Tuesday, May 02, 2006
American Idol - The Guys Rule
It was tough not coming right into the office to write about American Idol as soon as it ended, but then there was House - and ooh, they actually lost a patient and especially broke out of the more traditional mystery illness of the week - and there was the tape of Gilmore Girls. Finally, here I am.
What an episode. It’s going to be a contest between Katharine slipping that badly and being the hands down worst of the night, and the anti-Paris sentiment that she has evaded so remarkably. Not to mention the common feature whereby someone with an unexpected good performance - for them - gets voted off that week. Plus Katharine can’t go; she’s one of the annointed. But it’s clear, if nothing else, the guys won the night and none of them will be leaving.
Last week I joked to Deb that Taylor should do Play That Funky Music, which as I recally horrified Deb, and of course seemed too surreal to be possible. I was kidding. Today I saw alleged spoilers on the newsgroup claiming knowledge of the songs being performed tonight, and it freaked me out to see that there. Of course, the list had to be wrong, since Something was on the list, and that was a Beatles song - ah, but apparently it’s not “Beatles” so much as the Lennon/McCartney collection that’s off limits - as well as not current. But wait, there are all kinds of crazy things on some Billboard chart or another, so it and the entire rest of the spoiler list proved true.
Elliot has sprouted a personality and broken his mold, or at least bent it, doing an excellent rendition of the George Benson cover of On Broadway. I found it entertaining, and for the first time felt I’d want to see him perform or maybe hear his album. I had no such urge before, no matter how good his voice (and this is Kat’s big problem, maybe more so). On his second song, something about wanting to go home, I joked about not asking to go home, channeling Simon in advance. Again, more expressive, sincere, well done.
Paris did a Prince song alien to me that worked when it ought not have. She also hit the entertaining button. The second song suited her, also worked pretty well, and didn’t bore or turn me off, even if I am not in the market demographic. I think her future is assured, and would be even without being from a musical family.
Renegade is one of my favorite Styx songs, from the year I graduated high school, and one I have seen performed live by the original artist. Chris just nailed it. My notes simply say “wow!” A shame it was truncated. Easily the best performance of the night so far. His second song, I Dare You, made me think of the lead singer of The Calling during the first lines. I liked it, but it did get a bit shouty and strained; no surprise his voice is going. The sound could be shouty and remain compelling though, so he loses nothing having a good performance on top of an outstanding one.
Phil Collins is hardly my favorite, but against All Odds is an okay song that Katharine should have been able to handle, yet butchered instead. As one of the judges said, it “ran away from you.” It was the first lousy performance of the night, and the only one of the first set. She recovered some for her second number, bizarrely performed on her knees, with unclear lyrics. She was having serious diction trouble tonight. It sounded like the song could have been catchy in better hands. Having the worst and arguably the second worst performance tonight could mean so long for Katharine, but she has an inexplicable fan base, and has whatever propulsion TPTB annointment can convey. It will be between her and Paris, and frankly on this week’s performances only, Paris edges her out for another chance. This has to mean Paris is gone tomorrow.
Taylor gets huge points for making Play That Funky Music work for him and pulling off a great performance. It fit his abilities and his style wonderfully. This is the kind of thing that explains Taylor fandom, thought you still have to be pretty die hard to have ignored - or from what we’ve seen at other blogs, grossly misheard - some of his rock bottoms of other weeks. Finally. Elvis does George Harrison, passably and with his own style rather than making it worse by playing straight. Ballsy. (What’s a ballsy?) I hated the embellishment at the end, where he did something approximating his “woooo!” routine. Maybe that was my problem with Taylor; my first exposure going something like “and he shall be Levon - WOOOO! - and he shall be a good man - WOOOO!” That’s enough to turn off anyone with an appreciation of music and music-like sounds. But I digress.
Clear bottom is Katharine. Top is arguably between Chris and Taylor, probably depending on fannish predisposition or preconception. Elliot is very close to those two, this time, and Paris trails him but exceeds Kat. Paris is likely toast.
Now to go see what other blogs had to say…
Happy Birthday
To Deb’s grandmother, Dorothy.
