Culturally Preconditioned

Holy shit.. it’s here! Currently downloading the episode… will post the review in a day or two. I haven’t been this excited about Survivor since.. well the last season. LOL I NEVER get tired of this shit.. the game is always different.

As some of you might realize, fuckin ntv7 has finally come to their senses and started airing Survivor : China (Saturday nights). I still can’t bring myself to forgiving them for abruptly cancelling Survivor : Vanuatu - just 3 weeks before the finale. Anyway, since Survivor : China is showing (I still think this was one of the better seasons post All Stars) on our local tv, there is hope that they’ll show Survivor : Micronesia too.. also known as Survivor 16, also known as Fans vs Favorites, also known as Survivor Half-ASS 2. In case you don’t already know, the show will premier on CBS this coming Thursday (and Big Brother too!!!).. so here’s a little something to whet your appetite.

Here are the two teams: The first team which is the Airai tribe, consisting of the FANS (the new players) — (numbered photos are courtesy of SurvivorFever.net)

Michael Bortone (1), Tracy Wolf (2), Joel Anderson (3), Kathleen Sleckman (4) Erik Reichenbach (5), Mary Sartain (6), Chet Welch (7), Natalie Bolton (8), Jason Siska (9), Alexis Jones (10)

And here is the second team which is the Malakal tribe, consisting of FAVES (players from past series - which might be totally new for those who haven’t been following the show)

Cirie Fields (11) - from Exile Island, Jonathan Penner (12) - from Cook Islands, Amanda Kimmel (13) from China, James Clement (14) - from China, Ozzy Lusth (15) - from Cook Islands, Yau-Man Chan (16) - from Fiji, Eliza Orlins (17) - from Vanuatu, Jonny Fairplay (18) - from Pearl Islands, Parvati Shallow (19) - from Cook Islands, Ami Cusack (20) - from Vanuatu.

First impressions on the previous players : Cirie - overrated, Jonathan - LOVE. Amanda - LOVE, James - good choice, Ozzy - zero social skills, Yau Man - LOVE, Eliza - good choice, Jonny Fairplay - waste of a filler, Parvati - holy WTF? shit we got ourselves another fucking Amber, Ami - LOVE LOVE LOVE.

And you might enjoy the following youtubes too. The first one is a pretty cool ‘trailer’ (I don’t think they’ve ever done this for previous seasons). And the second one is a Meet The Castaways session.

February 7th. Can’t wait.

And have a Prosperous New Year for those celebrating the Chinese New Year!

Well, can you blame me? I’m off to Bali tomorrow and I haven’t packed shit yet. Anyway, random thoughts on the latest episode of TAR 12…

• Yay for Christina for getting to 1st place (not so much for Hernia prick)
• My love for the Goths knows no bound - and the previews of Kunt blowing a gasket in the next episode is looking awesome
• Jen and Nate still sucks
• Grandad is THE man.. grandson proves to be useless for the thousandth time
• TK and Rachel are boring pieces of shits. They’re just.. there.. in a who gives a fuck kinda way.
• Hank Azaria was screwed by the planes.. tough shit. But the airport drama this week was INTENSE.

And this one’s just for miki… I LOVE this screencap from the week before :

Since I’ll be in Bali for the rest of this week, looks like I’m going to miss the next episode of TAR Asia, which sucks.. cause truthfully, I AM finding this season pretty interesting. However, the fucking TARA editing team needs some fucking lesson in making previews… what is the fucking point of showing which teams will be arriving happily at the next pitstop? They have basically given away which teams do NOT get eliminated in the next episode.. and I’m not happy. Dumbasses.  Oh and I forgot to mention, Allen Wu’s hushed voice at the haunted forest last week totally reminds me of that guy from Misteri Nusantara… LOL.

Survivor China is coming to an end. The penultimate episode will air this Thursday, and the finale will be aired on Sunday. I haven’t been following spoilers this season, so I have no idea who will win.. but I have to say, this has been one of the BEST seasons to have aired since Pearl Islands.. and that’s saying a lot. And also… I received my China buffs in the mail today. Woohoo!

Wow.. it seems like it was only yesterday that I made this post on the Must Watch TV Shows of 2006-2007. Heroes was basically the only good call I made last year. Jericho was a great show too, but because of the extra long hiatus over the Christmas period, I quickly lost interest (the show was then cancelled, much to my surprise, but was revived once again when viewers complained about the abrupt cancellation. I might download the rest of Season 1 if I have nothing else to do. I did NOT, however, start watching Brothers & Sisters. It sounded like a borefest, kinda like Touched Like An Angel dramacrap that I just couldn’t be bothered with. For those who’s interested, I think Star World is picking this up soon.

