Survivor Cook Islands just hit the snooze button for me. Not only did the “segregated” tribe trick come to an end way too soon, we’re already to doing full on repeats of previous challanges? Me thinks 13 Survivors may have finally been too much.

So the tribes show up to see Probst, expecting a challange. NOPE! Tribe swap! *snore* Only 2 episodes in and we swap them…sad, so sad. The new Raro is Nate, Rebecca, Stephannie, Brad, Jenny, J.P., Cristina, Adam and Parvati. The new Aitu tribe consists of Yul, Becky, Cao Boi, Sundra, Jonathan, Candice, Flica, Ozzy and Cecilia.

Folks, this episode bored me senseless. I can’t even stand to write about it! Immunity?

The tribes will be clipped together by a rope carrying 15 pound sand bags each. They will start on opposite sides of the course, racing through knee-deep water to catch the other tribe. If a tribe member drops out they must give their 15 pounds to someone from their tribe, doubling that person’s weight. The first tribe to tackle a member from the other tribe to the ground wins Immunity.

Oh gee, we did this EXACT same challange back in Palau! This one went a lot faster due to girls dropping out fast (as opposed to Stephanie in Palua who never gave up). Raro won, sent Candice to Exile Island. Aitu sent Cecilia home and my boredom level shot through the roof!

There is nothing like a game of musical computers, and on Wednesday at work, that’s exactly what we did. When Rose got in, she fired up her computer and…YIKES! A screen I had never, EVER seen in XP about all sorts of oprphaned files, corrupted files, files being deleted and it flew by at hyper-speed. I kept my mouth shut, but I was really thinking her computer was dead. We did finally get it booted up, did a quick back-up of her My Documents folder and backed up her extensive collection of bookmarks in Firefox.

So, we had pondered a switch to Mac for a while as my main desktop, and we thought about going ahead and biting the bullet and doing it, but we are facing 2 PC deaths in the near future, and the Mac is going to set us back quite a bit as I’m going with a Pro. So, a totally new plan was hatched! We would buy a new PC desktop for now, give Rose my current desktop until I could buy my Mac. Once I get my Mac, Rose will get the desktop we just bought, and my one she would be using would go to the employee that has the next oldest PC. *pants* I hope that all made sense!

Then another wrench got thrown in to my plans! GAH! I’ve been using Compaq for our PCs for the past couple of years, but they were bought out by HP not long ago. They’ve kept the Compaq name, but as I sat down to configure a new one, I went to HPShopping.com and…no customizable Compaqs! GAH! The HPs were not what I needed at all, so I had to look for a PC and I turned to somehwere I never thought I would again…Dell.

I’ve only owned one Dell, a laptop, and said I would never again. It wasn’t due to the quality of the equipment, it was fine, but I leased it and their leasing department leaves a lot to be desired. So I decided to bite the bullet and gave them a try a few months ago on a new PDA, an Axim, and that went fine. So I ordered up an E520. Here’s the geeky details:

Processor: Pentium® D Processor 805 with Dual Core Technology (2.66GHz, 533FSB)
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz- 2DIMMs
Hard Drive: 250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache X2 (one is a backup shadow of the first)
Optical Drives: Dual Drives: 16X DVD ROM Drive and 48X CD-RW/DVD Combo
Video: 256MB nVidia GeForce 7300LE TurboCache
Sound: Integrated Sound Blaster®Audigy™ HD Software Edition

Not the biggest & baddest system out there, but it’ll do. Not exactly how I planned to buy a new computer, I hate buying things in a rush, and I did mess up on the optical drives (no DVD burner, I’m kicking myself). All this will now hold me until I buy a Mac Pro early next year, after they come out the Quad Core chips.

Amazing Race being on Sunday’s is killing my recaps! By the time I’m ready to recap, it’s Monday and a whole new week of news is firing up. Going to have to work on that.

Tyler & James were the first out of the Great Wall Pit Stop at 9:04 PM. Their clue instructed them to head to a bus stop and sign up for one of two buses leaving at 12:00 AM or 2:00 AM. The bus would take them to a train station where they would board a train and complete their 963 mile journey to the capital of Outer Mongolia, Ulan Bator. Once there, they needed to locate the Choijin Lama Temple where they needed to observe a traditional ceremony and receive their next clue.

The first bus ended up being Tyler & James, Duke & Lauren, Peter & Sarah, Rob & Kimberly and Dustin & Kandice. The 2:00 AM bus was David & Mary, Tom & Terry, Lyn & Karlyn and Erwin & Godwin. While the 2 AM bus people were understandably nervous, it was for nothing as the train station equalized them all. What a shocker…not.

At the train station in Ulan Bator, everyone raced for taxis and, as usual, some ended up with better drivers than others. Duke & Lauren and Peter & Sarah had drivers who “knew shortcuts”…yeah…that never goes well. With performances taking place every 10 minutes, they ended up in the second batch of teams. Once done viewing the dance, teams received a clue telling them to drive 43 miles in old Russian military jeeps to the village of Terelj. Once they located the riverbank, they were to mount horses and ride two and a half miles to a meadow where they would find their next clue.

I was shocked by how many caucasians the teams found that could help them with directions, but most of them ended up getting lost anyway. Imagine that. David & Mary got badly stucked in mud. Tyler & James got a flat and had no clue how to work the jack until a local helped them. (though several teams passed both these incidents) Once on the horses, everyone did surprisingly well except for when Kimberly got knocked off her horse. Their guide went after the horse and Rob sat on his repeatedly saying “I don’t know what to do!”…um…how about you get off your horse and see if you’re girlfriends ok? I know, wacky suggestion. Course, there was also the incident of Kandice falling off her horse and being dragged, but oh well! (she was fine)

Once every one got to the clue box they found this leg’s Detour:Take It Down or Fill It Up.