Happy Birthday
To my old friend and blogger ”running_girl4."
Well That Was Fun
It turns out that there are two circuit breakers for the wall outlets in the kitchen. One of them has the microwave, toaster oven and DSL modem on it, we learned today. Oops.
It was deja vu back to Quincy, when the entire apartment was on two circuit breakers, and the microwave could not be run at the same time as the toaster oven or, well, much else, so I had it plugged in via the living room to the other circuit.
Deb was making stuff in both cooking venues at once and they died. At first we though that ohmygod the microwave had decided to die the very same day I hooked up the replacement DVD player Deb’s father sent us (woohoo, thanks!). Nope. Just a circuit breaker tied to disparate outlets.
Then the interwebs were down…
Oops, the DSL modem plugs in under the kitchen table, apparently on the same circuit. Doh. So I did all the normal troubleshooting. I rebooted the modem, the router, the computers. I shut them all down in correct order and brought them back up carefully. I flushed the DNS cache with ipconfig. I checked the router settings. I eventually used Verizon’s diagnostic tools and they told me to call.
Spent almost half an hour on the phone with a pleasant young man of modest technical skill but lots of company resources and English easily understood through his Indian accent. He made sure I knew about FiOS being available here, as expected. We had decided we’d wait to try the fiber optic; let it get better established.
The trick was to reset the DSL modem, not reset as in reboot, but as in using the little recessed button that returns the unit to factory settings. We logged onto it, gave it user and password info and basically I was online with no further fuss.
I still have to return to using the router so Deb’s computer has the world wide interwebnets too, but what a relief to be back online and not have to replace the modem. Yay.
Online Integrity
Via Glenn Reynolds, this Online Integrity Statement of Principles makes sense to me, and as far as I can recall is something I have always inherently followed.
I see no reason not to be counted in. Especially as one of those who sought pseudonymity initially, and still is largely identified that way.
Plumbing
We have a plumbing problem that’s annoying yet seems so minor I hate to bother the landlord with it if it’s a five minute fiddle to solve.
The tub has one of those levers you flip down to open and up to close the drain, through whatever chutes and levers mechanism involved.
It won’t stay down, and therefore won’t drain.
You flip the lever down, feeling like you’re pulling up a massive weight in the process, and it glides back up to a middle or slightly upward, and mostly closed, position with all deliberate speed. Is that the same as saying rapidly inexorable? *Shrug*
So what causes this? Is the business end down in the drain so gunked with stuff its weight is a factor? So we just need some drain cleaner? Or is there something worn or maladjusted in the lever mechanism?
Thought I would throw it out here, as someone is bound to know, without my even calling or e-mailing my father, siblings, nephew, or uncle.
Easter Egg Hunt Sampler
These are just the start of the pictures from Sunday’s Easter Egg hunt/cookout at my grandmother’s house. The upper right corner of the first picture shows part of the shed that was Sadie’s prime target when she could be dissuaded from exploring the street. After all, there are tools, cool old parts, old nails, and other dangerous things in and around the shed! What red blooded future engineer wouldn’t be fascinated? Ah, I just noticed it’s also in the background, more like the upper left, of the third picture too.
The sandbox was a great relief, as she thought it was Best Thing Ever and played intently for an extended time. To the exclusion of things like wanting to have any food, as well as testing her ability to withstand direct hits by moving vehicles. I was a little concerned when she eventually decided it would be fun to pour sand all over herself, but hey. I think my sister said she has an old sandbox we can have if we want it, which is just a matter of making sure nobody else here objects to it in the yard.
The other kid in the sandbox is her cousin Alicia.
