The Glowing Map

It's looking more and more like the island is a gigantic laboratory. The glowing map on the hatch's blast door was a complete mystery, even with Tivo, but the producers released their notations on the schematic, which give us a clear view. Of course, they just raise more questions, since the notations are also a complete mystery.



And if you're really interested, check out all the hatch stuff that this guy unearthed. Yikes!

Irony

irony - n. incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs

Ice Nuts Redux

From ESPN:

All the Team USA pitchers - and pitching coach Marcel Lachemann - were in awe of Roger Clemens. But one thing they weren't ready for was Clemens taking that Icy Hot that pitchers rub on their shoulders and arms and spreading it over his upper thighs and private parts. "He doesn't want to get comfortable on the mound," says Jake Peavy, who tried the same trick Friday night in Phoenix.

That Roger Clemens, he would have been a fearsome Ice Nuts competitor.

The question is, did he implement this practice before or after he started having kids? If it was before, then I'm up for resurrecting the game. Who's with me?

Bueller? Bueller?

Just take the damn deal

Here's the pitch:

You have twenty six briefcases, each held by a vacuous model and containing a hidden dollar amount between $0.01 and $1,000,000. Pick a case for yourself, and whatever is in it is yours to keep. But before anyone knows what's inside, you are given the opportunity to reveal the value of six of the remaining cases of your choice, and based on what is revealed, a banker offers to buy your case from you. The more low-value cases you open, the greater the likelihood that your case is valuable, and therefore the higher the banker's offer. But you might be holding the million dollars.

If you decline the banker's offer, you open one less case than the round before and receive a new offer, and the cycle repeats until you either accept an offer or take what's in your case.

That's the premise behind NBC's new primetime game show Deal or No Deal. It's basically the California Lottery's Big Spin, with slightly better production values (and much better English). There's a modicum of decision-making, but really no skill required whatsoever, and as if to prove the point, the contestants are all idiots.

So why the hell have I devoted six hours of my life to this game show that requires no knowledge or skill? Why am I compelled to watch contestants mindlessly select briefcases while Howie Mandel looks on? I feel like Gerald post-Winter Sonata. I know I'm at the brink when a contestant calls for #23, and I say, "Ah, Lindsay's case." I've gone to the bad place.

I think the primary draw of the show is the wanton display of greed by the contestants (and their camera-whore families and friends, who are invited to help with the decision-making but usually just make a mess of things). The hook is, the banker's offer is always below expected value, so no one ever knows when to deal until it's too late. They keep pressing their luck until the offers inevitably drop like an Enron pension fund. When you're offered six figures, just take the damn deal! It's a gift!

Then again, there was my favorite contestant, who worked his way to a $250,000 offer from the banker, with his wife jumping up and down screaming "Deal! Deal!" This guy (chuckle)...he looks his wife straight in the eye, yells, "No deal!" and somehow manages to reveal another low number and take home close to $400,000. More importantly though, he got to keep his wife. At that moment, there wasn't a doubt in anyone's mind that a whole lot more than a quarter mil was riding on that next briefcase. No wonder I'm fascinated by this show. The stakes can't get any higher.

The thing is, I know I'm not the only one who's been sucked in. The show has been doing well in the ratings, it's the subject of water cooler talk at work, and Andrew has been watching with me the whole way. Even Hubert has watched a couple of episodes, and he can't stand the show! I think he just likes to make fun of stupid people, and this provides a target-rich environment.

So by now you're thinking, he's watched six episodes, he's blogged about it...time to cut his losses and let it go! But I've managed to take the pathology a step further. I went to NBC.com and played the official online version! (hot models not included) If you haven't seen the show, this is your chance to see what it's all about. And if you have...now you get to make the decisions! I got offered $180K prior to this round...Deal or No Deal? :)

Just one of those days...

Snoozed for an hour this morning... studied for an hour... decided to go running (it was cloudy, but the rain had been holding all morning)... ran for 10 minutes before a downpour came... took shelter under a tree for 5 minutes... weather cleared... ran for 13 minutes... bigger downpour... ran to my auntie's house and stayed in her garage for 20 minutes until realizing that I needed to sprint to my car to drive home and make it in time to class... sprinted for 2 minutes to the car... came home dripping wet... showered, ate lunch, and made it to class. Just one of those days :)

Dr.Travis

I heard on the radio this morning that the Doctor Bachelor Travis and Sarah broke up! Apparently, they blamed their relationship failure on ABC preventing them from being with each other while the showed aired. Yeah, right, that's the reason. I predicted they wouldn't make it! Should have picked Moana...

Happy Girls' Day!

On March 3rd, the Japanese honor girls by celebrating Girls' Day (Hinamatsuri)! Usually, the festivities involve certain types of food (like tri-colored mochi) and dolls. In elementary school, the boys would have to carry the girls books for the day :)

40 Days and 40 Nights

Lent is upon us. A 40 day, 40 night stretch of sacrifice. Any participants out there? Let's here your stories! This guy chose to Googlefast, giving up all things Google (except for AdSense...what a freakin' sellout!). So far as I can tell, the fast was unrelated to Lent (and I guess his goal is only two weeks, not 40 days). His motivation, as described in the mission statement, echoes Drew's warning to us all back in September. We're quietly taking over the world.

The story did make me wonder though, could I Googlefast for Lent? Or has my life been completely co-opted by Google?

Obviously work would have to be exempt, since much of my time is spent troubleshooting issues on Google, and the rest is spent training people on it. No circumventing that. But what about outside of work?

It's immediately clear that the computer would have to go completely. There's just no separating the two anymore (this is about to turn into a shameless marketing piece for all things Google). My web browser isn't Google, but that's about all. The toolbar is, as is the personalized homepage, which shows me the latest of my Gmail, friends' Blogger posts, and headlines from Google News.

If I need to map out directions or find a business, I use Google Local, though a more in-depth look at the world requires Google Earth. Chat with friends or talk to Gina at night? Google Talk. Watch Kobe's 81-point game? Google Video. Find an old file on my hard drive? Google Desktop. Web search is a given.

My latest adoption is the Google Deskbar, which is an enhancement to Google Desktop. It gives me desktop access to search and incorporates my Talk list, GMail, Blogger feeds, stocks, and weather. It also has a slew of other user-created options that I haven't fully explored (the dictionary looks promising). If you don't use it, you should, if for no other reason than to be notified immediately when I've blogged something new. :)

So could I do it? 40 days and 40 nights without Google? Sure. There was life before Google. It was just a lot less convenient.

Where does that leave me for Lent? Well, I'm not religious, so this was all just an exercise in the hypothetical, but thanks for playing along. I'll be without my fiancée for the next 40 days anyway. I think that's enough for God.