Wmcmanus

Hang in there, everyone. My thoughts are with you. Stay safe.

I think he's the other kind of Gene, Tom... although he might look nice in a dress! That's an amazing car. You won't be disappointed if you decide to go for it.

Most outstanding post of the year so far. I'm planning to come, and of course will require a t-shirt or two, size as big as they come, i.e., 4X.

This gave me a chuckle. Happy birthday, Jeff.

The next door neighbor when I was a kid was Dr. Kneebone, a chiropractor. Cantankerous old bastard used to run out and steal our baseballs when they went in his yard.

^ Surreal.

Congrats on 39 years of marriage, Lloyd. Is it safe to assume that Becky has decided to give it one more year?

An oldie but goodie.

Congrats, Vicki! My brother did that sort of thing when he was in college. Thought he had two more courses to graduate, and signed up for them for the Spring semester. Then in the middle of February, he was applying for a job so had to request a transcript. Looks at the thing, and says, "Shit! Says here I graduated in December!" Of course, he was quite the stoner, so it's no wonder...

Some funny shit... I bet a lot of people are saying "Why didn't I think of that?" http://www.slashgear.com/developer-fired-for-outsourcing-job-to-china-16265513/

http://gizmodo.com/5967661/where-is-this-mind+blowing-antique-transforming-desk-hiding-its-autobot-logo

I think Earl would appreciate this.

One of the all time great baseball managers, and a man who wasn't afraid to speak his mind. He died today, at age 82.

Happy birthday, Grahame!

Bose is still bad enough... but point well taken.

^ Saw this recently and my first reaction was... sadly, this will probably be the crowning achievement of Twinkee Boy's life.

I should be able to come. Sounds like a fun one.

Nice haul on the 45s, Ric. Those are going to sound amazing.

Spoiler alert: I can't. Compared some $5 and $10 bottles of vodka that have been in my liquor cabinet for at least 10 years to Grey Goose, and I'll be damned if I can tell the difference. I had heard years ago that most people can't differentiate premium vodkas from something like Smirnoff, so I just Googled it. All kinds of funny articles about it where vodka snobs got shut down consistently, when drinking it naked/nude (whatever the hell they call it when you drink it straight). I especially liked the article where the tester poured the same vodka in 6 different glasses in the 3rd round of testing, and all of the participants were busy making inane comments about the differences. None of them even suspected that it was the same product in all glasses.

I think the post-season Santa blues are finally settling in. I made a trip to Illinois with my mom from the 27th of December until January 4th, so I was surrounded by family and visited several friends from back home, so that kept me distracted for a while. During the Santa season, I try not to personalize it, because it's always "Santa" that everyone is reacting to; he's the rock star, not to me... as such... I'm just the guy in the suit. But it's strange because in one sense, you actually are experiencing all of that love and excitement directly, but in another sense, it's completely vicarious because you know that you're just playing a role. No matter, it's still exciting and can be a bit of a head rush at times. Then one day it's all over, and you go right back to being Joe Schmoe again, only this year I didn't shave the beard or cut my hair, so I still look like him... yet can't be running around performing like him. So I ditch all things that scream out "Santa!!!" and dress down in non-seasonal colors and hope to just blend in. If someone asks for a picture, I'll usually say, "Oh, do you think I look like Santa?" and then try to minimize the interaction. But last night it was a struggle not to tell the Alabama fans to fuck off when they approached me in the middle of my dinner with all of this excited "Ho ho ho!" nonsense and wanted pictures with me to send to their grandkids. There were a bunch of them, and I was in the middle of my dinner (Ok, so it was just chicken nachos) and I was sitting in the restaurant side (not at the bar) and was there to watch Notre Dame play for a national championship! Bad enough that ND didn't show up, but now all of these happy Alabama fans... I guess that got me to thinking that it might be a long 10-month odd season for this Santa who right now just wants to be left alone.

The "Orpheus service" of course! They show how to place the headphones on your head, how to plug them in, etc.

Nice. Set this as my desktop background pic.