POP TV - Tammy Faye Makes Guest Apperance on American Idol

Shock and surprise shook last night's American Idol as Paula Abdul was eliminated from the show. The reaction to her being voted off (as seen above) was absolutely heartwrenching.

OK, so it was Constantine who was actually taken out of the competition, leaving many people to wonder how they will get through the following weeks without a huge dose of Power-pouting.

I would have never thought that Bo would go further than Constantine, due to the fact that Constantine seemed to have a grip on the teeny-bopper crowd. What ended Constantine's run was the piece that ran prior to his performance: It painted him as part of a rich greek heritage from New York City that no average American Joe could relate to. Bo's straight-up ghetto lifestyle with his 50 cats and his house seemingly in the backwoods of "Alabamer" gave him the title of "most-deserving to win".

Thankfully, Vonzell is still in the game. I would say I like Carrie equally, but the truth is that I hate country music, and I can't possibly condone the release of an American Idol country album.

No sir, I just can't.

POP TV - Special Guest Star: Paula Abdul!

It's hard to justify last night's American Idol with a blog entry.

It was awful.

Everyone's performance was poor, unless you equate "greatness" to the amount of tunics you wear. In that case, Bo is your next American Idol. Last night's tunic was brighter, noisier, and more obnoxious than ever, much like Bo's performance.

Highlight of the night: Paula getting booed by the audience after trying to candy-coat ANOTHER criticism.

Shameful moment: Heather Locklear telling her daughter to say she likes Anthony the best. Get a grip, Heather, NO ONE likes Anthony the best. Now that Mrs. Richie Sambora has made an appearance, she has demanded to be in the credits as "Special Guest Star" even though she will be in every episode for the next 5 seasons.

Supposed to be a big thing, but fizzled in the end: Clay Aiken's cameo. The audience was not excited at all, although a group of crickets gladly chirped in his presence.

Worst Performance: Scott
Best Performance (Supposedly): Ricky, the only guy in the backup band to get thanked.

Scott should go home tonight. After Simon told him to pack his bags, Scott had that look in his eyes like he wanted to throw a Cingular wireless telephone at him. Unfortunately, Simon's big (and yet very factual) mouth might generate millions of pity votes for the "White Felt Teddy Bear".

Bah. That's all I can say. Bah.

PERS - Framed

I'm starting to fall into a fairly comfortable groove with my new position, in the fact that I don't dread going to work in fear I will have to work in that department. I still get wildly stressed out over certain tasks, but thankfully the other people who work in the same department are friendly and helpful.

I was able to get one of my new pairs of glasses, and although the new pair is metal and more streamlined than my older pair, people aren't really noticing because they are still semi-rimless frames. This was what I was looking for in this pair anyway: an upgrade, not a makeover.

My other new pair, which has yet to arrive, will be thick, brown, plastic full-framed glasses, and the difference will be very obvious.

Hopefully I should get them either today or tomorrow.

Thus ends a rather uneventful post.

PERS - Yay! A New Hobnobbers!

All ya gotta to is jump over to my other blog to see it!

Feel free to comment about it here.

POP TV - C:\ANWAR OUT_

My usual Thursday morning post was delayed due to an out-of-routine situation involving a shift move.

In one of the harshest eliminations, Anwar was given the boot Wednesday night. I'm sure it's because he was outed recently online from the unearthing of a personal ad he posted. Truths such as this do not sit well with the 9-14 year old demographic, which Anthony has a strong hold, and also doesn't jive well with the obese Christian right that still has Scott in the competition.

Thankfully, Nadia has already taken the black woman bullet for Vonzell, so she still has a good chance. Let's not forget Latoya from Season 3, Tamyra from Season 1, and Toya Alexis from Canadian Idol's season 1; all fantastic singers who were eliminated prematurely from the competition.

Bo, a true class act (in comparison to Rob & Amber on the Amazing Race), still remains in the competition.

Scott and him will probably be on their way out in the next 2 weeks.

POP TV - BAM!

If you watch American Idol, you might be noticing a trend.

Aside from Paula's stoned antics becoming a staple of the show, Simon is no longer being considered as having a valid opinion. While Paula always sides with the audience and the contestants and Randy has hits and misses, Simon's comments are simply dismissed when they are even mildly negative.

Never have I seen such dismissive faces on contestants until this season. Anthony misses several notes, Randy, Paula and the audience feed him bullshit praise, Simon tells the truth, Anthony gives the biggest "WHATEVER" look, Ryan makes a snide comment about Simon's hair/clothes/homosexual aura, commercial break. Wash, rinse, repeat.

