Archives May 2010

I am now 6 deep into Lost episodes.  It’s a great show.  I find the characters extremely interesting.  I can only imagine the jealousy that Lost fans must feel since I am just going through the series for the first time.  It’s all new to me.

I heard the guy won American Idol which is a bit of a surprise.  Nope, didn’t see it.  I may watch the finale on Tivo though to see the tribute to Simon.  The show is in HUGE trouble from here on out without him.   The ratings next year are going to suck, bet on it.

Last night I planted the two Persian Shields as well as spraying some of the particularly weedy sections of our yard with Weed B Gone.  I knocked out a load of laundry and packed up my old Tivo and Slingbox to send off to Randall.  It’s nice to keep used electronics in the family.

I read that Obama is going to miss the traditional Memorial Day service at Arlington National Cemetery.  I have read several opinions of outraged people, people that probably already have Obama dartboards in their cellar. “How could Obama SKIP the ceremony????  He is disrespecting the military!” (Bush Sr. missed the ceremony in 92) The story I read showed Obama in sunglasses, implying he was just too cool for something like honoring the military.

Whoa let’s settle down a bit.  I agree that I would prefer if Obama attended the ceremony.  However it isn’t like he is not recognizing the day or the sacrifices countless brave people in the military have made throughout history.  After going down to the gulf to get the latest on the oil spill cluster f, he WILL be attending a ceremony at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetary on Memorial Day.  Biden will attend the ceremony at Arlington.

It’s just another example of taking a headline and blindly charging ahead with no more than face value in hand.  If you take a minute and take a breath before spewing you see that it isn’t nearly the aberration that it may appear to be at first.  I know, it’s a lot to ask.

On the way home from work last night I stopped at Home Depot.  I had two things I was looking for, a hose end sprayer and some replacement romaine lettuce plants for the garden.  I came home with those items plus, two Persian shield plants,  some butter crunch lettuce and two blueberry plants as well.

When I got home after feeding the dogs I went outside to get the stuff in the ground.  I got everything planted except the two Persian shields.  There were some very ominous black clouds overhead with accompanying rumbles.  After seeing that close strike a couple weeks ago I am a bit less likely to tempt fate out there.  I remember thinking to myself “if I get struck by lightning I won’t get to see if these blueberry plants make fruit.” An odd thing to be worried about when pondering your own demise.

Once I got back inside I had a Netflix night.  First I used the Wii (yes Netflix works on a Wii too) to watch (instant streaming) Star Trek: Wrath of Khan.  For some reason I had a hankering to see Ricardo Montalban and his fake pecs try to take out Kirk.  Of course the scene everyone remembers in this movie is when Chekov gets the worm stuck into his head.  It still made me cringe a bit. 

I totally forgot that Kirstie Alley was in the movie, a young, hot, 125 pounds ago Kirstie Alley.  Imagine being her and watching this film today.  Such a shame.

I also used the instant streaming to line up season 1 of Lost.  Just after the final episode of a 6 season run is an odd time to start watching the show I know, but hell with instant streaming it makes it incredibly easy to get caught up in a hurry.  I watched the two part kick off episodes last night and liked what I saw.  It will do a nice job of filling in the dead space until Caprica and V return to the air.

Remember what I said about not continuing my Netflix subscription after the one month trial? Um yea, forget that…Netflix ROCKS.

With my discovery of Netflix it has me thinking about ways I could reconfigure how we spend our cable dollars.  If I dropped the cable tv portion of our Comcast bill and opted for the less expensive, lower speed internet option I could knock close to $100 a month off the bill.  I would then need to implement an OTA antenna to pick up HD signals for the major networks.  It would require some significant effort though.  Before doing something that drastic I will see how a call to Comcast goes to see if they will drop my rate.

The other night we watched the Celebrity Apprentice finale, Brett Michaels won.  His dramatic health problems over the past month or so have been well documented.  The fact that he was on the stage for the live finale was pretty amazing.  When the season started I immediately dismissed Michaels as some dumb ass based on the Rock of Love series that I never watched.  I was very surprised that as the show continued I actually liked the guy quite a bit.  He was definitely one of my favorites by the end.

