A couple of days ago Mike took the girls to Children’s Fairyland to see a puppet show. They also got to meet with Santa Claus, who was “holding court” in the chapel, and of course ask them what they wanted for Christmas.
Camila, predictably, wants “Hello Kitty” stuff – she doesn’t care what stuff. Mika, however, had a more interesting request. She told Santa, in this public forum, that what she wanted was for everyone to stop believing in God. You see, she’s very much upset at Jesus since she found out that Christianity is responsible for the demise of beliefs in the old Greek, Egyptian and Norse gods. Those gods are much cooler than Jesus/Jehova (really, who can deny that?) and she’s sad nobody believes on them anymore.
I wasn’t there, but apparently Santa – who must never have heard that request before – handled it very well, told her he’d have to talk to the “General” about that and asked her if she wanted to ask for something else instead. Mika said: “A Pleo“.
Alas, we don’t think she’ll get either.
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Some time ago Mike and I were talking as to whether there were some topics that you shouldn’t joke about: child molestation and the Holocaust came to mind (I have several friends who survived torture and are somewhat able to joke about it, so that’s not a taboo subject). My question was finally answered last night while watching Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
I’m not a big stand-up comedian fan, it’s OK but I don’t seek it out, so I can’t say I’ve been more that marginally aware of Ms. Rivers. I’ve seen her on the Red Carpet before and in the occasional appearance on some TV show, but I only got to “know her” to any degree while watching Celebrity Apprentice a couple of years ago (guilty pleasures, blah, blah). She was definitely the best thing on that show and I got to appreciate her quick wit and intelligence. The glimpses at her relationship with her daughter Melissa, also on the show, were also very tender. It’s nice to see mothers and daughters who truly love each other. So, when I saw Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
The film was very enjoyable. Ms. Rivers comes out as a very insecure but kind-hearted woman, with a very sharp wit. She also came out as very funny. The one theme of her life and the movie is that she wants/needs to work. She needs to have every hour booked – both because she needs the money (as she says, she could live within her savings, but not in the luxury to which she’s become accustomed) and because she needs the adulation, or at least the recognition. She is willing to do anything and pretty much say anything, and yet she doesn’t come across as anyone who’d succeed by stepping on other people. When she tells a joke to a live audience about Helen Keller, a man responds by complaining that she wouldn’t feel that way if she had a deaf son. Rivers gets really upset, calls him stupid and lectures him on the reason for comedy (to laugh about the tragedies in life) – but later, after the show, she seems to be actually upset at having hurt him.
The documentary is in no way a biography, you don’t really know where Ms. Rivers comes from and what made her the person she is today, but it is entertaining and definitely worth streaming.
I’ve using google for many years, probably since its first or second month in existence, and I’m growing more and more frustrated with it. While it’s never been perfect, for a few years at the beginning of this decade (century), it worked quite well. I pretty much was guaranteed to find what I was looking for. Things slowly started deteriorating and now I find the search engine to be virtually useless. It’s more likely that it will hide the information that I’m looking for, than it will present it. Unfortunately, it’s rivals bing, Alta Vista andYahoo, are just as bad. Indeed, it’s difficult to believe they don’t all use the same search algorithms given how incredibly similar their results are. For example, search for my name “Margarita Lacabe”, and out of the thousands of results that show up (out of tens of thousands of web pages that actually have my name on them), all four search engines show in the first or second page of results a link to a newspaper article I sent to a mailing list in 1997! The same newspaper article! What are the chances? Google also includes “relevant” links: those to my home page, my professional profile, my facebook page and my twitter feed – amidst lost of “garbage” results (those to website that do nothing but compile public information about a name) – which is more than what we can say about the other 3 search engines, which cannot even find my website (marga.org).
But while much of the information about me is in Spanish, don’t expect to access it through Google – even if you’ve asked Google to search for material on “any language”. I’ve complained about this before, and I haven’t found a solution that will bring me relevant results in both languages. Once again, the other search engines are just as bad. This was not a big issue a year or so ago, so definitely something has changed (for the worse) on google’s algorithm). This is not just a small inconvenience for me, many of the search I make are for work and there is material concerning them in a variety of languages that I’d like to be able to access.
Google images, moreover, has become virtually useless. My daughters have a whole website with pictures of themselves, but (perhaps fortunately) you won’t find almost any of them by searching for their names. A few months ago, they were available.
