-
Reviews
Pirate Latitudes This is a book by Michael Crichton that was published posthumously from a completed manuscript that they found among his things. It is set in the sixteenth century in the Caribbean waters. The book starts off quite well. The plot begins in the town of Port Royal, Jamaica where we get a glimpse of the colonial lifestyle of those ( Read more... ) -
Finding your way with your eyes closed
I just powered on my computer and the display was somehow switched to a mode that my monitor (my TV) did not support. Now, I did not have a second monitor so that I could go and change the resolution there. I rebooted to no avail. I couldn't even get to the Windows "safe mode" menu ( Read more... ) -
I do not come to you by chance
By now, anyone who has an email address has probably received one of those infamous Nigerian scammer emails. These scammers are often referred to as 419ers after the penal code section under which such crimes are punishable. Interestingly, this is very similar to the Indian name for fraudsters - char sau bees(420). This is probably not as ( Read more... ) -
misc
These are from a half written post which luckily survived in a draft. I'm just going to put these up now.
If this is true then recent statistics tell us quite a lot. For in 1980 the comparative figures for handgun deaths within a number of countries were as follows: Japan, 48; Great Britain, 8; Canada, 52; Israel, 58 Sweden, 21; West Germany, 42; ( Read more... ) -
Portland
In this city, it often rains. Geography demands it. For beyond the islands scattered west roll endless miles of ocean, while northeast at the city's back jut jagged mountain peaks. With the slate-gray skies of autumn come the cyclone westerlies, raging winds and boiling clouds that sweep in from the sea. In waves these bloated clouds tear open on ( Read more... ) -
(Untitled)
Sometimes the feedback to the cricket commentary on the BBC website is priceless ( Read more... ) -
Miscellany
Most license plates here in Oregon are 3 numbers followed by 3 alphabets. I don't know how these numbers are generated but they don't seem to be you usual machine-generated random permutations. I have seen license plates ending in EAT, DRY or a bunch of other combinations that sound like common words or acronyms. The one that takes the cake, though ( Read more... ) -
Far from this opera for evermore!
I just remembered these crazy soft drinks that I had a long long time ago in a land far far away.
***
Why do "immigrant" authors have to write about "loss and alienation" all the time? Even when the actual immigrants were their parents? Although, sometimes their experiences can be funny. For example, I heard this bit on an NPR story
Everyone ( Read more... )
