Mario is back in all his glory. The worlds are amazing. You are on round levels that you can literally run all the way around. Fall in a hole and you’ll pop out the other side. Bridges are not always straight across, sometimes they curve around to the underside of the level. Mario walks up, down, left, right and all over the place. Some areas you just feel as if you make one wrong step, you’ll fall into space. However, you merely walk onto the side of the object and it’s very cool!

Another cool thing is that Super Mario Galaxy is not just one player. A friend can help you pick up star pieces and shoot enemies. One Mario, but to people working together to keep him alive. It’s like a 1.5 player game.

Our 90 minutes went very fast. However, we got three stars and about 25 lives. It’s nice to see that getting more lives is easy. Even when you do run out, you just start back up at the beginning of the level.

Now I just have to convince my wife to let us play it all weekend. Or may be call in sick. *cough* *cough*

This is one of the best Wii games we’ve played and if you love the other Mario games, you’ll love Super Mario Galaxy!

I didn’t realize that you could get HDTV over the normal airwaves too. I was delighted when I got one HD channel with the antenna on our house that was probably installed in the 1950s. With a little playing around, I ended up with 8 HD TV channels! One of which is a 24hour local weather channel. Sweet.

What I can’t figure out is that if all the HD channels come from the same area in the Twin Cities, which I hear they do, then why do I only get ABC, NBC, CBS and the CW but I don’t get FOX in HD? I’d re-run my channel detector thing, but I’m afraid of loosing one of my 8 that it already found. Anyone know why this might be or what the trick is to getting more HD channels?

I also have to figure out how to run the antenna cable though the VCR/DVD player and still get the HD channels on TV. That way I can record shows. I fear that my VCR technology is just a bit out of date.

A new preview version of Flock, based on Firefox 2, is out with many additional features. Note, it didn’t import all my previous bookmarks.

Seamonkey 1.1 is also out. It’s also based off Firefox 2 and Thunderbird 2 too. However, from the comments on Seamonkey 1.1, the real good stuff won’t appear until 1.5.

Outlook 2007 is taking HTML email back in time with horrible rendering. Thanks Microsoft for making things worse, again.

Check out this online image editors features list. Now you can easily find the best image editor for you.

American Idol, Karaoke Revolution is just like the show.

The Wii is the coolest game system ever!!

That’s it for now. I thought I had more but I’m not finding them at the moment.

1. Be Patient - The chances that you can run out to BestBuy and get one are slim. So be patient. I’ve been looking since November 19th with no luck yet.
2. Be Early - The lack of supply has raised the demand and stores may only get 20 at a time. Even that number is a bit high. If the store opens at 10, get there at 8:30 or 9. I still see lines today.
3. Wait in Line - Since stores are only getting a few, you may need to spend an hour or more in line waiting to get one. It’s worth it though if they get enough and you get one. Stores may also come out an hour before the store opens to hand out tickets for Wiis.
4. Ask For It - Store clerks don’t always fill the shelf, so you should ask for a Wii if you don’t see one as they might have one in back. I’ve also heard of people finding them at the return counter.
5. Ask About Other Stores - Quite a few stores are linked these days. I know that here in the Twin Cities, one Target can link up to all the Targets in 50+ miles and check inventory. Other stores should be able to do that too. Or at least tell you if all the stores get the same shipment of Wiis.
6. Check out Forums - There are thousands of people still looking for a Wii and there are forms with people who are posting their findings. You never now, if Walmart in Miami got 30, maybe the Walmart in Madison, WI got them too.
7. Check Tracker Sites - I’ve had no real luck with these yet, but some sites claim to track shipments and can email, text message or IM you locations of stores that have them in stock as they become available.

I’m not sure if finding a Nintendo Wii will get any easier as January rolls on, but I thought by now they’d be a lot easier to find and they aren’t. I’m searching, watching and waiting. Someday my Wii will come.

What are your tips? I’d love to hear them.

My quest to find one continues. I’m not going to support those that buy them just to sell them for profit on eBay. I’m going to continue to look at Target, Walmart, GameStop and everywhere in between. If it takes till mid January, so be it.

Interestingly enough, Target also got about 8 Playstation 3s and no one cared.

Reading the comments (over 350), and form posts, everyone is getting mixed responses when calling Amazon. Some reps say they are sold out, other say they will put them online around 7 or 8 (or in a few minutes or after noon or…) and others say Amazon and Nintendo are disagreeing on terms.

I’m waiting till 3am CST and if they are not online I guess Amazon.com just doesn’t want my money. I’ll try Target in the morning or wait till another day.

Overall, the confusion is not working in Amazon’s favor and their communication with the customer is not consistent. If they are sold out, it should say “Sold Out”. If there are technical difficulties, than a message on the Wii page saying so would help. For being one of the biggest online retailers, this is not looking good for them. Not only are they missing out on orders, but some may think twice about doing their holiday shopping on Amazon.

For me and my wife, we are big Nintendo fans and are going to try and get a Wii on Sunday. We are not camping out or anything like that, but if we pick the right store, it may not be busy.

What I really wonder is how many people are buying PS3’s and Wii’s just for eBay? I think a lot of people. I know if I see a PS3 or more than one Wii, I’ll be picking it up. It should turn a quick profit online.

So are you getting a console or planning to get one? Or are you asking for it for Christmas and making someone else do all the work at finding one?

Try to buy a Playstation3 or Wii on eBay or Amazon.