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May. 16th, 2011 03:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miko2Saturday I played City of Heroes in the morning. I didn't go outside until the afternoon, by which time it was pouring down rain. It seemed like the perfect kind of weather for stew, and I was in the mood to cook without doing any actual work. Plus I've only used my nice black crock pot twice since I bought it a couple of months ago.
So late Saturday night just before I went to bed I tossed into the crock pot: diced stew beef, sliced smoked turkey keilbasa, diced potatoes, carrots, onions, and some water and spices (mostly I used a stew mix packet, with some extra beef bullion, garlic salt, bay leaves, liquid smoke, worchestershire sauce).
By morning it was smelling very good. I added celery and mushrooms. I ate some at Noon, then later put three containers in the freezer for lunches.
My ex-roommate Tom called later, wanting to get together. I had nothing specific in mind. Tom works a night shift, so we "got together" after 4 PM. We went up to Fry's, and I found absolutely no dvds that I actually wanted to buy, but I did finally get myself a cheap electric hot plate so that I can do hot pot properly. Now I need a good pot to put on it -- maybe something earthenware, or brass, I dunno.
We hit Half Price Books too, and I picked up a few dvds there, including Monsters Vs. Aliens, Hoodwinked, Star Trek (the new one) and the Watchmen. I paid for my stuff and then I went to the Thai restaurant nearby and ordered red curry chicken and brown rice, waited 15 minutes, got my order, and then waited another 10 minutes, and then Tom was finally done with book shopping. So that's about an hour in the bookstore, a very short shopping trip for Tom.
We watched Hoodwinked, which Tom hadn't seen before. Hoodwinked is not a Dreamworks animated film -- neither is Igor, Despicable Me, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, or the Ice Age films -- but I tend to lump them all together. Generally when it comes to animated films, there are Pixar films, there are Disney films (technically there are two Disney categories, "classic" films that follow the old Disney formula to varying degrees (Tangled is one of these, I think, even though it's computer animation), and those that are the more stupid and cheap dumbed-down kid's films like Bolt, Brother Bear, etc.. Lilo & Stitch is kind of its own category though I think). And there are creepy gothic stop-animated films (Coraline, Corpse Bride, Nightmare Before Christmas). And virtually everything else falls into the "computer animated films with pop culture references, aka Dreamworks films" category.
Many of these films are amusing without being great films, and that's pretty much how I feel about Hoodwinked. It's funny. It's not great computer animation, it's not good, character-driven writing (see: Pixar). It's full of pop-culture references that would prevent it from becoming a timeless classic even if it were good enough (which it isn't). But it amuses me enough.
I think possibly How to Train Your Dragon is the only film in the "Dreamworks and stuff like Dreamworks" film category I'd consider good enough to become a timeless classic. Maybe the Aardman films get a pass too, but that's because they're Aardman films (Chicken Run & Flushed Away).
We also watched episode 1 of Brisco County Jr, and I lent the series to Tom since he'll watch all of it before I would probably finish the first disc (there are 8 discs total).
My car's still not fixed. Guy at work is going to fix it for about $700.00, which is close to $1,000.00 cheaper than the dealer, but it means I wait until he's ready to fix it.
I just found out that one of my Ranma 1/2 fanfiction stories is on a Russian web site for Ranma 1/2 fanfiction. Someone translated it into Russian. That's kind of cool. ^_^
One other note about Hoodwinked: I bought the soundtrack a couple of years ago, mostly because I liked the song "Tree Critter". I still do. The songs were written by John Mark Painter, half of the duo Fleming & John (the other half is his wife). I know nobody knows who they are but I have their two cds and liked them well enough. He's also done studio session work for Indigo Girls, Jewel, etc.
*EDIT* Oh, and yeah. The sequel. I don't pay attention to what movies are out each week, so I didn't even realize there was a sequel until today. Really, even if I found the first film amusing, this didn't demand a sequel. Oh, they strongly hinted at one, and the apparently have followed through. The question is, why?
