I came across Netdiaster from Yahoo’s “Finds of the Year” collection. You can load up any website and use a variety of natural and man-made disasters to deface the site (virtually). It’s rather fun.
A couple of screen shots of my site being messed up…
Most people make homemade sushi rolls straight up like they see them in restaurants. Toasted seaweed, Japanese rice and whatever stuffing they like. Well, it turns out that there’s a special treatment to the rice that one can do to dramatically improve the flavor and texture of sushi rolls that most people probably don’t know about, and learn how to make the best rools and trips with the seaweed and rice to explore different flavors, and talking about flavors check out the Exhale Wellness Hemp flower to add to your recipes and discover more for your health!
The secret is in a special “sushi sauce”. You can buy bottled sushi sauce at supermarkets for maybe $10. But why do that when you can make your own using ingredients you already have at home!?
Here’s what you need:
- 1/3 cup of white vinegar
- 2 teaspoons of sugar
- 1 to 1-1/2 teaspoons of salt
Procedure:
- Mix all the ingredients in a small sauce pan
- Bring the sauce to boil or until sugar/salt are completely dissoved
- Let the sauce cool for about 15 min
- Pour into the rice you prepared and stir to distribute the sauce evenly in the rice
- Let the rice cool. And you are ready!
The vinegar makes the smell of the sauce very pungent. Just trust that everything will blend well together when you make the sushi.
I used the above proportion for 2 cups of rice (which makes five rolls perfectly). The difference between sushi rolls with and without this sauce is pretty drastic. First of all, without the sauce, the sushi tastes bland. Something just doesn’t taste right. On top of that, if you put your left over sushi in the fridge overnight, the rice dries out very quickly the next day. With the sauce though, the flavor is consistent to those in the restaurants. And putting the sushi in the fridge overnight doesn’t affect the flavor or the texture of the rice at all!
Yum!
I finally got to see “Patlabor 3 the Movie” today. The first movie was pretty good. But I think this one is by far the best of the three.
The storytelling was a bit slow at times, but it was worth the wait for the characters and the plot to climax. The best aspects of this film are probably the aspects that annoy typical Hollywood goers — many things were not resolved when the movie ended. Even though the movie is a fusion of science fiction and detective thriller, the director tried to adhere the plots as close to real life as possible. There are shots of scenes that were nothing more than to show the mundane work of police detective work. But those shots also take the audience all around the suburbs of Tokyo — in the allies, neighborhood stores, corner convenience stores… etc — the less glorious part of being a detective.
Althogh I knew who did what and how the story was going to end, the plot still threw a curve ball at me as the climax drew to a conclusion. The story has a level of complexity and humanity that’s lacking in most Hollywood movies. But even in comparison to other anime films, Patlabor 3 stands out on par with the complexity of Jin Roh in terms of mood, character development and sophistication.
Don emailed and gave me what seems to be an IBM help line to call: 1800-IBM-HELP. He said there’s a big surprise there waiting for me.
So I called… Boy, was I in for a surprise! It was one of those fricking porn hotlines! Good thing it was a 800 number. I am sure my number has now been recorded by the porn company’s phone system, and I will be receiving endless “free porn” offers from now on. That’s just GREAT.
Just for the record, Don, updated me on the REAL IBM support line: 1-888-IBM-HELP.
Blockbuster tried to lure us back with a special offer of $1 for the month of January to try their Netflix-rip-off service again. And damn it, I was happy to let them.
So I got to see “Crash” and “Batman Begins“. Both movies surprised me.
First, “Crash”. It’s a non-PC (politically correct) movie that exposes the ugliness that exists around Los Angeles (and probably most cities in America) about racism, stereotypes and conflicts between different ethnic groups and professions. It’s a very well-written script with excellent performance from many big-time actors. Don Cheadle, after his amazing performance in “Hotel Rwanda“, did it again with this film. But I’d say that this movie, overall, was a hidden treasure from the mainstream. I can think of many reasons why movies like this simply won’t become mainstream, but the issues it brought up certainly deserve a closer look. This movie reminds me of “Changing Lanes” quite a bit.
“Batman Begins” really took me by surprise with the quality of script, directing and cinematography. Since the franchise kind of took a nose die after about the third film, this movie saved the “Batman” name from being lost in a crowd of badly made super hero movies. I also have to add that this was one of the few super hero movies to which I hardly pay any attention to any of the special effects because I was so engaged in the plot, storytelling and acting. This movie is highly recommended if you are ever so curious about just how Batman came about.
Well, this “news” isn’t exactly entertaining, but it sure is amazing.
An unusual clash between a 6-foot (1.8m) alligator and a 13-foot (3.9m) python has left two of the deadliest predators dead in Florida’s swamps.
The Burmese python tried to swallow its fearsome rival whole but then exploded.The remains of the two giant reptiles were found by astonished rangers in the Everglades National Park.
The rangers say the find suggests that non-native Burmese pythons might even challenge alligators’ leading position in the food chain in the swamps.
The python’s remains with the victim’s tail protruding from its burst midsection were found last week. The head of the python was missing.
