Blogosaurus Vex

Tonight Husband and I went to see the new Kevin Bacon movie, Death Sentence.  We’re big fans of the revenge movie genre and can’t stop ourselves from tittering with glee when there’s so much as a hint of revenge action in anything we watch, so we were pretty excited to see this movie.  A man wronged?  Out for justice?  A vigilante?  Sign me up!

When we got out afterwards, we had very different perspectives on the movie.  I thought it was okay – I enjoyed it overall but parts were so bad it interfered with my ability to enjoy – and I have low standards.  (I also love zombie movies, which should tell you something about my standards.)  The maudlin music stands out as a particularly stinky element, as well as the cop character who was totally unbelievable, and the first ten minutes, which are necessary as back story but so poorly executed I rolled my eyes the entire time.

Husband, on the other hand, loved it – and here’s why: he figured out, during those stinky first ten minutes, that this is not a movie meant to be taken literally.  It’s more allegory than narrative.  He thought of it as a Greek tragedy and loved every second.  The crappy cop?  A chorus.  Overblown characters?  Totally appropriate to that genre.  Tragic, nobody wins message?  Well you get the idea.

So go into this movie looking for archetypes and grand messages, not plausibility and detail.  It’s not quite as removed from reality as The Warriors but if you’re in that kind of mindset, you’ll probably enjoy the movie much more than I did.  I actually plan to see this one again, though probably not in theatres, to give it another chance.

p.s. – if you go to TinselTown, at the spooky empty mall in east Vancovuer, DO NOT put salt on your popcorn.  The salt shaker is about four inches in diameter across the top and has more volume dedicated to dispensing holes than lid.  I shook it for about .3 seconds over my bag of popcorn and at least four pounds of salt gushed out, making the top layer of my popcorn all white and sparkly.  I hate to waste food, so I ate it – but this then necessitated a large pop from the concession stand, which runs you about five bucks, so if you don’t have five bucks to spare you really should just go saltless.

Posted in Watching | 1 Comment »

I just stubbed the shit out of my littlest toe on my left foot.  Basically I was attacked by one of our dining room chairs, which are, as far as I’m concerned, the multiply reincarnated forms of Attila the Hun.  Attractive yes.  Dangerous also yes.

So now I have this aching toe which is all swollen and angry red.  It was one of those stubs that is so violent and painful that I actually cried after it happened.  How is it possible for so much pain to be in such a little toe?

And I’m feeling particularly sorry for myself because there’s no one here to show it off to and receive comfort from.  Husband is out playing poker with friends; I elected to come home and study instead.  (Little did I realize the chairs had set up an ambush!)  So here I am, telling The Internet instead of a person.

Sort of pathetic, isn’t it?

Posted in Personal | 1 Comment »

Dialogue is a NOUN, not a VERB.

“Let’s have a dialogue about that.” -Good.

“We can dialogue about that.” -Grounds for shooting.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

I’m still craving water, presumably to flush out the salt.  Good god how much sodium did I take in?

Posted in Cooking, Health | No Comments »

Tonight I made my first tofu dish.

Let me say here that I don’t really like tofu. It’s sort of weird and rubbery and mushy and the whiteness makes me think of grubs. For this whole first year of vegetarianism I really haven’t eaten much – I usually crumble a block of tofu into a big pot of spag, if I’m making it, and I have used the textured vegetable protein for tacos, but eat a block of the ‘fu? Naked, not just as an ingredient in a much bigger volume of sauce? No way man.

But last night I had a wicked tofu dish at a Malaysian restaurant. So I decided to give it a try myself. I marinated some tofu slices in a sauce I made with soy sauce, hot Thai chili sauce, sugar, lime juice, and some oil. I baked the slices until they firmed up, the topped them with mung bean sprouts and sliced cucumbers and a thickened version of the marinade.

The verdict? Good but needs work. The tofu itself was suprisingly firm and chewy, almost chickeny actually. None of that mushy tofu syndrome. The sauce was delicious but I learned that I need to cut it with water next time, because the salt of the soy, after some evaporation in the oven, nearly killed me. Even Husband, who as a general rule always likes what I cook, had to admit the saltiness was powerful. It was so salty that even as we speak my internal organs are turning into little shriveled husks from the dessicating effects.

I didn’t finish my dinner because of this business with the salt, but I’m pleased to report that my mind is now open to the possibilities of using tofu in more cooking. It’s always good to try new things and broaden your horizon. Just… less salt next time.

Posted in Cooking, Vegetarianism | No Comments »

I recently got a book on nutrition for vegetarians and have been finding it quite interesting. I thought I would find all kinds of places where my nutrition needs work – It’s somewhat anticlimactic to discover that I’m pretty much hitting all my targets for intake of macro and micronutrients.

