Well yesterday I picked Lee DeWyze as the most likely winner of American Idol this season.
Well what a difference one performance show can make. Because if you missed Marc Berman's Programming Insider Podcast, I am now sadly predicting his sudden exit from the show tonight.
Here are the reasons why:
1. He went first last night which means many people didn't see his performance who tuned in a little late. Add that to the fact the judges didn't really have any really negative stuff to say to the other contestants this week and gave all of the other contestants mostly praise meaning the other 5 will all get votes based partially on the judges' comments.
2. Crystal, who had a below average performance this week and should be in the bottom 3, will now have the fans voting for her that don't usually vote other weeks when she appears to be safe based on the many positive comments by the judges.
3. The judges still seem to give Aaron Kelly the "he's only 17" treatment making people think he is still growing in the competition. They have been much easier on him when it comes to criticisms than the other contestants this season in general.
4. Siobhan, who should also be in the bottom 3, was critiqued on her fashion sense, not her singing abilities by 3 of the 4 judges and even Simon's comments about the loud screams at the end of the song are not going to put her in the bottom 3 this week in my opinion.
So my bottom 3 tonight are:
Aaron Kelly, who will be saved because of the judges' positive comments again this week. He will probably be the first one sent to safety tonight of the bottom 3.
Michael Lynche, who didn't have one of his better performances last night. But he will probably be sparred because of the funny conversation that took place between the Judges right after Simon's comments.
And of course I am predicting Lee to go home for the reasons above, which would be a great travesty of American Idol this season. Lee was definitely worthy of moving on, but Siobhan and Aaron should be the ones who should be up for elimination this week.
Here is how I think the results show will play out based on my predictions:
Ryan Seacrest will first announce that Casey James is safe. Then he will mention that Aaron Kelly is in the bottom 3. Then he will announce that Siobhan Magnus is safe. Then we get the news that Michael Lynche is in the bottom 3.
That leaves us with Lee DeWyze and Crystal Bowersox. Of course by doing the math we know one is obviously safe and the other will be in the bottom 3. Everyone will think that maybe Crystal is in the bottom 3 because Lee was one of the better singers last night and Crystal was below average last night. And then Ryan Seacrest will drop the bomb that Lee is in the bottom 3 while Crystal is safe.
Then Seacrest will announce to Aaron Kelly that he is safe and can go back to join the rest of the contestants moving on. That leaves us with Michael Lynche and Lee DeWyze. Then Seacrest will ask the judges who they think will leave this week and the judges will say Big Mike. Then Seacrest will put the nail in the coffin of Lee DeWyze's Idol run by announcing he was indeed the lowest vote getter this week. And of course there is no longer a judges' save in play so it will be adios to Lee.
And if Lee, one of the favorites goes tonight, it wouldn't be the first time. Remember Michael Johns and Chris Daughtry. And we can't forget Michael Lynche who would have went home a few weeks back if not for the judges' save this season.
Hopefully, I will be wrong. We will find out tonight.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
My Prediction of the Order of Eliminations of the American Idol Top 6
Before I make my prediction of the order that the Top 6 will finish in this season of American Idol, I want to comment on something that was mentioned on Marc Berman's Programming Insider Podcast this morning.
Congratulations to Will Levith and his fiance Laura on their engagement! It is rare these days for me to hear people who have great news to share. Most of the news in my life for many months now has been depressing so it is nice to hear some good news for a change.
Now on to my predictions of how the Top 6 contestants will do on Idol.
In case you missed Wednesday's Idol Gives Back Week Results Show because it ran over by a whopping 20+ minutes, Tim Urban, AKA Teflon Tim, wound up in the bottom 3 and was eliminated. Therefore my Top 6 Prediction I made back in Mid-March did not come true, though Aaron Kelly did land in the bottom 3 too. So I was close.
Let me talk a little bit about the contestants first:
Aaron Kelly: He is way out of his league right now. I can't see any possible way he could win Idol unless he gives one of the best performances in the history of the show which I don't see happening. His chances of making the top 2 and winning are about 0%.
