The eve of the fool

There's a new device that tells you if you're boring or irritating other people. I know a few people who could actually use this. Do they have it at Wal-Mart?

Watch out! Remember that tomorrow is April Fool's Day! People are gearing up, as this Yahoo! article shows...If you want to find out more about the "holiday," visit Google April Fool's!

Short post today...working way too hard. Will make up for it with a special Saturday post tomorrow.

That's it! More tomorrow...

Oh my God! You killed Lisa!

Here's what's interesting to me today...

There's a crazy clawed cat in Connecticut that continuously pounces on poor pedestrians and rips them to shreds! "Ding-dong...Avon calling! RRRAAAAARRHH!!!!" The authorities have issued a restraining order against the cat. Can you do that? Does that actually work? Cats are so fun!!! UGH.

Ever wonder where the Whopper Jr. comes from? We may have an answer. Shocking!

Is it really necessary to make a real Star Wars landspeeder? And even if it is necessary, should we not at least show it the respect it deserves and not have it powered by a 1988 Ford Escort? If George Lucas were dead he'd turn over in his grave.

On to Idol...

Looks like the whole Paula flap on the show is all rumor and innuendo. She's signed on for three more years as a judge. I hope she gets whatever is going on with her figured out though. She was incoherent last night too!

Is there something we don't know about Wyclef and Simon?



I swear for a minute I thought they were going to kiss. I do think I would have been less disturbed than by the Paula/Simon kiss from a few years ago though. Gross!

So I was shocked last night with Katharine ending up in the bottom three. Maybe she got overlooked because everyone thought she was going to get through with no problem, and they needed to support their other favorites because they were so bad? The other two completely deserved it.



Try as she might, Katharine could not keep a smile on her face. I think it all boils down to confidence a lot of the time. While she was singing on Tuesday night she seemed visibly shaken about something, and maybe that came through to the audience. She was definitely surprised by the rave reviews that judges were giving her. Oh well. We may never know.

Even though the bottom three were a little messed up, America got it right in letting Lisa go off into the sunset. I was very impressed at the grace and class she showed upon losing. There was no overwrought emotion or visible sadness...I think she truly just was glad to have gotten as far as she did.



Best of luck to Lisa in the future! I hope you get a contract!

Speaking of overwraught emotion...



You would have thought she had just seen Lisa being killed by a speeding car. Good grief Paris!

I'm overally happy with the outcome...next week is COUNTRY week. So Bucky will stay again. But what will Chris do? Maybe a hard rock version of "All My Exes Live in Texas?" I'm getting sick of his skiting around the rules...

That's it for today! More tomorrow...

Paula Slur-bdul strikes again

Here's what interests me today!

There's a story from the AP on actual rejected Hallmark cards. Among the losers is a holiday card that announces on its face, "Christmas just wouldn't be the same without peanut brittle." Then, inside: "Or Jesus." See the whole story here.

In an effort to make it easier to become a fat disgusting slob, NASA scientists have found a way to read your mind and to have your thoughts come up on a computer screen without talking. There go those 15 calories we were burning every 10 minutes while sitting and talking. Sometimes the NASA people are just way too creepy.

Now this is a way to get a manly man to chop veg! It's a cutting board, it's a table saw - STOP! You're both right!

And last but not least in the general craziness category. It seems a little tyke has gotten himself into a bad situation. But the only ones worried are the onlookers. Take a look. I guess the parents were just too lazy to get him out the old fashioned way...using the hook. Today's parents just don't want a challenge.

Okay, first off, American Idol was just horriffic last night. I didn't think anyone did an especially good job. I think they had all been drinking/toking/popping from the same bottle/bong/prescription that Paula had been using. Was she just out of control or what?

So I did my duty to preserve what we all heard last night. Just listen to this .wav file of Paula critiquing Lisa. Insane!



Really, how can you deny that something is seriously wrong? She has never sounded like this or looked like this and it needs to be addressed. Really.

So, back to my previous point. I was disappointed in all of the performances. And so were the judges. By the looks of the contestants, they knew they were in trouble. By the way, the top row are my picks for the bottom three this week.



They really need to step it up. This whole show was just painful! And the "Ace's scar" thing? Oh my gosh. "Guess what? I am pretty and I really do have a scar. Too bad I turned Train into Train Wreck. Vote for me anyway! Remember the scar?" Sheesh. He may be the underdog pick for going home. Hopefully.

