tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-193648442024-03-07T13:16:18.522-08:00Chronicles of RoderickThe random thoughts of a random humanRoderickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04786742146419131378noreply@blogger.comBlogger89125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19364844.post-64802905465888046392009-07-02T00:05:00.000-07:002009-07-02T00:06:43.000-07:00TMI: RIPIt seems like there has been an unusually high number of celebrity deaths the last few weeks. Each one reminds me about my own impending mortality -- and a day I do not look forward to. Other than watching them on TV as a child, I admit I do not have many memories to tell about them. My brothers had posters of David Carradine (as Caine in "Kung Fu") and Farah Fawcett. Karl Malden filmed a scene Roderickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04786742146419131378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19364844.post-21595980431501003982009-06-26T16:18:00.000-07:002009-06-26T16:25:29.400-07:00TMI: It was 20 years ago today...... a scrawny young college graduate walked into a shiny little office building in Belmont, California for his first day of work. He had been hired despite some people raising reservations that during the interviews a few days earlier, he came across as possibly being too shy to talk to customers on the phone. But others argued that the kid knew Unix, networking, and SQL and thought logically Roderickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04786742146419131378noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19364844.post-46303426582161924442009-01-06T02:55:00.000-08:002009-01-06T03:38:18.478-08:00Travel: The World is FlatSomeday I will start publishing more photos of my travels over the years. The hard part is most of my pictures were taken with old-fashioned film so I will have to spend time digitizing them. And then I might pay for a photo hosting site. I am leaning towards sticking with flickr.Not sure why I am starting with this photo. It really does nothing to show where I am. But I thought it was Roderickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04786742146419131378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19364844.post-14159726075520820812008-10-26T20:56:00.000-07:002008-10-26T20:56:01.010-07:00Amazing Race 12: Final EpisodesI only recently caught up with season 12 of the Amazing Race and I am 4 or 5 episodes behind on season 13. That is one downside of having a DVR -- I can delay watching something practically forever. The technology is still not perfect. I may have missed an episode or 2 along the way, and I think I lost my notes on another episode.I will only make my comments brief, so I can start watching Season Roderickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04786742146419131378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19364844.post-35624678632510915422008-07-01T01:25:00.000-07:002008-07-01T01:25:11.721-07:00Travel: San Francisco BayBeen a while since I posted anything here. Someday I'll even comment on the final two episodes of the Amazing Race which I still have to watch. Hopefully, I will get that done and post my comments before the next season starts.In the meantime, I have been keeping my nose to the grindstone at work. I have not been on a plane in months, but if I had to be stuck anywhere, the San Francisco Bay Area Roderickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04786742146419131378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19364844.post-38727047151905854202008-01-13T21:12:00.000-08:002008-01-13T21:10:10.134-08:00TV: Amazing Race 12: Ep 8After last week's episode, this week seemed a bit more tense. Maybe because the teams visited the busiest city in the world. Maybe because the Goths had a penalty to serve and it was guaranteed to be an elimination leg. I did not even note who came in first. The whole show was basically a race between the Goths and Nate/Jen for second to last place. In the end, Jen got a friendly bit of help Roderickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04786742146419131378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19364844.post-82017249906620074072008-01-13T19:45:00.000-08:002008-01-13T19:43:24.732-08:00TV: Amazing Race 12: Ep 7This leg of the race turned out to be scenic but fairly non-eventful. The granfather / grandson team took a fast forward that involved getting tattoos and ended up winning a trip to Cancun. The Goths may have gotten lost on the roads of Italy and finished last. Luckily it was a non-elimination pit stop but they face a new twist of a Speed Bump (an extra challenge) in the next leg.The teams were Roderickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04786742146419131378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19364844.post-50287252112700854702008-01-05T22:43:00.000-08:002008-01-05T22:41:13.612-08:00TV: Amazing Race 12: Ep 6In this episode, it was another case of airport drama as teams tried to catch early flights from Lithuania to Croatia. Not listening to details probably cost the race for the brother / sister team who had one several of the early legs. They were booked business class seats instead of economy by a travel agent. It was hard to tell if the agent was just upselling or if the economy seats for a Roderickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04786742146419131378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19364844.post-66598779679658960512008-01-05T20:54:00.000-08:002008-01-05T20:51:55.579-08:00TV: Amazing Race 12: Ep 5This was probably one of the more uneventful episodes of AR I can recall. However, one team went from almost worst to first and another team was eliminated after earning bad karma in the previous leg, so it was not a bad episode overall.It seemed like most of the leg had the teams scrambling for flights from Burkina Faso in West Africa to Vilnius, Lithuania. I imagine it is not a popular flight Roderickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04786742146419131378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19364844.post-64207362327273772482008-01-05T20:14:00.000-08:002008-01-05T20:13:38.832-08:00TV: Amazing Race 12: Ep 1 and 4As I stated in a previous blog entry, I lost a few episodes of this season's Amazing Race. I believe they were 2 and 3. This means I can comment only on 1 and 4 and hope I do not lose any others going forward.The 12th Amazing Race started at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles. I guess it was as good a place as any to start since most of the teams were from Southern California. I did not pay closeRoderickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04786742146419131378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19364844.post-4015917536718854682008-01-02T22:05:00.000-08:002008-01-02T22:04:16.263-08:00TMI: Blog NeglectI guess it has been a while again since I have updated my blog. With a writer's strike pretty much ending any original (non-reality) programming on network television, one would think I would have few distractions from blogging. Unfortunately, that does not seem to be the case. It just takes a few.Lately, I have been spending time reading other blogs that shall remain nameless. None of them are Roderickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04786742146419131378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19364844.post-82726331109660467642007-11-10T23:59:00.000-08:002007-11-10T23:57:59.511-08:00Web: A Parody of 24I must be officially old when people start to reminisce about life and technologies in the 1990's as they do in this Engadget Blog Posting. Spin the clock back another 15 or 20 years and now you have a television show with no cell phones, pagers, or even personal computers and it would be doubtful anything could be done in 24 hours. Roll the clock back just a bit more, and the show would be Roderickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04786742146419131378noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19364844.post-74384846583439512342007-11-10T23:50:00.000-08:002008-01-05T20:14:49.114-08:00TV: Amazing Race: All-Stars - FinaleA very belated congratulations to Eric and Danielle for winning the Amazing Race and $1 million dollars after being "Yielded" twice, surviving an elimination penalty, and basically tolerating each other. The editors made their relationship look less stable than maybe it really is. I did not think they would survive so long in the race. In the end, Eric's memory of Danielle's opinions of the otherRoderickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04786742146419131378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19364844.post-36440380083901645622007-11-04T21:52:00.000-08:002007-11-04T21:51:40.031-08:00TV: Amazing Race: All-Stars - Ep 12?This episode marked the end for Danny and Oswald. Not sure how they fell behind again after all the teams were bunched together in Guam. They must have gotten lost driving again. Despite the bunching, the Beauty Queens seemed to breeze through this leg from start to finish. It left very little tension in the race. The airlift and search and rescue exercise were highlights in this episode, and mayRoderickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04786742146419131378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19364844.post-40308680908239661502007-11-04T20:00:00.000-08:002007-11-04T19:59:09.467-08:00TV: Amazing Race: All-Stars - Ep 11?In this leg with no airline flights involved, one would think a six-hour gap between first and last place would be safe. But Team Cha Cha Cha decided to do just about everything wrong.1. Earn bad karma by dealing with the devil team disguised as blond beauty queens.2. Never ditched their incompetent taxi driver (or at least a driver with communication issues)3. Waited to long to ask for Roderickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04786742146419131378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19364844.post-23570136397874374912007-11-04T16:11:00.000-08:002007-11-04T16:09:23.055-08:00TV: Amazing Race: All-Stars: Ep 10?Okay I took a six-month+ leave of absence from my blog for reasons I may or may not go into someday. On top of that I lost my notes for an episode (if not two) of the Amazing Race All-Stars. But since the new season starts tonight, I better post what few notes I do have.This leg involved teams racing from Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong. The order of finish was pretty much determined in the Kuala Roderickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04786742146419131378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19364844.post-3614185743134229952007-04-20T22:25:00.001-07:002007-04-20T22:25:55.537-07:00TV: Amazing Race: All-Stars Ep 7 and 8This episode turned out to be a two-parter. What started out as a gap of 16 hours or so between first and last place ended with the last few teams just a few minutes apart. However, a 