Ok, Amazing Race:Family Edition is finally annoying me. Just had to get that out of the way.

The Linz family left the pit stop at 12:34 am and drove to Park City High School for their first clue. They were instructed teams would be departing in 10 minute intervals starting at 6:00 AM to go inflate a hot air balloon and fly over the Utah mountains. This basically meant the Weavers got caught up with the other teams. Oh the joy. Mama Weaver also took this time to confront the Linzs about their use of the Yield on the last leg. Honey…it’s a game…GET OVER IT!

All the teams took off in their balloons and the Linzs and Bransens had a brush in mid-air that was rather amusing. After the teams landed, they received their clues that instructed them to drive 14 miles to Heber City and find Heber Valley Railway. Oddly, the Railway was the detour which means….hello CBS.com explanation:

“In this Detour, Teams had to choose between Spike It and Steam It. In Spike It, Teams used old-time materials and tools to complete a 20-foot section of railway track. The task required precision work, but Teams with an eye for detail could finish quickly. In Steam It, Teams used buckets to fill the tender of an old-time steam locomotive with 400 pounds of coal. The task didn’t require any precision, but running hundreds of pounds of coal back and forth could take a long time.”

Wow…tough call which one I would have picked, but I think I would have gone with Spike It. The Weavers took Steam it while everyone else went with Spike It. The Godlewskis fought and hit each other in the heads with the mallets which was….odd. Wasn’t intentional, but still. I won’t go into the gory details, but these sisters are NOT going to be close after this race, that’s for sure. Their bickering allowed the Weavers to move in to third and the Godlewskis fell into fourth.

The next clue told them to drive 148 miles to the Bonneville Salt Flats and find the 87-foot sculpture known as the Tree of Utah. Supposedly this….sculpture…was built to bring color and beauty to the Flats. Um…yeah…big and ugly comes to mind. Now, here is the biggest missed oppurtunity of the race in my opinion…all they did was get a clue. The Salt Flats are famous for where land speed records are broken. How about you actually have them drive on the flats…you know…what they’re famous for? Anyway, this clue directed them to drive 400 miles to Garden City and find Bear Lake Rendezvous Beach where they would be camping for the night. The order that they arrived would determine their departure the following morning. Beginning at 8:30 am, departure times would be 15 minutes apart.

The next morning the Bransens departed at 8:30 am, and followed their clue which told them to drive 137 miles to Big Piney, WY and find the Dunham Ranch near the headwaters of the Green River. Once the teams arrived they discovered this was the Roadblock for this leg of the race. Two team members had to ride horses and take six cattle from a holding pen and herd them downrange a quarter mile into a corral. As the teams raced through the roadblock, the Weavers were leaving as the Linzs were pulling in. There was a stand-off as to who should go first and finally the Linzs relented, letting the Weavers out. You would think that would be enough, but no, Linda Weaver had to lecture the Linzs. Can that woman not let anything be? I guess not.

Once done at the roadblock, the teams got a clue telling them to next clue that instructed them to drive 190 miles to Yellowstone National Park and find Old Faithful, which erupts approximately every 90 minutes. Once they watched an eruption, they would earn their next clue. As I suspected would happen, two teams saw an eruption and the other two barely missed it and had to wait 90 minutes for the next. The first two teams were the Bransens and Weavers with the Linzs and Godlewskis barely missing and having to wait.

Once done with Old Faithful, the teams got a clue telling them to drive on Highway 287 and find the ranch at 15200 where Phil would be waiting. The Bransesns and Weavers arrived and made it a foot race for first to discover….this leg was not yet over! ARGH! Two weeks without an elimination is insane! I am going to be glad when this race is over sadly.

pre·tentious·ness (from dictionary.com)
1. Claiming or demanding a position of distinction or merit, especially when unjustified.
2. Making or marked by an extravagant outward show; ostentatious. See Synonyms at showy.

So I have been to the movies twice in the past week, once for Harry Potter and he Goblet of Fire and the second time for Rent. Been a lot of movie trailers before the films, and I do mean a lot. The common theme was obvious…an air of pretentiousness.

First off is the latest movie by M. Night Shyamalan, Lady In The Water. I know some people think Mr. Shyamalan walks on water, I don’t happen to be one of those people. The only one of his movies I found halfway watchable was Unbreakable, mainly because he didn’t try for some huge twist at the end. The trailer for this new film though just reeks of “Oh look at me, it’s me, M. Night Shyamalan, and I’m all moody and mysterious!” Dude…your films suck, your twists suck, you can’t write and you can’t direct and you aren’t doing youself any favors with these overwrought trailers.

