Author: Eugene Glover

Seasons greetings, etc etc etc.

Just got word from my brother-in-law, that’s always good for a chuckle.

His girlfriend is taking courses at Leeds this year, and, after much arm-twisting, Johnny went to visit her over Christmas.

Mostly, he’s taking food. According to her, English food is bad (yeah, well, alright, it’s a fair cop) and there aren’t many “foreign” restaurants, and everything is too expensive for her, anyway. Including groceries. I get the impression she’s surviving on boiled water, which, if she can survive on that she might as well eat English food.

All of that is neither here nor there, but they went to London to do some sightseeing and shopping, and they went to Harrod’s. Outside, they saw something they’d never seen before: snow.

They were, of course, overjoyed and elated. Until they found out it was fake snow being dispersed by Harrod’s.

Anyone in the Leeds area got any ideas for sightseeing?

Technorati Tags: Christmas, Family

19 days of it!

Michelle has been singing that song all day long, and she just keeps going and going and going. Worse: she’s actually consistent with the days 13-19.

I was impressed she knew all the regular verses… well, except that somehow she got “a partridge in a pear tree” confused with “a palm tree in a pear tree.”

Technorati Tags: Christmas

The city of Phoenix supplies us with the wheelie bins for our garbage collection.

It came to my attention that our next-door neighbor, who, once in a while, generously puts our garbage can out on the street when they put their out, accidentally swapped our garbage cans once. I know that because theirs had a cracked lid and ours didn’t. When I swapped them back, the accidentally got swapped again! What are the odds would happen twice?!

In any case, the constant beating of our new garbage can by the garbage trucks ultimately had their toll on the can and the lid broke, allowing all the lovely garbage odors to escape. We contacted the city and they agreed to replace it, and here it is: our brand, spanking new wheelie bin.

It is a marvel of modern technology. It must be, because it came with instructions. (Click on the photo to enlarge.)

Seriously, are people so stupid they can’t work a wheeled container?

Speaking of wheelie bins, in case anyone in Australia feels like sending me a Christmas present, this would be very nice:

A cricket stumps sticker! What a cool idea! Bet that makes a lot of noise when you bowl a yorker.

(It won’t work on my fancy new wheelie bin, but it would work on my recycling bin.)

The “Out-For-A-Duck” beanie isn’t bad, either.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Christmas, Cricket, Garbage, Phoenix

A while back we installed radiant heat barrier in our attic. After the first test month, it was positive that it was making a significant impact on our electricity usage, but, with differences in the average daily temperature (it was hotter and summer was longer this year than last) it’s tough to make a definitive assessment.

The company that sold us the barrier guaranteed a 30% reduction in energy used for heating/cooling. Like all such guarantees, that’s a really tough on to prove, and it’s based on a rather imprecise measure. “Energy used for heating/cooling” is based on a federal government estimate of the total percentage of household energy usage. In other words, the 30% is really 30% of something like 70% of my electricity bill. (I don’t have the exact number at my fingertips.)

Even though we had to install a second air conditioner because the heating/cooling characteristics of the rooms changed, we’ve still be showing noticeably significant drops in electricity use, month after month, and now the real savings begin.

Here in Phoenix, we generally have mild winters and brutal summers. This, at least for my house, leads to significant swings in my summer/winter energy use. Arizona Public Service (APS) offers an equalizer plan: The energy usage for the previous 12 months is totaled and averaged and your bill for the next 12 months is set at fixed payment. At the end of the next year they “settle up” and outstanding credit or debit, and the payment is adjusted for the next year.

Our barrier was installed at the first of June. Our Equalizer plan year ends mid-November. The numbers are in. The barrier has been in for 5.5 months, including the worst months of the year, and our bill is being adjusted downwards from $363.00 to $277.00 per month, or a real reduction of 24% of the total energy bill. This doesn’t take into account the rises in cost per kilowatt hour, either. That’s a savings of $1032 in the coming year.

It’s unclear how the winter months will play out. Winter has been late coming and it’s only begun to be cold outside in the last two weeks or so. (Right now it’s a mind-numbingly cold 45º outside at 5:30AM.)

Using last month as an example, though, the average daily temperature was 65º. Last year, same period, it was 63º. This year kilowatt hour usage is down 13% over last, but how much of that is just the 2º temperature difference?

Only time will tell, but right now, I’m pretty happy with the radiant heat barrier.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Energy, Electricity, Technology

I think this will be a new “regular feature” of my blog.

Every once in a while in the course of one’s life, you hear a phrase and you think, “There’s a phrase that’s never been uttered in the English language before.”

While once incredibly rare, these moments seem to be happening with alarming regularity now that I have kids, for example, this evening Michelle came in and stated, “James is not sharing your hamster.”

