Superman should be returned to sender

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I saw Superman Returns this weekend and thought it was terrible. It was not an action movie, but the story was so poor that the movie had to ride on the mixed in action scenes. If you are going to be plot based there needs to be something there. There was no excitement or surprise anywhere in this movie. A monkey using a typewriter in sweatshop conditions could have been more clever.

The non-existant plot combined with weak acting and effects made for a movie that was just disappointing. The effects were bad, but it’s not the fault of software. It took humans to make Superman’s cape flap around in the still vaccum of space.

links for 2006-06-27

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Cilantro, a divisive herb

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I did a bit of research on cilantro (AKA coriander leaves) today after using it with rice for some fajitas*. Apparently there is a subset of people that have an extreme adversion to the herb. Some people think it’s genetic, that only a small percentage of people can taste a [foul tasting] chemical in the plant. One of those people created I Hate Cilantro, which I found hilarious. Most people that dislike the flavor explain it as tasting like soap or metal. I fall in the majority on this one and enjoy the fresh flavor and citrus accent.

* I made cilantro lime rice to go along with chicken fajitas. It was delicious and did not taste like soap. I braved wind and rain to grill the chicken (which I marinated in adobo spices and a hot salsa). Totally worth it.

links for 2006-06-22

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links for 2006-06-13

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links for 2006-06-10

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links for 2006-06-08

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West Elm’s narrow-slat bench is a joke

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west elm\'s narrow slat bench is defective

West Elm generally has nice stuff that’s easy to assemble. My dining table and chairs are from them and I had no problems. But the narrow-slat bench is impossible to assemble. I have received four different benches, each has exactly 0 holes to screw in the included 20 screws. To their credit, they have paid to ship all the replacement units to and from my house (at considerable expense I’m guessing), but that doesn’t help that the product is defective. A manager was supposed to check the last two units that were sent out, but they must have only checked that all three parts were in the box.

Part of me wants to ask for a refund, the other part wants to continue and see how many individual units they will send out before admitting defeat. We’ll see what they say when I call tomorrow. It’s a running joke between me and the UPS man, he always seems to show up the day after dropping it off to pick it back up. I don’t think he even has to look at the address when he sees the box in his truck.

links for 2006-05-30

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Wendy’s Frescata

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Everytime I see an ad for Wendy’s new line of “Frescata Sandwiches“, I wonder to myself why these new creations sport square buns. The trademark Wendy’s square hamburgers feature round buns, endless frustration for those of us that like total bun-coverage. But with the Frescata line, there is no reason to have square buns other than to mess with people’s heads. Bah.