  It sounds like he is far from out of the woods yet.  He just had that warning stroke last week and he has a hole in his heart that has to get fixed.  Oh yea, he has diabetes too.  His attitude on life seems incredibly positive regardless, something I always admire.

Did you know you can collect $2000 a month for the rest of your life on SS disability for being a drunk? True story. It is disgusting. 

Yes I like how public programs help those in need but I DETEST leeches that tax the system due to nothing more than pure laziness or self destructive behavior.

Wow the Flyers took care of businesses last night, knocking off the Canadians in 5 games.  No, I still have not seen a game.  I wish I was more into hockey so I could share more in the excitement.  It’s an amazing turn of events for a team that just barely squeezed into the playoffs.

I had a pleasant surprise last night when I got home.  First, the Camry was in the garage, meaning Ali actually got home before me, a rare occurrence.  Then as I walked in the door I am greeted by the smell of fresh chocolate chip cookies!  Wow, how awesome is this?  On top of that the trash cans were already out front and laundry was being done.  It was great.  

Unfortunately I was feeling less than great.  I had that feeling in my throat that often is a precursor to illness.  Ali dropped an Airborne in a glass of water for me.  All night I was feeling very low energy.  I packed it in for the night extremely early.  I was showered and in bed around 8:30, it was actually still light outside.  After reading my Wired magazine for a few minutes my eyes got real heavy and I was out.  I woke up today feeling ok.

I’m hoping for a quick recovery from my various joint ailments.  I feel sort of useless at the gym right now.  I miss pull ups, dead lifts, power cleans and running.

Once again I managed to find enough stuff around the house to populate most waking hours of the weekend with labor.  Even with mowing the grass Thursday night I found myself buried with things to do.

Saturday included these items in no particular order, weeding, weed whacking,  pool maintenance, pool deck sweeping (courtesy of the Dirt Dog), washing the bed sheets / comforter, filling the bird feeders, changing the blades / repairing the mower deck and more that has escaped my brain at the moment.

The mower deck is on it’s last legs.  I have repaired the hole in the deck no less than 4 times.  The last time I did it I pop riveted sheet metal over the hole.  The pop rivets held but there was a hole blown right through the center of the sheet metal.  After pressure washing all the cement-like grass off the deck I once again grabbed my sheet metal and pop rivet gun.  This time I layered the hole with three sheets of metal and used a couple dozen pop rivets to hold it all together.  The repaired area felt quite strong after I was done but rocks and branches at high speed can do some amazing things.

There also was another strip of metal that was loose and bent under the deck.  Surely this was a big reason that the mower has been mowing unevenly for awhile.  I fixed this with a generous amount of pop rivets as well.  I only discovered the wonders of pop riveting within the last year or so.  How did I go through my adult life without them?

Ali was gone for most of Saturday at some meeting.  I try to not get annoyed as I bust ass around the house all day, thinking it would somehow be easier if Ali was home.  The reality is most of the stuff I was doing she wouldn’t be able to help with much anyway. 

Saturday night we finally got to check out Iron Man 2.  Before going to the movie I needed to make a pit stop at Wal-Mart to get supplies for Sunday’s list of automotive maintenance.  I really dislike going to Wal-Mart in general.  It makes me feel dirty, knowing that I am contributing to the evil conglomerate that whores us out to shitty Chinese made goods like it’s candy.  Some of the people you see there just send chills up my spine.  It’s terrifying realizng these are the people that are reproducing at the highest rate.

As I was walking in from the parking lot I saw some redneck looking dude wearing a backwards baseball hat stomping about 30 feet ahead of what I assumed was his son.  The boy was young, no older than 12.  He was chubby, wore a mullet and flip flops.  The father seemed annoyed that his son was not keeping up.  I heard the son say “.. you are walking way ahead of me…”  The redneck looked over his shoulder without slowing down a bit and said “… you have two f’ing legs don’t ya?” and continued forward.

