Book of Eli: one of my new favorite movies

Very rarely does this blog ever talk about movies. Sometimes, whenever I finish a book, I'll write a little review and give my two cents. Maybe this blog should give reviews of good movies whenever I find one, especially when I'm not traveling as much and don't have cool photos from faraway places to upload. Most movies don't impress me much. A good friend from undergrad rates most movies as 'par,' which is probably a fair thing to do when most Holywood movies seem to be mediocre at best. There are only a few movies each year that I would consider excellent. One of the excellent movies I saw this year was Inception. My all-time favorite four movies are: Hot Fuzz, Hotel Rwanda, Crash, and Office Space. I should probably review this list again since I haven't watched a couple of these movies in a long time, specifically Crash and Hotel Rwanda. I'll also probably add Book of Eli to my list of favorite movies.

The way the movie involved religion surprised me a lot, and the theme about faith was one of my favorite parts of the flim. There is probably too much violence in this movie for most churches or Christians, but the Bible itself probably has too much violence and war for these same people. Though the movie does not describe in detail the apopcalyptic event that created the dystopia, people blamed the religion for creating the war that 'tore a whole in the sky.' Then the survivors destroyed every Bible they could find. However, Denzel Washington's character believes that this book is the only hope for mankind. Assumedly, the disaster would not have happened if people were really loving others as this book commands. After finishing my Masters degree in international relations, I have spent a lot of time thinking about how war and religion mix, and this movie raises several questions about these complex issues. I could go on, but for now I'll just recommend that people see this movie.

We Kept Fear Alive: because 'reason' is one letter away from 'treason'

Perhaps as a means to mock Glen Beck's 'Restoring Honor Rally'- which included Sarah Palin and occured on anniversary of Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' speech in practically the same spot and drew about 80,000 people on August 28, 2010 (though Beck claimed on Fox News that there were 300,00 to 650,000 there)- and Al Sharpton's 'Reclaim the Dream'- which occured on the same day this year- Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert created the 'Rally to Restore Sanity' and the 'March to Keep Fear Alive.' Since I could watch The Daily Show in the UK on a regular basis thanks to Channel 4, I had known about this event for some time but thought I wouldn't be able to go. After returning to the United States where I could watch Stewart's show and the Colbert Report without much problem thanks to TiVo, I heard more and more about the event. Towards the end of summer I decided to move to DC to look for work there, and at this point I realized I would actually have the opportunity to go to these events on October 30. I was kinda excited. Thus, I went with a group of new friends into DC that Saturday morning to see Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart perform live.

One friend warned everyone to leave early, but we didn't exactly understand by what she meant by 'early.' The musical performances started at noon, so we thought we could leave by 9:30 am since it took an hour and a half to get into downtown DC from Centreville. The math made sense until we tried to get onto the metro in Vienna. The traffic was stalled as everyone tried to get off the exit and into the metro station's parking lot. The line included cars from all over the country, including Nebraska and Florida. It was quite obvious that most of these people were going to the rally since they had dressed up in costumes (which Stephen Colbert suggested) and were genearlly young (in their 20s, more or less). Since the cars weren't moving anywhere, one guy behind us got out and ran up and down Interstate 66 while wearing a huge afro wig. In an hour we had only driven 2 miles. Finally, we arrived to the exit for the metro station, but both parking garages were overflowing. People were parking in the grass along the roads or in grocery store parking lots that were barely within walking distance. The pedestrian bridge over the interstate connecting the parking garage to the metro station in the middle of I-66 was clogged with a long line of 20 and 30-somethings trying to get on a train. A friend further down the same metro line near Fairfax said that every train going into DC was too full to allow any more riders, so the lines there were worse. Another friend told me that she tried to go to the rally but gave up once she realized how horrible the congestion would be. Though there is a lot of controversy about the number of attendants to rallies on the National Mall so that the government does not issue official numbers, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority announced that this day set a record for the number of riders on the metro system with 825,437 trips when the typical Saturday only has 350,000 trips. Even though we thought that the roads going into DC would be more crowded, a group of us abandoned the idea of taking the metro because we were afraid of missing the entire event. The interstate was practically empty. As long as we avoided the long lines of cars trying to exit the interstate for the metro stations, we could easily drive around 60 mph all the way into downtown DC. Finding a parking spot took a while, but we arrived at the rally around 1:30 pm, whereas our friend who went to metro station long before we did arrived at the rally closer to 2 pm.

