Friday, July 31, 2009

Jill & Kevin : there's more!

A week ago, I discovered this very different walk down the aisle by this couple and their entourage, which went viral just a few hours later:



My comment on Facebook as I shared it:
have you seen this yet? a great way to walk down the aisle!

no guarantees they won't still end up divorced, but I hope this shows they are able to laugh and have fun together and thus gives them a better chance long-term!


... so imagine my delight when I saw this at AmyOops' site!



Enjoy! And have a great weekend!

Thursday, July 30, 2009

The Shat does Palin's tweets!! :)

So it seems that Sarah Palin promised to keep in touch with her fans & supporters via Twitter... but it also seems that her tweets have been as "poetic" as her farewell speech. Thus, is it any wonder that Conan O'Brien had William Shatner tackle Palin's tweets?



Not as funny as the previous one, but still...

Cheers!
*lynne*

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

The Shat rules!! :)

William Shatner "does" Sarah Palin's resignation speech.

(UPDATED with clip from NBC itself - you'll have to deal with a 30sec ad tho)

... for those who don't quite get it, here's how it all started -- The Shat "interpreting" Rocket Man:


... and I found this gem: Shatner's tribute to George Lucas (made all the more funny because I only recently saw Fanboys and the Shat had an important role there too! Gotta love the Star Trek / Star Wars almost mutual exclusivity!):


... now if someone could point me to a GOOD QUALITY embeddable clip of
- Leonard Nimoy's Bilbo Baggins...!! :D
- ... and Stewie Griffin's version of Shatner's Rocketman!


[UPDATE: Shatner does Palin's tweets!]

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Yasmin Ahmad

Yasmin Ahmad, or Kak Yasmin as most people called her, is well-known for the touch-a-nerve Petronas advertisements that would come out every major public holiday. The ones I remember from 8-ish years ago (the Indian boy witnessing Merdeka; something about trimming the hedge; ...) I can't find online, but here are some examples of her recent work (in ads):

For Malay(si)a's 50th year of Independence: urging us to consider whether what we're building is truly going to last...


For Chinese New Year 2009:


For Deepavali: (see Curry Wars! for this ad's inspiration)


Last year, the Singapore government hired her to produce ads encouraging "family"; you can see her first via the link, and here's another:


Kak Yasmin is also a film maker, internationally acclaimed -- heard of Sepet? Gubra? Mukhsin? More on that at a malaysian abroad.

The reason I'm featuring her today is... I woke up this morning to see news that she had collapsed, had to be revived, was in ICU, operated on, stable but critical... I hope you agree from the above vids that she is an amazing person, so please send positive and healing thoughts vibes and prayers her way.

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Tuesday, July 21, 2009

of focal and spasmodic dystonia

I knew that Scott Adams, of Dilbert fame, had suffered from focal dystonia where his pinky finger would spasm uncontrollably when he tried to draw his cartoon - certainly NOT something a cartoonist would want! I also knew that more recently he was suffering from something similar relating to his voice.

Knowing is one thing.
Reading about these afflictions in a fascinating albeit a touch long article by Wired is another thing entirely.

If you're interested, do click on through to the article: it's 3 pages long, but I found it an excellent read.

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Friday, July 17, 2009

Foody Friday: quiche, quiche and quiche!

You might not have picked up on the fact, but I enjoy food, especially eggy breakfast-type food. I also occasionally experiment in the kitchen and share them with you. Today I'll highlight my recent experiments with quiche.

All you need is ready-made pie crust from the refrigerated section of the grocery store, which you pat down into a pie tin. Then you add the fillings you want, pour in an egg-silk(-cheese) mixture, pop it into the oven for about an hour at 350-400F, and you're done. I referred to the following recipes:
- Quiche @ 1 Blog and 2 Sides
- Cheeseburger Quiche @ RecipeLand.com

My first attempt was back in May 2009:


It contained fake ground beef in taco seasoning, cherry-or-grape tomatoes, spinach, and probably onion, peppers, and of course, cheese cheese cheese. A big problem immediately became clear during the preparation stage: my pie tin was probably too small! One clue was the excess pie crust around the edges, the other was the egg mixture spilling out of the tin when I poured it onto the filling.

It turned out pretty good, but I felt it could be a lot better. I resolved to replace the silk with half-and-half or something even creamier - Kosh's lactose intolerance be damned! :D

So a few weeks later, in mid-June, I tried again:


It was MUCH better! I used the only creamy liquid I could find in a small 8 oz size: heavy whipping cream, LoL! yummmmmm!!!! :D There was still the issue of the pie tin being too small, though, even with my taking the effort to carefully measure out the filling ingredients. So I resolved to use something else for the next experiment, which took place just a few days ago:

Instead of the pie tin, I used one of my round pyrex safe-for-the-oven glassware: I figured I'd prefer the container to be of a smaller radius but be deeper. This way, I hoped to not have an overflowing container (check! in fact, I felt I could have put in more stuff!) and to not feel like I have some wasted excess pie crust (still happened!).



What was cool about this experiment was that this time it rose kinda like a souffle! Unfortunately, perhaps because of the different container, or because of the different oven (this was in the new place, with a gas- and not electricity-powered oven, after all), but the quiche wasn't ready in an hour. It had risen up nicely, but its center was still very much liquid.

Kosh assured me that since there was no actual meat (as usual, I used fake ground beef), the eggs themselves, even if liquid, were safe. Besides, he pointed out the crust that seemed on the verge of getting burnt. Kosh was also hungry, LoL! So I popped the dish into the microwave and nuked it for a minute just to get some of the immediate liquid into solid form.

Getting slices of this quiche out of the bowl was quite a challenge!



But dayyum it was good! :D And that's despite the weird ingredients I put in: I had leftover chickpea/cilantro/diced tomatoes/mango salad with lemon juice & red wine vinegar that had been languishing in the fridge for days... so I mixed that in with some fake meat (minus the mango! that would have been TOO weird!!) then topped that with onions, carrots, orange & green peppers, with a layer of cheese in between. Cheese of course also topped the whole thing. And yes, I again used egg in heavy whipping cream.

Did I already say how good it was?

:D


Tempted to try it out? Blog about it and drop a comment here, I'd love to see how yours turned out.

Have a good weekend, y'all!

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Friday, July 03, 2009

fatlipped

Last October, I was a pill poppin' fool trying to get an allergic outbreak under control.

Since then, I've tapered down to one pill every other day or so.

Couldn't got off the pills completely, though: I'd get welts on my elbows within three days of the last popped pill, and that would be the first indication of reactions still threatening.

So what with all the recent fun and excitement (har har) of packing and moving, the stress plus the dust pushed the allergies through: on Wednesday I was going about my business when I realised my lip felt funny... went to check in the mirror, and hey, whaddayaknow, half the lower lip was swollen. Not good.

So Wednesday night, and the whole of Thursday, I was in a benadryl-induced zombielike state, fighting a fully swollen bottom lip and a ton of welty hives. Today (Friday) I woke up feeling much closer to normal.

We've still got a lot to unpack, but hopefully I've got enough drugs in my system to withstand the effects of those dust mites!

... scary thing is, I only have an ever-so-slight reaction to dust mites, according to the allergist: imagine how much worse it could be / have been for someone else with a more severe reaction? Yikes!!


Have a great weekend everyone! And for those who celebrate: Happy 4th of July!

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about two months later...

 ... hi again. This return to blogging is really not working out, is it? Actually, I am writing, three pages of mind vomit and affirmations ...