Avindair has written a long and awesome article about his wait for an Xbox 360 in the cold Minnesota weather this past Sunday. It starts as such:

“You jus’ don’ want me here,” spat the red-haired man in the cover-alls. He tipped a beer back to his handlebar-moustached lips and wiped his mouth, gunslinger-lookin’-fer-a-fight style. His eyes never left mine.

“It’s not that,” I said, wondering for the first time if I should have been armed. “I just don’t want you to waste your time in the cold if you don’t have to.”

He spat out something simultaneously crude and unremarkable, then took a step towards me.

Oh, shit, I thought. It’s on.

Nobody on the sidewalk behind the drunk noticed. Those who hadn’t retreated to the warmth of their cars were too busy hunkering down under layers of blankets and sleeping bags to do anything. Only the steady stream of steam escaping from their lips made it clear that they were still alive.

I looked up into the eyes of the angry drunk and wondered again why in the hell I was standing out in the single-digit cold, shaking, in the pre-dawn dark of a Sunday morning.

Oh, yeah, that was right: I was doing this to get a freaking Xbox360.

Merry frigging Christmas.

It entire article is interesting and very well written. You can read the entire article here.