Captain Marvel: Pretty Damn Good

Omaha and I went to watch Captain Marvel and I thought it was pretty good. Not quite in the Wonder Woman category of openers about superheroines, but definitely a good introduction to the entire universe of Mar-Vell, the Kree/Skrull conflict, and just a solid movie about the Marvel Universe, even if it is set in the mid-1990s. The CGI is better than usual, Brie Larson was amazing in her role, and overall the quality of the film held up.

Jude Law's Yon-Rogg is a perfect example of the gaslighting male and his end speech so perfectly mimicked the cadence of the MRA "debate me!" speeches, and Law delivered it with such a perfect wink of the eye (and the director emphasized by suddenly dropping all the music and some post-production clean up, to basically show him as he is, pathetic and whiny in the face of Danvers's strength), that I actually giggled.

I can see why so many immature men hated the movie. It's got so much going on it it; Danvers refuses mostly to just take a man's word for things, and the more she goes on the more she learns just how much the men in her world have been lying to her. At one point, the film takes a poignant moment and mostly says that being female in a world of male supremacy is more unifying than being black in a world of white supremacy is dividing, and I thought that was a pretty good message.

The reversion of Jackson and Gregg to their younger selves wasn't quite as smooth as everyone had hoped. Gregg, especially, seemed chunkier than I remember the younger Agent Coulson as being.

Kroger's "Home Chef" make-at-home meals: A good idea, but overpriced.

Over the weekend, Omaha and I had to have dinner but didn't have a good plan. As a last-minute thing, we decided to check out one of those pre-assembled, "cook at home" meals sold at our local grocery. This one was from the Home Chef Collection, and it was "Chicken breasts with fig sauce, with peas & rice."

What you get in the box: two pre-packaged chicken breasts, a tub of peas, a vacuum-packed container of pre-cooked rice, a pat of butter, a small container of fig sauce, and a baggie of parmesean cheese.

The packaging doesn't lie: if you are a highly experienced home cook, you can do the entire recipe in 20 minutes. If you're not, it's going to take somewhat longer. The only real timesaver in the entire recipe is that the rice is pre-cooked; that means that you can assemble and heat-through the rice, peas and cheese mixture while the chicken is cooking.

I made one change to the recipe: After removing the chicken from the pan, I put a splash of white wine into the pan to deglaze it before adding the fig sauce and water, which added to the flavor and made cleaning up beforehand. "Deglazing" is not something the recipe mentions or goes into.

But the rice is the only timesaver; otherwise, everything in the recipe could be assembled at home by an ordinary mortal, and it wouldn't cost $18 for two people; at most, you could cook that meal for two for only $8. I do appreciate that the chicken breasts provided were on the small side; most times, when you buy fresh chicken, the breasts provided are huge and more than one person could possibly consume. And the rice is easy to make; you just have to be willing to sit in the kitchen for an extra twenty minutes.

Instead of this route, I strongly recommend picking up A Dinner a Day and learning how to cook from that. It has meal plans, ingredient guidelines, weekend buying lists, and leftover management plans, and it actually teaches you a think or two about using pots, pans, and knives. Go through it for a year and you'll be able to cook anything you want after that.

Southcenter Acme Bowling makes bowling a "multi-sensory experience." Go to Round One instead.

Ugh, our local bowling alley, the Acme, has gone multi-media. Massive TV screens above every four lanes, blasting out some movie or other. The last time we went, they were playing The Phantom Menace above our lanes, but Parks and Rec on the lanes over. It's insanely distracting. They've also added lots of blacklights everywhere, so that people glow wherever they're wearing anything even vaguely florescent.

We decided instead to go to Round One, which is an "entertainment center" at the local mall. It has a huge arcade, billiards tables, and a twelve-lane bowling alley. I had trepidation about going there; the place is usually noisy as heck and full of teenagers beating up the various modern arcade machines, machines which have to be physical and device-oriented (dance platforms, gun stations, that sort of thing) because everything else can be had at home on the X-Box for less quarters.

Instead, it was a lovely experience. The alleys are fairly quiet, well-maintained, and easy to use. The heaviest ball they give us is a 15 pounder, which was a bit of a wimp, but I'm still nursing a sore ankle so it wasn't too bad. And best of all, no multimedia "experiences" blaring into my eyes while I'm trying to concentrate on converting a 7-10 split.

So, yeah, if the Southcenter Acme Bowling Alley triggers your ADHD, go to Round One instead. It won't be the full barcade experience, but it'll be damn quieter.