Other shows that I did latch on to based on friends’ recommendations last year. Top Chef - for those who truly love culinary programs, this IS the ultimate show for you. I’m so glad it won an Emmy nomination this year, cause frankly speaking, it deserved to win. It’s new, it’s fresh, not to be confused with Iron Chef, I can only give high praises to this show and hope our local tv stations will pick it up soon. And while we’re on culinary show, on the other side of the spectrum, we have Hell’s Kitchen - a show hosted by the infamous chef Gordon Ramsey. It was only after I picked up the show that 8tv starting showing this on TV. It’s basically a show to watch Chef Ramsey blow his top every single episode.. and even though that was completely delicious to watch, the ‘chefs’ competing in the show is a laugh compared to those on Top Chef.

I also picked up The Class - an ensemble comedy written by some of the writers from the Friends sitcom. I am disappointed that this show was cancelled, because it was one of the very few scripted comedies that made me laugh out loud on more than a few occassions. Although I’m guessing lots of people were feeling it had too much of a Ross-Rachel thing going on. Speaking of Friends, I also watched HBO’s The Comeback - a comedy written using the same format as The Office and 30 Rock, it follows Valerie Cherish (played by the fabulous Lisa Kudrow <3 <3 <3), a failing TV actress trying to make a comeback into show business. Hands down, this was the BEST comedy I've seen this year. And we all know my favorite shows tend to get cancelled.. so it did. Fuck you HBO (and Fuck You for cancelling Carnivale too). Other comedies that I picked up.. well Ugly Betty. It’s camp, it’s loud, it’s very telenovella-ish, and I’m proud to say that I enjoy watching this show.

Okay, after the LONG summer hiatus (which prompted me to watch Big Brother 8, filled with the most despicable cast in the history of television), it’s time to get on with the new shows. Granted that I haven’t really checked all of the schedule (some of the shows will be premiering in January like Amazing Race 12 and Lost - which by the way, you can hate it as much as you want, but Lost Season 3 had the best.ending.ever. compared to the other scripted show), so I’ll just start with what I’m currently watching right now.

Top Chef Season 3

The show is coming to an end - the finale is just around the corner, but this is worth a mention. If I need to replace Survivor and Amazing Race on my tv schedule, this would be the show to do it. The show is fun, there’s drama - but not the kind of forced drama that they shove right into your faces, the cooking competitions are fun to watch, and you’ll get at least 8 or more new recipes weekly. The creativity that the chefs show certainly give an aspiration to fellow culinary lovers everywhere. 10 thumbs up!

Psych - Season 2

I first caught the show while browsing through Astro. It was the series premier (season 1 episode 1). I didn’t know it was a regular tv show as the run time for the episode was almost feature length (at more than 1.5 hours). Regardless, the premier was so funny and wiity, that I immediately downloaded the entire Season 1after watching the first episode on TV. If you haven’t seen this show.. it’s like a comedic CSI. LOL I know that sounds silly, but it’s one of those show where you can just watch and relax and enjoy. (Season 3 will be airing next year)

Heroes - Season 2

Season 2 just premiered earlier this week. And you’d think after all my close encounter of the Heroes cast, I’d be salivating over everything that they churn out. NOT. The premier was fucking disappointing (yes, I’ll call it shit, if I think it is shit). I do love the fact that David Anders is probably going to be one of the regular (I loved him as Sark in Alias, but he brings an almost goody aspect to his character in this show), but the premier was honestly trying to jam so much stuff into our throats. Take a chill pill, why don’t ya. It was messy and I don’t like it.. but is that going to stop me from watching the show? Are you crazy? I just hope the show will pick up soon. Oh and I usually hate spin offs, but Heroes: Origins sounds like something that I will truly enjoy.

Ugly Betty - Season 2

This show continues to amaze me. Perfect balance of drama, humor, mystic, pop culture and conflict. And the season premier.. wow. Excellent is the only way to put it without giving up too many away at this point in time (for those of you who haven’t seen it).

