Denise mentioned on the DFWBlogs mailing list that she had two spare movie passes that she wouldn’t be able to use.

I suggested that she give them to a couple, if they wanted them. But, no one else spoke up, so she offered them to me. So, I’ll be going to see The Transporter at the Cinemark Legacy in Plano this evening (the 8:10 showing, perhaps).

Of course, I’m only using one of the movie passes; so, if you’d like to join me, just give me a call.

From Palm InfoCenter, Palm and Sony Ericsson have annouced their plans for Bluetooth interoperability:

The two companies plan to work closely together to enable out-of-the-box compatibility between Bluetooth-enabled Sony Ericsson mobile phones and Palm Powered handhelds. Users of future Bluetooth-enabled products will be able to more easily access information, entertainment, and communicate across a wide variety of devices — without cumbersome cords and wires.

For example, a user could select a phone number from a Palm Powered handheld device and have it automatically dialed on the SonyEricsson mobile phone — via the Bluetooth wireless technology. […]

Now that’s cool. I suppose I may just be buying a Sony Ericsson for my next mobile phone ;).

Last week, I raved about the possibility of being able to export to PDF in the new build of OpenOffice.org. I downloaded and installed the build but, I get a crash each time I tried the “Export to PDF” option. Has anyone else had any better luck?

I’ve recently found an interest in both oatmeal and peanut butter. Can anyone recommend any recipes that use both ingredients?

I’m thinking that maybe something along the lines of peanut-butter oatmeal bars could be quite tasty :).

This month’s DFWBlogs Cocktail Event was at the Stoneleigh P. The GuideLive description specifically mentioned their “super burgers”, so I figured I’d try those.

Oddly enough, their menu advertises “No fries! No ketchup! No pickles!”. That impressed me a little bit, as their hamburgers would have to be very good to stand on their own like that. However, they weren’t.

Sans ketchup, sans pickles, it’s pretty much just meat on a bun (with some mayo). It was like eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, only without the jelly. To be fair, my “Ranchero Deluxe” included chipotle mayonaise, but it was more like mayo with diced tomatoes — or, as Gary put it, the mayo closely resembled McDonald’s special sauce ;).

Per the menu, the Ranchero Deluxe was touted as an 8 oz burger. I know my 1/2 pound burgers, and this one didn’t seem to live up to that. I wouldn’t think they would lie on their menu, but it still didn’t seem to be a full half-pound.

Other than the hamburger debacle, I enjoyed the evening. They had Sam Adams on tap, and that’s always a good thing. And, the decor was delightfully kooky (including obsolete arcade games that no one played, as if they were around just for decoration).

If you’ve been following the Microsoft Switch story, then you might just enjoy this Gnome-to-KDE Switch parody:

Yes, it’s true. I like the KDE® desktop enough to change my whole computing world around. Here’s the bottom line: KDE gives me more choices and flexibility, and better compatibility with the rest of the technology world. […]

(Link from EugeneK via Slashdot)

I had read good things about oatmeal and health, so I bought some (apparently, the effects are present primarily in slow-cook oatmeal, so I bought that type).

About two weeks back, I made some according to the directions on the package (boil the water and oatmeal mixture, easy). It didn’t actually turn out very well, as it ended up rather soggy. I’m not sure if I made the oatmeal correctly and I’m just not an oatmeal-person, or if I overcooked the oatmeal leading to its sogginess. I did add some cinnamon and Splenda, of course, but the sogginess remained.

Just today, I decided to give oatmeal another chance. But, to eliminate the possibility of sogginess, I just poured some dry oatmeal into a bowl (along with a sprinkling of cinnamon and Splenda). It was a bit on the mouth-drying side ;), but a glass of water close-at-hand took care of that.

It was actually pretty tasty. And, with Splenda having no Calories, I could add as much as I wanted without feeling guilty (other than the inherent guilt of using up all my Splenda and having to go buy some more).

I am curious whether the cooking process is linked to the healthiness of oatmeal; after all, I didn’t cook it at all this time, and I wouldn’t want to lessen its health benefits on that account. All the same, if you don’t like cooked oatmeal (but don’t mind oats in general), you may want to try this technique.

I recorded The Thirteenth Floor on TiVo and watched it Sunday afternoon. I wasn’t expecting to particularly enjoy it, but it was surprisingly good.

I first heard about the movie back in 1999 (when it was released). A friend of mine had seen it and was pleased with the plot development. I asked to hear more about it and only after reassuring him that I had no plans to see it did he “spoil” it for me.

At the time, the trailers and TV commercials looked pretty lame. But, after hearing the premise and the ending, I was intrigued. So, that’s what lead me to set the TiVo to record it.

You probably don’t recognize the name “Craig Bierko”, as he was primarily in some mid-90s sitcoms. But, he starred as the main character, Douglas Hall, and he played the part well.

I don’t want to give too much away, but the movie reminded me in some ways of Minority Report — so, if you liked that, you might like this as well. Just do yourself a favor, and don’t read the descriptions of it on IMDB, as even those give a bit too much away.

I don’t buy many DVDs, but I may just have to get this one.

Spoilers beyond this point. There was one part that confused me a bit at the end. Douglas goes up one meta-level and traverses from his reality to the real reality. But, how is that even possible, if he’s just a bunch of electronic circuits?

I bought some Natural Peanut Butter the other day at Target. I needed some more peanut butter anyway, and I didn’t want the trans fat associated with regular peanut butter.

I hadn’t had natural peanut butter in years, probably not within the past ten years or so. As a kid, I didn’t like it much, as I preferred the sweetness of regular peanut butter. Trying it again now, it was quite tasty. It tasted as if it was created through crushing peanuts and putting the peanut-carnage right in a jar.

The only downfall, it seems, is that it was quite sticky — on a slice of bread it would seem to gum-up my mouth more so that regular peanut butter would tend to. I’m curious as to what factor is contributing to the stickiness.

I know it’s not for a lack of fat, as the Natural Peanut Butter has 16g (but of the “good fat”). And, I don’t think that the lower sugar-content would be a factor, as I wouldn’t think that sugar would contribute to stickiness one way or another.

Any ideas on techniques as to what could reduce the stickiness of natural peanut butter? I was thinking of adding (no-calorie) Splenda to my next peanut butter sandwich, so as to more closely resemble the sweetness that I’m used to, but is there anything that I could add that might unstickify the sandwich?

Someone brought doughnuts into work this morning, and it really brightened my day. I find that just little things like this make a job that much more enjoyable.

There were several varieties, all on a white-donut base (as opposed to chocolate donut-dough). There were some chocolate-frosted, and I think also some chocolate-frosted with shaved coconut. In addition to the regular dough-style (of which I had one), I also had a doughnut that looked a bit scrumpled — was that perhaps the famed “cake-style doughtnut” that I keep hearing about?

I’ll try to further explain its appearance. A normal doughnut’s cross-section would closely resemble a perfect circle; however, this doughnut’s cross-section would be an almost star-shaped irregular circle. Does that make sense? At any rate, it was very much tasty — I would surely choose that doughnut style in the future over regular doughnuts.