The Covenant

I actually bought the DVD, I had that much faith in my enjoyment of the film. And it was AWESOME, in that whole this-teen-movie-is-really-shit kind of way.

The Story: Back in the Salem days, there were 5 Warlock families who were in a coven, but one of them died out. The other 4 have passed on their power from generation to generation. The power is dangerous because it's addictive and makes your body old and gross. You get a sample of it at 13 and then at 18 you get the whole thing.

Anyhoo, present day: 4 handsome handsome men have inherited the power. The oldest is Caleb (aka Stephen Strait aka that boy we were looking at in Sky High and 10000 BC), who falls in love with new girl Sarah (aka Laura Ramsey aka Olivia from She's the Man). His other brothers are Pogue (aka handsome long haired man), Tyler (aka Chase Crawford aka Nate from Gossip Girl) and Reid (aka wishes he was Draco Malfoy). Weird things start happening, starting with the mysterious and probably magic-related death of some student, and Caleb getting signs that power is being used in extreme quantities, even though his buds say it isn't them. He has to sort it out while also dealing with his budding new romance.

I won't go on because I don't want to ruin it and also because I am lazy. If I tell you any more it gets ridiculously predictable.

The Good: The gratuitous shirtless guy scenes... (I know you love me for finding you that picture... for more shirtless men, see here... OH GOD, see the side profile of this blogger -- ANOTHER SINGAPOREAN!) Conveniently, they do swimming in PE all the time.... 17 year old boys should not have bodies like that. The men were very very sexy. There are also equally gratuitous girls in skimpy pjs scenes, because obvi that's where you find out all the juicy deets. Also good were the fancy cars/sexy motorbikes. Seriously, these 4 boys are the perfect boyfriends. There were some pretty great shots like when Handsome Man is meant to crash into a lorry and his car shatters and breaks up into all its pieces which are suspended in mid-air til the lorry goes through and then it reassembles. It was in the preview, I remember that.

The Bad: Like I said before, the story was pretty predictable. And by pretty, I mean, I could have stopped watching it after the first half and known how it would turn out. The acting, with particular attention to Sarah and also the new guy. The sound was also quite bad, the dubbing was pretty obvious and stood out too much from the background sounds. I think it might have been a little out of sync too. And you know what they say, bad dubbing = bad film. Also bad was that there were no sex scenes and very little relationship developments.

The Ugly: The way movies look on my shitty tv. It has a way of wasting the thousands that film companies spend on making the fore and background blend, and also ruins the lighting. As such, I am unsure as to whether the special effects were actually looking that shitty or whether it was just my tv messing around.

The Rest: The dialogue was not awful, which was a pleasant surprise... nothing too cheesy went down.

I think this is kind of a foreboding as to the kind of movie Twilight is going to be, although hopefully that will be better because it will have more soul mate scenes. It had some very Twilight aspects, such as how everyone's eyes went black while doing magic and also because they drove very nice vehicles very quickly.

Yay or nay? Um, yay for girls who want to look at hot men, and I guess anyone looking for a vacuous movie on a night in with mixed audiences. Could be a good dvd-date movie, except that your date will find you sadly lacking at the end of the film.

A Very Long Plane Trip

I watched 5 movies on the plane. I am too lazy to do proper things on them, and also jet lagged, so I'm just going to list them in order of what I liked best (I liked them all, surprisingly) and some things to note.


1. St Trinians - I grew up on the TV series, loved how it kept the old stuff and added a good dose of our generation ("We're not Goth. We're Emo." and "It's like Hogwarts!"). And there were Chavs. Um Rupert Everett, Colin Firth and Lily Cole were in it. Also, Russel Brand (aka Aldous Snow from Sarah Marshall?!) showed up playing pretty much the same guy. The soundtrack was cute, too.


2. Charlie Bartlett - I've been wanting to see this for a while. The main kid was a bit creepy in his over-zealousness but was a terribly good actor. Robert Downey Jr was cool. The love interest had really big lips and is going to be in the House Bunny, which we will all watch and love. But most importantly, half the senior class from Degrassi was loitering around the background! Craig was the captain of the football team, Paige wanted new boobs, and Jimmy could walk! OH and Tyler Hilton was the school bully! And was hot!


