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Showing posts from November, 2012

Survivor Philippines Episode 11 Spoiler Review

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After getting ripped to shreds at last week's Tribal Council, Abi is very sad. Malcolm notes that Abi is not very self-aware. You don't say. The tribe gets money for the annual food auction. Gosh, I hope SOMEONE knows how to play this game. And, yay! Denise spends all her money for pancakes and bacon. Well done, Denise. You've figured out this game. Then Skupin bids all his money for a cheese plate and wine. Malcolm got iced coffee and donuts for $200 of his $500. Jonathan paid $100 for a blind item that turned out to be fried chicken and fries. Carter got a baked potato as a blind item for $180 (I think). But he got the option to trade it for rice and beans for the tribe. He gave up his food for food for the tribe. The tribe applauded. He's a fool. Another blind item. Carter and Lisa had a bidding war. WHY DO PEOPLE ENGAGE IN BIDDING WARS!? Oh, I'm ranting again. Lisa won it for $320. She got a gigantic sandwich. Jeff put up "an advantage in this game" an

The Amazing Race Season 21 Episode 9 Spoiler Review

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The teams are giving a flag to the Netherlands, and have to figure out that the flag is the Netherlands, not any other country where the flag is a white, red and blue stripe. Like, France. Which is where Trey and Lexi decide to go. Until they run into the Chippendales at the airport, who steer them in the correct direction. The first three teams at the airport plotted to U-Turn Abbie and Ryan. The Goat Farmers started the leg 11 hours behind the lead team. The Twins were the first to arrive in Amsterdam. The clue had the Fast Forward and they were smart enough to go for it considering how far ahead they were. In Frankfurt, Abbie and Ryan missed their connecting flight to Amsterdam. But they had tickets on a second connecting flight, so they got on that. And then that plane had mechanical problems. They had to switch planes. The Chippendales arrived, headed for the Fast Forward. The Twins had to eat 5 herring each in 7 minutes. They did it with less than a minute to spare and got to go

Saturday morning weigh-in: 177.4 lbs

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I haven't done one of these in a few weeks, and ... ick. I knew it would be up, but fortunately, my weight isn't up as much as I feared it would be. When the Legislature sits, it's much more difficult for me to exercise regularly and I tend to let my eating habits go, too. I have found over the years that basically, I have a summer weight of 175 lbs and below and a winter weight between 175 lbs and 180 lbs. It's when I get over 180 lbs I really start to freak out. (And, yes, I have weighed myself since June, but for some reason the Tactio app nuked all of my data between then and now. Whatever.)

Survivor Philippines Episode 10 Spoiler Review

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When we last left our Survivors, someone named Artis was voted off. Pretty sure he'd never been in the game before last week. (Have I run that joke into the ground yet?) As we start the game, Lisa tries to have a reasonable conversation with Abi. AHAHAHAHHAAH! Poor Lisa. That's impossible. And we're already at the reward challenge. The reward is a spa day on a separate island. Skupin ended up costing his team the win. So Carter, Malcolm, Pete and Abi won the spa day. They immediately declared that wouldn't talk strategy. When they get back to camp, Abi brags about the experience and then declares she's not cooking any more. The rest of the tribe think she's lost her mind. Skupin and Lisa had a conversation about strategy and the final 3. My work iPhone kept dinging, so I missed a bunch of it. Jonathan, Skupin and Lisa also had a conversation about strategy and the final 3. I know I'm distracted but this episode isn't lighting my world on fire yet

The Amazing Race Season 21 Episode 8 Spoiler Review

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For some reason, this came on an hour earlier on the Atlantic Canadian feeds. So we watched it. When we last left our intrepid racers, James and Abba's cab drove away with their bags, while the Goat Farmers couldn't swim and Abbie and Ryan . This led to a DRAMATIC CLIFFHANGER, which better not result in us watching the last 3 teams struggle for 50 minutes before one of them is eliminated. So as we pick up the start of the show, the Goat Farmers were given ONE MORE TRY to get the synchro swimming because the pool was closing. And they failed. They got their clue anyway, but incurred a four-hour time penalty. James and Abba got the police involved in finding their backpacks, basically arguing that they were stolen. Then they contacted the US Embassy to try to get an emergency passport issued. The Goat Farmers and Abbie and Ryan showed up on the mat together. A&R were Team 4, and the Goat Farmers were Team 5. And they assessed the 4 hour penalty on the Goat Farmers

Blogger finally has a better mobile app.