I can feel how badly Google works on a daily basis. While once upon a time, I could find most of the relevant information I was looking for on the first and second page of a search, now I’m more likely to find it linked from another website. This is unfortunate, because it means I need to know where to go to look for it in the first place.
I think the time has come for a search company to come up with a bare-bones, non-smart search engine that actually works.
We usually visit my in-laws in Vancouver, WA, every Thanksgiving, and stay over at a hotel (though the kids often pernoctate with the grandparents). We usually stop over in Medford, OR, for the night in the way there. I usually priceline the hotels – the rates are so much cheaper than those you can get otherwise -, after checking for prices and possible hotels at Bidding for Travel and for hotel reviews at Trip Advisor. That’s what I did this year, and I ended up with rooms @ Red Lion Hotels in both Medford & Vancouver. Both ended up being good experiences and fairly good deals.
Red Lion Hotels – in general
The two Red Lion Hotels we stayed at were very similar properties. In both cases they were older buildings, well kept but a bit outdated (they still have old-style TVs, for example). They had nice furniture (two Queen-size beds, one night table with a lamp, a dresser/entertainment center and a desk with a chair. The room in Vancouver also had a comfy chair with an ottoman), comfortable mattresses & pillows and largish bathrooms (the one in Medford, with a separate sink) with good water pressure. Rooms were appointed with a coffee maker, a small fridge & a small microwave. There was coffee/tea/sugar/creamer. The rooms were clean and not particularly smelly. One issue with both hotels was that the heater units, while quite efficient, were very loud. In both instances we chose to turn them off while we slept. Another issue is that while the rooms are for two people, there is only one desk/chair – which means only one person can work comfortably at the time.
The facilities at both hotels were also pretty similar, and they included outside swimming pools, a small gym (which we didn’t use), nicely appointed lobbies and a restaurant/bar. The hotel has cable TV, but only offers a dozen channels or so (one was showing cartoons). There is free internet, but it was slow @ both hotels and had some blocked services. Both hotels offer soap, shampoo & conditioner (but not lotion) in the rooms, and they say they have other toiletries upon request.
Service in both hotels was very good, the front desk staff was very friendly. Then again, we did not have any special needs/requests.
The one thing to consider vis a vis the Red Lion Inn, is that the rates DO NOT include breakfast. Breakfast at the Vancouver Red Lion was $8 for adults (free for kids). That means that you must really add $20 to the nightly rate to get a sense of its “true” rate vis a vis other comparable hotels.
Now, as for each individual hotel:
Red Lion Medford
We stayed here last year as well and had liked it. This year the rate was more expensive (about $65 a night, including taxes – my priceline bid was $51), but not a bad deal for the area. This hotel is “motel style”, with a lobby that houses the restaurants and two buildings with guest rooms around a parking lot. One of the buildings is right next to the freeway and you can definitely hear some freeway noise from the rooms there – though it was drowned by the heater noise, when on. Rooms on the other building are much quieter – so ask to be put there.
We had dinner at the restaurant at that hotel last year, which wasn’t great, but this time we didn’t even go in, so I can’t even say if it’s still open. We’ve never tried their breakfast.
Red Lion at the Quay – Vancouver
I was disappointed when Priceline gave me this hotel (we stayed at the Residence Inn last year, which was both cheaper, much nicer and included breakfast!) for my $40 bid (plus $10 in taxes), but the hotel itself is nice. The lobby was nicely decorated with a large Xmas tree (and a few small ones), and the location at the River is very nice. We walked along it one morning and got to see the famous Old Apple Tree. The hotel is also very convenient (i.e. a couple of blocks from) downtown and the bridge to Portland.
We had the breakfast buffet at the hotel one morning ($8 per adult, free for children, including tax, but waiters clear out your plates so you have to tip them), and it was OK. The breakfast included two dry, paltry, unappealing mini-pastries, fresh fruit, 3 dry cereals, bread (there was a toaster) and hot scrambled eggs, bacon (very dry), sausages (fine) and country potatoes (also dry). They have a cool pancake machine – you press a button and get two warm, fresh pancakes in 45 seconds. The pancakes had that industrial taste that comes from commercial mixes. There was coffee & tea, milk and juices. In all, it was definitely nowhere as good as the free buffet we got at the Residence Inn the year before. The one plus is that the restaurant has beautiful river views.
In all, our stay was fine and we’d be fine staying here again.
Margarita’s Hotel Reviews
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