Wmcmanus

Wish I could make it to the meet so I could give you a ride like this in my Atom (which is a 300, much faster than the 205 that Clarkson was driving in that video).

Happy birthday. No good monkey pics, but many good monkey thoughts.

On my way to Monaco for some business meetings today. I'm sitting in Miami at the airport now. Discovered this morning that I have no clue where I put my trusty JH13 thingies! Add that to the mysterious disappearance of my Canon 70-200mm F2.8 L glass. I'm hoping that they will both "turn up" eventually. In the case of the lens, I'm hoping it is still in Tampa safe and sound in the motorhome, and that I didn't actually put that lens in my check in baggage! If so, it's gone. As for the JH13, I'll have to keep checking through all of my shirt, pants, and shorts pockets and hope they turn up one day. I've got the Shure E500 case that I usually carry them in, but of course it's empty.

Custom web pages are for sissies, and since I seem to be the only one who isn't going to make this meet, there will be no sissies in attendance. Shucks, I feel like I'm missing out on all of the fun already...

Yeah! I get to be around thousands of them! Nothing like it. Not even The Beatles were as popular with little kids as I am during December.

I've just stumbled across this thread. Tyll, don't tell me that the barmaid who is flipping you the bird was just some stranger you met along the way on your epic journey this summer. That would be way too cool, and way too Tyll. I've got to admit, my Ducati still scares the crap out of me. I've got a 2008 S4RS monster tricolore. I've yet to put 100 miles on it and I've owned it for nearly a year. I've been up to 4th gear and maybe 80-85 mph. Oh, I'll get there one day, for sure. It just hasn't been a priority yet. The bike was mothballed in my trailer for 6 months last winter/spring while I was in Cayman. Then I had to do the motorcycle safety course in Florida to get the endorsement on my license. Yet, I did have about 3 months that I could have taken advantage of but never did. My mom was riding along with me for part of last summer, and we took a lot of fun rides in the Atom. I just didn't have the heart for the bike. At the same time, I have enjoyed the few miles I've put on it to date. It's pretty smooth and effortless, just so overpowered and completely unhappy at less than 4k rpm. At about 5.5k it starts to feel at home and (I'm told) will get up to 11k rpm before it redlines with the aftermarket exhaust and power commander that the previous owner had put on it. So it has got the goods (dyno'ed at over 123 hp). Not so sure that I do. At least not quite yet. The Atom is a completely different story. I couldn't feel more at home driving it, and in many ways find it easier to drive than ANYTHING I've ever driven. That is, once I got used to the fact that there is absolutely no driver's assistance (no ABS, no power steering, no traction control) and thus you need to drive it yourself! The Atom just does what a car is supposed to do, so long as you are vigilant about making sure that the steering wheel is as near to 100% straight as possible whenever you're about to brake hard or accelerate hard. Brake, turn in, then begin to unwind as you get back on it. Don't get all the way back on it while still unwinding, and don't brake hard after you've begun turning in. The first hint that the rear end is about to give out is when you see it wrapping around in front of you! I've been thinking quite seriously about getting a lower powered Ducati for Cayman. That would give me a chance to sort of grow into the art of riding a more serious bike than my 125cc Vespa scooter. In truth, the Vespa is all I really NEED for Cayman, other than those times when I pull out in front of oncoming traffic and forget that it takes a LONG TIME to get up to speed, even if traffic is only moving at 40 mph. For now, I just need to remember that the Vespa is a totally different beast than the Ducait. It takes almost as much time to get up to 60 mph as my Volvo semi truck does! The bikes I'm looking are the Ducati M796 (monster) and HM796 (hypermotrad). The hyper is supposedly more fun to ride, especially in town and at low to moderate speeds. The monster fits me better in the sense of offering a more comfortable riding position, and I much prefer it in terms of aesthetics. Ducati Hypermotard 796 - Ducati Ducati Monster 796 - Ducati My plan is to test ride both of them in Tampa at the end of this month and make a decision at that point. I'm leaning kind of strongly toward the monster, but if the ride tells me differently, and if the hyper looks better in person, I might still go that way.

I have a stock 83 and agree that it's outstanding. Waiting patiently for the 93 to be released. Need a 3D bluray player with my new TV on the way. That, and the Netflix capability makes the 93 a no brainer for me.

Imagine that! An "Erasable" pencil... what will they think of next?

It's starting to look really doubtful for me. I've received three calls this week (two were call backs from messages I left) for Santa events that ALL are scheduled to take place on December 11th. One is with a grade school that I do a "Breakfast with Santa" event for every year. I get there at 7:30am and don't get out of there until about noon (they do 4 "seatings" of 45 minutes each with 15 minute breaks in between to reset the tables). In the past, I've done it for free, but this year they quickly offered me $300 after I explained that I'm now charging for my services. For Saturdays in December, my fees for corporate events are $200 for the first hour, and $125 for each additional hour. The other two are corporate parties, Deloitte & Touche, and Caribbean Utility Company, each of which will take about 2 hours, so they should bring in $325 each. That would still leave Saturday evening open, not to mention Friday and Sunday. It could easily be a $1,500+ weekend, which would be $1,800+ in US dollars. Would go a long way toward paying for the Edition 10 that I've been drooling over. I haven't committed to anything yet, but probably will tomorrow. I think I'm going to be a greedy bastard this year to make up for all of those years of schleping around town doing Santa work for free and/or to raise funds for various charities.