In Take It Down, Teams had to take down the canvas walls and roof of traditional nomadic shelters known as a gir, fold them properly and pack the materials onto a camel. In Fill It Up, Teams would have to take a cart pulled by an indigenous animal known as a hynik to a river, fill metal jugs with water, return to the nomad camp and fill a barrel with the water they collected. Once they filled the barrel to the designated line, a nomad would hand them their next clue.

I love when people flip-flop in a Detour. Peter & Sarah started on Tear It Down, changed to Fill It Up and went back to Tear It Down, which they finally completed. They weren’t the only team to flip, but the only one to flip a second time. As the teams finished, their clue told them to drive 47 miles to the Hotel Mongolia, but they had to ride back to their cars on their same horses and with all their safety equipment. Well, after Kandice had been dragged by her horse, she had no clue where her helmet was! So even though they finised the Detour in first, they didn’t leave until much later due to not being able to find her helmet. Other teams had car problems and learned they had to crank the batteries to jump them. Note to self…don’t buy used Russian military jeeps.

At the Hotel Mongolia the teams found the Roadblock for this leg.

In this Roadblock, one Team member had to use a traditional Mongolian bow to shoot a flaming arrow to ignite a target 160 feet away. After hitting the target, the Team could run to the Pit Stop at a pavilion on a hill.

Peter & Sarah ended up coming in first after Peter hit the target on his second try. They won a trip to Mexico for coming in first, but Sarah then dropped a bombshell of “There are things that I’m learning about Peter and I’m not always impressed with that. I make no judgments right now, but I’m making note of it.” Oh snap! Nothing like feeling judged as you race! In last place were Kellie & Jamie who had gotten lost and had various car problems all day. Though they tried the Roadblock, they finally gave up knowing they were in last. Yep, it was an elimination. Adios cheerleaders.

I have been going back and forth about wether I should say anything about the Bill Clinton Vs. Chris Wallace debacle. Part of me says it comes dangerously close to revealing my political affiliation, which I try not to do for numerous reasons, but the journalist side of me want sto comment, so….yep, it wins out.

It needed to be done. I am sick and tired of pseudo-journalists pussy-footing around sitting politicians, but yet they feel high-and-mighty enough to act like they have all the answers when it comes to a former one. You have to treat them all equally or you get what you deserve, which is exactly what Clinton did. Yes, I do think he went overboard with his anger, and it damaged his side, but seeing the flustered look on Chris Wallace’s face was worth every second of it. Seeing someone put one of these “Celeb Journalists” be knocked down a couple of pegs was worth every second of it.

KBIA, the NPR station out of Columbia,MO, has a wonderful show every Wednesday called “Views Of The News“, hosted by MU School of Journalism faculty members. This week, they of course discussed this subject, and sadly I didn’t get it written down, but they brought up one really interesting tidbit of info. In reference to this section of the interview:(I would love to link you to video of this, but Fox News is ordering everyone to take it down, but you can read the transcript here, and if you hunt around their site you can find it)

CLINTON: …You did you nice little conservative hit job on me. But what I want to know..

WALLACE: Now wait a minute sir…

CLINTON:..

WALLACE: I asked a question. You don’t think that’s a legitimate question?

CLINTON: It was a perfectly legitimate question but I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked this question of. I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked why didn’t you do anything about the Cole. I want to know how many you asked why did you fire Dick Clarke. I want to know…

WALLACE: We asked..

CLINTON:..

WALLACE: Do you ever watch Fox News Sunday sir?

CLINTON: I don’t believe you ask them that.

WALLACE: We ask plenty of questions of…

CLINTON: You didn’t ask that did you? Tell the truth

WALLACE: About the USS Cole?

CLINTON: tell the truth.

WALLACE: I…with Iraq and Afghanistan there’s plenty of stuff to ask.

CLINTON: Did you ever ask that?…

Well, research has been done (and as soon as I can find out by whom, I will update this), and going all the way back to 9/11, they can not find where Chris Wallace ever asked these questions. Gee, what a shocker.

If this had happened on CNN, MSNBC or any other news outlet, I would be applauding it just as loudly. The “journalists” are being allowed to control the direction of the news too much, they are directing the flow and ebb as opposed to doing their true job, documenting the news and investigating the stories. Instead they seem satisfied to let the news come to them, and when they do get an oppurtunity to interview someone such as Clinton, they make a grandiose show of it, “Look! We’re still relevant! We can ask hard hitting questions…sure, all our questions were formulated by our research interns, but…um…PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!” There is no courage, no fire, left in journalists, there are no Woodward and Bernsteins, we now have namby-pamby figureheads who ask bottle-fed questions and no longer know how to conduct proper interviews.

They have allowed themselves to become celebrities and more of a story then the story itself. Just think back to when Katie Couric took over the CBS Evening News. Can anyone remember what the stories were then, or do you remember more the debate over what her signoff should be each night? I think Chris Wallace saw an oppurtunity to be known as the one to “rake Clinton over the coals” and he was not ready for Clinton to *gasp* stand-up for himself! Instead of letting the host talk over him and shut him down (ala what Chris Matthews does to every one that comes on Hardball), he dared to talk back.

I know I’m not making a whole lot of sense, but damn it, I’m passionate about journalism, TRUE journalism, and I miss it! I wish someone could find it again, and if Clinton’s confrontation makes people ponder where it went, even a little, I’ll say it was all worth it.

Just as I think I’m getting close to deciding on a new computer, there has to be some stupid leap in technology to make me think it over yet again. Intel announced today that they are ready to move forward with quad-core processors. They just came out with the duals! And they are saying by 2011 we’ll have 80 core processors…I can’t even begin to fathom what you would do with an 80 core!

