Friday, October 31, 2014

Friday Round Up

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Yep, it's Halloween today! I must confess, I have not felt very Halloween-y this year. Truth be told, I am not a huge Halloween person to begin with, really. Yes, I did the whole trick-or-treat thing as a child and all of that, but I've only gone to a handful of Halloween parties past childhood, probably the most fun one I've been to having been back in the ole college days. Anyway, I have seen some fun holiday-themed treats around the web this week, but probably my favorite one has to be these Sugar Skull Cake Pops from Bakerella. Obviously they are more Day of the Dead than your typical Halloween, but that's what I like about them. They're so cute and fun! Also, for those of you who are Supernatural fans, you should probably recognize that pumpkin I featured above with the woman on fire on the ceiling shadowed onto the wall. Pretty cool effect.

On to other things! Some of you may know that Daniel Radcliffe is stepping out of Harry Potter's shoes a bit this weekend with his new movie, Horns. What you may not have known, is that he can rap! What? Apparently he's really into rap and even performed a fairly complicated song on The Tonight Show the other night. Impressive!

I don't know about those of you that read this here blog, but myself? I am a rather shy person in real life. Always have been, suspect I always will be. Yeah, I was the little girl hiding behind her mom's leg. Sometimes shyness can make life difficult when you're in the workplace, as our communication style is not quite the same as the more gregarious coworkers. This article talks about how managers should work with shy employees, and I was thinking a whole lot of "yes!" while I was reading it.

As if we needed one more thing to worry about, but apparently science is now linking the number of eggs a woman has to her chances of having a heart attack. What the heck! It has to do with the whole estrogen balance and aging in general, it sounds like, than more specifically the actual eggs themselves. But some women do go through menopause earlier than others, and they are more at risk for these types of diseases and such.

Have a Happy Halloween!

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Supernatural 10x04 "Paper Moon"

Recap/review of Supernatural 10x04 "Paper Moon" by freshfromthe.comIt was no ruse last week, Dean is back to being Dean again. No more demon, but he does still have the Mark of Cain. But for now, the boys decide to take a bit of a breather, some "we" time, as it Dean called it. But, Dean's feeling a bit ants-in-the-pantsy, and would rather get back to the grind than sit around drudging in his crap. So he and Sam head off to check out some strange deaths, and we head straight into a classic Supernatural episode.

Even more classic than early season episodes, as this one brings back someone we met in an earlier season, the newly-turned werewolf Kate, from back in season eight. Of course, they don't know it's her at first, just that there's some werewolf in town killing people and eating their hearts, but eventually they track her down. But, despite them trying to ruse us into think she's been doing some heart-eating, it's not true. It turns out, she turned her sister Tasha (she was going to die, so that makes it okay), who doesn't share quite the same no human eating mentality. Kate thinks she can save her, which is why this episode is happening. You know, for some brother symmetry action.

Recap/Review of Supernatural 10x04 "Paper Moon" by freshfromthe.comThe rest of the episode is pretty straightforward, really. Not a lot of twists and turns into one to go over, but here's the haps. They track Kate down and Dean lies that they now have a cure for werewolves. At first I was thinking what, since when? But then yes, he was just lying to get Kate to lead them to Tasha, which she does so happily, hoping they can get a cure and be sisters again. Alas, it is not meant to be. Particularly since Tasha has truly gone off the deep end. She's even turned a couple burly dudes herself to join her new pack. While they take on Sam and Dean (to no avail, duh), Kate ends up having to kill her sister herself, which everyone should've seen coming a mile away once she revealed she had a silver dagger earlier on. But obviously this is a parallel to the whole Sam and Dean deal, as clearly Sam never would've killed Dean despite him being a demon. Does that make him stronger or weaker or what? Who knows.

Anyhow, Kate escapes off into the great unknown. So long as she can keep from eating people, the brothers Winchester will leave her be. But the real meat of the episode was in the stuff going on between Sam and Dean. Sam doesn't think Dean is really ready to be back hunting after what happened. But Dean is also wondering if Sam isn't quite ready either, considering he helped a human sell his soul, which is obviously a big hunter no-no. But in their patented end of episode brothers in or near the Impala chat, Dean says that he needs to keep working in order to not just be stewing indefinitely. So it's back to hunting for now. Until they get a lead on what to do about the Mark of Cain, obvs.


Random Thoughts:

- "No Hunting" sign in the opening scene. Har har.

- I know they were trying to fake us into thinking Kate did the killing by showing that friendship bracelet a few times, but I feel like I've seen that fake out a bajillion times before at this point.

