Anybody else remember those cheesy ads from way back, like over a decade ago? If so, you can probably guess where I went on the way home from work today.

Yes, with a paycheck freshly deposited in the bank today, Bitscape succumbed to temptation. On the way home, it took two stores before finding a place that wasn't out of stock. Target, no luck. All out. Best Buy? Bingo.

When I finally found a sales person who wasn't busy (Imagine that! The one occassion you need to talk to a sales person happens to be the day that they aren't all swarming the store bothering people about MSN subscriptions), it just so happened that they did have GabeCubes available for sale. They sales guy just had to go behind the counter to get one. He asked me whether I wanted black or purple. After brief contemplation, I decided to get one to match my GameBoy.

As for games, I had decided in advance that I wanted to get Star Wars: Rogue Squadran and Super Monkey Ball. They were all out of Monkey Ball. So Star Wars it was (and I guess I was lucky there, because they only had two copies left of it).

After waiting an eternity at the customer service counter, a clerk finally came around to ring it up for me. When she finally did get around to me, it was another wait. Or perhaps this could be better termed a duel of willpower. The infamous insurance plan. For a moment, I started to wonder if she was actually going to sell me the thing, or stand there all night babbling, and repeatedly questioning my answer. (If these things were not so hard to find in stock, I would have been almost inclined to walk out in the middle of it and shop somewhere else. Seriously.)

The hard sell. "For only $24.95, you can get the insurance plan, so if anything breaks or goes wrong within the next 2 years, you can take it back into the store to get an exchange or instant credit. These things are new on the market, and since it's Nintendo's first attempt to sell a laser console instead of cartridges, dust can leak in ...." Blah blah blah. You know the drill.

I politely replied, "No thank you. I'll just get the GameCube."

"Are you sure? Are you really sure? Because if it breaks, Nintendo only has a 90 day warranty, and there's a good change you won't be able to get it fixed or replaced without being really expensive...."

Me, getting a little annoyed: "No, I don't want it."

"May I ask why?"

"I don't want to spend the extra money."

Then more, and on, and on. CHRIST WOMAN! Just get over it, and sell me the damn console! Too much wasting time standing at the counter while other people waited in line. When it became obvious it wasn't going to budge, she said I would need to sign a form saying I understood that the return policy was 30 days, and Best Buy would not replace it if anything turned out to be defective after that, and that I would be at the mercy of Nintendo if anything went wrong. I've never had to sign anything so idiotic when making a purchase in the past, but I said, "Fine. If you want me to acknowledge in writing, I will. I just want to get this transaction completed"

[Bitscape gets distracted by a talk session, a pizza, blah blah blah.]

So anyway, this silly sales person writes (with a pen) this little dinky agreement sting that I understand that without the insurance, Best Buy will not replace or refund anything if it goes wrong after 30 days. Big deal. I figure I can finally get moving.

But no. I have to endure the entire spiel all over again, answer again why I wouldn't want such a great deal, and role my eyes a few more times. FINALLY, happy bank account depletion card got to do its thing, and I walked out of the store with GameCube in hand.

Obvious note: Somebody at Best Buy (by that I mean management) really ought to teach their sales people to cool it. After that hassle, I'm thinking that in the future, I'll look elsewhere when it comes time to buy big stuff. I still like it for getting dvd's since they've got good prices. But seriously, this is the second time I've tried to go there and buy something, only to have the sales person talk their uninformed mouth off about things blowing up, metal corrosion, and how horribly unreliable their own products are. (Here's a thought: Next time, when they go babbling about impending breakdown of 80% of units shipped after a year, say, "Wow, I didn't know it was that bad. Thanks for the warning. I better not buy that one." And walk away.)

Well, anyway, got my GameCube home, plugged everything in, and popped in Star Wars. "It's such a ceeuuute little box with such ceuuute little discs to." Well, yeah, it's a slick piece of hardware, like everyone says.

Playing the Tatooine training mission, I learned the controls, and shot up a bunch of womprats in the process. Har har har. Flew an X-Wing at the Death Star. Just like the movies. Totally. Visuals, music, sound (including the lovable r2), and action.

Before I get back to playing, rumor has it that my broadband connection might go down in the near future. I don't know exactly what the deal is. I've received word from AT&T which could be summarized by saying that everything is going to be fine, just relax. Of course, when they say that, it probably really means some catastrophy is around the corner. I've heard lots of unoffical stories going both ways. We'll see.

So, if Bitscape goes radio silent for a long while, you could reasonably conclude that either (a) his connection has been cut, and/or (b) the GameCube has completely sucked his brain away into another dimension. Allegra Gellar, eat your heart out.

Back to the X-Wing. Destroy the Death Star!