Stuck In Idol

Tonight's Idol Analysis:

Only 10 guys left. My opinion of the field is that we don't have a belly-singer in the bunch. There are at least 6 of the girls that can blow any of these guys off the stage with just one note.

How do they rank after tonight's performances?

1. AJ Tabaldo - The kid makes it look easy. I think he could win, especially if he mixes in some Spanish lyrics once in a while.

2. Blake Lewis - I can't analyze this guy, but I like what he does. A lot.

3. Chris Sligh - His performance of 'Trouble' was better than Taylor's last season. He doesn't make mistakes. Song choices are solid, Vocals are solid as well. Plays to the crowd perfectly. He isn't capable of winning the competition, but he will be around fairly late in the contest, until he has to go head-to-head with a better performer. One of the girls will end up eliminating him.

4. Chris Richardson - He's doing a lot with a little. Nice song choices, but he has limited range and only a so-so voice. He'll last until they do a theme night outside his comfort zone.

5. Phil Stacey - Consistently OK, but weak. Mellow. No pizzazz. Not sure if he'll make the final 12. I can't even remember what he sang tonight.

6. Sundance Head - Got back in his comfort zone tonight, but he doesn't have the powerful voice that he needs to beat out the falsetto boys. If he can be more consistent, he can make the final 12. Personally, I didn't like his version of 'Mustang Sally' tonight, but it was miles ahead of his last 3 performances.

7. Nick Pedro - Everything he sings sounds falsetto. I'm getting tired of it and so is America.

8. Jared Cotter - Technically good, but...boring. I think he's got another week to figure out what it takes or get sent home. I've heard 'Let's Get It On' done better during karaoke shows.

9. Brandon Rogers - Song choice may have just sent him home. Wasn't a good technical performance, either. Only voter sentiment can save him this week. I like the guy, but he's ruining his chances with his song choices. I can't think of anything weaker than an acoustic verison of 'Time After Time'.

10. Sanjaya Malakar - Done. He should have done a Michael Jackson song. Extremely poor song choice tonight with 'Steppin Out With My Baby'. Sang it all monotone in one octave and got softer as the song went on. Borrrrrrring.

At this point, my predictions for the 6 that make the cut:

AJ, Chris, Chris, Blake, Sundance, and Nick.

Unforgivable

OK, I'm back to normal now...

Being an IT guy, I read this article today and just about had a fit.

Excerpt:

When the group of Raptors crossed over the IDL (International Date Line), multiple computer systems crashed on the planes. Everything from fuel subsystems, to navigation and partial communications were completely taken offline. Numerous attempts were made to "reboot" the systems to no avail.

Luckily for the Raptors, there were no weather issues that day so visibility was not a problem. Also, the Raptors had their refueling tankers as guide dogs to "carry" them back to safety.

Now, the F-22 has been in service for 14 months, officially. This software bug has apparently existed for years of test flights, plus fourteen months of normal use. If I were the USAF, I'd have some hard questions for Lockheed:

1. WHY THE DEVIL WASN'T THIS SCENARIO TESTED IN QA?
2. WHY AREN'T THESE CRITICAL SYSTEMS REDUNDANT IN CASE OF A COMPUTER FAILURE?
3. What sub-contractor wrote the software? (and bring me the head of the programmer!)
4. Why isn't there a manual backup for radar and navigation?
5. HOW MANY OTHER BUGS ARE THERE THAT WE DON'T KNOW ABOUT?

If I were piloting these planes, I think I'd stick one of those rotating compass globes on the dash, just in case.

AI: The Twelve Guys

I just watched Idol and saw the 12 guys.

I'm not going to go into too much depth at this point of the season, but here are my impressions:

Nobody took any risks, and Simon hated that. I'm sorry to say that Simon is wrong about taking risks at this point in the competition - you just don't do it now. You let the weak ones die and you stay alive until you have to win, instead of not losing. At this point, you just want to not lose. Tonight was all about base hits, not home runs.

Winners:
1. AJ Tabaldo - Did an easy song perfectly and effortlessly, showing good stage presence.

