Word Sandwich

If you like your time-wasters wordy and fiendishly difficult, check out Word Sandwich. It involves guessing a random five-letter word in as few tries as possible. The only clue the game gives you is an indication of whether the word you've guessed is alphabetically higher or lower than the key word. You get points for succeeding in as few guesses as possible, and you get 5 words to rack up the highest score possible.

I got 8309. Bring it.

Decoding Ferran Adria

A recent discussion about the delicious possibilities of bacon vodka has got me back on a molecular gastronomy kick. How can a discipline that combines delicious food with class IV lasers not be great?

If there's one undisputed king of molecular gastronomy, it's Ferran Adria. His restaurant, El Bulli, is the Mecca of modern creative food. Located in Catalonia, Spain, it serves only 8,000 patrons per year, despite the fact that it receives eight hundred thousand requests for tables. Its season is limited to 6 months (April-September) so Adria can spend the other 6 months experimenting in his ultra-high-tech food laboratory in Barcelona.

I've always been curious about what this food experimentation would actually look like... bunsen burners? Erlenmeyer flasks? Lab coats? Luckily for me, Anthony Bourdain went out and did some investigative eating in Spain to shed a little light on the El Bulli restaurant and lab. If you have 45 minutes to spare, and are as big a food nerd as I am, Decoding Ferran Adria will blow your socks off. Here is a man who knows how to cook.


(full screen link)

Bert and Ernie

This video has been brought to you by the letter AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHH.



(thanks to Mr. Chris Provan for the link)

Holy Diiiiivah

I got a copy of Guitar Hero Rocks the 80's for Christmas, and while I've only had a few chances to play it, the song choices so far seem very hit-or-miss in terms of entertainment value... it was clearly a post GH-2, pre-GH3 rush job. Then again, given my advanced state of Guitar Hero addiction, it makes for a nice fix in between the well-worn tunes from the main releases.

HOWEVER, that is not to say it's not without its high points. And by high points, I mean Holy Diver, by Dio. I'll be damned if it isn't one of the rockingest songs to ever hit the fake-guitar-playing-game genre. My biggest issue with this song is that it's not in Rock Band, since the vocal line is just, like... power, you know? I want to sing it. One of the lines is "Ride a tiger".


Yes.

Seven billion dollars? What seven billion dollars?

Unscrupulous financial transactions aren't very rare these days. 2007 alone saw several high-profile cases of embezzlement, ranging from a measly $52,000 taken from the Maryland State Insurance Trust Fund, to the case of Ms. Harriette Walters, who scammed the DC Government for $20,000,000. The modern monetary world is a mysterious, twisted place where assets can be disguised and transformed into all manner of things. Financial instruments obey Byzantine rules that are truly understood by very few people, and I'm pretty sure the New York Stock Exchange keeps a minotaur on staff to roam around the building and battle those who can't answer its ancient riddles.



Still, though, Jérome Kerviel (see above for dramatization) has set a new gold standard in the world of making money disappear. This one trader managed to defraud his employer, Swiss bank Société Générale, for SEVEN BILLION DOLLARS (or 4.9 billion Euros) by making a few unauthorized expenditures in the futures market with the bank's money. Geez... companies all say they want self-directed, self-motivated employees, but as soon as you show a little bit of initiative and lose seven billion dollars of their money, they get all uppity.

Ten Word Movie Reviews

I've seen a few movies in the past week, all of them entertaining. Here are some extremely brief reviews, in 10 words or less.

The Castle (1997): Quirky, dry Australian comedy. Odd, endearing, good.

Eastern Promises (2007): "The Godfather" with Russians. Very good.

Cloverfield (2008): Wtf.

Pizza Delight

Posting has been sparse lately, as I had the chance to head out on a brief musical tour of the east coast for a few days. I also bring with me sad news from the eastern lands... after 40 years of hexagonal pizza deliciousness, Pizza Delight is changing their logo. They've gone from the highly recognizable old-school retro awesomeness of this...


...to this bland, flavourless oval of mediocrity.



They've also changed their corporate name from "Pizza Delight Corporation" to "Imvescor". Mmm, Imvescor. My mouth is watering already.

If you haven't been to Pizza Delight, and you ever find yourself in Eastern Canada, you should make it a priority to check it out. It's a lot like Pizza Hut, except they also have donair sauce for dipping. It might seem like that's a minor addition, but donair sauce is the Philosopher's Stone of pizza consumption. Via some strange alchemy, it turns regular pizza into a world-class delicacy that, if left to my own devices, I would eat until I exploded. Donair sauce is to regular dipping sauce what the space shuttle is to a paper airplane.

In the words of one Mr. Matt Kicul, the old octagon may not have been white and red, but it sure meant "stop" to me.

Brawndo - the reviews are in

I've yet to satisfy my curiosity by actually purchasing a can of Brawndo, but the reviews are in, and apparently it is quite tasty, and also supplies a solid energy kick.

In other news, there are whole websites dedicated to reviewing energy drinks. How about that.

New Cuff The Duke

The best alt-country band to ever hail from Oshawa, Cuff the Duke, just released a new album called "Sidelines of the City". It's more or less exactly what you'll expect if you're familiar with Cuff the Duke - basically Blue Rodeo with indie rock sensibilities - but I like Blue Rodeo and indie rock, so that's fine by me.

This album is a little more straight-up rock than their previous stuff, which makes some of the songs blend into each other a bit, but the upside to that is that this will probably be the kind of album you can toss on from start to finish while hanging out and having a few drinks with some friends on your porch/dock.

This Is England - A movie review!

I've decided to add the occasional film review to the grab bag of wonders that is Superfluism. First up: This Is England, a film by Shane Meadows.



In short, it's about a kid named Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) who lost his dad in the Falklands War, doesn't fit in, gets picked on in school, etc. As an 11 year old in 1983, he befriends a street gang (or the nearest British equivalent). As you might expect, trouble is a-brewing at this point. The rest of the film is a dark-but-riveting look at nationalism, racism, belonging, and the dangerous impressionability of youth.

The writing and acting are stellar, and every single character feels 100% real. There wasn't a single moment of the movie where I wasn't totally engrossed in how things were unfolding. It's not exactly a feel-good comedy romp, but if I'd seen it in 2007, it would've been my favourite movie of the year. As is, it's going to have to compete with some upcoming 2008 heavyweights, like Ace Ventura 3 and Seriously Dude, Where's My Car?

Ratatoing?

Do you guys remember 2007? Man, people sure dressed in some crazy clothes back then.

Ha ha, what were we thinking?

Anyways, to kick off the 2008 blogging season, here are a couple of awesome trailers for some Brazilian computer generated movies. The first is about a mouse who is (believe it or not) also a talented chef! What a wacky and original premise! Even the name is original... Ratatoing.

The second movie put out by (I'm assuming the same company) is The Little Cars, the story of anthropomorphic cars who live in a town where "everybody thinks all the time about races". And then they race lots, and there's a love story or something, and at some point somebody has to look deep inside himself to find the strength to save the day.

(links courtesy of kottke.org)