Honorable Mentions to This Film is Not Yet Rated, The Way Back, The Ultimate Wave Tahiti, Tangled and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol which are also great films.

13 Assassins	A Japanese movie set in the time of the samurai where 13 samurai are assembled to go on a suicide mission to assassinate an evil lord. It has a feeling similar to my favorite film, Seven Samurai, with the assembling of the team, the planning of the attack and the subsequent gory battle. It is excessively gory but I can not resist a good samurai movie, and this is one.
127 Hours	Just awesome, I read the book a few years ago and was really excited to see the movie adaptation and it was really great in adding some nice visuals to the story and fleshing out (ha!) the character a bit more. Great adventure and survival story.
Drive	This movie was so wonderfully unexpected. The soundtrack really grabbed me (which is very rare for a soundtrack) and the action was so simple that the drama really took over the movie. Great acting, story, soundtrack and characters!
“Game Of Thrones”	Season 1 – I was instantly drawn to and completely engrossed in this fantastic HBO series. I was blown away by the risks that they take and the stories that they tell, excellent tv but probably not for everyone.
Hanna	The best action movie of the year so far! The story of a rogue and very secluded CIA agent who spends many years raising his young daughter to be a super agent while depriving her of any childhood. When she’s unleashed on the world, she needs to decide what to do with her life. Great characters and acting especially by Cate Blanchett and Saoirse Ronan.
The King’s Speech	A very nice and friendly film showing how an unsuspecting king enlists the help of a speech therapist to overcome his stutter. Great performances with wonderfully sympathetic characters. From the premise it seems boring, but like Frost/Nixon, it really pulls you in.
“Misfits”	Seasons 1 and 2 were simply amazing but season 3 was a big let down due to the lack of Nathan and the energy he brought. Very crude show but it brings a unique viewpoint to the superhero genre.
Primer	A movie made by engineers on a really low budget and the story is awesome! A group of engineers come up with an amazing invention and try to come to grips with the ramifications of what they’ve invented and how it will affect their lives.
Rango	So utterly colorful and unique! A nice story about a chameleon wandering through the desert after being lost by his (human) family who becomes the hero of a small town. Great voice acting too.
True Grit	The Coen’s constantly impress me with their trademark wit, snappy dialogue and great acting throughout. A gripping Western about a girl looking for revenge on her father’s killer.

See 10′s, 9′s and 8′s, only one more to go!!

• Hamilton has not won a playoff game since 2001 against Montreal (10 years ago!)
  
• In the last 9 seasons, Hamilton has been in 3 playoff games which they’ve all lost
  
• besides Winnipeg (1990), Hamilton has gone the longest without winning the Cup (1999)
  
• Montreal is a Grey Cup beast having made 8 appearances in the last 11 years
  
• Montreal has not beaten Hamilton in the playoffs since 1996
  

data from here and here

Across Canada, Cineplex theatres are having a free morning showing on Saturday, Oct 22nd for a variety of movies and snacks are just $2 each; proceeds go to the Starlight Children’s Foundation. Check out the promo listing page to find your nearest theatre and the movies that are going to be playing.

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.

Here’s the spreadsheet that I did my calculations on

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!

via reddit

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.