Posts from — November 2004

So I saw on Derek’s blog that if he were a famous leader, he’d be Abe Lincoln. I took the little quiz and found out I’d be Saddam Hussein, great. If I were a classic movie, I’d be Platoon. Great. I just took the Meyers Brigg Short Test. Here’re my results:

Basically I’m Quiet w/ Few Friends, Factual/Practical, Emotional/Selfless/Passionate, and planned/regimented/orderly. Great. I’m like a friggin’ Border Collie or some crap.

Swimming Pool’s an interesting flick. Of course I rented it to check out Ludivine Sagnier (tons of nudity) but something about it irked me a bit and it barely squeaked by my 3DMT ™.

I think I thought it was a different type of movie and that’s why I was a bit disappointed, but it’s not a bad flick at all. It’s actually a mystery/suspense flick and it does a good job of showing the transformation of the main character. Of course it makes me not want to live in London, but that’ll pass, I’d move there in a second.

But the movie seems like it’s missing some parts. I like movies that don’t explain things to you, and that’s not what I’m asking for here, but it seems like something’s missing.

A decent flick, but it seems like it could’ve been better. One * for you, Swimming Pool.

I like this review and this one on imdb.

EDIT: I thought about it a bit more and decided to give the flick another star, it is a bit more creative than I’m giving it credit for. . . .

Plus, as Cory said- Ludvine’s Breasts should at least get a star each.

On Friday Paul and Stef invited me over to have a Tequila tasting and dinner. It was freaking good. Paul and Stef served New Mexico Enchiladas (those are flat ones, not rolled up) and Stuffed Peppers. The peppers were freaking hot, but were quite tasty.

Here’s the rundown on the tasting. I hadn’t done one in a while (since 2000? maybe, at Sully’s loft) and it was good to try some different ones. Fortunately I still had some of my notes for presentation and even more fortunate was the fact that this tasting was seemingly much less formal. Not that the one at Sully’s was more formal, but I did more homework for that one.

I took along the latest NOM list from the CRT which is always interesting to review and look up your favorites. I also printed up some descriptions of tequila overall and talked about the process a bit over the food. I had also printed up a copy of the pocket guide from the excellent site by Ian Chadwick.

One thing that wasn’t as readily accepted was the sipping of Sangrita with the tequila but people warmed up to it as the night went on. It also wasn’t hot enough to serve/mix some tequila with Squirt a la my ex-students and friends in GDL.

I served 2 Silvers, 1 gold, 3 Reposados and 2 Añejos:

• Herradura Silver
• Porfidio Blanco ltd edition, ltd bottles *
  from my personal “collection”, it didn’t have a nom number when made and the CRT made them stop bottling it.
• Sauza Gold – the crowd’s runner up fave
• Las Trancas *
  from my “collection” and my all-time fave.
• Casa Noble Reposado – the crowd fave (?)
• Cazadores Reposado – I like this one a lot, it’s a great bargain usually.
• Patron Añejo *
  from Paul’s ‘cellar’
• Herradura Añejo *
  
  I love Herradura (all of them) but I don’t like the way the price fluctuates all the time. If you get a deal on this, grab it.

Caleb, I’ve added some pics of the Rancilio Rocky Doser Grinder in action for you in the pics area. You can see the leftover grounds in the next to last pic. As I said in email I personally don’t think it’s that big a deal to have leftover grounds in the doser area. Btw- I’m thinking of ordering a tamper like yours, quite nice.. . .

Although I meant to sleep in, I still woke up a bit too early today. Good times. So I thought I’d update ye olde blogge since I hadn’t rambled on about anything all week. Here’re some formless and not-well-thought-out sentences:

Michael Powell is a jackass. His QOTW: “I wonder if Walt Disney would be proud.” Clearly, the wrong Powell resigned. If you don’t understand why his comments should get you riled up, then basically you’re retarded (no offense to retards). Oh, and you should already be riled up just with his actions in 2004- Superbowl reaction, Sinclair Broadcasting, Vet’s Day shelving of Saving Private Ryan. . .

Even though it’s Saturday, the online versions of papers are already starting to publish editorials denouncing Powell Jr. Set up a google news alert for Michael Powell, you’ll be amazed at what you read.

