Wmcmanus

Just saw some pics on Facebook taken by Peter, showing Edwood with one of these gadgets at CES, so hopefully he'll chime in soon.

Moar orange is moar better. Now can we just close this thread? Please?

No shit, huh?

I thought it was quite funny, Dan! I'm glad you see the humor in it too. I guess Grawk was the closest match, and there are hundreds of numbers stored in my cell, so you should be honored.

I was just fidgeting with my Blackberry (I know, I'm behind the times and should have an iPhone or whatever). Anyway, I've had this phone for several years, but have never bothered to figure out what the physical buttons on the side of the thing are for. So I pressed one, and the voice activation system (which I didn't even know that it had) kicked in, and here's what happened next: Phone: "Say a command." Me: "Fuck off." Phone: "Did you say 'Call Grawk'?"

Almost 10 minutes, but it documents an epic motorcycle ride from Alaska to Argentina. Thankfully, he managed to avoid Nebraska. http://unofficialnetworks.com/modern-motorcycle-diaries-503-days-82459-miles-22-countries-122237/

Happy birthday! Oh, sorry... wrong thread.

Happy happy happy... have a good one, Jacob.

Agreed, definitely pillow phones, so long as you carefully flatten out the edges of the pillow near the cups such that they don't interfere with the intended presentation of the phones, and/or the seal. I do it all the time with heavy phones. Stax 4070 also comes to mind.

F'LICK.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/23bA_5yadxs

^ Thanks, man. I feel more and more like Santa every year, that's for sure! I'm starting to get the hang of it. I should also say, in fairness, that some of the best events I've ever done (and still do) are the ones that I do for free. I shouldn't really rip on those (very few) charitable organizations and community-based events that have gone bad and left a bad taste in my mouth, because they are the exceptions rather than the rule. There are countless others that I've done over the years where the organizers and all of the parents involved have been extremely grateful and kind to me. So you just learn to take the good with the bad.

By far, the biggest problems I've ever had with Santa events (dating back some 20 years) have been the ones that I did for free (for many, many years) for community organizations. If your price is zero, that's exactly the value they will place on your services. You show up on time and they're not ready. You wait around for 10 to 40 minutes while they go on with their program as though you're not even there. Then they expect you to stay another half hour later, and even when all of the kids have left, all of the self congratulatory "team" that just put on an absolutely horse shit event want you to stand around for photos with them and expect multiple shots in every combination and permutation possible... and then, "Wait, wait, Santa... we need a pic with MY cell phone." Fucking email, have you ever heard of that? But now that I'm no longer allowing myself to be used, nobody is using me anymore. Amazing how that works! I really had nobody to blame but myself during all those years while I was learning the trade and selling myself short, or trying to raise money for ungrateful charities. Ehh... that's all in the past now, and I'm finding that the more I charge people, the happier they are. They still think they are getting a great value and are proud to have the "best" Santa that money can buy. Last year, I did private room visits at the Ritz for $125 Cayman dollars ($150 US). Got 3 bookings. This year, I did the same visits for $250 Cayman ($300 US) and got 17 bookings.

Fuck all, that's what I'm going to do today! Woke up at 2:31pm. Didn't know it was possible to be that tired.