3. The Other Boleyn Girl - Was good, as can be expected from star-studded cast. Eye candy: Jim Sturgess as their brother. Yea, I'd be incestuous too, if I was hanging out with him all day.


4. Penelope. Oh James, I love you. I thought this movie would be awful from what I've heard, but it was better than I thought. I mean yea, it was a little morally, but it was sweet and the look was cute. As was her wedding dress. AND, there was a dwarf, which makes everything better. Also, Russel Brand was strolling around this film too, playing pretty much the same guy! I was soooo confused when I saw him twice in one plane trip.


5. Spiderwick Chronicles - As far as kids films go, it was pretty good. I mean, some of the plot was flawed, but it was enough to scare me at some point. Freddie Highmore plays twins, so props to his Lindsey skills, and like her also had to fake an accent. Mom was Mary-Louise Parker from Weeds, and was hilarious as usual.

The Incredible Hulk

Was really not that incredible. It was pretty shit, actually. I had pretty high expectations going into it because lots of people told me it was good... lies.

Story: Bruce Banner (aka Edward Norton, aka if Brad Pitt was a big green monster, Edward Norton was also the Hulk in Fight Club) is on the run from the US Government. He used to be a scientist, but then an experiment went awry and now whenever his pulse reaches 200 he turns into a big green monster that is really strong and bullet proof. He was hiding out in Brazil when the government caught up with him, so then he went to stalk his ex girlfriend, Betty (aka Liv Tyler, aka Arwen, aka lots of things where she breathes romantically instead of talking). Betty has a new man now, so Bruce decides he'll just leave her alone and go get a cure for his hulking from some guy he's been corresponding with. Oh yea he was also stalking her so he could get some info on the disaster, but all those files were erased so he doesn't have them.

Ok, I really can't be bothered, basically Betty's dad is some high up general and wants to experiment on Bruce and he has a buddy who wants to be a super monster too, and Betty sees Bruce and learns that she can control the Hulk because love is the greatest power of all, and she and Bruce go on a road trip and then Bruce has to accept his hulky ways so he can fight the other guy.

The Good: Edward Norton is great as usual. The first 30 minutes were good, when it was just Ed and his life in Brazil. Then the others come in and ruin the movie. It's also funny that they can't have sex because it risks him turning into the hulk. Sorry, SPOILER.

The Bad: Liv Tyler's idea of acting, which is really powerless and just breathing out her lines. Lots of plot holes (why are you running away, Hulk? What happened to your scientist friend? Why wouldn't Betty let you kill the mofo?). The final fight lasts way too long.

The Ugly: Liv's hands are pretty mannish. Also, some of the CGI was really fake looking (ie the hulk himself) and that was pretty distracting.

Yay or Nay: Eh... I'd pass. Iron Man was infinitely better.

Also, don't bother sticking around through the credits... there is no special secret scene.

Secret Diary of a Call Girl

This just premiered on Showtime, the happy place that brought us Weeds and that show about lesbians. It's pretty good, and confirms the fact that I am wasting my time in school when I could be a high class hooker instead. I'm just trying how one would get into the business. I need to be spotted by a hooker agent.

There is a really handsome man in it, but for some godforsaken reason, the only video I can find of him occurs at 1:02 of this clip and lasts til 1:04. Yes. 2 seconds. He had more time in the episode. His name is Tom Mison, but he's never going to get anywhere in life if his IMDB page has no picture and his personal website only has 4. And all of them are when he has long hair and is trying to look all Orlando from Pirates. So really, the only way you'll find him is to watch my carefully procured 2 seconds.

Taking over the world

I swear to God, every time I do a google search on something pop-culture related and get a blog result, the writer is always Always ALWAYS from Singapore.

How is that happening?! My computer is American, so it's not like its singling (ha- pun!) out the singlish or anything. Are Singaporeans just more inclined to blog? Or do we all think the same, so the Singaporean posts emerge for the Singaporean searches? It's not like I'm searching on anything local... Or maybe, we are just nerdy enough to figure out how to get our blogs noticed by google. And the 'we' here excludes me, because eff if I know how to do that.

