noun
1. A physician who has been accepted by a court of law as an expert on the mental competence of principals or witnesses appearing before it.
While I must congratulate Jan on her big accomplishment (I never really doubted her as much as she did ... read back if you want to see how nervous she was), I'm a bit jealous. Not too long from now I'm going to have to call her Dr. Chong. She'll be the intellectual giant amongst all of us peons that bailed out of school early. Yikes!
Then again, maybe I'll just stick to calling her names.
:)
--Nick
noun
1. The young offspring of a horse or other equine animal, especially one under a year old.
Did you know that Samuel Colt was born on July 19, 1814?
Yeah, neither did I.
--Nick
noun
1. A set of four persons or items.
2. Mathematics. An expression that is the sum of a real number and a vector and that contains four terms, one real and three imaginary.
I was in a Matrix mood tonight and realized that I hadn't seen the original in some time, so I decided to pop it in. Been years, in fact, and thus I remembered it as being absolutely amazing as far as special effects are concerned.
Having just seen The Matrix Reloaded, though, I have to say I was a bit shocked. The effects are still impressive, don't get me wrong ... but compared to the sequel, they actually looked rather dated. I guess it has been four years, but it was still a shock to realize how state-of-the-art awe-inspiring has become so much less so in such a short span.
Of course, they're still very good and better than many movies out there. But the bar's certainly been raised.
-- Nick
noun
1. A sequence or succession.
2. Logic. The relation of consequent to antecedent; deduction.
I'm currently sans laptop. I have been for about a week and will continue to be for at least another week and a half.
I realized that this was going to be pretty painful and have a pretty significant impact on my life (yes, part of me twinges with the recognition of the sadness of that statement), I don't think I really understood how far-reaching the changes might be.
Among other unexpected effects, it's actually very strongly decreased my motivation to write entries here ... those of you paying attention know that my post times tend to be absurdly late at night. This is because I tend to stay up too late at night poking around online reading news, weblogs, and the like. Eventually I get through all of that and become bored, yet not ready to sleep, which tends to lead to throwing up whatever's bouncing around in my head, just to have something to do. No laptop = no poking around at night = no getting bored = no weblog posts ... now, it's pretty much a conscious choice to go over to the desktop and sit down and write something, which is a harder barrier to overcome.
Between that and all of the trips I've been taking recently, I was tempted to just go on hiatus for the next few weeks until I got set up with a new laptop again, but then I saw that Erik B.'s beaten me to it and I now can't possibly go on hiatus without looking hopeless derivative.
So, the show goes on. Though I'm unsure of what I'm going to write about in the absence of any Reality TV shows that I feel like recapping ... we'll see if I find myself with anything to write about at all. Scratch that ... I just managed to write a whole entry on why I wasn't going to write and why I now am, which suggests I can write drivel up as well as the next guy. We'll see if I find myself with anything interesting to write about at all.
--Nick
noun
1. a. The quality or state of being infirm. b. The condition of being feeble : Frailty.
2. Disease, Malady
3. A personal failing : Foible.
I'm finally getting caught up on reading weblogs after my trip (right before leaving on another one ... I'll be gone until Monday and probably won't post anything until then) and Eric brings up a standard Pro-Mac argument, one which I find to be amusing.
Eric is (as usual) wiser than the stereotypical Mac fanatic in that he recognizes that the platform probably isn't bulletproof, and that it's really just due to lack of targets and lack of incentive that nobody bothers writing viruses for the Mac. If you read the comments in that article, though, you get a hint of the usual gloating that you get from Mac types ... they're so happy that they don't have to deal with viruses.
Isn't this ultimately a pretty short-sighted argument that is basically consigning yourself to being a bit player in the personal computing world? If you ever want to or plan on controlling a non-miniscule portion of the market, why would you be touting an advantage that exists only because you currently are?
Of course, this isn't Apple itself making the claims (though I wouldn't be surprised if they had at some point) ... but it seems like such a defeatist point on the part of the users, at least - "We're tiny, might as well be happy about it."
Don't get me wrong ... I find viruses as annoying as the next guy. It's just the argument that I find amusing.
--Nick
noun
1. A group of notes or tones sung on one syllable in plainsong.
2. Melodic embellishment.
3. Cadenza.
Possible spoilers: American Idol
Well ... there you have it. A couple of loose thoughts, geared toward people who watched the show. Anyone who didn't watch the show ... well, you don't want to be reading any weblogs or news sites or watching TV or doing anything until you do, since the news is basically all over the place. :P
A margin of 1335 (what's with Ryan saying "just over 1335"? That's an awfully precise number ...) out of 24 million votes is staggering. Seems almost unreal until you remember some votes cast way back in 2000 that resulted in a slightly larger margin, but had rather larger (and annoying, if I do say so myself) ramifications. Makes you start wondering about the little factors. I placed as many votes for Clay as I could and I fought through a lot of busy signals ... it's not unlikely with this small of a margin that the number of busy signals and the amount of collision amongst the voters on either side might have made a difference. I did wonder a lot last night whether or not any of three things were happening. One, that the number of votes was larger than before (which is true ... apparently there were way more votes this year than last). Two, that perhaps Clay was winning in a landslide (unfortunately not true). Three, perhaps they reduced call handling capabilities in order to try and make the voting seem more popular than it was during the voting period (which I kind of doubt, but they did screw up in the capacity that they provided). Why they didn't expand capacity to cover the voting, I can't say ...