2. Phil Stacy - Did an easy song quite well in the payoff chorus. Weak in the buildup, though. Wisely milked the "new baby" schtick for sympathy votes. Sucked up too obviously to Simon, though.

3. Chris Sligh - Did a good song nearly perfectly. He's smarter than any other Idol contestant I've ever seen, too. His strategy was very good on his song choice, and he got votes by challenging Simon. This guy must have read my blog from last season.

4. Blake Lewis - Did a perfect job on a good song, but didn't show off any range or stage presence. He's a sleeper.

5. Nick Pedro - Did a decent job of an easy song. He needs to show some depth, or he'll never make it to the top 12. So far, he's Boy-band all the time.

Losers:
1. Sundance Head - Geez, what was this kid thinking with that song choice? He took a big risk and it killed him. He's gone. After his poor performances in the last 2 weeks, he needed to blend in instead of being foolish. Did he sound good doing that song in rehearsals? Somehow I doubt it.

2. Paul Kim - Did an easy song poorly. Gone. The barefoot schitck works with women, not guys.

The rest were mighty boring.

Looks to me like it's going to be Chris Sligh vs. the Boy-band wannabes this season. Ugh.

Who Wants to Eat Their Way Through Malaysia?

We're planning on going back to Malaysia for two weeks in August. I'm dieting and plan to lose 70 lbs before then. Then I plan on gaining them all back by eating all that wonderful Malaysian food!

Here are my best reasons for wanting to go back (pictures are not mine):

Rotiboys. These are light, fresh-baked buns topped with coffee cream. The smell is amazing. This is Malaysia's answer to Krispy Kreme.


Roti Canai. Crispy grilled flatbread with curry dipping sauce.


Siew Pao. BBQ pork on the inside of a flaky pastry. The sausage biscuit of Malaysia.


Curry Puffs.


Char Siew. Chinese BBQ Pork. Usually found hanging in a hawker stall.


Nyonya Chicken Curry. Good stuff!


Chili Crabs. You just can't believe how cheap it is to buy crabs over there in restaurants. Shrimp, too.


Char Kway Teow. You can't see the noodles in this picture but they are wide egg noodles, fried.


Beef Rendang. This is beef in coconut red curry.


Nyonya style-dining. Indian dishes served on a banana leaf.


Bak Kut Teh. Slow-simmered short ribs.


Soup with pork meatballs. I like to have wantons in it, too.


Devil's Curry. I haven't had this yet, but it is on the list. It's supposed to be hot.


Hainanese Chicken Rice.


And finally, the mobile cafeterias you find at all the markets.


OK, who wants to go with me?

First Idol Blog of 2007

I've been keeping an eye on Idol so far this season, and I have to say that i am greatly disappointed. Either the producers are deliberately keeping the talented ones off-camera, or everybody that tried out this season is terrible.

They cut it down to 40 last night, and I can't disagree with any of the cuts. If I had my way, they'd send them all home and call for new auditions.

That being said, the best of a bad group comes down to 4 singers:

1. Chris Sligh. He hasn't sung a bad note yet, has good taste in music, and seems to have some genuine talent for arrangements. I just don't see Idol being won by a Meat Loaf/Weird Al novelty, though.

2. Sundance Head. I just read today that this guy is the son of the guy who sang "Treat Her Right" back in the 60's. He's got good pipes, but he got nervous and wobbly. I'd expect better from a legacy. He's also a Meat Loaf type.

3. Jordin Sparks. We didn't get to see her at all last night, and that lends itself to my theory that the good ones are being hidden from us at this point. I read that she moved on to the next round last night.

4. Matt Blake (beat box guy). He's good, but quirky. I can't see him being able to do beat box in the finals if he makes the last cut.

So far, except for Sparks, the girls all stink out loud. The guys are extremely shaky at this point.

How the heck can a record company offer any of these folks a contract? After last season, this one looks like a big joke so far.

I'm a Dead Man

Okay... so my wife and her friend Fiona are watching the Grammy's. They've been looking forward to it all week and they watched the pre-Grammy show while eating dinner from TV trays. We all watch the Police perform the opening number (that seemed a little rough, by the way...you'd think they'd sound better after rehearsing for a month).

