San Diego – Beautiful

Long, long flights today. Kids did really well but got a little bored near the end. San Diego is incredibly beautiful. Everyone that we have run in to has been very friendly. Looking forward to the rest of the week. For now, 3 out of 4 of us now have colds that we are going to work to get rid of. I’ll get some pictures up over the next few days as we hit all the attractions and do the Tourist thing. I forgot the cable that goes from my camera to the laptop so I’ll need to pick one up while we are here. Val almost had to use the air sickness bag on the flight from Dallas to San Diego because of a really bad headache. I was ready with the camera but it never happened. Am I a supportive husband or what?

Had some good mexican food when we got in. Best chips and salsa I think I’ve ever had. Kids love the bunk bed arrangement of the room. Megan has already fallen down the ladder twice. She has the worst cold and she is just kind of out of it. Bailey, as always, is trying to run the show.

Palm trees and mexican food, this should be a great time.

Almost forgot, OS X Tiger came out yesterday. Loaded without a problem. Used the Upgrade method. The only thing I had a problem with was Virex. Ends up it is not supported on Tiger so I just uninstalled it for now. It was consuming 100% of the CPU. Over all I really like it. On my system things are much more responsive. When I switched from Windows a while ago the one thing that I wasn’t ready for was a little bit of a drag, or delay, in the interface when you scrolled or clicked on things. That’s gone now. Everything is smooth like butta. I doubt I could point out more than 5 or 10 of the 200 improvements they made, but you can feel that a lot of work when in to this. Very smooth. Great job Apple.

Picked up my new Mini that will be used to drive the entertainment center. Haven’t touched it yet though since I had to get ready for our trip. I’ll deal with that after we are home.

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American Idol – Year 2000 and newer

Songs from the last 5 years…

Carrie – Great song. I think she was off key the entire song. Let’s see how strong her fan base is because this wasn’t very good. Bo – I didn’t know this song, but he did it really well. His fan base is going to need to kick in this week I think. Vonzell – Nice voice. She had a little bit of a pitch problem. I was a little bored through it tough. Has a lot of potential. Anthony – Wow. What an excellent job from him tonight. For the first time I understand why he is in this competition. Constantine – Nickelback. Weak, safe, light, unimpressive version of Nickelback. Not too impressed tonight. Not a good key for him or something. Scott – Luther. Holy cow. Big shoes to fill. Did a nice job. Not a great job. A couple rough notes.

So, they could choose from any song from the year 2000 until today. I’m surprised at some of the song choices they made. It’ll cost someone this week. I’ve not been shy that I don’t like Anthony much, but I think he may have been the strongest performance this week. Bo sang great but I’m not sure many will know the song. Last week I correctly guessed the bottom 3 and that Anwar would go. I based that on performance. I’ll base it on performance again tonight, but I think I’ll be wrong.

Bottom 3: Carrie, Constantine, Scott. Based on tonight’s performance, Constantine should go home. I think his fan base is big enough to carry him further though, so I think Scott will be heading home tomorrow night. Constantine and Carrie should consider this their last wake up call. Constantine can change his song choice and go farther. Carrie started out the competition strong and has been getting weaker every week since. It’s still anyone’s contest here. I don’t think I could guess who will win this thing even this close to the end. I could really see the final 2 coming down to Bo and Vonzell. Time will tell.

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American Idol – 70’s Dance Music

Constantine – Not sure how I feel about this one. It was just OK for me. Is he wearing eye makeup? Still cool though. I liked it. Carrie – Good voice. Not sure I like it with this song though. Energy was missing for me. Still a good singer though. Scott – Kind of a boring version of the song, but he sang it well. Anthony – Vocals were on key tonight. Didn’t like the song at all. Never heard it before. Vonzell – One of her best weeks I thought. Tons of energy and had the crowd moving. Probably her best. Anwar – Great song. This version is hurting me though. Pitch is all over the place. No surprise, weak start, strong finish. Bo – Good song. Great version of it. Bo needed this this week.

Tough to guess who will go home this week. They all did OK. Maybe I’ll work it backwards from the excellent performances and see who shakes out. Anwar, Anthony, Scott. I think Anwar had the weakest performance and should actually go home. The wild card for the bottom 3 would be Constantine. I liked his performance, but not sure everyone is going to agree with me. At this point people are probably just voting for their favorite anyway, so their performances may not matter as much.

