Things Smackie Thinks You Need to Know...

35 is the new 20.

Originally posted by sweetcell:
another great vansamck story

Originally posted by vansmack:
So my sister gets up on stage and proceeds to strip for the crowd. To say that this was the most awkward moment in my life would not be an understatement.

i can only imagine… but, as hard as this might be for you to believe, i think that i have a story from a latin american strip club that is equally if not more cringe-inducing. maybe i'll stumble home drunk one night and decide that it's a good idea to share.

Story would be better with pictures.

Originally posted by vansmack:

Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:

Originally posted by vansmack:
Sweetie, did you tell them about the time you and I went to a strip club in Mexico?? Now THAT was a good story.

We're waiting…..

Alright, I canâ??t believe I havenâ??t told you guys this story â?? Iâ??ve probably alluded to it but never told the full version.

So while Smackette and I were awaiting all of our worldly possessions to be transported from DC to SF (July 03), we took a week long vacation in Mexico with my family. On our way to dinner one night in Puerto Nuevo, we noticed a new strip club had opened up by the house we stay at. After dinner, my sister and her husband and Mmackette and I all decided that we MUST check this out. We were pretty sure it was going to be the most disgusting place weâ??d ever been, but the curiosity got the best of us.

Apparently we had gotten there a little before the crowd arrives as there was only one other group in the joint, and no ladies working the crowd. Mind you, it was about 10pm on a Friday night. We ordered a pitcher of margaritas and waited for the show to start, but no one was on stage. A little bit of a broo-ha-ha started between the manager and the female bartender and she reluctantly went up on stage and stripped. In my little ability to speak spanish, she was upset and apparently had taken the bartender job so she could stop stripping. That and she was pissed that whomever was supposed to be there was late. For the record, she probably should have stopped stripping years ago.

So we had been there for about 45 minutes and a second Latina gets on stage. While slightly better looking than the first (which isnâ??t saying much), she was as disinterested as the first stripper. The place was a little more crowded now (weâ??re the only Americans), but still not much going on as far as the entertainment. At this point, my sister decided to take matters into her own hands and walks up to the manager and asks the manager if she can go on stage. There was bit of a language barrier at first, but she walked over to the stage and motioned that she wanted to get up there. He asked her to wait a second. At some point while my sister was negotiating with the manager, a small group of young 20-something American guys walked in, most clearly after a long day of surfing. They sat down at the table next to ours. Finally, the manager came back out with the rest of the male staff from the back, and then motioned that now was the appropriate time for her to get on stage.

So my sister gets up on stage and proceeds to strip for the crowd. To say that this was the most awkward moment in my life would not be an understatement. Between her on stage and the realization that she was all too comfortable on the pole for this to be her first time were enlightening moments for me. At first I didnâ??t think she would go through with it â?? dancing and spinning around are one thing, but would she really take her clothes off? Well, the short answer is yes. As soon as she started undoing her bathing suit top, I stopped watching. As Smackette reports, she was up there with nothing on but her panties for at least a song and a half, strutting her stuff around the stage.

After her show, she put her clothes back on, collected her money and came back over to our table. While we joked about what just happened, the guys at the table next to us asked my sister if they could buy her a drink. She said, â??I donâ??t know, youâ??ll have to ask my husband.â? The guy had a puzzled look on his face and apologized saying he didnâ??t realize….

My brother in law, to his credit, said â??Donâ??t apologize to me â?? thatâ??s her brother over thereâ? motioning towards me. Now, Iâ??ve seen a lot of faces in the Pantheon of Great Faces before, but if I could have a picture of the look on that guys face when I gave him the â??whatâ??s upâ? nod, I would have the greatest avatar in the history of avatars. He went back to his table and tried to explain the situation to his buddies. They eventually bought us a pitcher of margaritas and joined us at our table for a while as we waited for the entertainment, which was sporadic at best for the rest of the night. We ended up surfing with them the next day where we told them about the rumors of the donkey bar in Tijuana. They set out for the Donkey Bar that evening and weâ??ve never heard from them since.