And I feel sorry for poor Elliott, but he is so freaking ugly it's painful. What a nice guy, but the look, the dancing...ugh. The Unnamed Blog has finally figured out what Elliott reminds me of.



Yes, that's our old buddy Sloth from The Goonies...or is it Elliott? Need I say more?

On to the most entertaining portion of the evening, the lady behind Simon had some of the best facial expressions when he would say something the she didn't agree with. This is after he made a negative comment about Ace.



Loving it!!!!! I'm going to pay more attention to this in the future. She sums up how I felt all night when the finalists all hit their first notes.

I gotta give a shout out to Mandisa, who did a very good job and represented her faith well. Good job girl!

My predictions:
Bottom Three: Bucky, Lisa, Ace
Gone......Lisa

That's it for today. More tomorrow...

Is Jack in a box?

There's an evil plot by Apple to start advertising on satellite...no, not TV, but viewable from a satellite....in orbit. A million-square-yard ad for iPod is being created. Read more and see the pics at Adrants.

In idol news, it seems the gossip is that the American Idol head honchos considered firing Paula Abdul for her crazy, erratic behavior. Could it be true?

The folks at Vote for the Worst are finding all the information they can about Kellie Pickler. Here's the list of her "crimes" they have so far. It seems she's not so naive as we were lead to believe.

Now on to the 24 recap...

So the smackdown was a letdown last night as we found out Audrey was innocent.



It didn't stop the evil Karen from sending in the drugs, though. What a horrifying scene! I felt so bad for Audrey! Leave her alone!!!

So now we have this new weirdo with the whole sexual harassment thing? "Did you see the way his hand brushed my shoulder when he went by? He shouldn't have done that."



Egads. A little random weirdness never hurts the storyline...unless there's a mountain lion involved.

Back to the main event. Jack wasn't messing around with Collette anymore...and he was pissed off about Audrey.



Thank goodness he didn't have to interrogate Kim, because there would have been a four hour story arc about how she wouldn't ever forgive him. But Audrey was all loving on him right after the interrogation. As you know, though, Audrey could still turn out to be evil. This is 24 folks.

YIKES! So the terrorists almost get away with it as the pressure drops to 50% and the Syntox is released into the natural gas pipeline!



I'm going electric from now on after that close call!

Of course our buddy Jack saves the day by blowing the crappo out of the gas company. But what's this? Will he make it out alive?



They've always said that one day Jack will die. Will this be it? Say it ain't so!

Powerful rapid-fire ending of last night's episode. I can't believe this show! Just when you think the episode might be a little slow, they end up blowing up a gas company and the Syntox is destroyed? Wow. Looks like the rest of the season will be spent on the whole Palmer/Henderson/President triangle...which is good. I wonder if at the end of this season Jack (if he's still alive) will have to turn himself into the Chinese government for last season's crimes? Stay tuned!

That's it for now! More tomorrow...

Don't take me Lucky Charms

Happy Monday to you all! Here's what's interesting to me today...

So apparently there is an uproar over a possible leprechaun in Alabama? This video is PRICELESS. Turn up the speakers.



Some really cool photography on Flickr that I found...It's called tilt-shift fake miniature, which takes real life images and applies a Photoshop filter to make them look like fake miniatures. Way too cool. The Las Vegas Image that caught my eye, and the slideshow.

Apparently in India you can divorce your wife while you sleep. Beware the "triple talaq." It divides your net worth in half, and you may not even know it!

Google Finance launched today, and the Consumerist points out some interesting search terms that bring up some fun results. I wonder if they did this on purpose?

Cloned pigs make healthy bacon. The good news is, if you like the piece of bacon you just ate, you can have it again, and again, and again, and again....

The final four is set! It's George Mason (wha????), UCLA, LSU and Florida. This should be interesting folks. This is some of the best basketball I can remember...and a team that hasn't been getting all the glory is going to win! Go GM!

I'm all ready for the smackdown on 24 tonight between Audrey and Jack. Could it be she is really evil? I think there's something we don't know about going on here. There's some plan happening that Jack doesn't know about, and the reason everyone is so shocked that he is alive is that they know he's going to figure it out. Could it be that Jack has been working against the government's interests all this time? We'll see by the end of the day (the 24 day that is)...

That's all for me today. More tomorrow...

