TMI: 3000 Hits

I 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 people to limit their RSS feeds to just the topics they are interested in.

Adapting to the new template took a little less time than I thought. I just ran into a couple of snags that were quickly resolved via Google searches. Including my counters and Random Quote of the Day just involved adding HTML/Javascript page elements. Then I ran into Java Script errors trying update those HTML elements in Firefox 2. Again this was a known issue with a simple workaround of reloading the page where one edits the page element.

TV: Amazing Race 10 - Finale

Congratulations to the Models for winning the Amazing Race 10. I guess it is nice to see a couple of reformed drug addicts show what people can do if they set their minds to it. My gut thought Rob and Kim would win, but as usual, I guessed wrong. I should have known the Models would win when challenges included putting a dress together and traveling between the fashion capitals of Paris and New York. Overall, this was a race full of surprises particularly after more recent editions were almost foregone conclusions after the first leg.

It would have been interesting to know how close the race really was. It would be interesting if the main key was finding a taxi driver with a fast pass versus one who had to wait in the cash only line at a toll booth. Something tells me the Models jogged the two miles faster than our bickering couple as well despite the editing. Or the taxi driver they found for the last 56-mile drive to the finish line was just driving that much faster.

At the beginning of the episode, I had a feeling the racers would have to go to the Sagrada Familia eventually. Not sure how one could go to Barcelona and not go there. As I said before it is an amazing building. Too bad they did not go inside. They would have had fun trying to race up at least one of the spiral staircases to find their next clue. My knees were shaky coming back down one of the church spires, but it was due to slight acrophobia and claustrophobia rather than fatigue. I guess hiding the clue in a nearby park was good enough, but I knew they would bunch up at the airport.

The Bama Moms were smart or lucky enough to have a travel agent send them to Orly Airport instead of CDG. I have never been through Orly, but I think it is a shorter commute to central Paris and maybe a much easier airport to get in and out of in general. It put them into first place inside Paris. The Moms went to the well once too often in trying to find a flight back to New York from Orly. It is possible that if they went to CDG first, that they could have gotten ahead of one of the other teams on the waiting list. However, somehow Rob and Kim managed to find the right person and negotiate an early checkin even though they arrived at the airport after the Models. The race was almost decided at that point.

Other Notes:
I guess the Miners' shirts were passed from the miners to the Chos to the Bama Moms. Either that or David and Mary had a bunch to pass around. I wonder if the racers had a separate laundry budget or facilities to wash their own clothes at the pit stops.

Google Earth just added new Geographic Web Layers. I noticed it when checking out the location of the Eiffel Tower and Place de la Concorde. There are some cool links to pictures of both locations and other pointers. The two locations are pretty close together but I guess the racers had to take a major detour and stop by Omaha beach for skydiving.

I think I mentioned before that I have visited Paris. I stayed at a hotel about 3 or 4 blocks SW along the Seine from the Eiffel Tower. The fancy restaurant where I dined, Ledoyen, is just WNW of Place de la Concorde. That area is also where the Tour de France traditionally finishes.

I have stayed in New York a few times as well, but I never passed by any of the places where the teams had to find clues.

Hopefully the woman in the yellow cap stayed dry in rainy weather by standing under the sculpture. Maybe there were spotters that let her know when any teams were close? I wonder what the auditions were like for that brief role. "Are you willing to wear a loud yellow top and hat?"

The woman judging when the dress was finished may have been the harshest judge in the history of the Amazing Race. There were challenges involving putting together some Ikea furniture and Greek statues with judges who were almost as serious about enforcing the rules.

I guess the teaser for next season confirmed the next race is an All-Star edition with some secret teams to be revealed while other teams have relationships that have changed since they originally raced. Oh well, until February, I'll have to find other subjects to write about.

TV: Amazing Race 10 - Episodes 11 and 12

The Thanksgiving holiday, a pileup of work assignments, and apartment cleaning prevented me from paying attention to my blog last week. Bad way to start off Year Two of my Chronicles, which is due for some minor tweaks to take advantage of the new Beta Blogger features.

Anyway, this edition of the race has remained true to form and had the teams finish in almost the exact reverse order than I predicted. The Beauty Queens were finally eliminated after being in the gun sights of every other team for several legs now. Their strategy for winning almost worked out for them, and they were a strong team that never had any conflicts, but in the end Karma demanded its pound of flesh (not camel meat) and so they were doomed. Even if the Queens had not overshot a challenge a week ago and put Rob and Kim into last, they would have still lost since Rob and Kim came in first this week and would have avoided the 30 minute penalty.

Granted the stress of having to come in first could have caused Rob and Kim to crumble this week. I totally thought they were goners once they chose to search for a clue in a pile of tomatoes while getting pelted by locals. I thought they were headed for a nuclear meltdown. Usually the "find a needle in a haytomato stack challenge" has taken down the strongest of teams, but somehow Rob and Kim and the Bama Moms found the clue to the Pitstop rather quickly.

The Bama Moms have proven that one can go fast by starting slow and staying calm. Last week they took advantage of not getting an earlier flight to study some maps of Morocco, so they did not get lost while other teams relied on sometimes unreliable locals for directions. They could have finished first last week while the Models had to run back to their car to get some good luck charm. This week they walked through a maze and were the first to find a way out of it. If they did not have such bad luck with taxis, they could have finished first again this week. Congratulations to them for being the first all-female team to get into the final 3. At first I thought the Bowling Moms had achieved that feat, but maybe they only made the final 4.

Other Notes:
The chariot races looked fun but dangerous. I wonder how they stayed in those things on such a bumpy track. Having a couple of stunt charioteers take a spill was pretty cool.

Hopefully Rob and Kim can avoid driving the rest of the race. I cannot recall another team having worse luck with cars.

Kim needs to see more of the world. This week she mistook some goats as dogs. I almost fell off my chair when that happened. Though I am not sure if those were goats or lambs. I was on the island of Nevis where a local had to teach me that goats have their tails up while sheep have tails that go down.

One pound or half a kilogram of meat is quite a bit of food no matter what animal it is. I probably would have made the camel kabobs a little too spicy.

