Nothin’ like a home-cooked meal.
Especially when it’s not at your home!
I was supposed to go out to dinner with my family last night, but circumstances beyond our control made us cancel. Coincidentally, one of my friends called around the same time and said he was inviting people over to his apartment. Now, I’m used to cooking simple things, and the last thing I would have thought when going over to an apartment full of guys was that we would be making anything particularly… gourmet. Yet my buddy decided on a fairly ambitious menu of chicken and rice casserole, bruschetta, and mashed potatoes.
After some shopping, prepping, and scrambling between 5 guys in a tiny kitchen, we managed to produce something not only edible, but quite tasty. And I’m not just saying that because of the booze I was drinking with it.
Who says real men don’t cook?
~D
Stuff like this makes me smile
Hunter X Hunter
I love reading stories set in a similar, but not the same, world that I live in. Usually, these will be very very different worlds, but little bits of home are put in there. This map in my most recent manga obsession, Hunter X Hunter, just made me smile. What if that was how the world looked? What if South America and Africa were that close and tilted in that way? Think of how different the world would be if distances between countries, or just cities, were drastically different. Think of all the cultural differences!
Another little detail that makes me smile is in Naruto. Here we have all these different ninja villages where people live in homes we would consider at least a little primitive, wear odd clothes, and practice martial arts and crazy ninja techniques till the cows come home. Even though this place doesn’t exist, you try to put a date on it anyway. If we had to choose, what time period would this manga be set it? Maybe you’re about to put it in the early 1800s, or even earlier, when BAM! A VHS player finds its way into a noodle shop. Way to zig when I zag.
I think I just really like things that challenge my perceptions. I automatically want to categorize thing, to put things into some sort of predetermined order. So when something, even something small, throws me off… it feels kind of cool. It makes me think. It makes the whole experience more interesting. It makes you realize that not everything can fit into that little box. It makes you realize that you have that filter.
I like it,
~D
CMotW: GET OFF MY BACK!
This week’s Crappy Movie of the Week is 1995’s Screamers, a science fiction thriller based on a Philip K. Dick short story. If you’re unfamiliar with Dick, and refer to yourself as a science fiction fan, you should probably put a phaser to your head and set it to kill. If you’re familiar with Dick, but think he’s overrated, then you’re probably in the same boat as I am. Dick is a lot like Stephen King in that he is a prolific writer, but when his books get made into movies, things don’t really seem to carry the same power.
But that doesn’t mean Dick’s filmography is bad. Dick wrote stories that inspired great movies like Blade Runner, Total Recall and Imposter. But unfortunately, he’s also partially responsible for the less than stellar A Scanner Darkly (Keanu Reeves), Paycheck (Ben Affleck) and Next (Nicolas Cage). Minority Report probably falls somewhere in the middle.
But anyway, I’ve veering off the topic of Screamers. This movie is your typical futuristic war story, with two factions at odds over limited resources. During this conflict, miners on a planet called Sirius 6B (really rolls off the tongue) develop intelligent killing robots nicknamed ’screamers’ for the shrill scream they make before attacking. The original screamers look kinda like robotic versions of the face suckers from Alien, but with a buzz saw over the mouth. Later on, as we follow a ragtag group through the frozen tundra of Sirius 6B, we encounter another type of screamer called David. Sounds cute, right? This android is made to look like a boy who is lost with his Teddy bear. Until you lead him back to your friends and he kills them with his fanged mouth and buzz saw hands. Kinda reminds me of an even more screwed up Little Sister from Bioshock.
And then there’s the third type of screamer. Which, in this movie, is the most anticlimactic kind.
Half the movie is taken up by this “OMG, WHO IS A ROBOT?” plot. Answer? Pretty much everyone. It would be as if during that scene in Spartacus, when all those men claim to be the real Spartacus, they all actually are. And Rome burned. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
My favorite character in this movie has got to be the fidgety guy who is scared of his own shadow and pisses everybody off. Every horror movie should, and usually does, have one. He’s selfish, he’s on edge and, in this case, he’s armed. What could go wrong? (SPOILER: something goes wrong).
The worst part of the movie is that, despite having killer robots and lots of guns, there’s very little action. In fact, this movie is pretty much Aliens, except replace terrifying, black glossy aliens with lame slow moving robots. And take away the cool deaths. And the plot.
What else is there to say? I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw this in a 2-for-1 bin at Walmart.
~D
Teeth: A Love Story
I really wish this blog entry was about Teeth, the horror movie about the girl with lady parts that devour man parts, but I have not been lucky enough to see that awful movie yet. No, this is about the kind of teeth that stay in your mouth (or… are supposed to stay in your mouth).
