Jul
23
2008
This Ain't Your Momma's Department Store
Alright, I know what you're thinking: "JC Penney?
Alright, I know what you're thinking: "JC Penney?
About a month ago, I got an email asking me if I'd be interested in becoming a Nintendo Brand Enthusiast. I was three seconds away from deleting it---figuring it was just some cleverly-disguised INCREDIBLE PRICES FOR BEST DRUG$! junk mail---when I decided to take a closer look. And then an even closer one. As far as I could figure out, after extensive between-the-lines reading, Nintendo just wanted to throw me parties and send me stuff. For free. Was there a catch? Nope, there was no catch.
The most exciting that normally happens to me on a Thursday is fast-forwarding through the commercials on my DVR-ed episode of 30 Rock and pressing play again at exactly the right moment. Seriously, if this ever happens to me?
I'm going to give you some advice about coming to Banff. Here's the first piece: don't miss out on skiing at Lake Louise, because the views from the top of the mountain are spectacular. Here's the second piece: always bring a pair of very comfortable sweatpants in your luggage. Why would you bring a pair of very comfortable sweatpants in your luggage, you ask?
We woke up in Lake Louise on Sunday morning to discover that it had snowed overnight. Growing up in places where snow was always a rare and exciting commodity, my first instinct upon realizing that it was still coming down was to rush out of the front doors of the Deer Lodge, make a snow angel in the parking lot, and then throw half a dozen snowballs at unsuspecting passersby.
It was on our fourth day in Banff that I finally got the layers thing down. Getting the layers thing down, I figured out at last, basically just meant putting on my body every single piece of clothing I'd brought to Canada with me, and then a few of Sean's for good measure. For our final day of skiing---this time at Mt.
I bet you thought I'd finished telling you about my Banff trip, didn't you? Au contraire, my dear Internet! There's more! A lot, lot more, in fact. Day five in Banff was our last, sadly, but since our flight wasn't until the evening, we had quite a nice long time to enjoy it. And since we weren't hitting the mountains for the first time in three days, we even managed a lie-in. And after the lie-in?
It’s probably not a very nice thing to say, though I think it’s a fairly accurate one: my cats are to blame for every problem in my house.
The first thing you should know is that I'm going to be giving away a pretty awesome prize at the end of this entry. No, it's not an evening with Brad Pitt or a lifetime's supply of cupcakes, but would you really want those either of things anyway?
This is a compensated review by BlogHer and Intel. That said, I promise to give the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth when telling you about this product. (Internet, please, like I’d try and convince you to buy stuff I didn’t like myself.) So here’s my disclaimer: yes, I got sent this thing for free and I’m getting a little bit of money to tell you what I thought about it, but I would never, ever pretend I dug it when I didn’t. Cross my heart and swear to Jordan Catalano.
When I first got the email asking me if I’d like to review the Viliv X70EX I forwarded it straight to Sean. “This gadget looks cool,” I wrote. “But I have no idea what it is.” Sean wrote me back so fast that he must have got whiplash doing it. “THAT IS THE MOST AWESOME THING EVER,” he said. And then he sent me a link to some videos on Amazon---where I also discovered that the Viliv X70EX costs $599+, and anything that costs $599+ has got to be fairly impressive---and although I dutifully watched these videos, I’ve got to tell you, I still wasn’t a hundred percent clear on what the Viliv X70EX actually was. I mean, I was maybe, like, seventy four percent sure. And a half.
