While i’m shocked that the record only sold a dismal 180,000 copies, do not over look the fact she debuted in the top five! So with that being said I will not call it a flop!

But we all know if this was Beyoncé all hell would break loose

Only#4 on iTunes, Lady gaga has the #1&4 spot, Boyle #3.

Sales are bad it seems.

from the mouth of Tyra herself (tyrashow.com)

This is kind of weird because writing about shoes will make this my second post about clothing…18.1 percent! My life is not 18.1 percent fashion, that is fo sho. Anywayz…

Today was rainy as per usual in Norcal, but it was actually even rainier than usual. If you think that kept me from donning flippy floppys, you are sorely mistaken friendos. No inclimate weather could keep me from my precious blue flips… they just match my blue fleece coat so perfectly!

I exited my building while jamming to the new Lady GaGa single Bad Romance. Wait. Can I just say Lady GaGa is my new role model? That music video is my new favorite thing ever! <– Wow off topic. My bad. I’ll italicize my off topicness. Ok back to me heading outside in flip flops. I don’t understand why everyone gets in a tizzy over rain. I was probably the only person without an umbrella in sight, but it wasn’t even raining that hard. True, it wasn’t a mere drizzle, but not enough to merit a huge umbrella.

The umbrella part doesn’t even bother me so much as the fact that all the girls were in rain boots (the tall plastic kind). Ugh I hate rain boots. Unless you’re wading in a creek, I will probably laugh at you if you are wearing rain boots, no matter how cute the print is on them. I didn’t laugh today because I was in such shock from seeing the sheer mass of them. I got along just fine in flip flops by hopping across small puddles. Hopping was surprisingly fun and I didn’t mind the looks I recieved.

no words needed

I should be the one giving them looks for being so ridiculous. Pfffft rainboots. And don’t get me started on Uggs (aptly named). By the way, what is goin on with this ensemble to my left? Granted, I am jealous of the plaid leggings.

-mmbizz

I love having a Sunterra Market nearby, but I have to be very very careful just to buy specific specialty items there and NOT go grocery shopping.  For it is too expensive for everyday groceries.

But for:
a. cheese scones
b. ginger pasta salad
c. metro lemon water
d. applewood cheddar
e. food magazines
f. the butcher’s wares

I will make exceptions for these items.

There is a knowledgeable lady butcher behind the counter.  From her, I buy their premade burgers.  Sometimes they are bison, but this time they were maple cheddar.  They were most delicious – a perfect combo of cheesy filling, ground beef and carmelized maple topping.

maple cheddar burgers

I like my burgers without a top bun and piled high with mushrooms and spinach sautéed in garlic.  And you will see a slice of processed cheese peeking out – I am a bit of a neanderthal that way.

One of the blogs I follow is Straight from the Farm.  Ella and I tried to make her Rustic Pear Tart tonight.  It was a bit of a disaster.  Pastry and us do not get along.  Pastry ripped and I forgot the sugar and so put it on top and of course it leaked all over the baking pan, and we didn’t have enough pears so I put in a couple of apples and blueberries and it just went on and on.  But we will try again!  We will not be foiled!  Here is a photo, but check out Straight from the Farm for the proper recipe and lovely pictures.

rustic pear tart

Dailymail UK Reports

David Beckham was out celebrating with his England teammates after beating Belarus 3-0 at Wembley last night.

But while he was England’s man of the match, it seems the footballer is less than popular across the Atlantic.

In a sign of his dramatic fall from favour, he has been named one of the biggest sporting flops ever seen inAmerica.

The Los Angeles Galaxy star came in the top ten of what one U.S. magazine called the biggest ‘busts, choke artists’.

U.S. based Maxim magazine said Beckham’s move to the Los Angeles team was nothing short of a ‘catastrophe’.

After all the publicity about his £125m move, it said the former Manchester United star has failed miserably to make football – or soccer as it is called in the US – more attractive to fans.

It said: ‘Three seasons into what was supposed to be the magic bullet that finally made soccer relevant ( i.e. profitable, interesting, televised) in the U.S., David Beckham’s much publicised move to MLS and his grotesquely huge contract are nothing short of a catastrophe.’

