Happy Birthday

Today is the 34th birthday of Pong. On, November 29th, 1971, Atari released the video game Pong. Although this wasn't the first video game, it was the first commercial video game and the beginning of the video game revolution. If it wasn't for this game, we wouldn't have gotten, Space Invaders, Pac Man, Zelda, Mario Brothers, Doom, Command and Counquer, Medal of Honor, or Final Fantasy. I would like to thank Atari for helping to turn my brain to mush and at the same time suck my wallet dry. So, today, go out to their web site and download pong and feel free to waste a whole day playing it. For some reason, it is still more fun than working.

Gary vs The Packers

Well, there is something that Gary and the Packers have in common other than football. Yep, they are both losers. Don't have too much to Blog about for this survivor. That silly holiday Thanksgiving got me all messed up and I forgot to watch survivor! Can you believe it! And because I was spending it with family, they all missed it too. I watched some clips from the website and found out some things. But this week, maybe I can get some comments about what happened.

Paper hoarding

Is the price of paper rising faster than gas prices or are we just getting greedy. I've visited my share of public restrooms to experience a number of different type of hand drying devices. They have ranged from paper towel on the sink counter to hand blowers to a guy holding a towel. Lately, though, it seems that some places would rather have you dripping a trail of dirt filled soap bubbles from the bathroom throughout the store, then part with a few sheets of 2-ply. This restaurant I went to recently had a paper towel dispenser so complicated, that there needed to be instructions displayed on the front of it. It looked like an ordinary box on the wall which had a level to push down to get paper towel. So, I skip reading the instruction because, hey, ITS A PAPER TOWEL DISPENSER, I pull on the level and it doesn't budge. Then I see a button next to the lever. Ok, I do the "We all do dumb things" bit and push the button. I hear a click and try the lever again, and I am able to pull it down twice. However, no paper comes out. I hit the box with my still dripping hands and give in to reading the instructions. It states to dispense paper push button and pull lever twice. This I did. Then it says, if paper is out, switch lever on side to new roll. Oh, didn't see the level on the side. I push the lever on the side, push the button, and pull the level twice. It works, but I only get about 1/2 inch of paper. So I continue to push the button and pull the lever twice again and again and again, until finally I get about a foot. I rip the paper off and just chuck it in the trash, because by this time my hands are dry. What's the deal here? If I purchase something, the least you can do is let me dry my hands.

If you would like to see more paper towel dispensers, just visit my picture archive.

Betrayal of the Six

Where do I even begin? Jamie really lost it! Everytime they would go to an "off camera" shot, they would talk about how the game is getting to Jamie and how paranoid he is. At the reward challenge he was shouting at his teammates to finish the challenge even though they already lost. That didn't win him any points. I think I do want Gary to win this season, so I was pretty nervous for him again. But with all the focus on how irrational Jamie was getting, I was calmed down a bit.

Judd was pretty funny at the challenge. He just sat there at the start of the challenge. Jeff shouted to everyone that Judd gave up, but he said he just couldn't figure it out? All they had to do is follow a rope. Not too tough. I was surprised that there was no talk about Judd lieing to everyone about where the idol was. Thats ok though, because he was blindsided at tribal council. His 4 other teammate in his alliance didn't tell him a thing about voting for Jamie. Very interesting:) We may see Judd's picture up next week.

Bad Driver

Not to generalize about bad drivers, but I recently saw the worst driver ever. I was pulling into my usual sandwich shop for lunch and parked the car. I then got to witness the funniest and at the same time the dumbest thing I have ever seen. The layout of the road and parking lot is your usual everyday setup. There is a road and a driveway. The driveway is outlined by a grass median to separate the drive from the parking spaces. At the end of the median the is a large decorative boulder. This signifies the end of the drive and allows you to drive around and park. Well, this lady starts to turn into the parking lot. Slowly she enters the drive and creeps here way into the parking lot. She then starts to turn, not noticing the boulder (did I mention it was a large boulder), and she cuts the corner too close and hops up on the curb of the median. Oops, ok, it has happened to all of us. Well, instead of backing up off the curb, or turning the other way to get off the curb, she guns it. Her car continues to move forward and she manages to get her car to straddle the large boulder. So now her car is sitting on this boulder which is right in the middle of he car. Maybe she thought it was an extra high curb, I don't know, but again she pushed on the gas again even though you can hear the car scraping the large boulder as she tries to get over it. As gasoline starts pouring out of her car, she somehow manages to get her car about half way over the large boulder, until finally she gets stuck as the car starts to teeter-totter on the rock. Yep, completely stuck. The police came along with the fire department, a flat bed, and a fork lift. They had to lift the car up off the large boulder and then onto the flat bed. Meanwhile the fire department dumps sand onto the pool of gasoline waiting to explode. At least she is off the road. Good news today though; I see they have solved the problem. There is now a tall red pipe sticking out of the ground next to the boulder to help people see then end of the median.