We can do this the hard way or the easy way

So, the folks at Vote for the Worst have chosen their next person to vote for on American Idol. In the past they have championed lots of other Idol contestants who seemed to be there just to annoy us. But Kellie Pickler as the worst? Come on. What about Bucky? Lisa? It seems that with all the publicity they have been getting in the past week, they have a bit of egg on their faces after they tried to save Kevin last week. So this time they have chosen someone who throughout the life of the competition has not been in danger of leaving, so they can take credit when she stays.



That's the easy way out folks, and their choice of Kelly over Bucky or Lisa makes them lose all credibility. Guess they are not as powerful as they think they are. And being from North Carolina...they'll want her back. They took back Clay!

I usually stay away from the run-of-the-mill celebrity stuff, but I think this qualifies as breaking news.

Looks like we're in for a funeral. A 250 year old tortoise has died in India. This creature has possibly been around since 1756 folks. It was older than America. Oh the tales it could tell. Show some respect.

Group Pac-Man! What will they think of next? I want this!

And if you didn't have enough to make you crazy when flying around the country, there are plans to put ads on overhead bins in airplanes. This is in addition to the tray table ads announced by America West. Can we please just fly and be left alone?

And finally the largest implosion in history happened this morning in Kannapolis, North Carolina. An old one million square foot towel distribution center and bleachery building is now nothing but dust. See the story and the video here.

And now for your Friday funny

--------------------------



--------------------------

Have a great weekend everyone! More on Monday!

Follow the finger

The latest in a line of bizarre Web sites promoting products that have slipped the public consciousness is Butterfinger's Follow the Finger The finger is a little scary though (what made the finger brown?). Best line: "Feel free to pass the time by playing with our monkey." Monkey aside, there's lots to play with, but the Winterfresh site still holds the number one spot for me, if only for the more crude, yet cleaner look.

I had to say a few things about last night's much-anticipated South Park episode. The flap over the Isaac Hayes departure came to a head, and they killed him off rather spectacularly. He was part of a cult called the "Super Adventure Club" that took indecent liberties with minors (I think that's the nicest way of putting it). Of course they were likening Scientologists to a bunch of child molesters, but that's to be expected from South Park. Basically they said he was brainwashed but they wanted to remember all the fun they had over the years and it wasn't his fault for leaving, it was the "Super Adventure Fun Club."



Death by grizzly bear and mountain lion.

And so he was resurrected a la Anakin Skywalker into a child molesting half-robot-half-human.



I don't know if they will keep him on as a recurring character or not, but do we really care? I think South Park lost its relevance a long time ago with the invention of Adult Swim.

So with that out of the way, it's time for some Idol News

In this week's TV Guide, there's a quote from Ace Young where he comments on his being in the bottom three last week. Ace said that "he now knows that he can't just coast by on his looks." I sure did read him right. What a conceited wierdo/psycho.

Also in Idol news, Paula has blamed her strange behavior on Simon. She says that when the camera is not looking, Simon is whispering weird things into her ear and freaking her out to the point that she can't complete sentences. Yeah, right. I don't think it's Simon, but it could be those voices in her head she's hearing. She's a wack job.

On to the recap: So Kevin was buried in sand, and his head actually looks proportionate! I think this is pretty much what he thought the women of the world saw him as...until last night.



They should have left him there. And what's with the David Letterman 'do?

So, I got the bottom three right (along with just about everyone else.



I was so happy when they announced that Lisa was staying. At least she's forgettable. Unfortunately the other two are burned into my brain. Here's what they looked like when they heard the news they were staying.



I think Lisa definitely thought she was going home...and I would be suprised if Bucky had a thought at all.

So that leaves us with little Kevin. I am so happy he is going home. I realized he reminds me of Season One's Jim Verraros with the wierd faces while singing. But it seems Jim is doing very well for himself now that he's out of the closet.



So, adios Kevin! Sorry you had to come crashing down so hard. Poor little guy. America doesn't love you all that much.

That's it for today...work is jumping again...more tomorrow...

$500 Wal-Mart wine?

Late post today! Actual work being done at work (go figure!), so here we go...

Having gained all the white trash market share they could, it looks like Wal-Mart is going upscale folks! Check out this article about their new superstore concept opening in Plano, TX, and their $500 bottles of wine. As I have said before, soon, they will rule the world.

Speaking of wine, I don't think so.

