DVD stuff

Some of you may remember a while back I posted about how I was on a mission to see all the stuff the Warehouse 13 cast had been in, starting with my TV girlfriend, Joanne Kelly. Some of you may not remember this. I'd link to that post but I'm lazy, and it's basically explained in the first sentence of this post.

One of the things I wanted to see was a TV mini-series called Diamonds. All about the rough diamond trade in Africa and the people that get killed over it. So, like Blood Diamonds, only without having to watch Leonardo DiCaprio. Which is a plus for me because I find him really off-putting. (Other actors I find off-putting: Antonio Banderas, Megan Fox, and sometimes Drew Barrymore, mostly in her real-life appearances, where her cheerfulness always seems really forced and desperate to me. Maybe it is, her life wasn't really a picnic, maybe I'm imagining things, anyway, I've gone off track a bit).

Diamonds. Made as part of a collaboration between the Canadian and South African film industries. Filmed in both countries. And for some reason only released on DVD in Norway. Why Norway, I have no idea. I would have thought they would at least release it in the countries where it was made.

I now have a copy. Because Amazon is awesome, and because the first thing I do with any new DVD player is set it to region free, so I can watch DVDs from anywhere, I ordered it. It only cost $37 AUD including delivery, so I'm happy with the price. It arrived in my post box today, and I spent my lunchbreak making a mad dash into the city to pick it up, because now that my hours have changed, they're closed in the mornings when I pass through the city, and in the evenings when I go back.

I shall watch it when I get home from work, and may or may not do a mini-review, depending on how I feel and/or whether anyone is interested.

Internet Explorer Hates Me

For the past few weeks I've been having some problems with Internet Explorer. It started out with my yahoo mail account. I would click on a new mail, it would open, but no text would load, unless I pressed the forward button (reply didn't work, it had to be forward). Then I could read whatever was in the email.

Next the emails just wouldn't open at all. Since it was happening at work as well as at home, I thought maybe it was a problem with Yahoo. Especially after it had a fit and spontaneously deleted a whole bunch of the emails I could see sitting there, but couldn't read.

Then just as that problem started resolving itself I started having issues with blogger. The pages take forever to load. I can't reply to any posts because even though I have no problem seeing all other images, the little security word shows up as a box with a cross in it.

And the three times I've tried to post here, as soon as I hit the Publish Post button I get an error message.

Luckily I've still been able to do stuff at LiveJournal, since everyone I follow over there has been freaking out about what happened in the Warehouse 13 finale just as much as I have.

So, I've loaded up Safari on my computer. My emails all loaded very fast, and I had no problem reading them. I was able to successfully comment on a blogger post (and then just to check it wasn't a random blogger problem that had been fixed, I tried to comment again using IE and had the same issue as before). Now I'm trying to do a post of my own. If it works, yay!
If it doesn't I will cry bitter tears of frustration. (Well I probably won't because I'm really not a crier, although I did tear up at Warehouse. It was just so sad.)

Magic Quilt

When I was a baby my mother made me a little patchwork quilt. She made it out of material from dresses that used to belong to her and my older sister. The quilt started out in my cot, then when I was three I got  a baby doll for christmas and the patchwork quilt was what I wrapped her in when I carted her around.

The quilt has been through countless household moves, was used/played with both inside and outside, and around 11 years ago it was in my flat when I had a fire that covered almost everything in soot. It has been around me, one of lifes natural spillers and stainers, for 34 years.

I took this photo of the quilt 2 hours ago:

It is spotless. Not a single stain. It came out of my fire soot free. The white bits are still white and the colours are still bright. It hasn't faded with age or worn through from handling.
My brother and I have agreed that it must be a magic quilt. It's really the only explanation for an almost 35 year old quilt to look like it was only just made.

A post with a bunch of little video clips

Anyone who's been here before probably knows I watch a lot of movies and television shows.

Every now and then, a line or scene from a movie or show will randomly pop into my head, and won't go away until I watch whatever it's from. Today I thought I'd share these moments.

Movies first.

The opening cheer from Bring It On:

Bring It On is a completely ridiculous movie, but so much fun to watch.

Imagine Me & You:

This line is used twice in the movie. Once in the scene above, where Luce is teaching Rachel how to shout properly, and once when Rachel is trying to get Luce's attention in a noisy traffic jam. I've included that one below.

Poor number 9. I always find myself pausing this movie half way through to make a cup of tea. It must be the Britishness of it.

Labyrinth:

I love Labyrinth. When I was a kid, I could recite the whole movie from start to finish.

