Risotto

Risotto always seemed weird to me - like an Italian version of the familiar Asian fried rice but a lot wetter. After seeing the dish used as an appetizer in too many cooking shows, I just had to try it when I saw one of these boxes for sale at the grocer.

I really like mushrooms, so although the mix included 'wild porcini mushroom', I also got some Swiss white button mushrooms to add to it. After sautéing and simmering the mushrooms, I set about the business of making the actual risotto. As instructed, I sautéed the raw rice in a bit of olive oil for a short while, then added two cups of water. The water was boiling off too fast, so I had to add some more, but the end result looked OK after about 15 minutes of cooking.

I actually bought some wild rocket for garnish but for some reason, it wilted in the fridge :(.

Lunch was for two persons, so the portion was kinda small. I guess it was meant to be used as an appetizer. Still, it was tasty :)

There were several other flavours too... hmm.....

Long-dead fish

At a loss of what to eat for lunch today, I scoured the cupboards and found some cans of red salmon and plenty of couscous. I explored the fridge and found some lemons. So I decided to make a simple dish of couscous with canned salmon. I drained the salmon and broke it into chunks, then I prepared the water for the couscous using some chicken stock and the liquid from the can. When the couscous was ready, I mixed in juice from half a lemon, some oregano, garlic powder, and pepper, then the salmon. The result was quite tasty and it was really easy to make.

Season's Greetings and Happy New Year

Woohoo 2012 is here!
Last year before the world ends, baby! (Let's hope the Mayans were wrong or misunderstood)

This year over the Christmas season, I went to my parents' place in Penang again. Just like last year we had our tree and presents and Angry Birds guarding them. I bought a nice hat for the red bird :)



Our tree was totally decorated by Mom as she wanted it up early and we only went back a few days before Christmas. It looked pretty good. Way to go Mom!



My parents came to visit a few weeks earlier, and we went to Ikea where we bought this pre-fab gingerbread house. It was flat-packed like any other Ikea furniture so we had to assemble it with molten sugar. The frosted sugar also made for some nice 'snow'. It's a little silly, but hey, it's festive. Does anyone actually eat these things?



My gifts this year were the usual suspects: two T-shirts, a book (Stephen King's latest collection of novellas), and a pair of pants. The surprises were a some super-cute hand-crafted Angry Birds my sister got and this weird Angry Birds-themed bouncy ball with coloured LED lights my aunt got (yes, I'm a big fan of Angry Birds).



We came back to KL on Boxing Day and the drudgery of work resumed for a few days, then on New Year's Eve, my sister and I had some wine and because she said she always wanted to try it, some black caviar. This year, I chose a sparkling rose wine. Not bad, even if I had to drink almost the entire bottle. The caviar was tasty but my sister didn't really like it. OHWELL



And so begins another sojourn around the Sun. I'm writing this on the morning of the first day of the new year, coffee in hand and the leftover glass of wine which I fell asleep before managing to imbibe waiting in the fridge for a more suitable drinking time. So far, the year seems ok; let's hope it stays that way.

Braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaains!

Last night, my company had its annual dinner and the theme was Freaky Friday. I'd always admired those who had the nerve and the dedication to dress in theme for these things but I never had the nerve to do it myself. This year, I decided to change and I went as a zombie much to everyone's surprise since I'm not exactly a guy who would do this sort of thing.

I got some instructions on the net, and made myself some fake blood with honey, chocolate sauce (Hershey's even ;)), and red food colouring. It was really icky and bloody. I dirtied and bloodied an old shirt. I also made a fake wound out of chewing gum and it was totally gross. Powder and black/blue/green eye shadow rounded out the effect. I got lots of compliments on the get-up and it was a lot of fun scaring people. I'm kinda proud of myself for doing this :) Hopefully I can repeat it next year.

Posting of my full face is still against personal policy, but check out this wound:

Surprisingly realistic for something made from a pack of gum...

Real Steel

Humans love violence; at least seeing it in a controlled environment. Fighting tournaments are wildly popular and boxing is chief among them. Brutal as it is, what happens when people want more? Real Steel imagines a time in the near future when the job of boxers has been delegated to huge humanoid robots controlled by operators. Without the limitations of fleshiness, these metal men duke it out to the 'death' much to the delight of the massive crowds.

The story of Real Steel revolves around a former boxer down on his luck. Now a robot operator, Charlie Kenton's (Hugh Jackman) already messed-up life is further complicated by the arrival of his 11-year old son Max (Dakota Goyo) after his mother's untimely death. Wanting nothing to do with the boy, Charlie nevertheless is stuck with him for a while, to neither one's great delight. Max is annoying, bratty, and belligerent towards Charlie but they eventually bond over an old fighting robot they find in a junk yard while scouring for parts. Max drives Charlie to enter their robot in fights which they surprisingly win and this leads to bigger fights and the predictable father-son bonding.

