Oh wow

I just found out that the cashew chicken dish, that I absolutely love, I get at The Elephant Bar has 1400 calories, 89 grams of fat, 83 carbs, and 4400 miligrams of sodium. Um... I don't know much, but that sounds like a lot of sodium. Isn't that bad for you?

Our change in menus

Unless you live in a ping pong ball, I'm sure you have heard that the health care bill has finally been passed. I don't want to comment a whole lot on it. I was fired up about it, I admit, in the onset of it being pushed through but now I just don't care. To a degree. I think that everyone is freaking out because it's change, and change usually freaks people out, but I really don't have a clue what is all in it and how it will effect (affect?) me. So I am going to wait and see how this goes, hold my breath and pray that it goes well nonetheless, but just wait to see what changes. Obviously, this is going to affect me a lot, so I really hope it turns out for the better.

However, there is one part of the health care bill that I do not agree with. Buried deep in some language in there is a new requirement for all sizeable food chains to post nutritional information on their menus. That way, no one can go any longer without knowing to the full extent how many calories is in that burger they just bought.

Yes, I see some benefits in this. For one, I bet that most people will be downright shocked to find out how many calories really are in the foods they eat. For example, I know that some pasta dish from Ruby Tuesday's can run you up to 2000 calories, and I'd bet hardly anyone is aware of that. I have done some research on these things so that I, the opposite of the average American, can actually try to order things with higher calories. You might be surprised to know that the majority of foods at restaurants, versus fast food joints, are actually waaaayyyyyy higher in calories, fat, and especially sodium than fast food places. Yes, the portions are larger, but even after you figure that in, the food is pretty unhealthy. On the Today Show once they had someone on to demonstrate this. I don't remember specifics, but I remember that some dish from PF Chang's was the equivalent of eating, like, 2000 Pringles or 30 orders of McDonalds fries. Yeesh! So, posting a person's caloric intake will be beneficial for that. It will also be helpful for those who have diabetes or any other illness where you have to watch what you eat as far as calories, sodium, sugars, etc.

But the big problem that I have in all this is: if this is the first step, what is the next? What I mean by that is that if the government is stepping in and demanding that this info be posted, what's next? I can see a snowball effect from here and the next thing you know our everyday products will have some new logo on them displaying the carbon footprint, since everyone is on such a 'green' kick right now. What would be after that? Possibly a water footprint (not getting a whole lot of press at the moment, but with the impending water crisis I foresee a lot more talk about it in years to come.) Is it necessary to know that information? I would argue no. We already have brands and companies that display their efforts to be more efficient or become more 'green' and that is just fine. And we already have a way to know if our foods are certified organic or not. I don't really think it needs to go any further than that.

Maybe you could say I'm just resistant to change or that I'm taking a right-wing stance on this, but I just don't agree with it. I don't see the need for it. If companies want to have the information about their foods available upon request, awesome. In my own experience, I was interested to know it, so I looked it all up online easy-peasy. If they don't want to put it on public display, I don't think they should be forced to. Plus, coming from a designer, it is going to seriously clutter up the already-cluttered menus. I find the McDonald's menu confusing enough when I'm looking around to try something different, and now I'm going to have to navigate around a bunch of extra words and numbers? Ugh...

Who the hell is this kid?

Well, until I posed a similar question on my facebook page, I didn't know who this kid was either.

So who the hell is this Justin Bieber kid?

Well my friends, I have solved that mystery for you if you are curious to know like I was. He is a new teen idol, as my aunt informed me. I'm not quite the authority on that one. Anyways, he's a 16-year-old Canadian boy who has actually tasted some sweet stardum: he has sang for the Obamas, been a presenter on the most recent Grammy's (although, to some the Grammy's don't hold much credentials anymore), was a part of Dick Clark's ye ole New Year's Eve party, and a few other cool things.

So now we know who he is factually. But what about the music? I just spent [wasted] four minutes of my life watching a video for his famous hit "One Time." I will admit that I was a big fan of the Backstreet Boys back in their hay day, along with N'Sync and good ole 98°. So the fact that this kid is popular with young girls is not a shock to me. I'm sure it's fact that I'm older, but I find this kid laughable. Yes, the boy bands of my time had some super cheesy lines, tons of them, but I just can't take this kid seriously.

