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Part three of a three part series.

Now it’s time to contemplate another science fiction juggernaut that has sadly been ignored by the Emmy voters, Stargate. Both SG-1 and SGA have had stellar episodes and performances that were not considered by the Academy. Let’s begin with the unjustly cancelled SGA. (Why yes I am a fan.) The one performance that was cited again and again was David Hewlett in “The Shrine”. I commented in my blog after seeing it that if the Emmy voters did not ignore science fiction, his performance was deserving of an award. In this episode he is afflicted with a condition that makes him lose his intelligence slowly. It’s been described as a reverse “Flowers for Algernon”. To see the confident, arrogant Doctor McKay break down as his slowly can’t remember the simplest things is so very heartbreaking. I would like to add Paul McGillion’s performance in “Poisoning the Well”, again a very heartbreaking performance. Anything written by Martin Gero is deserving of an Emmy and Brad Wright for “The Shrine” of course.

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No Fooling, someone will go home tonight unless the judges choose to use their save. Here we go.

Alexis Grace is in the audience, I bet she’s wishing the judges had used their save for her. David Cook is coming up later, even though I know it’s a pre-taped performance, I can’t wait. I am certainly an unabashed Cook fan. I don’t think my Idol experience will ever measure up to last season’s win.

We get the Ford video early this results show. I really hate these things and I understand the contestants don’t like them either. I don’t blame them, the filming of them take away from rehearsals. And now, the group sing. Honoring Randy’s former band, Journey with “Don’t Stop Believing”. Scott is ‘playing’ the keyboards on stage. There has been debate about over the “pre-recording” of the group songs. This certainly was because when Scott did his solo his mouth was no where near the damn mic. I kinda feel sorry for him.

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Part Two of a three part series

The Present

What I wrote about on Monday really was just a bunch of statistics and information. But the case for having the Academy recognize science fiction and the related genres is the heart and soul of the shows and performances. Just because something is different from what a person perceives as normal doesn’t mean it doesn’t deserve recognition. Too often the science fiction genre has been considered to genre specific to deserve even a nomination. In this section I’m going to list shows and performances that should have at least been nominated if not awarded for the excellence that come from them. I have asked friends for suggestions and have gone to Entertainment Weekly’s list of fifty greatest Emmy snubs to detail performances and shows that deserved and are still deserving of Emmy recognition.

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Anoop Desai sings Usher… I am not an ATF (American Top Forty) or most current pop music so I don’t know the song.  He is singing well.  Randy Jackson liked the vocals but wasn’t hip on song choice.  Kara thought it was the wrong song.  Paula Abdul wants more stage presence.  Simon Cowell calls it “a complete utter mess!”

Megan Joy Corkery may be about to take the joy out of my life by singing Bob Marley.  All I can hope for is she does Bob Marley better than Jason Castro.  Turn Your Lights Down Low is a whole lot better choice than Redemption Song.  She gives the Megan Joy feel to this and has the same vocal quality they have said they loved before, lets see how they crucify their sacrificial lamb this week.  Kara Diogaurdia hated it.  Paula tried to be nice.  Simon thinks it was indulgent and no one was going to like it.  I have to disagree.  Randy Jackson calls it like “Watching paint dry…”  She says she liked it and was happy with and Simon chastises her saying she says that every week, yet she keeps coming back so someone likes it…

Danny Gotke (Danny Gokey) is singing Rascal Flats’ What Hurts the Most.  He isn’t sounding bad and despite the fact this was done by a duo he is making it fit his single voice.  I don’t like him and still won’t vote for him.  The judges all are fawning over the predetermined winner.

Allison Iraheta busts out the guitar for Don’t Speak by No Doubt.  She sounds like Allison covering No Doubt and she looks like a blind out of work circus tent designer helped her out with the wardrobe.  Not her best performance by a long shot.  Randy agrees with the outfit comment.  Kara agrees with me.  Paula tries to be cool with a rocker edge by calling the guitar an axe.  Simon thinks it looks like the outfit came from the Adam’s Family.  Maybe Scott MacIntyre picked out the wardrobe, they seem pretty close on the show.

Blind Scotty is up with the Piano Man.  he hopes to escape the bottom three with “Just the way you are”.  He also sounds good as if this is his element.  Kara loved it.  Paula can’t say the word Blind.  Simon calls it his best performance by a country mile.  Randy Jackson calls it one of the best of the night.

