Author: neilandia

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Death Plot

Before I move on to the movie rating I wanted to pose these questions?

Depending on what part of the world you are in this may differ but I assume this phenomenon has spread to your country. Have your movie theatres tried to ask you to take your garbage out of the theatre with you v.s. leaving it at your seats? They often give the soft threat that if you do it will keep your movie ticket prices down…

Well I did this I think once, then I got to thinking… life is so full of downsizing, outsourcing, mechanizing, process improving, off shoring, does this really have to extend to the theatre? I noticed tonight that lots of other people left their garbage in their seats like I did tonight. I couldn’t help but wonder are they doing it for the same reason I am? To create jobs? Go ahead, leave your garbage, employ the neighbourhood kid trying to buy their first car, get ahead, go to school. I know it isn’t Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1935 WPA (Works Progress Administration) and I am not asking you to pay someone to go dig ditches or paint murals, just make them use some of that $12.50 from the movie to pick up your popcorn bag.

Phewww I feel better don’t you? Now on to the review…
Death Race (2008) [rating:3]

Death Race

Ex-con Jensen Ames is forced by the warden of a notorious prison to compete in our post-industrial world’s most popular sport: a car race in which inmates must brutalize and kill one another on the road to victory.

Granted the only reason I wanted to see this movie was Jason Statham from “The Transporter” movies. I still expected a bit more from the movie than it gave. I normally am I guy that lives for plot and doesn’t enjoy the car racing or fight scenes in movies but this movie was very much the opposite for me. Anytime a car race wasn’t happening I was bored and annoyed with the plot. I am not sure why but the foreshadowing was too obvious in most parts. The car race scenes however ROCKED! They were very gory and again not so much my thing but I think I was drawn to all the cool gadgets used. I am a big fan of Bond films and the gadgets in this movie reminded me of them. Overall not a bad time waster movie and kinda fun.

PS I just realized the movie was set in a post-industrial world 2012 where the economy has crashed and there are no jobs and factories are closing down putting workers onto the streets or in jails. Do you think this movie would have existed if people left their popcorn bags at their seats? 😉

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Corn off the Cob

What a great day today! Started with an early morning walk to the Chriopractor, then some house cleaning. Once the house cleaning was done I was ready to start my Cuban Cooking I planned yesterday!

I started with the “Crema de Maíz”. Remember I took this recipe from a Cuban cookbook and translated it the best I could.

Spanish
6 Mazorcas de maíz tierno
1 cucharadita de sal
1 tomate mediano
3 cucharadas de perejil
3 cucharadas de mantequilla
1 cebolla mediana

Desgranar las mazorcas de maíz. Cocer los granos en agua con sal, junto con el tomate cortado en cuartos y el perejil, finalmente. Licuar o pasar por el colador. Sofreír en mantequilla la cebolla cortado muy fino y adicionarla la crema.
Servir bien caliente.

English
6 Cobs of tender corn
1 teaspoon of salt
1 medium tomato
3 tablespoon of parsley
3 tablespoon of butter
1 medium onion

Shuck the corn on the cob. Then using a knife de-cob the corn pieces. Cook the corn in water with salt, along with the cut tomato in cubes and the parsley, finally. (Use enough water to just cover the corn). Cook to the desired softness. I like mine fresh tasting so not over cooked. Estimated cooking time I used was 12 mins. Using a blender, blend the above (careful hot). Brown the finely chopped onion in butter and to add it the blended mixture.
Served best hot.

So you can see I added some words to the English version like cooking time and amount of water to use. It was so easy to make and the smell in my apartment was amazing too! The hardest part was cutting the corn pieces off the cob. It definitely tasted like something I would eat in Cuba and it was delicious!

So now I had all this soup that I was so proud of and no one to share it with. I took a bowl to the lady upstairs. She is always making stuff for me and it was wonderful to cook her something. Then I noticed online that my friend Hannah had a cold so I decided to take her a bowl as well.

I had a great visit with Daniela and Hannah, it was wonderful catching up with them. Since it is such a beautiful fall day here I had a beautiful drive home with the top down. When I got home I was enjoying being outside so much I decided to wash the inside of my car. Then back into the house to try the second soup “Sopa de Plátano verde”. NOT such a great recipe but tasty none the less. I think it might be better tomorrow.

It is still very nice out so I might go for a roller blade now. Need some ideas on how to spend your day?

  • Try a new recipe
  • Make something for someone else
  • Enjoy being outside, do a chore while you are enjoying outside to make it that much more rewarding
  • Walk somewhere close that you might normally drive to
  • Read for a bit, perhaps do that outside too enjoying some of the last warm days before it gets too cool out

Whatever you do, do it with a smile and some optimism.

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Missing Cuba

I am not sure what caused it but since yesterday I have been missing Cuba and my families there so much! I will talk about Cuba lots on future visits to see them, but to set the background for people that aren’t familiar with my Cuban adventures I will explain quickly.