Zach and Jenn, who looked more into this than I, pointed out two interested statistics to me. One is that the margin was less than the standard deviation, which means that statistically this was pretty much a tie, which incidentally, was a bet that Deb made with me. She was betting that they'd declare it a tie, based on information she knew that the voting was very close and that there was some "twist" (Fox style twist, apparently) to be declared tonight, and though it was statistically as such, I still win. :) The other is that if they closed Clay's voting line a single second before Ruben's, that was enough to account for the margin (which for the first time crystalized to me what staggering call volume they were actually handling ... maybe I can't complain about their call handling capabilities, as several thousand per second is a lot of freakin' calls).
Ultimately, what I thought would probably happen all season did happen ... I wanted Clay to win because he's the better singer (despite what that first article I linked to said ... Ruben did not outsing Clay), but thought that Ruben would win due to his better stage presence (though Clay's improving drastically here) and the fact that he has a well-established genre with fans that he falls into, where Clay has a more Broadway-esque voice than he does a pop singer one. Of course, in the last second I was dumb and bet on Clay against Erik N. because I really wanted him to win. I'm kinda bummed about the results, too, since the vote was so close that putting in some more votes by just a few of us could have swung it. Oh well. Good fodder for them to use next year when they remind you why you should bother to vote.
Ultimately, doesn't really matter too much who won in a global scheme. Seems obvious that they're signing and really pushing both this year, with their singles being released only a week apart according to info. at Amazon (though they have some conflicting data also that says they'll both be released at the same time). Interesting to note that Clay's is on the top sellers list with Ruben's one step behind, and Ruben's wasn't even on the list earlier today. And apparently their records will be released at the same time, so they'll be dueling far into the future. Myself, I'm excited to get Clay's and not sure if I'll bother with Ruben's (especially with his performance of the single Flying Without Wings tonight, which sounded dreadful), though I'll probably end up breaking down and getting both.
Finally ... I was worried when Ryan said that American Idol would be back "soon", since it really should be a one a year thing so that the appeal and talent don't wear out and because I wouldn't put Fox above beating the series to death to try and boost their ratings in the short term. Luckily, it seems that American Juniors will be this fall and that American Idol won't return until next year (though Simon, according to my first linked article, might not return anyway ... which would be bad and possibly very damaging, since the great and balanced judges are a huge part of making the show so much fun).
By the way ... when's the last time you learned a word from a CNN article? I was not expecting to ever get the title to one of my entries from CNN!
--Nick
noun
1. A state or feeling of weariness, diminished energy, or listlessness.
While I have quite a bit that I could write about, I'm pretty tired since I woke up close to 24 hours ago now (5:00 Eastern Time to catch my flight back home). Time to collapse.
--Nick
noun
1. One of a Hellenic people that invaded Greece around 1100 B.C. and remained culturally and linguistically distinct within the Greek world.
Possible Spoilers: CSI
Whew ... reading the Zap2It (another great TV site I'm surprised I haven't mentioned yet) preview of season finales, I assumed that they meant one of the main characters on CSI was going to die. Ever since, some friends and I have been spending quite a bit of time trying to decide who it might be and then being pissed at the possibility. I'm glad it ended up being only a minor character.
While I'm talking about TV, I should mention this little tidbit about Survivor 8. Apparently it's going to be the all-star edition. I had heard before that Survivor 9 would fill that role, taking two from each of the previous seasons, but I suppose this wouldn't be the first time I got misinformation about Survivor.
And, while I'm talking about good things, I should just say, "Yay!"
I'm heading out of town for the weekend and won't be back until Tuesday, then I'm out of town again Friday through Monday of next weekend, so I will likely be sparse for the next week and a half. Apologies in advance, if you actually cared.
Oh yes ... and if you don't know what the word has to do with this entry, think musically.
--Nick
adjective
1. Innate; inborn.
2. Related or similar in nature; cognate.
Possible spoilers: American Idol
Work's kicking my ass right now, so I'm feeling too beat to do a full blown recap. Erik B.'s got a good one you can read instead.
I'll just add one note. Last season, Kelly had a breakout song with Without You with three people left in the competition. Right there, she elevated herself to another level and sealed the deal on the competition. This time around, I think Clay just did it tonight with "Unchained Melody", again with three people left. Absolutely outstanding. Let's hope that the similarities of their situations doesn't end there ...
Oh yes ... one more thing for the night. This is the most hilarious thing I've read in politics in a long time. I mean, it's basically a filibuster, but bravo to the Democrats for doing so in a novel fashion. Hell, bravo to anyone for anything that might contribute to Bush's demise or a diminishment of his power, though this might not count for much.
