Over a year without a post!

I can't believe that it's already been over a year since I've posted to this site. I guess I can blame MySpace for stealing the small amount of time that I used to spend posting here. It took me a very long time to find my way back to be able to post something since I had forgotten my password, and I had to jump through too many hoops to reset it (problem with different email account, etc.). I don't really have time to write much of a blog just now. I just wanted to post something for the sake of getting something new on here. I don't know if I should do away with this site, and just blog on MySpace if I ever do blog, but I don't want to lose all of my old blogs so maybe I should keep this site active. If anybody actually reads this within a month after I post it, let me know.

Hayden is 5

The years keep flying by. Hayden is now 5 years old. Aubree will be 4 in a couple of months.

Man, I sure am getting fatter again. I'd better start losing weight again before I get too disgusted with myself. I'm already having portions of my beard turn white and my hair thinning out up front (too bad I still get zits like a teenager). I at least need to keep my size under control if I want to remain hot! (yes, that's a joke.)

01-13-07

some recent pics

Whoa, it's been a long time since I've posted anything to this site. You'd think that I'd at least put a picture here every so often. I just seem to be always busy (mostly due to these kids that never slow down).

Corpus Christi

Well it's been between 1 and 1-1/2 months since we went to Corpus Christi to see Kimberly's Grandma, and I've finally gotten my pictures up on my photo site. Here's some samples, but you can visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/trasksmith/sets/ to see all the others.

Get on board tonight. (Friday, 06-16-06)

I’ve told you guys that you need to start watching 24.  If you’re lucky enough to be reading this before 7pm on the day that I posted this, you have a golden opportunity to start watching the reruns of the recently finished Season 5.  The Fox network will air two episodes each Friday evening (at 7pm & 8pm).  That should mean that the entire season will be aired over the course of 12 weeks (or 3 months).  Set your DVR (or VCR) to record it if you can’t watch it live.  Trust me, you’re going to enjoy the ride.  You must start tonight though.  You don’t want to try to get into it after missing the first two episodes.  You probably could still get into it, but it’d be best to not try to – these first two episodes are quite explosive, and important to the storyline.  If you miss them, you’d probably be better off watching the series by waiting until it comes on DVD so that could see these episodes.  Think of the best action/drama movie you’ve seen.  This show probably beats the intensity of any of them – and it keeps it up for 24 hours, not just the measly 2 hours you’d get from a movie.  You would think that with a 24 hour long story there would be plenty of lulls, but not with this show.  Each episode keeps you on edge from beginning to end.  It’s like seeing a great movie every week.

 

Speaking of the DVDs, we recently got the Season 4 DVD set (I found them on sale).  Since we started watching it, we’ve been watching 2 or 3 episodes every night because it’s so addictive (we’ve now watched half of the season over the last 5 nights).  Each time an episode ends, you can’t wait to see the next one.  If I didn’t have to go work in the mornings, and didn’t have kids, I’d probably end up watching a whole season in 2 days.  I had heard that the show keeps getting better each season, so I was a bit worried that Season 4 wouldn’t be as good as Season 5 but so far it is.  I’ll probably end up seeing all of the seasons sooner or later, and I’ll probably end up seeing them in reverse order.  It doesn’t hurt the enjoyment to watch the seasons out of order, but you will know the futures of some characters.  I’m watching characters in Season 4 now that I already know end up dying in Season 5, but that’s OK.  Like I said, it doesn’t hurt the enjoyment of the show – each season is a separate storyline.  You certainly shouldn’t watch the individual episodes of a season out of order.

 

Even if you already know how some of the plot elements turn out (like Lonnie does), I’m sure you’ll still love actually watching the episodes play out.  If you miss out on this opportunity to get on board with 24, don’t say I didn’t warn you.  Go ahead and get addicted to it – you’ll thank me later.  I’ll even give you a money back guarantee.  If after watching Season 5 you don’t love the show, I’ll refund the money you paid me to read this blog and let you read all my future blogs for free.  You can’t beat that offer.

 

 

