Blue State

I saw the title of this movie and a little bit about the storyline in a Youtube video a couple of weeks ago. I thought it was interesting enough and thought I should get it and a few days later I was watching Blue State. It’s a 2007 romantic comedy starring Brecklin Meyer and Anna Pacquin (who also co-produced the movie) and it’s all about a fellow named John Logue (Meyer) who works on the 2003 election campaign for John Kerry. He volunteers for Kerry not because he believes in him but because John is one of those Americans who cannot stand George W. Bush!

One night partying before the final results are in, John makes a drunken promise to move to Canada (like some other Americans really did) if Bush wins the election again! His promise is made local news the day after the results are declared and now it seems that he has to move to Canada or look like a total liar. So after some thinking, and unable to come to grips with a country that elected Bush twice, he decides to follow through on his promise and takes help from a website called Marry A Canadian, run by a middle aged woman in Winnipeg. He decides to enter his profile in the website, looking for young Canadian girls who would be interested in marrying him and helping him gain citizenship and live in Canada.

John puts up flyers looking for someone going to Winnipeg and share the trip expenses – car fuel, food, lodging etc. He meets some people and is disappointed until he meets Chloe (Anna Pacquin) who says she wants to move to Canada as well for the same reasons as him. So off they set on their way, sharing expenses and sleeping in separate room in lodges for the night, while driving through the day. They also stop in Washington state to meet John’s parents. They don’t like his decision as John’s dad is a staunch American patriot and their older son died while in the army.

From that tough family reunion they drive past the border into Canada. Chloe finally confesses to John that she is actually a soldier who got drafted to serve in Iraq and is scared to go. Her reason to go to Canada is just to escape the draft. Meanwhile in Winnipeg, they meet with the lady who runs the website, Gloria and at her house there are several Canadian women & men willing to meet the American men & woman and look or suitable partners. Once they are there Chloe hates the decision to move to Canada and doesn’t like the place. John & Gloria who owns the house decide to get married but chickens out and runs away with Chloe. They then meet up with a man, who puts them up in his cabin for the night. This older man was a draft dodger in the 60s and escaped to Canada and in his stories they hear the tinges of regret. They two realize that they love each other  and that they shouldn’t be running from their troubles.

They head back to the US where Chloe is arrested and spends some time in a military jail, while John settled to face 4 more years of political despair. As Chloe is released & joins John he tells her of his decision to run for state senate setting him on the path to making a true political statement. And they two ride off into the sunset. Enjoyable in bits but I found it fails to impress me. Also, even if not to be taken seriously, the movie shows Canada & Winnipeg in a bad light.

6 out of 10!

2011 in 12 Sentences

January : The realization that I’ve been a deer in the speeding headlights of a bastard car, that corporate politics aren’t a nice thing to be caught up in and that sonsofbitches had the upper hand as I wasn’t high up the ladder!

February : Job hunt going on and hoping that I’d land up somewhere nice.

March : Sadness in leaving a place I had invested myself in for the past 4 yeas and leaving a good team and some good friends behind.

April : Knee deep in training new staff for a new process for a brand new company.

May : Drinking lots of black tea to stay away as I worked the night shifts of our overseas client’s requirements.

June : Found a place to stay, first time in a place that was a lodge. 2 rooms & a kitchen in an almost rural area in Chalakudy.

July : New place was terrible and so I had decided to leave it and stay at home and commute the longer distance from home to work & also first realization that things were not going well with the new company

August : Turned 35. Worked 4pm till 12 am and spent an hour and maybe longer each night in a bus trying to reach home so I could sleep in my own bed.

September : Realized that another client had screwed us over and that things were turning bleak

October : Bleak but still hopeful

November : Bleak & doom

December ; Bleak, doom but now finally some hope as the year ends. I cannot wait to see the ass end of 2011

2011 you sucked donkey balls!

