Survivor analysis and commentary

I had to get the previous topic moved down a little, so I'll just prattle on about other stuff today.

Survivor: Gabon started last week with a bang and two episodes. I was stoked! We finally got to see more than a little of the tribes and got a flavor of more to come.

I've been reading some of the message boards out there, trying to stay away from spoiler information, but focusing on analysis. There are two themes going on this season. The first is all about Earth's Last Eden. Given that clue, which I can't remember when it was coined, I wonder if we'll have a male/female final two.

There also has been an underlying theme started possibly by some of Jeff Probst's commentary that there is an underlying current of Good vs. Evil. We've seen a lot of the characters this season who can readily fit into one of the two categories, and not necessarily all on one tribe.

Putting these two simple concepts together along with some of the editing we've seen during the show, I'll go on record right now to say that I think this might be a final two of Corrine (Eve/Evil) and Marcus (Adam/Good).

Corrine is a self-described bitch. Jeff agrees with her. One of her first quotes, and it may end up being the subtle "money quote" for the season, was, "I'm going to be a total bitcha nd I"m going to get rid of who I want to get rid of and hurt people's feelings and gonna laugh when people cry and gonna own it."

Contrast this with the relative hero's edit we're getting with Marcus. He's smart. He's beautiful. He's a doctor (though he said he was merely in the medical profession during the you-pick-em). He has the ladies and even the gay guys fawning over him. That could be a lot of power to weild throughout the game. Jeff, though, said that he can be arrogant. This may be his downfall.

Marcus has created "The Onion" alliance, keeping Corrine and Charlie close to him. He's planning to bring Jacquie into the fold and then round it out with Professor Bob. New clips out on the CBS website show hidden clips with Corrine and Marcus talking early. They bond quickly, then bring in the rest. I wonder if he will lose by taking a bite out of the apple and trusting Corrine to the end? Temptation is yet another theme this season, though it may apply more with just the Exile Island stuff.

None of the rest of the survivors really pique my interest this season as far as strategy is concerned. I don't doubt we'll see a fall of the Fang tribe similar to that of the Ulong tribe in Guatemala. I think our winner will come from the Kota tribe and probably from the Onion Alliance.

I hope Bob turns out to be this season's Yau-Man. That man is amazing and again, if you take a peek at the CBS extras, he's one whose mind is always turning. He's my sentimental favorite for the year.

Be sure to check out articles online at http://www.realitynewsonline.com/ . I post a "Who Will Go" column each Thursday morning with my picks as to who will fall next.

Difficult topic...avoid if you're having a bad day

A dear friend's brother took his own life this morning.

It wasn't a surprise to any of us, but still, it's a shock knowing that someone you knew was so despondant that s/he felt the need to leave life.

He was about 63. He spent about 20+ years in prison; then got out about 3 years ago. He started his own house painting business and was actually talented when it came to faux finishes. He did good work and was getting to the point where he was supporting himself for the most part.

He'd been having problems working, climbing ladders and having enough energy to do his job. Recently, he went to the doctor and was diagnosed with lung cancer and had an extremely nasty blood clot in his thigh. He could live 6 months. He could live 3-4 years. He wasn't able to work or have insurance, and his family was already supporting him through some tougher times. He felt as if he was a burden to them.

He called my friend Saturday night crying and telling her that he was going to end things. He didn't have much quality of life left and postponing it possibly a couple of years by having chemo and going to the county hospital. He asked if she would understand if he did it and admittedly, she did. She loves him, but she knew that he might just do it.

A friend of his was up all night with him Saturday and prevented him from going through with it. Finally, after a long night, she too, said that she understood his dilemma and left him.

He made a few more calls to family, telling them goodbye in different ways.

My friend woke up this morning to a phone call from her brother's roommate. His car was running in the garage. The roommate was afraid, but knew what she would find there. My friend had her call the police. They confirmed what we all expected, that he took his life.

So now it's a question of wondering if he did the right thing or not. Did he do it so he wasn't a burden to his family to support him? Did he really have only a meager life left? Could he have been pulled out of this spiral? We'll never know.

You know there are some really good reason why Dr Kevorkian should be able to do what he does. In this instance, I can see where it would be the right reason.

Paceline

Holy cow, riding in a cycling paceline is a blast! The rush of speed and of bodies working in harmony is exhilarating!

One of my friends at work and volleyball partner in crime recently started riding his bike again after a long, 10-ish year hiatus. He knew I rode to work regularly and wanted to get back into the sport again.

A few weeks ago one evening, I got a text from him, "Wanna ride at lunch? Bring your bike to work." The cooler fall weather and an opportunity to get out of the office for a while made this an easy choice. I loaded up my steed and couldn't wait to get out of a meeting to go play.

