Chocolate Milk, Vanilla Sky and Leopard Prince

[Professor!! GAG ALERT!!! Don't read this! Skip down to Tom Cruise where it's safe and milk-free!]

On a fairly recent mission to get my favorite milk, I discovered that Whole Foods Market now carries Farmers' All-Natural Creamery "Dutch" Chocolate Milk.

Just writing that makes my mouth water. As a matter of fact, I had to leave the store quickly when I found the milk for the trail of drool that people were slipping on in my wake.

If you can imagine the wonderful lactic goodness that freaky-cold, unhomogenized, whole cow's milk is, just imagine how impossibly exponentially better freaky-cold, unhomogenized chocolate milk must be! If there's any natural, healthy drink I like better than a glass of cold milk, it is the same milk with chocolate added to it!

When I was a kid I was a Nestlé Quik™ addict. I couldn't make a glass of Nestlé chocolate milk last more than about a minute. A typical 12-ounce glass I prepared for myself usually included about six spoonfuls of Nestlé Quik™ powder – and that's after I ate two to three spoonfuls of dry powder(!!) – and, if left unsupervised, I could probably have downed a full gallon of milk and a whole tin of Quik™ in an afternoon! As a matter of fact, the last time I had access to any Nestlé Quik™, I still helped myself to a couple of spoonfuls of powder before putting any in the glass.

(I used to think that chocolate added to anything must mean it made it better, but then I met "mole chicken," and thought the better of that perception.)

Today I'm bothered by the amount of sugar that's added to just about everything, and Farmers' All-Natural Creamery "Dutch" Chocolate Milk is no different. However, all the ingredients in FANC "Dutch" Chocolate Milk are organic: grade A whole milk, organic sugar, organic non-fat dry milk powder and carageenan.

I looked up carageenan. Bleeaah! I'm glad they call it "carageenan!" Frankly, with as thick as the unhomogenized milk is, I don't think they need to thicken it. But, who cares? It's still wickedly good, and I still can't keep any in a glass for more than a minute!


Open Your Eyes

A few weeks ago I watched Vanilla Sky on DVD. I'm no fan of Tom Cruise by any stretch of the imagination. I've appreciated him in a few roles he's had and I think he's just fine as an actor. While I'm watching any of his films I try not to let myself be bothered by the fact that he's wacked-out loon.

I'll try not to bore with the plot details of the film while at the same time not spoiling for anyone who might be left who hasn't seen it, now that I finally got around to seeing it myself, because this isn't a movie review…sorta.

Directed by Cameron Crowe (with a supporting role performed by Cameron Diaz…how weird is that?), it's basically about a man who has it all – looks, money, gorgeous women pining for him – who loses it all because he's a vain, womanizing lout. It touches on our own vanity and shows how self-destructive we can be if we value ourselves only by how we look. It seemed to me to drag on a bit by the middle, but the last 30 to 45 minutes are riveting. I was very moved at the end.

I saw in the DVD extras that this film was a remake of a film from Spain called Abre Los Ojos or "Open Your Eyes," written and directed by Alejandro Amenábar. With as moved as I was by the American remake, I just had to see the original, if only to see how many liberties Cameron Crowe took with it.

Finally this past weekend I watched Abre Los Ojos. Wow. If there has ever been a more faithful remake of a film than Vanilla Sky is to its original, I've never heard of it. Crowe made only a few embellishments, a few changes in his version: Cruise plays the reluctant heir to a successful publishing company where Eduardo Noriega's character in the original is the ambivalent heir to a successful catering company. Stuff like that. There was no bigger surprise watching the original than realizing that the ending was absolutely acceptable to Cameron Crowe, and he recreated it almost cut for cut without trying to make his "better." How better to pay the utmost respect to the original writers and director, to the original effort, than that?

That said, if you haven't seen either of them, see one of them – depending on your Tom Cruise gag-reflex -- now. Tonight. You won't be disappointed, or your blog entry fee refunded.

And now I'm in love with Penélope Cruz…or at least the 2001 version of her. And that's just wacky weird: Tom Cruise and Penélope Cruz. Cameron Diaz and Cameron Crowe. Did they do that on purpose? (Penélope Cruz also starred in Abre Los Ojos)


Taming the Leopard

I've been wanting to get a backup hard-drive for my computer pretty much since I moved into my apartment. Last week I finally bit the bullet and bought an Apple® Time Capsule™ 1 terrabyte drive. And I bit a couple other bullets as well, picking up a new, sleek 'aluminum' keyboard and, in order for Time Capsule™ to work with my old iMac, an upgrade to Mac OS X v. 10.5 "Leopard."

This may not sound like much to anyone, but, considering that the last computer I possessed as a single man was a 1994-era 520Mb Compaq PC to which I couldn't afford to add anything, and considering that anything Mac-oriented that needed upgrading or fixing during the marriage was done by ts2bx Mrs. Farrago, I was feeling a bit trembly at the thought of tinkering with that which already worked swell. If it ain't fixed, don't broke it. Or something like that….

The biggest technical hurdle I faced was getting my printer back in action after sitting for many months with near-empty ink tanks and no cables connecting it to a computer. I have a slightly funky office setup here at the apartment, with the printer on a bureau behind me, too far away from the computer on the desk to run a USB cable to it. Also, the old AirPort Extreme WiFi router, which Mrs. Farrago let me take with me when I moved out, didn't seem to like the new digs and refused to function properly here. That's why I bought the Time Capsule™. It's a combination back-up hard drive and WiFi router! (And the old AirPort Extreme is back at the house and working like a charm for ts2bx Mrs. Farrago. Go figure! I guess we know who it likes better. HMPH!)

I had a plan that no one I spoke to seemed to have any confidence in (or they didn't understand my fekakteh explanation of it), and I had no choice but to just see if my idea was going to work. First I had to install the Leopard upgrade, which took about an hour…during which the second wave of a thunderstorm rumbled through, with about 10 minutes left on the install. I was so afraid the power would go out and that my computer would cease to exist. Fortunately everything went smoothly. Then I plugged in the new keyboard. If I can ever find the interface cable for my camera, I'll take a picture of the keyboard and post it. I LOVE THIS KEYBOARD!

After that I powered everything down and set up the new Cisco™ ethernet router, plugging the broadband cable into it from the modem, and then running another ethernet cable out to the iMac, and yet another, longer ethernet cable from the router, along the floorboards and around the room to the bureau and into the Time Capsule™. And, finally, I ran the printer's USB cable from the Time Capsule™ to the printer.

Then the moment of truth. I plugged in the Time Capsule™ drive. I turned on the cable modem. I turned on the iMac. I had forgotten to turn off the printer, so it was already on…. and?

Everything worked! Who knew? I then fired up the laptop to see if it and the WiFi could find each other. They talked happily for the rest of the evening!

The resident Mac weenie at my office was on Blue Moon emergency standby for me. In case anything – or everything – didn't work, he told me that he would come over later in the week to help me unfuck it up. I asked him what kind of beer currency he accepted and he told me that it would cost me a Blue Moon Wheat Ale or two.

The next morning I told him of my success at setting up the WiFi and the printer, and he told me that I had set up my own LAN!

…whatever that means. Who wants a Blue Moon?