Matt Giraud is trying to come back after being in the bottom three.  He will do You Found Me by the Fray, I am quite pleased he was not the one doing Celine Dion.  I am ambivalent about the song, its not bad but it isn’t memorable to me.  Paula goes blah blah blah.  Simon thinks he is playing someone else.  Randy says wrong song.  Kara goes blah blah blah too.  She made it very clear what this contest is really about, making a quick selling commercial hit which has been the demise of the industry.

Lil Rounds thinks Celine Dion will be her saving grace.  The judges will just repeat whatever they had to say about someone else earlier, so i will skip that commentary and get something to drink.

With Adam Lambert doing Wild Cherry’s Play that Funky Music White Boy I am going to need more Maker’s Mark. Paula compares him to Steven Tyler and Mick Jagger.  Randy says Star Zone.

Kris Allen is headed to the piano for Ain’t No Sunshine.  lets call it a night…

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Part one of a three part series.

Battlestar Galactica aired its final episode last week. Stargate Atlantis ended in January. Stargate Universe has begun production. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Dollhouse, Fringe, Supernatural, Smallville, Heroes, Ghost Whisperer and Medium are all top shows on television today. Science fiction, fantasy and the supernatural are very popular, but this is not reflected in the industry’s highest honor, the Emmy.

The annual awards have shown that they are not afraid to honor such shows with nominations but more often than not the shows we know and love have only grabbed statuettes in the technical categories rather than in the more glamorous, showy categories like Actor/Actress, Show or Writing. With so many fans and the gaining popularity of science fiction and its related genres, shouldn’t the Emmy’s start acknowledging this fact?

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I have decided that in no uncertain terms it is time for the government to pull the plug on GM.  Early this morning, General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner announced his resignation as part of the bailout package.  This is the last straw he is out and we have no one with the experience of successfully running a multibillion dollar corporate conglomerate to take his place.  Putting an inexperience person in his place won’t do, and probably would be a lot worse.  The death spiral has begun.

It isn’t that I don’t feel for the average GM worker, even most of their white collar workers who aren’t responsible for this mess.  I do care about these people’s well being and think we need to take care of them, even the ones who aren’t Americans.  We need to step in close the company, and pay off the employees.  I say we start with a base of $30,000 and add $10k more for every year an employee has worked for GM, which means the executives will get less than most hourly workers.  I say from the corporate assets also give each employee a car equivalent in value to the number of years they have worked for GM, again most hourly workers will end up better than executives.

In exchange for this buyout employees will accept be allowed to cash out any GM stock in their 401k’s or other retirement accounts at a fixed amount without a tax penalty, but otherwise will not be allowed to seek recompense for other retirement benefits owed them by GM.  For those without significant holdings for a tax offset to matter a portion of a student loan can be paid off or a straight cash settlement can be offered.  Unemployed GM workers will also be given first priority for half of the cleanup jobs that go along with the plant closings.

Non American GM employees and subsidiary will be affected and need to be taken care of too.  Foreign workers of GM will be give a straight cash settlement which will be a pittance compared to what the American workers get, but will leave them in good standing as well.  Call it $5000 each, which in most cases is a couple years salary by local standards.  Dealerships will need financial assistance to stay afloat, otherwise can apply for the government to buy their stock of GM cars and a straight pay for the forced loss of a franchise business, say $100k for each GM line they carry.  That is less than they paid in most cases, but more than they will get when GM goes under on its own.  Parts manufacturers should receive tax relief and loans if they have a viable chance of retooling and staying in business.

I even have a decent plan for what to do with the vehicles the government will be forced to buy up.  The  passenger cars can be turned over to municipal and county agencies to provide a shuttle fleet in areas with poor or no public transit.  The trucks and where necessary other vehicles can be handed out to the National Parks and Forestry since they are no doubt getting the short end of the deal on most other budget proposals and a fleet of new vehicles will reduce their operating costs.  Last, but not least, the sports cars and high end luxury cars, not used as fleet vehicles, can be auctioned.

In the end this is the only smart thing to do.  Continually dumping good money after bad can’t be allowed to continue if we are ever to climb out of the financial whole forty years in the making.

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The new economy presents us with many new challenges and ones most people aren’t ready to face.  GM is likely to collapse altogether leaving tens of thousands of Americans unemployed not only lacking any new manufacturing jobs, but the skills to get the jobs that are available.  For those that choose to accept the challenge of retraining for something completely different, elearning may well be not only their best option, but their only option.  Already many big name companies from insurance, to telecom, to manufacturers are hiring elearning educated students and finding them most satisfactory.  This is the sort of contingency plan the government needs to get people behind in the failing industries.

