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Football Pool - July 31, 2006

I'll be hosting my football pool over at Roto Mojo again this year. It is a "pick'em" type of pool, where you simply pick 12 games, ranking the teams from 12 to 1 (no point spread), and get that many points if they win. $60 entry fee - everybody's invited.

Easy game you say? The catch is that you pick one game as a "bonus". If your team wins you get double the assigned points. Miss it and get negative assigned points. 2nd catch is that the team you pick against has to have a .500 or better record - no getting rich by betting against the 49ers each week.

I'm going to institute a tie-breaker this year that you can choose to play or not. The first tie breaker is the number of games picked correctly. 10 for 12 with 85 points beats 9 for 12 with 85 points. That's always the way it's been. This year, I'm going to allow you to pick the games you are not assigning points to (usually 4 or 5 games) and record those picks. The one who picks the most games correctly wins the second tie-breaker. If you choose to not pick those games you'll get a zero and lose the tie-breaker to someone who did.

Just about all fees are returned back to players in winnings. Each week the high scorer gets $75. Depending on the number of players, we'll probably pay the top 20 scorers at the end of the season. First place got $500 last year.

Registration is open. Go to the site and sign up for this year's league. If you played last year than you simply need to login. If you are new there is a registration form. The Smack Exchange is open. The NFL schedule is not in but will be finalized this week. Other than a few minor tweaks, the sites ready to go.

#  | 03:04 PM |  Comments Closed (0)  |  (Tags: General)

Flying - July 31, 2006

I don't think it's a secret that I've always wanted to learn how to fly. Due to varying combinations of time, money, family, I've never explored it further than dreaming. I love going to airports, and try to make a monthly trip to our local airpark for their monthly pancake breakfast fly-in.

I'm always interested in pilot stories - either amateur of professional. I've recently just run across (via ORBlogs -a consolidation of blogs written by Oregonians) a blog written by a professional pilot - Ancient Pelican and have been browsing his archives.

Today he wrote and entry titled Bad Day at the Office. As you might guess, it's a fabulous story of a challenging day in the cockpit of his airplane. And I would suppose that for a professional pilot, a challenging day in the cockpit, is not a good day.

This is a great story.

#  | 01:22 PM |  Comments Closed (0)  |  (Tags: General)

Rockstar: Week 4 - July 26, 2006

Here's my wrap up of this week's shows.

Lukas - does "Bittersweet Symphony". I really seems like this guy is really struggling get the vocals out. What's with the guitar? He didn't play it until the last 20 seconds.

Zayra's definitely here for eye candy - not her singing skills - I really like the song - "Call Me" from Blondie, but for Zayra, all I can say is "Mute button".

Dana gets stuck with another Nirvana tune - "About a Girl" with the soft blue lights and the acoustics. She's trying to to "dirty it up", but it just doesn't seem to fit her look. A nice stretch for her and it was done pretty well.

Patrice is doing "Some Remedy" by the Black Crowes - now this is a song that Josh should have done..... But she did it well.

Toby kicks out "White Wedding" and actually shows some weakness vocally I thought.

Magni does Bowie's "Heroes" and I think is trying to show some versatility with the vocal performance and really does it well. A nice change for him.

Ryan is doing "I Alone", a nice tune. He struggled a little in the beginning in the low ranges, but got much better and put a lot of show into the performance.

Jill's singing a Stones song "Brown Sugar". Something about that performance didn't work for me. I think the key was too low or something. meh.

Phil's up next does "One Headlight" He's not impressed me yet and this didn't do anything to change that perception. Not awful, just odd.

Dilana's going to do Cindy Lauper's "Time After Time". She's got a breathy, deep voice - a torch singer with an edge. She did it really nicely, not "Scary".... a nice change.

Josh is doing a Blind Melon song, "No Rain". Last week Supernova criticized his stage act - seems as though he's not really taken their advice. He's a good singer, just not a Rockstar.

Storm Large is back with "Anything, Anything". She does stalk the stage like a hunter, but did she hit the notes?

* * * * *

Bottom three? Zayra, Zayra, and Zayra. I guess I can't do that. So, add Phil and Josh.

Best? Probably Dilana, although Storm's performance got a lot of accolades.

The Elimination Show

I'll not comment on the witty banter and the mansion junk - bleh.

