Taking a Break

Dear readers,

I am going to temporarily stop blogging until further notice.

Thank you for reading my blog!

Snoopy The Flying Ace Visits The Intrepid

If you are in NYC and love Snoopy, hurry up and go to the Intrepid Museum in NYC to see the "Snoopy as the World War I Flying Ace” exhibition. I so wish I could fly over to see the exhibition but I can't afford a coast to coast trip. The exhibition is only until April 30th, so you have 9 days left if you want to see it. It is a traveling exhibition.

Snoopy As The World War I Flying Ace - Interpid Museum
http://www.intrepidmuseum.org/CuratorsCorner/December-2009-%281%29/Snoopy-and-Intrepid.aspx

I just found additional information about the traveling Snoopy tour at:

MAAA -"Snoopy as the World War I Flying Ace"
http://www.eusa.org/SiteResources/Data/Templates/t2.asp?docid=657&DocName=Snoopy%20as%20the%20World%20War%20I%20Flying%20Ace

If the link doesn't work for you, try this:

MAAA -"Snoopy as the World War I Flying Ace"
http://tinyurl.com/y5r8wz4

A Wacky Backpack!

I totally love Wacky Packages. I was browsing for the new Wacky Packages books in Amazon, and came across a Wacky Packages back pack. I wish there were more pictures and better description. It looks fairly small to me.

Wacky Packages Backpack
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HGLJE8/ref=pd_luc_gc_rec_03_03

What Are You Drinking Now?

The Knowledge For Thirst is a blog about all kind of beverages. Their statement simply states that "The Knowledge For Thirst is where Kevin Fanning and Joshua Allen sit around and jaw about beverages." A few post examples are "Monster M-80 Mixxd Khaos Assault", "Russian Variation of the Pepsi New Logo", "Pictures & commentary on failed sodas."

At first, it appeared to be a small site, because I was looking for those "next post" text. It actually took me about a minute or two to realize that it's not the arrows on the top that I need to click, in order to keep moving, but the title next to them. Each page is dedicated to one topic. But when I looked at the archives, I saw a list of all the posts! There are many. I strongly recommend using the archives because you can see them all at once and choose the ones you are interested in reading. They have a few interesting titles.

So go check it out at:

Knowledge For Thirst
http://www.knowledgeforthirst.com

YouTube - A cat stands on 2 feet (original)

How does this cat stand on two feet for so long?! ;-P




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI3WBamlxio

More But Bizarre Bottle Openers

I forgot to add this bizarre set of bottle corkscrews to my previous post. The post of that site, appeared in 2007, so its a bit old. But you gotta check it out if you have not seen this yet. Some of them made me chuckle. These are truly weird! Some I didn't like though.

35 Coolest Bottle Openers
http://bizarrearea.com/index.php/gadgets/35-coolest-bottle-openers.html

A Visit To The Virtual Corkscrew Museum

The virtual corkscrew museum contains both old and unusual corkscrews. I don't really know what to say at this point, because my brain is so fried right now at 2AM. Besides, they have so many categories that it takes a while to see everything. There are so many different types and styles of corkscrews. These aren't your typical corkscrews that are made these days. But I liked what I saw. It has been fun so far. Maybe some of them weren't so unusual back in the 19th century, but to now they are.

The Virtual Corkscrew Museum
http://www.bullworks.net/virtual.htm

Blog - munequitosrusos

This blog is in Spanish (the blogger is from Spain), I viewed it using the Yahoo Babelfish translator. From what I gathered, the posts in this blog are related to pop culture and nostalgia mostly from Europe and Russia. I didn't really read much but I liked the posts about the Russian cartoons. By the way, I don't know what the word "munequitosrusos" means. I think it's a Russian word.







http://munequitosrusos.blogspot.com/

Yahoo Babelfish translator
http://uk.babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_txt

What Are These Service Dogs For?

