Well, time to start writing in my blog again. I guess I should do this more often, huh?

Todya was a pretty uneventful day by most standards. STuff happened, but nothing too out of the ordinary. In Gov, we picked partners and bill topics. I have the fortune of working with Donald Scully about federal land. To be honest, I'm a bit worried about this whole mock congress thing. I mean, i don't even really know what we're going to be doing. It's kind of nerve-racking, and I don't have my usual friends who know what's going on to help me out. I woulda liked to work with Justin, but I had the misfortune of being selected as a blue senator, which limited my partner choices. When it came down to Slarve, Donald, or Melissa, I decided I could probably get along with Donald best. I mean, we do get along pretty well, even though we don't really see each other too much outside of school. Hopefully things will go well.

Oh yeah, during programming my left wrist and forearm started hurting like hell! I was almost on the verge of crying! What the hell was going on then? I'm not sure. Maybe lack of sleep has something to do with it? Because I dozed off for like a coupla minutes, then my arm felt much, much better afterwards. O_o

English: vocab, boring stuff. Band: typical stuff. Not necesarily boring, but not too interesting to describe to non-musicians. (Hell, not to interesting to describe to musicians too). Physics: Bill Nye the Science Guy. Kinda dissapointing actually, cuz he wasn't as funny as I remember him. Oh well. Calculus: test, did ok I guess..



Well, alright, enough of the false pretense.

As you probably know, I am obsessed with a certain game/reality show called The Amazing Race. It is about 12 teams of 2 people (bound by love, family, or friendship) in a competition. The object? To race once around the world for a prize of a million dollars. Like any race though, there are paths you have to follow. Each leg of the race starts with a clue and a certain amount of money. You are also given a clue that tells you your next destination. RAce to that place (usually a landmark of some sort) to find another clue that either holds your next destination or a task you have to complete before continuing. In addition, there are three special types of clues:

A DETOUR gives you a choice of two tasks to do, each with its own pros and cons. EAch team must complete one of the tasks before continuing.
A ROADBLOCK is a task that must be completed by only one team member before the team may continue. The team member is chosen before finding out what hte actual task is (though a hint about the task is given beforehand)
A FAST FORWARD is an optional task. There is only one fast forward in each leg of the race, but the team that snags it can advance to the end of the leg immediately. However, each team may only use one fast forward in the entire race.

Eventually, teams will reach the end of the leg, or the pit stop. The last team to arrive at the pit stop is eliminated from the race. The reason I like this game is because it is pretty unpredictable. Because it takes place in the real world, anything and everything can happen, especially when you have to interact with people such as plane ticket vendors, taxi cab drivers, locals, etc. It gets suspenseful when teams are close together and racing to avoid elimination, especially if one of those teams happens to be a team you are rooting for. Another reason I like this game is that it is purely based on skill and politics has little to do with the outcome of the race. While in Survivor, you will be booted off if you are unlikeable or seen as a threat, in the Amazing Race it all depends on your skill and how well you can make it to destinations in time and ahead of the pack.

Although I will try to update this more regularly from now on, Jason's blog will now be home to the Amazing Race report every Wednesday. Yes, this is quite dorky and yes I am obsessed with the show. I don't care. You'll sit down and you'll read it and you'll be happy, lest I kick your ass.

So without further ado....

THE AMAZING RACE REPORT:

Leg 1: Miami, Florida to Mexico City, Mexico

Currently in first: Ken and Gerard, the weirdly opposite-of-each-other-in-every-way brothers
Eliminated: Gina and Sylvia, the soccer moms
Detour: Wings or wheels
Wings: Go in a plane and skydive to the next destination, 7 miles away. Scary, but much faster
Wheels: Ride in a donkey-driven cart to the next destination, 7 miles away. Safer, but far slower
Roadblock: There is never a roadblock on the first leg
Fast Forward: Go to some market square where printers type notices for those who can't read or write. Look for the one with the fast forward. Ken and Gerard were the winners and recipients of the fast forward.

Teams I like:
John Vito and Jill, the dating couple who were brought together after a man, Jill's brother and John Vito's best friend, was killed in the 9/11 tragedy. Sure I'm sick of the whole 9/11 thing, but they are a cute couple, and Jill is HOT.
Tramel and Talicia, the black brother and sister. They seem kinda energetic and kooky. They might bring the comedic relief to the show.
Aaron and Arianned, the best friends. They seem to have a good teamwork, synergy thing going on. Kinda flirtatious, kinda crazy, kinda a good team.

Teams we didn't really get a good look at:
Dennis and Andrew, the conservative father and the gay son. Let the sparks and friction fly. Actually, for two completely opposite people, they seem to get along well, like Ken and Gerard.
Michael and Kathy, the long-distance couple. Um....she's Asian.
Andre and Damon, the two every-day type people. Actually, one's a cop and the other's a firefighter.
And a bunch of others I don't remember.

OK, so next time there is jet-skiing of some sort, Arianne takes off her shirt, and all sorts of other drama.

Go to http://www.cbs.com/primetime/amazing_race3/index.shtml for more information.

Quote of the day: "Well whadya know, this house DID need a harp!" -Drew Carey