I had the pleasure of visiting the beautiful city of Barcelona five or six years ago. On my last day there, I spent a whole day walking around the city. I started from my hotel to the incredible Sagrada Familia via the Diagonal. Then I went to the old bull ring, Magic Fountain, and Art Museum where the pitstop was this week. I went further up that hill to the Olympic stadium. Then I walked by the spot where the Olympic diving and swimming competitions were held. I recognized that site when I saw the first split second of the music video "Slow" by Kylie Minogue. From there I took an aerial tramway down to the harbor, walked along the beaches, and ended my trek by walking up Las Ramblas where one of the Detours took place. I do not recall the distance from Las Ramblas to the Pitstop being very far. With traffic it might be hard to say if a taxi would have been much faster than walking.

Next week, one of the final three teams will earn a million dollars. I have no clue who that will be, and I imagine I will be glued to the TV until the end. Plus I am already looking forward to the next Amazing Race. It is going to be an All-Star Edition featuring the return of the very loved and hated Team Romber. I vaguely recall getting an unusual cluster of hits to my website from Miami a few weeks ago too. Hmm...

TV: Amazing Race 10 - Episode 10

The Cho Bros pretty much choked this week, or at least that's how it was implied. Starting out the second half of the leg having to confront their fear of heights may have made them too tentative for the rest of the leg. The time they wasted needing to stop and ask for guidance over and over was about as bad as driving the wrong way confidently. But at least they dispelled one stereotype that men never ask for directions. The male models also have shown navigation impairment, but they realized quickly that they would not be able to read the Ukranian Cyrillic alphabet and were thoughtful enough to trust taxi drivers and the Beauty Queens to lead them around. This vaulted them to victory.

I wonder if the Beauty Queens came in second because they were being perfectionists with their Rap song. Other teams sounded like they just let the passenger throw some lyrics together while the other drove. The Queens worked diligently together on a routine that they might use if they were still competing in pageants. They could have just over-estimated how long it would take the Models to find the sheet music and a piano player at the other Detour.

Dustin might be cute and an excellent tank driver, but may not be the person you want on a Trivial Pursuit team. I think she was the one who knows about the Chinese inventing paper. She is also familiar with the Ukranian Bell Carol. However, last week she talked about Finnish clogs; this week she thought Chernobyl was where an atomic bomb went off. Granted I thought the nuclear reactor was in Russia rather than the Ukraine. If I were competing, there's a slight chance I would have gone to Moscow instead of Kiev and committed the most monumental blunder in Amazing Race history.

Rob and Kimberley were lucky that the Chos and the 'Bama Moms were moving so slowly. They were able to overcome an automobile breakdown and still come in third. It's funny how pessimistic Rob gets whenever anything goes wrong. At least he's realizing that Kimberley is a superhuman alien. They did try to be nice this week and invite a very helpful local couple into a club to watch their Rap performance. The expression on the locals' faces were classic and it was funny to see them standing patiently outside the club when Rob and Kim finished. I guess they were not in a hurry to go anywhere and enjoyed the opportunity to appear on TV. I wonder how many other countries air the Amazing Race. At least, it is being broadcast in the Philippines and Canada along with an Asian edition.

Hopefully the teams get some money for laundry after traipsing through mud twice on the same long leg.

I guess the Race was filmed in the summer. It looked like it was still early afternoon as the racers ran into the Helsinki airport at 9:17PM. It also looked pretty bright at 6:00AM the next morning. The longest amount of daylight I have experienced was June in Berlin, Germany where the sun rose around 4:30AM and did not set until around 10:00PM. The furthest north that I have traveled is Skagway, Alaska but that was in September.

Kiev looks like an interesting city to visit. After eating duck in Beijing, I am considering eating chicken in Kiev, but several sources say it did not originate there (though the text is almost identical on every site).

News: Wireless Electricity

A while back Tom Kyte was reminiscing about some old IBM equipment and joked about wireless electricity. 11 months later this news article talks about a more practical wireless electricity solution.

TV: Amazing Race 10 - Episode 9

This was a pretty tense week. It ended with a literal cliff hanger as the Male Models rappelled down the side of a stadium tower face first hoping to finish first and get a nice prize from Phil only to find out the race was not over. The Beauty Queens should not have been that far behind them. Meanwhile the remaining three teams were about an hour back and scrambling not to be eliminated.

The Bama Moms almost found themselves looking at a 12 - 15 hour deficit when all the other teams were able to grab a 7AM flight that would eventually take them to Finland while the next flight could have been a 9PM flight to Paris. But somehow they were able to wheedle their way on board with just seconds to spare. It was a pretty crazy flight plan from Madagascar to Johannesburg, South Africa to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to Frankfurt, Germany to Helsinki, Finland.
[I had the same number of stops on a flight going from San Francisco to Bangalore, India via Paris, New York, and Mumbai. When I saw that itinerary, I changed the layovers to be about 12 to 15 hours each, so I could do some power sight-seeing at each stop.]

Whenever there is a bunching up, it seems like the Beauty Queens are always the first to get out of the airport. It has been giving them a huge time advantage and has made the other teams jealous. The producers have not shown how the Queens achieve this, but I suspect they are able to sweet talk other passengers into switching seats so they can exit the plane first.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Chos were out to prove that nice guys finish last. One of them correctly observed, "Being polite sucks sometimes." and earned title of the week. From the previews of next weeks episode, they finally make a second observation that their alliance is over. I may have been wrong about their outlook. Even when they had a chance to pass some teams racing through mud, they ran out of gas again and remained last.

Rob and Kimberley outraced the Chos as carrying Kim was probably much easier than carrying a Cho bro. In one of the funniest moments this week, Rob made the remark that carrying his partner was much easier than he thought. This left him open to the nightmare question, "Do you think I'm fat?" That exchange probably threw them off course so much, they ended up dropping from third to last in finding the Road Block challenge.

The teams had to descend into a scary dark mine to retrieve what sounded like the final clue of the week. Rob let out some evil yells as he raced his bike up the mine shaft and caught up to the Bros and the Moms The shot of Rob's headlight coming up behind the the Mom who was panting like crazy sent chills up my spine. It was like something out of a horror movie.

The ironic part of the challenge is that David of the recently eliminated Coal Miners probably would have felt right at home there. I'm not sure where the Chos got the Miners' T-shirts, but it was sort of funny that the Chos were racing in memory of David and hoped to channel David's spirit in the mine. The dude was just eliminated not killed.