By the time we got up to the movie theater we didn’t have the time to sit down at a restaurant to eat.  The movie was at 7:30 and by the time we got there it was after 6:30.  I didn’t want to jam down a meal and then have to rush into the theater at 7:30 and have my choice a few select shitty seats.    

We decided on a less than ideal movie theater food dinner.  I ordered the 5 mini-hot dog special and Ali got a greasy pizza, yum.  We figured we would go into the theater and sit down to eat.  Well lucky for us the theater crew was slow cleaning the theater.  We stood outside for a good 15 minutes holding our fine cuisine.

Finally we got the all clear to head in.  We were the first bodies in the theater and got our choice of seats, top row, dead center.  By the time I got the 5th mini-dog down I had enough, it was sort of gross.   By the time the previews started the theater was quite full, even with the film being in it’s third week of release.

I loved the first Iron Man except for the ending.  I thought the ending was stupid.  I think Iron Man 2 was consistently good through out.  I liked the ending more as well although the final confrontation with Mickey Rourke was sort of quick.  The action was great, the special effects were killer and Robert Downey Jr was excellent as expected.  Sure there are the typical moments where you have to ignore how ridiculous it is that Tony Stark could whip up a new element in the span of 5 minutes, I mean hell it is a comic book movie after all.

Just like the first flick, at the end of the credits was a small scene that gave hints of what was to come next.  I was surprised that more people didn’t stick around for it.  Besides Ali and I, there may have been a half dozen that hung in there to see it.  I’d give the flick a solid A.

Sunday was vehicle maintenance day.  I changed the oil and filter on the Tacoma (check engine light still out) and party van.  I also used some Meguiars Scratch X to clear some of the haze off the headlights in the Tacoma.  You can see in the picture the results when I was halfway done.  The van received more attention in preparation for the trip west.  I checked the freon level in the AC system, topped off the washer fluid and washed and waxed it.  I had never waxed the new van yet.  It is a big vehicle with a lot of area to clean.  By the time I was done, all of the rubbing in circles had done a nice job of aggravating my already painful elbows. 

Originally I had ideas of also cleaning out the inside of the van on Sunday but I raised the white flag.  I had already been out in hot sun and humidity for 6 hours, I had enough.  I figured I can work on the inside of the van after work this week.

I watched my second dvd-in-the-mail Netflix movie, Assassins.  This Stallone flick came out in 1995.  I don’t think I saw it in it’s entirety since it came out 15 years ago.  I always thought it was great entertainment with Antonio Banderas and Stallone going at it as two top hired killers.  The scene where Banderas is up in the tower all day in the blazing heat losing his mind always has been a favorite of mine.  Maybe I am crazy but I really like this movie.

As I was sitting around with Ali Sunday evening I decided to soak both elbows in a big Tupperware container filled with ice water.  It was VERY cold.  When the water is that cold you have to endure several minutes of pretty intense pain until the area goes numb.  It’s the sort of pain that made the rest of my body sweat.  It’s the type of pain that when Ali tried to talk to me I snapped at her, instantly becoming irritated with the idea of trying to communicate while my elbow was burning in the icy water.

Like I mentioned last week, since the volleyball tournament I have instantly gone to being in pretty overall good shape to having multiple areas breaking down at once.  A couple times over the weekend I jumped on the pull up bar to see if I could do a rep without pain in the elbow.  I was unable to do so.  My right elbow hurts on the inside of the joint, my left elbow hurts on the outside.  The sharp, stabbing pain in my right knee has become dull so hopefully that is healing.  I plan to do nothing at the gym this week except ab/core work and boring, non-impact cardio.  What a drag.

As I was weeding over the weekend I got to survey some of the cool stuff that is coming to fruit.  The two blueberry bushes we got last year, which I though were dead, actually have what look to be the start of berries on them.  We have some full size tomatoes growing that are looking good.  I covered them with left over pool screen to keep birds from destroying them. 

 Our apple tree has a bunch of good looking apples on it, the lemon tree is producing and the tangerine tree that has been fruitless for years looks to be spawning fruit once again.  We harvested a ton of carrots, peas and beets out of the garden as well.  We need to start giving some carrots away.  One massive carrot will be enough for a week’s worth of salad, we will never eat them all.

