The Tokusatsu Cycle

Tokusatsu, can fall into a predictable cycle. Joe Schmoe, usually a character with a tragic past, encounters lackeys of an evil organization with aims to take over the world; hero goes through an elaborate sequence of poses to transform into the mega-powerful costumed Superhero X; giant rubber-suited monster gets pummeled into oblivion; catchy closing theme plays as footage of the hero riding off to meet his next challenge rolls under the credits.

* * *

What can I say? That never stopped me as a kid as from watching.

It's About Time (by Ruth Wong)

recent articles

7/26/10 - 7 Ruinous Habits

6/28/10 - One Month to Live, Part 3

6/14/10 - One Month to Live, Part 2. The book "One Month to Live," by Kerry and Chris Shook, founders of the Fellowship of the Woodlands church near Houston, is a 30-day challenge to do just that - to live as if we were dying. They said that countless people in every stage of life say things such as: "Someday I'm going to go for all that life has to offer." "When I retire, then I'm going to enjoy life." "When I make enough money, then I'm really going to spend more time with my kids."

We all have things we want to do and experience, things that we'll do when we have the time, when conditions are better or when we get caught up. But in reality, how often does that "someday" come?

All too often, I've noticed that "someday" is "ne'er-to-come" day. "Someday. One day. When. If. Then it's over. When are we going to wake up and realize this is your life, right here, right now? Someday is right now."

5/24/10 - If you knew you had only one month to live, how would you live it? Would you continue on as always, or would you make changes to make the most of the time you have left?

This is just one of the questions authors Kerry and Chris Shook, founders of a megachurch outside Houston, present in their New York Times best-seller book "One Month to Live: Thirty Days to a No-Regrets Life."

1/25/10 - Don't delay in doing things you've put off

10/26/09 - Puttering around yields better mental health
8/24/09 - Successful Don'ts
5/11/09 - More reasons clutter accumulates
4/27/09 - Just how did that clutter accumulate?
2/27/09 - Purging the dross of triviality [added 12/26/15]
2/13/09 - The 5S Clean Desk Cop
Bring order to your home office

11/14/08 - How much stuff does a man need?
6/27/08 - Organization is not about looking good

11/9/07 - Contentment helps simplify life
09/28/07 - Living nobly and freely
05/25/07 - Make your life count while you can
05/14/07 - Pare down possessions and gain peace

02/10/06 - Use routines to stay on top of daily chores
02/10/06 - Downsizing frees up space for meaningful possessions

12/23/05 - Organizing Express gets final check
12/09/05 - List guages improvement
11/25/05 - Reality check on progress
11/11/05 - Shovel out from under all your stuff
10/28/05 - Mini-tasks more likely to get done
10/14/05 - Don't put off today's tasks
09/23/05 - More on the 80/20 Rule
09/09/05 - The 80/20 Rule
08/26/05 - What does your home say about you?
08/12/05 - Appreciate life while still living it
07/22/05 - Simplifying life brings freedom
07/08/05 - Overcome roadblocks one at a time
06/24/05 - Neglecting problems now can hurt later
06/10/05 - Arise and face the day, beautifully
05/27/05 - How to slow down
05/15/05 - Why rush through life?
04/22/05 - Is your home constipated?
04/08/05 - Discard clutter, not the memories
03/25/05 - Small acts are better than big ideas
03/11/05 - The problem of procrastination
02/25/05 - Organize your bill paying
02/11/05 - Avoid mail pile-up
01/28/05 - Getting organized
01/14/05 - What will you pay to get organized?

12/24/04 - Final recap of this year's columns
12/10/04 - More action steps from this year's columns
11/26/04 - Recapping the first quarter
11/12/04 - Be thankful for small joys
10/22/04 - What do you wish you were doing (and why aren't you?)
10/08/04 - What does organization mean to you?
09/24/04 - Hurricane Preparedness
09/10/04 - Being Ready for a Hurricane
08/27/04 - Delay work, delay enjoyment
08/13/04 - Thoughts on simplicity and elegance
07/23/04 - Make today and every day the best day of your life
07/09/04 - Works smarter not harder with checklists
05/28/04 - It's never to early to right-size
03/26/04 - Spring clean your closet
01/09/04 - Theme for the Year

11/28/03 - Happiness doesn't depend on things
05/23/03 - Unload your brain

10/25/02 - To grow is to outgrow and let go

03/24/01 - Ruth Wong delves into people's brains

12/27/96 - Make most out of space

Hawaiian-Style Ring Tones

Hawaiian Telcom, in partnership with Mountain Apple music company, is offering Hawaiian music ring tones.

Watering Your Nose

Yogis have known about its beneficial effects for centuries, and contemporary Western medicine is slowly catching on: Nasal irrigation with an isotonic solution (meaning, a saline solution similar in salt content to the body’s fluids) is becoming increasingly popular.

Richard Pryor

Richard Pryor, the groundbreaking comedian whose profanely personal insights into race relations and modern life made him one of Hollywood's biggest stars, died of a heart attack Saturday. He was 65.

Don Ho undergoes experimental heart surgery

Don Ho, Hawai'i's most famous entertainer, has undergone an experimental heart procedure in a hospital in Bangkok, Thailand — a last-resort effort to maintain a regular heartbeat and extend his life.

Ho, 75, had the surgery Monday night. The procedure, called VesCell Adult Stem Cell therapy, involves an injection of the patient's stem cells from his blood directly into his heart muscle to treat heart disease.

Jet Li gives up kung fu movies?

Jet Li says his next movie, Fearless will be the last kung fu movie he'll make.

Atter this, he'll try to decide between playing baseball or running for governor of California.

