Book Review: The Name of the Wind

I just finished a book "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss.  I had avoided this book as it had a lot of hype.  I don't like hype.  Hype usually hinds a whole lot of issues . . . like ridiculous angst or poor writing.  So, why did I read it?  That is a very good question.  You see I found a copy of "Sten" by Chris Bunch at a bookstore awhile back and gave it to a friend who I had suggested the book to (if you can find it buy it, its great - hard to find though).  As I wouldn't let him pay for the book, I got a book in return.  That book was "The Name of the Wind."  I put off reading it for awhile.  I had a bunch of books already and I'd been feeling a bit done with "traditional" fantasy.  I was never surprised anymore . . . the writing wasn't wowing me . . . I thought maybe I'd worn myself out of the genre.

This makes it look a bit too somber

I finally picked up "The Name of Wind."  It had me by the 7th page or so (That is fast for me, some times I reread beginnings of books after I get a bit in and start to care a bit).  The writing is to put it simply - lovely.  It really rolls around in your mind.  It has been a long time since I've taken such delight in how a traditional fantasy novel was actually written.  It is not dense or heavy or dark, though that is all in the book.  I am left with the humor of it.  Natural humor.  The humor of a good story teller telling you a terribly sad story so that you can't help but laugh.  My favorite kind of story and teller! There is no despair and gnashing of teeth.  There is practicality and the understanding that the world is essentially ridiculous.  I love it.  Add to that a interesting lead character and some very well developed and interesting side characters and we really have a story!  I was totally absorbed and wanted to know more immediately.  The writing is too good to skim to the action parts, so I had to be patient . . . it is a long book.  This is the first book in awhile that has made me want to take a long time with it.  Delightful!

red hair too! :)

The book is the story of Kvothe - Hero/genius/kingkiller/demon/beggar/inn keeper . . .  The book is told (in the form of a story by Kvothe. This actually works really well).  Chronicler tracks hims down in his retirement to separate the lies for the truth of the story of Kvothe the greatest hero or demon the land has ever known.  I'm not going to tell you too much about it as I want you to have the joy of finding it out for yourself, but I will say it is a colorful life.  I have a soft spot for boy geniuses who cause mischief, but I think that most people would enjoy Kvothe.

A reminder of the entire book is available on Rothfuss's blog - it is awesome (please read the book first . . . unless you need convincing as to how cool and funny this book is . . . then read part of the comic - read the book - get back to the comic!

That is my glowing review.  If you don't usual read fantasy I would say this is actually a pretty good place to start.  Funny and interesting.  What could be better? I must say I was surprised and how little happened in the rather long book . . . can't say that I was disappointed by the story or the plot.

Final Note - Authors who have Joss Whedon T-shirts are awesome (and know what funny is)

Rothfuss = awesome

If you don't know what a Jayne hat is . . . I'm sad for you :(

Jdrama: Ohitorisama!

I recently finished another JDrama.  I picked Ohitorisama because it looked kind of sweet (and I am agnsted out for awhile) and was short (10 episodes).  Ohitorisama means one person (or you know perpetually single/old maid - for the record she is 33).

The plot is as follows our Ohitorisama broke up with her boyfriend 5 years ago as she wanted to keep her job as a teach and wasn't sure she could be a good wife at the same time.  Now she does everything alone and says she likes it.  Her school gets a male substitute who is 23 and useless.  Our heroine is his mentor . . . this is the story of how they "don't" like each other at all.

I really enjoyed this show.  It was sweet and I just enjoyed the silly stories.  It is not deep or emotional or much of anything really, but I still really liked it.  I guess I could relate to Ohitorisama and her love for doing things her own way.  If your in the mood for something silly and light, this is a great way to go.  Koike Teppei did a good job at being bumbling and fairly useless . . . I never really really liked his character expect for a couple of key moments, but he is okay overall.  Maya Miki plays the principle and I adore her.  All of her scenes were my favorite!

Love her!

 This probably isn't a good choice for a first drama, but if you've been at this awhile and would like to cleanse your palate this is a great choice.

The Good, the Bad, the Weird

The Good, the Bad, the Weird is a Korean remake/homage to The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

Guess who is weird . . .

First, it is important to point out that The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is one of the best Westerns/movies of all time.  That's right one of the best movies of all time.  So, paying tribute to it is kind of risky.  That rubs some people the wrong way sometimes.  Whats good with the original is that its difficult to tell, which character is the Good, which is the Bad, and which is the ugly.  I mean the easier interpretation is there for you, but there is some leeway in the behavior of the characters.  It is a classic in part for its use of silence and singularly off putting but catchy theme music.  It has a lot of visual silence in it to.  It just kind of unfurls. It really is a must see.  



