Priscilla Barnes aka Nurse Terri Alden

It's For Dad Female of the Day: Priscilla Barnes

Do you remember that old sitcom Three's Company with Jack Tripper and his two female roommates. One was a brunette and the cute blond one that came late into the series' run? That's Priscilla Barnes that played as nurse Terri Alden.

Still can't remember her? Maybe the picture below with her familiar pose during the intro. Ah...you remember her now :)

Something most people didn't know was she also posed in Penthouse magazine (is that magazine still around?) under the name Joanne Witty. I can't obviously post those pics here, so you'll have to go search her out yourself under that name.

Android Vinyl Mini-Figs

If you didn't know by now, there's vinyl mini-figs of the Android. Good luck trying to find series 1 as they are mostly sold out now. But from what I understand series 2 is in the works and will be released soon.

I had a chance to hang out with Andrew Bell at the San Diego Comic Con many years back before he became well known. He was sitting there at a booth helping out his friend. Andrew Bell is the man behind the collaboration with Google on these figs through his company Dead Zebra. Andrew is a super nice guy, very hip, and I want to say hipster-ish, but lately it tends to conjure up the trendy hipster type image, so I'm going to say he's more of the cool Pacific Northwest type if that makes any sense.

You can check out more of his art and company, and keep up when series 2 of the Android mini-figs drops.

Dead Zebra

Samsung Vibrant Smartphone $0.01

T-Mobile's newest Android phone available for only a penny on Amazon. If you've been waiting to get a new Android phone, here's a great deal.

Amazon.com Samsung Vibrant Smartphone

From Amazon.com Product Description

Ideal for those looking to combine mobile entertainment and communication in one device, the Android-powered Samsung Vibrant for T-Mobile is pre-loaded with a variety of games and video--including The Sims 3 Collector's Edition (a T-Mobile exclusive) and James Cameron's blockbuster, Avatar. It also comes with the pre-loaded Kindle for Android app--enabling you to search and browse more than 500,000 books--and offers access to MobiTV streaming video.

Enabled for T-Mobile's high-speed 3G network, the Vibrant offers fast data delivery and an enhanced Web-browsing experience that lets you connect quickly to social networking sites. And the 3G-enabled Vibrant will benefit from the enhanced speeds of T-Mobile's upgraded HSPA+ network, which is being rolled out nationwide to reach up to 185 million people by the end of the year and offers speeds close to 4G connectivity.

With integrated Google technology, the Samsung Vibrant brings one-touch access to the popular Google mobile services millions use every day, including Google Search by voice, Google Maps with Street View, Gtalk, YouTube, Picasa, and contacts/calendar synchronization. The Samsung Vibrant also provides easy access to both personal and corporate e-mail, calendars, and contacts supported by Exchange Server and Gmail. And through Android Market, you'll get access to thousands of useful applications, widgets, and fun games to download and install on your phone, with many more apps being added every day.

Optimized for watching videos on the go as well as game play, the Vibrant offers a 1 GHz Samsung Hummingbird processor and 4-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen display for a bright, vivid viewing experience. It's equipped with a 5-megapixel camera with digital zoom and autofocus, and it also captures HD video. Other features include a 16 GB internal memory, microSD memory expansion (for up to 32 GB of additional storage from optional cards), Wireless-N Wi-Fi networking, Bluetooth 3.0 connectivity for hands-free devices and stereo music streaming, intuitive typing via integrated Swype keyboard, and up to 4 hours of talk time.

Kids Don't Play Outside Anymore

image Monroe's Dragonfly

My previous post about kids not being able to write in cursive, got me to notice another change in our culture: Kids don't play outside anymore. It's a quiet Summer. I remember when I was a kid, we would play from morning until night, or until our parents called us in for dinner. My own son doesn't play outside anymore either.

Whatever happened to wanting to see your friends and play all day during the Summer break? Kids these days, they are all connected indirectly. It's not like they are not social, they are just social in a different way. They connect with each other through texting, playing online games and other ways through the internet.