Ouch. And Grace thought her headaches and stomach cramps were bad. 😉 It’s a bit tricky to identify where the python’s body ends and alligator’s body begins at first glance. But it’s clear the alligator’s hind legs were tangling inside “something”. Yuck.
via [BBC News]
Michelle loaned us a few Korean movies after returning from her trip in Bali and Hong Kong. Today I managed to squeezed in “Love, So Divine”.
It’s a romantic comedy about a young seminarian who’s studying to become a priest and met a girl during his training before the ordination. The relationship changed both of their lives (or else there’d be no reason for this film). While the plot and the acting were poorly executed, it reminded me of just how strong the presence of the Roman Catholic Church is in South Korea. This is the type of story only possible with South Korea as its backdrop among all other Asian countries (OK, maybe Philippines too). I have yet to meet a Korean who is not a Catholic! Despite Buddhism’s overpowering influence over Korea in the past couple thousands of years, it’s surprising and interesting to see how fast and strong the Roman Catholic Church took hold in South Korea in recent history. I wonder what the history is behind that.
A couple of days ago, I also watched “My Tutor Friend”. It’s another romantic comedy with character developments much like, probably the most famous Korean comedy feature, “My Sassy Girl“. But it didn’t quite reach the emotional and comical effects of “My Sassy Girl”. But then again, “My Sassy Girl” is now the golden standard to which all Korean romantic comedies are compared to.
This movie is about a rich high school boy (who’s flunked two grades) and his relationship with his tutor. And of course, something sparked somewhere in the story. This film has a kind of cartoony characteristics to it. The way the shots are framed and composed reminded me of manga. There were a few shots where I just laughed out loud for a few seconds. One scene at the end made me rewind a couple times because it was so funny in a cartoony way. The film is a nice chick flick, but it’s not something you’ll remember telling your friends about. “My Sassy Girl”, on the other hand, is just fricking awesome. I should watch that again.
Home movies are godsend especially for people with young kids at home. We watched a couple of movies this past weekend.
Jackie Chan and his latest attempt at movie making, “Myth“, fell short of his earlier work. He’s getting too old for fast and complicated actions, and the plot of the movie wasn’t exactly interesting. The only good thing that came out of this movie was having beautiful actresses only Jackie Chan can get in poorly made Asian films — Korean actress Kim Hee-seon and Indian model/actress Mallika Sherawat. Jackie Chan is known to fast track unknown actresses to stardom by having leading roles in his movies. But whatever, the movie sucked. Don’t waste your time on it unless you just want to see a bad movie with Jackie Chan and beautiful girls.
Another movie we saw (at Widodo and Hanny’s house) was “Saving Face“. This movie more than made up the time we wasted on watching “Myth”. Although there were a couple of logical flaws in the plot (really extremely minor though), just about everything else in the movie was superb — the acting, the humor, the story, cinematography, directing… etc. It’s a very funny movie with shweet lesbian make-out scenes. The movie is essentially about Chinese culture’s sensitivity to having “face”, or public opinion of you among friends and family. It’s a really well made film with some unexpected twists and turns (this even applies to all the comical relieves of the plot). Why can’t all Hollywood movies be more like this?
On a related note, “Steamboy” finally came through from Peerflix. Though I won’t have a fancy case and cover art to go with it, I finally get to see it as 2005 ends. I was actually expecting other titles like “Spirited Away”, “Madagascar” and “The Incredibles” to become available before “Steamboy”. But whatever.
I finally got to see Appleseed last night (Thanks, Jason!). The whole time I felt like I was watching a hybrid anime of the original Ghost in the Shell, The Matrix and Robotech. I didn’t quite enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I think I enjoyed Ghost in the Sell 2 more than I did Appleseed mainly because of the quality of graphics in Ghost in the Shell 2 (I had trouble following the subtitle while comprehending the rather complicated issues the movie was dealing with).
Nontheless, Appleseed was a pretty cool movie with decent plot lines. I wished the motion capture was more “anime-like”. A lot of it looked “captured” and almost too realistic for the anime-feel of the movie. Jason mentioned something about the toon shade renderer used in the movie, but I didn’t notice anything aweful, just some bad hue choices in a few scenes.
A few days ago I also saw Howl’s Moving Castle with Grace. I think Hayao Miyazaki definitely makes Grace chuckle more than most of the anime directors I like. As much as she enjoyed Howl’s Moving Castle, I think she still prefers Spirited Away and, of course, Totoro. I hope that guy never dies and keeps making more films.
Now I gotta watch Steamboy to satisfy my 2005 anime wishes. Damn it I wish I had money then I can just buy them!
We had a good time with Jason and Alicia again tonight. And this time we got to see a picture of Jason that’s totally unrecognizable.
Bryan, for some reason, was not comfortable with them tonight though. He’s seen them before, but he would just blast out crying whenever he sees them being too close to him. That doesn’t really happen when Michelle or Chee-hoi were here. Maybe that was why he cried so hard last time. Maybe Bryan is more used to the plain Asian facial features; their bolder features make his sensitive eyes hurt… Hah hah…
I also got to take out my teapot set today. I have only used that thing maybe 10 times the entire time I’ve owned the set. I oughta use the damn set more often. They cost me a fortune to have them brought over from Taiwan (thanks to J.J.).
