Too... Many... PROVERBS!

Ghost in the Shell 2 is amazingly beautiful. If not for the story watch for the animation. Holy crap.

There were crap loads of scenes that seemed totally pointless to the movie but I guess they actually were vital in telling the audience just kind of world Ghost in the Shell sets itself in and allows us to view our own under a slightly different light.

Oh yeah and there was like a proverb to ponder every 5 minutes. It was sort of odd but it's just one of those Jap movies... what can you do.

Could totally watch this movie again. DVD worthy? I dunno. I'll have to watch the first one again.

Oh yeah and this isn't a total mindfuck as one would think. So go watch it :P

AMERICA

AMERICA! fuck YEAH! Coming again to save the motherfucking DAY YEAH.

Alright so I'm an immature bastard who's had that song stuck in his head all week. Holy crap such a bad movie in the most offensive sense.

Random pitch for Boeing: Boeing's having the X-45c full size model present at the premiere of STEALTH. Keep an eye out for it on Headline news or something because ALLAN is working on the TRAINER for that thing. So if it ever goes rogue it's Allan's fault. But in all seriousness... how silly is the premise. It's like:

if (struck by lightning)
{
go rogue and take shit out with a bad ass rotary rocket launcher.
}

I dunno I can see this movie taking a whole Asimov-esque twist.

Oh and kevin sent this video link which is pretty hot: http://bisqwit.iki.fi/nesvideos/movies.cgi?id=380
But it's a bitch to play so if you're nerdy check it out.

Once Upon a Time in the West

Dude. Still one of the best movies ever. EVER. Go watch it. If you're a fan of Kurosawa, westerns, or GOOD MOVIES, you'd like this movie. This is NOT for the ADD viewer. This movie is all about setting the scene. If you come to my place and if you haven't seen it yet, you're watching it.

Batman builds a house for the needy at UIUC while watching anime and eating Dim Sum at Lu Lu's.

Batman Begins: BEST BATMAN MOVIE EVER. A Good movie? Eh.... it's pretty good :P It's obviously setting precedence for a sequel (durhur... "Begins") and it was pretty slow and needed to wrap up things quickly to avoid a movie that's way too long. Alas. But you really got to start worrying when you're thinking that you'd rather see a movie set up into 26 episodes ><

Habitat for Humanity: Good exercise. Learned some stuff. Did some good for decent people who deserve help who need a break. Got a warm fuzzy when being thanked by the lady getting the house... but was pretty damned tired afterwards. Would I do it again? Prob not. I'm a horrible bastard.

UIUC: Holy crap campus and campustown is shit loads better than it used to be. Damnit. Bully for my html skills.

Yakitate: Right now the anime that I anticipate the most for its next episode is Yakitate! Japan. How sad is that. I think I'm gonna try that bread recipe with Anna's rice cooker.

Dim Sum: Alas... crazy people who aren't used to eating funky chinese food and worry too much about prices... Cool people. Wrong lunch place to bring them to. Note to self: Stick to wings and beer.

Lu Lu's: The place where we had dim sum. QUALITY DIM SUM. Just don't go there with a group of five. You'll totally get shafted in the table wait and it'll be stuck in the corner where the waitresses can't see you. Will definitely go again if I can ever convince anyone else to go. They're supposed to have a lot of other good chinese dishes as well but you can tell it's trying to cater to the White folk with loads of pictures in the menu. A nice touch. They're supposed to have an "unwritten" menu that so many other places have as well.

Cream of Mushroom Soup

Topic: Recipe
Cuisine: Continental

Modified from the recipe by Christopher Desens.

This recipes makes a LOT of soup so be prepared for leftovers or make this for at least 4 people.

4 oz Butter
4 oz Yellow Onion, chopped.
5 cups water
1 bouillon cube (chicken or vege)
6 oz Finely Shredding Smoked Gouda. Regular Gouda works just as well.
4 oz diced Celery. Sometimes grocery stores sell celery sticks at like the salad bar.
4 oz. flour
2 cups heavy cream.
1 clove Minced Garlic
1/2 cup Madeira. This wine is a pretty good wine for cooking. It has a sort of woody rustic flavor. Good with cheese too.
1-2 Tbsp Chopped Fresh Thyme. Must be fresh or else it just doesn't taste as good.
6 oz Shitake Mushrooms sliced. If you get the ones from the Asian grocery store you can use the stems too so long as you cut them pretty finely.
Some shitake mushrooms for garnish. Usually just the leftover shrooms you have from when you bought them packaged.

1 tspn Salt.
Cracked black Pepper.


