Please join me in wishing Wayne Schulz, a very Happy Birthday!

As you may have noticed, Wayne is our resident newshound; he has an uncanny knack at sniffing out the craziest, most off-the-wall, most interesting items…in addition to finding scoops on some of the coolest tech gadgets. It’s to the point where Clinton and I have joked that we can’t wait to hit Gear Diary first thing each morning (we are in Central Standard Time) to see what Wayne’s posted…usually written at some ungodly early morning hour (he is Eastern Standard Time).

Wayne is a madman, easily one of the most prolific news posters I have ever seen, and his items are always interesting and quite often sharply funny. His emails help make behind-the-scenes team emails some of the funniest reading ever, although many are not suitable for public consumption.

Let me tell you a little bit about my friend Wayne…

A seemingly mild-mannered consultant specializing in Sage MAS90 and MAS200 accounting software, Wayne leads a double life as a practical jokester, prank-puller, and all around crazy man. He is sneaky, too. Who could possibly forget the video of a faux Mac unboxing he synchronized with the team for my birthday…certainly not me; I was in tears watching watching events unfold - and not just because it was incredibly sweet, either.

Jennifer, Wayne’s partner in crime during the creation of my birthday video, tried to pull a fast one on Wayne for his birthday. Perhaps the fact that she was attempting to videotape him cutting the cake let him know that something was up; who knows? Thankfully we have this one good shot of him cutting into his Styrofoam birthday cake…

Mmm…tasty.

Jennifer said that “the kids were all laughing until they thought they weren’t getting any cake. When massive chocolate cupcakes appeared with lots of frosting and sprinkles (compliments of my 6 year old daughter) everyone was laughing again…”

Wayne’s mom also got into today’s birthday fun; a few weeks ago he caught her by surprise when he posted a video of her in her jammies for his Dell Video Chat post…the one that ended up all over the web. His mom has retaliated by sending me a picture that perfectly catches the imp-child who would grow into the guy we all know and love…

Doesn’t he look like the kind of kid who would be holding onto a bottle of something silly? Maybe a bottle of Liquid Ass (yes, it’s a real product!), like the one I got him from his Amazon Wish List…

Don’t worry, I also got him some gifts he could feel comfortable using in mixed company…not that being in mixed company would stop him.

As his bio mentions, Wayne was the first Gear Diary team member to post a space alien video, and he also took the the first photos published on the entire web showing the Whofarmers lined up at the NYC Apple Store. Wayne is often the instigator for some of the more interesting GearChats we’ve enjoyed on Gear Diary, and it is always fun to watch his thought process in action.

Some of my favorite recent posts that Wayne has done were not even remotely tech-related; I’ve enjoyed Keeping up with the neighbors is tough when they put their garbage inside Louis Vuitton trash bags (for obvious reasons), Meet Lightning Man letter opener - Butt Station’s unfortunate little brother (because…yeah!), and Sweetslap.com offers the Top 20 Things Not To Say During Sex (where does he come up with this stuff?!).

On top of everything else, there is the fact that he has been a most gracious and knowledgeable mentor throughout my Online Dating Experiment.

You can see all of Wayne’s posts, including his more tech-related musings, here.

In case you can’t tell, we are all quite fond of Wayne around these parts. It’s fun to see how personalities blend to create a lovely medley; Wayne is the pepper in our stew. Gear Diary simply wouldn’t be the same without his flavor.

Please join me in wishing Wayne a very Happy Birthday and a FAB next year!