What I just described to you is not the part of the movie The Good the Bad and the Weird pay homage to.  It uses a flashy variety of songs and has more than a few long dialogue scenes. The character are even labeled good, bad, weird.  That being said, they somehow did make it feel like the original.  They got the humor and the sadness in it.  The Korean version is also interesting and fun in its own right.  The characters are interesting.  The fight scenes are great.  It is like gun fight/sword fights.  What's not to like about that?  I was impressed with the look of the movie too.  It is beautiful in a odd steam punk western kind of way.  The Bad in this one is also strangely anachronistic, but it all somehow works.  It is the idea of what the west would have been like in Korea while the Japanese army was in control . . . good re-visioning.  If you like action or westerns or both I would highly recommend it.  To give you a taste.



Actually, watch them both.

The Opera: The Abduction from the Seraglio

I've never been to the opera before, this is my very first time.  In fact, I'm not much into classical music etc.  Recently I went to the symphony and had a very nice time, so when my friend Retep-bot suggested going to the opera here in Edmonton I said yes.  I had not been to the Jubilee Auditorium previously, but I had heard good things about the venue.  I had heard nothing about the Edmonton Opera . . .

Clearly not this time of year . . .

 So, we went to get tickets from the campus Ticketmaster . . . which took 1 hour with only the three of us at the kiosk buy tickets.  Yes your read that correctly.  The girl behind the counter has reinforced my rule - if your server is wearing a see-through shirt, the service will be bad (that is why they aren't working in clothes).  Service will get worse in direct proportion to other missing clothing items. So, far this rule has never been wrong.

The opera playing is The Abduction from the Seraglio. The website told me the following "Laugh out loud on a journey of the imagination, resplendent with musical misadventure as only Mozart could create. The young Belmonte journeys to the exotic east to rescue his beloved Konstanze from the clutches of an amorous Pasha, and madness ensues as the lovers battle to outwit a bumbling and jealous vizier."  Sounded good to me.

Looks alright . . .

So, the version we watched was updated to be the James Bond 1960s version . . . kind of . . . it was also very 80s (ie project Hammerpants) and had multiple references to facebook in it.  While none of this is a deal breaker it did make the opera a bit more uneven then I assume it was originally.  The talky bits also seemed to go on a lot to make the time period appropriate jokes.  On a whole it was funny in a pleasantly amusing kind of way.

Hammerpants do not go with Bond

 The Pashas bad Bill accent from Bill and Ted was super distracting and made my ears hurt.  There is no Valley in Bond.  Many of the accents were annoyingly stereotypical, for example Pedrillo's Mexican accent.  I would have been happier with normal accents and the same lines.

Thats like so awesome . . .

The Staging was good as were the costumes and effects etc.  Their were Bond Girls/Solid Gold Dancer minions that needed to practice more, but as a whole the human set decorations did a good job.

The singing was good, not the best ever, but solid.  As an odd contrast to his accent, I really enjoyed Pedrillo's singing.  Osmin had lots of good lines about putting heads on pikes, which was fun.  The songs all sounded rather similar, however.  There really wasn't a climax to the music in my mind.

The cast!

Overall, I had a good time though.  I enjoyed the atmosphere and most of the opera itself was pretty good.  The translation of the German lyrics was funny and accurate?  I would definitely be temped to see another opera they put on.

Jdrama: Hanazakari no Kimitachi e

I just realized I've not yet reviewed Hanazakari no Kimitachi e (Hana Kimi).  This is one of my favorite jdramas.  It is just so cute!  Unlike most dramas the steady stream of side characters makes the show rather than detracting from it.

Class picture!

The story is simple.  Nice young girl (Ashiya Mizuki) pretends to be a nice young boy to inspire her childhood love (Sano Izumi) to return to high jump.  Yeah, I know that sounds thin, but it works.  The plot does not really get old.  I must say that the main story is not my favorite part.  Rather the interaction of all the characters as a whole and Ikuta Toma as Nakatsu Shuichi in particular.

Isn't he cute!

The characters are what make this drama really worth seeing.  The plot is cute too and it really is quite funny.  This is from the cross dressing and just the story in general.  Sano is a bit sour and angsty for me and I like the actor better in other things I've seen him in, but I got over it.  I would definitely recommend this one.

