camera fail!

There was a humongous lightning storm tonight. This is super rare in Seattle since despite our rainy reputation, we almost never get anything bigger than a drizzle. When I was on my way home from work, I saw these giant lightning bolts flashing right on top of our Highlands mountain. It was so bright it lit up the entire sky even though it was so far away i couldn't even hear the thunder. I had this whim to try to capture it on my camera. Now a SD 700 IS is really not the right camera for this job I think. Tochicam would be much much better. I was not really sure what settings to use so I kinda fooled around with it. I think I set exposure to +2 so it will capture the maximum light. Then I set ISO to 80 because there is this street lamp right outside my house and I didn't want to be blinded. Although It took me a while to figure out if smaller number is better. Then I set it on continuous shot until I ran out of batteries. the first picture I took above was on ISO 800 so it didn't look that great :( The second is on ISO 80 but the timing wasn't perfect and I only got the end of the it. so really I only got this one pic that came out ok. But it really failed to capture the majesty of it all. Next time I will be ready!

Epic Biking Adventure

It all started with me buying a $60 bike from Target in high school. I always felt it is my obligation as a Chinese to be insanely awesome at biking. But needless to say, like my many other dreams, this one didn't really pan out. I kinda rode it around my neighborhood in NC, finding that even small gentle hills are beyond my weak wobbly grasp and I put it away for 5 years. The poor bike was moved across country and sat in my garage all this time until a month ago when suddenly I had this whim that I should fix it and ride it around when it's summer. (these whims never turn out well..hmm..). Anyway, so I spent 30 bucks and got my rear tire replaced. In the words of the technician, "this kind of bending only happens when a car hits your bike" I said "hmm.. I am pretty sure nothing like that happened to me..." I know this because i have never ridden it outside my neighborhood haha. Anyway, so I rode my old/new bike around the park for a couple of days until I can stop without panicking and toppling over. All is going well until last week when Kirason said "soo.. now you have a bike, I want to rollerblade from Redmond to Seattle, want to come?"
me:" .... how far is that?"
Kirason: "oh about 20 miles"
me:"...sure"

Ahh, the courage of the ignorant. kirason assured me that since she is on rollerblades, I wouldn't have to go very fast and can totally make it.

So the original plan is that we go one way, and drive back. However, the third person decided he really wanted to do the round trip. So I was like. sure whatever having absolutely no concept of what that is like.

So the much anticipated day comes, it is the hottest day of the year, 90 degrees outside. beautiful sky absolutely no cloud. We rode on the Burke-Gilman trail which is this really nice and long trail that goes around the entire Seattle area. You can bike on the entire paved trail. Kirason assured me that the entire route we picked is actually quite flat with only very small hills. The first third of our route runs along the Sammamish River, passing farmlands, trees and small neighborhood with parks. It is quite nice since we started at 11 am so there is still shade from the tall trees. I kept my pace nice and slow to conserve energy. So slow that even Kirason was ahead of me on roller blade -__-!! . We rested at a park about 6 miles in and drank some water. The day is getting really hot now but there is still a nice breeze going. The middle part of the trail goes into the city of Kenmore along some busy streets, and then winds around the edge of Lake Washington on top of the waterfront properties. We saw some really fancy houses along the water. Even though the trail was surrounded by greenery, the Noon sun didn't really give us any shade at all. We rested again at the 12 miles. It is a good thing that all the park has drinking fountains to fill our water bottle. Both of my companions had gatorades but I just had water. I think it was fine tho. The last third of the trail is this enormous gently climbing hill to Gas Works Park along the water edge, passing through the university district. That was quite trying for me as I don't have any strength for hill climbing. After climbing the hill for an hour I was quite sick of it and my legs are getting really tired and I can feel them starting to cramp. But they never really did. I was really running out of energy when we arrived after 25 miles at Gas Works, we rested for about half an hour for a lunch sandwich and then it's time to come back! As soon as I started the trip back, I noticed that my legs and knees are hurting really bad. I pushed on but it was kind of distracting. I complained to Kirason that I never got my seat adjusted so I can't extend my leg all the way and that is probably why it hurts.. She suggested that when we past that bike shop on the way I should see if I can get it adjusted. That turned out to be a brilliant idea. The very nice guy at the bike shop took one look at my bike and was like, this seat needs to be much higher. He had to raise it 4 inches to the properly position for me, all free of charge. Before I left, he also said "your tires are only 1/3 full, if you fill them up outside, it will make it much easier" OMG he is the nicest, most helpful guy ever!! So I biked 25 miles on a seat too low for me and on tires with no air. Now that I fixed everything, the next 25 should be a breeze!!

