Mad Gab

Awe Haze Could Furl Half,
Know Won Candy Nigh Yet,
You Says Dye Erected.

(See comments for Mad Gab-ese translation).

Martha Stewart and Sports Psychology

2004 has been a good year for new appreciations. I have new found respect for Martha Stewart and for sports psychology this year, both of which in January of this year I would have laughed at.

Amazing Race 6 - Episode VI

This post is to be continued...

...it continues down here. Last night's episode had no end! The teams ran around Germany, then onto Hungary, they bungie catapolted, then lugged cannon balls around. The best were the awesome little cars they had to drive while in Hungary. 2 of the cars died while being driven so the producers had backup cars for them (after some waiting). Jonathan continued his verbal attack on Victoria, thankfully we didn't witness any physical abuse this week. Jonathan got so obnoxious that a cab driver kicked he and Victoria out of the cab. Brilliant editing during that scene. It cut back and forth between Jonathan yelling at the cab driver to drive faster, and Gus and Hera sitting calmly in their cab enjoying the sites and commenting on the amazing rich history around them. Gus and Hera's cab ended up beating Jonathan and Victoria's double cab effort. Classic. To no avail however, the producers have all the teams waiting for an e-cafe to open at some crazy hour. (All the teams except Lori and Bolo. Their car broke down and they had to wait Forever before they got a replacement. So, they missed the last train headed to the town where the e-cafe is). The episode ended as a "to be continued..." with all the other teams waiting for the e-cafe to open, and Lori and Bolo sleeping on a bench at the train station waiting for the morning train.

Here's what I hope the "to be continued..." means. First, I hope that means that nobody in the show gets hurt and needs to exit the show later in the season, thus making an elimination round later on unnecessary. (Except for Jonathan maybe. I'd be okay if something solid, compact and heavy fell on him and crushed him. Like Bolo perhaps). What I really hope for is that at some point Victoria realizes Jonathan is just not worth putting up with in the race and in her marriage, and she takes the opportunity to bust out of her situation, turn to Jonathan and say "Finito!" (as the cab driver did). A drama like that would make a non-elimination round unnecessary, and might require stretching out an episode somewhere in the season to make up for it. Here's hoping.

...and from our Irish correspondent...

I received a surprise package at work today from our Irish correspondent containing not only a card, but also some journal article reprints (very clever addition to the package I might add) and some Cadbury chocolates (the over-seas kind, not the USA waxy kind. There is a world of difference). Considering it is the Christmas season, I shall quote a segment of her card and count that as my seasonal message:

"...and Christmas is meant to be about meeting friends and family (as well as the obvious God and birth of Christ event)."

Indeed. May we all enjoy the Christmas season for both the social and the obvious reasons. Merry Christmas!

Let there be light

Background to story:
There are three main lights in my apartment, one of those lights is a super-duper sun-lamp and the other two are very bright fluorescent lamps. The apartment complex had some electrical issues in the past month, and the two fluorescent lamps blew their bulbs. I went to Wal-Mart to get a new lamp, came home, assembled the lamp, and then discovered that due to deceptive marketing, I had actually bought a traditional lamp, not a fluorescent lamp. (Traditional lamps do not throw enough light for this apartment). Disappointed, I disassembled the lamp and it now sits next to the front door waiting for me to find the energy to take it back and exchanged it for the real deal. I haven't found the energy yet because I have had a bad cold which has now turned into a sinus infection. So, for the last few weeks I've been down to just the sun-lamp in the living room area. I went to the doctors a few days ago and got some antibiotics for the sinus infection. Yesterday, after sitting by my sun-lamp for hours talking with sig. ot. on the phone, it was time to take another antibiotic.
Punchline of the story:
I noticed a red sticker on the side of my antibiotic bottle that reads "YOU SHOULD AVOID PROLONGED OR EXCESSIVE EXPOSURE TO DIRECT AND/OR ARTIFICIAL SUNLIGHT WHILE TAKING THIS MEDICATION."

I immediately turned the sun-lamp off.

