Bringing More Joy Into Your Life

Bringing More Joy Into Your Life

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What To Expect When Making A Christmas Request

What To Expect When Making A Christmas Request
(from the SANTA CLAUS BLOG...yes, Santa blogs too)

I have been reading letters from around the world. I've also been skimming some of the "open letters" posted to me on the internet and in newspapers around the world. I love reading all of the kind notes and innocent requests this time of year. If those letters don't put you in the Christmas Spirit, I don't know what will.

I have also started to make mall appearances. And a few snotty nosed kids with attitudes, screaming & terrified toddlers, dirty diapered infants, and adults lamely trying to be funny by sitting on Santa's lap aside, the mall interaction is also largely a lot of fun. And every so often, in one of those interactions with child, I see a little Christmas magic. I see the lights go on in their eyes and I know they leave a different kid... one that will believe in Santa forever. The vast majority of the time, I leave the mall in much better Christmas Spirits than before I arrived. It is this that gives me the energy to get through the day.

Nevertheless, there are always a few requests that I just can not fill or are absurdly insane. "What?!" you may ask incredulously. But let me remind you that I am not supernatural. I have limits just like everyone else. So I want to take this opportunity to set some expectations.

First, I simply can not fill requests for husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, etc. The Legal department here at North Pole Inc. has been very clear that fulfilling any such requests could be construed as an act in violation of International Human Trafficking laws. The risk of such a perception is too great and far outweighs any benefits that could be gained. We can, however, recommend a few good match-making sites upon request.

We also have a number of requests for exorbitant gifts. More often than not, the folks that make those requests are on the "Naughty" list. But for those that are on the "Nice" list, we do have a few rules. We do not deliver gifts over US$25,000 in value unless there is a special exemption granted by our independent auditors. Granting requests over US$25,000 usually requires a pretty extensive background check and involves someone with a life-long tenure on the "Nice" list. Gifts between US$1,000 and US$24,999 also require a minimum of 2 consecutive years on the "Nice" list.

There there are the requests for visiting with me or the reindeer on Christmas Eve. There are so many children that want me to wake them up so they can visit. I would love nothing more than to be able to do that but we are on such a tight schedule, its just not possible. And even if I had the time, I don't think I would risk it. In the early days, when I didn't have so many houses to visit, I would occasionally honor a request to visit and introduce the reindeer. Inevitably though, someone's dog or cat would go into "attack mode" as soon as the reindeer came in the house. It's understandable.... its a natural behaviour for the dog. But the reindeer would get spooked. And on occasion, I'd have a mess to clean-up before I left. Good thing I keep a "pooper-scooper" in the sleigh. Its just not worth all the stained carpets even if I could keep schedule. Now if you really, really want to visit with me and the reindeer, you will have a chance... I will tell you more about it on Thursday's post when I announce a contest to win a sleigh ride with Rudolph.

Speaking of animals... Live animals are another controversial issue. We debate our ability to deliver live animals every year. Each year we re-visit various governmental policies on the import/export of live animals. Inevitably, the topic leads to a heated debate over whether or not we should even be in the business of fulfilling Christmas wishes for live animals. We keep the option open every year... working with the UN and individual nations to negotiate special considerations for our Christmas delivery of live animals... however, more years than not, we have chosen to not fulfill Christmas requests for live animals. As you can imagine, it is a passionate debate with more than one facet to the sides that are taken. While we all feel strongly about making the kids happy, there are some that believe that should trump all other considerations. There is a camp, represented by Jolly, our Asia-Pacific GM and former VP of Marketing, that believes that the risk of the animals falling sick and/or passing away shortly after delivery only serves to hurt our brand. There is yet another camp, predictably led by Ollie, our GM for Europe & Middle East (former VP of Logistics), that simply believes the live animal logistics are so complex - not to mention expensive - that it jeopardizes our ability to fulfill our commitments on other deliveries. Ollie definitely has a point... almost 60% of the qualifying "nice" list kids placed live animal requests of some type last year. And the requests are for a wide range of animals that require vastly different types of care. Of the ones that asked for live animals last year, 36% wanted a horse or pony. 29% wanted a dog. 9% wanted a snake. 12% wanted a cat. 2% wanted a bird of some type. 6% wanted to keep one of the reindeer. The remaining 6% wanted some other type of animal ranging from goldfish to crocidiles. Of course, even in the years when we decide to tackle the challenge of delivering live animals and we clear all of the various governmental hurdles, we still require written parental consent. And we have always denied requests for animals that posed a risk such as poisonous snakes or large predatory animals. In short, even in the best case years, it remains very unlikely a child will receive a live animal. In 2009, we are going to follow the same practices & policies as last year: allowing live animals where it is legal and where we have written parental consent. Given those considerations, Sprite, head of Procurement, believes we'll deliver approximately 25,000 small animals and 5,100 large animals worldwide this year, up slightly from last year. It's a small number as far as a percentage but we are extremely limited by the sheer number of parents that refuse to grant permission.