I think I'm growing tired of the Idol formula and the chemistry between the judges.

I'll publish the secret ingredients for each episode:

American Idol Casserole

X Amount of Desperate performers
3 Useless judges
1 Tight-fitting black/gray shirt
1 Shirt with obnoxious print
1 Coca-cola "Real" Moment
3 Highly-visible logo-intensive water-filled Coca-cola glasses
3 Doses of any mind-altering drug
1 Quick camera shot of a C-list celebrity
1 Stomach-stapling candidate/Idol hopeful
1 Can of Pre-approved Seacrest Brand Insults (tm)
100 Poorly-constructed Idol signage

...as far as the performances last night, Vonzell had the best performance of them all, with Carrie coming in a close second.

And Scott? Hey, Scott, do you hear me? Yeah, me over here. Hey. How are ya?

GET THE FUCK OFF THE SHOW. AND TAKE BO WITH YOU.

*Phew* Had to get that off my chest.

PERS - The (Possibly) Neverending Story

I want to update today, but so far I cannot think of anything to write about.

So instead, I'm going to write the first 2 lines of a story, and I want you to continue from the last person's line! Write one line at a time, and you can write as many times as you wish as long as it's after someone else's line!

There once was a cat...

and it walked into the forest...

PERS - New Hobnobbers

This week's Hobnobbers strip is out, so check it out!

PERS - Catch up!

As you can tell, I went on a bloggie break for the weekend. After the last two intensive training days at work, I didn't feel like doing much else.

Saturday and Sunday slipped by too quickly, probably due to my late Friday shift.

The days are getting warmer and longer and I'm certainly happy about that. On Saturday, Chris and I walked for about 45 minutes to Vogue Optical where I ordered some frames. They both will be quite the departure from my current semi-rimless frames, and I should get them by Wednesday or Thursday.

My roommates have decided to move on with their lives and move elsewhere in the province/country. This morning it felt like it would be the last time (or the second last time) I would see them. They will be back to check in and pay rent and bills until their lease is up at the end of June.

I had a really hard time waking up this morning because my body was on the "stay up til 2, wake up at 10" schedule as per my 2 late shifts and staying up late on the weekend.

Now I must go on the phones for the first time since last Wednesday morning. Yeehaw.

PERS - Training Day Pt. 1

Training for my new position started yesterday.

I don't know why, but the first day of any sort of training causes me to have this incurable headache. I believe it's a combination of stress, learning new things, and anxiety. Usually by the next day I can handle the rest without getting a migraine.

The job's work will be very intensive at most times, requiring a ton of multi-tasking as well as tending to employees. It is a huge leap over my original job of answering the phones and going on auto-pilot for 8 hours.

The great thing about it all is that doing it made me feel more human, and less like a computer. People now know me by name as well as face. I also had people last night who would just come up to my desk and start having a conversation about some random thing going on in their life. It was really strange. The department is set up in a way that makes it very approachable.

My position in this department is not full-time. It is only when someone is sick, on vacation, or they are incredibly busy. Therefore I am not completely free from the phone, which is not a totally bad thing. It will be good to go on auto-pilot once and a while.

I do more training today, and will learn more and more things. I'm pretty confident I'll get used to it all, but there's a small portion of doubt that tells me I won't enjoy this.

Time will tell.

POP TV - Joker's Wild...and eliminated.

The shameless hour AI results show last night gave me a little more comfort knowing that Scott looks to be on his way out, having been in the Bottom 3 two weeks in a row. It was disappointing to see Nadia go, but I knew she didn't have much fuel left in the first place.

And now for some poetry.

Oh, Bo
You know you have to go
Fantasia already does her BoBo
and your mic stand routine blows.

All of us know
We need less Bo
Row row row your boat,
quickly off the show.

POP TV - Let's hear it for the Girls.

When I heard Carrie was going to sing "Love is a Battlefield" I got excited.

What I wasn't expecting was her ability to tap into the power of Satan himself to belch through her performance. It's a shame she spent too much of her time conjuring evil spirits, and not enough energy on her choreography. She couldn't have looked more "karaoke stiff". You know who I'm talking about: That 40-year old cougar you see on Karaoke Night, swaying back and forth, singing the atonal version of her favourite Reba song. On the positive side, Carrie still managed to pull it off, regardless of the pitchiness.