The crowd was epic. Analyzing a satelite photograph, CBS News determined that around 215,000 people attended the rally (CBS News determined that around 87,000 attended Glen Beck's rally using the same methods). Even at 2 pm more and more people were flowing out of the metro stations and onto the National Mall, and everyone pressed against each other to get closer to the stage near the Capital. For a while we tried to move slowly through the crowd along the Mall, but then we decided to use the side streets to get closer, which was much easier. This way we got a lot closer to the screens just in time to hear Stewart and Colbert's final speeches around 2:30 pm. The crowd was so large that people were crawling on top of delivery trucks and portable toilets in order to get a better view. I couldn't actually see the stage, but it was cool just to be in a huge crowd like that with the backdrop of so many iconic buildings.

Peronally, attending the rally was not a political statement. A lot of the people there did carry signs that mocked Fox News and conservative pundits, but I think that is to be expected amongst a crowd that is rather young; the younger generation tends to be more liberal than older generations. For instance, there were several people with signs promoting the legalization of marijuana. However, I'd say most of the signs were a joke. Some said, "I may disagree with you but I'm pretty sure you're not Hitler." One lady carried a sign that said, "My son told me to carry a sign." A couple of guys carried one sign of a pointing finger and a complimenting sign of a bare ass. A teenager had a sign that said, "Speak softly and don't be a big dick" with a photo of Teddy Rosevelt. Stephen Colbert's website told attendees to dress up as their biggest fear, so there were numerous costumes. Some dressed up as basketball players, banannas, insects, and Waldo. It was a specatcle, and that's the main reason why I wanted to go and see it. This past year I read an article about why poor Argentinans attended radical rallies, whether it was because they agreed with the politcal leaders or not. A lot of the people interviewed said they attended because they lived in poverty and couldn't afford entertainment, and these rallies were great entertainment with concerts in parks or beach resorts they couldn't afford to go to unless the party sponsoring the rally paid for their transportation. They barely understood the rallies' political meanings. The article's point was that those attending a rally do not necissarialy agree with the rally's message. It's entertainment. It's an exciting social event. In the same way, I don't think this rally necessarialy meant anything political, whether it be a shift in voters' sentiments or voters' aggitation with the news media or whatever.

If there was a message, it came from Jon Stewart's keynote speech that ridiculed the 24-hour news media for not properly reporting the news; instead of educating the public about what is really going on and how to fix the problems, the news media makes everything sound like a disaster. In response to this ridicule, some news shows changed their format a little or defended their reporting. I don't expect significant changes because a lot of these news shows want to boost ratings, and sensible news shows that professionally report the news or represent reasonable arguments for both sides do not necessarialy get more viewers than those shows with loud, irresonible pundits who rant without really understanding what they are saying.

It was really cool to attend this event, and here are some photos and videos:

We genearally avoid I-66 going into DC because

it is a highly congested road, especially during rush

hour and whenever there is a huge event like the

Rally to Restore Sanity. However, as this photo

shows, the road was mostly clear. We were amazed.

Also notice that this road is only 4 lanes wide.

This is inside the I-495 'Beltway' where most of DC's

traffic is. I'm baffled that such a road is narrow

when it could be expanded to handle a proper

amount of traffic. During rush hour this section

of the interstate is HOV only, and even then it's congested.

I accidently left my ISO on a really high level, so a lot

of these photos are grainy. I'm upset with myself

about that, but now I regularly check the ISO setting.

This bug dressed up in a suit is probably the best

costume that we saw at the rally.

One of my favorite signs from the rally:

"Hyperbole will kill us all!!!"

Those who regularaly follow this blog may

already know that I'm a huge fan of

How I Met Your Mother, especially

after my last birthday party.

If the bug costume wasn't the best at the rally,

then this guy is close contender. It's completely

made out of small sugary candies, and I'm not

completely convinced he was wearing anything

else underneath that candy- kinda creepy.

After taking some side roads, this is as close

as we could get to the stage, which really

isn't all that close. At least I could still hear

and see a screen, which a lot of other people

couldn't do further down the National Mall.

Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear
Jon and Stephen - Stephen's Fearful Entrance
www.comedycentral.com
Rally to Restore Sainty and/or Fear The Daily Show The Colbert Report

Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear
Sam Waterston - The Greatest Poem Ever Written
www.comedycentral.com
Rally to Restore Sainty and/or Fear The Daily Show The Colbert Report

Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear
Jon and Stephen - Formidable Opponent
www.comedycentral.com
Rally to Restore Sainty and/or Fear The Daily Show The Colbert Report

Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear
John Oliver - Will This Help?
www.comedycentral.com
Rally to Restore Sainty and/or Fear The Daily Show The Colbert Report

Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear
Jon Stewart - Moment of Sincerity
www.comedycentral.com
Rally to Restore Sainty and/or Fear The Daily Show The Colbert Report

Pasta Salad

Cook pasta as package instructs, and then add other desired ingredients and seasonings. For instance, this recipe included hard boiled eggs, seasoning salt, Italian dressing, mayonnaise, chopped onions, and tomatoes. Also, other ingredients that go into a normal salad would do well in this dish.

After mixing all the ingredients together, I placed the bowl into the fridge overnight so that the dressing and spices would soak better into the pasta. The next day the pasta salad was a bit too dry, so I mixed in a spoonful of mayonnaise to add some more moisture to it along with some more seasoning.

Ingredients used for this pasta salad.

The finished product before covering

the bowl and putting it into the fridge.

DC Peregrination: there's supposed to be a huge arch here

I had never been to the District of Columbia before arriving to northern Virginia. This little factoid about yours truly had amazed several of my new friends in Virginia. Granted, they grew up in Virginia where they could very easily go there, especially for school field trips, the same way going to New Orleans had been easy for me. One night we were debating about what to do, so they agreed to be my tour guide to some of the major sites there. It was a very cool experience, especially because they agreed to be my models for some impromptu photo shoots. I'm not sure if they'll agree to do that again since I kept asking them to pose for photo after photo, but it was fun. Because of the low lighting on a fairly cloudless night, I had to increase my ISO to a ridiculously high level (the clouds often reflect the city lights so that I can get really interesting photos, which is ironic since cloudy nights are usually darker without the starlight). I don't like how some of the photos came out because of the high ISO's graininess, but I like a few of them. If I go back with a tripod, I can get some better photos with timed exposures.

Here are some of the photos with a couple stories:

One of my new friends who took me into DC had

gone on and on about this arch in Chinatown

during our metro ride from northern Virginia

into DC. Once we got off the metro and emerged

above ground, she looked back and forth across

the street. She said, "There's supposed to be a huge

arch in the middle of the road around here. I don't see

it. Maybe it's on another street. Let's walk around the

corner." The whole time I was looking up at the arch

directly in front of her thinking, "Uh, that's a pretty

cool arch. Maybe she's thinking of another arch."

This photo shows her in front of the arch while

she was trying to find it for me.

My new Virginian friends agreed to pose

for me in front of this monument,

whatever it is.

Second World War Memorial

I think this is the Old Post Office.

I don't like how grainy it is, but

I was shooting it on the fly and

didn't have the chance to make

adjustments or take more photos.

In DC's Chinatown, a lot of the signs

are in English and Chinese.

I assume they say the same thing

in Chinese as in English, but I

wouldn't know the difference.

It would be a pretty cool practical

joke to mess it up, though.

Crab Pies

1 package tart pastry

1 can cream of mushroom or cream of shrimp soup

8 oz cream cheese

1 stick of butter

1 small onion chopped

1 tsp Tony Chacere's Seasoning (or another cajun seasoning)

1 tsp Old Bay Seafood seasoning

1 lb crab meat (cooked)

Saute vegetables, put in soup and cream cheese. Stir in seasonings and crab meat. Brown the pastry tarts. Fill pastry shells. Bake about 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

The ingredients we used for the crab pies.

We made two batches of pies, including one

with a spicier cajun seasoning and another

with a milder seasoning.

Sauteing all of the ingredients for the filling

except for the crab meet.

Baking the pie shells a little bit before filling

them up with the other ingredients.

Pouring in the cooked crab meat into

the pan before mixing it all together.

Pouring the cooked filling, including the

crab meat, into a baked pie shell.

At this point the pie can be covered and

then placed in the fridge so that it can

be cooked later. They can be easily heated

in the microwave. However, the larger

pie like the one in this photo did not

do as well as the smaller pies.

