Tuesday, September 29, 2009

One less "Good Ole' Boy" in the network.

So I worked a little this morning and was home by noon. Heard some sirens but didn't think much about it. After all I do live between a police station, two fire stations and about a mile from the hospital. I hear sirens all the time.

Early afternoon: I noticed someone posted a status update saying they were praying for the speedy recovery of the Mayor Donald Walker. So I took a break from work (paperwork submission online) and looked online to see what happened. The mayor was shot, then the news changed to he shot himself and was in surgery.


Ten minutes after the "surgery" update came this news...



This suddenly became a real tragic big deal. The mayor who was up for re-election and for the first time in 15 years actually had a few serious competitors for his job was now dead. And nobody knows why he killed himself.

I'm thinking about all the negative things I said about the mayor and came to the resolution that while this city needed new political leadership, THIS WAS NOT THE WAY FOR IT TO HAPPEN. I felt that I should be respectful in my comments.

But then the sugarcoated evening news reports came about.

The 6:00 News including a few tibits you will NEVER see or hear in the local media...at least not for a while.


Watching the news and listening to local radio and the sugarcoating of King Donald Walker's political career from his friends in the good ole' boy network could be dangerous for a diabetic.

So I took a break from the evening news, allowed the political blood sugar level to get back into shape in time for the 10 and 11:00 news. And luckily I did not go into diabetic shock from the late night cream puff sweet stories about the Late almost great Mayor Donald Walker



I could go into deep details of my observations as a resident of Warner Robins Georgia for almost 15 years, the entire time of King Donald's reign. But there are two things to keep me from expressing my real true thoughts.

1. I met the mayor many times and as a person he was always courteous. And for that there is really no reason to slam the man at the time of his death. I did that enough while he was living. If you find my past comments about Donald Walker on MySpace or Facebook, that should suffice.

2. I am not really that much of a mean spirited asshole. And while I prefer to be the one offering painful honesty I don't feel like being that mean one today.

So Rest IN Peace Mayor Donald Walker. And may this city I live in continue to progress but in a way that abandons the good ole' boy 1950's mindset.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

The Amazing Race 15 Weekly Blog: Leaving ONE team behind.

Greetings everyone. The Emmy Award winning Amazing Race is back for season 15 and I am back with my weekly Amazing Race blog. Basically this weekly blog entry is a recap of what happened along with MY TOTALLY BIASED OPINION. I make no apologies for what I am going to say but I will try to be nicer than in past seasons.

If you are new to this “experience” then please allow me to explain how my weekly Amazing Race blogs work. I try to predict who will do what and I am usually wrong. Honestly, my “predictions” are more of a “hope” of what will happen. If I don’t like a team I am not likely to say nice things about them but I will be honest. I am not politically correct, I tend to have nicknames for some teams and I tend to have a dislike for arrogant teams, teams that constantly argue and teams that play dirty tricks. Sure you may have to play tricks in order to achieve in the game but it doesn’t always make it right and I will call that out. So if you are ready, I thank you in advance for sharing the discussion of The Amazing Race. Please feel free to share your opinions or differences in

Tonight was a two hour season premiere. And as usual for us east coast viewers, the starting time was delayed by a late running NFL Football game broadcast. These delays are annoying and are troublesome if you are recording the program to watch at a later time.

The contestants this year include the first inter-racial married couple and the usual “token” teams of Married couples, dating couples, engaged couples, the “older” couple, straight guy friend team, the straight female team, the parent-child team and one African-American team. Also for the first time since I started watching the show in 2005, there is no team that I would call the “blonde bimbo” team. I know that is not a nice thing for me to say but I am not politically correct and I tend to identify teams by what they are in appearance. The oldest contestant is 60, the youngest is 21 The casting for this show is predictable and they try to cover as many people and genres as possible as to not upset any group.

This season started in Los Angeles and a new twist was an elimination BEFORE the start of the race. Teams had to search among a thousand license plates along a fence for a license plate containing a specific Japanese symbol. Once teams found the correct plate they were given their plane tickets and selected a Mercedes Benz automobile to drive to LAX Airport for their flights to Tokyo Japan. There were only 12 sets of tickets and 13 teams and the last team to find the correct license plate was an engaged couple Lance and Keri so the first team to be eliminated was Eric & Lisa a married couple who are Yoga instructors in their early 40’s.

