“Exercise The Mind, Then Exercise The Rest Of The Body” is one of my many new mantras. I’ve decided that each morning I will read for a little while (I’m working my way through two “easy reads” which will be disclosed in the future) before getting out of bed. The next step in the process is to figure out a way to get exercise each day. Actually I very much know how, but now I need to do it.
One Thumb’s Up For “Up”
On Saturday I watch the movie Up. While I really enjoyed the animation and story line I do have one large nit to pick.
I am completely over the arrogance of Disney, less specifically the Movie industry, and the Music industry for that matter. It’s bad enough that we have to deal with Digital Rights “Management” that has been thrust upon us, more and more Internet Service Providers seem to be bending over backward to kiss their own ass to please these Industries. Additionally, “Up,” a Disney production, contains a litany of “Previews” (read “Commercials for Disney movies”) which cannot be skipped, although I was able to fast-forward through them. ENOUGH ALREADY! Please, can’t there be at least one outlet that doesn’t have advertisements?
No Holey? Holy Moley!
I knew with this weekend’s weather forecast that the window of opportunity for outdoor activities (other than hashing) was narrow. When Saturday morning turned out to be a wonderfully pleasant morning I had no other choice to conquer one of my “To Do” list items — plug two holes in my roof line in an attempt to keep rodents out this Winter.
I had purchased steel wool and Great Stuff from Home Depot last week so with those and my trusty sixteen-foot ladder I ventured to the back yard.
- Have I ever mentioned that my backyard is not exactly level?
- Have I ever mentioned that the back portion of my house is two-stories high, approximately eighteen feet at its tallest?
- Have I ever mentioned that I am afraid of heights?
All three of these factors made this task a little less than fun and more daunting than it probably should have been.
However, I prevailed (well, sort of). I manage to stuff each hole with steel wool and I managed to spray a liberal amount of Great Stuff into each hole to fill the remaining gaps. However, Great Stuff expands over the hour or so after spraying it out of its can (that’s sort of its beauty) so I’ll have to scale the ladder again sometime in the future to clean up the job.
ITP Flickr Pic
I have no excuse other than “photography” dropped near the bottom of the priority list. Believe it or not it was still ahead of “haircut” however.
Can You Believe That Alabama Played Such A Weak Opponent This Week?
Chattanooga? Come On!…..
Related: My beloved University of Florida beat the Thanksgiving stuffing out of Florida International University by the score of 62-3.
Communications Breakdown
If my brother reads my blog today…..
I’ll call you tonight.
RealiTV Update: The Amazlingly Drawn-Out Race
You bet your sweet ass there are SPOILERS BELOW
The The Amazing Race is down to the Final Four. That meant that the end is near because once the show reaches the Final Three it’s an all-out race to the finish. Oh bother.
More importantly the final episode of the season will mark the one-and-only time that ITP-Readers Terri and Stacy (and myself) will have to pick the night’s winner instead of the team being eliminated.
But first, let’s discuss last night.
After Terri’s remarkable third win of the season she picked the Team Brotherly Lovers (aka the Bromancers). Stacy was on her game and quickly followed with the selection of Team Trash Talking Trotters. That left me with the option of Team Aryan (who I predict will win it all and use the money to start a blond-hair, blue-eye society) or Team Jungle Fever Zebra.
On a side note: How did Ericka win Miss America? She has wide-set eyes (a feature not exactly worshiped — trust me, I know) which don’t apparently look completely in the same direction (another feature not exactly worshiped — trust me, I know about this too). Not to mention she spells Ericka with both a ‘c’ and a ‘k’. Oh wait, I see — she’s a complete bitch. Read this passage from their bio:
Ericka and Brian met at a leadership seminar at the University of Central Florida nine years ago, and it was love at first sight for Brian. Ericka, on the other hand, played hard to get for the next five years….but Brian’s persistence finally paid off as the couple shared wedding vows over two years ago.
She played “hard to get” for five years? Fuck. That.
And now back to our regularly-scheduled programming…
The Final Four leave lovely Estonia headed for Prague. For this leg of The Race the teams were given no money, hey there was still a recession in effect when this was filmed. Normally this sort of tidbit means that at least one of the teams will mismanage their funds and have to sell their souls to the Devil in order to pay for their taxi ride. Sadly this did not happen last night.
