You can now vote for my bag design!!

Well someone at Fred Meyer must have saw my blog post right after I had posted it, because my bag has now been accepted less than 90 minutes of my last post.

If you are interested in voting for my bag, please click on the link below. You can vote one time per day until the last day of the contest.

Link to vote for my design. Select Fred Meyer as store.

A thank you goes out to all of those who have taken the time to vote for my design or are planning on voting for my design.





IMPORTANT NOTE FOR THOSE WHO ARE PLANNING ON GOING TO THE VOTING PAGE: It appears you have to select Fred Meyer on the first page before it goes to my design vote page. But the other stores work too it appears.

Fred Meyer, hurry up and accept my bag design please!

If you have been trying to vote for my design-a-reusable bag entry artwork featured at the top of the page, you might be waiting a long, long time.

From what I can tell without even talking to the Fred Meyer people is that a whole bunch of newer entries have already been accepted and have been voted on while mine for some totally unknown reason is not allowed into the contest as of the time I am writing this which means I am at a rather bad disadvantage since a voter can only vote on one particular bag design per day.

The Fred Meyer people claim that the votes are only one part of the judging criteria. HOWEVER, based from the previous years' competition, the winners are mostly the ones that get like 100 votes or more. The ones who enter the contest and only get a few votes rarely win.

So please Fred Meyer, if you are reading this, please accept my entry ASAP so I can have my fair chance to win. It is not fair for people like me who play by the rules and invest 100% into the contest to not even have a chance to win because somebody simply overlooked my design.

Let's Talk Renewable, NOT TRASH!

If you are wondering what the "Let's Talk Renewable, NOT TRASH!" artwork above is about, it is my entry into the Fred Meyer Design-a-Reusable Bag Contest that I entered.

I want to let people reading this post know that I am not getting paid by Fred Meyer other than the free reusable bag credit that everyone else gets who has a Fred Meyer Rewards card and enters the contest like I did.

Let me know what you think about my design. You can't vote for it yet because it has to be approved over the next day or two by the Fred Meyer people.

Personally, I think the artwork livens up this blog a lot!!

American Idol Report for 4/13/10 episode; Some Misc. stuff too!

I want to start this blog post off with some of my comments about last night's American Idol episode.

Tim Urban: Stole the show last night. He was really good.

Michael Lynche and Lee Dewyze: Really good too.

Crystal Bowersox: She was good and will be in no danger of going home even though I didn't care much for the religious feel of the song.

Katie Stevens and Casey James: They were average-type performers last night, but I think they are in little danger of going home tonight but could wind up in the bottom 3 if one or more of my picks below is/are safe tonight.


Aaron Kelly and Andrew Garcia just performed tonight like they were completely unaware that some of the other contestants really stepped it up this week in my opinion. Bad timing for these kind of performances because there is no judges save anymore!!

My picks for the bottom 3 and the 2 who will go home on tonight's Idol will be:

Aaron Kelly, who will be sent back to safety after getting a lot of sympathy votes.

Siobhan Magnus, who I feel is beginning to come across as a one trick pony with the screaming at the end of nearly every song she performs it seems, will be the first to go due to the fact that many of her fans feel she is in little danger of going home tonight.

Andrew Garcia, I predict, will be the second to go this week with his weird performance with the microphone. I thought it looked as if he thought the microphone was alive during his performance.

Since I am predicting Siobhan being one of the 2 to leave tonight, I will obviously have to have someone replace her in my Top 6 Prediction I made almost a month ago. But I will wait to see what happens tonight before I make a new Top 6 List.


Now I also want to mention Kate Gosselin because NBC News once again tries to pull a stunt on their TODAY show by making you think she is there in the studio the 2nd day of a Two Part interview. This is the same kind of stunt they pulled on New Year's Day where they try to make you believe something is live when it isn't. This just comes off as sham news coverage when they keep showing Kate Gosselin in a chair waiting for what looks like a "live" interview when she did it several hours before.


Also I wanted to post in my blog what I was originally trying to ask Marc Berman on his Podcast about the FOX TV show "Human Target," because he kind of messed it up badly. I hope he will do kind of a follow-up on the podcast tomorrow.


HERE WAS THE ORIGINAL MESSAGE:


I am glad to see FOX still promoting Human Target which appears to be on the bubble as the Season Finale during Tuesday's American Idol. My opinion is that FOX will keep this show around for the following 4 reasons:

1. Like Bones, it is a consistent performer despite the modest ratings.

2. With the Freshmen Series successes of the ABC Wednesday Comedy Block and CBS's "The Good Wife", "NCIS: LA", and "Undercover Boss," FOX will likely keep this show around at least one more season to get us to forget all of the failed or disappointing new show launches on FOX since last Fall such as "The Cleveland Show," "Our Kid Guinness" which never even aired because of potential rigging of the show, "Sons of Tuscon" which was put in the wrong time slot to begin with, "Brothers" and "Past Life." In other words FOX will keep Human Target around so FOX doesn't look so bad this past season in terms of new show launches.

3. They need to fill "24" which is leaving, and "Human Target" is a similar type of program.

4. FOX, who might be in danger of losing or acquiring new Marvel Properties now that Marvel is being taken over by rival Disney, will likely want to do business with Warner Brothers to get future DC Comics Properties.