There is another theme in my dreams (almost exclusively in my nightmares) and it involves bad things happening to my teeth. Having had 7 years of orthodontic torture under my belt, there were many points where my teeth were a main obsession of mind. Sometimes I would convince myself that one of my teeth was loose, when in reality they were all perfectly fine. After everything that was done to them, I was sure that something bad was going to happen. Even in recent years I’ve had dreams where I would feel them loose in my mouth and would look in the mirror just in time to see them fall out. When I had braces, I used to think that the cement was stronger than my teeth and when the orthodontist tightened them, my teeth would be pulled out instead.
In short, I was scared as fuck about my teeth.
My mom has never stopped reminding me how many thousands of dollars it cost to straighten my teeth, especially when I showed any interest in a sport or activity that could endanger them. Football? Sorry bub. Hockey? You”re kidding… right? I became teethocentric. A losing-my-teeth-o-phobe. But I eventually started thinking about it less and less, especially once the braces came off for good. Teeth were just there.
Until I was reminded of everything today.
After having lunch with my friend yesterday, we parted ways. 10 minutes later I got a call from him saying he had hit something and chipped his tooth. He sounded pretty scared, but I figured it was just a small chip. Nothing to be worried about. But the next day I was going to the dentist and would try to get him an appointment. After some phone calls, I talk to him again. He’s still freaked out, but this time he drops the figure: 2/3 of his front tooth broke off.
HOLY SHIT!
I got him an appointment for the next day at my dentist.
So today I met up with him at the subway station so we could catch the bus together. And that’s when I saw it. For any guys out there familiar with the plot of the movie Teeth, you’d probably have an involuntary cringe near your private parts of someone mentioned a vagina with teeth. Well when I saw his chipped tooth, broken to the point of the root showing. My TEETH cringed. It was the most horrifying thing I could thing of happening to myself, and yet he wasn’t in tears. He wasn’t on the verge of collapse. He seemed almost… fine.
Yeah… well… uh… that would NOT be me in that situation. If that happened to me, I would probably cry my eyes out, have a panic attack, call every one I knew within a 2000 mile radius, and move into the fetal position. I can’t even IMAGINE how destroyed I would feel if that happened.
I told him straight up, I would rather have my arm broken than my tooth broken. And that really isn’t that far fetched. I don’t know what breaking your arm feels like, but the mental anguish from it would not even come anywhere near comparing to the anguish of me breaking my front tooth.
We got to the dentist all right. I went in to get my teeth cleaned and he got some X-rays done. While I was still in the chair, he knocked on the door to tell me that he was being referred to someone for a root canal. My God, what a nightmare. And STILL, he doesn’t seem crushed. Tired? Yes. Bummed? Sure. But not crushed like I would be.
We travelled to this specialist, who isn’t that far away, and I went to get something to eat while he waited in the waiting room. Downstairs in the lobby, I stared at my pizza for a moment before eating. I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated my teeth more than I did in that moment before biting down. I need my teeth so badly. Hell, I had a canker sore a few months ago that drove me crazy since I couldn’t eat without enduring some mild pain. But a cracked tooth? I’d probably starve to death.
So my buddy got his root canal, a procedure he claims didn’t hurt much, and head back to my dentist. Again, he gets a ROOT CANAL and is more pissed about the cost than anything else. Again, hypothetical me? In tears at that point.
And after some waiting time, and some more waiting time, he eventually got the broken part of his tooth reattached by my dentist and is told that he has to be extremely careful with it and will have to get a crown put in at some point to have a more permanent situation. I saw him smile and he looked back to normal. Could hardly even tell anything had happened.
The whole experience left me a bit rattled, but happy to have helped my friend out. 4 months ago I cut my hands on glass at a place we both worked at and he took a cab to the hospital and kept me company with random stories and weird mind games all night while I waited for the doctor in the emergency room to get me stitched up. Though I would think this type of injury is MUCH worse than my sliced hand, I feel that I managed to repay the favor. That’s just what friends do, I suppose.
After this long long day, I vow to take good care of my teeth. More brushing, less soda, and I will be much more careful with how I eat hard things in the future. I’m not taking any chances. My teeth will be well taken care of, no matter what.
SUCK ON THAT, JOLLY RANCHERS!
~D
What a Twist!
So in a last minute change of events, my friend from British Columbia just bought tickets to come to Toronto for the last 6 days I’ll be here and have a good ol’ time! For those Galadorians who read my blog, I am of course talking about Lotro. He visited last year, but got precious little time in the city itself (instead, enjoying our awesome cottage complete with frozen lake). This year, I’ll not only get to enjoy the luxury of being of legal drinking age, with a good pal, but we’re going to be spending New Years in the city of Toronto to boot! Fireworks, events, drinking, and all kinds of craziness is bound it happen and it’s going to be awesome.