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Some Activity Brewing

I’ve been a bit busy today. After a long time, I’ve attended a couple of interviews – on the same day! After I shaved, showered and dressed, I went out to an internet cafe & get 6 copies of my resume (5 pages long) printed and put them in 6 different covers. Then it was on to the first company where I have applied for a manager of training profile. I spent some time waiting to be called and then spoke to 3 people. I think it went and I do hope I get it. It’s decent pay and it’s close to home just 10 minutes away. Plus it’s an industry that I’m very familiar with and I know I can do well. A little after 1pm (I was there for 2.5 hours) I left and will await the final round, that includes presentations, which will be sometime in the first few days of January.

While standing outside their offices and waiting for a bus to go back home, a friend of mine called me to tell me to get my ass down to a consultants office. A leading MNC also is looking for a training manager for softskills & communications! Oh good, so I went there waited for 15 minutes – during which I also had a lemonade and a little snack as I was quite hungry by then – and had a 30 minute interview with an HR person. They will call me on the 29th to inform me of the time & venue for the second round of interviews. I do not know too much of that company as they haven’t divulged too much information until I am shortlisted to be one of the final 3. Oh well ok! That’s fine with me.

I hope one of these works out and both will be close to my apartment, both will pay well and I can save on travel time!

Thor

Thor. Mighty Thor. Supposed to be a god, once was a god of the Nordic Viking culture & religion. Christianity & it’s crusaders brutally converted the Vikings into their own fold and the Viking culture died out, save for a small group wishing to revive part of the old culture. And Thor is a comic book hero from the ranks of Marvel. Like the current lot will be in years to come. Anyway, I read Thor’s comics as a child and he has always been a huge favourite of mine. I especially liked that mighty hammer of his. Bam!

So Thor inevitably made his way onto the big screen and ladies & gentlemen – this how you make an origin story for a superhero and still make it entertaining without giving the feeling that too much stuff is crammed into one movie! This is how to make a superhero comic movie, other than the new Batman trilogy ofcourse.  The film was directed by Kenneth Branagh, written by Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz and Don Payne, and stars Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston (as Loki), Anthony Hopkins (as Odin) and Stellan Skarsgård.

So here are some points on the movie

  • Good choice of the cast, although I find it difficult to see Anthony Hopkins in these type of roles. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a fab actor but as Odin?
  • Is that Renne Russo as Odin’s wife & Thor’s mother Frigga? Hello, haven’t seen you in anything for a very long time. I had a big crush on you for years.
  • The Frost giants are cool (sorry, pun intended) evil beings for the story and is that Colm Feore in make up as the leader of the giants, Laufey? I found the fights scenes to be very good.
  • So Thor, who was to be crowned king, succeeding Odin, goes to fight the Frost Giants against his father’s wishes and is stripped of his powers and sent hurtling to earth, where the van driven by Jane, Darcy & Dr.Selvig hits him – not once but twice! They didn’t take the stuff too seriously, which was fun case Thor gets knocked by the door of the van the next day as well.
  • One thing; if Odin was to banish Thor on earth, why not Sweden or Norway or Finland? Scandinavia would have been more appropriate for a Viking legend & god. Why New Mexico? Because the comic was written by Americans and the movie is made in the US.
  • Loki discovers he is Laufey’s son, adopted by Odin after the war ended. He knows his abilities and wants to take over as king and bring forth his rule. He comes up with a plan with Laufey to allow the frost giants entry into Asgaard. Upon knowing his adopted son’s trickery, Odin overcome with stress from Loki’s discovery and Thor’s exile, falls into the deep “Odinsleep” that allows him to recuperate. All mighty being & king decides to hibernate!
  • Thor’s friends & fellow warriors travel to earth to bring their leader back. Aware of their plan, Loki sends the Destroyer, a seemingly indestructible automaton, to pursue them and kill Thor. At first the Destroyer defeats Thor, but his sacrifice to save the rest of Earth prompts his powers & the hammer to come back to him, as his father had planned when he stripped his son of his powers. The hammer returns to him, restoring his powers and enabling him to defeat the Destroyer. Kissing Jane goodbye and vowing to return, he and his fellow Asgardians return to confront Loki.
  • Loki betrays his birth father Laufey & kills him but Thor returns and fights the mischievous one, before destroying the Bifröst Bridge to stop Loki’s plan, stranding himself in Asgard. The path to other dimensions, including Earth, is gone. Odin awakens and prevents the brothers from falling into the abyss below the bridge, but Loki chooses to fall.
  • Thor makes amends with Odin, admitting he is not ready to be king; while on Earth, Jane and her team search for a way to open a portal to Asgard. The agents of Shield approach Dr. Selvig to study a mysterious item which could hold untold powers. Loki meanwhile seems to have survived and has appeared on earth.

