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After moving several months ago, the things I haven't been able to find are my cameras and backup hard drives. Been driving me crazy. So today retraced my steps and I went through each of the remaining 40ish boxes for the third time. Four boxes from the end I found them in a box labeled in big letters "Cameras & HDDs."

I had a similar experience today. Digging through stuff in my closet looking for a pair of elf green Crocs beach slippers that I wore last year for some of my Caribbean Santa events, I was surprised at how heavy one of my (Headcase certified) Red Oxx bags was, and sure enough there were the expensive Cannon binoculars I was looking for this summer when I was leaving for my baseball stadium tour. Knew they were in this house somewhere!

FFF wings

Smoked turkey and a little extra smoke for the ham on Thanksgiving:

I apologize in advance for this, pulled from the headphones subreddit: A pair of Beats headphones walk into a bar. The bartender says, "We don't like Beats around here", to which the Beats replies "sorry man we're not looking for any treble." it made me smile.

Thanks for all of the advice, guys. I think I'll give it some thought in the off season, and will probably implement a cancellation policy beginning next year. A lot of Santas (and other performers) also use written contracts, but other than for the Ritz (who insisted on one) nobody in Cayman has ever asked for one. I do technically need a Trade & Business License to operate (since I charge for my services), but only Government entities (libraries and public schools) have ever asked about that, since it's a requirement they must meet in their payment process. In addition, a lot of Santas pay to get a background check done every year and have insurance that covers them up to a million dollars per incident (i.e., you drop some kid who cracks his or her head open). I've held off on most of these types of "business" aspects of being Santa (as well as getting a website or doing any local promoting/advertising) because at heart I still think of myself as a hobbyist. Or at least I don't want to lose that sense of just being out there for the kids, to have a lot of fun, and to spread joy. But on the other hand, I don't want to be perceived as a "hack" so some of these types of things would actually help in terms of making what I do even that much more professional. On the other side of it, I've had some amazing experiences as Santa and some clients who are just incredibly generous and appreciate. There is one family that has hired me for about 10-12 years now, dating back to when I wouldn't take any money from anybody for any reason (not even from corporate clients). My thinking hadn't yet "evolved" at that point! I used to do it JUST for the kids, even though it cost quite a bit each year for candy, giveaway items, small toys, and wardrobe items. So they would give me a bottle of rum because they just couldn't let me leave empty handed. Then for several years, I would ask them to write a check for $50 to a designated charity which rotated each year (and led to nothing but headaches from the charities to be honest). Then one year, all of the lady's sons and son in laws matched her $50 check, so the charity got $300 that year. Then eventually I became my own designated charity, but they still give me anywhere from $200 to $300 each year for a 1 hour visit, and usually a bottle of wine or scotch. When the grandmother who hosts that event calls to schedule now, we have a chat like old friends and neither of us ever even mentions how much my fee will be. Then I had the lady who was staying at the Ritz a couple of years ago who insisted that she give me a Christmas gift, and wanted to know what I wanted. I told her that the only thing I wanted, which I had already bought for myself, was a new Santa suit. She then insisted on seeing pictures of it, and then when she saw the pics insisted that she paid for it. Her husband gave her permission so she wrote me a check for $2,000 in addition to the fee that she had previously agreed on! Her husband told me as he walked me out of the hotel that he was just happy that I didn't tell her I wanted a car! So those kinds of things live on in my memory and make me feel unbelievably blessed to have this opportunity each year to serve humanity in a very special way for about a month, being a rock star everywhere I go and watching kids get totally wrapped up in it. Even at the grocery stores and at gas stations and in airports, and even when I'm wearing "Santa casual" clothes, there are moments in every day that make it all worthwhile (despite an occasional cancellation due to rain, or dealing with an idiot event coordinator who thinks I should cancel other scheduled events to meet her ever changing needs).

Cornetto Trilogy Blu-Ray set on Amazon for $15 http://www.amazon.com/Worlds-Trilogy-Blu-ray-Digital-UltraViolet/dp/B00F98FOL8 Lots of extras on the disks

Vinyl

No one is more welcome than you! Plus could use the help packing

This made me laugh so hard, I don't know why. Maybe it was because it was right after Colin's comment (two in a row).

Put the subwoofer back in the OMA Mini system so some mutha fuckin bass was required for testing purposes

does not need heatsinks. very low power.

I think I just really want to hear the LS50 which is why I want to buy them. But I'm so happy with the PSBs in my HT I'm hesitant to change them up. I really need a new sub before I do anything speaker-wise. There will always be good LS50 used deals out there. But a 3.1 setup with an LS50 for all three speakers would look so tight.

Wipe it down with 100% pure isopropyl alcohol. Get to the nit and gritty with a toothbrush (that has been dunked in isopropyl alcohol).

^ This. More coastin' today. (Sorry for poor shot extracted from poor video)

A couple of passes with this from about arm's length should take care of the dust that is able to be blown off. I use one to clean out my computer. You could then use a Q-Tip for any surface that you want immaculate. Canned air can be a bit dangerous if accidentally used upside down so that liquid could spray out.

I'll keep posting an article every two years. Here's a great one about working at Radio Shack on Thanksgiving. http://www.sbnation.com/2014/11/26/7281129/radioshack-eulogy-stories "This is a consumer technology business that is built to work perfectly in the year 1975. The Internet comes around, and this, being a technology company, is expected to move on it aggressively and know what it's doing, except basically nobody really understood the Internet for a very long time. So they whiffed big a few times. Then the iPhone came around and rendered half the stuff RadioShack sold completely redundant. This company needed to become something radically different a decade ago. I just don't think it knows how to be anything else. It's like retracing the steps and doings of a drunk person: okay, here's where he keyed the cop car. Wait, why'd he do that? I don't know, but his pants are lying here, so this is before he stripped naked and tried to rob the library."

I finished my KGST recently. The fit was pretty tight in this 2U/330mm/280mm case. Had to reduce the 1.5kOhm resistor to get the offset to 0V though. Spritzer did mention a case this small would need a lot of ventilation, so I went with a pretty open top cover. Dead silent operation too.