American Idol 3: Motown Week

Without further ado, here's the latest rundown of last night's performances from our AI3 correspondent, Debbie L. Thanks, Debbie!

As a HUGE fan of Motown, I thought the show overall was pretty entertaining. Ashford & Simpson were alright for judges. I think Ashford's a lil' scary-looking; every time I look at him, I think of Eddie Murphy in "Vampire in Brooklyn". The Funk Brothers band were great. I think they added so much more to the performance. Anyway, here are my thoughts on this week's AI:

Camille-- She tried really hard last night to show the judges she's having fun and can a work a crowd. Much better than the past two weeks but she's still pretty weak performance wise. I think she'll be in the bottom 3 again.

JPL--I thought he was pretty good last night. I think he picked the right song for him although I thought Corey Clark did a lot better version than him in last year's competition.

Jon--ooohhh...I think he did pretty bad. I think his voice got lost in the song. I think he'll definitely be in the bottom 3 tonight.

Latoya--I liked her hair extensions! I thought she looked great and she did Smokey proud with her rendition of "Oooo Baby, Baby". Great song, great performance"

Jennifer--I thought she rocked the song last night. I think it was her best performance on the show however, I she may be in the bottom 3 tonight as she hasn't grown to be a crowd favourite yet.

Jasmine--Great. She was really good last night except for the one last note. I think Randy and simon agreed with me on that one.

Fantasia--She was great last night too. She's absolutely frickin' safe tonight.

Amy Adams--again, I think she picked the a really good song for her voice and personality. I liked her performance last night. Also...I think her boyfriend's kinda cute.

George--Great song choice for him. Excellent song. He was really good last night. Definitely the strongest male competitor for me.

Diana--She is soooo comfortable and confident on stage. I think vocally she was great but I didn't think too much about the performance. On a whole it was good but I don't know. I think I was distracted by the red skirt. I think the outfit was a lil' wack.

Bottom 3 for me tonight is Camille, Jon, Diana. Camille may go home tonight for 3 lacklustre performance in a row but Jon I thought was the weakest and is mostly like going home.

Is it Chicken or Tuna?

In a total random act -- without premeditation or planning whatsoever, I found myself watching the show Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica while flipping channels this morning. I don't know what kept me glued to the channel...maybe it was the shock of watching Nick fart while they talked to his parents with Jessica on the living room sofa, maybe it was watching Jessica do her laundry...no, i think it was seeing Jessica complain after 3 days of camping in the woods proclaiming that she wanted a massage, a manicure, and pedicure, wait...i think i know what it was....it was listening to Jessica ask Nick whether a can of "Chicken of the Sea" was really Tuna or Chicken, while Nick sat next to her looking at her indisbelief.

Next channel please...

Immortality

Do you want to live forever? Throughout time, people seem to be on a search for that elusive "Fountain of Youth"...that one scientific breakthrough that will allow someone to live in eternity. But do people really want to live forever? or just longer? Or do they just simply want to LOOK and feel young (i.e. courtesy of anti-wrinkle cream, botox, Oil of Olay..) ? Or do people want to live in eternity, but not necessarily in our current physical form? In which case, its a matter of whether you believe in "life" after death. Reincarnation? Heaven? Personally, I believe that our home on earth is only "temporary", and our real home is in heaven. Its obviously a debate as old as mankind, but I notice that its something rarely talked about among my group of friends...

American Idol 3: Country Week

I sat and watched AI3 for the first time in awhile, and i thought the performances overall were ho-hum -- no one really stood out to me, except for Diana and George. Everyone seemed to be trying to play it safe - com'on its only 30M viewers you have to worry about ;-). Honestly though, I get the biggest kick out of watching the sparks and punches fly between Simon and Paula. I wonder how much Paula was paid to kiss Simon. Ha ha. Anyways..enough of my thoughts, let's hear what our AI3 correspondent, Missy D has to say about last night...