So now, not only do I have the question of if I’m switching to a Mac…if I’m waiting for Vista…now I have to ponder if I wait for the quad processors. GAH!

Every year I say “No new shows this season! I have to cut back!”….yeah…that never works. I haven’t tried everything out yet, but most of the shows seem so limited in scope to me. I mean to say “We have this great concept and we want to do a show…but after 6 episodes we have no idea where it’ll go as we’ll have played out the original idea.” or “Well, it works for that other show, let’s just repackage it.”

In example, I loved the premiere of Smith. Slick, well produced, great pacing…where does it go after the first story arc? How many big robberies can you do without it getting repetitive? They killed a “major” character in the first episode as an exclamation point to the story, you can only play that card so many times.

It’s not just Smith though. Heroes is about people taking the next step in evolution and receiving super powers…um…ok, so you just made X-Men for TV. Add in the fact that networks don’t tend to throw a lot of support behind these types of shows, I don’t expect it to last.

Shark? A self-absorbed lawyer who turns over a new leaf because he set a guilty man free…*snore*. Another show with canned formulas that’ll drone on forever with the exact same things happening over and over again. Jericho? Look, it’s Lost in Kansas! And could someone PLEASE explain to me why NBC feels the need to have *2* new shows about behind-the-scenes antics at a sketch comedy show? 30 Rock and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip have the same premise…on the same network…in the same season…what genius decided that was a good idea?

One note ideas, repetative ideas, formulaic ideas…good fall season networks. Way to go. Course, what do I know, I really didn’t know how a show about foul-mouthed third graders would last 10 years.

It’s amazing the pain I will put myself through for a blog entry. I decided if I was going to conitnue to complain about Rachael Ray, as I do from time to time, then I should at least watch one episode of her talk show out of fairness.

How was it? The doctor says my eyes and ears stop bleeding eventually. I tried to be fair to it, I honestly did, but it is just a huge jumbled mess! There is no seeming theme to the episode except for Rachael to “um” and “ah” a LOT. The episode I watched in question was the Friday, Septerber 22nd installment. The episode consisted of:

Come out

Introduce her in-laws, say “I love you” to her husband, say hello to some other friend

Tell some funny animal stories, followed by audience telling funny animal stories

Rachael has a “cook-off” with a Zoo keeper in feeding Polar Bears, she wins

Visit by warm weather Penguins, pass out snacks to the audience

Segment on how to maintain your freezer

Visit to the set of Las Vegas (where she made an ass out of herself to the stars)

Little dog plays poker with Rachael…yes, you read that correctly

Questions from kids, which “She could do all day!” This led to the quote “I’m getting stomach hungry…”

She makes the meal she made for the Polar Bears for people

I think I may have missed one or two things, but that’s because it’s a giant jumbled mess! If you want to do an animal themed episode, which I’m guessing it was supposed to be, instead of the freezer segment, do something on cleaning up after your pets, or innovative ways of feeding them. Toss the Las Vegas segment and instead visit a TV show that at least FEATURES an animal!

And of course this isn’t to say anything of her personal habits that drive me nuts. Her cackling laugh which makes my skin crawl? First thing you hear in the opening credits. Rachael seems to think she’s fat and takes every oppurtunity to state such. While she’s cooking, the insane usage of “EVOO” and “Yum-o!” persists from her other shows. And she’s rude! No “thank you”s, no “please”s, and she was even snippy with an audience member for standing up for too long after she gave her animal story. “You can sit down now. What do you want, an award?” Yikes woman!

Add in the news she is now releasing themed-cds (How Cool Is That Christmas CD), and it just seems like people can’t get enough of this woman, but I would love to know who these people are! Well…we know one of them is Oprah since she is producing the Evil One’s new talk show, but beyond that, I just don’t get it.

And yes, I know my writing about her makes no sense, but it’s my blog and it lets me vent!

Survivor Cook Islands has a major problem…too many storylines. The editing seems too jumpy and we aren’t getting enough time with any tribe to get to know them. All we seem to get so far is heavily weighted editing to the tribe that will be sending someone home.

Manihiki received flint at their Tribal Council and, Nathan tries making fire with it, but is unsuccessful, it’s Rebecca who finally gets it done. I know I;ve said this before, but if you know you’re going on Survivor, wouldn’t you practice various ways of starting fire? 13 seasons and they still run in to this.

Things are not running smoothly at the Aitu tribe as Ozzy wants to catch some of the wild chickens, but Cristina has different ideas on how to do it. Ozzy’s attitude seemed to be very much a “You have no clue what you’re talking about because you’re old and a cop.” May have just been me, but I’m just not liking Ozzy’s attitude. Ozzy also seems to have a wild idea that his tribe should throw Immunity so they can get rid of Billy because he finds him lazy and doesn’t trust him. Why he doesn’t trust him is never 100% clear to me.

Puka Puka did bring up the concept of racism finally as they were trying to go to sleep because Cao Boi was making Asian jokes. It was a very odd moment as it was self-depricating humor, but it seemed to make everyone else uptight. Yul finally shut it down by saying It’s good to have a sense of humor but if it’s at the expense of a particular ethnic group, I don’t think that’s cool.”, but Cao Boi still didn’t seem to get the whole idea.

Jonathan returned from Exile Island to discover his Rarotonga tribe had been lazy in his abscence and nothing had been done to finish off their shelter. He tries to get them fired up about finishing it, but Adam fights him every step of the way like a whiny child. He couldn’t understand why they couldn’t just sleep on the ground…yeah, Adam? Read a camping book before you go on Survivor ok?

Due to inter-cutting between four tribes takes so much time, we again have a combined Reward/Immunity Challange:

Each tribe must remember a historical story of Captain James Cook. Tied together as a group, the tribe must make their way over and under logs and through a field of poles, gathering seven answer flags. Once they cross a two-line rope bridge over a pit of water, they must use the seven answer flags collected to solve five questions about the story. The first tribe to answer the five questions correctly wins Immunity and two large tarps as a Reward. The first three tribes to finish win Immunity and are safe from Tribal Council. The losing tribe decides who will go to Exile Island.

