Phil Taylor's Blog: The Phil Factor, page 108

Music Monday! The CheeseBergens!

Fellow blogger and poetess extraordinaire, Marissa Bergen is an accomplished musician, as is everyone in her entire family. Occassionally she and the rest of The CheeseBergens put one of her hilariously brilliant poems to music, kind of like a heavy metal Partridge Family. Here’s their songMommy and Daddy Worship Satan:

I hoped they wouldn’t notice but
My friends suspicion’s roused
They ask me why I never let them
Come play at my house
It looks as if I may have to
Invite them to my home
And...

Cancer is a Thief

I’m really mad at cancer. My wife has it for the second time and currently is doing well medically. Emotionally, I’m not so sure. And I’m not so sure about me either. I don’t know how she does it. She goes to work and does everything normally as if she doesn’t have cancer. I have it, but it’s in my head. I don’t have cancer medically. I have it psychologically. It lurks behind every thought. It’s an invisible weight that just hangs on the end of every thought.

We plan for future vacations and...

The Google Self-Driving Car is Going to Be a Big ‘Hit’

Google is widely considered one of the most innovative and forward-thinking companies in the world. With projects like the Google Glass glasses, Google Glucose Sensing Contact Lenses, Google dogs, (yes, Google dogs. Click the link and check it out, it’s pretty cool) , nap pods in the Google offices and the Google Self-Driving Car, the company always seems to be looking out for us with an eye to the future.

I love their work. I love the creative innovation. I want to work for them like Vince...

TBT! A Spell Checkmate: What’s Your Kabaragoya?

The annual child abuse festival Scripps Spelling Bee has it’s championship today. Some pre-teen kid with a facial tic and an ulcer will be crowned Biggest Nerd in the Land for mastering a skill that technology has rendered obsolete.

(05/31/14) See what I did there with the title? That was clever right? For the first time in 52 years the Scripps National Spelling Bee ended in a tie. Before I go any further in mocking the spelling bee I would like to pay homage to a contestant who didn’t win. I...

Wordless Wednesdays!

Wordless Wednesdays are back! Let’s be honest. I live in the northeast. Who wants to go out snapping pictures in the bleak, cold of winter? Each year my city hosts a mural festival. The picture above,titled Detecting Machine, was painted by the artists Nevercrew, which is Christian Rebecchi and Pablo Togni.

Have a great Wednesday! ~Phil

Tagged: Nevercrew, The Phil Factor, Wall therapy, Wordless Wednesday

Top Ten Tuesday! Ten Things I Will Never Intentionally Eat

If I were to go on a reality show like Survivor or Fear Factor I’d be fine with eating bugs and snakes. This may be tempting fate, but here are ten things I will never eat intentionally.

10.Mustard: Ibelieve that this is a substance spawned in the bowels of hell. I put only ketchup on my hot dogs. I can throw up right now if I just think about mustard long enough. Moving on…

9. Onions:I can take a little onion powder or flavor in something I’m eating. Just a little. But to chew pieces of onio...

Pop Culture Commando

Ironically, or maybe appropriately, I’m torn on how to procede with this post. Earlier this week there was a news report that Irish singer Sinead O’Connor had gone missing. My first thought, was that her music career went missing about twenty years ago. The picture above was probably the last time most Americans ever saw or heard about Sinead. So on Tuesday she posted some rants about her family on social media and went for a walk. A few hours later she was declared missing until they later...

TBT! Dumb and …uhh…What’s That Other Word?

(5/23/15) I like to think I’m a relatively smart person. Of course I like to think a lot of things about myself which aren’t true, but that’s a topic for another post. (Coming soon to a blog near you, Top Ten Lies I Tell Myself!) If you’re reading this, you’re obviously a very smart person too. (Top Ten Lies I Tell My Readers)Let’s, for a moment, be honest with ourselves. It’s impossible to know everything about everything, right? So sometimes all of us geniuses feel dumb in certain situatio...

Top Ten Tuesday! Top Ten Things I Learned in London and Paris

This will come in handy for anyone traveling to the U.K. or France. I just didn’t have the time to create a new list this week, so here’s a classic from two years ago.

10. It’s just a ten minute walk:If you ask anyone in London directions to anywherethey’ll tell you it’s just a ten minute walk. Me: “Excuse me sir, I’d like to visit the Swiss Alps. How do I get there?” English doorman: “Oh that’s easy. Just go to the corner, turn left, walk a bit and then go right at the sign. It’s about a te...

Music Monday! Eurovision!

For my readers from the States who aren’t familiar with it, the Eurovision song contest is like American Idol but for all of Europe and Australia. The contest is so big that it’s been running for over 50 years and on Saturday night the audience was surprised by a live performance by Justin Timberlake. Each country sends one singer to compete. Saturday night the annual Eurovision winner was crowned. The winner was Jamala of the Ukraine. Here’s the winning performance:

Have a great Monday! ~Ph...