So I read somewhere over the weekend that the number one present a lot of people are hoping to unwrap under the Christmas tree is....drum roll please...an outdoor Bluetooth speaker!
Wait, what?
Now there may be every chance that I stumbled across an article lovingly sponsored by the outdoor Bluetooth speaker community of the world (and the writer will possibly unwrap their own outdoor Bluetooth speaker on December 25th this year by way of thanks) and that's what they want you to buy as a present for those who you have no idea what to get.
And if you truly want an outdoor Bluetooth speaker for yourself or your favorite Grandma, then go for it. (I mean the JBL Flip 5 does look good and it's waterproof [Amazon Affiliate link]).
However it's not for me. For a couple of reasons really:
-I'm already trying to escape what's coming out of our Google Home Mini. Since buying it for my wife last year, it's spent most of it's life playing her Spotify playlist (which seems to be mostly the World's Greatest Showman soundtrack and a fair bit of Pink!) or random songs my kids pick including annoying songs about cats and the theme tune to the Among Us video game. Look I respect Hugh Jackman a lot but I don't need to listen to him sing so much in one year, nor do I want to hear 'I'm a cat MEOW check me out, I'm a cat MEOW..' on repeat through the weekend.
Also anytime I suggest to Google to play '90's Hip Hop' or 'Random Acid Jazz' it's not long at all before one of my beloved children wander past and yell at it to play something else, like that damn cat song again.
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| If he starts singing about cats, I'm screwed. |
-I don't think my neighbors would like my choice of soundtrack blaring though an outdoor Bluetooth speaker either. Funnily enough even though I work in rock radio, I'm not a big fan of Bryan Adam's Summer of 69, crazy I know. I don't find I need to listen to Khe Sanh by Cold Chisel every time I start a BBQ. When working on the car Drive by Shannon Noll doesn't get a spin. My mother in law is mad about ACDC, I am not (I enjoy their work but I'm not crazy on them.
Sure I love my music when working out, especially something with lots of energy (my dude have you heard Wonderball 101? That'll get you moving!) but I don't know if my neighbors would enjoy both Busta Rhymes and Tech Nine rapping about getting into Beast Mode, Kanye West boasting about Power or Australia's own Seth Sentry explaining how he's stepping through Brambles on repeat.
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| Sorry Busta. |
(For music and podcast motivation, I much prefer a set of wireless Bluetooth headphones so that my music stays just in my ears, especially when repeating a song adnauseam. Earlier this year I was loving my Sony WI-C200 set right up until the point where I lost them...somewhere. Now I'm using Sennheiser 350BTs which took a little to get the hang of but work rather well and sound pretty good.)
So yeah, no outdoor speakers for me please for the sake of my lovely neighborhood. However if Santa just happens to be reading this blog post right now and is looking for ideas for yours truly...
ALMIGO'S WISH LIST
1. THE CAR TO SELL. Sigh, it's still here, my car, unregistered and parked under a tree gathering cobwebs and leaves at an alarming rate. The one interested buyer I had recently seems to have disappeared into the ether, the one before that was trying to get me to sell it down to practically nothing because of 'all the things I'll need to do to it.' (Last time I checked you didn't need to swap out an automatic for a manual gearbox, that was a choice.) So Santa please find me a buyer who isn't a dreamer so I can sell it, fix my wife's car and maybe buy something a little less exotic and idiot attracting. Like..
2. A CHEAP BUT STILL IN GREAT CONDITION TOYOTA AURION SPORTIVO OR LEXUS IS250 LOCALLY. That was the original plan when trying to sell the wagon this time back in 2020 but unfortunately I kept getting some dodgy offers ('Can I borrow it for three days to get a roadworthy?' No, no you can not.) I even had a short list of cars to check out provided I sold it in time (which obviously never happened). However car prices are high and strangely every Aurion that fits the bill for what I'd like to upgrade to comfort level and mileage way is located more than 550kms away. Plus current second hand car prices? Yeah they're currently higher than a stoner on pay day. It's still on the list but not before other things happen, like wish list point 1 above. Or I will the lottery somehow..
3. A RESIN 3D PRINTER. The family has had so much rediculous fun with the PLA printer I bought with tax money early this year, a resin printer for even more detailed prints would be an absolute hoot. Where we'd put it I have no idea because with all the crafts that go on in the place the house is seriously running out of space but we'll cross that bridge if we ever get to it.
4. GPU PRICES TO GET BACK TO NORMAL. I'm building some basic computers for my kids for school next year (and the occasional game) but with the prices of graphics cards still astronomically high, it looks like it's onboard graphics for now. Boy am I glad I grabbed my Rx570 when I did before it too hiked to ouch price territory.
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| I could probably buy a car with this! |
5. THE CREDIT CARD BALANCE TO GO BACK TO ZERO. Admittedly this has been on the Wishlist for a while now. Thankfully having agreed to rent out current location for another year, we don't have to spend a lot of coin on moving currently. That should help!
6. WRITE A BEST SELLER! I'm working on my next book (okay, I'm always working on my next book it seems) but what I'd love is one that just takes the self publishing world by storm, gets a movie deal, gets turned into a Netflix blockbuster series and brings me untold millions. That's easy to create yeah?
7. MY ASTHMA TO TAKE A HOLIDAY. Ooh and my sinusitis too. If they could both f off for the rest of my life, it would make things a damn sight easier.
8. THE ENTIRE GAME COLOR PAINT SET. Cheaper than Citadel paints, many many colors available. I mean I'm slowly building up my collection each week but every single option, paint, wash, ink and gloss in one big hit would be awesome.
9. THE CAT TO STOP IT'S DANCE OF ATTENTION AT ROUGHLY 4:30AM DAILY. I get it, the cat is hungry and feels the only way to tell me this is to meow loudly and scratch on any wooden surface within claw reach until I charge at her with the water bottle, spraying her to dissuade her from using such techniques or I finally give up and feed her before going back to bed, completely worn out from trying to dissuade her so many times. But I too need my sleep you silly cat, so...
10. THE FOLLOWING TO JUST END. Yes as in stop, as in completely. Covid-19, 419 Scammers, non affordable housing due to covid, low interest rates on bank savings accounts, homelessness, email spam, people who download free books but never leave a review, car thieves, racism, price gouging, Bitcoin crashes, untrained baristas, Ryzen cpu shortages, eBay bots, Gumtree idiots, car low ballers, scammers of any description, people who crack the shits when certain presidents are mentioned, tv shows where you have to buy a different service to get the full or latest season, phone companies stepping away from their website so you'll use their app instead (Vodaphone, I'm looking at you here), homophobia, hate crime, your favourite chocolate bar being discontinued, low quality Youtube rubbish, motivators who do nothing more than slap encouraging words on beach scenes, influencers (do they still happen in 2021?), car rust, montenization with very low Ad RPM (5 cents for 1000 views? How can I get some of that action??), cheap superglue that gets stuck to its own lid after one use, being stuck on irrelevant mailing lists, toilet paper hoarders, violent drunks, red wine that kicks off asthma attacks and unexpected bills.
Sheesh, I'm not asking for much here am I?
(Also in case I forget to mention it later, Merry xmas and I hope you enjoy your outdoor Bluetooth speaker this year!)
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