First of all, HE SOUNDS LIKE A GIRL! I was pretty sure in the beginning that the person singing "One time" in the background of the song was Rihanna. Nope, it's him. Second, he talks/acts like he's hip and fly and... you know. He's got the sideways fitted hat, hoodie, acting like he's the shiz. Most of all, I found the lyrics a little disturbing. I mean, he's only 16.

But I feel that I can't really criticize because I was into the same thing when I was younger.

So, turning a little thought-provoking and philosophical: why is it that young girls are constantly drawn to this? What is it about that age that makes you wanna listen to hopeless promises of finding your one true love at 16 who'll always be there, giving you all you need, as Justin promises, all wrapped up in a crappy pop song that will inevitably be played no where else but on cruise ships in 12 years (trust me, I heard many a BSB and N'Sync song on our cruise)? I really can't come up with a reason, but I'm going to take a guess that it has something to with a little something we like to call: puberty.

As we all know, this time in the lives of kids seems to be pushed sooner and sooner when kids aren't ready to deal with boys/girls, sex, or partying like you're 21, and I don't really think kids like Justin Bieber are helping that. I mean, if I hadn't looked up his age, I would have guessed he was 11. No joke. But I can bet that 11 is probably one of his big audiences and I'm not so sure that's a good thing... And we don't need any more of this, which is effing rediculous (Embedding for that video was disabled.)

And for your curiosity, here's Justin:

Review: "The Hurt Locker"

First of all, I am sick. Ugh! I am so upset that this has happened again so soon. As most anyone reading this probably knows, when I get a cold, it's pretty darn bad and my cold is way worse than your cold. I have been coughing all day long. No exaggerations. I'm finally calming down, but it's minimal. My lungs are frowning at me and my new cold and they want to tell me "We are tired. We want a break." But I can't seem to give them a break no matter what I do. Second of all, I finally fixed the damn comment links on my blog. Now it's much easier for you to leave a comment and find the link.

Moving on...

Tonight I got to watch "The Hurt Locker." I really liked it. It was a great depiction of the situation in Iraq in it's simplistic style and realism. Through various shots and camera angles, I really felt like I was right there with them, which definitely added to the raw, realistic nature of the film. I will say, though, that I've read and heard that many veterans of the actual war don't find this movie all that awesome. It's definitely getting mixed reviews on their side. The consensus seems to be that while it depicts the stresses of the job of defusing bombs and the relations between the Americans and Iraqis really well, many little details (big ones to the vets, though) bother them; mostly in the way the movie handled situations. For instance, a team would never split up just to cover more ground, but this happens in the movie, and other procedures of that nature are not accurate. But, despite that, many of them still agree that this is the best movie about the Iraq war so far. So, just throwing that out there. I always think it's important to hear from the source as to how accurately something is portrayed (Speaking of which, trivia moment!: Contrary to the depiction in "Cool Runnings," the Jamaicans were actually accepted and well-received by the Olympians, including the Swiss. Okay I'm done, haha.) 

One of my favorite parts about the movie were the characters. They were very believable and the main character, Will James, was completely intriguing. I definitely can see why he was nominated for the Academy Award. I also really took to the character of Owen Eldridge and, even though he was a supporting role, could really feel his emotions and the battles he was having with himself over what he was dealing with.

The movie kept me on the edge of my seat almost the entire time. I'd say that's pretty darn good for a 2 hour 11 minute movie... There's not a whole lot of 'action action' but it is very suspenseful, making it a heavy movie I'd say; it's not exactly a light journey to go on.

I'll end with something I was reminded of while watching this. One of the things I find awesome about movies, and any sort of art in general, is how two people can watch the same thing and come away with different impressions or ideas. Example: (Spoiler Alert!) There is a very difficult-to-watch scene in which James finds a boy has been killed. Because of certain things I won't mention, he decides it's best to blow the building up and get rid of the whole situation. He sets up his explosives, but then just can't do it. I said to Jarrod that I thought the reason he did this was because he was thinking of his own son and just couldn't follow through. (End Spoiler) It didn't sound like Jarrod had the same initial thought, and had a reason of his own for the scene. So yeah, I think that's just great. We can all look at the same movie, the same painting, hear the same song, and we all come away with something different.