I filled my Thursday evening with non-stop activity.  After getting home and preparing the dog’s dinner I headed outside and started on mowing the grass.  I have so many things I want to get done over the weekend that getting the mowing done would be a nice little head start even though I still need to weed wack.

Ali got home as I was in the middle of the job.  She asked if I wanted her to take over which I declined.  She mentioned that she was thinking of doing some laps in the pool which I encouraged her to do. 

Mowing at this time of year is a pain in the ass.  A certain variety of grass in our yard has the ability to throw these foot or taller shoots up in the span of a week.  Their length makes them quite annoying to mow. They are sometimes bent under the mower deck instead of standing upright to get cut off.  As a result I wind up having to go over these areas repeatedly until they are all knocked down.The dull blades that are on the Cub Cadet don’t help much either.  Replacing the blades is one of the many small chores that are on my to-do list.

By the time I finished mowing it was close to 7:30.  After we ate dinner I quickly took in the V season finale.  It was a very good finale with lots of questions to be answered.  It looks like the gloves are about to come off on both sides.  I am really into the show at this point.  Not as much as Caprica but it’s close.

After slamming down the V episode it was after 9 but I had to do some prep for the Comcast install today.  I set up the Premiere out in the great room and moved the HD Tivo back to bedroom.   In the process I ripped out my Slingbox.  Since it is a non-HD model it doesn’t really serve any purpose at this point.  I will be listing it on Craigslist/Ebay sometime in the future, along with the old dual tuner Tivo.  Right now I have the DT Tivo AND the HD-Tivo set up and running in the bedroom.  I need to set up some season passes  and watch some old content on the old Tivo before I wipe it clean.

By the time I got out of the shower it was after 10:30 but I still wanted to catch this week’s Ultimate Fighter episode (old Tivo) .  By the time that was done it was 11:15.  I’m a bit sleepy today.

Hopefully Ali and I get to take in Ironman 2 in Imax this weekend.  I need to get hopping on various maintenance to-do’s on PV 2.0 to prepare it for the trip.  Check engine light is still out on the Tacoma, crossing my fingers.

The other day we got a letter from some woman out in California regarding the two lots we own in Lehigh Acres.  She identified herself as a land wholesaler that offers less than retail dollars but makes the process very fast and pain free.  I figured I would give her a call, I had nothing to lose.

Few of you probably remember that during the real estate boom Ali and I jumped on the bandwagon.  We purchased two 1/4 acre lots in Lehigh Acres, which at the time was viewed as the next high growth area  in SW Florida.  We bought the lots towards the end of 2004.

During the first 6 months of ownership we looked like geniuses.  At some point we could have easily sold both lots for more than double what we paid.  I had grand illusions of using the profit from these lots to pay off our house and be mortgage free by 40.  Well the way things were skyrocketing we figured we should just hold on and enjoy the ride.

Well we held on for the ride, the ride straight down.  Ali and I try to not think about those lots much these days.  Instead we just quietly hope for the market to recover, someday.

Well this letter forced us to think about it.  I called the woman and gave her the information on our lots.  She said she would call me back in a day or two.  She returned the call yesterday and gave me the official offer.  I tried not to laugh.  The offer was less than 10% of what we paid.  She mentioned that selling at a loss would allow us to write that investment loss off on taxes.

I thanked her for her time.  I checked with my accountant.  I could spend the next 16 years writing off the loss.  His advice was unless I desperately needed the cash from the ridiculously lowball offer I should just hold the land.  I’m taking his advice.

Yesterday at the gym I decided I would run on the treadmill to give my suddenly painful elbows and shoulder a rest.  Well I stopped after two miles as I was feeling some unpleasant sensations in my right knee.  After I got home I had a couple of those “oh shit” moments when I stepped in such a way that sent a bolt of pain through the knee.  I haven’t had that happen in a LONG time.   So now I am back to carefully picking and choosing exactly what I can do in my exercise routine without further aggravating the various hot spots, the list is rather small right now.