- Although this episode was fairly simple, I did enjoy it getting back to the saving people, hunting things, the family business that is the backbone of the show. It was definitely more of a classic episode in that sense, and although dealing with werewolves, which obviously we've seen a few times, had a nice twist on the whole thing with the sisters.

- Next week is the 200th episode! Can you believe that? 200 episodes! And, there will be singing. Oh gosh. I hope that turns out well, because a lot of times when shows do a musical episode (apart from Buffy) it turns out to be a train wreck.

- They're making an awfully big deal about "what Sam did" while trying to find Dean, but I have to say I'm kind of on Sam's side here. He wasn't really trying to get that guy to sell his soul, he was just trying to lure a demon. And to what lengths would Dean have gone to? I mean, he basically made Sam give himself over to an angel to save him, and Sam didn't even know that was going on. Apples and oranges, I guess, but still. I'm not sure Sam really "went dark" as much as they are trying to push that he did.

Quotes:

Dean: That sling come with a slice of crybaby pie along the side?

Sam: Or she likes bad boys.
Dean: Well, wait 'til she gets a load of us.

Dean: All right, so what, you want to nuance this thing?

Dean: You're a regular psycho Brady Bunch.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Friday, October 24, 2014

Friday Round Up


For a while now, I've been feeling like I want to give this here blog a makeover. So, last weekend I worked on creating a more streamlined look for it. I was getting a bit sick of the purple background. I also updated the background logo with the pie inside of the TV, as my old logo was a more old-style television, because back when I started this, LCD TVs were only just barely starting to become a thing. Yep, that's how long I've been blogging in this little corner of the interwebs. It's hard to believe sometimes that I've been doing it for so long. Honestly, sometimes I wonder if anyone even really reads it. Lately it seems hard to get any traction, not that anyone reading this actually cares about any of that, or wants to hear about it. But sometimes it does feel a bit like talking into a void.

Anyway! Let's move on. Have you all seen this spinning disk thing? When you stare at the moving lines, you start to see colors inside the middle lines. But the interesting part? Everyone sees different colors in it! What colors do you see? The first time I looked at it, I saw a mix of red and tan, with one eye seeing more red than the other. Now when I look at it, I only see the tan in both eyes. Is that weird or what? Seriously though, let me know what colors you see! Fascinating.

I'm sure most of you have done the Myers-Briggs personality test at some point in your life that describes your particular personality type. There was a new quiz floating around the web this week featuring a similar test, with far less questions to go through to get your result. I seem to vary in these things a little bit, but this time around I got ISTJ, Introverted Sensing Thinking Judging or "The Duty-Fulfiller." Sometimes I will get an N or an F in the middle bit, but I do always get the I and J portions. What type are you?

In keeping with my astronomy-related news in these round ups, I have another one for you today. Apparently scientists have found a signal coming from the sun that could be dark matter. You know, dark matter? That stuff that apparently makes up most of the universe but thus far has been impossible to detect? Yeah, it's a bit of a weird concept. Basically, there must be some other matter we can't see making up a huge portion of the known universe to make things work the way they do, otherwise things wouldn't make sense. I mean, when you think about how astronomers used to think that the Earth was the center of the universe, it's amazing to think what else we could discover. If only the government wasn't limiting NASA funding, though. Boo.

Speaking of the government, have you ever wondered what it would be like to be President of the US? Personally, I would never want the job. And apparently it really does take its toll on those who have been in office. Check out these portraits of presidents at the start and end of their terms. It does age them quite a lot, right? Although the FDR one isn't necessarily as fair considering he was president for twelve years rather than only eight.

That's it for this week! BTW, if any of you are so inclined, do me a favor and like my Facebook page? It's at http://www.facebook.com/freshfromthe. I also just set up a Bloglovin account thing, which seems much more involved than Feedly, which I've been using as a blog reader up until now (you know, since Google Reader went kaput, sniff). Anyhow, you can follow my blog on bloglovin here if you are into that!

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Brioche Buns

Recipe for Brioche Buns by freshfromthe.com

Homemade bread is not always the easiest beast to tackle, and certainly not for those who lean impatient. When you have to wait at least two hours before the stuff is even in the oven, that takes some patience and dedication. The recipe isn't really that difficult, though, so at least there's that! And after all of the waiting, the end result is definitely just what we were hoping for, for once. Let that dough rise, and rise, and rise, seriously! You want it to be nice and light and full of air pockets, right? Right!

Ours also took longer because we had put all 8 rolls on one pan initially, which would've meant they baked into each other rather than forming nice separate buns, and separating them onto two pans meant they got deflated, so we had to let them rise again! Yes, lots of rising time for us. I put in my instructions to separate them onto two pans, but if you don't care about them touching, go ahead and leave them on one pan.


