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The Hunger Games

Director: Gary Ross
Writers: Gary Ross, Suzanne Collins, Billy Ray

Set in a future where the Capitol selects a boy and girl from the twelve districts to fight to the death on live television, Katniss Everdeen volunteers to take her younger sister's place for the latest match.

Review

Not an entirely terrible movie. I had expected it to be a little more gruesome to be honest, seeing as this movie isn't a children's movie at all, perhaps it was me just wanting more brutality from the actors. The lead actress (Katniss) runs in the forest and cries a lot. Rather slow in places and not worth all the hype, however I will give it a rating of 3 stars.

***/*****

Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNxb28j5C1w

Slave

Director: Darryn Welch
Writer: Brett Goldstein

Stars: No-one important

When David's fiance', Georgie is kidnapped on a vacation in Spain, She is forced into brutal sadomasochist submission in a world of bizarre sex and drugs.

Review

Jesus, what a piece of shit this movie is. I wasted 81 minutes of my life. Crappy actors, crappy plot, and really crappy camera work.
The lead actress does little more than grunt and moan throughout the entire movie all the while her mouth is covered in vomit..
The lead actor is better suited to a Calvin Klein underwear shoot than he is acting in this movie. Why? because he doesn't speak in a photo shoot.

Abysmal. Do not watch, unless you want to watch just for the boobs.

Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8wjaWp_BF4

Ingredients:

1.5 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup soft margarine or butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 medium eggs
2 cups quick oats
1.5 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1.5 cups mixed nuts
1.5 cups chocolate chips
2 cups dried berries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F (190 C).

In large bowl stir brown sugar and butter until well blended.

Stir in vanilla, cinnamon and eggs until light and fluffy.

Add oats, flour, baking soda and salt and mix until well blended.

Add chocolate chips, nuts and dried fruit.

Drop dough (tablespoonsize) on ungreased cookie sheet - about 2" apart. I just put some parchment paper on a cookie sheet to make clean up easy.

Bake ~ 9 - 11 minutes or until edges turn golden brown.

Leave on cookie sheet for a minute or two. Move to cookie rack to cool completely.

These are delicious when still slightly warm. Cookies will stay slightly soft.

Enjoy.

Note: It is up to you what mix of dried fruit, nuts and chocolate chips you use. Mix and match whatever you have in your kitchen: Raisins, dried berries, milk chocolate chips, semi sweet etc, walnuts, pecans, almonds, hazelnuts... Find your own mix or work with what you have. :)

One of my favorite co-workers - Peggy - brought this in one day and was so nice to share the recipe with me.

Ingredients for the cobbler:

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel
6 cups sliced fresh peaches or nectarines

Ingredients for the crust:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 cup butter-flavored shortening
1/3 cup milk

Ingredients for the cream topping:

8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup superfine sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup milk


Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 F (190 C).

Prepare cobbler crust: combine flour, sugar and baking powder in mixing bowl. Cut in butter and shortening until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in milk with fork, just until dough hold together. Set aside.

Combine 1 cup sugar, cornstarch, nutmeg, lemon peel and peaches in large saucepan and cook, stirring with wooden spoon, until mixture thickens and boils.

Pour into ungreased 8-inch square baking dish.

Drop equal sized spoonfuls of cobbler crust over peach mixture. Sprinkle remaining tablespoon sugar over dough.

Bake until golden brown, 35 to 40 minutes.

While the cobbler bakes, prepare cream topping.

Beat cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla together until smooth. Slowly blend in milk.

Serve cobbler warm with cream topping.

Enjoy!!



Tips: I use cinnamon instead of nutmeg for the cobbler mixture and added a bit of vanilla to the crust.

The cobbler has the tendency to boil over a bit. Always use a cookie sheet under the baking dish.

What have you been seeing on your favorite "news" outlets lately? The budget fight? A dead blond girl in a ravine? The 2012 GOP campaign shoutfest?

Have you seen this:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540...79119#44679119

It's mildly surprising that MSNBC finally caught up with a story that's been raging -- and ignored by the mainstream media -- for weeks now. I have a theory on it and I'll get to that in a minute.

But first, to address the actions of the "white shirts" in the NYPD.

There's an ancient rule in propaganda that when you begin to lose control of the story, you change the conversation. To my eye, that's what's being attempted here. The unprovoked actions of the police department clearly aren't random or even those of rogue actors. Here's why: watch closely and you'll see they're being done in a calculated fashion by the commanders -- not the rank and file. This is important, so please stick with me here. In military organizations, there's something known as the "need to know" (the NYPD has been fully militarized since 9-11). If you're low on the totem pole, you don't get anywhere NEAR the same access to the type of information your superiors (who hold the SAME clearance) do. There are very good operational security reasons for this. Secrets never remain secrets for long, but the half-life of a secret depends on how many people are in on it initially. If 10 people know a secret, then its half life (the probability of it being a widely disseminated or "open secret") is the square root of the same info that 5 people initially knew.

So, it stands to reason that the blue-collar police knew nothing of the plans of a select group of white shirts to incite violence.

Why would Police incite violence? Wouldn't they want law & order? Yes. Most of them -- because they're concerned with their own physical safety. But for those high ...