Turned out the adjustments worked wonders. My legs didn't hurt again in the next 25 miles. But now that the seat is 4 inches higher, I completely cannot get on and off the bike again. Everytime I have to get on, I end up falling over and the same when I try to get off. Now there is an incentive to just keep peddling lol. Now it is about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and the sun is in full fury and all the breeze died down. So it is 3 hours of burning hotness back home. We rested at the same places we did the first time. At this time, I am significanly slower now. Kirason and the other guy have far outstripped me by 15 minutes. They have stopped periodically to wait for me but I told them not to bother since I will just be slow again. The exhaustion, the heat and endless trail finally got to me around 1.5 miles from the end. I keep telling myself just 5 minutes more, but at mile marker 3, I completely lost concentration and my legs couldn't move like I told them to. Actually I think my legs still had strength left, it is just my mind is so exhausted and I couldn't focus. It is kind of sad as I am sooo close to the end. I had to stop and walk with my bike for 10 minutes until the heat is just too much and I have to keep biking to keep cool lol, and I finally made back to the parking lot at 6:45 with Kirason already sitting in the car. She was pretty exhausted at the end too. I am so in awe of her for roller blading the entire 50 miles. Not only that, she was faster than me biking!!!

So that was my adventure, biking 50 miles in a day after barely learning how to bike. This was the hardest sporting thing I have ever done. I am so glad I did it tho. Apparently I can really do some crazy stuff if I really tried lol.

ETA: I almost forgot to mention, my bike fell in a ditch while I was still on it. Fortunately, it was a grass lined ditch so I was not hurt except for bruised ego from all the passerbys laughing at me and a big splinter in my thumb that I had to pick out with a needle. Good times!

treasure off Youtube

so actually I have no idea how I got around to these videos. But suffice to say by some strange twist of fate (clicks?) I managed to find these really entertaining cover songs done by some really talented people. I am always amazed how much talented singers are out there on Youtube. I especially liked the Apologize cover, that just looked like so much fuN!

One Republic - Apologize w/AJ Rafael, Chris Cendana, and Der


Lucky - Jason Mraz and Colbie Callait cover



I am Yours - Jason Mraz cover (I really like this guy's voice)

new Computer on the way

I finally made the decision yesterday and ordered from newegg. Thanks to Velius for basically choosing everything for me and therefore spare me the effort of having to think :D BF2142 on All high settings, here I come!

Antec Three Hundred Black ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail - $69.95

1 Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor Model BX80562Q6600 - Retail
$209.99

1 G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ - Retail $84.99

1 ASUS P5N-D LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $149.99

2 EVGA 640-P2-N829-AR GeForce 8800GTS SSC 640MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail $399.98
($199.99 ea)

1 CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply - Retail $109.99

total $1,024.89

trivia!

I haven't updated trivia in a couple of weeks mostly because I have been missing it. So time for an update! Today it was the old guy doing the questions and immediately we know we were in trouble. Because he is known for "Jeopardy scoring" and obscure ancient trivia which he likes to taunt the young'uns with. But Velius would be happy to know that "Night of the Iguana" made an an appearance today. We had an category called "where am I " where we had to name fictional places that movies have taken place. The question was in which city was "Night of the Iguana" filmed. We randomly guessed Rio De Janeiro but it turned out to be Porta Vallarta which made sense I suppose. Pretty soon we would know everything there is to know about this movie without actually seen it haha. Other questions in the category were:

Which hotel was The Shining taken place in (the fictional name)
The hotel that housed Pretty Women (Darn, I almost got this one, and I really should since I have seen this movie 50 times at least)
The town of Jaws
The beach that can see HayStack Rock (this is in Oregon apparently)

We also did kinda bad in First Songs of Musicals (who has even heard of The Fantastics???), and the first bonus category: Dead Or Alive. I think we thought all the alive people were dead and all the dead people were alive. That was pretty sad hahah. We faired pretty well in an cateogry about Eddie Murphy (God he was in so many bad movies) and we did our usual best in the News category. But despite beating the last place team by 20 points, we still came in 2nd to last with 57 points. On an even sadder note, the one man team of super awesomeness won again....

funny video for you WoWers

World of Workcraft

computer woes!

