Thursday, January 31, 2013
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Monday, January 28, 2013
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Monday, January 21, 2013
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Friday, January 18, 2013
Royal Edinburgh Military Tatoo
Today, the Edinburgh
Royal Military Tattoo is is Scotland's biggest, best-selling
spectacle, attracting an international audience each year of some
217,000 people and seen by almost 100 million people in 30 countries.
63 years ago the Edinburgh Royal Military Tattoo was just a display
consisting of three groups; The Royal Scots, The Highland Light
Infantry and the Woman's Royal Army Corp; as they marched and played
with the Edinburgh Castle as the backdrop. The following year of 1950
saw the first incarnation of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo as
the event grew to having 8 participating groups. In the 62 years
since the first Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo it has grown to be
the grand event that we see today were almost two dozen international
group come to Edinburgh, Scotland every August.
The military
tattoo dates back almost four hundred years when the Scottish
regiments were part of the Dutch mercenary troops. They would march
out at night and beat on drums to let the tavern owners know it time
to turn off the taps and send the soldiers back to the barracks for
the night. In later years when military complexes became more self
contained the nightly patrol of the troops has become more of a
ceremony announcing the end of the day. That ceremony has since
become known as the military tattoo or tap toe.
When you do see the Royal Edinburgh
Military Tattoo you are witness to a sight you won't forget as the
hush of night falls over Edinburgh Castle, the gates and drawbridge
open. The sounds of bagpipes and drums fill the air as meshed
soldiers march out across the castle drawbridge followed by two of
the most well known heroes in Scottish history, Robert of Bruce and
Sir William Wallace. The audience is then regaled with daredevil
motorcyclist, fireworks, highland dancing, music and precession
marching of the international troops. When the spectacle winds down,
and the audience is still in awe of all that they have just witness,
we hear a voice shout through the crowds saying “Will ye no come
back again'?”. Once the question is ask a might roar of the crowd
answers “Oh, yes and very soon.”
There are many other things to see and
do while you are in Edinburgh taking in the Royal Military Tattoo.
One of those is to visit Edinburgh
Castle itself and take in some of the rich history of Edinburgh
Castle as well as the Monarchy of Scotland. Once there you can view
the history of Edinburgh castle that goes back over 2,000 years when
archaeologist say the first human settlement inhabited the area
around the rock that now houses Edinburgh Castle. It isn't until 1130
A.D when there David I builds the first Castle on the site and
dedicates it to his mother Queen Margret. Afte3r Edinburgh Castle was
built it became the royal residence for the next 500 years seeing
many invasions, such as, the taking of the Castle in 1296. Edinburgh
Castle was last occupied by a monarch in 1633 by Charles I right
before he was crowned the King of Scotland.
If you are one for all the gory details
of Scotland's history you might visit the Edinburgh
Dungeon where you can buy a ticket to tour the dungeon, hear
about the bloody 500 year history and take 2 frighting rides. While
there you just might meet up with the ghost of one of the many
prisoners that have been housed in the walls of Edinburgh Dungeon.
One of those ghost might be Sir William Wallace, of Braveheart fame,
who was held there before being put through a grizzly torture and
death.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Review: Wicked Busines by Janet Evanovich
Wicked Business by Janet Evanovich is
the second romantic-mystery in her hilarious new Wicked series. The
books follow Diesel, the man with unmentionable powers that was first
introduced to use in the Stephen Plum books, and his partner Lizzy
Tucker, a cupcake baker that also posses the power to detect
enchanted objects, as they roam Salem in search of the 7 SALIGIA
stones that represent the 7 sins. Their search for the stones get
complicated by Diesel's cousin Gerewulf Grimorie (Wulf), who also has
unmentionable powers and is searching for the stones; Steven Hatchet,
Wulf's minion that also has the power to detect enchanted objects;
Lizzy's job at the bakery and life in general.
In this book we find Lizzy enjoying a
day off from work when Diesel appears in her house set to sweep her
off onto their last adventure. He whisks her away to a murder scene
where Diesel's pet money Carl finds the first clue setting them chase
to track down the Luxuria stone (lust) before Wulf can get his hands
on the stone. To find the stone they must unravel a set of magically
set clues that can only be deciphered by someone one with a certain
purity. The problem is that neither Diesel nor Lizzy have what it
takes to decipher the clues. They are forced to enlist the help of
Lizzy's co-worker Glo, who think she has wizard tendencies, since she
can decipher the clues. Involving Glo makes matters more complicated
with her spell casting that usually doesn't work out the way they are
intended. If dealing with Glo's spell-casting and trying to stay
ahead of Wulf and Hatchet wasn't enough now they have the mysterious
Anarchy, another person with unmentionable powers, vying for the
stone.
Anyone that enjoys mystery, romance,
fiction or just a good humorous book will enjoy reading Wicked
Business. You will find that once you pick up the book you will have
a hard time putting it back down. The action is fast paced and the
situations will keep you laughing. The only problem you may have with
the book is that is over way too soon and leaving you wanting more.
Once again with this book Ms. Evanivich
shows why her style of mixing mystery, romance, humor and eating has
kept her at the top of the bestseller list.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Sometimes an old trend deserves a second chance
Much in the way that the 7-inch tablets
were criticized as being too small to be considered a real tablet
until the success of Amazon's Kindle Fire, Samsung's
Galaxy Note (at 5.5-inches) was criticized as too big for a
smartphone when it was shown at the CES (consumer electronic show) in
Las Vegas. Once it and its successor the Galaxy Note II showed some
success more companies have decided that this is the right direction
to go and are now coming out with their own versions of what has been
deemed “phablets” (bigger than a smartphone but smaller than a
tablet). Apple was one of the first to jump on this new trend,
although not to such an extreme, with their increasing the size of
the iPhone
to 4-inches. Since then Sony’s
5-incher, Huawei’s
6.1-inch and a few others have also joined in the rank of this
new trend in mobile devices.
These “phablets” aren't exactly a
new trend in handheld technology. In the early 1990's a company
called Psion started a trend with their Series
3. Once again Apple was the first ones to jump on this new trend
with their Newton that was released in 1992. The then CEO at Apple.
John Scully, dubbed these new devices PDA's (personal data
assistants). Soon other companies, such as, Nokia, Microsoft, Palm
and others joined in on this new trend. The PDA's started to fall out
of favor shortly after the turn of the century when smartphones came
onto the market and hand a wider variety of applications that could
run on them.
Now, over a dozen years since the
hayday of the PDA's we see sometimes trends tend to circle back. Even
though the new “phablets” are far and above in versatility and
power they can still find their roots back in those PDA's form over
20 years ago.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Friday, January 11, 2013
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Monday, January 7, 2013
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Thursday, January 3, 2013
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