I watched the last part of the 1983 V mini-series last night.  I liked it.  Netflix is pretty damn cool.

I’m on the second full day since I replaced the MAF sensor on the Tacoma.  The check engine light has remained dark.

All it takes is watching the news for a bit while at the gym to make my opinion of human beings drop a few clicks lower, which is already incredibly low.  Here is my spin on three stories.

A Hooters Girl was told she needed to lose weight and was offered a free gym membership in order to help her to do so.  The average Americans reaction to this? Outrage for sure, especially since 60% or more are obese themselves.  The  story ran listing the girls measurements as 5’8″ 132 pounds.  Based on some of the pictures I saw I think she let herself go a bit higher than that, she looked pretty pudgy in some of those pics.  But regardless of her weight, to me it’s stupid for her to make a stink about it.  It’s Hooters for cripes sake.  Hooters is all about the visual, people don’t go there for fine dining.  If management notices you have a muffin top spilling out over your short shorts and says something don’t go whining to the press.  Go find a job that isn’t as much about appearance.

Next up the baby that was in the middle of a city street after midnight that almost got hit by a bus. There is some amazing video of a baby sitting right on the center line of a street that was shot from an on board camera of a city bus.  Luckily the driver was awake enough to stop. (it was after MIDNIGHT)  The camera captures the driver going out to the child and then the father shortly thereafter running out and scooping the child up.

The story ran with an interview of the mother, a plump little thing with a last name ending in Z, saying she was a good mother.  She said she swore the screen door was latched and that her three kids were watching TV (AFTER MIDNIGHT) as were the parents.  Evidently the child managed to sneak out of the house, ninja style and plant herself in the road while mom and dad were watching late night reruns.  Now child services is pursuing possibly removing the children from her care.  It’s a lose, lose situation.  Just keep pumping out those kids.

Right after this story they ran a quick hitter of a dipshit that was too busy talking on his cell phone to realize his child just ran off the train.  Even after the kid ran off the train and the door closed, the guy STILL had the phone to his ear.  Obviously it was too important of a call to interrupt for something trivial like losing your kid.

Finally let’s go deep into the hole of human  depravity and talk about the school bus driver who was taking shits in a bag and throwing it by the road. There is video of this disgusting woman sitting down and tossing the feces filled bag out the door.  The video was shot by some man that got tired of picking up shit bags around his neighborhood.  From what I gather the bus driver was confronted about the issue to which she offered she only did this a couple times due to some sort of digestive “emergency”.  The shit patrol dude knows she is lying because he has literally picked up dozens of bags of her waste. 

They even showed one of the bags in the clip.  It had an inhuman amount of shit in it.  It looked like it came from a Clydesdale.  The most outrageous thing is as far as I could ascertain, this woman is STILL driving bus.  Human beings are so disappointing.

Last night after work I installed the replacement MAF sensor into the Tacoma.  Since I ripped the air intake apart once to clean the MAF I knew exactly what I had to do this time around.  I had the sensor replaced in less than 10 minutes.  I cleared the check engine light.  Now I just cross my fingers that it’s ominous yellow glow does not return.

The first thing I ordered from my trial Netflix account was the original V mini-series that aired back in 1983.  Supposedly at the time the special effects in the series were groundbreaking.  In 2010 they just made me chuckle a bit.  There is plenty of 80’s big hair to be found as well as carefully feathered male hairstyles.

Once you get by the humor of 1983 fashion you can see the core that the modern day series is based upon.  I got through the first two hour episode last night.  I hope to finish it up tonight.

I was impressed with just how quickly I received the dvd from NetFlix.  I stuck the movie in my queue Sunday and it showed up Tuesday.  They have a slick envelope that they send the dvd out in.  It doubles as a return envelope.  Basically as soon as the post office scans the envelope after you drop it in the mail, Netflix will send out the next selection in your queue.

Netflix also sent me a dvd that allows me to stream content to my Wii.  I don’t know that I’ll ever have the need to do that since the Tivo handles it so well but it’s nice to have that option.

