Minions

I've been playing Desktop Tower Defense on the Casual Collective since it started. They've recently released a new game, Minions. I love it. It's a simple team game of robots destroying each other. It's Flash-based, so nothing to download or install (except Flash, of course). And it's free! Let me know if you like it.

Book: Culture Shock: Thailand

Culture Shock: Thailand is one of several books in this series, providing a guide to customs and etiquette. Thailand, like every country, has its list of things that will feel very strange to foreign visitors. For example, Thais smile lots, so much so that it's called the land of smiles. Smiling is a form of communication; how and when you smile all convey something to the people around you. The head is considered important, but the feet are considered unimportant and dirty; thus, you do not touch someone else's head, nor do you point with your feet. In keeping with their Buddhist beliefs, getting angry with people or even speaking loudly is impolite. Never wear black, unless going to a funeral. And so on. I've enjoyed the book, and no doubt will find it immensely helpful. I recommend it.

Photos: Science Museum

My father and stepmother came up to spend Saturday with us, so we took the kids and went to the science museum downtown. We had a great time seeing the exhibits and watching the shows. Emilee especially enjoyed the animals; she got to pet a giant cockroach (not a joke) and a rat trained to play basketball. Afterward we did a little shopping and had dinner. It was a nice break.

Fixing Spotlight

Recently Spotlight, the built-in indexing service on my iMac, stopped working. Conveniently I found this article while reading the Dec 08 issue of Macworld. I tried the Terminal command they suggest, and it worked fine for me.

Photos: Peter Panda

At Emilee's school, they take turns bringing home a stuffed panda bear, Peter Panda, and taking care of it. This weekend it was Emilee's turn, so we went out Sunday afternoon to have some fun with the bear and take a couple pictures of them together.