Doug's Sounding Board

Bubble Yum gum – Hershey’s Chocolate flavor. So now I know Hershey’s owns Bubble Yum, but if there’s some artificial chocolate flavored item from Hershey’s I expect to taste somewhat similar to Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup. Instead it’s more like Tootsie Roll gum which you can hardly call chocolate flavor to begin with.

m&m’s Premiums – These come in five varities: Mint, Chocolate Almond, Triple Chocolate, Raspberry Chocolate, and Mocha. Mint, chocolate almond, and mocha are fairly standard. Raspberry chocolate is white chocolate, raspberry flavor, and an almond. Triple chocolate is a dark chocolate core, white chocolate middle layer, and a milk chocolate outer layer. The flavors on all of these is good and the look of the shell is speckled and almost metallic in the shine. The packaging is nice with a re-sealable bag inside. It all falls apart when you pop one in your mouth and bite down; there’s no crunch. The attractive shell you see is more like a paste that will jam between your teeth when you first bite down. I’m sure the confused expression on someone’s face when they first bite one of these and just have it squish between their teeth is great. I should try that out on some co-workers tomorrow.

Mythbusters Moonlanding Myths – It’s been quite awhile since I thought they were testing real myths but in this case they come though in the testing of what consipracy theorists consider the biggest evidence that the moon landings were faked.

Tropic Thunder – The funniest movie I’ve seen in awhile and the best Ben Stiller movie since Zoolander. Everything just plays right in this and Robert Downey Jr. has a role that I think only he could pull off.

The Bunny House – The trailer was funny and the movie held up to what the trailer showed. Shortly after I started thinking that the message in the movie was pretty bad it reversed direction which caused more relief than I anticipated.

Smart People – Like watching geeks flail in their personal relationships but tired of it being the same geeks? Then this movie is for you. There are familiar elements to it and it’s much better than I made it sound in the first sentence.

The Scorpion King – I decided to try out hulu.com with this movie because there was no way I was going to pay for it. It’s actually a fairly fun action adventure flick even if I can’t figure out how it relates in any way to the second Mummy movie. Maybe the straight to video sequel that just came out will clear that up. Seeing as how that doesn’t have the benefit of The Rock being in it I’ll probably skip it though.

THX 1138 – Finally! It’s true, I haven’t seen it until now. The start is fairly disorienting, like it’s tuning your brain into the story. There are a number of great elements in it that I’d like to see explored in other movies like the endless prison room or the micro-accounting during the chase. I don’t think that has been done since then in any form. Also the car chase in it stands up to any car chase scene today. Thumbs up!

Bright Lights, Big City – Michael J Fox as a coke-head? Hey, it works! This movie, dealing with loss, works as well today as I imagine it did in the 80s.

Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay – This is a pretty disappointing sequel. Maybe it had too mcuh to live up to? There were parts that were great but there were even more parts where I was left wondering where the fun went.

I’ve learned or re-learned what events I like and dislike. For the most part I don’t really care about team sports. They aer great at their sport but that’s the kind of thing I get to see all the time. I like watching one-on-one or events with individual achievements. I did like seeing the American basketball team not just show up and act like they were owed a medal.

I don’t really like judged events. I guess I mean I don’t really like the judging in judged events. The athleticism in those events tends to be top notch but the scoring is a complete mystery. I’m fine with teh new system of having a difficulty multiplier to go along with the score, but nothing explains how the difficulty number is determined. There must be some table because the difficulty seems to be known in advance in the live as well as the pre-recorded coverage.  In diving this seems to work better than in gymnastics where apparently judges are allows to go frame by frame on an instant replay to determine score. That slowed things WAY down. During this delay I had to listen to the commentators and stare at pacing gymnasts when there were 4 or 5 more events going on that they could be showing. Nope, must stay focused on American athletes all the time. In one of them it was a surprise that France won a medal since the gymnast was only shown once. Boxing was annoying because the judges rarely awarded punches. We could see many clean punches landed by their definition: From the waist to the head on the front of the body, hitting witht eh white part of the glove with your shoulder behind it. The commentators here were actually good and at times would mention punches the judges missed.