The walk down the side of a stadium tower would have been the scariest challenge for me. My knees would have been trembling like crazy. But it was funny to watch. It would have reminded me more of the Batman TV series if they let both members rappel together.

And bats would have been appropriate for a slightly post-Halloween episode.

Other Notes:
I have to admit I am finding myself more attracted to Dustin each week even if she thinks people in Finland wear wooden shoes.

Someone needs to warn Tyler that being Metrosexual is "Out" while Real Men are "In". This at least according to the latest episode of Men in Trees. I may have to blog a bit more about this little TV show which is a pleasant mix of Sex and the City and Northern Exposure. Not quite as good as either, but it's the closest one can get to new episodes of each.

Did it sound like Kimberley was asking for directions to La Jolla?

Here's is a pretty cool Google Earth Mash Up of all the Amazing Race 10 locations. Similarly, here's the Google Maps Mash Up. Neat stuff.

Web: Time lapse movies

Carl Backstrom's Blog mentioned a cool video of a trip from LA to NY taken with time-lapse photography. But the link to the movie from that site seemed to take too long to download. So I found a better source here. The mount did not seem to drift at all. It is also pretty interesting that nobody tried to steal the camera from the back of that convertible (or maybe any attempts were edited out). Someday, or more likely some might, I might drive from one end of Interstate 80 to the other.

This blog collection of time lapse videos has several other interesting clips as well. I particularly enjoyed anything that included San Francisco, of course, along with the aurora displays. The video of A Year in Antarctica was educational and entertaining.

TV: Amazing Race 10 - Episode 8

All good things must come to an end (I figured I needed a Star Trek: TNG reference in my blog eventually). For the miners, the race around the world finally ended in Madagascar. At least Mary got to experience some new things, and learned that Madagascar is more than just an animated move. It also was good to see that the new non-elimination penalty of a 30 minute wait for a non-first place finish actually had an impact on the outcome. They actually came in 5th but only 10 minutes ahead of the Bama Moms. This added to a tense, emotional finish.

Barring a major surprise, the odds are that the Bama Moms are the next to go. I think the message from their cute children (in next week's episode) might make them want to lose and go home. So, I can start to handicap what I believe will be the final four.

The Models could be the most physically fit but most directionally challenged. There's also sign of some conflict brewing between the guys. But at least James can eat (and giving Tyler the inspiration to name an episode). That might only be good enough for 4th place in this close race. The preview showing them getting stuck in the mud might be a hint for an upset.

The Needlers pretty much have fate in their hands. If they can get along, they can win this thing. Chances are the mounting pressure will lead to another Rob meltdown or a full-blown argument. The presence of the Models and just doing the Fast Forward may have spared them for one leg. They seem to be doing OK in the developing countries despite some of their odd preconceptions about people who live there. They may get an advantage if the race goes through the fancier areas of Europe, but staying in the third world could mean a third place finish.

The Chos have been trying very hard to prove that nice guys can finish first, but so far that has only happened once for them in this race. Perhaps after they are unburdened by the rest of the six-pack they can jump over a couple of teams. It will be interesting to see if they will try to form a new alliance or try to keep the Bama Moms in it. The work they did with The Queens at the Intersection / Detour challenge showed they could work with anybody -- even the most hated team. Most importantly, the brothers get along with each other. Unfortunately, they can also get lost while driving or while in deep thought. That may only let them take second at best.

This leaves The Queens who have been on a roll despite piling on more bad karma points. This week they took the Bama Moms' car instead of using the same car that they wrecked earlier. Then they made a dumb joke about perhaps doing the Paper challenge because the Chos were Asian (maybe the only time the Chos showed any disgust, with the "Let's just go" comment). At least the comment showed that the Blondes know some history. They have gotten lost less frequently than the other teams, and could be resourceful when needed. It would be great to see an all-woman team win this race for the first time, even if I am still rooting for the nicer Chos.

This race may still have a few tricks up its sleeve, so nothing is a lock.

Other Notes:
While Los Angeles is known for its traffic and smog, most of it blown into the surrounding valleys (see simple flash demo there). Therefore, I guess Rob and Kimberly must live around Long Beach since they seem most sensitive to the smog in other cities.

I wonder if the taxi drivers in Madagascar's capital city were trying to take tourists for a ride. A few of them tried to find some long way to get the "Black Angel" and many of them waited until the last minute to get gasoline. I do not remember that issue being shown as frequently in any other race destination.

The taxi driver reaction to Karlyn's comment about being a "Black Angel" did look edited and fake (or at least more so than previous attempts to display driver "double-takes" to racer comments). But it is still kind of funny every time it happens.

I used to devour cow or ox tongue when I was a very young child until I learned what it was. I am not sure if I have ever eating cow lips, but considering how often I dine out, who knows what I have been eating. I never could eat balut, though most of my family loves it.

How many times have contestants vomited at those eating challenges? Kimberley was having the toughest time this time around.

Between the stiff dancing and the uncomfortable look Phil had while being hugged by two attractive blond women, I wonder how much of a nerd Phil was in school.

TMI: Thought for Food

I have been meaning to write this for weeks but I suppose the day after Halloween is as good a time as any to stop procrastinating.

One thing I have been thinking about as the "Big Four-Zero" quickly approaches is going on a healthier diet. I decided I will not try to eat less and exercise more since the more I think about not eating the more I actually do eat. I am sort of like that slow reading cartoon character on The Electric Company who would forget a sign contained the "NOT" word. [Yes, my TV viewing habits were established at a very young age.]

Of course, the fates have conspired against me. I went on my first cruise this summer. If there is one thing I learned, it is impossible to go hungry on-board a luxury liner. I finally fully appreciate the old joke, "I'm on a seafood diet. When I see food, I eat it." Fortunately, I did spend several hours power walking through the streets of a few Alaskan towns, otherwise I would have gained a ton of weight. I do not know if I will ever lose the half-ton I did gain.

Next, it seemed like every food that was supposed to be healthy to eat could make you sick instead. It started with spinach, then it was a lettuce recall, and next it is something else yet to be identified. On the bright side, all these food scares have allowed my sister to achieve some airtime on news show on a station in Los Angeles, KTLA [For some reason you have to use Internet Explorer and click on Part Two: An E.Coli Lab to see the video]. She does not get a speaking role but is one of the women seen messing around with test tubes and lab machinery. This means she is one of the few people in my family who has a job that all my relatives can now understand. I imagine it is a cross between CSI and Ghost Germ Hunters.

