Monthly Archives: May 2008

Why David Cook should win

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I’ve never been a person to hide my hometown shame.

David Cook

There’s a large part of me that wants David Cook to win because he hails from Kansas City. But for those that aren’t from Kansas City, here are some other reasons why David Cook should be the next American Idol:

  1. He’s genuine. Say what you will about David Archuleta, I just don’t buy his “aw shucks” schlock routine. I believe that David Cook believes the words he sings. That was evident tonight.
  2. He does things on his own terms. The difference in maturity between the two Davids tonight was evident. Instead of choosing the songs that America would like (as Archuleta and his father did), David Cook chose songs that HE wanted to sing. I think that shows more courage than choosing cheesy “In this Moment” ballads. The title of this reason could also be, “He’s not a puppet.”
  3. Chris Daughtry should have won. I know that was two seasons ago, but America has a chance to make up for past wrongs. Taylor Hicks and Jordin Sparks could be more forgotten than they already are if American Idol were to actually crown a rocker as champion.
  4. He wasn’t hand-picked by the judges. Just as last season was skewed to favor Jordin Sparks over Blake Lewis, this season has been heavily skewed for David Archuleta to win. He got Neil Diamond’s two most famous songs. He has either had the first pick the whole time, or there’s been a producer (or his dad) in his ear the whole season telling him which songs were the most sugary and would generate the most sympathy for him. David Cook has done everything against the grain, from his completely different arrangements to choosing songs that people might not necessarily know (or that he has not yet sung, like tonight with his choice of Collective Soul’s “The World I Know”).
  5. He will sell more records than David Archuleta. This is a fact. David Archuleta is like the Jordin Sparks of this season. Good voice, malleable, BORING. David Cook will make a better record for the reasons above and more people will buy it. This is the truth. I will not be proven wrong by time on this one.

So there you go. Five good reasons why you should vote for David Cook over David Archuleta. Either way, he’s going to make a record and either way, he’ll sell more units than his younger counterpart. So light up those phones, America.

866-436-5701
866-436-5703
866-436-5705

Finale Night

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Two of my favorite shows on TV had their season finales last night, The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother. There will be some small spoilers in here, so don’t read further if you intend to watch the episodes.

The Big Bang Theory

Sheldon and Wolowitz learn Mandarin

As I’ve stated before, BBT is probably my favorite new show of this TV season. The writing is smart (overseen by David Saltzberg, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California-Los Angeles, who checks scripts and provides dialogue, math equations and diagrams used as props), but not too smart to be inaccessible. It has its zany characters, not the least of which is Sheldon, the smartest of all the geniuses on the show and played brilliantly by Jim Parsons.

Last night’s finale, titled “The Tangerine Factor”, wasn’t my favorite of the season, but it certainly had its moments. I particularly liked how Sheldon wanted to learn Mandarin just to quibble with his local Chinese food shop about whether he was getting Tangerine or Orange chicken. The subtitles showed that he most certainly did not learn Mandarin.

The episode could have been called “Schrödinger’s Cat” because that really was the true theme of the episode – if Penny and Leonard date, will it ruin their friendship? After dancing around the issue all season, they managed to come at it in the same funny way they’ve approached much of the season.

I do kind of wish the episode would have been a little funnier, but at least it had some resolution to some of the conflict of the season and it gives us something to look forward to. Especially since, The Big Bang Theory was renewed for another season.

How I Met Your Mother

Group Hug - How I Met Your Mother

HIMYM is the new Friends.

That may be pushing it a little, considering that I loved Friends. However, since Friends went off the air, I’ve been looking for a sitcom that captures the same feelings of friendship and growing into adulthood that the folks at Central Perk did. I believe that it can be found in How I Met Your Mother.

The cast is terrific. Sure, it’s mostly carried by Neil Patrick Harris’ Barney, but all the characters are solid and each actor does a good job.

That being said, last night’s finale was just kind of whatever. I enjoyed Marshall’s miracle examples, but Ted, who is the one supposedly carrying the story, is just getting boring. I think that the twist at the end was really to try and bring some of the attention away from Ted’s story and put it more focused on Barney, but in doing so, at least they reconciled the beef between Ted and Barney because it was pretty lame.

I’m glad that both shows are coming back. Some people are going to point to the Britney Spears guest spot as the reason that HIMYM was renewed. I hope that it brought on enough new viewers that they don’t have to bring her back again. The first time she was OK, but the second time, she was lame. Just say ‘NO’ to Britney, Chuck Lorre. Just say ‘No.’

