Chinese acrobatics schools are VERY tough. But Jackie Chan has pushed himself to ridiculous limits, beyond anything even they could inflict upon him.
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Chinese acrobatics schools are VERY tough. But Jackie Chan has pushed himself to ridiculous limits, beyond anything even they could inflict upon him.
March 31, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Irena hates Hellboy. I think Hellboy rocks! We kid that I need a new
movie partner for these kinds of movies. I’m hoping Sasha will be my
movie buddy sometime soon. Turns out
Perlman (age 58, no less), who plays Hellboy, is quite the philosopher. Good guy. Very
dry. See vid. Also see him talking about his background and his schooling in hard knocks. He's made a career out of playing beasts and hunchbacks.
His dad inspired him to do this, to act.
My dad inspired me to be a gentleman and be unflappable, and in some ways, to be a good dad.
March 31, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Last week we arrived in Prague and discovered that our Apple Airs didn't like the wifi connections around us. Strange. So we picked up two netbooks. One, the Asus 1000H. The other, an Acer Aspire One. The Acer Aspire One was a complete dog, and we returned it to the shop. Despite looking quite snazzy with its pearl color and miniscule size, it was way slower than the Asus and the fan had a high pitched whirr to it that was intolerable in a quiet environment.
Here's the Asus 1000H review. Overall we were most surprised by
the speed of the netbook. We were able to work on it for a full day quite comfortably provided we used USB mouse. The trackpad buttons are a joke
and are the big flaw on the device. They are too hard to press and
just terribly designed.
Screen: Is a 10" screen big enough? Yes. Barely, but yes.
Surprisingly we found we were able to work on this tiny 1024x600 screen just fine. However, we'd swap it out for a unit with 1280x800 resolution in a heartbeat. The screen was superbright and crystal clear, but we'd
just like to have a bit more resolution on it in the y axis.
Ergonomics: We got so used to the keyboard to the point we were able to touchtype. I think the chiclet keys on the new 1000HE would be a
little better, and faster, if our Apple Air keyboards are anything to go
by. Apple Airs, and the new Mac have the chiclet style keys.
Speed: Sufficient, especially using Google's
Chrome browser. Chrome is superfast, and minimal, making it the
perfect browser for the netbooks. I wouldn't attempt video
editing on a netbook, but for zippy gmail and browsing and MS Office
work (or OpenOffice), it does the job. The instant on, is awesome. That's the main thing we liked
about Apple laptops as well. Waiting is not something we do well. We don't have enough time in our days to spend 10 minutes each day waiting for a computer to get its act together and fire up.
Battery: The new 1000HE is supposed to get 9.5 hours, which is
incredible. We're seeing North of 4 hours on our little 1000H, with an
Apricorn hard drive plugged in and the screen on half brightness.
Overall, I wouldn't recommend getting this particular netbook, the 1000H. Get the 1000HE! That's the new landmark netbook. Don't bother with a 7" or 8" screen netbook either, the 10" screen is the smallest size that is truly usable. Don't bother trying the Sony Lifestyle, its very slow. The Intel Atom chipset running XP is the only combo to go with for this size and speed and class of PC. And all for $400?! Amazing. No wonder Asus is going well. I'm still tempted to get a Lenovo X301 as the thought of 12 hours of battery life and a 13" screen for a 3lb laptop is great. But that can wait for 2010 when Windows 7 is out. Windows 7 is going to be lot faster than the dog slow Windows Vista. Perhaps it will even give Mac OS X more worthy competition.
March 31, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)
I've not sat on a road bike in 16 years. This morning I took a trek through Prague and through to the Czech countryside at dawn. I rode South from the Charles bridge, past the yacht club and down to the golf club. Great! Nothing hurts. Then I discovered my limits by hanging a left and going up an extended 1 in 7 climb that kicked my ass. I had to stop three times on the hill, no less. Pitiful. I've got a lot of work to do. Last time I was riding a road bike I was a teenager, 40 lbs lighter. That's like hauling an extra bike and a half around. ~19km with my detour. Map it.
March 29, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Prague is a great walking city but it would be nice to bike around and through to the Czech countryside. I treated myself to a bike today. I wonder if I'll ever get the legs to be able to do the California Death Ride. 129 miles over 5 mountain passes. I put my cycling buddy, from my years cycling as a teen in England, up to training for the Death Ride and he surprised me by handing his car over to his girlfriend and committing to cycle 12 miles to work and 12 miles home each day. He'll be 'fit as a butchers dog' in no time. Gulp! I'd better get with the program.