Bruce Lee in Bosnia

A bronze statue of martial arts legend Bruce Lee has been erected in the Bosnian city of Mostar - a day before a second statue of him is unveiled in Hong Kong.

"We will always be Muslims, Serbs or Croats," said Veselin Gatalo of the youth group Urban Movement Mostar. "But one thing we all have in common is Bruce Lee."

Mr. Miyagi

Actor Pat Morita, best known for helping teach a boy martial-arts mastery through household chores as the wise Mr. Miyagi in "The Karate Kid," has died. He was 73.

13 Uses for Bounce

What Granny knew... just like baking soda and lemon juice, dryer sheets seem to have more possible applications than you'd think. Although we haven't tried all of them, the few we tested did indeed work. (For the record: even though we mention Bounce, you don't have to use a brand name product--any dryer sheet will do.)

Repel mosquitoes. Tie a dryer sheet through a belt loop when outdoors during mosquito season.

Dissolve soap scum from shower doors. Clean with a used dryer sheet.

Freshen the air in your home. Place a dryer sheet in a drawer or hang one in the closet.

Prevent thread from tangling. Run a threaded needle through a used dryer sheet to eliminate the static cling on the thread before sewing.

Prevent musty suitcases. Place an individual dryer sheet inside empty luggage before storing.

Keep the shock away. Place a sheet in your coat pocket to avoid the shock you get getting in and out of the car in the winter.

Clean baked-on food from a cooking pan. Put a sheet in the pan, fill with water, let sit overnight, and sponge clean. The anti-static agents apparently weaken the bond between the food and the pan, while the fabric softening agents soften the baked-on food.

Eliminate odors in wastebaskets. Place a sheet of Bounce at the bottom of the wastebasket.

Collect cat hair. Rubbing the area with a sheet of Bounce will magnetically attract all the loose hairs.

Eliminate static electricity from Venetian blinds. Wipe the blinds with a used dryer sheet to prevent dust from resettling.

Wipe up sawdust from drilling or sand papering. A used sheet of Bounce will collect sawdust like a tack cloth.

Deodorize shoes or sneakers. Place a sheet of Bounce in your shoes or sneakers overnight so they smell great in the morning.

Keep flies away. Hang some sheets outside your doors to keep the flies from congregating and getting in your house every time the kids open the door. Place them in a work shed that has no air-conditioning and is wide open and you will never have a fly.

- WWNK 11/22/05

Here's snope's results (which were mixed)

Dragon Gate (the kung fu movie store)

Emily Ng, manager of Dragon Gate Bookstore, started noticing a drop-off in Chinese-language book sales about eight years ago. Rather than wait for obsolescence, she started bringing in videos and DVDs, starting with kung fu films not carried by rental operations such as Blockbuster. Since then she's managed to create a niche for fans of Chinese and Asian cinema in her small, unassuming storefront at the Chinatown Cultural Plaza.

Dragon Gate Top 20

"Initial D the Movie"
"House of Fury"
"Tai Chi Master"
"Hero"
"House of Flying Daggers"
"Shaolin Soccer"
"Sword in the Moon"
"Shaolin vs. Evil Dead"
"Kung Fu Mahjong"
"Stairway to Heaven"
"Butterfly Sword"
"Dragon Inn"

Top Shaw Brothers DVDs
"Avenging Eagle"
"36th Chamber"
"Shaolin Temple"
"Five Shaolin Master"
"The Brave Archer (1, 2, 3, 4)"

Hmm. Kung Fu Mahjong? Sounds interesting.

why you sleep so late?

A new study suggests that, as children mature, the chemically driven pressure to sleep builds up more slowly. As a result, teens just don't get sleepy until later in the evening.

- starbulletin, 11/6/05

A Complete Handbook of Natural Cures

John Kapili added A Complete Handbook of Natural Cures for your reading enjoyment in PDF format for free. I added this after reading Kevin Trudeau Natural Cures Book. John Kapili also was given a book on cd: Lose 30 Pounds in 30 Days . In my opinion I wouldn't buy either. Read the Complete Handbook of Natural Cures you will get just as much if not more for free. A great deal of Kevin Trudeau cures he wants you to pay for at his website by becoming a member at $ 9.95 a month or $ 499.00 for a lifetime membership. John Kapili will be asking for his money back guarantee, as soon as he digs out the garbage a gets the packing slip that is needed for returns.

-- from frwr-news 11/16/05

Apparently (from the url embedded in the file) this file originated from Health Library.com, though I wasn't able to find it there now.

odd blogs

The J-Walk Blog

- from ravi, 3/11/05

Squashed Philosophers

While the writings of great philosophers such as Aristotle, Machiavelli, Locke, Nietzsche, Pascal and Kant are ingenious and insightful, they are also often long-winded, verbose, and difficult to interpret. Thanks to Squashed Philosophers, the average guy can quickly read a nicely condensed and easily digestible bit of Western Philosophy.

-- Cool Tricks and Trinkets #340

getting rid of stuff

[9/20/07] Getting Good Stuff Cheap (or Free)!

[11/11/05] freecycle was featured in the starbulletin a couple of weeks ago. It had 1416 members back then. It's now up to 1498. That's a fairly disappointing increase.

[12/25/05] Here's an earlier article that appeared last year. (In the print edition, that article was accompanied by this story.)

[1/14/05] WinXPNews has some suggestions on how to get rid of your unwanted computer (and other) stuff. Two in particular look intriguing: freecycle and craigslist.

fashion statement

My idea of fashion

Success.org

At this website, not only can you learn how to invest in real estate, you can learn self-defense too!