Since Manihiki was down one person, the other three tribes had to sit someone out, and since this one had to do with some agility, it’s interesting Aitutaki sat out J.P.…hmmm, me thinks the fix is in. Yep, it was. After some initial confusion, Puka Puka and Rarotonga tied for first and were both awarded tarps, Manihiki came in third and in a WAY obvious display of fixing, Aitutaki came in last. They sent Yul from Puka Puka to Exile Island where, you guessed it, he found the hidden Immunity Idol, a compass buried in the sand. As the tribes were being given their Idols, one of the oddest displays in Survivor history happened between Billy and Candice from Rarotonga:

Billy to Candice “I’m next.”
Candice “Well, we love you.”
Billy “I love you.”

Um…more on this in a minute.

It looked briefly like Ozzy might go instead of Billy as Billy and Cristina discussed dumping Ozzy instead. Cecilia said she would vote with them, but I’m not sure if she changed her mind for some other reason or because of Billy’s extremely awkward confession that he and Candice were in love and their exchange at Immunity proved it was mutual. First time I’ve ever seen Jeff Probst do a double take. In a vote of 3 - 2, Billy went…I think after that little display it was the best decesion.

The other day I talked about the new restructuring of third party selling on Amazon.com. The most important bit is this:

So, why does this effectively shut me down? As most of you know, I sell imported products from Japan, they do have UPC codes, which are required to create Amazon Detail Pages, so I shouldn’t have a problem. Well, when I try creating a detail page, I enter the UPC code and I get a message from Amazon saying that you can’t create a page for that item because there is already a page created for that item…IN JAPAN! It seems all of Amazon’s sites run off the same database and if there is already an entry for that UPC code on any of their sites, anywhere in the world, you can not create a duplicate entry for that item. No Product Detail page also means that you can’t sell the item via Marketplace because those items have to be associated with a Detail Page.

Well, look what I found. Yep, this is an item I sell, and it just so happens to be the item I tested the ability to list on. The interesting part is it’s listed by Target, so it would seem if you’re a big enough retailer, Amazon will find a workaround for you. Always feels good to be appreciated!

Now, I’m sure you’re asking yourself, or not, “Sean, if the page exists, why not just make a Marketplace listing like you discussed the other day?” Because Amazon charges too high a percentage for Marketplace orders and for me to recoup the difference I would have to price myself out of being competitive. Also, Marketplace listings don’t get to set the shipping price, Amazon determines it for you.

Long story short, I’m still leaving Amazon, but I’m a bit disappointed in their lack of willingness to help a smaller business who pays their Amazon dues just like anyone else.

Ok, I admit Pirates of the Caribbean - The Curse of the Black Pearl took everyone by surprise by being a great movie, the follow-up rocked also. In between those was The Haunted Mansion, based on my all time favorite Disney ride, and it was a…well “disaster” pops to mind. Now comes this news that they are now fast-tracking production on “Jungle Cruise”.

Ok Disney has made a butt-load of money (Domestic: $418,673,000 Foreign: $613,258,000 as of today according to BoxOfficeMojo.com for a total of $1,031,931,000) from Dead Man’s Chest even though it had a production budget of $225 million. At World’s End, the third film, will probably do just as much, so Disney is gung-ho on the idea of ride-themed films, but Jungle Cruise? Not only do they picture this one movie, they see it as a “franchise”, so they are planning on several movies based on this. I think this is a highly limited storyline, but who knows, did anyone ever really see Pirates spawning 3 movies?

After Haunted Mansion came out I made a joke on a message board about the next one would be “Jitney:The Movie” (for those who don’t know, Jitney is the car that takes you from the gate to Sleeping Beauty’s Castle down Main Street at the parks….I like Disney World, so sue me), but I never thought they would try to tap more rides for real. What’s next, The Enchanted Tiki Room? The Hall Of Presidents? Grand Prix Raceway? Oh the possibilites are endless I tell ya!

Amazing Race is back, but man will it be difficult to replace BJ & Tyler in my heart from the last Amazing Race! I am sure a new team will win me over, but I shall always love BJ & Tyler…TTOW!

Departing from Seattle,WA, the 12 teams received their first clues instructing them to take one of two flights to Beijing, China:United Flight 875 departing at 1:22 pm or Korean Air Flight 26 leaving at 2 pm. Due to an accident on the interstate, most of the teams were delayed, but quick thinking Peter & Sarah opted to exit the highway and take surface streets. This slingshotted them around the accident and in to first place on the way to the airport. The United flight ended up being Peter & Sarah, David & Mary, Dustin & Kandice, Tyler & James, Duke & Lauren, and Lyn & Karlyn.

As planes are want to do, the United flight was late, evening all the teams up some. Once in Beijing, the teams had to find The Golden House resturant, once there they learned it was their first Roadblock, and it was one of my faves, a food one! I’ve always thought I would be good at these since whenever I’m in Tokyo friends try to throw weird foods at me and eat them all!

In this Roadblock, that person had to indulge in the delicacy of fish eyes, a common food in China. To receive the next clue, the Team member had to eat all of the eyes out of a bowl of fish heads.

It was interesting to see how inept some of these folks were at using chopsticks! Once through with this task, the teams were instructed to go the Forbidden City and locate a certain entrance. I have to say, I was amazed some of the cab drivers seemed to not know where it was, but I really hope that was due to the way the teams were saying it, because due to the siz of the Forbidden City, I can not fathom how anyone wouldn’t know where it is!