I feel spoiled. The rest of the year I’m a pretty good boy. Good student, rarely drink, have nice quiet times at home with my girlfriend. But during my vacation, I get to be a little crazy. It’s nice to let lose for a short period of time, knowing that it’s for a short period of time. If I had these kinds of opportunities back in Virginia, I’d hate to think about the awful state of my GPA.
All this excitement has almost made me forget about HOW FREAKING COLD IT STILL IS.
~D
Apologize!
I arrived in Toronto yesterday, working on very little sleep and trying to get acquainted to the cold. Wound up sleeping from 8 at night till 10 in the morning.
So… that means I officially missed a blog yesterday. Normally I would make it up by changing the date on the next blog, but not this time. I’ve given myself too many chances. My first missed day of blogging in over two months. Please forgive me!
I’ve been trying to get used to being back at home here. The strangest thing is that I just don’t feel at home. Yes, it’s nice seeing my mom and wherever my parents are, i suppose I can count that as home, but this place just isn’t home. I don’t have a room; I have the “spare bedroom” upstairs. I didn’t grow up here, I just lived here for 6 years. I mean, I guess that counts? Then again, when I visit California, I don’t really feel like any of the places I see there are really home either.
I’m glad I’m here. I’m glad I’m seeing my mom, my dog and all my friends (possibly in that order =p), but I just don’t feel all that comfortable. Thinking back, maybe I never really felt comfortable in this house. Before, I thought it might have been my step-dad working from home and always being around, but he isn’t even HERE yet.
I think I’m just uncomfortable staying in someone else’s house. For my friends at school, they go see their families for the holidays, maybe stay in their rooms, and feel like they’re coming home. For me, it’s like I’m leaving home for the holidays. I’ll enjoy the time I have here, but in the end I’ll just be glad to be going home. To my home. To the place my girlfriend and I have made for ourselves.
At least I’ll be having a white Christmas!
~D
BRB
Up way too late.
Flight in the morning.
Goin’ to Canada for the winter break.
Canada? In the winter?
Yes, I’m that stupid.
Or I have family there.
Maybe both?
~D
Modern Day Magic
I’m in love with Ted. And by Ted, of course I’m talking about TED, the non-profit organization devoted to gathering “ideas worth spreading”. People from all over the world participate in these conventions where they share amazing ideas that will make your eyes water and your jaw drop to the floor. This website compiles about 450 of these TED Talks, and I aim to watch every one.
I’d heard about this through the grapevine but didn’t realize how amazing these people were until I saw this video:
This guy is an absolute, innovative genius. If you watch the video, you’ll learn that he is a trailblazer in the field of bringing computers and reality closer and closer together. He starts by taking an old mouse apart and building a robotic hand for interacting with a computer and just takes off from there. At first, his focus is on bringing the real world to the digital (he builds a tablet PC that is so intuitive, he places his boarding pass on top of it and it gives him directions to his gate). But later he decides that bringing the digital world to the real world would be so much more beneficial to society.
Eventually what he comes up with is this portable computer/projector/camera system that he hangs from his neck. He’s able to project his screen onto any surface and begin interacting with it by way of color coded caps attached to the ends of his fingers. What emerges is like something from the SyFy channel. He watches movies on a piece of paper. He grabs words on an actual piece of paper and copies it onto his projected desktop. He even walks down the street, makes a frame with his fingers, and takes a picture. Just like that.
The applications of this are absolutely out of this world. I don’t even care what kind of stares I would get if I used this in public. People would think I was some kind of WIZARD! And rightly so.
Magic does exist, kiddies. And its name is technology.
~D
Hearty Har Har
I’m a little late to this party, but I just started playing Kingdom Hearts for the first time. I started my game file about 6 months ago, but after putting a few hours into it, I decided that it would take up too much of my time and my grades would likely drop like a ton of bricks if I kept playing. But since my last class ended yesterday, it seemed like the perfect time to whip out the PS2.
I’d always heard how awesome this game was, but now I really get it. I’m a big old school Disney fan and know enough about Final Fantasy to get by, but the combination of both is so awesome. The plot is great, the voice actors are awesome (getting James Woods to voice Hades again was a great choice), and the music is amazing. One moment could be an epic battle and the next could be a soft dream sequence, but the music always fits perfectly.
Once I beat this, I’ll move on to KH2 (which we also own). After I finish THAT, I’ll finally be able to go out and buy Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days for the DS.
Then my life will be complete.
~D