Amazing visuals and the CGI is done very well. This is how a superhero movie should be done. I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought that the movie lived up to the hype. 9 out of 10!

Something I’d Like to Learn More About

I’d like to learn more about the universe, the stars, the planets and galaxies. I would like to learn about the possibilities of settling on one of the planets or moons, possibilities of finding life on them and the process of terraforming. I’m interested in things like that. What makes our planet unique in supporting life and how to search out for similar planets to increase the chances of contacting sentient alien life, if it’s out there. I’m sure that it’s out there, although it might not be remotely similar to what we have cooked up in our comics, novels, tv & movies. There’s got to be something somewhere, otherwise it’s a huge waste of space and unlike people who are bogged down by the though that humans are somehow very special either a fluke or freak of nature of by the grace of some invisible bogey man god spirit in the sky.

I’d like to know about what it takes to get humanity into space and settling colonies on various planets. What will it take & cost to get your community onto a huge spaceship the size of a small city and flying in space and searching for a new planet. How long will it take to create a new civilization on one of these planets and how will we survive. What will we need to take along with us, what can we grow on the way and on the new planets. How much of a challenge will it be to do all this and achieve the goal of living on a new planet successfully. All of that stuff. The earth is not gonna be able to sustain us forever and we will eventually need new homes. And this is possible; not in my or your lifetimes. Not our kids or their kids or their kids’s kids. Some day in a few generations, not too many, we will have to go out and find a new place to stay. And hopefully we won’t screw those planets as badly as we did this one!

But the science & facts behind it all is what I would like to learn more about.

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Terra Nova : Season 1 Overview Part 2

Last time I wrote about Terra Nova at the 8th episode mark (counting the pilot as 2 episodes instead of 1 film length episode. Jim Shannon finds out through an incoherent Tom Boyland, while he is interrogated,  about a body in the jungle connected to Col. Taylor.  Jim unearths a skeleton by the banyan tree Taylor lived in when he first arrived in Terra Nova. We also find out an ingenious method of communication between the Sixers and their spy in Terra Nova – a dragonfly with a microchip attached to it used much like a carrier pigeon between both camps! It however leads a trail to Shannon’s house and Taylor makes a show of arresting Jim. After Jim & Taylor argue for a bit, the Colonel admits that he killed General Philbrick.  Apparently those employing Philbrick and Lucas, and later the Sixers, were trying to get a time portal created that could work in both directions, so that natural resources from Terra Nova could be sent back through to their home time-stream.

The General tried to take over control, which Taylor refused and in a fight the former was killed. Lucas & Taylor also fought and the son left the camp never to be seen till date. Jim & Taylor patch things up and the two head back to the main part of the colony, where in celebration of Harvest festival, the children of Terra Nova put on a play about how to colony came to be. In episode 9 Mira captures Taylor and in a showdown between the two rival leaders which sees each take the upper hand, the Sixers’ main lady tells the Colonel as to her real motives for doing what she does – she has been separated from her daughter, who is still in 2149 and she needs to follow her employer’s orders to be reunited with her child. Mira also tells Taylor some info on Lucas, while the two have to also fend of a pair of slashers on whose territory they have encroached upon. Meanwhile we find that the Sixers’ spy in the colony is young & lovely Skye, whose mother is being held & treated for a rare disease by the Sixers!

