tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-323411305611357162011-07-07T21:50:21.773-07:00Matt Perkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00391706335314882823noreply@blogger.comBlogger281100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32341130561135716.post-76855185200562359532010-07-12T13:29:00.000-07:002010-07-12T22:21:12.020-07:00

Dinnerblog 2 is one of my favourite dishes: butter chicken.  As far as Indian food goes, it's pretty mild and quite easy to make, which is probably why it's so popular.  That said, if you like it hotter than what you'd get in an average Indian joint, you can easily fix that by adding more chillies. Here's what you'll need to butter up some chicken: 3 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless 1

Matt Perkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00391706335314882823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32341130561135716.post-13686569168761005572010-07-02T22:03:00.000-07:002010-07-04T01:49:04.635-07:00

Welcome to the first edition of Dinnerblog!  In this feature, I use the magic of digital photography to take you through the preparation of a nice meal from start to finish. Our first recipe is Szechuan Chicken.  I'm sure anyone who's been to a Chinese restaurant will recognize this.  On the occasions when I've had it out, it's usually been very tasty but very greasy.  My recipe here attempts to

Matt Perkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00391706335314882823noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32341130561135716.post-30012116709503705952010-05-12T01:37:00.000-07:002010-05-12T09:23:19.062-07:00

I'm certain you've all heard the name of the person who is the subject of this article.  You're probably all thinking of some kind of exotic, sexy spy, like a Middle Eastern version of Sidney Bristow. Actually, that sounds pretty hot.  Yes indeed. ... Anyway, though the actual person did somewhat resemble this in a very, very vague sort of way, most of what we think we know about Mata Hari (

Matt Perkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00391706335314882823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32341130561135716.post-9867292873205275442010-04-28T20:18:00.001-07:002010-04-28T20:18:41.119-07:00

I'm too freaked out by this to write anything.

Matt Perkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00391706335314882823noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32341130561135716.post-48524595230400402292010-04-21T13:17:00.000-07:002010-04-21T13:17:47.229-07:00

Roger Ebert recently stepped into a big pile of shit when he made a blog post saying that video games can never be art.  Millions and millions of keystrokes have already been spent debating this extremely short-sighted viewpoint (which is all the more disappointing since I am a big fan of Ebert's writing), so I will not go too deep into it.  Instead, I will use this opportunity to segue into the

Matt Perkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00391706335314882823noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32341130561135716.post-63598268780818137022010-04-16T13:28:00.000-07:002010-04-21T15:01:38.845-07:00

In this new feature, I do what no blogger has ever dared to do: review hamburgers in Vancouver.  This city is most known for its Asian cuisine and something called "West Coast" (which usually means overpriced Italian, Asian, and pub food variants), but it is also an excellent city for high quality hamburgers.  This says a lot, considering I am originally from what is supposed to be Canada's

Matt Perkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00391706335314882823noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32341130561135716.post-24728770296884655222010-04-14T22:16:00.000-07:002010-04-14T22:16:39.404-07:00

Clash of the Titans, currently in theatres, is running a, um ... titanic amount of promos on TV, nearly all of which contain Liam Neeson uttering this year's catch phrase: "release the Kraken."  A massive CGI beast is then shown rising from the sea, thrashing a few tentacles about, and roaring.  I would venture to guess that the vast majority of people watching these clips have no idea what a

Matt Perkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00391706335314882823noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32341130561135716.post-52418807677293056772010-04-07T00:00:00.000-07:002010-04-07T00:00:07.250-07:00

You long-time (relatively speaking) readers are probably going to assume I'm obsessed with ghost towns after reading this, and I won't tell you you're wrong.  You can't deny that there is something exciting and curiousity-piquing about a place that has been abandoned by mankind.  In today's article, we learn about a place in America that, for all intents and purposes, became hell on Earth.

Matt Perkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00391706335314882823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32341130561135716.post-39966729800910102422010-03-30T15:56:00.000-07:002010-03-30T15:56:22.729-07:00

I'm a bit concerned, folks.  I don't want to alarm anyone, but I think I have a celebrity stalker. Her name is Grace Park, best known for her portrayal of the various Number Eight Cylons on Battlestar Galactica, and for being a stone cold fox.  Unfortunately she's one of those creepy celebrity stalkers you keep hearing about in the news. Here is a picture of the stalker in question.  She usually

Matt Perkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00391706335314882823noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32341130561135716.post-88432653823131029932010-03-12T00:45:00.000-08:002010-03-12T00:45:34.842-08:00

