Monday, March 26, 2018

Friday 5 for March 23: The Shine of a Thousand Spotlights

Hello! It's Monday and not Friday. Heh.

This week’s five questions are inspired by the movie The Greatest Showman, which Scrivener strongly recommends. Perhaps I may watch this when I can find a free copy. Movies are just too darn expensive to go to these days.

1. What physical trait are you (or have you been) self-conscious about?

Since my open heart surgery in late 2015, the big "zipper" scar that runs down the middle of my chest. It is 7.25 inches long and looked extremely gnarly right after surgery. It took several months to heal. I have pictures of it with the stitches. You don't want to see it.

Under that big scar is a smaller puncture wound scar. That is where some kind of tube had to be rammed into my chest. I was out during the eight hour operation and recovery immediately after. When I woke up I could not speak, was hooked up to all kinds of high tech devices, and looked like a poor man's version of The Borg.

Today the wounds are nicely healed but still leaves an obvious scar. I won't go out in public without a shirt on.

Bottom line: Pursue a healthy lifestyle, especially if you are young.

2. When did you last do something risking injury?

Always Use a Crosswalk

Why did the chicken cross the road?

Crossing the street within a crosswalk risks serious injury or even death when drivers who are so focused on making a turn before the light turns red often don't look for pedestrians. I almost got hit several times by drivers making left turns who seem to be oblivious to pedestrians crossing the street. Hello! Look at the crosswalk before committing to that left turn.

3. Why do critics and the general movie-going public never seem to agree?

Critics seem to have this pre-conceived notion that films should either be 1. art 2. pursue some kind of message (usually liberal biased) or 3. be some kind artsy-fartsy character piece... throw in an overblown epic or two, and critics fall in love this crap. Critics don't like movies with a conservative bias, unless they are conservative... duh?

The public meanwhile vote with their hard earned dollars. Look at the weekly Box Office Mojo. Currently super hero movies are all the rage. Brings in big bucks for Disney and Sony Pictures. Marvel. DC comics universe.... yeah. All popular, big selling movies at the silver screen and on home video. Another category that the public loves are family pictures which includes a lot of animation. Toy Story, Moana, The Lion King, Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs, etc. I am most disappointed when some very good science fiction get dismissed by critics and most notably the Academy Awards. I was disillusioned by the Oscars the day the original Star Wars movie did not get its rightful "best picture" award for the year 1977. Bottom line is that people vote with their wallets no matter what in hell the critics say.

4. How do you feel about Hugh Jackman as an actor?

I have no opinion of this guy since I've seen only one of his movies. That would be The Fountain, which is a sci-fi fantasy film about three different characters who are seemingly the same person. I can't remember all the details since I watched this late in the night on some streaming channel. It was a good movie, but I think I have to watch it again. It seemed very disjointed at the beginning.

5. Who is the best singer you’ve seen in live performance?

I rarely go to live concerts because of the cost. Way too expensive just like the movies. The best concert performance that I enjoyed because I was up close and the performance was free, was by the group Dengue Fever in 2010. Chhom Nimol is a good vocalist for the type of surf-rock-Khmer-1960s era type of rock n roll music stylings the group is known for. So I'd put her on top of the few other bands I've seen including Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, Ringo Starr, Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, Elton John, Norah Jones, and Jon Anderson of Yes.


Friday, March 16, 2018

Friday 5 for March 16: Mist It by That Much

"Hello, and welcome to this week’s Friday 5!  Please copy these questions to your webspace.  Answer the questions there; then leave a comment below so we’ll all know where to check out your responses.

Please don’t forget to link us from your website!"

1. What did you most recently spray out of a can?



RAID! It kills bugs dead.

2. What’s your favorite food (or food product) that’s sprayed from a can?

Whipped Cream though I can't eat much of it these days due to health reasons. But whipped cream is good on hot chocolate, chocolate sundaes, pies, cakes and most other dessert items. Mmmmmm....

Leap Day Dessert

3. When did you last spray-paint something?

I think an MPC model car that I last made back in 1972. We used to buy Testors paint in either spray form or bottle. I spray painted a 1972 Plymouth Road Runner model car green. This was many decades ago. Haven't sprayed anything since.

4. What’s something that’s not sprayed from a can but would be pretty cool if it were?

Um.... Love Potion #9?



5. What’s conceptually the oddest thing sprayed from a can?

Sorry I have no idea at this time. I'll amend this answer when I can think of something.

Friday, March 9, 2018

Friday 5 for March 9: Aroma

Lunch Today
Mom's mac salad with a hamburger.

"Hello, and welcome to this week’s Friday 5!  Please copy these questions to your webspace.  Answer the questions there; then leave a comment below so we’ll all know where to check out your responses.  Please don’t forget to link us from your website!"

1. What’s something you enjoy that contains garlic?

Stir fry chicken, fish or beef mixed with veggies and a good dose of garlic and onions. Garlic is good but I like onions better.