The magazine highlights the recent pitch confrontation between the 35-year-old former Manchester United star and fans who were angry at his part time move to AC Milan.

Beckham was jeered and booed when he returned to the team after a spell on loan to the top Italian side.

Welcher *zensiert* Vollpfosten musste auch auf Hochglanz polierte Notebook-Oberflächen erfunden haben? Nervt tierisch.

Look I warned

In my earlier blogs on Review Before Release I charted in territory that was plain dangerous. There-in I would be reviewing movie before their release bsed on the perception they are generating. And look the reviews and Box Office out come have been on mark…

Review Before release Part I – update http://omsherryom.wordpress.com/2009/06/25/review-before-release/

• New York – the review said that the movie is low on expectations and that can prove decisive for the film. It said that if the leading actors John, Katrina and Nein acted with intensities than the movie would be appreciated. These actors have delivered and Movie is  a HIT.
• Kambakkhat Ishq – I predicted movie to have a shattering weekend. It happened. Although criticized by most the film had a great opening first week. It finally did an above average business. And a boost to Aki after CC2C debacle.
• Love Aaj Kal – Super Hit. Excellent. The low profile Film Director Imtiyaaz Ali stick to his basic instincts and delievers Gold as I predicted.
• Kaminey - This one I expected to fall flat as it appeared before release that Vishal Bharadwaj have made a masala film. I am happy to be proven wrong. He has made a symbolic action flick with all masala that makes ‘entertainment’. Th BO business was average as this symbolism could not be stomached by even the so called intellect of this country like Shobha De etc, who classified this Kaminey atempt as Vishal’s giving impression that he is Torantino of the Indian Cinema
• Jashnn - I predicted it to be a sentimental youthful flick from Mahesh Bhat camp. Which the movie is. I jotted my hunch – This will surely be a youthful movie. One Hunch about Jashnn – if it fails to click then it will fail badly like Dhokha. If it clicks it will be another Aashiqui.’ This hunch has been proven. The movie was a BO disaster inspite of being a good movie.
• Short-kut – I got some sharp comments when I reviewed it to be a non-starter and a disaster. Comments said that since its a Tamil/Telugu remake of a hit it is a winner but seeing the kind of promo and build-up I predicted that it will be a big flop. And sadly I was right!

Review Before release Part II – update http://omsherryom.wordpress.com/2009/09/01/review-before-release-ii/

• Dil Bole Hadippa – this Hadippa has done below average business. Its another dud from YRF. The film is a flop and below average collections is only because of its low cost (read Taran Adarsh’s comment on bollywoodhungama.com). Rani’s earlier duds with YRF’s like Tara Rum Pum Pum grossed 21 crore, laga chunri mein daag grossed Rs 9.28 cr, Thoda Pyar Thoda Magic grossed 13 crore. This DBH managed to gross 7 crore.!
  
• Wanted – and look I write ‘right’ as always. Wanted has been appreciated and have been declared a HIT
• Three – flop. It had a tired BO performance. Vikram Bhatt better luck next time. Please serve something new.
• Do Knot Disturb – the film have opened to mix responses. Perhaps the over-expectations generated by a David Dhawan- Govinda combination will make it just an average grosser
• What’s u’r Rashee – I reviewed the movie before its release and said that although it is interesting but its’ not inspiring enough to get people to BO. I predicted that history for Ashutosh Gowriker would repeat. WYR is a Flop.
  

After a summer bursting with expensive box office flops, a film made for a paltry $15,000 and starring an unknown cast is shaping up to become one of the year’s surprise successes.

Paranormal Activity, a horror film in the mould of the Blair Witch Project, has been selling out midnight screenings in a handful of US cities and looks set to become a bona fide hit when it is released across the US by Paramount this month.

The positive buzz surrounding the film is in sharp contrast to the negative reaction afforded several big budget releases this summer that flopped at the box office. As Hollywood studios tighten their belts, the lower budget film could be a sign of things to come.