And finally, there is the issue of "Open Letters" posted on the internet in places such as MySpace and Facebook as well as in the media. Despite the help of my very capable friends at Google, I can not guarantee that I will see your open letter. The North Pole Inc. I.T. team crawls sites during this time of year for Open Letters and produces a summary of links for me. But even with that help, our research indicates that there is still a high likelihood of your open letter being missed. So your best bet is to send me a direct correspondence. Of course, I have noticed that most people send me direct correspondence via emails or handwritten letter for their requests but then use the open letter format to file complaints. Still, I try to read and respond to them all regardless of the spirit.

I hope this has helped to set a few expectations for this upcoming Christmas Eve. I also hope you are not too disappointed. Santa definitely wants to spread Joy throughout the world this Christmas season, so if these restrictions create an issue for you, let's talk. I'm sure there are some very creative ways you can make this your best Christmas ever... And it probably starts with trying to make this the best Christmas ever for someone else!

Crimson Tide Wins SEC Championship

Jacob and Bella...THE SECRET

The buzz is overwhelming about NEW MOON. Jacob and Bella. Well, the Secret is probably the worst kept secret of the year!!!

NEW MOON cast interview

The movie is great. It WILL be the big movie this weekend and most likely for several weeks to come.

Taylor Swift on Saturday Night Live

Something a bit unusual

There is a blog where you can post your innermost secrets anonymously. Check it out.

http://postsecret.blogspot.com

Brandon Spikes Eye Gouge of Georgia Runningback

This THUG needs more punishment than just a half game suspension.

The Hershey Krackel Bar is the BEST Halloween Candy of All Time According to A Nationwide survey

JoJoe The Skating Dog

Fantastic!!

Balloon Boy Tells The Truth

Criminal charges are in the works. Some people will do anything to be famous. Parents at least father) will probably go to jail.

Incredible Speed Chess

Incredible Speed Chess Match

It's almost entertaining.

LASER ETCHING MY CEREAL SOUNDS A LITTLE FLAKEY

In either a marketing gimmick or a hoax, a major food distributor has etched its name into its food. According to a story on news.com.au the Kellogg’s cereal company has successfully etched its name into individual flakes of their popular cereal Corn Flakes. Why? Well, a company spokesman says it’s to avoid buyer confusion between actual Corn Flakes and competitor imitation brands and also to give each flake its own “stamp of approval.” At least now you will never be confused about what cereal you’re eating.

Man vs Bear

Legendary competitive eating champion Takeru Kobayashi battles a huge Kodiak bear. Check out the Famous Nathan's 4th Of July Hot Dog Eating Contest videos on the web, if you have a few minutes with really nothing to do.. It is on ESPN every year. Unbelieveable.

Things You Dont Say To Your Wife

Tim Hawkins is a Christian comedian.

We Are Not Alone

Strange Clouds

How To Show Your Support

It all starts with you.

Senior Choir Takes On Hip Hop

Double Stuff

I had not seen all of these. It's great that "The Donald" can poke fun at himself.

Okay, That'll Fix it...

Albertville Woman Lets Daughter Ride In Box On Top Of Moving Vehicle

ALBERTVILLE, Ala. -- An Alabama woman has been charged with endangering the welfare of a child after police say she let her daughter ride in a cardboard box on top of their van. Albertville Police spokesman Sgt. Jamie Smith said the 37-year-old woman was arrested Sunday after police received a call about a minivan on a state highway with a child riding on top.

Smith said the woman told police the box was too big to go inside the van, and that her daughter was inside the box to hold it down.

Smith said the mother told officers it was safe because she had the box secured to the van with a clothes hanger.

