The Many Faces Of Ugly Betty (an international tv show).

I am not an Ugly Betty fan. I only saw maybe 2 episodes. But a friend of mine who is big fan of the show, just told me there are only five episodes left. She was upset about it. I googled the show. I already knew it was based on a popular show in Spanish. That's all I knew. Did you know that the show originally started as a show called "Yo soy Betty, la fea", and that it was filmed in Colombia? It was produced from 1999 through 2001 by RCN (Radio Cadena Nacional) in Colombia. Since then, there have been many versions of this show all over the world. At the bottom of the link's page, you'll see a list from all those countries. I was actually at awe when I saw list. I had no idea how popular it was, and how many versions existed. I counted 19 versions! Even from countries like India, China, Poland and Russia have their own Betties.

Not only there are many versions, but the original show from Columbia is also dubbed in many other countries like Malaysia, Romania and Japan.

Wikipedia - Yo soy Betty, la fea
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yo_soy_Betty,_la_fea

Blog - Aero Philately

As a child in the late 1970's I was an avid stamp collector. I loved peeling the stamps of the envelopes then lay them down on the towel for them to dry. I think my favorite part was when they'd get dry and ready for placing them in my stamp books. My favorite type of stamps were cartoon and fancy stamps from other countries that I've never heard of. The African countries and South America in particular. I loved very old stamps too. It was so much fun. I still have my stamp albums. Even though I no longer collect stamps, I still enjoy the stamp books.

A few years ago, I went to a stamp store in downtown San Francisco. I was looking for a specific series. While browsing through the stamps, I ask the store owner if there are less collectors now since very few people write anymore. Many people have replaced the snail mail with email. He said that there are actually more collectors now. I was very surprised. It might have been my imagination, but the stamps at his store seemed to be rather expensive. I don't remember stamps being so expensive before.

As for the blog, it identifies itself as "the study of the development of aviation through the medium of philately."

The Aero Philately site is specifically about the aviation industry. There are some beautiful stamped envelops. When I collected stamps I didn't really have specific categories. I would just categorized my collection according to the origin of the stamp. I wish I had thought of concentrating on a particular subject. This is one category that it would have been nice to have. But I am glad with what I have. I think this is a great subject to focus on. When I was looking for cartoon stamps, I didn't see many at all. The ones I saw were mainly too expensive.

Blog - Aero Philately
http://aerophilatelist.blogspot.com/

More Playbills From Flickr

Flickr - Whistling in the Dark
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yaffamedia/sets/72157594555950791

Fun With A Playbill

In ioffer.com you can see many playbills for sale.I like ioffer.com because you can browse different topics. Earlier on, I was browsing for Snoopy items and found some that I liked. The items that you see in ioffer.com will actually lead you to another site where you can buy them, such as Amazon.

Playbills Items For Sale
http://www.ioffer.com/c/Playbills-1009649

Blog - Breeds Of Small Dogs : Best Small Dog Breeds

I was glad to see this site, because I recently adopted a stray or an abandoned dog that was found about two blocks from my house. I took it to the vet to find out if he was chipped. Unfortunately, he was not. He didn't have a collar either and wasn't fixed. He wasn't even trained. I taught him how to "sit" in a few days and "stay". He still needs alot of training to do.

I have the feelings that he was abandoned at the park which is a block away. A lots of Chihuahuas have been abandoned in SF Bay Area and the East Bay (Oakland and north). I know someone who tried to catch three stray Chihuahuas without any luck. I don't know about other areas. He was not in a terrible condition. He just needs to gain about 3 lbs. I went to the SPCA and the Humane Society but no one reported him. I did leave my information. According to the law here, I cannot adopt a stray dog unless no one claims him or her 30 days after he was found. I didn't have the heart to leave him at the Humane Society. He could get sick there. So I fostered him instead. When no one claimed him after 30 days, I adopted him and took care of all his needs. So now he is living with me.

