Irina Palm: Movie
Aug 30 at 2:02pm by ObverseView
This is a challenging but intriguing story starring Marianne Faithful
Ed: 25000km and counting!
Aug 29 at 1:01pm by ObverseView
Well, Ed recently had his 25K service and oil change. He’s been a great car so far, and has taken us to many different places all over the island.
There are times though like on the No.1 Highway near Linkou when I really wish he was a turbo! That long hill up really sucks out the power from him as we wend our way out of Taipei, to Linkou. It’s a long slow hill with a lot of traffic, but our engine is just a tad small (1.6liter)… perhaps a 2.0liter would be more suitable with a little more HP.
Other places can be difficult, too, but that could be due to my poor driving.
Branson: isn’t that a pretty pickle?
Aug 28 at 12:12am by ObverseView
In Britain, the name Branson conjures up Virgin records, etc… but it seems that this isn’t the only Branson in the holiday business… It seems that there’s a company called Branson Getaways that offers a variety of packages for visits to Branson, Missouri! Where? Branson, Missouri!
Well it seems Branson is quite the entertainment city… Wikipedia lists over ” … 100 live shows in over 50 theaters, several museums, three lakes, and 12 championship golf courses. Other local attractions include Silver Dollar City, Celebration City, White Water, Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede, an IMAX Theater, The Shepherd of the Hills, Stone Hill Winery, Ride The Ducks, and Branson Landing.” I was quite surprised: it’s only a small town of 6,700 and yet boasts even more golf courses than my Alma Mater, St. Andrews in Scotland does.
I must admit I’d lean towards the GREAT AMERICAN PACKAGE, the food itself would be worth the expense, and listening to a concert would be fine. I’m not much into Country music, but hey, I can learn to like it! I’d also go to the Titanic museum in a heartbeat!
4 Days/3 Nights Welk Resort Hotel
2 adult tickets to:
Magnificent Seven with Dinner
Legends in Concert
Veteran’s Museum
All for only:
$594 (about NT$ 18,000)
Total Cost Per Couple.
I’m attracted by the food, for me that’s always the catch! And it’s 3 nights in the hotel. I just wonder what kind of hotel it is… I’m pretty fussy about that kind of thing… I believe the hotel should be as memorable as the trip itself! And I wish the siteowners would update the Calendar of Events, everything’s already passed.
No big fan of guns, but police gear?
Aug 26 at 12:12pm by ObverseView
It’s true, I’m no big fan of guns, can’t understand the American attitude on gun control, and will always wonder why you can walk in off the street and buy a gun over the counter… but then that’s what happens when you’re a European…
But there are spades of other great police gear that I often envy, from Harleys, to onboard cruiser computers, walkie talkies and a whole bunch of other great stuff!
But how about a great little Surefire 6P flashlight that you can whip out at night on a dark street when your engine dies, and the street lamps are all out! Or how about a pair of Tactical boots that you can stomp the hills, deserts and plains of the Mid West, Wales or anywhere else beginning with a ‘W-’! Drop by their cool website, and see lots of different ways to part with your cash, that’s L.A. Police Gear!
OK, just hold it there.
Put down the credit card on the counter and step away from the counter.
Slowly, slowly, no sudden swiping…
PageRank: updating again - Yawn!
Aug 26 at 12:12pm by ObverseView
Seems Google is doing the big dance again with its pagerank. One of my blogs has seemingly gone from PR2 to PR0. And yes, I do sell links. No really I do. I have done for ages, through Text Link Ads, through my own sales, through PayPerPost. I sell them simply because I choose NOT to add the rel=nofollow tag that Google virtually demanded everyone use because their search engine formulae weren’t upto snuff.
In reality, I don’t sell text links for PR. I sell them for traffic, for advertising, for people to check out on this blog and on others. I sell them so that advertisers pay me to cover my server costs, I sell them to earn a little extra money. If I had to rely on Adsense I’d be running ALL my blogs on Geocities instead simply because Adsense clicks have been very poor performers for me.
I also sell links for advertisers to garner traffic, and I believe selling text links is a lot less hassle than Adsense. Why? Simply, you buy them once, and you forget about them until the subscription expires or renews. You can click on them as many times as you like, you won’t experience click fraud. Really, text links are a much simpler form of advertising, and quite effective.
