Salmon in A Bag

broderic on January 6, 2018

Sitting in my freezer for weeks on end are a bunch of frozen stuff. There’s frozen fruit for smoothies, frozen chicken breast, a frozen pork belly, frozen soup stock, and some frozen salmon. One of these days I’ll use all of them. Today it’s the salmon.

I made salmon in a bag for dinner. It’s a simple recipe so I just threw it together real quick with whatever I had in the cupboard.

In a parchment paper, I sliced up a fingerling potato and some carrots and onions. I layered them in the paper with some olive oil. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste. Overtop went one salmon fillet. Then some more olive oil, pepper, and salt. I closed up the paper into a bag and cooked in an oven pre-heated to 375F for 20 minutes.

Voila! Easy-peasy dinner.

Was it delicious? Somewhat. It needs some herbs the next time. O, there will be a next time because there is still some frozen salmon in the freezer.

Best Films of 2017

broderic on January 1, 2018

No 5 star movies. Mainly 4 stars. Although, to be honest, Your Name should be five stars. And perhaps Jedi and Spiderman should be demoted to three. Beyond that I think most of these were pretty good. Surprising that there’s a few super hero movies here. Sadly, the state of the industry is such that only super hero movies are being made.

You should check out both Lady Bird and 20th Century Women on a double bill because they deserve to be seen back-to-back.

Blade Runner will again become a beloved classic. Thor: Ragnarok as well.

Here’s my list of the best films I saw in the theatre for the year 2017.

Lady Bird
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Spiderman: Homecoming
Thor: Ragnarok
Blade Runner 2049
Your Name
Get Out
Logan
20th Century Women

2018 New Year’s Resolutions

broderic on January 1, 2018

Well I am a glutton for punishment so here we go again…

Am I set up for failure this year? I need to not think in those terms. I will do it. I WILL do it. It will be done.

Health

Target weight 210 lbs. Again. Today I stepped on the scale and weighed 222.2 lbs down about 6 lbs from last year. I think this may be my natural weight, but I want less. The goal is the same as last year, but the amount to lose is less.

Lower my blood pressure. I don’t know what it is now, but it is still high. I need to eat better and exercise to help lower this. Losing weight may help, too. 120/85 target same as last year.

Exercise

Hit the same amount of walking exercise as last year: 142. Spread it out over the entire year as during summer it disappeared.

Bike 100 miles. Get on this.

Row 30K. Hopefully I don’t fuck up my shoulder.

50 straight pushups. 75 straight squats. I want to break this down throughout the year. Half way there in the summer. Fully there by October. Hopefully I don’t fuck up my shoulder.

Professional Life

Be the UnitTest guy at work. Do some pair programming. New job? Yes! Learn another programming language. Swift and release an iOS app.

Personal

Keep up with the Japanese learning. So that I can go to Japan to see a Nogizaka46 concert.

Read more books.

Clean up the home. Give away and donate 50% of the clothing in my house. Get rid of some books. Tidy up.

Fix up the bathrooms 15 years in and they should get some updating.

Cut the coffee spending in half. This means joining the coffee klatch. I need to buy a kettle for the home.

Cut the dining spending 25% again. But for real this time. Need to make healthier lunches.

Less meat. More vegetables and fruit. Eat at least one of each each day.

Lady Bird

broderic on December 30, 2017

Lately, I’ve come to really dig anything that Greta Gerwig, the writer and director of Lady Bird does. Completely loved 20th Century Women from earlier this year of which she plays a supporting role. She’s great in Frances Ha. She’s even better as an adorkable girl than the ultimate adorkable Zooey Deschannel. I really like her style.

That said, this coming of age tale of a Sacramento misfit is touching. It makes you realize how much you love your family even though you hate them all. It’s a good film and should win some awards coming up.

4 of 5 stars.

Resolved [Week 52]

broderic on December 29, 2017

I made a big deal about my New Year’s Resolution for 2017, and I failed to keep at it. Not completely, but at a few of the items I earmarked.