Marital Status

I went to the printers to see if they had any boxes I could steal.

Me: Do you have any big boxes I could, like, have?

Printman: What for?

Me: I'm moving.

Printman: Why, did you get a divorce?

Hahaha.

Experimental Baking : The Conclusion

Tonight, on In The Kitchen: These suckas are out of the oven, cooled, tasted, and wrapped. They're not very shortbready, though.

Previously, on In The Kitchen: I took the dough, slapped it on to some floured cling film, squashed it into a log and stuck it in the fridge.

...

(Super: One Hour Later)

I took both logs out and cut them each into 12 slices. Perfect dozen per batch. Sprinkled some white sugar on the pecan+cherry before baking, didn't on the other. Should have. The problem with the sugar is that it browns the sides. The bottoms of mine were brown anyway from Pamming the foil. I should stop doing that.


Neither cookie was very short-bread like, they were more like sugar cookies. Not enough butter? Not enough flour? Too much mixing? Will have to find out what Ina does.


The pecan+cherry were excellent, would be even better half dipped in chocolate. Unforch, I don't have any.


The lemon was sour as eff, so I sprinkled some sugar on them and baked them for another 5 minutes. That wasn't long enough to melt the sugar though. Solution? I think half the lemon juice and 1/8 cup more sugar would have been excellent. Also, I was really lazy with my rind so there are rather large curls of lemon peel in them. Oh wells.

Did my ghetto packaging for the office peeps -- see how they like them, or how polite they can be while eating the lemon ones.

Experimental Baking

In an attempt to use up all the baking ingredients in our apt before we have to move out, I am making shortbread cookies with random flavours.

The base is this recipe. Plus half a tsp of vanilla essence, because I can't not add that. Also, not land-o-lakes butter, they should just be grateful I'm using butter at all and not that $0.50 for 4 sticks of fake butter.

I've done this before, when I went to visit NB, so I'd have something to bring his parents without having to spend any money. I'm pretty ghetto like that. That's not exactly the same base I used before, but I couldn't find the one I used. As a filling (is that the right term?) I threw in some leftover chopped walnuts and a mixture of chopped up semi-sweet baking chocolate and some dark chocolate chips. Then because I couldn't find a brown bag to make it look all cute and home made, I wrapped them in tin foil (to stop the paper bag from getting oil blotches) and then in a home-made paper bag from some construction paper. Hey, you can't say I'm not resourceful.

Anyway, tonight I'm doing 2 batches:

One batch has the rind + juice of a slightly depressed lemon (depressed because it wasn't used in an alcoholic bevvy as intented, I'm sure.) and also an extra 1/4 cup of flour to make it not-so watery.

The other batch has a chopped up mixture of 10 cocktail cherries and a handful of pecans. I think pistachios are usually what is used with them, but I didn't have a giant bag of them on hand.

Anyhoo, I just put them in the fridge for their 1h of sitting, so we'll see how they turn out later. Maybe even with pics, if I'm feeling fancy.

Mushroom Lasagna

In an attempt to do some serious ass-kissing for NB's parentals, I made dinner on the last night I was there. My big worry was that they are pretty healthy and don't really use much oil/cheese/fat etc, which is really the only thing I'm good at. But I remembered Ina Garten making a mushroom lasagna, and since NB loooves mushrooms, I figured I'd give it a try. It's cream-based, which still went against the whole fatty fat thing, but whatevs. I served it with a sort-of caprese salad, sort-of because I used little mozzerella balls and baby tomatoes and mixed greens with the balsamic/basil/olive oil.

Thoughts:

-I didn't use alll portobello, I mixed in some brown mushrooms (the store didn't have enough, and brown was cheaper anyway) and it was still good. You could probably use more than she used.

-I Used just about every pot/pan in the house... so make this if someone else is cleaning up.

-I probably would have added an equal amount of shredded mozzarella to the Parmesan because it wasn't very gooey or cheesy.

Proof of Roswell

Ok, I'm obsessed. But here's a fan vid using the effing roswell song, man!