When GM does go it will make the current crisis look like a joke, and the government no matter what the radicals on both sides of the debate think will have a necessary role to play in mediating the disaster.  Of course in my less than humble opinion we should not only prepare for the disaster now, but take the momentum of a sucky economy to force GM to close.  To fix the situation we should just hand every employee who loses their job a one time payout of between $50k and $100k and be done with it.  Putting GM out of business and allowing the employees to pay off debt or save for their retirement is not only the sensible thing to do with the company, but the cheapest.

Mark my words when GM comes looking for another handout it will be more costly than this sort of buy out.

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Another hopeful goes home today, who will it be?

We get a medley of hits from the Top Ten as a group sing. The girls play the Supremes. Duet between Lil and Matt. Allison and Scott. And now all of them. Commercial break.

Ford commercial time. I know Ford is a sponsor, but do we really have to suffer through the damn things. They’re so lame.

Performance time by season two winner Rueben Studdard. Ryan called him ‘beloved’. By who? Clay is the better selling, better sounding, more famous of the season two finalists. And his outfit looks, like Brad said, a couch cushion gone awry.

Adam is standing up. He’s so safe I’m typing this up before Ryan gives the result. Duh, he’s safe. Matt’s up. Matt is in the bottom three! WTF?!?!?!?!?! I think the judges would save Matt. Kris is next. I just misheard what Ryan said. Kris is safe. Micheal and Lil are both up now. Even though Lil foundered I think this is also a duh moment. Lil is safe and Micheal is in the bottom three, again.

Now we have another performance. Smokey Robinson with Joss Stone. Smokey is looking damned good for a man who’s almost 70.

Back to the results. Allison stands. She’s so safe. Anoop (my boy!). He’s SAFE!!! Danny. He’s safe. Scott and Megan are both up. I could see either in the bottom. Scott is in the bottom and Megan is safe. All three are at center stage right now. Scott is safe. Sarver had best be going home, that’s all I’ve got to say.  There is no way in hell Matt will go away.

Stevie Wonder is up now, with another medley of Motown hits, all his of course. He’s getting pudgy and bald. Why am I not surprised that Paula is up and dancing? She’ll dance at just about anything. Now Randy and Kara are both standing and dancing.

Micheal is going to sing for his survival. But I don’t think the judges will save him. The judges say they haven’t made a decision. They argue amongst themselves and can’t make up their mind. Simon steps up and calls it, he’s going home. He’ll get picked up by someone.

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Simon is not necessarily looking forward to the performances tonight and I am with him.  Welcome to Motown Night!

Matt Giraud starts the show with Let’s Get it On.  This is in direct violation of the rules I set forth, but since Smokey said Marvin Gaye would have loved it, i will let it slide.  With my back to the screen I wouldn’t know this was a white guy singing.  Randy Jackson starts the commentary off.  He liked it.  Kara Diogaurdi can’t wait for Matt to “get it on.”  Paula thought it was a sexy cool vibe.  Simon Cowell is nodding his head.  He thinks it is a brilliant choice of song.

Kris Allen is pushing How Sweet It Is with his guitar.  His vocals start off really strong.  Kara starts it off with she loved him being himself.  Paula Abdul thinks it was brilliant.  Simon thinks he needs more confidence.  Randy says it is all good.

Scott MacIntyre has let the clowns dress him tonight.  Singing You Can’t Hurry Love he has not violated my rules of the week.  The piano sounds good, but I think he has already assured himself a bottom three slot.  No matter what the judges and Smokey Robinson say this sucks.  Someone is paying those people to clap and scream for Scott.  Paula loved it.  She says when he feels it the audience feels it,  lets hope no one feels the sickness his wardrobe will cause.  Simon Cowell thought the whole thing was terrible.  Randy Jackson agrees with Simon.  Kara sat in the middle again.  It appears all the people are having one over on the blind guy.  Paula makes visual jokes at Simon’s expense.  The wardrobe people only tell him he looks like a clown in a blender ten minutes prior to performance.

Megan Joy Corkery is singing Stevie Wonder’s For once In My Life.  Megan joy will try and bring some joy to the stage after the last dismal performance.  I am enjoying her interpretation.  Randy thought it was a train wreck.  Kara slams it.  Paula didn’t enjoy it either.  Simon hated it.  I really have to disagree with them.  The difference between what they heard and what I heard is originality and eccentricity.  They are looking for a commercial hit, I am looking for a real artist.  They might win and decide to cast her off the island, but she will be a consistent indie hit when their favorites are standing around wondering why being an idol winner hasn’t got them a second album deal.