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at last, Zarqawi is dead

Is it OK to celebrate the death of another human being? (I’m not sure this guy actually qualified as a human being.) I say that in cases like this, how could you not celebrate it? Abu Musab al Zarqawi was pure evil. Remember how you felt towards Osama bin Laden shortly after 9-11 (and hopefully still feel about him). Osama bin Laden seems to be as evil as they come, but I would argue that Zarqawi was even worse. Who’s worse, one who orders the deaths of countless others such as Hitler or bin Laden and has others do their dirty work for them, or one who actually revels in personally doing the killing themselves such as the Railroad Killer? Zarqawi was both. He was responsible for the deaths of thousands (which included Americans, Iraqis, Jordanians, British, and others) by ordering others to fire rifles, guns, RPGs, mortars, rockets, etc., to plant IEDs on roadsides and in buildings, by kidnappings and beheadings, and by blowing themselves up in the presence of crowds. I don’t know if his total death count equaled bin Laden’s, but if not, it wasn’t for his lack of trying or desire. I wouldn’t be surprised if his death count actually surpassed bin Laden’s when you consider all the Iraqis that have been killed by his group. To get back to my point, he not only was a leader who gave orders – he also personally reveled in torturous murder. Here was a guy who liked to saw off the heads of live people with a dull knife while they screamed for mercy. I don’t think even Osama bin Laden or Adolph Hitler ever involved themselves in that type of sickening act (not to say they aren’t completely evil – just to say that Zarqawi’s sickness surpasses even theirs.)

Zarqawi was a wanted terrorist even before Operation Iraqi Freedom. He had fled to Iraq for safe haven. The fact that Saddam Hussein had allowed him to go there, to get medical treatment there, and to continue his terrorist operations from there was one of the pieces of evidence the U.S. gave that Saddam was supporting terrorists and needed to be taken out. After we knocked Saddam out of power, Zarqawi quickly became the most wanted man in Iraq by leading his group of terrorists to cause more death and destruction in the country than anybody else. I wished that I could quickly find a list of everything he’s known to be responsible for so that you could see how long the list is. Before his network “officially” became part of al-Qaida, it was known as “Tawhid & Jihad”. They had a black flag as their symbol that they used to display in their videos and at the sites of some of their attacks. It was his group that attacked the Green Zone in Baghdad at the time that Dan was working there and had a rocket fall through the roof and floor of his trailer (fortunately, it was a dud – and didn’t fall a few feet over or it would have hit him and still killed him even being a dud). I remember telling either Darve or Dan at that time that Dan could actually claim that Zarqawi had tried to kill him.

Zarqawi was as evil as they get. No doubt he would have cut the heads off of every single American he could have gotten in his grasp. It wasn’t just Americans though, he’d kill anybody who didn’t agree with his dark vision of how the world should be. I’m absolutely glad that he’s dead and I’m glad that he’s roasting in Hell for eternity (it’s not quite the paradise and virgins he was hoping for). I hope that God is OK with me be happy that he’s in Hell.

Here’s one article I found on the web, I’m sure there’s plenty of other good ones:

Zarqawi's Final Atrocities

by Richard Miniter
Posted Jun 08, 2006

If you are looking for the legacy of Abu Musab al Zarqawi, do not look in the concrete rubble of so-called safe house in Baqubah that became his final resting place. Instead, look less than 10 miles to the west, on the side of the road in the desert town of Hadid, for a pile of cardboard banana boxes.

Inside those boxes were nine human heads.

Some of the heads still had their blindfolds on. Iraqi police are still attempting to identify the murdered men.

Days earlier, in Baquba, Iraqi police found another eight severed heads. One of those heads belonged to a prominent Sunni Muslim imam, who preached peace and tolerance.

For the past few weeks, U.S. military intelligence analysts had seen a spike in beheadings—a specialty of the Zarqawi network.

Of course, Zarqawi will be remembered chiefly as a beheader. He apparently enjoyed wielding the knife and slowly hacking off the head of Nicholas Berg of West Chester, Pa. In a video that Zarqawi’s followers proudly posted on the Internet, Berg screams in pain in seven long minutes as Zarqawi saws through his neck.

Zarqawi also is believed to have beheaded Eugene Armstrong of Hillsdale, Mich.

Zarqawi is also believed to have beheaded Ken Bigley, the Liverpool, U.K.-based engineer who came to Iraq “to help people,” in October 2004.

Now it is Zarqawi’s own head that is capturing the world’s attention. Displaying his head has several immediate benefits: it boosts the morale of Iraqi police and military officers, who have been taking increased casualties in the past few weeks and were spooked by the Zarqawi video released last month. In that video, Zarqawi made a point of firing an M-4 and an M-249—two automatic weapons that are only used by U.S. forces. If he can take guns from the hands of Americans he killed and turn those weapons against the world’s sole remaining superpower, maybe Zarqawi is invincible after all. Yesterday’s air strike has already reversed the downward spiral of Iraqi police morale, one source told me.

Nor can Zarqawi be easily replaced. He had a kind of rogue-ish charisma that resonated in the Arab world. He was featured in Arabic-language pop songs and feted on Arabic soap operas. His persona drew hundreds of Saudis, Syrians and other foreigners to fight alongside him in Iraq. There is simply no one else in the organization who has his aura.

At the very least, the beheadings and suicide attacks will decline sharply.