There is a nice thread about the background and history of the different types of assistance and service dogs under a topic called "paws and claws", in a forum site called Building Foundations. I am not familiar with this site, but I like it. I have not been able to find a specific statement as to what this site is about, maybe I missed it. But it appears that it provides emotional support for people who are going through difficult times emotionally and mentally.

I can't guarantee though, that all the information in this thread is entirely accurate. Most likely it is. Either way, it has valuable information.

As I have mentioned in the past, I have a hearing dog. So, this is why sites about service and assistance dogs intrigue me. I keep learning about different type of service dogs that I never heard of before. I've even heard of donkeys, ponies and guinea pigs as service animals. Also, about monkeys for deaf people in another country. Personally, I can't imagine walking around places with a monkey on your shoulder. I like monkeys, but no thanks. I'll stick to the dog ;-)

Building Foundations - Paws & Claws
http://www.buildingfoundations.net/chat/index.php?showtopic=26875

Lock a Lock

I never really thought about their history. It's one of those things that you just don't think about. Besides, I always assumed it was possibly just a few hundreds years old invention. It didn't occurred to me that there is such a rich history for this little thing. But, I discovered that locks have been around long before the birth of Christ. They are often mentioned both in the old testaments and in the mythology. Once I read that, it made sense to me. I've also learned that there are many types of locks with different shapes, purposes and origins. There is even a lock museum in Terryville, Connecticut. I had no idea there is such a museum. It wouldn't even crossed in my mind.

Also. I saw several other good links that I liked. Below are links for three sites that I enjoyed viewing. The first link is focused on the history, the second one is the museum, and the last two links are from the American Lock Collectors Association. There are a truly many amazing pictures of unique shaped locks. There are even locks that are shaped like animals. They are called Figural Locks.

Schlage's History of Locks
http://www.locks.ru/eng/informat/schlagehistory.htm

Lock Museum Of America
http://www.lockmuseum.com/

The ALCA's site has a photo gallery of all kind of locks including historical locks

The American Lock Collectors Association (ALCA)
http://alca.us/PHOTO_GALLERY.html

The ALCA even has a page for fake locks!

ALCA - Fakes
http://alca.us/FAKES.html

A Road To Nostalgiaville Of Soda and Beer

This is great. The site is a museum that mainly focused on the beer and soda's historical background. I have never seen so many ads for old beer and soda cans which is what I liked the best. You can view them in the first link. In the second link you can see big collections of soda bottles, soda glasses, con top soda cans, and soda cans. There is a link within the second link that will lead you another page called "A Pop-A-Can Soda Story". The third page is the home page as you can see.

Soda Pad Home Page
http://www.gono.com/collectorhomepage.htm

The Museum of Beverage Containers & Advertising's Soda Collection
http://www.gono.com/tb/soda/1sodacollection.htm

Home Page - Welcome To Nostagiaville
http://www.gono.com/

The collection is part the Nostalgiaville farm in Springfield, Tennessee. There are pictures of the location of the farm as well interior pictures of the museum. There is a virtual tour as well, where you can see the collections and everything. If you wish to see it in person, you can make an Personal tour to visit the farm.

There are other pages that are not collection. There are photographs of other cities.

Peterbilt All The Way

An interesting history of Peterbilt, a heavy duty truck history from 1900 to 2000. The company itself was established in 1939.

According to the site, the goal was for the industry was to concentrate on delivering high performance and low maintenance, as well very strong and durable vehicles. The focused to paying off a low operating cost with the driver productivity and high resale value. That was basically what the focus of Peterbilt when it was established. If you will keep reading, you'll find that there is quite a rich history for this company, that actually does begin in 1900 before the trucks even existed yet. There were motor wagons that were motor driven commercial. There was a big competition at the time. But when the steam power was fully in use in the early 1900's those wagon were no longer in a higher demand. People now turned to the railroad system which was much faster and thus a faster service. The rivers and the canals also became highly useful as another mean for transportation. This early technology paved the way to a company called Peterbilt which gradually become a top trucking company since its birth 1939. If you do the math, it is a 71 years old company. I don't know of many companies that still exist after so many decades.