Glutten Free Gingerbread House: Part 1 Baking

My dad and I make a Christmas project ever year.  It usually involves cake or cookies.  This year we decided to make a gingerbread house.  This is complicated by the fact that my father is now on a gluten free diet.  Baking challenge accepted!

We started by picking a recipe.  If you've ever cooked gluten free you know that it can be difficult.  The ingredients are often expensive and recipes often require a huge amount of ingredients.  In the end I settled on one that we already had most of the ingredients for.  I used a recipe found at Jenn Cuisines.  The author of the recipe also used it to make a gingerbread house, which I thought was a good sign.  I should warn you that my batch turned out a bit dry and I only added 1.5 cups of millet flour.  I should also mention that the cookies are not very sweet.  If I make this again I'll add a bit more sugar.  In the end we had enough for the house, but not much else.

Half the dough ready to be rolled out!

The next stage is picking a pattern.  I looked all over at free patterns.  We flirted with the idea of designing our own, but as this is our first time decided to use something we were pretty sure would work (fingers crossed).  In the end we went with the Swedish gingerbread house design found at Marthastewart dot com.  It was the right amount of classic and interesting . . . and the patten was free!

Patterns ready to be cut!

We made up the dough and cut out all the bits!  It was rather stressful due to the dryness of the dough.  However, we ended up with what appears to be very sturdy house pieces.  Construction has not yet began due to time constraints, but you'll get a blog as soon as possible!

Unbaked with the windows being popped out . . .

First sheet out of the oven . . .

The front!

Side of the house

Most of the parts baked and ready to go!

Ikkin-bot baker extraordinaire!

So far the project has been great.  I recommend family christmas projects.  It is a great way to relax and make sure you actually see people at the holidays instead of just running around stressed out. 

Panfried Tofu: Dubu buchim yangnyumjang and dubu ganjang jorim!

I did some more Korean cooking today.  I have been trying (and failing) to make delicious tofu for awhile now.  It is a good source of protein, I just didn't really know how to use it.  This may surprise you, but it isn't a super common ingredient in the Midwest where I grew up.  I noticed that Maangchi had two recipes (utilizing 1 block of tofu) over at her site and have been meaning to try it ever since (please follow my link to the recipe).  Today I did.

1 block of tofu cut into 20 pieces

Panfried is part of the title . . .

First, I made the spicy Dubu buckim yangnyumjang first (I think I will refer to it as spicy tofu as the Korean is a bit of a mouth full!) I made this one completely as instructed.  I did have a really large green onion though . . .

Sauce ingredients . . .

Mixed up it looks delicious!

All done!

Happy skeleton says "Yum"

Next, I made the sweet dubu ganjang jorim (sweet tofu, once again the Korean is a bit of a mouthful!).  I was out of corn syrup (which I realized while cooking), so I used golden syrup instead.  I don't think this effected anything much . . .

Caramelizing the sweet sauce . . . 

All done!

Happy Skeleton say "Yum"

I loved both dishes but the spicy dubu buckim yangnyumjang was my favorite.  Good enough to be made again and again!  I'm very happy I finally found a tofu recipe that I find satisfying!

Thanks Maangchi!
 ~I recommend trying anything she makes! (watch the cute video)

JDrama: GTO

I had watched the GTO movie and that led me to watch the GTO drama.  Its an older drama so you have to give it some leeway for that . . . 1998 is different then now. Really.

Anyway its the story of a man with no qualifications that wanted to become a teacher despite having a shady past.  This drama shows how his unusual ways help his students to become better people and achieve their dreams.  This can be a bit repetitive, but is better then some about story originality.

Onizuka is a great character, though I often did worry he would do the wrong thing . . . which actually speaks to how well the drama is written and to what a great actor Sorimachi Takashi is.  He really makes the show and is the main reason I suggest you watch this movie.  Later dramas dealing with shady teachers really draw off of this one, so if you've like things like Gokusen then you really need to watch this. 

I would highly recommend this drama for people who love high school dramas.

Stewed Chicken of Mushroom Ramen

I decided to buy some on sale ramen at the T&T.  I know its terrible for me, but I like to eat it sometimes.  I ended up with this Stewed Chicken of Mushroom Ramen (yes that is what it actually says on it):

Exploring the Flavor of China

When I went to make it I learned there was no English instructions, no pictures, and nothing I recognized as numbers in what I assumed was the Chinese instructions. Luckily I have made ramen before and decided to wing it.  So, I boiled a small amount of water and cooked my noodles for 3 minutes, adding the multiple seasoning packets at the last minute.  I was a little worried about over cooking the noddles as they were rice noddles which I don't often make.

three packets and noddles . . .