Originally posted by Brian Wallace:
That's totally f'ed up. I mean, once you realized your sister was stripping, you could have left, right?

Yes, but why? There was half a pitcher of margaritas to be drinkin'…

Originally posted by Brian Wallace:
Wasn't the place you were staying at right next door?

No. I would have had to take the car, and I was in no shape to do so. But walking out never entered my mind. I'm always looking for a good time, and since I'm the one that's known for making people feel uncomfortable, it was a liberating experience to have the shoe on the other foot.

My sister and I had been to many a strip club before and she loves to sit on the rail and flirt with the ladies, but this is the first time I had seen her get on stage.

I miss Markie on days like this…

Jobs at MacWorld

I'm super intrigued by the MacBook Air. I'm heading down to MacWorld tomorrow morning to see one (I can't deal with the Mac obsessors on day one).

As for the Apple TV Take II - they implemented a lot of the changes I recommended a year ago when it first came out (and mostly to compete with the Xbox 360). If the model for this can change and be similar to the Netflix/Blockbuster rental model (even at say $20 a month), I would be all over this and would stop worrying about the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray war. I would go all download.

Mail it to him.

Originally posted by vansmack:
I miss Markie on days like this…

Jobs at MacWorld

I'm super intrigued by the MacBook Air. I'm heading down to MacWorld tomorrow morning to see one (I can't deal with the Mac obsessors on day one).

As for the Apple TV Take II - they implemented a lot of the changes I recommended a year ago when it first came out (and mostly to compete with the Xbox 360). If the model for this can change and be similar to the Netflix/Blockbuster rental model (even at say $20 a month), I would be all over this and would stop worrying about the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray war. I would go all download.

Markie is a pussy.

Originally posted by vansmack:
I'm super intrigued by the MacBook Air. I'm heading down to MacWorld tomorrow morning to see one (I can't deal with the Mac obsessors on day one).

wow

Originally posted by god's shoeshine:

Originally posted by vansmack:
I'm super intrigued by the MacBook Air. I'm heading down to MacWorld tomorrow morning to see one (I can't deal with the Mac obsessors on day one).

wow

Yeah - here's some more data:

The dimensions of the MacBook Air are unbelievable - 0.16-0.76 inch (0.4-1.94 cm) high by 12.8 inches (32.5 cm) by 8.94 inches (22.7 cm) and the whole package comes in at 3.0 pounds (1.36 kg). Despite the small size, the MacBook Air is equipped with a 13.3-inch widescreen TFT panel capable of 1280 by 800 native resolution, and a full-size keyboard (which is backlit) with 78 (U.S.) or 79 (ISO) keys

I love the fact that it doesn't come with an optical drive, but can instead access a networked optical drive (although I can't imagine the wireless data transmissions being acceptable for a DVD over a G network) and no ethernet port. Could you imagine installing software wirelessly over a networked optical drive? Reliabalility and speed would be difficult.

Of course only one USB port could be problematic as well, especially when making up for wireless only transmission and no optical drive.

Originally posted by vansmack:

As for the Apple TV Take II - they implemented a lot of the changes I recommended a year ago when it first came out (and mostly to compete with the Xbox 360).

Actually, they didn't implement the most important change I recommended. Apple TV's HD still has a maximum video resolution of only 720p. Ridiculous for such a device (and at such a cost). They basically took the original Apple TV and added a movie rental feature. Welcome to Microsoft's Xbox 2006 without being able to do 1080 resolution (or play games!).

Originally posted by god's shoeshine:

Originally posted by vansmack:
I'm super intrigued by the MacBook Air. I'm heading down to MacWorld tomorrow morning to see one (I can't deal with the Mac obsessors on day one).

wow

the popular mechanics are at it again

Originally posted by Venerable Bede:
the popular mechanics are at it again

Any article that asks this question Could Apple TV 2.0 End the High-Def Format War? and fails to mention that Apple 2.0 is 720p where Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are 1080p is a useless article.