Much more information at:

Peterbilt
http://www.peterbilt.com/history.aspx

Soviet Pressed Steel Vehicles At Tri Ang

I admit, I don't really understand much what this page is all about. This page is just an addition to the tri - ang site. These are are Soviet and Chinese pressed steel models of vehicles. The page mentions Tippers, special trucks, excavators, fire engines, ZIS/ZIL, Zavod, AZLK and Camocean trucks.

Tri - Ang: Soviet Models
http://www.triang.nl/russian.htm

Blog - Hearing Dog Training

My friend, Martha, has just started a new blog.

Martha Hoffman has been a trainer with the Hearing Dog Program (HDP) for many many years, and is one of the trainers who helped established the new HDP that was established when the SFSPCA cut off its old program. She now is the Training Director for the new independent HDP. She has now started a new training blog.

Blog - Hearing Dog Training
http://marthahoffman.info/blogs/blog6.php

In her new blog, Martha will be describing all of her HDP training visits that are interesting and how to train. If you are in another dog training list or sites, could you please pass this information along. So since she just started the blog, it's very fresh.

I volunteered to help promote her blog. Hopefully, it'll bring more awareness about these service dogs. Many people don't know what hearing dogs are. They are not widely known like dogs for the blind. I've been in situations where people didn't want me to go inside the store with my previous hearing dog, Bodie, but explaining that he is a service dog helped most of the times.

You know, I've had people asking me what kind of things does the hearing dog perform for me. But when they ask me for more information about the training, it becomes harder for me to explain because it's not that simple. There is more than just training a dog to do basic commands like sit, stay and come. This blog has answers to all those questions with details and descriptions.

I've known Martha for many years now. She has a lot of experience and can vouch for her as a good trainer. She helped me a lot when I was dealing with Bodie's mischiefs.

Above is Shelby, my new hearing dog. She is a Black Lab who just turned 2 years old early March. Thanks to Martha she is now a part of my life.

What Is Your Local Airport Code?

I don't know how many airport codes exist in the worlds. Probably in the hundreds if not thousands, I haven't got the information although I could probably try to count them. I'm sure it'll take me a while if I included military and small airport codes. Their codes are different.

Ever wonder how the airports even got their codes in first place? Here a bit of history. I haven't seen many good sites with more history of the codes. But if I'll find one I'll post it. This site has pretty good information though. I like it quite a bit. I did see many nice sites with tremendous airport codes on Google. Some have four letter codes. Most of these sites have no history though.

History of Airport Codes
http://www.air-ticket.us/airport_code_lookup.php

YouTube - Epic Slow Motion Dog Food Commercial

It's one of the best pet food ads that I've seen in a long time. I thought it was an amazing footage. It is hilarious and funny. It actually relaxed me a little bit too. I love it!

It was posted on YouTube on March 15. There are other ones from Feb, but not as big as this one. The footage quality is good. I won't spoil it for you with the details, if you haven't seen it yet. These dogs are just so adorable! They are so expressive. click on the link to see the actual size of the clip on YouTube. Or click twice on the clip. It doesn't show the whole size on my blog.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSl0D1eZ-nU

A Kitchen In Tokyo

An interesting article that let us peek (unfortunately no photos) into Japanese household kitchens. Their kitchens is the one place that visiting family members and friends are unwanted. It's practically a taboo. This article is regarding a popular Japanese show called "Totsugeki! Tonari No Ban Gohan (surprise attack)" that shows shows up unannounced in people's houses to show their kitchen during mealtime. The meals themselves have a ritual. It was a good article to learn about the Japanese kitchens and how the meals are served.

