Wmcmanus

^ I'm still waiting to hear back from several people who wanted me to come on Christmas Eve, but at this point it's fully booked. Some of them might want me to come on the 23rd or on Christmas Day or Boxing Day. I'm expecting the total number of visits this year to be around 40, give or take. I don't think I've ever done more than 10-12 scheduled visits before. So strange. The minute you start charging, people want to book you. If you're willing to give your time for free, they don't call.

Santa is very tired and taking the night off! These past two weekends (and most of last week in general) have been quite busy... but nothing like what's still ahead between now and Christmas day! I've done 17 scheduled/paid visits so far and a ton of unpaid wandering around. Still have 19 scheduled visits to go, including 9 on Christmas Eve. The Christmas Eve visits are each at least 20 minutes of contact time, not counting driving time, but I've organized them such that I'll be able to move from one stop to the next without having to double back except at the end of the night. The other 10 remaining visits are all 1-3 hours each throughout the week, and the phone is still ringing.

The Santa voice sessions:

11 years of light duty prison seems about right to me. At the end of the video clip that Salt Peanuts posted, it states that she'll be in a "minimum security" prison, so it's probably one of those federal golf camps. Wonder if she'll be out in 3 years on parole?

Five minutes you'll never get back but if you've ever spent any time in Florida during this time of year, you'll appreciate it:

Aptly described, although perhaps a few fucks short of the truth. Sounds really rough, man, and that it will continue to be or some time to come. Hang in there and keep us posted on your progress.

Thanks, guys! Having a lot of fun with it this year. That's my mom playing Mrs. Claus, by the way... which is kind of weird in an Oedipus kind of way, but I try not to think about it that way. She's actually perfect for the role, as she raised 6 kids and now has 12 grandkids. She had sent me an email in mid October saying that she would like to visit Cayman in December and play Mrs. Claus. I was kind of taken off guard by that, but quickly got to work finding someone willing to design and sew her costume. It turned out quite well. The baby girl is 38 days old, and is the daughter of my friends Scott and Katie (Scott is the Dean at the college I teach at here).

^ Always nice to have friends, huh Ken? Peter's "anvil" comment was classic. I mean, who (besides Peter) uses words like anvil?

Finally got out for my first Santa gig of the season. It was just a home visit and there were only 7 kids there, but it went quite well. On my way out, some of the neighbors saw me heading for my Ford Edge (not exactly a sleigh) and intercepted me. About then a beautiful little 6 year old girl named Abby came running out to see me. She was so excited, literally jumping up and down and completely beside herself. She inspected my outfit from head to toe and started asking tons of questions about Rudolph, the North Pole, Mrs. Claus, the elves, the sleigh, etc. She pretty much covered all of the bases. I felt like I was taking a final exam at Santa Claus School. I gave her some candy, a small book about dinasours, an "I Believe" trinket style of necklace, and a reindeer coat button just like the ones on my coat. Then as we posed together for her mom to take cell phone pictures of us, she declared me to be the "real" Santa because I had so many sleigh bells. I patted her on the head, told her to keep being good, and to promise that she will send me her list very soon because Christmas is almost here! The rest of the kids were fun too, but they were either too young (2 and under) or a little too old (8 to 10). They all seemed to still be believers but sometimes kids at that age can fake it. The 3-7 year-old kids are usually the most fun because they're all about Santa, like my friend Abby tonight. I don't think she'll be able to sleep for days... Didn't bring my own camera, but I'll see if one of the moms can send me a couple of the pics they took.

Ya, really. Don't tell me it's some kind of turtleneck...

Here you go, Al. Would make a nice stocking stuffer, and BluRay no less... Amazon.com: 2010 San Francisco Giants: The Official World Series Film [blu-ray + DVD Combo]: Tim Lincecum, Buster Posey, Matt Cain, Cody Ross, Major League Baseball: Movies & TV

I love how the guy commented about your not putting academics first! What nerve! Exactly how does proctoring and grading HIS exam for his students further your "academics"? Are you supposed to learn something from this experience? Sorry, but I've been teaching for 27 years, and I've yet to learn a thing by grading a stack of exams, let alone sitting in class and watching students take an exam. Bunch of crap. This is why most of these guys couldn't survive in a real job where they actually had to do their own work.

Panasonic 50" VT25 for my home on wheels. Just went into Best Buy trying to figure out how to spend $165 worth of Reward Zone coupons that had accumulated (mostly from buying the 65" version of this same TV a couple of months ago). I knew that I'd end up buying this TV when I got the last one, but figured I'd wait until Spring or Summer when I'd actually be able to put it to regular use. But they had it on sale for $1,979 (it's usually about $2,200-$2,300) and it was bundled with a free Panasonic DMP-BDT100P (entry level 3D Bluray player, retail value $239) and a Panasonic "3D Ultimate Pack" (which includes 2 pairs of 3D glasses and Avatar on 3D Bluray, both of which I would have bought anyway, retail value of $399). I decided to go for it now since this is probably the best deal that Best Buy will ever offer with it. Mind you, they always offer some sort of kicker, but this represents at least $2,850 in retail value for less than $2k. Even without the extra stuff, their current price is competitive. A couple of somewhat reputable e-tailers have it for about $1,850 (Abe’s of Maine and the like), but I always feel better about buying from Best Buy when I can. The other good news is that the promotion that was running when I bought the other TV (up to $300 worth of free installation and calibration services) wasn’t really useful to me since I shipped that TV to Cayman. But now I’ll be able to bring in my receipt for that purchase and have those services applied to this transaction!

