I finally cleaned up enough counter space that I felt reasonably sure that my apartment was not in danger of going up in flames if a stray drop of 12,000 calories of boiling corn oil were to fly out the fryer. However, this was far from a major culinary feat. The hardest part of the process is heating the pot of oil, which while much more dangerous is no more difficult than boiling water.

Erik was trying to explain how this movie was just thinly veiled allegory. If so, then most of the symbolism went over my head. For me it was a fun bit of fantasy, if a touch too childish for my taste at times. But I can safely say that I think I am in love with the White Witch. How can you not fall for someone so cold and evil and skilled with a sword?

This album continues where “200 km/h in the Wrong Lane” left off, although the songs in general tend to be slower. Still, it isn’t every day that a pop album features Russian language tracks, which makes this CD a little more interesting than a typical release.

How can you go wrong with a slickly overproduced pop album featuring two Russian teenagers pretending to be lesbian lovers while singing an infectiously upbeat rendition of “How Soon Is Now?”

In a dystopian future a rebel assassin undertakes one final mission but begins to suspect that things are not exactly how they appear.

I didn’t really follow the original animated series. There was just something about the style of animation and the pacing of the plot that didn’t appeal to me. This live action adaptation, however, retains much of the series feel in an action packed special effects extravaganza.

You know, for kids!

I wanted to see Metric in concert when they came to Seattle earlier this month. Unfortunately, I was severely jet-lagged from my recent trip to Europe. The only three hours of sleep I got that night were exactly at the same time as the show.

I might not have seen the show, but at least I can listen to the CD.

Following on the success of “Agile Web Development With Rails”, the Pragmatic Programmers released a beta version of “Pragmatic Ajax” before a flood of other Ajax books hit the bookshelves. Unfortunately, unlike its predecessor, this book was released to beta too early, lacking not just final proofing and editing but with entire chapters unwritten. The writing is a little over the top with the motivating story so absurd that it is insulting. Buried in the fluff and the author’s arrogant assertions that they effectively rewrote Google maps in two hours while manning a conference booth, however, there appears to be a lot of good information covering the fundamentals of Ajax using standalone Javascript as well as overviews of several of the dominant toolkits. With any luck, this could turn into a fine book before the final version is shipped.

I just downloaded my copy of the “beta book” PDF. I’m looking forward to spending some time going through the book. I’ve done some pretty advanced things with Rails already, but it will be nice to brush up again on the basics and learn some of the new features of the framework.

I can’t wait until the finished book ships later this year.

This is the semi-official theme song of The Robot Co-op. Also, don’t miss the 8 remixes of the song available at the iTunes store for 40 minutes of musical bliss.