But I digress. I suppose if I live in an age where any food I eat could potentially kill me, I should get to choose my poison. So, let me introduce you to Deep Fried Coke. I wonder what happens if you squeeze a Mentos into that.

If I had just procrastinated a few minutes longer, I could have incorporated this news hot off the press that obese mice can stay healthy (but not get skinny) with a chemical called resveratol. Could Woody Allen actually be the second coming of Nostradamus?

TV: Amazing Race 10 - Episode 7

Rob summed up how the show has developed so far by observing, "It's amazing how this race flips, dude!" [Yes. All people in California address each other as 'Dude' or 'Man']. The coal miners went from last to first and back to last place, but were spared from elimination once again. They seem to be following the BJ and Tyler tactic of winning by losing and lulling their competitors into complacency. If these folks reach the final three, I imagine David and Mary will remove their sandbags and start running sub-10-second 100-meter dashes to finish first. Then they will reveal an evil laugh as they receive their million-dollar check. But I will continue rooting for them.

By odd coincidence, I recently researched the island of Mauritius on the Internet a few weeks ago after hearing that the company I work for was going to open an office there. It looks like a nice place to visit; I would consider myself lucky if I ever have a business assignment there.

I will have to remember that there do not seem to be many direct flights to Mauritius from Kuwait. It could not have been fun for teams to fly all the way to London, UK to Mauritius. The Beauty Queens were most incredulous that it was the fastest route. I suppose it was in frustration that they set up a conflict between the Models and the 'Bama Moms. In the end, all the teams ended up taking the same plane.

Next I have to remember that Mauritius is another country that drives on the other side of the road. On my only trip to London, I did try driving a company car with a stick shift around a parking lot. Between driving on the other side, rarely driving a car with manual transmission particularly one with the stick on the other side, and being completely unfamiliar with the rules of the road and the street signs (particularly at roundabouts), I opted to just use hire cars and the train to get around. I am impressed that the teams did not get more lost other than the Models.

Finally I have to remember to avoid sprinkling salt on my food in Mauritius. Most of the teams chose SALT at the Detour, but it did not look like any of them washed their hands before starting to dig into the piles of salt and stepping all over it with their dirty shoes. Also, the decoy salt shakers were filled with soil that was just poured into the pile.

So even with a car break down (and another Rob meltdown) and a car accident (Beauty Queens perhaps earning some bad karma), the final order was determined by how long it took for each team to give up on SALT and switched to SEA.

Humorous moments:
Phil saying "Uhh..." when Dustin asked him if he wants to ride with her on the scooter she just won. Classic. He practically walked into that trap. He may still have been too off-balance to fully execute his fake 'Philimination' routine with the Miners.

Speaking of traps, someone had fun setting up the pit next to the sails. I am pretty sure I would have fell into that thing and died laughing after freaking out for a little while.

Mary has a fear of fish? I had never heard of that before, but it does have a name, Ichthyphobia. She probably watched Piranha before becoming a Steven Seagal fan.

TV: Amazing Race 10 - Episode 6

Congratulations to the Miners for leaping from over 5 hours behind in last place to first with an assist from the Chos and a Fast Forward where Mary improved to 4 out of 6 in the unofficial episode naming contest. Maybe someone needs to inform her that Steven Seagal has starred in only one or two slightly successful movies in the last 10 years. Audiences cheering as his character fell to his death from a plane an early scene of 1996's Executive Decision indicated his career was headed in a similar direction.

The Miners won a trip to Negril, Jamaica. I visited the island (coincidentally around 1996) to attend a wedding, and had a great time. I remember parasailing over the long beach of Negril. The almost perfect scenery from up there was besmudged by what I initially thought was a hairy ugly albino manatee. Then I became horrified when a second glance revealed it was actually a fat old man who was completely nude with white fur all over his body except for the top of his head. Then, a rather attractive much younger woman with much less covering her waded into the picture to ... "greet" him. After I landed my parachute on a rather small platform in the water, I made sure to stay on the more modest section of the beach.

The episode scared me at first as a throwback to Treasure Hunters. The racers received their first clue via a cell phone (shameless product placement), and it was not that difficult. Basically, all they had to do was ask someone if they recognized some towers in Kuwait, only to find out they were called The Kuwait Towers. Then one member of each team had to climb up the outside of a tower to retrieve a satchel that contained some puzzle pieces that had to be combined with other puzzle pieces found in a "treasure chest" back on the ground. The feelings of deja vu continued as Erwin channeled the spirit of Sam from The Geniuses team who also a fear of heights. I guess someone behind the show wanted to prove they could do this better than the upstart competition.

Navigation once again determined the outcome of this race. The teams arrived in Kuwait at the same time. The Queens thought they had good directions to the Towers and left the airport first but still managed to get lost and lose a few spots. The Chos redeemed some karma points by getting a police escort to one clue and moving up a couple of spots out of last place. The ex-junkies / male models showed intelligence in being the first to complete a tricky puzzle. Then they avoided getting "Lost in Translation" by thinking of carrying the clue to a local to tell the name of a street writing in Arabic. However, they still got lost looking for the next clues and avoided elimination only because one other team was more lost than they were.

As the Coal Miners moved from last to first, the Triathletes fell from first to last and were eliminated from the race. I was more gratified by that result as Peter has been coming across as a loser. Perhaps it was due to editing, but the other teams did not trust him either. The Triathlets also lost points by trying to use Sarah's condition to cajole travel agents into finding a faster flight. Peter also seemed content to lie back and root for Sarah on the tougher Road Blocks. Those challenges and world travel experience helped Sarah grow up and realize that she deserves a real partner; not just some guy who supplies prosthetics (I had predicted this as early as week 1). The inability to navigate the streets of Kuwait City ended their $1,000,000 hopes. They must have gotten as lost as any people could get in an area the size of
Kuwait.

Other random notes:
The pit stop didn't seem to be the normal 12 hours as teams appeared to finish during the daytime the episode before but did not leave until the next afternoon. Either that or I'm losing my memory.


The view from the Kuwait Towers did look neat.

I am a little bit pyromaniac and a little bit pyrophobic, so the fast forward of grabbing a clue next to a simulated oil well fire would have been made for an interesting thought process.