These buns are ostensibly meant for burgers, which you can see a photo of below, but I will say we definitely ate some straight out of the oven (after cooling, duh), and they were bready goodness. Of course, I love myself a good bread, so you will be hard-pressed to find me turning down any kind of bread product. Anyway, yes, slice them up and turn them into burgers, or BLTs, or perhaps even just a nice turkey sandwich. The burger below has a beef patty, bacon, cheddar cheese, caramelized onions, romaine lettuce, a mayo/ketchup sauce, and it would have had pickles as well, but apparently we got a bottle that was not properly sealed so.. no pickles for us. But still, this burger was rich and, dare I say, decadent, in no small part to the addition of the homemade bun. I mean, SO much better than one you just buy at the store in a plastic bag.



What I really discovered in the making of these buns was the power of the dough scraper. I got one last Christmas and I'm not sure if I've used it since then, but I can tell you it was definitely a lifesaver with these buns! The initial recipe didn't say to spray the bowl before putting your dough back in to rise, and it would've been a sticky issue if not for the power of the dough scraper. Super handy! You can also use it to help in your kneading process as well, by scraping any sticky bits off your counter/cutting board/whatever you use and then slapping that dough back onto it. That way, you don't have to add quite as much flour, which is important. I would also recommend getting a good thermometer for when you put your yeast in the "warm" milk/water situation. Ours took a bit longer to foam up, but I'm not sure if it's because the liquid was too hot or too cold. So temperamental, that yeast!

Brioche Buns by freshfromthe.com

Burgers are always better with homemade buns, so if you’re feeling particularly ambitious, give these a try!

Ingredients:
  • 3 Tablespoons warm milk
  • 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
  • 2 1/2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 3 cups bread flour
  • 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 1/2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
  • sesame seeds (optional)
Instructions:
  1. In a glass measuring cup, or a bowl, combine one cup warm water, the milk, yeast and sugar, and let stand for about five minutes, until foamy. While that's going on, beat one egg. It's best if warm = 105-110°F.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together your flours and salt. Rub the butter into the flour with your fingers, making crumbs. Using a dough scraper (your new best friend), stir in the yeast mixture and beaten egg until your dough forms. Scrape that out onto a clean, well-floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 to 10 minutes. The dough is going to be pretty sticky and messy, but try not to add too much extra flour or your buns won't be quite as light. Some is fine, just not a lot.
  3. Shape the dough into a ball and return it to the bowl. You can always spray your bowl with some non-stick spray to prevent it sticking to the sides here as well. Cover that with some plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm place until it has doubled in size, which can take one to two hours. Some tips on rising below.*
  4. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Using your handy dandy dough scraper, divide the dough into 8 equal parts. Gently roll each into a ball and arrange on your baking sheets, 4 to a sheet, so they can be 2-3 inches apart. Cover loosely with plastic wrap coated in non-stick spray and let those rise in a warm place again for another one to two hours.
  5. Set a large shallow pan of water on your oven floor (this helps to keep the buns from getting too hard on the outside, I suspect). Preheat your oven to 400°F with your rack in the center. Beat the remaining egg with one tablespoon of water and brush that on your buns. You can sprinkle with sesame seeds here, if you so desire. Bake, turning your sheet halfway through baking, until the tops are golden brown, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. You can do one pan at a time here, as it's ok to let your second pan keep rising in the meantime.
*Okay, if you are having trouble with getting your dough to rise, here are a couple tips. One, you can try turning on your oven to its lowest temperature for a few minutes, then stick your dough in there. That may start to cook it just a little, so if you don't want to do that, another tip is to heat up some water in a saucepan, and stick that along with your dough in the oven. That gives it a little extra heat/moisture to get the rising process going.

Recipe via Smitten Kitchen




Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Supernatural 10x03 "Soul Survivor"

Recap/review of Supernatural 10x03 'Soul Survivor' by freshfromthe.com
How long until his arm is okay?
Well, that was quick. For being touted as the "Year of the Deanmon," Dean sure wasn't a demon for very long. Oh, sorry, am I giving the end away? But let's be honest, we all knew Dean wouldn't stay a demon, it was just a question of how long it would take until he was turned back. The answer? Three episodes. I know everyone was wanting Dean to get back to his old self, but the whole demon storyline feels like a bit of a waste so far. Hopefully it will have more resonance as the season continues, but who the heck knows. This show doesn't always excel in resonance.