30-minute penalty incurred at the end of a non-elimination leg resulted in Team Guido being Philiminated. Meanwhile, Team Cha Cha Cha decided to try to win some karma points by allowing Joyce and Uchenna to win a Roderickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04786742146419131378noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19364844.post-10886957520548424912007-04-09T00:50:00.000-07:002007-04-09T00:47:51.966-07:00TV: Amazing Race: All-Stars Ep 6This leg of the race was largely determined by luck in getting chosen off a waiting list for flights from Mozambique to Tanzania. The most dramatic moment was Eric and Danielle getting booted off a plane after they had already been seated. It was interesting that Eric had a premonition that something like that could happen. It also seemed a bit unfair given that they were the first team to get onRoderickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04786742146419131378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19364844.post-13483207520985344542007-04-08T22:52:00.000-07:002007-04-08T22:51:04.144-07:00TV: Amazing Race: All-Stars Ep 5The key to this leg of the race was depending on the kindness of strangers. Charla and Mirna moved from last to first [as opposed to Romber who fell from first to last in the previous leg] by getting a local to give them directions around Maputo. They also were quick to find both men and women willing to pay to have their nails painted. Meanwhile, Joyce and Uchenna showed that nice guys can Roderickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04786742146419131378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19364844.post-49945260869006042732007-04-08T21:40:00.000-07:002007-04-08T21:39:43.800-07:00TV: Amazing Race: All-Stars Ep 4I'll have to post some very quick recaps of the last few episodes as I've fallen way behind in my TV viewing. Perhaps it has just taken me this long to get over the shock of this episode.On this leg, the Karma police decided to strike down Team Romber pretty early instead of making Rob feel the huge disappointment of losing on the very last leg. I was hoping that when Rob and Amber were married,Roderickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04786742146419131378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19364844.post-51515949051299943552007-03-12T12:45:00.000-07:002007-03-12T00:43:36.577-07:00TV: Amazing Race: All-Stars Ep 3This week marked the end of the race for the beloved Kentucky miners. All through this leg of the race I kept hoping the karmic police would step in and punish Charla and Mirna for trying to cut in line. Their panic can also be a bit annoying but that does not impact Karma points. Fortunately, they gained some points for inadvertently helping the hopelessly lost Team Guido. The miners somehow Roderickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04786742146419131378noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19364844.post-66320620654988972862007-03-11T23:57:00.000-07:002007-03-11T23:56:33.665-07:00TV: Amazing Race: All-Stars Ep 2The theme of this episodes race revolved around paying attention to details. Missing one instruction about speed limits cost Kevin and Drew the race while Romber cruised to another victory.The Road Block challenge took the teams into a staged boardroom meeting. Letters on buttons or pens or shirts had to be combined to find a secret word that would get them the next clue. Eric should have been Roderickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04786742146419131378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19364844.post-8529748016442816502007-02-25T10:48:00.000-08:002007-02-25T10:47:21.257-08:00Movies: The Academy AwardsWith the small amount of hits my blog gets, I easily noticed a random blip of recent activity around my review of The Departed. I take that as a sign that the Academy Awards will be on tonight.I have been negligent in sharing my thoughts about several other movies I have watched since seeing The Departed, and maybe I will give them the fuller reviews they deserver at some later date. Also, I haveRoderickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04786742146419131378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19364844.post-78819573752490079302007-02-24T19:30:00.001-08:002007-02-24T19:30:22.012-08:00TV: Amazing Race: All-Stars Ep 1The Amazing Race is back and well I guess I am too.I guess I now better appreciate people who manage to post entries more regularly. It is so easy to let blogging slide way down on the "To Do" list.Anyway, it is hard for me to comment on the first leg of the race because I messed up. Not entirely but pretty badly. I forgot that by DVR was set up was specifically to record the Amazing Race 10 and Roderickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04786742146419131378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19364844.post-56618870846256597022006-12-11T00:48:00.000-08:002006-12-11T00:49:00.160-08:00TMI: 3000 HitsI guess attaining 3000 hits is a great achievement for a major league baseball player, but it is a tiny pittance for a web site that has been around for only slightly more than a year.For Year 2 of the Chronicles, I have migrated to the Beta version of Blogger and updated my template to take advantage of the new features without giving up much of the old look at feel. The labels should allow Roderickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04786742146419131378noreply@blogger.com2