The camel racing by remote jockey looked pretty fun. I am surprised more teams did not go for that Detour unless it was much harder to find or sounded like a trick. Camels could be stubborn and the one at the race track was snarling and baring his teeth, but overall, it appeared to be an easier Detour to complete than packing and hauling camel chow.

I've been noticing the T-shirts a little more this season. The Miners wore T-shirts that displayed a miner with the caption "Friends in Low Places". The Queens had shirts representing their home states, but I wonder how many people were trying to figure out what "CANY" meant or otherwise pretending to read those T-shirts very slowly. The Chos wore their Lost Phil shirts again, but also had one that said "Let's Hug It Out" which reminded me of a recent (and yet another hilarious) episode of The Office, where Michael was paying props to Entourage.

TV: Amazing Race 10 - Episode 5

I cannot remember the last time a team could not get seats on a plane and having that put them into last place for the whole leg. The bad news is that is what happened to the Coal Miners. The good news is it was the first non-elimination leg. They must now face the interesting challenge of keeping their possessions and money, but having to go from last to first and/or possibly facing a 30 minute penalty or something like that.

Most of the tense and funny moments happened on the way to the airport in Chennai. Peter acted a little slimy trying to form an alliance with the other teams and was basically rebuffed by everyone. The Chos played a mind-game on the other teams by pulling out a fake phone and pretending to make reservations. It looked like the joke would be played on them when Peter found someone willing to lend him a phone so he could make real reservations. Then things looked even worse for the Chos when the first travel agency they went to had moved. Somehow through that mess they ended up finding the earliest flight to Chennai while the Triathletes and the Barbies were booked on a much later flight. I thought that might be "bad karma" due to Peter making fun of the Coal Miners, but the tables turned once again when those last two teams were able to get an earlier connecting flight from wherever they stopped along the way. This let them finish this episode #1 and #2 despite not helping each other.

I've never been to Chennai, India. I just had one day stay in Mumbai (Bombay) followed by two weeks in Bangalore. There are subtle differences between all those cities, but one thing they definitely had in common was crazy traffic and associated pollution. I had fun riding in an auto rickshaw, while cars, trucks, motorbikes carrying whole families swarmed around me with centimeters to spare creating about five or six lanes of traffic where there should have only been two. I did wish I could cover my nose and mouth with a handkerchief though.

Yes, at least in some parts of the cities I visited, a fairly skinny cow would pop out of nowhere and wander across the street. They are just like squirrels in the U.S. except much bigger and slower.

It would be interesting to find out what they really teach in traffic school for a license. It seemed like some teams were getting a lot of help driving from their instructors. One beauty queen was only half joking when she said, "I'm so excited she didn't die." after her partner finished the driving lesson. I was surprised the show producers allowed the teams to take that sort of risk (which I almost considered more dangerous than handling the crocodiles). One good thing about the heavy traffic is that cars are generally moving so slow that an accident will likely not hurt you if you're in a car. I don't know if that applies to the pedestrians or bikers though. Apparently traffic fatalities are a leading cause of death of young people in some of these emerging countries.

I wonder how many different T-shirts the Chos squeezed into their backpacks.

Next week, the teams get to play with some contraption that makes a camel run down a sandy race track. I want to tune in just to see what that is all about.

In other semi-related news, my local PBS-HD station just rebroadcast the Dave Matthews Band performing at Red Rocks, where last Amazing Race started and ended. I guess they had to splice together songs from concerts that took place over a whole weekend. Otherwise, I'm not sure they would have been able to find more than 4 live songs short enough to fit into just one hour.

TV: Amazing Race 10 - Episode 4

I now see why so little action took place last week. I think the race planners were letting the contestants gather some strength for some pretty tough physical challenges this week. Each team looked exhausted and relieved as they reached the mat; they could barely celebrate not being eliminated.

This stage of the race was particularly tough on Rob. He was treated for heat exhaustion before leaving the pit stop. While the cold water may have cooled off his body, his emotions were still running high. He freaked out in the taxis whenever he realized one driver after another was lost and driving in circles. The blurred out faces were a big clue that they had the wrong driver :-). Of course, I guess the cameraman or producers may not have had time to ask the drivers for permission to show their images on TV while trying to keep up with the Rob / Kimberly team. Later, Rob climbed an ascender rope up a tall, steep cliff. Then he bumped his head while searching a cave. Then he had to do a bunch of rowing. Under all this duress, he yelled a few times at his girlfriend -- something I would not advise to any guy who wants to date a woman who is smart, strong, and fairly attractive. Kimberly has stuck with Rob for reasons that have not been fully revealed. One is she seems happy to yell back. Another is that she feels she has gotten Rob to change a bit in the past (temporarily dumping him until he took classes so he can leave his bartending job?). He also did admit at the finish line that he had to "chill" out - literally. That gives one hope that this relationship lasting a bit longer, and finishing in first helps tremendously.

Apparently finishing last also can cement a relationship. Team TNT came in last by what may have been a wide margin as other teams finished during the day while TNT came in under what must have been a beautiful sunset over Ha Long Bay.

So, I suppose that means the triathletes are in the lead on the road to dunzo.

Unlike the last edition where it was pretty easy to spot the top two teams from the start, this race has been very difficult to predict. Teams randomly shuffled positions again even during the episode. First there was the taxis whose drivers either were getting lost or driving slow. It cost the Chos their 30 minute lead and practically dropped them to the back of the pack again.

Then there was what may have been the first use of an audio clue in this series that I thought was pretty inventive. The place names the racers were told to go to sounded pretty similar. The male models showed they also have brains by being the first to ask their taxi driver to listen to the directions. Anyway, the audio clue was fun for a while but turned out not to be important as the bus stop they were directed to ended up being another bunching point. At most maybe some teams lost more taxi fare than others, and who knows if money shortage will come up again in the race.

But this whole ordeal made me remember yet another story about my Beijing trip. I told a taxi driver to take me to the Yanshan Hotel, and I fortunately noticed pretty quickly that he was driving northwest instead of northeast. I tried to repeat my destination several times. Finally he pulled over to have someone translate what I was saying. Turned out he thought I wanted to go to the Yanshan Mountains.