While I was under significant pressure to wrap this blog in had clamshell plastic that required scissors to open, and possibly a crowbar, enraging children and adults alike to the point of jumping out of a 23 story window, I decided I did not want to be on this list. You can thank me later.

Strange New Products give us a first look at a must-have - the Pit Stop. Pee on the go! In the car! For men and women! But not for me, I don't think I want to ride around with a container of pee. Ewww gross!

And now, let's get on with it - Idol Idol Idol

No sign of the gray leaving Taylor's head...just as gray as ever, and now it has become some sort of rallying cry. Looks like the news is false. Maybe if he gets really stressed out when he gets older his hair will turn brown?

It seems Paula may have been off her medication (or on her "medication") last night...slurring her words, looking generally asleep and groggy. I think Simon really wants to run screaming from the studio sometimes.



Hopefully she can get cleaned up enough to make complete sentences before the results show tonight.

So Barry, had any work done by chance?



Ugh.

Kelly just can't believe that someone would associate her last name "Pickler" with a pickle.



This girl needs to be put out of her misery. Sheesh.

I had to bring this up. Did anyone else notice how freakishly large Kevin's head is to the rest of his body? I mean jeez.



I guess it's all of those granny votes he's been getting, because I don't remember his head being this big, althought figuratively, his head is MUCH bigger than this.

Ace, you might stay out of the bottom three if you would realize it's NOT POLITE TO STARE.



I still could see he and his brother in a twins version of American Psycho.

Lisa gave another lackluster performance and I'm afraid it's time for her to go home.



My bottom three this week: Bucky, Lisa and Kevin. Could we be suprised by another Ace appearance?

We'll see tonight! More tomorrow...

Cool breath power

Idol news on Tuesday? Well we had to get you on the lookout for this one. It seems that Taylor is "gradually washing the gray out of his hair." Can it be true? You decide tonight!

Winterfresh gum is trying to do something with this Web site. I'm not sure what. I guess there will be some explanation coming sometime soon?

An interesting item from The Consumerist on abortion vs. adoption. Yeah, right, The Consumerist isn't getting political on us. It seems that until the last few days when you searched for books for abortion on Amazon.com, you got a question back saying, "Did you mean adoption?" Much better than the Wal-Mart snafu a while back, but stillin poor taste.

So, 24 got started kind slowly but ramped up at the end, with a few good twists. The whole Homeland Security people coming in to take over CTU was very tedious, which is always the case when anyone tries to take over. Have they not learned that it never works out and to leave CTU alone?

Jack Bauer - smarter than your average DHS agent - but is that really surprising? Of course he's not going to hand over something like that so nonchalantly (sp?).



The German agent should have used a Palm Treo. Jack's never breaks down. Of course he wasn't going to give up the "wet list." Is this something that's real? I had never heard of it.

It was a surprise to me to see Wade Palmer back in the action tonight. My guess is that he has information that will blow the lid off this whole thing, and it was given to him upon his brother's death. Why do I think that Robocop is going to end up being a good guy in all this?



Run, Wade, run! I hate the Vice President character, but something also tells me that the President character may have been in on all this, and he's just playing stupid with a master plan (G. Bush anyone? Many have said that it seems they were modeling the character after W).

So it looks like there will be a little ditty between Jack and Diane...er...Audrey next week. It seems she may have provided the plans to wherever to the hot chick (what was her name again?).



We'll see next week! Good episode!

Happy Tuesday y'all! More tomorrow...

Soon, we will rule the world!

It seems there has actually been a study that proves what the music file sharing community has known for years. File sharing actually is GOOD for the music industry. The RIAA just keeps continually shooting itself in the foot. Who would have thought breaking the law would have positive effects? Soon, the RIAA will rule the world!

The Consumerist is running their "Worst Company in America" poll and they're at the last matchup between Halliburton and Choicepoint. Make sure to cast your vote (if you dare...er...care). Take a look at the past winners and losers NCAA-tourney style. Soon, one of these companies will rule the world!

Speaking of worst companies, the evil plan is working! The infiltration has begun! Soon, Wal-Mart will rule the world!

Speaking of ruling the world, here's a great response from the creators of South Park concerning their Scientology flap. For background, here's what "allegedly" happened. Soon, Tom Cruise will rule the world!

I was just kidding about all those guys ruling the world, you know. Soon, it is I who will rule the world! Muaaaaa haa haa haaa...