- from Roy

The Yogis of Tibet

I see that this film was playing at Spaulding Auditorium a couple of weeks ago.

I don't see it on imdb, but I see they have a website, a favorable review, and some interesting background information.

Can You See Clearly Now?

[10/28/05] I received a spam for the product called The See Clearly Method which claims to be able to improve your eyesight.

Does it work? It is unclear, but the fact that it was spam may be a clue.

***

Q. I am 51 and have recently noticed that newspaper print is getting harder to read. To forestall the need for reading glasses, should I give my eyes a daily workout by reading the paper without glasses, or will reading small print make the problem worse?

A. Neither course of action will make a difference in the long run, and in the short run, “an unnecessary workout by reading the paper without glasses will only lead to blurriness, headaches and frustration,” said Dr. Christopher E. Starr, assistant professor of ophthalmology at Weill Cornell Medical College. Your difficulty is almost certainly presbyopia, a condition that appears at middle age and is caused by a progressive loss of flexibility in the lens, making it harder and harder for the lens to change shape to focus clearly on objects at different distances.

The difficulty is most noticeable when trying to view small targets like printed text.

“Presbyopia is purely related to increasing age and there are no exercises that can prevent it or slow it down,” Dr. Starr said in an e-mail message.

“Wearing the correct eyeglass prescription will allow you to read comfortably at a normal distance and will not weaken the eye or cause the presbyopia to progress further.”

keywords: vision, eyesight, eyeglasses

***

[11/1/10] Kind of reminds me of the Bates method and the book Better Eyesight Without Glasses (which I bought years and years ago) which gets four stars at Amazon.

Even more interesting is the book Relearning to See. What makes it interesting is the author's name: Thomas Quackenbush.

***

[11/1/10] And now, Eye Yoga.

*** [7/22/12 via frwr_news]

Eyes Relaxing and Focusing – is designed to protect computer users' eyesight, especially that of those who spend in front of the monitor more than one hour a day. While occupied with various programs, games, designing or programming, users often lose the sense of time, especially if the process is absorbing. After some period, you must make a pause to let your eyes rest. This product will allow you to train your eyesight during the break by means of particularly designed images that will appear on the screen. All you have to do is watch these images..

[I tried it and it doesn't seem to make my eyes relax.  But maybe that's not the point..]

[9/6/16] According to this, "thousands of people have improved their vision using this unique method."  I'm skeptical, but you never know..  Interesting eye exercises anyway.

Come Drink With Me

I'm still waiting for this classic kung fu movie to come out on DVD. This movie is commonly called the predecessor to Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.

The Dog Whisperer

[5/5/07] Cesar has a myspace page

Cesar on youtube

Cesar on NPR

Nightline story

Boston Globe story

American Humane says Cesar's methods are inhumane.

Cesar responds to critics

[10/13/06] The Dog Whisperer comes to Hawaii

[1/30/07] Ian Dunbar vs. Cesar Millan

[6/6/06] Not everyone agrees with Cesar's methods

[1/26/09] Another page of criticism of the Dog Whisperer

[1/30/07] Malcolm Gladwell's article

[10/24/05] Generations of children are familiar with "Lassie," but Cesar Millan, who grew up in Mexico, was particularly affected by reruns of the beloved TV series about the heroic collie and her human sidekick, Jeff. [Wasn't the boy named Timmy?]

Fat Chance

Just when we thought we couldn’t get any fatter, a new study that followed Americans for three decades suggests that over the long haul, 9 out of 10 men and 7 out of 10 women will become overweight.

Satchel Paige health nut?

Some sluggers succumbed to his famed "hesitation pitch." Others expired in the vapors of his fastball. Most amazing was his endurance -- it seemed Satchel Paige could pitch forever. But what was the old man's secret? Was his tireless, slingshot arm a quirk of genetics? Or was Paige a health nut before his time?

-- Star Bulletin, Sunday October 2, 2005

Andrew Weil

In an exclusive TIME book excerpt, Dr. Andrew Weil shares his secrets for maximizing health and happiness -- no matter how old you are

The Placebo Effect

A new University of Michigan study reveals that people exhibiting the placebo effect don’t just think they’re getting better. They really are getting better.

*** [3/17/10]

LONDON (AP) — When it comes to the placebo effect, it really may be mind over matter, a new analysis suggests.

In a review of recent research, international experts say there is increasing evidence that fake treatments, or placebos, have an actual biological effect in the body.

The doctor-patient relationship, plus the expectation of recovery, may sometimes be enough to change a patient's brain, body and behavior, experts write. The review of previous research on placebos was published online Friday in Lancet, the British medical journal.

"It's not that placebos or inert substances help," said Linda Blair, a Bath-based psychologist and spokeswoman for the British Psychological Society. Blair was not linked to the research. "It's that people's belief in inert substances help."

While doctors have long recognized that placebos can help patients feel better, they weren't sure if the treatments sparked any physical changes.

What We Must Learn From Iran

[9/29/06] Suspecting the American media aren't portraying an accurate picture of life inside Iran, a retired Honolulu journalist set out to get a first-hand look at life in the so-called "Axis of Evil" nation.

[9/27/05] Born around 590 B.C.E, Cyrus forged an empire from India to Greece. While earlier leaders banned their enemies’ religions, Cyrus respected the religions of other people. He bowed down to his subjects’ gods and rebuilt their temples. He issued what is called the first declaration of human rights. “I respect the traditions, customs and religions of the nations of my empire,” he declared, “and never let any of my governors and subordinates look down on or insult them.” His empire lasted 200 years.

Get Smart!

