Let the Killing Begin

So it has started. The United States is now at war. What more can I or anyone else say to stop the war now that it has started. We have turned a corner that we can't turn back down. In time there are points where one decision will point you in two distinct directions, and once you’ve chosen your path, there is no possibility of going in the other direction. This is one of those moments and I can’t help but think we are taking the wrong direction. I am filled with anger, regret, hope, fear, and wonder. It seems like every generation has a moment that they will always remember. For some it was JFK’s assassination or the space shuttle Challenger explosion, or Vietnam. For my generation, I know that our “moment” was 9/11, but I cannot help but think that this is another “moment”. I really do not want to talk about this war we’ve started because it only makes me sad inside whenever I think about it. I think you’ll get enough commentary on it from everyone else that you talk to, so I hope that I will be able to avoid rambling about it too much here. I just want everyone to know, though, that I am in no way in favor of this country’s actions against Iraq. We will kill innocent people in our quest to rid the world of terror, we have brought into question the validity of the UN by acting without their approval, and we will have many wonderful American citizens (military and civilian) perish in vain. My patriotism wanes with every day that this senseless fighting continues……

Now it is time to put on my happy face and ignore all the evil around us. It may not be all that easy, but here goes……

Yesterday my brother, Randy, came up to stay with me until Friday as he is on spring break from ISU and thought he would finally get back around to visiting. With him he brought my old broken MP3 player so that we could take it back to Best Buy and possibly get the new Archos MP3 player/recorder. Before we went I read up the reviews on the Archos player I wanted and was distressed (shoot, negative emotion—sorry) to see that many of them had failed their users. After reading the reviews I decided that I did not want to get one of them, but instead might get a different one that shared the same features. They examined the MP3 player and found it to be defective and since it was under their 4-year plan that I had bought, knowing that I’d manage to break something as fragile as an MP3 player in that time. They said I could exchange it for any MP3 player they had in stock (with the caveat that if the one I wanted was more expensive then I’d have to pay the difference).

I looked through the store and found nothing that was equivalent to what I had (and that would use smart media cards like I used in my old player), I didn’t want to get a new MP3 player. I asked one of the customer service people if I could just use the money my MP3 player was worth to get something else or a gift card as none of the MP3 players they now sold were equivalent to mine. They said I couldn’t and I would have to trade for some MP3 player they had, and if I wanted the money I would simply have to list it on ebay or sell it some other way because they had to obey company policy. Crap. I really didn’t want what they had there, but I guess I’d have to choose.
I picked out one close in price and took it to the front to check out, but when I got there the same clerk I was talking to before asked me very questioningly, “are you sure this is what you want?” I told her I really didn’t have a choice to which she replied, “well, you can get whatever you want in the store. We just can’t give you the money back you paid for the warranty.” That is what I just told her I wanted to do 10 minutes ago! On that, I took the MP3 player, put it back on the shelf, and went on a $110 shopping spree in Best Buy.

I had no idea what I wanted to get for that much money, so I looked around and decided on a few things. I grabbed the new Socialburn cd since it was on sale. I also grabbed the Star Trek: The Motion Picture collector’s edition dvd (I’m a dork, yes) since it was the only collector’s edition one released so far that I did not have. Beyond that I really didn’t know what to get so I just headed to the Xbox aisle and grabbed a bunch of games I’d wanted. I managed to pick up 4. They were: Dead or Alive 3, Simpson’s Road Rage, Wreckless, and Blade II. I took all of these items up to the register and it only cost me $0.73 for all of them. It was like I was robbing the place! To top it off, I also got a $10 gift card for buying Wreckless and Simpsons because it was some in store deal they had going on. I felt so weird walking out of there with that much stuff because I’ve never spent that much money so frivolously before.

So did that sweet story get your mind off of the war with Iraq? No? Yeah, me either. Let’s just keep praying that it won’t get as bad as my imagination keeps thinking it will.