The Quiet Earth

Every now and then, there's a book or movie that seems like it was made just for me.

The Quiet Earth is a 1985 movie made in New Zealand, free to watch on Youtube. In the first moments of the film, something happens and everyone on Earth vanishes except one guy. The first half of the movie is about how he survives and what happens to him, then in the second half he finds two other people. (Which unfortunately sets up a love triangle. I could have done without that, but it's a minor part of the story.)

I LOVED LOVED LOVED LOVED the ending. Unfortunately after I finished watching it I read the wiki page about it, which ruined things for me. I love open endings (BEST THINGS EVER), I hadn't wanted it explained. The writer/producer said it was "simple" what had happened, and I suppose if I had had even a minute to think about it I might have come to the same conclusion he gave, but with that I would have had the fun of figuring it out on my own. Oh well, it was my own fault.

The movie is NOT work safe. There are multiple scenes of full frontal male nudity (not sexual), two female nude scenes (one from behind, one chest up), and one obvious lovemaking scene (both naked from chest up).

I love non-American made movies and shows. It's so nice to see normal/average looking people on the screen instead of having everyone be movie star beautiful. Also, as this movie was made in 1985, it was really interesting to see the old technology: Early computers, rotary phones, etc.

I really liked the film's music, too (which I don't say often about movies/shows). Very well done.

Recommended! (Especially as it's free!)

Happy Thing #16: Pocketfuls

Pocketfuls are "upcycled" matchboxes, made by webmyrcury. She hand-paints each one based on a theme, character, or idea you supply, then fills the box with little matching things. They're beautiful, tiny, and oh so cute!

I loved the beach example she had posted, so asked for one like that but with a different inside. I wanted more sea/sky/gulls on mine, and got just that!



My cellphone camera does it NO justice. The sand and "foam" sparkle like real sand would, the water is many shades of blue, and the sky is beautiful.

The inside is jam-packed full of little trinkets (so many I could hardly pack them all back in!).

Slightly blurry, but it's full of shells, smoothed bits of colored glass, a piece of drift wood, and other things:


That's all sitting on a napkin, and the box is a matchbox, so you can picture how tiny it all is!

Each one costs $10, which includes postage. Seems more than worth it for me! Her post offering them here.

Okay, Blue Apron, you are on notice

Chicken, Baby Artichoke & Spinach Casserole with Gouda Béchamel

Recipe.
Time took: One hour and 40 minutes (Blue Apron claims all recipes take 30 minutes)
New foods: Gouda cheese, artichoke

This recipe pissed me off. Oh, it looks somewhat reasonable on paper, but it's not. While waiting for water to boil (what, under 10 minutes?), you have to:

Wash and dry produce (two items)
Chop the spinach (big bunch)
Peel and mince the garlic
Grate the cheese
Pick the parsley leaves off the stems, chop the leaves
Peel and small dice the onion
Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces
Process the artichoke (trim leaves, peel outer leaves, cut off the outer skin of the stems, cut in half lengthwise, add to a bowl of cold water along with the white wine vinegar)

Maybe a pro could do all that, but I couldn't do that in ten minutes and end up with all my fingers. I swear, the recipe was impossible without either a helper or having measured EVERYTHING out before you start. How can you stir constantly AND measure out a cup of milk? How can you read ahead and see what you need when you're constantly doing two or three things at once? Or catching up on the chopping that you were supposed to do in step one but ran out of time for?

And worst of all? It didn't even taste good. I picked some of the chicken and a couple noodles out (and tried the artichoke, though it was only a small bite and I was too annoyed to really think about it), but the rest I'm throwing. After cooking it for an hour and 40 minutes. I swear, Blue Apron recipe creators are obsessed with onions. There are always WAY too many in the dish.

I could have made a frozen dinner in the microwave, a couple of minutes and NO effort from me, and it would have not only tasted better, it likely would have had fewer calories, too.

I think next week is going to be my last week of Blue Apron. It's not even that the cooking takes so much longer than they say, it's not that I only like one or two meals out of the three per week, but it effects my life too much: I have to keep thinking about this and planning my life around it. "Nope, can't have that for lunch, I have to have something little because I'm cooking tonight." There's an annoying amount of pressure behind HAVING to cook three meals a week. If I liked the meals, if I even once wanted to eat the leftovers from it, that would be a different story.

This was a good idea, but I guess it's just not a fit for me.

Note to self: Can't cancel through their site, have to email them (cancellations@blueapron.com). Nice...
Edit: Sent the email. No idea if it's in time to cancel next week's or not.