Anoop Desai is singing Ooh Baby Baby, by Smokey himself.  Sitting on the stage he tries to do something, but I am not feeling it.  he is singing well, but I would rather hear Megan Joy again , it was at least interesting.  Kara says it one of the hardest songs to sing and says he only did a pretty good job.  Paula just babbles on.  Simon thinks it was a great vocal, but a little boring.  He lacked showmanship.  Randy wants to see him turn it up some for next week.

Michael Sarver will Ain’t Too Proud to Beg.  As soon as he starts out the only words that come to mind are “Karaoke after way too much beer.”  Paula asks if he was okay, because she wasn’t sure he could handle the truth.   Simon couldn’t wait for it to end.  The rest of the judges just had nothing better to say to him

Lil Rounds is breaking a rule with Heatwave.  Her skirt line works, but her hair is working her.  Randy thought she was rushing it.  Kara says she looks great which is always a bad starting comment when it is a singing contest.  She acknowledges that this was a copycat of the original breaking my rule.  Paula thought she owned the song.  Simon thinks it was a tribute, but it was the wrong song.  Simon thinks she could have had a moment tonight, I think she sounded like she was having a movement…

Adam Lambert is next and I am trying to decide if I should go have a movement before I risk shitting myself when he hits the brown note.

Adam is trying Tracks in My Tears and he is going to try and do it justice with sweet tenderness.  He is pulling an Elvis pompador but his vocals are sweet.  I am taking back what i just said about him.  This is why he belongs in this contest.  He gets a standing Ovation from Smokey Robinson.  Kara says one of the best, this was no doubt the best.  Paula thinks he is in his own league.  Simon agrees with me, it was the best performance of the night.  Randy is happy he was right that Adam could sing anything.  He smoked Danny “Jesus Boy” Gotkey before he ever performed.

Danny Gokey (Danny Gotkey) is singing Get Ready.  He is stepping it up and bringing it but every now and then he sounds out of breath like he needs a rescue inhaler. Paula loved it.  Simon calls it clumsy and amateurish.  Randy says not his best performance.  Kara loved the personality, but wasn’t great singing.

Allison Iraheta is going rock out Papa was a Rolling Stone, hopefully she will not be doomed by singing a song done by a contestant last year.  Does anyone else remember David Hernandez’s version?  The heels and esemble work for her.  The age of consent in in California may be eighteen, but it is sixteen here in Ohio and that makes my thoughts about her a okay.  Randy thought she was one of the dopest singers.  Kara thought it was amazing.  (Kara mentions god so according to my rules she loses 10 million votes according to my new rules.)  Paula thought this was geat.  Simon thought it was one of her best and has gone back to drawing on Paula.

I am in agreement with katy on this Michael Sarver or Scott MacIntyre with be going home.

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If there is one thing I hope communities and states in general learn from this poor economy is new construction is not necessarily the way to go.  For too long we have put all our hopes on indicators like housing starts and new business construction, but it has cost us more than most people realize.  It is pointless to keep building new homes on every piece of greenery when we can’t sell the ones we have. much less rehab the ones in need.  Then their is the problem with commercial real estate.  Everyone gets excited when they hear some company wants to build a new bigger big box store or replace the existing one in their community.  The problem is no one ever bothers to ask them what they are going to do with the building they are currently inhabiting or if you really need another near duplicate of the two or three stores already in a community

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American Idol has just been sent a new set of rules that apply to the top ten and Motown night.  Here they are:

10) Adam Lambert is not allowed to to sing Sexual Healing.  I am not sure if there is a song he will be allowed to sing from the Motown catalog or not, but without a doubt he is not allowed to screw up Sexual Healing.  Also because of his tendency to shout at us The Isley Brothers are also off limits to him.

9) Megan Joy Corkrey should not try and be Dianna Ross.  If Nick Mitchell aka Norman Gentle were still around he would be Diva enough to pull it off, but Megan Joy Corkrey is not.

Danny Gokey ( Danny Gotke) is not allowed to sing Leader of the Pack any time he mentions death or religion in a song he should be docked 10 million votes.