Ugh, distracted

So I have finally finished all 3 of the Stephanie Meyer books (Twilight, etc), and now I can continue with my life. Except I can't, because of course now I have that mood stuck in my head so how can I go back to writing a romantic comedy screenplay when I am so desperately in love with a crappy teenage soul mate romance novel?

Anyway, more on life soon. I thought I'd give a Top 10 List of Handsome Soul Mate Man Names, because the name Edward really doesn't cut it for me. If I've been influenced by a book or person, I'll say it. Lots of them are names that I've used for characters, so I have biases. Also, I totally cheated and stuck some names that interchange in preferences for me.

Top 10 List of Handsome Soul Mate Man Names (And some periphery men you'll want around in times of trouble.)

10. Jonathan - Coveted older brother of childhood friend - The crushed on neighbour, maybe? J names work for that. Probably the less mystical of the soul mates.

9. Alexander - (Nicholas Wong, I put this in for your benefit, this has nothing to do with Alex.) - To me, he will always be a big brother who is very protective and perfect for your best friend. So obviously he's someone's soul mate. But anyway, he's a shiney person, friendly and full of laughter. Actually, Nicholas is in this category too for some reason.

8. Gareth - Used in: King Arthur Legends. But also a neighbour of mine when I was little - More the best-friendy type to me, the one you are instantly friends with and can be yourself around.

7. Luke - Used in: Star Wars. Also, the Witches. And Lucas, in Empire Records and One Tree Hill. Hmm, could George Lucas = Luke in his mind? Interesting. -

6. Dylan - Used in: J-17s book series from way back when, Diary of a Crush - This is obviously the bad-ass boy who is incredibly Indie and writes love songs for you. Damian counts for this boy too. And Hayden. And Aiden. Nathan. I could go on...

5. Christian - Used in: Not precisely sure, but Christian Bale and Christian Slater were both hotties in their day - This is the boy who is sort of from another era/parallel universe, the dragon-slaying type. Sebastian might also work here... its the 'stian' ending that counts. Oh go on, throw Caspian in too.

4. Lance - Like Lancelot? Also, my cousin's name. Creepy?

3. Blake - Actually, I just found this one. But it's growing on me. I like the strong B, the single syllable... and it's not that common. Hmm.

2. Tristan - Used in: Tristan & Isolde. Another cousin's name. Their mother was pretty romantic. Oh yea, and the Gilmore Girls! - The aloof one? Actually, I like lots of 'Tr' names, Trevor, Trenton, there's just something about them.

1. Will - Used in: Every good book with a good boy. Most notably His Dark Materials and the Dark Is Rising. Oh yea, and A Knight's Tale - This is the perfect boy who locked eyes with you one day and magically you both knew each other. Will, of course, is MY soul mate, so you can all go find your own.



Er, I guess this wasn't really a very good list, coz I got like 50 names in there. Not really a top-ten then, though you know that Will would be number one on my list.

Some notable men that didn't make it: Darling Max, you have my heart, but I didn't love your name. Poor Edward, too.

I'm sure there will be objections, from Sonia in particular. Tell me if I left anyone important out.

Twilight

It's like I told Sonia:

Roswell + a pinch of Buffy + Cedric Diggory = Twilight

And I know I said I couldn't read it because it looked that awful, but knowing that hottie mc hot hot Cedric Diggory is playing the lead in the movie version, I decided I could deign to give the book a try. Remember: it's hard to be objective when you have his good looking face backed up by the assurance that Edward is hotter than the fiery flames of hell.

The story:

Bella falls in love with a vampire named Edward.

More details? (Lots of spoilers, so skip ahead if you don't want it to be ruined) I've italicized the Roswell comparisons.