I have been negligent with the blog lately.  Sorry about that. To make matters worse, I'm about to leave the country for a couple weeks, so you won't see any updates for a while longer. To tide you over until I return, here's Lost's Evangeline Lilly doing a phone sex commercial:

Matt Perkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00391706335314882823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32341130561135716.post-59062203701920426342010-03-03T14:24:00.000-08:002010-03-03T14:24:55.999-08:00

Conan O'Brien once said that his favorite character to write for on The Simpsons was Mr. Burns.  His reasoning was that since Mr. Burns had the ultimate trifecta of being rich, old, and evil, he can do almost anything he wants.  Nearly any insane and extravagant bit that Conan could come up with would be within scope. This is just as true with the fictional C. Montgomery Burns as it is with many

Matt Perkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00391706335314882823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32341130561135716.post-84695460413068649222010-03-01T23:24:00.000-08:002010-03-01T23:24:26.654-08:00

It's March.  The medals have all been handed out.  The visitors are on their way home.  Vancouver airport had its busiest day ever today.  The thing that has been a big, big deal in this city for the past seven years is over.  Truthfully, I am relieved. Don't get me wrong: I had a great time, and I'm tremendously glad I was here for this, but by the end I was fatigued.  The atmosphere here was

Matt Perkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00391706335314882823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32341130561135716.post-32284803809533720722010-02-24T01:04:00.000-08:002010-02-24T01:04:18.056-08:00

It's funny how the Olympics tend to make us watch sports we would otherwise completely ignore.  When was the last time you cared about skiing, luge, biathlon, or anything else other than hockey? And yet, people pay hundreds of dollars to see these sports live, and go out to bars to see them with a crowd like they're special things.  That's part of the Olympic phenomenon it seems.  Perhaps the

Matt Perkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00391706335314882823noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32341130561135716.post-57747609730420126272010-02-20T12:07:00.000-08:002010-02-20T12:07:04.915-08:00

Oh Miga, you little rascal! She's been having a lot of fun this week, and so have I.  Not surprisingly, in spite of all the dire predictions, naysayers, controversy, and good ol' fashioned whining leading up to the Games, pretty much everyone I've spoken with this week has been very positive about what's going on here. At street level, the Winter Olympics are a big fun party that happens to

Matt Perkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00391706335314882823noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32341130561135716.post-628766141747802962010-02-18T01:14:00.000-08:002010-02-18T01:14:39.945-08:00

Corrupt, wasteful, and dangerously incompetent financial institutions are all the rage these days.  We hear about massive investment firms going under, executives getting bonuses despite destroying people's assets, and government bailouts to keep the financial sector from completely collapsing.  And yet, there is no story that really, truly, exemplifies a completely fucked up bank ... ... unless

Matt Perkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00391706335314882823noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32341130561135716.post-65511006691843141772010-02-13T13:36:00.000-08:002010-02-13T13:36:51.209-08:00

An open letter to Canpages and Telus: Dear stupid people, Recently I have noticed that you have decided to leave large paper phone books at the front door of my suite; not the door of my building, but the actual door to my home.  Telus, I know you probably have a key to the building, but I don't imagine it was given to you for the purpose of spamming me with a massive wad of paper.  Canpages, I

Matt Perkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00391706335314882823noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32341130561135716.post-43473485167529226762010-02-10T09:30:00.000-08:002010-02-10T09:30:10.237-08:00

The polite term is "mentally ill", but most people just call them "crazy".  I'm referring, of course, to those people you see in every city (but especially the one I live in) who carry on conversations with imaginary people, dress up in bizarre costumes, push around shopping carts full of doll parts (I sincerely hope those are doll parts), scream obscenities at nobody in particular, twitch, pace,

Matt Perkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00391706335314882823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32341130561135716.post-77858029914041761412010-02-08T14:14:00.000-08:002010-02-08T14:14:45.627-08:00

In honour of the final season of Lost, this month's guest advice columnist is the notorious Ben Linus.  Ben has been one of the most powerful forces on The Island, and though many may disagree with his methods (or, really, everything he's ever done) you can't argue with the results ... oh wait, maybe you can argue with the results.  Anyway, I'll stop now and get on with the questions and answers.

