Life - Blu Ray

I got Rosie Life on Blu-Ray for Christmas and we've just finished watching it. Some of the photography is pretty amazing and there is a lot of cool, interesting information about strange animals which inhabit our planet. I'm not usually one for too much natural history documentaries, but Life was thoroughly enjoyable.

4.5/5

Lost Parodies

These Lost parodies on You Tube are pretty funny (First Episode). Digging the voices, especially Sawyer's spot on stupid nicknames. Worth watching all 10 of them if you have time.

Miller's Crossing - Bomb 20

Just watched the Coen Brothers' film Miller's Crossing. Just in-case anyone has seen it was wondering where they've heard the piece of dialogue "Something I try to teach all my boys" before, it's sampled (complete with the deranged screaming) in the Bomb 20 track "One in the brain" from the "Field Manual" album, now I just need to watch enough movies to find out where the sample at the end comes from. I guess it makes sense since Tom is told to put "one in the brain" when he is sent to kill Bernie.

I don't actually think many people will be familiar with the track and happen to watch the movie, but you never know.

Movie Challenges

In my quest to watch every movie worth watching, there are a couple of lists I'm trying to completed. The 1001 movies you must see before you die and the ImDB top 250 being the most important at the moment.

The editor of the 1001 movies ... book released 4 slightly smaller books last year, 101 n Movies you must see before you die for values of n in {Gangster, Horror, Sci-Fi and War}. I've just bought the War and Gangster books to get my hands on the full lists so can now track my progress on these as well. The 101 subsets include films not on the larger 1001 list, so there are far more films I have to watch now than previously.

As it stands at the moment, I've seen 29 from the Gangster list, 28 from the Horror list, 38 from the Sci-Fi list and 21 from the War list. Neil and Gwen are hoping to complete the Sci-Fi list by the end of 2010, so I think I'm going to go for a similar challenge and try for the Gangster or War lists (Probably the Gangster list as there are less left to see on it)

The Wire Season 5

Shortly before New Year, we finished the fifth and final season of The Wire. At only 10 episodes, it's much shorter than the previous seasons, but contains some good drama as the show makes its way to the finale.

The story follows the Baltimore Homocide department as they finalise their attempt to bring down drug kingpin Marlo despite increasing pressures from those above in terms of reduced budget. These pressures force McNulty to take extreme action to get the case solved.

The alternative viewpoint in this series comes from the journalists at the Baltimore Sun. Again, series 5 isn't as good as the excellent first two seasons, but is still worth watching and a fine end to the show.

4/5

1000 miles

1000 miles! That's how far I've cycled since I got my new bike in May. Just passed the 1000 mile mark on the way home from work today, made going out in the snow almost worthwhile. I think the first year I had my old bike I only did about 700, so I'm obviously cycling more than before. Here's to another 1000.

The Wire Season 4

Just finished season 4 of the Wire and by this point there isn't much to say. Season 4 is good, but nowhere near as good as the first 2 seasons and feels more like filler between 3 and 5. Not all that much happens plotwise, although a lot of the characters are fleshed out more. Overall, worth watching if you've seen the first three, but nothing amazing.

3.5/5

S.W.S. Chinese Takeaway

We received a flyer for S.W.S. through the door and since we didn't have time to go shopping at the weekend and it's almost Christmas, we thought we might as well have a mid-week Chinese takeaway.

We ordered Kung-Po King Prawn, Crispy Shredded Beef and Boiled Rice. The order came to £12.30 and it's that time of year where free calendars are given away.

First impressions of the dishes were that the sauces were quite dark. The Kung-Po was good, but not the best so far. The sauce was sweet, spicy and there was quite a lot of garlic in there. Vegetables definitely included some carrot and the usual suspects.

The crispy shredded beef was also pretty good, again sweet and full of garlic, with the beef being slightly crispy.

Overall, a good solid takeaway, but not quite as good as the better ones I've visited so far. 3.5/5

S.W.S.: 8 Stenhouse Cross, Edinburgh, EH11 : 0131 455 7804