There is a new king of pretentiousness and, oddly enough, his new movie is King Kong. Yes, yes, Peter Jackson is god, Lord of the Rings, blah, blah….Best Picture, blah, blah….good for him. The 1933 version of King Kong was 100 minutes long. The 1976 version was 134 minutes. The 2005 version? Well, nothing firm yet, but rumor is it’s around 180 minutes. Folks…there is no way this story needs 3 hours to be told…none.

I understand every filmmaker has a “vision”, but when does that vision cross-over into the realm of “ego”? When does their ego over-shadow the needs of the film and the story they have to tell? In both these cases, I think it has happened in both these director’s cases. After all the praise and kudos, their egos have become the driving force for their newst productions and it’s sad because in the end it’s the audience that suffers.

Don’t get me wrong, if you like these men and their films, I have no beef with you, I have a beef with their wildly out of control egos and sense of self-importance. Let us not forget Peter Jackson is still the scruffy little guy who unleashed Meet the Feebles on an unsuspecting world.

Seems the net was getting a work out today due to the new trend of “Cyber Monday“. Brick & mortar retailers have the well-known Black Friday, but since EVERYTHING in the USA needs a name, the Monday after Thanksgiving is now known as Cyber Monday. Fed up with the malls already, folks are turning to the net to order their holiday gifts.

You know, this is great for the net, but boy does it show that the net isn’t ready still for massive surges in traffic. As someone who works on the net day and night, boy did I notice the difference. Things that normally take like one second took 2 – 3 minutes today. To call it mildly infuriating would be an understatement. And of course this happens on a day when my customers all seemed to have lost their minds and kept placing orders and forgetting to tell me their address. That’s always helpful.

Went to St. Louis last night and saw the musical Wicked. It was even better than I figured it would be, so I was thrilled, and it sure will make you watch The Wizard of Oz with a whole new view point! Great music, lots of humor and an amazing set.

And yes folks…this means I took an actual day off from work…you may all commence fainting.

Well, this week The Apprentice 4 gave us two episodes, but episode 10 was a recap. Nothing really interesting came out of that except more “Markus is a moron” clips and we learned Brian had a big crush on Jennifer M. Whoppee.

In the new episode, Randal and Rebecca returned to the suite much to the amusement of Capital Edge. They were feeling their vistory was assured over a team of just two. The last two members of Excel sat down and discussed what happened in the board room. Everything worked out, they agreed to try their best the next day.

This weeks task was to promote a new fragrance by Shania Twain through Coty perfumes called “Shania by Stetson.” Each team was given a limited supply of Each team was to use the technique of “wrapping,” an adhesive plastic with a marketing message that can be wrapped around various objects, to get consumers to call an 800 number to order a free sample. The team that received the most phone calls would win.

Excel decided to hire a “temp army” of at least 30 people to canvas the city. (interesting note, I don’t think either one ever called themselves project manager). Over at Capital Edge, Alla became project manager and decided to also hire temps, but liked Adam’s idea of putting ads on horse drawn carriages going around the city. The only problem was, that took the bulk of their money and they had to scale back on the number of workers they could hire. Felisha was feeling a bit confined in her assignment due to the decesion she did not agree with.

Randal got the idea to buy as many megaphones as possible to help get the word out. After many failed phone calls at locating any, an employee at one Radio Shack said another man had called and had all the megaphones in the cities Radio Shacks taken to the one at 17th & Broadway. Randal and Rebecca figured out it was Adam from Capital Edge.

What followed will go down as one of my all time favorite Apprentice moments! Randal and Rebecca made a hasty decesion to get to the Radio Shack first and pose as the buyers so they could get all the megaphones. It worked and they walked out with 9 of the 10 megaphones, leaving only the display model. As Capital Edge was trying to get to the store, they called to make sure they were all still there. They learned that a woman on crutches had just picked them all up. They were furious that Excel would conduct business in such a way. Hello Capital Edge…welcome to the world of business where information is power!

The next morning both teams prepped their hired workers. Excel sent some Spanish spaeaking employees out to Spanish Harlem, Capital Edge got the idea to just hand people their own cell phones so they could call on the spot. Both were excellent ideas. The horse drawn carriages Adam had wanted so badly looked horrible.

