I've come to realize that now it doesn't depend on if you can get in line soon enough, but it depends more on who you know.

You see, after my last attempt at getting a Wii I realized that I wasn't going to get one merely waiting in line, or making a few phone calls.

Nope, I realized I had to grease a few palms. So that's what I (figuratively) did.

You see, I have a good friend who is a manager at a local store and he's good friends with the manager of a store that will actually be getting more Wiis before Christmas (don't know when yet, just that they're coming before).

So I called up my buddy and pulled a few strings with him so that he'd call his buddy who is going to put one away for me.

No longer do I have to wait in the freezing cold, standing in line with a bunch of big guys who smell like they fell into a vat of some primordial ooze.

Nope, now I can wait by the phone in the comfort of my own home and when the call comes in I merely have to saunter down to the store that belongs to the friend of a friend, and pick up my Wii.

I don't even have to go to the back door of the store in the middle of the night to do it - I can walk right through the middle, go find the guy and tell him who I am and within a few minutes I'll have in my hands one of the most elusive Christmas presents available.

And all because I knew a guy who knew a guy.