Category: Weblog

The View of Los Angeles from Runyon Canyon

Two weekends ago I went up to Runyon Canyon with family to see Los Angeles. It was the weekend of the fires in Sylmar and the Triangle Complex fire near Chino.
From the top of the canyon you can see the entire LA basin from the Ocean to Downtown to Hollywood to the San Fernando Valley to the Westside.
I took photos and made them into a Quicktime VR so you can pan around and zoom in and out.


Thanks to Sean & Tara, the Twitluvahs for showing me the spot.

Soda Roundup

Over the last few weeks, I’ve picked up a few random sodas. Finally I gave them all a test.
First up was the pair of sodas based on ice cream floats.


The Root Beer Float is a traditional dessert and A&W is well known root beer. The Orange Soda Float? Not so traditional, but hey they are trying something new.
The root beer float tasted like a melted root beer float. The ingredients include things like pectin and propylene glycol alginate to make it taste creamy. Not so much. While the root beer flavor is good, I would rather simply have a root beer rather than try to recreate a float.
The orange soda float was a bit strange. Not quite a melted 50/50 bar, the thickening stuff made the orange soda simply strange. I’m not a big fan of orange soda, to begin with, so I wasn’t impressed at all.

Every year, Jones soda puts out a few flavors for Halloween. This year I picked up Dread Apple and Monster Mojito.
Amazingly, the Dread Apple tasted like carbonated apple juice and the Monster Mojito tasted like a non-alcoholic mojito, a little bitter with a hint of mint. Surprising, I know. Michele enjoys mojitos and gave it a test. She said it tastes “exactly” like a mojito. I’ll take here word for it. Personally I don’t like the whole muddling trend at bars these days.
I guess I was hopping for something strange or extraordinary here, but alas, it’s just soda pop.

Movember – raising awareness and money

Most of the time, Cruftbox doesn’t ask much from you, the Loyal Cruftbox Readers, but today I am.
This month is Movember, a month where I am growing a mustache to help raise money for Prostate Cancer research. Just last month, I had the opportunity to have my prostate tested during my yearly physical.
In Movember, men grow mustaches to help raise money and awareness about Prostate Cancer, a major problem for men. All donations during Movember go to the Prostate Cancer Foundation, a non-profit (meaning tax deductible!) organization.
You can visit my MoSpace here.
I know these aren’t the easiest financial times for anyone, but I am asking you to donate a little money to help. Every little bit helps. I’ve have been writing Cruftbox since January 2000, that’s almost 9 years of Cruft for your to peruse. Donating $9 if you enjoy Cruftbox and my fine new mustache would be fantastic. Of course, feel free to donate more if you want!
The donation page is here. Please consider making a small donation now.
Here are some photos of the progress of the facial hair.


Clean shaven in October


Movember 4th


Movember 9th


Movember 10th


Movember 16th