I have had a string of bad luck in the home computer area the last couple of weeks. First, M's computer refused to boot, throwing a "corrupt config/system" error randomly after rebooting one day. Microsoft suggested that it is an registry error but I suspected HD error instead. Before I even gotten around to take a look, my own machine also threw the same error a few days later. This is after I came back from like a 4 day vacation and turning it on. On the surface, it seems like they are related but I really dont' see how. I dont' know any virus that would kill the HD like that. Anyway, in frustration, I decided to forego computer use for a couple of weeks. It was strangely liberating not to be tied to the Internet all day long. I actually got a large amount of GTA done. You never know how much time you are using up until you can't surf the web anymore!

Anyway, lack of computers has gotten M very antsy after a week or so. She even went so far to suggest that we buy a laptop so she can keep online!! I have created a monster! I told her that buying a laptop is NOT the solution to our problems and resigned to start to fix her problem. I used a seagate diagnostic tool to scan the HD which threw a few read errors but generally the file system seem to be intact although XP Recovery Console refused to recognize that there is a OS installed. I thought the best way to go is to boot from a linux disk (Knoppix) which runs an operating system from memory and get all her stuff off to her external drive which I just bought her a couple weeks ago and then format the HD. That went reasonably well. I copied all her docs and favorites and stuff to the external HD. Then I bought her a new bigger HD plus memory upgrades (you can never just buy one thing on Newegg!). So reinstalled windows etc etc. everything runs beautifully. XP boots up in 5 seconds. M started using it with happiness and then we realized something horrible, the linux OS apparently doesn't recognize file named in Chinese!! none of them got copied over. So we lost all her music, videos and favorites that she named in Chinese!!! Now that I put a new HD in, I can't go back to the HD because her stupid Dell machine only allows one SATA HD to be installed (they removed all the extra plugs). booo!! So I had to convince M that naming stuff in chinese is a bad idea. I think she was suspicious but she went with it. Incidentally, I am never buying a cheap Dell computer again! It is a piece of crap. After I bought it, I had to buy M a new HD, a new sound card, new memory, a switch to go with the new soundcard, new microphones to go with the new sound card and a external harddrive since she ran out of room in her original. for all that I could have built her a better one already humph!!!

Now having done all that relatively painlessly, I decided it is time to tackle my own computer since I found that I am fighting M over computer time now that we have one. (-_-!! its evil!!). now my HD is organized into three partitions, OS, data and data2 which is filled with Clay stuff (no laughing!!). I figure I could still get the data out of it and just wipe it clean. however, this is much much worse. Seagate diagnostic started throwing out read errors for basically huge chunks of file segments. chkdsk would fail at 10% without fail. basically i think the entire middle chunk of the drive is busted (why!!! why!!!). which means that I lost pretty much all of my data partition, filled with my pictures, my mp3s, basically everything I ever owned in cyberspace. however, all my Clay stuff is all still there ( great that really helps since I can redownload everything from the web anyway). So I plugged in my IDE HD into M's machine as a slave and started looking at data recovery tools online that can read a corrupted NTFS system and salvage whatever is left. I got GetDataBack which seems to be pretty good. I had to download from a Chinese website (cough cough) and for a while it seemed to going really well. It can read file segments and skip the bad ones and salvage whatever is left. So I started it up and told it to read through the data partitions which is about 200G. It said it will take 15 hours so I went to bed. When I woke up in the morning, the entire computer is frozen. no mouse, no keyboard, no display. What can I do, I had to reboot. As soon as it restarted, my HD started making the whirl and clicking noise really loudly when it was accessed. I knew righ then I am doomed. After the computer came back, it couldn't even recognize that I have a second HD installed. my HD just clicks like a old man on his death bed coughing his lungs out. So all that work is for nothing. this drive is just a pretty brick now. or as Velius puts it, a sophisticated brick.

