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By Kate, 6 September 2009 8:27 pm

For the past few weeks, Scott and I have been catching up on the 5th season of House. We saw the second episode way back when we were in Australia, and we haven’t seen any more, because it’s on Sky 1 now instead of Channel 5, and we’re too cheap to pay for TV. In any case, if you haven’t seen the full season, stop reading, because I’m about to talk about a pretty damn big spoiler.

Last night, right before we turned on episode 20 (Simple Explanation), I was talking about how Kutner was my favorite character (for various reasons, one of which was his reference to Harry Potter a few episodes previous, confirming his status as a lovable, clever dork. Just my type. I’m not going to lie, I had a little crush on him.) I think the coincedence of timing is probably half the reason I was so affected by what I saw next.

No other character in the show saw the suicide coming, and how could they? The absolute last thing I expected to be watching was Kutner in a pool of his own blood 5 minutes after I was singing his praises. And it REALLY shook me. I’ve been thinking about it ever since. (I’ve had a lot of time to. All I did today was paint the windows.) I even had some weird dreams about it.

I’ve been trying to figure out why it’s affected me much more than I’d ever expect the death of a fictional character to. I mean, yes, I cry when I read pretty much every Harry Potter book from 4 on. Every time. But that’s about an 8 year personal connection to an epic story that I read during a great period of change in my life. I really like House. It’s a great show. Probably my favorite. But I never thought I’d freak out about it like this. And for a character I’ve only known for about a year that hasn’t been nearly as big a part of my life as Harry Potter has.

Maybe it’s the unexpectedness of it. Maybe I’m freaked out that someone I know could easily be suffering without anyone’s knowledge and I don’t want to think they would be capable of such a thing without any prior indication. Maybe it’s that Kutner reminds me of someone I used to know. Maybe it’s just because I liked the guy.

There hasn’t been a lot of death in my life. My grandfather died, but it wasn’t completely unexpected. I miss him, and I wonder what it would be like if he was still around. I wish he could have seen me graduate from college. But he had been having problems for a long time, so it was sad, but it wasn’t really a shock. My dog died last year, and I’m still upset about that, but he was also old for a dog and had the problems that come along with that, so I had been dreading that phone call from my parents silently, in the back of my mind, for a long time. More than anything, I was upset that I wasn’t around to say goodbye.

I’ve been lucky to go over 25 years without any sudden, unexpected loss in my life, and maybe that’s why I’m so shaken. I haven’t been completely unprepared for something like this, and I think last night I got a taste of what it would be like if I was. And it’s scary.

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By Kate, 13 August 2009 11:46 am

Lately, due to the economy’s nosedive, there has been a spate of cooking shows, tips in magazines, and articles on the internet about being a more thrifty cooker/eater/food shopper/etc. This is potentially extremely helpful, and it also often focuses on eating good quality stuff, not cheap crap just because you can’t afford a sirloin steak. So in general, I like the trend. The problem is, it hasn’t been very helpful to me.

Last night, I checked out the BBC’s latest offering on the subject: Economy Gastronomy.

The point of the show is to learn how to decrease your food bill and eat better at the same time. Last night, the show’s presenters took on a family of five who have been spending nearly £400 a week on food. That’s an INSANE amount of money. And to make it worse, they pretty much ate the same two recipes all the time. And bought around 50 pre-made desserts every week. Madness.

Obviously, these people needed the help. The advice they got focused on the age-old ‘make a grocery list and stick to it’. And while some people may need to be told this, I can’t actually imagine NOT shopping with a grocery list, so dedicating a good third of an hour on emphasizing the importance of planning a menu and buying what you need for it seems like time ill-spent.

However, I guess a lot of people must shop without a list if this tip keeps popping up. My mother has never gone to the store without a list, nor have I. Even if it’s a short list in my head (milk, butter, toilet paper), it still exists. I just don’t understand how it’s possible to walk into a grocery store for a big weekly shop with no menu planned and no list of what you need and come out with something that’s going to get you through the next 7 days properly. I can hold a lot in my head at once, but planning a week of meals as I go down the aisles just isn’t going to happen.

