Merry Christmas to all listener run message boarders! And to those who may not celebrate, Happy Friday!

Congrats Zester! You've made the front page of freebeerandhotwings.com!





And thank-you to Steve for giving the forum here some love too!

There's one thing I don't like about Best Of shows. Fans keep requesting the same segments, and I always wind up hearing the same ones over and over.

Fans, dig deeper, ask for some new (aka different) segments!

http://neithercorp.us/npress/?p=209

"There are a number of half truths and financial fantasies floating around the U.S. today, which may explain why some have decided to throw caution to the wind, adopting a cult-like blind faith in the “unsinkable” American economy. I suspect that the consequences for this error in judgment will become quite clear to most by the end of next year, but until then, let’s examine our current situation, what the government has to say about it, and the reality they wish to gloss over."


A good article, depressing, but then, sometimes the facts hurt... I for one research further into things, so I will be checking the facts mentioned in this article, but it does mention a lot of descrepancies that I believe there are in MSM and government bred "facts" versus actual reality.
Granted all anyone can really do is keep pushing forward with the lot we are given, but I suppose I just wanted to bring the questions to light so that the folks on this board (whom I have grown to like) can maybe think ahead, bolster their awareness so that they(you) are not caught surprised when the dollar falls.

Inspired by the Holiday Break-Ins, the last 2 Christmases, my wife and I have decided that our gift to eachother will be a donation to our local food pantry. We spoke to them before the first Christmas that we donated and asked them what items they don't get enough donations of. They told us that personal care items such as soap, shampoo, toilet paper, tooth brushes, toothpaste, etc. were the ones they don't get often enough. We were told that the personal care items could not be purchased with food stamps but many people don't know that. Since then we have donated toilet paper at Christmas along with baby wipes and diapers, but my challenge involves what we do the rest of the year.



Every week when we go grocery shopping, we put a $1 or $2 item in our cart along with our normal groceries. We barely notice these items being added to our normal bill so it's pretty painless. Each week we put a tube of AIM toothpaste, a stick of generic deodorant, a generic toothbrush, feminine products, shampoo, soap or anything else that is easy to not notice on our bill, into our cart. We then collect them for 6 months and then donate them to our local food pantry.



The challenge to you all, if you can afford it (I know that some cannot right now) is to throw that low priced item in with your normal groceries and donate them to your local food pantry or charity of your choice. My wife and I have never gotten as much joy from receiving presents from eachother as we have when we donate to our pantry and we can see that the people running it are so grateful to get the items they so desperately need.



To those who accept the challenge, good for you!!!

To those who can't afford to take the challenge, I completely understand and I hope the New Year brings you some relief.

To those who choose not to, I understand but encourage you to consider it in the future.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!!!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy74VPU0hds[/youtube]

For those of you who do not know what this is or how to play, I will explain.

You will choose 10 different celebrities who as of 12/31/2009 @ 11:59 PM are still living. (Yes you can edit your selections if you choose now and someone dies before the end of the year). Any edits after 11:59 PM on 12/31/09 will disqualify you from the game.

For these picks, if one of the people actually pass on in 2010 you will get points. The poster with the most points at 11:59 PM 12/31/2010 will win the pool.

Scoring is as follows: (I chose to do it this way to circumvent the cherry picking of old celebrities)
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You will get points based on the month the celebrity passes. There are 12 months in a year, so there are 12 possible points. The way it is scored is to take the month that the celebrity passes and subtract it from 13. IE... If Jane Doe is one of your picks and she expires in May of 2010, you will get 8 points (13 minus 5)

You also will get points based on the celebrities age. The most points I will award is 100. So again, in our example, Jane Doe, if she is 67 years old when she passes, you will get 33 points. (100 minus 67).

The two scores combined will equal your awarded score for each correct pick. So Jane Doe would have earned you 41 points.

If you choose someone that is over 100 years of age, IE... John Doe is 103 years old and passes in September of 2010, you will still get the 4 points for passing in September, but you will actually lose 3 because of the 100 minus age rule. Thus you will score 1. It is possible to gain a negative score.
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I will try and update a list of players and their scores as the year goes on and then determine the winner at the end of the year.

The second post will contain everyones picks (edited in as they are posted) and the third post will be my picks.

Actress Brittany Murphy is dead. She was 32.

How long are the guys off for and will there be an best of podcast updates during the time away?

Anyone else having trouble with today's (12/18) segmented podcast? Only segments 1-4 were available to me.