Velius has now convinced me that I should just buy a new computer. He was nice enough to even list out all the components for me lol. So I guess I am upgrading!

midyear review

So, I have been neglecting this blog for a while now. Tochi, you are a BAD influence. well also facebook is a very bad influence. But anyway, I thought I should come back to it and try to keep it up and what better way to restart than to do a midyear review of my New Year "commitments".

Moonfleck's 2008 New Years Resolution Update:

1. Go to the gym at least once a week- I have been doing pretty well with this because my officemate is keeping me on my toes. I have been playing Badminton twice a week for the first couple months and then I lost my partner. So now I am doing cardio kickboxing once a week plus wallyball. I was reading my old ski posts and I think I need to strength my knee muscles before I can go ski again.

2. Read one book a month - well, I am a little behind here but I have read at least 4 books. I have read The KiteRunner, The Assault on Reason, Meisner's On Acting, and now I am reading A History of Iran. It is hard to choose what books to read since I want to read nonfiction but usually they are so boring I fall asleep after 3 pages. :(

3. Continue piano lessons - Total fail here. Haven't even tried.

4. Learn ONE song on guitar - Total fail here too. But I still have half a year I guess.


5. Do not lose touch with all the friends I am in touch with - Doing ok here. I saw the Veggies last months. Facebook is also making everything easier. :) Still working on this.


6. Redecorate my room - TOTAL SUCCESS!! I have sold all my old furniture, bought new ones fro Ikea, including all new sheets and pillows and mattress. I even threw in a new mattress for my mom. I was also able to donate tons of old stuff to good will. As GlaDos would say "HUGE SUCCESS!"

7. Learn to cook 3 new dishes - hmm.. haven't been able to yet although I might learn how to make cookies this week. I think that would count. My plan is to make the roasted duck that we saw on Yan Can Cook at Kungs haha.

The Ultimate Shopping Spree

Ever imagining what will you do if you won the lottery? What if the lottery is 3 trillion dollars? which is the projected final expenditure for the Iraq War. At http://3trillion.org/ you can do that. Go on a shopping spree and see what can you buy with 3 trillion dollars. Here is the opportunity to by that clone of Angelina Jolie you always wanted...

just like real life

So I was just taking a leisurely stroll through my 'hood the other night when I came upon this building that looked like a night club. ( I guess its the neon lights and the bouncers). So I thought I would go check this "petroshka" place out. Just as I walked passed the bouncer and was about to push open the double doors. I heard someone beside me say "Oh nooo you don't". I was a little confused. I mean here I was, a grown man with some money, why the hell can't I go check it out? But it is too early in the night for trouble so I decided to turn and walk away. What did I get for such an act of concession?? TWO bouncers started to come after me, trying to beat me up. I tried to fight them off a bit but there are two of them swinging their fist and I still can't get the "duck" timing right. so they cornered me and I couldn't run away. By this time I am getting annoyed, heck I didn't even set foot in their stupid club!! My health is in the red and I have no choice so I decided I really have to shoot them! See, this is how a decent man is forced into crime!! I was perfectly willing to just beat them up and leave but look what they did!! However, as soon as I pulled out my "piece" they screamed and ran away, leave me behind holding a pistol gaping like an idiot. AHA!! so that is how you get rid of people, I can see the advantages of this gun thing.... either that, or kungfu...

*omg, I am totally getting corrupted*

wow!

So I was browsing Rickey.org while waiting for AI results with Kungfucius. when I noticed they have this live blogging event post. So I clicked on it. and when you load the webpage, it is basically has a Twitter like interface but 100 times better. It's this software made by CoverItLive.com Rickey was blogging in real time, and all the guests can comment, and he can post pictures, and video and audio almost in real time and also throw out poll questions! This is amazing!! It even saves the entire event for a replay later if you like. I am constantly surprised by how far technology is progressing. just imaging, if this thing has a web interface for managing, and you have an iphone that can access internet anywhere. Basically you can be your own real time news show. You can see something happening, use your iphone to take pictures, video etc. then go on line, log into your CoverItLive, and do real time chats with audio/video. Now I know this is not groundbreaking technology or whatever, but it is still so freaking cool!!!

bring it on!