Approaching the end of an era - Australian schools might end RI

"RI" is something I cherished as a kid in the Australian school system. "RI" stands for Religious Instruction. It might shock many United States residents to know that in a majority of Australian public primary schools, an hour every week is set aside for RI. The way it worked at the schools I went to was that during that hour, the students headed off to whichever classroom was offering the religious instruction of their choice. The major religions of the community were represented, of which my faith was not one, so I would attend with my friends and had good experiences being exposed to other faiths. In grade 6 I discovered that my friend Jeffrey Tsong's faith (an eastern religion which I don't precisely recall) wasn't represented either (for at the time only Catholic, Protestant and Jewish faiths were being taught) so the teachers let him just roam the school for the hour since he didn't want to attend any of the other classes. I started hanging out with Jeffrey during that hour and we would play four-square hand-ball or stomp during RI. Good times, good times. Well, now it looks like RIs days are numbered in Australia. Sad times, sad times.

Amazing Race 6 - Episode V and Spousal Abuse

I will be writing a strongly worded letter to CBS today to complain about their choice to cast Jonathan and Victoria on the show. Reality shows cast 'dynamic' people and couples for their shows thinking that the sparks and firework relationships we see will make for better entertainment. Well, they've crossed the line with Jonathan's abuse of Victoria. My sister and I were both sickened by this episode, and it took me two hours to get to sleep after having been so disturbed. This is not entertainment. According to the show's website:

...Jonathan warned [Victoria], "If another Team beats us, I'm going to lose it." Pulling into the parking area at the same time as Freddy & Kendra, Jonathan & Victoria dashed from their car, taking the early lead in the footrace to the Brandenburg Gate. Soon, however, Jonathan's pack proved too heavy a burden, and he opted to ditch it on the street. Fearing the bag would be stolen, a frantic Victoria screamed, "No! They're going to take it, " and carried both their packs as Freddy & Kendra passed them. Furious, Jonathan ripped his bag from Victoria's shoulder, screaming, "Why did you pick up my bag? Why?"
As Jonathan & Victoria continued to quarrel, Freddy & Kendra stepped onto the mat in first place...Just before stepping onto the mat in second place, Jonathan continued his attack on Victoria, shoving her and shouting, "How could you do that?" After being checked in by Phil, Victoria walked off the mat crying, to which Jonathan remarked, "She has to live with her choices."

Victoria was hysterical in her sobbing during the run to the finish line, probably knowing what she was going to cop from her husband once they got there. Jonathan's "shove" was intended to physically hurt and emotionally humiliate, and if Victoria was emotionally well enough and not in a battered-wife syndrome state, she would probably have him up on assault charges for the outburst. Yes, I know spousal abuse is a reality for many, many women and some men, but I do not think it is a good idea to consider that 'dynamic' as entertainment on a reality show. There needs to be boundaries as to the type of people cast. We should not reward abusers with a shot at a million dollars because their relationship is so 'dynamic.' Have some class CBS.

That's all I'm going to say about this week's episode. If you want to know more you'll have to go to their website. I have a letter to write.

Cutting edge research

Marital termination may adversely affect health and dietary behaviours among men.

This is a recent finding published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health by researchers at Harvard University. Basically, men stopped eating their vegetables once there isn't a woman around to cook them. (That's US tax dollars hard at work to determine this).

I much prefer how an Australian news paper summarized the findings. Their headline is "Married men happy to have a gutful." Very clever.

...and from our Irish correspondent...

I have a couple of friends who live in Ireland. I am about 1/3 Irish by blood, but have yet to visit the country. One of those friends, Judith, is also a scientist and I have already quoted her in a previous post. If she is okay with it, I am electing to make her this blog's official Irish correspondent. That is, unless instructed by her not to, I intend to randomly include snippets of her occasional emails that I find particularly amusing. There just seems to be an Irish twist to her experiences and comments that I find funny. Understated, but very, very funny. Who knows, this blog might turn into an international mix of random comments. Kind of like Seinfeld, only a blog, and more international...

So our Irish correspondent sent me an email this week requesting my snail mail address. Her reason for this request is as follows:
"Today is the last day for sending mail to USA so that it arrives before Christmas. Well tomorrow actually is, but An Post (the irish postal service) is going on strike tomorrow."

Kalani's Advice Column

I have been rather sick with a bad cold for the past four days and have not slowed down. This morning Lan gave me some valuable advice:
"Park your @r$e in front of the mick all day." [mick = TV]
Which is exactly what I have done. Thank you Kalani.

Andrei Illarionov speaks out against the Kyoto protocol

Andrei Illarionov is chief economic adviser to the president of the Russian Federation. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Russian authorities.