The first time out we rode around the lake, then headed over to the "rich" part of town near Love Field and just rode around the neighborhoods. He struggled to keep up and I enjoyed an easy pace. We did 10-ish miles in that hour and both came back grinning.

Last week, I had a meeting cancel so it was my turn to text him. He'd ridden a longer ride over the weekend and was tired, but jumped at the chance to again enjoy the crisp, fall lunchtime ride. As we went, I asked him if he'd want to go do a 44-miler that weekend in Bonham. He thought that if he could do this lunchtime ride and recover well, he would do it.

Sure enough, Friday he said he could go and wanted to give it a shot. This was my first road ride ever the year before and I made it through. He plays sand volleyball regularly and is in shape. There was no doubt in my mind he could make it through, maybe being a little tired at the end.

So Rick picked me up early on Saturday and we met up with his friend, Linda, on the way in McKinney. We raced to get registered and just start.

Rick was like a jackrabbit for the first 10-ish miles, and I silently wondered if he'd burn out at about 35 miles. I had a tough time keeping up with him, especially with all those hills early on. We decided to skip the first aid station and move on.

About 12 miles in, Rick spotted a guy with a "classic" bike; one that was about 20+ years old and struck up a conversation with him. Turns out Wayne, originally from South Africa, was here from China on business and some friends conned him into doing the ride. It was a great bike in its time, but a little old technology compared to today. He was enjoying himself despite the older frame and getting a good view of the Texas countryside.

After a while, we realized we were all pacing about the same and decided to try a paceline. Rick started us out, then Wayne pulled for a while. I stayed trailing. I noticed a shadow behind me and realized that someone else had jumped onto the train. He introduced himself (John maybe?) and chatting. Nice guy. Before long, we had several others. Through this point, we were averaging about 17-18mph

We decided to stop at the 2nd rest stop, just to get the butts out of the seats for a few minutes and grab some ice for the bottles. Four of us continued on the paceline and it started to get hilly. Just as we started to get into a small hill, dang Rick, who was up front at the time, piped up and asked everyone to raise hands to see if it was Kari's turn to pull. Well crap! I didn't think I could go fast enough for these guys, especially on hills, but what the heck. They all raised their hands in agreement.

We'd already started up the first small hill and I broke to get to the front. Turned out I sped up too much because Rick, who was behind me at that point, told me I'd dropped a couple of them. Ha! I slowed down a bit so they could catch up, then led the pace for a few miles. Fun! I didn't think I could do it, nor did I think I was fast enough for it. The guys were really encouraging.

We continued swapping out spots until about the 33 mile mark and averaged about 18-19 the rest of hte way. An extremely nasty car accident split us all up. Rick and I stopped to help initially; the other two stopped for a few minutes then went on. I won't go into the details, but it was bloody and required 3 medical helicopters to come take some of the vicitms away. There hasn't been a news link to see what happened to them.

On a brighter note, I'm so freakin' hooked on pacelines now! Wow! Fun stuff. It makes me think I might be able to move up into the next group in the Corinth bike riders. Whee!!

Biomimicry

I'm a science geek at heart. Always have been. I found these articles today on biomimicry and thought some of you might find them interesting. Biomimicry can be described as finding a way to make things more efficient by looking at counterparts in nature. One of these articles, Mercedes takes a look at the box fish, a fisht that doesn't look streamlined at first glance, and uses some of the same "design" to create a concept car with amazing results. Enjoy!

http://www.daimler.com/dccom/0-5-7154-1-503504-1-0-0-503518-0-0-135-7145-0-0-0-0-0-0-1.html

http://www.bnet.com/2403-13501_23-236571.html?tag=homeCar

Random thoughts popping through my brain

On TV: There are only two days left until Survivor starts again. Yay! It's my favorite season of all. I'm struggling to figure out who will win the $1M this season as none of the "characters" pop out at me . Usually, there is one, or two even, who you can pinpoint to make it to the end.

On the Season: My favorite time of year, though is fall. I love the warm days and cooler mornings. The colors are rich and vibrant, unlike the pastels of spring. There's a certain smell in the air, maybe anticipation of the holidays coming up soon. It's almost time to start firing up the oven to bake cookies and warm treats.

On Fall: Warm treats are great, but not when you're at the top of your tubby scale. Wow, I dropped about 10lbs a year ago and somehow it's creeped back up and even has added a few more. I'm off to Belize here soon and need to get down to a shape that doesn't involve popping out of my bathing suit. Ugh!