Next the teams had to pick speed boats to take them to an island to climb a rope up an island cliff. This time it was the relative speed of the boats that determined the order teams arrived at the Road Block. Then it was stamina getting up the ropes that helped some teams pass others. I was impressed by Sarah using her one good leg and the Alabama mom in getting up the rope. Godwin Cho apparently did not learn his lesson from the Great Wall climb and relied on arm strength thus burning out his forearms again instead of using his legs more.

Rowing the sampans in some rolling waters with a stiff breeze would have been extremely difficult for me. I tried rowing in the very calm waters of the Foster City lagoon once and never could do anything other than go in circles. In the open water, I would probably be spending more time throwing up than rowing. I guess the good news is that the water related tasks allowed the episode title spouting Mary (3 for 4 now) to give her ankle more time to heal. Hopefully, the beauty queens will realize that they need to take better care of their clues and/or expand their vocabulary to know, for example, the difference between a junk and a sampan. From this point forward, any mistake is like flirting with elimination.

CBS was sort of flirting with an FCC fine by allowing references to picking up dongs (the Vietnamese currency) and looking for junk. The other funny moment was when the models found out other teams were beating them to the finish line because their junk crew forgot to raise anchor. They were remarkably forgiving about that. Perhaps like me, they have driven cars some pretty decent distances with the emergency brakes still engaged. I even have an "idiot light" for that directly in front of me, and one time, it even took a passenger to complain about an unusual burning smell before I realized what I had done.

Next week, fun with crocodiles.

Movies: The Departed

I'll start right off and say that The Departed is the best crime movie that I've seen in a long time. V for Vendetta and Inside Man are the only other movies I remember this year that kept me entertained from start to finish.

The story, adapted from a Hong Kong movie called Infernal Affairs, adds an interesting twist to the usual the undercover cop infiltrating a crime gang story by spending equal time on the criminal mole within the police department. The writers did such a great job of opening up so many possibilities about who would get caught first that I gave up trying to guess what would happen next and just enjoyed the ride. It made me recall some of elements I enjoyed about shows like Donnie Brasco, Wiseguy, Face/Off, and No Way Out and still added heaps of other interesting aspects on top of it.

The actors delivered great performances all around. There was only a scene or two (or three...) where Jack Nicholson reminded me he was Jack Nicholson (or worse some actor doing a Jack Nicholson impression), but then he'd turn around and do something that would make me forgive him. So, to say Jack Nicholson was the weakest link of a cast is saying alot. Actually, I'm starting to get fascinated about how different this movie would look if various actors switched roles, in particular Jack Nicholson and Alec Baldwin. Mark Wahlberg steals some scenes and says some of the best lines that cannot be repeated in public (or under most circumstances for that matter). Leonardo DiCaprio's acting skills somehow keep improving. He puts just the right amount of intensity during his close-ups whereas I get bothered by Tom Cruise who sometimes comes across as trying too hard.

This brings us to director Martin Scorsese, who many people argue is overdue to win an Oscar. I haven't seen all of his movies, but the bits and pieces I've seen have been great but slightly uneven, too gritty to watch, or missing something. I imagine though that some of his movies are required study for anybody attending film school. His more recent attempts like The Aviator and Gangs of New York were good but maybe over-ambitious or just not easy stories to work with. I get the sense he reigned himself in with The Departed, and created a movie that had me leaning forward in my seat and not want to turn away from. If another movie comes out this year to leave Scorsese without an Oscar once again, I want to be first in line to see it. A

Movies: X-Men: The Last Stand

The latest X-Men DVD was released this week, but my review is based on what I saw on the big screen this past summer. If I remember correctly, the movie set a box office record for an opening weekend. I think Bryan Singer deserves most of the credit since he did such a great job building expectations with the first two entries of this series. The director and producers of X-Men 3 may have only contributed to the record by keeping the running time under 1:45 long, so theaters could replay it about twice as frequently as Lord of the Rings or Titanic.

The short running time + large cast + pre-requisite comic book action and effects = little room for plot or any major character development. The debate around a cure for mutant powers was kept fairly simple. The Cyclops - Jean Grey - Wolverine love triangle was replaced with a less interesting Rogue - Iceman - Kitty Pryde triangle. There's also a father-son conflict involving Angel. I suppose the producers were trying to target a younger demographic.

Outside of Magneto, Storm, and Wolverine, a bunch of other mutants just make brief appearances bordering on cameos. It reminded me of the final episode of Seinfeld where there was much hype and antipation building up to the air date. Then all they did was parade a long string of memorable characters from past seasons and somehow managed to make the whole show flat and forgettable. Otherwise, the special effects were pretty decent with nice performances by Ian McKellen (who salvaged yet another summer movie) and Rebecca Romijn with a few funny lines uttered by Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut. Maybe others can tell me if the DVD version benefits from showing previously deleted scenes and alternate endings. C+

There will likely be comparisons between X-Men and NBC's new series Heroes. There may even be comparison's to USA's The 4400, a show that I've enjoyed once or twice but not enough to be addicted.

The good news: the writing and acting seems pretty good even though I sort of have to turn off some of my logic circuits to buy into the premise (but that's a given for just about every Sci-Fi series). Seemingly ordinary and mostly well drawn out characters from different walks of life discover that they are developing special powers, and have varied reactions (mostly negative for some reason) to what consequences that might have.

The bad news: compared to the premiere, the second episode seemed to move at a slower pace and lost the humor (especially from the Japanese character who was thrilled that he can bend the space-time continuum).

Heroes may have to don their capes faster for me to keep tuning in. This is funny opinion considering I just complained that X-Men: The Last Stand moved too fast...., but I sort of have my hands full trying to keep up with the mysteries and convoluted plot lines of other TV shows trying to follow the footsteps of Lost. Hopefully it will keep exploring the ice-breaker question, "If you could have a superhero power, what would it be and would you use it for good or evil?" B

TMI: My Viewing Habits This Fall

Some day, I may post reviews on this season's new shows, a few of which may eventually earn a slot on my Must See list. Some may get canceled or get relegated to 'online only' status before they get a real chance. But so far it looks like this:

Must see TV
Sunday: The Simpsons, The Amazing Race, Desperate Housewives
Monday: Prison Break
Tuesday: House
Wednesday: Lost
Thursday: My Name is Earl, The Office, CSI, Grey's Anatomy
(DVR and VCR sales must be skyrocketing because of the CSI vs. Grey's conflict)
Friday: Whatever is on Sci-Fi Channel
Saturday: nothing - catch up on DVR / OnDemand or actually get a life

On the bubble
Six Degrees, Heroes, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Standoff, Kidnapped, Justice, The OC, Shark, Men In Trees

Yet to be checked out
Ugly Betty, 30 Rock

Still waiting on
The Sopranos, Rome, 24

TV: Amazing Race 10 - Episode 3

Actually I had written this up much earlier, but the computer swallowed my posting (Perhaps I shut down my browser before saving anything). So now I have to rewrite this from memory.

