The Majickal show of Merlin

I've always loved knights, honor, battles, chivalry, pretty princesses, dragons, and we most certainly cannot forget, majick. (It IS spelled correctly btw). There is something so achingly beautiful about knights filled with chivalry, riding on gleaming horses, bravely facing their battle. I suppose it has to do with humanoids of now, most, not all I suppose, being selfish, mean, arrogant, prissy, in general the bringers of bad vibes. I really do long for the days of elegant princesses and valiant knights, the regality of it all. And I would be half and half, a knight and princess all in one. Not at the same time, just like in shifts or something.

Anywhoo, Merlin is a BBC show (meaning the American producers cannot ruin it with their predisposed 'rules' of how shows should be). And basically needs no explanation (ok then so why write about it). It portrays a younger Merlin, growing up, still learning his powers, or ahem his craft. His interaction with the young King Arthur are priceless good laughs. He also interacts with Morgana (who in this world is a ward of King Uthor), and Guenevere, a servant. Yeah, so the characters are a bit tossed. I might as well tell you Arthur is the Kings son, not some poor kid who pulls a sword from a rock. So, hmmm, explaining WAS necessary! The show is usually lighthearted, though, as shows pass time, most want to be taken more seriously and the end result of that is portrayed on the show as drama. But it is a good watch for fantasy lovers.

Whole Wheat Ravioli with Pesto Cream

So I have been feeling guilty about eating too much white pasta. We all know (or do we?::eyes person in front of her in a sizing up sort of way) that white pasta is just a bunch of crap. The carbs just turn to sugar, you don't get your fiber and other vital nutrients that wheat can give you just are not there.

Whole wheat just seems to have more taste to it?! The question mark is there because I wonder why most breads on the shelves are white, most breads, most pastas. After you have been feasting on wheat thingies, white just tastes plain BLAND.
Yesterday, I made whole wheat ravioli, mmmm mmmmm mmmm mmmm. Okay at first I was scared for wasting 2 hours of my life making these 'horrible wheat ravioli'. Explain:: Though I like whole wheat stuffs, homemade wheat pasta just didn't turn out for me. Until now!

2 cups of flour
2 eggs
1/4 ts salt
and as many TB of h20 as you need to form a stiff dough
Knead for a while and let rest (a 30min to an hour or more)
Then just roll (or use had cranker) until thin enough for your personal taste buds, and fill your filling.
My filling was ricotta, cheddar (a sprinkle), pepper Jack (a sprinkle), and mozzarella (sprinkle), some fresh oregano, salt, olives, black pepper and red powdered pepper

NOW THE SAUCE!!!! What made the pasta!
I made a roux (of butter and flour). Unfortunately, in my hurry (as usual), I undercooked the flour (and yes you can taste it), so I was forced to cook the sauce itself for a bit.
I added a cube of frozen pesto, added some leftover heavy cream and some milk until the consistency was good enough for me, personally. Make sure you mix constantly. Or use a hand blender, what's it called immersion nowadays? Added more pesto, salt, black pepper, basil, and whatever you want.

I froze the leftover ravioli, hope that is how you do it, raw, cause that's how I did.

Last month I had made a mushroom ravioli with mushroom sauce, aaaaaaaaa (that like when you see angels on tv and the background music goes aaaaaaa).

Chicken Paprikash---without the Chickies

So I finally drove directly into a Chinese supermarket. I was quite upset when my last one pooped out and the next closest one was, alas, not close at all. Longness made short, lo and behold, one right next to a Walmart.
Inside this beautiful place were like 5 types of bok choy, a row (a whole freaking ROW) of dried mushrooms, and more types of soy sauce than I've ever seen before. Well again longness made short, I bought me a bit of vegetarian chicken. Ever since my vegetarianism, some 20 years ago, I've craved chicken like no tommorow (amongst other things).

Chicken Paprikash, I looked up a few recipes and this is what I did.

Some oil and butter, with some garlic and tomatoes until the tomatoes were saucelike.

Added onions, cooked until soft. sprinked some flour and then veggie broth to form sauce.

Added bell peppers, faux chickies (preshredded-all I could find, no juicy legs to bite into....).

Salt, paprika, black pepper, 'chicken' soup flavor salt, basil fresh and dried.

