Ghost Rider

In slightly less Oscar-related news, we went to see Ghost Rider this weekend. For those of you not familiar with it, this is a comic book adaptation starring Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes.

How was it? The effects really looked pretty cool. I mean, anytime you have a giant flaming skull for a head it requires some impressive effects. Was it good? Ehhh. Was it fun? Yes.

The one thing that really surprised me was that they didn't play up some of the supporting actors in any of the previews. When we watched the movie, I was surprised to see that Peter Fonda, Sam Elliot, and Eva Mendes's cleavage were all featured prominently.

Trivial Tuesday

The Academy Awards were this past weekend, and I'm sure you all know about who won what. How much do you know about the rules for nominations. For any of the categories not specifically for "shorts", the films must be "feature length." How long must a film be to be defined as feature length by the Academy?

Oscars

I was going to do a wonderful live blog of the Academy Awards, but unfortunately before they even gave out a single big award, the snow knocked out some of our cable channels including both ABC affiliates. I eventually gave up, which is a shame because there was some seriously funny stuff written about the part that I saw. We're talking funny enough that you'd have to hope you were wearing Depends when you read this. However, I deleted all that in my frustration, so instead of the live blog you get my thoughts on who would win before the awards along with how right or wrong (mostly wrong) I was. Without further ado, the proof that I know nothing:

Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson (Correct)

Supporting Actor: Did the voters turn in ballots before they saw Norbit? I'll assume they saw it and not guess Eddie Murphy. I can't go with Marky Mark, either (just on principle), so I'll guess Alan Arkin. (Correct)

Actor: Peter O'Toole. They've got eventually give him one, right? (Wrong)

Actress: Hellen Mirren (Correct)

Best Picture: I'd like to say, Letters From Iwo Jima, but I'll go with the Queen. (Wrong. Hey, I liked the Departed, but it wasn't the best film I saw all year. That was Letters From Iwo Jima, followed closely by Pan's Labyrinth. Besides, I preferred The Departed when it was Infernal Affairs. It was more understated, and I kinda have a soft spot for HK gangster films.)

Director: It's got be Martin Scorsese eventually, right? (It should be Clint Eastwood, but I'm guessing Scorsese.) (Correct, that's no big surprise. However, I can't help feeling that this is one of those "make up" Oscars. You know, the ones that are the Academy saying, "Sorry we missed you on an earlier nomination. Here's one this year." Seriously, just ask Russell Crowe about not getting an award for The Insider and then getting one the next year for Gladiator.)

Screenplay: The Queen (Wrong, there was so much anti-Little Miss Sunshine stuff recently that I did not expect that at all.)

Adapted Screenplay: The Departed (Correct)

Cinematography: Children of Men or Pan's Labyrinth. Flip a coin. (Correct.)

Editing: Children of Men (Wrong)

Art Direction: Pan's Labyrinth (Correct)

Costume Design: Dreamgirls (Wrong)

Original Score: I have no idea. There's not one that you hear constantly like last year. I absolutely love the score from Pan's Labyrinth, but to be fair I don't know anything about any of the other nominees. I'll guess that anyway. (Wrong. I don't even know that the score from Babel sounds like)

Original Song: Randy Newman for Cars, because I don't have a clue. (Wrong)

Makeup: Pan's Labyrinth (Correct)

Sound: Pirates (like I have a clue) (Not surprisingly wrong)

Sound Editing: Pirates (I still have no idea) (Wrong and still not a surprise.)

Visual Effects: Superman Returns, after all, they made you believe a man can fly. (Wrong. D'oh. I forgot about Davy Jones)

Animated Film: Cars (Wrong.)

Foreign Language: Pan's Labyrinth (Wrong. I'd love to see The Lives of Others, but it will never end up showing here.)

Documentary: I'll be shocked if it's anything other than An Inconvenient Truth. (Correct.)

Short Films of any sort: I have no idea. Just pick a number, and you'll have as much chance as me.

Wars or Trek? Lost or Heroes?

I watch both Heroes and Lost. I happen to like them both, but I can't help but wonder if the shows are setting themselves up as opposing sides in the next big fanboy war, or perhaps they are simply taking sides in an ongoing battle.

You see, fanboys, geeks that they are, don't have rivalries over petty things like East Cost/West Coast, Catholic/Protestant or Republican/Democrat. Instead they fight over whose show or movie is greater. Star Wars fans scoffed at the ridiculousness of Star Trek, while Star Trek fans pointed out the childishness of the Star Wars films (only to have more ammunition given to them by George Lucas with the introduction of Jar Jar Binks). While there are a few who try to belong to both camps, like political independents, they are rare and not taken seriously be either side.