The other big tips were also old standards: making one big roast or meat-based meal at the beginning of the week that generated enough leftovers for another two meals, making your own desserts, packing your own lunch, using less popular cheap cuts of meat, buying produce in season. These are all things that I stand behind 100%. These are also all things that I already do.

I’m not trying to be all ‘I’m awesome because I knew that already’ here. If anything, I’m trying to give my mom props for showing me the glory of lists and thrift. But I really want some advice I haven’t heard before. I think this show was great, and I think it will show a lot of people what they’re missing while keeping some of their money from flying out of their wallets on their weekly food-buying excursions. But I want to save more money too.

I do my best, but food is our luxury. We (especially I) really like food. GOOD food. We spend around £35-40 a week on food for the two of us. It’s not bad, but I’m sure we can spend less, even if I don’t mind it being a slightly bigger expense than it probably needs to be. However, I will not buy crap.  I like knowing where my meat came from, and I like knowing those animals had a good life, so I go to a good butcher. I like knowing where my veg comes from, so I get it delivered from a local farm (which is actually far cheaper than buying organic, or even non-organic, at the grocery store. It also supports local business and provides a crap-ton of potatoes, which go pretty far in terms of creating meals).

I like knowing what I put in my body is quality. But I also like spending less money. These things can go hand in hand quite well, but I’m sure there are some things I’m overlooking, and I want a show or an article that gives me a tip that makes me go, ‘Hey! I never thought of that!’

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By Kate, 27 July 2009 8:34 pm

Because I’m not ready to post my pictures of our closer-to-finished bedroom yet, I figured I’d talk about some other good stuff.

First of all, the ginger beer. It’s ready! It’s fizzy! And quite good. After drinking two pints the other night, I have concluded that one pint a day (and probably even just half) is all I need. Not because of the alcohol content (it’s only about 3%), but because of the amount of sugar and fizz involved. I don’t usually drink soda, and I rarely even drink lager or other fizzy beers (I’m a real ale girl, as you may well know), so I’m not used to that amount of bubblage, nor is my gut. Enough said. But at this rate, the stuff will last for ages, as we started with 40 pints. And next time, I’m going to try making it properly from scratch. The Coopers kit is good, but it involves some artificial sweeteners, which I’m not really down with.

Next up, courtesy of my friend Mali and Jezebel, Sister Salad Thinks Yo Comments Are Wack. In which two smart ladies, using Sir Mix-A-Lot as their muse, berate the moronic commenting hordes plaguing YouTube (not to mention plenty of other sites open to comment by the public). Part of what makes it so great is that they are taking their message fairly seriously, but not themselves, so plenty of bad dancing ensues. And costume changes! I approve.

Good thing the third: french toast. I made some this Sunday morning. This follows on from the previous good thing because french toast is something I love more than any other breakfast food, and Mali’s family makes THE BEST french toast I have ever had (sorry, Dad). It doesn’t so much have to do with the toast-making technique as it does the myriad of accompaniments served alongside. French toast at Mali’s house means all sorts of fresh fruit, yoghurt, syrup, and anything you could possibly imagine wanting with your french toast. Unfortunately it has been far too long since I have experienced the breakfast of breakfasts at the Royer household, but when I do manage to make some of my own, it always gives me happy thoughts of the event (and a happy stomach).

Yet another happy thing on the list is my parents and their buying of a house in Bethany Beach. It’s another place I haven’t been in too long a time, but we went there nearly every summer for a while, and my parents have continued to go back regularly. It’s a good beach, and now we’ve got a more permanent place there. While I may not be able to take advantage of that from my current overseas position, it’s good to know it’s available to me when I manage to be around. I’m already planning it into my Dan-and-Kathleen’s-wedding-going trip for next year.

Last but certainly not least, I get paid tomorrow. I definitely like the reinflating of my bank account. However brief and minor it may be, it still buys me groceries.

And soon enough, I will show you my newly painted bedroom, which is also something I like, this week and beyond.

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By Kate, 16 July 2009 9:31 am

First of all, spoilers, beware all ye who enter here, etc. If you haven’t seen the movie yet and don’t want to know, don’t read this.

