[2011-05-22] Two Decades Ago...

I was born. How's that for an interesting fact? More importantly, two posts in one month? Yeah, that's right - consider yourselves lucky. But seriously, it was my 20th birthday on the 21st (same day that the Empire Strikes Back was first released in cinemas back in 1980...coincidence? I think not...). Why is my birthday so awesome? Apart from the fact that it celebrates the coming of me into this world, my birth year is also shared with the release of Blood Sugar Sex Magik from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nevermind from Nirvana, Ten from Pearl Jam and Achtung Baby from U2. It was a year of epic proportions. 

...But much bigger

Among other things, I received a generous amount of Star Wars gifts. The LEGO Star Wars visual dictionary was one of them. Produced by DK (no, not Donkey Kong) in 2009, this is one of many visual dictionaries in the Star Wars range. Other collections include James Bond, The Human Body, Doctor Who and Architecture. I always loved reading those books, and wanted (still do...) to own the entire Star Wars collection. This one includes a timeline of set releases, and details various themes in the Star Wars range, from individual characters (Anakin, Han & Chewy, Obi-Wan) to playsets (Cloud City, Jabba's Palace, Death Star), to ultimate collector sets (scale Millennium Falcon, Star Destroyer, Technic General Grievous). Each page is full of awesome facts and details on the models, and in some cases, shows the progression of sets in re-releases. As a bonus, the book comes with an exclusive limited edition Yavin Luke, in his ceremonial outfit and medal. This is seriously an awesome book.

7+ doesn't mean it's for kids, it just means it's not for babies. 20 is 7+

I also got the latest and final Family Guy Star Wars parody, It's A Trap (Return of the Jedi). It came out last Christmas, and now I finally have it. Blue Harvest (A New Hope) came out in 2008 as an original idea, and was hilarious. It was expected that parodies of the other two would follow. So I was pretty excited when in 2009, Something, Something, Something Dark Side (The Empire Strikes Back) was released. Not as funny as the first, but pretty good. I wasn't sure what to expect in the third one. I knew it would be funny, but how funny? Well, in my opinion, it was better than the second one. Also, it went for longer than the other two as well. It's still significantly shorter than Return of the Jedi, but keeps true to the main story and doesn't leave much out. It's A Trap makes fun of Star Wars, but in a good way. As well as obvious Star Wars jokes, there's also funny references to various pop culture themes, and Family Guy make their own jokes as you'd expect. They also drag in characters from other Seth MacFarlane shows; Tim the bear from the Cleveland show is an Ewok, Klaus the fish from American Dad is Admiral Ackbar, and Roger the alien (same show) is Moff Jerjerrod (in charge of the 2nd Death Star). What I'm trying to say is, it's a really funny movie, and was a good way spend 1 hour of my birthday.

Yeah, there's heaps of jokes about that. But seriously, watch the movie.

Another present I received, not Star Wars (SURPRISE!) was a Sony Hi-Fi System. It's black, stylish, and loud. Plus it has a big round shiny knob - always a bonus. I'd been without one for a while after my last one broke, so this was a nice surprise from my girlfriend Kate-Lyn. As long as Sony don't start a Hi-Fi Network, then I should be fine. Having said that, I think they handled the Playstation Network issue quite well, and FREE GAMES.

I also got the chance to finally see Paul. When if first heard about it, it seemed pretty funny, the trailers were good, the idea was good, the actors are hilarious...I had to see it. It was released April 14 in Australia (earlier overseas I believe) and a month later I still hadn't seen it, so thought I'd do that for my birthday. If you haven't heard about the movie, basically it's about an alien, Paul, who crashed on earth a few years ago, and is on the run from the FBI when he get's picked up by 2 British tourists on a road trip through the USA. Written by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (Hot Fuzz, Sean of the Dead), it's full of some great one liners, and really good if you like rude and childish humour. And if you love women with 3 tits, you'll love the movie. It's awesome.

The desert does funny things. This is one of
those funny things. Pretty awesome I'd say.

On of the things I always look forward to for my birthday, is the food. My mum is an amazing cook, and always makes really yummy dinners (dessert included) for our birthdays. This year I chose pizza. When we normally has pizza, my mum makes two kinds. One is I guess like a supreme, with csabai, pepperoni, onion, capsicum, mushroom, olives and cheese. The other is a gourmet pizza with rocket pesto as the base sauce, prosciutto, feta cheese, and some herbs - it's really good. This time however, she did two new pizzas as well. A Tex-Mex pizza, with mince, kidney beans, Cajun spices, cheese and a couple other things. That had a really nice flavour and good spices, but needed to be a bit more saucy (not mums fault...it was the recipe). The last pizza was interesting. Babaganouch (eggplant based - I quite dislike eggplant, but the dip is really nice) as the base sauce, pancetta, brie, figs and rosemary. The base was meant to be an olive tapenade, but she couldn't find one and not everyone in my family like olives. The flavours worked really well together.

Take that Pizza Hut...

 So that was my birthday in a nutshell. There were some other happenings, but I doubt anyone wants to read about them (I got some shoes, isn't that amazing?!?!). Oh, and by the way, this 'Rapture' everyone was talking about, that was just preparing the world in case my birthday became too awesome to handle...sorry for the mix up, the world is fine. If you know someone who did disappear yesterday, either call the cops, or stop counting and start looking.

The same poll is still running, vote for your favourite Hide and Seekist. Closes beginning June.

Chris