Make no mistake, I am not taking any sides in this conflict, nor am I claiming that either of these newer television shows will be equal to or have the cultural impact of either of the earlier shows, but the fact remains that the evidence is there. Look at discussions online, and you will find Heroes fans complaining about Lost's pacing and Lost fans mocking Heroes' writing. Even more, the shows themselves have each aligned with one of the "Star" franchises. A few examples simply from the top of my head (I'm sure there are more to be found if one were to search for them):

Heroes

• Ando suggests using the "Vulcan death grip" on someone.
• Hiro is questioned by police who are skeptical that he has teleported from Japan to New York. He says, "like Star Trek," and flashes the Vulcan salute. (He throws the Vulcan gang sign another dozen or so times in the show.)
• Hiro's father is played by George Takei, Sulu himself. As he gets into a limo and drives away, his lisence plate is revealed to read NCC 1701.
• A new character who does not know Hiro refers to him as Sulu.

Lost

• While Michael and Jin are repairing the raft, Michael says, "No this one goes here. That one goes there." (cf. Han and Chewie repairing the Millennium Falcon in The Empire Stirkes Back)
• Sawyer refers to Michael and Jin as Han and Chewie. At other times, he refers to Hurley as Jabba.
• Sawyer tells a guard not to be mad just because he "fell for the old Wookie prisoner gag."
• Hurley refers to something as a "Jedi moment."
• Hurley's imaginary friend Dave tries to argue that a picture without him is not proof of his nonexistence. "What, you think they really blew up the Death Star?"

As I said, these are only some of the instances where each show references one of the earlier franchises. I think we should prepare ourselves, because an online flame war can't be far behind.

Ooh...Floor Pie!

Every once in a while, I'll stop to contemplate things that we eat, and I have to wonder what made us decide to eat this things in the first place. Look around your kitchen pantry, the refrigerator or the grocery store the next time you're there. Start asking yourself "Who thought this was a good idea?" I'm not just talking about odd foods here, though they certainly fit in (and there might be some on my list). Some of the things we eat and drink everyday are really kind of odd when you stop to think about it. These are just the things that I thought of while sitting down to write this post.

Coffee: Sure, I've talked about it before, but that was mostly to discuss one specific (disgusting) type. Think about it this way, when you eat cherries, what do you do with the pits? You spit them out and throw them away. Have you ever stopped to think, "Maybe I should cook these for a bit, grind them up and throw them in hot water?" No? Yet, that's almost exactly what you're drinking every morning, so someone had that thought.

Nutmeg: I'm not talking about the ground nutmeg you find at every grocery store, but whole nutmeg. Look at it. It's like a stone, yet someone decided that it would be good to start grinding it and using it in food.

Eggs: This one is a little disturbing for a couple of reasons. One, simply because it is an egg. And the second, because of where it comes from. It's like the old joke about the man who sees beef tongue on a menu and is disgusted saying, "I won't eat anything that came out of a cow's mouth. I'll just have some eggs."

Milk: Here's a question for you. It is not acceptable for adults to drink breast milk, right? Why? Because it's for the baby humans. Now go open your fridge and look at that container of 2%. Why is that less weird?

Cheese: This is just taking the issues with milk a little further. It was weird to begin with, but now it has been contaminated and gone bad...but it tastes so good.

Blue veined cheeses: Again, we're just taking the last food one step further, because now the milk that has gone bad has gone bad again and is full of mold.

Pretty much any dairy product: After the last few entries, I decided that maybe we should just leave it at this.

Oysters, clams, other bivalves: Who was the first person to wonder whether there was something useful inside what was basically a rock? What made him think that the snot inside would actually be good to eat? I'm guessing desperation was involved.

Olives: I like olives. I like olive oil. However, I know that I would never eat an olive straight from the tree. They are essentially inedible like that. This means that someone had to (1) come up with the way to extract the useful oil from the olives and (2) come up with a way to turn them from disgusting, bitter things to the tasty ubiquitous fruit they are now.

Root vegetables: Potatoes? Carrots? Radishes? Garlic or onion? (ok, they are bulbs, but the principle is the same) Why would someone start wondering about the parts of the plant below ground when they are looking for dinner? How did we end up eating these things that we wouldn't even see most of the time?

Vanilla: There are tons of varieties of orchids in the world. They all produce a fruit of sorts around their seeds. How did we select this one type as the one whose fruit would flavor so many things, especially since becoming that flavor requires several steps before it is even recognizable to us.

Mushrooms: Mold and fungi are typically considered bad things, but on occasion we decide that they are in fact good things and sometimes even delicacies. Add to this that if you don't know what you are doing when you collect mushrooms in the wild you could end up poisoning yourself, and you might really start to wonder why we started eating these things.