[4/11/13] Donna gave the the Season 1 DVD set as a gift (a year or two ago, still haven't finished watching it).  But I saw the HBO set at BookOff for $10 yesterday.  This is the one that has the fifth special features DVD.  I wasn't 100% if that was the one, so I bought it just in case and sure it enough it is.

I guess I'll unload the four DVD one at swapadvd or eBay.

Anyway they had this neat episode from the Bill Dana Show featuring Don Adams and Bill Dana as Jose Jiminez.  And in stepped Hans Conried!  But actually listening to the Bill Dana commentary, it wasn't Hans Conried but Jonathan Smith who is best known for his role on Lost In Space.  [1/8/21 - Actually his name is Jonathan Harris who played the role of Dr. Zachary Harris.] I guess I have always confused the two (or thought they were the same person).

Looking it up, they actually appeared on an episode together of Lost In Space, called the Questing Beast (on hulu).

Here's a review of the Complete Series (including the special features fifth DVD from each season). If you're looking for the special features, make sure to look for the five-disc set instead of the retail four-disc sets. And another review.

[9/5/06] The Get Smart! DVD Collection is now available for ordering directly from Time Life.

[6/5/06] Apparently the DVD set will be sold via direct response, which is sort of surprising since I would think it would be a popular item.

[6/3/06] TVShowsOnDVD has received word from an anonymous source (we'll call him "Agent 86") about the upcoming Get Smart DVD releases. We had previously reported that HBO would be releasing the series, but they've licensed the show to Time-Life instead of doing it themselves. We can expect the first season to be released sometime in Fall 2006, but Agent 86 didn't have the exact date for us. However, he's working on getting that top secret info. The set will feature all 29 color episodes, PLUS the rare B&W pilot episode where Maxwell Smart (Don Adams) is teamed up with 99 (Barbara Feldon) for the first time. All the episodes have been digitally remastered and restored, and they're the original full length episodes, not the bastardized syndicated versions.

The first DVD set will include commentary tracks and interviews with Barbara Feldon, creators Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, as well as unearthed materials featuring some of Don and Barabara's television appearances.

[9/26/05] Don Adams passes away at 82

[8/11/05] Mark Evanier, who is well-known among comic book afficianados for his time spent as an assistant/apprentice to the legendary Jack Kirby, has also spent quite a bit of time in the world of Television writing as well.

Today he's reported at his NewsFromMe.com website that "a company" (he says that he believes it to be Time-Life...more on that in a moment) is preparing an announcement for "any day now", which will see the DVD release of every episode of Get Smart.

40 years?! Wow that's a long time ago.

- from tvshowsondvd.com

---

Who will be providing the Get Smart DVD? HBO.

Kung Fu Science

Meet Chris, kung fu expert and general, all-round crazy person. Sometimes he breaks concrete blocks just for the hell of it.

Meet Michelle. She's a physicist working at the Institute of Physics, but recently she's been learning kung fu. In particular she wants to learn how to break wood with her bare hands, and find out the physics behind the feat.

-- from Cool Tricks and Trinkets #367

wheel covers

Missing a wheel cover? Try Parts Pacific Depot in Salt Lake, 833-2626. "For just $25 per wheel cover, or $65 a set, our quality hubcaps are dealer-manufactured, but priced at a huge savings to our customers."

- from Talk Story Magazine, Fall 2005

Kevin Trudeau (and his kind)

[10/30/05] Dr. Richard DeAndrea has an informercial for a product called Colon Flow. It looks like he was also the founder of another program called 21-Day Detox which has had its critics and was featured on CBS' 48 Hours.

[10/14/05] Here's another infomercial that I watched on 7/31/05. Dr. Lorraine Day was pushing her product BarleyGreen. QuackWatch responds.

[9/16/05] Kevin Trudeau's Natural Cures has been outsold only by Harry Potter. Trudeau, well-known for his infomercials, is not a doctor or scientist, and has had some run-ins with the law.

[8/29/05] With Trudeau banned from doing infomercials (except for his book), what's to become of Robert Barefoots of the world. Well, I've seen the future as I was scanning the ALIFE channel late at night. There was a guy that looked sort of like a young Tom Snyder interviewing a guy who sort of looked like a young Ken Patera. It turned out that the Tom Snyder guy was Donald Barrett interviewing Scott Kennedy pushing a product called Sea Vegg, a seaweed product. Kennedy made it sound almost as good as Barefoot's coral calcium. Like Trudeau, Barrett is under fire from the FTC. Nothing on Sea Vegg at quackwatch yet. Waddayaknow? Here's an article on Barrett that apparently came out today.

Joseph Rotblat's legacy of peace

Rotblat had worked as a scientist toward the creation of an atomic weapon, first in the United Kingdom at the University of Liverpool and then at Los Alamos, N.M. When he learned in late 1944 that Germany would not succeed in developing an atomic bomb, he believed there was no longer reason to continue work on creating a U.S. bomb. Rotblat was the only scientist to leave the Manhattan Project on moral grounds.

Gilligan gets off the island

Bob Denver passes away at the age of 70.

Sherwood Schwartz, the man who created "Gilligan's Island," said Bob Denver was a complex man and "not a guy who just slipped on banana peels."

Wacky Taxes

History is littered with odd tax schemes. William Pitt the Younger introduced a tax on windows in Britain. Peter the Great taxed souls, and Nero, urine.

Let no man say that we here in America cannot compete for oddity of tax laws. We have some really weird assessments on the books.

Collections Online

[3/24/14] I guess DVDCrate is OK, but one major limitation is that it just orders your collection in date acquired order.  No way to sort by title, or by rating, or by category, or by anything.  So doing a search, there was an alternate site suggested by a member.  It's itrackmine.com (which does books and music too).  So let's try this one.

