I am not a typical early adopter. I love gadgets, but newer is NOT always better. I waited a year before I got my first iPhone. And I got a refurb. (And I hated it. I’m not a Mac Fanboi.)  I waited until last year to get an Android phone – not because I didn’t want one, I just don’t see the percentage in shelling out a metric shit tonne of money for something just because it’s new. I will, however, shell out a metric shit tonne if a.) I can afford it, and b.) it’s something that actually does something valuable. I am an early adopter for the Honeycomb tablet because it actually does save me a ton of time.  That was not the case for the iPhone, only moderately the case for the ‘Droid phone. The phone did prevent me from pulling out the lappy to look up something quick, but not to do serious surfing, research, or anything else. Downloads were nearly useless as there’s only so much space, and gettig the downloaded files required either I carry the data cable (that I only have one of ’cause they’re $30 a piece) or that I pull out the memory stick, which requires the phone to be powered off, and that I have the microSD adapter handy. I usually opted for the latter, as I do usually have a microSD adapter on my keyring. I figure if I can’t do it on my tablet right this second, it can wait til I’m at work. 😉

My point is, I am wicked mad about gadgets and tools, but am somewhat of a tightwad. (I swear, if I were single, I’d blow all my money on new toys. Fortunately, I have a family to think about, and that keeps me soundly grounded. 🙂 ) The catalyst for this post is my recent acquisition of an XBOX360. Yes, I’m aware it’s 2011, and I’m just now jumping into a modern colsole. First, it’s a Microsoft product, which makes me leery anyway. Second, they’re freaking expensive new. Thirdly, so are the games and especially the accessories. The last time I bought a video game console when it first came out was the Super Nintendo. The first time I bought a video game console when it first came out was the Super Nintendo. I never got into the Sega craze. My brother had a 1st gen PlayStation, but I really never strayed from good ol’ Nintendo. I also didn’t rush out as soon as they were available. I’m just not that hardcore a gamer. We did get a Wii…but primarily so we could get a Wii Fit, and we didn’t get it until Fit came out.

Well, a few months ago, Christy (der überWife, for the uninitiated), went to a friends house for a girls-night-in type of thing. Said friend had recently procured a Kinect-based dance game. The überWife was enamored, and I lovingly bought her a Kinect and required XBOX to use it. And her game. While I was there I picked up the Gears of War multipack, and Halo 3, since it was at a reasonable price, now that Reach has been out a while. I have started playing and burned through Gears 1 and 2, and Halo. I also grabbed Portal 2, which was still new enough to not be discounted, but is possibly the greatest pure game ever conceived. The boys love that one, especially.

The beauty of this is that being able to wait a year, or in some cases just a month or two, gets you all the fun, with a third of the cost. Or less.

I started looking around on Craigslist for a used copy of Reach, and found someone selling their entire kit for $140. that was a 360 with 20Gig disk, Rock Band, a Guitar Hero or two, Halo 3, 3 controllers, 3 guitars, the drums, the mic, CoD-MW2, and a few other accessories. $140. Hell, the drum+guitar+game combo for Rock Band was $150. So I bought it, and now we have a second XBox for upstairs – and the ability to Halo multiplayer without the split screen.

That’s picking your battles. The boys are learning a bit of patience, and the old adage “good things come to those who wait,” and I’m saving a metric shit tonne. Good times.

Now, for those of you that spout the importance of “the early bird gets the worm” mentality, I will grant you that is true. However, the second mouse gets the cheese.

J