As the teams arrived, they found a kiosk with ime cards saying 7:00, 7:15, 7:30 and one saying “Last Team”…ruh-roh, that sounds ominous, and it was. As the last team to arrive, Bilal & Sa’eed were greeted by Phil and…eliminated! It wasn’t even a Pit Stop! It was just a new random elimination. Oh well, new way to keep the teams on their toes!

The next morning, the teams opened their clues and were instructed to ride on WWII motorcycles with sidecars and find a the pedicab manager at a certain intersection who would give them their next clue. As they were leaving, Sarah discovered her prosthetic leg was leaking hydrolic fluid. Not good. As the teams found the pedicab manager, they found he had the clue for their first Detour.

In Labor, Teams chose a pedicab and traveled one mile to the Run De Li Market where they needed to use traditional Chinese bricks and methods to pave a 45 square foot section of side walk in a specific pattern. In Leisure, Teams chose a pedicab and traveled two miles to Beihai Park to take part in a new Chinese relaxation exercise known as Taiji Bailong. They needed to successfully perform the routine of balancing a ball on a paddle in unison to earn their next clue.

Only two teams took Leisure, Tom & Terry and Kellie & Jamie. As I suspected, the coordination was difficult to manage and it did slow them both down compared to the teams who did Labor. Labor wasn’t difficult except the teams kept not noticing the grey stones they needed for the border. As the teams completed the Detours, their clues instructed them to make their way to this legs Pit Stop…the Great Wall of China! Once there, they needed to CLIMB IT! I didn’t even know they let anyone do that!

Tyler & James came in first, winning $20,000. Duke & Lauren came in second, but after that, there were some real triumps of spirit. Sarah’s leg was pretty much useless, and she had a heck of a time, but she made it. Mary really felt like she couldn’t do it, but she worked her heart out and made it. Both Lyn & Karlyn were unsure they could, but they pulled it off. All the teams did amazingly well, but someone had to go…so long Vipul & Arti. I never felt like their hearts were 100% in it anyway.

Fave teams for me so far have to be Duke & Lauren, estranged for a long time after Lauren came out to her father as a Lesbian, and David & Mary, a coal miner and his wife who had never been outside of Kentucky and Tennessee prior to the race. And in other news, why do we have one team on every race who fights and calls each other “baby”? This time it’s Rob & Kimberly.

By the way, since I don’t think any one REALLY reads these, I’m not going super detailed this season.

The instructions are simple: change the color and/or bold the shows you’ve watched at least three complete episodes of, and italicize a show if you’re certain you’ve seen every episode of it.

You can add up to three shows to the list, but keep them in alphabetical order. (Stolen from someone on LJ)

(Added Animaniacs, Freakazoid!, Pinky & The Brain, The Amazing Race, Tiny Toons)

24
3rd Rock from the Sun
7th Heaven
Adam-12
Aeon Flux
A.L.F
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alias
Alice
Allo Allo
American Dad
American Idol/Pop Idol/Canadian Idol/Australian Idol
America’s Next Top Model/Germany’s Next Top Model
Angel
Animaniacs
Are You Being Served?
Arrested Development
As Time Goes By
Babylon 5
Babylon 5: Crusade
Battlestar Galactica (the old one)
Battlestar Galactica (the new one)
Baywatch
Beauty & the Beast
Beavis & Butthead
The Ben Stiller Show
Beverly Hills 90210
Bewitched
Bonanza
Bones
Bosom Buddies
Boston Legal
Boy Meets World
Brady Bunch
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Bug Juice
Chappelle’s Show
Charlie’s Angels
Charmed
Cheers
China Beach
Columbo
Commander in Chief
Coupling
Cowboy Bebop
Crossing Jordan
CSI
CSI: Miami
CSI: NY
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Dallas
Dancing with the Stars
Danny Phantom
Dark Angel
Dark Skies
Davinci?s Inquest
Dawson’s Creek
Dead Like Me
Deadliest Catch
Deadwood
Degrassi: The Next Generation
Designing Women
Desperate Housewives
Dharma & Greg
Diff’rent Strokes
Doctor Who (new Who)
Doctor Who (series 1-26)
Dragnet
Due South
Dungeons and Dragons
Dynasty
Earth 2
Emergency!
Entourage
ER
Everwood
Everybody Loves Raymond
Facts of Life
Falcon Crest
Family Guy
Family Ties
Fantasy Island
Farscape
Fawlty Towers
Felicity
Firefly
Flamingo Road
Frasier
Freakazoid!
Friends
Full House
Futurama
Get Smart
Gilligan’s Island
Gilmore Girls
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
Green Wing
Grey’s Anatomy
Growing Pains
Gunsmoke
Happy Days
Head of the Class
Hercules
HEX
Highlander
Hill Street Blues
Hogan’s Heroes
Home Improvement
Homicide: Life on the Street
Honeymooners
House
How I Met Your Mother
I Dream of Jeannie
I Love Lucy
Invader Zim
Invasion
Iron Chef (Japan)
Iron Chef (USA)
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As anyone who has read my blog for more than a week knows, I love Amazon.com, but they have finally angered me. In a move that can’t be described as anything other than greed, Amazon has essentially closed my shop on their site. Here is the letter I received and then I will explain why this basically closes me down:

Dear Amazon.com zShops seller,

Over the years, Amazon.com has worked to expand selection by enabling
sellers to list their inventory alongside Amazon’s within the product
detail page. This has resulted in unparalleled selection for customers and
a great way for sellers to reach tens of millions of customers.

Since launching Amazon Marketplace, we’ve learned that customers prefer to
shop for items via the product detail page. Accordingly, we ask that
sellers with zShops listings migrate those listings to sell their items in
Amazon Marketplace. Sellers should continue selling using Amazon
Marketplace listings to list their items on the most valuable real estate
for selling on the web: Amazon product detail pages.