Cuitlacoche (or huitlacoche): This is more of a subset of the last one than an entry all of it's own. This is a fungus that grows on corn. In reality it is a parasite feeding off the corn, but it has become a delicacy. Not only is the idea disgusting, and not only does it look disgusting, but even the name has a somewhat disgusting (though quite humorous) origin. The name comes from two Nauhtl words, cochi meaning black and cuitlatl meaning excrement. ^(source) Basically, this means that at some point in Pre-Colombian history, someone looked at the fungus growing on the corn and said, "Dude! What is that black crap growing all over my corn?" and the name stuck.

Trivial Tuesday

Four years ago today, a fire in a Rhode Island nightclub started during a Great White concert. In the end, 100 people were killed and over 200 were injured. The event was later described as part of the book, Killing Yourself to Live, which was written by what North Dakotan essayist?


Congrats to Trixie, who knew that Chuck Klosterman authored Killing Yourself to Live.

You Kiss Your Mother With That Mouth?

Ways to anger me if you are a dog:

Decide that the dogs on TV are real and must be barked at to make them leave your territory.

Repeatedly demand to go outside in the cold and snow, but don't bother to do anything to eliminate waste from your body...which is the whole reason we're out here in the first place.

While outside, go to one of the piles you left on a previous visit (now completely frozen), pick up the poopsicle (You see what I did there? Clever, isn't it?) and run full speed around the yard with it in your mouth.

Ways to amuse me if you are a dog:

Immediately aft coming inside, go try to give "puppy kisses" to the person who didn't have to stand outside with you.

More On The Car Incident

Our car is now in the shop (and because I had to go back to get my parking sticker off the windshield I got to witness the door looking even more mutilated than it already was since they had finally gotten it open) and I am not too optimistically awaiting the call that will tell me how long it will be before we get it back again. Since our car is in the shop, we have a rental car. A Chevy Aveo, and I loathe that car with every fiber of my being...but that might just be the bitterness talking.

Just in: The estimate for repairing the damage is $4200. Makes me glad I have insurance.

What We Have Here Is a Failure to Communicate

Let's try to move on to a slightly more amusing note than the last post...

Nothing is more important in a relationship than communication. You must know how to communicate with your partner in a way that he/she will understand. Allow me to illustrate with an example from my own life:

Melissa and I were at a store and had become separated. I wanted to find her as quickly as possible so that I could get out of the store and go home, so I picked up my phone and called her.

C: Where are you?

M: In the bathroom accessories area.

C: The what?

M: The bathroom accessories. You know. Shower curtains, towels, things like that.

C: (cluelessly) Oh...ok.

M: It's right across from the big flat screen TVs that you're always staring at.

C: Oh, I'll be right there.

I've Got Nothing More to Say

This is what the rear driver's side door of our car looks like now.



It did not look like this when we first got to the parking lot at my work today. Melissa wrote more about it, but I'm not in any sort of mood to post more. At least we are all ok.

Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day.

Trivial Tuesday

So, yesterday in wondering about how the word schmaltz made it into our vocabulary, I pointed out that schmaltz is actually the word for rendered chicken (and possibly other fowl) fat, while lard is the word for rendered pork fat. Keeping with this fat theme, what would you call fat rendered from beef (which is the same for fat from mutton)?

I know, I know. I'm throwing you off by asking non-pop culture questions. I like to keep you on your toes.

You Know What I Blame This On The Breakdown Of? Society.

When I came in to work this morning, I noticed that, as if to prove my point about the inability to park after snow, someone had parked in what what certainly not a parking spot. I don't mean that they had parked in a couple of spots or were hanging out into the row everyone has to drive on to find a parking spot. This person had literally parked in the middle of the driving lane as if it were an entirely new row of parking which only they knew about. You know what, this will work better if I draw it out for you (See Fig 1.). Be prepared to be impressed by my artistic skill set.

Figure 1. Click to Enlarge

Notes on Figure 1: There are not that many empty spaces. I just grew tired of Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V. Also, yes some of the cars being partially over the lines was done intentionally. I am a bad artist, but that part was done to represent that no one else parks very well either.



Seriously, what is wrong with someone that they would think it's ok to park there. Did all of the other cars parked normally not give them some sort of clue? If there was some sort of problem with the car, and it just died right there, you'd think they would have had it removed. Then again, you'd think if it was parked there because someone was incompetent, it would be removed as well. Either way, it's still sitting right there laughing and scoffing at our "rules" and our fascist system of parking spaces.