Anyway, I get bored and I start doing our taxes. I run across the Dish Network bill and I decide to look on their site and see if our local channels are available in HD yet. WooHoo! They are! So I call Dish. They tell me that they just launched another satellite and these new HD locals are on that one, so I'll need a new dish installed - for free (SCORE!) - to get them. They can schedule it for Tuesday. Only one slight problem, though. They have to turn off the regular locals in order to add the HD locals to our programming (getting the new dish cost refunded complicated the transaction), and the HD locals won't get turned on until the work order for the new dish is completed. I say OK, I understand. Not realizing what I've done until...

Suddenly, the noise from the living room goes silent.

Ohhhhh.....crap. I'm in serious trouble now. I just turned off the Grammy's in the middle of the show.

I tell the guy 'Dude, don't do it yet! My wife's gonna kill me!'. Too late. The guy is really nice, but he can't undo it.

So at the conclusion of the call, I go upstairs and have to explain what I've done to two irate females. They are trying to figure out how to get the channel to come back. I explain, and try to get the station in on the over the air antenna. I can't. I can get 3 other stations to come in fairly clear, but not the one with the Grammy's.

I am so dead.

Anyway, I go back to doing our taxes and I'm getting a bunch of cash back. That'll pay for the Malaysia trip later in the summer. (SCORE!)

I call my Dad to tell him the good news, and the phone goes dead. I try to call back and get "your device is not registered to make calls on the network". Glitch at our VOIP provider - nice. So I hear Bernie's cell phone ringing and it's Dad calling us back. I take her phone downstairs to talk, and after I get off the phone with Dad, I call Broadvoice to find out what's wrong, and the house phone is suddenly working properly again. Apparently, the glitch was only temporary.

Well, I start surfing the net again, and just a minute ago, Bernie's cell phone rings. I pick it up and she's calling from upstairs frantically searching for her phone, which she thinks she's left somewhere. She stomps downstairs and snatches it from me.

I am sooooooooo dead.

Reaction to Current Events

1. So UNC lost to State. We then go and whip dook at dook. I'll take that trade-off.

2. Butch Davis absolutely shocks the world with his National Signing Day haul of football players. "I told Dickie Baddour that if he wanted a coach to take them to the Peach Bowl, he had the wrong guy." I'm starting to believe it.

3. Anna Nicole Smith. I've got my money on Howard K. Stern killing both her and her son in order to get his hands on $88 million bucks. He's one rigged paternity test away.

4. Bernie's friend Fiona is here from Malaysia. Fio doesn't like pets, but Trouble has completely charmed her, like he does everyone. Bernie is incredulous, even though the same thing happened to her when she first got here.

$$$

Well, we couldn't put it off any longer. The couch and chair in the living room were looking like college dorm material, so we went out and bought new furniture today to the tune of about $1600. Thank God for 2 years no interest financing. We take delivery on Tuesday.

Then some drunk guy called my cell phone this evening and shouted something incomprehensible to my voice mail. No idea what that was about.

Tomorrow is the Super Bowl. We're going to watch it (mostly for the commercials) at the 'rents in front of the 65 inch HD and eat wings and chili.

Bernie's friend Fiona will be visiting us this week, all the way from Malaysia. My friend Andy and his wife and baby will also be visiting us over next weekend, all the way from Korea. It's the week for international visitors!

Follow Up to the Follow Up to the Follow Up

New belts arrived today and the tumbler is now tumbling again!

He Didn't Make It

Barbaro Euthanized

Poor Barbaro just couldn't do it. I doubt anyone will ever try to save a racehorse with a broken leg again, because the owners did everything possible to save him.

I've always had an affinity for this horse, for some reason. It saddens me that the poor guy's gone.

Follow up to the follow up

The brand-new rotary rock tumbler ran for 2 days. Belt broke. #$%^&*!!!
I have ordered 5 new belts from a guy on eBay that says his belts are 1000 times better than the original equipment ones on this tumbler. Grand total: $7.

For those of you familiar with my streaky luck: This is definitely a textbook example of Madam Fate deciding to mess with me personally once again. I've declared war. These gemstones will be smooth and shiny if I have to polish them personally with sandpaper following the end of the world.

