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I hope everyone had a great Christmas. I sure did. In an earlier post, I wrote about my Christmas wish list, well I got 2 of those things and of course quite a few things I never even knew existed but I am quite excited about. I got a digital camera so now I can take pictures of my own for this blog. I also got Sim City Societies which I haven't played yet, but I'm going to soon. I got the Deal or No Deal Electronic Banker Game. Deal or No Deal is one of my favorite game shows only behind 1 vs 100 so I was pretty excited when I got this game and I most certainly can't wait to play it. For Christmas dinner, I had penne pasta with Parmesan cheese (my family's Italian so I eat it a lot), stuffing, corn, rolls, apple pie, and of course eggnog. If you're wondering why I didn't have any meat, its because I'm a vegetarian. While I didn't get any Survivor buffs, I have enough money to buy them especially after opening a card with $50 in it. I can also buy the Wikinomics book with my $50 Barnes & Noble gift card. So all and I had an incredible Christmas.
On Sunday's episode of The Amazing Race 12, the teams took a ferry to Ancona, Italy and drove to Empoli, Italy where they had to choose between the roadblock or a Fast Forward. Nicolas/Donald were the only team that tried for the Fast Forward which involved getting a tattoo (yes I'm being serious).
Ok, a permanent tattoo but still its the easiest Fast Forward in the history of The Amazing Race. You could probably also get it removed for less than $1,000,000. In fact, the roadblock looked at least 5 times as hard as the Fast Forward. They should of just switched the roadblock and Fast Forward. The roadblock involved getting into a plane to find their next clue which was somewhere in a huge field. The clue was by the river and told the teams to go to Vinci, Italy which was the birthplace of Leonardo da Vinci. With Nicolas/Donald completing the Fast Forward they easily arrived in first place while TK/Rachel had lost a lot of time trying to find the clue. I'm not sure where TK's common sense is where it comes to these tasks as for if if I saw team after team leaving the field after flying over the river, I would of easily figured out its by the river. At the detour, the teams had to choose between solving a puzzle related to one of Leonardo da Vinci's inventions or performing a traditional flag ceremony. I would of picked the flag ceremony hands down because I could do that in 5 minutes, but it might take me 5 hours to figure out the Da Vinci puzzle. Knyt/Vysxin kept arguing about who should be drive and they fell to last place at the Boboli Gardens pit stop in Florence, Italy. Unfortunately, the producers planned this leg out to be a non-elimination leg and that mean the Goths who annoy me by trying to be Gothic hippies will continue to do so next week. I call them Gothic hippies because I think they're trying unsuccessfully to imitate BJ/Tyler from Season 9 which was my favorite team in the history of The Amazing Race. They do have a penalty for coming in last place, but it changed again. Instead of the 30 minute time penalty (unless a team comes in 1st in the next leg), they get speed bumped which means they'll have to complete a special non-elimination task that obviously only they will have to do.
My Christmas Spirit gets bigger and bigger with each day that gets closer to Christmas on December 25, 2007. Now that its only 3 days away, I've written a poem about Christmas Trees that I'm going to to say before I open my presents on Christmas Day. If you like my poem feel free to use it for your Christmas celebrations as well.