Survivor : China

It’s only been two episiodes, but I have a gut feeling that this will be one of the best seasons yet! I LOVE this season. Maybe it’s due to the fact that it was filmed in China (awesome scenery), or maybe it’s due to the fact that we’re back to having just 16 contestants, and no more of that mumbo jumbo racial quota (that sucked monkey balls, btw). The first two episodes are awesome. Moral dilemmas are raised within the first 5 minutes of the show, when the contestants were asked to join in a Buddhist ceremony (a Christian radio show host politely declined to do it, and frankly speaking, I applaud her for standing what she believes in). The cast shows a lot of promise. But most importantly, I just found out that Todd is a Suckster! OMFG. One of us actually made it on to the show.. and it’s pretty cool that he’s one of the guys I’m rooting for because finding out he was a Suckster in the first place. This is going to be an AWESOME season. (insert obligatory FUCK YOU NTV7 comment right here). My early favorites : Todd, Amanda and James. And I sure hope Zhan Hu self destructs soon. Zhan Hu

Californication - Season 1 (new show!)

A new show on the Showtime network. This show basically focus on a writer (played by David Duchovny) iand his fucked up life in Hollywood. Sounds like a been there, done that, right? Well, wrong. The show is called Californication for a damn good reason, and if I were to sum up the show, it has to be a tostesterone-driven Sex in The City. The comedy is wickedly good, but some friends have commented that this show is catered too much for the male viewers, but I digress. Awesome awesome awesome.

Dirty Sexy Money - Season 1 (new show!)

How can forty minutes of television be so fucking fucked up? Well watch this show and you’ll see how. Two friends recommended this show to me, and boy, am I glad they did! The show is about the ultra rich Darling family, and the family lawyer (played by Peter Krausse of HBO’s Six Feet Under - one of the best shows to ever grace our television) who’s out to handle all these weird socilaite behaviours. It’s hard to explain, but I totally fucking love this show. And the ringtones are a hoot! LOL

The Amazing Race Asia - Season 2 (coming soon!)

Well I was tipped off by one of the contestants, Sophie (watch her video diary), on my blog that she was one of the contestants. From that instant, fellow spoilers have gone totally crazy.. and the good folks at RealityFanForum have searched high and low and provided us the details (and pictures!) of the contestants.

TARA 2 TEAM LIST (courtesy of peach and the rest of the spoiling crew at RFF):

1) Hong Kong: Sophie Teng 27 (writer)/ Aurelia Chenat 24 (former model) former roommates
2) Hong Kong: Monica Lo (former Miss International)/ Edwin Lo (event organizer) dating couple
3) Singapore: Adrian Yap 27 (business manager)/ Colin Low 35 (sales director) gym partners–Adrian is 1st hearing impaired racer
4) Philippines: Rovilson Fernandez / Marc Nelson (TV Hosts)
5) Thailand: Paula Taylor (VJ model)/ Natasha best friends
6) Philipines : Henry Reed (retired US Navy officer)/ Terri (Henry’s wife) husband/wife
7) Indonesia: Brett Money (physiotherapist, Jakarta)/ Kinar Yosih (actress/model)
8) Japan: Daichi /Sawaka Kawashima formerly estranged brother/sister
9) Malaysia: Ann/Dianne not seen in photograph (dancing mums)
10) Malaysia: Vanessa/Pamela Chong (sisters of Malaysian reality TV song winner Victor Chong)

I believe this show will start sometime in Novermber, so it looks like we’re going to have TARA2 before TAR12 comes on air in January/February.

SOUR GRAPE ALERT :

Okay, someone tell me what’s the point of having TWO female/female teams from Malaysia? I mean congrats and all for making it onto the show, but seriously? Are they out to make sure that no male/male team wins this year? I truly question the casting folks decisions. Regardless, I will probably end up rooting for them anyway (especially the dancing mom team). And HELLO?? Where are all the fatties? Don’t you know that FATTIES RULE ALL?? I swear to god, this is totally MACTOR CENTRAL (Model+Actor), and I can’t help but think that you have a killer bod or at least become a celebrity to get onto this show. I pray this is not the thing that will kill this show. Can you tell the casting is becoming more and more Americanized? What happened to casting real folks who are real fans of the show? Can you tell that I’m a bitter fatty cunt, right now? LOL And urgh.. just reading this from one of the articles make me sick :

“Monica is an actress who won the Miss Chinese International title in 1997, while event organiser Edwin has been nicknamed ‘Drama King’ by hisfriends. The pair are already calling themselves the ‘Rob and Amber’ of The Amazing Race Asia.

Edwin and Monica have declared the teams from the first season of The Amazing Race Asia to be boring, adding they’ll ‘bring heat and excitement to the viewers’ and make Season Two ‘a better show’.”

Urgh. We don’t need a fucking Asian Romber. And if this is any indication on how the rest of the teams are going to be.. well.. I’ll still watch the show, but they may rival the Big Brother 8 folks in terms of mediawhoreness. Playing it to the camera to instill forced drama <<<<<<<< SHIT STAINED UNDERWEAR.

