RECAP: The Amazing Race - "Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen (Switzerland)"

Probably the most frustrating part of the second-last episode of this season of TAR was the fact that, even though the teams were racing through Switzerland and all of the locations they visited were incredible, I was unable to enjoy it because I was too busy yelling at my TV every time Kent and Vyxsin showed their goddamn stupid faces. They've officially overtaken Mirna and Schmirna (Charla and Mirna from Season Whatever) as THE MOST ANNOYING TEAM IN AMAZING RACE HISTORY. CONGRATULATIONS. BULLET POINTS.

Internet Goodness: Nanananananana...

RECAP: The Amazing Race - "I Cannot Deal With Your Psycho Behavior (Austria)" and "We're Good American People (Switzerland)"

So! Thanks entirely to my laziness you, my loyal(?) reader(s?) are to be treated to ANOTHER two-episode recap of The Amazing Race! There is no particular reason for this, other than the fact that I felt like hell for Monday and Tuesday of last week, and by the time I felt better I figured I might as well wait for the next episode and just recap both at once. AND WHAT A RECAP IT WILL BE! I warn you in advance, this might contain A LOT of cursing, as I was GODDAMN FURIOUS with the outcome of the second episode. TO THE BULLET POINTS!!

RECAP: The Amazing Race - "I Feel Like a Monkey in a Circus Parade (Kolkata, India)" and "You Don't Get Paid Unless You Win (Varanasi, India)"

I was going to post my TAR recap from two weeks ago last week, but my laziness once again prevailed, so here we are with a double recap. I'll make it brief, because I've got movies to watch tonight. Instead of a recap of the last two episodes, I'm just going to jot down some brief thoughts about the major events in each one.

• Luke and Margie got eliminated from the Race in the first of these two episodes, and it happened for a familiar reason: Luke's inability to deal with frustration. Once again he was faced with a Roadblock that turned out to be quite difficult for him (he had to find a specific cup of tea from among about 2000 cups, based solely on his memory of the taste and smell of some tea he'd tasted earlier in the day). Some teams found this task relatively easy (Ron and Jet quickly realized that the smell of the tea was fairly memorable, and were able to find their cups right away), but when Luke didn't immediately find his cup we saw almost an exact recreation of the events of the finale of his first season. Rather than tough it out like an adult, he started crying and moaning to his mother that the challenge was too hard. Certainly the task looked very difficult, and I'm sure chugging cup after cup of tea for hours on end is disgusting, but honestly, you're in a race for a million dollars; suck it up. Margie was incredibly supportive throughout the challenge, but even she admitted that once a challenge starts taking too long, Luke has a tendency to freak out and let his frustration get the best of him. Even the other teams and the tea room employees took pity on him, cheering him on as he struggled to finish the task. The most irritating part was that when he finally finished the task, it was clear that he had given up, and he basically sulked through the rest of the leg, even sitting down in a huff when they eventually reached the Pit Stop. For God's sake man, you're like 25 years old and you're on national television; stop throwing temper tantrums and act your goddamn age. As much as they started off a team that I wanted to cheer for, I'm not sad to see them go.
• Mallory continues to be adorably hilarious, as when she frantically raced down a street and right past the clue box because the other teams shouted that she needed to keep going. When she realized her mistake she ran back and playfully smacked the other teams. I can't remember ever seeing this level of camaraderie between the teams in any other iteration of the Race, and it's an interesting dynamic to see. I'm curious to find out whether it'll last to the end of the Race, or if things will get a bit more cutthroat down the line.
• Kisha and Jen didn't realize that their next clue after the Tea Room challenge was hidden under the lid of their tea bottle, and instead asked their cabbie to take them to the Snapple factory. When they realized their mistake, one of them (I don't know which) yelled "Get the fuck outta here!", which was a rare instance of swearing on the Race. I'm always surprised there's not more cursing on this show; I know I'd probably give the censors a run for their money if I was on the Race.
• The product placement in this episode was disgusting. The entire thing was sponsored by Snapple, and when Gary and Mallory came in first, they were rewarded with a special dinner provided by Snapple, and received the dubious honour of being the first people to taste two of Snapple's new Race-inspired flavours. Mallory in particular looked like hers was gross.
  
  
• In the second episode, the Cowboys made a huge mistake and ended up on a flight an hour later than every other team. However, the Roadblock had one member of each team trying to find six Indian holy men in the crowded streets of Varanasi, and Ron had such a hard time (he went in completely the wrong direction) that the Cowboys were able to catch up and pass Ron and Christina, eventually coming in fifth.
• Kent and Vyxsin (but mostly Kent) continued to enrage me this episode, with Kent first deciding to screw Gary over at the Roadblock (they had agreed to work together since Gary was having an easy time finding the individual holy men and Kent had already accidentally found the final holy man) by running away when Gary needed to follow him. Later Kent banged his head on their cab's trunk lid and decided immediately that this was the cabbie's fault, so he spent the rest of the ride berating the poor man. He then was such a pussy that he made Vyxsin carry BOTH OF THEIR GODDAMN BACKPACKS UP A FLIGHT OF STAIRS! This asshole really is unbelievable, and I kept wishing he'd get gored by a bull while they were there. Vyxsin was a bit annoying too; she freaked out when they accidentally started taking a boat instead of a cab and decided to jump into the river and pull the boat back to the dock. However, next to Kent, she was fine. Unfortunately Ron and Christina sucked just a bit more than Kent and Vyxsin, so it was the father/daughter team that was sent packing.
• Based on the preview it seems like Kent and Vyxsin are going to have a bit of a meltdown next week; Vyxsin was shown yelling at Kent that if they were eliminated she would never speak to him again, and my roommate and I were confused, because that just seems like a bonus for everyone involved. The preview also showed that the teams are headed to Austria, which I'm looking forward to; the European legs of the Race are always my favourite ones.

I'll try to get back on track and have a normal recap of the next episode on time next week. Until then, stay tuned.

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!