The Bangles... for Pat, the "Toolbox"

NEW BABY ALERT!!! Congrats to Kahn and Holly with the birth of Cody. Plus Happy Birthday Payton!

American Idol (again) - Final 9 with Tony Bennett (who's getting OLD... wow). The slow balads are very hard to pull off and not wise to do (another hint from me... see what happens). I'm trying to do some unique constructive criticism that I felt the judges missed:

1) The Backup Band... they really kicked ass tonight!
2) Blake - I really liked it, but he needs to a-nnun-ci-ate better... more consonants will help. Singing 101 lesson there.
3) LaKisha - Thought she was right on tonight.... Took the cake for the ladies in my mind.
4) Melinda - Pitch problems I felt in the first part (agreeing with Simon), but granted she had easily the most difficult song. Can't finish first every week;)
5) Jordin - Another tricky song that she pulled off pretty well with some good pipes!
6) Chris - I have to dock him for picking a song that will always be associated with Harry Connick Jr (When Harry Met Sally). And Chris's version wasn't there in comparison.
7) Haley - Looked damn good, ditched the slow song just in time to be saved, last note took a second to center correctly. Of course she gets my vote again just to see her come back!
8) Sanjaya - actually pulled off a decent performance (in comparison to his usual). Props for the white suit... I need one of those! He'll stick around though.
9) Gina - Tongue stud on display tonight! She knows how to get a bonus point there:) Not too bad but again, slow songs just don't get the votes this week. Last note needed some help in the upwards pitch direction.
10) Phil - By my count, he was UNDER pitch 3 times, OVER pitch 2 times... but he did hit the final note right on. But what do I know? I do think he was worse than Sanjaya... deal with it.
11) Paula - I think she gets drunker as the show goes on... seriously!! What's really in those coke glasses?

Am I the only one that notices the pitch issues?? There were not a ton of comments from the Judges. Maybe it's me tonight.

And in other news of the Rock and Roll.... Keith Richards tells the world that he snorted his father's ashes mixed with cocaine. What can you say in response to that? Well having thought of this all night, here are a few thoughts that come to mind:

• Do the ashes add anything to the "experience" other than symbolic purposes?
• His words were "My dad wouldn't have cared". I think my dad would come back to life and kick my ass if I tried to do something like this.
• His father died in 2002. Do ashes get better for snorting like a fine wine?
• What's the going rate on blow/ashes mix?

Cold, windy and a little bit of blowing snow this morning (yes, this blog was written in two parts... usually is). It feels more like Christmas than it does Easter.

Haiku of the Day -
Dropping weight like mad
Just in time for Mexico
No Diet next week

Entertainment of the Day - I watched Man of the Year this last weekend which is the Presidential movie with Robin Williams and Lewis Black (among others). I was hoping for a more prominent role from Lewis Black but it's still a funny movie. There's a little bit of science-fiction that rings home with the computerized voting aspect of the plot. How far away are we from something like this? Worth a viewing.

Weblink of the Day - The Way of the Swayze: How Patrick Swayze stays manly but gets all the chicks due to his sensitive side! I bet he can have square plates in his house and get away with it!!!

GPS Innovations

Florida wins yet another championship (*yaaaaaaaaaaaaawn*). Still don't feel sorry for Ohio State being runner up in yet another sport. I did average on my brackets this year - I promise to do better next year!

I saw an article this morning that was interesting:

Isaac Daniel hopes the next time someone wears his sneakers, the footwear may prove to be life saving. The 38-year-old engineer has developed a line of running shoes with a tiny Global Positioning System (GPS) chip that can locate the wearer anywhere in the world with the press of a button. Daniel believes can help save children in trouble or even Alzheimer patients, will hit stores in May or June with more than 30,000 orders already pouring in from retailers worldwide. The solution was a line of men's and women's sneakers in 19 color combinations outfitted with a GPS chip that communicates with four international satellites. Next on his agenda is a "cell phone shoe" and a "game shoe.”

So here's my thought.... some people will see the benefit of this in just what it was intended - helping find people that may go missing. But at what point is this the next step of invasion of privacy? I can see some kids taking knives to their shoes in order to remove the devices like some bad Arnold sci-fi movie. But aren't there more uses than those that Daniel lists? These shoes could be used to spy on cheating spouses, help with stalkers who are obsessed with some girl, or even by Paparazzi to figure out which club Paris and Britney are invading on any given night. I do wonder what will be the benefit of a "cell phone shoe" or "game shoe"... interesting concepts and I look forward to seeing how they can market that.