Track and field stuff is great! Too bad barely any of it was shown. They showed the entire marathons and the race walking without leaving for other events. Meanwhile things like the decatholon had a 15 second recap followed by the final event. I was surprised the interviewer waiting for athletes leaving the track didn’t get the crap kicked out of him for asking some of the things he did.

A lot of the likes and dislikes devolved into my problems with NBCs coverage. I can skip sports I don’t care about but sometimes you can’t look away. The first weekend we got spoiled; DirecTV had a block of 6 or 7 NBC channels that were all Olympics instead of regular programming. The variety of events to choose from was fantastic! When Monday hit all that went away and it was one channel for boxing all the time and the rest was the prime-time block in the evening. The second weekend rolled around and we figured it would be back to many channels, but instead it was the boxing channel and a few more. If it wasn’t a race you might think there were only an American and one or maybe two others in the competition.

One thing I really liked about the coverage was the cameras in the water and track events. The under-water cameras on tracks, the overhead cameras, the  diving camera that goes down at free-fall speed all the way into the water! In track the camera that follows them around the outside of the track allowed for great views in the sprints.

For once the closing ceremony didn’t feel like an after-thought. I think I liked the closing ceremony than most opening ceremonies I’ve seen. I hope we don’t have to wait too many olympics before we see something that grand again.

It’s been almost three months since the last update and I have 15 movies and one tv documentary here so it looks like I average just over one movie a week.

The Extreme Adventures of Super Dave –  I loved the Super Dave shorts when I was a kid so when this came on I had to watch it. The original cast is all still there and the stunts are rediculous, but the parts that work keep it flowing enough. I’d just like to add that Super Dave has a herd of mimes.

Kung Fu Panda –  The art style is great, the fu is good. It ends up being similar to Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon and I don’t consider that a bad thing.

The Secret of Santa Vittoria – The description was just that a village tries to hide their wine from the Nazis. It has that but it also brings the small Italian town and it’s residents to life.  I suppose I should mention that it’s mostly comedicthough there are heavy moments.

Darkon –  A documentary on LARPers in Maryland. Darkon is the land that all the LARPing nations inhabit and war in. You get to see alliances and conflict and people trying to come out on top in and out of Darkon. It doesn’t tend to get too uncomfortable with the level of involvement they have. At least they’re being social instead of sitting at home alone.

The Man From Earth – A thought experiment portrayed as a thought experiment in a movie. I don’t always understand the reactions of some of the characters in the movie but the story holds up fairly well I think.

Enchanted – Crossovers between the cartoon and real world are usually to the cartoon world or a small managable space. I guess it’s not so much a crossover as it is a parallel universe story. Anyway, the end result really came out well from the fish out of water moments to the songs!

Kinky Boots – In a depressed town, a few people decide to take a risk that make people think they are crazy or get looked down upon before the town rallies behind them to success. This fits that English film class and like most of the others it does it well and is very entertaining.

Hancock – This definitely didn’t go where I was expecting it to based on trailers or even the first part of the movie. There are hero rehabilitation stories, but not many about super heroes. This manages that well and throws on an interesting and fairly unique back-story.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army –  Nice art style in the opening story. This movie is all about enjoying the characters from the first movie. It works as that though I would have shortened one of the fight scenes.

Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D – I wanted to see this fow two reasons, Brendan Fraser, and new 3D technology. Brendan Fraser was fun and the 3D was really good! There were some 3D trailers and if you have a chance to see “Fly Me to the Moon” in 3D, skip it. They were forcing the effect enough to hurt your eyes. This uses a new radial polarization technique so you can rotate your head and not lose the effect as you do with traditional polarized lenses. The 3D at times made you feel like you were in the middle of it and at other times looking at something with wonderful depth. It starts with a few things flying at you that every 3D movie has to do to make you flinch. The worst 3D effect was the last one in the movie. All that stuff you just watched and then you wonder how that scene could have made it into the movie. The movie itself is a fun modern tour through Vernes’ center of the earth.

