It's been a British TV sort of weekend.

I watched parts 1-3 of Traffik. Although I've only seen half of it so far, I can definitely say that I find this mini-series superior to its Hollywood remake Traffic. Soderbergh did an excellent job on cinematography, but I can't help but feel that his skills smoothed over great deal of the harsh and gritty reality of the drug trade so wonderfully presented in Traffik...although some of that may also be the fact that the production values for television are lower than for most big-budget Hollywood creations. Also, the mini-series has the luxury of additional time to flesh out the characters further - ex. showing how and why the drug smuggler's wife takes over her husband's business when he's jailed. Finally (and probably most importantly), the Mexican drug lord thread did a poor job of replacing the Pakistani opium farmer plot-line: in retrospect (saw the remake first), Traffic seems unbalanced since it does not cover the complete troika of drug creation, distribution and abuse.

Additionally, I went through the first season of Coupling. Coupling has been described as "Friends" with sex. However, I feel that genre-simplification doesn't do justice to a wonderfully hillarious series. True, the basic set-up is similar with 3 single men + 3 single women that hang out together, each with their own typically sit-com exaggerated foibles, but the story focuses on a single relationship within that group and how it develops. Along the way, we're treated so very humorous and original sex-related plot lines dealing with such devices as "The Giggle Loop", "Unflushables" and "The Cupboard of Patrick's Love".

Unsurprisingly, after watching this, I had a dream about hooking up with someone. Gotta love how real life works its way into your subconscious.

From the department of absurd things some people do:

We have Optimus Prime safeguarding our freedom. Take that Megatron!

I just finished reading Blair's address to the House of Commons and was really impressed.

Now there's someone who actually laid out a concrete, well-structured argument on why military action is necessary in Iraq. If Dubya actually delivered a speech half-way as intelligent sounding as this one, he'd certainly have much more domestic support. Instead, his speech last night sounds like the Cliffs Notes version of what Blair said. Hell...even if "The W" just repeated Colin Powell's speech to the UN Security Council word for word, he would persuade many more people with it instead of the the pep rally piece he delivered yesterday.

I understand that Dubya is very plain spoken, a true Texan, etc/etc, but when one is debating on the stage of international diplomacy and politics, sounding like a yokel just doesn't cut it. Recommendation: replace your writing staff or actually allow them to write speeches to the best of their ability.

Although I enjoy well-written reviews (ex. The War Against Silence) as much as anyone else, I do enjoy the occasional snide article for humor value. After all, snide is good for the soul.

Right now, my current opiates for this need are Doug Benson's mini-reviews and Television Without Pity (props to Brian for pointing this out to me). There's just something to be said about a 9 page mocking of the latest episode of 24 or this mini movie-review - ADAPTATION - Hey ADAPTATION fans, just keep telling yourselves the ending sucks on purpose.

Now if I ever found a blog counterpart to those two sites, I'd fear the review they would write for this blog.

My new LCD and video card have arrived! After installing them both, the difference between my old set-up and new is simply amazing...definitely a "night and day" level improvement. As an added bonus, I've reclaimed another foot the table I'm using as a desk. Right now, I'm a little unsure of what to do with the extra space. Suggestions, anyone? Personally, I was thinking about actually putting *gasp* desk-like objects there, but I'm amenable to any interesting and feasible ideas.

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Yukino pointed out that No Effort Online Movies has made another "Tales for the L33T" movie. This one is based off of Hamlet. Although the novelty value of classical L33t sp34k has worn off, the high production values and the top-notch humor of the Romeo + Juliet "Tales for the L33T" is present in "Tales for the L33T: PATR TOO". This viewer gives it a Thumbs Up.

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Anyone notice how every corporate "alternative" station has these commercials proclaiming that they're the place for "new alternative music/rock", usually name-dropping various in-vogue bands and/or having voice cameos by those same bands? Ever notice that immediately afterward, instead of playing some of that new music, they play some song from a few years back...almost as if to comfort those listeners worried that they won't be able to hear their "old favorites"?

Just a small update since nothing of real note has happened of late:

• A nice explanation of how turbochargers work can be found here.


• By next week, my computer will be DVI LCD enabled thanks to this and this.


• I've been drafted for JURY DUTY next month. $12/day w00!


• Workout program has been going pretty well. The weights have been steadily increasing, but I suspect that may be because I started out way too low. Still...progress is being made.


• For someone who only just started up working out again, I'm a bit surprised at how much flexibility I've retained and how quickly it's improved. When doing a sitting two legged stretch, I'm now able to get my head further down towards the ground, beyond the "forehead resting on leg" stage.

As far back as I can remember, I've visited the same dentist to have my teeth looked at and cleaned. Even when my parents moved away from my birth town, I continued seeing him for my dental work. This tradition continues to this day, even though I'm even further away than when I was in Champaign. Thankfully, a visit to the dentist's office offers a perfect opportunity to spend the weekend in C-U.

This weekend I got to catch up with Oy, The General, Kurto and Jen. I finally got to try out dessert of the same name @ The Apple Dumpling. Other events included the customary round of mini-golf inside Lincoln Square Mall, questing for a benign smelling deodorant, waking up crazy early for breakfast as well as attempting to wrap presents in the back of a car (not recommended for our home audiences or those that faint at the sight of wrinkled wrapping paper). We also watched some movies: Drive Me Crazy - a late 90's teen movie starring Clarissa - and the Kurto fast-forwarded version of that epitome of high film making Showgirls. Most importantly, Oy's trio of feline allergens didn't seem to have much of an effect on me. W00t.

There was also a bit of culinary madness over the past few days. Friday night, I started the brining process for a 6.6lb chicken as well as making my usual dessert: golden creme apple tart. The whole exercise ended about 3 in the morning and had definite shades of one of my earlier late night cooking adventures in Seattle. Saturday, however, was the main event: I started off with throwing the chicken, rinsed and now marinaded with a hand-chopped attempt at an olivada, on a bed of roasting vegetables in the oven. While that was going on, I made my first batch of mulled wine with spices acquired at Artmart - a very cool food/toys/decoration store also residing in Lincoln Square mall. When the chicken was almost done, I made the sides: cous-cous and a simple balsamic vinegar based salad dressing for baby greens. Overall, people seemed to enjoy the food prepared....which is always a relief even if one is making things that have been done before. Finally, I gave Roy instruction on how to make the golden cream apple tart. Those of you in C-U can now bug him for your sweet fix. Muahahaha.

To finish things off, I had my dentist's appointment today. Thankfully, I got a relatively clean bill of health minus a few areas. Plus my hygienist got a kick out of the ultra-sonic cleaning debate.

To sum things up, I had an excellent weekend. I got to see people I hadn't seen in a very long time, and it made me keenly aware how much I missed them, even though I talk to some of them on a regular basis. I guess I'll just have make an effort to visit more often and conning them into visiting me.