In the board room, we learned that Excel had 978 phone calls to Capital Edge’s 973, a 5 call difference. While this was a victory, I am befuddled by how close it ended up being! As their reward, Excelt went for a horseback ride with Shania Twain and then had dinner with her.

When it was time for the board room, Bill, Carolyn and Trump were ruthless with Capital Edge. They said they had two major problems. The first being they spent too much money on the carriages, the second was the horrors of Excel stealing their megaphones. I was quite amused when that backfired on them and Bill and Trump both comended Excel for their initiative. You could see the air go out of the Capital Edge folks at that info. Trump finally sent Alla back to the suite as he felt it was clear she was not at fault for the loss, as he questioned Felisha and Adam, it became clear to him that Adam’s carriages had been their downfall, so that was the end of it….adios Adam.

It was a joyous time on Survivor Gautemala as everyone was still enjoying the fact that Jamie had been booted at the last tribal council. It was obvious to everyone that Judd was very upset and everyone’s expalantions of why Jamie had to go was falling on deaf ears. He felt betrayed and that was just too bad. Welcome to the game of Survivor. The rest of the tribe just enoyed the quiet.

The next morning, Gary and Lydia were the first ones up and Gary went to immediate work on her to try to sway her to the side of Danni and himself. The big mistake was they didn’t notice Judd was awake. In his desperation to make sure his alliance hadn’t turned on him, as they had Jamie, he immediately woke up Stephanie and Rafe to report to them what he had overheard.

Reward challange was a “answer a question correctly, get to hit another tribe member’s pot of corn” affair. Each tribe member had three pots, when all three pots were gone, you were out of the game, the winner would travel to a hot springs for a soak, a massage and some food. Steph was quickly eliminated due to Lydia’s insistence she had eaten more than anyone, but it also seemed to me to be a message of the tribes feelings towards her. In the end Cindy was the winner and she was allowed to take one person with her, much to Lydia’s obvious disappointment, she took Rafe.

As the others returned to camp, Steph confronted Lydia over her comments that she was eating more than anyone else through the rewards. Steph counted up everyone’s meals and she was at four while most were at three. Her extra coming from when she opted for food over immunity. She advised her to just drop the subject from here on out, while Gary agreed with Lydia, he only said that in the confessional videos.

Cindy and Rafe returned from their relaxing reward and told everyone stories of the food while Lydia looked on with obvious discomfort. She then tried to amplify how bad her situation was by making a crude corn soup. It really was a pathetic attempt. Steph informed the rest of the alliance that she now considered Lydia out of it and she was an outcast. This left the power as Steph, Rafe Judd and Cindy vs. Gary, Danni and Lydia. Gary was hoping to sway Rafe, but he wasn’t sure what their luck was going to be.

At the immunity challange, it was the usual “hear the story of the native people, answer questions about them and get a marker”. This time they had to retrieve seven flags, if they got the question wrong they had to burn a stick before they could get the flag. It became a neck-and-neck fight between Gary and Rafe with Rafe winning by seconds. That makes three immunity wins for Rafe which puts an awfully large target on his back.

Gary approached Rafe about changing sides, and he did admit a distrust of Judd, but nothing was settled. At tribal council it got nasty with everyone accusing each other of lies. Gary outed Judd’s lie about where the immunity idol was. Judd finally fessed up, and it did seem to shock everyone, but it did not change the outcome. Adios Gary!

Watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, as I do each year, and I am used to them having crappy one-hit wonder type bands and singers on the floats. Imagine my utter, and total, shock when Cartoon Network sponsered a Puffy AmiYumi float! I don’t think they even qualify as a one-hit wonder in the USA, but in Japan they are huge. Just odd seeing a J-pop band I have followed for 10+ years. Yes…even their bowling show they had for awhile in Japan…oh how that show cracked me up late at night on one of my trips to Tokyo.

Also surprised me to see Natasha Bedingfield on the Ecko Unlimited float. Am I just paying more attention to music again, or did they up the quality of the musicians this year? Ms. Bedingford isn’t that well known here yet, but her album Unwritten went triple platnium in the UK. (Don’t buy the CD…it’s one of those silly Sony copy protected ones that is screwing up computers…sorry Natasha!) The Hess float had the up-and-coming band The Click Five…I’m losing my mind I tell ya!