  • I have two families I consider my own in Central Cuba about 30 mins inland from the popular vacation destination of Varadero. I have been visiting and staying with these friends at their home and the homes of their extended family in various central Cuban cities, towns, and villages. This relationship has been going on for 3 years now and I treasure it greatly. They don’t speak any English and when I first met them I spoke no Spanish at all. Needless to say I learned really quick.

Normally when I miss them I sit down and compose an e-mail to them all or look at some photos of past visits. This wasn’t going to be enough this time, so yesterday I picked up the phone and started making some calls. This was probably my best attempt yet! It is never a good thing when I decide to phone Cuba because my Spanish isn’t great (getting much better), the phone connections aren’t the best, and it costs $0.99 a minute to “try” and talk with them.

I managed to talk with 3 different family members and through them I passed on my love, my kisses, and my hugs to everyone. I also got the good news that none of the 100 family & friends I have come to love over the years were affected by the recent hurricanes.

The phone calls took care of the human connection but after speaking with them the connection to the food of Cuba was stronger than ever! So I grabbed the Cuban national cookbooks they gave me as a gift on one of my stays and started translating some of the recipes. I have two picked out that I am going to try and make tomorrow. I had to drive across town with my friend Jordy to buy the Green Plantains and other supplies I needed. Then Jordy and I came back to my place and I made him Chicaritas (Fried thinly sliced plantain chips with salt). They are my favorite of all Cuba foods!

Especial Mujeres - Cocina Cubana (Special Women - Cuban Kitchen)
Especial Mujeres - Cocina Cubana (Special Women - Cuban Kitchen)

The recipes I have picked out for tomorrow I don’t know if I have ever had before but they should be reminiscent of the cuisine. They are… “Sopa de Plátano verde” (Green Plantain Soup) and “Crema de Maíz” (Cream of Corn).

Wish me luck and let me know which one you are most interested in seeing the recipe and pictures of in a future post!

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Second Last Big Brother Post!

WOW! Great episode tonight!

I have to admit I was nervous the entire show thinking that Dan or Memphis might stupidly decide to turn on the other one and destroy their “Renegade” alliance they have been running since week 4 in the house.

In the end the Renegades held STRONG! Dan won HoH Part 1 on the airplanes (Renegade Plan), Memphis SLAUGHTERED Jerry by 40 mins in the skill Part 2 HoH (Renegade Plan), and it didn’t really matter who won Part 3 between Dan and Memphis but in the end Dan won and I think it was for the better entertainment and speech wise.

It was so exciting for me to watch them jumping around in the house hugging and high fiving each other when they were the final two! I was jumping up and down in my living room and knocked over my coffee table!

So as I likely won’t post anything for the Sunday filler show this is the second last Big Brother post of the season. You have two interactive tasks to complete:

  1. Go to CBS and Vote for Keesha to win the $25,000 America’s vote Juror prize because we all felt so sad seeing her go home on Tuesday
  2. Vote in my pre-poll below for not who you think will win but who is your favorite house guest Dan or Memphis at this stage in the game? If you are not sure, go ahead, have a shallow moment and vote purely on looks. I am curious to see where the world is at on this one

From outside the Big Brother House this is EatingLifeUp!

[poll id=”6″]

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G-G-G-g-g-GHOST!

So I write this to you all because it is now 5:43 in the morning and no one else I know is awake.

I need to write and process this immediately while it is fresh and this was the first thing that came to mind. Tonight I had a visit with a ghost! Well two in fact I think. They were here at 5:27 am and I am still being covered in waves of goose bumps!

Here are the notes that I quickly scribbled down while my computer was booting up. I have been having a abnormally hard time falling asleep tonight and have been woken up startled a number of times throughout the night. Then at 5:27 am I was very awake in my bed but I was paralyzed and couldn’t move. I had a crazy sensation of white to light blue Aura in my bed. Goose bumps covered my entire body and the hair on my head was standing very straight up! There was a distinct sound change in the room, the normal electronic hum of my apartment was gone and replaced with the light sound of soft moving air.

Then still not being able to move I could see in my peripheral vision a figure rising from the vacant side of my bed. It then moved across me and through my mid section, I feel very stupid now because at this point I couldn’t bare to look directly at it. While the figure was on top of me another “something” but I want to call it a small dog was sniffing at my face. I could feel the gentle touch of whiskers on my eyelashes and forehead, also the small puffing of air coming from an animals nostrils.

TERRIFIED and in a state of panic not able to speak I kept saying in my head “please go, please go, please go”. I could hear a very very faint voice far far away with undistinguished speech. The figure on top of me finally moved off and I was able to move again and shot straight out of bed.

The whole incident I can only estimate lasted for about 45 seconds. I want to phone someone, anyone so bad but it is still very early here. Thanks to the world of the internet I was able to process this by typing to you but I was also able to chat on Facebook with my friend Laura from Mexico who I met in Prague, who is currently studying in France. I love the internet!

I have had such little sleep tonight and the alarm is going to go off in less than an hour so I doubt I will go back to sleep but I am going to lay down for a bit at least with the TV on. Thoughts?