7) Lil Rounds must return to her R&B roots but should not try and copy any female artist of classic Motown

6) Allison Iraheta is also not allowed to touch Sexual Healing. While I don’t have any doubts our little Rocker Grrl could sing it well, the age of consent in California is eighteen.  While I would highly approve of her rebellion rocker side breaking the law I don’t really want to hear about how they let her sing about something she should know nothing about legally for the next several weeks.  Nor do I want to find out this season’s Jesus freak is telling her how she should wait as the Christianly thing to do.

5) Michael Sarver must stay away from the Jackson Five.  Him singing a Jackson Five song would be about as inappropriate as anything Michael Jackson has ever done with a little boy.

4)Kris Allen is no Edwin Star and should he try to be, he will rightly deserve what ever war of words Simon Cowell drops on him.

3)Matt Giraud needs much direction and will only be allowed to pick one of the mentor’s songs.

2)Scott MacIntyre will be allowed to play his piano but to avoid being a mockery of the original artist he is not allowed to sing anything by a blind guy.

1) Anoop Desai should rule this category but to make sure he doesn’t screw himself he will not be allowed to pick any artist with a voice deeper than Randy Jackson.

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After last night’s surprise elimination of Alexis Grace most critics have shut up about the report that the top four for this season and previous seasons were predetermined.  I am still not convinced the results are ever real.  Too often the people the show pimps hard are the one who are still standing, even without having good performances.  So what happened with Alexis Grace since they were pimping her so hard?

I see three possible answers here.  This was not her best performance granted, but they have said several times they thought she had what it took to win the competition.  That said not saving her has an air of suspicion that the rumor was true.  She was named as one of the predetermined top four, so did they get rid of her as a sacrificial lamb to cover their asses?  Did they get rid of her only so next week they could say “Guess what, immediately after they show we reconsidered sending her home and thought that was the wrong decision here she is again.”  Idol needs a little drama since as often as not they screw up any sense of anticipation we have in announcing who is going home.  Could it be they were just talking out their asses with all the praise they were showing her.  I am going with one of the first two notions, but not sure which.

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Tonight we head towards ten people.

First up is Danny “Gotke” Gokey.  He is safe, no surprise.

Lil Rounds is safe.

Anoop Desai is in the house and safe.  Noop Dawg is on the the tour and I have been informed I need to save my money.

Allison Iraheta is in the bottom three and that is a surprise.

Michael Sarver is also in the bottom three.  This is not a surprise.

Scott MacIntyre is on the tour.

Megan joy Corkrey is on the tour too.

Matt G is on the tour.

This leaves us with Kris, Adam and Alexis Grace.

Alexis vs Adam Lambert are against each other.

Randy believe it will be Alexis and he is right.

Bottom three is Alexis Grace, Allison Iraheta, and Michael Sarver.

Allison is told she is safe leaving Alexis Grace going head to head against Michael Sarver.  In my opinion they will save Alexis Grace, but not Michael Sarver.

Simon says they would save one.  I was right go me.

After the vote Michael Sarver is safe, this is a what the fuck moment.  Alexis grace will sing for her life and the save.  She is going home in a true WTF moment.

Mirrored from When I Was Fat.

One question you will find yourself asking eventually is, “Is My Diet Still Working?”  This is an inevitable question you ask whe you stop making big losses over the course of a week.  i got on the scale today and only lost 1 pound since last weeks weigh in.  i was a bit shocked.  I got off the scale and got back on and it read the same.  I had some coffee went to the bathroom and repeated.  Not much change.  I was sort of disapointed since I was so good and didn’t order a pizza on Sunday when it sounded like a really good idea.  Then I sat back down and started to ponder everything that it could be.

Was it that I had too many calories?  Was it I didn’t get enough exercise in?  Was my body reacting to the diet the way it has in the past?  These are all good questions that needed some answers.  When you stop losing it is good to ask these questions.  What is bad is when you decide to say screw it and give up before you know the answers.  I was damn near ready to do just that and declare a cheat day and start off with a big bowl of frosted mini wheats.  I didn’t though.

I started to think back about what i have been doing.  i wasn’t eating more than normal, in fact I think I am eating fewer calories which poses its own weight loss problems.  My knees have been killing me so I haven’t done the exercise bike, which might have contributed to the lack of weight loss.  I was prepared to accept that a pound or two difference day to day isn’t unheard of, even during weight loss.  This is why I use a weekly weigh in rather than daily.

I sat pondering all the posibilities and then it hit me.  I was thirsty.  Not only was I thirsty yesterday I had quite a bit of salt in my diet and didn’t have a lot of water, not even my normal amount.  After some extra water today I reweighed myself tonight and despite eating more than 3000 calories have managed to lose four pounds.  I mark this as a five pound week and feel good about it.