Constantine finally proved last night he can rock out... Oh right, that's all he's been doing throughout the entire season. "Bohemian Rhapsody" is a favourite of mine, and let's just say Constantine is still not on my shitlist.

Vonzell made me smile with her energy, Anthony floated through another sleeper, Nadia made a poor song choice, Anwar hit his signature alien-pitch notes, Bo shocked the audience by taking his mic stand everywhere, and Scott pleased his fans with his rendition of Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up". It was magical.

Who will go home this week? I will have to take a page from the book of Abdul and not actually answer that question, then down 10 tequila shots before the show.

I want Scott or Anthony to leave. Better yet, they can both leave this week, and the producers can return Nikko to the competition.

PERS - Project Tomato Revealed!

After I realized that few of you have ever seen my cartoon series "The Hobnobbers", I decided to bring them back in a big way.

Here are all the episodes so I can introduce you to the characters:

Episode 1: Hortense's Happy Day
Episode 2: MOTHER's Big Decision
Episode 3: Hector's Big Return

How have I decided to bring them back? By making a comic strip about them!

I've made a brand new blog specifically for it!

So go and check out THE HOBNOBBERS!

PERS - The Promotion Game

The calls were coming in slowly as I played Pyramid Solitaire in my down time. The game was not treating me well as all the wrong cards kept appearing.

Out of nowhere, my phone began to ring. My phone only rings for internal calls. It was the Resource Management department. Were they calling to let me go home? I hoped not; it was too early.

"Hi Daniel?"
"Yes?"
"Could you go see [the recruiter] at 10:45 in the Human Resources department? She would like to see you."
"Sure thing, thanks!" I spoke with my usual extremely-polite phone voice.

I knew what this meeting was for. I applied for a job two weeks ago. I took the skills test. I had the interview. Both seemed to go well. I flashed my disarming smile frequently, and rehashed stories pertaining to experience that I used to get my current position.

I took the next call. It went smoothly. Another call came through, easier than the last.

A fellow employee on my team came back from HR. I was aware that he also tried for the same position. He sat down, but before spinning towards his desk, he said "I didn't get it, so good luck". I came to the realization that Human Resources had been transformed into a slaughterhouse as employees were drawn into the room to be spit out like ground beef. Before I was able to imagine the horrors of my fate, my phone rings. It's Resource Management again.

"She finished early, you can go now if you wish."
"Sure thing, thanks!"

I took off my headset and walked the Green Mile to HR. (It's actually more of a mixture of colours you would normally find in vomit.) I slowly made my way into the recruiter's office, and she greeted me with that same smile she probably used prior to giving her rejection speech. I took a seat in front of her desk. The rest played out like a generic Reality TV show.

"So, as you know, we've interviewed many people for this position," speaking with a somber look on her face.
"Yes, I understand," I said in a soft voice as the seconds felt like minutes.
"...and we would like to offer it to you!" she spoke, now smiling brightly.
"Oh wow," I exclaimed as I was at a loss of any other words. I started blankly at a random spot at her desk as I realized I was one of over ten people, and it was I that they felt was most skillful, worthy, and competent. It was a good feeling.

I went back to my phone to take more calls, and no more than an hour later they sent me home for the day.

Only half of the day is done, and it has been very satisfying so far.

I hope this new position will be as satisfying.

PERS - Useless winter apparel.

There is a trend growing in popularity around the streets of Fredericton.

Every time I walk around the city, I see at least one tiny glove left on the sidewalk, and they always seem to be a different colour. Today, I saw a dark green one. Yesterday I saw a black one, and the day before that, a maroon one.

I can understand their ability to be dropped. They can be bunched up into a small unnoticeable ball, and fall out of pockets very easily. Now that there's snow on the ground, I expect glove litter to rise 20%.

In other related news, snow in April sucks hard.

PERS - Change

Over the weekend I began to get the creative bug and I started thinking about all these crazy ideas.

One of them seems to be sticking, and you'll probably see something in the next few days. I'm calling it Project "Tomato" and I've already told a couple people about it.

Stay tuned for the big reveal!

In other news, it is rumoured that I will find out today or tomorrow if I get this promotion at work. I honestly won't be heartbroken if I don't get it. It requires being flexible with shift moves, and I've been pretty comfortable with my "Mon-Fri same shift every day" schedule. On the other hand, I will be able to get off the phones and be paid for doing something else.

It's a deal involving some sacrifice, not sure which outcome I'm wishing for.

PERS - OK Wacomputer

Like the new picture of me?

