Support the Victims of the West Portal & Ulloa Fire

View Larger Map

As Thanksgiving approaches and everyone is planning to meet up with family and friends to share a turkey and tasty pumpkin pie, we should always be thankful for what we have.  Yet, we sometimes forget about those in need or are struggling during this holiday season.

Many of you have known about the big fire that happened at the corner of West Portal and Ulloa, right near the West Portal Muni Metro Station.  The early morning fire was so huge it required over 180 firefighters with multiple ladder trucks, and the Fire Chief and Mayor was there.  It took nearly 12 hours to fully extinguish the blaze, and made major delays on Muni metro.  Just yesterday, a small bulldozer went to the corner property to knock it down.

While I was having lunch with my dad in Parkmerced yesterday, I was reading the West Portal Monthly.  The newspaper stated the fire damaged an estimated 7.35 million dollars.  But what's more sad is all the employees, especially those at Squat and Gobble who can't go back to the West Portal location.  While I'm not sure if those employees were able to work at their sister locations, this is still a burdon on them.

Let's all be generous this holiday season.  If you would like to make a donation to help those employees displaced by the fire, please visit any San Francisco Bank of America branch and ask for your deposit to be sent to the "West Portal Fire Account."

Even though Thanksgiving is a week away, I wish to all my loyal readers a great and safe Thanksgiving weekend.

Black Friday Shopping - Akit Style!

Today is Black Friday, and I can tell you, I found some good bargains, especially on a tight budget.

For the last two or three years, I've been driving down to Daly City and Colma to visit the major big box stores to get my hands on some great holiday bargains, but mostly for myself. Yeah... I'm a tad selfish, but when you really need something very badly to fix or upgrade, you'd just have to get up by 4AM and suffer some cold weather.

Today, all I did was that I visited my neighborhood Radioshack, which is about twenty blocks away by car, but only a short 10 minute drive on the non-busy streets. The only two things that I was really attracted to at the store was:

• Emergency Hand Crank radio (my old one is broken) for just $20.00 versus $40.00
• 2 Gig XD camera memory card for $40.00 versus other places that sells it for nearly $80.00.

Luckily, that Radioshack was not too busy, there was only about 5 people ahead of me.

Several hours of sleep later, I went to Costco to buy another case of Mexican Coca Cola, a bottle of juice, and a box of gum. Still, a good bargain for 80 cents a bottle of Coca Cola, and gum that is only about 60 cents a pack (versus $1.25 at the grocery store).

After some years of experience of this massive bargain hunting, here's my quick tips to a not so pissed off holiday:

• Shop at night, you might not get those super hot bargains, but you'll experience smaller crowds and still find some decent deals, especially on DVDs.
• If you go for openings at 4 or 5AM, stick to the smaller chain stores like Radioshack, Kohls, and any Mervyn's location not attached to a mall.
• AVOID BEST BUY AT ALL COSTS! Last year, the line was so long, it wrapped around the entire building.
• Go for online purchases, "Cyber Monday" is just a few days away, and some places will offer FREE shipping.
• Go bid on stuff on eBay, they are significantly cheaper than going to your favorite store.
• This is also a good time to sell stuff on eBay, I've sold an xbox system for over $70.00.