Christmas Spirit

[crunchtastic]

I love how many of you are changing up the avatars and getting into the Christmas spirit.

To open up the conversation of how you've chosen yours (xmas or otherwise): Was hanging out on a photog site, where someone developed the film that was still in the camera when they acquired it 40 years later. The cat under the christmas tree circa 1950 looks exactly like my cat. Big, fluffy, black, and pissed off , unimpressed by tinsel.

Others??

Edited December 19, 2007 by crunchtastic

[houstonmacbro]

Ah, the old Christmas Spirit.

[crunchtastic]

Ah, the old Christmas Spirit.

Yes, even you, darling.

Are you a bourbon drinker at all? One the best cocktails I've had in my life was some concoction called The Grinch, and it's base was Woodford Reserve.

Edited December 19, 2007 by crunchtastic

[houstonmacbro]

Yes, even you, darling.

Are you a bourbon drinker at all? One the best cocktails I've had in my life was some concoction called The Grinch, and it's base was Woodford Reserve.

I'm not anti-Christmas, I just want to be left out of it (the festivities, etc.) if that makes sense?

Strange you mention bourbon. I have never been much for dark alcohols (preferring Gin or Vodka), but my grandmother was a mean bourbon drinker. You asking me about that made me remember her.

[crunchtastic]

I'm not anti-Christmas, I just want to be left out of it (the festivities, etc.) if that makes sense?

Strange you mention bourbon. I have never been much for dark alcohols (preferring Gin or Vodka), but my grandmother was a mean bourbon drinker. You asking me about that made me remember her.

gotcha. And god bless your grandmother.

[houstonmacbro]

Thanks. She was something else.

[EatSleepMOD]

I love the old Rudolph cartoon...that is why I chose mine.

[Vertigo58]

I love the old Rudolph cartoon...that is why I chose mine.

For all of my bros and sisters it will always be A Charlie Brown Christmas.

It's special to us because we were about he same ages of the children that did the voices for the Peanut's. Even more so because 1 of us is no longer here. See, these are times that only happen once in one's life. That's why I choose to live this life in the positive as much as possible. Here goes the old cliche' - It really is a Wonderful Life!

It really is. Hankerchief please...snif...snif...

[TheNiche]

I love how many of you are changing up the avatars and getting into the Christmas spirit.

I had the history channel running in the background last night and overheard something about how a Germanic pagan deity called Odin was widely feared on account of his nocturnal wintery night-rides in which he'd decide who'd live or die in the coming year. This is the thing that became Santa Claus.

And so I was inspired. See avatar and signature.

[houstonmacbro]

I had the history channel running in the background last night and overheard something about how a Germanic pagan deity called Odin was widely feared on account of his nocturnal wintery night-rides in which he'd decide who'd live or die in the coming year. This is the thing that became Santa Claus.

And so I was inspired. See avatar and signature.

... so be good for goodness sake.

[TheNiche]

... so be good for goodness sake.

...no, that's not really the point at all. Be good for your own sake, lest I mercilessly strike thee down.

[KatieDidIt]

I had the history channel running in the background last night and overheard something about how a Germanic pagan deity called Odin was widely feared on account of his nocturnal wintery night-rides in which he'd decide who'd live or die in the coming year. This is the thing that became Santa Claus.

And so I was inspired. See avatar and signature.

Ahh, the warm fuzzies. Niche you're a hoot.

[west20th]

Here is a good one:

How Engineers Spoil Christmas

There are approximately 378 million children (persons under 18) in the world, "workload for Christmas night".

At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, which comes to 108 million homes, presuming there is at least one good child in each. Santa has about 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 967.7 visits per second.

This is to say that for each Christian household with a good child, Santa has around 1/1000th of a second to park the sleigh, hop out, jump down the chimney, fill the stocking, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left for him to get back up the chimney, into the sleigh and get onto the next house. This, of course, would explain why no one has ever seen him.

Assuming that each of these 108 million stops is evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false, but will accept for the purposes of our calculations), we are now talking about 0.78 miles per household; a total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting bathroom stops or breaks.

This means Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second or 3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man made vehicle, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a pokey 27.4 miles per second, and a conventional reindeer can run (at best) 15 miles per hour.

The payload of the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium sized LEGO set (two pounds), the sleigh is carrying over 500 thousand tons, not counting Santa himself.

On land, a conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that the "flying" reindeer can pull 10 times the normal amount, the job can't be done with eight or even nine of them - Santa would need 360,000 of them. This increases the payload, not counting the weight of the sleigh, another 54,000 tons, or roughly seven times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth (the ship, not the monarch).

A mass of nearly 600,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance, which would heat up the reindeer in the same fashion as a spacecraft re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer would absorb 14.3 quintillion joules of energy per second each. In short, they would burst into flames almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them and creating deafening sonic booms in their wake.

