X-Entertainment.com X-Entertainment.com A Proud UGO Affiliate
My dying wish is for an owl/camel hybrid, which I call camowl.
« [Main Index] »

August Megaparty #20: Battery Fun!

When I bought my latest digital camera, it came with a charger and four rechargeable batteries. For whatever reason, I decided to pretend that the camera didn't come with these things, and have been purchasing regular AA batteries since Day 1. I realize that this behavior could only be defined as "stupid." If I tallied up all the money spent on batteries these past few years, there'd be enough in the might-have-been pot to get me on a three-day vacay to Tahiti. Or a reasonable simile of Tahiti.

I don't have any real preference when it comes to batteries. I usually just buy whatever I see first, except in special cases, namely when a battery company runs a promotion involving hot free gifts in each pack. This is a more typical trend than you non-battery buyers might think. I just got back from Target a little while ago, and I saw everything from baby-sized flashlights to tiny soccer balls to Lightning McQueen figures given out free in specially marked packs. The freebies aren't always enough to sway me in a certain direction, but tonight, one was...


Hells yes, thanks maam, I think I will take you up on this free wind-up Energizer Bunny offer. My sixteen shiny Energizer batteries are good until 2013, but that damn bunny, I'll keep him till 2020, easy.

Course, you should be buying batteries based on how good they are, and with that train of thought, I must recommend Energizer's "Lithium" collection. They're pricey as fuck, but they totally pay for themselves: When we went to Disney World, I lasted the entire trip on two batteries, and that accounts for over 800 pictures and about 50 movies. Sno joke.

I would've bought the Lithiums again, but alas, they didn't come with wind-up Energizer Bunnies.


It keeps going and going and going and making this funky noise that sounds like a swarm of pissed off bees ready to attack and going and going and blah blah blah blah.

Posted by Matt on 08/20/2006. E-mail me!



Discussion Thread: 60 comments

Great, now I wish I hadn’t stocked up on the grocery store’s generic batteries before I went on vacation. I’ve seen almost all of the battery gimmicks you mentioned, from the flashlights to Lightning McQueen, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Energizer Bunny. I will have to look for that now, just to confirm it’s existance.

Those of you who live in South Jersey may have already seen this mentioned on the news, but there’s been a bit of excitement in my neighborhood in Oaklyn, near Philly and Camden. A historic building down the street from me that housed an auto repair shop, a vending machine warehouse, and a wheelchair supply store literally blew up. From what I’ve gathered from neighbors, the waitress at the diner where I ate dinner, and the Courier Post, the fire started around 4:30, they turned off the electricity shortly after (that’s why I ended up at the diner), and there were explosions that made the fire go crazy around six. Last I read on the Courier Post’s website, the fire was under control and there were no injuries or houses damaged, but the building and the cars and businesses inside of it are complete losses.

The smoke was so bad, I could see it clearly from the grocery store I work at in Audobon, ten minutes from Oaklyn. It was still smoky on West Clinton when I went by there around 8:30 on my way home from the diner. They say fire trucks from 12 fire companies had to be called in to contain the blaze.

Chestnuts roasted by starwenn @ 08/21/2006 12:32 AM

I was just at target! I wish i had known about this i so would have bought some! Anyways, along the same lines, i have a stuffed snuggle bear, it looks just like the one in the commercials, i dont remember where i got it from though.

Chestnuts roasted by Katella @ 08/21/2006 12:43 AM

Jedoc: I thought you lived up north… somewhere. My bad. Yeah I hate the heat, no I hate the humidity most. Dewpoints above say, 60, suck. But, how about just a few miles south of the mason-dixon? :) Would that be good enough? That’s me!

:o Stickers!? This changes everything. These batteries are going on my list. Mystie got me thinking.

Chestnuts roasted by Ryane @ 08/21/2006 12:47 AM

Great point dohopoki.

Chestnuts roasted by dohopoki @ 08/21/2006 12:53 AM

Much love for the pink bunny and wind-ups in general. And a hidden cache of stickers? Oh yes, this is a total bargain. Marketing genius at work here. I mean the stickers alone might’ve won me over but a hard-rockin’ bunny with a drum and shades? I’m alllll over it! ;-)

Chestnuts roasted by Todd @ 08/21/2006 1:06 AM

Resorted to complimenting yourself, eh Doho?