The 13-year-old daughter wasn't harmed and was turned over to a relative. A jail worker said the mother was out on bond Monday.

Marshmallo Test

The $150 Space Camera: MIT Students Beat NASA On Beer-Money Budget

The $150 Space Camera.

Bespoke is old hat. Off-the-shelf is in. Even Google runs the world’s biggest and scariest server farms on computers home-made from commodity parts. DIY is cheaper and often better, as Justin Lee and Oliver Yeh found out when they decided to send a camera into space.

The two students (from MIT, of course) put together a low-budget rig to fly a camera high enough to photograph the curvature of the Earth. Instead of rockets, boosters and expensive control systems, they filled a weather balloon with helium and hung a styrofoam beer cooler underneath to carry a cheap Canon A470 compact camera. Instant hand warmers kept things from freezing up and made sure the batteries stayed warm enough to work.

Of course, all this would be pointless if the guys couldn’t find the rig when it landed, so they dropped a prepaid GPS-equipped cellphone inside the box for tracking. Total cost, including duct tape? $148.

Launch

Two weeks ago, on September 2nd 2009, at the leisurely post-breakfast hour of 11:45AM, the balloon was launched from Sturbridge MA. Lee and Yeh took a road trip in order to stop prevailing winds from taking the balloon out onto the Atlantic, and checked in on the University of Wisconsin’s balloon trajectory website to estimate the landing site.

Because of spotty cellphone coverage in west Massachusetts, it was important to keep the rig in the center of the state so it could be found upon landing. Light winds meant the guys got lucky and, although the cellphone’s external antenna was buried upon landing, the fix they got as the balloon was coming down was close enough.

The Photographs

The balloon and camera made it up high enough to see the black sky curling around our blue planet. The Canon was hacked with the CHDK (Canon Hacker’s Development Kit) open-source firmware, which adds many features to Canon’s cameras. The intervalometer (interval timer) was set to shoot a picture every five seconds, and the 8GB memory card was enough to hold pictures for the five-hour duration of the flight.

The picture you see above was shot from around 93,000 feet, just shy of 18 miles high. To give you an idea of how high that is, when the balloon burst, the beer-cooler took forty minutes to come back to Earth.

What is most astonishing about this launch, named Project Icarus, is that anyone could do it. The budget is so small as to be almost non-existent (the guys slept in their car the night before the launch to save money), so that even if everything went wrong, a second, third or fourth attempt would be easy. All it took was a grand idea and an afternoon poking around the hardware store.

The project website has few details on how the balloon was put together — but the students say they will be selling step-by-step instructions for $150 soon. That means you will soon be able to launch your own balloon for just $300 — $150 for the instructions and $150 for the parts.

Lady Antebellum - Need You Now

Lady Antebellum new video. Great song.

Smooching, kissing, necking,

Worlds Longest Basketball Shot

I wonder how many tries it took. Amazing.

Chick Does 21 Different Accents

EMBED-Chick Does 21 Different Accents - Watch more free videos

This woman does an incredible job of imitating 21 different accents.

World's Largest Snake Found Dead

Kung Fu Ping-Pong

Bruce Lee's Kung Fu Ping-Pong - Watch more Funny Videos

I have the legendary Bruce Lee do some amazing things but this is something else.

Karmic Justice

She Loves The Big Boom

She Loves A Big Boom - Watch more Funny Videos

Obama finally gets it right

Amen, Mr. President, amen....

Snake Flossing

Snake Flossing

This is why your mother said you couldn't have a snake.

Greedy Hamster

A little Wednesday humor. Kanye West couldn't take the stick away.

We will NEVER forget.....

Drama Prairie Dog

Yes, it is only 5 seconds, but it is 5 seconds of some of the best prairie dog acting every caught on film… er, or something like that. Honestly, the dramatic prairie dog is one of the most amusing, if shortest, video clips in web history, and one that has been viewed millions of times. And now you can see it here, on my blog!!

Fiery Record Attempt

A professional stunt man tried to set the world record Sunday for being set on fire for the longest amount of time. He only made it a minute and a half, which is about a minute short of the record....

Funny Commercial

Yupfunny.com

What is that in my Pepsi?

Check This out

Lady Antebellum does a Webisode Wednesday, where they post behind the scenes clips. Great stuff from a great group!!

Four!!!

