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May 10, 2004
Rob Redeemed
Going into Sunday night's Survivor All-Stars finale, I was less than enthralled with Rob, nor his tagalong girlfriend Amber. The two had backstabbed their way to the final four like no other. Worse yet, it seemed like absolutely nobody had the guts (or brains) to stop them. When someone continues to betray his friends, at some point, shouldn't you think to yourself "I guess maybe we need to vote this guy off." The story of All-Stars, I suppose, was how everybody was too dumb to do so.
But Rob somehow managed to redeem himself to me (and seemingly to the general audence) when he stood up and proudly asked Amber to marry him. Wow. Rob didn't just redeem himself though. He redeemed the whole concept of Survivor and perhaps reality television as a whole.
We've seen too many reality shows where couples "fall in love." They're a sham. You can't spend two weeks of your life pretending you're a millionaire, making out with twelve women, and expect to find the love of your life. What's so cool about Survivor All-Stars is that Rob seems to genuinely love Amber. Not "love" in the usual sense. As a society, we throw around the word love to mean all sorts of things. In fact, it's rare that we reserve it for those we truly love. Rob appears to truly love Amber. And the moment he made that committment he redeemed himself in my eyes.
It is perhaps the single greatest moment of the game. I still would have rather seen Rupert win the million. But Rob and Amber outlasted, outplayed, and God knows he outwitted the other 16 All-Stars, and the truly great thing is this:
All those reality shows that give you a million if you fall in love, they always end up with the same result: Someone ends up with a million dollars, and a empty, short-lived relationship. But last night, someone actually fell in love, and that wasn't even the goal.
I wish Rob and Amber the best. Welcome to the world of the married. It makes sense that superior players would choose a superior life.
P.S. If you watched, wasn't it interesting that Richard Hatch still commands the respect of Jeff Probst? Despite the fact that he was booted very early on, he grabbed a fairly large amount of screen time, and seemed able (or perhaps just willing) to interject any time he wanted.
Hatch may no longer be the greatest player ever, but if that's true, it's his fault and his fault alone. He invented the way the game is played. I'm awed by him even today.
Posted by March at 12:00 PM | TrackBack
May 05, 2004
That Elusive 1.99 and 9/10
Apparently people are driving around the city looking for gas under $2. People are really excited when they find gas for $1.99 and 9/10 of a cent. Keep in mind that's essentially two dollars, but whatever. Is this really a efficient use of our time and money? Let's say, for example, that you have a fifteen gallon tank in your car. Filling up for $2.099 will cost you $31.49. If instead, you manage to find a gas station that will sell you gas for $1.999, you will pay $29.99. That's a savings of $1.50. Over the course of a year, you could save $78 if you filled up once a week.
But wait. Where is this gas station? If it's not on your regular path to and from work or school, or wherever it is you are driving, is it really worth it to go out of your way? Let's say your car gets 20 miles a gallon. That's what mine gets, and it's supposed to be really fuel efficient. It's not, but it's supposed to be. A lot of you are driving cars that are far less fuel efficient. But let's suppose we get 20 miles a gallon, because everybody reading this drives my car. I wish you guys would ask first.
So let's say our gas station that saves us 10 cents a gallon is five miles away. That's how far I have to drive to find a station that will give me a decent price. So that's five miles there, and five miles back. That's 10 miles, which is half a gallon a week just to get the cheaper gas. Half a gallon of gas, over the course of a year, is 26 gallons of gas, which is $51.97. You end up saving $26.03. Is it really worth your time to drive around and look for these amazing deals? And what's the cost of wear and tear on your car? On my own car, just in tires and oil, I estimate the yearly cost to be $7.
Frankly, it's just not worth it. On the other hand, if you happen to be driving by one of these cheaper gas stations, why not stop, even if your car doesn't need filling. And if you're filling up at a really expensive gas station, do you really need to fill the car all the way up. I do, because I'm dumb that way, but a few months ago I was filling up at a really expensive station in California, and I was having trouble topping the tank off. Suddenly I thought "what are you doing, Michael!?!" That's not cost effective at all.
There's no doubt gas prices are ridiculously high right now. The station on our corner charges $2.18 for unleaded, $2.41 for super. But it's not cost effective to waste a dollar’s worth of gas to save a dollar. Be smart, people.