[This was originally posted on blogagotchi.com --ed.]
Well at least one of my Tamagotchis is on its' way.
A couple days ago I decided I'd go pick up a couple Tamas from my local
Wal*Mart(r)(c)(tm) but apparently they only carry "Littlest Petshop"
junk. So I cursed and swore and punted children that had wandered into
my path, and stormed out of wallyworld.
I like not having hanging debt, so I do my intarweb commerce via a
pre-paid credit card, so I walked into my local CVS and bought a
"Reload" card which lets me put whatever money I hand the cashier on my
card minus $4.95. So, I reloaded my card and hopped online.
I checked amazon, and their prices were reasonable, except for the
"Black Stripes" v.4 tama, which I wanted more than "Pink Hearts 'n'
Fluffy Bunnies", being a manly man and all. So I figured, "Heck, I can
get em at Toys Я Us." So I hopped on their website and found they had
average prices for all their tamagotchis.
And then I was torn. I saw the translucent white'n'blue tama and
wanted it. I saw the glow-in-the-dark tama and wanted it. I couldnt
decide which hackneyed make-it-this-and-the-kiddies-will-buy-it gimmick
I wanted more. After asking all my friends and collegues and getting a
resounding "Why are you buying Tamagotchi's?", one pulled through and
told me to forget the translucent one. And I decided that I didnt
really want the translucent one after all. With my decision made, I
went to click "Buy Now!" and was slightly surprised when my cursor
didnt change to a little pointy-finger hand icon. It took me a second
to realize that maybe I should actually read the text on the button.
"Temporarily not available online."
So I waited till the next day and it miraculously appeared available
again! I ordered with apprehension in my breath, and was informed the
next day, much to my chagrin, that the Glow in the dark Tamagotchi was
back ordered.
So here I wait, waiting on my one tama to arrive at my
door, all lonely like, while it's sibling is on its way from the
factory to the warehouse to my house. The first should be here in a
week, the second in two, most likely. Hopefully they dont charge me
twice for shipping, as that would suck immensely.
In other news, I picked up the components I needed to make the stereo
IR transciever I needed to start prodding the IR communications:
2x IR led detector/emitter pair: $3.29/pkg
2x 1/8in stereo phono plug : $3.99/pkg
Which of course, equals "too much", but the other alternative would be
to request samples from assorted manufacturers, but that would take
weeks for them to actually get here.
I will post a schematic soon, for those of you who cant figure it out
from here, the hard part is actually packaging the darned thing...
Last but not least, I have found some neat software called Geda, which
is a Free and Open Source software package that is great for hobbyist
electronicists such as myself. Quite a bit less confusing as the other
packages available. Btw, if you're not using linux already, go
download Ubuntu from ubuntu.com
Well at least one of my Tamagotchis is on its' way.
A couple days ago I decided I'd go pick up a couple Tamas from my local
Wal*Mart(r)(c)(tm) but apparently they only carry "Littlest Petshop"
junk. So I cursed and swore and punted children that had wandered into
my path, and stormed out of wallyworld.
I like not having hanging debt, so I do my intarweb commerce via a
pre-paid credit card, so I walked into my local CVS and bought a
"Reload" card which lets me put whatever money I hand the cashier on my
card minus $4.95. So, I reloaded my card and hopped online.
I checked amazon, and their prices were reasonable, except for the
"Black Stripes" v.4 tama, which I wanted more than "Pink Hearts 'n'
Fluffy Bunnies", being a manly man and all. So I figured, "Heck, I can
get em at Toys Я Us." So I hopped on their website and found they had
average prices for all their tamagotchis.
And then I was torn. I saw the translucent white'n'blue tama and
wanted it. I saw the glow-in-the-dark tama and wanted it. I couldnt
decide which hackneyed make-it-this-and-the-kiddies-will-buy-it gimmick
I wanted more. After asking all my friends and collegues and getting a
resounding "Why are you buying Tamagotchi's?", one pulled through and
told me to forget the translucent one. And I decided that I didnt
really want the translucent one after all. With my decision made, I
went to click "Buy Now!" and was slightly surprised when my cursor
didnt change to a little pointy-finger hand icon. It took me a second
to realize that maybe I should actually read the text on the button.
"Temporarily not available online."
So I waited till the next day and it miraculously appeared available
again! I ordered with apprehension in my breath, and was informed the
next day, much to my chagrin, that the Glow in the dark Tamagotchi was
back ordered.
So here I wait, waiting on my one tama to arrive at my
door, all lonely like, while it's sibling is on its way from the
factory to the warehouse to my house. The first should be here in a
week, the second in two, most likely. Hopefully they dont charge me
twice for shipping, as that would suck immensely.
In other news, I picked up the components I needed to make the stereo
IR transciever I needed to start prodding the IR communications:
2x IR led detector/emitter pair: $3.29/pkg
2x 1/8in stereo phono plug : $3.99/pkg
Which of course, equals "too much", but the other alternative would be
to request samples from assorted manufacturers, but that would take
weeks for them to actually get here.
I will post a schematic soon, for those of you who cant figure it out
from here, the hard part is actually packaging the darned thing...
Last but not least, I have found some neat software called Geda, which
is a Free and Open Source software package that is great for hobbyist
electronicists such as myself. Quite a bit less confusing as the other
packages available. Btw, if you're not using linux already, go
download Ubuntu from ubuntu.com
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