What does this mean to you?
—————————

For your continued selling success, we encourage you to keep selling on
Amazon using Marketplace listings. Starting Tuesday, October 24, 2006, we
will be replacing all current zShops Storefronts with a new Storefront
exclusively featuring your Marketplace listings. On that date, customers
will no longer be able to find your zShops listings, and your Marketplace
listings will appear in your new Storefront. Your zShops listings will
still be visible from your Seller Account page for about one week from that
date, after which they will be removed.

Before Tuesday, October 24, 2006, we encourage you to re-list your zShops
listings as Marketplace listings to benefit from the new Storefront. The
following tools make it easy for you to continue selling on
Marketplace–you can create product detail pages and list your items in
bulk or one item at a time without using zShops listings:

* You can create book detail pages (including pre-ISBN) or list books in
bulk in Marketplace with the latest release of the Book Loader tool. Read
more about this tool by going to Amazon.com and clicking the following
links:

Help > Selling at Amazon.com > Experienced and Volume Selling > Volume
Listing Tools > Book Loader > Bulk Listing and Creating Book Detail Pages

* You can create product detail pages for all other products, one at a
time, using the Create a Product Detail Page tool. Read more about this
tool by going to Amazon.com and clicking the following links:

Help > Selling at Amazon.com > Create a Product Page

Please note: Your existing zShops listings and zShops Storefront will
continue to be available on Amazon.com until October 24, 2006, when your
current zShops Storefront URL will be automatically redirected to your new
Storefront.

How can I learn more?
———————

* If you are a current zShops seller, learn more about what you need to do
by going to Amazon.com and clicking the following links:

Help > Selling at Amazon.com > zShops > Important zShops Information

* Find out more about your new Storefront by clicking these links from our
home page:

Help > Selling at Amazon.com > zShops > The New Storefront Featuring
Marketplace Listings

* Learn more about selling on Amazon.com Marketplace by going to Help >
Selling at Amazon.com.

For any feedback related to the new Storefront featuring Marketplace
listings, please contact us at *e-mail address no one needs to see*

Thank you for selling at Amazon.com!

So, why does this effectively shut me down? As most of you know, I sell imported products from Japan, they do have UPC codes, which are required to create Amazon Detail Pages, so I shouldn’t have a problem. Well, when I try creating a detail page, I enter the UPC code and I get a message from Amazon saying that you can’t create a page for that item because there is already a page created for that item…IN JAPAN! It seems all of Amazon’s sites run off the same database and if there is already an entry for that UPC code on any of their sites, anywhere in the world, you can not create a duplicate entry for that item. No Product Detail page also means that you can’t sell the item via Marketplace because those items have to be associated with a Detail Page. So, hundreds of items I already have listed on Amazon will be deleted sometime after October 24th.

I emailed their support, no word back from them yet. So I found a support phone number and called them. After I described my situation, I could tell the customer service rep was stumped by my question and he put me on hold for a few minutes. When he came back he informed me that the technical department had long been aware of the problem, but had not found a workaround for it and that they had no ETA on it ever being completed. I told him there was a simple solution…seperate databases, but he didn’t seem to get it.

The reason this also angers me is that they take a much higher percentage of the closing price when an item is sold via Marketplace.

Amazon.com collects fees only when your item sells. At that time, Amazon.com collects your sales price and shipping costs from the buyer, deducts a commission of 6 to 15 percent of the sales price, a per-transaction fee of $0.99, and a variable closing fee. The $0.99 per-transaction fee is waived for Pro Merchant Subscribers.

I am a Pro Merchant Subscriber, so I get the $.99 per-transaction fee waived. But sales in the zShop, I only lose approx 6% of the sale, so worse than a credit card, but still managable. So, even if I had the ability to list items in the Marketplace, I would lose too much of the sale to commisions unless I raise my prices to a non-competitive pricing to cover the difference, and this would also give us different pricing structures on different sites, which I despise.

Yes, I still have my AnimeUSA.com, eBay store and Yahoo store, but my zShop accounted for 11% of my online business last year and that is now essentially been cut out from under me just as we go in to the busiest time of the online shopping year. Now I have to find another online outlet and buildan entirely new online store just as I get in to the busiest time of the year.

So, in short, in Amazon’s greed, they’ve lost all my revenue. I understand I am a small cog in their overall machine, but it makes you wonder how many other people this weill be effecting.

Arrrrr avast ye land lubbers, tis once again Talk Like A Pirate Day on Sept 19th! So grab a tankard of grog, set sail for Port Royale and avoid ye The Flying Dutchman!

Been quite awhile since I posted any pictures of Patrick and Winston, and since Saturday was their 6 month birthday, I figured it was about time!

Patrick is always around when mom needs to work on costuming items, he will gladly hold down the items for her…so they don’t escape!

Winston and HIS couch…believe me, he thinks it’s his.

The bathroom at work is off limits…except when the vacum cleaner is running it would seem

Back in July, I told you all of Microsoft’s entry in to the MP3 player market with the Zune, well, now more details have surfaced.

Remember that back on the 12th, Apple unveiled all their new iPod goodness, and in usual Steve Jobs fashion, you could buy the items that same day via the Apple Store or their retail outlets. This is almost always how it goes and it demonstrates amazing planning and logistics.

On the 14th, Microsoft officially unveiled the Zune. No release date. No final price. But hey, it’ll be out some time this holiday season…maybe. (lets remember this is the same company that has given us how many release dates for Vista?) Yes, it does support a good range of file formats (h.264, MP3, AAC and WMA), has built in WiFi for sharing data between Zune units, will (maybe) support Live Anywhere, and could have lots of nifty features down the road…maybe. There is one nifty feature where you can do a Zune-to-Zune transfer of a full-length track for 3 plays or 3 days, whichever comes first, so they can try it out.

