What-What?! Week of September 8th

Had to get fingerprinted on Friday; this was another one of those things where I ran around trying to find a place, only to wind up waiting over a week to get them done.  Also, the scan area for fingerprints is tiny; my fingers barely fit, and I don’t have large hands at all.  How do they fingerprint people with large hands?  Do they just do one finger at a time, and that’s it?

News:  Chobani’s Mold Woes via BusinessWeek and ABC News

Chobani has apparently had quality control issues with about 5 percent of their greek yogurt products, causing the product to have mold.  Chobani’s handling of the situation has caused the FDA to open an investigation to see if they acted too slowly, putting consumers’ health in jepordy.  When I read about this incident, it was like a lightbulb went off; we had bought some Chobani brand yogurt tubes from Costco, and numerous tubes were inedible long before the expiry, possibly before we even took the box home.  While scientists have said that the mold isn't harmful to "most consumers", I’m not sure I’ll be buying Chobani again.

More on The Gamers: Hands of Fate via watchthegamers.com
*MORE SPOILERS*

The husband and I were able to watch the rest of the film earlier this week, and I’ve had more time to think about it.  Watching the film, I couldn’t help but think of an interview that Joss Whedon gave recently, where he discussed the film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and it’s moment of self-reference where Indy tries to repeat the swordfighter versus gun scene in Indiana Jones and THAT ONE.  Hands of Fate has all these scenes that emulate or make inside jokes about Dead Gentlemen’s other projects, that, while funny, sort of devalue the originality of the film.  The last hour of Hands of Fate has a lot of self-referencing “look at this *wink-wink*” scenes; from a scene that’s basically the opening of Journey Quest, to Cass being pushed over by two guys, as he was in The Gamers: Dorkness Rising, and on.  While I think that some of it would be okay, this film kicks it up to 11, which is just too much.  It is enjoyable nonetheless, but I’ll probably stick with watching Dorkness Rising.

Disney Dream Portraits via insidethemagic.net

These would be awesome if they weren’t so creepy.   It’s surreal, which is fine because it’s fantasy, but there’s something else just a bit creepy about them.  The other problem is that some of these roles are so linked to their actor/actress that anyone else portraying them is odd.  For example, Whoopi Goldberg as the Genie, what?  Robin Williams will always be the Genie to me.

I guess the other thing that bothers me about the people they chose is that I look at them and think about their personalities – Taylor Swift doesn’t seem like a good match for Rapunzel, even if she’s got the blonde hair.  I could see Amy Adams; she was a fantastic princess in Enchanted, but of course, she’s a brunette.

I do very much like Lyle Lovett as the March Hare, though; it seems like it'd be a great fit.

'Til next week!

What-What?! The Week of September 1st

I had to get a tuberculosis (TB) skin test this week – for my new job with the local YMCA.  Oddly, I’ve gotten them before, and I don’t remember them hurting as much as this one did.  It was also on my left arm (my dominant one) and very annoying.  I had a terrible time finding a place that could do the test, because apparently there’s been a shortage that was just alleviated in May, and medical facilities are still catching up to get stock of the TB testing fluid.

The other exciting thing that happened is that my daughter (almost 6) has started reading a lot more; yesterday when we went to the grocery store, she was reading me streetsigns and my grocery list.  The husband and I have started homeschooling her as well, which has been quite fun.

Cooking: Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Scones

I woke up the other day with these scones in my head, and just had to make them.  These are mildly sweet, and just perfect toasted, with a pat of butter.

• 3 cups Flour
• 3/4 cup Brown sugar (up to 1 cup if you like yours a bit sweeter)
• 2 teaspoons Cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon Baking powder
• 1 stick Butter
• 1 cup Milk

Set oven to 400 degrees.  Mix dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, then cut in butter with a pastry cutter, two butter knives, or your fingers.  Stir in milk until a dough forms, then roll onto ungreased cookie sheet, and cut into desired shapes (I do triangles or squares for simplicity).  Bake for 30 minutes, until lightly browned.  Enjoy!

News:  Bosses Say “Pick Up the Phone” via the Wall Street Journal

This is one of those interesting things about my generation, which I have actually had personal problems with.  Millenials use phones aplenty – but not for talking on.  They will e-mail, text, or otherwise send a message before physically calling someone and talking with them on the phone.  One interview I had specifically brought up in talking on the phone as a requirement.  My interviewer (the owner of the company) said that he needed someone who was willing and able to talk on the phone; no texting or e-mail.  There have been times that I’ve needed to set up an appointment for an interview, and the company opts to do this through e-mail.  Like the article discusses, this takes three times as long because it’s much more difficult to have that conversation in little bits (“Can you do this date?  What about that time?”), rather than all at once over the phone.  The other problem I’ve had with people my age is when they send several texts when an e-mail or a phone call would be more efficient.  If it hits the third text just asking a question, then a call or e-mail would be better.  When that’s happened, I’ve called or e-mailed my reply – because it was a complicated question with a complicated answer.

