Some friends of mine (Kay Amano and Masayuki Hisa) developed a series of cute videos designed to promote Los Angeles area businesses among Japanese-speaking television viewers. The five videos are called “Magicbell Brothers,” and follow the travails of two space alien hand puppets sent to earth and forced to visit and critique local restaurants and [...]

Last weekend, my wife and I were invited by a magician-friend to have dinner at the Magic Castle in Hollywood, California. The Castle is a private club for professional and amateur illusionists who need an escape when their I-will-now-make-my-teenagers-act-normal trick fails to work. The “World Famous Hollywood Magic Castle” is located just behind the Kodak [...]

Metered on-ramps are common fare throughout the Los Angeles freeway system. The massive influx of cars onto the highways during the five or six hours-de-rush each day requires some method to even out the rolling population. And while the unidirectional stoplights make at least some attempt to alleviate the metal density on the freeway, they [...]

Several months ago, Google announced that its mapping system would provide directions for not only cars, but for trains and community bus systems as well. Apparently, they’ve also added certain forms of watercraft. Click here for Google Maps’ directions from Seattle to Honolulu. But be careful: they forgot to add the instruction for donning your [...]

Any church started by King Henry VIII is bound to have some humor in it. And the following video by Alpha, a Christian ministry started by Anglican priest Nicky Gumbel, is definitely funny. The video was designed to show in movie theaters during the previews, and lasts about a minute. Here’s a link to the [...]

My latest software development book, Programming Visual Basic 2008, is now available at better bookstores everywhere. If you don’t have one of those better bookstores in your neighborhood, you can also purchase the book online, from Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, or other resellers of general and technical books. Programming Visual Basic 2008 by Tim Patrick [...]

Disneyland is known as the “Happiest Place on Earth,” and people come from all over the world to have their childhood dreams fulfilled. I love going to Disneyland. My son and I have annual passes, and we go at least once a month. But as is true in so many areas of life, the fulfillment [...]