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Sunday afternoon humor

2012-02-19T12:30:00.000-07:00

Survivor One World Episode 1 Spoiler Review

2012-02-15T19:00:00.000-07:00

It's the return of Survivor! The gimmick this year is that FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER the two tribes are living on the same beach. CBS decided to go with that for the hook rather than the "No returning Survivors from previous seasons!" line because that didn't focus group test too well.

(As an aside ... this show looks almost TOO good in HD. Not gritty enough.)

Tarzan and Troyzan immediately had a nickname dispute and ensuring that I'm going to hate typing both names until one is eliminated.

The game started with Jeff telling the tribes to take whatever they could from the truck, and the men stole a bunch of stuff from the girl's pile when they weren't looking. "Dirty cheaters" said the girls, already forgetting that they're playing a game for a million dollars.

There ARE hidden immunity idols but there is NOT a Redemption Island, so no second chances (Hooray!).

I just noticed the male tribe is called MANONO. Cue bad puns. The guys managed to take all the stuff but had to walk "100 miles" to their camp. The women immediately picked their alliances during their walk to camp.

The tribes arrived separately from opposite directions to their joint camp. They tribes quickly noticed that there were chickens left by the producers - I mean, running around. A chase ensued, complete with cheesy fiddle music overdub, and Chelsea caught two. Chickens. Not producers. Or men. The men argued they should share the chickens because everyone was chasing them and thought there was an agreement to share any chickens caught.

The men's tribe quickly identified Colton as the weak link on their team. Colton tried to ingratiate himself on the girls' team, but not all the girls wanted to trust him.

The guys had their fire lit first, and the girls tried to bargain starting a fire for a chicken. It quickly devolved into bargaining over getting naked and poll dancing. I'm not making this up. No deals were struck, however, probably to the great delight of CBS's censors. Of course, then they quickly cut to a night-time scene of girls walking around in their bras and panties. Not making that up either.

While the guys were sleeping, two of the girls snuck over and stole a big ember from the guys' fire. The girls did get a fire going, but it went out. So Christina cut a deal involving weaving palm fronds in exchange for fire.

One of the women (what, you expect me to know EVERY NAME!?) found a hidden immunity idol but it was for MAN! OH! NO! and so she told Colton it might go to him. (OK, I looked it up. It was Sabrina.)

During the first immunity challenge, Kourtney badly injured her wrist and medical took her for X-rays. Jeff said that because the women couldn't finish the challenge, the men had the choice of taking the win and sending the women to Tribal Council or waiting on the results of the x-rays and re-doing the challenge later. The guys took the win and the women were shocked - SHOCKED! - that the men had decided to, you know, TAKE THE OBVIOUS WIN! Good grief, some people forget that this is a competition.

Sabrina gave Colton the hidden immunity idol. Colton made a Taylor Swift reference.

At Tribal Council, about half the girls ended up talking over each other for what seemed like hours while Jeff sat there looking bemused. It ended in a "SHUT UP!" "REALLY!? "REALLY!" Grade 4, everyone. Jeff said that the girls camp was "nutsville". Yup, he did. Kourtney ended up with multiple fractures in her wrist so she is gone from the game, which meant no one else would be eliminated. Jeff sent them back to camp basically warning them that there were 36 days left and they'd better get it together or they were doomed.

Next week: The women's tribe melts down, and Colton annoys everyone.

Mini Music Review: Worth Dying For "Live Riot"

2012-02-13T05:00:00.000-07:00

It's albums like this that make me appreciate the great work that the folks at New Release Tuesday do to secure free streams of new releases. In a million years, I never would have taken a second glance at Worth Dying For's "Live Riot" album. I've never heard of them before, I had no idea what kind of music it was...

But the free music streams give me a chance to sample new music risk-free, and boy, in this case, was it ever worth it. Worth Dying For is a rock-worship band from California, and this is nearly 90 minutes of fantastic, original, energetic and creative worship music, recorded live at a youth pastor's conference. One listen through was all I needed to make the decision to buy this album (18 tracks and a bunch of videos for only $12!). Great stuff!

Sunday afternoon humor

2012-02-12T12:30:00.000-07:00

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Sunday afternoon humor

2012-02-05T12:07:00.000-07:00

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Review: The Kingdom by Starfield

2012-02-04T11:17:00.000-07:00

Although I'm a big Starfield fan, I didn't rush out this past Tuesday to buy the band's new independent release "The Kingdom". That was mainly due to the fact I was not a big fan of the title track, which to me was such a non-Starfield song that I reacted fairly negatively to it.

