I missed the premiere of the Episode III trailer last night, largely due to the fact that I refuse to watch the OC. However, our fellow netizens have provided a torrent for your downloading pleasure. I must say, Episode III looks awesome! Of course, I along with many said that the last two times George Lucas premiered trailers only to be severely disappointed by the films. Odds are this film will be just as disappointing, but no matter. The dark side is powerful and I shall succumb to its treachery on May 19. Thanks to kottke.org for the hook up!

My annual subscription to the Zonkboard comments board software expired and I don’t want to pay the $10 per year to keep it going. Sadly, I found out that they no longer have a free version of their product. So after three years of service the Zonkboard is gone. As always though, please feel free to leave comments on the blog entries.

In this leg of the race, teams made their way from Peru to Santiago, Chile. Prior to getting on a plane, teams had to make their way via bus to Arequipa, Peru. All of the teams started in the middle of the night and headed to the bus depot with $480 in cash. The bus ticket counters did not open until morning, so once there Boston Rob asked for information from a security guard. Rob found out that the bus that left at 7:00AM arrived quicker than the bus that left at 6:40AM due to the number of stops and decided to bribe the guard to not tell the other teams.

Needless to say, the other teams found out about Robs plan and were not happy. Several teams confronted Rob and he, of course, denied all wrongdoing. In the end, all of the teams boarded the 7:00AM bus to Robs dismay. Not to be outdone, on the way to Arequipa Rob bribed the driver to only open only the front door of the bus and not the rear door. He got two other teams that were sitting near the front to pitch in money for the bribe. The icing on the cake was that Rob used only the other teams money to bribe the driverhe didnt put in any money of his own. I must say this was brilliant. This type of politicking has been missing from the race for years and it took having a Survivor on the race to make it happen. Great idea!

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I had wrist surgery yesterday morning and I am high as kite on pain medicine called Hydrocodone, a Vicodin generic. I was supposed to be back to work tomorrow but from the looks of it, I will be out the entire week. Newsflash, when someone cuts you open an drills screws into your bone it hurts, it really hurts. It hurts so much that you can barely sleep. So not only am I high, I am really sleepy. Add to that the drug side effects, which includes constipation, and the healing process, which includes lots of swelling and ice packs, and you have a party [insert sarcastic smirk here]. This sucks.

P.S. It took me about 15 minutes to write this crappy post and I fell asleep twice while doing it. Sad.

Update: Also, here’s an x-ray of my wrist two weeks after surgery.

While watching the Amazing Race 7 premiere off TiVo today I noticed a commercial in which the Amazing Race is encouraging families of four to send audition tapes to register for the next race.

Here is info from a recently held audition for The Amazing Race 8:

All types of families may audition: traditional, families in the making, blended families. Our description of family includes non-traditional families and families in the making. Some examples include an engaged couple paired with their in-laws-to-be or a blended family.

All four family members must be present at the open call.

Team members must be at least 8-years-old, and one team member must be at least 21-years-old.

Any team that has a minor (anyone under 18) must also have as a team member at least one of the minors parents or legal guardian.

The race is pretty taxing in pairs and in groups of four it would seem nearly impossible–especially with kids. I am interested in seeing the new concept though. I think it will be really funny seeing kids break down from the stress.

I was contacted by the San Francisco Film Festival last week. This in itself wasn’t out of the ordinary since I am a member of the San Francisco Film Society. However, this was different. I received an email from the publicist of the festival because in the past I have posted information and reviews of the festival on The Daily Nugget. She apparently searched for online press in Google and found my past blog posts and reviews. Due to my previous “coverage,” she offered me press credentials to cover the event officially this year.

This is proof positive that bloggers are being recognized as valid news sources by many industries, including the entertainment industry. I assume that my blog isn’t the only blog invited to attend the event. However, needless to say, being recognized as a news organizaton is very flattering and exciting. As official press for the event I will be able to schedule one-on-one interviews with film directors that will be attending the festival, see advanced screenings of the films, and obtain full-access to opening night and closing night ceremonies. Look for official SF Film Festival coverage soon.