Chestnuts roasted by Knegative @ 08/21/2006 1:15 AM

God. I used to have a big Energizer Bunny figurine when I was younger. I remember it smelling really nice for some reason. I don’t think it actually moved though, which I was probably pissed about.

Chestnuts roasted by Denise @ 08/21/2006 1:19 AM

Resort? I’ve been doing it for years. Just not so outloud. I haven’t ate today.

Chestnuts roasted by dohopoki @ 08/21/2006 1:32 AM

Is that an excuse or a cry for help?

Chestnuts roasted by Knegative @ 08/21/2006 1:40 AM

Excuse, since I’m eating now.

Chestnuts roasted by dohopoki @ 08/21/2006 1:46 AM

God damnit. Now I have to go to Target and buy those batteries. Sure they will go to good use, but I’m one of those people who will buy the smallest, cheapest pack of AAs available. And I will only do that after I’ve switched out the batteries in everything enough so that I must buy batteries…then those batteries will continue getting switched between various remotes, vibrators, digital cameras, etc until I must buy more.

Chestnuts roasted by Jackie @ 08/21/2006 2:02 AM

Ryane-this is about your post on the other entry but i figured youd look here…anyways yeah it can be tricky ordering makeup you dont even see cause sometimes the colors come and its not what you expected…its a gamble. Where do you live? haha im not being a stalker its just sephora has stores too although im not sure if they are nation wide.

dohopoki- i commend(spell check) you for complimenting yourself, i think that was a wise observation haha

And completely unrelated, i have to fast all day tomorrow(well except for like, broth and jello) because i have a CAT scan the next day…im really sad about not eating for a whole day so hopefully something fun will be going on, on X-E to cheer me up!

Chestnuts roasted by Katella @ 08/21/2006 3:42 AM

I always get the cheapest ass batteries,but then again the only battery using things I have are my DVD remote (2 years so far out of the included batteries)my GameCube wireless “wavebird” control (1 set of batteries goes about a year),and plug n play games. Of course,I play those plug n plays an awful lot. I really ought to just get a nice PC arcade stick and go with MAME emulation.

JEDOC:what the hell is a “game of soldiers”? Is that what you kids are calling it these days? :)

Chestnuts roasted by Kid Nicky @ 08/21/2006 7:22 AM

Kid Nicky: I don’t know about kids these days, but the phrase originated in the trenches of WWI. I picked it up from certain Discworld characters, and admired its utility as an exclamation of world-weariness, its admirable lyric rhythm, and its ability to confuse random people on the internet.

Ryane: Nah, I grew up in the foothills of the New Mexico rockies, but came to Abilene for college. And I’m likely stuck here until I get out of grad school, despite the fact that I’m earning my master’s degree online, because for now this is where the work is. Also crickets. This is definately where the crickets are.

Besides, I can’t imagine freelance librarianing is too much fun. “Will catalog for food! You there, sir! Help you find a treatise on the works of Thomas Payne for a nickel?”

Chestnuts roasted by Jedoc @ 08/21/2006 8:02 AM

so “bugger this for a game of soldiers” is like “how about this for shits and giggles”? Am I getting that right? I liked Good Omens but attributed the goodness of it to Gaiman,just because all Gaiman’s books are quality. It never even occurred to me to read any of Pratchett’s own books.

Chestnuts roasted by Kid Nicky @ 08/21/2006 8:34 AM

Yeah santa bears were the shiznit back in the late 80s

Chestnuts roasted by toots @ 08/21/2006 8:36 AM

Don’t encourage him Katella.

Chestnuts roasted by Knegative @ 08/21/2006 8:49 AM

If I had to translate it directly into Modern American, I’d probably go with “Screw you guys, I’m going home.” Although in this case I am home, and wish I wasn’t, so it’s more like “Screw you guys, I’m going somewhere the temperature drops below thirty degrees in the wintertime.”

If you like Gaiman, you’ll probably like Pratchett. While Pratchett is quite a bit goofier on average, they have a lot in common so far as humor goes. For anyone interested in getting into Pratchett, I generally recommend that you start with either the unofficial Sam Vimes series, beginning with Guards! Guards! or one of the standalone novels like Pyramids. In your case, it might be interesting to start with Small Gods, just so you can see how Pratchett and Gaiman differ in their “theology.” If you’re really dedicated to reading things in chrological order, you can pick up the first five Discworld novels in an attractive hardcover omnibus called Rincewind the Wizzard. But I’ve got to warn you, his newer stuff is on a level of quality way above his half-dozen or so early attempts.