--Nick
Edit: Oh yes, one other thing Erik B. forgot. Clay forgot some of the words to Vincent! This is the big time, man, you can't do that, Clay! I'm very glad that he sang his songs in the order that he did, because if you reversed them, people might have a very different impression of his night.
noun
1. Explosition, Explanation; especially: an explanation or critical interpretation of a text.
Yay! Erin's coming to work for us!
(For all of you who wondered what my rather mysterious excitement was about, this was it. Or rather, the part of it that I can tell you about right now. The other is work-related and I still can't say.)
--Nick
Edit: Fixed a typo.
adjective
1. Having no equal.
Possible spoilers: Survivor
Wow. Wow! A fabulous capstone to a stunningly great season that sets the benchmark for Survivor and probably all Reality TV.
I don't particularly feel like detailing 3 hours of Survivor, so I'm going to dispense with the play by play. You can get that at the Survivor site, as well as probably many other places in the days to come. Erik B. will probably write something, as will Television Without Pity, a great Reality TV site that I somehow haven't linked to yet. Instead, I'll just do a couple of broader, general thoughts to close out the season.
- Woo! Jenna is my hero. I know I've said she's a bitch, but anyone who single-handedly votes out Rob can't be all bad. A big, "Ha ha ha," to all of you bastards who have called me crazy and "known" that Rob was going to win (and deserved to) because he was playing the game the best. Screw all of that noise. That in and of itself made the show for me. Also, the fact that she went from certainly toast to winning it all by dominating the last two immunity challenges gave her some measure of deserving it. Sure, she was a bitch on the show, but at least she wasn't as bitchy as Heidi was ... and while I would rather have seen Matthew or Butch win, her win was better than Rob making the finals, and better than Matthew winning in the finals for a reason I'm about to get to.
- Jenna's win came out of nowhere for us and I bet for everyone else ... I would have believed any of the other three, but not her! In our watching group, almost everyone thought Matthew or Rob would win (this was probably true for just about everyone), with one dissenting vote from Erik N., who was just guessing since he hasn't been following the season. He was going to guess Jenna, but I disuaded him because she couldn't possibly win. Oops. And who would have expected the landslide that it turned out to be. How the hell did that happen? Things went just perfectly for Mark Burnett all season, and her immunity challenge wins just capped that off by putting a final, mind-blowing swerve in at the end of the season.
- One of these days, somebody will be smart in the final questioning ... it seems so obvious what the jury members are fishing for, oftentimes, and you really should stop trying to play diplomatic and tell the truth at this point. Usually, that's what they're looking for, anyway.
- The reunion was great ... Jeff did a great job with this (though there were some production gaffes that seem related to their quick last-minute relocation). One thing I was struck by listening here was to remember that these people probably weren't the personas they played during the game ... the girls probably aren't usually quite as bitchy, Rob isn't quite as deceitful, etc ... in the end, they're not perfect, but nobody was probably deserving of as much ill-will as I held toward Rob or others in my group held toward Jenna and Heidi. See, I'll admit it. Rob irked the crap out of me if I apply how he acted to real life, but it was a game in the end and he's hopefully not so bad in real life. And I have to admit that he probably had a lot to do with why the season turned out so well ... and yes, he had his occasionally amusing moments. Jenna, also, I felt less annoyed at that I had previously after this. I don't mind her win too much in the end, and even less so given the surprise value.
- And the surprises kept coming ... I've read in several places that the next Survivor was going to be in Mexico, but it looks like that was just disinformation. Survivor Maps was so duped that all of their potential site listings were wrong. They revealed the new location in the Pearl Islands, which looks like a good place, though I wonder whether the gimmick of the separate islands is going to amount to anything substantial ... I think possibly not.
This season was absolutely amazing (certainly the best overall so far, if you ignore the newness factor of the first one) and unpredictable and it really rekindled my interest in the series. Actually, rekindled wasn't right, since I'd never lost any interest, but actually accentuated my already strong interest. Having to wait four more months is going to kill me ... I liked it better when they only had a month and a half break like they did last time.
Here's hoping they manage to pull off Survivor: Pearl Islands (link doesn't work yet, but probably should soon) as well as they pulled this one off! See you all then!
--Nick
Edit: Erik B.'s put up his thoughts ... not a recap, as I guessed above, but still worth a read.
noun
1. The act of circumscribing or the state of being circumscribed.
2. Something, such as a limit or restriction, that circumscribes.
3. A circumscribed space or area.
4. A circular inscription, as on a medallion.
So I had to wake up ridiculously early this morning (for a Saturday, at least) to overnight my Citibank credit card payment to them since it's due Monday.
Ordinarily, this wouldn't even have been an issue. Like any upstanding computer dork, I pay all of my bills online. I'd forgotten, though, that I got my account number changed recently, and I hadn't updated it with Citibank.