I ended up with what turned out to be pretty good ramen though.  It is not ramen soup I ended up with just noddles, which is great for me as I don't eat the broth anyway.  It tastes like chicken (Not very strongly) and occasionally a bit of mushroom pushes through.

Still steaming!

I probably would not buy this again, but I'll definitely eat the rest of the packets.  The serving size is actually really large for ramen, which was also kind of nice.  I still much prefer picked mustard ramen (Check out that blog by clicking here).

Cadbury: Magical Elves

I went to a candy shop recently.  It was a great shop called Carol's Quality Sweets on Jasper.  They have a wide variety of sweets.  They seem to focus on old fashioned hard to get candies and interesting imports.  Like I said it has a great selection, but is a bit traditional.  For a kind of kooky candy experience I suggest Coney Island Sweets on Whyte.

Enough about candy stores.  While at Carol's Quality Sweets I noticed a small basket of Cadbury Magical Elves Popping Candy, which came in a variety of types (I wasn't sure if they were flavors or not). The fine print said they were magical popping chocolates.  Having eaten my share of candy in my life I assume that this magic involved pop rocks . . .

Magic!

I decided to try two to determine if flavors were involved or not.  So I picked Quartz and Amethyst.  As you can see they have different elves on the wrapper.  So, I opened them up to find traditional molded chocolates, much like a Christmas chocolate, though these elves do not appear to be Christmas themed.

Quartz Elf with magic speckles . . .

No noticeable difference in appearance . . .

You can almost see sparkles in them . . . though it is difficult even when they are cracked in half.

the whiter bit is actually a pop rock . . .

I ate Quartz first.  He was alright.  Generic chocolate flavor with lots of pop rock action.  He was kind of boring and i didn't notice a flavor.  So, next I sent for Amethyst . . . and it was better.  Better chocolate taste more pop rock action.  No flavor difference that I could detect the chocolate just seemed to taste better.

In the end I'm not sure pop rock chocolate is necessary.  It was kind of fun and I'm sure kids would really love it . . . or adults who love pop rocks.  I will say the pop rock action lasted long after I completed eating the chocolate.  If you fine these in your local candy shop it might be interesting to try, but not crucially necessary.

You can play Magical Elves games on the UK website for the site.  Just click here to be directed . . .

STAR TREK!

Tonight I watched Star Trek IV with friends.  My friend recently bought the whole series and we were going to have a marathon, but as PhD students with limited free time it turned into a lame extended marathon.  I mean the movies are still good, but it does not have the same zip as watching it like a true marathon.  When I was growing up my family used to have true STAR TREK marathons and it was awesome! My favorite was always Wrath of Khan . . . I love Ricardo Montalban.

I also always really like the The Undiscovered Country.

Historically Star Trek IV was always my least favorite, but I find as I get older I like it more.  I still think it doesn't quite fit with the others and that its a bit lacking in action, but it has some other interesting attributes.

For instance the story is very well written with lots of good character stuff.  However, the overly direct we need to save the whales message is really cheesy. But, Spock wearing a Karate Headband to cover his pointy ears is awesome.

Definitely watch the series (Original and STNG) and the movies if you haven't already.  If you feel they are dated, well they are.  But, they are also a perfect example of classic sci-fi.  If you think STAR TREK is too safe and sterile defiantly go with the original series, which cares much less for the prime directive and is a bit more cowboy.  This is extra true of the Star Trek reboot.

I really recommend the Star Trek reboot.  Its pretty awesome.  They really caught the feel of the original while making it more modern and action packed.  The story is really good and the casting was fantastic!  Zachary Quinto is of course fantastic as Spock.

Karl Urban did an absolutely awesome job as the doctor and probably is the most true to the original character (though he is way better looking).

Chris Pine was also good as Kirk.  He's kind of a different version then Shatner, but it works.  He also has great chemistry with his new Bones and Spock, which is key.

At first I though Anton Yelchin was a bad casting choices for Chekov after just seeing him in the previews. But, he was actually great.  The accent was spot on and he was pretty adorable.

Its great going back and watching the original movies as I'm catching all these little links and throwbacks to minuet bits of dialogue and character background from the original movies they put in the reboot. Great for a geek like me.  The reboot is also really good for novices looking for a way in as its really accessible.

See the Nimoy Blog!