Bobby Jon's Final Words

Way to go Gary! That was so awesome when he pulled out the immunity idol. Good thing he decided not to save it for another day. How funny was that when they showed Judd wandering around looking up in the trees after he told everyone it was on the ground! He is going to be in trouble next week when everyone asks Gary where he found it. Judd shouldn't have lied.

Jamie made a nice gesture this week to try and make up for is mouthing off last week. I wonder if it is going to mean anything. I think that Rafe is right though, that Jamie may be loosing it. Gary told him he was going to vote with him for Bobby Jon and somehow Jamie thought that meant Gary was going to vote for him? Huh?

At the reward, as soon as I saw the beer come out for Judd, I knew that is what was going to make him sick. It was so funny, they found that stump (30 foot tree) and wanted to put it on the fire. Ha.

Only 4 more episodes left before the end of the season already!

The Chronicles of Narnia

Although I am a fan of the Harry Potter series, there is another movie I am looking forward to. I've seen a few previews to the movie and the CGI looks great. I think they spent alot of time on the lion in particular. Either that, or I am going to be disappointed. The movie isn't geared toward and adult audience, but then again, neither was Harry Potter. This movie, I believe, is going to be comparable to Goblet of Fire. I'll have to see both and see which one I like better. The Potter movie I'm sure will be really good, even though this is the fourth time. The new world Narnia will open to does give it an advantage. We shall see. I have read the Harry Potter books before the movie, but I haven't read this one. Hopefully the story is sound. I am sure it will be more in-depth than Doom anyway. My movie link will take you to Narnia, and you can meet the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Till next time...

Whew, that was a close one. I thought for sure Jamie was going. He was so quite the first part of the game and now all he can do is open his mouth. Judd is suppose to be the obnoxious one. Anyway, I thought the new hidden immunity this is really cool. For a while I though Jamie had it and that is why we felt so safe. I wonder if they will ever find it and who it will be. They are really being rough on this group of survivors. Offering them food or immunity was great. I thought Rafe was going to be sick after eating the food and then realizing that he was on the dark side. Gary saw it to and was using it against him, although in the end, Rafe stayed with his group of evil minions. Ha, ha, ha. I said I wasn't going to watch them, but when the previews came on, I couldn't look away. I wonder if Judd is going to get drunk again or if he is just sick? Hum...

Maze Craze II

And you all had so little faith. Well, it took 340 feet of PVC pipe, 2000 Christmas lights, and 8 hours of manual labor, but it is finally done. This 102 point maze turned out pretty good, I must say. It is even better at night, and more difficult. At night, you can no longer see the spaces between the lights, just the lights themselves as they all blend together. It turned out so good, that I have been granted an extended budget to expand the maze each year. I figure I will be able to add 50 more points each year. Even more with the money I make from any donations. I just hope the single outlet all these lights are running from holds up!

Infested

Im sitting in my living room watching a show on TV just relaxing. Then I see this little shadow appear as it starts to move across the screen. A little boxelder bug was on the TV, yuck. So I get up and grab a Kleenex to squish the intruder. I walk over to the TV only to find out that he is not on the TV, he's in the TV!
That's right, I made the mistake of purchasing a rear projection TV. There is no easy way to open the TV to get them out, so I had to get a little clever. I shut off all the lights in the room and found a little space where the bugs could get in. I turn on a flashlight and just waited. Eventually, the little guy crawled out and met his death. I then got some window screen and duct tape and sealed every vent hole I could find. I went a few more months without anything happening, but from time to time one still seems to find it's way in. I have had boxelders and lady bugs both get in. The lady bugs like to fly around in there and then you can see 3 of them because of the three projection lights. The worst I've had is a spider. I could lure him out and he created a web. Damn. I finally was able to get a length of yarn in the TV and the web stuck to it pretty good. The spider must have died, because I haven't ever seem him again. Today I get to look forward to another bug hunt. It doesn't seem to bother Amy too much, but when I am watching CSI and there is a bug on the screen, I need to know if that is in the show or on my TV. It may be an important clue to the case. Anyway, if anyone would like to purchase a TV, just let me know.

Doom Review

Finally, I got to see the movie. I was prepared to go on day 1, but some better things came up. I thought the movie was pretty good. There were a few strange things like sewers on Mars and I would have liked to see a little more of the BFG or plasma gun used. The first person part of the show was neat plus they used the chainsaw during that sequence. I don't think they will make another one. The story wasn't quite as strong as I had hoped, but I didn't go for the story, I went for the killing of monsters.