Tomb Raider:

I don't know what it is about Lara Croft saying "Absolutely" that I enjoy so much, but enjoy it I do, and it does randomly lodge itself in my brain.

TV Shows

Chuck: Chuck vs. the Crown Vic (Season 1, Episode 11)

Ahh, first season UST Chuck and Sarah bickering. I love her tone there.

Eureka: Purple Haze (Season 1, Episode 10)

Jo saying "ice-skating!" was one of those things that I thought probably amused me way more than it should. We all have moments like that, where we find something hilarious, and our friends are looking at us like we're idiots, all 'it's not that funny'. Then I found the podcast commentary for the episode and discovered that the cast find it just as funny as I do, so at least I'm not alone in that.

Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars

I  know this could have gone in the movies section, as it's from the movie that wrapped up the series, but if I'm gonna watch the Peacekeeper Wars, I have to watch the whole series leading up to it.

Fringe: Ability (Season 1, Episode 14)

Such a cute little teasing moment in an episode that's actually fairly tense for Olivia.

Law & Order: SVU - Guilt (Season 3, Episode 18)

Poor Alex, she really needed a hug pretty much throughout the whole episode. Also remember when this show was still awesome and Benson was a kick ass detective, instead of the whiny cry baby she is now. It all went so far downhill I honestly don't know how it gets an automatic renewel every year.

The X-Files: Bad Blood (Season 5, Episode 12)

No matter what kind of bad mood I might happen to be in, this moment always makes me laugh. And the whole episode is pretty much the funniest episode of The X-Files ever.

Lastly I'll just mention a line from an episode of Law & Order that I can't post, because I don't have it on DVD. For some reason even though the network has released all the seasons of SVU & Criminal Intent, they have only released up to season 8 of their original, longest running drama. Damn them, I want my Abbie Carmichael seasons!

From Cherished (L&O Season 9, Episode 1) while trying to decide who should be punished the most for the death of a baby girl:
Abbie Carmichael: "No deals for anybody. Let's hang 'em all."
I love Abbie.

Cooking With No One: Spicy Pork Ribs

Ingredients

'American-style' pork ribs

Dry Spice Rub

Large container of sweet paprika (this is the base)

2 pkts mustard powder (all packets are the ones that hang near the jars in the spice aisle)

2 pkts five spice powder

2 pkts black pepper

3 pkts chili powder

3 pkts chili flakes

1 pkt cinnamon

1 jar onion salt

Mix all spices together thoroughly. This will clear your sinuses. This actually makes way more than you need for the ribs, but when stored in an airtight jar it lasts for ages. We also use it to marinate other meats and add it to taco mix, and anything else we want spicy.

Glaze

500ml honey

500ml smokey bbq sauce

1 cup apple cidar vinegar

1/2 cup brown sugar

Mix together until completely combined. Again, this makes way more than you need for the ribs, but lasts for ages in the fridge. It can also be used on other meats, as a stir-fry sauce, and the other day my brother told me he was using it as a dipping sauce.

Method

Cut ribs into good sized pieces and place in baking tray.

Spoon on some spice rub, to rub into the ribs. I use more than is shown in the picture, but I wanted to make sure it all photographed well.

Put on gloves!!! This is very important. I didn't do that the first time I made these, and as I was rubbing in the spice mix, my hands started to burn. After repeated frantic handwashings, and holding a bag of frozen vegetables between my hands, the worst of the burning feeling went away, but my hands stung for two days afterwards. So, gloves.

Rub spice mix into ribs, both sides, until they are well covered.

Cover with foil, and put in fridge overnight, so the spice rub has several hours to tenderise the meat.

---------do whatever it is you do during the evening, sleep, do whatever it is you do during the morning and early afternoon----------

Put ribs in oven and bake (still foil covered), at 180 C. Length of time varies depending on thickness of ribs and how moody your oven may be. Anywere between 75 - 90 minutes usually does it.

If you're making a whole bunch of ribs, they can be cooked early, take them out of the oven, put the next batch in, and when the just removed batch has cooled a little bit, put them back in the fridge until the glazing stage.

Glazing! This can be done on a barbeque. I don't like cooking outside because of the cats, and the flies, and the sunlight and fresh air, so I do this under the griller.

Place ribs on foil-lined grill plate, and brush with glaze.

Put under heat (on high), for a few minutes, re-glaze put back under heat until slightly darkened, but not burned. Glaze may be bubbling a little bit. That's fine.

Turn over and do the other side.

These ribs are messy, sticky and so spicy hot that they burn the inside of your mouth and leave your lips tingly-numb. They are awesome.