The teams were divided on flights leaving 30 minutes apart but the second flight caught up with the first. Once in Tokyo teams had to travel by taxi to a television studio where they were greeted by a cheering audience on a Japanese TV Game show called “Sushi Roulette” and the game required a team member to eat Sushi and a large portion of Wasabi within a 2 minute time limit. Some team members failed to finish eating within the time limit and had to repeat the task. Apparently the wasabi food was very spicy and a large portion that was difficult for some.

After eating the Wasabi “bomb” teams had to match their winning colored flag with that of a visor worn by audience members then they had to take the audience members with them through the crowded streets of Tokyo to a Shrine that would be the first “pit-stop” of the race. None of the audience members spoke English so the amazing racers had to find directions through other sources.

The first team to arrive at the pit-stop was MEGHAN & CHEYNE (Shane), a young dating couple who were childhood sweethearts now age 23. For being the first they won two vacation packages from Amazing Race sponsor Travelocity.

The rest of the arrivals at the first PIT-STOP were in the following order and this is where I would used some nicknames for their “token” descriptions representing on The Amazing Race.

SECOND: Zev & Justin, friends (The “straight guy” team) They are between 25 & 30 years old and the younger one has a medical condition that was described in their introduction to the program.

THIRD: Lance & Keri, an engaged couple from Massachusetts. He is 41 and she is 33. Lance appears to be one who will be very competitive with attitude.

FOURTH: Marcy & Ron, a dating couple who met on the internet. At age 60 and 59 respectively, they are the oldest team on the race this season.

FIFTH: Herbert & Nathaniel, who are Harlem Globetrotters basketball team members 28 and 32 years old going by the names “Flight time & Big Easy” and they are also THE all African-American (or Black) team on the race. You know they only have one.

SIXTH: Brian & Ericka, married couple from Tennessee and the first interracial married couple on The Amazing Race. They are both 27 and Ericka Dunlap was also Miss America 2004. Brian struggled while eating the Wasabi at the game show and they were the last team to leave the studio but surged past 6 other teams to make it to the pit-stop.

SEVENTH: Father and Son team Gary & Matt from Montana. Gary is 47 and Matt is a big boy with pink hair at age 22.

EIGHTH: Garrett & Jessica another dating couple and they are in their late 20’s and from California. They were delayed on their way to the pit-stop when one of the audience members in their group following to the pit-stop had to use the restroom.

NINTH: Sam & Dan, THE Gay Team and they are brothers from the Midwest and both of them came out gay to each other. I think this is the first “gay brothers” team on The Amazing Race but there have been gay team members on most seasons of the show with one team of gay men winning the race. They were the former gay couple “Reichen & Chip”, both of whom have had some fame after The Amazing Race.

TENTH: Mika & Canaan, dating couple from Tennessee. They nearly lost one of the 20 audience members of their group and had to backtrack to find the lone straggler before they could be officially checked in .

And the last team to arrive also lost some of their group. MARIA & TIFFANY were missing two of their audience members and for that along with being LAST to arrive at the pit-stop, they incurred a 2 hour time penalty. But this was an NON-ELIMINATION leg of the race which means Maria & Tiffany can continue but they will face an exclusive “speed bump” challenge in the next leg. The professional poker players and the only all-female team on this season will face a lot of challenges in the next leg.

And that was just the FIRST HOUR!

So after the pit-stop teams left between 12:19am and 3:22am for a flight from Tokyo to Vietnam. Most teams used hotels and internet cafés to book their flights while some went directly to the airport pressing their luck. The earliest flights didn’t leave until 10:30 in the morning and while it took a lot of begging, four teams who didn’t get their plane tickets in advance managed to get onto the flight.