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Blogger updated its mobile blogging software today, and the new app isn't completely terrible. Which is a definite improvement on its old app, which was so rudimentary it wouldn't have been cutting edge on the original iPhone. The new app, which is being used to compose this update, has a better layout, iPad support and apparently, and scheduled post support, although at the point that I'm typing this, I haven't yet quite figured out how that works and whether you can actually schedule posts from the app or just view posts you have scheduled (although it appears to be the latter and not the former). And, of course, it allows publishing to Google+, because it's all about the Google synergy. Will the free Blogger app finally move me away from the paid BlogPress? Nope. Blogger Mobile still has a lot of work to do, such as include inline photo editing/viewing and the ability to place your photo at the top of yoru post. instead of just dumping all the pictures at t

Survivor Philippines Episode 9 Spoiler Review

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The morning after Tribal Council, Jonathan takes Lisa aside and flatters her in an effort to sew more divisions in the various alliances. It turned into a psychotherapy session. And ended in a hug. Given how much of Lisa's deep stuff we're dealing with at the start here, I'm thinking she's going home tonight, as she's getting that ultra-personal, ultra-sympathetic edit. The reward challenge was the Survivors divided into 2 teams, the winning team got a feast after delivering school supplies and toys to a local village. I sense many tears ahead. As there were 9 Survivors and the teams had to be even, one person was not going to be picked, and would have no shot at reward, that was Abi. Ouch. The reward challenge was an obstacle course through mud and rice that involved bags of balls and shooting hoops. Malcolm, Jonathan, Denise and Carter won the challenge. In discussing strategy, the four decided they wanted to pull Mike Skupin to their side to pick off the old Tand

Mini Movie Review - The Amazing Spider-Man

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I don't normally due movie reviews here, but it's my blog and I feel like a little rant on this movie. We rented this from iTunes last night. And I'm really not sure what to make of it. On the one hand, I liked this portrayal of Spider-Man more than the Tobey Maguire version. I liked the look of the film a lot but at the same time, I didn't like how most of the movie seemed to take place at night. I liked the more traditional Marvel portrayal of the character in a lot of ways. I liked Gwen Stacey being in it instead of Mary-Jane. But, holy crap, Oscorp has the worst security in the entire world. That one scene where Peter just grabbed another guy's ID tag and the receptionist let it happen so totally took me out of the film. Yeah, yeah, it's fiction and fantasy and in a film where cross-species genetic splicing is the main plot device I suppose I shouldn't nitpick about a security badge, but pretty much every scene at Oscorp totally destroyed my suspens

The Amazing Race Season 21 Episode 7 Spoiler Review

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Teams leave Turkey to fly to Moscow and head to a sculpture park. Trey and Lexi are the first to the airport, can't find an airline to give them a flight (they want Aeroflot, but can't find it), so they go to Popeye's for food. That makes sense. The Goat Farmers and Abbie and Ryan were on a flight with a tight connecting flight time of just an hour, and the originating flight was immediately delayed, with a 3 minute turnaround by the time they got on the ground. They didn't make it. Their next earliest flight didn't arrive for 12 hours after the other teams landed. Well, for once we didn't get an airport equalizer. The sculpture park didn't open until 9:30 a.m. so that turned out to be an equalizer - except for the teams stranded in the connecting airport. So with 2 teams so far behind, the only real drama is whether the Goat Farmers or Abbie and Ryan will be eliminated. (Yet somehow, I don't think that's going to be the case.) Meanwhile, the rest of

Survivor Philippines Episode 8 Spoiler Review

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Jonathan is unhappy with being betrayed at Tribal last week. Which seems to be a natural reaction. Mike gave Jonathan a pep talk and told him there were cracks in the opposing alliance, but couldn't or wouldn't name names. Jeff and Lisa plotted to break up Pete's alliance, with Jeff figuring they could engineer a flip that would move them up the pecking order. The reward challenge was for a river boat cruise through the jungle with BBQ ribs. The yellow team that included Malcolm and Jonathan beat a team that had Mike and Artis. Back at camp, Pete plotted to get rid of Jonathan and keep Mike around for a while in order to take out Jeff. While out on the reward, Denise, Lisa, Malcolm, Jeff and Jonathan stuffed their faces and talked about the Evil Three (as he dubbed them) of Abi, Artis and Pete. Lisa went to Mike and said to vote out Jonathan first, and told him about Malcolm's immunity idol. Only 1 individual immunity necklace was up for grabs. The immunity

October RunKeeper Stats - 206.5 km

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A good month in October, putting on 206 km and change and just slightly under my September tally of 226 km. But more importantly, in October I hit my goal of cycling 2,000 km in 2012, which I'm ridiculously happy about.

The Amazing Race Season 21 Episode 6 Spoiler Review

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Teams fly to Istanbul, Turkey. James and Abba depart with a three-and-a-half our lead on the second place team of Abbie and Ryan, and a four-and-a-half hour lead on the third team, the twins. And a seven-hour-plus lead on the Goat Farmers. All of which will be negated at the airport, no doubt. And, of course, there's only 1 flight to Istanbul, so all the teams will be on it. Airport bunching drives me crazy. James and Abba left their wad of American money at the travel agency desk, and the twins picked it up and at the airport split it with the Texans. James and Abba went to the business district and managed to wrangle up $100 from the locals. In Istanbul, teams took a ferry from the European to the Asian side of Turkey. James and Abba were the only ones on the first ferry. Monster Truck and Chippendales fell behind by taking the subway to the ferry instead of the faster taxi option. The Chippendales talked with a local on the train who said the taxi was faster, so they got