It's a far from original story - basically Rocky with robots - but it's done really well and with heart and wit. Formulaic as it is, the story is still highly engaging and the robot 'chereography' is simply amazing. The fluidity and realism of the motion is really very impressive (Michael Bay, eat your heart out). Filmed without quick-cuts, the fight scenes highlight each and every punch and throw in metal-crunching detail. The main robot 'Atom' is highly likeable with his blue oval 'eyes' recalling to mind EVE from Wall·E. The way he 'shadows' his operator is really fun to watch and makes him seem almost more than just a dumb machine (a point which is alluded to but not explored).

Of course a movie with just cool robots and no humans worth rooting for (ahem), is much less fun. Fortunately we have Jackman giving a honest performance as an incredibly selfish man who seems to care about nothing other than himself but is still not beyond redemption. Evangeline Lily (forever Kate from Lost) plays Bailey, his long-suffering on-and-off romantic interest who still believes in him despite his massive screw-ups and cavalier attitude. Both fine performances, but the star of the show is undoubtedly scene-stealing little Dakota Goyo (last seen as a young Thor) who in his first big movie turns in a believable and natural performance. The character of Max is childish, audacious, stubborn, cheeky, rude, and at times too mature for his age. Goyo pulls this off while still coming across as a normal honest-to-goodness little boy secretly longing for his absent father's affection.

Everyone loves an underdog. Here we have a washed up boxer, an obsolete robot from a junkyard, and a half-orphaned little boy - underdogs if ever there were any. In the obligatory final fight, I had to resist the urge to punch imaginary opponents to cheer them on.

For a fighting good time, I give Real Steel eight out of ten baby seals.

iSad

It's a sad sad day today.

I'm writing this so I'll remember where I was when the tech world, and the world at large, grew a bit dimmer. Only yesterday, I was venting over the decidedly underwhelming product announcements from Apple, making my six-month wait to replace my lost iPod Touch pointless. This morning, while driving to work, I heard on the radio that Steve Jobs, recently CEO of Apple, had passed away the day before from pancreatic cancer, apparently not long after the iPhone 4S announcement. Suddenly, my fury over the unchanged iPod Touch wasn't so important any more. At work, I watched the tweets roll in from various people. It seemed unbelievable, although I guess it wasn't unexpected; just very ironic timing.

Now as I sit at home, going through all the tributes and reading about him, I feel oddly sad. I mean, I didn't know the man personally. I'm not even a big fan of his company's products or the walled-garden approach they so cheerfully promote. On the contrary, I've been a detractor, save for the iPod Touch (still a lovely toy). I guess I'm sad about the loss of a great mind, one of the great thinkers of our time. As one who takes great pleasure in the world of computing and technology, I appreciate Apple for popularizing personal computers. As one who loves gadgetry, I appreciate Apple for popularizing media players and pretty phones. As one who loves animation, I especially appreciate Jobs for creating Pixar, the pioneer and leader of CGI animation that has given me and millions of others so much enjoyment over the years.

Truth be told, Apple's products were never revolutionary, rather they were evolutionary, taking existing ideas and somehow turning them into products people wanted to buy. Jobs was certainly a marketing genius and his attention to detail was legendary. He has shaped a generation and like it or not, there's no denying his impact and contributions to pop culture.

At his commencement address in 2005 at Stanford, shortly after his cancer diagnosis, Jobs said:

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Inspirational words we should all be lucky enough to live by, though sadly most of us do not.

I will be buying a new iPod Touch in the coming weeks, my joy of buying new gadgetry surely bound to be coated with a tinge of sadness.

I found another quote from Steve Jobs:

“I want to put a ding in the universe.”

I'm pretty sure you did, Mr. Jobs. If not in the universe, at least on this planet.

RIP Steve Jobs, too soon.

32

Another 365.25 days of orbiting our resident ball of fire has come to a close and I've survived! Yay me!

It's been an erm... interesting year... I broke my arm, I went to China, my car broke down on a lonely highway at night, my iPod got stolen, I watched some cool movies, tried champagne for the first time, baked a cake, joined Google+, and endured the usual drudgery of work.

32 years... a fine number! Some fun facts:

• 32 is a power of 2! My favourite type of number!
• 32 is the number of teeth on an adult human. *CHOMP*
• 32 is apparently a happy number. Beats being a sad number!
• 32 is the number of completed, numbered piano sonatas by Ludwig Van Beethoven, one of my favourite classical composers.
• 32 is the atomic number of germanium which is widely used in optics and semiconductors including transistors. This is cool.
• 32 is the freezing point of water in degrees Fahrenheit at sea level. Cool... or maybe just cold.

Happy Birthday to me! Here's hoping for an awesome year ahead.

(Number facts from Wikipedia)