Matt Perkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00391706335314882823noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32341130561135716.post-19041883572436632952010-02-03T13:32:00.000-08:002010-02-03T13:32:56.750-08:00

When I first moved here, I noticed that certain things were very different from what I was used to.  Buildings, in particular, were not like buildings in other cities.  There were also no freeways, or even anything resembling a freeway (Calgary only has one freeway technically speaking, but plenty of other roads that are somewhere between a freeway and a major road). Until recently I didn't know

Matt Perkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00391706335314882823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32341130561135716.post-6091092466157351312010-01-27T11:04:00.000-08:002010-01-27T11:04:44.984-08:00

Everyone knows that the Americans were the first people to set foot on the moon (keep your loony conspiracy theories out of here mister ... you know who you are ... Dad).  The Apollo 11 landing was one of the most famous events in history, certainly in the 20th Century.  We know all about Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and that other dude who had to sit in the Command Module in orbit reading

Matt Perkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00391706335314882823noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32341130561135716.post-45278535154690816252010-01-26T19:40:00.000-08:002010-01-26T19:40:38.869-08:00

Everyone knows it costs a lot of money to put on something like the Winter Olympics.  That's fine though, because a lot of people stand to profit from the Olympics, with all the money being thrown around for the games.  It's an investment. Wait, did I say "people"?  Whoops, my bad.  What I meant was "corporations". Oh, and that part there when I said "a lot" should actually say "a few".  Sorry

Matt Perkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00391706335314882823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32341130561135716.post-78067986749338961002010-01-20T00:00:00.000-08:002010-01-20T00:00:05.471-08:00

I am fascinated by geography.  I am even more fascinated by weird geography.  As such, when I learned about the Salton Sea in California, I was thrilled.  I know this makes me an irredeemable geek and I don't care.  The Salton Sea is crazy-go-nuts and I love it. Salton Sea Weird fact 1: it's entirely inland.  Entirely within the state of California, at that. Weird fact 2: it is 226 feet below

Matt Perkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00391706335314882823noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32341130561135716.post-90112800388040465002010-01-19T13:02:00.000-08:002010-01-19T13:10:42.680-08:00

This will be a semi-regular feature on this here blog.  Because I am a very powerful and influential man, I am able to get a few well known science fiction characters to come by and offer their advice to readers. For our first edition we are very fortunate to have Battlestar Galactica's Colonel Saul Tigh.  He has selected some reader questions from the thousands upon thousands that were sent in

Matt Perkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00391706335314882823noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32341130561135716.post-56870392158803113702010-01-13T11:22:00.000-08:002010-01-13T11:36:50.514-08:00

I don't normally intend to use this blog to discuss global issues or to promote causes, but I will make an exception in this case. I have always been interested in the history of the Caribbean (thanks to Sid Meier's Pirates!) and the recent earthquake has reminded me of what a sad, awful place Haiti is. Here's the article. The country's history reads like a book from the Old Testament. They

Matt Perkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00391706335314882823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32341130561135716.post-78068963882236443242010-01-12T11:55:00.000-08:002010-01-12T12:00:02.528-08:00

Today is January 12, 2010.  "What is the significance of this date, Matt," you ask?  Well, savvy Internet person and/or Googlebot, in one month from today the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games will open! Yay! Right? Yay? Mostly yay, but the Vancouver Olympics are not without controversy and strife.  Why?  Because this is Vancouver.  No matter what some whack-job does in this city, there is

Matt Perkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00391706335314882823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32341130561135716.post-22507581392820419092010-01-09T18:37:00.000-08:002010-01-09T18:42:01.793-08:00

How insane am I exactly? This ought to provide some insight. Please enjoy this excellent Stinko Comic! Click to make it bigger.I made it using this thing here.

Matt Perkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00391706335314882823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32341130561135716.post-3100925533655326972010-01-06T00:00:00.000-08:002010-01-06T00:00:00.758-08:00

Wikipedia Wednesday is the first feature I'm trying out. Every Wednesday I will post a link to an interesting, quirky, or funny Wikipedia article, along with either a bit of analysis, or a snide remark ... ideally both.This week's article: Plumpy'nutPlumpy'nut is a peanut-based food for use in famine relief which was formulated in 1999 by André Briend, aFrench Paediatric Nutritionist....The

Matt Perkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00391706335314882823noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32341130561135716.post-91259969056484683532009-12-30T12:55:00.000-08:002009-12-30T14:13:20.730-08:00

Some of you may remember me having a blog called "kickass" that was active from around 2001 to 2004. I enjoyed it while it lasted, and can't really remember a good reason for not doing it anymore. It was fairly aimless and inconsistent, and there were no real goals involved.Some of you may even remember I sent out e-mail newsletters from around 1998 to 2001. Those were the days. Sometimes

Matt Perkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00391706335314882823noreply@blogger.com0