This is the reason I don't play golf. I could be my own highlight (or lowlight) reel.

Extra Low FlyBy

It scared the camera guy!!

Funny Chase

Funny Chase - Click here for more free videos

Skydiver Falls 10,000 Feet Without a Chute And Lives!!

Eleven things you SHOULD learn in school, but don't

Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1 : Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2 : The world doesn't care about your
Self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6 : If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault , so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7 : Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8 : Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9 : Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10 : Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11 : Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.


If you can read this -Thank a teacher!

If you can read this in English, thank a soldier!

The Government Can by Tim Hawkins

funny...and true

You Have Got To See This..

These photos were taken after the car had a flat tire. Boaz,AL Police issued SEVERAL tickets to these people.

Wednesdays' Trivia Question

Q. More women claim to be this, although statistics prove otherwise. What is it?

A. Natural redheads 

Brooks & Dunn's Last Single

Brooks and Dunns' "Honky Tonk Stomp" had the most adds on country radio this week. So even though they are saying after 20 years they've agreed to call it quits, just put on one of your many Brooks & Dunn albums and enjoy. And when their next greatest hits package comes out on Sept. 8, treasure it.

If Zombies Attack for Real...

Okay, it's a slow Monday morning, alright...

Two math professors in Canada modeled a zombie outbreak as a major infectious disease, to predict whether we non-necros could fight back. Not a chance, they conclude. After all, this is one "infection" that would just keep reviving itself every time we killed it, unless we killed it in just the correct way (however that is, which is unclear now because movies keep altering the rules of zombie biology). BBC News

More later......maybe...

Man takes job at 63 - Doesn’t miss a day for 30 years

At 93, Mulrain has been employed at Palmetto Dunes for nearly 30 years, working every Thursday as a starter. He has never arrived late or missed one of his shifts for three decades.


Thursday, August 20, 2009


Sammy Mulrain Honored as Lowcountry Golf Course Owners Association 2009 Employee of the Year

(HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C.) Palmetto Dunes Oceanfront Resort is pleased to announce that the Lowcountry Golf Course Owners Association recently named Mandas "Sammy" Mulrain as the 2009 Employee of the Year.

At 93, Mulrain has been employed at Palmetto Dunes for nearly 30 years, working every Thursday as a starter. With an impeccable work ethic, he has never arrived late or missed one of his shifts for three decades.

Mulrain is friendly, detail-oriented and generous, always involving himself with different fundraisers and charitable events around Hilton Head Island. He even makes it a habit to search for lost golf balls on his own time, donating them to a local church for their use in fundraising events.

"Sammy is truly an inspiration to everyone who knows him," said Brad Marra, director of golf at Palmetto Dunes. "He's a delight to work with and is quite deserving of this honor."

In his former life, Mulrain has experienced some unforgettable moments. Some of them include storming Normandy during World War II and playing baseball with Phil Rizzuto. An avid traveler, he lived overseas for part of his life and then returned to the United States, managing to move around quite a bit before settling in Hilton Head. His generosity and appetite for life is evident in all that he does, contributing to an exciting experience for anyone who has had the pleasure of meeting Mulrain.

When not offering his time to help others in any way that he can, Mulrain continues his work at Palmetto Dunes as a starter, giving the guests and staff a reason to smile.

Man vs Wild Bear Grylls in North Alabama

Bear was dropped atop Little River Canyon in North Alabama. If you haven't seen the show, bear strands himself (with a camera man)in some of the most remote places in the world. Last night on the season premier, he was in Alabama. I have included a few video clips.

Man vs Wild "The Raft"

Man vs Wild Skinny Dips in North Alabama

Man Vs Wild Goes Hog Wild

Wrong Body Displayed at Funeral

Wrong Body Displayed at Funeral

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Justin Moore was born and raised in Poyen, Ark. Although he was a star athlete in high school, he moved to Nashville after graduation to pursue a music career. I like him. We'll see how he holds up in the long hawl, Hey, he's got Alan Jacksons producer!!

Check out "Small Town USA".

http://www.cmt.com/videos/justin-moore/343245/small-town-usa.jhtml

It's a Hump Day Wednesday today. I'm busy downloading program pieces for the weekend shows we have on WQSB. I'm gathering content for my show. The most music in your country begins (my part of it anyway) in half an hour!! Tune in FM105.1 or on line listen live at wqsb.com.