I don't know what type of dog he is, but he is obviously a Chihuahua mix. He has bonded with my black lab who is a service dog. She is fine with him. She likes cats since she was raised around cats. So she is fine with little dogs too. So I think she kinda treats him like he is a cat. She has no problem if he sleeps against her body or on her legs or something. He is not a perfect dog. He barks and I am hoping she isn't going to bark every time someone approach my house. He likes to get a hold of food any change he gets. I can't turn my head for a second without him grabbing food behind my back. Shelby isn't like that. I can leave food on the coffee table and she will never touch it. But with him now, I can't. So I am hoping she won't learn bad things from him, like stealing and barking. But she does love to play with him. Sometimes she licks him and once a while he'll lick her too.

What makes me chuckle is watching the little guy walking right under beneath her without any problem. The only other time that I've seen anything like that, was with a Great Dane

Anyway, I'm a bit off point. The reason I like this blog is because it's about small dogs and the new dog that adopted is small dogs. I am not used to dogs his size. He is actually bigger than a pure Chihuahua. He is clearly a Chihuahua mix. I am thinking of doing a DNA test. There is a hospital around here that only charges $48 for a DNA test!! That's the lowest fee I've ever heard of.

Hope you'll enjoy this blog and learn new thing as well. This blog is focused on breeds only. But I think it can be still useful for any little dog pure or not. One thing I noticed about this blog, that it doesn't list all small breed. So for I have not seen a Papillon nor the Yorkshire which surprised me because they aren't that rare.

The dog breed above is called Coton de Tulear. Isn't he a handsome fella?

Blog - Breeds Of Small Dogs : Best Small Dog Breeds
http://breedsofsmalldogs.blogspot.com

Blog - Signs Never Sleep

This site is great if you enjoy making, creating, building and collecting custom signs of all sort. The title under the blog's name, Signs Never Sleep, describes the content:"The Best in Custom Signs: Carved, Sandblasted, Dimensional, Wooden, Painted, Vintage, Neon, Historical, Etc: The Sign Buyers Guide". These signs include both old and modern signs. The blog's name certainly got my attention once I saw it. I enjoyed seeing the variety of the signs display. It seems a bit different from other sites that I have been. Lots of sites seem to focus a lot on Neon signs and old motel signs. I wanted to see a site that focus on more variety like Signs Never Sleep blog. Some of the signs were quite interesting and fun as well. The photo of the lamp pink shop above was my favorite. I am crazy about bears, so had to add it to my post too ;-)

Signs Never Sleep
http://signsneversleep.typepad.com

Blog - The INFOMERCANTILE

An interesting material from a blog called "The INFOMERCANTILE". I don't know how to describe this blog. It's about the past, but not like my blog which focuses more on popular culture. It focused on it a little differently. You'd have to visit it to figure it out.

There is a post called "Fallout Protection For Homes With Basements" that I like. It's the name of a booklet that was produced during the cold war. You can read each page from this booklet, or order a reprint. In the booklet's pages there are also illustrations of the shelter and specifications. The booklet is mostly technical. But it's interesting to see these type of booklets from those days.

There is an excerpt from the book (under the heading "HOW MUCH PROTECTION DOES YOUR BASEMENT PROVIDE AGAINST RADIOACTIVE FALLOUT?") that does say that "In homes, basement areas provide the best shelter against fallout because they are mostly below ground. This gives them a natural shield. This booklets tells you the amount of protection your basement offers and what you can do to increase this protection to provide your family's safety. Keep in mind that fallout shelter provides only limited protection against blast." I thought it was kinda interesting considering the paranoia at the time.

It's amazing that people believed that they were going to be really protected by those shelters.

In short, the post describes the booklet: "Fallout Protection For Homes With Basements is a 28-page pamphlet produced by the U.S Government during the Cold War, providing tips and instructions on how to harden an existing basement against radiation and fallout resulting from a nuclear explosion."

Fallout Protection For Homes With Basements
http://www.infomercantile.com/-/Fallout_Protection_For_Homes_With_Basements

Another post that I liked is called "Camera for the Year 2000, 1968." It does look kinda 'star treky'. Star Trek is one of my favorite shows. Maybe that's why I love the look of this gadget.