Anywayz, let's get down to business. As you may recall from the last episode, Sam managed to get Dean back to the Men of Letters bunker, thanks to Crowley basically turning him over. Sam is determined to use the demon cure on him, which is basically just shooting him up full of human blood. I think it has to be blessed blood or something? I am not so much on the up and up on the whole demon purification process. The point is, Sam starts sticking Dean with human blood, Dean does a lot of yapping about how Sam isn't as innocent as he seems (it turns out Sam was the one who led the dude from last week to sell his soul to a demon, in order to get information on Dean's whereabouts), blah blah.

Down in Hell, Crowley is rather bored at doing his job, which is basically trying demons for treason and killing them. The demons are getting rather annoyed at his lack of fatherly compassion, leading to one even dousing himself with lighter fluid (or is it the holy oil stuff?) and setting himself on fire. For some reason, this makes Crowley want to help Castiel, which we'll get to in a moment.
Recap/review of Supernatural 10x03 'Soul Survivor' by freshfromthe.com
As has become tradition, Jensen directed this episode.

Meanwhile, Castiel is trying to reach the bunker to help Sam. He is looking pretty worse for wear, though. He and Hannah stop at a gas station, only to be jumped by the angel Adina, whose angel bestie/lovah they killed last week or the week before or whenever it was. She manages to somehow wallop Hannah with some massive punch that leaves her moaning on the ground while she can get to beating down Cas. But, Crowley comes just in time to save the day. He steals Adina's grace and gives it to Cas. So that problem is temporarily solved.

Which is good timing for Sam, because back at the bunker, Dean has gotten free. Apparently he had enough of the human blood working in him that the special cuffs and the devil's trap didn't work on him anymore. However, he is still feeling the demon spirit, so he goes hunting after Sam. Sam uses his wits to try to keep one step ahead of Dean, which only results in Dean nearly slamming his head in with a hammer, and Sam having to put the special demon-killing knife to Dean's throat. Of course, Sam could never kill his brother, so he's lucky that Cas shows up just in time to help him out.

And, together, they manage to finish the blood purification ritual, and return Dean back to his human self. Except there is still the whole Mark of Cain thing to deal with, but for now Sam just wants to get Dean some cholesterol and get drunk. As I'm sure most people would. Dean seems rather wary of the whole situation when he talks with Cas, but it's hard to tell just what he is thinking or feeling at this point.

That's... pretty much it. Oh, except for this ending bit. Cas basically tells Dean to take it easy as things are pretty quiet at the moment, only for the show to end on a red-headed woman in a room, drinking some kind of brown alcohol, with two men impaled on the ceiling above her. The new big bad, we presume.

Random Thoughts:

- What exactly is Crowley's goal anymore? He doesn't seem to care about Hell, really. He decided to save Castiel, but for what purpose? It's hard to say if Crowley is really "evil," though I suppose that is kind of the appeal of his character.

- Castiel basically shut down Hannah on the romantic front before anything could even get started. I confess, I actually like the prospect of a romance between them, particularly since the show is so starved for any kind of genuine romance ever. It's not just some girl introduced who automatically has a history with one of the boys, but rather someone introduced over time. Much better.

- Could Dean go demon again? Just from lack of killing with the Blade or only if he were killed again? Obviously they have to deal with getting rid of the Mark as well, but I'm sure that will come in time.

- Next week's episode really just looks like it could come from any season anywhere. Hopefully this is not the case, but it does feel a little jarring to have a monster of the week episode right now. Though, I'm not sure what else they could do. Hmm. It just makes the last three episodes feel a little superfluous. I mean, am I wrong?

Quotes:

Dean: Sammy, you know I hate shots.
Sam: I hate demons.

Crowley: It's Hell. You wait. It's what you do.

Hannah: Castiel, if these are metaphors and you're attempting some kind of human communication, it's not working.

Crowley: Why can't you people just sit on clouds and play the harp like you're supposed to?

Dean: What does Sam say? Does he want a divorce?

Previous Episode -- Next Episode


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Friday, October 17, 2014

Friday Round Up


The above photo is from the abandoned town of Kitsault, British Columbia. Apparently, the town sprang to life when there was a mine of some kind nearby, but then it was completely abandoned only 18 months after being established. So established that it had a movie theater, a library, grocery store, hospital... but everyone just completely left. The crazy thing is, the power to the town has been left on for nearly 30 years since it was abandoned. Most of the time when you see pictures of abandoned cities, they look desolate and terrible and trashed, but this place? No. It looks pristine. Apparently caretakers go in and upkeep the town in case it could ever make a comeback. I mean, it is rather beautiful, right?

