Where to Get a PS4 for Christmas

Last night my son wanted to go to Best Buy to do a little Christmas window shopping. I'm not one to pass up the chance to go to the local electronics store and so we made the quick trip. Naturally they were all out of the next-generation game consoles and so I asked when they are getting a new shipment of PS4's. They are getting one today but the store won't put them out until Black Friday. I'm not sure if they will also have XBox One's as I only asked about the PS4. I imagine they will have both machines Friday morning.

Sony has tried to anticipate demand for the PS4 this Christmas season and rumor has it they will be shipping consoles on an almost weekly basis. That means if your favorite store doesn't have a PS4 at the moment, you just need to ask a salesperson when they get their next shipment. Then be sure to be at the store as soon as they restock their shelves.

A lot of my friends know I am in the video game industry and have been asking how to get a PS4 for Christmas and this is the advice I give them. It is just a matter of timing. Chance favors the prepared and so do everything you can to reduce being there at the wrong time.

The Importance of Training

It is amazing at how many people think they are an expert in something only to find out that they are really more of a novice. This weekend I got to participate as an official in a ski race. Normally I get assigned as the start referee, which is a lot of work. Saturday I was a simple gate judge with a twist. The twist was that I was on a headset with the start and finish. I have done that before, but only once. It was my job to communicate any crashes on the middle of the hill outside the view of the start or finish officials. Sounds like a piece of cake, right? Wrong.

The first race of the season generally has a lot of racers and so it was an all-day affair. I would watch skiers come down the mountain and as they passed, I was to give the racer's number and that they "cleared" the drift road, which was where I was standing. A typical conversation would sound like this:

Starter: Racer 1 on course, 2 holding in the gate.
Me,once racer 1 got to my spot on the hill: 1 clear of drift.
Next checkpoint, once racer 1 got to his spot on the hill: 1 clear of slalom start.
Finish, when the racer passed through the finish line: 1 through the finish.

Again, this sounds rather simple. However we could have up to 4 racers on a hill at the same time, staggered at 30-second intervals. That meant that racer 50 was crossing the finish line at the same time 51 was going past the slalom start, 52 was going past me, and racer 53 was leaving the start gate. Therefore it was important to use as few words as possible so you weren't talking over someone else. Furthermore it was important to use the right vocabulary.

During the course of the day, a skier missed a gate and started hiking so he wouldn't be disqualified. The racer behind him quickly approached and passed him. That means that racer 52 was in front of 51 and I used the word "passed" to indicate what had happened. Timing was able to make the necessary change in the computer so that racer 52 was given the correct time as was 51. Without this communication, both racers would have the wrong time. After the passing, I used the word "passed" with the next racer instead of "cleared." After all, the racer did pass my spot and I had the word "pass" on my mind. This confused timing because they thought two more racers had passed each other, which wasn't the case. Using the wrong vocabulary created confusion and I had to correct the error.

In my defense, it was the only mistake of the day but highlighted the importance of proper training. How many of us are eager to tackle a new project or try something innovative on our computer. Sometimes we have the proper knowledge or training and can do okay. Other times we know just enough to be dangerous and really screw things up. I hate it when I do that.