The moral of the story is before you just give up on losing weight try and figure out why you aren’t losing and do a little testing to see if it makes a difference.  Don’t be afraid to start weighing food, keeping a detailed log of your day, or consult with someone who has been there.

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County week hits the top eleven idol contestants and hopefully doesn’t assault us.  Surprise, surprise they didn’t try to pimp anyone this week.

Michael Sarver starts us off with his forte singing Ain’t Going Down Till The Sun Comes Up.  He knows what he is doing and the sound is great.  Randy Jackson didn’t think it challenged his vocals.  Kara missed the big notes.  Michael replies country music is all about having fun.  Paula recognized the fun he was having.  Simon couldn’t understand the words, and bit clumsy but thinks this is the right sort of music from him.  Michael doesn’t put up with any crap from Simon.  I think he knows how to work the “We Hate Simon Crowd!”

With Blame it on Your Heart, Allison Iraheta pulls off a great vocal performance.  The crowd is worked up and so is Kara.  She thinks Allison could work the alphabet and amaze us.  I am not sure I disagree.  “Rock Solid Performance,” from Paula Abdul.  Simon thought it was good.  Randy Jackson thought it was dope.  As Katy reminded me Dope in Randy speak is good, not that any former toker needs that advice.

Randy Travis calls Kris Allen a solid ballad performance.  Singing Garth Brooks sans guitar.  It is a nice performance but I am not really moved by the song.  He shows his falsetto at the end really well.  Paula Abdul says she is really impressed.  Simon Cowell calls it terrific.  Randy was impressed that he chose to showcase his vocals.  Calls him a tender dawg.  Kara doesn’t know what else to say other than it was really great.

Lil Rounds is after the break…

Lil Rounds wants to honor the country influence rather than her R&B roots.  With Martina McBride’s Independence Day Lil shows how well she can sing.  I hope she is as pleased as I am over this.  Randy thought it was a interesting song choice, he didn’t think she felt as comfortable with it.  She said she took a risk, because she thought it was relevant.  Kara Dioguardi honored the risk and thought that is what makes her an artist.  Paula loved it.  Simon thought she looked uncomfortable.  Lil Rounds says she will take their advice to heart about song choice.

Adam Lambert is going to try Ring of Fire.  With a Middle Eastern slash Indian arrangement I am not sure what to say.  This is certainly a performance I will remember for a very long time.  I am not sure that is a good thing though. If Johny Cash can sing Nine Inch Nails, a NIN wannabe can certainly try a Johny Cash Song.  Kara starts of with “So!”  She doesn’t know what to make of this.  “Strange, but she liked it.”  Paula Abdul thinks he was true to himself as an artist.  Simon Cowell says what Randy was trying to.  “What the hell was that?”  Randy Jackson confirms my NIN reference.

Scot MacIntyre picks Martina McBride.  Randy thinks he will be fine.  Paula thought it was an impressive performance.  She thinks there is a disconnection with the piano.  Simon argues with her and reminds her of all the great artists.  He wants better songs.  Randy Jackson is looking for the stand out vocals.  Kara thinks he brings class and poise to the stage.

Alexis Grace MILF is from the south and admits they all love country.  Singing Jolene she will need to sing better than Brooke White did in Season 7.  Randy thought it had some pitch problems.  Kara thinks she lost her edge.  Paula thinks it was more effective than the others gave her credit for.  Simon thought it was just okay and lacked a little originality, but was still okay.

Danny Gokey aka Danny Gotke is going to try Carrie Underwood and shows off the fact he is a Jesus Freak.  I am going to go get something to eat.

Anoop Desai is going to pull Willie Nelson out of a hat, which is not the second pot reference of the night.  Singing You’re Always On My Mind he definitely shows he has the chops to be here, even if Idol is fixed like the news during the commercial break keeps suggesting.  Paula loved it.  Simon Cowell calls him “Zero to Hero!”  Randy reaffirms Noop Dawg deserves to be here.  Another Randy Dope.  Kara says it is almost untouchable and he owned it.

Megan Joy Corkrey is going to try Patsy Cline.  I Go Walking After Midnight is not a song easily made your own.  As katy says it is different and one I could listen too without feeling horrible.  Randy Jackson was impressed.  Kara says “Perfect Song, Perfect Performance”  Paula says consummate professional for be sick.  Simon says the performance was great and she is beautiful, but wishes the stylist would hold off a little bit.