What we have here is an amazing example of different corporate identities. Apple presents a hip, on time, well planned, in touch friend to the consumer. Microsoft shows an out-of-touch, ivory tower, corporate decesions making process. When Apple has a press conference, you know the items are ready to go, the information has been controlled and the majority of the news is truly exciting. Microsoft seems to have a press conference for the hell of it, has no clue when items will come out and we almost always know all the features before hand.

Apple gives us snazzy colored iPods.

Microsoft gives us black, white and…brown?

Is it just me, or does this thing look like really cheap plastic?

The short version of all this? I’m sticking to the iPod as far as I can tell. There is nothing to the Zune to make me excited enough to jump ship. I don’t like the look, I hate the name, and oh yeah, they kept that god awful logo.

Even the box bores me!

Those lovable little scamps known as Prussian Blue are back in the news. For those who don’t remember, I’ve written about them twice before. Anyway, according to this news story, the girls new neighbors in Kalispell, MT aren’t too happy with their beliefs. Remember, when I wrote about them the second time I mentioned they had left Bakersfield,CA because they felt it wasn’t “white enough”…oops!

It seems that the neighbors weren’t aware of who they were at first, but after a few weeks they figured it out and decided to distribute a flier about how they won’t stand for their brand of hate. In an especially amusing portion of the story

However, the Kalispell Police Department has heard from the family. The police say they received a complaint that the family was being “harassed” by the neighbors posting the fliers.

In an irony not lost on many in the community, the officers had to explain that the neighbors’ free speech rights made the fliers perfectly legal.

Yeah, pesky how that works out isn’t it? Never mind the fact that supporters of Lynx & Lamb are sending nasty notes to the people who passed out the fliers. Oh, so I see, it’s not ok for the neighbors to “harass” them, but it’s ok for people who don’t live in the same area as these people to harass them? Yeah, that makes perfect sense. “Pot? This is the kettle, I would say we’re black, but that might offend the White Power freaks.”

So, now the Gaedes are in damage control and have gone back to Bakersfield for some reason to be on a radio show. Course, they seem to be taking a different tone now about just wanting to keep all races pure and in my favorite quote:

“We respect what you believe, but you should be the same with our views. You shouldn’t call us haters and Nazis,” Lamb Gaede said.

Well, gee, it couldn’t have anything to do with wearing a Hitler smilie face shirt (Lamb: “We did but that was a joke. It was one time. It wasn’t serious.”), singing songs to the glory of Rudolf Hess, or having the Nazi Swastika as your family’s cow brand. I mean, that would just be a silly and radical connection now wouldn’t it? (Side note to all the Prussian Blue fans out there:I know there is a message thread in your little clubhouse of a forum where you are supposed to report un-paid use of the girls photos to their momma, if you’ll notice, I only link to them from the family’s blog, I don’t serve them, so don’t bother reporting me)

I honestly don’t know why I return to these stories, probably the less coverage they get, the better. Each time I write about them, I go over and browse their forums for a little bit in the hopes something there will make think twice about doing it, but it always fires me up even more so. Being proud of your heritage is one thing, but throwing around the terms and comments they do on those forums is just breeding hate. I don’t choose to even write summaries of what I see there because it would just anger too many people, and make me come up in search engines I don’t care to. If you ever want to see it, you can find it easily enough on your own.

Like I said last time, I feel no hate towards Lynx & Lamb, they had no say in the way they were brought up. What I do despise is the people who are using them, and that’s exactly what it is, using them.

Survivor Cook Islands has premiered and it was a doozy. Yes, the tribes are broken up over ethnic lines, get over it.

Aitutaki - Latin Tribe
Billy - 36, Heavy Metal Guitarist
Cecilia - 29, Technology Risk Consultant
Cristina - 35, Police Officer
J.P. - 30, Proffesional Volleyball Player
Ozzy - 25, Waiter

Manihiki - African-American Tribe
Nathan - 26, Retail Sales
Rebecca - 34, Make-Up Artist
Sekou - 45, Jazz Musician/Recoarding Artist
Stephanie - 35, Nursing Student
Sundra - 31, Actress

Puka Puka- Asian Tribe
Becky - 28, Attorney
Brad - 29, Fashion Director
Cao Boi - 42, …not sure what he does, even the CBS website gives a lame explanation
Jenny - 36, Real Estate Agent
Yul - 31, Management Consultant

Rarotonga - Caucasian Tribe
Adam - 28, Copier Sales
Candice - 23, Pre-Med Student
Jessica - 27, Performance Artist, Rollergirl
Jonathan - 44, Writer/Producer
Parvati - 23, Boxer/Waitress

The 20 Survivors start out on a sailing ship and upon hearing a bell ring, they have 2 minutes to salvage as much as they can from the ship and get on to their rafts. There’s some stupidity involving chickens, folks, their chickens, you’ll get one meal out of them, go for the stuff that will last you longer like the huge bunch of bananas! Silly Survivors. We are quickly informed of the “social experiment” aspect of the episode, everyone heads off, there is the usual first episode BS of “Where are you from…oh so-and-so is already stupid.” Whatever. I swear there is a “Survivor Contestants R’ Us” store sometimes with just row after row of the same people with different outer shells.

Anyway, nothing of major interest happened in the first part of the episode beyond setting up camps and Jessica letting the two chickens escape by accident. Oopsie. Cao Boi removed some “bad wind” from Brad’s head…you had to see it. Sekou took a lot of breaks, much to the annoyance of his tribe. The tribes then headed off to the joined reward/immunity challange.

The tribes must race to assemble a puzzle boat using seven braces, then paddle the boat out and retrieve fire from a bonfire floating on a raft in the ocean. Then they must paddle back to shore and carry the boat braces and fire with them. After putting together yet another puzzle, they must use the braces to create a ladder, climb to the top of a platform and light their tribe fire bale. The first three tribes to the top win flint and immunity. As a bonus the tribe that comes in first wins a fire kit, kindling, waterproof matches and kerosene.