I believe the hardest part was to blog about it. I think it was because there was a format to the post that I wanted to follow. Formatting the post was a bitch to do so eventually I stopped posting. Perhaps, that made me fail to accomplish some of those goals. Sadly, isn’t that the deal with resolutions — that they are made and never completed.

Anyhow, let’s see how I did.

Health
* Resolution: weigh 210 lbs. Results: weight 224 and rising because of the Holidays. I’ll revisit this on next year with probably the same goal. It’s always the same year in and year out: lose weight.
* Resolution: lose 5 inches on around the waist. Results: perhaps an inch or two. The pants fit, but they may not soon. Got to get back on this one too.
* Resolution: Lower my resting heart rate by 4 BPM. Results: 83 BPM. Some change. This one is too tough to measure as I don’t think the apps I am using are fine grained enough.
* Resolution: Lower blood pressure to 120/85. Resolved: Unknown. This is bad. I had to get this down to stave off the diabetes. It’s coming isn’t it.

Exercise
* Resolution: 150 miles on a bike. Results: 2 rides a total of 25 miles. Way too short. I should’ve gotten this one. Still scared about riding on the rode. Must be overcome because I miss biking.
* Resolution: 120 outdoor walks. Results: 142! Killed it. Do I up this next year?
* Resolution: 5 rowing per month. Results: Hit the goals in January, February, March, and May. Did not row the other times. It’s because of my elbow and how my form contributes to making it hurt.

Professional Life
* Resolution: learn a new language. Results: did not do
* Resolution: get a new job. Results: did not happen. Although I am doing something different. Still need to explore this in 2018

Personal
* Resolution: blog more on different topics. Results: Failed as most of the time it was still movie reviews. Although, I did have that bookstore haul thing going on.
* Resolution: Cook more and cut dining spending by 25%. Results: Failed. Spending is down just not 25%. It doesn’t help when you have to pay for many big birthday meals.
* Resolution: Read more books. Results: Failed. I bought more books. Did not read the ones on the night stand.
* Resolution: Japan. Results: Failed. Sadly I really wanted this to happen, but I chickened out because of traveling alone.
* Resolution: Study Japanese. Results: Failed. Although I am now working on it via Duolingo. I should’ve been slightly proficient if I started from the new year.

Once more. I failed. Will I resolve next year for the better? We’ll see.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

broderic on December 27, 2017

Little did I know when I saw Star Wars: The Last Jedi the first night, that it would turn out to be such a divisive entry into the Star Wars filmology. I came out smiling throwing thumbs up to the next batch of folks in line. I went to sleep that night, then all things broke out over the weekend. I spent the next couple days watching the growing genre of YouTube rants against the film. It made me laugh and a little sad. Why did it come to this?

Admittedly, I know that there are flaws — space Leia, the casino planet, and that timeline, but it did give us the hero turn of Kylo Ren, Rey reaching out for the light saber, and that slow motion beginning to the throne room fight. Just one of the most amazing things they’ve done in the series. It had me gasping, then giggling and then shouting out in glee.

But still, space Leia?!

It’s changed up the story. It no longer follows the beats of the original series. It’s now gonna be surprise. And this entry was also surprising! Can Kylo Ren be redeemed? Or is he the worst? Who cares about the parents of Rey? I did until they just threw it into my face again. Yet, I loved it because who cares? It was the Shatner on SNL of Star Wars movies, “Get a life!” I’m looking forward to the next installment.

4 of 5 stars.

The Disaster Artist

broderic on December 21, 2017

I have never seen The Room, the movie that was the basis for The Disaster Artist. Maybe I should’ve because I didn’t understand how weird the movie was — The Room and not The Disaster Artist. That Tommy guy was freaky-deaky. I wonder how weird he was in the movie — The Room and not The Disaster Artist. I wonder if there really was a gay subtext to those dudes relationship. But it would be too weird to think of the brothers Franco in such as situation. Too weird. I don’t understand. Need to watch The Room except that was enough of it for a lifetime.

Not sure how that could be a cult hit — The Room and not The Disaster Artist.

It would be worth a watch — The Disaster Artist and not The Room.

3 of 5 stars.