Little Penguin. It’s cheap ($5.99 or so), and tasty! I’ve recently tried the Cabernet Sauvignon. Smooth, low in tannin, no vinegary, cheap-red-wine taste. My dad, a wine salesman and connoisseur, told me that Little Penguin is branded as a “fruit forward” wine, marketed towards unsophisticated, “beginner” wine drinkers (like myself).
UPDATE: The Pinot Noir is actually terrible. Avoid that one. -LJ 12.1.08
BAD SCI-FI ACTION MOVIE CHECK LIST:
I’m a big Milla Jovovich fangirl, and I usually enjoy watching her kick ass and take names, but the Resident Evil film series just keeps getting worse and worse. It’s a great game series, and the first film was good (fantastic by the standards of video game adaptations), but like a true zombie, this film franchise refuses to die.
The Good: Milla Jovovich, and at the end, two Milla Jovoviches. *drool*
The Bad: Everything else. Seriously – EVERYTHING.
Bottom line: In the first film, Lt. Stereotyped Tough-Chick (Rodriguez) confirmed – in a terrible piece of dialogue – the only way to kill the zombies: “You mean shoot ‘em in the head?” So WHY is Alice able to obliterate legions of them simply by slicing their bellies open?
Final Rating: 2/10
If you’re interested in a great video game film adaptation, check out Silent Hill. The plot is convoluted and nonsensical, but the director does a wonderful job creating an utterly nightmarish atmosphere. I highly recommend it.
My personality/blog type, according to www.typealyzer.com:
The analysis indicates that the author of http://icecreamheadache.wordpress.com is of the type:
ESTP – The Doers
The active and play-ful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door activities.The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves their full attention and focus. They might be very impulsive and more keen on starting something new than following it through. They might have a problem with sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time.
Have you noticed that people who are quick to express their distaste for “drama” are often the same people who seem to attract “drama,” are at the center of most “drama,” and have an unfortunate ability to further propagate any “drama” in which they’re involved?
Whenever a dead baby is found in a dumpster, having been abandoned by a teenage mother, news of the discovery seems to be the talk of the town. My question is: how many dead babies go undiscovered (or unreported) each year?
What do two introverts do when they go on a date? How do they decide who will do most of the talking? And related to that, why haven’t a lot of extraverts been properly socialized to recognize cues that they’re coming off as boring or overbearing?
I’ve read some talk recently in my feed reader about placebos. I’ve recently experienced a medical situation that demonstrates the “healing powers of the mind,” or whatever newage you may wish to attribute it to. On halloween evening, I went downtown with a few chums from school, where we enjoyed each others’ company over some distilled beverages. Towards the end of the evening, my impaired motor coordination, coupled with a friend who was eagerly pulling me towards another establishment across the street, resulted in me having a close encounter with the pavement. I landed with great force on the heel of my right palm, although my ego was probably more damaged than my body. I called it a night shortly after that, went home, popped some tylenol, and went to bed.
Over the next few days my wrist was really sore, though it didn’t feel broken. However, about twelve days afterwards, I noticed that the pain had stopped diminishing and had plateaued at about a 6 on the 1-10 scale. I’d assumed it was just sprained, but it was possible that I might have broken some small bone in my hand. I decided be my own health advocate, and went to the hospital to have it x-rayed. After discussing my condition with a very helpful and compassionate doctor, I went to the imaging center to have the x-ray done. The result: Nothing. Not even a hairline fracture. Just two wasted hours.
This was about five days ago. Since then, the pain that would not go away has completely vanished, and I’m out a twenty-dollar co-payment. Sigh.
Anyone who’s taken Economics 101 knows the theory behind “inferior goods,” that is, items that people consume when their real incomes decline. For the last few years, government has been fucking up market signals (more than usual) in agriculture, causing resources being over-invested in ethanol production. This idiotic policy has contributed to rising food prices, and with increased food prices, Americans are finding that their paychecks aren’t going as far; their real incomes have declined. People aren’t in any danger of starving, however. The recent upswing in sales for Spam is evidence that consumers are turning their money away from chicken and steak, and towards canned ham. It appears that while the rest of us are eating salted pigs ass-meat, the residents of Austin, MN will be giving their kids a memorable Christmas this year.
As a broke college student, I’ve also been coping with ludicrous food prices by turning towards inferior foods for survival. I made my weekly trip to the supermarket today and came home with $37 worth of mostly carbohydrates and fat (less $3.50 for a Cosmo). A few years ago, I was a big advocate of organic foods and healthy home-cooked meals. Alas, gone are the days of fruits and veggies, salmon, flax seeds, and baked-pressed tofu. These days, I’m eating 2/$1.00 burritos, grilled cheese, and ramen noodles. The only thing keeping me from packing on the pounds with this diet is that both the quality and quantity of the food I consume have declined. I’ve actually found myself calculating how much each individual meal will cost me while I’m walking down the aisle! That’s just a hop, skip and a jump away from becoming the dreaded “coupon-lady.” Still, I’m starting to get excited when I see soy milk on sale, or when I can score a loaf of 12-grain bread for less than the generic bread costs.
I’ve made a few other dietary changes as well. I’ve started drinking tea instead of Red Bull; not quite the same kick, but hot tea is wonderful in the cold weather, and it’s a huge cost savings. Also, whenever I go home to get my mail, I persuade my dad to order pizza, which equals about three meals. The most fun savings trick I’ve found is the nearby bar that I regularly patronize. They usually have pitcher deals, so I buy a $3 whiskey sour while my friends shell out $5.75 for pitchers of long islands. By the time I’m ready for another drink, they’re sufficiently buzzed and willing to share with me (even econ students’ rational consumer behavior is subject to the effects of alcohol). Last Thursday’s bar tab: $4.