Tender meat sliced from bone and put on breadroll:

Normally I serve the ribs with potato salad (dressing: mayonnaise, sour cream & lemon juice). This time they were served with a side of cheesy rice.

Bookmarks

I read a lot. I've always got at least one book on me, and if I'm near the end, I'll have an emergency back up book. Just in case. I read at the bus stop, on the bus, in really long lines at the post office, on my break at work. Basically, as far as I'm concerned, any time I have to do just about anything, it's something that's getting in the way of my reading time.

Like most people, I often don't get to finish a book in one sitting because of all those other things that need doing (although on my recent holidays I had the chance), so I use bookmarks.

I hate, hate, hate dog-eared pages. Whenever I let someone borrow a book from me, I make very sure to tell them if they turn down the pages they will not be borrowing from me again.

My bookmarks are specially made just for me. My mother (River - you all know her) makes them for me. Sometimes she makes them from pictures I email (did you get the one I just sent?), sometimes they are pictures she knows I'll like, and I get some surprise bookmarks I wasn't expecting. I keep them all together in a drawer, and I'll use one for a little while, then put it back in the drawer and use another one.

You might be wondering now why I don't make them myself. There are a lot of things I can do very well. There are some things I'm useless at. One of those things is using clear plastic contact. I always get bubbles. Weirdly shaped ones that don't smooth away. They stretch and break and look funny.

So mum makes them for me, and I really appreciate having bookmarks that are different from anything anyone else has.

While we're on the subject of books, I was reading one from the library today, the first book in a trilogy. I was really enjoying it and found I could buy the entire trilogy at Amazon in a box set for under $15. Yay, affordable books! For anyone who's interested the trilogy is The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson.

Movie Review: Cowboys & Aliens (aka There's Gold In Them Thar Hills)

THIS POST WILL PROBABLY CONTAIN SPOILERS. Maybe, it really depends on how descriptive I'm feeling as I type.

Cowboys & Aliens starring (in alphabetical order):

Daniel Craig. Not my favourite Bond (that would be Connery), but I do like his work.

Harrison Ford. When did he start looking so old? He didn't look anywhere near this grandpa-like in Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, which was only 3 years ago. Still cool though.

Olivia Wilde. I love that she's in the old-westerny type dress, but she has a gunbelt slung around her waist and hip. Because she's kick-ass. She's my favourite.

As I mentioned in a previous post this movie has been getting some bad reviews, in fact I just read another one today (the complaint this time, not enough old west, and not enough sci-fi. Whatever).
I don't get why so many people are so hostile toward this movie. I thought it was awesome.

I will admit that Olivia Wilde is one of my favourite actresses, one of the ones where I'll see anything she's in, so maybe I'm biased because of that. (Sidenote, I don't care for her latest hairstyle. Not the one for the movie, but the fringe thing she's got going on now. I really don't think it suits her. Still she did recently break up with the man she'd been married to since she was 19, so maybe the fringe is her version of the 'dramatic post-breakup new life' haircut, without actually having to cut off the rest of her lovely hair. Meanwhile, I'm cutting my lovely hair on the weekend. It's very straight, and is right now about 2 and half inches from being waist length, and it takes sooo long to dry in the mornings, and sometimes feels quite heavy, so I've gotten my brother to agree to cut it shoulder length for me. None of that has anything to do with the movie, I just thought I'd share, and presumbly if you didn't want the occasional off-topic ramble you'd be reading someone else's blog.)

The movie: Daniel Craig's character, Jake, wakes up in a desert with no idea who he is and a weird metal bracelet thing on his wrist. He's ambushed by bandits, beats them up, steals their weapons, one of the horses and a dog, and makes his way to a small dusty town, that is being mildly terrorised by the wussy son of Harrison Ford's character Woodrow. He also meets Olivia's Wilde's character, mysterious Ella, the chick with the gunbelt.

One issue I do have with this movie is how weirdly protective Woodrow is of his dropkick adult son. I'm pretty sure in the old west a character like that would not have put up with the boy's behaviour. He would've given him a good hiding instead.

Aliens attack the town. Interestingly, we're calling them aliens, because that's the word we use, but in Arizona in 1873 apparently that wasn't a term they knew, as they refer to them as demons. The aliens are sufficiently creepy, with weird chests that fold open to reveal an extra set of arms that end in claws. They also have cool scout ships that look like giant metal bugs.

This is where Jake's weird metal bracelet first comes into play. It's actually an alien weapon he accidently stole from the ship where he had been kept prisoner (gasp!) along with his now dead wife. Poor Jake. There's fighting and people being grabbed by the alien ships and whatnot. Plus explosions. I love explosions.