On Exercise: Tried running (more like joggling) this morning since the weather is cooler. Well, it's cooler, but is still humid. I did only 2 miles and man, it was a struggle. In my early morning shadows, the legs and arms just didn't look like those of an athlete. They looked like a bird flailing after being hit by a car. Okay, maybe not that bad, but you get the picture. It was neither graceful, nor pretty. I miss the days when 5 miles was an "easy" run. The mileage will come back soon enough, as long as I get my butt back into it.

On Work: I'm so frustrated with my job right now. I LIKE to be in the middle of a lot of motion. When I moved teams back in February, I thought it might be a great opportunity to learn just one thing and learn it well. Well, I'm learning that I don't do well with only one thing (hence 2 jobs, writing online, sports etc.). I'm frustrated and bored. I'm starting to shake the trees to see what else I can do in the company without taking too big of a pay hit. I'm hoping I can hang on until January when the new budgets hit.

On Change: I'm excited for my friend, Becky. She has been frustrated in her job in the mortgage industry for quite some time now and has made a concerted effort to get out of it. Wow, when she does something, she does it BIG. She took some tests last week to become an insurance auditor. She passed them and gave notice on her job over the weekend. She literally could leave any moment now to go take care of business along the Texas Coast in the aftermath of Ike. Wow! I know this is a huge change for her, especially knowing she has to leave her wonderful boyfriend, Mike, behind, but I'm so proud of her for jumping in with both feet. She's smart and resourceful. I know she'll do well.

Link to Ike

This is such a cool story to link to one of my best friends, Deeann, who was flying Ike yesterday (9/11). I've done exactly what Scott Blair (mentioned in the article) was doing in this storm many times. Between eye passes, it's nap, reading or food time.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080912/ap_on_re_us/eye_of_ike

Hurricane Ike, bumpy ride with bird's-eye view
By MARY FOSTER, Associated Press Writer Fri Sep 12, 7:07 AM ET
INSIDE HURRICANE IKE - Amid the engines' roar, the Air Force Reserve pilots and navigator worked calmly as their huge plane neared the eyewall of Hurricane Ike.

The gray cloud, looming 50,000 feet into the sky like a colossal concrete barrier was four miles thick, and the Lockheed WC-130J was hurtling into it.
"It's a big one, and it's going to get bigger," said Lt. Col. Mark Carter, 54, a pilot who has chased storms for 31 years. "It's off land now, and feeding on the warm water down there while it gets itself back together."
"Down there" is 10,000 feet below, where the swirling dark water and foaming waves of the Gulf of Mexico are only visible intermittently through the clouds.
Carter, and his fellow Hurricane Hunters of the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, were finishing a fourth trip across Ike, during a 10-hour, 3,000-mile trek to monitor the storm taking aim at the Texas coast.
The aircraft carved a 210-mile giant "X" pattern through Ike and its eye, just off the western tip of Cuba.
"We're the only military aircraft that has permission to fly through Cuban airspace," said public information officer Maj. Chad Gibson. "We share the information we gather with them."
Using high tech equipment aboard the $72 million plane, the crew gathers data on wind speed, barometric pressure and other information for the National Hurricane Center.
"The plane makes two observations a second," said Maj. Deeann Lufkin, 35, a meteorologist who stood behind a bank of screens as she monitored the storm.
Lufkin, who has more than 50 hurricane flights behind her, took the jostling of the storm as easily as a New York City subway rider handles rush hour.
Like everyone on the crew, Lufkin, of Northfield, Minn., is an Air Force Reservist — a civilian who works summers with the Hurricane Hunters, based at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss.
"I love this job," said Lufkin, whose husband is also a Hurricane Hunter. "It is endlessly fascinating, and it is also extremely important. We provide information the satellites can't get. And we provide something satellites will never have — a human eye and brain."
The C-130 has been a workhorse of the U.S. military for nearly five decades, is a squat, broad aircraft, painted dull gray, with four black propellers curving over the wings like exotic flowers.
Inside, it resembles a high-tech auto mechanic's garage. Metal grids on the floor offer secure places to stash equipment, insulation covers most of the walls and ceilings, wires shake everywhere, red mesh behind the armless seats offer something to grab onto when the plane starts bucking and tilting in a storm.
Despite its plain looks, Tech. Sgt. Scott Blair, a big man with close-cropped gray hair and tattoos running up his arms, calls the aircraft his girlfriend.
"I've been married 21 years," said Blair, 38, who runs Fat Boy's BBQ restaurant in Picayune. Miss., when not flying into storms. "She's never had call to be jealous until I started flying on this plane. Now she calls it my mistress."
Flights can run as long as 15 hours, not counting preflight and post-flight briefings.
Once ordered into a storm, the 10 crews made up of six people each, fly on a rotating basis, 24-hours a day, seven days a week.
The flights go into everything from developing tropical storms to Category 5 hurricanes. But they don't fly into a storm over land because of the danger of tornadoes.
Since the flights officially began in 1943, only four Hurricane Hunter planes have been lost in the bump and grind through the clouds — the last in 1974.
It doesn't take much to draw out stories of the storms that have tilted the plane at dangerous angles, sent shudders down its metal spine and through its human occupants, banging untethered people against the ceiling as ride-along journalists scramble for plastic bags amid lurching stomachs.
Blair, who dozed in free in-flight moments with a copy of the book "Unholy War" spread across his stomach, was nonchalant about the Ike flight.
But he remembers others that were more eventful.
"Hurricane Charlie, what was that '03, '04?" Blair said. "That almost beat us to death. We made a pass through it as a Category 2, and 45 minutes later, when we went back through, it was a Cat 4. Every reporter on board had a bag up to his face."
The storms are most dangerous as they build or break apart, Blair said. That's when a potentially deadly microburst of wind and huge up-and downdrafts threaten the plane.
Dangerous or not, the flights, with their combination of boredom and adrenaline-pumping moments, appear to be addictive.
"I'm going to keep doing this until I get too old or my hearing goes," Blair said. "Then I'll just sit up in Picayune (Miss.) and drink beer and eat barbecue and dream about it."

