Ultimate Geek Experience

As I mentioned yesterday, I attended the Ultimate Windows Vista Experience last night at the Best Buy store in Florence, KY. While I’m not usually down for this sort of event due to the overwhelming geekiness of it all, this one gave me a chance to win some rather nice prizes and to meet Pro Football Hall of FamerAnthony Munoz who used to play for my beloved Cincinnati Bengals. So I roll into the parking lot at Best Buy around 10:30pm (the party started at 10pm) figuring that way I’d skip the lines to get in and not have to stand out in the freezing cold. Much to my delight I found no line whatsoever and plenty of parking! As I was walking in I noticed a tent setup outside with some pulsating music emanating out of it as well as some rather festive lighting. I knew they were supposed to have a DJ at this event but I would have thought he’d be inside not outside in a tent when it’s near 17 degrees!

I swing by the tent to see what’s up and sure enough there’s the DJ and a nice spread of food and drinks. The tent was nice and warm thanks to both the space heaters and the insane amount of people in there snatching up all the free food they get. I quickly decided that this wasn’t my scene (I wasn’t even hungry anyway…) and headed inside.

As I enter the store I’m greeted by two rather friendly MS reps who give me a bunch of MS swag (pens, pencils, stickers, etc.) and a Windows Vista-branded flash drive. Apparently I was one of the first 100 to arrive because only the first 100 people got one of the drives. This doesn’t really surprise me all that much though because most people know the big prize drawings aren’t until 12:30am so why get there early right? I wish I had thought of that… grr. Anyway, they also tell me to sign up now for the big laptop drawing later tonight so I take a moment to give them all my contact info before I stuff my free swag in my coat and head off to kill two hours until the prize drawing.

I immediately head to the back of the building as I’ve been informed that Mr. Munoz is back there doing free photos thanks to HP and Microsoft.

I arrive to find there’s quite a line of people but what the hell… I’ve got time to kill so I jump in line. Besides, you don’t get a chance to meet a man like him everyday… let alone get your picture taken with him. After a few minutes in line I get my chance to go up and stand next to one of the best offensive tackles to ever play professional football! We say hello, shake hands, pose the photo, and click… we’re done.

I’m whisked off to the back of the photo area where they have a bank of HP photo printers working overtime printing out the pictures of everyone they’ve taken in the last few minutes. After about eight minutes or so they finally hand me my photo in a little paper frame from MS and HP signed by Anthony himself. Ok… check my watch to see what time it is and…. 10:50! Wow, this could be a long two hours!

I decide this is a good time to head out to my car with my swag and my picture so I don’t have to keep carrying them around. Besides, I’d left my camera in the car and I really did want to get some pictures of this event for the blog here. I hit the car, drop off my stuff, and grab the camera. As I’m walking back in I manage to get pictures of the DJ/food tent and a little display of “Geek Squad” cars parked outside the building on the sidewalk (along with more festive lighting of course).

I quickly head inside again (since the temperature is not suited to being outdoors for very long) and upon entering the store I am once again caught by the MS reps trying to give me more swag. I politely decline and remind them that I came in a just a little bit ago and had already been giving my share of MS propaganda for the evening. I once again head for the back of the store to get a quick picture of the photo op setup with Mr. Munoz and then begin to browse the store for a bit. I looked at everything from PC’s to video games to TV’s to MP3 players before it finally hit me that I did indeed need to get something while I was there. I hit the MP3 accessory area and found exactly what I was looking for: an armband for my Sansa e260 MP3 player. I’ve been needing one of these so I can take my MP3 player to the gym and since I’m starting on my diet I’m going to need that! I also picked up a new pair of Sony earbuds since my old earphones are horribly uncomfortable. Items in hand I head to the register and check out, head back out to the car to put away my new toys, and then back into the store. Check my watch now and it’s… 11:30pm. This night is never going to end.

So now I still have an hour to kill and I’m bored to death with this store. I’m tired of being asked if I need help selecting a computer from some 16 year old kid who knows less about computers than I know about water polo (and I know nothing of water polo just to be clear)… I’m tired of store security “giving me the eye” because my coat look bulkly and oddly uneven due to my digital camera being in a side pocket… I’m tired of watching guys FAR more geeky than myself salivate over the chance to buy Vista at the stroke of midnight.

I take a few minutes and play some game demos on the PS3 only to be highly unimpressed with some an expensive machine. I take a few more minutes check out the 65″ plasma and DLP TV’s I won’t be able to afford for a few more years and marvel how crisp and clean the picture looks compared to my 51″ CRT HDTV at home. I even wondered over and took a few minutes to play with one of the high-end HP laptops they had running Vista… even though I’ve been using Vista on my work laptop for a couple months now. I even took some pictures of the laptop kiosk and the multitude of geeks clamoring around it. Yep, I was that bored people. Finally I look down at my watch and see that it’s only midnight. I gotta get out of this place or I’m gonna kill someone. I’m sure of this fact.

I quickly head to the car and race down the street to the new Wal-Mart that just opened since I knew the wife and I needed a few things from the store. I was in and out of Wal-mart in 20 minutes and then raced back to Best Buy before the 12:30am deadline for the drawing (it was a “you must be present to win” kinda thing if I haven’t mentioned that yet… sorry). I arrive back about five minutes early so I stopped in the little tent outside and grabbed a burger which I only ate about half of but I didn’t feel bad about wasting it since it was free anyway. I slip back inside the store with about a minute to spare and await the calling of my name (hey… I guy can be hopeful right?) as the winner of the very expensive HP laptop they were giving away. I hear them stop the music in the store and begin the announcement but they’re saying something about “check the back of your MVP badge for number such and such…” which struck me as odd since I had neither a badge nor a number but I know I filled out that paperwork at the beginning of the night to “enter the drawing for the laptop” or so they said. I head over to the table with the MS reps and ask about this. I’m told that anyone who bought Vista that night or a PC with Vista installed was given an “MVP” badge with a number on it for the drawing. WTF?!? No one told me I had to purchase something to get into the drawing. And did I have to fill out that entry form earlier then? They’re response was that the entry form was for all the other prizes throughout the night (signed football jerseys, various MS swag, etc.) and not for the laptop. At this point I’m pretty damn pissed. I just wasted two hours of my night here (not to mention the 40 minute one-way drive to Florence from my house) and I don’t even get a shot at the laptop prize? That’s just not right folks. NOWHERE in my the contest rules that I read did it say anything about having to purchase Vista to be eligible. I checked last night when I got home, trust me. Either way, at this point I left for my car and drove home cussing Microsoft under my breath for wasting my time.

Well that’s my story folks. The moral of it is this: make sure you know the details of any drawing BEFORE you take the time to participate in it. I should have asked more questions when I got there and the ears of the MS reps. I know I’ll definitely be doing that in the future!