(no subject)

I rented Hellboy over the weekend because I hadn't seen it before. I didn't think it was as good as X-Men. I just didn't like the plot all that much. I guess it didn't help that Alan's Rasputin was way better than the one in this movie and I remembered that every time they mentioned the name. And how come they were able to get rid of all the Sammaels (or whatever those dog/mini!Cthulhu things were) like that? How come they didn't just get twice as many of them again? Their ability to produce two more every time one got killed didn't seem to have anything to do with the eggs, so having destroyed them woudn't account for it. How did burning them contravene the rules, when electrocuting that first one didn't?

I liked the fish guy. Was that David Hyde Pierce? Yes! I knew it. It was him doing the voice, anyway. Uncredited. That's odd.

I also rented Mortal Kombat. Just for the hell of it. I totally would've done better as Sonja Blade. Her stances look... awkward. She isn't really holding her hands up properly. And she lost her balance in the fight scene with Kano. But they're fighting on sand; I don't know how well I'd do there. I haven't had time to watch all of it. I used to love that game. I liked Kitana. I could do her fan-throwing move. Ooh, and Scorpion. I could do his spear-throw too. ...come to think of it, weren't a lot of them half-circle forward + high punch? I was really bad at doing the fatalities, though. And on MK3 or whichever, I could do... um... female-Goro's move where she jumps up off the screen and then comes down and stomps on her opponent. My brother used to hate that.

***

I made garlic potato soup last night and it was really good. I can't eat raw garlic, unfortunately, because it upsets my stomach. I hope roasted garlic still has some of the health benefits. Even if it doesn't, I love the taste. Want the recipe? I don't have exact quantities for everything because I was just dumping things in the pot but here it is:

( soup recipe )

The point of this was that I really liked the Campbell's potato and garlic soup but I haven't been able to eat it for 7 years, because they make theirs with chicken broth. (Since I became a vegetarian 7 years ago.)

I'm getting better at making up recipes. I used to do this thing where I'd just get an idea and toss stuff into a pot and it didn't turn out so well but all my recent attempts have turned out better than I expected. The only problem with this soup is that I think it could be a little creamier - it's a touch mealy from the potatoes. But still good. I think I cooked it for too long, because I was waiting for the garlic to be ready. And I might try cooking the diced potato in a separate pot and adding it ready-cooked, or at least partially cooked, so I don't have to cook the soup for as long after adding the mashed potato.

...I think I'm going to go home for lunch and have some more of that soup.

(no subject)

I went home for lunch and had some more of that soup. With sourdough bread. Ahh.

I also watched the rest of Mortal Kombat. Johnny Cage and Liu Kang both got to fight a bunch of times but Sonja only got to fight once. I'd forgotten about that. Dangit.

It was nice to see a martial arts movie without wire stunts. Even a cheesy, horribly acted one like Mortal Kombat is preferable to something with excessive use of wire stunts.

Every time I see a movie with martial arts, I think I should go back to TKD and at least get my black belt. I'm a year away from it at this point (though that doesn't mean as much in TKD as in other martial arts - it only takes 3 years, which is relatively quick.) Since my job's moving in a week or so, I can finally officially quit and stop getting billed every month. And at the same time, I'll ask for my red belt, since they never gave it to me. They'd better, because I passed the test and paid the testing fee and part of the fee covers the cost of the belt.

The trouble with taking it up again is that I can't stick to a schedule. It has to be something like these classes at the gym, where I can show up whenever I feel like it, and take a week or two off if I need to without having to worry about falling behind. I'm thinking if I can find a gym where they do kickboxing (like, real, competitive kickboxing, not this aerobics stuff at 24 Hour Fitness, which is fun but isn't really helping me improve my technique or anything), that'd be good. J. at work does aikido and he's offered to bring me along for a class. I just don't know if aikido's my thing. There is one huge benefit to doing aikido: you can use it to defend yourself without injuring anyone or escalating the situation. You can't really do that with TKD - if you use TKD to defend yourself, you're going to hurt someone. I guess the ideal would be knowing both. And it seems like at this aikido place, they don't have a rigid schedule like they do at most TKD schools.

Another alternative is just finding another TKD school (but starting at red belt - I'm not starting over at white belt again), just to get my black belt. Maybe I could find one that's more flexible.

I could probably get away with sticking around at my current school and hardly ever showing up, just long enough to get my black belt. It wouldn't take me too long to refresh my memory of my forms (I can do that on my own time) and I'm in, if anything, better condition than I was back when I was showing up for class. I just don't know.