My impression of the song didn't improve when I heard the band in concert last weekend at Break Forth. Curiously, that was the only song they played from the new album, which also didn't bolster my confidence that the new album was any good.

Given all that, I was a bit reluctant to drop $10 on the album (even if New Release Tuesday gave it five stars and raved about the album's greatness.)

Fortunately, the band put the entire album up on YouTube to listen to for free. Good thing, too, because it is, in fact, a really fantastic album that I immediately purchased. Heck, even the title track sounds better on the album than it did in concert. (I'm still not a huge fan of the song - although it is ridiculously catchy and I suspect will be a monster hit at youth rallies.)

I'm still undecided as to whether there is a song on this album as tremendous and anthemic as "Reign in Us", "Son of God" or "The Saving One." But that doesn't detract from some well-crafted, singable worship songs and a couple of really grinding rockers that I really like. At the moment, I think my favorite song on the album is Light of the World. My overall impression of The Kingdom is similar to Downhere's Altar of Love: this is an album that has to be experienced as the overall whole, and not just individual songs.

So if you're undecided on this one, spend 45 minutes listening to it on YouTube and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

RunKeeper - January stats

2012-01-31T19:00:00.000-07:00

Assuming I've done my math right, I ran, walked and cycled 302.3 km in January (that's about 187 miles). Well on my way to my new goal of 2,000 km this year that I'm doing with my RunKeeper buddies.

I'm betting February won't be anywhere near close to that.

Downhere performs Somebody to Love live in Edmonton

2012-01-30T15:54:00.000-07:00

The highlight of the Downhere show last night - Marc Martel's incredible rendition of Somebody to Love by Queen. I had a smile on my face for the entire song.

Break Forth: Downhere, Starfield and Third Day

2012-01-29T22:09:00.001-07:00

Two of my three favorite bands performed tonight at Breakforth in Edmonton. (Hey, Third Day is great. Just not in my top 3.)

Downhere did a Marc Martel heavy set due to the absence of Jason Germain, whose wife is due with their first child. The fill in vocalist, Jeffrey (?) did an admirable job. But it was a set to show off Marc's voice and songs in which he has lead vocals. And they did Somebody to Love, which was awesome! Love this band so much.

Starfield did their usual greatest hits set, which was their usual fantastic. We do a lot of their songs in out worship band and I really respect and admire these guys. That said, I'm sorry, but I'm not feeling their new song, The Kingdom.

Third Day was LOUD. It was my first time seeing them live and they were GREAT!

So, thumbs up for a fantastic evening.

Sunday afternoon humor

2012-01-29T13:36:00.000-07:00

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Edmonton Oilers - Not in last place, but still terrible

2012-01-22T13:00:00.000-07:00

I haven't done one of these in a long time, but given the proliferation of wailing and gnashing of teeth in my Twitter feed this morning over the woeful state of Edmonton's hockey team, the only good thing anyone can say about the Oilers these days is, "Wow, it's a good thing Columbus REALLY sucks."

My beloved Jets, you'll note, are doing considerably better by comparison.

Sunday afternoon humor

2012-01-22T12:05:00.000-07:00

The history major in me loves this:
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Sunday afternoon humor

2012-01-15T12:02:00.000-07:00

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Where to watch UFC 142 in Edmonton and Calgary

2012-01-13T21:30:00.000-07:00

There's a UFC PPV this weekend, and it's not going to do a whole lot of business because neither Jose Aldo nor Chad Mendes is anywhere near a drawing card.

And I'd hook you up with the usual Canadastar list of bars, but as of Friday afternoon, the new website is under construction.

Plus, the semi-main event may be cancelled, live on PPV.

Which really makes this post kind of useless, doesn't it?

Sunday afternoon humor

2012-01-08T13:30:00.000-07:00

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

Nifty new Twitter option - the embedded tweet

2012-01-05T20:00:00.000-07:00

It's Jan. 5, and it's pouring rain outside.
— Mike Jenkinson (@MikeJenkinson) January 5, 2012

Delivery guy came yesterday with package. No one home. Left slip saying would return "Friday." It's 6:39 p.m. Maybe he meant next Friday.
— Mike Jenkinson (@MikeJenkinson) January 7, 2012

Twitter has (quietly?) rolled out a cool little feature that allows users to embed tweets onto blogs and web pages. Click here for all the details from Twitter.