It's amusing to me as they always knew the internet existed, but to us, it was a relatively recent occurrence. Thinking back, I always thought we had color TV and couldn't imagine how families would gather around near the radio to listen to a program. Just the same, I'm sure kids these days just can't fathom writing a letter on paper and snail mailing it to someone. Hey, don't you want to go over to Pete's house and see him today? "No, I can just see him online later today"

I can still remember struggling to see the ball at dusk as we tried to continue to play stick ball. I think we were much tougher back then, as a little scrape wouldn't stop us from continuing to play. I think we also fought more back then, then see them again the next day and have mutual respect. We were badasses back then.

I see my friend's son just hanging around the house with his friends and asked them if they were going to do anything today. "Nope! It's too hot outside, we don't want to get sweaty" Wow!!! Are you kidding me? I doubt if it's even 80 degrees outside, and you sissy boys are afraid to get sweaty? Oh man.

The only positive I can take away from all this, is I can enjoy a nice quiet Summer and not have to worry about the neighborhood kids tearing up my lawn.

College Freshmen And The Generational Gap

Beloit College takes a survey of their incoming freshmen and then compiles a list to give to the professors so they can basically relate to what and why these kids are like that.

I can't believe the first on the list is most of these kids can't write in cursive! Don't they still teach that in school? I put it to the test and asked my friends that were in their early 20s to write in cursive. They said they had to consciously think of how to form the letters. It's somewhat amazing to think this is true, but when I think about it, it does make sense. They all type reports on computers. They text in standard alphabet. All advertising isn't in cursive. They only time they really need to write in cursive is when they sign their name.

Here's the top 75 list from Beloit College:

The Beloit College Mindset List for the Class of 2014

Most students entering college for the first time this fall—the Class of 2014—were born in 1992.

For these students, Benny Hill, Sam Kinison, Sam Walton, Bert Parks and Tony Perkins have always been dead.

1. Few in the class know how to write in cursive.

2. Email is just too slow, and they seldom if ever use snail mail.

3. “Go West, Young College Grad” has always implied “and don’t stop until you get to Asia…and learn Chinese along the way.”

4. Al Gore has always been animated.

5. Los Angelenos have always been trying to get along.

6. Buffy has always been meeting her obligations to hunt down Lothos and the other blood-suckers at Hemery High.

7. “Caramel macchiato” and “venti half-caf vanilla latte” have always been street corner lingo.

8. With increasing numbers of ramps, Braille signs, and handicapped parking spaces, the world has always been trying harder to accommodate people with disabilities.

9. Had it remained operational, the villainous computer HAL could be their college classmate this fall, but they have a better chance of running into Miley Cyrus’s folks on Parents’ Weekend.

10. Entering college this fall in a country where a quarter of young people under 18 have at least one immigrant parent, they aren't afraid of immigration...unless it involves "real" aliens from another planet.

11. John McEnroe has never played professional tennis.

12. Clint Eastwood is better known as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry.

13. Parents and teachers feared that Beavis and Butt-head might be the voice of a lost generation.

14. Doctor Kevorkian has never been licensed to practice medicine.

15. Colorful lapel ribbons have always been worn to indicate support for a cause.

16. Korean cars have always been a staple on American highways.

17. Trading Chocolate the Moose for Patti the Platypus helped build their Beanie Baby collection.

18. Fergie is a pop singer, not a princess.

19. They never twisted the coiled handset wire aimlessly around their wrists while chatting on the phone.

20. DNA fingerprinting and maps of the human genome have always existed.

21. Woody Allen, whose heart has wanted what it wanted, has always been with Soon-Yi Previn.

22. Cross-burning has always been deemed protected speech.

23. Leasing has always allowed the folks to upgrade their tastes in cars.

24. “Cop Killer” by rapper Ice-T has never been available on a recording.

25. Leno and Letterman have always been trading insults on opposing networks.

26. Unless they found one in their grandparents’ closet, they have never seen a carousel of Kodachrome slides.

27. Computers have never lacked a CD-ROM disk drive.

28. They’ve never recognized that pointing to their wrists was a request for the time of day.

29. Reggie Jackson has always been enshrined in Cooperstown.

30. “Viewer Discretion” has always been an available warning on TV shows.

31. The first home computer they probably touched was an Apple II or Mac II; they are now in a museum.

32. Czechoslovakia has never existed.

33. Second-hand smoke has always been an official carcinogen.

34. “Assisted Living” has always been replacing nursing homes, while Hospice has always offered an alternative to the hospital.