Hrm, I should set up something like Patrick and Jonas have for quotes, but I don’t feel like messing with Blosxom this week. Every time I do, something goes wrong. . . Btw – have you messed with del.icio.us yet? You can check out what I’ve submitted by adding “eltejano” at the end of the url, or subscribe to my links. It’s an interesting site on many levels- or you can just use it if you’re bored at work. The only thing I don’t like about it is when I find links to sites about better writing, or is it writing better? Writing sites make me feel like I should edit my blog more. Heh – leik that’s going to hapen! Editing’s for f00lz!

No movie updates this week, I’m a bit behind.

I do have a movie-related item- I read a nice editorial(?) on my favorite movie site about Kinsey. I sent the author a quick supportive email and got a nice reply. Nothing earth-shattering, but I was proud of myself for a few hours. I’m not really sure why though. . .

I was IM’ing Paul a bit yesterday about wine. He was giving me updates on the price per bottle of a wine he bought for arbitrage (well, and for enjoyment). I love that word by the way. I’ll do a separate post about that though.

I’ll be doing another tequila tasting soon at a friend’s house after Turkey Day. I haven’t done one in a while but it’ll be nice to re-evaluate some of my faves and some new ones.

Well, the sun’s up now, and I think I’ve rambled enough. Time to make some coffee and do a bit of lazy reading. I should read the dictionary, I may have misused the word arbitrage.. . .

Most of you who know me know I’m way too into coffee for my own good. Occasionally I find a story on a coffe site that I think everyone will think is interesting, but it turns out most aren’t.

But I’m a big fan of Obscurestore.com and they link to a Starbucks Gossip Blog. They have good entries on occasion, and I wanted to pass this one on. I like it when the *$ employees add comments to the entries, it colors the story quite nicely.

And yes, I’ll add it to Del.icio.us.

One of the great things about seeing some of the news on fark.com is reading the comments that come out of the woodwork. For today’s new about Ashcroft leaving the cabinet a great quote: “does this mean he will be replaced by a dead guy”?

Hopefully he won’t be replaced by someone worse, or get nominated to the supreme court, that’d really suck ass.

Now, how do we get rid of that Patriot Act. . . .

Oh by the way, LET THOSE BOOBIES OUT!

I watched the sequel/prequel to Infernal Affairs the other day. I didn’t think it was nearly as good as the first one, but stands up on it’s own as a good movie.

I was worried that I’d only find the movie interesting because I’ve seen the first flick, but was pleasantly surprised that the writers/directors added new material that wasn’t dependent on the other film and expanded on the roles/stories/plot/history of the characters. I think it could stand on it’s own as a decent flick. But then again, I wonder if I’d say that had I not seen the first one. All in all a good rental. Not quite as epic as The Godfather, but a decent comparison in a way.

Another good thing about this movie is that there seems to be more attention being paid to the story and less to the blockbuster actors. In the first flick it seemed that whenever Andy Lau and Tony “Scruffy” Leung were on the screen it wasn’t just for the movie’s plot. It was almost as if the moviemakers were reminding you- hey, our movie’s important, check out the stars we got for this flick. Granted, they were good and all, but you get my drift right? Fortunately for IA2 the whole ensemble is good and you don’t miss any of the (major) stars.

You know, I’m all hopped up on advil and cold medicine, so I’m going to end this “review” now before I ramble on straight to hell.

On Saturday night I went to see The Incredibles. It was pretty damn good. I was actually surprised. I did not think it would be that good going in. In fact I almost wanted to switch flicks, but I had ordered tickets already on @$^@$ Fandango.

In fairness I just wanted to cancel because the flick was sold out and Jennifer and I were the only people there without kids. But go see it- great art, a good story, good humor, etc. The only negative I could think of is that sometimes the voices are distracting when you’re trying to figure out which actors’ voices they might be. Some are obvious, others distract for a minute.

But all in all a good flick, didn’t come close to failing my 3DMT ™.

By the way if you want to see the (few) movies I’ve babbled about you can click that link on the far right to just see the movie entries.

I just uploaded some pics from Happy Hour on Friday. I hope everyone had fun at The Bitter End and Pizza Orgasmica.