Friday, April 25, 2008

FIOS is coming to town

I live in a condo. The condo association recently sent out a letter stating that all of the units were going to be wired for Verison FIOS (fiber optic) during the next month. We don't have to sign up for the service, but for some reason, the association wants the development wired.

I wonder if this means that eventually, highspeed Internet and maybe cable TV will be part of our condo fee. Which would be very convenient!

I'm kind of psyched about the FIOS Internet thing. It's supposed to be very fast! And, having FIOS might mean that we will be able to choose cable TV from Charter or Verizon. I really DO wish I had a choice!

The one thing about FIOS that gives me pause is that I heard adding FIOS means the copper connections are cut and if you don't like FIOS, it would be prohibitively expensive to go back to copper as opposed to Fiber Optic. In our case, it looks like we won't have a choice...

American Orient Express

Once upon a time, trains were the main connections from one place to another. Even today, when we drive so much and don't think much about our rail system, having a train station in town is still an asset.

I often think about taking a luxury train journey. The idea of a trip where I can just be and observe the world as it goes by intrigues me. Maybe someday, I'll take a trip on the American Orient Express http://www.americanorientexpress.com/.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Click and Clack coming to TV!

Do you listen to Car Talk in NPR?

I love that show. I love listening to the Magliozzi brothers. And since I don't get NPR on the radio in my house (I live in a valley, without antennas, it's hard to get a lot of stuff!), I have to be driving around somewhere on the Weekend to catch the show. So I don't listen as often as I would like.

But now, they're coming to TV! Yup, they're going to have a PrimeTime animated show on PBS, starting in July. Here's the link: http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/11/magazines/fortune/taylor_cartalk.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008041510

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Hotel of Glass?

One of my hobbies is to play with glass. Lately, it's fused glass, but I have a soft spot in my heart for all types of art glass. There's a hotel in Tacoma, Washington that was made for art glass lovers...The Hotel Murano (http://http://www.hotelmuranotacoma.com/).

I love the state of Washington...I love glass. I think I need to go to the Hotel Murano.

Great balls of ...light?

Light...I like the light from a roaring fire in the fireplace, I like candles, I like the neat Candela lights from vessel (http://www.vessel.com).

And now, you can get "glowing orbs of light" from a German company (http://http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/27/smbusiness/great_balls_light.fsb/index.htm). These lights are polyethylene globes of lights that run on rechargeable batteries or can be hardwired. Apparently, they can even float in pools. You can buy them from a company called Moonlight, Inc. (http://http://www.moonlight-inc.com/).

My friend G lives by a lake...it would be really cool to get some of these lights, tether them to the dock there and enjoy pina coladas on a late summer evening...