That said, if any of you racers are reading this, chill out. I’m pretty sure I’ll say the same thing if I was on the show too, no, I’m pretty sure I’ll say worse things than that. So look out for the Amazing Race Asia 2 - coming to you in November on AXN-Asia!

(screencap courtesy of the great folks at Survivor Phoenix)

Are you positively orgasming like I am yet?

Survivor : Fiji just ended in the US. Not going to post any spoilers here. But despite the sucky have & have-nots twist in the beginning, Survivor : Fiji has the most fantasgasmic strategic plays post merge ever. And I mean, EVER. So totally worth watching.

This was “Idols Give Back” week, and the Coldplay song that they played in the intro was very off putting and pretty much set the tone for the entire night for me. Somber, boring, unoriginal and dreadful. The entire “your vote will save lives” bit was beyond cheesy. I know it’s for a good cause, but how much will $5 million make a difference to people in Africa, AND America? It’s insignificant, and for American Idol to pull this off.. I don’t know.. I feel very indifferent and suspect at the whole thing. It’s nothing more than a shameless marketing ploy to boost their ratings. Sorry, but this is not Live Aid. THAT actually made a difference. The theme for tonight is “Songs That Inspire”, and their mentor this week was Bono (which surprisingly wasn’t shown at all during tonight’s show).

Chris - Change The World (Eric Clapton)

I’m sorry in advance if you like this guy, but this guy is bullshit. I still can’t get past his “nasally is a form of singing” comment from last week. That warrants a What The Fuck? (not just the initials WTF.. but the full fledged What The Fuck.. there, I’ve said it twice). The most retarded thing to have ever come out of any creature’s bodily orifice on national television ever. That aside, his performance tonight was not entirely disastrous. But listening to the judges comments.. whatever the hell they were smoking tonight, I want some of it. I honestly do not get the overly pimping for this Timberfake wannabe. Dude needs to go home soon. 5.5/10

Melinda - There Will Come A Day (Faith Hill)

Melinda was in top form again tonight, but I doubt anyone is surprised. I wasn’t particularly excited for the performance though. Was it the song? Was it the overall theme for tonight? I don’t know but at the very least she gave me a reason not to entirely regret watching this show tonight. And I’m really glad her innocent doe-eyed expressions are gone. Thank fuck. 7/10

Blake - Imagine (John Lennon)

Meh.. the performance was just okay for me. I’m pretty sure I will be branded as a none compassionate asshole for saying this, but personally I’ve always thought this song was a tad overrated. OoOoOoOoOooooh. The song really is just so simple, and “it isn’t hard to do” indeed. Simon, I beg to differ. Jennifer Hudson belted this song out, and it worked just right for her. I’m really surprised and annoyed that none of the judges called Blake out for pulling a ’safe’ performance at this stage in the competition. In hindsight, I think Blake choosing this song says a lot about him, because like the song itself, they are both incredibly simple, transparent and overrated. 5.5/10

Lakisha - I Believe (Mantasia)

Will she stop fucking singing every past Idol songs? It was Carrie’s Jesus last week. Now it’s Mantasia’s I Believe. What next? Kelly’s Behind These Hazel Eyes? Will she do a retarded backflip like that gray haired half-wit from last season? And whoa… that performance was bad. Like someone on the boards had mentioned, unlike her heaving bosoms (which much like Mona Lisa’s eyes - it draws your eyes wherever they go), the performance was incredibly flat. Hell, Diana did a hell lot better than this. That pretty much says how bad this performance was. Truly abyssimal. Dude, stick a fork in her cleavage, LaKisha is DONE with this show. And on an unrelated note, she kinda reminds me of Ursula from The Little Mermaid with that longblack dress. Ursulakisha. Heh. 5.5/10

Phil - The Change (Garth Brooks)

I’ve always thought Phil had the best male vocals this season. And that is so incredibly evident in tonight’s show. Not because he sang really really well, but rather due to the fact that the other two guys sucked donkey balls. The performance wasn’t half bad. I actually kinda enjoyed it a little. I’m not sure, however, why the Vote For The Worst crew are now lobbying for him (they have dubbed him as NosPhilratu - Penis With Fangs LOL) now that Sangina is gone (Thank Fuck part 2) because Phil is far from the worst in this competition. OH well, whatever works. I’m not complaining. Much. 7/10

Jordin - You’ll Never Walk Alone (from the musucal Carousel)