Husband and I have always followed the food pyramid, and our breakdown of daily food is usually pretty close to the recommended ratios of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. We definitely get our share of fruits and vegetables a day, we’ve always done the whole grains thing, and our natural interest in variety has ensured we’re getting the spectrum of vitamins and minerals we need. I’m a little shy on calcium and iron, actually, but these are easily remedied by the multivitamin I take every day. Most folks are low there too, so I’m in good company.

Turns out it’s not hard at all to get what you need as a vegetarian. For example, take protein, which everyone tells me will be hard to get enough of without meat. As the World Health Organization put it (and I paraphrase), If you’re getting enough calories, you’re getting enough protein. It’s true – one thing I did learn is that there’s protein in everything, all the veggies, wheat, and so on. You only need .8g of protein per kilogram of weight each day, which for me works out to about 44g. I get most of that before dinnertime. Easy peasy! And of course, as meat avoiders, we get very little cholesterol or trans fatty acids in our diet. (We rarely eat eggs, and our dairy choices are often lower fat options.) And that business about combining vegetable proteins at the same meal? Debunked by modern science.

And did you know vegetarians live an average of 7 to 9 years longer than nonvegetarians? Cool!

Posted in Health, Vegetarianism | 3 Comments »

Cousin Pat accompanied me last night to the Commodore to see Clutch play.  Husband would probably rather jump off the building than listen to any more Clutch, which I confess I have been playing incessantly for months now, so he stayed home.  Pat got me in to Clutch in high school, probably about 12 years ago, and I’ve been a devoted fan ever since.

The show was great.  In summary: the first act was really excellent.  They’re a southern rock band called Backyard Tire Fire and they really got the crowd going.  I know it’s not cool to like a country sound but what can I say, they’re catchy.  And it’s not pop country like you get on the radio.  It’s country as hard drinking good ol’ boys without a trace of femininity do it.  And they were obviously super excited to be there which always helps.

The second act was pretty mediocre – I don’t even know what they are called so I shall end my discussion of them here.

Clutch was, as expected, awesome.  They played my two favourite songs off the new album, and my top favourite of their entire catalogue, so the rest was gravy.  I thought the harmonica was a little too low and the lead guitar guy occasionally snafu-ed a solo but the vibe was great and overall the music was exactly what you want at a live show: faithful enough to the recording to sound good and feel familiar, but gritty enough to feel real.  I rocked out.  And bought a t-shirt!

The only down side was the gaggle of sweaty shirtless guys who seemed to be everywhere: they’d mosh, get all slimy because they have no shirts on and the pit is super hot, and then they’d wander around wiping their sweat on innocent bystanders like yours truly.  Yecch!

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Canada Post is messing with me again. I recently paid for the expensive shipping on a book, which allegedly guarantees that it will arrive within two to three days. This was last Monday. Note: Monday to Monday is seven days, which isn’t even close to two or three.

This leads us to two conclusions: 1 – Canada Post is a bunch of damn liars and they shouldn’t take my money if they can’t deliver the goods, and 2 – I’m a total idiot for continuing to pay for priority post when I know full well it’s not going to arrive on time, or even close to on time.

Yet, I am an optimist. I always think, This time it will come on time. I think, Those last ten times were a fluke. What I don’t think but should is, Don’t be a sucker, choose the free shipping!  The real problem is I’m impatient and can’t bear the thought of waiting a week or more for the book I want, which is how long the regular shipping takes.  But ha ha on me, it  takes that long anyway – the only difference when I select the good shipping is I pay more and get angrier.

Time to complain again.

Posted in Ranting | 3 Comments »

Husband had the poker gang here tonight.  We offered, as usual, vegetables, chips, salsa, and whisky for the late crowd.  I don’t play poker but I do join in the after-party, such as it is.  Tonight the last two guests and Husband practiced Omaha while I cackled on the sidelines over my drink.   Now everyone has gone home and I’m drinking a pre-bed diet Pepsi.  Good times!

Two days to Clutch!

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

We just got home from seeing The Bourne Ultimatum.  I’m a big Bourne fan.  Assessment: it was fine. Parts were excellent, parts were kind of lame, but overall I enjoyed it quite a bit.  The biggest down side was that we arrived exactly on time (which freaks me out – I am always early for everything), so of course the only seats available were right down in front.  We had to watch the movie with our heads at an angle and turning rapidly from left to right to take in the entire screen.  Plus, I was kind of scrunched down over my belly the entire time and ended up with some trapped gases of some kind and by the end I was pretty queasy. The hand-held camera style didn’t help.  Whoever made Saving Private Ryan should be shot because as far as I know that’s the movie that made the jerky camera style so frigging popular and I hate it.  As I have said before, if I wanted to imagine the scene I’d stay home and read a book.  I go to the movies to see what is going on – kindly make this possible by holding the camera in one goddamn place!

I won’t spoil anything but I will say I am pleased that the stupid multiple-personality angle of the book didn’t make it into the movie (whew!).  And now I’m going to go lie down and nurse my quease.  Quease quease!  Quease quease!

Posted in Ranting, Watching | 2 Comments »