There's a cute moment with Ella and Jake, after Ella gets grabbed by one of the scout ships. Jake shoots it down and as it's falling over a lake of water he jumps on the ship and frees Ella. They land in the water and after they come up for air, they have this little exchange: Jake "We were flying." Ella: "Yeah...". It was cute, and also even in the terror of being taken by aliens, I think you'd have to take a moment to enjoy the wonder at having an experience that you've never even considered a possibility before.

They find the main spaceship, which once we see it out of the ground (at first it's mostly buried), puts me in mind of a giant sonic screwdriver. A clear sign I watch too much Doctor Who. It turns out the aliens are after our gold. I'm not entirely sure why they have to kill us to get it, but maybe they're just dicks.

In the end the cowboys win. Yay cowboys! But Ella sacrificed herself to destroy the ship, so Jake is still sad, because he doesn't even get a hot new wife to replace the dead one.

So, I enjoyed Cowboys & Aliens, and will more than likely buy it when it comes out on DVD.

Shirtless Adventures In Mystery Land, Part 4

Part 1   Part 2   Part 3


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   Joshua trudged shirtlessly down the dirt road. He'd been walking for three days, without encountering another living being. Even the faeries hadn't been around.
   Everything was dusty. His legs ached, and Joshua was bored. He wished he had an iPod. Or a television. The magic tent had a proper bed, would it have really been so hard to give him a television as well?
   Overcome with loneliness and despair, Joshua sat down shirtlessly in the middle of the road, and couldn't bring himself to move.

   Joshua had been sitting shirtlessly in the road for about half an hour when he heard a loud rumbling noise. Looking around, he noticed the day had darkened considerably and the sky was filled with thick black clouds.
   On the other side of the  field that bordered the dirt road was a large mountain range. Joshua thought he noticed a slight outcropping a little way up the mountain. Hoping it would protect him from what he was sure was an oncoming storm, he dashed shirtlessly for the mountains.

   Joshua reached the mountain just as the rain started to fall. Thunder and lightning soon followed, the sheet lightning brightening the whole area.
   Joshua shirtlessly watched the storm for a little while before deciding to to check out the little area in which he'd taken shelter.

  In the far corner of the covered area was a large crevice that appeared to be lit from the inside. It seemed large enough to fit through, so Joshua gathered up his messenger bag and shirtlessly headed toward the light.

   The crevice opened into a large chamber, lit by what seemed to be millions of fireflies. In the centre of the chamber was a deep blue-green pond, bordered with large polished rocks.
   Joshua stopped still for a moment, shirtlessly taking in the beauty of his surroundings. Then without thought he walked down to the pond.

   Joshua sat at the edge of the pond dangling his bare feet in the water. It felt so warm and soothing. He pulled off his jeans and boxer briefs and dived nakedly into the water.

    (THIS JUST BECAME NAKED ADVENTURES IN MYSTERY LAND!!)


   Drifting nakedly in the water, Joshua was contemplating his journey. He was starting to feel better about being on the quest even with the constant loneliness. He thought maybe the water had something to do with his change in attitude. He was definitely feeling stronger and more refreshed.
   Joshua had just started wondering how long he could stay in the pond before his skin started doing that weird pruney thing, when he felt something brush against his left thigh. He splashed frantically to the edge of the pond and scrambled nakedly onto the rocks.
   He took a moment to catch his breath before leaning over to peer into the pond. Squinting against the lights shining off the water's surface, he thought he could make out a large shape flickering through the deep.

   The shape started getting closer to the surface and Joshua jumped back nakedly in shock when a mermaid emerged from the water and hoisted herself up onto the rocks next to him. The mermaid glanced quickly at Joshua's wet, naked form and grinned to herself. Reaching out, she trailed her fingers down his arm.
   "Hello Joshua," she smiled at him, "I've been waiting for you."

TBC...

They Don't Even Have Fingers, Let Alone Opposable Thumbs

Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall

All the King's horses, and all the King's men

Couldn't put Humpty together again.

Why were they using horses to try and reassemble a broken egg? If it was actually an egg. Sure, that's what the pictures show, but what if he was just an unfortunately named, very rotund human? Horses would have been even less help. (Also, hopefully some of the King's men were surgeons). Nursery rhymes are insane if you think about them too much.