My driving force for desiring cleaner energy forms? Other than helping the environment in microscopically small ways, because it's just cool. Check this out.

Amazing Race 6 - Episode IV

In what turned out to be a non-elimination round (saving the old couple from being booted), Gus took his shirt off again. This time he had it off for quite a while, including during a cab ride. I've called my therapist and have scheduled an emergency 50 minute hour tomorrow morning. In the mean time I am to focus on my positive feelings towards Gus, including how I think he and Hera work great as a team and seem to be doing rather well as far as interpersonal relationship skills.

Kris and Jon came in first and did very well. We like them. Abusive husband (Jonathan) revealed his softer side towards kids, and his wife (Victoria) showed amazing naivete by commenting that he would make a great father. It is called Amazing Race after all.

Africa proved to be as much fun as it has been in the past, with cab drivers stalking and harassing the teams after dropping them off to get more money out of them. And to top it off we learn that Hell-Boy's mommy has just recently stopped cutting his toe nails for him. If this is not a concern to you, then please follow this link and focus on "Stage 2:Toddler - Age 1 to 2."

Overall not a thrilling episode but an enjoyable one.

Weekend Chicago Pics are up

Kalani and I went to Chicago this past weekend. The highlights of our trip can be found here.

The perils of changing your name

And to think, I nearly changed my name to this when I was given the chance earlier this year! (When becoming a new US citizen, you are given the option of changing your name for free). Close call, it now looks as if I would have had endless trouble booking airline tickets!

I wonder how this person is doing with her name change. Rumor has it that ever since shooting to fame after her name change, GoVeg has only been dating the Hollywood crowd. Typical. At the premier of "Supersize Me", GoVeg was seen with this hot number. But only a few short weeks later, at the premier of "Fahrenheit 392: The Temperature at Which Cucumbers Burn," GoVeg was seen snuggling up to the films star and producer, Larry. Scandalous!

Amazing Race 6 - Episodes II & III

Episode III – Well, if I had to go out, I’d rather leave the game being significantly behind due to just bad luck than any other close-but-not-quite way. Lena & Kristy were eliminated after 8 unsuccessful hours of Lena unrolling about 100 hay bails looking for the clue. Phil (the host) finally came down to the challenge and told them they were eliminated. Way to not give up ladies. They never once fought and always kept their cool. Go Mormon sisters! [The worst way to leave the game would be like Andre & Damon did in season 3 episode 7. (A New York cop and fireman, who just never picked up the pace, always lagged behind, and proved their lack of, I don’t know, something, when they fell asleep on a train to Innsbruck, and slept right through their stop and woke up miles past their destination. Not to knock New York, because I love the place, but New Yorkers just don’t seem to do so well on this show. I don’t know what it is. If any body else does, please let me know].

Oh, and a note on Jonathan, the abusive husband. Let's add physically abusive to his list of both verbal and emotional abuse. Did anybody else notice that he raised his arm against his wife as if to hit her during a moment of one of his panic attacks? If a person does that in front of the camera, what do they do off camera? Does Earl need to die?

Episode II – Hell Boy (Adam) proves that he’s “Mommy’s little hell boy” and Meredith and Maria (eliminated) confirm that they never should have made it onto the show. Kick it into gear ladies, literally! Gus (of Gus and Hera) is warming on me. He didn’t take his shirt off in this episode, so the healing has begun. Overall, a good show.

'ET' Nutri-Grain piece sells for $1035 (Aus)

Classic

I am allergic to apple skins

I used to eat an apple a day during lunch, and then a couple of years ago I started noticing that after lunch my lips would get itchy. It got worse and worse, so one day I went to the bathroom to take a look at my lips after having eaten an apple, and to my amazement they were swollen. Interested as to when my allergy started, I decided to look through a bunch of my digital pictures over the last 4 years since I got my digital camera, trying to remember exactly when, if ever, I had eaten an apple before having my photo taken. Amazingly enough, I found these two pictures (below). The one on the left shows me posing in front of the camera at an airport. I remember that for no particular reason, I stepped aside, ate an apple, and then had my Mum take the same angle of picture (centre pic). See if you can’t tell the difference between the two pictures. Amazing isn’t it?! The picture on the right is a shot of Angelina Jolie I found on the web. I am now convinced that this actress eats an apple before every film or photo shoot. The coincidence is just too uncanny.


(Story inspired by an experience over Thanksgiving).