The Mummy & The Mummy Returns – Nicole hadn’t seen these and since the third one was coming up we deciced to see them. The Mummy holds up well, effects and all. The Mummy Returns doesn;t look as good effects-wise, maybe they were trying too much? Also it’s not consistent with the fist movie. They say he won’t be as powerful and isn’t at full power yet even though he is doing more than he did in the first movie.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor – The first third or half of this movie irritated me. I really didn’t see Evelyn’s character ending up where it was or their son’s conflict with them as fitting. Once all the action started it settled into a comfortable groove and hey, there are yetis! I think I have to rank it about even with The Mummy Returns. The high are higher but the lows are lower.

China’s First Emperor –  This was a documentary on tv recently and it was interesting because it it showed me where various stories surrounding that period were based on fact and where liberties were taken for the story. I knew he unified the language. I didn’t know he unified currency and weights and measures but that makes sense. I didn’t know about his early life or how he ended up. Also seeing the scale of his burial city was very impressing. All those terracotta soldiers only come from a small part of the entire site. There was an indication that they are not going to explore that until preservation can be done. Apparently there are rivers and an ocean made of mercury in the scale-model china inside. Since there is evidence that mercury is leaking out slowly, it is thought that the description of the inside is accurate.

Mongol – This is a look at what led Ghengis Kahn to become what he was. The movie feels like it’s missing quite a bit, like it was cut down to be about 2 hours when it really wanted to be 2.5. I hope that extra time is on the DVD version when that comes out, but considering it’s a foreign film there’s probably not much chance of that. I’ll still ok forward to picking it up when it comes out.

Starman –  An alien comes down to play the fish out of water game and offer insights into humanity. I think this probably played better in the 80s though I think with a few minor changes it would work just as well today were it to be remade. That’s not a suggestion that it should be remade. Jeff Bridges plays the star man well, and Karen Allen is good as usual.

Kaw –  Killer ravens are attacking a small town! Since you probably aren’t going to see it I’ll just say that it’s because they ate some cow that died from mad cow disease and now they’re going to take out all the people. Despite being obviously low budget, they actually had a number of trained ravens and decent production value. Worth seeing? Maybe if you’re bored or want a background movie.

Buffalo burgers

We tried buffalo burgers recently and I was surprised at the difference between it and beef. The texture in handling it feels sort of clean and loose but it all holds together well. In cooking it seemed to want to brown faster than beef and in spite of it having less fat there is still plenty and it’s wasn’t dry. Flavor wise it didn’t have a gamey flavor but it was different. Smell wise it wasn’t too strong to me but I think GRover was about ready to climb down my throat to get some.

Chicken rub

Another day as I was trying to figure out how I wanted to make some chicken, I ended up with the following spice rub:

• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1tsp corriander
• 1/4 tsp cayenne

I flattened out the chicken, applied the rub to both sides and cooked for a few minutes on each side. Mmmm! Next time maybe a little lighter on the cayenne though.

Haagen Dazs chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream.

I had never had this version and decided it was time to try it. The vanilla ice cream part of it is I think the strongest vanilla I’ve ever had and I’d be happy with just that. The cookie dough part tasted to me more like real cookie dough than the Ben & Jerry’s variety. This is now my new favorite version of this flavor.

We finally had part of our fence replaced in the front. It was leaning at abou a 30 degree angle ever since the winds hit last year and we think it was mostly being help up by the passion flower vines on top. Our neighbor decided it was time before we did and called the fence people and we just paid our share. Four more neighbors to go. The fence people were good and we will probably use them for the remainder of the perimeter. Pictures will come later.

