Another bit of Fry and Laurie

"We're talking about language".

(Previous post in this series here).

Strange names

Putzmeister.

Hmm, that doesn't have any embarassing connotations, does it?

The best machinima

Slate has a fun entry on the best machinima on the web, featuring a video gallery of some notable "movies". What's machinima, you ask? It's a munging of "machine" and "animation", and refers to movies made using characters from computer games, and rendered using the actual game's graphics engine.

Some fun videos from the gallery provided by Slate:

• The Internet is for Porn. (Lyrics may not be safe for work)
• The Sims 2 do "Sk8er Boi".
• The Danger Attacks at Dawn is episode 2 of the brilliantly weird and funny French series Bill et John (the movie has English subtitles). This one is my favourit of the bunch. You wouldn't think a flight simulator would be fertile ground for a comedy... :)

And one they left out, Fett's Vette (Danger: The soundtrack is really catchy!)

Beware of warm chairs!

I meant to post this a while back, and found it languishing in my drafts folder. So, without further ado, here is an important lesson on the birds and the bees.

I love old British comedy, God help me!

Happy New Year!

Sunday marked the Lunar New Year in China and several other countries. The date also coincides with Tibetan Losar.

To celebrate, we made some steamed veggie dumplings. (OK, we actually cheated and bought some frozen ones from Uwajimaya) These were pretty close to Nepalese or Tibetan momos, and I was planning to try re-creating the spicy tomato sauce I back in 2001 while visiting the Himalayas.

This recipe that I found on the net turned out nicely:

Momo Sauce Recipe:
2 Tbsp oil or ghee
1 tsp Minced ginger
1 tsp Minced garlic
1/2 cup Diced onion
1/2 tsp Garam masala
1/8 tsp Turmeric
1/2 tsp Chili powder (I used a mix of cayenne and crushed red chilis)
1 1/2 cups Diced tomatoes
1 cup Water
1/2 tsp White vinegar
1 tsp Soy sauce
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Pepper
2 Green onions, chopped
2 Sprigs cilantro, chopped

Heat oil in a pot. Add ginger, garlic & onion & stir-fry 1 minute. Add garam masala, turmeric & chili powder. Stir-fry for 30 seconds. Add tomatoes & stir-fry for 3 minutes. Add water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat & simmer 5 minutes. Add vinegar, soy sauce, salt & pepper. Mix well. Garnish with green onions & cilantro. Serve hot.

Crimson Tide : crime in South Africa

There's an interesting article on society and the crime situation in South Africa by Cees Bruggemans (Chief Economist of First National Bank).

A bit of Fry and Laurie

I'm enjoying the first series DVD, so I thought I'd post a links to some of the funnier sketches.

First off: Here's the song "Mystery", from the pilot episode.
(He did the same song more recently on Inside the Actor's Studio, but I don't think it's as good.)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Well, I must be the luckiest guy alive. Yum Lass spoilt me (as usual) this year, and managed to surprise me at work by organizing an a capella singing Valentine - delivered right outside my office. I think I was blushing so hard the air conditioning in our building had to kick into overdrive... :)

This evening I came home to a loverly meal, with some Fairview Viognier, and some thoughtful pressies. Ah....

In parting, I leave you with the illustrious Peter Sellers:

She loves you!
Ya?
Ya, ya!

Another one bites the dust

Jim Allchin retired this week. I can't help but admire the guy, even though he goofed up plenty ad is largely to blame for the Vista delays - he was definitely a leader that had the technical chops to lead a team like Windows. I'm not so sure about his replacement, time will tell...

Jim's last blog post at Microsoft is cute and worth checking out.

PS: What was with Bill Gates' appearance on the Daily Show? Firstly, it was mostly boring. (Jon Stewart got some laughs despite Bill's best efforts to crush them...) Secondly, dashing off the set while the show was still on air made everyone go "What?!". The Daily Show ran with it and had a parody during the credits of the following show.