24 tonight, and more tomorrow... :)

Holy exploding condiments!

Happy Friday to you all! Here's what's interesting to me today...

I have told lots of people how I survived working at a fast food restaurant from when I was 15 to when I was 23...and eating the same thing every day. You tend to get very creative with the ingredients. Here are a few examples of how McDonalds employees get by without "Super Sizing" themselves.

{begin rant} We could use this here at work. A computer program that will evaluate your writing and remove all the "bull" so your document/presentation will get to the point. The next time someone tells me to leverage something or enhance brand affinity, I may explode. Stop the double talk and quit wasting my time! {end rant}

Uber-review provieds a link to the coolest faucet ever invented. I prefer to wash my hands in deep purple, but shaving needs red. A nice cup of blue would be nice to drink.

To help with the Madness, Sports Illustrated ranks the top 10 first round upsets since 1996. Ahhh...memories.

Also, watch out for the exploding condiments at the NCAA site in San Diego. Those dogs must have been smoking something.

Put a fork in the Atkins Diet. It's officially done. RIP Mr. Atkins.

And here's your Friday funny:
------------
A new employee is hired at the Tickle Me Elmo factory and she reports for her first day promptly at 8:00 am. The next day at 8:45 am there is a knock at the Personnel Manager's door. The Foreman from the assembly line throws open the door and begins to rant about the new employee. He complains that she is incredibly slow and the whole line is backing up, putting the entire plant behind schedule.

The Personnel Manager decides that he should see this for himself so the two men march down to the factory floor. When they get there the line is so backed up that there are Elmos all over the floor and they're really beginning to pile up. At the end of the line stands the new employee. She has a roll of red plush fabric and a big bag of marbles.

The men watch in amazement as she cuts a little piece of fabric, wraps it around two marbles and begins to sew the little package between Elmo's legs.

The Personnel Manager bursts into laughter. After several minutes of hysterics he pulls himself together and approaches the woman. "I'm sorry," he says to her, barely able to keep a straight face," but I think you misunderstood me yesterday. Your job is to give each Elmo two test tickles."
------------

Sorry about that folks.

Looking forward to a weekend of watching basketball and filling out brackets (as well as getting some details taken care of for the wedding). Happy weekend to all! More on Monday...

Let the Madness begin!

March Madness begins! The NCAA tournament starts today and there's no feeling like it. Go ACC! The ball starts bouncing today at 11:30 central time...and doesn't stop until we have a champion! My pick this year - the Duke Blue Devils!

For those of you with Ipod and ITunes fixations, there's a new blog out there that compiles all the free stuff you can get from ITunes at any given time. Includes free downloads, as well as ways to get around paying for songs when they come up. For instance, a PaperMate promotion a couple of weeks ago allowed for unlimited free ITunes downloads...and they knew about it. I got 6 free songs myself! So if that interests you, go there!

Some fun news for Ambien users. Looks like those extra pounds weren't because you were too depressed to work out - it was a side effect of you getting up in the middle of the night and stuffing your freaking face like there's no tomorrow.

The moment we have all be waiting for has arrived. AOL has launched its In2TV service. It brings you reruns of old shows absolutely free on the net. No more need for those Growing Pains, Wonder Woman or Welcome Back Kotter DVDs...watch 'em for free! All the campy (or crappy, depending on how you see it) shows you want and many more!

Speaking of TV, an interesting article from the LA Times about how people keep getting killed on TV these days. Quotes from Keifer Sutherland, Edgar and Tony on their roles in 24.

Now for Idol news: What was Simon wearing last night?



Guess he ran out of black t-shirts. Maybe he should buy a few more. As he might say - "absolutely horrible."

The first of what are sure to be many Ford commercials came on last night...and I think they may be smoking something.



Are they friends with the people who are doing the Burger King commercials by chance?

And for you Bucky fans out there...you're weird.



In other news, Ryan Seacrest is going to buy this vehicle, as long as it comes as advertised.

On to Ace...guess what? PEOPLE DON'T LIKE YOU! You have no personality. You sign boring chick songs. And you and your brother are completely wacked out.



Coming to a mugshot near you. Soon.

Ace was a pouty little girl after sitting back down. I think his ego was a little bruised.



...and Kevin is just reveling in his new role as sex symbol for the ages. Will someone please tell him we're laughing at him, not with him?