So, with a PR0, am I going to kowtow to Google this time? Unlikely, there will be a time when Google search engine is implicitly able to determine which links are paid and which are not, without any nofollow. I see little or no reason to change, esp. as Google also sells links that transfer pagerank. Worse, if everyone nofollowed every link on their blog, as some have done, it will make pagerank virtually useless. So, I’m not changing my ways; Google, if it wants to remain relevant simply has to figure out this issue for themselves.
San Francisco: Great Memories from Lombard Street
Aug 25 at 11:11am by ObverseView
I have already blogged several times about going on holiday, one trip that brings back the occasional twinge of regret and humor about the situation was our trip to San Francisco and California. We purchased a package tour through a local travel agent in Taipei: hotel rooms and airplane tickets. Oddly enough, I can’t remember how much we spent at all. I’m sure I have the bills somewhere.
Each day the little trips that we took around San Francisco provided comic amusement all the way: the Holiday Inn we stayed at was in the middle of winter renovations so we had to eat breakfast IN THE LOBBY! Of course, it didn’t help that the lobby was small, uncomfortable and FREEZING. I neglected to say that we visited in January. So we sneaked our bagels and coffee back to our room and enjoyed the meal watching breakfast TV! That was itself amusing! But we should have complained about the situation, and demanded a partial refund for the inconvenience or at least some complementary tickets. We didn’t know enough in those days to do that!
Despite the cold weather, we had no rain almost the entire time we were there, and we had a wonderful trip around Northern California and the city of San Francisco. So today when I was glancing around the web, I was shocked to see the very same streets and buildings in full-view on the web. It brought back fond memories from days when I didn’t really use a camera. Take a look at Lombard Street today, and you’ll see how I saw it in 1998.
We had a personal or very small tour group when we traveled, a kindly Chinese gentleman who regaled us with stories of bus drivers, spectacles, and scenery. He spoke a lot of Chinese to the Chinese in the tour group, I of course didn’t speak much. But at least I thought the irony was funny: visit San Francisco and speak Chinese! Irony: 1/3 of the city residents actually were Chinese, anyway.
Perhaps next time we go, we’ll pick one of the tours from Trusted Tours & Attractions as our choice; they cover most tours of California, but if you want to visit Madame Tussauds wax museum, you might have to go a little further afield to Las Vegas. Do consult the online travel guides first, though. And if you’re already planning next year’s winter or summer vacation, signing up for the newsletter may provide a lot of extra help in choosing your destinations, saving your pennies and winning a $150 Magellan’s Gift Certificate just for signing up! But you’ll have to hurry: the offer ends on August 31st, 2008.
Sundays in Taiwan: The Photos
Aug 24 at 3:03pm by ObverseView
Ever been to FooLong Beach near Keelung! It’s probably the most tropical beach in Northern Taiwan: clean, wide open sands, sea sports, clean, …, oh, and did I say clean? We took some wonderful sunset pictures.
And looking in the other direction.
Oh, and the water really had that glassy effect. This isn’t added by Photoshop or any other graphics software. I just love the way the water reflects the sky! It’s just an amazing effect. I’m sure sunrise would be just as beautiful, if only…
Sundays in Taiwan: The Photos
Aug 24 at 1:01pm by InvestorBlogger
Ever been to FooLong Beach near Keelung! It’s probably the most tropical beach in Northern Taiwan: clean, wide open sands, sea sports, clean, …, oh, and did I say clean? We took some wonderful sunset pictures.
And looking in the other direction.
Oh, and the water really had that glassy effect. This isn’t added by Photoshop or any other graphics software. I just love the way the water reflects the sky! It’s just an amazing effect. I’m sure sunrise would be just as beautiful, if only…
Treating an overly oily skin: what should I do?
Aug 24 at 1:01pm by ObverseView
When I was a kid, I tried all kinds of acne treatment for my acne, mostly without any success. I must have tried numerous acne pills, acne treatment cream, acne lotions. It’s bizarre because in fact my skin is quite oily and it’s something that seems to run in my father’s family. I guess there’s not much I can really do about it. I did notice a couple of tips: keeping my skin clean helps, and not using too many additional moisturizers or lotions will help. Of course, summer time brings its own problem with sun lotions which are often too oily.
Any tips?
How do you promote your business?
Aug 23 at 1:01pm by ObverseView
Summer season is coming to an end, and we’re gearing up at school for new incomers, new classes and a whole new schedule. When you are advertising for new students, promotional products are required, but it’s quite difficult to choose what younger learners would like so we typically choose notebooks, pencils, pens and simpler toys to satisfy their needs. We’ve considered tees and bags and stuff, but they’re a little beyond our budget at Nozkidz for promotional stuff.
