TV: Amazing Race 9 - Ep 5

Slight delay in posting this week -- not because I was pouting about the Double-Ds elimination (though maybe I was), but because I had a bunch of meetings and after work activities did not allow me to watch the episode until now. Thank goodness for the DVR.

- A pox on Lake for using the Yield, but the Double-Ds still squandered several opportunities to beat other teams. I guess Long Island gals don't drive stick. And they aren't as familiar with the male anatomy as they might lead you to believe.

- I wonder how many microseconds of sadness the frat boys felt after learning of the Double-D's demise. I suspect only as long as it takes for them to spot another woman. And wouldn't it have been tragic if they were forced to retire from the race by injuring themselves while horsing around with the wheelchairs at the airport?

- Leave it to a Bay Area hippie to know how to navigate a German Travel Web site to find an English version.

- Ray and Yolanda would be near the top of the heap if they could just read a map and stop relying on others for directions. I fear they may suffer the same fate as Wanda and Desiree.

- I suppose I would have chosen the Bell at the detour, but if I knew I'd be the first to get to the laundry lines, then 20 out of 2400 chance of finding the right piece of clothing does not seem like bad odds to me.

- Were the clothes donated to charity afterward, or is it all in Phil's closet now?

- At least Fran and Berry only walked back and forth past the clue box for 5 or so minutes instead of 40 this time around. Hopefully, they'll remember to pay a visit to the optometrist after the race is over.

- You'd expect nerds to recognize the statue puzzle's trick faster than anybody else. But I guess they actually aren't in the science branch of the nerd species.

- The relationship cracks (beyond Lake and Michelle) are starting to show. This week the nerds, next week's preview shows some stress on MoJo. Let the fireworks begin.

- Looks like next week, the Amazing Race steals a page from The Apprentice and makes some teams try to sell stuff in a market. That might be entertaining.

- Sicily added to list of places to visit. The last time I heard the city Palermo mentioned, I was a mere child watching a great war movie titled Patton. Ancient sites and warm sandy beaches, what more could you ask of a dream vacation?

TV: Amazing Race 9 - Ep 4

Readers, the lesson for this week is "Learn to read a map." It might be difficult enough to find someone who speaks English in a foreign country, but maybe even rarer that the person can give good directions as well. But I understand the difficulties some teams may have had in Germany. Street names get concatenated together so you have to get used to separating out the -strasse and -platz parts when reading maps. The exit (ausfahrt) lane line markers confused me as well when I was out there. Anyhow map reading skills and a good sense of direction appeared to be what separated the teams from each other the most on this leg.

- I thought men were supposed to be the ones who never stop to ask for directions. The reference to Groundhog Day was appropriate considering how two teams were driving around in circles for a while. [OnDemand cable has been promoting this movie recently too. Coincidence?]

- Interesting decision to caption Michelle yelling "Oh shoot" presumably to avoid FCC fines.

- Was that a car ride or a luge run? That may be more effective than a double espresso for getting the juices flowing in the morning. That, or waking up to "I've Got You Babe" on the alarm clock / radio.

- The Florida guys asked a local if German women are hot. The response is along the lines of "Meh" with an implication that drinking beer helps. Later another team recruits help from a man walking down the street sort of in the middle of nowhere and saying he was too drunk to drive. Considering it was probably mid-morning at that point, he must have been seeing a beauty pageant the night before.

- Hopefully Eric and Jeremy are smart enough to wipe off the lipstick from the clue carrying fraulein before they recommence tongue wrestling with the DoubleDs.

- It would have been a very difficult detour for me either way. I'm not sure I'm coordinated to dance, but having someone break stunt bottles over my head for potentially several hours might bring back a mild concussion I suffered a few years ago. Both were funny to watch though.

- I wonder if Bavaria Film used for this Detour is the same studio that produced a cool little movie called Run Lola Run. [It's a mystery to me how I can recall random bits of info like that] And it had a tinge of Groundhog Day flavor in it. Coincidence?