March 25, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (2)
On our way to Prague from Malta we passed through Munich and discovered this Camel sponsored smoking box. Its a smart marketing move from Camel. We could hear smokers coughing from outside the box however. I hope they ban smoking in Prague restaurants sometime soon. My eyes are tearing up from the smoke as I write this at Papas restaurant in Prague. Papas has great chicken skewers and Crianza but the smoke puts a crimper on the experience.
March 25, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Bacchus is the best deal in Mdina. We passed by this restaurant when
we took a guided tour of Malta which included Mdina, back in May
2008. It was built in 1650 but the outer walls date back 2000 years.
The food was great and the house wine mediocre. The surroundings were
very much in keeping with the entire feel of Mdina. Dark, old, quite
and underground. We had two appetizers which were more than enough
food for us, a bottle of wine and a tea and the bill came to less than
30 Euro all in.
March 17, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tatitas is in San Lawrenz about 10 minutes walk from the Kempinski
hotel in Gozo. In the summer Tatitas is swarming with people and up to
100 seats are set up outside right in the church square. Off season we
were one of three sets of diners for our Sunday lunch. the manager
served us directly and the service was faultless and excellent. Our
guidebook ranks Lt-Tmun as superior to Tatitas but we beg to differ.
Prices were comparable but the seafood was clearly better. I had the
special with a local fish that I forget the name of and Irena had the
calamari. Both were beyond excellent. We didn't realize calamari could
taste so good. We toasted through a half bottle of Veuve Clicquot,
enjoyed a dessert of home made apple pie and finished withvtwo
cappacinos for a bill of 100 euro all in. Our weekend escape was
almost complete after visiting Tatitas. Now on to Mdina.
March 17, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (2)
We took in our first Gozo island meal at the Lt-Tmun Victoria Lounge
in Victoria ana Rabbat, the capital of Gozo, in the middle of the
island. the service was good, the food very good and the surroundings
relaxing and homely. My sea
bass was a let down for being a tad bland. Irenas veal was just
perfect. She later admitted to me that she had pointed at something
else on the menu and that she didn't actually like veal, until this
meal. Now she likes veal. All in all, four stars.
March 17, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)
March 15, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Gozo Kempinski from our balcony. Alas the outdoor pool is not
heated. The indoor pool was a perfect 32 degrees and quite the match
for the outdoor pool. The indoor jacuzzi was only 34 and the steam
sauna was also not quite hot enough for our tastes. The restaurant and
cafe balconies had similarly spectacular views but the food was
horrendously overpriced compared to equal or better class local
restaurants. We had a nice surprise with the Kids Club free daycare.
The service was first class and faultless and Irena enjoyed a flower
laced bath and a facial and mask at the spa on Sunday. We'll be back.
March 15, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)
March 13, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (1)
There are a couple of small but top notch beaches in Malta. One is at
Golden Bay in the NW of the island. The other is by the Corinthia and
Intercontinental North of Sliema and Valletta. The rest are solid rock
beaches with ladders dropping off into the water. The sand is coarse
and peppered with tiny sea shells.
March 13, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Flying back to Europe with Sasha in a babybox, a batman watch that
beams the time onto the wall for nephew Martin, a whiskey and coke,
and a book on our shiny new Kindle. Flying is the only time we sit
still and do nothing.
March 13, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)
You all know Woz, but do you know Piotr Wozniak, the Polish memory whizz? Piotr Wozniak created the program Supermemo which is a handy little piece of software that helps people remember things. i.e. new languages. Its not very user friendly, but I'm buying a copy anyway. He has discovered that there's a certain optimal time delay for reviewing things that you want to memorize. Ideally, you should review an item that you want to remember just around the time you're about to forget it. Who knew? If you review an item that you want to remember at that optimal point in time, you'll be more likely to remember it longer.
This explains why the Pimsleur language system works, I think. I can't recommend Pimsleur enough. The Pimsleur language system consists of CD/mp3's that you listen to. As you listen, you repeat back sentences. One new sentence, two sentences that you've heard before. One new sentence, three or four that you've heard before. One step forward, a couple back. All the time, something new mixed in with older items. The review sequences seem quite optimal because provided you repeat things back, you learn.
March 09, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (3)