A good year for Oscar

I'm looking over the Oscar nominations, and for the first time in a while I'm not too disappointed. I haven't yet seen Brokeback Mountain or Munich, but I am certain those two best picture spots could have gone to a lot worse. They overlooked the best film of the year that I've seen, Junebug, as well as two of my other favorites (Syriana, The Constant Gardener) but they did well to nominate Capote, Crash, and Good Night and Good Luck. On the up side, there were nominations of some sort for all of those films overlooked for best picture. How George Clooney is a supporting actor in Syriana I don't know, but he is nominated for just that.

Realistically, one of the best pic noms should have been ousted in the Directing category, because Fernando Meirelles deserved a nomination for his amazing work on The Constant Gardener. His directing was the key to the film's success. There's quite a lot of talent coming from south america and mexico these days.

I also think that Christopher Nolan deserved a nod for his work on the mainstream Batman Begins. He elevated the Batman franchise well above anywhere I thought it could go. Good work.

The lead actor category is really going to be tough this year. I have seen 4 of the 5 nominated performances and they were all excellent. I would probably vote for Philip Seymour Hoffman, with David Straitharn being my second choice. Joaqin Phoenix did a great job, a very technical marvel, but the former two had more textured performances.

Clooney must win for Syriana, because he was the soul of the film and did an excellent job. It really seems like a lead actor role. It would be pretty exciting if he won best supporting actor AND best director. He's done some great work this year.

I have seen only one of the lead actress performances, by Reese Witherspoon, and though she did a good job, I can't imagine that she is the most worthy. It seems iffy that enough people have seen Transamerica, so I'm predicting a win for Charlize Theron again.

As far as supporting actress, as much as Rachel Weisz mesmerized us in The Constant Gardener, the correct pick is Amy Adams. Some people seem doubtful that she can win, but the academy has a long history of picking the underdog in supporting actress.

It really is unfortunate that Nick Park and Hayao Miyazaki are up against each other for animated film. They are both deserving as many oscars as they can get, but only one can win. My guess is that it will be Nick Park, if one of those two wins. More likely they will pick Corpse Bride, a totally unworthy choice.

Long stories and profiteering, Vol 1 - Cats, Razors

As I learn new things about the world, I come to realize that things I previously had learned were either incorrect, or more often not the complete picture. I then have to spend mental effort washing those things from my mind or learning them again with the proper facts. It's a lot of work, but worth it in the end.

A side lesson I learned along the way has been that big corporations will come up with a lot of inferior products and convince us that they are great.

Example 1 - Steve preaches about cat food - so listen up!

The best example of this is in my never-ending struggle to find good cat food. The first learning process began when I discovered articles about ingredients in cat food. My cats were on Hill's science diet. Lots of people, including many vets, seem to think the stuff is great. But just from a brief bit of research I discovered numerous articles pointed out how awful it is. No one really named Hill's directly, they just listed all the stuff cats really don't need or want or even shouldn't have. One article listed 4 things to avoid, and hill's science diet had 3 of them! I had to examine what I thought I knew about buying pet food and learn that weird little stores that sell natural foods are probably right.

The next step was in switching from dry food to wet food. More internet research and discussions with vets and knowledgeable cat folks led me to the discovery that wet food is vastly superior to dry food in most cases, and helps cats lose weight (which was my primary goal). Mostly because the cat's natural diet is similar to an atkins diet, almost entirely protein, and dry foods generally contain 40-70% carbohydrates. Again I had to discard all of the so-called knowledge I had about good cat food and carefully pick a new cat food.

Lately, I've been trying to figure out how to get fatso Audrey back to a less bloated figure so she can fit into her swimsuit this summer. I've discovered that the food I was feeding her is pretty caloric - nearly 500 calories per day between the two cats. That's almost 1/20th of what I eat!! I had to examine what I thought I knew about cat food again - it's not just about the quality of ingredients and lack of "corn meal", "by-product", but also about the type of meat.