A Preponderance of Ponderables

I spend a good portion of my life wondering about things. As my thoughts flit from one subject to the next, they occasionally pause long enough for me to wonder why things are the way they are. A few things I've been pondering recently:

I wonder if I really should have used the word "flit" in the second sentence in this post. Obviously, I've been pondering that one very recently.

I sometimes wonder how a word for rendered chicken fat, schmaltz, ended up in our vocabulary as a word for something that is overly sentimental. For that matter, how is it that another seemingly out of place food-related word, cheesy, can sometimes be interchanged with it? If rendered fat has something to do with being overly sentimental, do you think that anyone would understand if you left a movie talking about how "lardic" it was?

When I see icicles on the roofs of houses, I wonder if I am the only one who broke them off as a kid and pretended they were crystals in Superman's Fortress of Solitude.

I wonder if one of my coworkers is actually a robot. He doesn't talk much and seems to have a number of preset phrases which he can use to respond to people. I once heard him try to crack a joke. It didn't really help his cause. One day, I'm going to try to confuse him with a logical paradox and see if his head explodes.

I wonder why, as soon as the first snow falls, people lose the ability to park inside the painted lines. One inch of snow and it's Lord of the Flies. Bunch of savages.

Since I saw an ad for Glade candles earlier, I've been wondering if it's really a good thing to have people in your commercials be so ashamed of your product that they have to lie about it to their friends. That just seems counter-productive to me.

When I see the woman wearing the huge, animal print (faux?) fur coat, I wonder if she's just trying to stay warm or if she has a few ladies that work for her and she's trying to maintain the right image.

How about you? What important issues have been weighing on your mind?

I Don't Care How. I Want It Now.

In my never-ending quest to avoid doing anything, while at the same time finding cool and amusing objects, I have decided that from now on, I will not use a shovel or a snow blower to clean my driveway. I must own one of these.



There are only a couple of problems: 1. It's not available yet. 2. It's way too expensive.

I'd say that the third problem would be that Melissa wouldn't go for it, but, come on, it's a robot that eats snow from the pavement and leaves behind cubes of "snow poo". Could you say no to that? I don't think she can either, as long as I can get around those first two problems.

More Weather Complaints

As I was getting ready just a couple minutes ago, the people on the radio told me that it was -6 degrees. That's not even the wind chill, just the temperature. They then went through a list of weather related closings for the day. The list took about five minutes to read. It would have been much faster if they had simply said, "Everything is closed. Oh wait, except for that place you work, Craig."

This should be fun. I plan to be in a bad mood all day.

This Weather Stinks

We're downgraded all the way to a Winter Weather Advisory now after spending all weekend under Winter Weather and Blizzard Warnings. Unfortunately, since Chewie thinks it would be a good idea to try to leave the yard and run free, I get to go outside with the dogs when they need to go out. Since we have a wireless web cam aimed into the backyard (for watching the boys if we aren't out there with them), Melissa decided to record me. At the beginning of the video, you can see me putting away my phone after she was telling me to come wave to the camera. Note that I am wearing jeans, my hooded NMSU sweatshirt with the hood up over my University of Illinois knit cap (repping both alma maters), a heavy wool coat buttoned all the way up to my face, gloves and snow boots. The only things exposed in any way are my eyes and part of my nose, but I was still freezing.




So what do you do when there's a blizzard warning, everything is closed and the news outlets are reporting that if you do venture out and slide off the road that police will take hours to get to you because they are so busy helping everyone else? I don't know what you do, but as for me, I scrounge the cabinets and see what I can make with ingredients we have in the house. That's how we ended up with a tray of super rich brownies covered in sour cherry preserves.

Chocolate Class

We went to a chocolate cooking class this week at one of our favorite local restaurants. This was actually that final part of my Christmas present from Melissa this year. We had wanted to go to this class in the past (they have classes each month, and one of those classes each year is about chocolate), but it tends to sell out quickly. Before, we had forgotten until too late, but this time Melissa remembered and made us reservations. I've been looking forward to this since I found out and was literally counting down the days as we got close to time.

This class consisted of a small group of people (a dozen or so) sitting and watching as the chef made various chocolate concoctions. It was a nice, informal setting which allowed for us to see what was going on and ask questions. In addition to being both informative and fun, it was delicious because we got to eat all of the things that were made. The dishes prepared were Chocolate Pot de Crème (which we ate there...all the others were sent home with us), Triple Chocolate Cookies, Chocolate Truffles (pictured below), and Bittersweet and White Chocolate Mousse.



The problem now is that the last thing I needed was more encouragement to make and eat more chocolate. Oh well, it's not like my doctor's going to yell at me for being fat or anything.