Skye escapes Jim Shannon’s attempts to find her out and sabotages a blood sample that he was able to retrieve from a spot that he sees a morse code via mirrors being passed by her to the Sixers. However she is caught on camera and Jim and Taylor confront Skye as the Sixer mole, though she claims her only motive was to save her mother, not betray the colony, nor did she ever provide vital information to Mira. Skye warns them that Lucas has successfully completed his calculations to reverse the time portal, and that his 2149 employers will invade and exploit Terra Nova. Her mother is later rescued by one of Taylor’s exiled soldiers who was sent to infiltrate the Sixer’s camp and she is reunited with Skye.

In the double episode season finale, as the 11th pilgrimage arrives from 2149 to Terra Nova, a suicide bomber blows up and causes chaos at the portal. Several soldiers are killed as is Kara, Josh’s girlfriend, who was one of the 11th group. The Phoenix Group has a large group of private soldiers take control of the colony and have confiscated most of the weapons. However Taylor & a small group of soldiers escaped and set up a temporary camp while awaiting opportunities to attack and get their colony back. With the help of his wife & Malcolm, Jim is able to pass on vital information & coordinates of places where Lucas and his group are mining the local resources. Later they plan to kye deceives Lucas into leaving the Phoenix Group convoy to instead hunt his father, leading him into an ambush that provides Taylor an opportunity to swap a shipping container containing valuable cargo from the Badlands with one hiding Jim, a bomb, and a drugged Carnotaurus. With the now-awake, raging Carnotaurus creating havoc inside Hope Plaza, Jim destroys the facility and the time portal as he barely slips back into the new world. Skye shoots Lucas to save Commander Taylor, but Lucas survives and disappears. Discovering they are cut off from 2149, the Phoenix Group and the Sixers evacuate Terra Nova and head for the Badlands. The valuable cargo from the Badlands is revealed to be an 18th century ship’s prow and figurehead with little indication of how it got there.

As the season ends many previous unanswered questions are solved but they give rise to new ones. Who are the Phoenix Group working for and who are the ones financing it? How did the prow of the ship get into the bad lands?  What else is out in the bad lands that the Phoenix Group would abandon Terra Nova for? How did Lucas’s employers “know” the ship’s prow was in the Badlands? It predates Taylor’s trip through the portal. Are they somehow responsible? Or is it an alternate rift in time, perhaps something to do with the Bermuda Triangle? These are the thoughts that go through a viewer’s mind as the season ends. I can’t wait for season 2 to start but a shame that Simeon Kessell won’t be returning in her role as Lt. Alicia Washington as her character was killed by Lucas while she created a diversion for the Shannon family to escape.

Mullapanthal – A Nearby Attraction

It’s not an attraction in the correct sense of the word but one of the places that I still have to go to nearby and which is a landmark must visit for most people who live in & visit Cochin is Mullapanthal – a toddy shop in the Udayamperoor area! Yes ladies & gentlemen – a toddy shop with it’s own visiting cards and its own website. About 30-40 minutes from where I live, you will find local labourers and GMs from IT companies alike, sitting and eating the delicious food and enjoying the atmosphere.

Their menu includes pearlspot fish fry & curry, pork fry & curry,, crab, beef & kasava, duck fry, prawns, squid and ofcourse toddy. Everyone who has food there say that it is the best & most delicious that you can find in our state. I have to remedy this and go there someday soon. I don’t drink toddy; I find it vile and disgusting. But infact a lot of patrons at Mullapanthal go there for the food and drink just for a formality. They love the food but it would be wrong to just eat the food and not drink atleast a glass or two (ugh)!

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On Lying – When Is It Ok

There will come certain moments in your life when you have to tell a lie for various reasons. The trick is to know when it is ok to lie hell when it is actually appropriate to lie. Stretching the truth, withholding the facts or a half-lie – anything in order for the better. The more serious ones would be when you lie to save someone’s life, prevent an innocent man/woman from going to prison for a crime they did not commit, ensure that a poor family gets money to take care of themselves etc etc. Or with a slightly different scenario to make sure that justice is served, ensuring that the guilty parties don’t get away with murder, correct a grave injustice etc etc.