It started raining heavily as Jason and Alicia were leaving. I love rain… so long as I don’t have to be soaked in it. I find the dripping sound on the ground soothing. This is the only time I like water (and drinking it, showering in it and toilet flushing with it), other than that, I am with my cats on this one — water sucks… getting wet sucks even more.
My brother wrote an blog entry about MacGyver. Ahh~ What fond memories I have of that show.
Back in the days (80s), almost all the cousins would be visiting my grandparents, and Saturday at 8PM, we would all gather around the TV and tuned in to MacGyver religiously. Right after it was “The A Team“, which wasn’t quite as good ad MacGyver, but we were kids; we didn’t know any better. I think our parents didn’t mind us watching MacGyver mostly because of the show’s non-violence approach towards solving conflicts. But all we knew was, that guy was wicked cool.
I got so into that show I even spent my Chinese New Year money on a similar wallet that MacGyver was using in the show, and one year, I took out all the money (around NT$2,000… about USD$50 at the time) and bought a watch just like his (I had a picture to compare it with!). But shortly after I got that watch, the show revealed something about his watch which mine didn’t have. I felt cheated by the guy who sold me the watch. I bet that was the easiest $50 he ever made. Crazy days. Gosh I was such a dork.
My brother reminded me about trying to watch MacGyver after we moved to Thailand. The Thai cable aired the show in Thai (of course). I can’t remember how I found out that while the show was being aired, they also broadcasted the English dialogues over the radio!! Holy cow… that was one happy day. I mean, it was ghetto as hell, but we were happy. One time I taped the show on video tape (and on cassette tape). But the playback speeds on video and cassettes are different, so we had a lag on the cassette every 10 minutes or so… What a life…
Come to think of it, me insisted having everyone calling me “Chu” may have something to do with that show… If you haven’t made the connection already, I will not be available for comments when you see me in person.
In 1994, the year I came to the U.S. for college, I stayed with my cousins in Seattle for a month or so. I missed a two-hour MacGyver special for Thanksgiving (or was it Christmas?)… Until this day, I still kick myself for forgetting to watch that. Chu’s stupid memory (lack thereof).
Years later, I read/heard somewhere that the show had actually be discontinued for a couple of years in the U.S., but due to its enormous popularity in Asia, the producers made two more seasons just for the fans in Asia. Come to think of it, that was probably a rumor.
Image shamelessly taken from rdanderson.com (not related to Richard Dean Anderson) without permission.
Grace and I never really celebrated Christmas. But it was refreshing to have Jason and Alicia invite us over to help decorate their Christmas tree (which Jason insisted that he paid his left pinky for). To me, Christmas in America is just another opportunity for corporate America to push sales volume (through the roof!). CNN Money estimates:
The holiday shopping season is crucial for retailers, many of which chalk up 50 percent or more of their annual sales and profits in November and December.
Reference: The race for holiday bargains is on
Scary.
On Black Friday this past November, Hanny and Widodo told the story of them spending two hours in line just to pay for their purchases. And that was around mid-night when the stores decided they’d start the sales early. This whole thing got so heated that Target even started a wake-up call service to make sure people go shop at Target in the wee hours.
So anyway… I just thought this whole Christmas thing got too commercialized in the U.S. that it’s lost whatever the original meaning of the day was. The only thing associated to Christmas/Thanksgiving are sales figures, bargain discounts, food, and football. I am sure Jesus Christ the Savior of guilty souls of this earth will really appreciate that when (and IF) the Judgement Day comes (it seems to be coming every 100 years but never really did… Whoever actually wrote the Bible must be thinking “suckas!” ).
Dang it… I drifted off of the main topic too far again…
The whole “mini event” of Christmas tree decoration was actually interesting. I have never helped decorated a Christmas tree before. Grace couldn’t help because she had to make sure Bryan stayed asleep; he was extremely cranky today at their house. He’s only acted like this maybe a couple of times before. We think he was just too overwhelmed with the new environment, being out of his daily routine and was really tired. Without fail, playing some classical music fixed him right up and put him to snooze mode almost immediately. This in itself deserves its own blog entry…
After having some incredible home-made vegetarian pizza, we watched “Kung-fu Hustle” per Alicia’s request. For some reason, some scenes in that movie are funny everytime I watch it.
Then we chatted about children (adoption, foster homes, childrearing in general), some politics, how drugs/medicine are so fricking expensive in America, and a bunch of other things. One topic Alicia brought up I thought was particularly interesting was the advancement on the research of AIDS. Apparently a group of prostitutes in Kenya seem to be immuned to the AIDS virus according to the PBS special they watched. Looks like a vaccine is imminent.
We promised to get them out to Milpitas for vegetarian dim sum. Yum! Looks like my aspiration of becoming a vegetarian may not be so lonely if we just hang out with them more… In search for a vegetarian dim sum for them, I accidentally found GrubGirl, a pretty cool blog on restaurants and food. Speaking of food, I miss Manhattan… Food selection is quite limited in California compared to the varieties in NYC. That’s something no city can ever take away from New York City…