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Odds and Ends and things to listen to

It's been a busy few weeks. I've been working on some video projects so I haven't had too much extra time to add a post. Most of today I've been going over the contract for our monitoring company here at work. We use the cell and satellite ankle monitors for our "clients" that need them.

It IS winter! We'd not had any snow before last weekend. Got 16 inches overnight then. Started snowing again on Wednesday and snowed over 24 hours straight for another almost 12 inches of snow. Between the storms it was an arctic blast that got the area down to between 10 to 25 BELOW zero. Warmed up to teens yesterday and is 14 right now.
Its going to get cold again though. Expected to be 5 to 10 below tonight, only up to 3 or 4 tomorrow. So winter is here. It really is too, on Saturday!

Last weekends Christmas add at Best Buy got my attention. If you really looked at it, it was a lot of Sales, and Free, things that were far from it!
The one I was talking to Stacy about was a "free" Blue Ray player. You only had to spend at least $75.00 for an overly expensive HDMI cable and also purchase 10 movies from their list of Blue Ray movies, at an average of $24.99 each!!!!!!
So, do the math. To get their FREE Blue Ray player you have to spend $325.00! Oh yeah, in the add it said that the player in this "deal" has a value of $249.99.
So, would you pay $325.00 for a FREE player. Or just go out and buy one for about $200.00 from another place?

OK, I've mentioned in many of these posts how I'm pretty much listening to XM, now SiriusXM, satellite radio. Everyday at work, in all our vehicles, on the motorcycles in the summer, and most of the time at home I'm listening. Its on right now. What used to be Top Tracks is now Classic Vinyl and is the station of this moment. But I also have a selection of audio podcasts I enjoy listening to, and I thought I'd list some that I'd recommend for any of you readers to try. My Google reader gathers them up for me as I subscribe to them and even will suggest different ones sometimes.
This first one was a Google suggestion that is actually pretty good. It's called "Betty in the sky with a suitcase", betty.libsyn.com, she's been posting since 2005. Betty is a "flight attendant for a major airline", and from listening to the shows she's out of L.A.. Her shows are twenty five to thirty minutes long and are anecdotes and recorded stories shes gotten from her own experiences and from other people she comes across in the airline industry. Very often funny, the story themes are along the lines of that shows theme.
Also through that podcast outlet, I'd recommend Airspeed, airspeed.libsyn.com, put out by a relatively new pilot, he's got really good enthusiasm for just about all things aviation. He's interviewed the pilot of the 747 that take the Space Shuttle back to Florida, I got to see that set up fly over our house twice while we lived in California. He's been able to fly with the Thunderbirds, flown a Ford Tri-motor, gotten checked out in a DC-3. These and many more stories are available in the archive section of the podcast. Usually 30 to 40 minutes.
I listen to several of the C-Net podcasts, I like the Car Tech podcast (car tests and tech along with some general stories), Dialed-in (cell phones), MP3 insider (all the newest players are discussed and many reviewed), Indecent Exposure (all things digital photography, cameras, tests and tips). Sometimes I'll check out one of the others. The Google Reader lists all C-Net podcasts and has a brief description of each as you scroll down through them. I pick out what looks interesting, the above are ones I just normally download. Most are still in that 30 minute time frame so they can be easy to listen to.
Leo Laporte; he has quite a few shows to check out. He's has something new in audio and also increasingly in video podcasts, almost every day of the week now. I used to listen to his weekend tech help show called "The Tech Guy" on XM, I'd record the show and skip the adds, then found out that instead of fast forwarding through the adds, it is broadcast on regular radio stations around the US, he posts the entire show minus the adds on his 'network'. I'd highly recommend listening to the Tech Guy for general computer/tech info as well as the great tips he comes up with to help the call in audience. On his website, the shows include one called "Munchcast" where foods are discussed, not really recipes, often just foods. A recent one had funny discussions about Turducken. I think I spelled it right, a boned Chicken stuffed inside a boned Duck all stuffed into a boned Turkey. It's a mail order food, and that was the topic of that show.
Anyway I could go on with "LeoVille". I'd say check it out and see what you might like to listen too from his varied array of shows! He has shows from 20 minutes to two hours!
You don't have to have I-Tunes either! I've only come across a very few that couldn't be subscribed to, and none that couldn't be heard right then off your computer. I just prefer to download them to my MP3 player for podcasts and listen to them later.
Oh yeah, they're all free!! For now anyway!

Family updates.
Stacy and I are really looking forward to Christmas next week! Last year Stacy was still on graveyard shift and worked all night Christmas Eve, came home that morning and had to be back at work Christmas Day by 4:00 Pm. That REALLY put a damper on that holiday!

Sandy will be in Hawaii with her husband and his family, that will be different for her. Last year she was in Germany for Christmas. Wednesday night Sandy was snowed in in Las Vegas!! About 3 inches of snow closed the airport and canceled her flight as well as many others! They just don't have the necessary equipment for snow in Las Vegas. She stayed at the Planet Hollywood Hotel and Casino. She'd said most places were pretty vacant.

Sean's working his last few overtime days for the year. He said his company wanted to get caught up before the holidays so he and his crew have been working long days. He called last night as he was driving home from a twelve hour day.

Laura has still been getting over the flu and working, working, working.

My uncle Joe in Virginia, e-mailed me the cover of his new book series about the PT Boats from World War Two. It will be released in 10 volumes and is a very detailed reference edition about the boats. He did the research, all the original artwork, worked on it for years! He's glad to see it almost finished!

I'll post again next week if not sooner.

We hope everyone has a great Holiday!!

Tad

Comments

Joe Foerster said…
I'd like to get some details on your Uncle Joe's book series on the PT Boats. I'd like to check them out. (Especially if they are available in Kindle/eBook/iBook formats.)

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