The Amazing Race - Episode 3

Umm ... I actually have very little idea what happened as I missed most of tonight's episode for various and sundry reasons I will not go into here. But I did see that the cowboys finished first again, and Monique and Shawne came in last and were eliminated.

But, hey, now about that hockey game today, huh?

Sunday afternoon humor

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Mike's Music Review - Me In Motion's self-titled debut album

While I may not get preview releases of new Starfield albums (not that I'm bitter) the good folks at Centricity were kind enough to hook me up with an advance listen of the new self-titled debut album from Me In Motion.

The verdict: Color me impressed. These guys are good.

Some quick thoughts, song by song:

1) Losers: The lead single is a quirky little pop song about, well, the losers in life - the geeks, the nerds, the outcasts, "all of us losers" - and how Jesus loves them, too. A song that will resonate with a lot of kids of junior and senior high, concluding, "Jesus has a thing for losers." Good stuff. Check out the video here.

2) The God I Know: An upbeat, driving rocker about living more like "the God I know" and not letting fear and complacency rule our lives. Also good stuff. We're 2 for 2 so far.

3) Gotta Be Something: I love the start of this song - a crunchy guitar riff that sounds like it's straight out of a "Spirit In The Sky" cover band tribute or something. This might be my favorite track on the record. A great "driving in the summer with the window down blaring this song" kind of song. 3 for 3.

4) Seek Justice Love Mercy: The first power ballad of the album, which is about closing our eyes to the suffering of the world. Melodically, it's a song that sounds prettier than the tough lyrics would indicate. But I'll give it a thumbs up, so we're 4 for 4 and we're off to a great start.

5) Leaving Here Someday: This song absolutely took me by surprise when I first heard it because it sounds like a Weird Al Yankovic original song. Seriously. All through the album, I thought that lead vocalist Seth Mosley sounds a lot like Weird Al, but this song has the same musical style of Weird Al's non-parody songs. As a result, this is a miss for me mainly because as much as I love Weird Al, having what sounds like a Weird Al Christian rock song is just too weird for me. 4 for 5.

6) You Never Fail Me: A by-the-numbers pop-rock song that could have been done by a thousand college rock bands. 4 for 6.

7) Back To You: A power ballad that sounds like it's straight out of the 1980s, complete with all of the lyrical cliches that accompany such power ballads in the Christian music genre. Fortunately for Me In Motion, I like 1980s cliche-ridden power ballads, so this gets a thumbs up. 5 for 7.

8) Welcome to Your Life: This sounds like it's from Hawk Nelson (that's a compliment, by the way). "Say goodbye to the lies and the shadows, let it go, and say hello to the new you stepping out for the very first time, welcome to your life." I hope this song is under consideration as a radio single, as it will do very well with the hooky chorus. 6 for 8.

9) Here In The Middle: Some fun piano in this doesn't rescue what's otherwise one of the weaker songs on the album. 6 for 9.

10) You Move Me: And the album concludes with a fairly pedestrian acoustic guitar driven slower song. 6 for 10.

I have to admit, I'm pleasantly surprised. I've heard albums by many established bands that don't come out with such a high batting percentage in terms of songs I like. These guys have a lot of potential!

Me In Motion's self-titled debut album drops March 23.

Fitness File 7

Another in a regular series of entirely self-indulgent posts updating my major fitness goals for 2010: Complete at least one 15K run (9.3 miles) and get my weight down to 175 lbs.

It's been a few weeks since I posted one of these. I'm still working out regularly, although doing six workouts a week has been very difficult given my work schedule. I can get up at 4:45 a.m. and put in 12 hour days, and I can do six workouts a week. What I can't do, apparently, is both of those things at the same time. And because the 4:45 wakeup times isn't flexible when the Legislature is sitting, it's the workouts that have to give. So I've lessened up on my cardio but I'm still doing weights 3 times a week, and then running and cycling as I'm able to. My weight has been firmly stuck at 178 lbs. for the better part of 3 weeks, but I'm not panicking about that.