Camera for the Year 2000, 1968
http://www.infomercantile.com/blog/2009/10/camera-for-year-2000-1968.html

The First Airlines In The World Is...

The top airplane is an aeroflot Tupolev154m
The buttom airplane is an aeroflot Boeing767-300ER

Did you know that Aeroflot, the Russian airlines, are the world oldest scompany!? I never knew that! I always thought it was Braniff Airways. But Braniff Airways started in 1928. Five years after Aeroflot became operational in 1923. Braniff Airways ceased to exist in 1982 while Aeroflot Airline continued their services.

I am not even sure if I ever heard of Aeroflot. I've been in international airports many times, and can't even remember seeing their airplanes. There are always so many airplanes that I don't even know what country they came from. I am not very familiar with Russian airliners. When I came across this information by chance, I knew I wanted to post this. I don't know how well known this fact is in general, but I bet that lots of people that I know, don't know this fact, except for a couple of pilots that I know. I wonder if they have to learn that in flight school. I'll have to ask them. On the other hand maybe I knew and forgot. I always tell people my memory is like a Swiss cheese full of holes.

I know one thing for sure. It's easy. I saw the French and British Concorde five times. Two of them flew over my head when I was in college. I saw them while walking to class. I was so awesome! There was a golf competition nearby and the airport was about 10 minutes away. You just can't miss a Concorde!

History Of AEROFLOT
http://www.aeroflot.no/side2.html

If you wish to learn more about Aeroflot's background, you can watch their corporate video in English. There is one in Russian too, unfortunately, there are no closed captioning or subtitles. However, I was glad to see that there is an English for the same video. I wish that both were also closed captioned or subtitled. I rely on them. So, I can only tell you from a visual point of view that the early scenes of this video were a little boring for me, but it became interesting later on once they started to focus on the airplane services for the passengers.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYLaxFaFo1I

I also saw a few commercials on YouTube, but thought they were a bit lame. But that's just me. They were all in Russian except one that was also subtitled. It went so fast I wasn't able to follow the subs all the way through. The font was difficult to follow. i watched it a few time, and still had trouble following the text. It seemed like an odd commercial or something like that.

UPDATE!

I was just informed that Aeroflot is NOT the oldest airline. The oldest airlines is KLM.

Wikipedia - KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KLM

It is confusing though, if you look at this link:

Wikipedia - List of airlines by foundation date
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airlines_by_foundation

If I get further information, I will post it.

Blog - American Airlines 707 Jet Stewardess

I just love anything about airplanes and flight attendants. This blog's title of the blog is pretty much self explanatory. ;-)

Blog - American Airline 707 Jet Stewardess
http://americanairlinesstewardess.blogspot.com

..And Your Destination Is?

Rate to go travel blog is a bit different from the common tourist sites. There are useful information, like tips and advises. But there are also fun posts about the world travel, and it also include the "10 best of.." type of posts, and other type of information you might not see in a regular tourism sites. They even have a post for coffee tourism destinations. I enjoyed best these three old posts down below, about weird signs from 2008. I know that some of these photos have been around the internet, like on Flickr, but it's still fun to see some of these again. As for myself, there are some that I've not seen before and this is from someone who thought she had pretty much seen nearly of those signs on the internet. But I was wrong.

Rates To Go
http://blog.ratestogo.com/

My favorite are the weird and wacky signs around the world series even though they are almost two years old posts.

Weird and Wacky Signs Around the World Part I
http://blog.ratestogo.com/12-weird-and-wacky-signs-around-the-world

Weird and Wacky Signs Around the World Part II
http://blog.ratestogo.com/12-more-weird-and-wacky-signs-around-the-world

Weird and Wacky Signs Around the World Part III
http://blog.ratestogo.com/weird-and-wacky-signs-around-the-world-part-iii

Weird and Wacky Signs Around the World Part IV
http://blog.ratestogo.com/weird-and-wacky-signs-around-the-world-part-iv