The entire reindeer team would be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second, or right about the time Santa reached the fifth house on his trip. Not that it matters, however, since Santa, as a result of accelerating from a dead stop to 650 MPS in .001 seconds, would be subjected to acceleration forces of 17,000 g's.

A 250 pound Santa (which seems ludicrous considering all the high calorie snacks he must have consumed over the years) would be pinned to the back of the sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force.

And that's why it's easy to explain Santa to kids but not to adults....especially ENGINEERS.

Merry Christmas!!

[Vertigo58]

Being Santa must be physically and mentally exhausting. Requires too much strenous agility for such a heavyset dude. I mean he seems borderline diabetic and stuff. See he can barely get over this wall. Must be hellish.

[west20th]

Being Santa must be physically and mentally exhausting. Requires too much strenous agility for such a heavyset dude. I mean he seems borderline diabetic and stuff. See he can barely get over this wall. Must be hellish.

It's the magic dust! Little bit for the reindeer....little bit for Santa.....little more for Santa......A little more for Santa.....

Edited December 20, 2007 by west20th

[Vertigo58]

It's the magic dust! Little bit for the reindeer....little bit for Santa.....little more for Santa......A little more for Santa.....

This has to be what your referring to! I seldom hear on the radio any more. It was classic!

Cheech & Chong version of Santa:

[crunchtastic]

I had the history channel running in the background last night and overheard something about how a Germanic pagan deity called Odin was widely feared on account of his nocturnal wintery night-rides in which he'd decide who'd live or die in the coming year. This is the thing that became Santa Claus.

And so I was inspired. See avatar and signature.

.....and all the little children set out plates of cabbage and sausages to spare their lives, at least until the witch would come to steal the children and put them in the oven. It's so hard to keep our holidays and german fairy tales straight.

FYI---full moon on Christmas Eve!! The fireworks should be extra special in the east end. I knew I should have bought the kevlar santa suit.

This has to be what your referring to! I seldom hear on the radio any more. It was classic!

Cheech & Chong version of Santa:

Ha! You always knew it was officially Christmas season when KLOL played it for the first time.

[Vertigo58]

I saw a Chrismas mouse this morning!

Threw a show at him but he outsmarted me.

Rats! I mean mouse!

[TheNiche]

.....and all the little children set out plates of cabbage and sausages to spare their lives, at least until the witch would come to steal the children and put them in the oven. It's so hard to keep our holidays and german fairy tales straight.

Haha, yeah. Leave it to the Germans to pickle undelicious things with great success, stuff delicious things in intestines with great success, or to invent new and gruesome ways to physically and mentally torture themselves and others for the sake of virtue...also with great success.

FYI---full moon on Christmas Eve!! The fireworks should be extra special in the east end. I knew I should have bought the kevlar santa suit.

You have no idea...

[lockmat]

I had the history channel running in the background last night and overheard something about how a Germanic pagan deity called Odin was widely feared on account of his nocturnal wintery night-rides in which he'd decide who'd live or die in the coming year. This is the thing that became Santa Claus.

And so I was inspired. See avatar and signature.

Inspired indeed. Is this your first avatar? Christmas must be putting you in a jolly mood. You've been throwin around smileys and lol's. Everything ok?

[TheNiche]

Inspired indeed. Is this your first avatar? Christmas must be putting you in a jolly mood. You've been throwin around smileys and lol's. Everything ok?

You'd have a big wide grin on your face, too, if you knew what an East End new year's eve was like.

I've had another avatar or two in the past, one of a guy in a space suit on the moon holding a pump-action shotgun, something I put together right after the NASA guy went postal and the NASA gal in the diaper drove to Florida.

[musicman]

You'd have a big wide grin on your face, too, if you knew what an East End new year's eve was like.

LOL just don't sit by the window.

[Vertigo58]

LOL just don't sit by the window.

or just do like me elderly neighbor says she does. Toss the mattress on the floor on Christmas and New Year's eve and try to sleep through it. The bullets/shrapnel will fly right over you.

I hunker down (Ugh) on the 1st floor of my house. The second floor is more vulnerable to bullets coming through the roof.

I wonder how these people steal these pyrotechnic fire explosions? They sure aren't your typical "blackcats" or bottle rockets. This crap is like what they use at Freedom Fest, 4th of July shows.

Won't be surprised if I look out the window and see a cannon. Maybe I should get a cannon and point it in their direction! That'll show em.

[musicman]

I wonder how these people steal these pyrotechnic fire explosions? They sure aren't your typical "blackcats" or bottle rockets. This crap is like what they use at Freedom Fest, 4th of July shows.

it's all those sisters at the villa.

[Vertigo58]

it's all those sisters at the villa.

Probably, my cousin used to joke that he could see them smoking grass late at night out back and in the bellfry tower. That expains the red eye. Maybe that's why they confess so often.

[crunchtastic]

LOL just don't sit by the window.

Indeed! It should bring back memories of one of my old 'hoods in San Antonio. pop, pop!