Abandon Ship!

I am officially abandoning this blog since I spend most of my online time elsewhere. On the off chance you still have this blog on your Feed Reader feel free to remove it. You can find me at the following online destinations.

Facebook - Search for Daniel Sundin
Twitter - twitter.com/odjur
Baby Blog - http://www.babymeatball.com
Photography Blog - http://www.sundinphotography.com/blog

Only Suckers get Double Quarter Pounders with Cheese

This blog entry has been sitting in my drafts folder for over a year so I figure I would throw it out their as a "b-side" if you will. I have been eating a lot less fast food lately so I haven't considered this for a while.

Many items on fast food menus have "little brothers" which contain essentially the same ingredients, but in smaller sizes. A great example is McDonald's Double-Quarter Pounder with Cheese (DQPwC) and its beefy doppelganger, the Double Cheeseburger (DC). They both consist of beef, cheese, and a bun. However the DQPwC is a hefty $4.19 compared to the lean $0.99 of the DC. So how do you measure the best deal... calories per dollar of course. The handy chart shows the cheapest way to feel extremely nauseous.

Restaurant	Type	Menu item	Price	Calories	Calories/Dollar
Burger King	Pro	Whopper Jr.	$1.29	370	287
	Sucker	Whopper	$2.99	670	224
McDonald's	Pro	Double Cheeseburger	$0.99	440	444
	Sucker	Double Quarter Pounder w/ Cheese	$4.19	740	177
Taco Bell	Pro	Nachos Supreme	$1.49	440	295
	Sucker	Nachos Bellgrande	$2.99	770	258

Movie Reviews

I have a confession to make. I love reading movie reviews. I read them before I see a movie, after I see a movie, and, in some cases, while seeing a movie. Netflix stocks some snoozer.

• I read movie reviews to help me decide which movies to see.


• I read movie reviews to validate my opinions about a movie after I have already seen it.


• I read movie reviews to help me appreciate a movie more. Caveat: I also read IMDB for this purpose.

This last point is the one I want to discuss because it is the least obvious.

Movie critics help us decipher between "good" movies and "bad" movies. I understand that rating art is inherently tricky. However the art of movie making has much more structure, and therefore rateable criteria, than... say... painting. If most most critics give a movie a high rating, it is likely a good movie based on the standard set of rating rules which make a movie "good." This doens't mean that the average person won't enjoy the movie. I'm sure a lot of people came out smiling after seeing Kazaam.

This brings me to No Country for Old Men, which I saw Saturday. This movie is good. Really, really good. This is the kind of movie that your unborn child is going to be writing a paper about in their college film class in 20 years.

I am glad I read some reviews of this movie before I saw it. Since I knew I was about to see a good movie I prepared myself to closely watch each scene and look for metaphors, pay special attention to the lighting, and keep my mouth shut so I didn't miss any important lines. It is like getting a very expensive dinner at a posh restaurant. You know a lot of time and effort went into the dish so you eat it slowly and savor it.

After I saw the movie I re-read the movie reviews and liked the movie even more. Critics understand the craft of film-making more that I do and their insight adds to my appreciation.

Go see this movie. I understand I am getting your hopes up. Trust me. It helps.

Bachelor Life - In Excruciating Detail

Ginette and Dayla left for the weekend to hang out with my Mom and sister. I realize I haven't had a weekend all to myself in a very long time. Since I am sure I will get bored very quickly I'm going to write everything I do today and bore everyone else unfortunate enough to read this.

• 8:16am - Woke up. Actually make the bed (sort of).
• 8:18am - Check emails on my Blackberry.
• 8:20am - Read the Internet for a while. Think about what I am going to do today.
• 8:47am - Take a shower. Decide not to shave for the second day in a row. Scrufftastic!
• 9:02am - Get dressed. Grab the first Threadless shirt on top of the pile. It looks cold today so I'm going with the skate shoes instead of the flip flops.
• 9:12am - Grab some iced coffee and toast and head out the door
• 9:20am - Arrive at Vons. Pick up a gallon of milk and some cash back on my purchase
• 9:45am - Check out the Farmer's Market in Scripps Ranch. I'm hoping to find some good looking, locally grown produce. I'm disappointed with the selection and walk away with nothing.
• 10:10am - Arrive at Ranch 99 Asian Market. Pick up some basic I can't get at Vons: curry paste, coconut milk, lime leaves, and sashimi grade fish.
• 10:35am - I'm already bored being by myself. Before leaving Ranch I call Kate and suggest a movie. She's in! We agree to make plans in the late afternoon.
• 10:50am - Get home, unpack my groceries, put on This American Life on iTunes, and start making sushi rice.
• 11:01am - The rice is soaking. Time to play some Metroid 3!
• 12:30pm - Sushi's done. Watching the movie "Lucky You"
• 1:15pm - Uuggghhhh. Tooo much sushi. I put the rest in the fridge for later. However I have to say that a salmon, cream cheese, and red pepper inside-out roll is might tasty.
• 2:45pm - Movie's over. Pretty good. An accurate poker procedural with a tacked on romance. I guess no studio would budget a poker procedural without a romance.
• 2:46pm - Time to play some online poker!
• 2:49pm - Hmmm. It looks like the law stuck. No real money for US players. Bahh. What's the point.
• 4:41pm - 441st place out of 840 players in the Omaha Hi-Lo tournament. I really don't know what I am doing when it comes to that game.
• 5:35pm - Kate's here. Time to make some curry and eat the rest of the sushi.
• 6:40pm - The curry (Masman this time) turned out better than usual if I do say so myself. Kate agrees. However she would probably say nice things even if it tasted terrible. We discuss The Omnivore's Dilemma for awhile which we are both in the middle of reading.
• 7:25pm - We arrive at the movie theater to see Eastern Promises. Seriously, seriously, how many commercials how can they show before the movie. Movie Theater Executive: "We are losing more customers to On Demand movies, Netflix, and Tivo. What can we do to increase our goodwill with the public? I got it, more commercials and higher prices. Brilliant!"
• 9:30pm - Very good movie. 4 out of 5. I would say I like A History of Violence better since it did have the same director and lead. I probably would have given this one a 4.5/5 if I didn't have to see so much of Viggo's wang in the shower knife fight scene.
• 9:40pm - Kate drops me off. I'm pretty tired. One Simpsons rerun than it's off to bed.
• 10:17pm - Good night.
  

Cop-out

I haven't posted anything legitimate in a while. I understand that. I don't want to be that guy you consider removing from your feeds list because he never posts to his lame vanity blog.

That being said, here is a cop-out list that briefly summarizes everything I can think of that is awesome or lame that I have done in the past few months. Looking over the list now things have definitely been more awesome than lame, which is, in itself, awesome.

• New baby - awesome


• diapers - lame


• My high school reunion not happening - lame


• Bioshock (PC version of course) - awesome


• Selling my Xbox on Ebay - awesome


• Silversun Pickups - awesome


• Switching cars with Ginette since babies like Volvos more than Integras - lame


• Crosswords - awesome


• Those nasty, freezer burned vegetable potstickers I shouldn't have eaten becuase they made me sick - lame


• All you can eat sushi (twice!) - awesome


• The Sopranos (seasons 1&2) - awesome


• Harry Potter (books 1, 2, 3, and 1/4 of 4) - awesome


• Reruns on my Tivo - lame


• Upping Netflix to 5-at-a-time - awesome