Haha, he's a beast, no question.

My older kid is 7 and tonight she told me .

She swears no one told her this stuff/she just decided it on her own. She said she doesn't care, she just wants people to stop pretending/lying to her. I kinda like where her head is at (and it tilts me how far from the railing of her bed she puts her teeth for the tooth fairy cuz she wants proof, etc).

Come clean and ask her to not tell her 4 yo brother or the kids at her school, or keep up the charade?

7-8 is right around the typical age when they start figuring it out, iirc my older started exp doubts around 6 and 8 was like the last year we kept up the appearances

doesn't really matter much what you do imo, maybe keep it going for another year? she'll tell her brother 100% anyway but without direct confirmation from you he won't be persuaded or even remember anyway

Tell her that since she is a big kid and has it all figured out she has to take on the responsibility of making sure her little brother gets to experience the same childhood magic that she did. You could also tell her that since you are in control of her gifts that her cooperation in this will be necessary if she is to receive all that you have planned for her.

I actually was pretty pumped when the game was over. My wife dragged it out until like 11 and 13. It was pretty annoying when the kids where like, "dad it doesn't matter what you got me since all the good stuff came from Santa." Tempted to say, "well Santa ran like dog**** this year so I guess you get socks."

Haha. Yeah I'm gonna tell her it's all a joke. I love how cynical she is!

A Christmas Story for the thread.

When I was in second grade I started questioning the reality of Santa. Our teacher had us write a letter to him saying what we wanted for Christmas.

Now, you need to understand, as a kid I was an annoying know-it-all little **** (not much has changed)

I wrote that I wanted a bell from his sleigh. I wanted proof. I did not tell my mom. (Bwahaha I was so clever! Who could thwart this plan!?)

Well Christmas morning comes around and there's the typical "Santa" presents that are additions from the night before. One of them is a small box perfectly wrapped. I open it up, and to my shock and awe there is an old patinaed bell. It is attached to a ripped old piece of leather. I hold it up in amazement.

My mom, playing on at least level 3, says "what is that, Ava put that down its rusty!" She's tries to take it away from me. I scream "NO!" She holds it in. A poker face only a mother could have. I look at her as if she is a fool. She isn't yet privy to how important this object is. I decide to let her in on the secret between Santa and I.

"Don't you know what this is!? This is a bell...from Santa's sleigh!"

I've still got the bell.

Nice.

The plans can get pretty elaborate. We have a tradition of giving new PJs on Christmas eve. So, every year we have the neighbors ring a bell from next door exactly when we are in the middle of dinner. We all charge outside to see the sleigh. Sometimes they would say they saw it. We then walk around the yard to the front porch and see the dropped off gifts. They were always so happy going to bed in their new cozy PJs.

Can't believe its been over 5 years since Black Friday. Any old regs back from those days still around here? I miss those glory days and chatting with everyone here on a daily basis

<--- confirmed old, confirmed reg

Black Friday killed the games because fish aren't gonna get a VPN and continue to play illegally, right?

Is there any downside to getting a VPN and doing stuff that is "illegal" in the U.S. if you have no problem with it morally?

Looking for some quick VPN education. Thanks.

Can you clarify the question. Are you talking about US residents playing ROW sites with VPN or the other way around, or something different?'

Also, the term illegal seems confusing as compared to saying "against the site TOS."

Well I thought it became illegal to play in the U.S., aside from any site TOS. And U.S. fish stopped playing, despite VPN being a pretty simple and safe/secure way around the new laws.

Anyways, while I kinda would like some clarification on that, I more want a basic education on VPN- how it works, how it's obtained, is it in fact very untraceable? Asking for a friend.

The downside of using a VPN on a site where using a VPN is prohibited by TOS is getting your roll confiscated by the site. They may give you the courtesy by just telling you to politely **** off and withdraw but that's a risk.

The VPN issue and the legality are mostly separate issues. I do not think it is illegal to play online poker in the US. There are some states where it is though and the US facing sites basically ban players from those states.

Here is a bunch of info.

https://www.legaluspokersites.com/

The use of a VPN is pretty simple. I am no computer expert but it basically makes the poker software think that you are playing from a designated location. If you open a site like this:

http://whatismyipaddress.com/

It will show exactly where you are. Once you use a VPN, it will show your IP as located in whatever location you designate. You are basically running all your data through a middle man computer. There are many online to choose from and most are relatively inexpensive.

The main issue is that some sites like Stars have a zero tolerance policy and are also pretty good at detecting when you are playing on a VPN. So it gets to be a pretty serious task to set up an account on someone else's name and out of the country address, use a VPN to log in and play, have them cash you out and not rip you off, and avoid getting your bankroll stolen.