So I finally succumbed to the hype and bought GTA 4, much to the dismay of M. She keeps saying" why would I want to play a bad guy!!??". I really have no good response for her except assuring her that I will be the "good guy among bad guys". Kinda like Chow Yun Fat in mob movies you know? Actually that is my goal, to build East European immigrant Niko into the next Chow Yun Fat in Liberty City.

The game itself is actually incredibly well made. There is amazing amount of details in the city. The art, music and the atmosphere is all so well done. I am very impressed. They basically give you no manual to start the game except a city map. I assume they expect most people to already know what to do but it is all new to me since I haven't played the previous series. So I spent a long time just walking around, getting to know the layout and the movement. I thought the most annoying thing is the camera. It tends to zoom in and out really fast due to the angle you are at and it made me kind of dizzy. The most surreal thing that happened in the first 5 minutes is me sitting on sofa in my living room watching Niko sitting on a sofa in his living room watching a dingy tv with real tv programs ON MY tv!!. I spent about 10 minutes watching a documentary of the beginning of Liberty City although it was more like a mockumentary filled with sarcastic comments about the "morality" of the first settlers lol. Part of me want to just sit there and watch tv just to see how long of a program they actually included and when does it start recycling lol.

So anyway, in my attempt to stay good, I have been very careful not to become a indiscriminate killer. To the game's credit, every mission had a very good motivation and you don't feel like you are doing a bad thing while doing it. So after about 3 hours of play, here is the tally of my "accidental" bad deeds.

Broke umptee amount of lightpoles, garbage cans and various paper stands chasing loan sharks (mostly due to horrible driving skills)

Ran over a kid on a bicycle while I was on a date with this nice girl (she didn't say anything.. and that kid came out of NO WHERE!!! I actually felt kinda bad about that lol. )

Beat up some poor guy on the street corner just to test out the punching button.

Gotten chased by 50 police cars and a helicopter because I tried to "cross the bridge" on foot. How the hell am I suppose to know that I am not allowed to cross the bridge until I unlock certain missions.

Kinda trashed my cousin's taxi numerous times, basically after every mission. But really, he gets it back new at the next mission so that should be ok

oh yeah, I also refused to pay tolls over the bridge... I ran the gate thing :D That thing was $5!!! total ripoff!

See, that wasn't so bad right? I even refrained from robbing the laundry mat and the internet cafe even though a context menu popped up saying I could "press Y to open cash register..." -_-!!!

funny IM conversation with Snoopy

Here is a funny conversation Snoopy and I had earlier today (edited for clarity etc.)

Moonfleck: oh speaking of baby names
my coworkers is about to have a second child
his first child is a boy
and he is trying to think of a name for the second, but he doesn't know the sex
so he is going through this list for boy and girls
and he is Egyptian
so like his rules for names are :
1) it has to be Arabic name
2) it has to be pronounceable by Americans
3) it can't be any Christian themed
Snoopy:
lol
Moonfleck:
so I was like.. hmm so what is the name of your first boy
he was like :"Adam"
hahahahha
Snoopy:
wtf?
LOL
so these rules apparently didn't apply to the first son??
Moonfleck:
well apparently adam is arabic
Snoopy:
yeah but also Christian themed!!
Moonfleck:
yeah. I was like. um.. anybody that heard that name is gonna think Christian
Snoopy:
lol
Moonfleck:
and he was like. well it is Arabic name first
Snoopy:
.....
tell him if he has another son to name him osama
it's definitely Arabic, not Christian, and Americans DEFINITEly know how to pronounce it lol

where to buy?

So my cousin in China wants me to buy him Lenovo X61 notebook. I looked around, and the official site seems to have the lowest price. Any ideas where else would be cheaper?

a masterpiece

The other day, while I was at the soccer game. My friend got me a bottle of water from the foodstand. I finally finished drinking it today (yes I am a camel). So I was looking at the label out of boredom and it said, in very new age pretty blue font: "Jones Natural Artisan Water, not from the tap". What the hell does that mean? Is there such a thing as "unnatural water?" what would that be called? "irradiated mutated water"? I imagine the Jones company probably has a beautifully and lovingly crafted workshop in the back of their bottling factory filled with solemn elves carefully stacking hydrogen atoms onto oxygen atoms to create the most intricate patterns of water molecule designed to quench the thirst of even the most picky human. How else can it deserve the "artisan" description. and I certainly hope it wasn't directly from the tap since we probably paid 3 bucks for this fancy artisan water and I can get tap water for free!!