Bella moves from Phoenix to live with her dad in some tiny ass town in Washington where she is miserable because it always rains. She hates the attention she is getting in school, but she makes friends (sort of -- they don't seem to be friends so much as people she nods at) fast. Then she notices the Cullens, five super-model-esque adopted siblings who always sit at the same table and keep to themselves and are very pale and graceful. In bio lab, Bella finds that the only empty seat in class is next to one of the five - the youngest, Edward. Except he seems to hate her, sitting as far away as possible and keeping his fists clenched, and having very dark dark eyes. Poor Bella. She even finds him in the office after school, trying to switch out of her lab. But dang, he's hot. Finally, Edward starts talking to her, mocking her lightly and making dark hints about how he's dangerous and she should stay away from him. Actually, I think this might have only happened because he saves her from a car crash. Meanwhile, a million zillion boys are in love with her and want to take her to the dance, but Bella is unnaturally clumsy and so tells everyone that she has plans to go to Seattle that weekend. Edward offers her a ride to Seattle, and she accepts.

Bella knows something fishy is up, because he seems to move very quickly sometimes, and also she's quite convinced that he stopped the car from crashing into her with his bare hands. She finds out from some Native American kid on a reservation that the Cullens aren't allowed on their land coz they are vampires. But it's ok, the Cullens are 'vegetarians' and don't eat people, only animals. Oh. Bella and Edward also have great chemistry in bio lab and spend all their time thinking about touching each other. Um, I don't really remember, but she and he have a discussion about how she isn't scared of him even though she knows, and won't tell anyone his secret. He pops in her window at night and spends the night cuddling, except he is a corpse so it's always rather chilly.

Then, she is watching his family play vampire baseball, when some other vampires come. But they are the people-eating type, and would very much like to eat Bella. One of them (James) is a professional tracker or something and has his sights set on Bella, and basically hunts her down. Edward tries to get to him first, sending Bella away with his 'brother' and 'sister' to Phoenix, to throw the vampire off her trail and hopefully keep him from hurting her family. Vampire man finds her in Phoenix and has her mom kidnapped! But he'll switch her safely for Bella if she comes without telling anyone. So, when they go to pick up Edward from the airport, Bella makes a run for it. Turns out he didn't have her mom, he just broke into her house and found some old video tapes that he would play back on the phone (a very cunning Home Alone move...), he tries to attack her and eat her but Edward comes in and saves the day, but James has already bitten her, so Edward has to suck out the venom without drinking all her blood. And he does. And she's fine. And they are happy. But he's still dangerous.

The End.

Thoughts:

The first 2/3 were kind of draggy but very sweet and Max and Liz ish. The last 1/3 was very exciting, though full of hubris and foolishness... I think you will find that all three books are this way, with 2/3 romantic dragginess and then a couple of really exciting chapters at the end.

Yay or nay?

Yay for girls who want to relive their pubescent years, or are still going through them. You know, back when it was all about the soul mate and thinking that you are insufficient even though the guy thinks you are the most beautiful thing on earth. Also, for people PMSing and needing a good mush. It's definitely fluff, so it's a no-go for boys and people who like kind of intelligent reading.

Also, more specifically, Liane, this one is for you. Sorry Nick, you'll hate me for it. Su, maybe, in your Gladiator mood. I already know Sonia's thoughts (a resounding yes). Bev, maybe, when you are pining for a boy. Sam, probs not.

Teaser

I have been fantasizing about blogging all day. Sad, I know. But I am so torn - New Moon, Blogging, Wooing... so much to do! New Moon has been winning thus fur. But here is a little snippet to get you in the mood for blood. :)

A list...

To post on:

-Twilight (awesome times...)

-Mushroom Lasagna

-Sarah Marshall

-Shortbread

-Indiana Jones (I can't believe I didn't do this one... I'm sorry Shia, I have failed you.)

Nightmares!

Maybe its the foreign bed, but I've been having the most bizarre nightmares. Just for kicks, thought I'd share.

So, I had my Aunty Carol's car at school, for some reason, and it was parked on the roof of the parking structure. A parking structure in the middle of the business school and library, which doesn't exist, but oh well. Anyway, I needed to drive it somewhere, so I was going to back out of the spot, except I forgot to put it in R. So I go forward, but somehow the wall is more like a little wedge, so I go plummeting to my death.

Except not really, becuase the car lands on its nose then rights itself. I am a little shaken up, but the car is undamaged, and so am I. The car is still in drive, so it goes forward, I park it in the rose garden.