Those are the cases where I would think that is appropriate to lie as a last resort. A lot of people lie to their kids and to others when they speak about god(s) and all that crap. That is not ok! Never good to lie to your kids when they are at such an impressionable age and are gullible enough to fall for those lies. Maybe Santa is ok – no wait, even that is not needed. Lying in these cases are not good.

Ofcourse you will be forced to lie to your wife/girlfriend a lot over the years. And that’s ok because it is to save a life – your own!

“Oh no, I love your parents! No that dress does not make you look fat! You are as beautiful as the day I met you honey. I promise, I did not look at that woman and she wasn’t smiling at me! Oh who says you are being emotional? You know what, I was just thinking about how beautiful you are during that hour I spent staring off into space! Yes you do need 10 new pairs of shoes! I think that (chick) flick was so brilliantly done and I almost cried when she went through her period. No, you aren’t grumpy when you have your ‘special days’!”

Just to save your life!

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Valhalla Rising

Based solely on the name and the movie poster, I decided to give Valhalla Rising a try and watch  the movie. An English language film which is made by Danes with support from the UK, this movie wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be. It’s not for everyone and is almost art movie like, with lots of silence from the actors. The dialogue scenes are almost interludes to the movie and the violence is brutal. Boy is the violence brutal. Starring Mads Mikkelsen & directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, the film is shot entirely in remote areas of Scotland and takes place in the year 1000 AD.

Mikkelsen is a Norse warrior – mysterious, brooding & mute – in the misty highands of Denmark and given the name One-eye because, well, he has only one eye. He is held captive by a chieftain and forced to fight other warriors. He escapes his bonds using an arrowhead found at the bottom of a pond, which he was led to by a dream, and kills everyone sparring only a young boy who used to tend to him by bringing him food & water.  He also spares a warrior who he lets escape, and places the head of the chieftain on a stake.  One-eye and the boy make their way through the land until they reach a small settlement of Crusaders, Christians ready to embark on a crusade to Jerusalem. The General, leader of the group, asks One-eye to join them saying that going to Jerusalem and protect the land would absolved the warrior of his sins.

On a boat the party heads to Jerusalem but when the wind dies down for several days, they are left with no food and no drinking water. Broken & tired, a thick fog prevents them from seeing anything more than a few feet in front of them, making them loose their bearings. Thinking that the boy cursed their voyage one of the crusaders tried to kill the boy, only to be killed by One-eye. The warrior takes a drink of water and finds that they have reached an estuary. As the fog lifts, the find themselves no longer at sea and can sigh dry land. However they soon realize that the vast forests of lakes & mountains is not the holy land they sought – instead they are in the yet unknown North American continent. The crew sets out to explore the area, finding no animals to hunt, and no food to eat. Nearly starved, the crew continues until coming across some aboriginal burial sites. One of the crew, Haulk, leaves the others and wanders off.

Realizing that they are not anywhere near Jerusalem, the group heads out in the boat but are attacked by arrows shot by unseen enemies. The group cannot leave and believe themselves to be in hell. One more crusader is killed by a single arrow. They come back to land and make a broth that causes them to hallucinate. One-eye’s dreams, in hues of red, intensify and he he wades to a small island to construct a cairn. One-Eye and the group are confronted by Hauk who emerges from the forest naked, his skin covered in mud in which runes are drawn. Hauk says he can hear One-Eye’s thoughts, and translates that the warrior is saying they are in Hell. The crew becomes divided, with some trying to attack One-Eye in fear, and he kills them. Then the unseen enemies shoot more arrows attacking and killing the crusaders one by one. One-Eye and The Boy successfully reach the coastline and are soon met by a large tribe of Native warriors. One-Eye regards them from a distance before dropping his weapons and walking towards them. They beat him to death. Only the boy remains, standing near the coastline and left alive by the native warriors. The last scene is of the boy standing with a strange aura around him, dreaming of One-eye staring back at him.

