It Started with a Journal

Does anyone have a lot of familiarity with Uber, and would be willing to share experiences/tips with me?

I was thinking about renting a car while in Miami, but B., who I'm staying with, says that she thinks Uber will be cheaper. I didn't want to seem totally clueless, so I was like, oh Uber, sure. >.>

Except I've never used Uber before and only even vaguely know what it does, despite it being super popular.

What are the scenarios in which using Uber is better than renting a car, so I can make an informed decision?

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Want to talk a bit about Broadchurch, which I enjoyed.

( Cut so as not to spoil for people who haven't seen it. )

Am now thinking of watching Gracepoint, which I hear isn't as good. But I'm curious as to why it's not as good, now!

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Am watching Jupiter Ascending tomorrow with D. It looks like a terrible movie, and Channing Tatum looks utterly ridiculous. But I like him, I like Mila, and because it was made by the Wachowskis, I still have to see it. I must know.

Ugh... I think I'm getting sick. :( The only silver lining to this is that I'm going to get to go first in Pandemic.

What a bummer. For once, I managed to avoid getting sick the entire time I was in LA (which had the most amazing weather when I was there... mostly in the 70s, and one day it even got up to 81), I got my flu shot before I left... and now this. Ugh.

Also, I came back to crap that I have to deal with. :(

1) Before I left, my washing machine broke. It was set to a medium load but the sensor stopped working or whatever and it FLOODED my finished basement. So I had to deal with that before I left (drying the whole place out). The carpet needs to be replaced, so I have to do that, then I have to get a new washer (and probably dryer while I'm at it, and also a new water heater, which has been on the blink for months). Meanwhile, all the crap that was in the basement is now scattered throughout the rest of the house/garage, so it's a giant mess.

2) My PC, which was custom built by my brother years ago, has been acting wonky for awhile. But it had awesome specs at the time it was made, so it's still a really good machine (the graphics card is still way better than any typical graphics card in a regular pre-built machine made today), and despite its issues would never completely die, so I just kept using it. Well, after I came back from LA, it seems to have finally kicked it at last, so that needs to be replaced as well. I've been vacillating between these two options -- if you know computers, feel free to give me your input on whether you'd pick one over another! ( A tale of two PCs. )

While on vacation I saw American Hustle (which I did not like at ALL, though it had everything going for it, including a bunch of actors that I love) and The Wolf of Wall Street, which was spectacular. It barely felt 3 hours long, and it was so unexpectedly funny!!! Kudos, Leo and Martin, kudos.

Blahhhhhhhhh. Cheer me up! Watch Arrow and tell me how much you love it. Or at least check out my post about how much I love it and tell me you'll give it a shot. Here are some incentives!

I love when Felicity gets glammed up.


But I also love when she's in her normal ponytail and glasses. <3


More secret elevator missions plz.


IT girl turned first-aid specialist. :D


Perfect OTP is perfect.


Why are non-canon pairings always so much more interesting than canon pairings? :/

I have a major project due at work, so obviously to distract myself from it, I need to make an LJ post. :P It's actually why I haven't posted any ASOIAF topics lately, even though a few are percolating in my brain. The ones I want to talk about next require some research, and it can be a bear sometimes to find supporting quotes and what not.

Some random updates on the State of Me:

* My eye doc wants me to ditch my hard contacts and get with the times, as they're becoming "obsolete." I've just never minded having them -- they don't feel like anything in my eyes, so soft contacts are not more comfortable for me -- and I've had them for years. The biggest pain about them is that finding contact solution is a lot tougher than for soft, and more costly as well. I wore some soft contacts as a trial run for two weeks... and ended up ordering new hard lenses. Apparently soft contacts have come a long way in terms of letting air through, but hard (gas permeable) lenses have always been better for that, so that your eyes feel less tired at the end of the day. I didn't much notice a difference in that regard. ( What I didn't like about the soft contacts: )

* I'm nearly done with a YA book called Thoughtless, by S.C. Stephens. It has amazing reviews on Amazon (4.3 stars with over 1,200 reviews), so I was really looking forward to reading it, even though it deals with a true love triangle, which I normally despise. I think it was self published, so didn't have a proper editor (at least, I hope not). It reads like fanfic, which obviously isn't necessarily bad, as there's really good fanfic out there, but it reads like mediocre fanfic. The protagonists are in their early 20s, so it's more mature than your typical YA lit, which I was actually looking forward to. Unfortunately, the heroine -- if she can be called such -- is TSTL, and has the emotional maturity of a pre-teen girl. I tried to get past the love triangle thing, wherein she's seriously torn between the two guys (since that was the premise of the story and I chose to read it knowing that full well), but she just seemed extremely fickle and selfish (which is partly why I hate true love triangles to begin with). She kept wavering back and forth, and it just made me hate her. I liked one of the guys, but his perfectness was just kind of over the top. Anyway, I can't rec it. If you see it and are interested in reading it, go in with your eyes open about what to expect.