ornaments
hanging from the tree
glistening
sparkling
delicious food
eggnog and gingerbread
carols
singing joyfully
I'm excited my favorite holiday
is coming up
merry cheerful
being with family
love and travel
Christmas Tree Poem by
realitytvetc.blogspot.com/2007/12/christmas-tree-poem.html is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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On Sunday's season finale of Survivor China, the castaways competed for pizza, soda, and beer. In order to win this reward, the castaways had to build a miniature version of the Great Wall which involved building and crossing a bridge, digging for wall (puzzle) pieces, climbing a tower, and assembling the pieces correctly. Amanda Kimmel's puzzle solving skills won her the pizza, soda, and beer which she shared with Todd Herzog. That move alone changed my views of Amanda from smart to genius. Amanda Kimmel gets yet another chance to come up with more cunning ideas and get Todd to carry them out for her. Additonally, in most of the immunity challenges Amanda Kimmel has performed better than Todd Herzog which would give her the biggest advantage assuming Amanda Kimmel and Todd Herzog ate the same portions. I would of loved to win that reward because pizza is my favorite food and soda is my favorite drink. I wouldn't have any beer because I'm only 16 and even if I was 21 I still wouldn't drink it because I'm strongly against alcohol. The final immunity challenge required the castaways to balance delicate Chinese dinnerware on a disk. If any piece dropped, the castaway who was holding it was out of the challenge. Amanda Kimmel's clever strategy to put the dinnerware upside down making the dinnerware sturdier won her immunity and a guaranteed spot in the final 3. Before the final immunity challenge was revealed I was hoping they would be hanging from the Great Wall. That would of been an awesome challenge to watch. At tribal council, Denise Martin was easily voted out 3:1. The final 3 which consisted of Amanda Kimmel, Courtney Yates, and Todd Herzog went back to camp for the last time to have a Day 39 feast and tore down the Hae Da Fung Camp. At their final tribal council, the jury voted for Todd Herzog to become Sole Survivor and win the $1,000,000 grand prize 4:2:1 with Amanda Kimmel receiving only 1 vote from the jury. What a shame that was, Amanda Kimmel who clearly played a smarter game didn't win the title of sole survivor because the jury didn't know everything that actually went on between Amanda Kimmel and Todd Herzog. I'm almost certain that if the jury voted live (the votes are already read live to prevent spoilers) that Amanda Kimmel would of won hands down. Despite of the finale disappointment, Survivor China was still an incredible season.
I am very excited about Christmas which is my favorite holiday on December 25, 2007. After all its only 9 days away. In the order of how badly I want these things (I want them all very badly however) My Christmas list includes:
1) Digital Camera - all the pictures you see on this blog currently come from the internet and it can be a very tedious and long task to see if they're ok to use here
2) Survivor Buffs - what a perfect way to show some tribal spirit for my favorite tribes
3) Sim City Societies - I really enjoy playing the Sim City series and each game keeps getting more addictive, while I also enjoy playing The Sims series, I have all the expansion packs for both The Sims 1 & 2 including The Sims 2 Bon Voyage
4) Wikinomics - a book about how wikis like Wikipedia (an incredible site you should most certainly check out if you haven't already) and other forms of mass collaboration are affecting not just how we get information but also the world economy, definitely sounds like an interesting read to me
Regardless of what I get, I can't wait for Christmas just so I can be with my family.
On last Sunday's episode of The Amazing Race 12, the teams went to Dubrovnik, Croatia. At the airport Jennifer melted down when she couldn't get on the 1st flight which turned out to be delayed while Azaria/Hendeka mistakenly purchased business class tickets for their flight to Croatia which are prohibited by The Amazing Race. Teams can only use business class tickets if the airline upgrades them to it at the exact same price that economy class would of cost (teams must always pay economy price for airline tickets). At the roadblock, the teams had to find 1 of 8 bricks that would fit into Dubrovnik's walls out of 150 bricks. The roadblock was so easy that all the teams moved fairly quickly with it. The teams then had to zip line across the city's coast before they could receive their next clue. At the detour, teams had to choose between a combination of short physical exercise (rope climbing up the wall's tower) and navigating Dubrovnik's streets for a relatively long distance to find their next clue, or a combination of long physical exercise (rowing a boat along the Dubrovnik's city walls until they reached the harbor and navigating Dubrovnik's streets for a relatively short distance to find their next clue. The teams than had to travel to Stone Cross which was the pit stop for this leg of The Amazing Race. Ronald/Christina's incredible teamwork got them to 1st place. Jennifer/Nathan couldn't find a taxi and took an ordinary driver to the pit stop which only made them go back and find a taxi to take them back to Stone Cross and fell from 2nd to 3rd place. Azaria/Hendeka's airport dilemma got them eliminated from The Amazing Race.
