I love Weeds.

Let me list the reasons.

One...

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After nearly breaking my ankle little over few weeks ago, I have spent a lot of time on my sofa, watching TV. Mostly I've been watching movies and old shows on DVDs, but I've come across a few new gems as well. I figured I'd mention them in passing, but after I started writing, I realised I would have to make separate posts for them all. Sorry, I are geek.

Kindred - The Embraced, was a shortlived show which aired originally in 1996, and only had 7 episodes + an long hour pilot. Despite it's short lifespan, I will always rate it as one of the best shows of the nineties.

The show followed the lives of vampires, mostly focusing on Julian Luna, the Prince of San Francisco. As Prince, Julian's duties were mostly to keep the peace between various vampire clans, and uphold the laws of the Masquerade, the ancient set of laws which had protected the existence of vampires since the middle ages. While keeping the peace and the Kindred hidden was always Julian's greatest concern, he was also shown to be able to dispense immense brutality when need be.

In the world of Kindred, vampires had been divided in to five clans, all different not only by their philosophies, but also by their physical characteristics. The Brujah are a warlike clan, closely resembling the mafia, seeking power via physical brutality and breaking the rules.
The Gangrel are a nomadic tribe, descendant of gypsy blood, often appearing as free spirited and rebellious, but extremely honourable.
The Toreador are artists. They are hedonistic, taking full advantage of immortality, embracing all life has to offer. Physically, they are the most beautiful of the Kindred.
A strict contrast to the Toreador clan are the Nosferatu, monstrous beasts combining all images people have of vampires. Their appearance makes them mostly unable to live among humans, some seeking refuge literally underground. But, despite their appearance, the Nosferatu are revered and feared, both for their great wisdom and their physical strength.
The Ventrue are in many ways the lords of all Kindred. They are aristocratic, noble and intelligent. Almost all Kindred Camarillas are governed by a Ventrue, and their power usually extends far beyond the Kindred world. As in the case of Julian Luna who, aside from being the Prince, was one of San Francisco's wealthiest men, and considered by many to be a Godfather like character, with ties to the mafia and a finger in every pie.

"You exist... only because I allow it." - Julian Luna

One of the key themes in the series was the effects of immortality, the difficulty of watching the world change and human relatives pass on, while you remain unchanged. This was especially true in the case of Luna falling in love with a mortal, and wrestling with the knowledge that someday she would either grow old and die, or he would have to embrace her, and curse her with immortality.
The strongest source of action was the everlasting powerstruggle between Brujah leader Eddie Fiori and Luna. Fiori's continuous attempts to supplant Luna once almost started a full blown clan war.
An ongoing storyline was also the tension between Luna and SFPD detective Frank Kohanek who, through his obsession with taking down Luna, learnt of the existence of the Kindred in the series pilot. Normally the laws of the Masquerade would have called for Frank's immediate death, but his life was spared due to events in the pilot, leaving Luna honourbound to protect Frank's life.

Showtime had just renewed the series for a second season, when lead actor Mark Frankel died in a motorcycle accident, while visiting his home in England. And despite having an ensemble cast and storylines designed for each character, the show really revolved almost entirely around the enigmatic and ruthless Julian Luna. With Frankel's death, Showtime permanently cancelled Kindred, and the show was lost to oblivion.

Apart from a great story and intriguing characters, the show had one of the most haunting themes I have ever heard.

As Zykon's massive army prepares for battle, the Order Of The Stick is taking a short and well deserved respit in Azure City, before continuing their quest to defeat Zykon, not knowing that the evil lich is almost at the gates.

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This here be the Acer Aspire One.

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And isn't it just the most gorgeous piece of gadgetry you have ever seen?

It's a subnotebook, also known as a netbook. The screen is 8.9 inches, it has a 1.6mhz processor, 512 RAM and instead of a conventional hard drive, it uses a 8gb flashmemory. So not exactly a highpowered computer, but on the plus side, it only weighs 2 pounds and has a battery life all the way up to 7 hours.

And I'm so getting one as soon as I get some spare cash... which would be on September 2nd.

This...

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0 to 60 in 5.8 seconds, with a top speed of 125 miles an hour, the Karma is not exactly a high performance car, especially when you consider it's price, which is 80.000 dollars.

So what's makes it special? It's a hybrid. It has an up to 50 mile range with the electric engine alone, and it's a plug in hybrid, so if you live within 25 miles of your work, you may never have to fill it with gas. Just plug it in a socket when you come home at night, and it's good to go in the morning. And it looks really, really great.

And they're going to be making it in Finland. Which is nice.

Sometimes when you really want the world to go somewhere else, it can be the little things that matter.

I was about to cook some lunch, when I realised that I was missing a lot of ingredients for my spaghetti sauce recipe. I thought about quickly popping down to the corner shop, but my ankle is pretty busted so I decided to do with what I had.

So I threw the minced meat in the pan, and started chopping the onions. Normally I use either shallots or yellow onions, or perhaps even spring onions, to get some sweetness in the sauce. Today I had to make do with red onions, which are definitely not sweet. So I sautéd the onions for a good bit longer, just to get that bitterness out of them. Then I threw in a fistfull of basil, the herb of the gods. I was also lacking mushrooms and cream, so I decided to try something completely different. I used twice as much crushed tomatos than I usually do, and reduced it a good while to make the sauce nice and thick.

Having never made a sauce quite like this, I was a bit unsure. But I had some. And oh yes. I am good. I am very good. I think that if I swap the red onions with shallots, and some fresh mushrooms sliced real thin, perhaps just a tiny hint of garlic, this may be my best recipe yet.

And then I thrashed a spanish dude in chess, who had an ELO rating 120 points higher than mine. Which lifted my mood nicely.

Just scored me tickets to the premiere of...

Was reading the news just now. The Pope has started his visit to Australia. And as usual, his first order of business was to apologise for catholic priests in Australia molesting children.

How fucked up is it that no matter where you go, the first thing you have to do is say "So about that whole kiddie poking... sorry, we haven't actually done anything to prevent it from happening again, so sorry is all I can really say".

I now understand why one of the prerequisites of becoming a pope is the lack of soul. You just could not pull that off day after day without feeling something clawing your insides, your soul desperately trying to escape.

Also, during the anti-christ's visit, it is illegal to advertise condoms or protest against the church's position on homosexuality. So my limit of "I fucking hate the world" was topped before tea time.

When I was a kid, I had two heros. The other, was Optimus Prime. He was someone even my parents could kinda understand. He was a man who would die for his cause, or yours, just to save a life.
The other... he was born Alex Murphy. And he was murdered in the pursuit of law.

And now they've bringing him back

Oh sure, this is a trailer from the 1989 original RoboCop movie, but the buzz is, Murphy is coming back again.