Storm does the encore, only marginally better than last night.

First of the bottom three is Patrice. She does "My Iron Lung" from Radiohead. I don't know the song, but it seemed to suit her well. She stuck it. Should be safe.

Next up is Zayra doing "Not an Addict", another song I don't think I've ever heard. And I think her phrasing was off which made the song sound really off. Boring. She's got to be gone.

Phil hits the bottom 3 appropriately. "Smoking Umbrellas" he does. I'm sure I've never heard that one - I don't think Supernova has either. I hope I never have to again. Fast forward.

The sad thing is that after watching those three, only one of them will be dumped and we could be subjected to either Phil or Zayra for another week.

And they dump Phil. Zayra survives another week. Unbelievable.

This really reek's of "production". I'm not so naive that I think that there is any "reality" in reality TV, but most of the time, and I watch Survivor and The Amazing Race, the "production" is pretty well masked. This show is really displaying the influence of folks behind the scenes. Zayra's nice looking, has a bit of sass in her interaction with the band, and apparently, the producers believe that she makes good TV.

I'm not going to give up on the show, because I think it can only get better as it progresses. I missed the early shows last year so I don't know if it was so transparent last year. But frankly, I'm a little upset that it's "reality" aspect is seriously up in smoke.

#  | 09:09 PM |  Comments Closed (0)  |  (Tags: Tv)

Rockstar: Week 3 - July 25, 2006

I finally got around to getting to last week's show - as this weeks show was being recorded... Here's my wrapup...

After a little montage of the girls getting catty about their song selections...

Patrice does "Helter Skelter"...not bad, but missed a bunch of notes.

Josh does "Come as You Are" acoustically. His spin on the tune is different due to his unusual vocal style.

Storm does "Just What I Needed". This is really an odd song for the show. I loved it in High School, and still know all the words. But is it a rock song in the Supernova style? She did ok, a little pitchy in places, and I can't say I was impressed overall. Tommie seems a little flustered by her - a girl his age for sure.

Lukas does "Let's Spend The Night Together" by the Stones. Now here's a rendition of the song that is different in a good way - very rocky and dark. This guy is dark for sure and is definitely trying to be "the" guy for this band. But while he may look the part, I don't think he's got the vocal skills.

Jill does "Alright Now" and did it very well I thought.

Brian comes with "Fortunate Son" and shows a good amount of energy in delivering the tune. I think that his vocal style was stretched on the song, and I'm not sure this guy goes much further.

Phil does "White Rabbit" with Jason on bass. This guy's a bit of a spaz on stage, and can't hit the high notes. oy. Not a good vocal at all, and frankly - his stage act is a little odd.

Dana sings "It's My Life" and she's trying to show some rock, and does it all through the facial expressions rather than the performance. And for the first time she shows some really pitch weakness.

Toby's version of "Runaway Train" leaves me a little bored.

Magni works a STP tune with sunglasses pretty well vocally, the performance was pretty good, sheltered a little, but came out well with the song.

Zayra does an REM song - "Everybody Hurts". Why is this girl still here? I can't believe the band liked her gig. I thought her pitch was brutal.

Next up is "Drive" by Jenny acoustically. Is her guitar oversized? It looks huge, but this girl is so skinny she looks like a microphone stand rather than a singer. Her pitch was off, boring performance though.

Dilana does "Zombie"... Appropriate because she just might be one. Weird performance - I don't think I really liked it. While last year the prospect of a woman fronting INXS was almost laughable, for Supernova, it just could happen. Dilana definitely has the look - but I think here vocals are really limited.

* * * * *

My bottom three this week is: Zayra (again), Jenny and Dana - with Phil really close.

Best of the night... probably Magni, with Jill a close 2nd.

The Elimination Show

The band asked Magni to do the encore - a good choice I thought.

Jill does a hard rock song, "Vaseline", with a great show, but her vocals sucked. I had to fast forward through it.

Dana is up next and does an obscure song "High Road Easy". This is really a song that shows her vocal skills and a rock side of Dana we haven't seen yet. Very nice.

In a surprise, Josh is in the bottom three. He does "Heart Shaped Box". Not a great stage performance from him considering he's singing for his life here.

--------------

This should be pretty easy choice for the band - and they made the right one to dump Jenny - at least out of these three performances.