Thanks, Al. Hope you have a good one too. I had 2 events booked for tomorrow morning, but was able to reschedule them both for tonight when the Marriott at 3:30pm called me while I was on my way to them for a 4-8:30pm booking and said, "We'll only need you until 7:30 tonight, but don't worry, they've already made out the check!" Bingo! Now THE prime time hour of the entire year for Santa is wide open. Pulls out his cell phone, gives two families the option of moving it back to tonight, which is what they both wanted to being with! Within an hour, both had called the front desk at the Marriott as I had instructed them to, and agreed to do the event tonight. In one case, it meant being able to do it at a large extended family gathering of 25 people or so instead of with just mom, dad, and two kids in the morning. They gave me a $150 tip on top of a $250 fee for a visit of less than 30 minutes, I think because they did a "pass the hat" type of thing and everyone was just excited that I could pull it off at the last minute. Then the next family just wanted a 10 minute visit, although it would have been nearly an hour on Christmas morning, but now it was different, they insisted and just wanted in and out. No problem, I can do that. While I was there, their next door neighbor called and wanted to crash the party with their kids, but the host wisely told them, "Santa is ahead of schedule. Let me see if he'll come to see you at your place!" She essentially negotiated a deal for me without me even knowing about it, and told them it would be $300 which is a little higher than I normally go, but they agreed. So it was just a matter of walking out of one door and into another at the same triplex. Easy. In total, I ended up doing 3 more events than scheduled, still got paid by the Marriott for the full time booked, picked up an extra gig that was right next door, and got the stuff from the morning knocked out so I can sleep in. I'm good with that. I'm kind of "done" at this point anyway on a physical/emotional level anyway. Giving some serious thought of buying the World Famous Cyber Sleigh and bringing it to Cayman as a complete game changer. Asking price was $85k a couple of years ago. He's now down to $50k. Maybe I should sell some headphones.

Merry Christmas, everybody. I'm pretty much done with my season now, but will probably get dressed one last time tomorrow night to make my rounds at the hospital again to be there for any sick children and their families. It was dead quiet in there tonight, with only one child admitted, an 8 week old baby boy. Usually there are about 10 admits in the Children's Ward, so that was a pleasant surprise. My friends at the Cayman Islands Motorcycle Association collected over 900 toys this year for Toys for Tots, and as usual gave me the odds and ends that weren't sufficient enough to be wrapped as separate gifts. Things like slinkies, small dolls, etc., which find their way to some unfortunate child, either at the hospital or wherever I find them in the next week or two. Often the children of domestic helpers, maids at the hotels, women who work for the janitorial companies, or in certain retail jobs. It's usually easy to find people who will be glad to take them. I've probably got 50 small items that I'll be duty bound to disperse until the toy bag is empty. But I don't need to be all dressed up for that... just one more time tomorrow night at the hospital, and then maybe a few stops to see some friends with kids that I wasn't able to get to this year because of all of the scheduled/paid bookings. So it's kind of over. All 78 events on my schedule have come and gone, and I didn't mess up any of them by not showing up!

Why do I, of all people, find this to be humorous? Maybe it's just the way he was moaning, it almost sounded it he was just kidding. But sad, very sad. http://www.wjla.com/articles/2013/12/santa-claus-shot-with-pellet-gun-at-toy-giveaway-in-southeast-98506.html

Norman Rockwell's seldom seen "Cat Prevents House Fire"

Politically correct re-write of The Night Before Christmas: http://www.stand-upcomedyworkshop.com/audition/BestXmasCard.html

I've never met anyone who regretted getting a bigger plasma, ever. In my motorhome, I've got a 50" Panasonic VT-25 in the bedroom. My toes can touch the bottom of the screen if I extend them in tippy toe fashion, so I guess I'm viewing from essentially 4-5 feet. It's perfect, and non fatiguing. At home, I'm 12 feet from the 65" version of the same plasma and it's nice but not quite the same. I know people will say I'm crazy, but don't knock it until you've tried it. At home sometimes I'll move my viewing chair forward by 3-4 feet to simulate the same experience, but the problem then is the screen seems too high. Edit: Should have stated that this is only for watching movies, usually Bluray (oh, and also mlb.com). But I don't have any other cable/subscription type of services, and don't think I'd enjoy regular TV programming in the same way I do full feature movies in immersion style viewing. Wouldn't recommend overly big (relative to viewing distance) TVs for families either, where most people would have off angle issues.

I agree that it's probably useless, but then again, look at the list of headphones that got A+ 9/9 ratings: HD800, HE60, LCD-3, HE-6, and Stax-009. Those are certainly among the best, if not simply the best in the batch tested. The 009 and LCD-3 (in particular) have impressed me, and the others in that list ain't too shabby either.

Ric, this pic looks like it could have come right out of Dylan's "It Must Be Santa" video: I alternate between finding this song as well as the video really annoying and pointless versus really interesting and uplifting, but come down on the side of the former more often than not.