You're supposed to add sour cream too, but I tasted it and it was okay, maybe when I use big meaty chunks of frozen tofu with this recipe, I'll try sour cream. Mock chicken is a bit softer than real.

Well made a pack of wild rice to go with it and hopefully it will all be good! Oh and "garnish" with green scallions. "Garnish"=liberal dose.

Travel in India

If you have ever wanted to experience something that's completely different from your average, "norm" kind of vacation, India would have to be it. Just stepping out of the airport, never having seen the everyday bustle, is enough of a culture shock. Now of course this depends on where you go, this country is big. Some regions are extremly modernized. While others (the fun ones) are getting there, such as Vadodara in Gujarat.
You cannot compare a European travel itinerary in even basics to one in India. For one you cannot rent a car and drive. If you even so much as think so, take a trip (it takes one) in a rikshaw. Don't try the buses (they are diminishing anyway) and do not take a car taxi, you need the tiny little bug-like rikshaws with the open air feel to get the full effect of Vadodara. The rikshaw drivers, fearless-born, will tilt and turn thru cars, bikes, cows, donkeys, motorcycles, pedestrians, trucks, buses and of course other rikshaws (with seemingly even more crazy drivers than the one you're with). At every turn you will be sure you will be crushed or crush some poor street peddler. Oh what fun!
Unfortunately, (but just for me and anyone else interested in architecture), all the beautiful old building are being torn out and redone. If you get lucky you can still see an odd old building stuck in the middle of the boring new boxes. Old carved wooden doors and balconies, rafters, windows, still stuck in time in the middle of tiny little gullies filled with homes and little shops. You have to be carfeul when ogling high up (where most of the older stories seem to be preserved), for myriads of motorcycles and rikshaws will not stop for pedestrians, and they will try to run you over (no, really). Nor are there street lights, and nor do they follow the painted lines of traffic lanes, and nor do they even follow the direction of traffic. Yeah, in case the last one slipped by you, that was one car going the opposite way in a one direction side of extremely busy road.
I don't know if I made India sound nice or not, but my writing is a bit lacking. So there you go.

The Notebook : mini rant

I HATE the Notebook. I hated sitting thru the screaming shrilly voiced girls screamy shrilly shrieks every .5 seconds. And I hated the little "young hercules" man (yeah, check it out, he did some Saturday morning show where HE the tiny little string puppet was actually playing Herc. Hahahah!). I also thought the whole story was dumb, and well really, if you're constantly cringing (from my dazy memory of that waste of a day) during a movie, a WHOLE movie, need you really watch it??

Too Many Husbands

Don't most women wish!! This movie, warn you upfront is in the two beautiful colors of black and white. This movie is based on a book, and when you find out about the movie plot and actual book you wonder why, they even pretended the movie came from the same source.

The movie, is about a woman who loses her husband in a boating accident during their honeymoon. She then remarries her husbands business partner and finds 6 months in, that her first guy is back and kicking. She then lavishes in the attention that both men most obviously give her to make her choose him. The trouble is she seems to like both equally. It is a comedy, and it is not the best black and white film comedy but it is okay as a quick watch.

I need to ask, if Hollywood wants to "use" books and plays' stories for their movies, why then do they change them so dramatically and still have the gall, the audacity to name the movie after the book? It is so different! The absolute worst on which makes my blood boil even now is one based on my favorite book, Cheaper by the dozen. The movie (if you can call it one), was NOTHING (and I do not say this because of my anger) like the movie. Not word or mention of events that happened in the book. The two similarities? One was the book and movie both had families of twelve, and the other, the freakin title!!!!

Now back to Too Many Husbands, in the play, the main woman is selfish and vain. The surprise? NEITHER husband wants her! Both try to pawn her off on the other, both try being the 'noble' one and step aside. Now that would have made a terrifically DIFFERENT movie! Does Hollywood not get that movies with the guys vying for the girl are a dime a dozen and that a movie about guys trying to pawn off the lead female (no less) is something crazy funny and fresh? I would not hope that current Hollywood would remake this film, the book would rollover in its grave. You can just imagine what they'd throw in, talking monkeys and a pack of cheerleaders (no less!).

