Monday Rambles

Yeah, I stole this from Ames. Whatcha gonna do about it? See .... you enablers.

What Would You Do For A Bailey?

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I am not a happy camper! And when Bailey is upset, everyone is gonna join her. Right? Right?? I can't hear you!!!!

Okay, I made the switch from cable to converter this weekend. This involved a long drawn out process of switching the two entertainment units - the bedroom for the living room. Why? Two reasons - 1) For some reason, the DVD player connections are whacky and I am constantly having to mess with them - the entertainment unit that was in the living room is a cabinet, so it was hard to look at/mess with the connections in the back of the tv; 2) the bedroom one was prettier ......

Anyway, I hooked up the converter box/antenna in the bedroom on Friday (for reasons I'm not going into), couldn't get FOX (OH NO!! AMERICAN IDOL!!). As you can understand, this was not acceptable. So I finally got that cleared up today only to find out that I can not use the VCR in the bedroom. What the .....???? I can live with that, but I'm not happy. There are two nights a week that there are two shows on at the same time that I want to watch. The only shows that night (can anyone say American Idol and NCIS???) No, nothing at 8 or 9, but two shows on at 7. What gives?? And of course, you can't watch one channel and record another with a converter box, that would be too easy. That's why I wanted two VCR's! Then I go to hook up the stuff in the living room. Now, since it was getting late, I decided not to worry about the VCR/DVD player (yes, this one does have instructions on how to do that, and the adapters to use), and just hook up the tv so I could watch tonight (this being Sunday night, got it?). Right. Guess what? Nothing. Oh wait, one time I did get one channel - one of the Spanish ones. Now this is supposed to be the best antenna and converter boxes that Best Buy had. Yeah, that's what I said. And before someone says anything, no I can't take it back and buy something different - I used a coupon. The only thing I can think of is to rearrange the room and see where the antenna will pick up the best. I want my cable back .........

Huh? Who needs an Idol?

Okay, I’ve evidently lost Word somewhere, without doing anything. Have a computer act up on me? Never. I’m not even going to go into what I had to do to open it so that I could compose my blog. Just know that it’s being weird.

Anyway, below is a YouTube clip of David Osmond. Yeah, I said Osmond; he’s the son of Osmond brother Alan. Why is it here? He auditioned for American Idol the other night. Now, I know that most of you don’t watch it, so please bear with me. American Idol is supposed to be for un-knowns, those musicians who would never have had a break without the show. People like Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken …. And yet, in walks David Osmond, heir of the Osmond talent, obviously, but someone that needs a show like American Idol in order to be heard? I don’t think so. You can’t tell me that his family has no connections with record companies? In fact, they used to have their own studios. I don’t know, I just … ohhh, it bothers me for some reason.



And then we have Joanna Pacitti. Beautiful voiced and talented Joanna Pacitti. When she walked into the audition room, new judge Kara DioGuardi greeted her – “I remember you! You’re Joanna Pacitti.” Oh boy. Joanna Pacitti is going to Hollywood, again. Who is she? Weeellllll:

She was on Broadway in Annie at the age of 11; she was on the Reality TV show MTV’s First Year; under contract with A&M records for 5 years; on the soundtracks of movies Legally Blonde and Bratz: Motion Picture Soundtrack; her album This Crazy Life has sold 15,000 copies since its release in 2006; finally, one of her songs Out From Under was re-released by Britney Spears. Starting to get the picture? It’s not that she shouldn’t be allowed a second chance, its that her presence could skewer the results – for example, many would vote for her thinking that she had the inside edge, sort of like people who let voting polls influence them; also, she could cause people not to vote because they might think that it wouldn’t matter, she’s an Idol plant and is going to win; then there are those who could already be fans, some of those 15,000 that bought her record.

But wait, haven’t other contestants have contracts before? Yeah, but not to this extent. For instance, there's Carly Smithson – who’s 2001 album Ultimate High scored 6,000 sales. That's 7 years, less than 1,000 a year; while Pacitti has sold 15,000 in just 2 years. Quite a difference there.



Anyway, I don’t like this trend of “had-a-chance” contestants making it past the audition rounds. Call me a dreamer, but I feel that American Idol should be for the people like Fantasia and Jennifer Hudson, people who never had a chance, and who would have never had a chance without the show.

Go Speed Racer

This is for Tori. Racer X from the old Speed Racer series.



I *heart* YouTube.

I've started doing a little packing, mostly weeding out of books since I can't take them all with me. Don't worry, the Shalvis Shrine will be untouched. Anyway, the books I'm packing up now will go to Half-Price books because they'll give me some cash for them, and I need that.

American Idol starts tonight (since everybody knows I'm writin this on Tuesday night) and I can't wait. I love the audition parts. But I have a problem for Wednesday night - it's up opposite Ghost Hunters International, so I'll have to tape GHI. I hate that, espcially since there's nothing I watch on Saturday nights.

Received my order from Amazon and I can't wait to get to it, but I still have a stack on the table next to my big ol' chair that I need to work on first.

That's it for me. I hope everyone has a great Wednesday. And yes, Spam will be back on Friday.

Waaah Wednesday

Is it Wednesday already? It seems like last week at this time it was Wednesday. I want to make it Friday. I think that’s the way it should be – Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Let’s skip Wednesday and Thursday. Who needs them anyway? Not me. Although Wednesday is my day off. So maybe we’ll keep Wednesday and do away with Thursday instead. What do you think? Wait, I get paid on Thursdays, so we have to keep them. Tuesday? Uh uh. American Idol is on Tuesdays, can’t miss that. Monday is another day off, so is Friday. *sigh* Oh well, guess we’ll keep things as they are, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it.

My favorite day is Sunday because I can sleep in a little. What about you?

A Frill for a Thrill

I’m sitting here watching American Idol, and they’re talking about putting runs in songs, frilling it up so to speak. How sometimes it really isn’t necessary, to just let the song be the song. It made me think about writing. It seems lately that a lot of books are “frilled” out, filled with “runs” and gimmicks, bogging down and sometimes obscuring the stories. I like action, I like some paranormal, but I’ve read some books lately that read as if the author was throwing things in to stylize the book, to make it fit with these booming sub-genres. Have we lost the ability to tell a simple story, a love story where the focus is on the “love” and not the peripheral gogglidook jumping out everywhere? Can we still just sing the melody? What do you think?

I'm referring to romances here, not urban fantasy, or even fantasy at all.

Oscar, Oscar

I can’t remember ever having been so bored by the Oscar broadcast. I mean, some years were better than others, but this was just … or I don’t know – blah? My mind kept drifting, I didn’t find a lot of the jokes funny. I love Ellen – I think she’s hysterical and, whenever I remember to, I watch her show, but I didn’t think she was funny. She was better than David Letterman, but Ben Stein could have done better than he did. I did like her banter with members of the audience - giving Martin Scorcese a screenplay. I miss Billy Crystal. He is the uber-host of the Oscars. Or Whoopi. The shtick between Leonardo and Al Gore was cute though. I'm glad Jennifer Hudson won - so there Simon, she is an American Idol. And what is it with those dancers/whatever they were? Totally dullsville. But then a bright and shiny moment happened. In the midst of all of this blahdom out walked, yes, Hugh. My Hugh. Handsome in his tux, resplendent in all of his manly glory. Almost made it worth the nearly four hours.

I also felt a little lost. I haven’t seen any of these movies. I’m so out of the loop.

Breathing is a little better, strength not great. I don’t know if I’m going to make it to work on Tuesday or not. And now that I've stayed up so late watching the Oscars, I'm awfully tired.