This week's episode was not as action-packed as the previous episodes, but it was still nail biting. Most of the teams were so close together that a 30-minute penalty moved one team from second place to near elimination. The team that finished last this week was yet another victim of having no sense of direction.

I was rooting a bit for Duke and Lauren given that parent-child teams have not fared well on the race and their team seemed like the strongest entry of that type so far. But at least it was nice to see that their relationship was completely patched up. They probably saw the writing on the wall once they ended up choosing what had to be the least helpful local ever. It was not even clear if their "guide" paid her fair share of the cab fare to take a huge detour to be dropped off at her brother's place. Duke and Lauren were at least an hour behind the "peloton," but did get lucky that the taxi driver was willing to take what little money they had left without a fuss while the first clue box turned out to be a bunching point. That was probably the only good break they received in this leg of the race.

I had only heard a few things about the Hanoi Hilton, but seeing it on TV was a sobering experience. I cannot imagine what POWs had to endure in there. I probably would have stayed a few extra moments like the Cho Bros. They temporarily fell into last place doing that, but somehow they catapulted all the way to first by such a wide margin that they apparently even found time to clean up between making some coal bricks and the finish line. With luck and barring another brain freeze moment, they will be a force to be reckoned with the rest of the way. Go home team!

I was more worried about the coal miners. David seemed preoccupied with memories of his father telling stories about Vietnam while Mary nursed a sprained ankle. She may have to heal fast to stay in the race. I think Mary was the source of 2 of the 3 episode titles so far. I wonder if the contestants get a bonus for quote of the week.

The triathletes managed to finish pretty high despite taking the wrong bus. It was inspiring to see Mary practically crawl across a rice paddy with a defective prosthetic leg.

While watching the teams try to cross a busy street, I thought of the game Frogger just before one of the racers mentioned it. That was maybe the only "laugh out loud" moment of the evening.

Next week it looks like the tension brings some relationships to a boiling point. Can't wait.

TV: Amazing Race 10 - Episode 2

Random luck (or lack thereof) played a major role this week. Transportation allowed the teams to bunch together and arrive in Outer Mongolia all even, and the team positions changed pretty frequently from there depending on whims of taxi drivers, automobiles, and animals. It's not clear that any team did anything to deserve the bad karma. It was the cardinal "no-no" of driving in the wrong direction that ultimately eliminated one team that I thought looked like a contender. That team probably would have had more adrenaline to actually complete the final task faster than some other teams if they had not fallen so far behind.

Driving the wrong way seems to kill one team in every race. I suppose keeping one's sense of direction is easier said than done when finding oneself jet-lagged, stressed, and in a completely foreign environment. Either that or future teams will have to make sure one at least one member spends as much time honing navigation skills as working out in the gym.

Other random thoughts:

I still find myself cheering for the coalminers. It was humorous how they admitted that this is the first time that they had met ... gay people ... and liked them.

David also described his wife as blunt and always correct - the two traits he loved about her. Peter and Rob will have to learn to see their respective teammates in the same way if they expect the relationship and participation in the race to last much longer. Sarah picked the better task for her team at a detour while Kimberly recognized when Rob had taken a wrong turn. One of my favorite quotes from White Men Can't Jump is, "Billy, I have four words for you: 'Listen to the woman.'" I guess for most of us guys, that is something that is easier said than done.

I don't know if it was Tom or Terry desperately trying to intimidate a horse.

I forgot to note who proved to be the Jerry Maguire expert, by pointing out it was dogs and bees that smelled fear rather than horses.

Getting thrown off a horse cannot feel good (ouch!), but I suppose one cannot expect to fly around the world without paying some sort of price for it along the way. Fortunately, the horses were pretty short and the ground was pretty soft, otherwise the next stop would have been a hospital.

There was a very brief scene of a many riding a plain old black bicycle outside the train to Mongolia. I forgot to mention it last week, but I saw a similar scene from a tour bus in Beijing but could not pull my camera out quickly enough to capture it. A man, who I figured was in his 60's or older was hauling a half-size refrigerator on a trailer attached to his bicycle on the shoulder of a highway, and pedaling up a slight grade. I saw others hauling large loads of coals with bikes similar to the one pictured here. I wondered how some of those riders would fare in Le Tour de France.

Sarah and Peter may become the sequel to Flo and Zach who one a previous race.

The male models appear to be the much reformed version of Eric and Jeremy.

I would have enjoyed doing the archery challenge. It was fun seeing those targets explode. But I imagine it was much easier said than done.

[Like how I employed one recurring them in this post? Yup, achieving that is much easier said than done -- for me anyway]

TV: Amazing Race 10 - Episode 1

This edition has started with much promise. The producers did a good job of bringing people from all around the country from different walks of life, but the teams were not radically different in makeup vs. past seasons. I found it amusing that all of the teams looked more like sibling than what they really were (except for the team that is actually brothers). Fortunately, so much about the couples were packed into a short time, that I quickly found redeeming qualities to like about most of the players. This is the first time I felt bad about seeing two of the teams go so early (oddly enough, it was the two teams that were most different from previous teams) vs. shrugging about the loss of a team that was just another anonymous face in the crowd. The shocked and saddened reaction from all remaining teams to the quick and surprising first elimination looked genuine and added to the emotional scene.

[I think it may have been more fun if they let the last team get a head start to the next clue, just to mess with the contestants minds. I figured the odds of an early elimination were high when the race started with 12 teams instead of the usual 11.]

I missed the first episode of Treasure Hunters, so I don't know how that contest began, but one initial area where the Amazing Race felt clearly superior to me was in how they edited the reading of the opening clue. Each team read a portion of it, as they got in their cars and raced off to SeaTac airport. That established the sense of urgency from the start vs. fully repeating the clue several times as if the producers thought we needed to have the clue drilled into our heads in order to play along. I suppose one advantage of doing this the 10th time vs. the first is that you get a chance to truly refine these little details that many viewers may subconsciously appreciate.