What does this movie symbolize? For me it symbolizes a personal journey, attainment of final peace (for One-eye), the death of the Norse way of life and the beginings of a a new religion on a new world and the first attempts of the old race to quell that new religion. This movie is not for everyone; I found the shortage of dialogues, doom laden metallic noises during shots of the  landscape and One-eyes dream staring sequences a bit too much to handle for a lazy afternoon setting. Nonetheless, I feel that everyone should try to give this film a go. 6 outta 10!

A Point On Smoking & Drinking : Fairer Sex

A few days ago someone in Facebook posted a pic, a collage of a few young women smoking. A few young Indian women smoking, either in Bangalore or in Kerala. From the photos it is clear that these women work in IT parks and/or BPOS. Two or three days ago someone else posted a photo of 4 girls, all below the age of 23 from the looks of it, sitting on the floor eating lunch and posing with a few bottles of alcohol either in their hands, next to their plates and in one case, swigging from one. Both these photos met with plenty of comments and discussions just below them. Comments on the first one were like “this cannot be in Kerala”, “don’t they have any shame?”, “don’t these girls have a father or brother to beat the shit outta them and make them learn to behave?”, “I should go and beat them up” and the classic “they are prostitutes”! Similar comments littered the photo of the girls with bottles of alcohol.

The comments were mostly made by guys, some of the same guys smoke or drink and probably invest their time in a whole lot of other activities. The overall consensus in Kerala, and for most of India for that matter, is that a woman who smokes or drinks is bad and she is bad news for any family. Indian girls/women do not drink or smoke! But in 2009, a study conducted showed that India has more than 2 crore (that’s 20 million) women who smoke (and admitted to it, who knows how many more who do it in secret) – that’s rougly  4%  of the female population in India . Smoking rate among girls are more in Bangalore, Pune, Delhi, Mumbai followed by Kolkata, Assam, Kanpur & Punjab.

Alcohol consumption among women in India is much lower when you compare it with men. In 2000 a study stated that less than 5% of Indian women consume alcohol. The advance of the BPO culture, multi-national companies and globalization has seen an increase in the case of women who atleast socially drink. Even while the government continues to ban alcohol ads on television to stem the tide of drinking, advertisers have just subverted the ban with surrogate ads. Drinking is part of the Indian culture in atleast the metros & cities. Many business contracts and deals are finalized in the spirited atmosphere of restaurants and hotels. Office parties will usually have a selection of the finest rum, brandy, whiskey, vodka and beer ofcourse. And it’s getting more common for women to drink at these functions.

Now, in Kerala, I’m sure that there are women who drink in the comfort of their own homes or homes of their relatives/friends. They might drink at a nice bar or hotel. But the opportunities & places for them to drink are few. I have seen very few ladies in the bars that I go to. For every 10 women I have seen, 8 are there to just accompany their spouse and are with family and they themselves drink only soft drinks. Out of the remaining 2, 1 will be a foreigner. These are just my observations! In 2002 when I joined a company in Calicut and living in that city, I came to know that some of the richer ladies had their own parties, in the comfort of their home, and were known for their love of drinks. 3 ladies, in their late 30s and early 40s, who were in the management of the company that I worked for used to enjoy their brandies and gins. Women social drinking in Kerala, a state known for the men folk’s excessive drinking, is not something new.

Unfortunately the women working in Call centers & IT companies are targeted as immoral, having lost their culture, promiscuous and prone to smoking & drinking. Having worked in the BPO/IT industry in Kerala for 8 years, I’m trying hard in vain to think of more than 2 women I know & have worked with in Kerala who drank and I’m drawing a blank as to women who smoke. What about metro women? Well I do not know that many but the lady friends of mine who work in BPOs in cities like Bangalore or Bombay – I’d laugh at their innocent approach to drinking! More than one of these ladies have spoke to me, in almost conspiratorial manner, that they “drank some beer at a friend’s place!!” “Oooh how many I’d ask?” “3 of us shared a bottle (650ml)” was the reply, followed by my laughter. They thought that was great? Ooh such blasphemous sin ladies!! :) Big deal!