When in Rome

This Friday, needing to watch a light fluffy romantic comedy, I ventured into "When in Rome". I had been curious about it, having Veronica Mars' Kirsten Bell. Of course, having someone as short as Kirstin Bell paired with Josh Duhammel also whetted my curiosity as to how these two would come of screen. I wondered idly, how many inches were on her boots. Well I give the movie a C+, and this taking into account that I did not expect a moving epic motion picture to begin with.



Bells character is a typical "been hurt before in love, now throwing herself in work" type thing. She takes 4 coins from the fountain of love, thereby making the four men who threw the coins in there, fall magically in love with her. One of them being Danny Devito, a sausage moghul, and horribly underused or over abused, take your pick. The rest are Will Arnett from Arrested Development, a fake artist, John Hedder from Napolean Dynamite as the magician and (the funniest character) and finally Dax Shepard, the male model and real life fiance of Kirsten Bell. Once again she is dwarfed by her life love, real or fake.

Kirsten Bells acting was very off. Her Veronica Mars stuff was great, her Heroes stuff okay. But, her hand in movie acting has to end! It was overacted and lacked any screen presence. Her Veronica Mars costar Amanda Seigfried (Mama mia), on the other hand is the one to watch. Josh Duhamel seems to be okay in the movie, and can act. I had not been sure this would be the case. you can actually, buy him as the guy who is head over heels in love.

If you are craving a romance/comedy, either rewatch something good, or find something else, geez, they could have done so much better.

500 Days of Summer

500 Days of Summer is about Jason Gordon Levitt, (made famous from the half hour side spankin' comedy, Third Rock from the Sun) falling for a girl who is not looking for a partner or boyfriend or anything 'commint-menty'. The movie shows their ways of thinking thru their relationship, the way each sees the other. I guess I'm making it sound boring huh? It's not.

If you've seen the trailer for this movie you may or may not depending on the trailer think this is a lovey dovey romance. In some part it is, many scenes portray a sweet, 'first love' type relationship. During the movie you think you know where it's going, you think you've got some characters figured out, but the best I can describe it is a ," fresh", or" real" type ending.

The movie has some very funny lines/scenes and on the whole and on the end, you feel nice having watched the movie. I must say I disagreed with a cousin who thought Zoey Deschanel's character was 'selfish and mean'. I mean nobody can fortell who they fall for. You can't stay with people based on pity or because they break your heart with puppy dog eyes.

P.S After you've watched the movie (which you might not because my review is pretty lame in comparison to the actual movie), what the hell is up with Autumn?? Blah, snore snore, you could've picked better!

Transformers II

I saw THE movie of the summer, and Lordy Lord was it GOD awesome!!!!! Transformers Revenge of the Fallen, was filled with action BUT it was filled with just enough 'human' parts as well. Sam Witwicky (Shia Labeouf) and his parents created all the human/comedy elements needed. Megan Fox (aka there for eye candy, also did fine in her role. All the Fox haters I suppose went out of their way to scare potential moviewatchers about how horrid her acting is-- it's not. It was an action film people and not "A Beautiful Mind", they did'nt even give the actors lines that would wrench you heart and bring tears to your face. (....my heart wrenched a little when Opti fake died) They did fine with what they got (which was quite good), and conveyed their characters very well.

I was UNHAPPY with the role of Isabel Lucas. The Transformer who can transform into a GIRL??!! WTF??!! Originally I had thought, okay they are uptaking the eye candy quotient, until you see Isabel Lucas turn into a Deceptacon(!!!!) and you exclaim WTF really loudly in the movie theatre. Except nobody notices you because they are all exclaiming the SAME THING!!! Arg. How can a 500 ton (don't quote me on that), robot transform into a skinny little anorexic girl??!! And why didn't she crush Shia Labeouf into mushy paper when she was trying to fake mate with him?? Okay so if we nitpick every little detail in an action flick you will never enjoy it. But Isabel Lucas was just plain gratuitous.

Er, I'm not really going into the storyline here, I mean really how can you not know? Bad robots fight good robots who side with humanoids and fight epic battles filled with beautiful cars, that make your heart ache and think you have a faulty heart. And don't get me started on the freaking pyramids!!!!!!!!!! Okay to Late!!

