TV: Downfall

Are you kidding me?

Seriously?

This is one of the stupidest ideas for a game show I've ever seen. The contestants play on top of a 10 story building with an extra large conveyor belt and their bodies rigged for falling. From ABC, Downfall...

... where contestants will try to quickly answer a series of trivia questions against the clock in seven rounds. Fabricated facsimiles of all prizes will be placed on the largest conveyor belt ever seen on TV with a pile of cash at the end ranging from $5,000 to $1 million. In each round, players will try to answer all the questions before their prizes and cash go over the edge, off the roof, and sent crashing 100 feet to the street below. If the cash goes over the side of the building, then the game is over and that player is eliminated.

If a player begins to struggle for answers to the game's category-based questions, there will be two ways to back up the belt: Surrender A Personal Possession, where the player offers a prized possession of their own onto the conveyor belt at the risk of it being dropped over the edge and destroyed; or the Friend On The Belt option, where a player's own friend or family member—even their Grandmother—can be placed on the belt to help them find the answers. If they don't beat the clock, this person takes the chance of going off the side of the building just like the previous prizes—in this case, wearing a decelerator harness to soften the fall.

After each successful round, the player can leave with prizes won or risk them all to keep going toward the million dollar final prize. In the last round, the player will stand on the conveyor belt holding all the cash, heading towards the edge of the building. They'll need to answer all 10 questions correctly in time, or... it's over the edge to their downfall.

B and I couldn't watch more than 3 minutes before we turned the channel.

Miscellaneous: Airbender Up to Par?

I've been watching the trailers, pause, repeat, rewind, rewind more, play, pause, play, pause, rewind...you get the picture. So do I like what I see?

I've been skeptical from the beginning. Avatar: The Last Airbender is the most awesome cartoon/anime. My family loves it because besides being intense, full of life lessons, and solid, it is also damned funny. We have watched every episode so many times it is too hard to count and have the entire set on DVD. We've watched the specials and the special pop up episodes they've been recently airing on NickToons to coincide with the movie's release on July 1.

The skepticism hinges on what seems to be a dark portrayal of the movie. We love the funny and feel the funny is going to be absent from the movies. We aren't completely thrilled with the casting either. They should look like the cartoon versions. Period. We just watched another trailer and all of us, even A and M, were complaining about their computer generated Appa.

So I'm worried about the movie, which is in three parts the same as the cartoon. I'm worried that I'll be severely disappointed. My only hope is that it will get some people interested in seeing the original.

Six days.

UPDATE: I watched NickToons Airbender Revealed and I'm so bummed. Shyamalan changed the pronounciation of Aang's name (claiming to make it sound more Asian), changed firebending(!), and left the Kyoshi warriors on the cutting room floor.

Although Shyamalan recognized the need for funny in the movie, he includes it more at the beginning claiming the movie just went in a serious direction.

Lastly, the reviews are horrible. Some saying even people who know about the show are confused. Some describing how the 3D makes the movie hard to see because it's so dark. Now I'm debating if I should even shell over the dough to see it. :(

Men: David Kimmerle

Name: David Kimmerle
Best Known For: Fitness Model
Year of Birth: ~1979
Status: Single
Height: 6'1"
Fun Fact: Will not do nude photos; What a guy!

I did some searches as usual to collect info on this guy. I did not like the Iron Man article I found and not because he's pictured with a female - honest. The photos looked cheesy (or should I say greasy) and he didn't look very good. There are other, nicer, hotter, (whew!) photos of him out there. His diet is unreal and filled with supplements. He likes outdoor sports including horseshoes.

Chocolate: Sweets and Snacks Expo Review

I have to credit Cake Wrecks again for this link to an article by Serious Eats about the Sweets & Snacks Expo formerly the All Candy Expo. Reading the article is enough as Zemans does an awesome job giving the low down. I'm looking forward to the caramel and nut Snickers the most. I'm weirded out by chocolate covered Peeps, but the purple is appealing.

The link above is Part 1; here is Part 2 and Part 3. Part 2 features more snacky foods while Part 3 features unknowns. I'm particularly interested in the Winky. Yeah, you need to read the articles ;)

Books: Can You Keep a Secret?

My second book of summer!

"What?!" You say. "Where's the first one?"

Well, I liked this one better so I'm putting it up first. Can You Keep a Secret? is your British chick lit all nicely wrapped up in funny and heartwarming. I almost cried. Almost, people. The book is by Sophie Kinsella - the author of the Shopaholic books. Never did get into those, but I saw that this book wasn't connected and I liked the jacket summary.