I expect more from Popular Mechanics (I'm interested to see if they post my comments).

Originally posted by sweetcell:
another great vansamck story… but, as hard as this might be for you to believe, i think that i have a story from a latin american strip club that is equally if not more cringe-inducing. maybe i'll stumble home drunk one night and decide that it's a good idea to share.

I've stopped competing with this guy for the most cringe-inducing strip club story…

Pacman Acussed of Punching a Woman in a Strip Club

Are you sure? She is Vansmack's sister. :eek:

Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
Story would be better with pictures.

Originally posted by vansmack:

Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:

Originally posted by vansmack:
Sweetie, did you tell them about the time you and I went to a strip club in Mexico?? Now THAT was a good story.

We're waiting…..

Alright, I canâ??t believe I havenâ??t told you guys this story â?? Iâ??ve probably alluded to it but never told the full version.

So while Smackette and I were awaiting all of our worldly possessions to be transported from DC to SF (July 03), we took a week long vacation in Mexico with my family. On our way to dinner one night in Puerto Nuevo, we noticed a new strip club had opened up by the house we stay at. After dinner, my sister and her husband and Mmackette and I all decided that we MUST check this out. We were pretty sure it was going to be the most disgusting place weâ??d ever been, but the curiosity got the best of us.

Apparently we had gotten there a little before the crowd arrives as there was only one other group in the joint, and no ladies working the crowd. Mind you, it was about 10pm on a Friday night. We ordered a pitcher of margaritas and waited for the show to start, but no one was on stage. A little bit of a broo-ha-ha started between the manager and the female bartender and she reluctantly went up on stage and stripped. In my little ability to speak spanish, she was upset and apparently had taken the bartender job so she could stop stripping. That and she was pissed that whomever was supposed to be there was late. For the record, she probably should have stopped stripping years ago.

So we had been there for about 45 minutes and a second Latina gets on stage. While slightly better looking than the first (which isnâ??t saying much), she was as disinterested as the first stripper. The place was a little more crowded now (weâ??re the only Americans), but still not much going on as far as the entertainment. At this point, my sister decided to take matters into her own hands and walks up to the manager and asks the manager if she can go on stage. There was bit of a language barrier at first, but she walked over to the stage and motioned that she wanted to get up there. He asked her to wait a second. At some point while my sister was negotiating with the manager, a small group of young 20-something American guys walked in, most clearly after a long day of surfing. They sat down at the table next to ours. Finally, the manager came back out with the rest of the male staff from the back, and then motioned that now was the appropriate time for her to get on stage.

So my sister gets up on stage and proceeds to strip for the crowd. To say that this was the most awkward moment in my life would not be an understatement. Between her on stage and the realization that she was all too comfortable on the pole for this to be her first time were enlightening moments for me. At first I didnâ??t think she would go through with it â?? dancing and spinning around are one thing, but would she really take her clothes off? Well, the short answer is yes. As soon as she started undoing her bathing suit top, I stopped watching. As Smackette reports, she was up there with nothing on but her panties for at least a song and a half, strutting her stuff around the stage.

After her show, she put her clothes back on, collected her money and came back over to our table. While we joked about what just happened, the guys at the table next to us asked my sister if they could buy her a drink. She said, â??I donâ??t know, youâ??ll have to ask my husband.â? The guy had a puzzled look on his face and apologized saying he didnâ??t realize….

My brother in law, to his credit, said â??Donâ??t apologize to me â?? thatâ??s her brother over thereâ? motioning towards me. Now, Iâ??ve seen a lot of faces in the Pantheon of Great Faces before, but if I could have a picture of the look on that guys face when I gave him the â??whatâ??s upâ? nod, I would have the greatest avatar in the history of avatars. He went back to his table and tried to explain the situation to his buddies. They eventually bought us a pitcher of margaritas and joined us at our table for a while as we waited for the entertainment, which was sporadic at best for the rest of the night. We ended up surfing with them the next day where we told them about the rumors of the donkey bar in Tijuana. They set out for the Donkey Bar that evening and weâ??ve never heard from them since.