I have always been into Egypt, the beautiful pyramids the mysteries, the burials, it all makes my heart ache to think I shall never be able to see or feel it. And the dumb snotty actors and actresses of Transformers (whose hearts don't ache just thinking about touching a beautiful pyramid) got inside access to places tourists will never see. As if they don't have fame, fortune, and a grand old time enough making crazy beautiful films like Transformers, they must take/squeeze/throttle the daydream/wishes/deepest desires of commonfolk daydreamers of the pyramids. Yarg. Rant OVER.

Chive Farfalle with Roasted Mushrooms

Okay, so it was either chives blended into a yummy sauce OR grass with lots of lemon. It's not my fault-- my garden beds are weedy. (Okay, so THAT would be my fault, lazy bum). Anyway, this is how I made it.

Roasting mushrooms (first time and not the last). Cut into halved, sprayed with oil, salt and pepper and roasted in the oven for 5 minutes or so at 450 F.

Blended half a cup of chopped chives, salt, oil (the nice fruity green stuff--olive), and pepper (crushed or black). If you don't have enough chives (like me), you can add some basil & a BIT of oregano (both freshy fresh). Add lemon juice to taste, and blend until creamy. I also wanted to use less oil so I added some water as an alternate, still good.

Poured it over Farfalle, added a bit of Asiago cheese and roasted mushrooms on the side. YUMMO (to take a word from Rachel Ray). This recipe is obviously not mine, got it from a mag and messed it up a bit! :)

The Proposal

I recently saw Sandra Bullocks and Ryan Reynolds (Two guys a Girl and A Pizza Place!) much anticipated movie, The Proposal. All the hype, the high box office generating numbers--- hogwash. This movie I would rate "C-", and for a couple of reasons.

Where is the romance? (For that matter where was the comedy?). Ryan and Sandra Bullock barely seem to have scenes together, and when they do it feels they are like two magnets--on their opposing ends, repelling each other off the screen. I honestly felt like Ryan Reynolds had more onscreen chemistry with his 'high school sweetheart', who had a screen time of 5 minutes. I felt they would end up together! There were no scenes in which the two leads would feel closer to each other or even connect. (The 'naked' scene doesn't count-gratuitous nudity, and the two minute 'I like a geeky band and have a tattoo' bit to give Sandy some humanity was like oooo-kay what-ever).

Remember "While he was Sleeping"? You will! This movie had the same 1920's wedding dress bit, the same "I miss what it's like having a family" speech, and the same confession at the alter scene. Oh and the same "Grammy will have a heart attack if she finds out" crap. Geez.

Seriously, it seems like Sandra Bullock has lost her onscreen presence, her mojo, she looked like a spiritless dummy doll walking around the movie, doing totally random scenes devoid of anything to give the movie oomph.

Gay Monkeys.....and birds.....and dolphins and.....

Apparently, monkeys are gay! Or so they can be, a bit. Which means obviuosly that they can be bisexual. I just read an article that says male Bonobo monkeys will actually copulate with each other to calm disagreements. Monkeys will show signs of pleasure (as opposed to all those Wild America programs that show copulating animals that look almost bored with the deed).

There is also a story about penguins. Apparently, 2 male penguins seemed to be getting cozy and trying to raise a 'stone' baby! The zookeepers finnally gave up (after introducing females to them that were ignored) and gave them a rejected egg from another couple. The two male penguins raised a cute little penguin baby.

Star Trek..........The Movie

When I first took my sneak peaks at leaked online trailers, and heard the ominous, "This is not your fathers Trek" type lines, I was mad. I wanted to choke Quinto, Pine, and Abram. Then I went to see the film (well, duh I HAD to see how badly it sucked did I not??) although after Thai food and a glass of wine, so with a grain of salt my freinds. It was good!

I must say though that as soon as the fake Spock (Quinto or Sylar from Heroes) came on I wanted to bum rush the screen and choke the living daylights out of him (my my violent are we not?). He showed way to much emotion for a Vulcan, not to think of the fact he was portraying THE Vulcan. Though he did get better as time went by, I forgave him, and enjoyed the rest of the movie.

Chris Pine as Shatner (hehe, imagine him doing the next gen Priceline ads--can't be done), was fine, he can act, and had charisma and enough skills to pull off the comedy bits. Thumbs up.

The movie itself, the storyline was good. Not overly complex and not dumbed down for the dumb kids of today.