35. Once they got through security, going to the airport has always resembled going to the mall.

36. Adhesive strips have always been available in varying skin tones.

37. Whatever their parents may have thought about the year they were born, Queen Elizabeth declared it an “Annus Horribilis.”

38. Bud Selig has always been the Commissioner of Major League Baseball.

39. Pizza jockeys from Domino’s have never killed themselves to get your pizza there in under 30 minutes.

40. There have always been HIV positive athletes in the Olympics.

41. American companies have always done business in Vietnam.

42. Potato has always ended in an “e” in New Jersey per vice presidential edict.

43. Russians and Americans have always been living together in space.

44. The dominance of television news by the three networks passed while they were still in their cribs.

45. They have always had a chance to do community service with local and federal programs to earn money for college.

46. Nirvana is on the classic oldies station.

47. Children have always been trying to divorce their parents.

48. Someone has always gotten married in space.

49. While they were babbling in strollers, there was already a female Poet Laureate of the United States.

50. Toothpaste tubes have always stood up on their caps.

51. Food has always been irradiated.

52. There have always been women priests in the Anglican Church.

53. J.R. Ewing has always been dead and gone. Hasn’t he?

54. The historic bridge at Mostar in Bosnia has always been a copy.

55. Rock bands have always played at presidential inaugural parties.

56. They may have assumed that parents’ complaints about Black Monday had to do with punk rockers from L.A., not Wall Street.

57. A purple dinosaur has always supplanted Barney Google and Barney Fife.

58. Beethoven has always been a good name for a dog.

59. By the time their folks might have noticed Coca Cola’s new Tab Clear, it was gone.

60. Walmart has never sold handguns over the counter in the lower 48.

61. Presidential appointees have always been required to be more precise about paying their nannies’ withholding tax, or else.

62. Having hundreds of cable channels but nothing to watch has always been routine.

63. Their parents’ favorite TV sitcoms have always been showing up as movies.

64. The U.S, Canada, and Mexico have always agreed to trade freely.

65. They first met Michelangelo when he was just a computer virus.

66. Galileo is forgiven and welcome back into the Roman Catholic Church.

67. Ruth Bader Ginsburg has always sat on the Supreme Court.

68. They have never worried about a Russian missile strike on the U.S.

69. It seems the Post Office has always been going broke.

70. The artist formerly known as Snoop Doggy Dogg has always been rapping.

71. The nation has never approved of the job Congress is doing.

72. One way or another, “It’s the economy, stupid” and always has been.

73. Silicone-gel breast implants have always been regulated.

74. They've always been able to blast off with the Sci-Fi (SYFY) Channel.

75. Honda has always been a major competitor on Memorial Day at Indianapolis.

Bad Humor: Baby Hits The Bong

Yes, I know it's wrong and it's probably not funny to some people. It's some ding dong parent who was probably too stoned out of their mind to notice their kid come along and emulate them. Then one of them thought it was funny to take a pic and share it with the world. It probably wasn't funny when the cops came and arrested the mother!

Google Chrome OS Tablet Launching On November 26

I might just ask for this for Christmas. The only thing I'm going to not like is having to pay for a contract plan, but if the final cost of the contract equals what I would pay for a tablet, it might turn out to be a bargain.

Originally posted by Download Squad:

The title pretty much says it all on this one, folks.

Yes, our source tells us that Google is building a Chrome OS tablet. It's real, and it's being built by HTC. No surprise there, since HTC churned out the Nexus One for Google.

Yes, they plan to offer it in conjunction with Verizon -- which probably doesn't come as a shock to anybody at this point. The two recently tag-teamed that Net Neutrality proposal and they've had plenty of discussions in the past about cooperating in some capacity.

As for the launch date of November 26th, well, that's all kinds of brilliant. It's Black Friday 2010 and the busiest shopping day of the year in the U.S. -- so what better day to have a shiny new tablet in the cabinet at Verizon kiosks and stores all over the country? You can bet Google's Chrome OS tablet will be heavily subsidized, and I'd go so far as to say it will be substantially cheaper than the iPad -- if not totally free -- with a Verizon data contract.