I decided to try out my new graphics tablet towards something I could put on my website. Although I did already use it to create Joker Nadia, but I mean something a little more pertinent to the site's look.

That's all I really have to say for now.

In the meantime, check out this neat little Flash animation and start clicking! It's an interesting concept.

POP MISC - Decimal to the left one place, please.

I play the lottery. It's a poor man's hope. Much like Paypal donations.

I was surfing Atlantic Lottery Corporation's website and came across this mistake:



$125 MILLION DOLLARS! It's actually supposed to be $12.5 million dollars. Sure, in the US this amount has been surpassed in multi-state lotteries, but never in the history of Canadian lottery had it been this high. It'll probably be corrected instantaneously, and you can check here yourself to see if they changed it yet.

Oh, and I did win tonight.

I won a free $2 ticket.

No, I will not buy you a car.

PERS - A Poor Man's Google Adsense

There are a pile of drunk assholes currently outside my house, cursing and screaming at random things, like trees, fire hydrants, and the police. It is the last day of classes, I live right near the university, and everyone feels like they have nothing to lose but the tiny shred of dignity they may or may not still have.

It is under this environment that I will announce to you my new "Donate" button on the left panel of my blog.

I don't know why I did it. I suppose now that the Google Adsense thing didn't work out as well as I hoped (read: didn't work at all), a donation button is the next best thing. It's also a really awesome way to appear very desperate and pitiful.

Anyway, this donation thing is fairly easy to do, unless of course, you're scared shitless of typing your credit card number on the internet, even when you know it's under a highly-secured server by a company owned by the largest Auction site in the world, eBay. You don't even have to sign up for any sort of account, which is neat.

Why in God's name would you want to give me money?

Well, 1) I'm fantastic, 2) I update this blog often, 3) if you want I will post your name/nickname with a link and name of your website/blog on my left panel for all to see, and 4) you know you are a wonderful person on the inside, why not show someone that you are more than the rotting exterior people are forced to stare at in horror?

In other words, you have no reason to donate. I'm tired, OK? This sounds like a good idea right now. Leave me alone.

But first, show me the tired movie quote from 1996!

Ugh...fine, just forget this post ever happened.

POP TV - Comeback Kid Defeated by Big Mac Monster

Yup. It's official. I hate Scott Savol.

Last night he was safe while the cutie and more-talented Nikko got the boot.

Maybe if Nikko took a page from the life of his mentor Bobby Brown, he may have gone further: Beating women is apparently a great way to gain love and acceptance from the American public.

I predict a disappointing outcome for this season, now that one of my top four have been kicked.

Yuck.

On the upside, Fantasia screamed at us for four minutes while bobbing up and down like a parrot on crack. It was entertaining. I like Fantasia, I do, she is a true entertainer. Diana DeGarmo would not have been nearly as interesting to watch.

And I'm spent.

PERS - Yum Yum Nacho Chips

I ate a ton of nachos with sour cream, salsa, and that hot cheesy Tostitos crap during a team meeting at work today...then I had cookies. Let's just say I might be paying for that indulgence later tonight.

See, for the last two weeks I've been having stomach cramp scares, making me believe it will escalate into pure Hell and a hospital visit. This generally happens every 3 to 6 months, and no doctor has been able to diagnose such a rare thing. It is incredibly unbearable, and can last anywhere from 4 to 12 hours. The last time it happened was shortly after the Christmas holidays.

Doctors have eliminated Appendicitis as the pain doesn't just go away after a while, and they've eliminated Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Crohn's because of the low frequency of the pains. I personally think it is gas trapped in my GI because the pain goes from excrutiating to nothing in 10 minutes and it has a decelerating vibration feeling - like when a balloon deflates - when it's over.

Yes, it is weird.

I'm hoping today's little pains are only a false alarm, and not the foreshadowing of a full-blown truth.

POP TV - Paula Shocks Audience After Giving Compliment to Contestant

AI was incredibly boring this week. No spectacular performances, poor song choices, and oh yeah...it was Musicals week! Once again the producers opted to go incredibly broad in their music selections.

Here's a very indescriptive recap:

Carrie - Fantastic
Nadia - Glamourous
Nikko - Consistent
Vonzell - Nice
Constantine - Fine
Anwar - Meh
Scott - Not Good
Bo - Awful
Anthony - Leave now

Who still has a chance at winning this competition? Carrie, Nikko, Constantine, and Vonzell. At this point, Vonzell is the longshot of the four.

