Wmcmanus

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.

There are old bikes at a couple of the dive sites in Cayman, which I've tried to ride, but never as successfully as that guy is doing, and never in a Santa suit. It's pretty tricky. All comes down to getting your breathing right to keep from floating up or sinking down, and then using your leg muscles to keep squared from left to right. I kept falling off.

Ya, I missed that somehow. Now I'm going to have to give up my dream of being a Chippendale dancer. I just don't have what it takes. Chris Farley - Chippendale Dance Video

Actually, I don't think it works that way. If the answer is zero, than it's probably fair to assume that you're straight, particularly if you have no desire whatsoever for that number to change to anything other than zero. If the answer is one or more, then it's probably fair to assume that you're gay. If you have to have sex with 300 men in order to determine whether or not you're gay, then I'm pretty sure you're gay.

^ You're a social smoker. That should be encouraged more. Looks like a really nice unit. One of my cousins in Colorado has really gotten into it as a hobby and enters all sorts of smoked BBQ contests each year.

I've got one of those too, but it doesn't do so well when there is daylight since it's impossible to block out all light sources in that room. The TV will be wall mounted behind where the projector screen rolls up and down.

Just ordered: Amazon.com: West Coast Seattle Boy:The Jimi Hendrix Anthology (8LP Box): Jimi Hendirx: Music For the current price of $66 (free shipping), figured I couldn't go wrong (just a little over $8 per platter). Looking forward to Springsteen's "The Promise" box set (Darkness on the Edge of Town story) and Dylan's "The Witmark Demos - 1962-1964 (Bootleg Vol 9) as well.

Have a great one, Johnny man with many numbers.

That's just wrong, man! Doing my best to support this year's International Vulture Awareness Day.

Went to Customs and cleared my new TV today. First cost was about $4,200 for the TV and an extra pair of 3D glasses, plus another $600 for the Chief wall mount. If I lived in the US, that would be the end of the story, plus I would get to take advantage of up to $300 worth of free calibration and other post-sale services from Best Buy. Final cost was a little over $7k after paying to have it crated up and delivered to the dock in Tampa ($475), shipping and insurance to Cayman ($509), import duty at 22% ($1,055), port fees ($75), and delivery to my house ($150). Headphones are so much easier to smuggle in!

Half again as good? So you're expecting them to be $800 to $900-ish good? More or less my gut feeling as well, although I have no basis for that and will reserve judgment until I've heard them, as always. Talked to Todd (TTVJ) about them the other day. He had just heard them briefly but was impressed. Said they were on par with the T1, but didn't say much else that I can remember. Can't imagine that the Edition 10's will be twice as good, but as we all know, the math doesn't really work that way. If someone "falls" for a certain sound, then they find one way or another to justify the expenditure.

I just got that email as well, and immediately placed me pre-order. I'm hoping that the November 22nd date provided at the special link (i.e., when they expect to begin "fulfillments") will be accurate. But so long as it arrives in Florida before December 6th, I'll be alright. BTW, since the first sentence in their letter read, "Thank you for signing up to receive information about... BDP-93," I just assumed that was the reason I got this email with the "special link". But I'm also an 83 owner so maybe that's part of what it takes to get in the club? I dunno. I guess they want to make sure they don't get oversubscribed such that they can't meet everyone's expectations in terms of when the units will ship.

Thought you had a scoop on me there, so just as I was about to scream out, "No! That's not available yet..." I checked my email. Sure enough there was a message from OPPO providing an extra-special-just-for-me link allowing me to place my pre-order. Done. Fulfillment to begin on November 22nd. I'm not sure why they're being so secretive about it, but apparently you need to be on their pre-pre-order list or you can't place a pre-order? Seems strange.

I really liked this one. Although it's a lot longer than it needs to be, the best part is at the end. Of course, I don't watch this thread regularly, so it's probably a repeat for many of you.