Matt G is last after the break.  He is going to pull Carrie Underwood too.  Sitting at the piano he sounds good and plays well, but I am not really impressed.  Kara says Amazing.  Paula  called it an honest performance.  Simon Cowell thinks he outsang Danny.   Randy Jackson  says it was his favorite of the night.

At the moment I can say I am not sure who is going home, but whoever is picked I have a feeling the judges will use their pick.  The only person I can see them not saving would be Scott.

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Despite the failing economy business credit can still be had.  In fact President Obama has asked for even more to be made available to keep our economy afloat and even to start new businesses.  let’s hope it is enough.

One company does seem ready to help, that is for sure.  BusinessCreditMagic.com is the result of several years of experience and research  in in unsecured business financing. Working with them could quickly have you as many as  twenty five  unsecured business credit accounts, with anywhere from $10,000 to $250,000 or more in unsecured business credit.  You can get all that without any personal guarantees according to their website.

While I don’t know the particulars of this program in depth those of us who have struggling small businesses need to be checking out every source with due diligence.  You can guarantee I will be checking these people out.  In the coming weeks and months expect me to present you with a more detailed analysis.  Anyone else who does business with them should let me know and we can compare notes.

The question I am sure you are dying to ask is one I want answered too, how much does it cost?  I don’t know but if I can get legit business loans and avoid taking out any more personal loans I will be happy, even if the web business is going well for me. As I said above, stay tuned for more.  I also wanted to thank all of you for making last month a really good month for me too.

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I just submitted a story on twitter tools to dig and was looking through the are you sure this is original screen when I saw quite a few interesting stories I thought need mentioning.

TwitCapt is a new tool I wasn’t familiar with but one I will certainly check out.

March 14th, 2009

I’ve just launched the first version of my Twitter Viral Marketing plugin. It’s still in the early stages, but contains more than enough features to help your message go viral should you have enough people to get to “Critical Mass”.

Twitter 3D wasn’t by any means in the Digg Dustbin with 1700 diggs but it was a cool thing to play with.  http://twittervision.com/maps/show_3d

There was also this nice little article on using Twitter Search into a lead generator for small business.

Twitter Jobcast was a very cool site that let you sift through potential jobs.

We Follow is an interesting directory tool.  I don’t know how I can use this yet to increase my own presence, but it certainly has potential on first look.

Hook USA has a nice little list of tools sorted out by category.

Tweeter Getter is another interesting tool for getting mass number of followers if it works.  I am going to run a test with my new sites that have their own twitter accounts.  Look for it in the future.

iStuff keeps a well organized list of web applications.  I haven’t gone through his entire list yet but it covers 38 posts.  I know what I will be doing this week in that exorbitant amount of free time I have.

Dream Systems Media has an excellent post about when Twitter promos come back to bite you in your ass.

On a not so hot post that belonged in the Digg dustbin I did find a link to a really great Mashable article on using Twitter for job hunting.

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Long  time  no gossip. Apologies to all What’s Hot fans, but here we go! Spoilers for HIMYM, House, Heroes, Bones, NCIS and Chuck.

Howard K Stern and two doctors have been charged with conspiring to supply drugs to Anna Nicole Smith prior to her February 2007 death. Charges include conspiracy, unlawfully prescribing a controlled substance and prescribing, administering or dispensing a controlled substance to an addict. “These individuals repeatedly and excessively furnished thousands of prescription pills to Anna Nicole Smith, often for no legitimate medical purpose,” California Attorney General Jerry Brown said in a statement. Stern faces six felony counts, the doctors face seven each.

Read the rest of this entry »

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In a renewed commitment to my Twitter friends (aka Tweeps) this post is for you and those bloggers who have seen the power of Twitter.  I won’t brag at how many Twitter users I have the twitter follower counter in the sidebar is sufficient enough to say it is a lot more than most people.  When people I know in the physical world ask how many people I have following me the mostly gasp when I tell or they don’t believe me.  That said the follow up question is how do I follow that many people?  The answer is I don’t at every minute of every day.  I use TweetDeck which is quite possibly the finest tool available for keeping up with a lot of people.  I suggest reading the Twitip Article on How To Manage a Lot of People using TweetDeck.

What I really wanted to show you today though were some of the great Twitter Tools I integrate into my blogs.

1) Twitter Counter is a nice little button that keeps track of your subscribers in the same style as FeedBurner buttons.

2) Twitter Remote is a similar widget to what you see from Blog Catalog or My Blog Log in that it counts which Twitter users have recently been to you blog.  It also integrates the Twitter Counter Button into it.  It is still in Beta but it seems to work fine.