What is next? designer air?

Viva Mexico!

sorry about the picture quality, I took this using my phone.

I attended a soccer exhibition game at Qwest stadium on Wednesday. The games are part of the Mexico tour 2008. It is China vs. Mexico that day. Now I am not really a big soccer fan but my friend wanted to check it out so I went. Have to cheer on the national team! The traffic was absolutely horrible that day. We were stuck on the bridge for 2 and a half hours even though we left 2 hours before kickoff. So we ended up missing the first half. Stupid soccer game with no time stoppage lol.

While we were stuck on the bridge, I was amazed by how many Mexican soccer fans there were. We were surrounded by a sea of cars with green flags waving. They honked all the way from east end to west end. I saw plates from California and Oregon. It was pretty cool to see all these people coming up to support the Mexican team. Although it made traffic unbearable. The most funny thing I saw was a jeep with its roof down and a guy sitting in it wearing this humongous sombrero screaming at the top of his lungs. I swear I was the only Chinese person for miles around and I imagined they all looked at me with disdain as our car inched past hahaha (j/k).

So after we finally got to the stadium, I was completely flabbergasted at the amount of people. The entire football stadium was completely filled. The energy and excitement was so palpable. It is like one giant party. There were so many Mexican soccer fans there that they announced the entire game in Spanish, not even bother with English. I saw one tiny section of Chinese soccer fans waiting the red flag in vain,completely being overwhelmed by a sea of green haha. The seats we got was smack dab in the middle of nowhere so I kept my head down. Now I have never been to a real soccer game so everything was new to me. Apparently there is this habit of throwing paper airplanes down to the field. I don't really know how people was suppose to run around on there without tripping over 500 paper airplanes. What weird habits! lol.

In the end, Mexico won 1:0 against China. This is a good thing as I avoided getting beat up by 52,000 angry soccer fans hahaha. It was quite inspiring how everybody came together to support the home team. I swear the entire hispanic population of Seattle was there at the game.

Just a side note, apparently Seattle is applying for permission to start a professional soccer team, the Seattle Sounders. This ought to be fun if it happens. I can start at the beginning and actually get to know the teams. Also, this means Beckham may visit someday hahah!

AI top7 review

I am actually surprised that Idol didn't have a Mariah Carey night before. Her repertoire is choked full of bombastic ballads that are perfect for this show. I thought everyone did really great tonight (yes even Kristy sigh). The songs were able to showcase their vocals as well as their diversity. I can't put them into categories tonight because everyone did well. At this point, I am willing to go for a top 3 all male showdown though. I thought all three guys were really different and lovely in their own way. All three of them will be able to have a good career.

In order of performance:

David Archuleta: Really good choice of a song and sang it really well. I think he eats ballads like this for breakfast. Probably have been singing the same kind of songs since he was 5. He is totally going to be the next male Hannah Montana haha. The only thing is I don't think he is used to singing R&B runs. The runs were kinda forced and unnatural. He is definitely safe either way.

Carly Smithson- Btw, Clay sang it better. just FYI haha. Carly's vocals were as brilliant as always. I feel like the judges were way harsh. They are trying to influence the votes maybe. I think Carly was handicapped by a bad arrangement of the song. It climaxed too quickly, forcing her to scream through half of it. She should have done a quiet second verse before going for the second climax and go all out.

Syesha Mercado-I have no criticism for her. This is about as perfect as you can do on AI. She is just not as big of a personality as the rest of them. I am pretty sure she can't win regardless.

Brook Whites- OMG, who in the world did the arrangement for this song? First of all, it was WAY WAY too fast. Brook can barely get all the words out, and then the piano raced to the end, forcing her to play catch up thereby making it even worse. She was totally screwed by the song arrangement. Poor Brook

Kristy Lee Cook- I am guessing the hotness law still applies here. She definitely had the worst vocals of the night, but even that was tolerable. I am saddened to say we will probably sit through another week of her painful warble.