- I hope the Amazing Race keeps the product placement tricks to a minimum. I stopped watching The Apprentice during the second season when it started turning into disguised info-mercials / merchandising for a string of sponsors.

- Santa? The Hippies might be trying a bit too hard for laughs, but I guess different people appreciate different types of humor. So who am I to complain? It's kind of like how some people find the repetition of Groundhog Day funny...

Movies: V for Vendetta

For me, there's been a dearth of fun movies to watch between King Kong, which was not perfect but very enjoyable, and this weekend. V for Vendetta may mark an early start to the US "blockbuster" movie season (X-Men 3 coming out in May might be considered more of an official start).
The movie delivers the pre-requisite action and suspense that make action movies fun. These were even more enhanced by experiencing it in an IMAX theater (something I'll install in my mansion as soon as I win the lottery). Natalie Portman did a wonderful job. Some of the content may stir political discussion, though ultimately it is just a comic-book movie.
I imagine the movie is not as intricate as the 1980's graphic novel that it was based upon. Unfortunately I did not read that one even though it was from the same person who created Watchmen, one of my favorite stories from the days when I had more time and energy to read. So I don't know how much to say without giving away plot points. In short, interesting movie, but catch it in IMAX if you do watch it. B-

Sports: Cal Basketball

The California Golden Bears men's basketball team lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament earlier today even though it was St. Patrick's Day and Cal's colors blended together would be green. But I didn't feel devastated about the loss. The team made great progress compared to last year and I hope they get even better next year. Hopefully someone will convince Leon Powe to stay in college another year (without breaking any rules of course).
I find college basketball more entertaining than the NBA. There's just more die-hard enthusiasm on the part of the players and the fans. The do or die nature of the tournament with potential upsets at any time is why it earns the nickname March Madness.
With the Bears out, I guess I can go back to catching up on things and not pay full attention to the remaining games. At least that is how I console myself.
The women's basketball team has done great as well by getting an invite to the tournament for the first time in many years and will be playing on Sunday.
Maybe Cal will get to the College Softball World Series again this year.
I may have just jinxed these teams just by printing this (reference earlier blog entry regarding Golden State Warriors)...
Anyhow Go BEARS!!

TV: Amazing Race 9 - Ep 3

Wow.

I think I made a mistake by hitting the delete button at the end of what felt like an action-packed episode. I may have already lost track of several details and thoughts I had while watching.

- The hippies were risking a hospital visit jumping in front of VWs like that, but it was comical.

- I have a fear of heights (as mentioned previously) but zip line with that sort of scenery would be worth the temporary panic.

- A long bus ride followed by a very long flight that practically went to the other side of the planet == very sore rear for me. Fortunately very little of that ordeal was aired, so any painful flashbacks were avoided. Thank you producers.

- Moscow is quickly rising on the list of places I must visit in my lifetime. The artwork and architecture on some of those cathedrals look amazing (thus the name of the race). I imagine Western influences (e.g. fast food restaurants) will make the city less unique the longer I wait.

- Hats off to the two contestants who overcame their fear of swimming to complete a task. If I ever find myself crazy enough to enter this thing, it will be an absolute must to find a partner who would deal with the swimming related road blocks.

- Team Mojo provided another very brief highlight this week, but I'll not elaborate.

- I would have chosen to scrub the bus. I think the music and monotonous opening of dolls to find a tiny clue would have driven me batty (though it would have been cool to check it out the entertainment for a little while). Bad luck in a "find the needle in a haystack" type challenge has eliminated the best of teams in the past. But who could have predicted that the trolley station would be the needle?

- The Florida team proved me wrong this week. They stayed focused on the doll task and were the first to complete it first when they could have been distracted by some pretty dancers. Meanwhile the Double D's may have been distracted by the guys leading to their big mistake.

- Each team made at least one potentially fatal mistake or got stuck somewhere, so by the end (actually middle) of the leg they make all cancel each other out in interesting ways.