This coming week is a session break week, so I'm hopeful that I can get in six solid workouts.

Survivor - Heroes vs. Villains Episode 3

The Heroes won their first immunity challenge and Randy was dispatched from the Villains tribe. A pretty lackluster episode "highlighted" by Russell hiding his team's machete. Yeah.

Next week: Coach freaks out. And immunity idols!

The worst poker bad beat of all time

The only time you can hit quad aces and lose.

Mike's Mini Music Review - Starfield - The Saving One

There's always one song on a Starfield album that I absolutely fall in love with and it becomes one of my "favorite songs of all time." On the last album, it was Reign in Us. Previously, Son of God ... just great worship songs that I'll never get tired of singing.

On their new album The Saving One, it's, well, The Saving One.

I was absolutely blown away when I heard the album version of the song The Saving One. I'd heard the acoustic version in concert and in various incarnations on YouTube, and I really liked the simple, stripped down version of the song. And, honestly, it was that version I was expecting on the album. Instead, Starfield gave us both the acoustic version and a fully-produced near-rock version of the song that fills me with such so much joy. (And the acoustic version is great, too!)

I know I say it a fair bit when reviewing music that such-and-such-a-song is my new favorite song ever - and The Saving One is one of those songs - but I can't help it. I love music. And I love music that I love. Which is to say there are certain kinds of songs that I just gravitate towards, and this is one of them: soaring vocals, cool harmonies, driving beats, bullet drums, easy to sing ... but what takes this song over the top is something really simple. Starfield doesn't end the song on the chorus. Instead, they end on a repeat of the bridge. And it works. I can't explain it, but it works. In fact, literally the last half of the song - the final 2 minutes - is nothing but repeating the chorus and the bridge and it's 2 fabulous minutes of music.

The rest of the album deserves the superlatives its largely getting. I've only been through the entire album once so far, but there was lots of songs I really enjoyed - No Other Savior is another tremendous worship song; Something To Say is a barren, stripped down song about those times when God seems distant and its brutal honesty is oddly refreshing. Absolutely is another song that, like The Saving One and No Other Savior, will become a staple of many church worship services. Based on my initial listen, the only song that really didn't click for me was the rocker Top Of Our Lungs, of which the components were really good, but the parts were better than the whole.

But otherwise, there's a lot to love here. Another great Starfield album!

The Amazing Race - Episode 2

I know that TAR gets better per capita ratings in Canada than in the US but good luck with that tonight, as this episode is going head to head with the Canada-US Olympic hockey game.

So we'll keep this short: Ha-ha! You can't read a bus schedule. Team Cowboy finished first. Oh my gravy. Team Grandmother/daughter eliminated.

Sunday afternoon humor

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

The UFC 100 Greatest Fights - Final Thoughts

Now that I'm done reviewing the entire DVD set, some final thoughts:

• GSP may be the single greatest fighter the UFC has ever had.
• Chuck Liddell may be the most over-rated and one-dimensional fighter ever in UFC.
• Randy Couture may actually be underrated, despite all his accolades and championships. The guy is a machine.
• Stephan Bonnar's career peaked with the first Forrest Griffin fight. Think about that. The worst thing Dana White ever did was promise Bonnar he'd never be cut from UFC because of his role in the original TUF and what that meant for UFC.
• UFC's done a good thing keeping Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan together as long as they have, as they bring continuity, history and good teamwork to the announce booth
• It's amusing to see UFC blur the Affliction logo from fighters' shirts yet sell those shirts in their online store.
• It's amazing that I can recite the back stories to half these fights, despite many of them being years old, but it took me a while to think of who is the current WWE IC champion.
• It's a shame, in a way, that these fights are ranked by order of "best" and not done chronologically, because a lot of the stories actually get told entirely in reverse on the DVD set.
• The UFC is totally missing the boat on not doing fighter-specific DVD sets - a 3-disc Best of Randy Couture or Best of GSP would probably do very well, as would Championship sets, like "History of the UFC Light-heavyweight Title."
• This is an awesome set and you should go buy it now.