* I went canoeing this weekend with J. Ohmygod at how much my arms hurt afterward. I didn't even do much, but I don't exercise, like, ever, so it was terrible. I mean, the canoeing at the time was awesome. We rented a canoe through the UW, the day was unbelievably perfect, and being on the water was fabulous. Every time I drive over the 90 or 520 and see people out on Lake Washington with their boats and kayaks and what not, I'm always like, how do you even do those things?? Now I know! But afterwards, when I was going to bed that night -- OMG. It wasn't a nice kind of ache in my muscles; it was REALLY, REALLY PAINFUL, to the point where I had trouble sleeping. :( (But we did go and get pedicures after, and that's always fun.)

* Had brunch with corianderstem to celebrate her recent birthday! We went to Tilikum Place Café, which I'd never been to before, but really liked it. I had their special eggs benedict of the day (salmon), A. had the caprese sandwich, and we split a peach-with-sage-sugar Dutch baby. It was all very good. Best of all though were their condiments: a house-made ketchup, and a habanero hot sauce from Belize called Maria Sharp's. It was so good! I had to buy a bottle from them right then and there (our server said that they get theirs direct from Belize, because it's impossible to find locally), though now I'm investigating getting it in bulk. >.>

* I've been on a Parminder Nagra kick lately. I saw her in the latest season of Psych, which made me want to rewatch Bend It Like Beckham (which is a nearly perfect movie, except for Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, who I don't find attractive at all, and also just looks way too evil for a tame hero role like that imho), which then led me to watching the short-lived Alcatraz series (which is OK).

* Speaking of JRM, I meant to talk about the City of Bones movie, which I saw with the DG gals a couple weekends ago, but it's now been so long I don't know if I remember all the details. Bottom line: The critics were right to pan it, and the fans are right to find it reasonably enjoyable. ( More in-depth commentary. )

My Best Picture nominees viewing continues!

Beasts of the Southern Wild: Loved it. I can't believe Quvenzhane Wallis was 5 years old when she was cast! Love the story, the directing, everything. It reminded me a lot of Whale Rider, which is a movie that I love to pieces. However, like Whale Rider, I suspect that the various nominations this movie got are its "awards" -- as in, congrats that you made a wonderful movie, we'll acknowledge it with these nominations, but we're going to give the actual awards elsewhere. Not having yet seen Life of Pi or Amour, right now I'd give directing to Benh Zeitlin for this movie.

Lincoln: I wanted to think it was amazing, but I just didn't. I found it really boring, actually. I have the greatest appreciation for Abraham Lincoln himself, but I'm just not that interested in the Civil War (I'm more of a WWII buff). It's one of those time periods that I don't particularly enjoy reflecting on for entertainment purposes, watching people try to defend slavery, countrymen killing countrymen, etc. Daniel Day-Lewis probably has Best Actor in the bag, but I'd love to see Bradley Cooper pull off an upset, he was so impressive in Silver Linings Playbook. It's not going to happen, though.

Other than Life of Pi and Amour, I still need to see Django Unchained and I'll be done!

Met K for dinner last night. We went to Brave Horse Tavern to try their Sunday night fried chicken dinner. It was OK. The chicken wasn't as good as at Ma'ono, the collard greens were too sour, and the biscuits and gravy were way too heavy. What was really good was their homemade soft pretzel with three different kinds of mustard, and their plain cheeseburger. Yes, we ate all of it. Stop judging us.

Talis still has an ulcer in his right eye. :/ Poor little thing has been wearing one of those Elizabethan collars for more than a month now. I was hoping it'd heal up on its own while we were in LA, but it didn't happen, so now he has to have a "procedure." That's been scheduled for Jan. 25. Meanwhile, I've been buying his antibiotic eye drops from the vet's office for $30/bottle. While in LA I needed it replenished. Rite-Aid wanted $40 for it and they couldn't get it until the following day. I ended up going to Costco, which not only had it in stock that very day, but it only cost $12.80! Crazy.

