July 16th thru the 19th, 2006

Sunday July 16th, 2006

Then again, there is something delicious about bedding down for the night. And the best is to lseep without blankets-- when the room temperature is just on the edge of cold, and you sleep in some kind of trough. Sounds weird, I know, but I love to sleep with pillows or something on either side of me, creating a valley of warmth from my own body heat. It's never too hot or too cold. I find it easier to rise from such slumber as well.

As a recovering insomniac, I feel I am something of a sleep connoisseur. So chalk all of this up to snobbery.

What I Did On My Saturday
Went to the gym, helped a friend move, and the friend's friend is something of a gourmand, so instead of the requisite pizza, we had baked chicken and roasted potatoes. And beer, because that's an absolute in the help-a-friend-move rules. Finally got home , played some WoW, then showered and headed over to the GF's to maker her dinner. Salsa Verde Chicken Enchiladas. Want the recipe? Got it from Cooking Light Magazine. Here you go:

1 cup chopped onion 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro 2 garlic cloves, minced 1 (7-ounce) bottle salsa verde 2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast 1/3 cup (3 ounces) 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened 1 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth 8 (6-inch) corn tortillas Cooking spray 1/4 cup (1 ounce) crumbled cheese 1/2 teaspoon chili powder 4 lime wedges Cilantro sprigs (optional) Preheat oven to 425°. Combine first 4 ingredients in a blender; process until smooth. Combine chicken and cream cheese in a large bowl. Stir in 1/2 cup salsa mixture. Reserve remaining salsa mixture. Bring broth to a simmer in a medium skillet. Working with one tortilla at a time, add tortilla to pan; cook 20 seconds or until moist, turning once. Remove tortilla; drain on paper towels. Spoon about 1/4 cup chicken mixture down center of tortilla; roll up. Place tortilla, seam-side down, in an 11 x 7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Repeat procedure with remaining tortillas, broth, and chicken mixture. Pour remaining salsa mixture over enchiladas; sprinkle evenly with crumbled cheese and chili powder. Bake at 425° for 18 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Serve with lime wedges. Garnish with cilantro sprigs, if desired. Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 2 enchiladas and 1 lime wedge) NUTRITION PER SERVING: CALORIES 327(26% from fat); FAT 9.5g (sat 4.4g,mono 2.9g,poly 1.3g); PROTEIN 28.5g; CHOLESTEROL 78mg; CALCIUM 149mg; SODIUM 493mg; FIBER 3.3g; IRON 1.8mg; CARBOHYDRATE 31g

Syriana
Just got done watching this Goerge Clooney flick. I'd been meaning to see Syriana for a while now, and of course my new interest in politics made it all the more relevant. It is not an easy movie to follow, since there are seemingly disparate story-lines interwoven in and among themselves, and following everything does require an appreciation or understanding of Middle-East politics and American oil-business economics. However, I have to say that if a person does not have these, but pays attention in the film and tries to follow along, it will give him or her that appreciation for later exposure to a pursuing of the facts on his or her own. It is a fictional movie, to be sure, but armed with a notebook, It will give one motivation to go hit Wikipedia later and try to learn some things.

The basic gist of the movie is that it is NOT the case the American business takes advantage of tensions in the middle east, rather, American business creates tensions in the Middle East, and furthermore, they do so at the cost of actual democratic ideals being implemented there. Our government tells us that we invade and occupy these countries to thwart despotism and make fertile the ground for economic growth. This movie suggests that our government is only giving lip service to foreign democracy.

Take from it what you will. Clooney does a fine job, and Matt Damon is not too bad (the film didn't demand much from him), but neither are the focus of the film and their celebrity can be ignored. The real "star" of this movie is the world economic playground, where the bully is not the biggest kid in the sandbox, it's the kid who's daddy paid for the sand.