What are my personal views? I smoked a bit fro?m the ages of 18-22, mainly because a lot of my friends and most of my cousins smoked. Peer pressure, whatever, I was an idiot! I can’t stand smoking and I won’t stand next to a person who is smoking a cigarette. And that smell is vomit inducing! The habit is disgusting no matter who does it – man, woman, boy, girl, fetus or animal! It’s an obscene habit unlike drinking in moderation. I don’t think women in Kerala should drink because of one reason only – it’s not safe in a society that will look down upon on you and brand you and call you the vilest names just because you drink. I find it a shame that you have to hide it but as long as you do it in moderation & keep yourself safe, there’s no harm in it right? Just be careful.

What’s The Difference Between Ale & Lager?

When you live in India, for the most part, if you drink beers you say you drink “beer”. For many years, like most of my countrymen & women, I only knew it as beer. Kingfisher is the main choice and in some cases the only choice as most bars tend to carry that in large quantities. But mostly what we get here, the domestic ones atleast, are lagers and not ales. Yes there’s two main types of beer (who the fuck knew). Until a few years go I only knew it as just beer but there is a difference in ales & lagers. The main difference between ales and lagers is the type of yeast used in the brewing process, which in turn dictates what ingredients and techniques can be used.

So let’s see what the internet has to say about the two types:

Ale are fermented warm and made with a top-fermenting yeast, which is, just like it sounds, a yeast that rises to the top of the brew during fermentation. The yeast will ferment the beer quickly, giving it a sweet, full bodied and fruity taste. Most ales contain hops, which help preserve the beer and impart a bitter herbal flavour that balances the sweetness of the malt.

Lagers, from the German word “lagern” meaning to store, are made with a bottom or cold-fermenting yeast that sinks to the bottom of the brew during the fermentation process. Lagers traditionally need to age before their brewing process is complete. They also tend to be more crisp, cleaner & smoother than ales.

Beer Faq even has a little chart that shows you the differences between the two types:

Ale vs. Lager – At A Glance

Ale

Lager

 Thousands of years old  Relatively new
 Fermented warm  Fermented cold
 Top fermentation  Bottom fermentation
 Yeast – Saccharomyces cervisiae  Yeast – Saccharomyces Uvarum
 Quick brew cycle – as little as 7 days  Longer brew cycle – up to several months
 Usually brewed between 59 – 77 degrees F  Usually brewed between 40 and 55 degrees F
 Strong, assertive, and more robust in taste  Smoother, crisper, and more subtle in taste and aroma
 Served not too cool, usually 50-55 degrees F, 10-14 degrees C,  sometimes called  “cellar temperature”.  Served cold, usually 40-45 degrees F, 4-7 degrees C.

 

And then ales & lagers both have many sub-styles of their own. We’ll check a few of them out in later posts.

Dairy vs. Meat

Oh boy! Would it be tougher to give up dairy or meat? When you take out dairy and/or meat it will not be pretty. Let’s see what all comes in dairy – any stuff made from the milk of cows, goats or sheep (camels & buffalo too but then I don’t get that stuff here). So no milk, cheese, butter or yogurt. Which means, no chocolate, candy, milkshakes, frappes, coffee with milk and most cakes & pastries. But that also means no pizza! What the…no pizza!!! That is sacrilege. Call the cops, call the FBI, Interpol and the pizza police. NOOOOOO!

Ok so giving up dairy might not be too tough as I’m sure we have cheese substitutes for making pizza. Like those vegan pizzas; never had one but hey it might not taste like old bathroom slippers! I haven’t had butter in ages, almost 10 years, that I know off. Atleast not that I remember. No big loss. There isn’t any actual butter in butterscotch is there? There is – shit! Err…ok!

Now let’s get to the meat. What meats do I eat? Fish, chicken, beef, quail, crab, pork, squid, prawns, the occasional frog’s leg or rabbit fry. I don’t think I could live without eating fish & chicken and beef is a huge staple in my state – the rest is just icing on the cake. But I can’t have cake cause no dairy! Oh this getting a little hard. I need them both in moderation cause I can’t live without dairy or meat!

So how about some 3 cheese pizza with pepperoni and a butterscotch shake?

