BunkBlog

Ratatouille is a cool flick. The Boy was very amused, naturally. I can’t believe how awesome the water looked. I know, that makes me a huge geek, looking at the rendering. Sue me.

Anyway, the story is very cute, and the animation is awesome.  The end credits are a great retro look, and the short film played before the main movie is also quite funny.

Oh, and the wifi at McAlisters Deli almost reaches the theater, but is very usable at the ice cream parlor. 😉

There’s a great deal of scientific information in this interview, but it’s interesting enough even for laymen to read, I think. The basic story is that fructose and sucrose are not the kinds of sugars we evolved to consume in large quantities, so they mess up our body chemistry and make us pigs. The good doctor even demonizes orange juice (any kind, including organic fresh-squeezed).

Good news, though – eating oranges is good for you. Some of this is sort of common sense, if you think about how we ate 20,000 years ago compared to now. Our bodies haven’t changed in that time, but our diets have changed vastly. Nobody drank orange juice before industrialization; they ate oranges. Nobody drank sodas; they drank water. So, those people who decry processed foods, here’s another data point to use in your quest to return to a diet better designed for our natural metabolisms.

OK, since some people have actually asked, here’s my abbreviated description of my trip, with photos linked for the bandwidth challenged.

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We made it back home, all safe and sound.  Whew!

More details later.

Because people are paranoid about (mostly) imaginary threats, we’ve become so afraid of the boogey man that our children never leave home except under armed guard.  An article in the Daily Mail indicates that this is not isolated to the United States, but is seen in the UK as well.

When I was in elementary school, I walked to school without parental escort, even in the winter (snowbanks six feet high, so far as I could tell).  I even wandered over to my Great Aunt’s house, which ended strangely as I miscounted the number of blocks and ended up at a stranger’s house who got me back to my family.

Later, we moved to an even smaller town, and I could wander anywhere in town when I wanted to.  My brother and I would go to the creek with the other kids, and jump in the rock-infested waters off the abandoned and rust-crusted bridge. David ended up with one of his many head wounds this way, but that didn’t stop the mud-sliding fun the next week, no way.

Even when we moved to southern California, when I was 14, we didn’t end up incredibly restricted in our movements. We would ride our bikes to school, all of two miles away on suburban streets in Los Angeles County (the horror).  We would ride our bikes down the L.A. River, all the way to Seal Beach (13 miles). We never even ran into the Terminator once.  We did see pelicans, though.  And terns.

And now our kids are put in cars to take them to parks.  No wonder we’re all getting fatter.

Note to self: fix bicycle.

La Tienda is having a sale on whole Serrano hams. I love that stuff, but even on sale, it’s not really cheap. The cheapest is a 12 pound boneless ham for a mere…$189. Sure, let me get two!

Every few weeks, the weather does something strange enough to make me really wonder about the movie The Day After Tomorrow.  Right now, it’s snowing.  Thursday, the high was 80.  What’s next week, typhoons and firestorms?

As expected, the Boy and I watched The Last Mimzy today. The source story is very different from the movie. Spoilers ahead…
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Although I really only grabbed October Road because it starred Laura Prepon (growl), it’s actually a pretty good tale so far. The protagonist returns to his home town after ten years away and after writing a book obviously based on the town, which was apparently unflattering to its residents.

Some folks think it’s a ripoff of The Book of Joe, by Jonathon Tropper. I’m thinking the premise is probably common enough among writers that it’s been told dozens or hundreds of times. Heck, it’s not too far afield from the concept behind Ed. Ironically, Tom Cavanagh from that show is rumored to be starring in a movie version of Joe. Anyway, big success who returns to small town is not really too magical a premise.

It’s often said that everyone has a novel in them. We all have some rather unique combinations of events happen in our lives, no matter how unremarkable we think we are. My Aunt Lois has told me before that I really need to document better some of the strange folks I met in the Army. I don’t see how that becomes a book, but that’s only because I lack the essential gene possessed by all good writers. You know the gene; it’s the one that forces them to write, forces them to make their story concrete on paper. There’s always ten other things to read or watch or bake or . . . .

Oh, and Laura Prepon is still hot.