Then, DPS rolls up and tries to give me a ticket for drunk driving! Apparently no one would be stupid enough to drive off a building without being drunk. But what really gave it away was how i drove AFTER I crashed. Badly, apparently. I'm all, no! I haven't been drinking! They breathalize me, and I get 69 points! Now, I don't know what that means, but it was clearly very high alc. So I had to call my mum and my aunts. They were pretty displeased, and everyone thought I had been drinking, even my roommates and cousin who had been with me, not drinking, all afternoon.

But, my mum really came through for me when I said we should sue the school and she agreed. Because, you know, not having a wall on a parking structure is kind of dangerous. But apparently it was a hopeless case so I think we didn't.

The End.

Best Ad Ever!

I don't know if all of you know what a walk of shame is, but it pretty much epitomizes the american college experience. So this ad is golden.

Bacon, Leek & Mushroom Alfredo

I've noticed in good food blogs/books, they always start with a little story or anecdote or something about how the dish came to being.

WELL. I was in the supermarket, and noticed leeks seemed to be in season, or at least were relatively cheap and looking fresher than usual. So I bought them.

Time for some fun facts about leeks? They're related to onions, which obviously makes them great. Because they lower blood pressure and some other shizz that old people care about. They're a mild diuretic (according to French Women Don't Get Fat) , which means they make you pee and lose water weight. And best best best of all: They are a Welsh national symbol, like the daffodil!

Anyway, my original intention was to use them for a leek soup, as seen in above mentioned book, but because I am a fatty, I decided to use them for evil instead, or at least to make evil pretend to be healthy at least a little.

I bought mushrooms because I missed the neighbour-boy, aren't I sentimental? He is disgusting and eats them raw.

(I usually claim to despise mushrooms because they remind me of feet, or more specifically, athlete's foot, but actually that's only the long skinny chinese-soup ones. Actually, I think it's just because they are both forms of fungus. While on fungus, be sure to look up pictures of nail fungus, it will make you lose your lunch.)

Anyway, I don't like toooo many mushrooms, and there are other things I prefer over mushrooms, so it's easier just to say I don't like them. But like I said, I was feeling sentimental, so I had a pack.

Uh, from baking, I always seem to have heavy cream in the fridge, and bacon is awesome.

So, check it out, my own recipe (well, various recipes combined and tweaked) AND my own pic!



Ingredients:
(serves 2-4, depending on how fat you are)

1/2 lb linguine (half a pack)
10 strips of streaky bacon cut into half-inch pieces
2 leek stems cut into half-inch thick rounds
1 package (eff if I know how much this was) of sliced button mushrooms
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbs butter
2 tbs olive oil
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1 cup grated parmasean
1/2 tbs chili flakes (optional I guess...)
1 tbs parsley
Salt and pepper

Boil a pot of water for the pasta.

Heat butter and olive oil in pan, combining. Fry bacon pieces, keeping them in a thin layer so that they crisp. (You might have to do this in 2 batches, or settle for soggy bacon). Set bacon aside. Leave fatty fats in the pan. Add chili flakes, stir. (The oil will become kind of orange)

You can start cooking the pasta now, probably. Cook as package instructs, til al-dente. Mine was 9 min, but if yours is less don't start yet!

Put the leeks in the oil, then cover the pan. Do this for about minute on each side (til tender), then add the mushrooms. Put the garlic and most of the parsley in too (but leave some for pretty garnishing). Stir, but try not to eff up the leeks. When the mushrooms are reasonably cooked (probably about a minute and a half? Maybe 2?) add the heavy cream. Season.

Let the mixture simmer, stirring (don't let it boil! I don't know why, but I hear that can eff you up.) Hopefully the pasta is done now. Drain that. Add 1/2 a cup of parmasean to the sauce, and stir, which should thicken it considerably. Turn off the heat, stir the pasta and most of the bacon in.

Serve, sprinkle with remaining cheese or even more because I know the people that read this are fatties that love cheese for the most part (or maybe I'm just thinking of me?) and garnish with remaining parsley and bacon.

Great.