Without even looking, it already looks pretty decents as it got reviewed by lifehacker and mashable.

[3/22/14] For some reason, I did a search for DVDSpot (I think I was looking for DVD Reviews, but I forgot the name of dvdtalk).  Anyway, I came up with this alternative for DVDSpot.  DVDCrate.  Looks like there's potential.  But then I've already created a google docs spreadsheet for my DVD Collection.

Looks like the collections (they call it a "crate") are sorted by date acquired.  Don't see anyway to sort by title or by genre or by rating.  Or by anything.  So that's a definite minus.

[11/16/08] As I went to add Bruce and Lloyd to my collection, I see the DVDSpot is gone. Sob. I don't know if I want to go back to dvdaficionado.

I've been using guzzlefish for keeping my collections of DVDs, CDs, and video games online. But guzzlefish has problems updating its data base and more importantly it's chronically down (and has been down for weeks).

I'm switching over to DVDSpot for my DVDs and I still have my dvdaficonado account.

For video games, I've fiddled with sonicswap.

For books, there's bibliophil.org.

[4/29/10 - also for books, I've been on shelfari and lately paperback swap (which has the added bonus of trading books with others). And now I have just seen and am going to try goodreads (on a search on the author of Value Investing for Dummies. Hey, after a couple of minutes with goodreads, I kind of like it. Pretty friendly interface. And now on a search for "goodreads for movies" I see flixster. I'm liking both. Trying to create a list and it's not showing up as one of my lists. It's there though as I can find it by other searches... OK, apparently it takes a while.]

[6/23/10 - Hey why not just use the google books library for my book collection? I'm going to try it now, but it looks quite promising.]

[6/23/10 - OK I tried google books library. It's OK. But I think I like using paperbackswap the best so far.]

I think there's another site for CDs, but I can't seem to find it now. I'll post it here when/if I find it. Here's one that looks promising: discogs.com. It seems to be primarily a database of recording artists and albums, but it allows you to keep a collection there too. It's a user-built database and looks fairly new. So there's still a lot of holes, but it seems to be growing fast.

[9/2/05] discog is full of holes and they seem to very picky about accepting submissions for their missing entries. I've started to put some my CDs in sonicswap instead, but it seems to be sluggish at times.

[9/2/05] I forgot about this one. I had put some of my video game/computer game collection at ign.com

[9/19/05] I ventured over to gamespot (I don't think it's affiliated with dvdspot) which allows you to catalog your video game collection. A relate site there is mp3.com which says you can put in your music collection. So I'm trying it out. The gamespot collection looks pretty good. On the hand, mp3.com is undergoing problems. Though it does seem to have a nice database of albums, I'm unable to add them to my collection. I'll try again later.

[9/21/05] I see mp3.com has a major bug. When adding albums that are by various artists, it doesn't work. And when you add them to the wish list, it shows up as a blank entry that can't be deleted. It does seem to have a fairly complete database though, so if this problem can be fixed it would be my recommended site.

Michael Buble (and other old music)

[8/23/05 early a.m.] When I was at Circuit City on Saturday, I was surprised to hear big band-type music being played over the sound system. I asked the girl stocking the shelves and she said it was Michael Buble.

It's now on my short list of music to buy (along with the Johnny Cash tribute albums -- while I wait for TNT to one day replay or otherwise make available their All-Star Tribute).

[8/27/05 early a.m.] More music I'm looking at. Steve mentioned Johnny Crawford (the kid from the Rifleman) has a band (looking at Amazon I don't see any new albums, but evidently he was a popular singer when he was younger). And that Paul Anka has an album where he puts an old beat on newer songs (Rock Swings). Linking on, I see Pat Boone has an odd album where he sings metal (No More Mr. Nice Guy). I'll pass. I might as well go get William Shatner's Has Been or even better Spaced Out.

A comment on Anka, took me to Peter Cincotti which also linked to Jane Monheit (a Tom Richards favorite -- and I hate to say it but I agree)

Instrumental music: Chris Botti, Clifford Brown (with strings).

I still like Sax by Moonlight (Greg Vail) that I bought at Costco.

Last but not least I see John Stevens has an album (Red). OK, this one goes on my want list.

Maybe I'll dig out Linda Ronstadt's 'Round Midnight and listen to that for free.

Hey I now see that Harry Connick Jr. caved and put out an album of the old songs (seems kind of slow). Now I see the Rod Stewart's Great American Songbook (series). Maybe this is the one that started it all (again). Sounds a little incongruent at first though. I see Johnny Mathis got into the act too (Isn't It Romantic)

How about Robbie Williams? (Swing When You're Winning) - linked from Buble. The last song here is Beyond the Sea, which also happens to be same as the last song from Finding Nemo.

[9/7/05] As a follow-up to the Michael Buble post, I found somebody auctioning a VHS tape of the All-Star Tribute to Johnny Cash. I also won the bid to Dressed In Black: a tribute to Johnny Cash. But I got outbid for Kindred Spirits. (Don't worry, I won't mention Miracle: Happy Summer.)

Then I started looking for tribute albums to Elvis. There's a bunch of them. But I think I may already have the best one: Honeymoon In Vegas. There's several interesting ones out there including ones by Ronnie McDowell (who voiced over Elvis in the movies), Conway Twitty, and others.

[9/9/05 - degrees of separation. Or Connections. I couldn't figure what my third DVD to buy (3 for 25 at Blockbusters on 8/29 - I bought Star Wars I and the Mummy Returns). I wound up buying Beyond The Sea which was the movie about Bobby Darin. Actually Bobby Darin might be another one to buy. Or the Beyond The Sea soundtrack. And now I hear Beyond The Sea on a Carnival Cruises commercial being played during the Agassi-Ginepri match at the U.S. Open.]