I am now once again on the prowl for cat food, and this time I have to take all of the following into consideration as I carefully pore over each can's label: quality of ingredients, carbohydrate percentage, vitamin and mineral content, calories per can, and even flavor (some flavors being more cat-egorically preferred).

For those who are curious, the brands I am considering are: Wellness (only the poultry + fish formulas), Merrick, Innova Evo (evo canned is new), and anything else with the right ingredients.

Any of you poor souls who are still feeding your cat Hill's Science Diet or similar might want to read some of my exciting bibliographic references:

• Tips for choosing cat food (with the infamous list of 4 things to avoid with HSD containing 3)
  
• Why cats need wet food
  
• Innova Evo - in my opinion, the best dry food out there, and cats.about.com agrees
  

Example 2 - Shave me (sung like the opening song of Smallville)

Another good example relates to shaving. I've been around the block and back again on this issue. Growing up, I used an electric razor. It was more convenient and gave a better shave (so I thought). At some point as a teenager, my acne was so ubiqitous that there was actually an amendment to make it the 51st state for a while. My doctor recommended that I switch to disposable razors. I used those for a while, but it was kind of pricey to keep buying them, and they never really felt great.

I then discovered the world of gilette razors. Sensor and Sensor excel, and what not. I discarded the practice of throwing away razors after each use and had to re-learn the proper amount of times I can shave with the same blade. I followed these gillette jerks for a while, all the way up to the mach 3. But the mach 3 was so expensive! If my math is right, it's somewhere around $50 for 2 blades. Or maybe merely $21.50 for 12 cartridges.

Since my acne wasn't too bad, I decided to switch back to electric. I had to learn how to shave once again. Electric shaving was difficult! It took three times as long to get the hair out, and it took me some time to figure out how to avoid an insanely red and irritated face. I never fully figured that out.

To my dismay, I had to switch back to the evil Gillette. At some point after that, I began reading about shaving oil. This miracle product comes in tiny bottles and you apply about 8 drops to your face instead of shaving cream. It works pretty well, I guess. I had to re-learn the proper method for applying shaving cream and learn how to spread a dot of oil onto a wet face. This took a while, because I kept trying to smear it with my entire hand, and the oil would be wasted. I also began to read about "cryo-frozen" blades. Seemed like snake oil to me.

But now these jerks at gillette have just released a 5 blade razor. What the heck? I was perfectly satisfied with 2 blades way back when. I have consistently fallen for the male machismo magnet known as more is better syndrome, so I was considering getting this thing. It even has a sideburn trimmer on the back! How does it work? I have no idea, but that's what it claims. Would I have to re-learn how to shave my sideburns now? And let's not neglect the price tag, a mere $27 for 8 blades. What a deal.

However, this weekend I ran across a few sites that explain "wet shaving". This whole tricky thing involves using a wet badger-hair brush to apply shaving cream to a wet face in a way that keeps the face extremely moisturized. This allows for a smoother shave. Somewhere in this whole wet shaving movement is a preference for older razors, and I mean OLDER, like 1950s and before (no offense to all you old people who are still around somehow who lived back then). This has immense appeal, as good quality blades for these cost only $0.50 each, or $10 for 20 of them.

It's not the first time I have heard about badger hair shaving brushes, and being that I am in the badger state, I think it is surely fate or destiny that I should contribute to the extinction of our beloved badger.

So in a few days I will be rubbing a badger against my skin using some exotic English cream made of weird plants and scraping my face with a blade used mostly as a weapon (or for cocaine, although I never really understood that too much from watching movies). I'm going to have to re-learn again how to apply shaving cream/oil and re-learn again the proper motions for shaving.

All in search of the perfect shave, which probably doesn't exist. Although the perfect cat food probably does.

Opinions are like...

Great news! I have updated my blog template to include a list of cds I am listening to and movies of interest. I will try to keep it relatively up to date.

Blogging from the trenches

OK, maybe not everyone would appreciate me calling sunny california the trenches, but this is clearly the first step in an illustrious photo journalism career.