I finally got some gopher cinch traps to deal with the gopher problem. Right around that time Grover killed one (and ate half of it before I stopped him). Using the cinch traps has been effective and after not seeing any new gopher activity for a few days we decided to clean up and put down a new layer of mulch/bark. The next morning in the areas we worked on there were four fresh gopher mounds. I think as they are being taken care of new ones are moving in from the 1/2 acre lot next door. More trapping took care of that one though. Still there are still a few lurking elsewhere in the yard. I’m trying to get them in the neighbor’s yard too (with permission) to stop the exodus.

Today we were going to excavate the flagstones making up the front patio to put gopher wire between them so the gophers won’t mess that up in the future. Starting on the first one was ok until I saw a bee fly to the ground and disappear down a hole next to the flagstone. I stepped over for a closer look and within a few minutes there were a number of bees looking for the holes in the dirt I had just cleared away. Looking around the rest of the flagstones I now see a lot of these holes. I stopped because I don’t want to be uncovering a nest and pissing off all the bees inside.

I found a number of “B”movies on DirecTV recently in addition to sme good stuff so I have more than I normally do. Nice thing about the “B” movies is they rarely exceed 90 minutes.

The Neanderthal Man – I had seen this before. A scientist believes that the larger brain case in neanderthals would have made the neanderthal more intelligent. The other scientists laugh at him so he continues his work on a serum to revert things back to their older genes. The cat turns into a sabre-tooth tiger (looks just like a regular tiger!) and the scientist and his maid get sent to their neanderthal roots where they look more like the wolfman and attack people in the woods.

Octaman – 70s Environmental horror. In Mexico a scientist discovers a half-man/half-octopus. It gets pretty pissed when they start studying the babies and it attacks the scientist camp, mostly at night. Once nice thing about these movies is that the action parts can be watched on fast forward and it generally increases the quality. This movie has a lot of “action” which often means octaman is staring at people from the reeds in the swamp. My two favorite moments in the movie were octaman stabbing a guy with a suddenly rigid tentacle, and when octaman jumps out of the RV at the scientists because it made me laugh out loud.

Eight on the Lam – Bob Hope and Phyllis Diller. Phyllis Diller is fun whenever she’s on screen but this is pretty uninteresting otherwise. Bob Hope has 8 kids and is that casual? Not buying it.

Alienator – An android bounty hunter is sent to Earth to catch an alien criminal. This movie was made in 1989 but all the effects were from the 70s. Speaking of that, I’d like to see movie effects and editing software offer the ability to apply 70s effects. How hard can rotoscoping with a bright border be? Anyway, female bodybuilder is the android and the body armor she wears is pretty horrible. The dialog is pretty fun though so don’t fast-forward through that.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls – Saw this Thursday night before the crowds got crazy. Liked it quite a bit and thought it fit very well with the previous movies in feel and in style. I was also very glad Karen Allen was back in her role from the first movie.

The Vampire – A doctor takes some addictive pills that wirn him into a vampire at night. The makeup looks more like a werewolf, but that’s easily overlooked. This movie is more about drug addiction turning you into a monster that destroys yourself, your family, and loved ones around you with a thin layer of vampire on top. It’s actually pretty good.

Blood Simple – I finally got a chance to see this and I definitely liked it. All the twists were great and I thought the use of kecak music for Frances McDormand’s character’s pivotal points was well done. If this didn’t have background music it might almost be a David Lynch film.
Vicious Lips – This movie was made in 1987 but it feels like it was written in 1983 and had to wait for what budget it had. A rock band gets signed and has to go play on another planet. This is a USA: Up All Night kind of movie all the way. At some point it switches to weird dream sequence and feels like the Wizard of Oz in a strange way. You probably want a few drinks for this one.