I completely forgot that I have a cooking class tonight -- Singaporean chili crab -- and took the bus in to work today. D'oh!! Now it's going to be a mad rush trying to get home and take care of the pets before heading out again. >

After a month+ absence, I'm back! :D I'm terrible about updating if I don't update every day. :/ I wonder what kind of psychological block I have about that.

I took about 3 weeks off from work, which was great, but still too short. I just hate working. I'd love to retire, but that's not going to happen any time soon. Had a really mellow time in LA. Was able to get together with jade_okelani and ropo a few times, but not as much as we had initially planned, because we were all struck by the plague. Ugh. So much terrible sickness this year. Also, the day before I left, I gave myself food poisoning. So that was the worst flight experience ever, considering I also had my two pets with me. /relives horror

It was really nice not to have to worry about feeding myself like, at all, when I was down there. Now I'm having to fend for myself again and I'm struggling. I've had a McRib two days in a row. >.> Last night I finally made myself some kale and sausage soup.

I'm sure more random tidbits about my trip will pop out eventually, but right now I want to talk about movies! ( MOVIES. )

OK so, I saw The Dark Knight Rises. I was disappointed. I'm going to be like one of 10 people in the world who didn't like it, and I've made my peace with that. It was the same with Lost in Translation (*fistbumps adelagia*). But anyway, before I talk about the movie and the issues I had with it, let me share something non-spoilery that happened before the movie began.

The first thing I said to corianderstem when the theater lights dimmed was, "I hope we get a Bourne Legacy trailer." I was so excited when those familiar opening frames started playing. I've seen that particular trailer a hundred times online, but never in the theater, and seeing it on a huge screen was super awesome. However, it was the very last trailer, and the theater we were at likes to do this showy thing where they LOWER THE CURTAINS AGAIN before the actual feature presentation, so the final minute or so of the BL trailer was obscured by the FUCKING CURTAINS!!!!! Which then rose again to show the actual movie! Seriously? SERIOUSLY?! I was so fucking annoyed. Like anyone needs the fake anticipation of the curtains rising again for the actual movie. Totally ruined the only big-theater viewing of the BL trailer that I've seen. -.- You know, if you're going to insist on doing something like that, do it RIGHT and just STOP the projector AFTER all the trailers are DONE. Gawd. :-l x 1000000000000000000000

( Spoilery The Dark Knight Rises commentary. )

After the movie, C. and I went to eat at the Ballard El Camion, which just has such yummy food. And long lines that don't let up.

On Saturday adelagia, slitherhither and I ended up having an impromptu Taiwanese cuisine day, starting with Boiling Point and ending with Henry's Taiwan. It was lovely to see B., who is so busy these days that we rarely get to see her. In between, we played Pandemic and had frozen yogurt at Peaks.

Did you know you can play Pandemic for free here? (When I told jade_okelani she was like, "Well now when are we ever going to do anything else?") It's kind of clunky and not as satisfying as actually playing with the actual pieces, but still, it totally works. The only thing is that it's a German site, so it's half in English and half in German, which makes for a somewhat confusing/frustrating experience getting started, lol. But yay that I can brush up on my (nonexistent) German? akscully was a very good sport and helped me figure it out, even though by the time we finished playing a couple of games with Jade it was like 4 in the morning for her. :))

Two hilariously funny things from Tumblr recently:

1) ( My neighbor's dog won't stop baking! ) Best response to a typo ever. Seriously, this makes me laugh so hard every time I see it. It's just so ridiculous. I think I might have to frame it and put it up somewhere in the house, because every time I encounter it, it's going to cheer me up.

2) "Scary Smash" - Kids make up a story, adults act it out. This one stars Joss Whedon. It's awesome.

New Bourne Legacy trailer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



*THUD*

My mind is a sticky mess from having been blown up by all the sexy images of Jeremy Renner as a super badass saving scientist!doctor!Rachel Weisz. God I hate her. And want to be her.

Must go recover now.