Zayra still needs to go.

#  | 09:40 PM |  Comments Closed (0)  |  (Tags: Tv)

RockStar Week 3 - Unwatched Still - July 24, 2006

I'm still planning on getting to last week's shows. They are still recorded on my Tivo box and will likely watch them in the next day or so. I've kept myself in the dark so I don't know who was in the bottom three.

I'm sure the worldwide web was really worried about my opinion.

#  | 11:40 AM |  Comments Closed (0)  |  (Tags: Tv)

Rockstar: Week 2 - July 11, 2006

After last week's show, I hope we see the contestants take some of the comments to heart and really rock it up this week.

Magni's up first with the Who's, My Generation. A good way to start the show. A high energy song that he did well. He reminds me somewhat of Rob Halford from the old Judas Priest. Tommie Lee didn't like it, but gave nearly no real valuable feedback.

Jenny's doing Softcell's Tainted Love. No guitar this week which should allow her to focus on the singing. An interesting arrangement of the song to start out slow and build up to something harder. Odd vibrato on her voice - almost Willie Nelsonish, and she seemed to miss some notes. Navarro told her to go eat a sandwich- HA!

Jill, did Hole's Violet, and costumed with a skanky bridal miniskirt and some roses - definitely trying to channel Courtney Love. The guys snickered at the first impression. A screaming performance that's not impressing anybody. Some really bad notes in there and the guys called her on it. She's a better singer than this, and this might be a really bad choice for her.

Zayra came next. She sang really poorly last week, this week we get the Kink's You Really Got Me. This is really an odd chick for this competition. She doesn't seem to understand what this Rockstar show is looking for, which Gilbey mentioned. She also admitted she had only "heard" of the three guys - obviously not knowing what kind of music they do. Some casting person obviously let their eyes do the casting, and not their ears or their brains. Even the other contestants seem to be laughing at her.

Chris sings Take me Out by France Ferdinand. I don't think I know this tune, but what's with this guys annunciation? I just hate his singing style.

Scary Dilana, sings a really pretty neat arrangement of Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire. I think her voice is as low as Johnny's. But her voice seemed almost drowned out by the band. Others had this comment from last week.

Josh does Creed's Arm's Wide Open, a great song with lots of emotion. But he takes the Christina/Mariah approach and trys to put even more emotion in it, and overdoes it. Not bad, but I think if he had done it more straight it would have been better.

Phil does Tonic's, If You Could Only See. I think he sang it pretty well but he still looks a little awkward on stage.

Storm - Surrender by Cheap Trick. Her voice really started out hollow, and really didn't finsh that well. Navarro really nailed with he said something like "I want you to have character, not be a character."

Patrice was next, singing Nirvana's Heart Shaped Box, and playing a guitar - why I have no idea. I thought she could have done much better on the stage with that song than being handcuffed by the axe. For me she was just average after killing last week.

Scary Lukas sings Coldplay's Don't Panic, a more subdued tune, to show of his other side. He looks the rocker part, like he's Tommie Lee's little brother.

Ryan's doing the Jumpin Jack Flash, a song that does the same melody over and over. Doesn't seem like a good song to see if a singer has much talent. His rendition is very painful - trying really to scream it out where it doesn't work.

Dana does Born to Be Wild, and boy she really sang it. She's got a big voice but is it a rock voice?

Toby is doing the Killers, Somebody Told Me. A good song to show some rock talent and some range and he did it pretty well.

My favorite was probably Toby, followed closely by Dilana. The bottom three should be Zayra, Chris and Jill.

#  | 10:40 PM |  Comments Closed (0)  |  (Tags: Tv)

Rockstar: Week 1 Elimination - July 10, 2006

I'm a little late getting this posted, but when Matt said he was going to do "Duran Duran", I knew he was a goner. The performance was ok, but even "rockin it up", Planet Earth was totally underwhelming.

The worst performer of the week - Chris - did The Doors LA Woman, and did it nicely. Pete did a song I didn't recognize, and wasn't that good either. But both survived the first week.

I'd hazard a guess they won't last long though.