Randy, that was NOT the most awesome American Idol performance in all six seasons ever or whatever. It was a beautiful, haunting performance, but not as great as he’s making it out to be (much as I love Jordin). It was not flaless, but definitely one of the best performances of the night (although that’s really not saying much with the group that we have left). I’d be hella surprised if Jordin and Melinda doesn’t make it to the Final Two this year. 7/10

All in all, a pretty weak night, in my opinion, considering we are whittled down to the final six already. This really has been a bad week for television, hasn’t it? The Amazing Race on Monday was pretty much lackluster. The Apprentice LA Finale was SHIT. As in really bad diarrhea SHIT. As in, the worst finale of a reality show program in all seasons in the history of broadcasting television ever. As in, the show has proved to be nothing more than a “Worship Me” by that balding fucker Trump and his pig faced Junior (Ivanka is hot though.. I’m pretty sure she was adopted or has been at least genetically modified). As in, I hope the show will never ever be renewed ever again. As in, I wanted to kill myself for investing 14 week’s worth of downloading that crap of a show.

Okay, can someone please help me pull this ginormous stick out from my ass?

On a brighter note, Heroes has started showing again this week. Huzzah! And Survivor.. OMG OMG OMG. Best episode in a long long long long time. In like.. OMG. OMG! I am still positively orgasming over what happened last week. O.M.G. The show absolutely redefined the term “PWNED”. I fucking love it.

First up, in keeping with tradition since Survivor Vanuatu, I have to start this off with a cursory FUCK YOU to ntv7 for failing us Survivor fans once again. It seems getting a Malaysian on the actual Survivor show is just simply not a good enough reason to air the show on the local network (not even after an Asian finally won the show last season).

It really does look like we have to resort yet again to downloading the episode off the internet, or watching it online via youtube. It sucks. Anyway, here are links to Episode 1 on you tube

Survivor Fiji Episode 1
(Part 1/7) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlS7dE-0RUc
(Part 2/7) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3hXKA2aPLI
(Part 3/7) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxWsM9XyR6s
(Part 4/7) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeFUnG3kaoQ
(Part 5/7) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jht3SkCHSvs
(Part 6/7) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2geQ5VpX4vw
(Part 7/7) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NPLsRMqQOQ

Don’t think I’ll be uploading the episodes to yousendit cause uploading the files took me frickin ages and I have unsubscribed it’s services. But I’ll keep the episodes on my HDD, so if you need me to burn the episodes, send me an email and I’ll see what I can do.

Anyway, onwards to the Episode. Here’s a ‘quick’ recap of Episode 1. Show starts off with Jeff giving a brief background on Fiji, the cannibalism history, its rich jungle terrains and how the fear of the unknown is so overwhelming that one contestant had a panic attack and quit just before they were stranded. Panic attack my ass!!! For more information, do visit the Why Did Melissa Quit? Photochop thread at Sucks.

So 19 people are set off on rafts, with absolutely no information given to them, as they headed off towards their beach. (The only exciting thing in this image below is the TAR All Star tag at the bottom)

We go back to the premise of Cook Islands, 4 Caucasians (the bitch quit before they started), 5 African Americans, 5 Hispanics and 5 Asians - all stranded as a single team on an island. Within the first 5 minutes we already have confessionals from people with “NICKNAMES” - “Rocky” cause he looks like Stallone, “Boo” (ICK!! Boo is cute for a female, but for a hunk-a-lug like this guy? It’s so wrong), and “Dreamz” (for fucks sake btw, is what you’d think a thirteen year old would call herself, but unfortunately, it’s the loud mouthed annoying homeless African American guy cunt who needs to get off the island, pronto)

They found a pretty cool cave for shelter. Yau Man proves himself to be a total asset IMMEDIATELY by helping out around camp and opening coconuts for the others. YAY! WAY TO MAKE US PROUD, YAU MAN! Later, Jeff drops a package into the ocean and the retrieved the box. All the strongest guys started to smash the boc, drop heavy stones on it etc to open the box. Then comes little fragile Yau Man, drops the box on its corners and BOOM! The box was open. LMAO!!! GO YAU MAN!

In the package, they were given maps of the island, flints, and further instructions and diagrams and such to build a kitchen, an outhouse, toilet, picnic table etc (all the raw materials and tools - including nails, mind you - were scattered around the island). Sylvia, an Asian architect, naturally stepped up to the plate and took leadership. Interestingly enough, she didn’t come across as too bossy, and everyone (except the big lard ass Michael Moore wannabe aka Papa Smurf) listened to her, so all is good.