Finally, as predicted, there was not enough gargling and swallowing she could do - the lyrically challenged Melissa went home. It was well-deserved.



I bet she never forgets those words again.

Overall good choices. I thought the Kev-ster was going to be in the bottom three, but his head is just continuing to swell. He'll get his.

That's it for today. More tomorrow!

Alarming News

Great news! There are more annoying alarm clocks out there than anyone thought (do people actually think about these things?). Uber-review brings you the top 10 annoying alarm clocks. My favorite is number 5. I'd be shoving something up that thing's hole.

Miss Deaf Texas has a sad run in with a train. RIP.

The new database which is all the rage for you single girls out there. It's called "Don't Date Him Girl" and has been all over the news. It's a place you can go to see if that great new guy you're dating is a lying cheater. See if your boyfriend is on the list! Coming soon - "Don't Date Her, Man." Although the URL really looks like "Don't Date Herman." Poor Herman!

So, for those of you who don't know, there's a new Dallas movie taking shape. I can't say that I agree with the casting choices so far. John Travolta as J.R.??? J.Lo as Sue Ellen? I don't think so. Hopefully they won't mess up Dallas like they messed up the Dukes of Hazzard. But they probably will.

And in your debit card update, it looks like the crooks have been caught! Now, how do we make sure this never happens again? The banks will have fun dealing with this for a while.

Now, on to the Idol recap...

The new stage was unveiled last night, and it is just incredible.



One of the first highlights of the evening was when Mandisa christened the stage by putting her barefoot funk on it.



We didn't know Ryan had a foot fetish. He just couldn't help himself.

Apparently Kellie had tarantulas on her eyes. Is that how you say that?



The fianc thinks a lot of her hyjinks are an act. I'm thinking...no. Although she did have a great makeover from the stylists. Makes her look more mature and poised. Now if she would just keep her mouth shut. Another couple of weeks and I think America will be sick of her.

Melissa gave us a shocker last night, about how she has been gargling and swallowing weird stuff to get her throat right.



Unfortunately, I don't think she can gargle or swallow her way out of going home tonight.

And the love affair between Ryan and Bucky cools a bit, since he's looking more like a girl with his Jessica Simpson hair.



Sources tell me that after the show they rolled Bucky around in a pig trough and now he looks like he did before.

And finally, Will Makar has returned home from LA, and is going back to real life, plus a few fans. Here's a shot of him at Bush Intercontinental Airport with one of his fans.



He says Simon came up to him backstage and gave him a hug after the show and said that he was going to be very successful and that people will want to work with him - so he has that going for him, which is nice.

So, my official list of the bottom three - Melissa (she of the gargling and swallowing), Kevin (he of the much makeup), Lisa (she of the...wait...why do we remember her?) - with Melissa going home.

That's it for today, more tomorrow.

Surprise, Tony!

McGill McBites it! So who didn't know that was going to happen on 24 this season? Seems the hobbit may have had more to do than be on a little TV show. At least they gave him a good death scene. Goodbye Rudy!



Chloe continued to mourn her "friend" Edgar's death (for a whole, like, 20 minutes). How were they friends again? All I ever saw was her being annoyed by him - and her being annoying. Looks like there's a heart in there after all.



And finally the shocker - Tony Almeda finally bites it in a great scene. He should know that if this guy has gotten the better of Jack that "he of the shot in the neck and blown up and alcohol problem" would have no chance against the great Peter Weller. Now I can turn the TV down while watching the show since there's no Tony whispering every line. Poor Jack didn't seem to know how to handle it. I don't think I liked the way he played that scene. I don't remember such an emotional outburst when his wife died. But life goes on.



Back to the land of explosions and rooftop chases next week. This was a nice break from the normal. Looks like the Department of Homeland Security is coming to the "rescue" and CTU is no more...for now...until they screw things up, like they always do. Wonder how long super-beeyotch in the Ford vehicle will live? Enough from 24 land.

So as I mentioned previously I bought a new Sony DVD-Recorder/VCR combo last week, and I'm kind of disappointed in the quality. The VCR portion never seems to play tapes without flickering or losing the image, and it's clear with messages like "Writing information of disc" that they didn't do much to translate from the Japanese version. It's sad when I get a much better VHS picture from my old $49 Symphonic VCR from 1990 than the brand new one. I have even hooked it up because it makes MUCH better dubs. I'm deciding if I want to return it. Just beware, buyers. It's a mediocre machine for a premium price! But then again, the screen caps above are courtesy of the new machine...we'll see.