But then I didn't think there needed to be a Shrek 3 or 4, or an Ice Age 2 or 3, and I don't think we really need a Madagascar 3 either. We probably don't need a Kung Fu Panda 2 either, but I'm pretty sure a 3 and maybe even a 4 are inevitable.
So late Saturday night just before I went to bed I tossed into the crock pot: diced stew beef, sliced smoked turkey keilbasa, diced potatoes, carrots, onions, and some water and spices (mostly I used a stew mix packet, with some extra beef bullion, garlic salt, bay leaves, liquid smoke, worchestershire sauce).
By morning it was smelling very good. I added celery and mushrooms. I ate some at Noon, then later put three containers in the freezer for lunches.
My ex-roommate Tom called later, wanting to get together. I had nothing specific in mind. Tom works a night shift, so we "got together" after 4 PM. We went up to Fry's, and I found absolutely no dvds that I actually wanted to buy, but I did finally get myself a cheap electric hot plate so that I can do hot pot properly. Now I need a good pot to put on it -- maybe something earthenware, or brass, I dunno.
We hit Half Price Books too, and I picked up a few dvds there, including Monsters Vs. Aliens, Hoodwinked, Star Trek (the new one) and the Watchmen. I paid for my stuff and then I went to the Thai restaurant nearby and ordered red curry chicken and brown rice, waited 15 minutes, got my order, and then waited another 10 minutes, and then Tom was finally done with book shopping. So that's about an hour in the bookstore, a very short shopping trip for Tom.
We watched Hoodwinked, which Tom hadn't seen before. Hoodwinked is not a Dreamworks animated film -- neither is Igor, Despicable Me, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, or the Ice Age films -- but I tend to lump them all together. Generally when it comes to animated films, there are Pixar films, there are Disney films (technically there are two Disney categories, "classic" films that follow the old Disney formula to varying degrees (Tangled is one of these, I think, even though it's computer animation), and those that are the more stupid and cheap dumbed-down kid's films like Bolt, Brother Bear, etc.. Lilo & Stitch is kind of its own category though I think). And there are creepy gothic stop-animated films (Coraline, Corpse Bride, Nightmare Before Christmas). And virtually everything else falls into the "computer animated films with pop culture references, aka Dreamworks films" category.
Many of these films are amusing without being great films, and that's pretty much how I feel about Hoodwinked. It's funny. It's not great computer animation, it's not good, character-driven writing (see: Pixar). It's full of pop-culture references that would prevent it from becoming a timeless classic even if it were good enough (which it isn't). But it amuses me enough.
I think possibly How to Train Your Dragon is the only film in the "Dreamworks and stuff like Dreamworks" film category I'd consider good enough to become a timeless classic. Maybe the Aardman films get a pass too, but that's because they're Aardman films (Chicken Run & Flushed Away).
We also watched episode 1 of Brisco County Jr, and I lent the series to Tom since he'll watch all of it before I would probably finish the first disc (there are 8 discs total).
My car's still not fixed. Guy at work is going to fix it for about $700.00, which is close to $1,000.00 cheaper than the dealer, but it means I wait until he's ready to fix it.
I just found out that one of my Ranma 1/2 fanfiction stories is on a Russian web site for Ranma 1/2 fanfiction. Someone translated it into Russian. That's kind of cool. ^_^
One other note about Hoodwinked: I bought the soundtrack a couple of years ago, mostly because I liked the song "Tree Critter". I still do. The songs were written by John Mark Painter, half of the duo Fleming & John (the other half is his wife). I know nobody knows who they are but I have their two cds and liked them well enough. He's also done studio session work for Indigo Girls, Jewel, etc.
*EDIT* Oh, and yeah. The sequel. I don't pay attention to what movies are out each week, so I didn't even realize there was a sequel until today. Really, even if I found the first film amusing, this didn't demand a sequel. Oh, they strongly hinted at one, and the apparently have followed through. The question is, why?
But then I didn't think there needed to be a Shrek 3 or 4, or an Ice Age 2 or 3, and I don't think we really need a Madagascar 3 either. We probably don't need a Kung Fu Panda 2 either, but I'm pretty sure a 3 and maybe even a 4 are inevitable.
