After that we downloaded Skype so Maria could talk to her friend Leah in Nebraska! We loaded it up, played around and eventually found Leah in the directory and started making calls! It took a few times to get the video right, but after restarting all the programs and starting clean, Leeer, Lil Violet and Keef came through with no problems! The sound was great and there was no lag, what a cool little app! And it’s free! I also tried to hook up Google Video Chat but may have jumped into it a bit prematurely without restarting and everything like we did when we talked to Leah. I attempted a chat with a buddy, Alex, but it was unsuccessful at the time. I had shut down and began watching TV for the night and never got back to him… sorry dude! Ill catch up with you later tho! So overall the purchase was a success. We now have our webcam, we are on Skype and I have DVD-Rs to support my habit! Life is good!

So now I’m all amped up for a webcam. I go to look for deals and think to myself, “I should go to Circuit City.” Recently Circuit City announced that it was closing it’s stores due to the horrible financial crisis. I’m both upset and a little angry. Circuit City has always been a cool place to pick up a fairly priced movie or game, not to mention all the goodies like big-screen tvs and audio equipment. But now they are liquidating everything in the stores. I went there over the weekend to see how the priced were and currently they are offering about 10%-30% off almost everything in the store. Games and DVDs were 10%-15% off. I wasn’t too impressed with the prices and thought to myself that this weekend might be better for me to go check out some good deals. I still saw a lot of great items that were discounted but not enough for me to go crazy over it and buy up the store. The big ticket items were still pretty pricey and offering 10% off a $1700 TV isn’t the best deal you can give if your store is CLOSING! So the general thought is that the longer you wait, the cheaper the items will be. Other side of that sword is that people who can deal with 10%-30% off are still getting deals and cleaning out all of the good merch. So do you wait or do you take the deal and run?!

Well in a case like this, with a place like Circuit City, I think it’s probably smarter to pick it up now while the getting is good rather than wait and hope that there is a better deal to be had. So with that in mind I think I have found a great candidate for our future webcam. The Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 looks like it’s going to be a good fit. After reading more about it I found out from a review the following: “…with its 2-megapixel image sensor, smooth-tracking autofocus, high-end Carl Zeiss optics, and HD video capabilities… The Pro 9000 offers easy plug-and-play operability on either a Windows PC or a Mac–just slide in the USB 2.0 plug, select the camera from your chosen video chatting program (it works seamlessly with Skype, Yahoo!, Windows Live, SightSpeed, and iChat), and you’re good to go. While the Pro 9000 works brilliantly right out of the box, you’ll only be able to take advantage of software add-ons such using the included QuickCam software (which is for Windows users only)…” So this works out great for us since we will be using Skype and sending images back and forth. With something as important as a wedding dress being designed I felt that it is absolutely necessary to have the best visually detailed camera I could find… without breaking the bank of course!  The 2-megapixel sensor helps to improve both clarity and color, automatic autofocus smoothly readjusts as you move around the screen and the double-hinged clip easily fits on a variety of laptop and monitor surfaces. I’ll also be grabbing up some DVDRs and DVDRWs for my budding movie addiction! So although Circuit City is closing, it looks like I’ll be able to use my Circuit City Rewards Card one more time… even if I’ll never receive any rewards!