I called it!
I’ve learned a very valuable lesson this TV watching season: Publish your analysis in your blog so that you can gloat about it later. I should have done this when I picked the winner of Apprentice 5 during its premiere episode. Back when I used to watch reality TV shows, I would select one candidate during the first episode who I thought had the best chance of winning and see how well I faired. I guess you could say it’s Reality Show Madness. This season I selected Sean to become The Donald’s 5th Apprentice. Maybe it was his sense of confidence or his British accent that swayed me during that first episode so many weeks ago but none-the-less, this charming bugger is in the final two against Lee. Read on for my analysis and be warned; next TV season I will post analysis of all the TV that I watch.
No spoilers please
This is to all of you that like to Thursday morning quarterback with me about LOST:
I WON’T BE WATCHING TONIGHT’S EPISODE SO DON’T SPOIL IT!!!
Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything because not I bet all of you are going to go out of your way to ruin some part of it before I can catch it on the DVR Thursday night.
Anyone else find it kind of amusing that tonight’s episode entitled Two for the Road is an Ana Lucia flashback?
LOST: Does it suck or does it rock?
P.S. If you must know what’s more important than tonight’s episode of LOST, you’ll have to click this link.
High gas prices? Fugettaboutit!
This was bound to happen sooner or later. Some very skilled criminals decided to cut out the middle man and set their own gas prices. How does $10 a tank sound? That’s how much people were lining up to pay at one gas station in Baltimore recently. Only problem is the gas station didn’t get any of the money from this deal. Turns out these high tech freedom fighters criminals rigged the pumps so they didn’t report back to the cashier inside the store. I’m not sure how the thieves managed to accept payment without store management noticing that cars were lined up along the highway yet nobody was pumping any gas. All in all the gas guzzlers got away with 2,800 gallons of gas (roughly $8,100 worth). Let’s say an average car holds 20 gallons of gas (mine holds 12). That would mean that 140 cars filled their entire tank before the store even noticed. If the gas station is correct on their guess that the petrol parsers were reselling the gas for $20 a gallon, this heist would have netted $2800. Not too bad for a few hours work. Due to the intricate planning that must have gone into this and the lack of interest from Baltimore’s finest, one can suspect that “the family” had something to do with it. Maybe it’s not really over for the little guy Patsy…
Source: TheWBALChannel.com
Photographer detained in NY wants apology
If you’ve recently purchased a Fotosniper, you might not want to bring it..well..anywhere. If just bringing a “point and shoot” camera got one man detained, there’s no telling what may happen if you were to say stake out a government building or trainstation with this thing.
Apparently, 27-year-old photographer Ben Hider was detained for taking pictures of the West-chester County courthouse in White Plains, NY.
Hider said three armed police officers instantly surrounded him, frisked him, emptied his pockets and then detained him in a room for two hours while lecturing him about his citizenship and the terror threat in America.
The police played the “9-11 card” saying that the officers were just doing their job. Turns out a NYC officer recently detained someone for taking pictures outside Grand Central Station. Sure the White Plains guy got an apology and NYC police force is being sued for their actions but will that stop this from happening in the future? My guess is: NO.
I had no idea that I was running the risk of being detained last week when I took photos of MARTA trains (check the Atlanta photos section). I understand that tensions are high and that we are “living in a new world” post 9-11 but detaining tourists for taking pictures is uncalled for. Now that MSN, Google, and Yahoo provide high-res satellite photos of every major building in the world (except for the White House), why would someone risk exposure to do reconnaissance on foot? This should make you think twice before taking pictures of buildings, trains, or any other area that people frequent. It’s almost as if they are saying “buy the postcard.”
Source: The Journal News
Movie theaters fail Economics 101
Have you been to a movie theater lately? Neither have I. In fact, I think the last movie I went to see at the theaters was a pre-screening of Serenity last year. One of the main reasons that I skip out on the big screen experience these days is that while ticket prices are increasing, the customer’s ROI is rapidly declining. Think about what you get for that $8 ticket price (here in Atlanta). You get on average 20 minutes of ads and previews before your movie actually begins. I’m not a rocket science or anything but don’t the big 3 networks offer television for free with about 20 minutes worth of commercials per one hour show? I know their show’s don’t have multi-million dollar budgets but it seems that the ticket prices are increasing along with the total number of ads before the show.