So what will the Google tablet pack for hardware? While our source didn't provide any specifics, my guess is that the device could be based on NVidia's Tegra 2 platform and sport a 1280x720 multitouch display, 2GB of RAM, minimum 32GB SSD, WiFi/Bluetooth/LTE connectivity, GPS, webcam, and possibly expandable storage via a multi-card reader. Again, these were not given to us by our source, but expect it to be every bit as geek-tastic as the Nexus One -- Google won't want to disappoint its early adopters.

Timelapse Video Of Meteor Shower

Sorry guys. The pics are not clickable and I can't embed Vimeo videos on here as the code get automatically cleaned up by the blog posting. I remember seeing the Leonids in November many years back in the desert at Jawbone Canyon some 10 years ago. OH MY GAWD!!!!! It was so awesome. The frequency of meteors was the most it's going to be for the next 50 years or something like that, and it was a moonless night so the meteors were very bright.

I wanted to see the Perseid shower last week, but we couldn't make it out as we were already tired from our long get away. So if you missed it, Henry Jun Wah Lee did a time lapse video of the Perseid meteor shower and it's so fucken AWESOME!

Check out his Vimeo site here

Morena Corwin - Playmate 1992

It's for Dad Female of the Day: Morena Corwin

Her description says she's Korean, but I'm going to say she must be half Korean and White. Some of her pictures she looks very Asian, and in others you can barely tell.

From Playboy's database:

Morena Corwin
Miss September 1992
Playboy Playmate Pic and Data Sheet

BIRTHPLACE: Seoul, Korea
BUST: 34" C
WAIST: 22"
HIPS: 34"
HEIGHT: 5' 8 1/2"
WEIGHT: 120 lbs



AMBITIONS:
To act and model, stay focused on what I want, invest wisely, be true to my virtues, to always be happy, healthy and in love.

TURN-ONS:
Relaxing and laughing on a mountain of pillows, eating sweets, being sung to while having my back rubbed. OXXO

TURNOFFS:
People who are all talk, men who can't be trusted! No ambitions, prejudice, disrespect.

THINGS I WANT TO DO IN MY LIFE:
Race car driving, walk on the moon, white-water rafting & to play pro football.

FAVORITE READING MATERIAL:
Sept. Playboy 1992. The Bible & The Cat In the Hat.

MY DAILY SCHEDULE TWO YEARS FROM NOW:
Waking up, having a cup of coffee, looking over my weekly schedule, reviewing my script. Meeting my agent for lunch and discussing my upcoming projects.

For more of Morena you can find her at Playboy.com (Warning!!! it links directly to Playboy.com)

Jim Lee - Comic Book Genius

Continuing with today’s Korean theme, I remember meeting Jim Lee when he barely started drawing comics at a guest appearance for one of the local comic shops. Nobody knew him yet, and he barely starting to do some guest penciling for Marvel comic books. He was busy drawing Rogue for some girl that wanted a picture and nobody really paid any attention to him. Most people were there for the other artists and writers. I wanted a picture too from Jim Lee, but my Mom was getting tired and wanted to leave so I had to hurry and get my comics signed by a few of the artists and writers that were there.

Flash forward a few months (or was that years?) and Jim Lee’s career took off when he started doing the X-Men comic books. I’m still kicking myself for not trying to convince my Mom to wait just a little longer so I could’ve gotten a picture from him. Oh well.

I haven’t seriously followed any comic books for many many years. It’s probably almost 15 years by now, but I’ll occasionally stop and pick up an issue to read at the store. Not sure what Jim Lee’s status is now, but I think he’s moved onto a more publishing type role instead of the grueling long hours of being an artist. Remember kids, back then, we didn’t use computers to help draw, ink and color comics. So Jim’s attention to detail and complex details set him far above all artists at that time. That picture of Rogue above was what I remember of his style and details.

Some more of his work can be found on his deviantART page and go friend him on MySpace

Hite Beer - The Korean Budweiser

Now it might be unfair to call Hite beer the Korean Budweiser, but basically it is. The market share in Korea is huge and it stems from the same formula of not being overly strong in any one area, so it offends less people and thus is more acceptable.