The average cost of producing and marketing a studio movie has risen more than 6 per cent since 2007, according to The Motion Picture Association of America, while in the past 12 months profitable revenue streams, such as DVD sales, have sharply declined.

This has left the film industry facing some difficult choices. At Universal Pictures and Walt Disney, where several costly films have flopped recently, new strategies are being drawn up and senior executives have been replaced.

As chairman of Walt Disney Studios, Dick Cook oversaw some of the company’s highest grossing releases, such as the Pirates of the Caribbean films. But he left the studio last month after a year marred by misfires such as G-Force and Confessions of a Shopaholic.

He was swiftly followed out of Hollywood’s revolving door by Marc Shmuger and David Linde, the co-chairmen of Universal Pictures. In spite of leading the studio to its two most profitable years in 2007 and 2008, the pair were this week fired after a dire 2009.

Land of the Lost, a comedy starring Will Ferrell, was made for $100m yet garnered only $64m, as well as some of the worst reviews of the year.

Funny People, a Judd Apatow movie, was another box office turkey that the studio could not afford, given that the film cost an estimated $70m to produce – much more than previous films made by Mr Apatow. [read]

I think I’ve cracked the mystery of this one. 

Kelly came and went in one night on Broadway back in 1965, and it’s been a legend ever since, the most expensive flop of its day, and a sphinx of a show, forever posing the riddle: ”What the hell were they thinking?”  The show is about a man who jumps from the Brooklyn Bridge for money, and doesn’t that just reek of flop?

Steven Suskin’s superb Second Act Trouble reprints an April 24, 1965 article from the Saturday Evening Post by Lewis H. Lapham, in which it’s clear that Kelly’s producers, to be brutally mercenary about these things, should have fired the writers on day two.

Book-writer and lyricist Eddie Lawrence, for his part, always maintained that it was pre-Broadway meddling by those producers that doomed his show.  The noisy, hoarse demo recording he made with composer Moose Charlap at the piano is the sound of a man in love with his own words, spitting out every treasured syllable. 

So for decades, that’s been the prevailing wisdom about Kelly: the writers wanted one show, the producers another.  The writers held on, caved in to inexperienced producers, and the mismatched show that opened was a flop.

In 1998 a much more polished studio cast recording of the score was made, with Brian D’Arcy James as a much more polished Hop Kelly.  Now everyone could hear the score presented with some flair, and most agreed that it was pretty dreadful.  The prevailing wisdom was altered slightly: maybe the producers were inexperienced, but the songs were awful anyway.  That doesn’t wash, though:  if the songs were obviously so bad, why weren’t they replaced with interpolations by, say, Styne, Comden and Green, as happened with Charlap’s earlier Peter Pan?

Then Stephen Sondheim listed, in a 2000 article, “I’ll Never Go There Anymore”, from Kelly, as a song he wished he had written “at least in part”.  So the score couldn’t be completely dreadful, could it?

I don’t know what the authors were thinking, but having listened to the score, I think I know what happened. 

Kelly was always going to be one of those smartass ’60s musicals in which the writers hector the audience on how they, the artists, get it, and the audience doesn’t.  Sondheim wrote one himself, with Arthur Laurents; Anyone Can Whistle ran for nine performances, and the score has its devotees, but the show amounts to a windy lecture on how, when you really think about it, insane people are more sane than the rest of us, you know?  Pure ’60s smartassery.

Kelly sounds to me like this lecture: you gotta get up, you gotta get out, but the only way for a Bowery bum to make it in this crazy system is to practically kill himself jumpin’ off a bridge, ya know?  In other words, echt Brecht.

I think that’s why the opening song, “Ode to the Brooklyn Bridge” is so awful:

Oh you great big bridge,
Connectin’ Brooklyn with New York,
You don’t squawk.
You just do your job,
And it’s a helluva job you do …

This is to be enjoyed, if at all, at an ironic distance.  Ah yes, we are supposed to think, an unlikeable hero, a fruitless premise, a doddering plot.  The system degrades us all!  Which is why the show was never going to run on the Great White Way: the broader the audience, the less it likes to be lectured.  I suppose one might have mounted a production somewhere fringey, with a hip crowd, but they’d have found the manner of presentation trite and obvious.