Video Games
I took Tiger Woods PGA Tour '06 back to Blockbuster, but like I said before, I'll probably end up purchasing it someday. I forgot to mention that, a few days ago, playing Hexic, I finally got a black pearl, which if you will recall, is when you get six "stars" in a flower shape, a star being created when you get six tiles of the same color in a star shape. The game is "won" when you get three black pearls together, so, I have a way to go yet. At any rate, it's another Xbox 360 "achievement" to add to my gamer card. (My name is Edwardsian, look me up).

Saba
So, I feel dumb. A while ago, over a year I think, friends went to a performance of a group called Saba, and they liked 'em so much, they got me a CD. I dutifully loaded it to my iTunes, but never got around to listening to it. Well, a few days ago, got the iPod on shuffle, and a Saba song came up. I rather liked it. Very much like This Mortal Coil, with some Avalanches thrown in a just a touch of Scissor Sister's now and again. So go update your MySpace profile and make Saba your default profile song.

Wednesday July 19th, 2006

Superman Returns
Sunday night, me and mine and some others met at the EMP for a drink-- it's no longer the Liquid Lounge, by the way, but just an extension of the restaurant below, Revolutios. Then we walked over to the Imax to watch Superman Returns. This showing included some 3D scenes, which we watched through special glasses. There is nothing quite like looking at a three-dimensional 40-foot rendition of Kate Bosworth's bee-stung lips.

The movie was okay. Nothing super duper awesome about it, but nothing too bad, either. I am told it follows the "original" Superman 1 and 2, ignores 3 and 4, and does not dismiss "Smallville". I barely remember 1 and 2. But the plot in this one is nothing to crazy-- tension between Supe, Lois, and Clark, Lex Luther is trying to take over the world by killing a billion people, Kryptonite comes into play… nothing you wouldn't expect. There is one "oh ho!" moment, but even is nothing that breaks new ground.

Maybe after all the drama of hiring different writers and directors and actors, they decided to play it safe, not take any risks. Fine with me. But they played it a little too safe in the last 15 minutes or so, since the climax had come and gone and we don’t need more film at this point. But they have to establish the sequel, and they did so. When a movie acts as nothing more than a preview of it’s own sequel, the best it's going to get is 3 stars.

Kevin Spacey was fine as Lex; glad they gave it to an actor and not a face. Kate Bosworth didn't convince me as a Lois, but that's just cause I got the Margot Kidder stain from Superman 1. Parker Posey was a nice touch, but she's always a nice touch. Oh, and the guy who played S'man himself, Brandon Routh-- fine job. If you skip this one, you're not missing anything; if you decide to go see it, you won't be wasting your time. That's my review.

Twizzlers
We bought some Twizzlers for the movie on Sunday, but I forgot about them, and on Monday I ate nearly the whole bag. I am a pig. But you know what they say, about turning a sow's ear into a purse: my self disgust left me to buy a gimondo batch of vegetables, and now I am crunching away the guilt. Radishes, turnips, carrots, cherry tomatoes. Also I rediscovered my love for hummus on tortillas, and I've been eating the whole-what tortillas with the mega-fiber for, well, you know… lots of good reading. Add to that an attempt to make Romaine Wraps, using lettuce, salsa, sprouts, and tofu cheese. Tofu cheese is great, because it almost nearly comes close to sort of tasting like cheese. I like food that requires one to use a good imagination to accomplishes the taste. Wednesday is vegetarian day, so today I eat no meat which makes me eat even MORE vegetables. Finally, if you don't like the taste of diet sodas, I recommend changing up your usual for another, cause at first, the new diet soda won't taste so diety.

3rd Grade Bad Asses
We won again. That's right, children, we've won 2 games this season. 3-1 versus a team wearing teal. I had 3 at-bats, with one RBI, and two fly-outs. On defense I played catcher, and though I was not able to recover most bunts elegantly, I did catch a few for some easy outs. But that elegant thing-- no, really, I looked like a real dork, trying to throw a red rubber ball, side-arm, left-handed, while bent over. I hit one girl in the head, even. After the game was our team barbecue, where I ate too many chocolate chip cookies and loved it. Gimme props-- I was celebrating, so it shouldn't count.
a note on the picture-- faces have been changed to protect the innocent.