Speaking of the Tivo, my new Tivo Premiere showed up yesterday too, again, incredibly quick.  I temporarily hooked it up in the bedroom.  I can only get the analog, non-hd content on it until I get the CableCard from Comcast on Friday.  It’s so dumb that I can’t just get a card from Comcast and install it myself.  Even with the reduced installation charge it still is a waste to pay someone to do it.

Jeremy took some video at our atrocious volleyball tournament performance.  The ironic thing is he didn’t shoot any of the action on the court at all which in retrospect was a brilliant move.  He posed as a sports reporter.  Randall and I posed as volleyball players.

One thing that quickly becomes apparent during the tape, I am a much more entertaining interview than Randall.

On Monday I went to the gym and had a pretty rigorous session despite playing volleyball on Saturday and doing our impromptu work out video on Friday.  I felt pretty good.  Well yesterday I walk in there and jump on the bar to do some L hold pull ups and feel all sorts of pain from both my right elbow and right shoulder.  My left elbow and knee were also bothering me to a lesser degree.  It didn’t make sense to me why there would be such a drastic change from one day to the next.  I can only hypothesize on the causes.  There are many possible culprits including the heavy 1RM benching, power clean video, work on the rings, Wii Tennis, vball tourney or the Monday work out.   

Whatever the cause it’s rather annoying.  Today I plan a strictly cardio session, hoping that a day or two of rest will allow some healing of whatever is wrong.  I had planned to do an official Bar-barians May challenge video this week but that will be shelved until the joints feel better.

Aging is so much fun.

Last night Ali and I went to the high school that is only a few miles for our house.  We agreed (well I volunteered Ali)  to hand out a scholarship from our running club to a graduating senior that applied for it.  We had very little direction as to who to see or what to do when we arrived.  At first we wound up in a cafeteria where the seniors were hanging out.  

One adult in the area said we looked like lost parents.  We told him actually we were supposed to hand out a scholarship but didn’t know where to go.  He got us redirected to the proper door and in short order we found ourselves seated up on the stage with other people handing out scholarships.  It felt sort of odd to be sitting up on a stage in front of an audience of students and parents.  This ceremony was just for seniors that were receiving some sort of scholarship or recognition.

When we first got up on the stage there were a lot of empty seats.  By the time the ceremony started almost all of the chairs were occupied.  I was surrounded by women.  There were various smells entering my nostrils that were not pleasurable at all.  It smelled like a bizarre combination of perfume, BO/bad breath.  It made sitting there for 45 minutes not exactly enjoyable.

The awards/scholarships handed out varied wildly.  On the high side there was a kid that got a 400K+ scholarship to the Air Force Academy.  On the low side was the kid that got $50 from the Hip Hop Club.  Our $1000 scholarship went to a girl that appears to be an excellent student who has very lofty goals.  She laid out exactly the academic path she wants to follow which would culminate in a PhD.  She listed an ultimate goal of being Secretary General of the United Nations! 

I was impressed that she had such a clear picture of what her future would be.  It’s something I never had.  When I was 17 my future was filled with fear and uncertainty.  Once being drafted by a pro baseball team was out the door I pretty much went blindly into the future, not really sure what the hell I was going to do. In contrast this girl seems ready to take on the world and has all the tools to do so.  Good for her.

Ali was the one to actually hand the award out.  She was a bit nervous getting up there in front of all of the eyeballs but she did fine as I knew she would.  We got out of there a little before 7:45  I was more than ready to get out of there between the warm temps on the stage and the unpleasant smells that surrounded me.

When I signed up for NetFlix I was looking for something I could stream to the Tivo.  I saw Spartacus pop up.  I had heard about this show.  It was described as a bit of a cheesy 300 rip off.  I was interested in seeing just how close it was so I set it up in my queue.

Well it definitely is a 300 clone.  It is shot using the same style, including the digitally added fake blood.  They actually cranked the gore up a few notches above 300 (it’s a Showtime show) as well as adding lots of gratuitous nudity.  In no time at all I saw full frontal nudity as well as multiple sex scenes.  It was almost like they were trying to jam in nudity/sex on a timer.  The show is 100% geared towards men with non-stop violence, blood and T&A.  It was so over the top it made me laugh out loud a few times.