The Shitakes and the Thyme can be replaced with Portobellos and Parsley. Of course it's not the same but it tastes just as good and it's a hell lot cheaper and easier to find. Fresh Shitakes are best bought at asian grocery stores. Other "specialty" grocery stores tend to have pretty lame ass shrooms that are pretty dried out. I'm sure the Asian ones were set in water before packaged but at least they're not all bruised and crap. The Asian grocery stores sell them for a lot cheaper too.

Melt Butter in a large pot on medium heat.
When the butter starts to bubble add the garlic, celery, onion, and shrooms. Season with salt and saute until cooked. No need to brown the onion unless you like it like that.
Sprinkle flour while mixing to make a roux. Stir for about 5 minutes to coat all the ingredients and the roux has a relatively dark brownish grey color.
Stir in the bouillon, madeira, and thyme.
Add the water and then gradually stir in the cheese. Finally, stir in the cream.
After the cheese and cream has been added, be careful not to boil the soup or you're get some skin on top or stuff stuck at the bottom. If you're worried about bacteria and crap, before adding the cheese and cream, bring the soup to a boil. Then turn the heat down to a simmer and add the rest.

Use a hand blender to blend well and simmer until the it's a thick smooth consistency.

Saute the leftover sliced shrooms with a pinch of salt to taste and garnish the soup with a couple slices. Of course with vege bouillon it's vegetarian and it actually works. Stupid vegetarians. Here's your damned soup.

Jade Empire

Jade Empire. Awesome game. But what's happened to games with clear saves? I must have played through MGS 5 times and FFVI two times. Do you know how freaking long FFVI is to REPLAY? That's cuz they had clear saves. Anyone want to play Jade Empire with ALL fighting styles maxed out? That would be pretty sweet. It would be a lot easier with a clear save. Add SOMETHING to make it cooler to play it again. Keep all your styles? Keep any style that was maxed out? SOMETHING. GRA. I'll prob play this again if the 360 gives faster load times.

Yeah I don't know what to call this one.

FrknCrzyAzn (4:21:50 PM): k0w0y (4:20:53 PM): at least with girls bathroom, there is mostly pee that contaiminates the stall
k0w0y (4:21:02 PM): but you know it's all fecal bacteria in the guys
...
k0w0y (4:21:25 PM): oh, god
k0w0y (4:21:25 PM): ew


SibladeKO (4:23:00 PM): please stop sharing this conversation or i'll kill you

Good ole Spaghetti Sauce

Topic: Recipes
Cuisine: Italian

This is just put together so that Anna would have something to follow.

1 jar spaghetti sauce
1/2 lb of lean ground beef
1 small onion, chopped
2 cups mushrooms, chopped
1 tspn garlic powder
1 teaspoon italian herbs
1/4 tspn salt
cracked pepper
1 tblspn olive oil + 1 tblspn

mix garlic powder and at least 2 good grinds of pepper with meat.
In a small pot heat oil to medium high. Brown meat. Remove. Heat other tblspn of oil and saute the mushrooms and onion with salt. Cover to speed up the cooking process but later cook uncovered to let out the excess water. Add italian herbs and beef. Mix. Add the sauce. Let simmer for at least 30 minutes. You can further thicken with corn starch paste.

Chicken Marsala and Garlic Oil Bread

Topic: Recipe
Cuisine: Italian

The obligatory recipe. Taken from the back of the marsala wine bottle.

4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs
flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
2 portabello mushroom caps, sliced
1 cup marsala cooking wine
Chopped parsley
kosher salt and cracked black pepper
Half a lemon. Use the other half for water or something.
1 tablespoon cornstarch with water into a paste.

Slice chicken thighs along the center thinner section. Take each section, cover with seran, and pound flat with a mallet or flat side of a large knife. Pat dry with a dry paper towel. Season both sides of chicken with a pinch of salt and 1 crack of black pepper, or more cracks if you like pepper. Dredge the meat in flour.

In deep sauce pan, melt butter in olive oil in medium heat. Brown both sides of chicken, about 4 minutes on each side. Set aside. One good thing to do with them instead of setting them aside in paper towels is to put them on cooling racks on cookie sheets in the oven on warm heat.
Saute mushrooms, stir in wine. Cook away the alcohol. While the sauce is boiling stir in the cornstarch paste to thicken the sauce. Place chicken back into the sauce to make sure that each piece is well covered. On serving plate squeeze lemon over it and garnish with parsley.

You can add more marsala wine.... 1 cup or so with another tablespoon cornstarch into paste... for some pasta. Once coating the chicken in sauce remove chicken to serving plate and throw cooked pasta into the sauce... stir around and remove. Pour remaining sauce over chicken. You can use the other lemon half for the pasta.