Time to switch back into American Idol mode for tomorrow's post. For some reason I think Simon will tell someone they chose a safe song, and Paula will say that someone looks gorgeous because she doesn't want to start off by saying that their song was bad, and Randy will call someone "dawg." Why do I still watch?

That's it for today...more tomorrow!

Lazy, hazy and crazy

It's been a little crazy lately. The fianc thinks I'm losing my mind. Saturday I hit myself in the head with the remote to prove a point. It wasn't my most shining of moments. I think things are getting to me a bit where the wedding is concerned. I was reminded today that the end goal is to be married and to spend the rest of my life with my soul mate, and that if no one even shows up for the wedding, the goal will be accomplished. It's good to be reminded of that every once in a while.

So, I have been a little hazy and lazy today...not wanting to do anything because I haven't had enough sleep. I feel a bit like a zombie. Hopefully the new episode of 24 will get my heart pumping tonight in time for bed. Looks like a thrilling episode from the previews. I predict I will be talking about it tomorrow. A lot.

Update on the debit card problems. Looks like this is the tip of the iceberg. Beware! I'm thinking of requesting a replacement card in order to get the number changed as a preemptive strike against the crooks!

Before SNL yanks the link from youtube...one of my favorite commercial parodies! DO not taunt Happy Fun Ball!



More tomorrow.

Debit devils

Happy weekend! Lots of cleaning and organizing going on. I got a DVD recorder and have been tranferring my bulky VHS tapes to DVD. Some of them are 20 years old, so they're ready to fall apart. I'm glad I could save them at the state they are now. I have old episodes of Guiding Light from the 80s, as well as old Saturday Night Live skits, the PTL Club with Jim and Tammy Bakker. It's like a time machine. It's making me nauseous.

The Debit card horror continues. Looks like our friends at OfficeMax and Sam's Club/Wal-Mart may be the ones who let the PIN numbers get to the crooks. Be warned! If you shop there and used a debit card and PIN number to pay for the purchase, check your account!

Here's another link. The Office Max connection has been widely publicized. Were they the only ones? The largest ATM PIN theft ever. Their slogan - What's your thing? Apparently theirs is screwing their customers. Be warned!

Nothing happening this weekend really. Just continuing to get ready for the wedding...and for the NCAA tournament! I run the pool at work and it's all set up. Can't wait for the March Madness to begin!

More tomorrow, and happy rest-of-the-weekend to you all!

Just plane Will

Before we get to American Idol news today, there's a new scam out there that has to do with Debit cards. Apparently the PIN numbers are not as safe as we once thought.

This brought me to an article on the dangers of debit cards that is going to make me cut mine up. Too dangerous and not enough consumer protections. Consider yourself warned!

Okay, on to the main event. The Top 12 were selected last night and I was 2 for 4 in my picks (well not really, I knew Will was going home). Poor Ayla.,..made me very sad. She has probably always done well at everything she has done. I'll miss her in the competition.



Bye Bye Gedeon. The wierd was just too thick on you. And you made us all a bit nauseous. It was the artwork that did it.

It also seems that Taylor is rubbing off on Baldy (why can I never remember his name?)



They should keep Taylor in isolation so this does not spread further. And who thought this would be a great promo shot for the show???



Insert crude toilet humor here.

And it looks like Ryan may have a crush.



He is getting awfully handsy with his good pal Bucky! This exclusive dream-grab from Ryan last night of his fantasy top 12 shows how he really feels.



And last but certainly not least, our home-boy from Houston/The Woodlands has sung his last. But what a great job and a poised competitor he was. Welcome home Will!



Good luck in everything you do. What a great kid.

------------------------------

And for your Friday funny, here's yet another blonde joke, just because you deserve it.

A highway patrolman pulled alongside a speeding car on the freeway. Glancing at the car, he was astounded to see that the blonde behind the wheel was knitting!

Realizing that she was oblivious to his flashing lights and siren, the trooper cranked down his window, turned on his bullhorn and yelled, "PULL OVER!"

"NO!" the blonde yelled back, "IT'S A SCARF!!!"

-------------------------------

More tomorrow! Have a great Friday everyone!