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Loose ends…

Well, I had the bottom 3 right for last night’s American Idol, but Scott survived and Nadia headed home. Scott must have a lot of fans out there, or else his finish to his song made up for the weak beginning. I was afraid Bo would be there as well. Let’s see if this was a wake-up call for him.

Did I mention that I ended up getting the “Widow Maker?” You know, the Sony HDTV that I said my wife would kill me if I bought. Well, I got it and it is incredible. Now the world just needs more high definition content. When something is on in HD it is so amazing that we find we just watch any old crap that is on just because of how beautiful the picture is.

Still waiting to do the Mac Mini installation. I figured I would wait until after Apple releases Tiger on april 29th. That way Tiger will be included with it.

Lastly, can anyone explain to me why they even make single ply toilet paper? My wife accidentally picked that up instead of our usual brand. I am less than impressed. I mean, I don’t need a lot of fancy stuff, but come on. I think I could do better with a Black & Decker Palm Sander. At least I don’t have to worry about the proctology part of my yearly physical now. That single ply stuff is so thin you kind of bust right through it and take care of that examination yourself.

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American Idol – Songs from the year you were born

Nadia - I thought this was a pretty good performance from her tonight. Her voice was stronger than I remember. Never heard the song before. Bo - Freebird? Hold cow. Sang it really well. Never saw that one coming. Freebird on American Idol. Game on. Anwar - Once again, beginning was weak and the ending saved it. Not real impressed with it this week. Anthony - Probably the best I have heard him sing. Ever. Like a different person sang this week. Vonzell - Looks great. Sings good. Has a lot of potential. Seems to be kicking it in to a higher gear lately. Scott - Really rough beginning. Off key. Like Anwar, bad low notes, great high notes. Got the crowd going. Carrie - Tough song. Good song. Rocking song. She had a couple pitch problems, But not enough to matter to me. The girl can rock. Constantine - Queen! Wow. Queen and Freebird on the same show. Awesome version. Awesome job.

Queen and Freebird on American Idol. I’m speechless. I’m impressed. That made it fun. Prediction for the bottom 3? Not easy since they all did well tonight. Nadia, Scott, and Bo. I chose Bo, not because of the performance, but because I’m not sure people will connect with Freebird. I hope he stays. Scott was the weakest performance tonight. Wild-card for the bottom 3? Carrie. Might be a wake-up call for her. I believe Scott will go tomorrow.

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American Idol – Why aren’t you voting based on talent?

Nikko? You sent home Nikko? Wow. He was nowhere near as bad as a few of them. For you to save Anthony again makes it painfully, painfully clear that you are not voting based on talent. You’re not voting on what you are hearing, you are voting on something else. Some kind of fluff. Something that just doesn’t matter. You sent home a young man that has a lot of talent and deserved to go further. He earned it. He has talent.

You might want to try to pull your heads out of your asses and vote based on talent next time.

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American Idol – Musicals (yuck)

I’ve never been a big fan of musicals, but tonight we get to hear all the AI folks sing songs from them.

Scott – Wow, what a rough start. He may pay for this one. Flat in a lot of places. Constantine – This guy gets cooler every week. Great version of my funny valentine (except for the last note) Carrie – I didn’t like the song, but she has a great voice. Front-runner to win this thing at this phase. Vonzell – I thought she just did OK, but had a really strong finish. Off key in a bunch of places I thought. Anthony – Please send him home. All over the place on this song. Pick a key and stay with it. Nikko – Nice job with the song. Not great for me, but pretty good. Anwar – Stayed in tune tonight. Outstanding. Probably the best he has sung. Didn’t just have a big finish, he held on through the entire song. Bo – Not his strongest night tonight. Seemed like he was really struggling with this one. Let’s hope voters will consider all of his performances. Nadia – Nice job on this song. Makes some seriously ugly faces tonight. Good singer though. Hated the song.

Predication? Bottom 3 – Scott, Anthony, and Bo. Yep – Bo. I’m basing this on tonight’s performance. Bo gets sent back to the couch. Anthony goes home. Wild card – Scott leaves because of the press around his assault charges from a while back and his performance tonight.

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