Turns out, if you change account numbers, it takes them more than a week to authorize it to make online payments more than just a minimal amount to avoid missing a payment entirely ... not so good if you intend to pay off your balance instead of your minimum fee.
There is an alternative ... sort of ... you can pay by phone, for a $14.95 fee. The catch here is, if you haven't paid by phone before with an account, you can't make a payment more than $1000.
Now, these both seems like stupid-ass limitations to me. If they're going to make a withdrawal from my bank account at all, why not for the amount that I want? Why the $1000 limit? And hell, other companies will charge you on the spot via direct debit without any waiting period, why the hell do they need one? I mean, I can believe that they don't want to get screwed over with a bounced payment, but hell, why not trust us to do the right thing and just charge a big penalty and interest if our payment bounces? Penalize the people who break the rules, not preemptively penalize those of us who don't.
I guess what it boils down to is that they want their money right away. I mean, heaven forbid that I actually owe my credit card company any money ...
--Nick
noun
1. An unscrupulous lawyer.
Oh, hell, the freakin' idiot won. While I guess I can see why it was a big deal for her in her position (though she'll realize in about 2 months that nobody gives a crap whether you were valedictorian or not as soon as you leave high school), compensatory damages are ludicrous.
Is it really worth it for her? Hell, she already got into a bunch of good schools. Who at college is going to respect her? I strongly suspect that the negative reaction people are going to give her due to this fiasco is far greater than any miniscule (read: nonexistant) positive reaction she gets from being valedictorian?
And she wants to be a lawyer. What a huge surprise.
We need to cut her off before she becomes a scum-sucking bottom-feeder on society - one of those idiots that makes us look like such a stupid sue-happy and litigious society.
Jan's right. Please let her go somewhere other than my school.
--Nick
adverb and adjective
1. Full of keen anticipation or excitement; eager.
Woo hoo!
No way that most of you know what I'm talking about, but that's OK. At least you can appreciate another one of those rare (at least, as far as I know) words that are both adverb and adjective in the same entry.
--Nick
verb, transitive and intransitive
1. To burn or cause to burn with great heat and intense light.
Possible spoilers: Survivor
Down to the nitty gritty ... it's Survivor week (or so says CBS), and only five remain. Unfortunately, of those five, there's only two that I like. Not the best odds ever.
- Awfully cocky of Rob to reveal his plans to the girls ... on the one hand, he seems to be in a pretty safe position and it's not like the girls have anywhere new to turn with the knowledge that they now have, but it's still been dangerous all season to reveal your plans and to feel safe and cocky. I suppose it's too much to ask for for this to be his downfall ... I think the girls are in pretty deep at this point.
- The only chance that Heidi and Jenna seem to have left is to try and sway Butch. Try and convince him that he's not really part of Rob and Matthew's alliance - after all, how come that alliance always changes votes at the last moment without him knowing? Neither Rob nor Matthew is going to crack, so they should be going full-bore at Butch at this point.
- What alternate dimension are the girls living in where they've been playing hard, working hard, and deserve to win? I'm certainly not seeing it ...
- Heh, just like they did a good job of playing up Matthew's homicidal rage a few weeks back, they're now doing a good job of playing up Butch's firewood obsession. Makes good sense ... having lots of dry firewood available is probably better than letting their fire go out. Plus, they must be bored out of their minds at this point ... I'd be hunting for stuff to do, too.
- Wow, that's a pretty cheap car (not necessarily bad, just cheap) to give as the reward this year. Guess they're cutting back on budget. :P I totally thought, in the way that Jeff was describing the reward, that all five of them were going to get the tailgate party and the reward challenge was just for the car (which would have been a fine reward just on its own). But, to add insult to injury, they force Matthew to choose one other person to share the party with. This is kind of brutal at this stage ... isolating two of you. While those two probably aren't in real danger, this does give Heidi and Jenna the chance they need to work on Butch, and I bet there's some part of Rob that's a little peeved that he and Matthew are separated from Butch.
- You've got burgers, chicken, and hot dogs and you go for the hot dogs first? What the hell are you thinking? Now, if it was just hot dogs, I'd say chow down. But given the choice, I don't see how hot dogs are anywhere near the top of that comparison.
- The back and forth imagery between the fires was really well done.
- Our watching group had some debate as to whether or not the fire was caused by Butch's firewood gathering or not (or perhaps by a cameraman, though I don't seriously believe this ... the cameraman was probably just staring at it going, "WTF am I supposed to do here?" while Mark Burnett sat there gleefully cheering his good luck for the firewood shots that they took before and his sudden turn of good luck). We pretty much came to the consensus that it wasn't his fault ... the shelter had just dried out and the back walls caught on fire, one by one. Assuming that there wasn't extra firewood piled up inside the shelter behind the fire (something that they imply later on in the show ... yes, I'm cheating and writing this after the fact), then it wasn't his fault. If he did, then perhaps it was. Hard to tell by the footage that we were presented.
- The Magic Eight-Ball was burned up by the fire! Maybe this is more foreshadowing (I don't really have any real hope that this is true, but it would make my week).