Were you an English major in college? I was. But of this list of the 14 books every English major has read, I've only read... four. Um, yes. Only four. And one of them was completely independent of school, actually (that would be Jane Eyre). The others were never assigned in any of my English classes over the years, interestingly. I read way too much Charles Dickens for my taste, a lot of the Shakespeare dramas, and even more novels from the 19th century from both America and England. Like, Huck Finn, The Scarlet Letter, Wuthering Heights, that one about the girl that had Reese Witherspoon in the movie that I was constantly falling asleep reading, uh.. uh... Vanity Fair! I will say, however, that I always finished every book for my classes. It didn't even occur to me to not do that. I did not, however, watch every single movie in the '70s cinema class I took while abroad in Ireland. Whoops.

Sometimes, I will randomly get Sirius XM for free in my car, and when I do, I inevitably turn it to the '90s station, sometimes with a little '80s thrown in. But, I almost always know every '90s song, while sometimes they play obscure '80s music that just does not interest me. Anyway, this list goes through 21 supposedly terrible songs from the '90s that everyone secretly loves. But, come on, Everybody (Backstreet's Back) is just a catchy dang song. Can you really call it terrible? I do, however, agree with the inclusion of Truly Madly Deeply by Savage Garden, and no I do not secretly love that song. I have always hated that one. HATERZ GONNA HATE!

In less pop culture-y news and more just sad news, apparently we may be getting more drug-resitant UTIs because of the meat we buy? Egads. Basically, too many antibiotics are being put into the animals, and they are similar to the antibiotics used to treat urinary tract infections, so the more you get the antibiotics in your system, the more likely the infections will develop a resistance to them. So let's just add this to the list of terrible things Americans do to their food. Ugh. It really is hard to buy groceries that are actually healthy these days, which is super annoying.

This is going to sound like a shameless promotion, but I promise it's not. My mom posted a song the other day on Facebook that one of my brother's friend's created with his band. I was like sure I'll check it out, not expecting much, and what! It's amazing! Of course, I am really into the whole electronic indie sound, so maybe I am a bit biased, but it sounds like a professional song regardless, and he just recorded it in his home studio. Anyway, you should check it out. Mermaid in China is the name of the band, which is maybe a hokey name, but the music is quality. Some of it has kind of a '70s vibe to it as well. They have five songs, but my favorite of the bunch is The Average Man.

Listen to their music below:

I will, however, end with a shameless plug of my own, and ask you to like my Facebook page if you haven't yet. http://www.facebook.com/FreshFromThe - I would super appreciate it!

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Supernatural 10x02 "Reichenbach"

In last week's premiere, we got a sneak peek at the new Dean. It wasn't quite clear just how much of a demon he was, but this week the show delved even more into the new dark and twisted soul that inhabits the elder Winchester, with interesting results. But let's back up a bit.

In case you forgot, Sam was picked up by some mystery man with a mysterious past with Dean. That man turns out to be a dude named Cole. Apparently back in 2003, Dean killed his father. Of course, the kid didn't know that his dad was probably either a monster or possessed or something, so he's been training to come take down Dean ever since. Sam tries to convince him that there's more to the world, you know, monsters, but the guy is not having it, instead focused on torturing Sam to get info on where Dean is. So, Sam steals his rather conspicuously dropped pair of keys with a handy dandy knife on it and hightails it out of there to keep looking for his brother.

Recap/review of Supernatural 10x03 'Reichenbach' by freshfromthe.com
Some shiners for poor Sammy.
Dean, meanwhile, is still hanging around in the Dakotas - is he feeling somewhat sentimental or something? Like, because he's kinda near Bobby's old place? In any case, Crowley wants him to sate the Mark some more. Supposedly how this works is, yes, Dean is a demon, but if he doesn't keep sating the Mark by killing with the blade, then he'll get more erratic and crazy demony. O-kay. So, Crowley sets him up to kill this cheating wife. Her husband made a deal to sell his soul if they would kill her. But, Dean gets sidetracked when he goes to do the deed, instead satisfying all the women of the world by killing a man who started going on about how it was okay for him to cheat, but not his wife, because it's, you know, biological for men to do that.

Crowley is less than happy about this development, to be sure. He wants Dean to do his bidding, more or less, be one of his demon buddies. But Dean is all not so much. He wants to do whatever he feels like. Crowley has had enough of the surly behavior and points out that Dean is teetering on the edge between being a demon and being human. Dean says sayonara to that scene, leaving Crowley to pine over good times past.

Now you may be wondering, what's going on with the angels? Oh, you weren't? Yeah, me neither, really. Cas is still feeling sick, he ends up running the car off the road and blah blah. Basically this amounts to Hannah going up to talk to Metatron to find out if there is any of Cas' grace left. Metatron claims there is, and wants to make a deal, but Cas shows up in time to stop her. However, it does seem like the grace is out there somewhere. Now Cas just has to find it.