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Since the country-music genre is not my favourite, I wasn't too keen on this week's American Ido but lo and behold there were a few surprises for me. Here's my lil' rundown of the night's performers:

Diana--Great. This girl has some pipes and she's just the seasoned performer. Very natural. I think she can go really deep in this competition. George--Again, I missed his performance last week so I can't comment on how much he improved or didn't but he was just okay for me last night. Fantasia--I thought she was really good last night. I never would have thought she would do a Willie Nelson song. Good for her to change it up a bit. Camille--ooooohhhh...I thought she was really bad last night. I still love her voice but she's choking in this competition. I think it was just a bad song choice for her and it can cost her. She could be cut tonight. Matt--this guy is soooo cheesy! But I have to say every time I see him and his goofy grin, I smile too. It wasn't great but I think he'll stay. John Peter--Wasn't impressed but he's got some ladies' votes so I think he'll stay tonight too. Jennifer--I dug the straight hair and I dug the song but I have a funny feeling she was maybe in the bottom 3 tonight. Maybe she's like the Kimberley Locke from last year. I always felt Kimberley was good but she just kept hovering around the bottom 3 but eventually started to blow people away. I am hoping the same will happen to Jennifer. John (redhead)--Thought he was good. Didn't notice he messed up the words to the song. Really good recovery. For such a distinctive vocal style I feel he's done a really good job on picking songs the match his style. The guy just has to get more comfortable being on stage. Jasmine--ooohhh...she picked such a safe song but I thought she was totally off-key. Hopefully she's been good enough in the past to avoid the bottom 3 but it could be a close one for her. LaToya--Wowee-wow. Didn't expect the Garth Brooks's song she chose but she did awesome. I think she's becoming my favourite. Just everything about her performance last night was awesome. Amy--She was on point last night and so much better from last week. She was sooo good. So happy for her b/c I like her kookiness.

Bottom 3 picks tonight are: Camille, Jennifer & jasmine. Now I like all three and hope they stay but I think Camille is the one going home tonight.

American Idol 3

My good friend Debbie has been a die-hard American Idol fan ever since it started. She's graciously agreed to share her weekly rundown of the last episode. So come back and check often for updates! Enjoy...

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I'd like to introduce myself, my name is Debbie and I am a HUGE American Idol fan. I'd like to thank Cyrus for allowing me to post my weekly rants and raves of the third installment of this great series. So to start things off, here is my first AI3 post.

Didn't have time to write about last week's show until now. First off, I had a freak VCR recording mishap that I missed George Huff's performance but it was really good show for the most part. Other than that here is a quick blurb about the rest of them:

Latoya--I thought she was really good, not as good as her previous performance but good. I think she'll go far too.
Matt Rogers--Total cheeseball but I thought it was fun cheeseball. He strongest asset is that he's a likable guy
Jon Peter--Like Matt, I think his strongest asset is his personality. I wouldn't say he'll make it to the top three but he'll be around for a while. I think'd he be like a Josh from last season.
John Stevens--like his voice but he needs to work on his performance skills
Camille-- I really like her voice but I agree with Simon that she needs to work on her confidence. Her performance level needs to be worked on to and that only comes with time.
Amy--Not her best performance but I'm glad she'll be back. She seems fun
Fantasia--Great but I think at this point, I like Latoya better.
George--even though I missed him, I heard he was really good.
Jennifer Hudson--I really like her and I'm surprised she was in the bottom three. I think she will only get better
Jasmine--WOW...incredible. What a voice. Hope she goes far.
Diana--She is so comfortable on stage. She did really good too.
Leah--Glad she's gone, never really thought she had a great voice. I think she was the weakest performer on the show last week. She deserved it.

What happened to the guest judges? This week is country week apparently. I didn't like country week last season so I'm I'll enjoy this time around.

Embarassing...

Me and MW played some drop-on basketball at Pinetree Community Rec centre in Coquitlam. Nice courts. There were enough people to make 4 teams for 5-on-5 full court. MW and I really just wanted to shoot around since neither of us have been played some serious b-ball for quite some time, but we still joined a team, and boy did we ever get our arses kicked! I dunno what it was today, but I found playing 5-on-5 with strangers too be too much pressure, and all basketball fundamentals seemed to just go out the window... couldn't pass, couldn't get around the screens, couldn't do a freakin' layup or short jumpshot (had some really nice air-balls though!). For goodness sake, my check just slapped the ball away from my hands when I fronted him after getting the pass. How embarassing, i know i could do much better... if anything this was exactly the motivation I need to get me back into playing some serious basketball over the summer... anyone know of any basketball leagues or other gyms with drop-in b-ball?