Or Tony Bennett singing Sinatra? (too mellow). Or just stick with Frank. Or the Rat Pack.

Or just listen to all the Amazon samplers 8)

[later that morning] No wait I found the album. William Hung's third album! (Happy Summer). Somehow some of the stuff I've been looking at is on this list

[12/14/05] Jamie Cullum is a jazz vocalist who was featured by the Costco Connection

[12/15/05] I was listening to Buble's Summer Wind and decided to compare it to Sinatra's version. The first version was a duet with Julio Iglesias. Then I found the song on a Reprise release, so apparently it wasn't done in the Capitol years. Then I see it was done by Steve Lawrence a couple of years ago in a Sinatra tribute (who still sounds pretty darn good considering his age) and also by Lou Rawls (the album was a little rough, but Lou likewise sounds great for his age.) Hey, now I see Barry Manilow did one in 1998 (yep, sounds like Manilow all right). $2.52 used. Hmm. Here's one by Keely Smith. Who's Keely Smith. (Hint: Keely is a woman.) Lemme see what else. Michael Andrew and Swingerhead (sounds sort of like Dean Martin). Craig Raymond & The Next Generation Big Band (sort of close, but not quite). Here's a jazz band tribute called Frankly A Tribute To Sinatra. Jimmy Amadie (no samples). Blue Dahlia (nightclub music). David Osborne (no samples, but he's a pianist based on his other albums). Roger Williams (I think he's a famous pianist). The Wright Touch Big Band (more nightclub music -- kind of reminds me of Larry on that Three's Company episode when he sang in the restaurant). Joe Martino (accompanied by accordian). The last one I see for now on Amazon is Rob Zappulla (this guy performed with Tommy Dorsey! but the album was actually released in January). Wait maybe he performed with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and not with Tommy himself. And actually there's only one song on this album.

I wonder if that Sinatra sound-a-like who used to go on Letterman, or that guy who sang in Waikiki, have albums? They probably sound better than some of these guys. Even John Stevens sounds better. Listening to him now singing It Had To Be You, he actually sounds like Harry Connick.

[2/28/06] I downloaded a bunch of Ring of Fire covers a month or two ago and started listening to them again (along with some American Idol downloads). One of them was sung by Joe Whiting whose albums are being sold at CDBaby.com which distributes independent music. They have a feature that lets you type in famous singer and they bring up artists that sounds like the original. A Frank Sinatra search brought up several including Charles Power, Gary Willner, and Ken Nelson. They come up disappointingly short but have a nice selection of songs that I might choose to compile from the Sinatra originals. Searching further, I like Frank Stallone (Sylvester's brother) the best so far. Steve Lippia is OK too (the band probably makes him sound better than he is).

Linking on, Bob Valentine is not too bad. Michael Civisca is somewhat reminiscent of Steve Lawrence. Tamer is a bit like Connick. For some reason, when I heard Gerard Carelli, I thought of Regis Philbin. I like TonyB's energy. And his voice is quite good too. OK I'll take him over Stallone, except his album is has several unfamiliar songs.

A search for Willie Nelson turned up Bill Cosner and Joe Whitehead.

I wonder if anybody sounds like Slim Whitman? The search turned up Blackstone Valley Singers. Ronnie Mason has a pleasant country voice, but can hit the high notes and sings Indian Love Song. Kind of a sedated Slim Whitman.

A search for Elvis brings Terry Buchwald (quite good), Doug Church, Jason Knight. Orange is not really a soundalike, but slightly modern interpretation.

I wasn't searching for him, but Rusty Evans sounds and even kind of looks like Johnny Cash. In fact full circle I come with his album with Ring of Fire. He's an oldtimer who recorded at the same time as Buddy Holly. Tom Lang is linked on Rusty's page, but he sound a little reminiscent of Willie. OK that's it for now.

(But wait, there's more...) I can't stop. I see some $5 specials at CDBaby.

Leon Cargil sounds good in traditional country.

Hey, Tamer is here in the Jazz Vocals category. As well as the Chris Klich Jazz Quintet

In the Easy Listening: Crooners/Vocals category, Denise Montana sounds like a Nora Ephron soundtrack. Mary Bentley has talent. Libbie Jo has potential. Frank Tarantino's instrumentals are better than his vocals. Kay Martin sounds Linda Ronstadt in Round Midnight then kind of switches to Sergio Mendez, but has only 5 songs on her CD. James Lee Stanley reminds me a bit of Kenny Rankin, but sleepier (if that's possible). Guest musician: Peter Tork! Wait, I heard a bit of CSN in there. Wow there's a lot of nice sounding stuff here. Jennifer Robin. Marilyn and George are two elderly people doing Sinatra and Bennett standards backed by MIDI arrangements, not too badly -- they'd probably be popular at retirement homes.

Locksley, a early-Beatles-esque band is in the Beatles-pop category. But I don't know if they sound any better than the Rutles.

In the 50s pop category is TopFlite, a doo wop a capella group who's claim to fame is singing the national anthem at Spokane Indians baseball games. Roger "Bass Man" Kurt "The Lowest Singing Voice in the Hawaiian Islands, possibly the World!"