Once in Prague they have to find a perve in a Praga in order to get their next clue. With many hours at the airport doing nothing buy waiting for the ticket office to open you’d assume that all teams would figure out what a Praga is, they are searching for it afterall, but nooooo. Only Teams Aryan and Trash Talkin’ Trotters are that bright. Teams Brotherly Lovers and Zebra, content to literally ride the coattails of these teams do not. All four teams arrive in Prague, three take a taxi to the city center while Team Zebra who got some sweet insider information attempt to take a shuttle bus and then a subway because it’s going to be “faster.” Yes my pretties, two modes of transportation is always faster than one…
But what do I care I want them to be eliminated!
With the perve found the teams now head to either do some rope work or some kayaking (not sponsored by Kayak because TAR is bed with Travelocity). Teams Aryan and Trash Talkin’ Trotters (aka “The Smart Ones”) choose the rope work while Team Brotherly Lovers choose the kayaking because they work so well as a team. Riiiiiiiiiiight. Team Zebra is has just hailed a cab, finally made it to the city center, and is looking for a Praga. Team Aryan struggles and finishes before any other team, but not before Team Trash Talkin’ Trotters’ “Flight Time” who upon being confronted for being slow by Cheyne decides to show him what slow really means. Meanwhile Team Brotherly Lovers finally figure out they’ll never get the kayaking right and switch tasks as Team Zebra arrives and smartly tells their cabbie to wait.
When is the best time to steal someone’s cab? When a million dollars is on the line and you will never have to confront the people from who you’ve stolen it because they will be eliminated!
All teams make it to some oddly-named Opera house in Prague. Once inside the teams have to find a miniature instrument and present it to some guy who sings his heart out. Later we see Team Zebra take so long at this task that there is even a cut-away to the guy eating a hamburger! This is another time I wish that a real-time clock was present on the screen.
Team Aryan is the first to find the minstrument (see what I did there?) and finish first. Ho hum.
Team Brotherly Lovers find one just before Team Trash Talkin’ Trotters do and the teams finish a close second / third again, this time sans elbowing.
Team Zebra finishes last. WOO HOO! I WIN!!!!! Huh, another non-elimination week? WTF? Dangen!
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – fat, mildly pleased
Current Music – last weekend’s “Sound Opinions” podcast
Website Of The Day – Did you notice my misuse of the apostrophe in the “Team Trash Talkin’ Trotters'” name? Want to learn the correct way to use apostrophes? Check out Apostrophe Me.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing of note
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check
Monthly
Foot Mileage – 4.5 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 8 (8)
Vegetarian Days – 4, Carnivorous Days – 18
Marta Rides – 0
November Goals
– Not get fired from my job
– Restart work on house, actually making progress this time (note: not successful during August, September, or October)
2009 Goals
– Reduce my weight to 190 pounds (today’s weight was 199.5 pounds)
– Completely read the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die
РEarn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Jalape̱o Beach SmugMug account I opened the other day.
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop
The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C (iPhone development) and Ruby on Rails (Black Sheep web page concept)
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
I picked Bromancers as the team to be eliminated this week…so confrused :(.
Is the next episode the finale or will there be another elimination round?
Because there was no elimination I assume that two episodes still remain.
I’m hoping the trash talkers win – I don’t know if they really make any money being globletrotters (so, do they need the money?), but I don’t care, they have been the most entertaining – so I’m on their bandwagon.
Mulberry Gap was nice, the bunkhouses very primitive (Michelle & Drew stayed in one), we ended up camping under the barn due to another family that was there with small kids, but it worked out best because when it rained Sunday morning, we got to clean up camp without getting wet! Food was good, it was nice to just show up & be fed. Bike riding on Saturday was awesome, rode parts of the Pinhoti trail – excellent trails. I think we will go back up there again.
Martha – I don’t know if there was any wi-fi service, so maybe it wasn’t the place for Jerry after all 😉
Unlike in previous seasons there is no team against whom I am rooting. I’ll be happy with any of the four teams winning this even though I not-so-secretly don’t care for Cheyne.