Matt Damon who? Jeremy Renner is unstoppable in new 'The Bourne Legacy' trailer

New 'Bourne Legacy' Trailer: Five Key Scenes

So yesterday I went and saw Cabin in the Woods. I'd heard that you should know nothing, absolutely nothing, about the plot or anything before you go in. All I knew was that it was a Joss Whedon/Drew Goddard project, which made me excited for it. I was scared of being spoiled in ANY WAY (jade_okelani saw it and she wasn't even allowed to tell me if she LIKED it or not) and tried several times to see it earlier, but was always thwarted in some way (including actually getting to the theater and told that their projector for that particular movie had broken -- wtf? When does that ever happen?!). To respect that others might be doing the same thing, I'm keeping any reaction to the movie under a cut. ( Majorly spoilery. )

I think I'm getting the hang of Tumblr. It's, as akscully says, a "superficial way to interact with fandom." I can't imagine building friendships or having meaningful conversations over there the way you can on LJ, but it's a great way to consume and share amusing things. ( Two GoT 'The Night Lands' examples. )

I'm such a loser that I didn't step foot outside my house all day yesterday, so I didn't even know that it had reached 70°F. !!! But I'm not going to let Seattle fool me this year, as it has every spring. There are a couple of warm days and I think, "Yay, spring is really here!" forgetting that spring does not come to Seattle until July. In ASoIaF terms, THIS IS THE TIME OF THE FALSE SPRING. It'll get us all excited then turn into winter again. -.- Mark my words.

The reason I was such a shut-in yesterday was because a) I was mainlining The Wire; and b) making delicious things to eat, like the Best Biscuits Ever and a veggie burrito that's so good, I don't even notice or care that there's no meat in it.

OK, The Wire. IT'S SO GOOD. I mean, that should come as no surprise, because every critic ever says that it's a great show, but after The Sopranos I'm a bit wary of such claims. Not that The Sopranos isn't a good show, but after watching 4+ seasons of it I didn't feel like it was the best show that's ever been on television, which is something that's commonly said. It's also said of The Wire, but while Breaking Bad still has my vote on that score, I can at least understand why people say that of The Wire. It's just so fucking real, and has heart, and tells a good damn story. It's inspirational at the same time that it successfully conveys the gray areas of life. I like the characters, even the bad ones, because I can understand where they're coming from. That is totally juxtaposed with the characters on The Sopranos, who I pretty much hated all the time. They all seemed like selfish assholes, whereas The Wire's characters are about living the life you've been given or have chosen, but it's real life and you do what you have to to survive. I guess that's supposed to be what The Sopranos is about too, but it's just different.

( Slightly spoilery thoughts from S1. )

I also watched a British movie called Exam, which had a fantastic premise but didn't actually deliver on it. I had many issues while watching it (though it was entertaining enough), and even more after talking about it with jade_okelani. Premise: The film is set in present-time United Kingdom in an alternate history, where a disease called The Virus has made a large part of the population dependent on medication that must be taken every few hours to prevent falling into a coma followed by death. Most of the film takes place in a single room, where eight candidates take an exam for an important job as the Personal Assistant to the CEO of a mysterious bio-tech company that is said to work on a cure for The Virus.

I have slowly but surely been developing a huge crush on Jeremy Renner. HIS FACE. He wins at everything.

I don't think I realized that he was starring in the fourth Bourne film (I like Matt Damon and those movies). That makes me SUPER EXCITED for it. I would normally not be into any franchise movie without the original star, but... JEREMY RENNER. Plus Edward Norton is in it! And Joan Allen's back! I'm so there.

He's practically the only reason to watch Mission Impossible 4 (which was admittedly a fun action flick). And of course, he's one of the many, many reasons I'm excited about The Avengers.

Pink's video for "Trouble," which is a great song but a fairly ridiculous video, is watchable because Jeremy's in it. True story.

Also, this.



I made this lemon-scented pull-apart coffee cake today. It's pretty time consuming, as most baked goods involving yeast are, but it's delish (and makes your house smell awesome). ( Pictures and some baking notes. )

The other day while at Whole Foods I impulsively picked up a couple of heirloom tomatoes, even though they're not exactly in season yet and the price was outrageous (hurry up and get here, summer! I want to eat ALL YOUR TOMATOES). Today I made a simple and delicious tomato sandwich, recipe courtesy of Saveur. It's not much of a recipe, really. Just thickly slice a tomato. Butter two thin slices of toast, then spread mayo on both (yes, BOTH butter and mayo). Stack a few tomato slices inside, add a smidgen of salt and a tiny bit of sugar, then devour. It's incredible. I might've eaten two of these sandwiches. >.>

Tonight I'm going to be healthier. Making my favorite black cod dish along with a stir-fry vegetable medley. D made it for us for dinner last night, and I scarfed tons of it. Sometimes nothing is better than a heaping plate of veggies. Afterward he, K and I played a few games of Pandemic, none of which we won, lol. I couldn't really tell if D was all that into it; I know K really likes it though. Pandemic's turning into a pandemic. :))