Sunshine

Hope that guy is wearing sunscreen!

Wow. Netflix recommended this movie to me and though I had never heard of it before, I thought sure what the heck, I like science fiction. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It sucked me in right from the beginning and kept me going until the end. Well, the last third of the movie could have been better, but the first two thirds were top rate.

The movie takes place in the future where the sun is about to burn out. Humanity launched a mission (Icarus I) to detonate a bomb on the sun in order to restart it. That mission failed and they launched a second mission (Icarus II) to do the same thing.

Straight up, space scares me. There is something about the darkness, the silence, the sterility and coldness of a spaceship that creeps me out. This movie, interestingly, makes light creepy. There are a lot of images of the blazing inferno that is the sun. It's the totalness, the completely engulfing feeling these images invoke which I find to be creepy.

The movie is not without its clichés. You have the "crew is expendable at the cost of the mission" choices, the "struggling to maintain sanity in an alien environment" dilemmas, and finally (and unfortunately) the "movie needs a physical antagonist" plot point. They are all done well though, with good pacing and good acting.

Last, but not least, I didn't feel like I had to suspend my disbelief much. I'm pretty demanding when it comes to that.

I highly recommend this movie to any sci-fi fans.

Scivation Xtend

Bodybuilding.com's glutamine product of the year!

This is a solid amino acid product that has the standard 2-1-1 ratio of l-leucine (3.5 g), l-isoleucine (1.75 g) and l-valine (1.75 g). It also contains a healthy dose of l-glutamine (2.5 g) and citrulline malate (1 g).

Does this stuff work? I dunno. It's hard to say with nutritional supplements, ya know? It's the same as taking whey protein... there's no real night and day difference, but you take it anyway just to be sure. I do feel like the duration of my post workout soreness has decreased (as l-glutamine is advertised to do), but maybe that's also just a side effect of regularly going to the gym 4 days a week for the past 4 months.

Ok, just to make this "review" easy, let's assume that you believe in amino acid supplements and you are trying to decide which one to get. It'll boil down to price, taste and quality.

I think the quality is good. Scivation has a very good reputation on bodybuilding.com and Xtend has a huge following there.

Price is alright, I guess. Dang amino acids are expensive. It's $50 for a 90 serving container. People take between 1 and 3 servings a day. I take 1.5 servings.

Taste is where it gets interesting. It's advertised as tasting like Koolaid... and yes it does, after you get used to it! The first two or three times I tried "refreshing apple," it tasted like bitter chemicals. So much so that I would sometimes cringe after taking a swig. Then I learned to add more water. 2 scoops per 1 liter seems to do the trick. After that, it started to taste kind of good.

The watermelon flavor was the opposite. It tasted watered down and diluted. After upping the amount to 3 scoops per 1 liter, it actually tastes pretty good.

By now, I'm very used to Xtend's flavor and actually find it very pleasurable. I sometimes drink it just cuz I'm thirsty and am craving something sweet. Tastes like how Jolly Ranchers smell. The watermelon is definitely sweeter than the apple, and I like it better overall.

BSN Syntha-6

Funky red bottle.

Syntha-6's gimmick is that it has 6 different proteins: whey concentrate, whey isolate, egg albumen, milk protein concentrate, calcium caseinate, micellar alpha and beta-casein caseinates. Each type of protein has a different absorption rate, so one shake theoretically gives you a steady protein supply for up to 8 hours.

Here's the macro breakdown for a 44 g serving:

22 g protein
15 g carbs (2 g sugar)
6 g fat (2 g saturated)
200 calories

Compare that to a 70 g serving of Muscle Milk (which also has a blend of different types of protein):

32 g protein
16 g carbs (2 g sugar)
12 g fat (6 g saturated)
300 calories

Ahh, but the serving size is different. Let's put them on equal ground. Here are the macros for a 70 g serving of Syntha-6:

35 g protein
24 g carbs (3 g sugar)
10 g fat (3 g saturated)
325 calories

It boils down to significantly more carbs, and significantly less saturated fat. Note though, that Muscle Milk claims its saturated fat is good for you (medium chain triglycerides, that are more readily metabolized for energy).

So how does it taste? I got Chocolate Peanut Butter and when blended with a banana, ice and water... it tastes damn good. So good that I immediately want to make another one. I think it definitely lives up to it's claim of "ridiculously" delicious. I haven't tried it in plain water yet.

Update: I just tried it in plain water... it has nothing on Muscle Milk. Not bad, definitely good as far as protein goes, but nothing close to retardedly delicious like Muscle Milk.

All in all, I think it's a perfect alternative to Muscle Milk for people who don't like the high amount of (saturated) fat.

Fun factoid... on BodyBuilding.com's best seller list, Syntha-6 is ranked number 4 and Muscle Milk is ranked number 5. BSN has two products on the top 10 list (top 5 actually).

Poopoo's hurt bottom!

Callie got an impacted anal gland. Apparently it's somewhat typical for dachshunds. I had never heard of it before and freaked out. It looked like a tumor, but all swollen and veiny.

I wanted to go to the emergency room, but Aimee talked me out of it after looking it up on the internet (unlike me, she stayed calm and rational). It's not actually that serious, so we decided to go first thing in the morning. We did a few warm compresses on it and went to bed.

I wake up to all the lights on and Aimee rushing about and Callie whining. I'm so tired and out of it, I have no idea what is going on and it's hard for me to think or concentrate. Her anal gland ruptured in the middle of the night and it was bleeding all over the sheets. :(

Panic sets in and I kept saying, "Well lets go to the vet now, now now!" Aimee replies, "Uhh, it's 4:00am." I was like... wtf, I though it was morning time (that's how out of it I was).

Again, Aimee didn't panic and looked it up on the internet. It's not fatal and it wasn't bleeding that badly, so we put a compress on it and went to bed again.

Next morning we go to the vet and get her all stitched up. Ten days later she's as good as new!

I hate stuff like this. It scares me so much. I can't imagine life without them.