevideo and I’ve seen severely worse housing conditions in Manila. The eye opener here is that unprivileged life in Brazil is not very painful, but places like Manila are really in the dire straights by contrast.

The Vasco x Athletico futbol game was sheerly amazing. Cheering crowds of fans I’ve witnessed anywhere else in the world do not compare to the voracity of the Brazilians. Here, the drums simply do not stop anytime from the pre-game clear through to the post-game. Vasco, a traditional and successful Rio team, has loads of team songs, all of which the fans know and proclaim loudly. My group showed up a couple minutes after kick off. I’m never going to forget the moment, when we were walking into the stadium and through cheering Vasco fans, that a Vasco forward took a good shot on goal and hundreds of people around me erupted in a chest thumping, “HUAH!” Oh yes, it was going to be a good night…

It was even better after Vasco won, dois a um (2 to 1). We left the stadium in a jubilant mood, for some of us, a little too jubilant. Nick, a big Indian surfer guy with a few beers in him, could do nothing but chant, “Vasco, Vasco, Vasco, Vasco,” as we left the stadium and found our van. We were caught in the game traffic on the way out, but who cares, we’re having a great time, our van is blaring music, and our guide, Paulo, is fielding our requests and yelling at the sidewalk vendors to bring us beers and meat sticks as we coasted by. After a few turns, we lost the traffic, but not the party. Paulo is sitting on a window ledge, most of his body outside of the window as we navigated the streets, beer in hand. The music is still blaring and Nick is still going, “Vasco, Vasco, Vasco, Vasco.” Until saw red flashing lights behind us…

We stop and three cops get out, each toting a well-used AR-15, the little brother of the M16 assault rifle. It’s standard issue equipment for cops in Rio and in this case, all three were pointed at our van. Nick summed it up best when he called out, “oh sh*t, he’s got a gatt!” As Paulo would later translate for us, they yelled, “everyone out of the van!” As the only person to understand this, Paulo handed his beer to someone for hiding and he slid out of the van, closing the door behind him.

Paolo tells the cops, “whoa, hey, they’re tourists, things are cool!”

The cops, not amused, “dude, you were sitting outside the fu*king window!”

Lying through his teeth, Paulo replies, “Nooo, man, I was looking for the sign to Copacabana!”

At this moment, Nick decides to start chanting again, “Vasco, Vasco, Vasco, Vasco.” Though this probably had some degree of potential of getting us all shot while kneeling over a shallow grave, I started laughing to the point of tears, because this was so incredibly funny and ill placed. One of the cops comes around the other side and asks what the score was. Nick answers in broken Portuguese and suddenly things are chill and everyone is talking futbol. Oh the Brazilians.

It was fun. Although I hope I’m not immortalized on Brazilian bumper stickers, cigarettes, drinks, condoms, etc, I’m going to take a cue from McArthur in the Philippines and declare, “I shall return.”

I’ve posted some photos from Brazil–more to come in the next few days.