Bento - Home Kitchens: Cluttered with Convenience
http://www.bento.com/taste/tc-kit.html

Main Page

Bento - Tokyo Food Page
http://www.bento.com/tokyofood.html

Are you a big fan of the original Twilight Zone show? I am. I loved the show except for the creepy episodes. Like when William Shatner sees a beast on the airplane's wing. And the one where a young woman who lives in a world that everybody look like pigs with third eyes, has a face surgery. She has bandages on her face, so we never see what she looks like until the end of the show. Once the bandages are removed, she looks at the mirror and screams. Her surgery was a disaster. She is in a sharp contrast to these scary pig like being. She is beautiful with two eyes. She would be beautiful on earth, but on this planet, where a beauty would someone who a pig like creature with three eyes she is an outcast.

But a big favorites of mine, is the one where the Robert Redford plays the Angel of Death which was actually a nice angel. I can see why he was such a heart throb at the those days. As the angel of death, he helps an old woman to face the reality that it's her time to go and not to be afraid. He plays and an injured man whom she nurses back to health, or so she thinks. In the process of getting healed, he slowly charms her, and shows her there is nothing to be afraid of. He helps her not to afraid of death. At the end he finally convinces her, and she lets her fear go. There is more to that. Her house is being demolished, but she refused to go. I think it's a symbolism for her fear of death. Do you think?

The Paley Center For Media which is located both in NY and LA has a lot of information about the show from all kinds of aspects including Rod Serling's early career. It's a wonderful reading and if you read about it, you will learn about the show's premier, the show influence on Stephen King, Star Trek, Cindy Sherman, and more, Surrealism, distinct graphic look at the TZ, legacy, panoply of stars, and the collection at the Paley Center For Media. Besides the Twilight Zone, there are other topics that are not related to the Twilight Zone that are features on this site that also includes fun.

Make sure you know where you are though. I still haven't quite mastered the way of the navigation yet. But, maybe it's just me. I was a bit lost trying to view other interesting subjects. Overall, I love this site very much and enjoyed it. the Paley Center would be a place that I'd like to see in person.

I also liked the "perspectives on media" page. Its pretty cool. They have good topic for practically anyone. I think it's a good page to focus on at if you are at lost, because it includes most or all of the topics in this site, besides, it's fun too.

The Twilight Zone Forever
http://www.paleycenter.org/the-twilight-zone-forever

Perspectives-On-Media
http://www.paleycenter.org/perspectives

Fantastic Lego Art

It's amazing what people can do with Lego, isn't it? It never ceased to amazed me to see new Lego artwork. One of the most impressive that I've seen was a few years ago. it was a full size Volvo.

The Brothers Brick is all about Lego art.

The Brothers Brick
http://www.brothers-brick.com

Little Marie & Her Brothers On YouTube

When I was little I used to watch Donny and Marie Osmond variety show on TV back in mid-70's. I loved their show and the pearly smile ;-) Presently, I'm no longer their fan, but I still enjoy watching their old clips. The first clip I actually saw on a TV biography. It is a clip from the Andy Williams show in 1964, with the Osmonds kids. Donny was 6 in this clip. I used to love Andy Williams specials as well. He was very charming, wasn't he?

The big reason that I like this clip, because it also features little Marie who is adorable as a shy 4 years old. If I remember correctly, this was her first "performance" in public.

Unfortunately,the ebbing is disabled, so just follow the link.

YouTube - Lida Rose - Andy Williams & The Osmonds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MLtzKJQevI

Below is another link that I liked. It features Donny Osmond and Michael Jackson as teens (I don't know how old they are actually) with two little boys dressed up like them.

Michael jackson and Donny Osmond

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

Blog - On Motivation and Chocolate

I am beginning to have a crave for these chocolates. My stomach is practically chiming in now. But I am gonna say "no thanks" to the Jalapeno Chocolate and the Tamales chocolate. They are way too HOT, I'm sure. I can't even imagine what they taste like. There are some "attractive" chocolate photos, but the image above was my favorite. Pretty neat!