Who will go home? Nadia. I really like Nadia, but everyone hates her south of the border for some reason. She's always in the bottom 3.

No American seems to appreciate an afro anymore, let alone a mohawk...

...or a Joker smile.

...or a female.

PERS - SuperMegaTechnical Difficulties

I think part of my blog was quite inaccessable (aka the front page) over the night. It had something to do with the coding of the previous entry's image.

One backslash can cause so much damage, especially when I don't remember putting it there... odd.

Damn you Joker Nadia and your evil genius! You will pay!

POP TV - Villianess Idol

Sometimes I feel compelled to visualize the things people have said about what certain people look like.

I think I've proven their case.

I can't wait to see that smile again come Tuesday night when Nadia pleads for America's votes.

PERS - The Terror on Pleasant

A Poem by Daniel Adams

There is a cat
who lives in Newcastle
and in its spare time
it likes to wrestle.

It may be small
but it is quite able
to assault you while hiding
under the dinner table.

It may be going blind
with clawless front paws
but it has quickly learned
to use its hind claws

I was minding my own business
And walked to the couch
when the cat ran after me
then hissed and pounced.

It latched onto my leg
and bit as it scratched
It jumped off just as quick
after slicing my calf.

The cat went psychotic
more than ever before
so we threw it upstairs
and barricaded the door.

We propped up a chair
and figured that was that
but we soon found out
it was no match for this cat.

It broke down the door
the chair flew across the room
The cat ran around in circles
And the terror resumed.

He jumped onto my face
and continued to slice
as though my head were covered
with hundreds of mice.

I was driven to the ER
in critical condition
The cosmetic surgeon
was quite the magician.

He sewed up my wounds
and sent me along
so I could continue my mission
of writing my blog.

-Fin-

PERS - Fetus to Human Anniversary Blowout Spectacular!

I had a splendid time this weekend, celebrating my 24th birthday.

On Friday we went out to Dimitri's for some sweet greek cuisine, then went to Chris's place for a brisk sit and chat.

Last night we went out to Boom! and danced the night away. Surprisingly, the mix of music wasn't nearly as horrible the last time I went there on a Saturday night. It was still mostly remixed garbage, but some of the essence of the songs was still intact.

They played remixes or faster-tempo versions of Like a Virgin, Vogue (Madonna), Get Right (J.Lo), Dirrty(Aguilera), and some tracks that reminded me of my insanity experienced at Sweetwaters. Basically, every song you'd expect to hear in a gay bar... Oh, I'm sorry, I mean an "alternative" bar. ("I wanna take you to an alternative bar! an alternative bar! alternative bar! alternative bar! alternative bar!" ...just doesn't have the same ring to it.)

I was humoured to hear that the DJ was playing Scissor Sisters's "Filthy/Gorgeous", however, it was clearly the version on Kazaa that was a fake, no doubt put there by the record company.

When yo walkin' down the street
and a man tries to get your biz-ness
And the people that ya meet
wanna open you up like Chriz-mass

You gotta rap your fuzzy
with a big red bow
And no some bitch
Gonna treat me like a ho

Your a classy honey
Kissy huggy
Lovey dovey Ghetto Princess

Ad nauseum. It completely misses the best part which is the chorus, and the reason why the song is called "Filthy/Gorgeous" in the first place.

Cuz yo filthy!
Oooh and I'm gorgeous!

Anyway, major Thank Yous to Chris, Jeff, and Random Girl for the great time, and for going on the dancefloor one last time even though we were just about to leave. Also honorable mentions go to Amanda for being there and seeing just how much of a nut I can be with the help of music and liquor, and to Jason for putting my jacket in coat check and putting in a word to the DJ to play better stuff. And last but not least, thanks to Pope John Paul II for dying. You were a fighter for my right to be refused marriage, and my right to suppress my sexual orientation my entire lifetime, and you will be thoroughly missed by others.

Now that today is actually my birthday, it will probably be a recovery/lazy day for me.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to drink 10 liters of water.

POP TV - Voting with a broken telephone.

Looks like Scott likes to beat women.

What a lovable guy, and a caring father. I'm just hoping this will help in the mass male elimination I hope occurs.

He deserves to be the next American Idol.

Also deserving of such a title is the sister assaulter, the thief, the softcore porn model, and the barfighter.

Of course, every reality TV series that goes through so many people is bound to have a few bad apples in the bunch, it's just interesting to see where their life was/is going before making it to television.