A Good Day To Die Hard

When the tag line reads: "Like Father, Like Son, Like Hell" you immediately know this film is going to dreadful and somewhat awesome at the same time. Sadly for me it was just mostly mediocre and dissatisfying.

What was most frustrating thing about the film was the lack of effort. Despite being a Die Hard film there is very little "full on action", there is just loads of shooting and things just mostly crash and/or explode. There is neither any grittiness or grandeur to the whole affair.

It goes without saying that this film is a no-brainer but the whole thing is just massive face-palm. The plot is thread bare at best and the dialogue is diabolically bad. You don't want forced and painful bonding in a Die Hard film, especially when it is self depreciating. Throwing it in people's faces that you are making people cringe just adds insult to injury.

The whole sentiment is probably all summed up by a piss poor attempt to sexualise the film with the introduction of Yuliya Snigir's character. I have to say that she is probably one of the worst actresses I have seen in a long time, stick to the modelling...

Long story short, passable film if you enjoy Die Hard and you are literally paying no money to watch it... Otherwise just wait until you come across it on TV and there is nothing better to do >.<

Chicken "Katsu" Curry Recipe

Lately I have been getting really into cooking and I wanted to save my recipes and edit them as I go. So here is my first one, my version of the Japanese Chicken "Katsu" Curry, although I am yet to make it with proper Katsu Chicken...

Based on recipe from here: http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/29578/chicken-katsu-curry.aspx

Portions: 6 - 8

Ingredients

• Butter (2 knobs)
• Oil (~ 3 tablespoons)
• Garlic (8 big cloves)
• Onions (4 big/5 medium sized red onions)
• Flour (4 tablespoons)
• Medium Curry Powder (5 heaped tablespoons) 
• Adjust to taste, I find with this much the curry will be hot and somewhat spicy.
• Chicken Stock (3 oxo cubes mixed in 1 litre of boiling hot water)
• Honey (3 tablespoons)
• Soy Sauce ("Generous splash", ~ 3 tablespoons)
• Saffron (~ 4 strands)
• Bay Leaves (2 big leaves)
• Garam Masala (1 teaspoon)
• Salt & Pepper (very lightly seasoning)
• Diced Chicken (~ 1kg, 2 - 3 average packs)
• Rice (3 cups in a rice cooker)

Cooking Steps:

1. Before I start the chicken, I start the rice cooker going.
2. Crush all the garlic and gently brown in butter
3. Throw in chopped onions and "stir fry" on medium heat until golden.
4. Throw in chopped carrots and oil, continue cooking until it starts to soften.
5. Turn down heat, gently sprinkle in flour and curry powder.
6. Turn up heat slightly, start stirring the mixture. 
• Try to get most the carrots mixed in (don't stress it too much though).
7. Once roughly mixed, start to add in the chicken stock, do this slowly and in parts.
8. Keep mixing until all the stock is in and it starts to look like a "sauce" :P
9. Slowly bring to the boil whilst adding the honey and soy sauce, mix in throughly.
10. Once on a gentle boil, add saffron and bay leaves, mix throughly again.
11. Leave to boil for roughly 15 minutes.
• The sauce should be starting to reduce.
12. Stir in garam masala and leave to boil for another 5 minutes.
13. Turn heat down to medium and gently fold in chicken.
14. Continue folding/stirring until all chicken is starting to whiten.
15. Leave on simmer for another 5-10 minutes, depending on how thick you want the sauce.
16. Serve the chicken with rice (which should have had time to cook and rest!)

For my family (3 people atm) this usually works out to enough for dinner and some lunch the next day :D

Programming Goals

Recently I have been trying to improve myself as a programmer and all round software engineer. As a part of this, I joined the London Java Community and I've been attending various meet-ups.

All my recent exploits will have to wait have to wait for another post but I just wanted to list my goals for all of this. In this way, it will be clear in my head in the very least!

Really understand Java and the JVM

• Gain a better insight to how my Java code translates to byte-code.
• Learn more about how the JVM runs.
• Fully understand garbage collection, along with the G1 collector.
• Get to grips with tuning the JVM.

Become an expert in performance optimisation

• Learn how to truly measure performance on a macro and micro level.
• Understand the techniques necessary to produce faster code.
• Be fully aware of all the external factors which affect performance, such as I/O and network latency.
• Learn more algorithms and use more in anger.

Better manage and estimate time

• Be able to provide accurate quotes for concrete deliverables.
• Understand the techniques to estimate for intangible/vague software requirements.
• Better plan out work to reduce risk/maximise productivity!

Become a software design guru!

• Weave the right software design patterns into all my code.
• Avoid anti-patterns!
• Make all my code simple, robust and scalable (as necessary).

Be better at testing

• Find a practical testing framework/methodology given volatile requirements and highly limited timeframes.
• Better express user expectations as some form of user interface tests.
• Improve general code coverage!

Adopt a proper release management methodology

• Find or come up with a good version number standard!
• Set up some form of "One-click" deployment

Start benefitting from Continuous Integration 

• Properly set up CI environment to monitor and analyse code.
• Leverage CI in other practices, such as possibly exploring Feature Branching...

So seven main areas! Obviously this isn't all going to happen overnight but I really hope to achieve all these goals in the near future... It is all just a matter of time and patience I suppose!