Movie Review: The Gamers: Hands of Fate via watchthegamers.com

*POSSIBLE MILD SPOILERS*

After four tries, I was finally able to download my copy of Hands of Fate!  The husband and I watched half of it the other day, and so far, it was brilliant.  Cass makes for an excellent protagonist, and honestly after his jerkish actions in the other film, it was kind of nice to watch him take some of it.  The actress who plays the love interest was entertaining, if a bit bothersome; I get that she was suppose to be somewhat abrupt and hostile at first, but sometimes it felt like she was overacting.  The other thing that bothered me is quite insignificant – the makeup was sometimes poorly blended down actors’ necks, which looks funny.  Mind you, this is also a problem I’ve seen in big Hollywood films as well, though not quite to the same extent.  The scenes that occur in Countermay (the fantasy universe) were well done and sometimes quite surreal, what with the being an illustration on a card.  I totally identified with the characters' plight of having real life get in the way of gaming.  Especially in the past few years, that has basically been my life.  Overall, a heartily recommend it, though I would suggest watching the other film for a bit of background first.

Oh!  You can actually see my husband and me in the credits under Kickstarter contributers; we're in there as Thorn Blackhammer and Kanoth the Mighty and Illustrious -- Because if we're going to do something geeky, we're going to go all the way! :D

'Til next week!

What-What?! Week of August 18th

Was published again by Yahoo! Voices – EZ Squeezees Reusable Baby Food Pouch Review and Recipe – and I’m a little irritated by the editors choice of how the photographs are displayed.  If they’d posted it to Yahoo! Shine, then the photos would be quite a bit larger and easier to see.  At any rate, it was published.

Cooking: Strawberry Jam

This week, I made a batch of basic strawberry jam, following the directions on the Sure-Jell box.  I grew up on homemade jam, and am now pretty picky about what jams I eat.  I specifically avoid commercially made jams that use corn syrup, because it just doesn’t taste right.

This batch came out fantastically, and part of that was due to the ingredients.  A recipe of jam consists of fruit, sugar and pectin (what makes the jam thicken); because jam has so few ingredients, it is important that each one is high quality.  The strawberries that I used for this jam are of the Chandler variety, grown primarily here in California; they are specifically bred for flavor, rather than sweetness or stability during shipping, as many commercial varieties have been.  The sweetness of the berries doesn’t matter so much in jam, because jam has plenty of sugar, but the intense berry flavor makes for a great jam.

So far, we’ve eaten over half a pint jar!  Glad we have three more.

Jake and the Neverland Pirates Fan Art

Let me preface this by saying that I am no artist.  Sometimes, though, this happens:

That image came about because my two older children consistently call Izzy and Cubby from Jake and the Neverland Pirates “Dizzy” and “Chubby”.  I thought it would be fun to illustrate the characters that way.  I'm pretty pleased with it, considering that I couldn't find my nice Staedler or Sharpie pens, and had to use the world's worst pen.  Check out the full-size version here (I suggest using it as a coloring page -- my kids loved coloring this in!).

News:  Zombie Orpheus’ The Gamers: Hands of Fate

Okay, so this is pretty geeky.  My husband and I are gamers, and I don’t mean that in the mainstream “we play video games” sort of way (though we do that, too) – no, we play pen and paper role playing games, table top war gaming, and have played collectable card games.

This brings me to Zombie Orpheus’ newest film, The Gamers:  Hands of Fate.  A sequel to The Gamers: Dorkness Rising, my husband and I actually contributed to the Kickstarter fund for it (we’re getting miniatures! Yeah!).  Dorkness Rising was the story of how players’ relationships change over the course of a role playing game adventure, and this new film is a continuation of that, with more of an emphasis on collectable card games.  Dorkness Rising was an absolutely brilliant piece of work, and is much quoted by my immediate gamer friends and family.  While I haven’t seen Hands of Fate yet (due to work schedules), I am totally watching it tomorrow.  The film does have adult language in it, so be mindful of that if you have children or are otherwise particular.

Through August 31st, you can watch the film in full here (click "Stream for free").  Enjoy. :D