Since I’m not much for bad beer (and what good beer would you color green?), I’ve never done the St. Pat’s thing at a bar.  We made corned beef & cabbage last night, and corned beef hash for brunch today.  Big hits, both, for the boy.  And, I’ve got some corned beef for sandwiches too!  Mmmm…

I realize that many ads are sent to newspapers with “camera ready” art and the paper merely places it on the page.  Still, the egregiousness of some errors makes you wonder if anyone who knows English reads the paper before thousands of copies are distributed.  In a supplement today, I learned that a man with a Masters in Education was the Principle of a school.  I also learned that Don Oscar’s restaurant was Formally Little Mexico.  I guess it’s informally Don Oscar’s.

The local signmakers are no better. There’s a billboard that has been up around town for a month or two now, in several places. It says that “Being a First Lady has it’s privileges.” No wonder our kids can’t spell – the adults aren’t even trying!

Playing with the geotag feature of Flickr, I came across this strange picture from my old stomping grounds at Fort Ord. This paint can apparently was left behind when the Army pulled out of the post in 1993. The photo was taken 13 years later, and the spill still has the illusion of freshness. Strange as heck.

ord_autoyard13

Originally uploaded by A.p.K..

We went to the indoor air show today. That’s a trip. I guess it’s pretty cool to have a large auditorium to use for radio-controlled airplanes, since the weather doesn’t always cooperate. It was very cool, especially seeing how homemade-looking some of the planes were. Lots of styrofoam and cardboard were in evidence, with a rare airplane that looked retail. There were even a couple of planes that looked like jets, but obviously weren’t. Their propellers were just well-disguised in the wings or in front of the tail. They bill it as the first annual, and if they make good on that, I’m sure we’ll hang out there again next year. What the heck, it’s free!

Some stories are just too darned funny to not share. I think this was on Boing Boing, so if you’re a real geek you’ve seen it already. Apparently, some pot dealers are getting creative, and mixing up the “munchies” part of the weed experience with the “getting high” part. Witness, Pot Tarts and Buddafingers. How do the DEA agents not laugh their asses off when they bust these guys?

Break me off a piece of that Keef Kat bar!

Note: this blog does not advocate doing illegal drugs.

West Texas. Below freezing for several days in a row. Unnatural.

Last month, sledding was done on cardboard, in shirtsleeves:

Robert Anton Wilson is an ex-Discordian. He will be missed.

From our local catfish restaurant’s television ad: “We have chicken-fried bacon!” Yes, folks, bacon is so healthy already, it’s even better once it’s been batter-fried. They probably cover it with gravy too. Mmmm….feel those arteries hardening!

Alex actually stayed up until midnight, barely.  He was very happy to see the ball drop in New York, while snacking on cheese and crackers and sparkling grape juice.

Now, he’s slamming Hot Wheels into each other.  Good start to the year.

Quote of the day from a Food Network show: “We bought these canolli shells from a little specialty shop, I’ve got an Italian deli down the street, you’ve probably got the same thing near you.”

Apparently you’re only supposed to watch “Easy Entertaining” if you live in New York City.  Easy my ass.  Oh, sure, let me just run down the street to the little specialty Italian flippin’ pastry shop.  And while I’m out there, I’m gonna pick up some smoked pimento from the Spanish tienda.

There are days that I really need to get out of this town.

Of the various Philip K. Dick movie adaptations, I don’t think most really get the Dick vibe. The theatrical cut of Blade Runner, for instance, was altogether too optimistic for a Dick story. Total Recall was not badly written, although the acting and special effects really nuked it for me.  Paycheck was not too bad; very disorienting and off-balance.  Minority Report was coherent and understandable, which isn’t really very accurate either. So, you can imagine how much I enjoyed the Linklater adaptation of A Scanner Darkly.

Not only does the protagonist not know what is going on most of the time, it never does become perfectly clear even at the end of the movie if his perceptions match reality or not. The rotoscoped animation is a perfect way to portray the insanity that the hallucinogenic story needed. Too bad that it didn’t even recoup its budget in the box office, but maybe it’ll get legs on DVD.

Definitely a good movie for those who like Kafka or Dick. Maybe not so much for those who like Grisham or Crichton.