With the second leg of the race we began to see who are the sneaky ones and who are the assholes on the race. And I quickly determined that Lance, the lawyer traveling with his fiancée’ Keri is an asshole and he seems proud of it. He said he was “cutthroat” in his opinions and he referred to Maria & Tiffany as “bastards” in saying they should have been sent home. I am likely to hope that it is Lance and his fiancee Keri “going home” as soon as possible. I can’t stand arrogant assholes on The Amazing Race.

So even with Maria & Tiffany’s time penalty, all teams were equalized by the flight schedule and arrived in Vietnam at the same time but they arrived in a rain flooded city with instructions to travel by bus to the city of Chi Bei. Teams were split onto different buses and arrived at their destination in the evening only to find it closed and all teams had to camp out for the night. In the morning teams had to ride a small boat to a muddy pit and collect mud in bowls then place the mud around the roots of a tree for fertilization. This was also the time of the first “speed bump” on the race in which the last place team Maria & Tiffany had to locate a soup vendor where they would have to order the ingredients for soup and then serve the food to a “Dock master” before continuing on the race. They easily completed their exclusive task.

So teams continued to place mud around the base of the trees by getting really down and dirty and muddy. About the only one who complained about the muddy situation was Lance. Some teams struggled to carry heavy bowls of mud to the trees but most did so with little complaints.

After the muddy task, teams returned by boat to the dock and were given instructions to perform the “roadblock” task of herding 150 ducks through a course and back into their pen within 10 minutes. If they failed to complete the task in the allowed time, they would have to wait for other teams to finish before making another attempt.

After completing the ducky “roadblock, teams had to race on foot to a riverboat for the next pit-stop. And the arrivals at the second pit-stop were as follows.

FIRST: Gary & Matt, the father and son team won a Kayak for being the first at the pit-stop

SECOND and THIRD: Herbert & Nathaniel and very closely behind them were the gay brothers Sam & Dan

FOURTH: Lance & Keri

FIFTH: Zev & Justin, and

SIXTH: Meghan & Cheyne

SEVENTH: Maria & Tiffany overcame their last place position and their extra task to arrive in 7th place.

The rest of the teams had to repeat the duck herding “roadblock”, some had to repeat more than once.

EIGTH: Mika & Canaan.

NINTH: Marcy & Ron

TENTH: Brian & Ericka

And the last to arrive was GARRETT & JESSICA and they were eliminated. They will join Eric & Lisa at the “Elimination Station” which is a hideaway location where they can relax on “vacation” until the other racers reach the finish line. They will have it better than the others for a couple weeks but they also won’t have a million dollars at the end.

And this folks was the first Amazing Race for this season. Like previous seasons I blog about what happened as I watch it. What you read here is my immediate impressions. At the end I predict which team will be eliminated and occasionally I will say why I feel they will be eliminated. Same for predicting the teams that make the final three and possibly the winner of The Amazing Race. And like I said in the beginning, it will be my biased and non politically correct opinion. Another way to put it, I am just another Amazing Race viewer with an opinion and access to express that opinion online as if it were important. I don’t take any of this seriously and I hope you’ll do the same and maybe even enjoy my weekly blogging about my favorite TV competition.

One last thing. I may post these very soon after watching. So if you are in the western time zones and are a fellow Amazing Race fan, you might want to hold off on reading my blog until AFTER you saw the show in your home area. Don’t want to spoil it for you.

See you next week, same Amazing Race blog time, same Amazing Race blog channel. Have a great week!

Sunday, September 06, 2009

Don't go out with your BUTT OUT!

One of my biggest pet-peeves is the trend of wearing one's pants or shorts low enough to show your underwear or worse. Some areas have tried to establish and enforce laws against this terrible fashion trend.

I am not one to want to tell anyone what to do on their private property but in this case I am exposing someone who really should be ashamed of himself.



Not only did this person walk out of his home wearing his shorts below his buttocks but his underwear was dark brown causing one to think at first that he really did go outside with his bare ass hanging out. His "drawz" were the same color as his own skin.

To make this vision worse was when this fool bent over at the trunk of his car, his undies riding up the buttcrack and again, we see way too much and NONE of it attractive at all.



Please people, PULL YOUR PANTS UP! Most of us don't want to see your booty!