What a shame. I had no idea that he was diabetic, but of course as a life-long White Sox fan, I never did pay too much attention to him except for that year at the end of his career when he played for the good guys. As far as the Hall of Fame goes, he came quite close a couple of times but there always seemed to be a couple of better candidates who were newly eligible, and there are only so many votes. He was definitely an all around talent with just an amazing glove (only outdone by Brooks Robinson in that era), a well above average bat, and a natural team leader and true competitor. Maybe he'll get in posthumously on the veteran's ballot.

I'm so proud of myself for deciding to do Santa stuff next weekend rather than coming to this meet. I so wanted to come, but even Santa can't be in two places at once (except on Christmas Eve). I've put a lot of time, effort, money and sweat equity into the Santa hobby these past 20-odd years, but have never charged a dime. At least not until this year! But now that word has spread that I've "gone pro" and have begun to charge, the phone won't stop ringing. It seems that a bunch of companies that had heard about me but had never called before now feel more comfortable in doing so because they don't have to ask for a favor. One lady I talked to the other day said, "Oh, we always knew about you, but we didn't think you would do our party for free. We thought you only did events for schools and charities..." So far for next weekend alone I've got ~$1,900 of gigs lined up, depending on how much time they actually take, and the schedule still isn't all that full. Plus, I've got 3 grade school events (they're no longer free either, but half price) during this coming week. Thus, even if I had opted to attend the meet next weekend I still would have had to fly from Tampa to Cayman and back in order to meet those obligations in Cayman between now and then. It's really a strange feeling being in greater demand than ever now that I'm actually charging for my services.

My 93 arrived the other day. Haven't opened the box yet. Will wait until I get back to Cayman next week. Would just be putting myself through torture to have to look at it but not be able to use it.

I can see where this could become a problem. I probably won't give out my BBM pin to my students, for example! Some of them think that I should be available 24/7, and it just doesn't work that way. It's working perfectly for the company that I'm involved with that is undergoing a big project that I need to keep abreast of, but so far I haven't been using BBM with any friends.

Happy birthday, Gene!

Believe it or not, on a completely unrelated note, I actually ordered some of this Anti Monkey Butt powder earlier tonight! I noticed it when I was in the process of ordering 4 of these (2 of each size) for Santa's Workshop helpers: Holiday hat – Santa's Ball Cap - Duluth Trading Company I tend to have teenagers volunteer to play the roles of Miss Claus, Buddy the elf, and Jovie the elf. More often than not, they will have a few extra friends (would-be volunteers) who end up hanging around with Santa's entourage for most of the night. I'm now looking for some "Santa's Workshop" red t-shirts to go along with the caps. I thought I'd try the powder as well, mostly for long rides in the Atom, because: "Specially formulated to reduce excess sweat and reduce frictional skin irritation" and "Reduces chafing during... prolonged sitting or riding your Harley" <-- er, other bike!

Perhaps you should try some of this (not sure how it would work for Dinny though, as there would be an inherent conflict): Anti Monkey Butt Powder - Duluth Trading Company

Nicely done. I agree with what others have said about this being how a review should be written. Clearly, you have a lot of headphone listening experience. As such, the perspectives you've offered on the PS-1000 would, I'd imagine, help those who haven't listened to them to gain a pretty solid "understanding" of what to expect (insert cautions about the need to do one's own listening along with system synergy, yada yada). That being said, I'm not yet convinced of the up tipping and coloration you speak of with great confidence. No doubt, you've heard this and can define it precisely, and thus the PS-1000 is ultimately a flawed headphone (sort of like all headphones are, I suppose, but more so than one would expect at this price point). I can only imagine that I too will soon hear the colorations and thus come to the same conclusions as you have. I'm just not as intimately familiar with the PS-1000 as you are (no mouth to mouth sessions yet). I've spent maybe 7-10 hours, tops, scattered over several months, and never while in a "critical listening" mode; nor have I attempted to make any direct comparisons to other phones. Been meaning to spend more time with them, but have been enamored by the LCD-2 of late and have also been sampling other new (to me) cans like the T1, DX1000, and W1000X. I guess the place to start would be relative to the GS-1000 (like you've done) which has been gathering dust of late, then maybe to the HD800 and T1. I do agree, based on my limited listening so far, that: 1) they're a lot of fun to listen to just in general terms, 2) they do offer at least a quasi speaker-like bass response, although in a clearly headphone-like manner if that makes any sense (i.e., you certainly can't forget that you're listening to headphones), 3) they have a high degree of overall listenability/enjoyability, and 4) they rock. Despite their ridiculous and unjustified price (I agree, not ‘worth it’ in a relative value sense when considering the LCD-2 and the like), for some odd reason I now feel less ripped off than I did before I owned them! My pair also came at a good price (at least better than I expected) and so far they seem like keepers (not that many aren’t for me, so maybe that’s not saying much).

Edit: meant to quote Matt: re Buddhist Temple This is sad news. Such a great place. For some reason, I'm wide awake at 4:17am, but thankfully on the right day! I'll definitely be having lunch there today. Some friends from Cayman are in town, and I'm picking them up at the Grand Hyatt at 10am. Would be fun to swing by there. Atom rides to follow, then point them and their rental car to the airport.

Didn't think about that. Would have to go back, but I think that might officially qualify as stalking. I don't mind unofficial stalking so much. Hmm, maybe if I can manage to fix the trigger switch for the red nose. That would be a good enough excuse.

I'd imagine up from the original which was $995 before it went to $1,295. I bought it at the lower price and feel that it's just as good as any other $1k headphone out there, except maybe the LCD-2.