Recap/review of Supernatural 10x02 'Reichenbach' by freshfromthe.com
Still handsome even as a demon.
Back in the Earthly realm, Sam has managed to track down Dean. He wants to take him back to the bunker and work the demon cure on him, but Dean is not into that. However, Sam's plan to saunter over and put some devil's trap cuffs on Dean is stopped when Cole shows up, throwing a smoke bomb in the joint. Cole confronts Dean, who does not remember in the slightest who he is, and they "fight." Or, really, Cole tries to fight and Dean kind of swats him around. But, instead of killing him in the end, he lets him go (after showing him his demon eyes), which gives Sam enough time to throw some holy water on Dean and get him in the cuffs to take him back to the bunker.

Sam meets up with Crowley to give him the First Blade so Dean can't use it anymore. Crowley makes like this is good news for Sam, and that he's over Dean, but I'm not so sure. Didn't he say that Dean will go even crazier demon if he doesn't use that thing? Is that his secret plan? Hmm. Because next week does not look so promising for Sam, that's for sure.


Random Thoughts:

- Did they change the coloring back to more of a darkened feel and not quite so colorized? Back to basics!

- Cool transition from Dean punching someone to Sam being punched in the face.

- That past scene with "younger" Dean - ha. I mean I guess it looked pretty convincing, since he was supposed to be a couple years younger than when the show started.

- When Cas finally gets his own grace back, will that be the end of angel politics? Please?

- That picture of Crowley and Dean together was hilarious. I laughed out loud at that one.

- Why doesn't Hannah just do the wooshy transport thing with Cas? Can he not handle being teleported or something?

- Please let's be done with the Metatron storyline. The last thing I want to see is him getting free.

- Sam talked about how they can cure a demon with the blood magic stuff. Does that work when the person isn't possessed? It seems like it would be different, but who knows. How long do we think the Demon Dean thing is going to keep going? Are you liking the storyline so far? It certainly adds a new layer to the show that hasn't been there in a while. I also enjoy his new hair.

- Demon Dean, however, does not care about his beloved Impala. Regular Dean inside must be pretty pissed.

Quotes:

Sam: It's holy water.
Cole: Holy cow.

Sam: I guess the Mark... it messed him up somehow, I don't know.
Castiel: That is a vast understatement.

Crowley: So how you been feelin'? On edge, pent up, unfulfilled?
Dean: You sound like a Viagra commercial, you know that, right?

Lester: Yeah, I know what an alibi is. I watch Franklin and Bash.

Crowley: Hello, Bullwinkle. You miss me?
Sam: So much.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode


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Friday, October 10, 2014

Friday Round Up

http://janwellmann.com/apocalypse-strange-rituals/

Apocalypses are all the rage in media lately - from movies to TV to books, you pretty much can't escape an apocalypse story. And, well, if you are following climate change, we may be in for a slow apocalypse already in motion. The slow apocalypse is just one type that this article talks about, along with nine others. Pretty interesting to see how many of these are really just a variation on the virus theme. The image topper above is the first image that came up when I did a google image search of "apocalypse." Interesting that it features London!

I know I've spoken a bit about Harry Potter before, but right now the internet is abuzz after a mysterious tweet JK Rowling posted. If the rumor mills are to be believed, the tweet basically says that Harry Potter may be returning! Some people have started to debunk this theory, I think, but you never know.

Have you been watching any of the new TV shows debuting lately? To be honest, not many of them have interested me that much. However, I did watch the premiere of The Flash and am totally on board. But I pretty much knew I would be for that one, especially since it's helmed by some of the Arrow team, which is another favorite series of mine. I did find it interesting how quickly they got Barry into his Flash costume, and that ending scene sure was mysterious. Here's hoping it's as promising as it seems, because the ratings sure were high. Any other new shows you are into? Honestly that is one of the only ones this season that's even been on my radar, which is sad.

If you were a kid in the '90s, you probably watched a lot of Nickelodeon. So many of these shows of yesteryear are having milestone anniversaries lately, and one of said shows this week is none other than The Secret World of Alex Mack. While not my most favorite show of that era (I would probably go with Salute Your Shorts), Alex did still hold a special place with her special powers. This article features a look back and some trivia from Alex herself, Larisa Oleynik, and the creator of the show, Thomas W. Lynch.

In something a little less pop-cultureish, apparently what most women know to be true has been confirmed - men do not have very good memories. Apparently it has something to do with how we are raised to talk about events. Little girls are more likely to be asked about how events have made them feel, which gives them more of an emotional connection, and a longer-lasting memory, whereas little boys... aren't. Interesting because it certainly doesn't seem to be done on purpose that way. So, basically, how parents talk to their kids makes a big impact on how they will develop memories. Crazy!

