ESLWritingCenter
This group will help students to write better English! It was started initially by Kenneth Dickson to help his students improve their writing skills in English! All ESL students are welcome to join, get help, offer advice, share their writings and interac
Having been a car owner now for over 5 years, I must confess I didn’t give much thought to car accessories of any kind until much more recently. One of my friends offered to give me a CD player for my car from his Toyota with a CD changer, and I turned it down! Too much work.
But … there are some accessories I would really have liked on my little steed. For example, an input socket for the CD/radio player and/or a CD player that plays MP3s. To name one.
I would have also liked much stronger headlights for the thick pea-soup fogs that sometimes render even my regular fog lights useless. Some suggestions include halo headlights which remind me of BMW headlights, for some reason. Would these be ideal? or would HIDs be better?
On the internals, I would like to have an internal GPS system with turn by turn navigation… Why? Because my lovely co-pilot often isn’t very attentive to turns, destinations or instructions, and sometimes becomes distracted by irrelevancies.
And the last thing: an automated centralized locking system that means I can set childproof locks on the rear passenger doors without having to get out of the car; and I can also unset them.
That last one has been the source of heated arguments with my wife who doesn’t understand the Mazda Isamu Genki 1.6 doesn’t come with this (or many) feature.
It’s funny, but two out of these four are things I would never have even known about when purchasing my car… I just wanted a vehicle with a reliable engine, good brakes, and decent MPG.
Yesterday we discovered the flick Julie and Julia on MOD TV. And I have to give it a total thumbs up for Meryl Streep’s role as Julia Childs. It is a great little movie for both guys and gals. Check the Movie Preview.
I quite liked the fact that the movie was based on two real stories, one of which you can find in Julia Child’s TV shows and books, and the other online!
However, Julia Child didn’t seem to be particularly amused by the project – Judith Jones, said in an interview: “Flinging around four-letter words when cooking isn’t attractive, to me or Julia. She didn’t want to endorse it. What came through on the blog was somebody who was doing it almost for the sake of a stunt. She would never really describe the end results, how delicious it was, and what she learned. Julia didn’t like what she called ‘the flimsies.’ She didn’t suffer fools, if you know what I mean.” [Wikipedia]
Here’s another video of Julia Child’s cooking skills, she’s quite handy with a cleaver!
While her blog may have been popular, it seems Julie Powell’s book aren’t similarly highly regarded. So it makes me wonder how talented the script writers were to turn the book (condensed) into an enjoyable film. But the enjoyment may have been as much at Streep’s performing ‘Bon Appetit’ loudly in a falsetto repeatedly throughout the movie. Very funny.
Ever wished you could just answer your cell phone indoors or find a decent 3.5G connection? I know I have a lot of trouble in some buildings when we’re away from the window! It seems I’m not the only one: a company is selling a cell phone signal booster for your house or room even! And the prices are quite reasonable. I don’t know what the downsides are… but I can think of several places, including my wife’s mother’s home which has no signal inside the house at all. Even outside, the signal is pretty weak. Would it work there? …
I would also purchase a mobile personal wifi hotspot! That’s a serious dude. But if you think about it, taking a router with you is actually becoming a necessity: most netbooks or notebooks have only one network adapter (if you’re lucky), and you might have other uses such as a skype wireless phone, wireless Ipods, etc. And I’m sure that you have other devices that can ONLY connect with a wireless connection. Think about it! I’m tempted. Will let you know if I succumb…
One of my wife’s cousins is getting married. In Taiwan, this is a huge affair and involves all the extended family. On the day, you will see the bride arrayed with all kinds of wedding accessories that include copious amounts of gold. I’m not even talking about 18K stuff, they typically use 24K gold (which is pretty soft!): rings, necklaces, hair ornaments, foot ornaments… it’s quite a show. To see what real gold looks like, check out this picture on Flickr or my own post. Typical Western Gold vs. Typical Chinese Gold.
