Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Holy Podcast, Batman!


Let's face it, for most of us working 9-5 jobs, life can be pretty boring. Sitting around in front of a computer all day, I've had to find ways to entertain myself while still getting my work done (without breaking any company rules; in other words I can't be dicking around on the Internet all day when I'm supposed to be working). Probably the best solution I've found is the podcast. There are hundreds of podcasts out there for every kind of listener. As you might imagine, I prefer comedy podcasts to anything else, so I figured I'd write up some brief reviews of my favourite podcasts. I listen to quite a few different ones; these are just some of the best I've found.

Introducing, Car!


This may surprise you, but I'm not the greatest when it comes to following through on things. I know, if you've been following this blog at all over the past year, you're probably thinking "But Ryan, what are you talking about? You're the most reliable blogger I've ever seen, what with the way you constantly follow through on the things you say you're going to blog about! Remember how many Adventures in Alcohol posts you did after you started that? And lest we forget Buzz vs. The News and Buzz vs. The Internet! Why, of the three of those things, you got a full two posts!

Anyway, among the things I said I'd do and never did was a series of posts about my hunt for a car. I think I made it two posts deep in that one (one was an actual post about it, and the other was a post saying that it had snowed out and I couldn't go test driving). Well, the car hunt has since finished, so rather than waste your time with descriptions of the cars I didn't buy, here's the one I bought:


It's a 2011 Kia Sportage, and I've named it Alexander the Great (although I'm wavering on that name; it felt like an Alexander for the first week or so, but I'm not so sure of late). It doesn't have the power of the V6 in the car I used to drive (Stormin' Norman, a 2000 Toyota Solara), but for a 4-cylinder it's got a good amount of pickup. It's extremely comfortable, and a big selling point for Kia (aside from the fact that it was something like $2000 cheaper than anything else in its class) is the fact that the base models come with all the toys that you'd need to pay extra for in anything else. Mine isn't quite the base model (I got the LX AWD), but it's certainly not the top model, and yet it still comes with Bluetooth connectivity (and I can play music over Bluetooth as well, which is nice), USB port (so I can just put all my music on a flash drive and leave that connected to the car), heated seats, steering wheel audio controls, a 3-month subscription to Sirius satellite radio that I never use, and a backup sensor. It's got way more room than my last car, and overall, I'm really enjoying it.


So there you have it: my new car.

Stay tuned.

RECAP: The Amazing Race - "Don't Ruin the Basketball Game (Kunming, China)"


Oh, Amazing Race. Every time I think you've learned your lesson, you go and piss me off yet again. Despite the fact that TAR is one of the best reality shows on television, it is not without its bad habits, and this week's episode was a prime example of that most hated of Amazing Race occurrences: bunching. Regardless of how far ahead or behind some teams might be, the producers decide WHO CARES?! It's not as though these people are RACING or anything! Let's have them arrive at a train station/airport/bus terminal, only to discover that they have to wait NINE HOURS for the next train/plane/bus; surely that won't piss ANYONE off!

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

RECAP: The Amazing Race - "This is the Most Stupid Day Ever (Lijang, China)"


I want you all to take a minute and look at that picture with me. This exercise is called "How Angry can Looking at a Pair of Human Beings Make Me?", and the answer to that question is (for me) "Extremely". Folks, I dare say that Kent and Vyxsin are the dumbest team I have ever seen on The Amazing Race, and that is saying A LOT. Keep in mind, this is a show that has featured the following:
  • A girl who made her team lose because she wouldn't go down a water slide
  • A team that thought a "battlement" was a person
  • A team that couldn't unscramble the word "Franz" and instead took a 4 hour penalty
  • Multiple teams getting angry at locals in foreign countries for not speaking fluent English
There are dozens of other instances that could have gone on that list, but I got lazy and didn't feel like trying to remember stupid things that had happened in past seasons. Regardless, I can't remember ever seeing a single team make more dumb mistakes in the course of a single episode in all the seasons of this show that I've watched.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Internet Goodness: Barbra Streisand

I cannot get enough of this song.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

RECAP: The Amazing Race - "We Had a Lot of Evil Spirits Apparently (Japan)"


If I were to go on The Amazing Race, here is a list of things I would not do:
  1. I would not take with me a partner who was physically incapable of running The Amazing Race.
  2. I would not start crying like a teenage girl who just found out that Justin Bieber is off the market at the first sign of any difficulty.
  3. I would not pick a Detour that was CLEARLY entirely based on luck and was infinitely more difficult than the other branch.
  4. I would not give up and quit the Race after (what seemed like) 20 minutes of trying a specific task.
In case you couldn't guess, we saw ALL of these things happen on Sunday's episode of The Amazing Race, and all from one particular team.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Internet Goodness: The Creep

Oh Lonely Island, I'll never get tired of you.

RECAP: The Amazing Race - "I Never Looked So Foolish in My Whole Entire Life (Outback)"


A couple of days late, a few bucks short; it's the latest recap of The Amazing Race, brought to you by your (least) favourite (un)faithful blogger. Ech. I just referred to myself as a blogger. Then again, I think you actually have to blog to be considered one of those, so maybe I'm in the clear.