Friday, March 03, 2006
Anemic Royalty
So I'm about 11 hours away from being in the mountains.
Yes the First Annual CGSO Ski Trip is happening this weekend. We're going up to Sugar Mountain, NC. I've only snowboarded twice in PA, so I'm gonna give skiing a try this weekend. I think I'll like it.
We were hoping to be able to go to Snowshoe but some people have to take a test tomorrow, so we're going somewhere much closer. Sugar = 3 hours. Snowshoe = 8 hours.
So I watched Deal or No Deal last night. I played it online and liked the idea behind the game. But of course since it's on TV, they drag it on FOREVER!
The basic idea behind the game is there are 20 breifcases. In each is an amount ranging from $0.01 to 1 million or higher. At the beginning of the game, you pick one case that you feel holds the most money. Then you proceed to open the other cases to narrow down what is in your case. So ideally all you want to see when you open the other cases is low amounts of money. Every 5 or so cases you open, "The Banker" calls to make you a "deal". He offers you a certain amount of money based on how much is left on the board and how many cases are left. The monetary amounts are kept track of on a big board. His first few offers are crappy and you shouldn't take it.
But the guy last night got down to only 2 cases left. One held $300, the other held $500,000. And the banker offered him $250,000. He wisely took it (it's just simple mathematics that you take that deal) and then his case was opened and found out that it had the $300. So he was super happy.
Theoretically, they could get at least 4 people through the show, but they drag it out, telling stories about why they need the money, and of course they have your family there and they ask them what you should do. And the writers are predictably awful. Howie Mandel is the host, who I like alot, but the material he's working with is sub-par at best.
So try out your hand and see how much fake money you can win!
Deal or No Deal
link stolen from The Ultimate Insult
Oh and if I don't post on Monday, please send a search party.
Update: I just drove the Dodge Stratus rental car down to the bank. Damn that thing sucks! I wasn't sure if it had ABS and the best way to find out is
1) Find a nice long stretch of road, no cars behind you.
2) Stand on the brakes.
I did this simple experiment and holy shit! The car pitched sideways and locked up, I would guess, 3 tires. So I let off the brakes and realized Nope. No ABS. So I practiced some threshold braking (getting on the brakes hard, but not so hard as to lock up the tires). Why do I practice this? Just in case. With ABS, if something bad happens, just slam on the brakes and let the electrons and computer slow you down. Without ABS, you can't hit the brakes too hard because you will just screech the tires and slide into what you were trying not to hit. So you have to find out how hard you can hit the brakes without all the eeeeeerrrrr, screeeeeech, craaaaaaash, aw man!
And then I decided to see how grippy the tires were. Not grippy at all. They're Eagle LS tires sized 205/65 15, and that means big sloppy sidewalls and super not sticky rubber. Not that my Falkens are great but they're better than those crappy tires.
Needless to say I will be majorly altering my driving style for this weekend. That and the Stratus is a freakin' boat compared to Focus and Tercel. And I'm caravaning with a Caravan and a riced out Civic. Seriously. I don't want to get into it, but it's fairly ricey. Z3 fenders, Altezza taillights, and the piece de resistance, plastic spinners. It's not super hideous, no erector set wing or anything, but damn. So not super rice, but definitely ricey.
Yes the First Annual CGSO Ski Trip is happening this weekend. We're going up to Sugar Mountain, NC. I've only snowboarded twice in PA, so I'm gonna give skiing a try this weekend. I think I'll like it.
We were hoping to be able to go to Snowshoe but some people have to take a test tomorrow, so we're going somewhere much closer. Sugar = 3 hours. Snowshoe = 8 hours.
So I watched Deal or No Deal last night. I played it online and liked the idea behind the game. But of course since it's on TV, they drag it on FOREVER!
The basic idea behind the game is there are 20 breifcases. In each is an amount ranging from $0.01 to 1 million or higher. At the beginning of the game, you pick one case that you feel holds the most money. Then you proceed to open the other cases to narrow down what is in your case. So ideally all you want to see when you open the other cases is low amounts of money. Every 5 or so cases you open, "The Banker" calls to make you a "deal". He offers you a certain amount of money based on how much is left on the board and how many cases are left. The monetary amounts are kept track of on a big board. His first few offers are crappy and you shouldn't take it.
But the guy last night got down to only 2 cases left. One held $300, the other held $500,000. And the banker offered him $250,000. He wisely took it (it's just simple mathematics that you take that deal) and then his case was opened and found out that it had the $300. So he was super happy.
Theoretically, they could get at least 4 people through the show, but they drag it out, telling stories about why they need the money, and of course they have your family there and they ask them what you should do. And the writers are predictably awful. Howie Mandel is the host, who I like alot, but the material he's working with is sub-par at best.
So try out your hand and see how much fake money you can win!
Deal or No Deal
link stolen from The Ultimate Insult
Oh and if I don't post on Monday, please send a search party.
Update: I just drove the Dodge Stratus rental car down to the bank. Damn that thing sucks! I wasn't sure if it had ABS and the best way to find out is
1) Find a nice long stretch of road, no cars behind you.
2) Stand on the brakes.
I did this simple experiment and holy shit! The car pitched sideways and locked up, I would guess, 3 tires. So I let off the brakes and realized Nope. No ABS. So I practiced some threshold braking (getting on the brakes hard, but not so hard as to lock up the tires). Why do I practice this? Just in case. With ABS, if something bad happens, just slam on the brakes and let the electrons and computer slow you down. Without ABS, you can't hit the brakes too hard because you will just screech the tires and slide into what you were trying not to hit. So you have to find out how hard you can hit the brakes without all the eeeeeerrrrr, screeeeeech, craaaaaaash, aw man!
And then I decided to see how grippy the tires were. Not grippy at all. They're Eagle LS tires sized 205/65 15, and that means big sloppy sidewalls and super not sticky rubber. Not that my Falkens are great but they're better than those crappy tires.
Needless to say I will be majorly altering my driving style for this weekend. That and the Stratus is a freakin' boat compared to Focus and Tercel. And I'm caravaning with a Caravan and a riced out Civic. Seriously. I don't want to get into it, but it's fairly ricey. Z3 fenders, Altezza taillights, and the piece de resistance, plastic spinners. It's not super hideous, no erector set wing or anything, but damn. So not super rice, but definitely ricey.
# posted by Seth @ 7:32 AM 
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