That Little Icon

Yesterday, i accidently turned off that little envelope icon in the system tray that notifies you when you get a new message in Outlook. Since then, I've become slightly more productive, as I'm no longer tempted to check my messages every time that little envelope pops up. I'm able to focus for longer periods on a task -- without interruptions. I haven't yet figured out how to turn it back on (cuz you can't see the icon anymore!), but I think i'll leave it the way it is for now...

Now if i can only stop checking blogs so often... ;-)

Looking for Love?

Scientists have developed a system for mobile phones called, "Serendipity", that allows people to identify potential "mates". How? Users sign-up to a database which keeps their online profile, picture and list of "desirable" traits in a mate. When the user is out in public, the system can detect when another user is within close range (using Bluetooth technology). The system can then determine if there are enough similarities between the two people, at which time it notifies the user (with a picture and other info) that a potential match is close by!!

Save those Quarters!

Hang on to any of the new Newfoundland quarters. If you have them, they may be worth much more than 25 cents. The Canadian Mint announced today that it is recalling all of the Newfoundland quarters that are part of its program featuring quarters from each province.

"We are recalling all the new Newfoundland quarters that were recently issued," Canadian Mint Deputy Minister Jack Shackleford said Monday. "This action is being taken after numerous reports that new quarters will not work in parking meters, toll booths, vending machines, pay phones, or other coin-operated devices."
The quarters were issued in the order in which the various provinces joined Confederation. and have been a tremendous success among coin collectors worldwide.
"The problem lies in the unique design of the Newfoundland quarter, which was created by a team of Newfoundland natives," Shackleford said. "Apparently, the duct tape holding the two dimes and the nickel together keeps jamming the coin-operated devices.

[note: I'm a Newfie, so i'm allowed to make fun of myself ;-)]

End of an Era

Sigh.... Our company has been going through some serious restructuring of late, and cuts have been made across the board -- people, capital and services included. Watching 40+ of your colleagues get the pink-slip was obviously the hardest part to deal with. But its also the little things. For example, I went down to the gym for my lunch-hour workout and when I came back to the change room, realized that there weren't any more towels! Our company had cancelled our towel service. In a couple weeks, the water cooler and satellite TV service in the Gym will be cancelled. And today was also the last day for cafeteria service. The days of buying lunch in case I forgot my lunch, are over...

I suspect no one will sympathize with me -- these were luxuries after all. ;-) ...but its OK...we still have the foosball table!!

Passion of the Christ. Revisited

Whoa. Talk about intense. Passion of the Christ was an emotionally visceral experience. If the point of the film was to make its viewers *feel* the magnitude of Jesus' sacrifice, then it went above and beyond that. Whether it helped viewers *understand* Jesus' sacrifice, is questionable. So much focus was placed on the violent and brutal *death* Jesus experienced, that despite the regular flashback scenes, and other visual allegory, I think that it came up short on educating people about the *life* of Jesus. Then again, there's only so much you can show in a movie, and Mel Gibson had to narrow his focus..and that he did. The movie itself was very well crafted under Gibson's direction. I wasn't bothered by the fact that the film was entirely done in Aramaic with english subtitles -- mainly because there seemed to be more shouting, grunting, whipping, punching, and kicking sound effects than dialog. [Interestingly enough, "idiot" is the same in Aramaic as it is in english]. I can see how the portrayal of the Pharasies as a cold, mad, and merciless mob could have of been construed as anti-semtitic -- but I don't think its anything to have Jewish groups up in arms.

Passion is not a movie you can enjoy. It's more of an experience. Whatever your religous orientation, I think it will shock, inspire and force you to question your faith, your spirtuality, and your purpose in life. If it doesn't...then at the very least, you'll see your friends AND enemies in a much more positive light.