05-25-06

I’m finally starting to feel a bit better after being sick for about two straight weeks. I’ve had some kind of icky stomach virus that also made my head and whole body feel awful. I think that just as I was getting over it after the first week, I caught it again and started the whole process over. It also spread around most of my family during that time. Hopefully we’ll all be completely over it by this weekend.

All my television shows are done for the season. It’ll be nice to have the extra hour or two to do other things on those nights. It’s too bad that they don’t spread them around so that I could have 2 shows to watch for awhile, and then when they ended have 2 others to watch. Instead I go from watching 4 to having none to watch. To finally get around to answering Darve’s comment on my last blog, no I don’t have that episode recorded anymore. Unfortunately for you I erased it right after we watched it that night. What’s up with you only being able to record one show at a time? Are you living in the stone age? Our DVR can record two shows at once, and if I tell it to record all episodes of the Amazing Race on Channel 11, it knows when it lasts two hours instead of one and it adjusts the recording time to match.

We’re actually going out of town this weekend. Kimberly’s grandmother (KM’s mom) in Corpus Christi is in poor health. We’ve only gone to see her once since we’ve been married and that was before the kids were born, so we’re past due to visit her. While we’re down there we’re going to make the most of it and visit the tourist sites, so I should have plenty of pictures when we get back.

05-18-06: Hey, I got one right!

I’d better point out the fact that I actually predicted the final three of the Amazing Race in the correct order. Overall I did pretty good with this show, because even my wrong picks on who would be eliminated were always very close. The Hippies did indeed win, followed by the Frat Boys, and then Ray & Yolanda. I knew the Frat Boys were very strong, and they entered into the final challenge with a decent lead over the Hippies. Fortunately for the Hippies, the challenge was mental (finding the flags of all the countries they had visited on the race, and putting them in the correct order). The Hippies were able to overtake the Frats and run to the finish line while the Frats were still trying to figure out what their mistakes were. I like having this type of final challenge as it is appropriate to the race and allows for this type of finish, instead of coming down to the luck of who gets the best cab driver as past seasons have had at the end. The previous season, which was the “family edition” that mostly took place in the U.S., also had a good final challenge that had the teams putting together a large, standing puzzle map of the U.S. where each state was a separate puzzle piece.

This show has had so many seasons now that they rarely visit a country that hasn’t been on the show before. Off the top of my head, the only new country that the show went to this season was Oman (there may be others that I’m forgetting – plus I missed one or two seasons while I was in Iraq, so they may have used Oman before but I doubt it). I had actually thought that Oman would be one of the poor, backwater Middle East countries, but it seemed to be a modern, rich country (modern in appearance at least, probably not in other ways). Learning about other places is one of my favorite aspects of this show. I’ll be watching again next season.

05-15-06

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

This may be my final TV commentary blog of the season since Survivor is over, and I don’t really care who wins American Idol now that Chris is gone. Amazing Race only has one episode to go, and I don’t have a clear favorite left there either.

Let me close out with what I want to say about last night’s Survivor finish. I said Cirie would win the tiebreaker challenge – wrong. I said that one of the two guys would win the final immunity challenge – wrong. I said that both “groups of two” would honor their final-two agreements concerning who they would take to the vote – wrong. I was bummed that Terry didn’t make it to the final two. I didn’t like either Aras or Danielle, so I wasn’t going to be happy no matter which of them won the vote. It should have been a good thing that Danielle won the tiebreaker challenge, but she didn’t honor her agreement with Terry. I fully realize that you have to deceive people in this game, but to privately make a pact with someone and then to completely disregard that pact once you have the immunity is pretty low. Danielle disregarded her pacts more than once. It caught up with her since she didn’t get much support from the jury, but she screwed Terry in the process. I was also mad about the final immunity challenge being a balance challenge. I was hoping for something dealing with endurance, strength, or sheer will-power. It seemed that this would be the case since they had a reward challenge for “power food” that Jeff said would help with the final challenge. The stupid “balance yourself on an unstable little platform on the water” thing totally discounts endurance, strength, or will-power. In fact, this type of challenge gives an advantage to the person with the smallest height and weight. After all the battling between Terry and Aras, I hated to see it all come down to a challenge where luck played such a large role. Bummer. What a sorry ending to this season. I didn’t realize that Cirie was so popular with the fans. I guess if Terry hadn’t been around in the second half of the game, I would have gravitated toward Cirie as the most-likable one left. I know she started as a huge underdog and stuck around way longer than the original power players in her tribe had said she would, but I think most of that was luck. Her tribe won lots of immunity challenges (and she probably wasn’t the reason they won), which allowed her to stick around for awhile. Her tribe’s original alliance of four cracked up on their own, allowing her to jump into alliances with people on both sides – which from that point forward she was a power player and not an underdog. True, she managed to jump past Bobby and Bruce in the pecking order before the alliance of four cracked up, but that was mostly due to Bobby and Bruce’s antics. Good for her that she accomplished what she did and learned what she did, but Terry is by far the most popular player in my book for this season.