I think the authors tried to have it both ways in the finale, “Everyone Here Loves Kelly”.  By then, the producers had ordered a complete script rewrite from Mel Brooks and Leonard Stern - primarily to make the hero more likeable - and they demanded this closing number from an all but spent songwriting team.  When this horrible ditty closes the show, I can’t help but detect a whiff of Shostakovich’s Fifth.  Maybe the ghastly repetition is trying to undermine the literal meaning?  Or maybe it’s just a rotten song.

In any case, it’s easy to hear why Sondheim likes “I’ll Never Go There Anymore”, because it’s not far removed from the sort of thing he was attempting throughout that decade.  There’s Charlap’s literate chord progression, wandering through key centres before deftly returning home, just like Kern.  There’s the romantic melody in a less than romantic situation, just as Sondheim had done in “With So Little To Be Sure Of”, and was to do in “Take Me To The World” and ”Too Many Mornings”.  There’s the way the song constitutes, over its considerable length, a sung-through scene.  There’s the play on different interpretations of seemingly simple title words, a Sondheim constant (“No More”, “Move On”, “There Is No Other Way”). And there’s this, from Hop’s girl, which is just lovely:

There was a boy …
A boy I once knew,
We kissed, I loved him.
He was killed in a stupid old war
And I’ll never see him anymore,
No, I’ll never see him anymore …

The authors wanted, I think, to use a skinny plot to apprise their audience of their shortcomings, and that would always have flopped.  The producers wanted to flesh out a skinny plot with girls and gags, and that too would have flopped.  The mismatched show that resulted?  Flopped. 

And the songs are, for the most part, awful, but I think they were meant to be.  After all, what sort of score most befits a harangue?

Bei ohost.de in den allgemeinen Informationen gefunden:

99% Uptime, zuverlässiges Rechenzentrum

Ja habe ich gemerkt. Deswegen ist die Zaibatsu-Filebase schon wieder nicht ereichbar. Zum wasweißichwievielten mal in den letzten 30 Tagen. 99% sind irgendwie was anderes.

pasta with cilantro and smoked salmon

Sometimes, I make really irrational grocery shopping decisions.  I totally lose it in the grocery store.  This is because I’m in a hurry or overwhelmed by choice or just not thinking straight because of the bright lights and crowds.  Such was the case when I picked out a MASSIVE package of lox from Costco.  And I’m the only one who eats lox in my family.

The lox languished in the freezer for a while before I transferred it to the fridge and started to eat things like lox sandwiches and poached eggs on lox.  A few days crept by, however, and I realized that I’d better eat it up, or it would go bad and make me very very sick.  Which happened to me once with lamb, but that’s a whole other story.

So I searched around on Epicurous and found this recipe.  Cilantro?  Yum.  Whipping cream?  How can you argue with that?  And smoked salmon?  Hurrah!

Sadly, I have categorized this recipe as a flop because I was the only one who liked it.  My husband said – zingy! And then proceeded to pick out all the smoked salmon and ate a lot of ciabatta bread to fill himself up.  Don’t think I didn’t notice that he didn’t eat any of the pasta.  He moved it around on his plate a lot.  I’m familiar with that technique.  My six year old didn’t want the green sauce.  And my other two kids were missing in action.

So this is a recipes for the moms.  It is spicy because of the jalapeno, but I think that’s a good thing.  It is like pasta with a cilantro pesto sauce.  And lox.  Don’t forget the lox.

Pasta with Cilantro and Smoked Salmon
-adapted from Epicurous

Rotini or other small curly pasta

3 cloves garlic
1 jalapeno, chopped
3 cups cilantro, chopped
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 lime, zested and juiced
salt and pepper

smoked salmon, sliced into strips

Fill a pasta pot with salted water and put on to boil.   Add pasta and cook.

Blend the next seven ingredients in a blender until smooth.  When pasta is done cooking, drain and add sauce.  Add the smoked salmon last and serve.

