spugbrap’s blog

I’m not going to go into detail about last night’s episode. Just going to post a few observations and make fun of a couple people. :)

What was up with Simon having his hand up by his head like 1 moose antler all night? Lacey and I kept seeing it and cracking up, and both kept thinking “Nanu, nanu”. We realize that the hand sign was different, seeing Simon Cowell doing that over and over reminded us of Robin Williams’ quirky behavior on Mork and Mindy.

Next we come to the boy that Jena and Lacey have been referring to as “Vampire Boy” all season: Jason Yeager. I didn’t understand why, so Lacey tried to show me last night. She said he had very pointy canine teeth, but I kept watching and could not see what she was talking about–until she paused it at just the right time:

Don’t see the sharp, pointy fang? How about a closeup?

I was sold at this point. That tooth is a bit pointier and sharper than normal, and the one next to it (towards the back) looks a bit fang-like as well. But Lacey is good with the remote. Real good. She managed to pause it at just the right time again, a minute or so later, so we could check out the other side of his mouth:

…and another closeup, if you’re not convinced:

Okay, enough about Vampire Boy. If I remember correctly, his performance was “just aiight for me, dawg.” Most of them have been that way, so far this season, and last night was no different.

Our next victim is the boy who Lacey and Jena have nicknamed “Man Cuddy” (or something like that), after Lisa Cuddy on House, M.D. (one of our favorite TV shows). I have to agree, there is some resemblance.

I was going to link to a picture of Cuddy to prove this point, but when I looked at their pictures side-by-side I didn’t really see it. But from memory, if you’re a fan of House, you may see a younger, more masculine version of Cuddy in the following 4 pics of Jason Castro:

Lacey thinks Cuddy’s much cuter as a guy. She liked his performance last night, too. I was fine with it, but not blown away.

The kid at the end, though (David Archuleta)–the one who sang John Lennon’s Imagine–he was definitely the best of the night and maybe even the season so far. If I wasn’t confident that he’ll get a TON of votes, I would have voted for him (haven’t voted yet this season, probably won’t for a while still).

First of all, we were confused as to how it was a “Grand Finale”, when last week they had the top 4 men and 4 women listed as contenders to win the competition. Then, suddenly they’ve narrowed it down to 2 men and 2 women to compete in what was basically just a regular episode (no new events or anything, just more of the same) with lots of extra flash backs to earlier footage, and extra warm and fuzzy stuff like, “This is my family in my small home town. Look how everyone in the town is loving and supporting me! Look how cute my kids are! I want to win for my dead family member or the kids that look up to me as a role model!”. Fluffy.

Anyways, here are my notes from the American Gladiators 2008 Grand Finale episode from February 18. Like last time, this is not a very polished blog entry, just a bunch of notes.
I wish they would stop advertising Knight Rider *constantly*. Lacey and I were looking forward to watching that, but unfortunately didn’t record it. Luckily, they’re showing it again next week, so the Tivo’s set to record it then. We were both surprised to see that it’s a movie, though. When they first advertised it, during one of the early American Gladiators episodes, we thought it was going to be a series.

Women contenders: Monica and Shanay
Shanay should have been disqualified for kneeling down the whole time in Joust. She did that last time as well. Not fair.
Evan vs Titan in Joust: 2 hits and Evan was in the water.
Alex vs Titan in Joust: holy crap, Hulk said there’s a huge size difference up there and he’s not kidding! Seeing them next to each other it’s like a toddler next to his father.
Titan kneeled down both times, and he had some serious pushing power behind his push.
Pyramid: announcer said “Both contenders were completely dominated […] Monica spent more time on her back than on her feet”
Toa: “My volcano, my volcano!”
Mayhem: “Now what, I’m king tut, yeah!”
The Wall:
Monica started out quick, and made it up for 10, despite some resistance from Siren near the top.
Shanay kept up pretty well, and ended up getting 5 points for hanging on up near the top when Venom was pulling on her foot
Evan: This guy is like a spider monkey. Ridiculously fast climber. 10 points, well deserved.
Militia tried to pull Alex down but couldn’t. pulled something off his shoe though.
Alex made it up for 5 points.
Ugh, there’s the Subway Replay. I kept wondering when that was coming. They kept using the words “Fueled up” throughout the episode, so I kept expecting the annoying “Fueled up and powered on by Subway” thing.
Evan has a 19 point lead over Alex going into the Eliminator. 9.5 second head start. Evan had the fastest time in Eliminator all season so far, so that 9.5 seconds might seal the deal for him.
announcer: “Both these contenders have performed beautifully throughout this competition” [hmm. you mean all TWO episodes??]
Evan breaks his previous Eliminator record time.. 1:19ish? Something like that.
Alex backflipped off the platform onto the mats at the end. We were kinda rooting for him because he’s a school teacher setting a good example for students, and trying to earn money for the wrestling team he coaches. Also because he’s kinda goofy, and that’s endearing. :)
Sounded like he said “I’d like to thank everyone for turning me on” but he said “cheering me on”.
After fast forwarding through the commercials, the first sentence I heard sounded like “penis was all hard” but really it said “Venus was all heart” or something.
Monica’s 3.5 second lead going into the Eliminator barely got her up the first wall.
Did Shanay belly flop into the flaming pool? definitely made a long splash and took longer than she should have to
30 foot cargo net climb - Shanay caught up.
Both fell off hand bike right away–good plan.
Monica barely made it to the top of the Travelator, but she did. We were glad–she was our pick for the women in this finale.
Her husband jumped down onto her when she was laying on the mats after the Eliminator. her daughters hopped on too.