Now FOX in my opinion will not announce the renewal of "Human Target" right away so they have a back door out of "Human Target" in case salary or cost negotiations get way out of hand. But I think Warner Brothers will want "Human Target" to air on FOX bad enough not to make the cost too high for the series because FOX is still in great shape unlike CW and NBC, and it gives Warner and DC Comics a better position on Network TV.

Marc, I would like to hear what you, Michael Burgi, and Will Levith think about my prediction that Human Target will be renewed for a second season on an upcoming episode of the podcast.


END OF MESSAGE

I thought it would be an interesting topic of discussion before it got messed up. I guess I should have shortened my comments a little.

My feeling is Human Target WILL be back next season. Fox has more to gain keeping this show and little to gain by canceling this show in my opinion.

Did anyone see that coming last night on American Idol?

First shock of the night: All the women were safe and not in the bottom 3 even though 2 of them justifiably should have been in the bottom 3.
Second shock of the night: Michael Lynche & Andrew Garcia both in the bottom 3 for the first time since the Top 12 shows.
Third & biggest shock of the night: Michael Lynche received the fewest votes of the week.

Now for the good news. The judges used the save this week to save Big Mike which was the right thing to do for the following reasons:

1. Mike didn't deserve to go home this week.
2. Contestants who have been poor for most of the season even though they have had week after week to step up their performances (Andrew Garcia, Aaron Kelly, & Tim Urban as examples) don't have another extra chance to prove themselves meaning they have to step it up now if they want to stay in the competition.
3. If the judges had not used the save this week and let America have their way this week with the vote, a lot of Idol fans would be questioning how legitimate the competition is this season.

So next week 2 contestants go home. Since everything seems to be up in the air now, I think I might as well make early predictions of which 2 will go home next week now. My Picks to leave Idol next week will be Aaron Kelly & Andrew Garcia (though I think Siobhan Magnus could be in danger next week too). But I will likely change my picks after they actually perform next week so stay tuned!

My American Idol Report for the Tues. April 6, 2010 episode

Last week I picked Didi Benami to go home and Didi went making me 2 out of 3 this season for the predictions of who I think will go home that week. Because Didi went home as I predicted, I will stick to the same Top 6 prediction I made before in this blog.

So here is what I thought of this week's performers:

Michael Lynche: I have been kind of negative in the past because he seems to be getting quite more buzz than some of the other contestants. But this week I actually found myself liking him despite some of the negative comments from the judges this week.

Crystal Bowersox & Casey James: They were both good this week and are in little danger of going home this week as well. The guy with that instrument like the kind you would see on a Survivor Reunion Show helped Crystal out a lot in my opinion.

Lee DeWyze: I thought the Scottish guy was a strange addition to the song, but I feel that it worked just because it was kind of different. I think he should be safe this week.

Tim Urban & Andrew Garcia: These guys were OK, not really superb, but good enough to avoid going home this week. One of these guys might land in the bottom 3 but will probably be safe if my bottom 3 predictions are wrong this week.

Now for my bottom 3 in case you didn't happen to hear my picks on Marc Berman's podcast this morning. Plus I will give my reasons for them being in my bottom 3 which Marc didn't read on his podcast.

First I am picking Siobhan Magnus because of her "sleepy" performance. Plus I am confused as to what kind of artist she is trying to be. Goofy or Serious? Rock or Broadway? She seems to be all over the place. And I thought this week's performance was a little Broadway-like and those kind of performances have not done well this season on Idol so far if I remember correctly.

Katie Stevens is my second pick despite the positive comments this week because she is peaking too late. I think most of the Idol viewers have already made up their minds about her. Katie is the one that really needed a guy playing an instrument or something to get people's attention this week like Lee and Crystal did. Maybe she will try something like that next week.

And my third pick and the one I think will leave but not necessarily should leave is Aaron Kelly. He just had a below average week when most of the other contestants had a good week this week. Aaron just had one of those "forgettable performances." I don't picture anyone saying anything about what he was wearing or how cool he did a particular thing on stage this week.

Remember these are just opinions so I could be wrong. We will all find out tonight how far off I am.

NOTE: I keep forgetting to mention that the Idol Judges have their "save" to save one contestant up until like around the top 5, but I see practically no way they would use it this week. They will most likely use it when we get down to around 6 contestants left and some of the better singers start landing in the bottom 3.

BREAKING NEWS: Dr. Phil to join American Idol as Judge

According to A. D. Sloof, an entertainment reporter at a major entertainment magazine, Dr. Phil McGraw, who has a talk show syndicated by CBS Television, has signed on with American Idol to be the judge who will replace Simon Cowell.

According to a source Dr. Phil was chosen to replace Cowell because "he is blunt and can offer the contestants advice when they become emotional or when they can't handle the instant fame American Idol causes."

Dr. Phil, who is known for dealing with overweight people on his own show has already stated he intends to make comments about the size of the contestants on "American Idol." As for possibly working with talk show host Ellen DeGeneres on Idol, he stated that he looks forward to having group hugs before each episode, but he said viewers should not expect to see Ellen in his lap like she was in Simon's lap recently.

As to working with Randy Jackson, Dr. Phil has said he is going to have to understand Randy's lingo before they start shooting the audition episodes next season. Dr. Phil says he can't understand what Randy says nearly half of the time.

If you want to know more about this breaking news story, wait until April 2 for more details.