I did a search for Josh Groban and came up with Moses. But his first song was more like Weird Al. Baritone Tom Baust sings show tunes very seriously. Ben Jordan is supposed to sound like a cross between Josh Groban and a Gregorian chanter. But he sounds like a very flat Josh Groban to me. I don't think Simon would pass him to the next round. Peter Arce is a piano soloist from the Phillipines who does dinner music. Darin Southam is more like it. Bradford Newquist does Cole Porter slowly. Rose Marie Rudolph sings songs to put babies to sleep. Dale North would pass to the next round. Marty Angiulli is described as Josh Groban on steroids. Sorry. Krassimir is one of Bulgaria's most popular celebrities. Szylvia is a classical stylist from Luxembourg. She sounds great until she hits The Way We Were with her accent. Mark Price does Bobby Darin stiffly. Here's a hint: Jarrod McNaughton's album is titled "You Raise Me Up". And does quite well. This Josh Young guy can sing too. John Trones, who tours with Jim Brickman, sings torch songs accompanied by piano. David Feygin reminds me of Johnny Mathis with romantic covers (probably Mathis did A Time For Us on a LP I have). The boy can sing too. Previn is often compared to Josh Groban, but unlike Josh, Previn writes all his own music and performs it as well, both vocals and instrumental parts. Eric Raftery sings jazzed up Christmas songs. Somehow I'm reminded of Home Alone. Broadway performer Craig Rubano does the hit parade. (What? No Copa Cabana.) Caroyn Sykes plays Christmas tunes on harp. Her credentials? She won Ms. Sykes the presitigious HARPO MARX SCHOLARSHIP! Beat Kaestli (is that his real name?) does big band standards with only a slight trace of his Swiss accent.

OK, that's it (again).

But wait, there's more... I decided to take a listen to Michael Feinstein on amazon.com. Rather plodding. Looking up Feinstein on wikipedia brought me to the American Songbook which brought me to John Pizzarelli. He has a high voice but now I'm getting used it. His interpretations are definitely more lively than Feinstein.

Pizzarelli's albums looks pretty cheap used. Now I see a link to Steve Tyrell singing Sinatra. I suppose he's about as good as the guys on cdbaby.

[5/18/08] I was listening to Sinatra via Windows Media Player and went to the Jazz radio link. Searching for Sinatra brought me to the Fabulous Strip station which mentioned Matt Dusk. Going to Matt Dusk brought me to a few more singers one of which of Steve Tyrell. He's not really a Sinatra sound-a-like but I like what I'm hearing from his albums. Evidently he gained some notoriety by appearing in the Father of the Bride movies.

Renee Olstead is another one that sounds quite good. And she was only 14 when she made the album in 2004.

[9/3/08] I got the new ESPN1420 magazine with a feature story on Leon Wright-Jackson. Leon Jackson was a youtube sensation in high school. I looked it up and came across another Leon Jackson who featured in XFactor (which is a clone of American Idol) who patterns himself on Michael Buble. He was good enough that Michael Buble invited him on stage to sing at one of his shows. I also see that Johnny Cash's performance on the TNT Special was on there too (see post above).

Long Days and Nights for Jasmine Trias

Life after "American Idol" for Jasmine Trias means long days and nights signing autographs at places like the Hawai'i Kai Costco on a Sunday afternoon for 50 to 60 fans, then hustling over to the Royal Kunia Wal-Mart to meet and greet 100 more.

Camile Velesco on a quest for musical success.

Living Healthy at 50

The 50s can be a turning point in people's lives, particularly in terms of health and fitness. It's inevitable. With age, your body changes. Knees start creaking, backs start aching.

But that doesn't mean fiftysomethings are down for the count. This is the time, experts say, to take control of your health and well-being.

Top Ten Web Fads

Web fads are entertaining, unintended consequences of life on the World Wide Web.

- from Cool Tricks and Trinkets

stretch your shoulders

Four-quadrant stretching, which targets the front and back, and upper and lower sections of the shoulder, is a solution to shoulder stiffness.

Jason Scott Lee doesn't flush

[11/8/07] Jason Scott Lee acts naturally

[8/13/05] Jason Scott Lee forsakes the glamour life for a rain-forest home
on the Big Island with no power, water or flush toilet

Useful phone numbers

http://starbulletin.com/2008/02/03/news/kokualine.html

http://starbulletin.com/2005/07/31/news/kokualine.html

http://starbulletin.com/2003/01/12/news/kokualine.html

Whatever happened to pogs?

‘Pog’ craze started as a juice promotion

Escape From Alcatraz

Jake is a 65-pound golden retriever and the only non-human in the tenth annual 1.2 mile swim from the infamous prison island to the San Francisco shore.

Zatoichi lives

He may be blind, but 17 year-old Bruce Mellen from Lincoln, Nebraska will still kick your ass at Soul Calibur. The Sioux City Journal reports on a local boy who just cannot be beat at the game, despite his lack of vision

How to clean your refrigerator

In five steps

Eddie Tuduri makes talent shine

Eddie Tuduri thanks God for his broken neck.

Commercialized Apocalypse

According to a 2002 Time/CNN poll, 36% of Americans believe that the Bible is the word of God and should be taken literally. 59% believe the events in the Book of Revelation are going to come true. And close to a quarter think the Bible predicted the WTC attack.

Ever since 9/11, apocalyptic visions have seen a major boost, as a Time article from June 2002 confirms: “[The terrorist attacks] not only deepened the interest among Christians fluent in the language of Armageddon and Apocalypse. It broadened it as well, to an audience that had never paid much attention to the predictions of the doomsday prophet Nostradamus, or been worried about an epic battle that marks the end of time, or for that matter, read the Book of Revelation.”