Follow up

Bernie posted quite nicely regarding our Friday outing with my co-workers, so I'll just give you a quick follow up on the rock tumbler I won on eBay.

Ran for 1 hour, fell into pieces. Seller won't warrant or refund according to the auction. I went to Harbor Freight today and bought a regular tumbler, and our gems are tumbling as we speak.

Rocks In My Head

We went gem-hunting last weekend in Hiddenite, NC. This is a gem mine where a very rare mineral called hiddenite was found years ago. This mineral has only recently been found in Madagascar, but otherwise, it is unique to this particular place in North Carolina.

We sluiced for gemstones, and didn't find much, however, Papa Lau found a large garnet that the lapidarist on site said could be cut into two 3-carat stones. They had a 6-week backlog, so we told Papa to take it back to Malaysia and to get it cut there (Malaysia has a large gem-cutting industry and it could be done quite cheaply). Papa thought he wanted to keep the stone rough, but Mama got a look at an example of what it would look like when it was cut, and I think she'll win the argument. The Chinese believe that garnets cleanse the blood if worn as jewelry.

Bernie and I both have fascination for gemstones, so we have been to three different gem mines now over the summer and here's what we have found:


| View Show | Create Your Own


I like the black tourmalines best, and Bernie likes the quartz and amethysts. I won an auction on ebay to get a vibratory polisher, so I'm going to try to polish these guys and see what they look like then. The pictures don't do them justice color-wise, and they look best when they are wet. Most of them have bits of granite attached to them, so polishing them will get rid of that and let the color come through.

Whew! Long Week!

Despite it being only 4 days, this week seemed like a LONG work week. We're in-between releases at work and there simply isn't a lot to do at the moment. Our team lead has been doling out work equally between the team members, but I think that the items I got were simple and quick to finish, while some of the others got tougher assignments that took more time. I wish I had gotten some of those instead, as I'm getting tired of fixing text errors in test scripts to fill up the days.

On the plus side, I'm getting to know my co-workers better and I like them a lot.

I'll be going to a couple of classes starting next week on Tues and Thurs nights and continuing for a month. It'll suck to be at work so long, but I'll learn SQL inside and out for my efforts, and it's worth it.

Tomorrow, we are going to Hiddenite, NC to do some gem mining.

Been a Long Time, Been a Long Time, Been a Long...

Whew! Seems like I've been off-line forever!

Mucho apologies for you fictional readers of this blog. I would normally post at least once in a week, but there have been extenuating circumstances lately, consisting of:

• Food Poisoning, which may have been a stomach virus, taking me out for 2 days
• Dead Computer, which had two on-site service calls and finally had to be sent back to Sony for repair, taking a week to return
• The Head Cold, which threatened to become strep throat, which I valiantly fought off for two days and now have forced back to the threat level of "Nuisance"
• And somewhere in there, there was Christmas and the festivities thereof

I may have mentioned that my family's version of Christmas is embarassingly extravagant. I will detail only the highlights of the Holiday Haul to illustrate:

Jason:

• Kitchen Aid Food Processor
• 4 appropriate for the office Shirts
• 3 appropriate for the office Pair of Slacks
• Stone Mortar and Pestle (for grinding fresh herbs)
• Computer Game (The Movies)
• Cast Iron Pot
• Waffle Iron
  
• 3 Books
• Calendar (with pics of my wife so I won't miss her so much when I'm at work)
• Bottle of Stoli Vanil Vodka
• Umbrella
• Money
  

Bernie:

• 2GB memory card for her camera
• Radar Detector (she doesn't appreciate it...yet)
• Gift card for the Glo Spa
• Hair Straightening Iron
• Jeans
• Blouse
• Pajamas from Victoria's Secret
• Desk Fountain
• Scrapbooking Kit
• Stepstool (for getting into bed)
  
• Money

Trust me, there was more, but these are only the highlights. We couldn't fit it all in my truck to get home. That's Christmas in my family. Everybody shops year-round for gifts and hoards them in secret until Dec 25. The result is a Christmas tree that looks like this:
Not that I'm complaining.

Since Christmas, I've been back to work. Bernie's been off all week. Is that fair?