Technorati Tags: Blog, Family, Kids

Personally, I’ve never been persuaded by the so-called experts’ warnings about cartoons like Bugs Bunny. I’m just not convinced that you can run an adequately controlled scientific evaluation of the impact of this type material on children.

That’s why I try to only let my children watch cartoons created before 1970.

Today, I saw that strategy come to fruition.

Michelle (5) stated that she loves Batman. James (2) said, “No you don’t. You like Curious George.”

(By way of explanation, my father recently bought James a Batman coloring book and Michelle a Curious George coloring book.)

For the next 2 minutes, the conversation went like this:

“Yes, I do.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Yes, I do.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Yes, I do.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Yes, I do.”

…and then James drew on the wisdom of Bugs and said, “Yes, you do.”

With baited breath, Irene and I sat in the front of the car waiting… there was no actual pause, but time seemed to stand still for just that moment, and then Michelle said, “No, I don’t.”

Victory through hare power.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Family, Kids

So, when I’ve been on Taipei 101, I look at that heavily-constructed, narrow-gapped, tall barrier fence around the outside observation deck as a safety measure to protect me from strong winds blowing me off the building, or perhaps the odd roc flying down and carrying me off.

Even with this barrier, I get a disturbing feeling that somehow I might accidentally slip between the 4 inch gaps and fall off.

Consequently, this guy is a nut!

Technorati Tags: Blog, Taiwan, YouTube

According to the BBC, Airfix, manufacturer of model airplane kits is back in business.

BBC News => Airfix – Britain’s next top model?

Airfix has been bought by model train giant Hornby, which plans to rebuild the brand.

But will today’s Playstation generation even notice?

Generations of school children grew up in the 50s and 60s gluing and painting Airfix model planes, from the iconic Spitfire and Lancaster to the Messerschmitt and Fokker – then hanging them from their bedroom ceilings to re-create the Battle of Britain.

Looks like one of their first kits will be a TARDIS. <SARCASM>That sounds like a challenging kit.</SARCASM>

I, for one, spent many an enjoyable hour (in the 70’s) building model kits, and am generally appalled by the current selections. But I wonder if one of the premises of this article is true. Was it really computer games that wiped out the model building market? I’m sure that’s part of it, but, surely the distance in time from the days of the “glories of war” has something to do with it also.

My knowledge of WWII planes was firmly imparted to me by my father, who was 10 when WWII started. He and his friends used to play trading card games with fighter plane stats on them. I have no illusions that people of my generation had the same background. My father was considerably older than the average when I was born. Many of the children in my grade had parents who were bead-wearing, anti-war protesting hippies.

By the 80’s, the generation of kids who would find WWII fighting machines meaningful had to be significantly diminished.

Still, half the time, I pretended my Spitfires, P-48s and Corsairs had been retrofitted for spaceflight and had been pressed into service on Moonbase Alpha.

On second thought, maybe computer games did turn kids into imaginationless drones.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Doctor Who, Dr Who, Hobbies

Since the so-called “adult” content of Torchwood added not one squat of value to the stories, I suspect I’ll find these new “kid friendly” version superior.

CBBC Newsround => Young fans to see Dr Who spin-off

Doctor Who spin-off show Torchwood is to be shown in a version that younger fans will be able to watch.

The first series was aimed at adult audiences, but in the second series a specially-edited repeat will be shown that’s suitable for families and kids.

The fact that RTD himself seems to be endorsing this clearly indicates that the adult stuff was just tacked on to the stories to make them “edgy.”

Technorati Tags: Blog, Commentary, Torchwood, UK, Video

Well, it’s not really “the Return of the Saint”, that name has been taken. It’s the new Saint series currently in production.

James Purefoy, whom I’ve never heard of, is the Saint.

The Saint and Leslie Charteris Blog => James Purefoy To Play Simon Templar in The Saint

James Purefoy, who played Mark Antony in “Rome” is set to play the new Simon Templar in the forthcoming TV series of The Saint.

Bill Macdonald tells www.saint.org (the official website of The Saint Club) that his team is prepping a two-hour pilot for a European shoot. The reason for shooting in Europe is the current strike situation in U.S. would otherwise hold up production. Shooting in Berlin and Australia begins in April.

All I can say is, please, please, please don’t screw this series up. So far, the little info coming out of the production is mixed.

Going back to the original premise of the Saint being a vigilante, good.
Bringing back Patricia Holm, bad. Didn’t work all that well in the earliest stories and no wonder Charteris dropped her. She was drag on the story.
New actor, someone who was considered a 007 candidate and British, good. (I was really worried he’d be from Texas in this new version.)

This is their chance to expunge that pile of crap movie with that egotistical fart from Real Genius from the collective memory of the world. Best of luck!

Technorati Tags: Blog, Television, The Saint