2. What’s something you enjoy that contains ginger?

Um…. shoyu chicken and beef teriyaki spiced up soy sauce and ginger… foods that I no longer eat since they are high in salt, sugar and fat.

3. What’s something you enjoy that contains cloves?

I have a bottle of that stuff that I use to sprinkle on things I make like stir fry or salads.

4. What’s something you enjoy that contains cinnamon?

Saloon Pilot Cracker Toast

Cinnamon toast and Cinnamon cracker-toast with butter. French toast with cinnamon is good too. Shown above is "cracker-toast". You can view my simple recipe at this link: Uncle Mel's Cracker Toast Page

5. What’s something you enjoy that contains celery?

Celery sticks and Mom’s potato macaroni salad. We used to chop up celery, onions, carrots, and black olives into the thing, mix it with hard boiled eggs (after shell removal of course), boiled potatos, macaroni and Best Foods brand mayonaise seasoned with salt and pepper. We had this every Thanksgiving and some Christmas holidays as an important side dish. Miss it. Fortunately the recipe still lives and my brother can make it almost exactly as Mom.

Saturday, March 3, 2018

Friday 5 for March 2: Games People Play


Friday 5 for March 2: Games People Play


"Hello!  And welcome to this week’s Friday 5!  Please copy these questions to your webspace.  Answer the questions there; then leave a comment below so we’ll all know where to check out your responses.  Please don’t forget to link us from your website!"
Here are the questions and my answers....
1. How good are you at word games, and what’s a word game you really enjoy?
I don't know. I rarely play Scrabble or do a crossword puzzle. I am ok at crosswords but far from great.

2. How good are you at trivia games, and what’s your strongest category?
I am a little better at trivia games. I have been playing Trivia Crack a lot on my Android phone. It's a good way to pass idle time. I  have 110,975 points accumulated in the trivia rush games within the app. I guess that is good. You play against people in a quick round of trivia questions. It's been ages since I played Trivial Pursuit.
I generally do good in the history, arts, geography, and entertainment questions on older movies, TV shows and music. I suck at sports questions.
3. How good are you at spot-the-difference or what’s-wrong-with-this-picture games?
Not a fan of those types of games. Reminds me too much of work. What's wrong with the photo.... what's wrong with the sentence.... ugh.
4. How good are you at memory games, and have you ever played Simon?
I used to do good on Concentration.... card game as well as with an old app on my Mac Plus.  Never owned a Simon device. Never played with one. My sister had a Merlin device which was similar. Played with that.
5. What’s your favorite party game of all time?
I generally shy away from all party games. Not a big fan of parties.
Bonus Questions: I'll just answer it here since I cut and paste the entire thing to this blog.
How do we feel about the new A Wrinkle in Time film?  
I heard of the book. Never read it. There was a Wrinkle in Time photo shoot many years ago. I remember that. Probably has nothing to do with the book. The chances of I going out to see the movie is slim since I find $13 too steep a price to pay for movies these days. The last movie I saw in the theater was Star Wars: The Last Jedi and before that Star Wars Rouge 1..... Except for Star Wars movies, I can't justify the high costs these days. Will add this on movies to watch someday if I can find it on a free stream or a cheap DVD.

Has your favorite book been made into a movie? How did that work out for you?

As a kid I always loved the book, The Little House. It is about a house out in the country upon which the city and all its associated development invade its space and how the house went from happy to sad to happy again. There is no movie that I know of made from the book.

Another book I loved as a kid was Where The Wild Things Are. I saw the movie on DVD. It sucked. Totally lacked the magic of the book.

As I got older books that I enjoyed after watching the movies were:

War of the Worlds (HG Wells) - Several movies made. The 1953 adaptation is the best. The Speilberg 2005 version was lame. There was a British version that was supposed to be fairly close to the book. I saw that and it was too long, and too low budget for what it was trying to do.

The Time Machine (H.G. Wells) - Read the book some years later than the classic 1960 movie which is fairly accurate to the movie up to a point. The book goes a bit beyond the movie's timeline. Love both.

2001: A Space Odyssey (Arthur C. Clarke) - When I first saw this movie as a kid, I thought it was really neat and trippy. Very futuristic for the time I saw it which was in 1968. Did not understand everything I saw in the movie even after a few repeated viewings. After I read the book, everything was made much more clearer.

I read the following 2 books before the movies were made:

Dune (Frank Herbert) & several sequels afterward. Loved the first 3 books. The 1984 movie movie was a mess as far as the story went. Too much was crammed into 2 hours which missed a lot of details. Ugh. Disaster. Around 2003 a mini series was made... that was a little better but not as good as the books.

The Martian (Andy Weir):  Listened to the entire audio book several months before the movie came out. It played out more like a daily blog entry and it was great. The movie was very good too but a bit different. A couple of things from the book was cut but in all, I enjoyed both the book and movie. They are essentially the same but still different.

I like science fiction.