The Invention of Lying

The Invention of Lying takes place in a world not unlike our own. Except for one huge difference: People cannot lie. They are blunt and truthful all the time, which is not fun at all. Then one person discovers that he can tell lies. He, of course, proceeds to take advantage of this ability which… Continue reading The Invention of Lying

Ghost Brigades, Last Colony, Zoe’s Tale

I had read Old Man’s War some time ago and liked it. So when I was looking for some science fiction to buy for our trip to Italy, I got the sequels The Ghost Brigades and The Last Colony. As is common with sequels, whether of books or movies, they are not as good as… Continue reading Ghost Brigades, Last Colony, Zoe’s Tale

District 9

We watched District 9 in the theater which was a good idea. For some reason, people either hate this science fiction movie of aliens ghettoized in South Africa or they love it. I liked it. The movie did use a sledgehammer to hammer home its message at times, but it seemed in the spirit of… Continue reading District 9

Google Voice

I had been lusting after a Google Voice account for a while and finally got it a few months ago. To my disappointment, there was no way to port my existing phone number to the service, so I had to get a new number. At first, I was slow to give out my Google Voice… Continue reading Google Voice

The Elephant Man

The Elephant Man is a movie about Joseph Merrick, a 19th century Englishman with a congenital defect. As I understand, the movie has lots of historical inaccuracies. But that is par for the course. It was an interesting movie, though the DVD print wasn’t good. I rate The Elephant Man 7/10.

Inglourious Basterds

I love most Tarantino movies, so of course we had to see Inglourious Basterds. The movie is about a Jewish special forces unit that’s sent to Europe to disrupt and kill Nazis (and scalp them). However, the Nazi intelligence officer who’s on the trail of that unit gets a lot more screen time. Also, there’s… Continue reading Inglourious Basterds

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Since we have watched all the Harry Potter movies, we saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in the theater. This movie is better than the last installment. I rate it 7/10.

Siesta Key and Busch Gardens

It is now our family tradition to head to the beach for Memorial Day long weekend. Since the closest nice beaches are on the Gulf coast of Florida, we decided to go to Sarasota, FL. There we had a lot of fun at Siesta Key Beach, which had nice white sand. On our way back,… Continue reading Siesta Key and Busch Gardens

The Civil War

Recently, I have been reading about and listening to lectures on the US Civil War. So I decided to watch the Ken Burns documentary about the Civil War. I have watched it off and on and in bits and pieces on TV before, but this time I was serious and borrowed the 5-DVD set from… Continue reading The Civil War

Transpack Moving Scam

Last year when we visited Pakistan, we decided we wanted to move our furniture, books and other things that had been at my parents’ for so many years since we have a house now. My Dad contacted Transpack and they estimated the total volume to be in the range of 5-6 cubic meters and their… Continue reading Transpack Moving Scam