It's got a light body that quickly loses it's carbonation. It's like a very light Bud Light. The head quickly dissipates so you don't have to worry about bloating. It's almost a bland beer, but it goes so easily with your foods that I can see why it sells so well. The alcohol content is under 5%, so you can easily have a few and not really worry about looking like a drunk ass while trying to cook your food.

I was introduced to this beer when I was eating at a Korean calbi BBQ house. I saw everyone around me drinking this, so I ordered this also. They serve it in what I was later told by my Korean friends in this "traditional" little beaker looking cup. It's common to drink it that way I guess because I saw it provided this way at other Korean restaurants.

Korean BBQ - Galbi Kalbi Short Ribs

I'm noticing more and more Korean BBQ houses that are popping up everywhere that have the sliced meats that you cook yourself. Most of these Korean BBQ houses are also known as Galbi or Kalbi houses. Since it's a Korean word translated into English, the spelling can differ. I'm use to seeing it spelled kalbi or calbi, but the better pronunciation would be galbi which I think they spell it that way so Americans can say it phonetically with a more proper accented sound.

The meat is commonly sliced short ribs that are about a 1/4 of an inch thick and marinated in a thick and sweet soy sauce. I've also been to places where they slice frozen meat paper thin and when they present it to you, you have this huge mountain of curled meat. Don't let the visual size fool you, it's really not that much meat. Also I don't think they call this kalbi, but something else. Sorry can't remember right now.

I've been to a few kalbi houses with some Korean friends that would basically show me the ropes. The more ethnic the place the better I found it to be. What I mean by "more ethnic" is when the signs are in Korean, the wait staff can't really speak English and communication is mostly by pointing and nodding. So I recommend you find some Korean friends and go have a feast, it will be a little easier.

Most places will have the BBQ grill in the middle of the table where you grill your food. It's common to have lots of side dishes with pickled veggies and sauces you can dip your food into. Like the picture above, it's one of the most common presentations. You can see the short rib bones sliced horizontally that is cooking in the center.

Like most Asian "novelty" restaurants, the cost can quickly add up. Don't be surprised to sometimes walk out spending $40-$60 easily, and that's not even the top end cuts. Most of the time (so far) I've been able to average it to about $30, but I still felt like wanting more.

You can do this at home on your own BBQ grill, you'll just miss out on the authentic feeling and environment. Just go to your local Asian store and buy a bunch of pickled veggies of various types and put them into little bowls. Next, get some thinly sliced meats and marinate it. I've also seen sliced short ribs in the major grocery stores, so it should be easy to make at home. Get some pilsner style beer and you should be good to go at a fraction of the cost.

Here's a kalbi marinade from allrecipes.com you can try:

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup soy sauce
• 3/4 cup water
• 3 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1/4 cup minced garlic
• 1/2 large onion, minced
• 3 pounds Korean-style short ribs (beef chuck flanken, cut 1/3 to 1/2 inch thick across bones)

Directions

1. Pour soy sauce, water, and vinegar into a large, non-metallic bowl. Whisk in brown sugar, white sugar, pepper, sesame oil, garlic, and onion until the sugars have dissolved. Submerge the ribs in this marinade, and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate 7 to 12 hours; the longer, the better.
2. Preheat an outdoor grill for medium-high heat.
3. Remove ribs from the marinade, shake off excess, and discard the marinade. Cook on preheated grill until the meat is no longer pink, 5 to 7 minutes per side.

Cutesy J-Pop Girl Band - Morning Musume

click for full size image

It’s For Dad Female(s) of the Day: Morning Musume

Umm…well, I know I’ve been out on vacation for a while and I know some of you just check in daily for my FotD selection, but I thought I would introduce you to something a little different. The Japanese Pop girl group known as Morning Musume, which translated means “Morning Girls”

Hey, it’s cute bouncy girls singing cute songs that I don’t understand :p

From what I understand, they have an annual rotating group, so next year it might be a few different girls in the group. If you ask a person from Japan visiting here in the US and ask them if they know who this group is, the chances are very high they could tell you about them.

Found this music video on Youtube, and I think the title is: Sexy Boy ~Soyokaze ni Yorisotte~. Don’t let the title fool you, it’s mostly the girls dancing in their Sunday best and I have to admit without sounding like a creepy perv old man, some of them are very very cute!