The question that everyone's wondering.... should I watch the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship Game (We got game) or American Idol???? or maybe not. Final 9 on Idol tonight. I have a hunch who's going home and it's not who everyone thinks should be going home. Just remember what I said, if you don't vote, you can't complain at the outcome!!!

Snow today in a lot of Minnesota! We should see rain/sleet here in Rochester, but still not fun to think that it was just 70+ degrees and now we're back in this crap. By the time I get back from MEXICO next week, should be clear of the snow stuff.

Haiku of the Day -
No longer the champ
of b-ball tourney picking
even Drew beat me:(

Entertainment of the Day - I watched Babel this weekend. Not even close to what I was thinking it would be, but I did enjoy it a lot. An unusual story that tries to bring all the plotlines together at the end to show how around the world we are connected.... only problem was that I failed to see the strong link between the gun gift. Wish they would have had a better story there, but it worked. I thought it was well done and worthy of the nominations it received. The title Babel refers to the land in Genesis which comes from the Hebrew for "to confuse or confound". Think of the different languages spoken in the movie and how they all have a connection even though they come from a different culture.

Weblink of the Day - New Bunny cartoon... SPIDERMAN!!! (both 1 and 2)

Everything Baseball

Baseball season has officially begun. So for the next 100 weeks (or so it seems), you'll be seeing baseball scores and highlights. Also means that there's an extra hour of Baseball Tonight on ESPN for that same time. 162 games are played before the post season can begin. Here are some predictions/observations for the upcoming season:

1. By the end of April, the Cubs will be mathematically eliminated from post-season contention (as usual)
2. St. Louis will not make the postseason after winning it all last year.
3. Detroit Tigers could be dangerous again this year... hopefully the Twins can keep pace with them again.
4. Braves are still looking like an "ok" team but they did beef up their bullpen for this season. Hopefully that inspires the starting rotation a bit again and they return to their championship ways. Smoltz doesn't have too much left in him, Hampton is way overpaid for as little as he actually plays, and Hudson might surprise some folks this year. Andruw is also on the last year of his contract so they need to make a move this year!
5. The Yankees are still the devil of all baseball teams. And just as I was starting to be indifferent about Andy Pettitte, he goes back to the Spankees - Jerk! I hate them all!
6. Mets and Red Sox aren't much better than the Yankees anymore. $$$$$$$
7. I still consider most baseball players whimps. A hockey player will get knocked unconscious and they still want to go back into the game. Some of the greatest players play 20+ years in the NHL, barely have any bones left that haven't been broken, and still want to just be stitched up so he can go finish the game. (Red Wings back in 1st again)
8. The Barry Bonds controversy is going to heat up very quickly as he's still hitting a lot of home runs in the preseason. This is going to get old very quick (as if it isn't already).
   

Big game tonight as a repeat of the NCAA football championship - Ohio State, The vs Florida.... again.... doesn't seem fair does it? The game starts at 8:20 or something, meaning it will be over at 11 something since they give each team extra timeouts to drag the event out longer than it should. I can finish anywhere from 5th (OSU win) to 15th (Florida win) in most of my brackets. Upper 25% which isn't half bad. Just not my usual dominance that I'm used to.

Tim was fired on The Apprentice last night.... and not sure I agree with how that whole episode went down. Arrow designated themselves someone to focus on and Tim was an easy target. I liked Tim and agreed with his defense in the end. I hate pretty much all 3 of the surviving Arrow team and hope they lose a couple of weeks in a row to get rid of them all. I seriously hate Frankie....

What else.... Happy April! Enjoy the rain (could be snow - remember that and appreciate it).

Haiku of the Day
Hundred sixty two
That's pretty much half the year
I hate the Yankees!

Entertainment of the Day - there are a lot of good baseball movies though to mention today. Brewster's Millions, Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, Major League (Numbers 1 AND 2... ignore anything after that), Fever Pitch, The Natural (oldie but a goodie), Mr. 3000, and Fever Pitch (Which is shown constantly on HBO I believe). Take your pick from any of those.

Weblink of the Day - There are a lot of us nerds in the world today. This guy figured out how to build a robot to bowl a perfect 300 game in Wii Bowling everytime! Something to do on the weekends:)