Back in the 80’s, the Rambo series of movies was considered to be yardstick against which other action movies were compared for sheer hellzapoppin’ action. As the table below from the New York Times Magazine shows, the latest Rambo movie turns up the heat:
Click the picture to see it at full size.
Scan courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.
I still suspect that the body count is still much higher when I play Crackdown on the XBox 360, and better still, I’m the star!
It warms my heart that someone out there still draws inspiration from MacGyver:
Click the photo to see it at full size.
Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.
Actress Emma Thompson, like most sane people, is put to sleep by economics.
Thanks to Miss Fipi Lele for the photo!
I don’t blame her; a large gathering of people coming together to discuss hand-wavey applications of The Dismal Science would knock me out too.
(According to this article, she’s there in her capacity as a campaigner for refugees and against sex trafficking.)
My sister and brother-in-law gave the Ginger Ninja and me a pair of tickets to the Vintages wine tasting for 2005 Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux wines. It took place on Tuesday night, and naturally, I took a few photos…
Here’s Yours Truly having one of his couple-dozen-or-so samples of red. I like to think that I “clean up” nicely…
The event took place in the Regency Ballroom on the second floor of the Four Seasons, conveniently located across the street from my office. Here’s a shot from very early in the evening, just after they opened the doors to the tasting salon:
This was one of the more pricey tastings. Normally, Vintages typically charges an admission of about $75 to $100; this particular one cost $175 a person, probably due to the high expectations of 2005 Bordeaux wines and the number of Grand Cru vinyards represented at this particular gathering. This fee included all the wine you can sample and a fair bit of food, which included roast beef, sauteed mushrooms in pastry, two kinds of risotto and a good selection of fruits, breads, spreads and cheeses.
Here’s a shot of the event an hour later, once it got into full swing:
The procedure at these gatherings is pretty simple: walk up to a table, hold out your glass, and they’ll pour a decent-sized sample. Swirl (to oxygenate the wine), smell, taste and dispose of in your preferred fashion. Many people chose to simply take a sip and then dump the rest in the many buckets, conveniently spread throughout the ballroom:
Ooh! Free punch!
I personally follow the Irish philosophy that when you die, you’re held upside-down in a barrel of all the alcohol you’ve wasted. If there’s enough in the barrel to drown you, you can’t get into Heaven. Hence I finished most of my samples.
Our hands-down favourite red was from Château Cantenac-Brown, which comes from the Margaux appelation in south-west France. I’m not enough of an oeno-weenie to describe it using “proper wine tasting terminology”, so I’ll borrow this description: “Loaded with fruit which was impressive for its age. Sweet and silky with candied cherries and red licorice.”
The flavour of this particular wine jumped out at me. I’m more of a “what food will this go with?” wine, so I sampled it with some of the food provided — it worked well with the beef and mushrooms, and after hitting the cheese table, I came to the conclusion that I could be very happy with a bottle of Cantenac-Brown and a big plate of Roquefort or Stilton.
The manager of the Chateau Cantenac-Brown winery, Jose Sanfins, was there, and he was more than happy to let me take a picture of the bottle more than proud enough of his wine to pose with it.
Chateau Cantenac-Brown goes for $56 a bottle, and we bought a lot of 3 (the minimum size order that you can place at this event).
We also liked Chateau Pichon-Longueville Baron, which also paired well with Stilton. That stuff will run you about $200 a bottle.
The Sauternes we liked best was from Chateau Suduiraut, which Wendy described as “pear-licious”. A bottle will set you back about $115.
Well, enough wine snobbery for now. I leave you Gentle Readers with a toast!
I seem to be on a “How-to” list kick today. While I’m at it, here’s another one, this time from the blog Enfranchised Mind: Let Me Save You $40: Here’s How to Be Happy. In this introduction for this article, Robert Fischer writes:
I was over at my father-in-law’s birthday party, and I saw that he had HAPPINESS NOW!: Timeless Wisdom for Feeling Good FAST (capitalization theirs) sitting out next to his bed. It’s apparently even been featured by Oprah. Blargh.
Forget buying that book. I’m here for the real deal: I’ll tell you how to be happy. And it won’t even cost you $40.
Here’s the condensed version of the list — to see the list points with full descriptions, go read the article:
- Stop being a dick.
- Stop whining.
- Get out, get some exercise, unplug and deal with real people.
- If people are treating you like crap, then let them go.
- Your critics are always right.
- Do hard stuff for a change.
- Let stuff go / suck it up.
Over at FoundRead, Larry Chiang has some advice that you might find useful if you’re following Scoble’s advice for people who’ve just been laid off (particularly the parts about networking and attending business events). His piece is titled How to Work the Room.
Here’s a condensed version:
A still from the original “Odd Todd” cartoon, Laid Off: A Day in the Life.
Click the image to watch the cartoon.
Inspired by news of the impending layoffs at Yahoo!, Robert Scoble — quite possibly the internet’s best-known tech evangelist has compiled a list in his article What to Do if You’re Laid Off in the 2008 Recession. I’ve got a condensed version of his list items below; I suggest you read the article to see the list in full. It’s good advice whether you’ve just been laid off, looking for a job or even if you’re currently employed and looking for your next job.
(Note: while a few of these points are tech industry-specific, they should be easily adaptable to whatever field you’re in — or would like to be in.)
You may also want to check out the Deep Jive Interests article that asks Are You Applying SEO Strategies To Your Resume?