- Deb wants to know why Heidi wished her stuff had also been burned ... wouldn't it be more prudent to wish that everybody else's hadn't?
- While I dislike the bitches as much as the next person (though not as much as Deb, who has a serious irrational hate for them much like I do for Rob), I don't disagree with their whole philosophy of not bothering to do things in the face of being voted out. Why put work into a shelter that the others are going to enjoy? The others in my group more rationally suggest that you never should give up, and at least should try and survive longer than the other person on death row, and while that's all well and good ... well ... if it were me, I'd probably just say screw it. I guess I'm a lazy and vindictive bastard.
- Everyone by Matthew looked pretty beat by the end of the immunity challenge. Matthew's looking pretty dominant in the challenges, and it is pretty much getting down to the point where he legitimately could win out, taking the final four in a row. That seems to be about the reasonable limit, as I discussed before.
- If Jenna's had this problem with her tonsils before, why didn't she have them removed before? That said, if she really does have such a bad condition, I do feel bad for her ... that probably sucks. Some of my group wonders if she was faking, though, to try and make herself look weaker and thereby survive longer (if it's either her or Heidi, theory would dictate that the stronger one would be voted out first to prevent a possible immunity challenge win). That said, Rob already said Heidi was going, so why bother? I think I believe her.
- Heidi totally looked like a position-grubbing bitch when she was talking to Rob rather than showing any real sympathy for Jenna. She should have just kept her mouth shut and hoped that they voted Jenna out like she seemed to want. Heidi only managed to worsen her position here.
- Jeff, as always, is good at making people say absurd things. This time, it was Heidi who put her foot in her mouth about how good of a player she was and how she was a mastermind. I hope she wasn't being serious, but I suspect she's dumb enough that she was.
- Everyone else that I watched with used Rob's final quote this week to prove that he's funny. I think he blew the joke. The "divide by two" part of it is what ruined it for me ... that was totally unnecessary and killed the rhythm of the rest of the joke (which was, admittedly, pretty good). They rationalized it as being off the cuff, but I'd be willing to bet that he spent all Tribal Council thinking of exactly what he wanted to say. Loser.
Alas, for all my hoping that there was anti-Rob foreshadowing and something miraculous would happen, it didn't. I don't mind seeing Heidi go, but I now really fear that Rob might actually win. Marc's been reading up reports from the members of the jury already voted off and apparently most of them don't mind Rob. I really, really don't want him to win. Matthew or Butch, I'd be fine with. Rob and Jenna, I'm going to be annoyed.
One episode left in what the CBS commercial quoted someone as saying is the best season of Survivor so far. And I agree ... it's been an amazing season. Hopefully the final show lives up to that.
--Nick
Edit: Holy massive recap, Batman!
noun
1. The act of cutting off.
2. Botany. The shedding of leaves, flowers, or fruits following the formation of the abscission zone.
Apparently this has been news for some time now, but the first I heard of it was when Nick sent me a link today.
Gaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Just thinking about this makes me cringe.
I know that he totally did what he had to do and that you pretty much do what it takes to survive. Will to live and all of that. Honestly, though, I don't think I could have handled it. I think I would have died out there. Maybe it'd be different if I was out there and was faced with the situation (it's oftentimes hard to really speculate what you'd do in situations since you're not actually dealing with those situations), or perhaps my self-preservation instinct just isn't strong enough. It's hard to say.
You gotta admire the guy's will to live, though.
--Nick
verb, transitive
1. To make (an offense or crime) seem less serious; extenuate.
2. To make less severe or intense; mitigate: tried unsuccessfully to palliate the widespread discontent.
3. To relieve the symptoms of a disease or disorder.
Possible spoilers: American Idol
Wow, this show was amazing in just about every way possible!
1. Only a half hour show this week, and amazingly enough, mostly content! Not all, but most. Gotta get in that obligatory stupid Ford commercial.
2. I was relieved tonight to find out that I wasn't losing my mind. I always thought I liked a lot of the Bee Gee's songs, but after last night I thought perhaps I was mistaken. What the hell were they doing choosing the songs that they chose last night? Just about every song in tonight's medley was better than yesterday's whole crop combined!
3. America didn't knee-jerk and put Clay in the bottom two ... glad they kept some perspective and didn't focus on his second song (or maybe most people liked it more than I did).
4. They put Joshua and Ruben in the last two again, and this time you guys figured out the right person to put in the bottom two. The bottom two absolutely were exactly who they should be.
5. Finally! They voted out the country bastard who's long outstayed his welcome. I'm floating on air!
Woo hoo!
--Nick
noun
1. An indication or a warning of a future occurrence; an omen.
2. A feeling or an intuition of what is going to occur; a presentiment.
3. Prophetic significance or meaning.
4. Archaic. A prediction.
Possible spoilers: American Idol
It's that time of the week again ... and a chance for everyone out there to not blow chunks like you did last week. And damned if the producers didn't want to remind people of this fact (and drum up the number of voters at the same time). Seems kinda like they do have some favorites of their own, huh?