When Ali caught a glimpse of one naked woman licking the breast of another naked woman she requested that I find another show to test Netflix streaming with.   She’s such a party pooper.

Last night we watched the Survivor Finale.  This season was just plain fantastic, perhaps the best of the 20 seasons so far.  I haven’t talked about how good it is just because I sort of dropped reality TV off the table as a blog subject.   After all who wants to admit they watch reality tv?

Anyway this was another all star cast.  They broke the group into Heroes and Villains where the players were categorized on how the were generally perceived during their appearance on their original season.  A lot of fan favorites were there and it translated into some pretty crazy competition.

Russell, who had just played what may have been the most conniving game ever in making it to the finals last season was again cast in the show.  This time he was going against a group of pro’s, some of which had already played the game of Survivor twice before. 

There were some big disappointments for me during the show as some of my favorite players performed poorly or ran into some bad luck.  Stephanie, a Philly girl, who is incredibly gifted physically (and easy on the eyes) got voted out very early when she was viewed as too big of a threat.  James, the monstrous grave digger blew out his knee about halfway through, ending his run. 

Colby, probably my all time favorite player who holds the record for winning the most amount of challenges ever was HORRIBLE this time around.  Although he made it to the final 5, he was a complete failure in challenges.  Time after time he just fell on his face and choked.  I’m not sure why there was such a huge reversal in his ability to play the game this time around.  Sure, he is 10 years older than when he first played but he still is in great shape, I don’t really know what was going on.  By the end of the game he was viewed as a non-factor in challenges.  It was almost like throwing Babe Ruth 80 mph fastballs down the middle of the plate and having him strike out again and again.

So anyway, Russell once again was able to somehow maneuver his way through this all star cast to the final three at the end.  He pulled off some unbelievable moves to get there, making deals with almost every person in the game and backstabbing almost all of them by the end.

  Last season when he got to the final day he used the simple logic that Survior by definition was about outwitting, outlasting and outplaying your opponent, which he obviously did.  Well his expectation for the jury to forgive the deceptions he committed upon them and reward him for his overall accomplishment proved to be incorrect.  The million dollars instead was given to a girl that did nothing in the game but ride on Russells coat tails.  Quite simply she didn’t piss people off so they gave her the money, even though by definition of the game, she actually did very little to deserve it.

Again Russell was unapologetic in front of the all star jury.  He thought this time around, his evil genius would be seen for what it is by a crew of Survivor veterans, brilliant Survivor game play.  Unfortunately for him, once again he miscalculated.  Hurt feelings won out again and the million dollars was given to the person who most arguably played the game the least.  Russell didn’t get a single vote.

Ali was glad Russell didn’t win, she shared the jury’s sentiment that you can’t screw that many people over and get rewarded for it.  In the real world I agree, but in Survivor I think he 100% deserved to win the game both seasons.  In my mind there is no doubt that he is the best player Survivor has ever seen, regardless of my personal like / dis-like of him. He was robbed.

Yesterday my Camaro buying decision got another avenue added when I was reading about the convertible which is supposed to begin production in January 2011.   I have to admit I would LOVE to have a convertible.  Three of my hobby cars all were open air vehicles, the 69 Firebird, the 71 Buick and the 88 Vette (removable glass top). 

Of course a convertible would tack several thousand more on top of an already very expensive proposition.  I have no idea if I could work any sort of magic to make it happen.  I have always maintained I’m not willing to slit my financial wrists to do this.

As if my confusion wasn’t big enough, I further clouded the picture by taking another look at some old muscle online.  I could spend half the money and get a pretty pristine classic.  However my experience with the 71 Buick going up in flames still is fresh in my head. 

 Buying a 40 year old vehicle means it will spend most of it’s time being a glorified painting in my garage that I am afraid to use much beyond short joy rides.  I really want something I can drive whenever I feel like relieving some stress with horsepower.