Everyone who is anyone knows that you can add different types of search engines into Firefox. You know, you’ve got your IMDB, your Netflix, your Wikipedia, your SanduskyCabinets.com, and what have you. It’s real quick and easy to just add searches to that dropdown in the upper right, but it’s a tad inconvenient to really use them.

You know what I mean you lazy, laptop-lit bum. You have to move your mouse ALL THE WAY to the upper right… then you have to click on the dropdown… and actually click on the search you want. And don’t get me started on how then you STILL have to click or erase the search box and type in what you are looking for! Ugghhh it’s the worst.

Well friend, today is your lucky day, because I have recently discovered the most fabulous and sneaky feature in Firefox.

Instructions

When you click ‘Manage Searches’ in the search dropdown, there is a column in the dialog box list called ‘keyword’. When you have a search selected, you can hit ‘Edit Keyword’ and type in any old keyword you like. For example I just have the word ‘i’ for IMDB.com. After you have saved some keywords for your searches, get ready to rock.

When you want to search for something on a specific site, just type directly into the URL bar your keyword and then your search term. For example, if I wanted to read all I could about the movie Lifeforce on Wikipedia (sweeeeet), I just type ‘w Lifeforce’ (where w is my keyword for Wikipedia) into the URL bar and hit enter. Voilà. Instant search results from the search site you specified, for the keyword you typed. When you combine this with CTRL+L, the shortcut to put your cursor into the URL bar, you can get super speedy with your searches.

Keyword Search Galore

Want to search Amazon for that copy of  Her Passionate Pirate (you know… to fill out that Harlequin American Romance Series collection you have going…)? CTRL+L and then type “a Her Passionate Pirate” and boom! You’re there!

Now all you have to do is add all the different searches you want and give them good keywords. Google is obvious (g) and I even added Google Maps (map). You can really go crazy with it… go on… go crazy!

YOU’RE WELCOME.

The Escapist is a 2008 British prison break film starring the-one-and-only Brian Cox. It flew under the radar, being an independent release from a fledgling writer/director Rupert Wyatt. Joseph Fiennes, Liam Cunningham, Dominic Cooper, Seu Jorge, Steven Mackintosh and Damian Lewis co-star in the film. The movie premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews, although like I said it managed to escape me until now. This review is spoiler free!

Let’s get right to the point. I gave this movie 4 out 5 stars. There are endless ways to approach a movie review, but I’ll go for the simplest. Since I gave it 4/5 stars, I’ll write about 4 things from the movie that I liked, and the one thing that I didn’t.

1. This movie is smart and subtle. It doesn’t explain everything that is going on, and the viewer must piece things together bit by bit. In addition, there are essentially two stories going on at the same time; one focusing on the build-up to the escape and the other on the break itself. There is also a great deal of attention paid to the caged feeling one must sense when being incarcerated, so much so that you start to feel incarcerated yourself. Adding to this stir-crazy feeling is the fact that the viewer never even finds out why the main character is in prison, let alone why he’s serving a life sentence.

Brian Cox as Frank Perry in The Escapist

2. The entire cast, in particular Brian Cox, Joseph Fiennes, and Damian Lewis, put on a wonderful show. In fact, Joseph Fiennes is so good in this that he is hardly recognizable and almost redeems himself from his current butchering on the ABC series Flash Forward. Damian Lewis plays a super creepy and intimidating prison kingpin with an effeminate flare. According to IMDB, Lewis apparently wore women’s underwear throughout the movie’s filming. You could almost see a thong riding up.

3. The tension is unbearable. These inmates are at each others throats, yet despite that, they each have a peace of the puzzle that may help them escape. Meanwhile the imposing rule of the prison leader puts severe strains on the plans to escape, as well as what little friendships do exist. The music and sound in this movie is both masterfully simplistic and perfect, which is something I don’t normally recognize, and served the tension and build-up nicely without being at all overdone.

4. The actual escape from prison is clever and sophisticated, yet all the gritty and grimy things one supposedly must do to break out are there. The other great aspect of the break is that it basically takes place through-out the entire movie, interspersed with the build-up and planning. Often the best part of a prison break movie is the break itself, so making this extend for an hour and a half was sheer brilliance.