If you aren’t watching these shows, you should be. They’re well-written, funny, and they need more viewers. Don’t let them get cancelled.

Free Wireless

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I am typing this blog post from a location at which I have neither paid for any items, nor do I have a membership.

No, I’m sitting on the patio at the Panera Bread in Olathe, waiting for the oil to be changed on my car and using Panera’s free wifi while breaking one of the cardinal rules of free wifi – always buy something first.

Normally, I would abide by this unspoken rule of free wifi, but this morning, I’ve already had my oatmeal, I’ve got my to-go coffee cup full, and frankly, I’m starting to believe that free wifi is one of the easiest ways for people to gain business, but yet so few take advantage.

Free wireless internet is a service that is genius in this always connected world. There are places that it makes a lot of sense to just throw in some free wifi as a convenience to your customers who may be waiting. I’m thinking doctor’s offices, oil change locations (do you hear me, JIFFY LUBE?), and other locales where there might be more than a 15-minute wait for service.

Free wifi is easy. Take your existing connection. Throw it on a router. Drop in a splash page if you are so inclined. And there you go. Free wifi, allowing people like me to sit for longer than they might normally, very quietly working on whatever it is they might be working on (in my case, blogging).

For those looking for places where free wifi is available, check out this decent directory. And to those hotels and coffee shops (cough) that charge a premium for wireless? Shame on you.

Really, Topeka? REALLY?

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We had a crazy busy weekend. Friday night we celebrated the completion of Alli’s hospital mural with a couple movies, some Chipotle and a cookie cake. On Saturday, I needed to work on my sermon for Sunday morning in Manhattan. After I completed that, I joined Alli out in the yard. We decided to start a landscaping project in the front yard to add a flower bed in front of the retaining wall I built four years ago.

Working on the yard is hard. We had to cut out all the sod in the flower bed, which turned out to be – by far – the most difficult part of the process. Next time, we’re renting a sod cutter. We broke for lunch and then trekked to Home Depot to pick up some flowers, soil and mulch. When we returned, my mom joined us and we laid down the weed barrier and got to planting some petunias, some begonias, some gerber daisies and some pepper plants.

By the end of the day, we were totally exhausted and completely sunburned. We crashed on the couch for a while and then went to bed around 9:30. I then proceeded to toss and turn all night. My back was sunburned so it was extremely difficult to get comfortable. Combined with the fact that I was already sore…I ended up getting no sleep at all.

That made it difficult to get up and drive the two hours to Manhattan on Sunday. But thankfully, my wife kept me company along the way and we planned out what we were doing later. We had a great service in Manhattan, but four hours of driving is a lot for an hour of worship.

We had to run right after so we thought we’d stop along the way to grab something to eat real quick. After passing several viable options, we kind of “last resorted” at Pizza Hut on California in the state capital.

This was a mistake.

I should have known. It took us about 15 minutes to place our order. And we were first in line. We had to repeat ourselves five times to order boneless wings and a cheese personal pan pizza. Not a whole lot of confusion to that, right?

After a 20 minute wait (which was supposed to be 13:25) and overpaying for every item we got (including the 12 oz. sodas that cost us $2 each, we got out of there and back on the road. As I pulled out of the parking lot, I bit into my first boneless buffalo wing to find a surprise. A BONE! I thought to myself, Wait a sec, didn’t I order boneless? I checked my receipt and sure enough, I did.

Eating bone-in wings while driving would be a challenge. So I went back and did what any rational person would do – I yelled at the 20-year-old manager. 

“I know I ordered bone-out wings because I said it. I also paid for them…right here on the receipt. So why do my wings have bones? You have two choices: you can either re-make them correctly and immediately or you can give me my money back.”

The manager tried to ease my anger by offering me twice as many wings. I told him this wasn’t one of the options and that if the wings were going to take longer than 2 minutes, that he should just give me my money back. He did. All of it. If he thinks he got off easy, he’s kidding himself. I plan on writing Pizza Hut’s franchising office today to let them know the disgusting nature of the bathrooms, the poor service and the plain idiocy of those working at the Topeka Pizza Hut.

</rant>

After we returned home, I had to run to the grocery store quickly. When I got home, Alli and I spent the evening doing some pre-marital counseling with a couple that I’m marrying in July. It was a really nice evening and I made some awesome meatballs for the pasta – ground turkey and pork italian sausage. Very good.

We finished the evening watching the rather weak season finale of Saturday Night Live. The previous week with Shia Lebouf was funnier in my opinion, which is surprising because I love Steve Carell. But his skits just weren’t that funny. Neither were John McCain’s two appearances. I know he’s trying to joke it up and make people less worried about his age, but he just looked so uncomfortable.