David Cook- Ok, I think he is being overhyped now. It was an original version of that song but he hardly sang it well. He was slightly offkey the entire song. He does have amazing stage presence though. That will really make an impression on the audience. He is untouchable at this point. The judges treats him like he already won anyway so I think he is a shoo in for #1 or #2. I also think he does the modern rock thing totally well but his voice is so nondescriptive. Would I be able to tell him apart from Daughtry, or 3 doors down or Nickleback when he is on the radio?

Jason Castro - Ok, I think Jason is going to be my pet favorite. I know Kung is not into him at all haha. But I just really like him for his confidence and his calmness on stage. He knows who he is and he is totally comfortable in his skin. He really sings well too despite of not having a really projecting voice. I loved all the songs he sang so far. If he puts out a CD right now I would go out and buy it haha.

so bottom 3: Carly, Brook and Syesha

Kick off: Brook ( I am just not sure people have abandoned Carly yet)

the greenhouse effect

No, I am not talking about the global climate crisis. The "Greenhouse Effect" refers to an amazing natural phenomenon that happens in our office during sunny days. Not many people have experienced it, and without our green bowl of goodness we might have never noticed. But it happened and I was left with the crazy result :(

So My officemate Kirason and I share a small corner office that has 8 window panes. We also have 4 monitors, 2 xbox and 7 PCs in the room. So on a good sunny day, it is regularly 80 degrees there. I am constantly surprised that no motherboard has melted yet. And having tropical plants is a constant topic of discussion. Now normally this is mitigated by the awesome AC system that keeps us sane. However, on a weekend, there is no such luxury. Now this brings me to the other part of this equation: We also have a candy bowl in our office filled with various chocolate goodies that people have dropped off to keep it full. This is terrible for me but I will talk about that later.

This past Saturday, a fluke happened and we had a beautiful sunny day where the temperature shot up to the 80s. This made for a really pleasant day at the lake but something horrible has happened in our office. Now you know where this is going:

80 degree weather + 8 windows + no AC + 7 PC + bowl of chocolate candy = something HORRIBLE!! DUN DUN DUN!!!

Of course, this all happened when we were out enjoying the weather, so coming in today, I opened up an left over Easter chocolate egg, and noticed it was a weird sandy color, which you must admit is weird for chocolate candy. I was very suspicious but ate it anyway. It tasted fine although really hard for chocolate candy. So this is what I inferred.
80 degree weather + 8 windows + no AC + 7 PC + bowl of chocolate candy = something HORRIBLE

something HORRIBLE + AC on Monday = melted and re-solidified chocolaty weirdness

QED.

Since Kirason has a strong aversion to anything chocolaty, I guess I have to eat these abominations of nature :D

AI review top 8

Wow, I didn't write anything all week lol. oh well, here is review again through Rickey, but this time he had judge reviews on so I figure I should be alright. First of all, American Idol people!! when I said last week that there are too many back up vocalists, it is NOT an excuse to bring in a choir!!!! this is getting ridiculous. I thought most people did ok this week. They all picked very nice songs so it is hard for me to hate any of them. I am going out on a limb right now and say the top 2 is gonna be between David Cook and David Archuleta. They are obviously the judge favorite and ahead in fans. It is going to be the battle of the Davids!! haha

Good
Jason Castro- ok, I am TOTALLY biased because I flove this song so he can do no wrong. I also think it is so funny how he can be so Hawaiian when he is from Texas. It is like some weird genetic mutation haha.

David Cook - Ok I think this song is way too difficult for him to sing in a competition. But he has so much charisma and so much stage presence cmobined with the ultimate confidence that he has million fans so he pulled it off anyway. While he was up there, it might as well be the David Cook concert instead of AI. I think his career is pretty much set.

David Archuleta: I am also biased because this is also one of my favorite songs by Robbie Williams. I thought he sang it very well but the piano playing really dampened his singing. If he dindn't have to play, he would have sounded so much more smooth and beautiful. I don't think it lost him votes though as piano players always get points for impressiveness.

