Best Christmas gift bargain ideas for popular hot shopping sale, with consumer review suggestions
By Mark Czerniec
November 21, 2006 6:25 AM

We'll see whether I got the right keywords into that title.

I remember a standup comedian once talking about rummage sales, and wondering, "What is it white people do on a Friday night that makes them get up on Saturday morning and put all of their stuff in the front yard?"

My main iBook is still in the shop with its dead video display. In the meantime, I'm limping along with a nearly obsolete model that barely has room for its own operating system. This prevents me from doing most of the Web work I would like to be doing right now, so instead I have occupied myself with silly detours like my aStore at Amazon.com. Yes, just in time for the big Chistmas shopping push, I have assembled many of my favorite books, movies, other DVDs, music, computers and software, kitchen products and more for your holiday gift-giving consideration. And, unlike an ordinary yard sale, much of my stuff can be bought brand spanking new (although a couple of the best cookbooks are out of print).

I've been seeing a lot of news stories about Second Life, the virtual world to which so many people have become addicted. I'm not a gamer at all, and I already have too little time for things in the conventional world, but gathering all of my personal belongings into this virtual store has been an interesting exercise. The collection is admittedly quirky — books on mythology and religion or folklore and fairy tales are not your typical bestsellers — but it is a pretty accurate reflection of me. None of my music is current, but that's partly because the store sells complete albums, and I have been buying more recent music as single songs from iTunes. Still, I guess I am getting old and I have yet to hear any young whippersnappers top what the Beatles did 40 years ago.

As for my selection of movies, well, it's the very best I've ever seen. You know how there's usually a montage during the Academy Awards® broadcast every year highlighting the greatest movie moments of all time, and you get all choked up just watching it and thinking about movie theaters and popcorn what a wonderful country we live in and how much you love your friends and family? That's how I feel when I look at my list of favorite films. They may have to create a special Oscar® just to honor it.

At the very least, there's nothing in my aStore that I don't like. You won't, for example, find our coffee maker there. It was overpriced and it's got some design flaws. I'm not crazy about my clock radio, either. Anything I have stocked is either something I really enjoy, or a newer, bigger, better version of it. Also, a significant number of these things were purchased by me through Amazon.com, and that's always been a trouble-free shopping experience.

So, as Black Friday and Cyber Monday approach, and America cranks up for another hustling, bustling, panicked, and occasionally violent Christmas shopping season, I am pleased to offer my own unique selection of merchandise in the spirit of goodwill and peace on earth.

Wesolych Swiat! Bozego Narodzenia!