So, Evan and Monica each won $100,000, a Toyota Sequoia, and they will join the ranks of the gladiators next season.
Have you seen how HUGE and muscular the existing team of gladiators is? These two had better start seriously hitting the HGH gym if they’re going to be gladiators next season!

Lacey pointed out that they should definitely have Evan do the rock wall, though. The contenders won’t stand a chance!

I used to occasionally watch American Gladiators when I was a kid, but I think I have a greater appreciation for it as an adult. Lacey used to watch it, as well, and we’ve both been looking forward to the new series, which premiered on NBC tonight. Here are some notes I took, while watching it. Some are my own comments, some are Lacey’s, but they are all things we discussed and both agreed with:

• Holy crap, Hulk Hogan’s still ripped at his age. Amazing!
  • I saw him in a WWE match, a few years ago (the one and only one I’ve ever actually seen live), and remember feeling a sorry for him because it seemed like his age was showing. I don’t remember how he actually did, that night, but I do remember thinking it was cool to actually see him. I hadn’t seen or heard about him for probably a decade before that night (save a few Slim Jim commercials back in the 90’s, maybe), and he was the only wrestler I saw, that night, who I remembered from when I was young.
  • Okay, I guess I should qualify that “ripped” statement, a little bit. His arms are HUGE with well-toned muscle. I said to Lacey, “Wow, I’d suspect steroids or something, but he’s been at this way too long to still maintain that kind of muscle, without having major noticeable side effects, so I don’t think drugs are involved.” She pointed out that he has kids, which apparently rules out steroid use. I don’t know much about that stuff, so I’ll take her word on that.
  • However, along with the big, muscular arms, he’s also got some pretty sizable man boobs. Check out this photo I took of a paused TV scene with him standing next to his co-host, Laila Ali. Who’s got the bigger breasts?
  • We do like Hulk Hogan as a host on this show. He’s still a bad ass after all these years, and he smiles enough that he doesn’t come off as taking himself TOO seriously. :)
• Injured contestant (Jessie): Her replacement (Venus) should have gotten to do the Power Ball event herself, instead of inheriting the other girl’s measly 2 points. Oh well.
• Injured gladiator: The firefighter should have had to do the Hang Tough event over again, since the gladiator hurt himself and didn’t put up any fight. If anyone needed a free ride through that event, it was the “Skater Dad”.
• Gladiator: Wolf: Lacey said he looks like James Hetfield (Metallica’s lead singer) on steroids. I watched for the next time they showed him, and she was right! His howl isn’t even in tune, just like James Hetfield’s “singing” [crooning] (disclaimer: OLD Metallica still KICKS ASS!)
• Gladiator: Toa: His battle cry totally reminded me of Timmy from South Park.
• Gladiator: Fury: That’s not a female gladiator, it’s a man, baby! See for yourself:

That’s it for tonight. We enjoyed watching it, although we both like Ninja Warrior better.

When searching for the name of the injured gladiator (still didn’t find it.. maybe Militia), I ran across a blog entry which, along with some of the comments on it, pretty much said everything I just said. :) Honestly, I did take these notes during the show, though, but I piddled around for a while and didn’t post it as quickly. It was kinda cool to see that other people made some of the exact same pop culture comparisons that we did. I think we might be the first to report on the man-boobs, though! hehe

I’m becoming increasingly aware of usability flaws, as time goes by. I’m a professional web application developer, and tend to work on the presentation layer most of the time, so it makes sense that I pay close attention to user interfaces. I wouldn’t call myself an expert on the subject, but it is something I’m very interested in/passionate about.

But, it’s becoming more of a curse, kind of like the way typos jump out and punch me in the nose, whenever I encounter them. Actually, it’s very much like that. When I run across confusing instructions, misleading button labels, dead ends (pages that don’t include any navigation controls to get back to where I need to be), or any other UI elements that don’t make sense to me, I want to fix them!

Unlike typos, though, I feel like I have a better chance of enacting a change by reporting usability flaws, so I’d like to start emailing companies’ customer service/tech support teams about this kind of stuff.

This requires several steps, though:

1. track down the correct people to contact (may or may not be trivial… depends on the site)
2. write up descriptions of the issues, in a way that the recipients will be able to understand (optionally may involve screenshots, URLs, steps to reproduce, etc)
3. suggest potential solutions/improvements (optional)

As this seems like an awful lot of unpaid time/labor, I think I’m going to start by posting some of this stuff here, on this blog, so I will have it handy if/when I’m ready to deal with the companies directly. That way, I can just post a few quick  notes/screenshots immediately, and can deal with some of the details later, if I feel like dealing with it. Unless it’s something I encounter repeatedly, or something that’s really easy to explain, I’m not sure how often I’ll actually follow through. But many companies keep tabs on the blogosphere, so there’s a slight chance they’ll run across it without me having to actually tell them directly. That would be ideal!

An added benefit of posting these things here is that other people (like you!) will be able to comment on them, and perform a bit of sanity checking for me. You can tell me if I’m overreacting, or missing something obvious. Or, you can chime in and say “I’ve run into that, too, and it bugs the heck out of me!” Or maybe it’s a common gripe, and you know of a GreaseMonkey script that addresses the problem. In any case, comments are always welcome!