Holiday Trivia

The average American takes six months to pay off holiday credit-card bills.

Pogonophobia: the fear of beards.

There are currently 78 people named S. Claus living in the U.S. -- and one
Kriss Kringle.

December is the most popular month for nose jobs.

Weight of Santa's sleigh loaded with one Beanie Baby for every kid on
earth: 333,333 tons.

Number of reindeer required to pull a 333,333-ton sleigh: 214,206 --
plus Rudolph.

Average wage of a mall Santa: $11 an hour. With real beard: $20.

To deliver his gifts in one night, Santa would have to make 822.6 visits
per second, sleighing at 3,000 times the speed of sound. At that speed,
Santa and his reindeer would burst into flame instantaneously.

Wouldn't it be interesting if Santa carried pedometers on Christmas Eve?


Mostly From Us Magazine

Holiday Trivia

The average American takes six months to pay off holiday credit-card bills.

Pogonophobia: the fear of beards.

There are currently 78 people named S. Claus living in the U.S. -- and one
Kriss Kringle.

December is the most popular month for nose jobs.

Weight of Santa's sleigh loaded with one Beanie Baby for every kid on
earth: 333,333 tons.

Number of reindeer required to pull a 333,333-ton sleigh: 214,206 --
plus Rudolph.

Average wage of a mall Santa: $11 an hour. With real beard: $20.

To deliver his gifts in one night, Santa would have to make 822.6 visits
per second, sleighing at 3,000 times the speed of sound. At that speed,
Santa and his reindeer would burst into flame instantaneously.

Wouldn't it be interesting if Santa carried pedometers on Christmas Eve?


From Us Magazine, Thanks to Keith Sullivan

The Soap Box, Again

Not to belabor the point below but how many times can you honestly tell the difference between real gold and a plastic gold bracelets in the mall? Unless that person stops you and tells you that it is real or you take the time to actually hold it in your hand and examine it, you won't know. So what are you paying the extra $300 for? The satisfaction of having wasted money? Or is it that you just feel bad for all those gold miners out there just trying to make a living? Clearly I'm being a bit absurd because I understand that people have been trained by modern culture to believe that they have to have the real stuff in order to feel important but does it really make sense? Have you ever really stopped to think about that?

I'm being a bit harsh but my point is that we just need to think before we spend sometimes. I've learned that lesson the hard way so I'm a bit solid on this point lately.

Glowing Metal Substance

I'm really getting sick of this ad on the radio for some jewelry store that I can't remember (great ad effectiveness there) that says something like "only gold glows". Not to be a stickler but I'm pretty sure that gold has no luminescent qualities of any kind. It drives me crazy when these guys over sell stuff like this. Gold is a precious metal, that, in my opinion, is relatively worthless when you consider that the fakes look just as good and cost a fraction of the amount. The technology behind the fakes are so advanced that there is no reason to buy the real stuff because no one can tell anyway. The gold chain needs to be broken. As I said in an earlier post, our overpricing of worthless things and ignorance for more important aspects is going to bite us someday. That is not to say that I'm without fault in this but, we do need to rethink things as a society.

Road Trains

I'm reading a really interesting book right now about Australia. (See the what I'm reading section to the right). One of the things that is mentioned is something called a "road train". Basically these are semi trucks with multiple trailers hooked up to them, and they can get up to 150 feet long, or so I'm told. The idea is that the distances are so great between towns that they need to maximize the capacity to make it worth the effort. All I know is that I wouldn't want to be in their way. I'm no lawyer but I'm guessing that that much weight moving at speed is something to be reckoned with.

Mega Drought

I was watching this show the other day about how conditions could be right for a mega drought to occur in the midwest that would dwarf the dustbowl of the 1930's Granted the formula of this show is to take an alarmist stance but the thought that Las Vegas could become a ghost town for lack of water was a rather sobering thought. hotels Las Vegas would no longer be big business.

It probably won't happen but it is rather scary. We in America do take water for granted, while we sell rocks(diamonds) for thousands of dollars. Someday, that will probably bite us.

Long Winter

We got about 2 inches of snow yesterday and today it was 2 degrees outside when I left for work. Around here, we don't normally expect that kind of weather until after Christmas. The result is that this winter is going to feel extremely long.

I like winter, but for some reason I'm just not in the mood this year. I have no idea why. The early darkness and cold just aren't doing much for me. I don't remember ever having minded before until at least late January or early February.

Hopefully I will get to do some snowboarding soon which will reconnect me with my love of winter. The obvious thing is that we have a baby due in about 8 weeks so I'm probably just not focusing on things the way I normally would, however I don't remember feeling this way when our first child was born in late December.

So I guess I'm just getting old because I'm complaining about the weather now.

This post sponsored by the Hublot watch

A New Car!!!!!

I've heard a lot of commercials on the radio about car donation. I don't really know a lot about it but I have to imagine that it's a richer man's game. For most people in my situation, the thought of donating a working car that costs nothing and getting another car payment doesn't seem to make much sense. Don't get me wrong, I feel like charity is very important but I can't see how this particular one would be of much use to most people. Clearly it's working so perhaps I just misunderstand it but I don't see myself doing a lot of research on it in the near future.

If you are interested in learning more. Check out Car Angel. They are a not for profit company that uses the donations to make videos for kids and teens.

http://youtube.com/user/boatangel