Is it me or is every beautiful 80's cartoon or show being DUMBED down so todays brainless kids can drool their spittle into a tub of mega-corn and laugh like retards? Hey the grownups of the world (as grown up as we sci-fi geeks can be), can dole out money for tickets to movies too. Although, many geekazoids do illegally dload. Is that why everything is dumbed down with Jar Jar Binks and the Will Ferrells (Land of the Lost) of the world?

Monsters Vs. Aliens-----boo

So this weekend I took my young niece and nephew to watch this movie. Based on the commercials I thought it should be fun. WRONG. Nothing wrong with me being an 'adult' and not 'getting' a kids movie--this movie was so boring my neice and nephew were squirming around in their seats, peering into their popcorn bags and grabbing each others sodas.

The movie which is super hyped up due to Reece Witherspoon, is about a 50 foot tall woman and her freak monster friends who battle evil aliens. The 'comraderie' and friendship they try to tie in, falls flat. The humor, well wait, what humor? 3-D? Only in a limited number of places. Basically, a waster of time. And the only thing they really enjoyed was the previews!!!!!

Transformers would make it ANY way..........

Transformers did not make 700 billion dollars because of its storyline, I mean come on seriously? And no, it was not because of the "superb" acting abilities of Shia Lebeouf and Megan Fox. It made $700 billion because it is TRANSFORMERS, and it is cool cars becoming R-O-B-O-T-S, seriously people, ROBOTS. I mean is that not every freaking person in this world's dream? What more could u ask of god? A robot for everyone, I shall wish it for us all. No need to pray for world peace if you have a robot, it will keep it for you.......ahhhhh(takes a deep sigh). It will mow your lawn, walk your dog, and be the bestest freind you've ever had. No need for 'real' friends, no need for those pesky humanoid friends (which are useless and hard to come by anyway).

Errrr......my point WAS.........Transformers would have been watched by ANYONE and EVERYONE, just by reading the title, I mean who hasn't wished for another Optimus Prime based storyline? (I remember when he died, it was a traumatic and confusing experience as a child, and freaking stupid of the writers to think they could kill him off and the world would twirl merrily away).

Let's just hope Transformers II, is not a buttload of action sequences and product placement ads strewn together haphazardly. The autobots had heart.

I can't make jello

I'm guessing jello is the dessert that even people who cannot cook bring to dinner parties and family reunions, just so they feel like they brought something. Something so easy they have nothing to do but boil water and stir. Put it into a mold to look like a pretty gem, something, anything to take away from the fact that you made jello while your sister in law made a croquembouche.

I made a fruit jello, the EASIEST recipe out there. I mixed a can of pineapple bits with a pack of jello, just like the recipe instructed to all the little kindergarten cooks out there. I proudly flipped over my mold, in the presence of my sister, exclaiming how "yummy" it was going to taste. I heard this little 'glip' and the entire 'jello' poured out like melted jam. Life sucks.

Rocks n Minerals

I've collected rocks ever since I could use my brainwaves in such a thoughtful effort. My early efforts were oft thwarted by my mother who considered her rock collecting child a retard and threw away her preciouses. But the retard prevailed and today clutches her measly collection to her chest each night.

Have you ever seen a rock? I mean each one is different, just in your backyard alone you can find so many different ones, striped, glowy, granite, quartz. Here in NJ, I can find a good mix, and when I let the rain wash them for about a year, you can really see the colors pop. I've collected samples from.....Pennsylvania, which seemed to have granites (and others I need to ID). South Carolina had lots of Quartz. And these below, pics I took from the Carnegie Museum, are some freaking mindblowing minerals that good mother earth has spat up.

Back from Ridgway PA, never heard of it?

Well neither had I. Apparently, it is the most famous, unfamous place I'd never heard of. Ridgway, is home of the world chainsaw carving competitions. And THAT is exactly what it sounds like, giant logs of wood being carved into pretty pieces of art using giant buzzy chainsaws. Ridgway, and the towns around there are also home to Elk. At first I thought they were just big deer with antlers, okay they are. But, they are a lot bigger, and so when you stand next to one (okay so a STUFFED one at the Carnegie Museum, real ones are hard to come by), they are quite impressive.