Ladybug Death Toll

So for fun, and something fun-ny, back in February I sectioned off a corner of our dry-erase board on the fridge to keep track of our 'Ladybug Death Toll.' I thought about calling it the kill count, being a little video game dorky, but then decided on the other version. Anyways, we have had a TON of lady bugs in the house this year and I was just curious how many we would really have if we actually kept track. For fun, though.

In about three weeks, here at our house, my mom and I have either killed or found-dead 274 ladybugs. Yep. About 100 bugs a week. No, there's nothing gross or wrong with our house. We have it sprayed for bugs, but apparently these little things (which aren't really ladybugs, by the way, they're some sort of Asian beetle I think) are really bad this year. Well, I can definitely attest to that. I know we have them every year, but they seem really, really bad this time around. I hope that as it gets warmer they will either head back outside or that the number will start dwindling down.

I can think of way worse bugs to find at the rate of 100 per week, so I guess ladybugs are about the best case scenario possible, but still! I'm sick of them. I am pretty sure my mom is too. Go away ladybugs!

Thoughts from the Oscars...

The Oscars just finished up, and here are some random things I think:

1. Great, now I will have to wait even longer to get "The Hurt Locker" from my Netflix. I'm moving it to the top right now before everyone else scoops it up. We'll see if this works...

2. A little heavy on the Avatar jokes, don't you think? I would have been a little annoyed if I was James Cameron.
2B. James Cameron doesn't seem like a very easy-going, joke around kind of guy.

3. The director for "The Hurt Locker", Kathryn Bigelow, seemed like she was about to faint. She kept holding her hand to her stomach as if she was wearing a painful corsette, or had bad indegestion.

4. That girl from those "Twilight" movies looked ill. And sounded ill. And she scratched her back in a very odd way. It wasn't very becoming of someone who should be poised and propper at the Oscars. I'm just sayin'.
4B. Speaking of Twilight-girl (I honestly don't know what her name is), I wonder what the rest of the famous actors and actresses think of her and that Taylor guy presenting an award. Are they thinking 'Hey, good job kids. Way to go!' or 'The only reason these people are up here is because they happened to be in some insanely popular movie, but they really aren't that talented.' Personally, I feel the latter is more true.

5. I felt sorry for the Argentinian who won Best Foreign Language film. He seemed so frightened by the unseen sign telling him to wrap him up. He stated he was sorry but it was hard for him to speak English so it slowed him down.

6. I wonder if the Animation category has become something like softball at the Olympics. Oscar : Pixar as Gold Medal : USA. Pixar always wins, and everyone expects it.

7. I love watching the Oscars, but sometimes I feel they're a little too... into themselves. Too stuck on themselves, in a way. What I mean by this is the endless montages and strange skits that have hardly any purpose than to exploit the fact that we're talented, we're the movie business and we rock, and to waste time. Seriously, sometimes that is how I feel: it's just a waste of time. I like the montages most times, though. But the combo of break dancing/hip hop styled dance/pop 'n lock with orchestral music? I'm a fan of mash-ups and strange combos, but even that didn't quite work for me. The dance barely had any reference to the music. I mean, how can you pop 'n lock to a bunch of slow violins and cellos? Their attempt failed for me.

8. I thought Sean Penn was drunk when he presented.

9. I thought it was quite hilarious when the announcer said, before the commercial break, "Stay tuned for Best Picture. Will "Avatar" take home the Oscar? Or "The Blind Side" or "The Hurt Locker"? Or will there be a surprise winner?" Translation: "Those are the only three real contenders. The other seven don't really matter and won't win."

10. That "Logorama" short is RIGHT up my alley! It looks sweet. Anyone know where I can watch it? It looks like I'm gonna have to buy it off of iTunes because it's nowhere to be found online.