Typhoon holiday

A typhoon hit Taiwan yesterday, strong enough to raise the "schools & offices out" flag but weak enough to keep the water, gas, DSL, and 7-11 up. Extra holiday with all the lifelines kept intact? Pure luxury. The internet was snail-slow (looks like it...

Philip K.Dick

Watching his works coming into another life as a blockbuster movie is a delightful experience, as one of his readers who spent a good amount of time reading his short stories, originally published as part of pulp sci-fi magazines. An article says his children have...

Characters and contents

Is there a negative correlation between the richness of content and the sale of character goods? Goods-oriented (high sales figure) Mickey Mouse Peanuts (Snoopy) Hello Kitty Contents-oriented (low sales figure) The Simpsons Tom & Jerry Dilbert Disney did not...

Taking nap at lunch break

I was exposed to this custom first while visiting a company called ZTE in southern China. At precisely 12:00, lights are shut down and everybody goes to the dining room, and after coming back, crawls into their own desk. Some just slumps over the desk, some cover...

Blade Runner vs. Terminator

The polished, uncut version will come out at the end of this year. Like Terminator, Blade Runner is a certified classic marred with rudimentary special effects.In the Terminator we had the scene where Arnold Schwarzenegger trying to take off damaged eyeballs –...