So my secret santa recipient (GilloD) says he wants a present that he "can tell a story about!" (his exclamation point). So after mulling this over for a time I decided to take a field trip.

(All pictures taken with the iPhone app "ShakeIt," for maximum Willco annoyance.
To the Oakland Coliseum Swap Meet. Now if you're familiar with the Bay Area at all you know that the coliseum is located in a neighborhood that might be considered "bad" or "a shithole."
The swapmeet itself is Tokyo's famed Akihabara district, but instead of electronics and games, there are piles of stolen garbage to root around in (the picture that shows up on google maps for the coliseum is NSFW, but amazing in it's explanational brevity:
http://maps.google.com/maps/place?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:*:IE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7GGIE_en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=coliseum+swap+meet&fb=1&gl=us&hq=coliseum+swap+meet&hnear=San+Jose,+CA&cid=7815808498033335626). if there was a place to get a 'Bore present, this is it (that last part is a lie).

Now it must be said that this experiment isn't advised. As the sole white person not homeless at the swap meet I stood out a little bit, but this wasn't a problem. What was a problem was the pictures I was taking of various stalls. Taking a picture of miniature chairs for Baby Jesus is one thing, taking pictures of dudes selling stolen electronics is quite another.


So after a bit of yelling and almost getting beaten, I decided to get some real shopping done and get the fuck out of there.
So what did I buy for GilloD?
Was it a broken Dreamcast?

A Rush Cassette tape to keep him comapny when he wakes up fearing fan death?

A VHS tape of Jodie Foster's Contact to impress his ne Korean friends?

A Batmobile for crimefighting?

Jeans to make his ass look plumper?


We shall see...