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Day: 249 (Sunday, 25th August 2002)
Time: 6:54 pm
Status: End of Week # 8
Days without PS2: 14 day(s)
Days without Cube: 14 day(s)
Days without XBOX: 0 day(s)
Listening to: Chris Gaines - Lost In You
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Happy Birthday to me~

Received a knock on the door at around 12:00 am yesterday morning. It has become a tradition here that cakes are brought out, candles lit up at midnight. I remember last year, I was actually sleeping when the woke me up. KE got me a berry cheese cake. Topped with raspberries, strawberries, blackberries. She got it from Myer.

They already planned to take me out for a meal. Their treat, they said. DT said that he'd assume I'd go for a "guai lou" meal. I made life easy for them and told them that we should go to TGIFs after some consideration. I'd just been there last weekend with AL. Anyway, they said it was my choice since it was my birthday and they wanted to get BY to come along as well. So that was that, it was decided that we would go to Doncaster's TGIF's for lunch.

We met BY there. He got me a little gift, an Espirit keychain. Very thoughtful of him. Proceeded to have lunch. Admittedly, the meal was as enjoyable as it should have been. The food seemed to be a little dry. Not only mine but the rest of theirs too.

I have no idea what madness came over me because I finally got myself an XBOX. Yes! A fucking XBOX!! I've been reading the forums and people were talking about this deal. $399 for the XBOX, Halo, a DVD remote control and a DVD of your choice. If you see it from my point of view. It's a good deal. Good is an understatement. It's a FUCKING BARGAIN!.

Let me put it in simpler terms for a casual shopper. When it first came out, the XBOX had a price tag of about AUS $ 700. Within 2 months, the price dropped to $ 388 simply because alot of people do not like Bill Gates and Microsoft products. Just because it had the Microsoft brand-name on it, many people were saying bad things about it. Anyway, some people were not bothered by this and got it anyway. These people actually claimed they liked it more than their PS2s! *shock...horror!* Some even stopped playing the PS2s after they got the XBOX (Chris "Frodo Baggins" James is one such person).

Anyway, I was in the midst of doing a price comparison and I was side-tracked. So, $388 for the XBOX alone. Along comes this promotion - $ 399 for the whole lot PLUS a DVD of your choice at Electronics Boutique (EB). And there was one in Doncaster. I headed there and checked out the price. Then I went down to K-Mart to check the price as well. Turns out that K-Mart doesn't have the offer with the free DVD. Went back up to EB, ready to make my purchase when I find out that they've sold out! They've fucking sold out of the special Halo/XBOX packages! I thought the Japanese were crazy about their videogames but Australians are as well. Did I mention that this promotion started that morning (the 24th) and they had already sold out! Finally, I went back down to K-Mart, they had the package for $ 11 cheaper minus the DVD. Went to the counter and asked them about it and they said they just sold the last box! I couldn't believe it. Totally unexpected. The girl asked her colleague who mentioned they had another box in the store room and he would go get it. I picked up "Hunter: The Reckoning" as well. And now, I'm a proud (???) owner of an XBOX.

Dropped BY back at his house and had a short tour around. Quite an impressive place going by the reaction of the girls. We were there for about 10 minutes or so then we headed of home. I got changed and it was time to test out my new toy. I don't know if its because I was not feeling well, or it was due to Halo that I got a headache. Stopped to watch abit of tv (Andromeda, Mutant X and WWE Smackdown) and didn't touch the XBOX until this afternoon.

Was supposed to have met AL this weekend but I couldn't get her when I called the other day. The phone was engaged. Wonder how her exam went.

And here goes another weekend. About 3 weeks before Resident Evil for the Gamecube comes out. It's going going to be an expensive 4th quarter of the year for me. Lots of games coming out, that I want. OUCH.

More to come.....