3) Automagic Twitter Profile URI This lovely little plugin has taken the place of a couple of plugins I used to use to add Twitter links to my comments profiles.  It automatically searches out a commentators Twitter profile by the email they entered into my comment form.  This clean quick little tool ads a lot of value to your blog.  It is also quite fun when mouthy commentators get nasty and leave their real email in the field.  The most profane comment on any of my blogs I have received since using this is from a Pastor of a mega church, he used the same email he sends out devotionals on twitter from.  He had to close his Twitter account with 5000 followers in order to become disassociated with his bad behavior.  Serves him right, the hypocrite.

4) Tweetbacks by Joost de Valk. His current version 1.5.3 uses cron and doesn’t work right on a lot of blogs.  Despite his assurance that it is our servers and we should simply fix it because cron is important to future posts and wp-super cache plugins, both of those work on my blogs but not his latest version of Tweetbacks.  I recommend trying version 1.44 and then upgrading after you get it working.  If it quits working you can downgrade again with no problems.  Joost writes many great plugins, but I think the switch to a cron version of Tweetbacks was a mistake.  See for yourself and visit his fine blog, it is always a great read.  There is also an excellent setup article on Tweetbacks at Smashing Magazine.

5) CommentTweets is a really cool feature to use with Wordpress 2.7 threaded comments.  When someone replies to a post comment a twit is sent via your twitter account.  I am just starting to use this feature as I upgrade my blogs to threaded comments, but it is a very cool feature that certainly can improve your blogs comment numbers.

6) Twitter ReTweet displays a link allowing people to retweet your post via their account.  I have played with this and other plugins such as Twit This on some of my blogs, but I really prefer for the moment to just use the Twit This button as part of The Sociable plugin, once again by Joost.

There are plenty of other plugins including the first one I ever used, Twitter Tools by Alex King.  I don’t use it as I use TwitterFeed to publish my blog posts directly via their RSS feed.  Give these tools a try and I am sure you will enjoy yourself and improve your Twitter and Blogging experience.

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So, which two are going home? What’s going to be the rules change that Simon mentioned yesterday and will we love or hate it? All will be revealed shortly.

Okay Ryan is showing faces of surprise eliminations; Tamyra Grey, Michael Johns, Jennifer Hudson and Chris Daughtry. So they’re introducing the judges’ save. They can only use it once in this season, but the next week two people go.

The contestants seem to be living in the judges mansion, the one that was used when they made the decision about the final 36. Very nice. Brad is admiring Alexis in a bikini.

And now the group sing. Singing the Jackson Five, “I want you back”. Someone is always there to lead Scott around the stage. Glad they seemed to have worked that out. They just featured Danny dancing. He can’t but he does dance with enthusiasm.

During the commercial we get to see whiny emo gay boy’s audition (that would be Nathaniel). He sang “Proud Mary” and sang it well so I see why he made it to the top 36.

Now for the overview of last night’s performance. Now Ryan is asking the contestants about rehearsals and such. Ford video time to Queen’s “We Will Rock You”.

Results time! Michael is up first. He is safe, no surprise there. Allison next, she gets a lot of cheers from the audience. She’s safe. Jasmine. I’m predicting not safe, Ryan brings her to the center of the stage without saying anything.. Matt G. is up. Matt’s safe. Kris next, and now he’s getting Megan to stand up. Kris sits but Megan is down on the stage. Megan is safe and Jasmine is going home. Please don’t use the save judges! Jasmine is going to sing and the judges will reveal their decision afterwards. She’s heading home. Yay! Ryan is very nice and we get her goodbye video. The goodbye song this year is Carrie Underwood covering Motley Crue’s “Home Sweet Home”.

Back from commercial break with Kanye’s performance. He got onto the judges table (but the judges were not sitting there).

Back to the results! Scott is up first and is safe. Alexis now, safe (duh). Danny is safe (another duh). Anooop (my boy!) is sent to the center of the stage. Adam next, safe. Jorge and Lil now, Lil is safe and Jorge is to the center of the stage. But we don’t get to see who goes home until after the break and the Kelly Clarkson performance, of course.

Apparently they’re going to bring back a former Idol every week. This week is the original Idol, Kelly Clarkson. She’s looking very good.

Anoop is safe!!!! Anoooooop! Jorge is going home unless the judges decide otherwise. So he sings while they deliberate. But he’s going home. And we get his goodby video. See you next week!