I don’t know whether or not I’ll comment on these TV shows next season, but if I do, I’d better stick to the commentary and lay off the predictions – I’m apparently horrible at it.

05-12-06

This week’s recap:

American Idol: I blew this one big time. The voters let me down by allowing Chris to go home in fourth place. This was one of those weeks that happen every so often with this show in which the fans of a particular contestant weren’t as motivated to “vote like crazy” for their favorite as much as the fans of the other contestants were. The judges affect these types of trends in two ways. If they give overwhelming positive feedback to an underdog contestant, it can inspire more people than usual to help that person out that week (this is intended by the judges – or at least understandable to them). If the judges are very harsh with a contestant however, this really inspires all of that person’s supporters to “vote like crazy” for them because their favorite is in danger of leaving (this causes the opposite of what the judges intended). This is often harmful to a contestant who received “normal” reviews from the judges. The judges neither inspired nor scared anyone to “vote like crazy” for that person. Even when that contestant is thought to be one of the best, tons of people who want them to stick around mistakenly believe them to be “safe” and aren’t motivated to work the phones on their behalf that week. We’ve seen this happen a few times on each season of the show, but usually the victim only falls to next to last place, and rebounds the next week because their fans realize what almost happened. Unfortunately Chris landed in last place this time, to the shock of Idol fans everywhere. The good news for him is that he will definitely get a record deal, and is likely to be a success. I’m tempted to make my new prediction in this order: Taylor, Katharine, Elliott. However, Elliott seems to be performing well under pressure, while Katharine is as nervous as can be and it’s hurting her performances. If both do their best, I think Katharine is better, but I don’t think she’ll do her best under all the pressure. You know my predictions are horrible, but I’m going to say: Taylor, Elliott, Katharine. Even if Taylor makes mistakes, I think his popularity and fan base is large enough compared to the other two to put him over the top.

Amazing Race: Wrong again. Once again, I got the last two teams in reverse order, but overall I did pretty good. Ray and Yolanda are still in it, which makes me glad. I’m kinda rooting for them to win, but I still don’t expect them to. I’m glad that MoJo is gone. Of the final four teams, they were the only ones that I definitely didn’t want to win. I think the Frat Boys are actually a stronger team than the Hippies so I’m tempted to put them in first, but I’ll stick with the order I’ve been saying: Hippies, Frat Boys, Ray & Yolanda. This will be my last prediction since the next episode is the finale. It should be a good finish.

Survivor: This time I was wrong in who I thought Terry would team with. The previews were indeed showing the truth since he did team up with Danielle (the other two apparently didn’t try to get on his side – they didn’t have much of a chance to since the two groups were completely separated between the two challenges). It didn’t give away how the episode would end since Terry actually didn’t win the immunity challenge this week (meaning that even though he was still safe, his “teammate” wasn’t). All of that messed up all of the brainstorming I had done. Plus, they didn’t even show us who ended up leaving – they did a cheesy “to be continued”. A fire-making tiebreaker between Danielle and Cirie will determine which group of two has the control. I expect these groups of two to hold true to their word on who they will take to the finals, meaning that Aras & Cirie would take each other, and Terry & Danielle would take each other. So everything hinges now on who wins the tiebreaker challenge, and then on who wins the final challenge. In the previews (which yes, I’m trusting more now), Cirie was shown to have a fire growing much higher than Danielle’s. I hope I’m wrong, but I say that Cirie is going to win this challenge. Therefore, Terry’s only hope of making it to the end would be to win the final immunity challenge. (On a side note, I’m glad he kept his hidden idol. Although in hindsight, giving it to Danielle would have paid off, it was way too risky of a move to make). Sadly, I’m starting to have my doubts about Terry winning the final challenge. Aras now has confidence on his side. The previews showed a challenge (maybe it was only a reward challenge) that I think involved climbing rather than just pure endurance. I now think it could go either way, Aras or Terry could win it. If Aras wins it and takes Cirie, I say that Aras wins the vote. If Terry wins it (it doesn’t matter who he takes, but I’ll guess that he’ll take Cirie), I say that Terry wins the vote. So my order could either be: Aras, Cirie, Terry, Danielle – or Terry, Cirie, Aras, Danielle. For the sake of commitment, I’ll go with the one that has Terry winning. We’ll find out on Sunday, so don’t forget to watch.