Too many things were going around, and there were still too many new faces, so I might skip some of the dialogues between the castaways. Yau Man once again, helps the tribe by making hot lemon tea for his tribemates. YAY AGAIN! All 19 castaways spent the night together, and then this super giant ass Dreamz just wont shut the fuck up. Dreamz and Rocky have words. I’m not a fan of either of these two guys, but I kinda wished Rocky would punch Dreamz face the fuck out. Loud, annoying fuck.

Next they were called to a challenge. Jeff talks to everyone and everyone kinda agreed that Sylvia was the leader when it came to constructing the tribe site. So Jeff calls Sylvia out and asks her to …. divide the tribe into two!!! Just like that. So she did.

For the challenge, Jeff tells them that the winning tribe will get to stay on their current camp with all the luxury. In addition to that, they will also receive a comfortable couch AND other tools like cutlery (for fucks sake! Cutlery on Survivor? And mind you, they were also given Basmati fucking Rice at camp). The losing tribe will have to go to a new camp with nothing but a bucket and a In an interesting twist of event, Sylvia - the ‘leader’ - gets exiled before the challenge starts. She will join the losing tribe after tribal council, which means, at least she will be safe from the first vote. AND in addition to that, she will get clues on Exile Island as to the whereabouts of the Hidden Immunity Idol. (There are two this season).

The view from Exile Island is frickin beautiful! But it’s infested with sea snakes. Ick! And to add salt to the wound, the clue says that the Hidden Immunity Idol is not on Exile Island, and it’s back at camp. Which camp? Who knows. But it will make searching for the idol much more difficult with everyone else on the tribe keeping their eye on you.

Moto was leading in the immunity challenge, then Ravu stole their lead, but lost to them in the end. Someone on Ravu was going home. There were some boring chit chats and ’strategizing’ going on at camp, but first boots are always boring so I’m going to cut to the chase.

TRIBAL COUNCIL

(The Ravu tribe attends their first Tribal Council. Watch what they have to say as they cast their votes.)

MICHELLE (Jessica): Girl, you’re amazing, and you’re tough, and I love you, and that’s why you’re a threat to me.

JESSICA (Rita): I’m sorry. This wasn’t my idea.

EARL (Jessica): Sorry Jessica, I love you to death, but the tribe spoke this way. It was based on the challenge from today. They said you dropped the ball a couple of times and that really hurt us when we lost. Sorry. I love you to death. You’re wonderful.

MOOKIE (Jessica): I’m sorry, but you are the weakest link.

ERICA (”Yao”): This is basically a throwaway vote. The tribe decided to vote out Jessica, and I won’t write her name down.

ANTHONY (Jessica): You don’t deserve to go, but this is purely a strategical move. Sorry.

YAO-MAN (Jessica): Sorry. Nothing personal here. This is strictly mercenary; I’m trying to stay alive to fight another day. Good luck.

RITA (Jessica): I’m sorry, Jessica. As you said earlier, for our tribe now, it had to be a majority vote, and unless the others were lying to me, this is what the majority ruled. Again, I’m sorry.

ROCKY (”Mookey”): The person I’m voting off tonight is Mookey. I think, brother, you and I realize why. Sorry, brother. (I couldn’t catch the last sentence)

FOUR different people got votes! We haven’t had this in a long long time, but buh-bye Jessica. All in all, a pretty decent episode. I’m just really glad Yau Man didn’t turn out as an incompetent, annoying old fart like Cao Boi. Way to represent, Yau Man! You are awesome! First impressions on the castaways - Like : Earl, Cassandra, Yau Man, Sylvia. Meh on all the rest. Dislike : Rocky, Erica, Boo. ABSOLUTE HATE : Dreamz.

And a little something, which I think MrsG would find erm… useful. LOL

Seriously? That pic is not photochopped. I guess apparently, Xandir P Wifflebottom was right about Jeff’s package.

10 teams, 14 countries, 18 cities, 39000 kilometers and 1 useless episode. They should’ve just went out with a bang last week, but nooooo… The regular TAR never had this sort of episode before so I was actually kinda looking forward to this, hoping for a Survivor reunion-like episode where all contestants sit down and talk about the race and of each other.

Instead, what we got was this lame assed episode which actually looked like a really poorly edited show out of the travel channel. Sure it was nice to watch all the places that they’ve visited, but I personally thought the format of that particular episode was wrong wrong wrong. And at 5 minutes before the episode ended, I immediately knew why. I can’t believe they had to come up with an entire episode to blatantly promote Bintan Lagoon Resort at the end. Holiday packages, great buffets and what nots?  Who fucking gives a shit. It was bad enough they did that, but even worse to hide that fact as a ‘never before seen’ footage.  I was expeceting behind the camera drama that unfold during the filming, but what we got was that. Oh for fucks sake.

