Here are the promised comments and (not trying to borrow Paul Harvey's famous words here) the rest of the story. The why fate does some funny things.
Regular readers of my comments and articles probably would have an easy time telling that I'm a big supporter of our military, or at least most of it. Regular JoeUser readers may know that I'm not a supporter of at least one blow-hard worthless lite C.O.L., but that is not the issue now.
It seems that fate has perhaps intervened and is going to give me an opportunity to once again go a little above and beyond myself.
How does any of this relate to the Peer-to-Peer disc trading services I mentioned above? How are all of these things linked together, and apparently tied together by fate... ah, patience for just a minute or two more grasshopper.
I've been slowly but surely catching up on the highly recommended TV series Smallville. It was somewhat a natural for me, since it was basically about the Superman character, even if there's no tights, no flights. Still, it's Clark Kent, Superman, and life in Smallville from Supe's youth. Gotta watch it, even if I didn't have a bunch of people saying it's a great show and I should be ashamed for not watching it from day 1.
In trying to get the earlier season sets in the least expensive and most efficient methods possible, I used both of the Peer-to-Peer trading services listed above, to get the sets and watch them. Along the way I was unable to get a reasonable copy of the 2nd season set, so I wound up joining Columbia House's DVD club (great deal actually, but that too isn't the point) and took Smallville Season 2 as one of my enrollment sets. (I got season 3 from another Switchdiscs member).
Once consumed, I wanted to pass the sets along and hoped to trade them for other programs or discs I would watch so I listed both sets on Switchdiscs some time back. That sometime back having been several weeks ago now, and not having gotten requests for either set (though I had priced them both reasonably in comparison to other sets listed there, apparently no one was that interested), I opted today to list both sets up on Amazon.com. I put both sets up for sale, priced them the lowest by just a penny or two over the next lowest used "like new" price and waited for someone to hopefully buy either or both sets.
Within a few hours, both sets were sold, each to a different buyer. (I then removed both listings from Switchdiscs since the items are no longer available for trade).
This is the part where fate comes along and starts offering me the opportunity to do the right thing, and perhaps it forward a bit.
One of the buyers is a U.S. service member. Apparently currently based in a warzone area that starts with an A and ends with a stan.
I am commited to ship both of these sold sets tomorrow, and I will do so. One ships standard shipping (Season 3, going off in the continental U.S. to someone I hope enjoys it a lot), the other ships expedited at the expense of the purchaser (Season 2). It's this season 2 set that will go to an APO, and from there find the way to the service member which purchased it.
As soon as I saw APO, I knew I was dealing with a U.S. armed service member. Being a curious soul, I saw the symbol for the country listed in the shipping info and thought it was going to a different warzone area. I was assuming it was going to a country that starts with a U. and ends with an A.E., but that was not the case.
Doing a bit of research, I figured out that it's going to that A country that ends in a stan. The group that is there (or at least that is mentioned on the shipping information) is mentioned in some newsletters from the regular home base area. A coworker knows that area well. European area. He attended high school for 2 years in that host country. He didn't know the group that I'll be shipping the discs off too, but he knew that home base area.
Knowing who I'm sending these discs to, fate has apparently given me a wonderful opportunity which I will take. Along with the discs, I'm going to include a calling card loaded with a few dollars that can be used by the service member that bought the set, or perhaps by his fellow troops. I'm sure it won't go to waste. Someone will use it, and I will be eternally thankful to fate for giving me the opportunity here.
I sincerely hope that the discs get to be enjoyed by the intended recipient and all of his fellow troops. I understand how terribly badly those folks must miss the U.S.A., and I hope they see a little of it in the show they'll be watching.
I wish I had more discs available to toss into the package, and I may find something else to include when I look through my stack o' discs when I get home. Actually, off hand, I think I have two other discs I can toss in immediately. Perhaps something that will be enjoyed too.
God bless you fine service men and women and thank you for the work you are doing. Many people may already have forgotten about that A place that ends in stan, but I know you're still there, and you're still working your butts off. I'm proud and honored to help in any way I can, and humbled by the opportunity that smacked me in the face here.