In the weeks after the attacks, U.S sales of Nostradamus books, the Bible, and books about Islam skyrocketed. But the most amazing phenomenon in the book market has been the Left Behind series by Jerry B. Jenkins and Rev. Tim LaHaye, the well-known Christian reconstructionist and co-founder (with Jerry Falwell) of Moral Majority.

http://www.caseyresearch.com/displayArchiveArticleWwnk.php?id=162

HMSA on TV

HMSA now has their own channel

MIT for free

Get an MIT education for free

100 Years (is the song in the Chase commercial)

I've been trying to find the song that's played on the Chase commercial. Here it is. It's "100 Years" by Five for Fighting.

This joins CB Song (GEICO commercial) as one of my top catchy tunes in a commercial. It's still in the top ten.

I guess you could throw in that Kill Bill tune from the Jaguar commercial

better breath through yogurt

Halitosis, the more sophisticated term for 'bad breath', is embarrassing for the sufferer as well as his environment. The common solution for breath odor is to cover it up with mints--but of course that doesn't really change the condition. Now, a team of researchers from Tsurumi University in Yokohama, Japan, have found a real, all-natural remedy: Yogurt.

During the study, 24 volunteers were being fed 3 ounces of a specially concocted yogurt--sugar free, fermented with living cultures of Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus--twice a day for six weeks. After completion of the study, measured hydrogen sulfide levels had decreased in 80% of volunteers who had bad breath... and as a bonus, plaque and gingivitis were reduced, too.

Natural Choices for Women's Health

When Laurie Steelsmith finished writing the book she'd always wanted to read, it turned out to be a 404-page guide to women's health from both the Eastern and Western perspectives.

But Steelsmith can summarize the book — "Natural Choices for Women's Health" (Three Rivers Press, paper, $15.95) — in four points that she calls "the four foundations" of good health: diet, exercise, emotional/spiritual well-being and detoxification.

Or perhaps in one word: choices.

pictures of elephants

Since 1992, Gregory Colbert has launched 33 expeditions to film and photograph the wondrous interactions between human beings and animals.

- from Cool Tricks and Trinkets #353

Stiff Americans

Stretching can lead to better health

Red defeats Blue

Wearing red increases the chance of victory in sports, say British researchers who clearly do not follow the Cincinnati Reds.

"Across a range of sports, we find that wearing red is consistently associated with a higher probability of winning," Dr. Russell Hill and Dr. Robert Barton, researchers in evolutionary anthropology at the University of Durham, wrote in a paper that appears today in the journal Nature.

The research began a year ago with a hunch based on observations in the animal kingdom, where red coloration is often associated with male dominance, Dr. Barton said in an interview. Zebra finches fitted with red leg bands tend to become dominant, while those given blue bands are more submissive. In humans, anger reddens the face, which may send signals of fierceness.

The two researchers studied results of the 2004 Summer Olympics to eliminate the possibility of a home team advantage, and found that contestants in tae kwan do, boxing and wrestling were issued red or blue protective gear at random. "It's almost as if somebody had designed an experiment for us," Dr. Barton said.

Dr. Hill said the evidence of a beneficial effect had emerged, with combatants wearing red winning 6 out of 10 bouts in especially close matches. "Even we were surprised at how consistently the results have been coming out across the range of sports we have looked at," he said.

They have taken a preliminary look at soccer as well, and found that in the Euro 2004 international soccer tournament, the five teams that wore predominantly red shirts did better.

This does not mean that a bad team can reverse its fortunes by wearing red, Dr. Barton said. The study applies only to closely matched competitors. "If you're hopeless," he said, "then wearing red isn't going to make you start winning."

In London, a representative of William Hill, a leading betting company, called the study "absolute rubbish." "There is no such thing as equally matched opponents in any human activity," and there are too many individual factors to pronounce a trait like color decisive, the representative, Graham Sharpe, said in an e-mail message.

Dr. Barton acknowledged that the work might not hold up under further analysis. "All scientific results are a bit provisional, of course," he said.

YOU: The Owner's Manual

This book on health was mentioned in Mauldin's column this week and, much more importantly, has been trumpeted on Oprah's show.

The Worst Jobs in History

Think you have a bad job? Here are the worst jobs in 2000 years of British history

- from Cool Tricks and Trinkets # 346

Uncyclopedia

The free encyclopedia of politically incorrect non-information

- from Cool Tricks and Trinkets #344

So You Think You Know Everything?

SO YOU THINK YOU KNOW EVERYTHING?

A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

A crocodile cannot stick out its tongue.

A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.

A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

A snail can sleep for three years.

Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.

All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.

Almonds are a member of the peach family.

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.

Butterflies taste with their feet.

Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds. Dogs only have about 10.

"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".

February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.

In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.

If the population of China walked past you, in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.

If you are an average American, in your whole life, you will spend an average of 6 months waiting at red lights.

It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.

Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.

On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament building is an American flag.

Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

"Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand and "lollipop" with your right.

The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.

The cruise liner, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

The sentence: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet.

The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.

The words 'racecar,' 'kayak' and 'level' are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left (palindromes).

There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

There are more chickens than people in the world.

There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous":
tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous

There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: "abstemious" and "facetious."

There's no Betty Rubble in the Flintstones Chewables Vitamins.

Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance

Women blink nearly twice as much as men

Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks; otherwise it will digest itself.


- from Paula (2/22/05)

Google Answers

Bar Trivia

First Science Fact File

Worthless Facts

Top 100 Toys

TV Cream polled their readers and came up with this list

-- Cool Tricks and Trinkets #339

government archives

interesting what you can find in the National Archives

popular names

How popular is your name? Find out with NameVoyager.

the tortoise and the hippo

A hundred year old tortoise has adopted a baby hippo

Holistic Health on PBS

PBS will show Holistic Health from Hawaii on Feb 10.