And because I haven't ended things on a cat gif in a while...

http://kittiezandtittiez.com/post/67445595993


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Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Supernatural 10x01 "Black"

Here we are, back into another season of Supernatural. Season Ten. TEN. I mean, whoa. Did you watch the special on the show last night? It was fun to see clips from many of my favorite past episodes, along with mention of some of the less than stellar ones as well. At least they don't purport that every episode is amazing, haha.

Recap/review of Supernatural 10x01 'Black' by freshfromthe.com
Mystery Man hurts darling Sammy.
Anyway, let's get to the task at hand - the season premiere episode, titled "Black," I'm sure, in reference to demon eyes. I was unsure at first whether Sam already knew what had happened to Dean, but it became clear that he, in fact, did not, only that Dean had disappeared without any explanation, leaving only a note that said, "Sammy let me go." It's not clear how much time has passed since the end of last season, but at least some has passed, maybe one or two months or something? But in that time, Sam has been looking for him non-stop, to the point where he is torturing demons for information.

Meanwhile, Castiel is holing up in some dingy hotel or something, looking rather sickly. I thought to myself - what the heck, why is Cas sick? Then I remembered, duh, his stolen grace is failing. He either needs to steal another grace or eventually he's going to die, but of course he does not want to steal another grace because that means killing another angel, which he tells Hannah, who shows up asking for his help in tracking down a couple of rogue angels who haven't returned to Heaven now that it's back open. The two angels just want to stay on Earth and live among the humans, but Hannah cites rules and whatnot, which results in an angel fight, leading to one of the rogue angels' deaths. Which, you know, might have been useful for the whole grace situation, but maybe I'm nit-picking.

Now, you're wondering where in the heck is Dean during all of this? Well, Dean is living it up in some hole in the wall, just drinking a lot of alcohol and singing a lot of bad karaoke, and bedding a lot of bar girls. Crowley is anxious for them to start their reign of Hell together, but Dean isn't so much into that. He's perfectly content doing just what they're doing. Which, you know, included Dean killing a couple of Abaddon-following demons along the way, sent courtesy of Crowley to keep him sharp and all. But the only way Crowley can get Dean to leave his favorite little bar is by talking to Sam and letting him trace the call.

Recap/review of Supernatural 10x01 'Black' by freshfromthe.com
Jensen does his best to sing bad.
Because, yes, Sam has finally caught wind of Dean, who killed a demon in a convenience store and was caught on camera. The camera also reveals to Sam Dean's new black demon eyes. Sam is convinced that he must be possessed, but Crowley so nicely reveals to Sam that that is not the case at all. Instead, Dean's soul is a demon soul, which is terrible news to Sam. But, he's going to try to go after Dean anyway and reverse it, because that's just the Winchester way.

But before he can get there, he's stopped by some random dude, who has a kid that looks extremely familiar to me. Has that little actor dude just been on some other show or something? Hmm. Anyhow, the mystery man captures Sam and calls up Dean, saying he's going to kill Sam if he doesn't show up. Dean is like whatever dude, that's his problem, not mine. The mystery man insinuates that there is some kind of nefarious history between him and Dean, but we're not quite sure just what that is.

And that's kind of where things end. Sam is captured by the mystery man, with Dean driving off to points unknown, and Castiel hanging out with Hannah, who's less than thrilled at his human sympathies. Just what does this mean for the rest of the season? Hard to say right now. You have to wonder how long Dean will remain a demon. Just knowing this show, it doesn't seem like it will be for a super excessive period of time, but who knows.

Random Thoughts:

- What do you think of the new title card? Going all devil's trap on us this year. Have to wonder if a devil's trap will be used on Dean at some point.

- I'm not sure quite what to think of Demon Dean right now. He still seems very Dean-like, but without much of a moral compass or any kind of guilt. It's hard to say what he feels toward Sam. I guess it's hard to say what a demon soul is supposed to be like. Do they still have feelings? Hmm.

- Just who is the mystery man (they didn't say his name and I missed it, did they?)? And why did his wife look so upset when they realized the photo was of Dean? And who wrote the "Yup" on said photo? And is that kid familiar to anyone else?

- I don't know about everyone else, but I'm a bit over the whole angel storyline. Like, who cares about the angel politics back in Heaven? Boring!

- The opening "Road So Far" music was pretty awesome. Nice choice!

Quotes:

Crowley: Jerk.
Dean: Bitch.
(blasphemy!)

Castiel: I'm sensing awkwardness.

