General

Was this really necessary?

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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 … Read more

How green is my house?

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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 … Read more

…before I was a parent.

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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 … Read more

You can learn a lot from Bugs Bunny

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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 … Read more

They put those railings up for a reason, you know.

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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 … Read more

Model Airplanes

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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 … Read more

Torchwood – Lite Edition

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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 … Read more

The Return of the Saint

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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 … Read more

Lonely Planet Taiwan

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Get this widget | Track details | eSnips Social DNA Sounds like a new version of Lonely Planet Taiwan is out. This is a book I used to find indispensable when traveling to Taiwan. Lately I’m familiar enough with Taipei and confident enough in just exploring that I don’t use it much any more. Nonetheless, … Read more