What's Up: My Weblog

Planned Obsolence

Our NEC designed cell phone has been great, and has given us two years of great service, but unfortunately the finish that the manufacturer uses won’t stand up even to casual use.

Happy New Year

  

Gundam Rules!

gundam-010
Originally uploaded by Tempusmaster.

Got Tagged!

Well, I spent about 90 minutes on Skype last night catching up with Matt Bauer, the creator of Rook's Pawn, the totally awesome ROBO-ONE robot. It was really great to chat, and although Matt and I have known each other on the internet for quite a while, this was the first time we've actually been able to hear each others voices.

In addition sharing lots of information and observations, it was also a timely reminder of how public we are when we post things on weblogs. A common interest in robotics is what originally brought us together, and has been the focus of most of our discussions ever since. But, because of the links on my websites, and his innate curiosity , Matt had run across several of my other sites, including this one. So we had the chance to explore other areas of common interest like anime, illustration, photography, and a few others. It was great.

And, I got 'tagged'. By that I mean that the whole conversation was a gentle reminder that I have focused almost exclusively on ROBOTS DREAMS recently while my other weblogs have gone fallow. What a shame. It certainly wasn't intentional, there just aren't enough hours in the day, nor days in the week.

Another "Don't try this at home" stunt (video)

I’m rapidly becoming addicted to watching video-clips online, and when I run across anything related to kickbiking or cycling it immediately catches my attention. A good example is the video popular clip below that was posted on Google Video without any explanation of the where it was taken or why.

When Pride Gets In The Way Of Life

Pride and self esteem is important – no question. But is it important enough that we would rather die than be insulted? Or important enough that we would let our children suffer and potentially die just to preserve our ‘pride?’ Of course, it depends on our own individual belief systems and cultural norms.

This was dramatically emphasized to me this evening when I read through the following article distributed by Reuters:

Tokyo International Quilt Festival - 2006

We were lucky enough to get to the Tokyo International Quilt Show on Saturday – the last day. The quilts were fantastic. It’s always delightful to see all the creativity, design, and hard work that goes into creating these works of art.

Click on the image to the left to see our photo album with all the photos we took at the quilt festival.

Vertigo

Shadow of St. Louis Arch
Originally uploaded by James C. C..

This great photo, uploaded to flickr.com by "James C. C.", is titled "Shadow of St. Louis Arch".

Consider, for a moment, how it would look with, and without the shadow.

In my case, I get a strong feeling of vertigo from it, but wouldn't have the same reaction at all if I was viewing exactly the same image minus the shadow.

Bob Sapp Takes On Morning Musume in Japan

Bob Sapp’s football career may be long since over, but he’s still somewhat of a cult hero in Japan. His image regularly appears touting all types of products, and he shows up pretty often on Japanese television shows (see video below). Bob’s a good sport about it all, and always keeps smiling.

Ronald McDonald Will Never Be The Same

McDonalds used to be the #1 fast food chain in Japan – a role model for all the other companies to look up to and emulate. Then sales fell off, and kept falling off. The McDonalds management started to try everything they could to turn things around, including some really interesting, almost bizarre, television commercials like the one below. . .

One Of Our Favorites Hits The Big Time

We listen to a lot of podcasts, frequently several podcasts a day, but there are very few that we feel we just couldn't live without. One of our favorite "Can't live without it" podcasts is ArtaGoGo, an absolutely delightful podcast subtitled "Art Over Easy". So, it was wonderful to discover today that ArtaGoGo featured is the first page of Yahoo's beta Podcast directory.

Secret Family Recipe Disclosed!

We grew up loving mustard. As children we slathered it shamelessly on bologna sandwiches, hamburgers, and even dropped big dollups of it into our thick bean soup. The bean soup, by itself, was a special treat - thick, rich, steaming and if we were particularly lucky, it had small bits of incredibly tasty ham. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water.

Bob Zapp Commercial (Video)

Bob Zapp, one of our favorite television talents, has appeared in numerous Japanese advertisements, on popular television shows, and quite a few commercials – called “CM” in Japan. We managed to locate the video below showing Bob dancing in a Pizza-La commercial.

Endless Imagination

Kids are great. They seem to have boundless energy and unlimited imagination. We spend a great deal of time trying to buy or create things that will capture their interest. Yet, left to themselves, they manage to create new ways of entertaining themselves.

They Aren't Just Toys, And They're Not Just For Kids!

For once I’m not going to talk about robots, I’m going to talk about Legos and to some extent about Lego Mindstorms, and about some adults having a great deal of fun with objects that most people think of as a child’s toy, because I think this definitely deserves to be shared.