UFC Ultimate 100 Greatest Fights Review - Disc 8

Hey! It's been a while since I've posted a disc review. Here's the deal: I got 85% of the way through this final disc and... just gave up. Having watched 7 discs of this in a relatively short period of time, I hit total and utter burnout with watching MMA. So I took a break and figured I'd get back to it in a few days, which turned into weeks. So let's finish this sucker up, because as I'm writing this, I really only have the last 3 matches to watch.

Starfield - The Saving One

Releases this Tuesday. Buy it!

Sadly, I don't get preview releases of new albums, but these folks did and they love it. Ditto this review. And this one. And another. But this review, not so much. Still, the advance buzz on this album is really good, and I'm stoked for Tuesday!

Late addition: The band just posted 3 new songs on their Facebook page.

Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains - Episode 2

It's week 2 and I still have no memory of Candice having ever been on Survivor. Are we sure she's played the game before?

Rob didn't die. He had the flu. And the Heroes blew another big immunity challenge lead. In the end, Stephenie got the boot as the Heroes tribe quickly falls apart.

Next week: James freaks out.

Where to watch UFC 110 in Edmonton and Calgary

I swear, it feels like there's a UFC PPV every weekend now.

At any rate, if you wish to go see this at a bar or restaurant in Edmonton, Calgary or elsewhere in Alberta, here's my public service link.

Survivor vs Amazing Race

So I did my little Survivor review on Thursday night and within 10 minutes of posting it, web traffic to this site soared for the rest of the evening all due to Google searches picking up the link off Twitter.

I do the same thing tonight with Amazing Race and ... nothing. No traffic spike. In fact, no traffic at all.

Guess everyone is watching the Olympics.

The Amazing Race - Episode 1

My second favorite reality show returned tonight. As usual, it took about 2 minutes to develop an instant loathing of half the teams. Episode saw the teams go to China... er, Chile ... do a wire walk and paint houses. Team Big Brother (ugh) finished first. Team High School Sweethearts were eliminated. Next week: teams conspire!

Sunday afternoon humor

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Promotional video for the Alberta Train

Gotta love the cinematography in this video. Absolutely beautiful.

Mike's Mini Music Review - Stellar Kart - Everything Is Different Now

I've got so much to say about the New Release Tuesday preview of this album, and I don't know where to start. So I'll start here: The song We Shine is fantastic. I love this song - it's got a U2 Discotheque feel to it that totally works. It's a happy, fun, celebratory song that, frankly, I think Christian music needs more of.

I'm all for the reflective worship songs of God's awe and majesty and such, and there are a lot of songs of brokenness and healing and things like that. But we need, well, more Christian party songs. And We Shine is one of those rare Christian party songs - a rock anthem that's almost defiant in its declaration of freedom and joy, with a killer guitar riff at the end. Great stuff that I can't stop singing.  (Plus, it's the perfect running cadence for me, so, BONUS!)

Beyond that, my feeling on this album is that it's largely a collection of rock worship songs for men. These are manly songs full of images of freedom, warriors, and the like that I think will appeal to guys in a way that, well, Hillsong United may not.

So, in short, I love this album - or, at least, the 30 minutes worth of it that we're getting the free preview of. The full album doesn't drop for another month or so, but it's gonna be a winner. Massive thumbs up.

Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains - Episode 1

Oh, this season is going to be so much fun! Big egos! Big fights! Rupert being a bigger dork! But, geez, 2 whole hours and Evil Russell didn't look for a single immunity idol? What's he waiting for? So, in the end, Sugar gets voted off due to her being annoying and crying, and utterly failing at puzzles. See ya. Next week: Boston Rob ... dies?

