Walmart has Modern Warfare 2 available for preorder for “only” $50 and you also get an online gift card worth $10.

I know it’s not really $40 but that’s $10 you can put toward something else, so figuratively speaking my math is good. I knew that math minor would come in handy one day.

Regardless on your thoughts of the game’s worthiness of its true $60 cost, surely it’ll be worth $40. The single-player campaign alone will probably be worth somewhere around there, and if you put any time into multiplayer then that will have been a well-spent $40.

In this way it won’t truly matter (for you) if the PC version doesn’t get the full console treatment — balance, timely DLC, etc. — since you won’t be paying the console price. Sure, I will still be peeved if those things are absent, but since I’m expecting their absence maybe I’ll end up surprised yet again.

Amazon kicks a relatively large amount of ass. Most of the nontrivial stuff I buy comes from them. Online shopping is supremely convenient for me: No lines, no dumb people, no whining kids, no traffic, no wasting gas, no putting myself in a dangerous situation just to buy things (automobile accidents kill millions every year), etc. So I have to wait a few days to get my stuff — I’m perfectly okay with that given all the pros.

Recently I’ve been thinking about getting Amazon Prime. The premise is simple — you pay $79 per year in order to get free two-day shipping on every order. Every single one. And if you want to get your stuff in one day instead of two, you pay a mere $4 extra. For someone like me who (still) buys CDs and often only one or two at a time, this could potentially save me a lot of money. And then I also get them in my hands in two days instead of six. In either case Amazon is much more convenient; Best Buy and Circuit City have failed to have what I was looking for so many times it’s beyond laughable.

Another reason I like Amazon is because they have tons of third-party merchants selling through them, and more often than not the prices are lower. I recently bought my mom the entire DVD set of Le Femme Nikita because it’s one of her favorite shows of forever apparently. The list price is a whopping $410, and even though Amazon only wants $277 for it, that’s still a steep price. Through a third-party merchant I was able to get the set for a mere $110 — brand new too. That’s kind of ridiculously awesome!

When I went to check out Amazon told me “You Save: $299.” I laughed out loud.

Prime, however, doesn’t work for third-party merchants, so even if you’ve paid the $79, the option to use Prime isn’t there. Thus, Prime is not very useful on its own or for dedicated third-party users. It’s only when you’re a frequent Amazon shopper does it stand out. I wasn’t aware of just how much until I gave it a little thought.

Here’s an example. Below are four CDs I want (I’m on an emo-ish, post-hardcore kick right now, though the past few I’ve bought have fallen into the melodic black and technical death metal catagories). In the second column is the Amazon price and in the third you’ll find a third-party merchant price plus $5.19 for expedited shipping via USPS. I could go non-expedited for $2.98, but then I’m only guaranteed to get my wares within two weeks, so it’s hardly worth not paying the extra $2.21.

In total I’m looking at $53.93 from Amazon Prime and $56.10 from third-party merchants. Notice how the base third-party prices are very good on their own, but when you throw in shipping for every single item, it suddenly doesn’t seem like such a good idea. That’s $20.76 in shipping costs alone — so much shipping, in fact, that the end total turns out to be higher. And then we don’t get the convenience of two-day shipping.

Amazon Prime is definitely a good idea if you frequently buy small items online, especially when you can pool together and have multiple people buying through one account for all the benefits. The $79 fee will pay for itself in no time at all, and after that it should save you quite a bit. The above example probably isn’t the best to demonstrate this, mainly because CDs are almost guaranteed to cost much less via the merchants, but it’s relevant so I went with it anyway.

Update! I found out today that Amazon allows you to add up to four “family members” to a Prime account. The idea, of course, is that people within a family/household can share the benefits without having to buy via a single person, but since there aren’t any substantial checks on person-to-person relationships, you can essentially tell Amazon your buddy is actually your “unmarried partner” or child. A child with his own credit card and address. All they ask for verification is to know each others’ birthdays. Pretty damned awesome if you ask me.

As it turns out, marrying your first cousin has been declared just peachy. Yup, Science said so. Apparently, reports of birth defects have been greatly exaggerated. In reality, the odds of them coming about are no greater than they are when a middle-aged woman decides to have a baby.

According to the National Society of Genetic Counselors, birth defects are 2 to 3 percent more common in children born to first cousins than among the general population — a real risk, but not enough to justify the bans.

Surprisingly enough, first-cousin marriage is currently only banned in 31 states, though if Science has any say in the matter, it’ll soon be zero. “It’s discrimination!” it says. I grew up assuming it was expressly forbidden to want to do your cousin (in the butt) in all states and everywhere. It inherently sounds like incest, and we’re all told that incest just isn’t cool.

But I have been mistaken! Not only were cousin relations used to keep royalty in the family in Europe, but my own state says marriage, sex, and conception with any hot cousins you might have is perfectly alright. And that, of course, is the real issue at hand — doesn’t everyone have a hot cousin?

In the midst of financial crises and an all-out global meltdown, it’s good to know Science still has its priorities straight.

If you’re wondering, the song at the beginning is the one from the (very awesome) ending of The Mist. It’s The Host of the Seraphim by Dead Can Dance.

It pains me a bit that the selection of decent small cars is so lacking on this side of the pond. It’s only poor people who drive small ones over here; everyone else drives a large, family-sized sedan, a gigantic SUV, or a truck that gets 10 miles per gallon because they sit outside the realm of EPA regulation.

With American cars sucking ass (as demonstrated by our auto industry failing and begging Congress for money), my choices for a new, small, reliable car are basically between the Mazda 3 and the Mazda 3. If the 2006+ Honda Civics weren’t so God-awfully ugly, I could easily see myself checking out an Si, but alas.

My initial want led me to the GTI, but I’m not so sure it’s economical or reliable enough to meet my needs. Plus, these little fuckers are fast, and speeding tickets aren’t something I need. Obviously, the GTI is far more cool than the Mazda 3, but the 3 ain’t too shabby in its own right.

Cost, then, is probably the deciding factor. The GTI I’d want would cost about $24,000 whereas the 3 would be a mere $16,000 or so. $8,000 is no small amount, but not only that, the next iteration of GTIs look fantastic. Since the new versions always lag a few years before making their way over here, perhaps I’ll wait until then to splurge on a 3,000-lb. go-kart.