Garlic Oil Bread

1/2 cup olive oil (light or extra virgin)
1 clove crushed garlic
1 tablespoon italian herbs

Warm oil in medium heat. Throw in garlic and herbs. Remove when garlic gets a little brown. You can use this as dipping oil OR...
Take a loaf of bread and slice it diagonally but not all the way so that it's still all connected. With the loaf on aluminum foil, spoon oil, herbs and all, into every other gap in the bread. Wrap up and throw into the oven at 300 degrees for 5 minutes.

Hot'n Sour Soup

Topic: Recipe
Cuisine: Chinese

Modified from a Ming Tsai recipe. Where the heck IS that guy?
*He just kicked Bobby Flay's ass in Iron Chef America :) Booya

1/2 lb julienned pork chop or other lean pork meat.
1 teaspoon sesame oil, + 1 teaspoon
1 teaspoon soy sauce, + 2 tablespoons
2 tablespoons cornstarch
Vege oil (1 tablespoon?)
3 dried chilies
1 tablespoon minced ginger
10 cups chicken stock
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 cup julienned bamboo shoots
2 eggs beaten (or more if you like egg)
1/2 cup wood ear
1/2 cup lily flowers
2 tablespoons cornstarch mixed with cold water to make a paste
3/4 cup chinese Black vinegar (If using something stronger like cider vinegar use 1/4 cup)
1 pack of silken tofu (uh... 3*4*2 block?) cut into cubes
chopped scallions
cilantro
salt, White pepper, black pepper

Most of these ingredients are decently easy to find. The not-so-easy ones would be the wood ear and the lily flowers. These may be available at the local Asian grocery store in the dried form. Of course, fresh is best. You can easily find bamboo shoots canned and already julienned.

Notes about rehydrating wood ears and lily flowers: Rehydrate in wood ears in warm water and lily flowers in boiling hot water. Every so often (20 minutes or so) change water (no need for boiling hot in the lilies the second+ time). Rehydrate for at least one hour.

Combine pork with teaspoon sesame oil, teaspoon soy and 2 tablespoons cornstarch and let sit for 30 minutes. In a pot on medium-high heat coat the bottom with oil and sear the pork. Set aside. Add chilies and ginger, stir. Add stock, sugar, bamboo, wood ear, and lilies. Bring to boil. While boiling, stir in the cornstarch paste to thicken. If you like your soup even more goopy add more paste :P While boiling again, drizzle in egg in a circular motion to make ribbons. Add vinegar, soy, sesame oil, pork, and tofu. Check for seasoning with any of the sauces.

When serving add cilantro, scallions, and pepper. Those fried chinese noodle things at Americanized chinese restaurants are awesome too, or you could just fry up some wonton skins.

This recipe can be easily modified to suit your tastes and you can add practically anything you want to it. The most important flavoring in this soup (aside from the vinegar and chiles) would have to be the pork. It just doesn't taste any good without it. Of course this recipe could be veganized but who would want that.

Yet another Spielberg WWII movie

And what do you know, Schindler's list is awesome. I can almost forgive Liam Neeson for being in Ethan Frome. Almost.

Sideways and Kung Fu Hustle

Sideways has Lowell from Wings and that other guy who's usually the annoying hostage who gets shot. Well... at least in the Negotiator. This movie has some amusingly funny moments but it's really a very soul searchingly depressing movie that shines some hope on all those severely depressed people who think that their lives are absolutely horrible. But like all other movies like this, it's all about "taking that first step." Whatever that means. It also makes me want to go out and buy some Pinot.

Stephen Chow made a movie almost exactly like all his other movies except with better special effects. There's a really funny Bruce Lee movie reference that makes you want to see Chuck Norris get his ass kicked. Again.

Samurai Champloo

Ridiculously silly at times and insanely serious at others. Reminiscent of Cowboy Bebop cept with a conclusive ending. BAD ASS.

Sweet. This just goes to show that U of I students and alumni get free lifetime web hosting. And it also shows a picture of me "peeing." o.O

Spare Ribs

Topic: Recipe
Cuisine: Continental

This one's taken from the Good Eats guy. I think it's under "who luvs ya baby back" at foodtv.com. I don't even know why I changed it... I think it was cuz I didn't have the cash to invest in spices... ah yes... the college life.

2 slabs of spare ribs.

Rub:
4 tablespoons brown sugar
liberal amounts of salt (or seasoned salt), garlic powder, rubbed thyme, cracked black pepper.
Liberal as in you're shaking the hell out of the shaker :P
Some cayenne pepper depending on how you like it.

Liquid:
1 cup white wine (cheap ass cooking wine... I used the asian stuff :P)
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce (or more if you like it )
2 tablespoons honey
2 cloves chopped garlic (you can never have too much so throw some more in for good measure.)

Preheat oven at 250 degrees.