The main US site (Ignition, formerly bovada/bodog) has also been cracking down on the use of VPN. It sounds crazy that someone would VPN back to the US but it happens. I have a nephew that played online and loved it but went to a country that was not allowed part time. He tried to VPN back in to the US and was able to play for a bit but eventually they shut him down. I don't really think it is much of an ethical issue. Like some euro dude comes to Vegas and wants to play online some of the time. If he has a legit account in a country where Stars deals hands I don't really see why it matters.

As far as game quality after black friday, it is pretty complex. The biggest problem I think is the overall contraction of the poker economy. The ease pre black friday with which money could be put on and offline made it incredibly available to the average american who just wanted to sit in their home and play. Even if most of the recs had almost no shot of actually withdrawing, the illusion of it kept them going. The sketchiness of the whole deposit and withdrawal process sort of filtered out the masses and polarized the depositors to people who loved poker so much they had to play everyday/pros who needed to make a living, and true degens who were willing to do whatever they could to get their gambol on. It was not super fun to have to go to Ralph's and send a wire to the Philippines and then miraculously have it show up in your account. I mean, ugh, so I hear.

And throughout all this the games get tougher and the training sites keep pumping content, etc etc.

The withdrawals were so difficult too. The checks would come from overseas and bounce pretty often and the effort that it took to weather this storm was fairly herculean. And then the clouds cleared and the sun came out and straight from heaven came the magical Bitcoin. And that has helped a ton with money movement but done very little to make depositing more appealing to the recs. "So wait, what I have to buy a Bitcoin, wtf is that, and then deposit that, and they will steal my ****. **** that." But the Bitcoin is a thing of beauty and the whole idea that I can send you money to your cell phone from mine in one click with no fees and no middle man to take juice is just awesome. The world is a digital place and this will be one of the biggest changes we see in the next 20 years IMO.

The only thing that remains a mystery to me is why a bitcoin poker site has not started to really take off. it looked like Betcoin would get some legs and we got some decent action going for a bit but it has really started to fizzle out and I don't know why.

Awesome. Thanks for that.

How about HYPOTHETICALLY using VPN for kodi? Just wondering cuz i heard people talking about it and I thought it was interesting.

Yeah I had to google all that nonsense but there are certainly a lot of applications for maintaining privacy at least to an extent.

is kodi not cool to use without vpn???

Wow Bitcoin price. Some of my crew have a large amount. What a sweat. Nothing like swinging 20% in 1-2 days.

<---- This kid just got a full ride scholarship for the summer to San Francisco Ballet Company. It is about time we collect some dividends.

I am fairly certain nobody cares but having a kid soar (literally and figuratively) is pretty much the best thing there is in life.

That's great - one of my best friends daughter got her degree in dance and is now trying to make a go of it back east. Not an easy way to riches but she is enjoying doing something she loves. Coincidentally he's a doc too.

Any MHFRers interested in playing a werewolf game over at POG? I'd be happy to moderate it and walk you guys through - it's a very fun strategy/deception forum based game

Wow I am so tilted. What is worse than a government employee/business?

Trying to get my daughter a California drivers license. First day she goes to take the test she doesn't even make it out of the parking lot. It was drizzling a tiny bit and she cleared the windshield with her wipers one time. It was 2 PM but apparently you need to have your head lights on when you put on your wipers. Instant fail. WTF.

Test 2 set up for yesterday. My wife books the appointment online and the website is a little glitchy where she isn't 100 percent sure it booked. So she goes back in and tries to do it again but the website says you can only book one appointment at a time. Natural assumption is that we are good. They go to the DMV and wait in line 40 minutes to be told they have no appointment on record and can't fit her in/don't even want to listen to the story about it being an issue on their end. **** me.

I am not intending to make this a political argument but if anyone thinks the government running anything important, ie healthcare, is a good idea, you really need to think again.

That sounds like the DMV in D.C. Interestingly, the DMV here in Tucson is night and day - they have a very good website, quick in and out for inspections, pretty prompt and courteous service in the DMV office when renewing license, etc.

Many AZ government functions (particularly legislative branch) pretty much suck as far as I can tell, but DMV works well.

When it comes to government running health care it would be a disaster if they had total control, but I don't see how we ever get even close to full access without some variation on single payer. Maybe some hybrid model like Germany?

seems like an odd rant, don't you want your government to run things 100% by the book no matter how convoluted the rules are, glitching websites aside?