Official US website

Who Moved My Cheese?

My friend Cora gave me this book and said to give it a read. I should be able to read it fairly quickly in less than an hour. Now I'm not sure why she wanted to give me this book. Maybe she thought I might be one of the characters in the book, or maybe she knew I would write about it here and it might be helpful for some people. Well, it kind of worked as I think my friend Juan could really learn something from this book.

The book is really a parable about 4 characters, 2 of which are mice and 2 are some human like creature that is small as the mice. They live in a maze and eat cheese. You can't read into the literal description of the settings as it's a symbolism for people and our world. You hear the saying "it's a rat race out there" as we try to make a living from working. The cheese of course is our goal/desires/sustenance/relationship needs.

I'm not going to explain too much about the book, as each person will get something different from reading the book, so I'll let you guys read it yourself. Heck, you can even walk into a bookstore and can breeze through the book with a Starbucks coffee drink in hand at one of the seats.

My friend Juan likes to keep things the same. I use to make fun of him as he would carry his Discman to listen to his music while everyone was carrying iPods. He likes eating the same things, drinking at the same bars, and doing the same routine. He's flying out to see friends on the east coast, and he said "Hopefully, we don't have to do much, and could just sit there drinking beers"

Sorry Juan, but I have to call you out on this. I'm afraid that you are going to be like one of the characters in the book, Hem. Hem didn't want to change and couldn't deal with change. So I'm going to give you this book to read.

available at Amazon

Team Fortress 2 - Heavy And Medic Dance

Since I’ve been playing Team Fortress 2 pretty often lately, I thought I would post this little dance between the two couples. Jump into a TF2 game and you’ll commonly see the Medic following Heavy around the game constantly keeping him alive. If there’s characters that frown on Prop 8, it would be these two. I personally hate C&C Music Factory’s played out song, but the ending of this with the freaking and slaps at the end was too funny!

Enjoy!

Nokia N8 Open To Preorders

The N8 is available for ordering now on the Nokia site with an expected ship date of late September. Spec-wise, it's an awesome phone. I almost got the Nokia N900 phone a while back, but with the delays, I forgot about it and ended up with an Android phone instead. But this phone might make me want to just break my contract and jump ship.

It's interesting that I hear the Symbian platform currently has the largest smartphone share in the world, yet I don't know anyone that has a Symbian device. It must be all outside of the US. Everyone I know has an Android, iPhone and a couple of (disgruntled) people with WinMo phones.

From Nokia:

Nokia N8

Film, edit and perfect your high-definition masterpieces. Add music, images, text and transitions - all from the phone.
Quick facts
Record video in HD and edit instantly
Plug into the TV to play back with HDMI cable included
Capture every moment with the 12 MP Carl Zeiss optics camera
Three customizable home screens to make your own
FREE turn by turn navigation from Ovi Maps
16GB of internal memory
See more features >

Kirin Beer And Team Fortress 2

What does the Japanese beer Kirin have in common with the video game Team Fortress 2?

Nothing.

There was a sale for Kirin 24 pack of beer for $14. Just like when I did the Inexpensive Beer Week Review a while back, drinking good beer for an inexpensive price is always a good thing! I bought a few packs to stock up, and if I need to bring some over to a friends cookout, I won't seem like a cheap bastard by walking in with just a little six pack! Plus the novelty of not bringing in the generic macrobrew stuff.

So I'm playing the video game Team Fortress 2, which if you don't know what that is, it's a class based, first person shooter that splits the players into two teams. You can play as 9 different classes ranging from a heavy gunner, spy, engineer, and even to the team's medic.

Drinking and playing video games usually isn't a great combination, especially in a game that requires fast reflexes. In one game session, I finished 4 beers. What I noticed was that I wasn't getting a dull buzz, but still retained my somewhat sharp, albeit relaxed focus. I'm so enjoying life right now playing Team Fortress 2 and enjoying long sips of this beer.

This beer is good! It's not a crafted beer, but still a flavorful Japanese beer. When people mention Japanese beer, they tend to think of dry beer like the the number 1 selling beer in Japan: Asahi Super Dry. I personally don't like Asahi, it's too light in flavor. I'm personally a flavor type beer drinker.