Talking about things stuffed, Walruses, are HUGE. The tv sci shows don't do them justice. Either that or the sneaky Carnegie Museum peeps found the biggest, baddest walrus shot it, stuffed it, and plopped it behind a pane of glass. Just so you know, for your knowledge, if anyone reads this, mountain goats too are huge-arific.

Carnegie also has a giant collection of minerals. You would not believe the type of things earth has the ability to spew out. I shall add pictures of my outing. Up next, a soliloquy on rocks. I LOVE them! I collect them! I admire and kiss them and tuck them in at night. Each one different than the next, all colors, shapes, and sounds......ahhhh.

Villette by Bronte

I am trying to be more educated, sophisticated, superior seeming, all to naught. I cannot for the life of me get past one page of the famous Charlotte Bronte's Villette (I had never even heard of it it to begin with, before spotting it on my sisters dresser). Each pretentious page opens up a snorefest one after the other, so many of her lines are actually written in French! There are no translations when certain characters speak it, how can you possibly read this type of book?

The main character is Lucy, whose view of things I must put up with as this is a first person driven story. And geez, is this girl so boring; she is a teacher in a girls school, and is of the rigid composture. But look at me, I am still trying to ploddle my way thru it, every morn, I try to pick my way thru at least 2 pages. Then I sleep for the next two hours. An hour a page.

Maybe some of it will go into my brain! And I shall be considered erudite, and sophisicated! WooHoo!

UPDATE!!:: Apparently, if you can make it past page 180 (yeah, there's like 540 somethingish pgs) the story is actually there, and not quite as bad as first thought. My perserverance paid off, my tugging myself thru 180 pages of doo dah came soon enough into storyland. Lucy Snowe, most amazingly not only developed a personality BUT I was finding myself quite empathetic to her. The story is pretty heart tugging, I did find myself skipping paragraphs of haphazard poetic descriptions though. Lucy is quiet, but not shy, itelligent but NOT 'smart', meaning she troubles her way thru things like math, she is stronger than the other women in most aspects but she is also wont to the feminine 'emotions' sometimes as well. Confusing?

I guess I empathized with her because she was heartwrenched at having no friends. It made her weak to be alone, people she admired did not look at her in any way other than 'something on the side'. When she did find a friend, that too was wrenched from her, it ends sadly, her with a happy outlook for the rest of her life, and it cruely smashed and ended. All the bad natured people around her happy and content, she left smashed.So wrong. Charlotte Brontes father asked her to write a happy ending for her story, she having wanted her 'ending' from the very beggining of writing the book, created a 'poetic' paragraph at the end. Telling readers to take whatever they wanted from it--though when you read it, it is quite, quite, obvious. I wished it was happy after all the heartache.........ah well!

Women get beat for drinking....

A few weeks ago (I just found out) some Shri Ram Sena members ran into a Pub in India and tried to beat any girls there, just for being there.

Shri Ram Sena, means God's army. Or at least one gods, as the Hinduism belief system comprises of many. These guys have decided to be the deliverers of moral justice, whose moral justice? Why whatever they think is right or wrong. And apparently they think girls belong behind a stove, behind walls. They should not be drinking or even be seen outdoors with boys.


I really wonder how many of these 'army' guys go to Bollywood, (yeah, India named their movie industry Bollywood, urg) movies where women cavort in skimpy skimpy 'clothes'. I really think more than the 'outrage' these caveboys feel, it's the fact that they feel like they are doing something with their lives, that they belong in some group that does something, takes action. Whereas before they joined they were doing nothing but watching movies, Bollywood movies, with skimpy skimpy clothing.

On the other hand, of course there are those guys that feel the antiquated way to live would be the best and happiest. They are served on, by, well servants, who would'nt want that? Maybe the girls should have figured that out sooner, get together and whip them boys into the kitchen, for back massages, and whatever else they want....

I think I understand what some of them think, they feel that our society would be less degraded if people went back to the 'gentlemenly & womenly' ways of old. Morals, politeness, no girls giving themselves to easily, no boys trying to make them. But the thing is, why then do the women have to do all the 'work'? Why can't the men just stay inside and out of temptations path? Why not get the Ram Sena people targeting guys and getting them to stop their 'amoral' ways, why target the WOMEN only?!