Category: General

I love Singapore. I don’t care what anyone says about their “nanny state’ mentality, it keeps their public restrooms clean. (And I think the trains run on time, too, but let’s not jump to any conclusions.)

Travel Channel: News: Article:

August 31, 2005

 
Singapore to Host First Toilet College
AFP

Aug. 30, 2005— The world’s first toilet college is to open in Singapore to teach cleaners how to improve their lavatory washing skills, according to local broadcaster Channel NewsAsia.

The first batch of 30 students from a local cleaning company will start their training at the Toilet College in October, it said on its Web site.

The college is being set up by the Singapore-based World Toilet Organization.

‘We are going to train the toilet cleaners to upgrade himself or herself to a level where he or she can take care of the entire toilet, including changing bulbs, repairing leaky taps … technical cleaning, taking away urine salt inside the toilet,’ said Jack Sim, president of the World Toilet Organization.

The college plans to offer courses on toilet design and architecture next year.

The World Toilet Organization is a… (Read Full Article)“

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Originally uploaded by Gridman.

James got his first tooth today!

In honor, we went to the New Tokyo Market and picked up some rice crackers designed for teething and toothless infants.

They aren’t nearly as amusing as the “Infant Babbling Biscuits” we got in Taiwan (pictured) but, James seems to like them.

Last night we ate at a restaurant near my office.

I had to go into work for a while and do some late system maintenance and my wife wanted to do some shopping in the area. As Michelle successfully went to the bathroom before we left the restaurant, I decided she could go with me to the office rather than have Irene try to wrangle both kids on her own.

We weren’t at my office 5 minutes before Michelle announced she had to go potty. I had no choice, I had to take her to the men’s room at my office. There was no chance of running into anyone else as the building was shut down and I’m the only one stupid enough to work on a Saturday night.

This is the first time she’s ever been to the men’s room and, on the way out, she spied the urinals. She stopped dead in her tracks, just looking at them. “Daddy,” she says, “what are those?” pointing at them.

It was surprisingly difficult to explain, and worse, she wanted to try them. I’m so glad she didn’t see them on the way in.

In my previous entry I mentioned podcasting.

Even before podcasting hit iTunes, I was looking around such places as Podcast Alley to hear what was out there. iTunes really brought a flood in, and lots of people subscribed (and may later unsubscribed) to them after they heard what they were.

Of the many I tried, Space Music is one of the very few that I continue to subscribe to. Produced in the Netherlands, this show is a weekly helping of ambient and electronic music.

The host, TC, sounding a bit like a dutch Sean Connery, is a composer himself and is entertaining to listen to, whether he’s talking about the music, interviewing a guest or baking a cake.

What’s podcasting you say? (Skip it if you already know – or, perhaps you shouldn’t)

Podcasts are amateur radio shows (usually talk radio) compressed into MP3 (or perhaps AAC) and spread over the internet, usually by way of a blog like this. (You probably know all this, but this is in preface to my next entry and I felt it would be remiss if I didn’t address the issue up front.)

They say iTunes turned podcasting into a mainstream phenomena when they incorporated it into the iTunes program. Perhaps they did, but, and I hate to be blunt, most of it is still garbage. With the exception of the real networks pushing content out onto the net, it has exactly the same composition of talent as public access TV does. Lots of amateurs without a coherent thought babbling on about nothing.

That’s not to say all of them are awful. Some of them are excellent examples of getting the ability to reach a worldwide audience into the hands of “the little guy” as it were. From time to time, I’m going to point out a few that I really like.

The Prisoner
The Original Scripts
Volume 1

Originally uploaded by Gridman.

We braved the high cost of gas today and went across town to Arizona Mills, where they have a Virgin Megastore.

I managed to find this copy of scripts from “The Prisoner.”

So far it has been an interesting read. The Prisoner has always been a program in which a lot of the subtext is conveyed through visual means rather than dialog. Often that means that the director stamps that on the production. So far, from what I’ve read, a suprising amount of the visual style was planned by the writers.

Fascinating.

The Prisoner
The Original Scripts Volume 1
Edited and Annotated by Robert Fairclough
ISBN 1 903111 76 5
Printed in Great Britain

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Originally uploaded by Gridman.

What more can I say about this product?

Do they not have professional marketing people people at Boudreaux’s? Do they not know that the word “butt” has, through years of watching Benny Hill, become a word that causes people to spontaneously titter? (As does the word “titter.”)

Do they not know that “paste” is a word usually reserved for products used at the opposite end of the body and usually applied with a stiff brush?

What were they thinking?

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Originally uploaded by Gridman.

We always have a great steak, if a little overpriced at the Omaha Steakhouse in the hotel next to the Biltmore Fashion Square.

There’s never anyone there, though! Friday night, 7:00PM, we waltz right in, no reservations, no waiting and practically have the whole restaurant to ourselves. How do they stay in business?

I was a bit disappointed that the “Glover Family” engraved steak knife was not on display in the case.

Somebody came up with this idea and probably thought it was a bright one… but it’ll all come to fisticuffs in the coffee shop before it is all over.

Aug. 19, 2005— If you’re one of those people who thinks all lesbians are sexually frustrated or all animal rights activists aggressive, then a Swedish library project that allows you to ‘borrow’ a real live human being rather than a book may provide some useful insight.”

From Travel Channel News – Full Story

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Originally uploaded by Gridman.

James had his first squash today.

As you can see, he really enjoyed it.