Just so you’re clear as to what you’re getting into, I leave you with the dedication from Guards! Guards!

“They may be called the Palace Guard, the City Guard, or the Patrol. Whatever their name, their purpose in any work of heroic fantasy is identical: it is, round about Chapter Three (or ten minutes into the film) to rush into the room, attack the hero one at a time, and be slaughtered. No one ever asks them if they wanted to.

This book is dedicated to those fine men.”

Chestnuts roasted by Jedoc @ 08/21/2006 9:01 AM

Damn, I almost forgot. If you were interested in the characters of the Four Horsemen in Good Omens, you can also start with the Death/Susan Sto Lat series with Mort and Soul Music.

Right, I’m finished now, I promise. Tune in next week when I tell you why not reading Orson Scott Card makes you a terrible person.

Chestnuts roasted by Jedoc @ 08/21/2006 9:05 AM

You could always write the librarian equivalent of High Fidelity. I’ll leave the jokes to you, as I must concur with Nelson Moss who put it best: “I don’t read!”

Chestnuts roasted by Knegative @ 08/21/2006 9:21 AM

In my time as a KB employee I’ve seen several battery giveaways. The Energizer Bunny was cool; the worst by far was this crappy little Chronicles of Narnia snow globe with an Aslan the size of a pea inside. We also have this enormous, two-foot Bunny that used to sit atop our Energizer rack. One day a DSM visited and told us to get rid of the rack because KB hates anything that might improve sales. We couldn’t bear to part with the Bunny, so now he sits defiantly (and kind of pointlessly) above one of the registers, as much a mascot for our ragtag crew as he is for batteries.

Chestnuts roasted by Kaga @ 08/21/2006 10:42 AM

Heh Jedoc I was very sad the day I learned about Orson Scott Cord’s personal/political beliefs and realized I had trouble seperating the man from the work. Xenocide is still one of the greatest novels on my bookshelf…I’m about to start reading the Bean/Shadow series. Well, at the moment I’m not in the mood to deal with anything too heavy (I had to put The Handmaid’s Tale on hold in favor of a Puzo mafia novel), but it’s in the queue.
I don’t have much unique to say about batteries, unfortunately. I like the lithium ones too, but my moldy oldy camera still goes through them like mad. I barely get a dozen snaps out of the cheapies, though. I have rechargables too, but that’s just too much trouble.

Chestnuts roasted by squee4242 @ 08/21/2006 10:56 AM

No one’s really answered this question yet, so I will. Back in the mid-late 80′s, Domino’s Pizza totally bought my loyalty. The first thing I remember was a form on the front of the box for ordering your own Domino’s toy car. It was a cute little 80′s hatchback with delivery decals on the doors and a big domino on the roof. I still have it and still love it. That was followed with Noid figurines, of which I had several and still have a couple. Pizza Hut is the only other pizza place I can remember that had promotional items, and those were always for some movie (Back to the Future II sunglasses, anyone?) Domino’s sold themselves and I love them for it.

I’m totally going to try some of those lithium batteries. My camera eats batteries like you wouldn’t believe. I was at a wedding a couple of weeks ago. I put fresh batteries in the camera to take some pictures (about 6) at the rehearsal, left them in overnight, and started taking pictures at the wedding. The batteries didn’t make it to the end of the reception. I think my camera takes a lot of power to remember the date and time, because I can put batteries in there, turn it off without taking a single picture, and my batteries will be dead inside of a month. I want a new camera so bad.

Chestnuts roasted by Lori @ 08/21/2006 10:57 AM

I try my damnedest to only buy my batteries in two packs from the guy on the subway. Because I’m a rebel like that.

On an unrelated note: SoaP — did it live up to your personal hype?

Chestnuts roasted by LemurCat @ 08/21/2006 11:13 AM

random bob- The website is Cockeyed.com

LemurCat- Nah, I was so pumped up about it there was no way it could have met my expectations… I have to go cry, again.

Chestnuts roasted by Darth Poop @ 08/21/2006 11:51 AM

Add A New Comment!


This entry was posted on Sunday, August 20th, 2006 at 10:35 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.