I've visited Seattle many times over the years (most recently, a month ago to take a cruise to Alaska), but I didn't recognize the hill where the race began. I had to guess it was north of downtown and west of I5. Thanks to Google Earth, I'm now positive it was the Sundial at Gas Works Park. I'll have to check it out on my next trip.

The home team from San Francisco (with one Cal grad) that I feel obligated to root for thankfully did not copy the BJ & Tyler Hippie look. They have more of a Silicon Valley vibe instead. Both have graduate degrees, but I have to wonder what they were thinking by pulling out squirt guns at the airport. They had another brain freeze at a challenge when they grabbed another team's bricks. While they looked like they have good upper body strength, they may not be built for endurance as they were beaten up the Great Wall of China by a pair of college cheerleaders. They will have to bear down quite a bit to win this thing.

I first and last visited Beijing in 1994, and it was an eye-opening experience. I expected to see everyone on bicycles wearing green uniforms. Instead I saw lots of people in designer outfits or sports apparel while several fancy European sports cars wove around the herds of bicyclers. New construction was going on everywhere. I imagine the city is even more bustling and cosmopolitan now. The Forbidden City was closed by the time I reached it, but I walked around Tiananmen Square just south of the Meridian Gate. I was awestruck at how large the square was and how it had just been a few years since students protested there. On one corner was a huge McDonald's but I opted for Peking Duck at an even bigger nearby restaurant (Quan Ju De?) where it people were arriving by the busload. The duck was delicious even given the large crowds being served.

Unfortunately, for one member of each team, the meal would be fish eyes instead of duck. I don't have a true HDTV (and the Amazing Race is not in HD either), but I suspect I would not have noticed the long thin strands of goo hanging off the eyeballs as they were swallowed on the analog broadcast. That sight made me shiver.

The coalminer wife handled the delicacy pretty well even though she acted as if she had never used a pair of chopsticks before. Later she had the quote that the episode was named after as she told a taxi driver, "Real fast! Quack! Quack!" I think I will root for them.

I opinion of the Triathletes bounced down and up. They showed no hesitation to use the Mirna and Shmirna sympathy card. But I imagine it's hard enough to climb a rope with two legs vs. one artificial one with a leaky hydraulic system. I wonder if it is more of a hassle for Sarah today to get around airports with a fluid ban enforced.

The biggest factors this week were navigation and noticing the brick pattern correctly.

I think I ended up visiting the same part of the Great Wall, which is still some distance from Beijing. Someday I might have to post the panoramic pictures I took there (assuming I can ever get around to finding and scanning them).

TV: Reality Roundup

The only reality show I care about, The Amazing Race, premieres with its 10th edition in less than 24 hours, but I still will take an occassional glance at the other game shows.

My random thoughts:

Treasure Hunters: NBC tried to capture the magic of The Amazing Race with this initially promising entry. It was touted as being created by one of the producers of The DaVinci Code. Interestingly, the series more closely resembled National Treasure by referencing American history for its mysteries. Okay, maybe it was a safer choice than using religious history (controversial) or world history (which may have been too challenging for the contestants - even the team calling itself The Geniuses). The result was a mostly uneventful weekly hour of fairly easy puzzles and blatant product placement, particularly for a brand of cell phones through which the host repeated himself too often. Only the Wild Hanlons stood out as characters to watch, but overall, there was nothing memorable. I guess it just proved that teams of three are not much more entertaining than teams of four. Two allows for the most relationship conflicts apparently. Having all the teams starting each "leg" at the same time did not turn out to be a big improvement over the sometimes annoying bunching that happens in the Amazing Race either.

Project Runway fascinates me sometimes. I think it's impressive how quickly the designers can come up with an idea for an outfit then construct it under some pretty difficult time constraints and conditions. Yes, I have little artistic ability myself, and I originally tuned in just to check out Heidi Klum. Unfortunately, she and the creativity of the contestants have not been enough to make up for a few too many moments of overdramatism. Since I do not have Bravo on my regular channel surfing rotation, I may accidentally miss the finale as well.

Big Brother: All Stars. I only watched this show for about 15 minutes, yawned, then switched channels. I don't even care who won.

Dancing with the Stars: I have to grudgingly admit that former Dallas Cowboys running back and NFL all-time rushing leader Emmitt Smith had a better debut than former 49'er Jerry Rice, who holds countless NFL receiving records. At least Emmitt's partner, Cheryl Burke, grew up in the Bay Area so I can live with that. It must be a law that at least one alumnus of Saved by the Bell make an unexpected appearance on television or in the movies just as I happily forget that this show existed. This time Mario Lopez appears to be the dancer to beat. If I do make any time to watch this (and I probably won't), I may root for Vivica A. Fox and Willa Ford. I don't think politics played a role in Tucker Carlson being the first to go. Fellow talk show host Jerry Springer will likely follow him off the show soon.

Celebrity Duets: Only watched a little bit of this show by accident. I guess some charity will get some money at the end of this. My only question: Didn't Lucy Lawless already sing in public before? [She also pre-dated Janet Jackson in the "wardrobe malfunction at a sporting event" department. Why I remember such trivia and constantly forget to take my badge to work, I will never know.] Maybe Lucy can win to make up for the fact that a dwarf planet is no longer named after a character she played.

Survivor: Cook Islands - There was some controversy over how the teams would be initially divided this season. Maybe it was unfair by excluding applicants of mixed heritage. I only watched the second half-hour of the first episode, and it did not seem like a big deal. For example, it was hard to get a sense of who's who with 20 people milling about the cameras. The teams themselves rarely crossed paths. CBS even avoided further trouble by carefully blurring one contestant's slightly exposed coin slot. While the cast may be racially diverse, an oddly large portion of them live in California (10 from the L.A. area, 1 from San Diego, 2 from the Bay Area, and 1 from Chico). As a practically native Californian, can I say Californians are all alike? Does that make me a geographist, and can I get credit for making up that new word? :-)

I'm sure there are other reality / game shows I've missed completely (e.g., The Contender), but there are only so many hours in the day, and I had a pretty busy summer and a full slate of fall shows to watch.