Wmcmanus

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.

Trust me, those events are the hardest ones on an emotional level. I do a number of company-sponsored events that are designed to help under privileged children. They tend to either bus them in to a nice playground or set up the event right in the middle of a public housing development. In one case, they block off a street for a couple of hours, so there are kids running all over the place. You get asked for "money to pay the light and water bills", for "shoes for my little sister" for "my dad to get out of prison" for "my dad to stop hurting my mom" and for "just to make sure we all have enough to eat" but mostly you get asked for iPads, X-Box 360s, for a DX (whatever the fuck that is... Ok, I know, but not really) and all kinds of electronics that you know quite simply they're not going to get. There isn't much of what I'd call abject poverty in Cayman, but there are a lot of people who are really struggling and kids who have really rough lives. Sometimes they come to the public events as well (outside of their neighborhoods) and you can spot them in one way or another, either through their dirty clothes, ignorant and mean acting parents, or just that blank look that some of them have because despite the fact that they're 6 or 7 or even older, they've never really had much to really feel good about in their lives. They almost seem tired and beaten down already. It's hard to describe exactly, but pretty easy to spot.

6 hours of Santa events today, 9 hours tomorrow and 5 more on Sunday. That's actual event time, not counting time to get ready, time to drive to and fro, dead spots in the middle of the day when you don't have a chance to do much of anything but wait for the next one, etc. Nothing scheduled for Monday so far, but Tuesday (Christmas Eve) will be a mad house, then a couple more events on Christmas Day and back to the dry cleaners we go for one last trip (with 5 different suits and royal robes, each of which has been there several times already, but all of which are fresh at the moment). 78 events in total this year, new record... but not by much. Really looking forward to some of the home visits this week. I'm getting tired of the public events where there is a long line and not much time for each child so you have to do a rush "interview" while the moms are saying "smile at the camera" and "look at Santa and tell him what you want for Christmas" which of course are mutually exclusive ideas, meanwhile 7 different people spread across an array of 135 degrees with cell phones and other gadgets of every description (some as big as newspapers) are expecting me and the poor child to look at each such device at the same time. Meh... just want to go from home to home and actually have a chance to get in character again and to "be" Santa with some story telling, leading some songs, doing big group hugs, and all of those fun and memorable things that got me into this to begin with. Think I've gotten over exposed with the public events where I see 50+ kids per hour, and may make myself less available for those types of gigs next year in favor of doing more home visits. Speaking of which, it's time to suit up. I've got two preschools back to back this morning, and it doesn't get any better than that. At least you have a captive audience in a controlled environment in which they're already comfy and have their teachers as a fall back position. No "lines" to see Santa, thank goodness!

Not one single Santa in that mix. Those were just a bunch of drunken douche bags wearing Santa "costumes" that you can buy at WalMart for $30. But of course it's all over the news as a "Santa" brawl even though it doesn't have a damn thing to do with those of us who attempt to bring joy to children by portraying Santa in a serious and professional manner. This kind of crap seems to happen almost every year now.

Kind of a sucker for these kinds of things. Go figure... http://www.flixxy.com/best-christmas-lights-display.htm

We'll have to wait and see. Kansas was just the lucky lottery winner. They didn't make him the most talked about high school basketball player since LeBron, and he didn't really ask to be either. It just happened and there he was. Some talk now that his teammate, fellow freshman Joel Embiid might go #1 overall. He's been the 6th/7th man up until the Florida game when he finally got his first start. http://www.sbnation.com/college-basketball/2013/12/11/5198940/joel-embiid-nba-draft-profile-kansas-baskebtall He's raw, but is so quick for a big man. Fun to watch. Wiggens, on the other hand, is as smooth as can be but not nearly as selfish as he ought to be offensively. He's got the Ben McLemore disease (Kansas' one and done player from last year) in the sense that he can go silent and for stretches, and hang around on the perimeter too much. If Wiggens asserted himself as a more selfish offensive player (think Kobe), he could score 30 points per game, but it might not make the team better. As it is, he's more like 16 points per game, and should be aiming more toward 24 like a Doug McDermottt (of Creighton). Not a complete ball hog, but more assertive offensively, at least touch the ball on every possession and drive to create for himself and his teammates. I think you'll see more of that as the season progresses. As for #1, both Randle and Parker are making better cases for themselves so far this year.

“Nelson Mandela is a leader who Barack Obama should try to emulate. He could start by spending 27 years in prison.” -- Don Imus