As much as I love video games, and as much as I was excited about the new consoles coming out, I could never imagine standing in line for an untold number of hours to get one.

However, it seems that I am in the minority here.

When the Playstation 3 came out on Nov. 17, I heard radio stories on the Tuesday before saying that people had already pitched tents outside of some Best Buy stores just so they could have a Playstation 3. And on the day it came out, people were apparently getting shot and beat up for a video game console.

Playstation is not the only one. People waited in line for the Nintendo Wii as well.

Now that Thanksgiving is over, we have entered one of the busiest shopping seasons of the year. For some, this means it’s time to compete with thousands of other people to get the hottest gifts for Christmas. It seems people will go to any lengths to make sure that their families get exactly what they want for Christmas.

For example, most stores open at 5 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving. Why anyone would want to get up so early when they don’t have to work is beyond me. People spend most of Thanksgiving Day cooking and then stuffing themselves full of turkey while they entertain---or tolerate---their family and friends. To a logical mind, these people would probably want to spend the next day resting and eating leftovers. Maybe even putting up their Christmas decorations. Instead, they set their alarm clocks for 4 a.m. and get to the store thirty minutes before the store opens just so they can beat everyone else.

Don’t get me wrong. I love getting gifts for Christmas, and I’m not above saying that I don’t want the “cool” stuff for Christmas. But if my mother told me that she was going to get up at 5 a.m. to go shopping to make sure she got me what I wanted, I would probably call up the nearest mental hospital and ask them to come take her away.

Let’s not even talk about what happens once the stores open! People have been known to get trampled in the mad rush to be the first to buy an iPod or the latest fashions. Perhaps they don’t go to the extremes of shooting people---unless they are waiting for a Playstation 3---but it’s still possible to receive bodily harm.

The solution? Get more items in. Advertise in bolder, bigger letters (not the fine print at the bottom of the ad) how many of the item you have. Or take a ticket from Best Buy, who actually did hand out tickets to people waiting for the Wii. They handed out the same number of tickets as they had Wii’s, and that seemed to work pretty well.

If you are one of these people who woke up before the sun to go shopping this past Friday, I salute you. If the rest of you, like me, slept most of Friday, but still have to make that foray into the world of retail to buy gifts, I leave you with one piece of advice: you might want to wear body armor.