05-08-06

I’ve started commenting on TV shows, and now I can’t stop (at least I’m updating this site with something). American Idol and The Amazing Race haven’t aired since my last blog, but Survivor has so I’ll talk about it. I was wrong in who would go (of course), but I’ve been right the last two weeks with whom I predicted Terry would try to sway to his side. First it was Danielle & Courtney, and last week it was Shane. Terry was right to share his reward with Shane, but unfortunately it didn’t pay off since Shane has already gotten the boot. Well, I found out the rule regarding the hidden idol that I was wondering about. It can be used to get Terry into the final three (and will be used for that unless he wins the immunity challenge again this week). He mentioned that he could take the upcoming immunity challenge off, but it would be to his advantage to win it again if possible. If he did so, he would be able to trade the hidden idol to someone else for their loyalty. Either way, he’s guaranteed a spot in the final three, and he’s the clear favorite to win the final immunity challenge (which is usually endurance) and choose whom to bring to the final two with him. The remaining players have to start realizing his power (they should have long ago) and try to make a bargain with him. Unless they’re stupid, all three of them will approach him privately and attempt to make a final-two agreement. The previews showed that Danielle indeed has these thoughts, and I’m sure the other two will finally wise up as well. If Terry knew that he would win the final immunity challenge, he wouldn’t need an agreement with any of them, he could take whoever he felt he had the best chance of beating in the vote. However, just to improve his chances in case he doesn’t win that challenge, he should team up with one of the three. This (to win the final challenge) being his only motivator for making a deal, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that he’ll cut an agreement with his biggest rival, Aras. If anyone might beat him in the challenge, Aras has the best shot. They can each agree to take the other to the final two if either of them wins. If Terry wins immunity this week, he can give Aras his hidden idol which would mean that whichever of the girls they wanted to vote out would be gone, even if the vote was a 2-2 tie. I say they get rid of Danielle since she’s a bigger challenge threat than Cirie. Now, you might question why (if Terry does decide to make a deal) would he not choose to take the person he feels he has the best chance against in the vote? That person would probably be Danielle (Courtney & Shane are probably mad at her). This makes sense, but since the previews have already showed that she is ready to team up with Terry, I say that it won’t happen (surely they wouldn’t already be giving up such a key element in the previews). It’s possible that he would take her though, since she would seem to be the best chance to beat in the vote. I don’t see a reason for him to make a deal with Cirie at this point, since she isn’t a threat to win challenges and she doesn’t have many enemies on the jury. Assuming Terry makes it to the jury vote, what are his chances? He’ll need to have at least four votes go his way. Two of those would have to come from his former tribe mates Austin & Sally. How could he pick up another two considering that the other tribe still seems adamant against him winning? Perhaps Bruce would vote his way, since Bruce seems like a reasonable guy and he got along with Terry. The best chance for another would come from Courtney or Shane since they probably feel betrayed by their former tribe mates. If Terry does hold the luxury of giving away his hidden idol this week, perhaps he should make the recipient promise to vote for him if they wind up in the jury. If the jury is reasonable, they will realize that Terry deserves the win for kicking their butts after being outgunned 6 to 1. Most of them don’t seem reasonable, but he should be able to plead his case convincingly enough to pull it out unless they decide to be jerks just to spite him. He probably wouldn’t get Aras’ vote, but I guess that’s another reason to bring Aras to the final two – so that Aras doesn’t get to cast a vote, ha ha. Another unusual thing in Terry’s favor is that because he hasn’t had anybody on his side in a long time, he hasn’t had to deceive anybody to advance further. Once again, I’m sure this will get messed up in the next episode but here’s my latest predicted order: Terry, Aras, Cirie, Danielle.

Oh, by the way, I’ve posted some more photo sets on my flickr site as I’m trying to get caught up on last month’s pictures.

TV update (05-04-06)

Well, I got none of the predictions in my last blog right (concerning who would go next on each of those shows), but I was close.

American Idol: The only glaring mistake I've made so far was to think that Kellie would be able to stick around much longer. It seems that the voters agreed with my take on her and she left last week like I thought she should. I was right to list Paris next though, as she left this week. I'll keep my predicted order for the rest the same: Chris, Taylor, Katharine, Elliott.

Amazing Race: Last week, I predicted that Ray & Yolanda would go, with Fran & Berry going next. I was close, Fran & Berry left, and Ray & Yolanda came in next to last. This week was a non-elimination round so nobody left, therefore it didn't spoil my predictions any further. Although Ray & Yolanda actually finished high (first place) for the first time ever this week, I still don't see them winning the race. Their finish was mostly the luck of choosing the quickest detour, not the result of any special performance on their part. I wouldn't mind if they did win, since all the other remaining teams are starting to annoy me more than Ray & Yolanda do. The Hippies have started playing a bit "mean" with others. MoJo started playing mean a week or two ago. The frat boys (although slimy in character) hadn't been playing the game too dirty, until this week when they cancelled the cabs that two of the other teams had ordered. I'm still not completely rooting for any of these teams above all others, as my opinions of them keep changing. My predictions shall remain in the same order for now: the Hippies, the Frat Boys, MoJo, and Ray & Yolanda. This week's episode was the first time that I had seen last place come down to a footrace between three different teams. It would have been a significant finish, if it hadn't turned out to be "non-elimination" (which was fortunate for the Hippies again since BJ fell down and got beat to the mat by Monica. It was stupid of him to not have put his shoes on in the car.)

