So I was sorting through my archive of digital photos, and I found a picture my brother had taken on the morning of my first Black Friday experience, and the photo shows me at Walmart, in line at checkout with a boxed red/black Nintendo DS Lite. I went to get info on the picture, and it turns out that it was taken on November 27, 2009 at 5:16 AM (Eastern). I originally bought the DS Lite as a replacement for the original-style Nintendo DS, which had fallen off of my nightstand and broke the center hinge earlier that month.

Ten years later, the DS Lite has seen a couple chips of paint, and the L and R buttons got a little bit finicky over the years (oddly enough, they start working normally for about 3 hours after blowing into them), but other than those very minor issues, the system as a whole still works flawlessly. In more recent years, I decided to add a screen protector the to bottom touch screen, to help prolong the life of the touch screen. I just happened to have a screen protector was too small for my Handspring Visor PDA, but big enough to be cropped down to the screen dimensions of the DS Lite. I've also found a DS flash cart for just $5 at a consignment shop, though I probably will only use it for music, photos, homebrew games and programs, just to be both safe and legal.