Sadie
I’ve been thinking about a post about Sadie’s borderline autism becoming increasingly apparent and frustrating. About how she’s in her own world and that leads to one-sided exchanges like “Sadie. Sadie. Saaadie. Sadie! SADIE! Saaaadieeee. Sadie, you need to learn your own damn name.” About how little trouble there has ever been with toddlers trying to exit my grandmother’s huge lawn in favor of the street, between all the better places to go, the apparent inherent clarity of the boundary, and not having to be told more than a couple times, so now comes Sadie being obsessed with making a beeline into the street. Over and over and over. Eventually I explained to her the concept of being smooshed by a car and how it was dangerous, as if she could understand, but the street-mothing trailed off after that. She does the same here, where if you put her down she will run the entire length of the long driveway in a flash. At the office it’s the parking lot she favors over the sidewalks and grass, though there was a day she discovered the steps from the parking lot to the street and wanted to go that way. About how funny she is with people, especially larger groups or any who do not fit her mental image of what or who should be in a given spot, like on the elevator when the door opens. About how we didn’t realize just how different Sadie was until Valerie came along. About how frustrating it is that she understands almost everything we say, can say almost anything she wants, but refuses to talk to any meaningful degree.
Then she does something like what she did last night, where her own agenda, intelligence, and sense of what’s right and timely charms us all over again.
We have had a toddler bed in her room for months, all setup and ready to go. You may recall the story of how she actively ignored the new bed when we first set it up, instead of being fascinated as expected. She had absolutely no interest in sleeping in it, sticking to her crib. It was almost as if she preferred the security of being enclosed. She also freaked and wouldn’t sleep in her crib the first night the bed was in her room, though that may have been unrelated.
She eventually started climbing on her new bed, and developed a distinction between “bed” and “crib.” That came out yesterday when Deb had her pick clean sheets for “her bed” and she picked yellow, then carried them to the bed, not the crib.
They stayed there and eventually it was bed time. Instead of carrying her to the crib as usual, she was loose. She followed me into the room, went over to her bed leaned onto it and hugged the sheets that were waiting to be installed. Awww. So Deb asked her if she wanted to sleep in her big girl bed and put on the yellow sheets. We gave her a blanket and left her laying on the bed.
After the door was closed and light was off, she came over and made a token protest at the door, then got back on the bed and crashed.
Just like that. When it was time, it was time, and she decided. It wouldn’t surprise me if she asks to sleep in the crib again before settling in for good, as she did once with the highchair, but generally once she decides, that’s it. Good timing, too, as we were on the verge of getting a new crib for Val, on the idea Sadie would never give hers up.
This is what will probably happen with potty training and talking. It’s what happened with weaning; she just decided it was time and stopped. It’s what happened with solid foods. She declared herself a babyfood-free zone. Even the bit with the pear last week; how long until I might have decided she was ready to gnaw on a whole fruit herself?
She is still sacked out in the position she crashed in last night. We cracked the door this morning so she can just wander out when she’s up.
It’s great that the coolness factor outweighs the frustration.
Monday, May 01, 2006
Ummm, yeah.
I had something else to say today. I also have two small children. It’s like that, you know?
Ha! I am not a freak after all! Or at least not in that way…
Somebody’s moving sort of slow at WHDH today, so I don’t have a link, but they just ran a story about those prepackaged salads giving people E. Coli.
*Now* can we quit making fun of me for washing vegetables that claim to be prewashed? 
Coffeemaker Blogging
I will be watching the results of Glenn’s coffeemaker blogging with great interest, because we could use one Real Soon Now and I would agree with most of his specs. Except I would add reasonable in price.
On the other hand, the $9 Proctor-Silex coffeemaker I bought for the office in 1999 and have used at home intensively for the past… over a year?... since our fancier model died has certainly earned its stripes. It makes good coffee and the main reason for retiring it soon is it has stopped keeping the pot hot enough. Even that’s a close thing.
I like cheap, but I’d also love one of those timer models so you can set it to fire up in the morning like an alarm clock only better.
Newstex?
Has anyone who reads us syndicated their blog through Newstex? We just received an offer to do so and wondered how it works out in reality.
My guess is that it’s harmless, worth some extra links in otherwise unlikely places, and given the nature of our content has almost no chance of ever accumulating into a single $25 minimum royalty payment, let alone enough of them to be meaningful compared to $100 or so a month in ad revenue.
Do I read it right? Or is it not harmless? Or more likely to be remunerative than I’d expect?