Survivor: I came real close last week in predicting that Terry would bring Courtney & Danielle to his side. It almost happened, if not for the meddling of Cirie who swayed Danielle into another plan. They should have left Cirie out of it, but I take it that Danielle & Courtney each believed her to be allied with them – just as Shane and Aras believed her to be on their side. I'm thinking that Cirie, Danielle, & Aras have been tight for some time (as evidenced by their reward trip together a few weeks ago), and that their other alliances have just been shams to keep Shane & Courtney fooled. Cirie & Aras obviously weren't concerned about alienating Shane last week when they didn't let him in on the truth of how they were voting. I think before that vote that Shane believed himself to be aligned with Aras & Cirie; Aras believed himself to be aligned with Cirie & Danielle (Danielle believed the same, although she came close to jumping to Terry's side with Courtney); and that Cirie was actually keeping all of her options open, while letting everyone but Terry think that she was on their side. My predictions got very messed up with Courtney going last week, so I'll have to rethink them. Shane should start to realize that he isn't safe with his buddies. I would think that someone would realize that Terry is guaranteed to make the final four (plus he's a challenge-winning machine) and try to get on his good side (but they haven't yet). It's totally unpredictable at this point, but maybe Shane will vote with him this week. My biggest unknown with predicting is that I don't remember how long Terry's hidden idol is good for. Is tonight the last time he can use it, or can he use it to get into the final three? If tonight is the last time he can use it, he'll have to get someone on his side to make it into the final three next week (unless of course he wins immunity again). If he can use it next week, he'll probably win immunity at least one out of the next two times, which would get him to the final three without any help. If tonight is the last time he can use it – and he wins immunity tonight, then this would be the time that he actually gives it to someone else to try to buy their loyalty. If he makes it to the final three, the final challenge is usually an endurance one and he'll probably win it. So, I'm still predicting that he can win the game, I'm just not sure on how the events will play out to get him there. Just for the sake of listing another order, I'll go out on a limb and say: Terry, Shane, Cirie, Danielle, Aras – but I have no faith that it'll actually happen in that order.

my thoughts on the shows 04-26-06

I’m long overdue for a blog again, so I’d better write something. I think I’ll stick with the light topic of entertainment, and I’ll start with TV. Here’s my current take on the four shows I watch regularly:

24: The best show on TV. I’m actually glad when it’s Monday because I can’t wait for the new episode each week. I haven’t seen Seasons 1 thru 4, but I’m sure they can’t possibly be as good as this season. Every episode is an action packed, gut wrenching, and compelling mini-movie that leaves you needing to see what happens next. It’s of course over-the-top for so many intense events to happen to one character over the course of 24 hours (and this being the 5th time he’s had such a day) - but are there any fictional entertainment shows that don’t require you to suspend your disbelief? I won’t give away any spoilers for this season since I don’t think any of my regular readers (which I can count on one hand) have been watching this show. Don’t start watching it now, since I think 19 episodes have aired, with only 5 more to go (it would ruin it for you to jump in now). But take my advice and either buy or rent the DVD set of Season 5 whenever it comes out.

American Idol: Who’s left? Oh yeah (I just looked it up). My ranking would right now go in this order: Chris, Katherine, Taylor, Elliott, Paris, Kellie. It’s hard to pick – I could easily mix that order up quite a bit. My ranking is based on all factors, including vocal talent, looks, performance, stage presence, song choices, etc. If I focused on any one of those factors, my order would definitely change. I hesitate to place Katherine so high because I really haven’t been thrilled by many of the songs she’s chosen to sing, but I thing the other factors are in her favor. I don’t like the fact that personality or “likeability” plays such a large role in how people vote. I agree that if someone is a jerk you shouldn’t vote for them, but I don’t agree with voting for someone who doesn’t deserve to win just because they’re the most likeable. The biggest example right now would be Kellie. Sure, I like her as a person and feel sorry that she doesn’t have her parents in her life. However, she’s clearly not the best singer in this group and has already lasted longer than she should have in my opinion. Here’s my prediction on how the contestants will actually finish: Chris, Taylor, Kellie, Katherine, Elliott, Paris. I’m sure I’ll be very wrong, but that’s my current prediction. As you can see I think Chris is the best, and I think he’ll be the runaway winner (even though he had a scare last week). – I wrote all of the above before Tuesday’s episode aired. I’m already tempted to change some things, but I’ll let it stand since I don’t have time to rewrite everything. By the time I get this posted (I’m having internet trouble) and you read it, somebody from that list will already be gone.

