No Heroics

For those of you looking for something on the lighter side, I have a TV recommendation for you - No Heroics

No Heroics is a new and delightful tongue in cheek British comedy about a group of dysfunctional superheroes and their daily trials and tribulations. It's a brilliant parody of the popular American show Heroes and the multitudinous comic book heroes turned blockbuster movies. The show is full of superheroes, known as Capes, such as Thunder Monkey who has the ability of call a herd of monkeys. The only problem being that it takes his monkeys about twenty-five minutes to arrive on the scene. So if you're tired of those over the top superhero dramas and you want to be brought back down to earth, give it a watch.

(If you're interested, you can find it here: http://eztv.it/shows/763/no-heroics-ivt2-uk/)

Copyfight

It's no secret that's it's pretty easy to find TV programs from all over the world online. Whether or not it's legal to download them is still for many, a grey area. Here are some of my thoughts on the issue and of course in turn, I'm very curious to know yours.

When it comes to the copying and selling of pirated DVD's and CD's, no one would deny it's wrong. Making money from the efforts of artists who work hard to create that material is impossible to justify. Although record companies and book publishers have reportedly been doing it for centuries, that's another issue. What I'm interested in discussing is whether or not it is acceptable to download a TV program that after being shown on a public TV station, is recorded and then freely distributed through the Internet so that others, presumably in other countries, can watch is reasonable or unreasonable.

A little piece of news.....

Usually I reserve the blog to discuss ideas and issues and steer away from the personal. Yet, once in a while something so big happens that it would be wrong not to share.

I've been waiting to tell everyone this for over a week now.... I got married! On October 10th, that's right double 10, my wife Celina and I celebrated with friends and family our promise to wed one another. The ceremony was held outdoors amid waterfalls and lovely scenery. We even had a string trio for music, a wonderful gift from Eva, which added a touch of charm and magic to the celebration. My mother also made her first visit to Taiwan to attend the wedding. I wanted to share a few photographs with everyone of the happy day.

To cliche or not to cliche? That is the cliche.

My apologies to those of you who visit here. As you can see from the date of the last entry, I've been notably remiss in keeping up. I shall endeavor not to let that happen again.
Recently, I was learning about the history of the word: cliché. It's origins are French and it is related to the early printing presses. Early printing presses used movable type, in which they needed to change each letter's position for every new page. The alternative was to manufacture a fixed plate called a stereotype that would have a fixed phrase that could be used over and over to save time. This fixed phrase or plate was called a cliché.
Cliché is ubiquitous. Whether we are using email, text messages or even just chatting the cliché is everywhere. The simple convenience of the cliché is just too overwhelming for us moderns. Do you think we need to “stem the tide” (cliché) or should we just “go with the flow” (another cliché). Are we capable anymore of expressing ourselves without falling into cliche?