I usually just have the ribs on heavy aluminum foil (shiny side down) and shake everything on it one ingredient at a time. I guess the proper way of doing it is mix everything together so that it's all blended then rubbing it on. wrap each slab in foil and let the ribs sit for a while (1-2 hours) in the fridge.
Pour liquid into the foil pouch thingers and braise in the oven for 2.5-3 hours. you can do it longer if you like your meat more erm.... pull offable.

Unwrap and grill them for that burnt flavor. You can take the braising liquid and reduce it and use that for a sauce. I like sweet baby ray's. If crazy vegetarians like that crap on white rice... it has to be good. apply the sauce while grilling.

Now you know why I get excited when spare ribs are on sale for less than 2 bucks a pound :P

Green Curry.... auuugggghhhh

Champaign was a pretty good food town. It's got some awesome mexican... some pretty good japanese... and some nice chinese food. It's got one of the best reubens too ;P.

But one thing that never failed to disappoint was Thai food. ONE place had some good stir fried food like pad thai (GOLDEN WOK) on the cheap but the one thing I enjoyed the most of thai food was green curry. Green curry sucked at all the thai places I tried in champaign. It was a sad time, indeed.

Now I live in a burb that mostly consists of chain restaurants with a small collection of really really nice restaurants (Bellagio? Ichiban? Spiros?). But the thing that pissed me off about the area was the asian food. But man... Thai Bur-ree has some nice food. They could definitely work on the service, but that green curry was by far the best green curry that I've had in the midwest. Granted, I haven't been to any Thai places in St. Louis proper.

Which leads to the question. Should I move closer to the city? More young people... more restaurants... closer to specialty grocery stores and farmers markets...

Gonna make a spreadsheet on this. But yeah Thai Bur-ree is the rocks. Shit I'm starting to type like Kevin.

Beef Soup

Stolen from Byron :P Just a bit different. All the ingredients are easy to get cept the beef paste may need some extra searching. The asian grocery store here has it so I'm happy. Obviously not as good as the beef noodle soup we all know and love but it's pretty damned good and cheap and easy to make.

1 pound beef soup bone with meat or any other relatively fatty beef with bone.
2 slices Ginger
Two things of green onion
2 cloves garlic
Any noodle you like. Flat asian ones (rice or bean) are good.
salt / pepper
1 tablespoon oil
2 quart water
1/2 cup cooking wine
2 tablespoons soy sauce
Two spoonfulls "gia vi nau pho" instant beef flavor paste.
Cilantro
More green onion.
Lime
Any chili sauce that you like.


Rub oil on meat (be sure to rub bones too) and season with salt and pepper. In a medium pot on medium/high heat brown both sides of the meat. When flipping to the other side of the meat throw in the green onion, garlic, and ginger onto the pot's surface. Add the cooking wine and soy sauce and let that sizzle for about 2 minutes. Add water and the beef paste. Bring to high heat to bring to a boil, then let simmer on low for at least 2 hours. This is so the meat practically falls into nice chunks when you're serving it.

Cook the noodles according to instructions. Serve soup with noodles, Cilantro, Lime, or anything else you enjoy with this type of soup. Serves 4-6 people. I think. :P

The Shoveler, Alec Baldwin, that chick from ER

The Cooler has the Shoveler from Mystery Men aka that Guy from Fargo as a severely depressed guy whose bad luck oozes out on other people and works in Baldwin's casino to "cool" the hot tables. He falls in love with the ER chick and his luck changes. I really don't know what to make of this movie. I really enjoyed it. It made me want to know what happened next and the acting was good. What's bothering me about this movie? I dunno. I'll prob watch more movies with the Shoveler and maybe actually know his real name.

Adaptation, The Upside of Anger, and Sin City

Charlie Kaufman does some crazy soul searching in this movie that makes you appreciate his crazy mind but also makes you wish you spent your time doing something else like watching anime... about BREAD.

I still don't forgive Joan Allen for being in Ethan Frome. Everyone who was in that movie should die horrible deaths in the rest of their films. Like that british guy who was qui gon. But alas... this was a pretty darned good movie... one that I can actually recommend to my coworkers for its... how do you say it... more mature nature. Mature as in senior mature... not boobies mature.

Now Sin City's got boobies. Lots of them. Definitely for people who like melodramatic eye candy... and violence. Lots of violence. Definitely a dvd worthy movie. But yeah I can understand how one can not appreciate it because it's definitely a guy's movie. Did I mention that it has lots of boobies?

Streetcar Named Desire

One cannot help but think of how severely fucked up this movie would have been if it were made today, regardless of the original play. Worth watching for its influence and for its milestone...ness. Oh yeah. that chick from gone with the wind is a whore.