Another restless night of sleep and it’s time to work again. Too short of a weekend.

Friday Blogthing Musical

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What does your taste in music say about you?

What Does Your Taste in Music Say About You?

Your musical tastes are intense and rebellious. You are intelligent… but in a very unconventional way. You are curious about the world. You love doing something new. In fact, you enjoy taking risks and doing things most people would shy away from.

You are very physical. It’s likely that you’re athletic, but not into team sports. You have the soul of an artist. Beauty and harmony are important to you.

I’m not sure if I agree with all of this, but it’s pretty on point.

via Emaw

Retiring a number

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Tonight when I was watching Dancing with the Stars (yes, I watch Dancing with the Stars), the “Stars of Dance” special feature was Omarion covering a couple Michael Jackson songs to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Thriller.

There’s no doubt that Michael Jackson is off-the-reservation-crazy, but there’s also no doubt that he still remains one of the single most influential figures in pop music and Thriller is the seminal album in his long career. It contains some of the greatest pop songs of all-time, including “Billie Jean” and the title track, both of which were covered by Omarion during the performance.

During the performance, I leaned over to Alli and said to her, “You know there are some songs that should be like retired numbers in sports…they shouldn’t be covered by anyone else.” Thriller is one of those songs. Omarion is a decent performer (he’s no Chris Brown, but he’s passable), but his version of Thriller was a train wreck. They dropped it an octave and the song just doesn’t work there.

I know there are a ton of other songs out there that shouldn’t be covered. Vogue by Madonna would be one. Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen would be one. Others that come to mind: Enter Sandman by Metallica, Hotel California by the Eagles, The Joker by the Steve Miller Band, Hound Dog by Elvis Presley.

What songs would have their numbers retired in your CD collection?

I don’t mean to brag…

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…but I married an amazingly talented woman.

This week and last week, Alli has been working on two murals at the Miami County Hospital. The hospital received a grant to convert two of their patient rooms to pediatric-exclusive rooms where kids can have a more inviting environment to be treated.

It is not only one of the largest projects that she’s taken on as a part of her business, but it’s also one of the coolest. After our huge Mothers’ Day meal yesterday, she took all of us to go see the first room, which was almost completed.

I was really blown away. This is a woman who I live with and spend my days with and she still amazes me with her talent.

I really hate hospitals, but if I was sick in that room, her awesome mural that covers every wall would make things a lot more tolerable. I’ll post pictures when I’ve been given the “all clear”, but I don’t know if they’ll do the room justice because every wall is covered with her farm mural.

Keep an eye on her newly updated website (I wonder who did that?) and I’ll try to post pictures to my Flickr account when I can get them.

I don’t mean to gush, but I’m just so amazingly proud of Alli. Walking into the room was yet another reminder of why we set her out on her own in the first place – she shouldn’t be doing anything else.

In the long run…

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Tonight, I went up to Quik Trip to fill up my car for the week and get a couple of fountain drinks. I brought along my 3 mower and trimmer gas cans – a 5-gallon container, a 2-gallon container and a 1-gallon container for the oil/fuel mix that goes in the trimmer.

The total came to $91.20. 

After I got over the initial sticker shock, I remembered something I’ve been telling myself since gas went over $3.00/gallon – at least I don’t live in Sierra Leone, where gas is $18.42/gallon. Actually, what I’ve been telling myself is that higher gas prices will hopefully result in something better in the long run.

Here’s what I mean. The United States has long relished in being a favored nation when it comes to petroleum and like with a lot of things, Americans have gotten “fat and happy” with paying the 7th-lowest price for gas in the world (outside of the Middle East). The only places that pay less than us are places like China, which now consumes more gas than we do, and Venezuela, which has communism to thank for that.

The reason that higher gas is a good thing is that it’s finally getting people to care when they go to the pump. And when American people care about something, things start to happen. People like me start to reconsider driving their SUVs and trying to figure out ways to ride the bus. Senators and representatives realize that their constituents are getting angry and for them to get re-elected (the goal of any congressperson), they have to figure out a way to fix the problem. That means leaning on oil companies not to lower prices, but to take their record profits and innovate, which is the what Americans are good at.

They also have to lean on the auto manufacturers who are taking entirely too long to get to more sustainable types of energy to run our vehicles. But Americans are going to have to understand that all of this comes at a cost. In the short term, we may have to pay higher gas prices and that sucks, but in the long run, I think it’s going to be better.

At least I hope so.