Another 2 episodes of Survivor China have gone by. On the episode that aired on December 6, 2007, the castaways competed with a loved one for a chance to go on a boat trip and be able to talk to their families back home on a Sprint cell phone. The challenge required that the blindfolded castaways and loved ones find each other and then reach the center of the maze still blindfolded together. Denise and her husband won the reward and Denise decided to take Todd and Amanda along with her on the boat trip. On the boat trip, the castaways ate comfort food and Denise got her phone call from home. Back at camp, some castaways were thinking that Todd made up his sister's miscarriage so he could gain sympathy to win the reward challenge. I don't think Todd is the next Johnny Dalton (from Survivor Pearl Islands). After all, his sister was the one who mentioned the miscarriage while Johnny Dalton was the one who mentioned his grandmother's death who is still alive as of today. The immunity challenge required the castaways to run through a swamp and up a mountain which had 2 boxes with statements about Chinese history. Obviously, one of them was true and the other was false. The castaways had to use a key to try to unlock a third box which had 2 different keyholes (1 for each possible answer), if they got it right they could move on to the next set of trivia boxes through another swamp and mountain. If they got it wrong, they had to go back down the mountain and through the swamp again and then return to the mountaintop to open the box with the correct keyhole. The 1st castaway to successfully open all 3 locked boxes with their keys would win immunity. At the end of this grueling challenge, Peih - Gee won immunity assuring her an extra week in China so she could continue to beg the other castaways to keep her (which can get very annoying). At tribal council, Erik was was obviously voted out 4:2 because he was the only Zhan Hu member without immunity.
On Thursday's episode of Survivor China, the castaways competed for a trip to the Great Wall of China. The challenge required the castaways to shoot an arrow onto a checkerboard with each square having a castaway's name on it (each castaway had 5 squares). Each time an arrow landed on a square the castaway whose name was on that square would gain 1 point regardless of who shot the arrow. Each castaway received 4 arrows which they had to give to another castaway. Peih - Gee received 1 arrow, Todd received 2 arrows, Amanda also received 2 arrows, Denise received 3 arrows, and Courtney received 12 arrows. Denise won the reward challenge thanks to Courtney and took Courtney and Todd along with her to see the Great Wall of China. I would really like to see the Great Wall of China in person one day. The immunity challenge was a combination of previous challenges. The challenges that were partially repeated in this episode were the dartboard challenge from episode 10, the delicacy challenge from episode 6, the ball drumming challenge from episode 9, and finally the disk chopping and puzzle challenge from episode 3. Amanda won the marathon of previous challenges and won herself immunity. At tribal council, Peih - Gee was finally voted out 4:1.
Don't forget the 3 hour season finale of Survivor China airs today at 8:00 PM on CBS. I'll be rooting for Amanda to win Survivor China's $1,000,000 prize because she's the smartest player this season. She came up with a successful plan to blindsight James who had both of the 2 hidden immunity idols at the 10th tribal council. She stuck to her alliance with Todd and Courtney, but she wasn't afraid to sway from it if something that would advance her further came along (although that never happened). Fianlly, she defeated Peih - Gee in the most recent immunity challenge which in turn sent Peih - Gee to the jury.
My favorite board game to play with my friends is Monopoly. In case you never played, the goal is to bankrupt your opponents. The rules are in every Monopoly box. Though honestly, my friends and I don't play exactly by the rules as for we have a $500 Free Parking Jackpot, and we let ourselves collect $400 when we land directly on Go (just passing we get the normal $200). A few good strategies I like to use are; always build up to hotel level on the jail properties which consist of the pink and orange groups, as well as the cheap properties which consist of the purple and light blue property groups. Additionally, never build on the dark blue properties they cost a lot of money to build on and they never pay off. Honestly, I don't really buy those dark blue properties in the first place unless I can get them at auction for a considerably cheaper price. Finally, the red, yellow, and green properties in most cases should get 3 houses, unless you don't own a jail monopoly or a cheap monopoly then you want a hotel on those properties. Regarding Jail, always roll for doubles to get out of jail unless you obviously have the Get Out of Jail free card or if you could complete a jail monopoly if you paid the $50. So, what are you waiting for? Enjoy some good old Monopoly!
