E-Papar….E-Books.

I have been watching the advances in E-Paper  technology closely. Amazon’s Kindle  is a new E-Book that has finally broke through most of the problems with E-Paper E-Books.  E-Paper is great because it applies power to change a page but then the page is displayed in a powerless environment. The display is not backlit. The more light that hits the screen, the better you can read it – just like a piece of paper. Very easy on the eyes.

 

This Article really lays out the new features that makes it attractive. At $400 it is a little steep and it is the first version of the thing but it is tempting. I think I will wait for version 2.0 though.

 

Lars and the Real Girl

 I watched Lars and the Real Girl    last night. It wasn’t until reading the credits that I found the true essence of the movie. It was a bunch of fictitious characters dealing with one of their group who they thought was more fictitious.

 I loved the cast. I thought everyone was great, especially the girl who played Bianca. She didn’t overact. There is always a tendency to overact a part like that. I call it the “Al Pacino syndrome”. I had the uneasy feeling that I had seen her somewhere before but couldn’t quite place it. Then when I logged onto my blog, I remembered (No not that), she was the girl in the “Left / Right brain test” on this blog.

I highly recommend this movie.

 

 

Great weekend with my daughters, Susan, and grandson Alex.

Two of my three daughters and two of my three grandkids visited Southern California recently. Susan and I drove to Anaheim to meet them and had a nice weekend. We were going to go on Thursday to spend the day at California Adventure but Susan had a bad case of IAMNEVERONTIME so we got there at 2:00 AM Friday.

We went to Disneyland on Friday and had a nice dinner at McCormick’s and Schimks on Friday night with my daughter, Teresa, Friday night. Saturday we watched my grandson, Andrew, play his flute and trumpet with his two bands. The second band (trumpet) won first prize among very many bands from all over.

Andrew left with his band buddies on a bus and we went to the La Brea Tar Pits. That is a real interesting place. We had a good dinner and hung out at the pool that night. The next day the 5 of us: Susan, Teresa, Stefanie, my new grandson Alex, and I drove to Long Beach and caught a boat to Catalina Island. A good time was had by all including an underwater ride to see fish do what they do.

Alex has really grown since I last saw him. He is so cute with a great smile. I was real nice getting a chance to spend time with him.

I will post pictures later.

Great “War on Terror” news web site.

http://www.longwarjournal.org/

Great news web site about everything to do with the war on terror. 

While the main stream media was calling Basra a defeat for Maliki, I was getting the straight scoop about how it is the beginning of the end for Al Sadr.

 

Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day

I saw this movie last night. Susan and I really liked it. It had a play quality and a Shakepear comedy feel, with all the intertwined characters and plots.

Frances McDormand, as always, was brillant.

Left Brain – Right Brain test

Is she going clockwise or counter clockwise? How you see it says something about how you think. Clockwise: You are right brained. Counter Clockwise: You are left brained.

Nothing is absolute. It is just how you tend to think. Some people see it both ways.

Right Brain Traits

When given a task or assignment, you want to know why it’s important because you like the big picture.
You don’t need to do lists?you like to wing it!
You prefer molding clay into pottery over Sudoku puzzles because it is more creative.
When shopping for a new car, you pick what looks best, rather than what drives best because you are into aesthetics.
When traveling, you like to impulsive adventure. Why plan it all out and ruin it?
Because you are visual, you prefer textbooks to lectures.
You can remember a person’s face but not necessarily his name.
Your office is not necessarily organized, but you find what you need, eventually.
When trying a new software program, you install it and immediately begin experimenting with it.
You aren’t always on time, but you mean well.

Left Brain Traits

When given a task or assignment, you don’t always need to know why it’s important.
You get a great deal of pleasure in creating “to do” lists and checking off each item as it is accomplished.
You prefer Sudoku puzzles over getting messy with clay.
When shopping for a new car, you look at fuel efficiency and crash safety ratings over aesthetics.
When traveling, you like to have your itinerary completely planned down to the last detail.
Because you respond to verbal cues, you prefer lectures to textbooks.
You are good at remembering names.
Your office is neatly organized with a place for everything. Little time is spent looking around for lost items.
When trying a new software program, you prefer to use the instruction manual before playing with the parts.
You are almost always on time or early for meetings and appointments.

Add comments about how you see it.

American Idol

I have never watched it until this season. I really like it. There are so many really good performers. And that Country girl is really cute.

Global Warming

My feelings on Global Warming:

1. There has been warming. The greenhouse effect is part of the reason. How much? very little.
2. The sun is the big determining factor in global weather on Earth.
3. We are going into a cooling period. We are seeing the results of an less active sun already. This past (northern) winter and (southern) summer were a huge break in the general increase in temperatures we have seen in the past. 1998 was the hottest (recent) year on record and the trend has been down since.
4. If everything the IPCC says about Global Warming were true, it would still be cheaper, by any measure, to mitigate the effects, than to try to reduce CO2 via artificial means.
5. Those who push for reducing CO2 at any cost, have not done a cost analysis.

Climatologists received a lot of funding to study nuclear winter. When the USSR broke up and the cold war ended, so did the funding for climatologists. Whenever you have a lot of unemployed scientists they are bound to find a way to make work for themselves. Enter Global Warming. It was a perfect storm. It made the environment a great issue again after environmentists won the clean air battle. It gave REDS a new method to control capitalism. It gave liberals a club to beat conservatives. And it gave funding to scientists who would otherwise have to change their focus to something else.

 

 

 

 

Basball Opening Night

Susan and I went to opening night. What fun. Cy Young award winner Jake Peavy pitched 7 scoreless innings, Hit a sacrifice fly, single, and walked. Padres win 4-0. Winning is sure a lot more fun than losing.

Replacing glass in my Prius

Three times my Prius has had cracks in the windshield from rocks hitting it. This time I replaced the windshield instead of having them plug the crack. I asked the glass guy if he gets a lot of Priui. He said he did. He gave some theory why but I said I had a different theory:

When the windshield is more vertical air pressure builds in front of the windshield and protects it. Any small rock heading toward a vertical windshield is slowed by this layer of presserized air. The Prius’ windshield is more horizontal than vertical so the air pressure is much less (better gas mileage) so rocks hit without any buffer.