Jika orang mengatakan knowledge is power, maka perimbangan kekuatan bangsa-bangsa di dunia akan ditentukan oleh “knowledge” nya. Di jaman informasi ini, terhimpun-nya pengetahuan bersama (collective knowledge) akan banyak ditopang oleh prasarana pengolahan dan pertukaran informasi, atau dengan kata lain prasarana komputasi dan komunikasi data. Jadi mungkin tidak terlalu berlebihan apabila ukuran akumulasi pengetahuan suatu bangsa akan ditentukan oleh “computing power” dan “bandwidth” komunikasi yang dimilikinya. Di bawah ini saya sajikan beberapa data yang berkaitan dengan paramater-parameter kapasitas prasarama tersebut. Untuk computing-power dalam pengertian HPC (High Performance Computing), pada tahun 2008 Amerika menduduki peringkat teratas. Tetapi dalam hal bandwidth/capita, peringkat Amerika ada di bawah beberapa negara Eropa.

fasilitas server-farm di CERN

Di bawah ini adalah peringkat kapasitas HPC (High Performance Computing) dari beberapa negara ASEAN, menurut perhitungan seorang pakar, yang diturunakn dari data-data di top500.org. Terlihat bahwa kapasitas HPC di Indonesia menduduki peringkat ke 3 setelah Malaysia dan Singapura, jika tidak berdasarakan angka percapita/dibagi jumlah penduduknya

Sumber: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOP500

que gosto destes blogues. Este, este e mais este.

While we were in Cranbrook visiting the Renes, Jaime whipped together a tasty and simple impromptu cobbler for dessert.  As my mom had given us a ton of peaches, I decided to try making a cobbler.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a good recipe that resembled Jaime’s!

It looked pretty...

But there just seemed to be something wrong.  The recipe essentially consisted of melting butter in the dish, then topping it with a simple batter of sugar, flour, baking powder, and milk, then adding on top of that peaches flavored with vanilla and brown sugar.  Sounds promising, right?

And it looked promising.

However, when we actually dug into it, some of the batter was still gooey under the peaches, even though the rest of it was almost overdone to the point of being really dry.  Kyle also wasn’t a fan of the very-buttery taste.  Perhaps I should have baked it at a lower heat?

Well, at least I’m “keeping it real”.  I often blog about my cooking successes, which I’m very proud of as I’m fairly new to the whole cooking thing, but I also have plenty of flops!

But I need to confess- we still ate the whole thing, flop or not!

It seems like every young person who travels to Asia to escape their 9-5 doldrum is transformed in some intense, life-changing way.  Kyle Berner, owner of Feelgoodz Flip Flops, is no exception.

“I’ll never forget the moment…. I came across this display of flip-flops that were marketed as ‘Thailand’s most comfortable, all natural rubber flip-flop’.  I tried a pair on, and that was it.  Lightbulb”

His story is definitely an exciting one, and his flops are the cushiest rubber things I’ve put on my feet.  Made of 100%, eco-friendly (biodegradable) natural latex rubber from the tropical Yang Para tree, with all-natural, non-toxic dyes and a selection of earthy and bright colors, they are Comfy with a capital C. Even more reason to buy?  3% of their revenues goes to fair trade and environmental organizations, and micro-lending institutions like Kiva.

It’s undeniable that Mariah Carey is a talent.  I have been a fan of hers for a long time.  

I got the biggest surprise ever my senior in high school when we had an encounter at the Polo Sport Mansion in the Upper East 70s in NYC.  That day I was more flustered than the sales associates who ran rampant putting together all the things she pointed to (of course, she didn’t try on a thing).  I actually mustered some confidence though and went up to her mid-shop and asked for a hug.  And you know what? She obliged.  I couldn’t come up with anything else, smiled, and quickly walked away.  And you know when you feel someone’s eyes on you?  So I turned around and she gave me this wry smile that read “Is that all you wanted?  To cop a feel?  You didn’t want to ask me anything or say something?”  True story: I gave her a thumbs up and said “You are a great singer too!” and honest to God she and her shopping buddy cracked up.  It was the coolest thing ever!