Sam: When Porn Guy came in, did he say anything?
Clerk: Where's the porn?

Crowley: The Mis-adventures of Crowley and Squirrel. Dean Winchester completes me.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode


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Monday, October 6, 2014

How to Make Your Own Pumpkin Pie Spice


How to Make your Own Pumpkin Pie Spice by freshfromthe.com

It's that time of year, you know? Time for the fall spices, but especially Pumpkin Pie Spice. It's super easy to go out and just buy a jar of it, but if you have all of the ingredients for the spice on hand in your cupboard already, why buy some pre-made stuff when you can just go ahead and make your own? It's super easy! All you need are the spices, duh, and a container to put them in. I used an old cake sprinkles container, super fancy of course. You can totally see the scrapes on there from where I was trying to get all of the old sticker residue off. Totally high class here.


I actually went out and got all new spices this year, apart from the cinnamon and nutmeg, which aren't very old. But the cloves and ginger I had previously? Let's not talk about it. Also, can I tell you about that Vietnamese extra fancy cinnamon you see above? It's pretty awesome. Very potent, as far as cinnamon goes. Definitely ups the ante in any baked good with cinnamon. My boyfriend is super into Penzeys Spices, so that's why you see so many of them here. I must say, it's pretty fun to just mosey around the shop and smell all the different spices they have. Yum.


Seriously, though, just mix those spices around and you're good to go. Just make sure you've got any clumps out. I did it in a bowl with a fork, but I suspect if you want to do some cha cha chas, you can just shake it all up in your container instead of dirtying another bowl.



The below recipe makes about two Tablespoons, which you can see here fills up a spice container about halfway. You can always double it up and give yourself a full container, or just use up what you have and then make some more. Yeah, in that picture above you can see the residual scrapes leftover on my container. But honestly, do I really need some fancy container, or is it what's inside the container that matters? Is this a metaphor for life? Hmm.

Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice by freshfromthe.com

Prepare for pumpkin season by making your own pumpkin pie spice.

Ingredients:
  • 1 Tablespoon cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons powdered ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Instructions:

  1. Blend all spices together, whether in a bowl with a fork, or sticking it directly in an old spice jar and shaking it up. Just make sure you don't have any lumps.

The best part is that you can now go use this spice on something delicious! Like, perhaps, some Pumpkin Coffee Cake?!



Seriously. Go make this cake if you haven't. It's SO GOOD!

Friday, October 3, 2014

Friday Round Up




A five-year-old girl with Autism has created some seriously awesome paintings. The picture above is one of Iris Grace's many beautiful paintings. Apparently she started painting to help with her speech therapy, and wow, I'm super impressed with the results. She has a really great sense of color, and I just think they're cool.

A company in Turkey has come up with a really cool idea to combine both recycling and providing food for stray animals. Seriously, it's pretty neat. Basically, any time someone deposits a bottle into the machine, some food pops out. And, there is a little bowl for any leftover water from the bottle as well. It operates at no cost to the city because the recycled plastic pays for the food! Pretty sweet.

On a sadder note about animals, apparently half of the world's biodiversity has disappeared in the last 40 years. This is according to the Living Planet Report 2014. Interestingly, the greatest loss has been in low-income countries. But the article doesn't stop there, it goes on to talk about how there are already too many humans on the planet for it to sustain our way of life. I know there are a lot of people out there saying these reports are doomsday and choose not to believe facts in front of their faces, but it just frightens me to think what the world will look like in another 100 years if we do nothing to stop our wasteful ways.

I hope you know that I love books and have been an avid reader since I was a kid. If you also love books, try out this fun quiz to see how many famous book openings you can remember. I may have gotten 14/15 right. Maybe.

Sometimes you see some weird stuff around the internet, and this gif is one of them. It's supposedly just a video capture of some strange creature running behind a woman's baby, but do we believe it's for real? Any video geeks out there able to tell the truth? In any case, it's super creepy, and a job well done to whoever made the video.

If you'd like a little laugh, then check out this video of a reporter interviewing Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig about their new movie The Skeleton Twins. You won't laugh because they're just so gosh darn funny and charming, but rather because the reporter is completely unprepared and clearly has not seen the movie, and when they catch on it's pretty hilarious.

This last one is really only for those of you who also live in Los Angeles, or have ever lived here. There are just certain things you avoid in this city if you live here, and this list goes through some of those different situations (though some of them are exaggerated and the Earthquake one just not true - earthquakes here you just kind of look around and go is that one? Yep? Okay moving on.). You'll notice quite a few of these have to do with driving and parking, because honestly, you spend like half your life in the freakin' car here.

That's all for this week!

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