… And The 1 Thing I Didn’t Like About Movie

1. The ending. It’s good… it’s just not great. In fact, despite the unexpectedness of it, I felt like it was a bit of a cop-out. I still like the movie and recommend it, but a 5 star movie wouldn’t have left me with that same sort of feeling. I’ll just leave it by saying that the ending doesn’t mesh well with what the rest of the movie is presenting, regardless of how shocking and surprising it is.

I rated this movie 4/5 stars on Netflix. I would say that around the last 10 minutes was when it jumped from a 5 to a 4. If you’re into clever dramas, prison breaks, and/or Brian Cox, this movie will not disappoint you. Here are your obligatory Official ‘The Escapist’ Movie, Netflix (must be logged in), Wikipedia, and IMDB links. (Who can possible write about a movie on the web these days without links to those four sites?)

Other Prison Break Movies

The Shawshank Redemption will probably forever by the reigning king of prison break movies, although that’s a pretty niche genre to be categorizing. The Great Escape, Papillon (massively under appreciated and much more of a cinematic masterpiece), and O Brother Where Art Thou come to mind as other great escape flicks.  No, I have not seen Midnight Express… yet.

• New post on my site – Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-06-21 http://ping.fm/vCXFg #
• @codypo That’s only the first half. Throwing stars make a big showing in the second batch. Especially during the ninja uprising. in reply to codypo #
• @carmenite where are you? #
• Pictures from my trip to Southeast Asia pictures are finished! http://bit.ly/E3Jpw #
• I saw Moon this afternoon, it was really good and quite unique. It’s a cross between a lighter Primer and Solaris. Rockwell is great in it. #

• New post on my site – Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-06-21 http://ping.fm/vCXFg #
• @codypo That’s only the first half. Throwing stars make a big showing in the second batch. Especially during the ninja uprising. in reply to codypo #
• @carmenite where are you? #
• Pictures from my trip to Southeast Asia pictures are finished! http://bit.ly/E3Jpw #
• I saw Moon this afternoon, it was really good and quite unique. It’s a cross between a lighter Primer and Solaris. Rockwell is great in it. #

Like the Royale with cheese.

• Everything Murray Head wrote about Bangkok is true. One night and I’ve been humbled and tumbled, yet the world is my oyster. #
• Singapore is awesome! Its humid and hot, but it is really clean, there is an amazing harbor, and lots of shopping areas and restaurants! #

• New post on my site – Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-06-07 http://ping.fm/H5FTc #
• David Alan Grier and Patrick Stewart together on screen at last. Watching King of Texas while getting some work done. #
• Singapore, Bangkok, and Malaysia trip starts Friday. Any last minute recommendations? #
• First time using Twitter (search) for something genuinely useful. Rubyforge is down, so my failed attempts at gem installs aren’t my fault! #
• @moye I think I know what that OMG is about. Plus, your twitpic is MSISING!!! in reply to moye #

Done. Nothing but bone left.