...I think i need a break from these "thinking" movies. Next week, I'm gonna see Starsky and Hutch ;-)

Move over Karoake. Here come's Movieoke!

Can't sing? Well, picture getting up on a stage, with a big screen behind you playing a clip of your favorite movie scene. As the subtitles scroll across on the bottom, you recite the lines as you "act" out the scene. Of course, the audience is cheering you along ;-) Its like Karoake, but you don' t have to sing... do you buy it? Think its a stupid idea? Well, at least someone thinks it's worth turning into a business. Check it out.

The Corporation

They're (in)famous. You've been hearing their names all the time on TV and in print. Enron. WorldCom. Parmalat. Global Crossing. Halliburton. etc. -- all of them corporations who have rocked the market with their scandals, and probably ruined the lives of a few (ok, a LOT of) investors. Its easy to forget that a corporation has the status of a "person", with legal rights that are virtually equal to those of a real human being.

The movie, The Corporation is 2 1/2 hour thought-provoking, jaw-dropping, edge-of-your-seat-but-not-really documentary which is based around the simple hypothesis that if the corporation is a person, then it is someone without morals, to the point it should be considered a psychopath. Through a fast-paced collection of stock news footage, and interviews with CEOs, right-wing think tanks (aka, the Fraser Institute), social activists, Noam Chomsky & friends, and an FBI criminal expert, the movie builds the case that corporations have run amok with reckless disregard for the environment, and the lives of other people -- all in the pursuit of profit. For example, did you know that some companies would rather pollute than comply with environmental regulations because its cheaper to pay the fines than to comply with regulations? Or did you know that Bechtel once tried to privatize the water supply in a small town in Bolivia? Obviously, when one sees this movie, you'll get a sense of the bias the directors have -- despite the fact they did get interviews from all sides of the debate. Anti-globalization, left-wing activists, and socialists alike will rally around this movie. As for me, I enjoyed the movie immensely, simply because it made me think. And I like "thinking" movies. As for corporations, I don't quite see big corporations as the monsters the movie tries to portray them as. But some things certainly have to change... and learning about what is going on today in the corporate world, is just a small, yet important step towards positive change...(George W. Bush, here I come!!! hahahah).

So go see it. Its playing at 5th Avenue and Tinseltown.

Does Fido need a friend?

Our four legged friends need not look further! With dogster.com your dog can expand their social network. Whether Fido is seeking lost friends, new friends, or true love this site will certainly become their place in cyberspace to connect.
Doggone it, what will they think of next? dog blogging??!?!?!! :)

A Different Kind of Life

On a recent trip to Thailand, I went on a trekking tour just north of Chiang Mai, along the Burma-Thailand border. One of the villages we visited belonged to the Lahu tribe, and I'll never forget the day we entered the village and seeing a group of 10+ village children come rushing towards me and the rest of my trekking group.
It became quickly apparent that they led lives vastly different from ours. No electricity, no video games, no GI Joes, no Cabbage Patch Kids, No Barbies -- and no Transformers!!. Instead, the kids spend their days playing in groups outside their bamboo huts while pigs, chickens, dogs and other animals roam freely. Their faces, arms, legs and clothes get soiled as they romp around on the red-clay dirt -- meanwhile their parents watch from afar..ignoring the mess they're making. When we brought out our cameras, a delirious riot ensued -- they all wanted to get their picture taken. Apparently, there are no mirrors in the village and most rarely get to see their own faces. When they weren't clamoring to see their picture on camera, they were jumping on our backs and tugging on our arms, waiting for us to swing them around in circles through the air. When night fell, everyone in the village gathered around the campfire. The girls sang and danced to a few native folk songs, but we all had a good laugh when the boys treated us to their rendition of Jingle Bells (apparently the last group that came through had taught them). After a couple hours, the parents called them back into their huts as it was bed-time. As for us, we spent the rest of the night drinking Thai whiskey, and exchanging stories under a clear star-filled night sky. Some memories fade away easy, but the memory of this day was definately gonna stay with me for the rest of my life.