Anyway, it was nice to watch the racers again. Made me realize what a great bunch of racers we had this time around. The casting directors did an excellent job. I’d say 80% of the cast was memorable (not going to mention who the 20% are).  From the ‘villains’ AndyLau to squeamish Sahran to the ultimate underdogs (that actually won!) with Zab and Joe Jer. Zabrian carries herself very well in the interviews, IMO. It was also nice to hear the racers reflect on their experience and what they learned from it. Well, here’s to Amazing Race Asia 2 !!!

In other news,

Lost had returned on the air after it’s 6 weeks hiatus. So we’re gonna get uninterrupted 18 weeks worth of Lost. I still enjoy watching it, but probably not as much as Heroes.

I’m really glad Star World has started to show Heroes. What did I tell you? Best kan? Personally Episode 5 is my favourite where it all (almost) comes together and things start to take off. They’re up to Episode 14 in the US right now, and it doesn’t look like it’s losing any of it’s momentum.

I’ve only started to watch Ugly Betty (which 8tv has just started airing) after persuasions from my friends. The show is very Prada-lite. It’s ultra camp, but it’s pretty good (I love the Scottish girl from Ricky Gervais’ Extras).

American Idol is done with the auditions and we’re going to Hollywood. I’m glad all the sucky auditions are over casue now we’ll get to actually listen to some good singers. Don’t really have a favorite yet, but Ebony.. wow.

And finally, Survivor Fiji is debuting in the US this morning, so it’s time to start downloading the episodes soon. I’m not really feeling the excitement even though we have a Malaysian on the show. I don’t know why. Maybe because TAR All Star >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> all shows on tv ????

He might already have US Citizenship.. but he’s Malaysian born. LUCKY BASTARD.. but GO YAU-MAN!!!!!

(clik on the image to go to the Survivor : Fiji website).

Before I start, here’s the videos for the Survivor : Cook Islands Finale and Reunion Special, and Episode 7 of Amazing Race Asia

Survivor : Cook Islands - Episode 15 Finale (700 Mb)

Link: http://www.yousendit.com/download/B0AaJwpokY95TA%3D%3D

Survivor : Cook Islands - Reunion Special (350 Mb)

Link: http://www.yousendit.com/download/OTR8cYA6Qa95TA%3D%3D

Amazing Race Asia - Episode 7 (350 Mb)

Link: http://www.yousendit.com/download/OTQOjIaykY95TA%3D%3D

I have watched the Cook Islands Finale, and already know the outcome, but couldn’t really be bothered to watch the reunion special yet, so I’ll reserve my comments on the show’s outcome later this week.

Anyway, back to Amazon.com. I have been a loyal Amazon customer ever since 1997 when I was in the UK. Nine years down the road, and they’ve only gone from good to better to being the absolute BEST online marketplace ever. Seriously. Not only do they provide lots of different choices, including outdated and hard to find items, but they actually sell merchandise cheaper than the actual manufacturer’s website (yeah, if you need a comparison, check out the Apple Webstore and the HBO Webstore.)

I have quite possibly placed almost 50 orders from them (including from their UK branch) to date, and have received no less than 2 less than satisfactory orders. The first was when it actually took a month to arrive in KL.. after investigation, I discovered the fault was with our local Jabatan Imigresen. But of course, right? It was stuck there for over two weeks, and weirdly enough I was summoned by them to collect my parcel at the KLIA Cargo (which I thought was weird). Obviously, something was amiss and true enough, two of my DVDs were missing from the package (even though it was listed on the invoice).

Having ordered many many times from Amazon.com before, I knew my package was tampered with and my two DVDs were practically stolen. I wouldn’t make this bogus claim if it were not the fact that I heard some of the officials there sighing that there is this possibility ‘what with the people in that department’. Anyway, that is all for another story at another time. Not holding the entire department responsible, but to the cum guzzling cock sucking grandmother cunting fucks that stole my DVDs, may you burn in the fiery depths of hell. Assholes. Anyway, I wrote to Amazon to comment on my missing DVDs and the possibility of ordering a new one. And they simply sent me the missing DVD copies even though they were not at fault (I felt kinda guilty but wha-hey! I didn’t ask for a complete replacement!). That was in 2003.

And so, just recently I got yet another package delivered. Everything seemed okay, until I opened the box. Holy crap.. the LOTR box set that I ordered was dented.. no… damaged. I’m not sure if the damage was done during shipment (not sure if that was the case, because my package seemed like it was still in good condition, plus there were paddings within the package). I could be wrong, but it does seem like they gave me a box set that was already damaged before shipping. I was very pissed. But I was ready to let it go.. well.. it’s just a the DVD box set, as long as I could play the DVDs, I’m okay. But that was when I opened up the Disc Set 1 to assess the damage.