I’m unveiling a new feature here at Ice Cream Headache: Hot Libertarian Guy Alerts. An HLG Alert is a quick nod to a dashing gentlemen of the classical-liberal persuasion who has accomplished something noteworthy, or at least has recently made the youtube/facebook rounds.
Readers, do you know a HLG who should be recognized? Please send them to me!
And now, for our inaugural HLG Alert, here’s every Koch Fellow’s favorite law professor, Tom W. Bell, singing and playing his new song, “Take Up the Flame.”
H/T: Professor Bell himself.
I’ve begun my X-mas shopping early this year, figuring that I’ll be too swamped with finals and graduation in the coming weeks, and knowing that shopping the week before X-mas is not my idea of a good time. I’ve done pretty well thus far, but there’s always one person I agonize over every year: my sister-in-law.
I love my sister-in-law, but I have *no* clue what to give her for X-mas. For the past six or seven years, I think I’ve always given something along the lines of a woman’s accessory: jewelry, scarves, mittens, slippers, scented bath sets, etc. I’d like to do something different, but I’m at a complete loss. Home decor is out of the question for a couple of reasons. First, I hate receiving gifts that are meant to sit on a shelf, and as such I make a point not to give them, either. Second, the way a person decorates her home is a very personal decision, and I don’t claim to know enough about A) style or B) her preferences to be able to pick out a nice decoration-gift. Music and movies are problematic if you don’t know what the recipient already owns or has already seen. With clothing, you run into the guess-her-size dilemma: if I guess too small, she’ll have to go to the trouble of exchanging it, and if I guess too large, she’ll think I think she’s fat!
Where does that leave me? Kitchenwares, I suppose. They’re useful at least, I’ll grant you that, but I somewhat resent buying my sister-in-law housewares, when my brother (a proverbial kid-at-heart) always gets toys or entertainment of some kind – “fun” gifts. That hardly seems fair.
It’s looking like it’s going to be a gift card holiday. While I enjoy minimizing the deadweight loss of x-mas, it’s easy for me to imagine a holiday gathering, many years in the future, where most of the gifts being exchanged are gift certificates and cash. That day will mark the end of my willingness to celebrate x-mas.
Yesterday, I finally got around to watching Crank, the story of Chev Chelios (Jason Statham…rawr), an L.A. assassin who awakes one morning to learn that his arch-rival, Verona, has injected him with the “Beijing Cocktail,” a lethal poison that can only be slowed by keeping his heart rate high. Balls-to-the-wall action ensues as Chev races through the city, doing anything and everything to keep his adrenaline pumping, until he can track down Verona and exact his revenge.
First of all, I just need to say that Jason Statham is possibly the hottest actor in Hollywood today. He’s a total fox. Nevermind that he generally appears in mindless action movies that appeal to 19-year-old men. Listening to the man deliver his lines in his characteristically disparaging manner, with that delicious British accent, is enough to make shit-fests like The Transporter 2 all worthwhile. Suffice it to say, I would do unspeakable things to that man.
Moving on, the film has a long list of shortcomings, to be sure: flat, stereotyped characters; incredulous stunts; filler car-chase scenes; predictible plot twists; gratuitous violence; overt product placement (I wonder how much the Red Bull company paid to produce this film), etc. But I don’t watch movies like Crank for the complexity of the plot or the central characters. I watch them for cheap entertainment, pure consumption. And Crank is fairly entertaining.
The directors utilize several camera and sound effects to achieve a distinct cinematic style. In one repeated, not-so-unique visual trick, the camera zooms into Chev’s chest, giving the viewer an up-close look at his slowing heart, signifying certain death if he doesn’t pick up the pace. Had this film been made in 1999, this effect might have been fresh, but anybody who’s seen an episode of CSI or House will have tired of it by now (=FAIL). The directors fare better with their amusing use of subtitles to illustrate Chev’s deteriorating mental state. As an energetic Haitian cabbie sells him a vial of Haitian drugs, the subtitles repeat “Haitian Shit, Good Shit” throughout the cabbie’s dialogue – a very humorous scene. My personal favorite special effect involved Chev’s cell phone ring. It would be impossible to describe here, but the ringtone is a perfect descriptor for the character’s temporal disorientation.
Other pluses for the film: a humorous scene involving a (very) public display of affection between Chev and his girlfriend, Eve; erection jokes; several unobstructed shots of Jason Statham’s magnificent ass.
Negatives: the typical plot holes expected in any action film; predictability; an unsatisfying ending.
Bottom Line: As an action film, Crank can’t compare to Batman: The Dark Knight, Fight Club, or any of Quentin Tarantino’s works. On the other hand, it’s not nearly as bad as Snakes on a Plane.
Final Rating: 6/10.
Like many halfway decent action films, the directors have decided to milk this marginal film for all it’s worth by releasing a sequel. From the wikipedia page for Crank 2:High Voltage:
Hitman Chev Chelios (Statham) launches himself on an electrifying chase through Los Angeles in pursuit of the Chinese mobster who has stolen his nearly indestructible heart and replaced it with a battery-powered heart that requires regular jolts of electricity to keep working.
Oh. Dear. God.
This here’s my new blog. It’s a catch-all for everything that isn’t relevant to my “official” blog, Technagora. Kind of like that tray that goes under your George Foreman grill and catches all the fat and grease. Yes, that’s what this is… a fat and grease tray.
Ciao!
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