Making changes

I just got back from another trip to MN to visit my dear friends Greg and Deeann. Getting time to visit with special people with whom you can be yourself is such a wonderful feeling. I'm fortunate to have them in my life.

I read a book in the past year about friends and it got me thinking about relationships I've had over the years. Some of my best and longest lasting friendships have come out of the military, partly because we've shared so much time together in odd situations and places.

The friends I've made since coming to Texas have been very satisfying as well. I'm lucky to have gotten in with a set of girlfriends (and their hubbies) who share a lot of the same interests and we've collectively grown quite a bit in the six years I've been here. It's amazing how some of them you can just give a look and they know what you're thinking (which can be good or bad!)

It has also been a delight to meet new people who give you a new perspective. I recently met a lady down the street (well, she actually tracked me down, but that's another story). She enjoys being active as well, and I can't wait to have her meet some of the other girlfriends. She also is such a warm, exciting person. I've learned to think about being a little more open because of her already, though I still have a ways to go.

I've learned so much from all these people over the years. Many have given me great advice and even have told me when I'm being to anal about something! (Laugh). We've leaned on each each other when we're going through rough spells. It's incredible to watch this group pull together when we have to.

But at the same time all of this is going on, I've also learned to let go of relationships. Some of these are with people who are energy-suckers. These are the people with some kind of drama always happening and they need to be bailed out or reeled back in from their personal struggles. Some just don't give a rip, so why bother? Some you just grow apart from. It hasn't been easy to let go in some cases, especially when they live close to you, but with others, it's a relief.

I truely enjoy the friendships I have now. They keep me grounded and at times, pull me out of the house when I'm down. They are blessings to me. Thank you!

My first storm...on the ground

I love tropical weather!

I miss flying in hurricanes, but I sure don't miss the other 9 months of the year where the squadron is spinning out of control...you know, the ARTs bitching about the Reservists and vice-versa. The 3-ish months of storm season were always my favorite.

I've been watching Gustav the past few days, The Weather Channel on in the background at my house all weekend. It hit the coast on Monday morning and by the evening, the first few bands of the cirrus sheild from the storm was evident here in the Dallas area. It was beautiful.

All day Tuesday, I flipped between the radar and satellite images of the remnants of Gustav as it approached. By the time I left SWA that afternoon, I was in heaven. The clouds were in a banded pattern with a distinct arc. There were showers peppering the view towards the east. And the wind really picked up. I could see and feel the wind gusts hitting me.

All I could do was grin.

Can you believe that after 11 years and flying through close to 50 named storms, this is the first tropical storm I've been in on the ground? Amazing!

Great definitions

Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it. (My favorite!)
Glibido: All talk and no action
Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people, that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The Bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an a ** hole.

The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are this year's winners. Read them carefully. Each is an artificial word with only one letter altered from a real word.

Big Butt Day

I know I probably shouldn't complain, but yesterday was a big butt day.

I went shopping, taking advantage of a few Labor Day sales at some of my favorite stores and found some fantastic deals! I even had a 20% off coupon for the entire purchase at Loft. Whee! I was in for good times, yeah!

Sunday, I had some awesome Pad Thai from Pei Wei, which I'm sure, made me retain a bit of water...or at least that's what I'm going to use as the excuse this week. Man, I had a helluva time getting into my "normal" pants size and really got grumpy with the lumps and bumps.

I really, truely have to get about 10lbs off this butt (and that's where it all is) and get into fighting shape for races and for Belize. UGH! It's just so hard.