Blog - On Motivation and Chocolate
http://motivationbychocolate.blogspot.com

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

Fun With A Design Magazine

I love this site. I'm sure lots of designers know about this site. If you have never seen it, it's worth a shot. They have posts with images for graphic design, typography, best book covers, web designers, widgets, mistakes in logo design, good articles, etc.

Smashing Magazine
http://www.smashingmagazine.com

Flickr - Christian Montone's Vintage Sets

Another great Flickr collection of vintage sets. A few examples of sets are, advertising albums, vinyl vault, book covers, food & drink, crayons and paints, stickers, cinerama & television, toys, game, cans, bottles and more.

Flickr - Christian Montone
http://www.flickr.com/photos/christianmontone/sets

Dear Maid, Please Do Not Disturb

It seems that I missed the train again. This is a blog run by a person named Michael Lebowitz. There is a post from Aug 2008 about his grandfather who passed away the year before. His grandfather was in the foreign service. During his travels around the world, he collected hotel door hangers. He had a nice old vintage collection. I envy some of these awesome door hangers. There are 55 of them! Few are creative and funny.

Michael Lebowitz - "Hotel Door Hangers Collected By My Grandfather"
http://lebowitz.net/hotel-door-hangers-collected-b-1

The Black Knights Of The Middle Ages.

I never knew that there were black knights during the middle ages. I was very surprised. They were actually called Moors. The most famous Moor was a knight named Sir Morien who was refer to as"the Moor". He was one of the best and finest knight.

Sir Morien Black Knight Of The European Middle Ages
http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/morien.html

I am having a very difficult time finding more information about Sir Morien, and other black knights. I wish I could find more information because I think it's important to learn about them. This isn't a subject that I learned in grade school or college. I think it would be good to add it to history classes. It intrigued me since I had never been aware of this great knight who was one of the best knights ever in the fictional Arthurian era.

I came upon this site called "Blackpresence" which I am not familiar with. But it looks pretty good and I do like it a lot. It has more information about the black knights of the middle ages. There is a page titled "Black knights in Europe". This is really the most that I could find about these knights besides Sir Morien.

The statue above is of St. Maurice.

Blackpresence - Black Knights In Europe
http://www.blackpresence.co.uk/2009/03/black-knights-in-europe

The Most Grandest Medieval Castles In The World!

It's a good place to check out castle, if you wish to know more about castles or visit them. There is a list of the top 100 medieval castles in the world. The castles have general statistics. I'd say that the most important statistics are the country, era, founder of the castle, region, castle type and condition. There are a lot of pictures and postcards of beautiful and marvelous castles. I have visited some of them myself, and they definitely look different in person. Some of them are much grander than in the pictures. To tell you the truth, some of the castles that I've visited weren't easy to tour inside, because of the steep steps, but it was worth it.

The castles above from bottom to top are:

1) Krak des Chevaliers (Kalat el Hösn), Homs, Syria
2) Kasteel Medemblik (Radboud), Medemblik, Netherlands
3) Slot Loevestein, Woudrichem, Netherlands
4) Muiderslot, Muiden, Netherlands

Top Castles
http://www.topcastles.com

Recycle, Recycle, Recycle and... Re.. cyc...le......

We, in California, are very aware of recycling. We recycle almost everything. We have different symbols for recycling, but they all are similar. They mostly resemble the green recycle icon above. I was surprised to see that there a many different recycle symbols both in the first page and the second link. Some of them are simple, and some are more elaborated. You can see them in this website:

Planet Pals - The Recycle Symbol Dictionary
http://www.planetpals.com/recyclesymbols.html

Check this page also from the same site. It shows the official symbols with the numbers that indicate what type of recycle fit for certain areas. Some numbers may indicated paper only, other will be glass and aluminum, etc.

Planet Pals - Trade Recycle Symbol Dictionary
http://www.planetpals.com/recyclesymbols2.html