1. Something purple within 5 feet of you?
Coffee cup

2. The sexiest item of clothing you own?
Um…I am a 6’4″ man…we don’t do sexy…maybe my leather trench coat?

4. The weirdest thing you’ve ever heated in the microwave?
A CD-Rom…Damn Mythbusters!

5. How much Japanese do you know?
About a 100 words or so…not as much as I should

6. Do you look good in yellow?
Heck no

7. Do you sing?
Badly

8. Ever danced naked in front of a crowd?
Bwahahaahahahaha no.

9. Do you spit?
Very very rarely

11. Least favorite color?
Yellow

12. Ever had Dippin’ Dots?
Yes.

13. Ever played an instrument?
Yes.

14. Ever had a H2O massage?
No….what is it?

15. Do you believe in Big Foot?
No.

16. Ever been to a palm reader:
No.

17. Last Pez dispenser you purchased?
Gah…I think it was Yoda.

18. Have you had sex in your current car?
No.

19. Did you have a good weekend?
*shrug*.

20. What are you thinking about right now?
Going to bed.

21. Have you ever had a black eye?
No.

22. How is today going for you?
Boring.

23. Any plans for tonight?
Just chatting on the ‘net

24. Ever photograph something that was dead?
Nope

25. Are you ready for Thanksgiving?
I suppose.

27. Do you find Smurfette sexy?
Do I look insane? No.

28. Current disappointment?
Something I would rather not discuss.

MORE WEIRD QUESTIONS!

1. Do you have an air freshner in your car?
No.

2. Do you have plants in your room?
No.

3. If you could drink anything right this second, what would it be?
Water.

4. Last piece of mail opened?
A packet of info from one of my business partners.

5. Does anything hurt on your body right now?
No.

6. What city was your last taxi cab ride in?
Tokyo.

7. Last alcoholic drink you had?
Red Stripe beer.

8. If someone you hated died, would you laugh and spit on their grave?
No.

9. What’s your bf/gf birthday?
don’t have one at this time.

10. What were you doing at 9 pm last night?
Chatting on the computer.

11. Favorite drink at Starbucks?
Latte.

12. Do you exercise as much as you should?
No.

13. Did you do the deed on prom night?
Nope.

14. Would you give your bf/gf a second chance if they cheated on you?
Nope.

Amazing Race:Family Edition opened up with the teams having to drive 136 miles to Monument Valley, UT. While it is a Navajo tribal park, most people remember it from John Ford’s Westerns (such as The Searchers) he made in the 1940′s. Oddly enough, once there, they had to find John Ford’s Point to receive their next clue. The teams also learned they would now be hauling large sleeping trailers behind them for this part of the race.

As the teams raced to Monument Valley, the Linzs took over first place when the Godlewskis stopped for gas. Only problem was, the Linzs missed the turn off to the Valley and overshot it by a couple miles. The Godlewskis over shot it by only a few feet, but due to the trailer, had a heck of a time turning around. The Weavers also overshot, but turned around rapidly and got in there first. Once there teams were to grab a number and then a clue. The clue said that two team members were to ride in a helicopter up to the summit of Elephant Butte to receive their next clue. The helicopter could only take two groups of two at a time, so it was first come first serve and though the Linzs were second to grab their clue, they were third to grab a number. The Weavers and Godlewskis went up first.

While the first flight was gone, the Linzs talked with the remaining Godlewskis and agreed that if either team got to the Yield before the Weavers, they would yield them. Good call in my book. By the time the first helicopter got back, the Bransens had still not arrived, so the Linzs went up alone.

Once everyone had their clues, they were driving 180 miles to Moab, UT where they needed to find the rock formation known as Gemini Bridges. Along the way to Moab, the Weavers once again displayed their loving attitudes in comments such as:

“God must have spent a little less time on this state.” – Rolly
“No wonder it’s so ugly.” – Rachel when she heard it was known as the Mormon state

They were also less than pleased when the Linzs passed them. Gee…isn’t that a shame.

At the Gemini Bridges, the teams were treated to a Detour. Oh mysterious CBS.com, what was it this time?

“In this Detour, Teams had to choose between Ride Down and Drop Down. In Ride Down, Teams would choose bikes and ride a six-mile course into Bull Canyon. In Drop Down, Teams needed to complete a two-stage rappel 270-feet down into Bull Canyon.”