Mediocre

Syesha - Ok I actually thought she sang this song very well. The anonymous choir really did a good job too. But you just DO NOT sing the victory song from a previous contestant because you would never be able to capture the emotional intensity of the song and will always pale by comparison. Like I would totally laugh if anybody tried to sing This Is The Night because it will just sound stupid. So bad song choice for Syesha.

Michael Johns - Rocker lbahblha.. Rocker... anything else? He is not doing his best to distinguish himself from David Cook, and David Cook is pulling far far ahead by being unique.

Brook White - very pretty pleasant song. I think she was a little nervous so alot of the happy and serene quality of the song was lost.

BAAAAD
Carly Smithson - Totally butchered one of the best Queen songs. She is not one of these rocker chicks (she got kicked off already). THis song is way too difficult for her to master in such a short time and it was just horrible. Carly's strong points are her beautiful voice and experience and this song takes advantage of neither.

Kristy Cook - I was just complainingto my friend how bad she was. Now my friend, who is a guy has never watched the show or Kristy so he has no idea what is going on. After hearing my whining, he asked the all important question:" is she hot?". And after perusing very closely, I hate to admit, yes, Kristy is indeed very very hot. and there you go. It explains everything.

Bottom 3: Carly, Michael Jones and Syesha (Since Kristy is never going to get kicked off haha)

kicking off: hmm this is a difficult one, I think Carly will stay and I am always wrong about Syesha, so lets go with Michael Jones haha.

AI review

Ok it is that time of the week again. I was playing badminton last night so I did not get to see the show, and watching the recording is just not the same. So this is again via Rickey.org. Learning from last week, it is pretty dangerous predicting public opinion without hearing the Judges' input so we will see how I do this week.

Here is a couple of thoughts first about Dolly Parton week. I don't really like Dolly Parton at all. She sings with this southern twang and she really is like the character she plays in Steel Magnolia, which is a creatures as foreign to me as aliens from Mars. Having said that, I never realized what great songs she has sung over the years. I liked almost all of the songs the contestants chose. It is to her credit that even most of the contestant didn't sing in a country style the song still sounded wonderful. The second thing is I thought all the contestants made really good choice in their song and presentation. I am sure that is also because of Dolly's coaching and advice. I think having her there really helped everybody with their craft.

I also think they are going overboard with the live musicians and the backup vocals. I know it makes for better performance on TV but you can make anyone sound better with the right backup vocals and acoustic guitars. It is masking the contestant's real voice.

The GOOD:
David Archuleta - This kid really has a very beautiful voice! He picked a good song that suits his personality as opposed to that crazy song last week. For sure on top!

Carly Smithson -I just want to mention this song is on Clay's album haha. I think this is the first song in 3 weeks that really showcased her superior vocals. Having said that, I just can't like her for some reason. I feel she doesn't project any warmth and empathy. But gotta give props when props are due (to quote Randy)

Michael Johns/David Cook- another great rocking performance, but they better be careful, at the rate they are going, I wouldn't be able to tell who is who pretty soon. They have similar sounds and they are starting to look more and more alike. and they will start to split votes from the rocker fans. I think David Cook will have the advantage though since he is a more exciting character than the mellow Michael (plus his falsetto is so lovely!). But personally I like Michael's more mature, calming style. There is just so much angst in the younger rockers.

Middle of the Pack
Syesha Mercado - This song has been done to death!! She gets negative points for taking the easy way out. It was a mediocre, unmemorable performance too. That is the problem with Syesha, she is so unmemorable even though she has a great voice. When the field narrows, she will easily be forgotten.

Jason Castro - Finally!! a song with some speed! I thought this is a perfect song for him. The mood, the lyrics and the arrangement really fit Jason's personality. I just wish he has a LITTLE bit more energy to get the crowd going.

Brooke White - I thought she sang this song pretty well, But she kinda lack the same thing Jason does: Energy! This is a song about protecting your guy, don't sing it like a lullaby!! :D

The Terrible
Kristy Lee Cook - She is in my default bottom list haha, I am going to keep putting her there until she gets elimnated

Ramiele Malubay - I thought she did the worst this week, she wasn't able to stay on pitch for so many parts of that song it was sad.

Bottom 3: Kristy, Ramiele, Syesha
Eliminated: Ramiele