After the extended wait for the baggage (note that only my mother had enough baggage to check in), we headed for some food. To In & Out burger, of course. I ate half the restaurant, and the others at the remaining half. Rather than a drive-thru, they have a guy who stands outside with a PDA / Tablet PC and takes orders. Obviously this restaurant would never succeed in Wisconsin.

My brother's cat Demon does look vaguely like Chopper I suppose, but she acts more like what I would expect the offspring of Lisa's cat and Chopper to act like. A bit jumpy, but playful. Vocally she sounds a lot like Lisa's cat, in that she squeaks a lot.

His other cat seems more docile.

Today we will attempt to go to the Tonight Show. Dave and Roger are out getting tickets, while my mom and I are bumming around the house.

I'm not really sure what the story with breakfast is. I'm kind of starting to think my brother may be anorexic, because he never mentions food. I might have to eat some cat food.

Lamb, Cat, etc.

Our dinner at The Dining Room in Monticello was quite good. Lisa was somewhat excited by a star hanging outside. I am not sure why. I was more excited by the sign outside.

We had a Queso Fundido appetizer which contained chevre and pepper jack cheeses, crab, and a corn salsa. It was excellent.

Lisa ordered the Salmon which had lots of mushrooms and a potato cake. I tasted it, and it tasted like Salmon.

I ordered the Chicken-Fried Lamb which had a rosemary gravy along with cumin cream on the lamb, as well as mashed sweet potatoes (which were excellent) and spinach (which tasted like spinach).

The salads that came out before the entrees were the only thing we didn't care for. The greens were ok, but the dressing was a bit overpowering. Very vinegary.

For dessert, Lisa ordered the Chocolate tart. It was ok, nothing too special. We both agreed that the Toffee pudding was excellent, however. I might go back just for that. All in all, it was a good experience. I felt it was a lot better value than was L'Etoile the last time I visited there, though my date at the time would probably disagree.

On New Year's eve, I spent most of the day and evening at Lisa's place. Lisa's old college roommate Jamie visited and drank the brains of an innocent carebear.

I managed to get some decent photos of callie, including a Glamour-Shotty one. It isn't the greatest picture as far as glamour-shotty ones go, I definitely think the one of chopper is a lot more artistic, but it's pretty good considering how hard Callie is to photograph. Lisa has been trying to help me photograph her cat, for example by holding her in a vice grip, but it's still tough.

I have been coming closer to the perfect photo of Audrey, but it remains my greatest nemesis at the moment. I'm not really sure how I got that perfect chopper photo above, I hope I can reproduce it. The closest I have come is an out of focus photo of Audrey looking away. I did get one shot which is kind of pretensious while at the same time reminding me of a music video.

Chopper has been paying a lot of attention to Audrey lately. About half the time he seems to want to do a group bath. Sometimes he succeeds, but other times Audrey gives him a smack on the head. It must be hard for her to tell when he is being nice as opposed to attacking. They did sleep together this weekend, but I was unable to get a photo without disturbing them.

I have one theory about improving their relationship, though. Audrey seems to really enjoy getting brushed with a new brush I purchased. Perhaps if I did that any time chopper is near, she might be less fearful of him. It seemed to work briefly, at least long enough to photograph them.

Yesterday, I gave myself food poisoning. At least I think I did. I made some enchiladas on Sunday, and things did not go well for me on Monday. Lisa had some as well and was mildly sick, but not quite as out of sorts as I was. It may be time to switch to cheese-only enchiladas. I'm not really sure what happened, because the meat was seemingly well-cooked. No pink and what not.

It won't matter much if our plan goes well anyway. There's a place called Main Dish Kitchen where you go there and assembly 6-12 ready-to-cook entrees and then cook them for the next month or so. We are going to try it out. Whether or not it is worth it depends entirely on how big the portions will be, because if they are correctly assessed at serving 2-3 people, it will come out to about $4-5 a meal, which isn't too bad. It's not ramen noodle cheap, but it's close.