#  | 10:35 PM |  Comments Closed (0)  |  (Tags: Tv)

Rockstar: Supernova Premiere - July 06, 2006

Rockstar: Supernova - the newest incarnation of the best reality show on TV - premiered last night. I missed the beginning of last season so when I heard it would be back I set the Tivo to hunt it down and immediately got my season pass. If you haven't seen the show, it's a singing competition like American Idol, but with a much harder rock vibe. The judges are a band that have agreed to hire the winner as their new singer. Last year the Band was INXS, who's lead singer killed himself. This year the band is a new group made up of notables from other bands - Tommie Lee from Motley Crue, the former bass player from Metalica, and Gilbey formerly of Guns and Roses.

In general, the ladies did well, and the men were not very impressive.

Here's my roundup - first the ladies in order of my preference:

1. Patrice Pike did “Somebody To Love". This was the first person of the night that made me go "whoa".

2. Dana Andrews went with Melissa Etheridge’s “I’m The Only One.” Proclaimed as the baby of the group and very cute. Did very well with the piece.

3. Jill Gioia did “Piece of My Heart” by Janis Joplin. Lots of hair and a great singing voice. She blew one note at the end with a scream, but other than that was very good.

4. Storm Large did the Who’s “Pinball Wizard.” This woman is a local so I hope she does well. But while she did a good job with the tune, I wonder about her long term viability against the others, who I though were better singers.

5. Dilana sang Nirvana's “Lithium.” This woman is unusual looking - tattoos, piercings, hair coloring. And a very deep scratchy voice. Well suited to the song and to the competition. She sang the song completely still and haunting - until the last 30 seconds where she bounced uncontrollably, almost in a punk frenzy.

6. Jenny Galt went with Nickleback’s “How You Remind Me.” Played guitar while singing, but didn't sing that well.

7. Zayra Alvarez tried an Evanescence song — “Bring Me To Life’ — and missed every note. She's a latin stunner, but must sing much better to continue.

So, 5 of the 7 women did a fine job.

For the boys, there is not nearly as much good to say.

1. Josh Logan did the Black Crowes’ “She Talks With Angels.” This guy sang very well and took an interesting approach to the tune. I like the voice, and it will be interesting to see how he performs going forward.

2. Ryan Star went with the Goo Goo Doll’s “Iris,” and while seemingly did the song well, it didn't really excite me. Odd song choice to start the competition.

3. Lukas Ross wrapped up with Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell.” Visually, this guy is the male equivalent to Dilana - tattoos, piercings, hair. He did the song well, but doesn't really look like a rock star - more of a punk or glam rock star.

4. Toby Rand did “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” acoustically. Once again, to sing a slow song, especially acoustically as your opener - seems like not a great choice. He also played his guitar while singing, and while this is nice from a talent perspective, the first show should be all about showing how you ROCK, not how talented you are.

5. Magni is the dude from Iceland sang the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction.” This guy might be interesting, but the song choice didn't show any skills. He did it fine enough, but he looked bored doing it.

6. Matt Hoffer did Cold Play’s “Yellow.” Not a great display of talent on the whole. He missed notes and just simply doesn't look the part.

7. Phil Ritchie did Living Colors’ “Cult of Personality”. Bad choice of song, not done that well, and here's another guy that just doesn't look the part of a rockstar.

8. Chris Pierson murdered The Police’s “Roxanne.” Here is another case where the performer tried to show off talents. He re-arranged the song - poorly. Easily the worst performance of the night. I couldn't even stand to listen to the voice because the arrangement was so unusual.

So, based on my judging, the bottom three will be Zayra, Phil, and Chris - with Chris getting booted.

#  | 10:41 PM |  Comments Closed (0)  |  (Tags: Tv)

Last Minute Deadpool Drudgery v2 - July 05, 2006

In the extended entry, are the last three of my 2nd quarter DP entries, saved here for nothing other than posterity.

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#  | 01:55 PM |  Comments Closed (0)  |  (Tags: Webdesign)

Last Minute Deadpool Drudgery - July 05, 2006

Posting Deadpool entries has been a chore. The rules say I have to blog about my picks once each quarter - about 1 per week. But in classic style, I procrastinate until the last minute. I did 7 entries over the course of the last three days of the quarter, all of which were lost in the see of crappy postings that other procrastinators provided. In the extended entry, are 4 of those entries, saved here for nothing other than posterity.

Show the rest of the story...

#  | 01:46 PM |  Comments Closed (0)  |  (Tags: Webdesign)