Wmcmanus

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.

I bought two 9 volt batteries at a grocery store here in Tampa today and then proceeded to tell the cute little cashier girl that I needed one of the batteries for my nose so that it would light up like Rudolph's nose! I told her that when my nose turns red it puts me in the Christmas spirit. Then I went back to my motorhome, put on my new Rudolph mascot costume, and returned to the grocery store an hour later to see if I could impress her. Only problem was that the trigger switch for the nose light fell off of the long wire that you have to fish down from the mascot head to your hand. This happened after I had driven to the grocery store and was putting my mascot head back on in the parking lot. One of the guys at the pizza place next door was taking a cigarette break, so I asked him for help. He found a pair of needle nose pliers in his truck and was able to rig my trigger switch back up. But then after he drove off to make another delivery, the switch fell off the wires again, so I had to walk into the grocery store without the ability to make my nose turn red. She still seems impressed though, so that part was good.

Brent, the main thing in my case is that about 8-10 people from the company can get ahold of me quickly and can expect a quick response. Often they're in meetings, and want to run something past me quickly, so the BBM will allow them to do that without making a call. Texting often works fine but sometimes in Cayman I'll get text messages 2-3 days (or more) after they were sent! It's hit or miss, and usually as quick as email, but not always. So even if I don't use BBM outside of the company, and that's the only real step forward, it still will have served it's purpose, especially during these next several months. I think, long run, I'll end up with an iPhone (just because I'm all Apple otherwise), at least if I can ever justify being signed up for a plan that may take me 8 years to meet a 3 year obligation. If I lived full time in the US, I'd definitely have an iPhone.

I realize that but the main thing I need it for really is business related, and everyone within the company uses BBM (except me). I'm an independent director and the audit committee chair for a company that is in the midst of a conversion from Canadian GAAP to IFRS. There is a lot of work to be done during the next several months (thankfully, none of which I need to do directly myself), so I'll need to be more available than usual to review documents and such. So I figured now was the time, and this was the best tool for my needs. The main problem for me is that I'm not in the US full time, so it would probably take me 7-8 years to fulfill a 3 year contract. If they sold iPhones at the phone company here in Cayman, I may have considered going that route, but I doubt that I'd make much use of the browser let alone all of the cool apps. Maybe in time I'd grow into that, but for the indefinite future my BB will still be mostly just a fancy cell phone.

Good question! I've just popped the "Blackberry User Tool" CD into my Macbook Pro, and it keeps rejecting the disc. First, it makes a bunch of noise, kind of grumble, grumble. Then it kick the disc out. Will have to get this sorted out tomorrow when I go to see the technician. They sure do pack a lot of stuff in that little box! I'm impressed that I get a charger for the car for free, along with a couple of adapters for the battery charger such that I'll be able to use in in the UK and France/Italy.

The Curve was $269 but it only cost me $53 because I had $216 of "points" that had accumulated with the phone company. I don't know where those points come from, but they sure do come in handy when I need a new modem or phone. The 970 (Bold) was $479. (All prices in Cayman dollars, so multiply by 1.2 for US dollars.) The 980 (Torch) isn't available for sale here yet because they're still working out some technical issues related to its use with their servers, or something like that. I need to go back tomorrow when "the technician" is in so that he can transfer all of the names and numbers from my old phone to my new phone "because he has a wire that makes that easy." I guess I've always been saving to my phone as opposed to my SIM card. Didn't even know there was a difference until now.

I just got back from town. I bought the now old fashioned 8520 (Curve). It seems to have everything that I need. I don't plan to use it for anything other than reading/responding to emails and BBM. So it didn't make sense to spend twice as much for the newer models. I'm not going to use it to browse the internet. When I travel, I always have my laptop with me and have an air card so I'm covered there. Nor will I use the camera feature unless I get in a car accident, and hopefully that won't be at night. So the lack of a flash on the Curve doesn't really bother me at all. I don't need to post a picture of every meal I eat on Facebook anyway. I'll probably get an iPhone one day as well. It just has never made any sense to buy one because I'd get stuck with a "plan" and it would take years and years to fulfill that obligation since I'm only in the US for 4-5 months per year. For $10 per month I can use the email and BBM features while in Cayman, so that's dirt cheap. For $20 per month (prorated for the number of days I use it), I can have access to those same features when I'm off-Island with this thing they call "Passport". I just need to remember to call to activate it before I leave and then to shut if off again when I get back. So no roaming charges for data, only for voice.

I've decided that I need something that offers a little more functionality than my ~10 year old Motorola Razer. I'm going to head down to Cable & Wireless (the local phone company) store and buy something today. Hopefully, it will have a lot of buttons on it, a fancy screen, and the ability to BBM. Until today, I didn't know what the hell BBM was, or even that there was such a thing. But someone texted me and asked me if I can BBM her, so I Googled it, and have now come to the conclusion that I need to get with the program. She told me that I couldn't do this with an iPhone, so now I'm sold. Don't know on what, or why, precisely. But I'm sold. Will report back in an hour or so after I get back home with my new gadget.

Been meaning to pick this up, and now just have. Thanks for the reminder.

Yet another pair of Santa glasses. Must have a half dozen of them now. Every time I think I find something that will be perfect, I find something else that will be more perfect. Will keep the best pair and sell off the rest of them at my Santa forum. Glasses - Oval Frames for prescription / Reading Spectacles Early 19th Century Glasses GL-781 at Jas. Townsend and Son, Inc. Retro Straight Temple Spectacles, Ed Welch Antiques, Waterville, Maine, 04901 RIMLESS HALF MOON READING GLASSES S/ARM + 3.0 STRENGTH - eBay (item 110614094957 end time Nov-23-10 02:26:49 PST)

They are finally catching on to the game. Keep pricing them extremely reasonably and you will forever be pigeon holed in a slot within the market that you may not want to stay in forever. This will give them some upward pricing flexibility on the rest of their product line, in due time. Strange the way luxury goods markets so often work.

Shelly, I know it's really scary when something goes wrong and there are dozens of possible explanations. Just hang in there and hope for the best. Try to help your mom remain calm and collected.

Don't know what to say, Vicki, although I'm sure you will. Even just being there for her must be impossibly difficult. So sad.