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Stargate Universe:Episode 37 “Common Descent”

As the Destiny’s CO2 scrubbers are running low are running low on lime and the ship comes out of FTL, the crew looks for suitable planets to replenish their stock. Out of two gates in range only one is active and looks promising. As they prepare a team to go to the planet, 6 drones appear. Greer manages to take out the drones, but Park states that they will not be able to fight off an entire armada, and they cannot jump for another two hours. Young meets with Rush in the control interface, curious as to how the drones have followed them. Rush isn’t sure. Young suggests the inactive drone as the cause, and though Eli insists it to be dormant, he orders it jettisoned just in case. The drone is jettisoned out of the third, unused docking bay. A shot from the turrets destroys it but there is a control ship which will reach them in an hour.

As Matthew Scott & Greer leads the small team through the gate and to the planet, they spot two teenage human gatherers and get a big surprise to hear them speak back to the team in English. The boy & girl Jason & Ellie, recognize Scott and Greer, proclaiming them to be their ancestors; they claim to have descended from Destiny’s crew, who founded a civilization 2000 years ago. Young holds a meeting with Rush, TJ, Eli, Chloe, and Wray, wondering how this could have happened, and Eli realizes that it must have been the duplicate crew created when they attempted to dial Earth from within a star. Since there was no Destiny to receive them that far back, they went to a nearby gate instead. They were stranded on this planet, which they called Novus, and settled there, creating an entire civilization from the small group of Destiny’s crew. The planet on which the crew finds Jason & Ellie is a settlement, one of several on various worlds, which they made while looking for viable colony sites. They have been unable to dial Novus for a long time, decades at least, and cannot dial anywhere else.

Destiny’s crew meets with the settlement’s leader Yazou, which was also Camille’s grandfather’s name, and he invites them to have tea in one of the tents. As the crew is informed the colony only numbers about 100 people, but Novus has millions and advanced technology. The colony teams were sent out due to a natural disaster on their homeworld, but Novus has been out of contact for 30 years. In addition to the natural disaster, political tensions were rising between the two dominant countries: Tenera and Futura. The Tenerans, from who this colony is descended, followed the writings in the testament, written by some of the crew. Tenera loosely translates as “Land of Young”. The Futurans, in turn, worshiped Rush, having come to believe he was still on Destiny and would rescue them. Volker thinks the name is stupid, though Brody disagrees. Eli reveals that Brody was the one to invent it.

Through video archives they find that TJ had a baby with Young, the first to be born on the planet. Eli is shown as an older man, having had a child of his own and appreciating what they have on Novus. An elderly Young is shown, speakingof a group wishing to break off, presumably the start of the two countries that would eventually form. MeanwhileAs the crew get plenty of supplies from the settlement, Yaozu has something more to ask. He would like Destiny to transport the colony back to Novus. They are unable to sustain themselves without support from Novus, and thus need a way back home. oung isn’t convinced they could transport that many people, but Eli believes it would be possible. The trip would take a week and it would drain most of their lime reserves, leaving them right back where they started, but they’d make it. Young says no and Eli, Wray, Scott, and Greer return to the planet to inform Yaozu of the decision.

They say that they will stop by Novus and see if the gate can be repaired. However as drones suddenly appear and attack the settlement, Young allows the plea to bring all the colony onboard. Most of the people go through the gate but a drone shoots at the ring, destroying part of it, which strands a small group of humans including Eli, Wray, Scott & Greer. They have to wait the night out before a shuttle is sent to retrieve them and Destiny heads for Novous. As Rush complains that all the lime might be used up, a few of the colonists ask for permission to stay aboard Destiny. Jason, Ellie, Yaozu, Greer, and Wray have joined the shuttle mission. As they approach Novus, Scott can detect no radio signals. As the come in closer they see evidence of a nuclear winter and then an intact but abandoned city. There is no radiation, no detectable power signatures, and no signs of life. Rush clarifies Park’s assessment to a volcanic winter, likely the result of a supervolcano. Scott makes a lower pass, but there is no sign that anyone has lived there for a long time.