Hopefully, now that I've paid off the Visa card (oy, vey!), we'll be able to start saving again so we can afford our trip to Malaysia later this summer.

Totally Exhausted

My company has asked that each corporate employee spend one working day in one of our stores during the Christmas rush. This helps out the stores that need help the most. Today was my day.

I spent the day condensing the Christmas merchandise on the shelves and filling in the blanks with new merchandise. Then I spent the afternoon getting boxes of toilet paper unloaded and on the shelf. (I suggested to the manager that since the store had so much TP that we could make a display of it in the front of the store with a sign saying "This year, give your kids something they can REALLY use.")

Anyway, this is the hardest day's work I've had in a looooooong time. I am so sore, it actually hurts to sit and type. All that bending and lifting wears you out. I must say that I enjoyed it, though I certainly wouldn't want to work that hard every day (for $7.50 an hour!). Thank God for a college education.

Bad Mood

I have caught a bad mood that I'm having a hard time shaking. Maybe it's a leftover from the food poisoning. I am grouchy and surly, and I am having to be very careful not to let it out on my family, who certainly don't deserve it.

Maybe I need to go out and get in a bar fight or something.

Why I haven't been posting much

Well, my computer is dying, and persists in dying despite two on-site service calls. The darn thing keeps rebooting after a few minutes. Sony has replaced the power supply and the motherboard, and it stubbornly persists in continuing to reboot. Now I have to pack the thing up and send it to the repair depot and I won't see it again until after Christmas.

And the news of the day is that I had a bout of food poisoning last night and am still sweating and shivering today. Hopefully, I'll recover to go to work tomorrow. It's been a long week.

Stream of Consciousness

Sometimes, I get a brainwave with a nice piece of philosophy.

Ever wonder why people get depressed when they are in college? It's the sudden realization that a gap is opening between the way you want your life to be, and how it really is - and that the gap is getting bigger every day.

You don't realize it until this point in your life because up until then, you don't have the freedom to really steer your life off course. Suddenly, the road you are on has no lane markers and very little signage, and you don't have a map. You can either decide to explore your new horizons and end up off course, or you can lock the steering wheel straight ahead, get where you're going, and miss out on all the fun in the process. As we get older, we learn to navigate better (or get used to being lost).

***

I haven't given a work update in a while. My new job is still fun and interesting. I don't dread getting up in the morning any more. The days fly by quite quickly now, and I think I'm bringing a lot to the team.

Every day I realize how bad my previous job was, with the CEO slinking around looking for people to criticize, an absentee boss, total jerks for co-workers, etc etc. I work with genuinely nice people now, and I don't fear for my job every day like I used to. I think for the last 5 years, I have lived in constant fear of losing my job (at IBM, at Arcatech, and at my previous employer). Not any more. And without that constant fear, I can be myself and do what I do best - be creative and think outside the box.

I've got love, I've got financial security, I've got ambition. Now I just need to do something about my fat body, and life will be perfect.

(sound of frantic knocking on wood)

On My Own...

Well, I'm all alone this week. Mama, Papa, Bernie, and my Mom and Dad are all living it up in Williamsburg, Va this week, and poor, vacation-less me had to stay home.

So, I'm a bachelor again. You know, this seemed like a good idea at the time, but I think I've gotten used to being married. I've never been alone in this house before, and I've gotten used to having a whole family around since Mama and Papa arrived back in October. At least I've got the cat.

To top it off, my computer has been acting up - rebooting itself, thowing dll errors on startup, etc. I couldn't figure out whether it was hardware or software, so I restored it back to October 31, and still had problems. So I did a complete factory restore. Still had problems. So I called Sony and told them it had to be hardware and they are coming on-site to replace the power supply.

Of course, as soon as the computer heard that, it decided to straighten up and fly right. Don't tell me that computers aren't intelligent and emotional. This one got well as soon as it heard that surgery was in the works. I don't care, though. The power supply is going to be replaced just as a precaution.

Now I have to decide whether to watch Heroes or the Panthers tonight. If I watch the Panthers, Heroes gets DVRed. If I watch Heroes, I join the Panthers at halftime. Hmmm...decisions, decisions.