Puka Puka came in first, then Aitutaki, and finally Rarotonga. Manihiki would be heading to tribal council, but in a twist I didn’t like, they got to choose someoen to go to Exile Island. Um…why does the losing tribe get to do such a powerful move? Anyway, Sekou and Nathan decided to send Jonathan to Exile Island, which is now or 2 nights, due to his “stealing” all the chickens on the boat. Jeff Probst, in his “Let me point this out to you” way, mentioned he found it interesting that the MEN of the tribe made the decesion. Sekou and Nathan saw the writing on the wall and tried to swing Stephannie, but it didn’t work, and out went Sekou.

While everyone seems to be focusing on the horrors of the racial segregation of the tribes, I found it fascinating how they almost immeditely started SUB-segregating. Puka Puka did it along not only did it along age lines (poor Cao Boi), but also amongst Asian heritage. Manihiki, while saying repetedly that they need to “represent”, divided in to 2 camps of men vs. women. Some folks called this “he most boring debut episode of any “Survivor” ever”, I couldn’t disagree more! I actually found it one of the most intriguing.

I personally think the media is reading WAY too much in to the segregation of the tribes such as in this story.

The Asian tribe won the first “Survivor: Cook Islands” challenge: puzzle solving. The black tribe came in last. Oops.

Oh no! Not…PUZZLE SOLVING! In the entire history of Survivor they’ve never had puzzle solving before! That must have been done that just to favor the Asians! *blank stare* Come on people, perhaps it is those of us here on the outside that are being the racists?

Yesterday I wrote about tipping? I had a horrible dining experience today that broke all my rules and then some more. Way to go wait staff!
_________________________________

Debra LaFave talked with Matt Lauer last night on Dateline. That is one very confused woman. My favorite line of the entire interview was:

LaFave: I think he’s gonna have a hard time trusting women one day. I’m sure he has to be living with the guilt of quote, unquote ratting me out.

Interesting choice of words, “ratting out”. Says to me she has some issues about it herself.
_________________________________

Dog the Bounty Hunter, star of his own reality show, was arrested today by US Marshalls for an apperhension of a fugitive in Mexico in 2003. On June 23, 2003, Dog, his son Leland, and business partner Tim captured serial rapist Andrew Luster who was hiding out in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Mexican authorities asked the bounty hunters to hand Luster over to their custody, when they refused they were charged with breaking extradition laws. When they failed to show up at a court hearing over the charges, they were declared fugitives. Well, for whatever reason, Mexico has finally issued warrants for their arrests. All three were picked up today and are being held in jail while they await their own extradition hearings. While in court today, Dog was shackled at his feet and treated like any other criminal.

I am a very big believer in obeying the law, but this was about bring a serial rapist to justice. This is just wrong.

This story got my blood to boiling. It would seem waiters and waitresses are beginning to fight back over tipping and going as far as forming orginizations to mandate a minimum tipping procedure and establishing websites to report “bad tippers”.

Here’s a couple ideas for these poor disgruntled souls:

1. Don’t act like I should accept food from you like some grand gift from the Greek Gods. I came in, I sat down, I ordered it, now bring it to me without that tone of “Aren’t you grateful?”!

2. I’m a big coffee drinker, if I ask for a refill, I expect it within 4 - 5 minutes, not 15. (actual story) You also should be making enough rounds of your tables that you can spot the lack of coffee for yourself.

3. If you make a mistake, you make a mistake, we’re all human. Don’t get pissy with me because you didn’t take the order down correctly.

4. This goes to the kitchen staff too, if you run out of a part of my meal, have the balls to tell me, don’t just assume you can substitute any old ingredient. Last time I checked, Ceaser Salads were supposed to have Parmesan cheese, not Swiss. One week I came in, it had Parmesan, the next week was Swiss, the following week was Parmesan. Just tell me you’re out of Parmesan because I FREAKIN’ HATE SWISS CHEESE!

The bit in the story about the web sites where wait staff can report bad tippers did make me laugh though. Um…how exactly will this work? Our wait staff going to start asking your name at the beginning of a meal, run to the back, use a computer to go that web site, look up a name and go “A-HA! You’re getting crap service you bad tipper!” Please.

As I have said before, I do tip, and will continue to tip, but to EXPECT a tip is just wrong. It was started as a reward, and I still view it as such. If it is a resturant I eat at weekly, like the local Ruby Tuesdays, I tend to be more giving with the tip, because, well, they might remember me the following week if I’m not. If I’m out of town on business though, watch out, I become much more critical of the service. It is very, very rare for me to tip under 15%, but I have done it a few times when the service has been lackluster.

The idea of this waiter orginization mentioned in the article reallyg ets me though. They want to force their employers to slap on a 20% gratuity on to every bill. How about instead of attacking your customers, you talk to your employer about what they pay you? Because, guess what, any resturant that slaps an automatic 20% graturity on my bill, no matter the size of the party, I will stop eating there and then you will receive 20% of nothing. Sound fair?

I have nothing against 99% of the folks out there who do this thankless job, but the 1% who seem to think this is a war with their customers irk me and ruin it for everyone. I work with the public everyday, I know how stupid odd they can be, but don’t treat all your customers like enemies and you will get a lot farther. I don’t feel I ever make truly odd requests, and honestly, I even hate making substitutions on a meal because i know it can cause problems, just do your job well and we’ll get a long fine. Do your job badly, like in the examples I gave above, and then we’ll have a problem.

So, when you see me walking in and you want to run my name through any websites, make sure to look for Juan Phillip…not Sean P. Aune, because I will be using an assumed name from here on out after this entry.