Maize Maze: Welcome to Northern Virginia

A couple days after arriving to northern Virginia, my friend came home and asked if I wanted to go to a corn maze. Personally, I think it should be called a 'maize maze.' He was very excited and said it was a traditional fall activity in this area. Later, he told me about another corn maze he had done the previous weekend. It was supposed to be in the shape of a Chick-Fil-A cow in the middle of the country, but the corn had died and fallen over to the side so that they could easily see their way through the maze. He didn't tell me about this disappointing maze until later, so I was pretty excited about doing this maze. I had a rough idea of what to expect, but it ended up being a lot bigger than I thought. It was about 20 minutes outside Centreville on a farm that seemed dedicated to this fall festival; I'm not sure if they do a lot of farming here or if most of their revenue comes from this festival. I'd compare it to a state fair because there were food booths (which had apple cider and hot chocolate), rides (including hay rides in a tractor and a huge slide with burlap sacks), and shows (including a flame twirler). There may have been concerts on other nights. The actual maze wasn't really a maze. Instead, it was like a haunted house that went through a field of corn. The cut-out path lead through several buildings. In the first building, there was rail walkway that rocked back and forth and went through a spinning tunnel of lights that made me feel dizzy for about fifteen minutes. Later, there were pitch-black rooms with huge air pillows that filled up the entire room so that we had to push through them. The most frightening part of the maze was a house towards the end. As we walked through the first room, there was a chair that came to life and started chasing us. Then a painting on the wall fell down, and a dude with a knife lunged at us. That was all a bit unexpected. There were also random people walking around the maze dressed in black with masks. Some of them had white-painted faces to make them look dead, but they really weren't that scary. At times I wondered if they were working the maze trying to scare people or if they were just visitors like me walking through. I would have felt bad if I had freaked out at someone and then find out that they weren't trying to be scary. However, one of these 'scary' walkers in a mask walked through the middle of our group, but everyone except for the girl in front of me got out of his way because we saw him coming. He went straight to this girl, but she didn't notice him until they were nose-to-nose. She screamed. That was the best part of the night.

Before going to the corn maze, we bought

pumpkins to have a carving competition.

This is the boys' entry for the pumpkin

carving competition. At first I was skeptical

when we decided not to use an outline from

the pumpkin carving book, but the guy doing

the carving did an awesome job.

I say 'we,' but I didn't really do anything.

I just walked around and took pictures.

I may have thrown a few seeds into a trash can.

This is the girls' pumpkin.

After the corn maze we watched this girl

twirl fire.

DC Road Trip: listening to Oliver Twist

The night before my 17 hour drive from Jackson, MS to Washington, DC, I was walking through a Barnes and Noble with a friend and thought that I needed to buy something for the drive. My sister had mentioned multiple times that she listened to audio books while driving back and forth from Texas to Mississippi, so I thought I'd give it a go. I haven't heard an audio book in years, and I honestly wasn't sure if I'd enjoy it or not. After going through the selection multiple times, I bought Oliver Twist, performed by Flo Gibson. I thought that it was the best value for the money because I could 'read' a classic book I had never read, and it was just long enough for my drive to DC. I almost bought Earth by Jon Stewart, but I decided it wouldn't be long enough.

As fate would have it, I would only finish half of the CDs on my drive to northern Virginia. Aw, shucks. I couldn't handle listening to it the whole time I was driving. Every couple of hours I would have to switch to a random music CD that has been in my car since undergrad. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I burned some of these old CDs. Some of them are great. Others just suck, especially since I don't listen to rap music anymore. Anyways, I did enjoy listening to the story, and it helped pass the time on this very long road trip. However, Flo Gibson has a very odd voice when she reads what the characters say. Quite frankly, I don't like it. All of the women, even if they're 17 years old, sound like they're ancient and on the edge of death with shaky, passive voices. I've never heard anyone talk like this. The men all sound condescending. Oliver Twist sounds like a wuss, like he's about to wet himself at any moment. I almost want him to get arrested so that someone will shut him up. Still, I look forward to finishing the book on my next long road trip.

Macallan 18 Year: my new special occasion bottle

After returning to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, I looked through my notes from my scotch tastings to decide which was my favorite. I had been quite fond of a particular type of Macallan from the Scotch Whiskey Experience in Edinburgh. It was a very special batch of whisky the distillery had made that I would probably not find in a random liquor store in Mississippi unless I found a way to special order it. When my mom went to the liquor store, she bought the 18-year old version. It's a very pretty bottle of scotch, and it will stay in the cabinet and be the 'special occasion' bottle for a while. Unlike wine, whisky's flavor does not change once exposed to oxygen, so I don't have to drink this bottle within a certain time frame like I would a bottle of wine. When I got this bottle, I thought I could do a little blog post about it, especially since I didn't have any more exciting travels going on that I could talk about.