• No my laptop actually shipped… as opposed to the warranty pamphlet (psych). Lazy Sunday of work and hopefully a work-out ahead. #
• Watching Martyrs after a friend’s recommendation… wow this movie is messed up. I recommend it if you are into ridiculous gross horror. #
• This passwordless ssh login system with authorized_keys is not easy to set-up. I just need an error message with more info than ‘denied’. #
• @Samwar No, running a virtual ubuntu locally, trying to get passwordless login to a remote ubuntu server. Not smog… marine layer gloom! in reply to Samwar #
• @stuka On the client or the server? I think all the perms are set fine… I’m not even getting the passphrase prompt when ssh is denied. in reply to stuka #
• New post on my site – Science Fiction Photography and the Orient Express http://ping.fm/mWW9f #
• New post on my site – Science Fiction Photography and the Orient Express http://ping.fm/mWW9f http://tumblr.com/xla1×4idl #
• New post on my site – Ready for the orient http://ping.fm/HNFgp #
• New post on my site – My Fascination with Gordon Ramsay http://ping.fm/kC8jl #
• @moye DON’T DO IT MOYE!!!! in reply to moye #
• My laptop just arrived. I am giddy with excitement, but not so much so that I will record the ‘unboxing’ process. #
• @carmenite Woah woah woah… did somebody hack your account? in reply to carmenite #
• @moye Don’t eat a donut. Do buy a PS3. in reply to moye #
• Hooray! It’s raining in Los Angeles! #
• Thunder! YESSSSSSSS! #
• Steve Martin and Paul Simon were on Jimmy Fallon last night, they played together, too cool! I’m now recording 2 hours of late night daily. #
• @moye I applaud your badass-edness. in reply to moye #
• Alert: If sausage and brisket aren’t on your menu, you can’t call yourself a barbecue restaurant. That’s just lying. #
• @Samwar Yes but I’m still not going to bother going to this place. Been driving by it almost daily and have been curious… not anymore! in reply to Samwar #
• HP HDX 16t is the new hotness. Windows 7 is the new hotness. #
• @Samwar Yeah, and it totally rocks. I haven’t had any issues with it at all yet. I never even used Vista, so I’m going straight to 7. in reply to Samwar #
• @moye Dude what the heck are you doing at that place? You are in our hood!! in reply to moye #
• Picked up new guitar strings. Trying out the Apple Pan now! #
• @moye Apple Pan was pretty good. It’s not at all the ‘best burger in LA’, but it was good. I’d go back, i want to try their pies too. in reply to moye #

Gordon Ramsay is a world class chef, television personality, and author. If you’ve seen him only on U.S.-based television,  you probably think he is a megalomaniac hell-bent on insulting chefs in the most barbaric way possible. I’d like to tell you that this portrayal isn’t true, in fact I think it’s all an act.

I’m biased of course, I’ve been a big fan of his since before he had any shows in the U.S. I first got started following him when he was making an early season of the F-word, a BBC based talk/cook/contest show that takes place in his restaurant. If you haven’t seen this show but enjoy the likes of Kitches Nightmares or Hell’s Kitchen, I would encourage you to check it out. Not only do you get to see ‘the real’ Gordon Ramsay in action, but you also get to see him go so far as to raise different types of animals on his own each season, and then eat them.

After blazing through all the F-word episodes that had been released, I eventually found the first series he ever did, Boiling Point and Beyond Boiling Point. In these shows, you can see the true fury and anger that boils within Gordon Ramsay. You see him yell at his staff. You see him act ruthless with competition. He wants success, and he wants it bad. Really bad. Insult your mom in front of your family bad. If you can get your dirty little hands on this series, do it, you won’t regret it.

Hell’s Kitchen and (Ramsay’s) Kitchen Nightmares also actually got their start at the BBC. There are number of episodes of each, sprawling across several series. I feel like these shows are more grounded in reality than their American counterparts. I’m an American, don’t get me wrong, but we (or should I just say FOX) have really ripped apart what was once a genuine idea and show. FOX has gutted all the wonderful cooking and interesting character developments to leave only the shouty angry part of Ramsay, which I often feel is forced. I get the feeling the directors are of screen saying “Louder! Angrier! Again!!!”

Gordon Ramsay - Smirky Bastard

Ramsay has also written several cookbooks, some of which I own (and are great). Of more interest to me though are his autobiographical books, such as Humble Pie. In this book, he explains how he got to be the way he is today. He starts with his meager beginnings in Scotland, develops the story of his dysfunctional relationship with his father, and ultimately elaborates on his core reasons for demanding success and perfection. If you have the chance, you’d be better off going with the audiobook, read by the man himself.

Gordon Ramsay opened up a restaurant in Los Angeles about a year ago at a new hotel he was also involved with, The London. I’ve fortunately been able to eat at this restaurant on a couple of occasions, all of which were amazing dining experiences. I’m not a food critic, so I won’t even begin to try to describe the culinary delights put forth from his kitchen. After having eaten at one of his restaurants though, I think I’ve found even more respect for the man. It’s not too surprising to learn that he has amassed an astounding 13 Michelin stars, which I believe ties him for second in the ‘most stars even won’ contest. I have enjoyed watching his determination, drive, and passion for what he does, as well as admiring the results he has achieved.

Read more about Gordon Ramsay at Wikipedia and his personal website.