The music industry

From major to minor
Jan 10th 2008
From The Economist print edition

Last year was terrible for the recorded-music majors. The next few years are likely to be even worse

IN 2006 EMI, the world's fourth-biggest recorded-music company, invited some teenagers into its headquarters in London to talk to its top managers about their listening habits. At the end of the session the EMI bosses thanked them for their comments and told them to help themselves to a big pile of CDs sitting on a table. But none of the teens took any of the CDs, even though they were free. â??That was the moment we realised the game was completely up,â? says a person who was there.[+]

Really? It took you that long?

For those that aren't going to read it, it cites three trends that will continue the problems for the industry:

(1) Because sales of CDs are tumbling, big retailers are cutting the amount of shelf-space they give to music, which in turn accelerates the decline.

(2) Because the majors are cutting costs severely, artists are receiving far less marketing and promotional support than before, which could prompt them to seek alternatives.

(3) Record companies face such hostile conditions that their backers are loth to spend the sums required to move into the bits of the music industry that are thriving, such as touring and merchandising.

The industry could always try to make some money this way….

http://www.news.com/MTV%3A-%27Rock-Band%27-sells-2.5-million-songs/2100-1043_3-6226743.html?tag=fd_nbs_ent&tag=nl.e703

MTV: 'Rock Band' sells 2.5 million songs

I'm so buying my first songs this weekend. An Oasis pack is also scheduled for release on Jan 22.

i have a (nonprem) question: where is my travel channel hd?

And what's the word on Rock Band coming out for the Wii? Ever gonna happen? I'm working on deciding which new system I should pick up, and the Wii is the likely front-runner. Still, without Rock Band, I feel empty :(

Originally posted by vansmack:
The industry could always try to make some money this way….

http://www.news.com/MTV%3A-%27Rock-Band%27-sells-2.5-million-songs/2100-1043_3-6226743.html?tag=fd_nbs_ent&tag=nl.e703

MTV: 'Rock Band' sells 2.5 million songs

I'm so buying my first songs this weekend. An Oasis pack is also scheduled for release on Jan 22.

you finally get an xbox 360 and all you have played is Guitar Hero 3, Rock Band, and Call of Duty 3? something is missing there, and why COD3 and not COD4

Originally posted by pdx pollard:
you finally get an xbox 360 and all you have played is Guitar Hero 3, Rock Band, and Call of Duty 3? something is missing there, and why COD3 and not COD4

To be fair, I've played GHIII for about 6 hours. COD 3 for about 3 hours and Rock Band for approximately 1 Million hours! I simply can't quit it. The best party game out there.

As for Halo 3 - I only have one controller still (but 2 guitars and a drum kit!).

As for COD 3 and not COD 4, I like to go in order, and I won't play 4 until I beat 3. I have COD 4 on my shelf right now (with Halo 3, Bioshock, Gears of War and something else I'm forgetting) and it was tempting me all weekend - so much so that I went out and rented COD 3 yesterday. I've got about a 2 hours left before COD 4.

Originally posted by vansmack:
The industry could always try to make some money this way….

http://www.news.com/MTV%3A-%27Rock-Band%27-sells-2.5-million-songs/2100-1043_3-6226743.html?tag=fd_nbs_ent&tag=nl.e703

MTV: 'Rock Band' sells 2.5 million songs

The game's impact on song sales for participating artists, however, remains unclear. While not providing exact sales figures, MTV did say that the Metallica three-pack of "Ride the Lightning," "Blackened" and "And Justice for All" is the best-selling "Rock Band" download.

According to Nielsen SoundScan data, those same songs saw digital download sales spikes of 31 percent, 39 percent and 48 percent, respectively, for the month after they were featured as a "Rock Band" download, over the previous month.

But those increased sales numbered only in the hundreds, while the "Rock Band" downloads numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Still, label executives are thrilled with the results.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22757091/?GT1=10755