The Amazing Race: This has always been my favorite reality show – although I look at The Amazing Race and Survivor more as season long game shows. I don’t think their edited portrayals of the contestants give the full picture of how these people are in real life, but it does let you get to know a little bit about them which enhances the entertainment value. With both of these shows, I like to see how the players compete in the challenges and what type of approach they take to the game rather than caring about any soap-opera type stuff going on. The Amazing Race has the added value of teaching the viewer about tons of cool and beautiful places around the world that most people don’t already know about. OK, who’s left on the show right now: the “Frat Boys,” the “Hippies,” the old couple, “MoJo,” and Ray & Yolanda. (Once again, by the time you read this one of these teams will be gone.) This season, I don’t really have any team that I’m strongly for, or any team that I’m strongly against. The hippies and the old folks are probably the most likeable teams left, but I tend to prefer the teams who are the best players – which this season has consistently been both the hippies and the frat boys. The hippies came close to being eliminated recently, but I’m sure they’ll bounce back. My predictions for 1st thru 5th are: the Hippies, the Frat Boys, MoJo, the old couple, and Ray & Yolanda. But, this show is often unpredictable so anything could happen.

Survivor: This has turned out to be an odd Survivor season. One team was very strong, got along great, had a team-first mentality, and were likeable people. The other team was a bunch of whining, complaining, me-first, group of misfits. The misfits ended up winning most of the immunity challenges, usually just barely. They went into the merge with a numerical advantage and have failed to turn on each other (even when it would have benefited some of them in the long run), and have gotten rid of all the members of the other tribe – with only Terry remaining. Terry is only still around because he keeps winning every individual immunity challenge. He also found a hidden immunity idol which he hasn’t had to use yet. He caught another break when Bruce had to leave for medical reasons, so now he only has a 5 to 1 disadvantage. His hidden idol insures that he will be in the final 5 now, but he will still need to win at least one or two more immunity challenges to make it to the end. He’s quite capable of winning any challenge based on skill, determination, or intelligence, but sooner or later he’ll have to deal with one that’s nothing but pure luck. Hopefully that won’t happen soon. Also, the other tribe will be forced to lose one of their own before he goes, so he has the chance of them learning where they stand with each other and getting the one or two people in their minority group to move to his side. So, it’s completely possible for him to pull off what nobody else in his position would have been able to do – to actually win the game. In fact, I’ll go ahead and be bold and list him as my predicted winner. The rest of the order depends on how the alliances shake out, and what the challenges are, but here’s my guess after Terry: Courtney, Danielle, Cirie, Shane, Aras. That prediction rests on Terry teaming up with Danielle and Courtney sooner or later (Shane, Aras, & Cirie seem to be in an alliance with each other). Either Terry wins immunity again this week, or is forced to use his hidden idol. If he uses the hidden idol, and everyone else votes against him, he would probably vote against Aras – which would result in Aras leaving. Shane, Cirie, Danielle, & Courtney could vote him out the following week (assuming he didn’t win immunity) or each group of two could realize that instead of heading to the final four and then facing two versus two, they could bring in Terry and then have three versus two now, thus insuring that they would make the final three – not just the final four. If Terry did win immunity that week, then it would make that scenario even more likely (each group of two vying for his vote). I say that he would side with Danielle & Courtney because it would be easier for him to win final immunity against them, and Courtney would be the easiest person for him to win against in the jury vote. Now, let’s say that Terry does win the immunity challenge this week. The other five wouldn’t be able to vote against him. If Shane, Aras, & Cirie vote against either Courtney or Danielle – Terry (if everyone realizes what’s going on), might team up with Courtney & Danielle and vote against Aras. It would be a tie, and a tiebreaker would decide who goes. This may or may not be more risky for Terry than voting on the side of Shane, Aras, & Cirie at this point. Either way, he would still have his hidden idol to use later. Like with the other shows, Survivor is completely unpredictable and you never know exactly how these people will vote. I think I’ve made some valid guesses here though. We shall see how it plays out.

Feel free to post comments with your predictions on any of these shows if you watch them. If I wanted to be smart, I'd wait a couple of more hours before posting this blog (and make adjustments to my lists) since Amazing Race & American Idol are about to come on.

