As has been my tradition for the last 9 years (see 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003 and 2002) I’m making a list of my favorite 10 movies that I watched for the first time this year. Of course, I’m not recommending these movies for everyone, if you want personal recommendations, let me know. Here’s the list:
SLC > MSP - I can like Soderbergh, I want to like Carano and the supporting cast is pretty awesome but this movie felt like a big miss. The acting was not great (that was expected), the story was incomprehensible and could only be traced by action scene to action scene and the characters were very under-developed. The stunts were (probably) all done by Carano which for the fighting scenes was pretty cool but lots of the other stuff felt like it could have been better. All told, I'd love to see her in more movies (or a tv show) even though this one was not that great.
Good performances, interesting characters, good location, and a simple story well told. All that said, I liked it, but I didn't love it. Best quote was, "Give you kids enough money to do something but not enough to do nothing."
Documentary about the rise of Air Guitar in the States and it's popularity worldwide. The first few minutes it seems to be really bizarre to be taken so seriously but by the end it begins to seem much more normal.
I wanted to figure out at what point it’s better to have dental insurance for the family vs. just paying with cash as I don’t have any coverage with my work; so here goes.
I was basing it on Blue Cross’ posted rates for a family ($783 + $100 deductible). They pay out 60% of the cost in the first year (70% in second and 80% after that) up to a maximum of $500 per person per year in year 1; $750 in year 2 and $1000 in year 3.
For the four people in our family, we would need to pay the dentist an average of $368 per person in the first year to break even against paying cash (up to a total of $833 per person). On Year 2, we would need to average $315 to a max of $1071 and on year 3+ the average would need to be $276 with a per person maximum of $1250.
It seems like you’d need to spend a lot on dental in order to make this work but maybe having insurance would make your dental hygiene more of a priority and less of a problem down the road. Also, if you kept it around for a little while; in Year 3, your whole family insurance can be worth it for one person’s big bill.
I got inspiration to make my own carbonation system from lifehacker (twice!) and lots of great ideas from other people who have done a similar thing so I decided to try to make one myself.
I was researching parts online and in town and figured it was going to cost a couple of hundred dollars to get a tank and regulator plus all the other little parts that I’d need, which was a little bit much for me. Very fortunately, in the middle of my researching, I happened cross a garage sale where a guy was selling two of his tanks, with a regulator for a steal of a deal – I was in!
I spent some time at Al’s Supply House where the helpful staff assisted me in getting the weird things that I needed as well as at Lordco for my tire valve stem in the bottle top. I really wanted to find the carbonator cap locally but haven’t been able to yet so I may get lucky when I go to California next at Carbonic Services. I was considering getting a new regulator as mine was a bit sketchy bit have since come around to trust my present one with the new Wika pressure gauge I got from my neighbor.
At this point, I was able to make delicious bubbly seltzer water for basically no cost at all – awesome!! Next step is making pop, so we went off to HY Louie to grab a bunch of syrups which have made us some delicious soda (Started with Root Beer, Vanilla, Red Ruby Grapefruit and Toasted Marshmallow (that one is more for hot milk)). I’ve also tried carbonating chocolate milk (ala Yoo Hoo) which was not so great and making a New York Egg Cream which was not all that great either. We still have high hopes for carbonated fruit juices which we haven’t done yet.
I also had to find a place to refill my tanks when the eventually get empty and found a couple of options in Al’s, Weldco or Airgas.
Here are some pictures of my present setup, enjoy!
The Bayne’s were granted full rights to their four children last week so they are now thankfully all together. I’ve been following this miscarriage of justice for 2 1/2 years which has been heartbreaking to see the justice system fail and prolong them so many times; it’s good to be done after 4 years of them being without their children.
I couldn’t be happier for the Bayne’s that after almost 4 years of having their children legally stolen, they’re being returned. Congratulations to them, what wonderful people they have been found out to be.
It’s not every day you cyber-meet a man with a passion for what he does. This man who runs Galco’s Soda Pop Stop has passion for soda, bubbles, flavors and has some strong opinions on corn sweetener, Pepsi and an assortment of other topics. His shop is in LA area and I happen to find myself in LA often so I may have to check it out.
Despite mostly giving up pop, almost all the flavors he was describing, with their slight nuances and histories were all interesting – I’d even go for the Rose water stuff! I’m going to have to stop in!
I absolutely love In-N-Out Burger. The basic menu is extremely simple (burger, fries, drink, milkshake) and the secret menu (and super secret) has a few different combinations of their basic ingredients (I always get the animal style burger, which I even found a precise recipe for). The clientele are more diverse than any other restaurant and they’re presently the third highest rated restaurant in all of Los Angeles on tripadvisor (I’ve seen them as high as #1). The burgers are amazing (and cheap) and the fries are good but probably the weak point in their slim menu.
I’m always excited to go to California as I know I’ll be able to squish in a visit here at some point.