It's got a familiar taste, but I couldn't figure it out. When I looked up for more info, I found it's brewed by Anheiser Busch in the US, the same people that brew Budweiser. Ah-hah! I'd like to one day compare the one brewed in Japan by Kirin and the one brewed here in the US. I think the Kirin brewed in Japan will be slightly lighter and crisper, as that needs to be a common characteristic so it doesn't overpower the delicate flavors of Japanese foods.

That little animal you see in the logo is the kirin. It's the Chinese mythical beast, which the beer is named after.

If you want a similar beer to Budweiser or Coors, but want a fresher and crisper tasting beer, then Kirin Beer is an excellent choice. Most of my friends like Saporro, and I do to, but given the choice between Saporro and Kirin, I'll take Kirin for the heavier taste.

Summer Vacation Really Necessary?

Is summer vacation with the family really necessary?

What I really noticed was the kids that get dragged along with their parents that seem to have the worst times. These are the kids in the teenage years. They seem like they are annoyed or still in their little weird phases where they are still unsure of themselves, so they cover up their insecurities with annoyance and attitudes. Now I might be totally wrong with this observation, but I'm generally pretty good when it comes to observing.

Take for example, we were at a diner having lunch. I see this family drive up in of all things, a mini-van! The dad is past his prime with a gut, and his wife has a gut that is past her chest! A pimply face son who must be having nocturnal emissions and a daughter that is discovering her sexuality. The son, I might as well considering him a daughter! He's got this awkwardness and little bitchy attitude. So bitchy that my own son even notices and makes a comment that the other kid is so girly. The daughter's face is buried in her phone texting away and when she finally looks up, my son is gawking at her. She gives him a smirk and continues on with her texting.

When they sit, I can hear the son complaining about everything. The daughter is still texting away. The mom sits there looking around and tries to make the best of it (bless her soul). The dad is trying to keep everything together and I can almost feel he wants to reach over the table to strangle everyone! I just look at my wife and think how great I must have it, and of course she sees me admiring her and she smiles back knowing that I must be so glad I'm not that other family over there.

Their food arrives, and I can hear the son have a fit and says "eww, I don't want to eat that, doesn't look anything like the picture" The dad barks back "Well, if you don't eat, I'm not stopping later for food" The sister picks on him, the brother fires back and says to shut her trampy mouth. The mom tries to reason with everyone. The surrounding tables glance over. My own son looks over and chuckles, although I think he was really wanting to check out the daughter more.

And then I finally hear it from their bratty son "Why do we even have to be here! I'd rather be home with my friends!"

Wow! At that point I look at my own son and think if he really wants to be here with us or if he also feels like he gets dragged along too! I think we've been fortunate in that we have a kid who doesn't mind hanging out with his parents. Of course it's not always like that as I'm sure he would also like to be with his friends for summer break, as he asks us if he can stay home when we go on little local day tripping around the immediate area.

I personally think it's a good time for the family to spend some isolated time together. Away from the internet and away from known social contacts so it kind of forces us to focus on each other just a little bit more than normal. It may not be the most pleasant of times during parts of the trip, but many years later, I'm sure it must have some positive effect. I think family dynamics isn't so tight as it was when we were growing up and also when my parents were growing up. I remember seeing images and videos where families would gather together to listen to a radio programming. Now, I commonly see every family member doing their own thing, mine included. Me on the computer, my wife watching her TV programming, and my son hooked up with his video games multitasking by listening to music in one ear and texting every couple of minutes.

So yes, I think families should go on as many family trips as they can. These summer vacations gives us a break to get to know each other again.

Some Possible Changes To The Format

I was thinking of maybe revamping the blog. I originally started this blog around Father's Day this year, and was wanting to use it for gift ideas. Now, I'm thinking of concentrating on certain subjects a little bit more.

I might want to write more opinionated editorial that may turn off some of my readers, but will strongly align with more of my other readers. I'm still going to cover the things I enjoy like video games, tech, interesting women and gadgets. Blogging about food and alcohol is always fun so I'm keeping that.

I'm a cool geeky dad. I think there's many cool geeky dads out there too. At some point we all realize we aren't the jock studs we once were when we were in school :)