Well, you all know I broke my wrist this weekend. I’ve been in a temporary splint since Saturday and today I had my follow-up appointment in the city. I thought the doctor would just take a quick x-ray to check the alignment, remove the splint, and put a big cast on. Unfortunately, the size of my fracture and the distance of the fracture from the joint will make it very difficult for it to heal without surgery. I’ll have to get a metal plate and six screws (three on each side) to bridge the fracture and facilitate healing.

The good news about all this is that I will be getting a much shorter cast, which will not include my elbow. Also, this smaller cast will be relatively straight and will not require my wrist to be bent sharply, as it is now in the splint. This means I’ll be able to type with both hands sooner rather than later. Lastly, it may mean that I will be able to get my hands around my Xbox controller. Hey, at least I have my priorities straight! Wish me luck in surgery. It hasn’t been scheduled yet, but it will be sometime early next week.

I installed an extension to Firefox called stumbleupon 1.9992. After installation, it asks for your interests and directs you to websites you may like. Today I stumbled upon ‘Time‘, a photo-chronology of a family in Argentina. They’ve been taking pictures on the same day every year since 1977. The scrapbook is pretty amazing.

Gizoogle! Now this is a search engine. When you do a search, ask it to translate the page. You gotta see it to believe it! Via TPILB.

In the opening leg of the race, teams started off in Long Beach, California and made their way to Lima, Peru. Rob & Amber were almost immediately behind when Rob had problems opening up the trunk in the marked cars. They were nearly last in reaching LAX airport and managed to get on the second of two designated flights to Peru. The second flight was scheduled to land one hour and twenty-five minutes after the first. In case you haven’t already figured it out, I am rooting for Rob & Amber.

Rob & Amber met someone on the plane that recognized them from Survivor and offered to help them navigate their way through Peru. Their guide managed to get them on buses and negotiated in Spanish to pay the drivers extra not to stop and pick up passengers, only to drop passengers off. This gave Rob & Amber a huge advantage–it was like all of Peru was on their side. In contrast, many of the other teams had problems with the language barrier and it took them a long time to arrange transportation. And it was only Spanish!

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Tom Owad wants you to learn about computers. So he wrote a book to show you how. What kind of computer, you ask? How about the first personal computer ever, the Apple I?

The book isn’t just a ‘howto build your own Apple’. The book goes into detail about fundamental digital computer design. Now anyone with $100 can restart the home computer revolution in their own garage.

Honestly, I’ll leave the high-level computing chapters for Larry. I just want to know how to build the damn thing. There is a foreword by Steve Wozniak (the other Steve behind Apple) and the book is available at Amazon or any local bookstore.

via Wired News

Everyone has been asking me exactly how I broke my wrist. I would love to say it was while attempting to land a huge 720 Mute Grab off a jump in the Alpine Meadows Terrain Park. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite that spectacular. Here’s the whole story from start to finish:

The Fall
My friend Alice and I were coming down a downhill run that lead into a flat area. The flat area was followed by a small uphill “ramp” that curved left into another relatively flat fire trail before continuing downhill. These flat areas were not a problem for Alice, since she was on skis and had poles to propel her. However, every snowboarder will tell you that the worst thing about snowboarding is being stuck on a flat spot and having to pedal, or skate, until there is sufficient slope.

Seeking to avoid this, I picked up as much speed as I could out of the run. I was doing what was a very comfortable 25 miles per hour right behind a small 12-year-old girl on skis who was also picking up speed in a tucked position 10 feet ahead of me and to my right. Right before hitting the ramp, the girl swerved left directly in front of me causing me to brake. Unfortunately, I had too much forward momentum to brake as hard as I did causing me to flip over my high-side edge and face plant right onto the ramp’s negative slope. Seeking to save my face, I must have instinctively put my arms out instead of tucking. It didn’t really matter. I slid about 10 feet on my face and even swallowed a little snow in the process.

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