Sunday afternoon humor

2012-01-01T13:06:00.001-07:00

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2011: The Year in RunKeeper

2011-12-31T10:46:00.000-07:00

Here's my RunKeeper totals for the year - the sum of all my measured walking, running and cycling. For the non-metrically inclined, that's 846 miles. And for the non-calorie converting, that's 15 lbs. So, yeah, I'm pretty happy on the whole. If I have a 2012 new year's resolution, it would be to beat that total - try to get 1,500 km.

Where to watch UFC 141 in Edmonton and Calgary

2011-12-30T11:20:00.003-07:00

It's a rare Friday PPV for UFC, with Lesnar vs. Overeem capping off the year for the fighting group in what should be a fight of Hobbesian proportions: nasty, brutish and short. But in a good way.

So if you want to go see it in a bar, here's the link.

Sunday afternoon humor

2011-12-25T12:34:00.000-07:00

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Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T21:00:00.000-07:00

My favorite Christmas song this year:

Why does Amazon list 2 different prices for a Kindle book?

2011-12-23T21:30:00.000-07:00

The "Related Items" section of Amazon.com shows this for Tom Clancy's new book. It's clearly $12.99 for the Kindle edition.

Click through and you see this. The price has jumped to $18.04.

Anyone want to take a shot as to an explanation?

It's a Christmas miracle!

2011-12-22T17:28:00.001-07:00

BlogPress is finally updated!

EDIT: Well, maybe I spoke too soon. It still crashes every time I try to use the MANAGE tab.
SECOND EDIT: After a delete and reinstall of the app, it appears to be working perfectly now. Huzzah!

Survivor South Pacific Spoiler-filled Finale Review!

2011-12-18T20:40:00.000-07:00

It's the Survivor South Pacific finale! Treachery! Betrayal! Long boring walks remembering voted-out Survivors!

And, in case you haven't figured it out by now, this review contains SPOILERS. And, frankly, including that word in my title quadruples the number of views I get. So if you don't want to know who wins, you'd better head off here.

The final duel between Ozzy and Russell Hantz's Nephew was ... hanging on a pole. Guess the producers ran out of ideas. Russell Hantz's Nephew finally dropped off somewhere past the 40 minute mark. He's on the jury. Ozzy is back in the game.

Coach and Ozzy had a chat about the final three. Ozzy doesn't believe that Coach really wants Ozzy in the final three. Coach made a basketball analogy. Obviously, he's been watching Amazing Race. Coach also noted that everyone has promised him a spot in the final three, "So it's my game to lose." Well, he's doomed.

The first immunity challenge was some ridiculous one-handed house of cards building thing that barely had enough cards to complete the challenge. And you had to do it on a teeter-totter balanced with the other hand. It was ridiculously difficult. After what seemed like 80 years, Ozzy won immunity. And if that didn't annoy everyone else on the tribe, particularly Sophie.

Sophie had a meltdown at tribal council over having her character called into question. Apparently, she forgot which game she was playing. It was uncomfortable at times, honestly.

Coach wore his hidden immunity idol, as this was the last tribal council in which he could play it. And then he didn't play it. HA! Tremendous. And, of course, he didn't get a single vote.

Someone named "Rick" was voted out. Dunno who that is.

Ozzy says his Plan B is to win. As opposed to his Plan A, which is to win. Um ... yeah.

Coach got annoyed at Ozzy for spilling the beans at tribal council for saying Coach would take him to the final three. Ozzy defended it as having something to do with having his heart broken by people's lack of trust or something and Coach bought it.

The final immunity challenge was an obstacle course puzzle race. Sophie won the final immunity. Ozzy said a bad word.

Ozzy gave Coach the big guilt trip about Coach wanting to take Ozzy to the final three.

At tribal council, Ozzy pitched for a tie vote so he'd have a fighting chance in a fire-making challenge tie-breaker. Alas, it was not to be. Ozzy got voted out. OK, if Coach doesn't win this now, it's gonna be an absolute crime and the entire season will have been a giant waste of time.

I mean, the final three are ALBERT, SOPHIE and Coach. Really now.

Sigh. Let's just cut to the chase. The winner of Survivor South Pacific is:

Sophie.

Ugh.

Sunday afternoon humor

2011-12-18T15:28:00.001-07:00

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