Monday, April 28, 2003

Must...Go...To...Bed

It ain't Napster (shocking how many of my music searches come up empty), but the new Apple online music service looks like it's gonna suck up a lot of my money. I found out about it after I put everybody else to bed, and I just can't...stop...looking...up...songs!

Kill Bill

Okay. I gotta agree with my friend Alan. This is a trailer I can watch over and over. In fact, if they never release the movie, I still got the trailer, baby!

Friday, April 25, 2003

Asian Action Movie

I've mentioned before watching the Hong Kong Movie Express on the International Channel. It was pretty hit and miss, and even the better movies were pretty low quality. Apparently I wasn't the only one who felt that way, because Hong Kong Movie Express isn't being shown anymore.

But now they are showing the Asian Action Movie. This show is hitting 50%, which is waaaay better than before. Red River Valley was somewhat boring, but the next two movies I captured on my ReplayTV were pretty good. Both were by the director Johhnie To, who was pretty hot a few years ago.

Running Out of Time 2 was a tale of a clever criminal (Ekin Cheng) who plays a game of cat and mouse with a smart, serious policeman (Lau Ching-Wan). The movie is seriously flawed, with such wooden concepts as a CGI Bald Eagle, which is the criminal's 'mascot'. However, I was totally amused by the interplay of personalities, and the chase across nighttime Hong Kong was hilarious.

It's a good thing I didn't read the reviews until I'd watched most of the movie. It seems most of the folks submitting reviews could only see the negative aspects. Apparently, Running Out of Time is much the superior movie to this sequel. In that movie, Andy Lau plays the criminal, in this case dying of an incurable disease. So the first movie really was about running out of time. Lau Ching-Wan was the cop in this original movie as well. Anyway, I gotta see it now...

Where a Good Man Goes is about a former Triad boss who returns to the world after spending several years in prison. The role was again played by Lau Ching-Wan. He's quickly becoming one of my favorite Asian actors. Here he manages to show how a former Triad member moves from his habits of brutal and relentless obsession with money to a caring man who can actually feel for a family.

The latest movie was the live-action Dragonball! I watched about ten minutes of it, then deleted it, it was that painful. I felt like I was watching a Power Rangers feature-length movie. Man, it was bad!

So as I said, batting around 50%.

Update

I've been in a really head-down mode at work, so I've had little energy for posting at the end of the day. So just a short note to say I'm okay.

Kelly and I saw Spirited Away last weekend, and she was really impressed by it. I already knew I would be, and I wasn't disappointed. Definitely more fun than the previous Kelly movie, Piglet's Big Movie.

Wednesday, April 9, 2003

GP32

This article is probably the best review I've seen so far of the Game Park 32, a Korean handheld console which can emulate a wide array of other platforms. Linking here for my game-playing friends...

Thursday, April 3, 2003

Curry Recipe Experiment

I'm lazy where food prep is concerned, if that's not become apparent by now. I like dishes and condiments which can be prepared with a minimum of fuss and bother. To illustrate: I like curry, a lot. I have a jar of red curry paste in the fridge. But to use it, I usually just put a dollop of ketchup on a plate, drop a teaspoon of curry paste on top, and mash it in with a fork. Voila! Instant curry sauce!

This evening, however, I decided to try to make something approaching an authentic curry sauce, albeit with no advance preparation. I looked on the web, and found this recipe. Okay, do we have any cream? No. Do I want to make a full-fledged white sauce? No. But there is some condensed milk in the cupboard! Now, this is an experiment, so I don't want to make the full recipe, but I don't want to try scaling things down mathematically (this never works anyway), so I just dump a teaspoon of curry paste into a bowl with about half of the condensed milk and warm it in the microwave (a saucepan on the stove would also be too much work).

After the warming, it looks rather thin, so I look at the recipe and see the flour. I add some white flour I find in the cabinet and stir it up. Kinda better, but still runny. More flour. Now it's getting to be the consistency of curry sauce as I know it. Time to heat it up again. After about a minute I pull the bowl out. Uh oh. The flour has more or less cooked, and I now have something that can best be described as a Curry Muffin.

More condensed milk, vigorous stirring and minor heating pass, and I now have a passable curry sauce.

Lesson: at least have the right ingredients on hand, and try to mimic the proportions in the recipe. I might try this recipe again in a week or two after actually shopping for the ingredients...

Wednesday, April 2, 2003

Anime Expo 2003

Traditionally, with some historical variations, I've made it my habit to travel to Anime Expo on alternate years. This is the year! I've been a bit hesitant due to my little episode this winter, but I'm thinking I'm doing good enough to dive in. So I took one more inexorable step today, mailing my membership fee for the con.

Tom has acknowledged that I have a slot in his room, and I have to get him payment for my share at the next NOVA meeting, which is April 12th. After that, all that remains is to line up my flights and declare my vacation time at work. Getting excited again, folks!

Tuesday, April 1, 2003

QOTD II


"OK, this paragraph, I really like this clause, I think I'm going to steal it and use it in my own contracts." Pause. He reaches for a red pen and crosses out the paragraph. "But you're not signing it."

Joel on Software


QOTD I


But enough of creating straw men and burning then down with a righteous match.

Neal Pollack