Stellar Kart - We Shine

My current favorite song.

Someone missed the point of the commercial

This search string lead to my humble blog:

"i want to buy a house hippo in toronto"

Fireflight video: Desperate

Mike’s Mini Movie Review – Star Trek (The new one … not, you know, the old one)

Yeah, yeah, I’m the last person in the world to see this movie.

I really didn’t want to see it in a lot of ways. Honestly? Because I love Star Trek in almost all of its forms and facets, and I was prepared to just hate this movie.

And I was prepared to hate it because, based on what I knew about the film, the plot revolved around the two things I detest most about science-fiction films (and bad Star Trek episodes in particular): time-travel-alternate-realities and series reboots that serve as a lazy way for writers to just do whatever they want without respecting canon.

My youngest brother got the DVD for Christmas and so we sat down tonight and watched it.

I was prepared to hate this movie.

I loved it. Loved it, loved it, loved it.

The characterizations were bang on. I loved Bones. I loved Kirk. I loved Spock. And so on. The action was tremendous. The comedy worked (mostly). And the plot was done so well that it made me excited that the series has been rebooted. I’d love to see more of the new Star Trek movies.

I’m pleasantly surprised and then some. Two thumbs up.

Sunday afternoon humor

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

iPod connection issue solved

So ... buried deep in Apple's help pages is the little tidbit that the iPod Touch doesn't recognize the Wireless N protocol and that if your router is set for Wireless N, set it to also broadcast in Wireless B/G.

And, lo and behold, I now have secure connectivity from my iPod Touch! Whoooo!

(Full credit on this goes to my lovely wife, who asked me if switching wireless protocols would help.)

The joys (?) of technology

I'm writing this on my new iPod Touch. But it's not hooked up to my wireless network as it utterly refuses to let my iPod connect - even without security. So I'm borrowing an unsecured network connection a few doors down. I'll do more diagnosing of this tomorrow.

In the meantime, the iPod Touch is really cool.

Fitness File 6

Another in a regular series of entirely self-indulgent posts updating my major fitness goals for 2010: Complete at least one 15K run (9.3 miles) and get my weight down to 175 lbs.

Well ... this was a bit of a rough week. It was very busy at work with a lot of long days, so I made my workouts a lot less physically challenging in order to not injure myself. Heck, on Thursday night, I walked for 30 minutes on the treadmill because after a 12-hour day, I had zero energy for running. But I didn't miss a workout, and I managed to get my weight down to 176.6 lbs., so I'm within striking distance of my 175 immediate goal (although realistically, I now want to get to 170 lbs so I can challenge Georges St. Pierre for the UFC welterweight title). (That's a joke, by the way.)

WEC finally gets PPV

And UFC is smart enough to get its logo on the poster. I am so buying this.

Where to watch UFC 109 in Edmonton and Calgary

There's another UFC PPV this weekend, so here's the usual link on where to find a bar to watch UFC in Edmonton and Calgary.

Mike’s Mini Music Review – Fireflight – For Those Who Wait

The good folks at New Release Tuesday  have another fantastic free album preview (free registration required to listen) up this week – Fireflight’s forthcoming disc, For Those Who Wait (out Feb. 9)

I’ve listened to it a few times already, and I’m really enjoying it, particularly the front half of the album which is a bunch of straight up rockers – For Those Who Wait, Desperate, Fire In My Eyes, Core of My Addiction … all good stuff. I haven’t spent a lot of time with the back half of the disc, but I recall it had more ballads and it was fine.

I confess, I haven’t heard a lot of Fireflight’s stuff, and I’d be hard-pressed to tell you … well, really anything about them. Based on this free preview, though, I think I’ll be tracking down more of their stuff. Plus, I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for female fronted rock bands. Thumbs up.

Bret Hart is on Raw tonight

At least, that's what the WWE announced last week, so we're assuming that information is still correct.