Fast track to today, with her stint as the media’s breakdown queen and a few flops and I was still undeterred.  I still have love for Carey.  Honestly though I think ever since the release of Honey, Carey has left her saccharine image for a more sultry one but seems to have misplaced her singing chops as well.  It’s not that I think she has lost it completely, I just get the sense she seems way too focused on what she looks like and everything else has taken a back seat.  Many of her live performances seem rife with fear, second-guessing, and an overwrought obsession with her attire and overall look.  

She’s been getting a lot of bad media attention for her decline in live appeal after the Michael Jackson memorial and I think that it’s much-warranted.  She had many a mishap before during live performances.  She needs to get her act together.  Catching tonight’s performance on America’s Got Talent, what I heard was a soulless computerized cacophony reminiscent of some way-too-young pop upstart and not someone who has been an industry standard for years.  Carey we want you back!  I love you but we want you back!

That butt grab was pretty funny though!  She and Nick seem to have something real going there!  One can only hope!

File under: If you should return to me then it was truly  meant to be! 

After a great flop of “8*10 Tasveer” Akshay kumar now joined hands with Kareena kapoor in “Kambakkht Ishq”…with all expectations.”The song that every bachelor hates”…..is really awesome.Now John Abraham,Katrina Kaif,Neil Nitin Mukesh has worked together in the film “Newyork”…..The song”Jai hunoon” is simply rocking.Lets see which movie is going to take the top…Watch out for more bollywood flops and new release movies on Desiyou

So…I adore cream puffs.  So I decided to give them a try.

I am an avid follower of Anna the Red.  She is partially responsible for my addiction to fun looking food.  For those of you who don’t know, she is an absolute food artisan and regularly creates amazing bento lunches.  She also posts how-to’s for most of her bento and non-bento foods.  She had a recipe for Totoro cream puffs which looked very tasty.  So I decided that was the recipe I was going to use.

I got together with a friend, gathered up the ingredients, and got ready to cook.  She is a vegan and wanted to try the same recipe with vegan ingredients.  She used non-dairy margarine and powdered egg substitute (the stuff that comes in the box).  My first batch turned out somewhat disastrously.  They were flat and mostly inedible, resembling a retarded biscuit.  I think I added to much egg, making the dough far too heavy.  My friend tried making hers with the appropriate substitutes for her dietary restrictions.  It was equally disastrous in that they resembled nothing like cream puffs.  Her dough was so greasy we had to toss it in a paper towel.  It didn’t help.  They didn’t rise at all, instead becoming little discs of crunchy doughy oddness.  Funnily enough I thought they were kind of tasty, even though they were extremely greasy.

My second batch was mildly more successful.  They even puffed up a little bit.  But I rather badly burned the ears I added on to the Totoro bodies.  I still wouldn’t call it a success.  They were flavorless and I used whipped cream in them instead of something more solid like custard or pudding.

So once again, this week my plan is to attempt cream puffs once more, this time using a different a recipe.  My mother recommended that I look in the Barefoot Contessa books she has and try her recipe.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with who I am speaking of, her real name is Ina Garten.  She is one of the gems on the Food Network.  My mother owns all of her books.  She has a recipe in her book Barefoot Contessa in Paris for cream puffs or more appropriately for profiteroles.

Wish me luck!  I’ll be trying her recipe in just a few days! :-p

Even though the Wonder Girls were taking BBQ Chicken CF pics in Korea , they had a second to take pictures endorsing Fitflops(American Product). These shoes are not what you can call style…but hey Wonder Girls rocked them and they made them look good.

Yoobin

YeEun (Yenny)

SunMi(Mimi)So Hee

The Flip flops cost around $50.00. if you want to buy them go to the site and type your zipcode to find out the nearest place to buy tbem.
Happy Shopping!
Hwaiting!

sigh. hours of work, only to turn out as this. i mean, it looks great but it tastes horrible. like sour booze that has been lying around the house for one too many years. remind me never to EVER use kirsch again. ever. what a flop………