So, I'm still in the introduction of the show, but I'm going to predict what we're going to see tonight.
Prediction: Yeah, Joshua really sucks that bad, his two seconds of fame ran out two months ago and the guy needs to get kicked out on his ass so hard that he ends up with a footprint on the inside of his stomach. Clay and Ruben, of course, are going to be the best two, but the order of Clay, Ruben, and Kimberley L. is inconsequential in the face of the stench eminating from over Joshua's way.
All right ... now that that's out of the way, time for me to see how close I was to hitting on the truth:
- Joshua, Jive Talking: Never heard the song before. Not a big fan of this song. Or of this singer. Seemed like the song was a bit low for him, actually, and in the lines between "Jive Talking"s, he was having some pitch control problems (mostly cetnered in the first half of the song). While not quite as atrocious as last week, he hasn't particularly stepped up and the performance was lacking in any inspiration or energy, despite him walking around the room. I agree with Simon's comment ... he was yelling bits more than singing them ... I think this is a symptom of trying to exude more energy than his voice can handle, and this is also probably why it didn't seem very energetic, despite his efforts.
- Clay, To Love Somebody: Another song I haven't heard before. He sung this really, really well (as he always does, but even more so in this case ... not many flaws to pick on here), but the song isn't exciting me ... I'm starting to fear that this week's theme just isn't going to do it for me. Putting Clay right after Joshua is a bit cruel, in a sense, since it gives you a very stark comparison between a powerful voice singing something strongly and a too-weak voice shouting to try and make up the difference.
- Kimberley L., I Just Wanna Be Your Everything: Do these guys have any songs that I know? Her head-bobbing here was kind of annoying. And she was being equalled, if not overshadowed by her accompaniment ... somebody should have noticed that during rehersal and done something about it. This was fine, but not much more than fine. Not as good as she's done in the last few weeks, and that accompaniment certainly had something to do with it.
- Ruben, Nights on Broadway: And we're 0 for 4 on song recognition. Again, good ... but again, unexciting. I'm dying for a song I know and like at this point. This was better than the last few weeks, though ... for a reason I can't put my finger on.
- Joshua, "To Love Somebody": Holy hell, are you kidding me? He did this to himself voluntarily? As if it wasn't bad enough having to sing right before Clay last time, now he wants to do the same song so we can do a direct comparison? Lucky for him that it's been a while now so it's harder to compare directly. His rendition just sounds so plain by comparison (ignoring the countrification, which of course, I hate). Don't get me wrong ... it was actually pretty good. This probably was a good song choice for him and he sounded better here than he has in a while, possibly ever. But just like I've complained about Kimberley L. putting herself up against Celine Dion, this sounded worse for the fact that Clay's just sounded better.
- Clay, Grease: Eh ... I don't like this song much, and I don't think the style suits Clay as well as the first song did. Not horrible, but not good. Technically accurate as usual, but just not particularly entertaining to me. Here's hoping that people focus on the first performance and not this one.
- Kimberley L., "Emotions": Whoa, finally a song that I know! Pretty well done ... impressive show of her upper range here! I find myself without too much more to say here ... it was just fine.
- Ruben, "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart": And luckily, a great song to top it all off. This is what Clay should have sung instead of his second song. Excellent rendition, too ... this is a perfect song for him to choose and his smooth style really treated it well. This was outstanding and my favorite of the night.
Overall, I wasn't as excited by this week as last week ... probably due to song knowledge, as Erik B. noted last week. And Clay's second song ... hrmm ... I'm a little antsy now that he might be paying for that tomorrow night, which would be really bad, since I know from him that was an aberration and not the status quo.
Hmm ... my predictions didn't come as true as I thought they would.
Best of the week: This is a bit tough to call ... Clay's first song was the best performance of the week technically (but not my favorite overall, since it wasn't a song I knew or liked), but his second was not good. Ruben's second song was my favorite performance of the night. If you take both performances overall, Ruben took this and Kimberley and Clay tied (with two good songs from Kimberley and one great and one so-so song from Clay).
Worst of the week: Who do you think? Clay's second song, too, was not great and is worth a mention here (man, Clay's swings this week are making this difficult).
America should dump: Who do you think? Sheesh. Do the right thing!
--Nick
Edit: Steve has some interesting thoughts on things ... I hope he's not right, but I won't be surprised if he is.
Edit: Erik B. and I agreed on much of what we said, though he liked Clay's second song considerably more than I did.
noun
1. The quality or state of being faithless or disloyal; treachery.
2. An act or an instance of disloyalty.
Nicholas Kristof sums up very well something I've been feeling for a while ... where are the WMD? Perhaps they did have them and Saddam took my advice. If so, bravo to him.
You'll read from the hawkish sorts that it doesn't matter whether we find them ... but that's such a load of BS, one that Kristof does a good enough job debunking that I don't need to repeat his arguments. Had Bush based his arguments on ones along the line of Tony Blair's, we wouldn't be in this mess, but he chose the WMD warbeat instead, and it looks like we might be paying for it now.