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark – Having seen the new Indiana Jones movie we decided to watch the previous ones. The DVD is from a nicely cleaned up print and visible effects have been made invisible. Aside from that it’s still the same classic.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom – I didn’t remember many details except that it is my least favorite. That’s still true and I think the movie could be much better and very little changed if Kate Capshaw’s character, Winnie, would have been cut from the script.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade –  This one builds on what made the first one good and solidifies that which is good because it allowed the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls to come out as well as it did. The interplay between Indy and his father is great throughout and really amke the movie.

Finally a weekend without many planned activities let me catch up on the far overdue weeding. First I got the new weeds in the backyard that grew from the last attempt. Then I moved on to the front yard and managed to get everything but the weeds between the flagstones and the weeds along the side of the house. It was about 1.5 green barrels worth and there is probably another barrel to pull on the side. Hopefully I’ll get to that this evening. I forget how good a simple weeding can make things look.

Sunday we went to Castroville for the artichoke festival. The number of restored and modified cars on display was much larger this year. The We had some fried artichokes and I had an artichoke and carne asada taco (very good). There was a sign for artichoke cupcakes but unfortunately they were sold out. Oh well, that’s what we get for going two hours before closing. The vegetable sculptures weren’t as impressive or numerous this year except for the snake in a tree that was the first one you ssee when entering the hall. Having done almost all we went to do, it was time to buy a couple cases of artichokes and go. The nice thing about going late on Sunday is that they don’t want to haul all those artichokes away so by the time we were there a case of 18 jumbo artichokes was going for $16.

On the way back to the car I rested the artichokes down on top of a fire hydrant while we watched some dancers inside the festival area. Then I picked up the cases and turned to continue with a jolt of pain as I slammed my shin into the fire hydrant valve. About a block later I stopped and checked my shin and found it was already swollen quite a bit. Nicole got the car and came back for me and the future food. When I got home I rested it andiced it on and off for about 45 minutes which greatly reduced the swelling and today the pain and swelling is very minor, yay!

 I don’t have a picture because there are only camera phones in the office and none of them can get close enough to resolve the image. I would draw a picture but my poor drawing skills are more likely to mislead.

It’s a bright red bug (6-legs), about 2.5-3mm long and probably about 1mm wide. The head is probably 1/4 of the total length and is more gray-brown in color. When walking the body is fairly high off the surface at about a millimeter. The antennae are about the length of the body with the last 1/3 of that being about twice the thickness of the lower part.

A Knight’s Tale – With the passing of Heath Ledger I learned that I had not actually seen any of his movies. I probably wasn’t going to be seeing any until The Dark Knight later this summer until I saw a movie channel was playing A Knight’s Tale. Aside from names it doesn’t have much connection to history but it sure is a fun movie.

Iron Man – I think this is my new favorite comic book movie, but Hellboy is still close. Everything about it is just right. I’m looking forward to the sequel already.

Sunshine – This movie is heavy but it’s a great story and it draws you in to the family’s story. If there is any movie that it is similar to I think it is To Live, which I also feel similarly about. I got the impression that there is more to the story which usually indicates the kind of details you get in a novel as being the source material, but it’s written by the director; I’m guessing a good bit is based on his own family and experiences to give it that feel.

Flawless – The 60s appear to be a hot time frame for movies and tv right now. This heist movie takes place in the 60s and it’s a pretty good heist. Michael Caine is great and Demi Moore is surprising, mostly because I don’t think of her in this kind of role so I didn’t recognize her at first. Unfortunately the end is a little weak and forgettable but it’s still good overall.

Speed Racer – I didn’t see it and I don’t want to. I just want to express my happiness that it’s doing so horribly at the box office. When I first saw the trailer I thought I didn’t want to see it but I might check it out for the effects. As the number of times I saw trailers and still for it increased so did my dislike for it and the certainty that it would suck. It seems that happened to a lot of other people too, the reviews and the box office are horrible for a film that expensive. Yay!

Scrubs – It’s been confirmed that the 8th ad final season of Scrubs will be 18 episodes long and will be on ABC. More Yay!