Thursday's episode of Survivor China started at tribal council as Jeff Probst told the castaways to they had more business to attend to at tribal council so they didn't go back to camp. At first, I thought they would be voting another person off (similar to Survivor Cook Islands where Rarotonga voted off Rebecca and then Jenny at the same tribal council due to a bottled message). It actually turned out to be a reward challenge which was a big relief because Peih - Gee still had immunity and I hate Peih - Gee because she's very annoying when it comes to basically everything. Additionally, she kept Jean - Robert in the game who was so lazy for a few extra weeks (he was finally voted off on the November 8, 2007 episode). The castaways then had to answer trivia questions about Chinese culture for a trip to the Shaolin Temple. I really liked the questions especially the last one about the red envelope. I would of thought it would be a death notice as for red reminds of blood, but it was shockingly a gift of cash. Honestly, when I associate the color red with a financial term its usually debt. Cash reminds of a different color, green. Though yet again, I have no idea what Chinese money looks like and it very well may be red. Oh yeah, Peih - Gee won the reward and selected Erik and Denise to go to the Shaolin Temple with her. At the immunity challenge with involved throwing pointed stars at targets, Peih Gee got 0 points and to make things even sweeter Erik (the only other remaining Zhan Hu member) won immunity. At tribal council, James decided to not use one of his 2 immunity idols and he was voted off by a 5:1:1 vote. By the way if he did use an idol, it would of been a tie between Todd and Peih - Gee. Even though I hate Peih - Gee, I'm actually happy James was voted off as he could of easily detected Amanda's plan to blindsight him if he was more alert which is something you should always be when playing Survivor.
Well first of all I'm sorry that this came almost 3 months after the Big Brother 8 finale aired on September 18, 2007, but I'm regaining interest in my blog now and hopefully this won't happen again. Basically, Big Brother 8 started at the jury house with the jurors discussing which Donato should win the $500,000 grand prize. Honestly as I already said, I couldn't care less which Donato won Big Brother 8 because they're both morons. I watched the finale for 4 main reasons, 1) my reality TV addiction, 2) the Chenbot, 3) the jury's thoughts on how bad the Donatos were,. and 4) Jessica's reaction to her boyfriend turning out to be America's Player. In the end, Dick Donato beat his daughter Daniele to win Big Brother 8 and the $500,000 grand prize by a 5:2 vote. Jameka and Jen voted for Daniele, while the rest of the jury voted for Dick.
I hope everyone had a great Christmas. I sure did. In an earlier post, I wrote about my Christmas wish list, well I got 2 of those things and of course quite a few things I never even knew existed but I am quite excited about. I got a digital camera so now I can take pictures of my own for this blog. I also got Sim City Societies which I haven't played yet, but I'm going to soon. I got the Deal or No Deal Electronic Banker Game. Deal or No Deal is one of my favorite game shows only behind 1 vs 100 so I was pretty excited when I got this game and I most certainly can't wait to play it. For Christmas dinner, I had penne pasta with Parmesan cheese (my family's Italian so I eat it a lot), stuffing, corn, rolls, apple pie, and of course eggnog. If you're wondering why I didn't have any meat, its because I'm a vegetarian. While I didn't get any Survivor buffs, I have enough money to buy them especially after opening a card with $50 in it. I can also buy the Wikinomics book with my $50 Barnes & Noble gift card. So all and I had an incredible Christmas.