Just wait until his alarm starts going off every 9 minutes for about 2 hours before he actually wakes up. No exaggeration!

Loved this... A lot’s happened in the news since I went off the air — and I was hoping I could cover it all in one joke. But then I realized that’s like trying to keep an Icelandic volcano from wearing Lady Gaga’s meat dress while a trapped Chilean miner cleans up the BP oil spill…Brett Favre’s penis.”

The census lady showed up at my door tonight. Took maybe 10 minutes, so now I've done my civic duty and have been 'counted' in Cayman. Imagine the shocked look on her face when she got to the question, "How many radios do you have?" and I said, "Maybe 20." My interpretation was that "radio" meant any stereo system as perceived by the broader populous, so that would count all of my sources. I might have been overstating it a bit, but probably not that much. We were sitting out on the front porch, so I got up, opened the front door and said, "Take a peek at my headphones... the rest of the house is a lot like that, only it's speakers and such."

Got me some of that thar horse shampoo, conditioner, and detangler. [url=http://www.animalworldnetwork.com/cowboyproducts.html]ALL Cowboy Magic

My favorite Grado is the PS-1000. My least favorite is the RS-1. The ones I own are: PS-1, PS-1000, GS-1000, HP-2, HF-2, HF-1, and 325i. I don't like the price tag of the PS-1000 at all, but I like the sound. I think people may confuse high price with bad sound. Kind of a negative placebo effect. I could be wrong about that, of course, but that's my theory. I had refused to buy a pair myself for a couple of years, but after spending quite a bit of time with them at TTVJ's place this summer, I was convinced. I'm still not happy with the "design" which was essentially to replace the wooden door knobs of the GS-1000 with metal door knobs. The R&D efforts were not exactly as intense as those by Sennheiser (HD800) or Beyer (T1 and the like), but hey, it's Grado. I can't really say that I prefer them over the HD800 and T1, but find them to be in the same league. Haven't really made any direct comparisons. I still need to do that, and to throw the LCD-2 into the mix. I've been listening to the LCD-2 a lot lately, almost to the exclusion of everything else; they're so effortless and natural sounding, it's hard to find any faults with them. Maybe when I go back to the PS-1000, I'll want to puke, but I doubt it. I think John finally got it right.

Here's a pretty good deal on my favorite post: Post Raisin Bran Cereal, 47-Ounce Boxes (Pack of 2): Amazon.com: Grocery & Gourmet Food: Reviews, Prices & more

Still waiting on my Pany 65" VT25. It's finally supposed to ship out from Tampa on Tuesday this week, which means that it will arrive by Thursday and with a little luck I'll be able to clear it from Customs by next weekend. Apparently, the freight forwarder I'm using in Tampa is a small operation and things have been slow of late, so it has been sitting in their warehouse at the port for about 2 weeks. They were going to send it last week, but still didn't have enough other LCL cargo to justify the cost of sending a half empty shipping container.

Love those big burgers at Le Tub. A bit on the wrong side of the swamp though.

Metrosexual. You know, at least in theory, that the HD800 is not looking at your ass, but you still wouldn't bend over to pick up a bar of soap if it's anywhere nearby. It really likes the way it looks though, so you can call it a sissy all you want to...

When you were a kid? Ha! We used soup cans back then. We tied them together with a string that was just long enough to allow you to run around to the other side of the fireplace. That was far enough to not be seen by your sister who was holding the can on the other end of the string, yet close enough to still think you could actually hear her voice coming from the soup can that you were holding to your ear like you would a conch shell to hear the ocean. Of course, what you were hearing was her voice coming from the other side of the room, but because you couldn't actually see her, you somehow were able to fool yourself into believing that it was coming through the can itself. My first experience with the placebo effects in an audio system, I suppose. What a nice Auntie you are, V.

I've always wondered what kinds of people go to events like this Rally to Restore thingie. Now I know... people like Brent! That's reassuring. Sounds like a great time.

I'm trying to remember which hotel I went to (on that block) to watch the Final Four last year. We were over at that warehouse-looking bar nearby, where they brew their own beer. I forget the name of the place. I boogied early so I could catch the championship game because there was no friggin' TV anywhere. Anyway, I thought it was the Marriott but maybe I went to the Hilton. It was a nice hotel, very modern, with a small open bar area.

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Elvis Costello - Sweet, Profane and Sugarcane. Just gave it another try. It tries way too hard, like a lot of his albums of late, to prove that he's the mostest versatilest of them all, and that he can do jazz, or classical, or bluegrass (which I guess this is supposed to be). Wish he would just get back to being one of the best damned rockers there ever was. He can still do that! It's still 90% of what his shows are all about. Ehhh, I guess he's entitled. He can do whatever he wants to do, he's made it, he's got a hot and talented wife, he doesn't need to worry about a thing. Oh well, I'll keep buying 'em and trying 'em. One of these days he'll get back at it.

James Bond be damned. We have Jeff on our side to alligators.

tangy taffy