Lone Locust Productions

Month: October 2008

  • Where to go in the UK?

    So, the world’s in financial turmoil, and things are likely to get a lot worse before they get better. My employer (and technically speaking, my wife’s, too) is $1 billion over budget this year. People are worried about their jobs. Prices are up. Sales are down. Fuel Prices/Airfare are outrageous. The UK is one of the most expensive places to visit.

    But, dammit, I promised my daughter a cricket match and a trip to the British Museum of Natural History for her birthday, and I aim to keep that promise. At least it is still 8 months away.

    (Video after the jump…)

    (more…)

  • I have no excuse for this one…

    …except that I found this video both nostalgic and funny with the new lyrics.

    And this one is not as good, but…

  • Mekong Plaza

    Here’s a few pictures of the new Mekong Plaza in Mesa, AZ.

  • Taiwan Food Expressway to Hunger

    The new Meikong Plaza (an indoor Asian mall) opened today in the hinterland of the Mesa/Tempe border just a couple blocks from the terminal Phoenix Light Rail station.

    Inside the mall is Taiwan Food Express and new Taiwanese restaurant with an impressively large menu.

    It’s a pity the menu isn’t edible as there wasn’t much food in evidence on grand opening day.

    We wanted beef noodle soup, they were out.

    We tried to get chicken curry over rice, they were out.

    We tried to get xiao long bao (steamed dumplings), they were out.

    I gave up and just wanted a Dr. Pepper and they were out.

    My wife finally asked them what the did have and they indicated just a 2 inch section of the menu that they had. They finally got a pork chop (bland) and a bowl of noodles in broth.

    We also ordered three drinks and the got one of them wrong.

    Despite not having much food, they weren’t hurting for customers hoping to buy something.

    We’ll give them another try someday, maybe after the trains are running. In the meantime, don’t bother to look at the menu, just ask what they’ve got.

  • Indoor Sonic Boom?

    Sonic Drive-ins are an interesting bit of Americana. Emulating old episodes of Happy Days, these restaurants are designed fir you to drive up, park, order through a speaker next to your car and then your food us delivered right to the car where you proceed to eat it.

    Personally, apart from the novelty, I hate that arrangement. I don’t like eating in a car, which makes the experience a non-starter for me.

    On the other hand, the have an interesting drinks selection and a couple food items that I quite like. Net result: I probably eat at a Sonic once a year. Considering that I eat at McDonald’s 15-24 times a year and I like Sonic’s food a lot better, I consider them to be a failed concept in fast food deployment.

    Today we spied something new: a Sonic without the drive-in. It was actually an indoor restaurant with a drive-through.

    You order through red Soviet Hotline looking phones on the tables and the “carhop” brings the food to your table.

    Weird, but if they had these closer to my home, McDonald’s would be loosijg some business.

  • Is this logical?

    Why on earth would the city of Phoenix send out a work crew to start work replacing a perfectly good fire hydrant with another fire hydrant at 4:30 on a Friday afternoon?

    Like how they mostly block off my driveway?

    Update: 6:30, it’s getting dark and they’re still sitting around in the hole. At least the heavy machinery has stopped.

    Update: 9:30
    I can’t take it anymore. The curiosity is killing me. What’s wrong with my existing fire hydrant? What could go wrong? Why plop in with a backhoe and tear up my neighbor’s lawn just to replace it?

    I finally ask one of the workers. I’m told that Phoenix has 21 different types of fire hydrants. The city has decided they only want 4 types of hydrant. As the worker said, “My boss tells me to replace ’em, so I do. ”

    This raises lots of questions, chief of which is, “Is this really necessary in this time of extreme budget crunch?”. “Was the fire department having some sort of problems with the hydrants, if so, was it house safe? If not, why is my tax money being wasted?”

    Something is wrong here.