- Looks like an exciting car ride is in store next week.

Web: A couple of funny sites

I usually discourage "chain e-mail" from my friends and relatives. They usually take on the form of old jokes, urban legends, actual chain mail that says I'll have bad luck if I don't forward the message to several other people, or even stale parodies of urban legends about the ill fates of people who do not forward chain mail. I'd almost like to think I've seen it all by now. But every so often a new joke (to me anyway) actually does appear. Plus it's nice when the e-mail does not have some huge dubious attachment and only contains a safe URL to some web site that is not infested with ad-filled pop ups (particularly with content considered NSFW).

Not sure how long this has been floating around the Internet, but this is a pretty interesting test for people who write software or hang around people who do.
Programming Language Inventor or Serial Killer

If you score pretty low, you may have to start wondering of over-exposure to programmers is leaving you with a false sense of security.

Here's a (homemade?) video of a woman and a car.

Speaking of videos. If you know how to search the Internet, there are a couple of entertaining rap videos from recent Saturday Night Live episodes popping in and out of existence online. One features Natalie Portman (maybe channelling the grown up version of the character she played in The Professional).

TMI: Anagrams

Recently saw this entry by Tom Kyte and decided to see what an online anagram generator would do with my name. It returned a much longer list than I could ever imagine. Some interesting results and several quite embarrassing. A few cleaner highlights:

A CARDINAL MOCKER (Go Giants! We got Matt Morris now)
A CARAMEL DRINK CO (Yes, I drink colas and root beer
                   on a regular basis)
CLICKER ON A DRAMA (And I do watch too much TV too)
I, A RANDOM CACKLER (Sounds right)
I MORN A CRACK DEAL (Always said no to drugs --
                    well never got offered any either)
MANILA CRACK DOER (Or maybe I was lying...)

and finally

KARMIC ORACLE DNA (Apparently, I was born for this job)

OK, R.C., I am a Cal nerd.

Update: Someone quietly pointed out to me that I misspelled "mourn" and that particular line was messing up my website layout on IE. There is no 'u' in my name (but there is an 'I and a me' with plenty of letters left over). Anyway, I'll have to settle for the phonetic version.

TV: Amazing Race 9 - Leg 2

The subtitle for this episode was "I'm filthy ... and I love it!"
Nice choice. If I were driving a car when the contestant said that line the way she said it, I'd likely lose my focus and smash into a fire hydrant.

Otherwise the race had more adventure than interesting banter this week, but there were no major surprises at the finish.

The panorama shots of the beautiful Brazilian countryside (and last week's Rockies) do make me wish this had been recorded in widescreen. But perhaps HD cameras aren't mobile enough for international travel yet?

I do have a fear of heights, but with an odd twist. I start to imagine my glasses will slip off my face, and I'll fall to my death trying to catch my glasses before it reaches terminal velocity and kills some innocent bystander on the ground. So I generally need to have one hand on a handrail and another on the rim of my glasses. I don't recall wearing contacts while leaning over the ledge of a tall structure, but if someone is going to get killed by a high-speed falling soft contact lens, I'm sure it would be my fault somehow. Nevertheless, I'd be pretty game for rope climbing up a waterfall (with lots of professional supervision nearby of course).

The Florida team may need to have themselves neutered, otherwise a distraction will cost them the million-dollar prize. On the other hand, had they been following the Double D's rather than the Hippies, they would not have pulled over at a gas station for directions and lost unnecessary time.

Winning team gets a trip to Tahiti. That sounds very nice, but still doesn't top the lifetime supply of gasoline given out last season. I now wonder if BP gets to end that deal if their gas stations switch over to ethanol.

And yes, the nerds did excel at the science experiment. I wonder if they listened to their special AR theme music the whole time.

Sports/TV: Jerry Rice

The #1 reason I actually watched Dancing with the Stars this season is Jerry Rice -- the greatest wide receiver to ever play in the NFL. Fortunately, he spent most of his career and best years with my favorite team, the 49ers. [Bay Area sports fans have almost been unfairly blessed to see other great athletes like Willie Mays, Joe Montana, and Rick Barry play here on a regular basis].

