Movie 2012.03.25 - Unofficially Yours

Looks like John Lloyd Cruz can do no wrong. Even for a movie with a one-liner plot, he can make it work:

• grossed $165 million in a month
• highest-grossing film of 2012
• 5th highest-grossing Filipino film of all time

Was it the s3x scenes? Was it the "witty" dialogue? Was it Angel Locsin's tearful monologue/confession? Was it the off-tune song numbers? Beats me.

The plot? Depressed dentist/journalist realizes he's in love with the girl he had a one-night stand with.

More, More Toys

It's another Kid's Market at Five Dock, and you know what that means. More toys, more books, more DVDs. Not that we need anything. Personally, I just like looking around and hunting down bargains. Fisher Price Amazing Animals Sing & Go Choo-Choo train complete with the giraffe, elephant, and monkey figures with the articulated joints and textured feet for only $10? Deal! What about the LeapFrog LittleTouch LeapPad that comes with one cartridge and two books for $5? Bargain! Disney DVDs for $2 and mugs for 50c. These stuff are so cheap, in case Aidan didn't like them, I can use them myself.

Movie 2012.03.24 - A Few Best Men

Expected better, but was sorely let down. The fact that Kris Marshall was in the movie should've told me something. This movie is a bad cross between Death at a Funeral and The Hangover. It could've been called Drugs at a Wedding or The Hangover Down Under and nobody would've noticed any difference.

So this British bloke flies to Sydney (I think it's Blue Mountains) to marry a would-be senator's daughter, whom he met during a vacation in Tuvalu. He brings along his mates as his best men, who tries to sabotage the wedding in every way possible. Unintentionally, of course. All you need to know is that the father of the bride has a ram, the ram ate all the drugs, and the best men have to "retrieve" the drug before the drug dealer shoots them.

Broken P606M Plug

Phone line started acting up a few weeks ago. Phone would ring for a few seconds, then die out. Turns out the line was so scratchy, the phone was answering calls on its own. Whatever, all I need was the ADSL Internet, so I was hoping the phone service will fix itself. A few days later, the ADSL service started having intermittent dropouts. Time to report in the problem.

My DSL provider came back saying that the linesman made a site visit and has fixed the issue. Well, my lines still dead, and no Internet. With no further action expected, I opened the MDF to take a look myself. True enough, the Telstra guy left a note identifying which copper pair is mine, and indicated that service is working up to this point. I took my handset and rigged it up to the terminals. Yehey, it really works. So the issue is in-house.

Found the culprit to the be the 600 connector-to-RJ11 converter. One of the pins is rusted and bent and not making contact. Used a pocket knife to clean away the rust, and managed to break the pin. Drove to Mitre10 first thing in the morning to buy a P606M module plug. I'm back!

$60 Wagyu

At $60 per kilogram, this Costco wagyu beef must be the most expensive piece of meat I've bought. Was it worth it? Not really. It's quite flavourful and tender, but not mind-blowing as I expected. Maybe I just didn't cook it properly. About 5 minutes each side on the frying pan (high heat), then into the oven for about 10 minutes.

That's a Rippin' DVD

How best to make a DVD backup? With the latest software, it's now just a two-step process - ripping and encoding.

First you have to rip the DVD. This is so because most DVDs come with copy protection. For this, you'll need DVD Decrypter (or SmartRipper). DVD Decrypter makes a backup of the disk image onto your hard disk. You have a choice of file mode or IFO mode, depending on what you want to back up. Next step is to convert the VOB files to AVI. For trouble-free MPEG-4 encoding, I would go for Auto Gordian Knot. I heard Freemake can do the same thing, but I haven't tried it yet.

Simply put, AutoGK is video encoding for dummies. You select the input VOB file, choose the audio track and subtitle track (if available), choose the output size, add the job, then start. For the output size, you can choose preset sizes, your custom size, or set the target quality. I went as low as 25% for a nursery rhyme DVD, and it still came out fine. Under Advanced Settings, you can also choose the resolution, the coded (XviD or DivX), and audio type. For a two-hour DVD, the single-pass encoding process took approximately an hour; 5 GBs shrunk down to 800MB.

Device Not Compatible with Market

Noticed lately that I'm having problems downloading apps from the Android Market. Getting notifications saying "Your device isn't compatible with the market." Thing is, these are apps that worked find on the same SGS before.

Turns out the problem is the new LCD density I have set (via Nitrality), and not the new Surface ROM I installed. If the LCD density doesn't match, Market won't let you download the app. So, quick solution is to switch back to the original LCD density, Force stop the Market app, then Clear data. This step is done via Settings -- Applications -- Manage applications -- Market. After that, you should be able to download your favourite apps as usual. If it still doesn't work, do a clean reboot.

On a side note, you should try increasing your LCD density (if supported). Much more screen real estate.

Fillet of Fish with Vegetables

Was planning to cook sweet and sour fish tonight, but forgot to buy the pineapple juice. To keep things simple, I switched to fried fish fillets with vegetables.

First off, cut the fish fillet into 1-inch thick pieces. Add oil to the frying pan and bring to high heat. Fry the fish till a bit brown then remove. In the same pan with the oil, put in some chopped vegetables - carrots, onion, brocolli, potatoes, whatever you can find. Toss and turn for 1 minute, then add:

• 1/3 cup chicken stock
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce

Cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Mix 1 teaspoon water with 1 teaspoon cornstarch, and add into the stock. Mix everything gently until sauce has thickened. Pour on a plate and add the fish fillets on top.

Chinese Lemon Chicken

There are three components for this timeless recipe - the marinade, the batter, and the sauce.

Ingredients for the marinade:

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon sesame oil

Ingredients for the batter:

2 eggs

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 pinch white powder

Ingredients for the sauce:

1/3 cup sugar

1 cup chicken broth/stock

1 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch

2 tablespoon lemon juice

3/4 teaspoon salt

3 slices lemon

Get yourself half a kilo worth of chicken breast and cut into 1-inch cubes. Put the pieces in a ziplock bag together with the marinade in the fridge for half an hour. Make the batter using the mentioned ingredients. I've got half of the batter left, so it would be a good idea to halve the original portions. Coat the chicken pieces with the batter and deep fry until cooked/golden brown. Let them rest on absorbent paper.

Prepare the lemon sauce on a bowl. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a wok and slowly add in the sauce. Don't get the oil too hot or the sauce is not gonna like it. Mix until sauce becomes clear. Remove the lemon slices and pour over the fried chicken pieces.