It's no big secret (and I've read in many places) that Bush's White House is one that values loyalty above anything else, to the point where (according to some accounts) it stifles actual reasoning, debate, and any critical thought. In light of this, I choose to believe Kristof's reports of the sleazy things that the administration did to drum up support for the war, and the lack of proof that we said existed is going to cost our country in the long run.
One more reason why these clowns need to be voted out of office. Unless, of course, we like the portrayal of the U.S. as a loyalist, unthinking state. Where have I seen countries like that before?
--Nick
Edit: Paul Krugman thinks that we're in a different country these days, too.
noun
1. A noose fastened to an elastic body to catch small game.
2. Snare, trap.
Wow, been a while since I posted now. Kind of odd to get back into it now, as I feel like there are things I would have written whose time has now passed.
I mentioned before that I went to a friend's wedding in Toronto. One thing that happened there that I didn't mention is that one of the speakers at his reception mentioned that perhaps now that he was married, he wouldn't eat cereal three meals a day anymore.
This got us here in the office to thinking. After his wedding, he was out for two weeks for his honeymoon, so we decided we'd take advantage of the situation and provide for him a final fond farewell to the cereal life.
So, using taped together trash bags, we cordoned off all of the under-desk space to keep his equipment safe, then we dumped a whole bunch of assorted cereals and popcorn into the center of his office. The popcorn didn't fit the overall theme, but we'd bought out all of the cereal that the store was willing to sell us and the popcorn made a good volumizing base, since it's much cheaper per volume.
To add to this, we set up a booby trap, by which opening the door past halfway would swing down a motion/presence sensor that would then trip off a big fan pointed at the door. In front of that fan we put a bunch of the lighter cereal so that opening the door would trigger a cereal storm directed toward the door. This took some doing, since setting up a motion detector without setting it off is nontrivial, especially since its default state is on when you first plug it in. The solution was to run the power cord for the fan and the power strip for the motion detector through the ceiling to another office, then plug in the motion detector, wait for it to settle to the off position (which you can tell by plugging something else into it), then plugging in the fan.
The final bit was a webcam, directed at the door, to capture his reaction.
With all this set up, we then closed the door and sealed/taped the whole thing shut as well as posted a sign, all of which made it abundantly clear that the door was not to be opened under any circumstances. This prevented random passers-by who smelled something amiss (by this time, the whole hall reeked of cereal) or the facilities staff from going in and setting off the trap.
My friend got back this morning, and his reaction made it all priceless.
(opening door) "What did you f***ers do?"
(looking inside as door opens slowly) "Real f***ers, all of you are."
(door hits halfway point, fan starts, cereal starts shooting)
(slamming the door) "Oh f***!"
Well worth the effort. Nice when something comes together and works, especially when you get the perfect reaction and everyone ends up having fun (even the poor guy that got cerealed).
The only thing that could have gone better was that he found my final hurrah. I stuck a bunch of the popcorn into one of his seldomly used drawers, hoping that he'd check it in a month and get a "pleasant" surprise and reminder of the whole ordeal. Unfortunately, he randomly just decided to open it today, and while his reaction was again worthwhile, I keep thinking of what might have been.
Anyway, cleaning up wasn't as bad as we thought it might be ... things picked up and swept up quite well, thanks to the dense carpet weave they use in the office.
Incidentally, it's not lost on us that there was a lot of wasted cereal here, which we felt pretty bad about. What the heck do you do with it after you've done this, though? We were (and are) at a loss. :(
I'm pretty sure that I can no longer afford to take a vacation ... having rigged his office up last year with a spider web of glowing yarn and blacklights and setting up that web so that yanking on it would cause stuff in the room to start falling off shelves, I think I'm in for it the next time he gets a chance to retaliate.
--Nick
Edit: Fixed one word in the transcript.
verb, intransitive
1. To sway from one side to the other; oscillate.
2. To swing indecisively from one course of action or opinion to another.
Possible Spoilers: Survivor
I have to say, this is turning out to be one of the most interesting seasons of Survivor ever. Our whole group was totally shocked by the twists and turns this week, and none of us anticipated Christy getting the boot.
I'm a bit busy to go back and write a running commentary on the episode tonight, so I'll just stick to the highlights of what I can remember and undoubtedly you'll be able to get the rest from Erik B.
The episode started out with the aftermath of Rob's latest backstabbing, and I'm quite a bit torn. On the one hand, Jenna and Heidi aren't my favorite people ... they're bonafide bitches. On the other hand, though, I felt for them in a way that other people in my watching group (notably Deb) don't. Where I hate Rob with amazing intensity and she just doesn't see it, she hates the two bitchy-girls with a fury that I can't match. She kept yelling at the screen, telling them to shut up and mocking them for expecting to win just because they're cute. Me, I think they have quite legitimate cause to be pissed off here ... hence my indecision on how I feel about them. No matter how stuck-up and cuter-than-thou they are, the don't hold a candle to Rob's absolute slimy backstabbing hypocritical manipulative bitch-ass. And I think that anyone in their position certainly deserved the right to feel totally screwed.