Second of all, can I just say that the whole 3D thing tacked on to the IMAX was a TOTAL WASTE OF TIME? The only scene in 3D was the first one. NOTHING. ELSE. They could have done the Quidditch (which: hooray for keeping in the Quidditch!), they DEFINITELY could have done the cave (all that fire in 3D would have = awesome). But no. Nothing else. Just the beginning. Waste. Of. Time.

Anyway, I try to go into these movies and look at them from the perspective of a non-rabid fan such as myself, because it’s not actually fair to judge them too closely as someone with a lot of emotion invested in the canon. I’ve not been fully satisfied with one of the movies since Azkaban (which I still think is the best and I still wish Cuaron would come back and direct another one. My only major gripe about it was no explanation of the marauders, but you can’t have everything.) Since then, I’ve had to tell myself that I can’t expect them to keep everything in the movies, because I can’t. I find myself analyzing the changes they make in order to fit the books into movies, and ususally I can understand why they do things the way they do.

But that doesn’t always mean I agree.

With Half-Blood Prince, some things I was annoyed by:

Using the end of the last movie as the beginning of this one. We don’t need the wizard paparazzi. We know what happened. You could have just showed the newspaper and that would have been set up fine.

Dumbledore pretty much playing dumb about Horcruxes. I can see why they modified that ‘fake’ memory even more than in the book so that you don’t get the horcrux til the end, but really, Dumbledore knew, he was just looking for confirmation. Don’t dumb the greatest wizard in the world down. It’s just not right.

No Dobby, no Minister for Magic, very little Hagrid and Neville, and casting Fenrir Greyback but then not even making reference to who he is and why he’s so terrible. You see his name on a wanted poster, but that’s it.

Also, what’s up with that scene at the Burrow? Was that JUST there to make me cry?

I think they spent a little too much time on the hormonal/relationship stuff. Don’t get me wrong, I love it, it needs to be there, it’s a big part of the story, and it adds good character development, but we saw more Lavender Brown then we saw Snape, which, for this movie especially, isn’t right.

No Gaunts at all and only a mention of Snape’s mother. Also, what was up with that ring? Where was the crest? Eh?

No funeral. I see why they did what they did instead, but that just felt wrong. Also, not sure how I feel about the whole Hallows symbol being cast over the dark mark in the sky.

Also, why no battle going on when Harry and Dumbledore get back? What the hell?

Things that I did like:

Dan Radcliffe’s acting when Harry is on the Felix. Classic.

In fact, the acting of all the trio (plus Ginny. I love Ginny!) was pretty good. They do get better every time.

The setup of Voldemort kidnapping Ollivander.

We got to see Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes! Only for a few seconds, but still! Too bad they didn’t have to U NO POO posters. They missed a comic gold opportunity there.

Snape, when you did see him, was fantastic. I only wish they did more. It’s practically his movie after all.

We got some Luna!

So glad we got the Quidditch. Too bad there was no ‘Weasley is our king’, but really happy about one last bit of Quidditch. It looked awesome too.

There wasn’t a whole lot of action, but I did like that a lot of this was talking/character and plot development more than flashy stuff. I think the movies needed a bit of that, even if it wasn’t done perfectly. And I like that we saw more of Dumbledore before he goes.

Draco did an awesome job.

Overall, I know I’m missing things out, both good and bad, but in general, it wasn’t a bad movie and, to me at least, it didn’t feel long for 2.5 hours. But I also don’t think it was a great movie. At this point, anyone seeing the movies without having read the books is probably rare, but that doesn’t mean they should count on that to carry them through the plot. With this, I felt like they had a lot of scenes they felt they needed to get into the film but no good line to connect them. It was very piece-y and jumped around too much, and would have been hard to follow if you didn’t already know the story. This is how I felt about Goblet of Fire as well. When I look at the whole thing, it just doesn’t hang together as a movie rather than a movie of a book. And it’s too bad really, because I think they had a lot of room to do better. It was a decent setup to the last two movies, and I hope they use that well and do an awesome job on the last chapter, especially since they’ll have nearly 5 hours of screen time to do so.

It’s worth seeing and I’m sure I’ll watch it again. Hell, I’m sure I’ll buy it. But I’m afraid that after Azkaban, the movies continue to let me down. Especially when it’s been 2 years since any new HP! I guess now I can only wish that they do Hallows justice, because it would be a real shame if that ends up being a let-down as well.