Colouring Books, and the Way Time Changes

I used to love colouring books. I was not a very social child, and unlike every single one of my siblings I can't draw. Which makes me sad. I see stuff so clearly in my head, and yet I can't put it on paper. My hands won't cooperate and I have no sense of perspective. Anyway, colouring books. I was very good at colouring. Meticulous. Always stayed in the lines, chose my colours very carefully.

When my niece and nephew were little I watched them a few days a week, which gave me an excuse to buy colouring books again. I was disappointed to find they were different from when I was little. The pictures were much simpler, bigger spaces for colouring in. Nowhere near as detailed as they used to be.

This morning, after my little blogger rant, for some reason I started thinking about a colouring book I had when I was a kid. We were staying in a hotel in either Sydney or Melbourne because we were moving house (I think it was Melbourne, because the Sydney time was when my hand got burnt - mum you might remember if this was in Melbourne?), it was raining, we were bored, so we went down to the 7-11 and bought these awesome colouring in books. All of us older kids got one. They were A3 size and the pictures were so detailed. One of the pictures was a Tyranosauras Rex crashing through some jungle after another dinosaur. There was even a little pool of water near his feet with a tiny dinosaur in it. The other picture I remember was a ship on an ocean in flames, people jumping over the edge into the water, some of them on fire. Even with the violent imagery it was a beautiful picture.

I've tried telling people about this book and most people think I must have imagined it, because those pictures would never end up in a book for kids. I point out how much times have changed since then (we used to have the movie Carrie on tape. We watched it a lot because it was on after Willy Wonka. It was rated PG back then, now it's R18+, Little House On The Prairie was once a wholesome show that was considered good family viewing, now some of those episodes would have an M rating for content, times change).

Does anyone else remember the colouring book I'm talking about? Anyone know where I can get one like that today, with proper pictures that have actual detail?

Dream house

   I have a dream house. It's not a house that I want to buy or build. I've never seen it in real life, and I have no desire to look through real estate pages or websites looking for it. It's literally a dream house.

  Every time I have a dream, in which I am in a house, it's this house. It doesn't matter how old I am in the dream, or what I'm doing there, who I'm living with, or even if I'm dreaming that I'm someone other than myself, the house is always the same.

Shirtless Adventures In Mystery Land, Part 3

Part 1
Part 2
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   Joshua sat in lush green field, shirtlessly contemplating the quest he was about to start. The faeries hadn't given him a lot of details before they left him on his own.

   He had to find a castle. They'd told him there were a lot of castles in this land, but only one was meant for him and he'd know it when he found it. As in any good quest, along the way he'd face dangerous situations, although they should be nothing he couldn't handle. Calla had handed him a large messenger bag that he was assured would be refilled with food, water and basic supplies every morning, told him everything he needed to complete his quest he would find along the way, ("like a video game," he'd murmurmed shirtlessy to himself), and that if he really needed help he could call for them. Then all three faeries had disappeared in clouds of sparkly dust.

   Joshua sat for a while longer, digging through the messenger bag to see what was in there. Sandwiches, something that looked like cake, and an oddly shaped purple thing he thought might be fruit. He'd definitely be leaving that for last, just in case it was horrible. Or some kind of weird joke the faeries were playing on him. Right at the bottom of the bag, under the water flask, and a roll of toilet paper that made Joshua extremely happy, as he'd been worried he'd have to use leaves, was a little disc with TENT written on it. He was tempted to push the button on the disc, to make sure it worked, but after staring at it for a little while he shrugged shirtlessly and put the disc back in the bag, deciding he'd wait until later. For now, he should probably get moving.

  Hauling himself shirtlessly to his feet, Joshua wandered over to the dirt road at the edge of the field. Taking a look in both directions and seeing only the road stretching into nothing he found himself at a loss. He didn't know which way to go. Joshua laughed quietly to himself when a line from the movie Labyrinth popped into his head, "If she'd 'ave kept on goin' down that way she'd 'ave gone straight to the castle." He had a feeling it wouldn't be that easy for him. That no matter which direction he headed, he'd end up on long and difficult journey. At least he wouldn't have to deal with a goblin king wearing inappropriately tight pants. As far as he knew.

  Joshua shirtlessly dug a coin out of his pocket and flipped it. Heads. Turning to his right he started off down the road.

A message to my fans

  To all the hordes of people I'm sure are dropping by here every day, breathless with anticipation, desperately hoping I've written a stunningly witty post...are you sure you're in the right place?
  And to the one person who said to me "you haven't posted in a few days, what's up?"
  I'm tired. Getting up at the crack of dawn for the new job, and not yet being able to fall asleep until well after midnight has left me too tired to think about what I want to put in a post.
  So, for now at least, after today, this will be a weekend blog.