Heidi's bitching was a bit misplaced, though ... a few weeks back, she was the one who betrayed the girls to move on, so she's actually done the exacty same thing once, despite her claims to the contrary. Jenna should have been the one with that rant.
At this point, though, everyone should realize that Rob's a two-timing untrustworthy bastard. They all know it, he's admitted it to them, and he even calls them out for being dumb not having noticed and taken it to heart yet. And he's right ... they're just total idiots for allowing themselves to continue to be strung along. My best hope at this point was for them to all finally come to their senses, realize how untrustworthy he is, and band together to dump him off.
The reward challenge was fun to watch, especially with the tipsy boats. I'm not so fond, however, of the dilemma they put at the end of it. It seemed obvious that Matthew was going to get to see his loved one anyway, but still it's just plain mean to make the winner decide something like that in which they really have no choice. Winning a reward should be a real reward, not a way to screw yourself over. You might say that they planned it this way, wanting them to seem generous and then getting the big reward at the end, but even sacrificing yourself to the others might hurt your position in the game, since others are that much more afraid to take you to the final two. Hard to say ... but I think that there was a bit of a two-edged sword here.
Watching them all drunk off their asses was kind of traumatizing. Rob + Speedos = bad news. The puking didn't help, either. Sorry to break it to you, though, Rob ... everyone's going to remember the bad things that you did because just about all you did were bad things.
Immunity was great ... the curling-like game (much more like curling than shuffleboard, despite what most people think) had all kinds of great strategy and suspense to it. I'm shocked that Matthew didn't do better than he did in the slingshot ... he was really good with weapons earlier this season and he strikes me as the weapons-master type (horrible stereotype, I suppose).
Tribal Council was very amusing, as is becoming the standard this season, as the cocky person (Christy this time) was proven oblivious to what was going on and chopped off right after gloating. Jeff's prodding was well-aimed and well-timed as usual, focusing this week on what you are and aren't willing to do to win. Also known as pointing out how much of a sleezebag Rob is. His observation about playing for the final two vs. playing to win being very different was very apt ... Rob, I would venture to say, is playing for the former and by burning every bridge ever erected has absolutely no chance to win. Part of what makes this show great ... the perfectly balanced tensions between the different behaviors you need in order to get to different points in the game.
What was Christy doing this week? Not only was she wishy-washy enough to make Rob nervous and get herself voted out, but her wishy-washiness made no sense at all! She tells the camera something like, "I don't know what's better ... going after a chance to win a million dollars or going after the chance to be the last girl standing." How is that even a question? Of course, by playing indecisive on both sides (which was her way of not picking sides overtly ... something that Rob totally couldn't possibly understand because he'd have just lied to them both), she managed to choose the wrong answer - (c) none of the above.
Christy's indecisiveness cost one chance to get Rob out of there ... I'd say that one more chance was lost. Jenna showed that she was willing to transfer her immunity ... the right play (and one I would have immensely respected) would have been to give it to Christy, telling her that Rob had gotten everyone together to go after her, but that you didn't think it was right. Ultimately it didn't matter to her, since she's still there, but how sweet would that have been?
Even more amazing would have been if Christy had managed to lie about being deaf this whole time, eavesdropping on things she wasn't supposed to be able to hear and working up sympathy ... had she been doing that and ridden it all the way to the top, I would have saluted her as the best player ever.
As it stands, I just have to salute her on her way out the door. And not even salute her that much ... I didn't care much for her exit speech. She may not have "deserved it", but she brought it on herself. And how the hell is she so delusional as to think that it's the girls' fault any more than it is Rob's fault? Rob was the one that promised her that he wouldn't betray her ... WTF? Is she that dumb? Does she has an inferiority complex going on because the girls have done that good of a job of pissing her off (which I could see ... they're pretty damn bitchy to other girls)?
And why is Butch always one step behind the alliance shifts?
All said and done, we're now down to less than half the people left who I wouldn't mind seeing win. I'm not sure I like my odds ...
--Nick
Edit: Ah yes, one other thing I wanted to mention. Deb was giving Heidi and Jenna flak for being lazy last week when they were in the majority and then being lazy again this week when they're in the minority. I actually didn't take too much offense to this, or at least their lazy behavior this week. When you're the minority, screw doing work for the majority to enjoy later when you're gone, make them do it themselves. As for last week ... well, if the minority was too dumb to see this, then I guess you milk it for what it's worth. They still are prissy bitches, though.
Edit: Check out the trackbacks for Erik B.'s and Steve's takes. Erik B., as I promised above, does a good blow-by-blow and puts my capsule summary to shame. Steve does much more forward thinking than either of us. In both cases, though, they've got the wool pulled over their eyes about Rob. Am I the only one left in the world that hates that weasel?