It's been a privilege to witness Jerry Rice display his precision moves on the [American] football field and translate that to the dance floor (with the help of his dazzling dance partner Anna Trebunskaya, reason #1.5 to watch). Their final performances were a hoot to watch. He's a great guy off the field who deserves all the positive attention he wants.

I remember that around 15 years ago, I found myself standing at the opposite end of the bar from Jerry at a local restaurant (I wasn't drinking so I wasn't imagining this - and all my buddies spotted him first). He wasn't overtly drawing attention to himself and seemed to be hanging out with friends just like any other regular person that night. He was gracious and polite to all the fans who interrupted his conversations with his friends for a hand shake and/or an autograph and/or a closer look at what I imagine was his first of what would be many Super Bowl rings.

I've avoided posting this earlier for fear of jinxing his run into the finals. No matter how much I try to rationalize things, I become very superstitious when it comes to games. In the end, Jerry got further into the finals that I thought possible. Even before the show started, I predicted his toughest competition would come from Stacy Keibler (reason #2 to watch) who I've only seen once or twice on a WWF wrestling show while flipping channels on the weekend. I'm definitely no dance expert, but she just looks like she'd be a great dancer or beach volleyball player. Drew Lachey ended up winning, but I fast-forwarded through his and all the other performers to chop the viewing time to about 15-20 minutes per episode.

Now Jerry Rice is one of the ex-Jocks in a game show on Spike TV where "Average Joe" contestants see if they can outdo professional athletes. It was hilarious to see Jerry's competitive streak emerge as he continually burned these guys on a football field, then turn around and give the guys a friendly hug after it was over. [And cool to see ex-SF Giants third baseman, Matt Williams again. Bill Romanowski and Bo Jackson will make appearances in later episodes].

My best wishes to Jerry Rice to achieve the same sort of commercial success that teammates Joe Montana and Steve Young have enjoyed after retiring from football.

TV: Amazing Race is back

...but the jury is out if this run will be better than ever. Someone needs to warn the producers that their casting is getting a bit predictable. Ken and Barbie pair - check. Senior couple - check. Eye-candy single women - check. Beefcake single guys - Check. Token minory couple - check. Alpha male / submissive partner - check. Nerds - check. Supposedly there are 16 personality types so there might be 256 pairs to choose from and "experiment" with. One can even cut it down to 64 if you remove all the introverts.

That nit aside, it is still an entertaining contest to watch, and I look forward to the more exotic locations and tougher challenges that may lie ahead. It's easier to appreciate the action, prep work, and editing on the Amazing Race after a brief glance at "Deal or No Deal" where all you see are overacting contestants and friends decide if the briefcase they chose may contain a huge amount of money or not. Unfortunately, The Banker is not the only person who seems to be "phoning it in" on that game show.

Other notes:

Brazil is on my list of countries to visit (closest I've been is Bogota, Columbia), and I definitely would have chosen the helicopter ride at the detour.

Hotel room with private helipad: Out of my price range.

For a two-hour episode, I don't even recall a Road Block on the first leg...

I predict the main battle throughout the race will be between the teams that came in first and second tonight. And I have to root for the home team from San Francisco who are trying to act like stereotypical hippies but may have already done a world tour together. But it might be nice to see a parent-child team win for a change (though I'm not sure the current set will have the stamina to make it to the finals).

Perhaps someone will start the pool on whether the lovey-dovey nerds will have a major argument before they are eliminated. I can almost see that being setup a mile away. And what's with the odd theme music whenever they appear?

It's a bad sign for your chances of winning if you can repeatedly walk right by a clue box for 40 minutes without seeing it. It was probalby torture for the camera person following them back and forth all that time, and that person still somehow managed not to tip off the location by pointing the camera at the box each time the couple passed it.