Macallan was one of the first distilleries in Speyside to have a license in 1824. Since this site was next to one of the few crossing points on the Spey for cattle drivers, there was probably a farm distillery here long before 1824. After this date, there were multiple owners with connections to distilleries like Talisker and Glenrothes. In 1892 Roderick Kemp bought the distillery when he couldn't buy Glenfiddich, and he then rebuilt the distillery, improved the taste, and renamed it Macallan-Glenlivet. His family owned and operated the distillery until 1996 when the current owner, Highland Distilleries, bought it from them and took the family-dominated corporation out of public ownership (the family sold 37.5% of the company's stock to the public in 1967). Though the owners had blended most of the whisky for various brands, Macallan started promoting its single malt in 1980 and immediately had an impressive sales increase. By 1984 it was the third largest brand in Scotland and the fifth largest in the world. It won the Queen Awards for Export Achievement in 1983 and 1988. The distillery has the smallest stills in Speyside, which is on the Bank of Scotland £10 note. The site also has Europe's largest single-roofed warehouse. The scotch has a rich, robust, oily, and fruity flavor and is the benchmark 'sherry' style of malt. The nose has a chocolate aroma with dried orange peel, dried fruits, sherry, and nuts. The taste is sweet at first but then very dry with flavors of sherry and Christmas cake. According to the Whisky Flavor Map, it is one of the richest scotches available, and it is a little bit more delicate than smoky. It is yummy.

How I heart [real] football, let me count the ways

The Saturday after I got back to Houston I had a pleasant realization: after a year in a country with limited access to [real] football, I was back in the US of A on a Saturday afternoon during college football season. For the rest of the day I sat on the couch flipping between ESPN, ESPN2, NBC, CBS, and any other channel that showed any type of college football game, no matter how insignificant the teams were. It was awesome.

After this gluttony of sport, I decided to explain why I love real football so much more than any other sport.

First and foremost, I consider football the most intelligent sport to watch. It is a chess match between the two coaches and the two teams. Each side is trying to guess what the other team will do next. Some teams are good at running the ball, so the opposing defense knows what to expect. They can put more guys on the line to stop the running back. The offense may know what the defense is doing and find that it has to throw the ball. At this point the offense could get stuck, or the quarterback may find that there are fewer defensive players in the secondary so that it is easier to throw. There are trick plays like the draw or the play-action-pass that makes the game more exciting as the offense tries to trick the defense. Likewise, the defense has different plays like the quarterback trap or the zone blitz that tricks the offense. All the while, the opposing coaches are guessing what the other team is trying to do next, finding weaknesses in the other team, exploit those weaknesses, and then recovering from the other team's gains. It's a war, and I can't think of another sport that really compares.

Soccer, baseball, hockey, and rugby do not compare in strategy in the same way... at least not as far as I can tell. They are simpler sports that are easier to learn, but football's complexity makes it fascinating. When watching soccer, everyone knows what the two teams are going to do. Don't get me wrong, I have watched several other sports and done my best to understand them. I like watching some of these sports. However, football is much more interesting.

Here are some other reasons why I love football:

Defensive games are awesome. When the defense does well in other sports like baseball and soccer, it can be a boring game. In football, defensive games are the most exciting. The sack and interception are the best parts of football.

College teams are incredibly passionate, especially since many of the players don't have to worry about playing for several years. They can throw their bodies into the game and not worry about multimillion-dollar contracts because the bowl game will probably be their last game. Professional players often hold back so that they don't ruin their careers with an unnecessary injury.

The game still changes to make it more exciting. The Miami Dolphins came up with the wildcat formation to put their two best play makers on the field. The formation was legal, and the defenses didn't know how to deal with it. Then there is the pistol formation, which makes running the ball a bit easier while still keeping the passing advantage that the shotgun formation gives the quarterback.

Here are a list of my favorite sports to watch on tv:

1) Football

2) Hockey

3) Rugby

4) Tennis (women's- only for 30 minutes at a time)

5) Baseball

6) Soccer (national games, like the World Cup)

7) Basketball

8) Tennis (all other)

9) Soccer (non-national games)

10) Golf

Please note that I don't consider NASCAR and other motor racing worthy of this list.