Off of TV, and on to music: What have I been listening to a lot this past week? A band named Kutless. We’ve got all of their CDs, and they’ve been growing on me more and more. The introductory songs that I would recommend you to check out if you don’t know them are: “It’s Like Me,” “Sea of Faces,” “Your Touch,” “Run,” and “Strong Tower”. There’re plenty of other good ones too. We just got their newest CD, but I haven’t had a chance to really listen to it yet.

04-06-06

I'm afraid this is just going to be another quick post since it's late and I need to get ready for bed. We had a great time on our trip. It didn't rain on us although it was gloomy much of the time. We did a lot of walking around the city and saw everything we planned on seeing (except for the places that were closed for renovation). I just wanted to remind you to check my photo site if you haven't already done so lately. I've finished getting all of the San Antonio pics posted, and I also posted some new ones from Brazosport College. Now, we'll have to wait another year for our next exciting trip. Where should we go next?

03-28-06

I just can’t get motivated to blog on a variety of issues like I used to (mostly it’s a lack of time). I’ve got all sorts of things that I’d like to write about, but I’ve always got something else I need to do instead. Hopefully I’ll get back on track one of these days. I thought I’d better get something posted so that I don’t go two weeks without updating the site. Kimberly and I will finally be heading to San Antonio for three days beginning Thursday. We sure are looking forward to it. Hopefully it won’t rain on us too much. It’ll be nice to have time to ourselves, but we’ll be worried about how the kids are doing the whole time we’re gone (we always do that when we’re away from them).

more pics (03-19-06)

Come see lots of new pics at our photosite: http://www.flickr.com/photos/trasksmith/sets/

Some pics from last weekend

With the birthday boy.

Some nut with a camera.

At Oyster Creek Park for a birthday party.

Aubree with the birthday girl (the daughter of one of Kimberly's friends who just moved back to Texas).

goofy quiz

Hey, check out the quiz I made
http://www.chatterbean.com/createyourownquiz/myquiz.php?qid=7859

an update (03-01-06)

It’s been too long since I’ve posted anything, but I just haven’t had the time. My internet time at home has been getting smaller and smaller. Our computer actually was useless for about a week when the AC adaptor/power cord quit working. I had to order a new one.

I was going to try to recap everything we’ve done the past couple of weeks, but I’ve forgotten some of it, so I’ll just mention that we had Hayden’s birthday party on Saturday and Mom & Dad’s anniversary dinner that evening (as you already know if you read Darve’s site).

We’re still sticking to our exercise routine, although I had to pass on running for several days about a week and a half ago because I had a pinched nerve and my back was in too much pain. My bad knees continue to hurt me, but they’re not keeping me from running.

Hayden had his annual checkup last week. Everything was good except for his weight. The doctor was concerned that he is candidate for diabetes. Hayden had to go to the hospital on Monday and get blood work done to make sure that he didn’t already have diabetes. The results came out good, but we still need to start controlling his eating habits better than we have been and make sure he exercises more. Aubree’s checkup is still a couple of months away, but I’m sure the doctor will say the same thing about her since she’s kinda chubby too.

Our evening TV load is at its fullness now since the Amazing Race just started last night. American Idol is still at the point where the episodes are long, and it comes on 3 times a week. Hopefully it will go to shorter, twice a week episodes soon. My regular schedule now is Monday: 24, Tuesday: American Idol & Amazing Race, Wednesday: American Idol, Thursday: Survivor & American Idol. Most of my other TV time is spent watching the kids’ shows.

I’ve wanted to get a DVR for a long time, and I think we’re going to finally do it. Time Warner Cable has a DVR with their cable box if you get digital cable. We just have standard cable now, but the price has gone up so much that we can upgrade to the digital cable with DVR for just somewhere between $5 to $15 a month. If things go according to plan, we’ll have it installed in about two weeks. The DVR should make it much easier to watch what we want and still deal with the kids and other events. It should also be easier to start watching more offbeat and non-primetime programs. Maybe I can start viewing the occasional History Channel program again, and Kimberly can see some home improvement shows or whatever she chooses. I know we’ll be recording plenty of shows for the kids.

I had to deal with a flat tire today. (I’m driving the blue car to work now because the other one was constantly needing repairs). The tire had been fine, but between home and work this morning it lost most of its air. By lunch, it looked completely flat. Luckily, my work has an air compressor in the shop so I borrowed it and aired the tire up. I drove it to the nearest Discount Tire on my lunch break. They claim that there is nothing wrong with the tire. They think the problem lies with corroded chrome on the rim causing a bad seal. They cleaned the rim but think that the problem will persist, meaning that we will need a new rim (or all new rims if the others are doing the same thing). Hopefully, it will hold firm for awhile so that we don’t have to immediately replace it. I’ve never heard of this happening before, it sounds screwy to me.

OK, I think I’ve written enough to make up for my lack of postings. I need to go now.