You can view the pictures here.

The damage was beyond acceptable.. even for myself (who would usually take the less harsh ‘tak kisah lah’ approach, believe it or not). Thinking about it, I shouldn’t even accept the entire box set even though the Disc Set 2 and Disc Set 3 (and by the looks of it, the actual DVDs of Set 1 - minus the casing) looks to be in good condition. I ordered the DVD Box Set for the Box Set, and bottomline was it was severely damaged. I was pissed. So I had no choice but to write to them and order a replacement. They also had this return policy and process which supposedly make things easier, and even though they wouldgive me a refund for the shipping costs, I would still have to fork out .. what RM100-200 for the shipment back to their warehouse? Dude, the box set is not so light, okay? Well, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Then, interestingly enough I received this in my email this morning :

“I am sorry for the problem you experienced with your shipment. I
have requested a refund for the item and associated shipping cost.
As the cost of return shipping is prohibitively expensive in this
case, you do not need to return the original items.

I’ve also placed a new order for the item “The Lord of the Rings” to
be shipped to you as soon as possible. The charge for this order is
$75.85. Both the charge and refund will be applied to the credit
card used on the original order. “

Fuck a duck. Now THAT’s what you call Customer Service. I mean, wow.. seriously? I had all intentions to mail them back the DVDs tomorrow, even if it costs me RM100++ just for the postage alone, but apparently I don’t need to return the item. Yay! Call me taking advantage of the situation, but it wasn’t like I made a bogus claim just to get a free replacement. I’m so flabbergasted. You think you can find similar levels of customer service here in Malaysia? I’ll lick my own ass la if you can show me where. Even on Malaysia Airlines, they give you complementary gifts when they fuck up your vegetarian meal that you have ordered weeks ahead.

Maybe part of the reason why the customer service here is so bad, is because the kinds of customers we all are (speaking in general terms - but siapa makan cili la kan?). So kiasu, so often nak take advantage. I even see this kind of thing - The Ugly Malaysian - overseas. You know lah, students buy videocamera, then go on holidays taking videos, and before the month is up, they use the 30-days money back guarantee (no questions asked - literally!, some more) to shamelessly return the videocamera back. They call is ’smart’, I call it ‘ no ethics’. But whatever, you know. Kat sini, jangan harap.. even with a 30-day money back guarantee AND you have valid reasons to return the item, you will only be greeted with loads of questions, frowns and suspicions that make you wanna shout “kau ingat kau tu cantik sangat???”. Whoopsies.. overdose pulak.

Anyway, back to Amazon. Yeah, for what it’s worth, the customer service is seriously the best I’ve ever seen, either online or in real life. You can NOT beat them. That is what you should judge when evaluating how excellent a service provider is, shouldn’t you? They also have Artificial Intelligent-based recommendation based on the things you have bought (or even browsed), and more importantly their prices are so much much cheaper.

Oh which reminds me, I was looking for my friend’s book - Tribal Warfare: Survivor and the Political Unconscious of Reality Television (Critical Studies in Television) - a must read for Survivor fanatics - at Kinokuniya, and apparently they don’t carry the book. So I asked them how much it would cost if I got them to order the book for me.. and the amount this Kinokuniya rep gave me was RM150-160. For fucks sake. I told her, “but I could get it cheaper from Amazon”. And she said “maybe you should just order it from Amazon”. Okay, I SO deserve being told off for that, but the price difference was a LOT. And even though she was right to say that, to my face, would that indicate a decent customer service? I don’t think so. So screw you, Kinokuniya, my friend posted me a free copy :p

Oh.. not only Kinokuniya.. The new LOTR DVD Box Set - which has 12 DVDs in total - costed about $65.. which roughly translates to RM260. And how much Speedy video is selling? RM499. And not only that la.. the LOST Season 2 DVD was bought for only $35 (about RM140).. and they are selling it for RM249… and some more, it’s region 3 format. Come on la. People buy the DVDs for it’s extra features, but they are noticably missing from ALL Region 3 formats. What the fuck? Dah la mahal nak mampos. Apa faedah aku beli original Region 3 DVD? Kalau setakat nak beli DVD yg takde feature tu, baik la aku beli DVD-9 yg bersepah kat Low Yatt.
So in summation, Amazon.com is the shiznits. Other marketplace pales in comparison. Thank you. Amazon.com. Gunakan tanpa waswas.