Drunk junior marketing assistant with a plane phobia gets on a plane after a failed attempt at a business meeting and outs all her secrets (And I do mean ALL) to the stranger sitting on the plane next to her because air turbulence makes her think she's going to die. Turns out the guy is the founder, owner, you name it, of the company she works for. And he has an impeccable memory.

I spent the first part of the book laughing, the middle part furiously turning pages, and the last part forcing myself not to tear up. There are over 500 reviews at Amazon with an average of 4 1/2 stars. Those who did not like it were unhappy with the transparent plot, but I liked seeing how it would all come together.

Happy Reading!

TV: Lie to Me Summer

Lie to Me came back on June 7th with a bang. It was fun to watch Jason Dohring play a sociopath after watching him on Veronica Mars. I'm looking forward to a good summer season!

Mondays at 8pm.

Miscellaneous: Friendship bracelets

Do you remember them? Well, they're still popular among the younger set. In fact, I happen to be instructing a bunch of young minds soon, and thought I'd share some of the fun ones. There used to be books everywhere, but they are so easy to make that no one really thinks of them as being so mysterious (you know, back in the day). So anyway, the three I'm sharing are made with knots.

The first is a kind of spiral. I made a really long one in my favorite colors to hold my badge for work - it lasted 2 years! Girls Scouts has a picture with the knotting technique which is really simple.

The second uses the same knot as the spiral only on repeat. This one is flat and requires you to use the same color but on individual strands one at a time. This link calls it the Candy Stripe and has instructions. Also, a Klutz site with great pictures here.

The third and final share is one that actually uses a macrame technique. Yeah, that weird sixties and seventies stuff. When you really think about the whole friendship bracelet concept, it is all macrame. Anyway, it is a half or flat knot, which is half of a box or square knot. That same half gets repeated over and over. It looks very cool (at least those kids I'm working with said so)! There are directions for making the knot here - only doing part 1. There is a video here. It is so quick you may have to watch it three times if you use it for directions. It's better to look at the video for the final product.

Three things the kids forget: keep the strands pulled tight as you make the knots or the unknotted strands bunch up, always follow the knotting pattern - one wrong loop and it all goes south, and that practice makes perfect!

Men: Sven Smits

Name: Sven Smits
Best Known For: Modeling
Year of Birth: 1981
Status: Single
Height: 6'1"
Fun Fact: Photographer

I don't have much for this Belgian model other than he's also a photographer. I visited his MySpace and Facebook to see if I could find more pics - that I did. I'm featuring a pic with clothes (gasp!), but there are numerous of his slim, muscular bod and two tattoos (luck and courage, just in case you go look :)) While his photos grace many gay mags, he's rumored to be straight. Hey, maybe he'll see my little blog and clarify ;)

Photo taken from flickr account of digital citrus

Chocolate: Super Fudge Truffle

Go get something a little chocolatey to put in your mouth now. I don't want to be responsible for the reaction you have to Baskin Robbins Super Fudge Truffle ice cream.

It's the bees' knees.

LOL! We went out celebrating some performances last night, one being A's spring flute recital, by going to Baskin Robbins. While they have many yummy flavors of ice cream (well, it's rare for me to find ice cream I don't like...), Super Fudge Truffle was super dark with chucks of chocolate ganache. The description at the site says that there's toffee pieces too, but my single scoop didn't contain any. It tastes superb without them! Even B who likes dark chocolate said it was really rich.

Feeling decadent? Get yourself a scoop!

Books: Reading

Following on the heels of my Me post... I plan to do a lot of reading this summer. My goal is another 100 books, that will hopefully occupy 100 book posts over the year :) It all depends on what I find to read.

Also a reminder to look into your library's summer reading programs. The kiddos always participate, although I'm not sure my elder child will be able to do it this year (can we say mooooody!)

I've been trying to get a jump on the reading by downloading some short fluff reads on my Kindle. LOVE my Kindle! I've found a couple of authors I've been a little hooked on, but I'm not willing to share yet - sorry! But if you're interested in what I've found you have to email me.

So no books to share in this post :( But soon!

Hmmm

Summer's coming! I'm so excited to get summer this year. I really need to clean house, and I actually think I might get it done. We were planning to travel, but I got sick and won't be well until the end of June - so I figure no trips this year. Plus I had to fork out $200 on medicines for the sick :(

Wish me luck getting things organized and finished over the next two weeks so I can enjoy my summer!