The Weavers were the only ones to ride the bikes, and they whined the entire time. Raise your hand if you’re shocked…gee…I don’t see any hands going up. What a shocker. After the detour, the teams were to drive 52 miles to Green River State Park where they would be spending the night in the trailers. Order of arrival would determine departure time with the first team leaving at 7:00 AM, the second at 7:15 AM and so on.

At 7:00 AM the next morning, the Linzs opened their clue to discover they had to drive 20 miles to Heber City and find Bart. What no one knew was that Bart is a trained grizzly bear and would be delivering their next clues to them in his mouth. The clue stressed there could be no running or screaming at this stop, amusingly, the Godlewski sisters thought that might be a problem for them. No one got hurt though, and they all got their next clue which directed them to drive 22 miles to Park City and find Utah Olympic Park.

Here is where the fun kicked in…the clue said “Caution:Yield Ahead”. The Linzs raced ahead to get there first, the Weavers knew they had to beat everyone there and took a different road…they didn’t notice it said “scenic route”. Oh silly Weavers. The Linzs, of course Yielded the Weavers and then opened their clue to discover a Roadblock. This time, one team member had to ride down a 60-foot ramp, on skis, and jump into a pool of water. No problem, everyone did it.

The Linzs opened their clue which told them to go to the Pit Stop at the Salt Lake City Public Library. As they pulled out of the Olympic park, the Godlewskis pulled in which prompted the Linzs to yell out their car window “We Yielded them! And they’re still not here!” Good times…good times.

The Linzs, the Godlewskis and the Bransens all checked in before the Weavers even hit the Yield mat. Rolly did the jump and they headed to the Pit Stop, actually hoping to be eliminated. Much to their disappointment, and mine, this was a non-elimination round and they are sticking around. They lost all their money and possessions, so I am hoping that, combined with their own depression, will cause them to be eliminated.

I have an odd obsession with reading about teacher/student sexual relationships because it fascinates me how any adult, in their right mind, could think “Man, Billy may only be 14, but he sure is sexy!” So with that said, I was just reading about the sentancing of Debra Lafave. You may remember she was the 25 yer old reading teacher who had sex with an unnamed 14 year old student because “her marriage was in trouble and that she was aroused by the fact that having sex with him was not allowed”.

*thud*
*thud*
*thud*

Folks, I don’t care how “in trouble” your marriage is, sleeping with 14 year old Billy is NOT the answer!

Here’s the killer though, she is going to serve no jail time! Instead she will be doing house arrest for 3 years, 7 years of probation and must register as a sexual predator. Why is she not serving any jail time you may well ask. Well, it seems her attorny argues that prison is too dangerous for someone as attractive as her!

*thud*
*thud*
*thud*

Wow, glad to know you can plea bargin your way out of jail time for being “too attractive”! That will come in handy!
“Why Sean, you just murdered a room full of morons, you must serve jail time!”
“Please sir, not that…it will be dangerous for me as I’M TOO PRETTY!”
“Oh, alright!”

*thud*
*thud*
*thud*

Over the past ten days or so I have been doing something I never really thought I would do…purging my comic book collection.

I started collecting around May 1976 with Amazing Spider-Man #156 that my father picked up at the Circle K near our house in Glendale, AZ. (And it’s even still there!)

That was really the beginning of the end for me. I would have never guessed that just ten years and three months later I would be opening my own comic book store in Missouri. My collecting grew wildly out of control as I got up to reading 50 – 60 titles a month, so as you might imagine, the number of books I have now is a bit large. So after the past week and a half I have sorted through seventeen long boxes of comics (each holding 300 – 350 books). Of those seventeen, thirteen have been marked for sale.

I really thought this was going to be a painful process letting go of things that used to mean so much to me. In the end though, about halfway through the first box I was flying through it. It was easy to decide what I was keeping and what was going and I actually got into it. Now I’m glad to seeing the stuff go out the door, and regaining a large portion of my basemant!

So, why is this story relevant? Well, I think it’s not as always as hard as you may think to let go of things that once seemed so important to you. Americans keep hoarding things like there’s no end and this is causing storage facilities to become one of the biggest booming industries in the country. Maybe it’s time folks started realizing you can give up some of those things you thought you should hold on to forever.

Yes, I have professed my undying love of Skype many times, so just put up with me while I talk about this. Starting Monday, Radio Shack will have Skype kiosks in their stores that will be selling phones and headsets to work with their service. They will also be carrying low end mics and headphones with the Skype software included for easy setup.

Read the article, stop by a Radio Shack, join the cult of Skype!