Crystal Bowersox: She is obviously considered the front runner by most. But I don't think she will quite win this year. Here is why: She was sick one week which fouled up the entire order that week. So that raises suspicion that she is getting preferential treatment from the show's producers. Then we had this report that she was going to quit the show, but Seacrest talked her out of leaving. From what I can recall, most people who question whether they want to leave a reality show and where the judging is based on viewers' votes usually don't win in the end. George Boswell from Big Brother 1 comes to mind. Lou Diamond Phillips who was on "I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!" which aired last Summer on NBC was one of the few contestants who didn't break down and talk about quitting the show and he was the eventual winner. I'll give Crystal about a 45% chance of winning if she makes the final 2.
Casey James: He is kind of in the middle for me. He is not the weakest of the Top 6, but he is not the strongest either. The main problem with Casey is his performances often seem too safe or predictable which does not allow for "a memorable performance." I'd give him like a 33% chance of winning if he makes the final 2.
Siobhan Magnus: She is kind of out there with many of her performances. I feel sometimes like she is a one trick pony because of the loud yelling at the end of several performances. This is the person Crystal needs to be in the Top 2 with to have the best chance of winning, because Siobhan is likely to lose a lot of votes because she is the least popular for many people because of her "way out there" fashion choices and song arrangements. In order for Siobhan to win this season, she would probably have to face Aaron in the Top 2 which again is not going to happen. So I think Siobhan's chances of winning are only about 10% if she makes the final 2.
Michael Lynche: He is a wild card. He could be really great when it matters the most at the end. If he faces Aaron or Siobhan in the final 2, he will win easily. If he faces Casey or Lee DeWyze in the final 2, it could be a toss-up. If he faces Crystal, I think Crystal will probably beat him by a slim margin. So I think his chances of being the winner if in the Top 2 are about 50%.
Lee DeWyze: To be fair, I want to point out that he has been my favorite of the Idol contestants for several weeks now so I might be a little more biased about him. He could potentially beat any of the other 5 contestants in the finale, but so could Michael or Crystal or even Casey. But Lee has been the best creative wise in my opinion and has been making the most of his Idol run of the remaining 6 contestants. The main problem with Lee is that he appears to try too hard to make one of his song choices work and that he doesn't feel relaxed enough on stage. But he has that underdog quality about him. So for those reasons, if Lee makes the Top 2, I think his chances of winning are about 63%. I think his biggest competition would be Crystal and possibly Michael if he had really good performances during the finale.
So here is my prediction as to how they will finish:
6th Place - Aaron Kelly
5th Place - Casey James
4th Place - Siobhan Magnus
3rd Place - Michael Lynche
2nd Place - Crystal Bowersox
1st Place - Lee DeWyze
Remember Idol has not yet filmed the remaining episodes. These are just my predictions that I am making for the fun of it. So I could be way way off. So stayed tuned!!
Congratulations to Will Levith and his fiance Laura on their engagement! It is rare these days for me to hear people who have great news to share. Most of the news in my life for many months now has been depressing so it is nice to hear some good news for a change.
Now on to my predictions of how the Top 6 contestants will do on Idol.
In case you missed Wednesday's Idol Gives Back Week Results Show because it ran over by a whopping 20+ minutes, Tim Urban, AKA Teflon Tim, wound up in the bottom 3 and was eliminated. Therefore my Top 6 Prediction I made back in Mid-March did not come true, though Aaron Kelly did land in the bottom 3 too. So I was close.
Let me talk a little bit about the contestants first:
Aaron Kelly: He is way out of his league right now. I can't see any possible way he could win Idol unless he gives one of the best performances in the history of the show which I don't see happening. His chances of making the top 2 and winning are about 0%.
Crystal Bowersox: She is obviously considered the front runner by most. But I don't think she will quite win this year. Here is why: She was sick one week which fouled up the entire order that week. So that raises suspicion that she is getting preferential treatment from the show's producers. Then we had this report that she was going to quit the show, but Seacrest talked her out of leaving. From what I can recall, most people who question whether they want to leave a reality show and where the judging is based on viewers' votes usually don't win in the end. George Boswell from Big Brother 1 comes to mind. Lou Diamond Phillips who was on "I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!" which aired last Summer on NBC was one of the few contestants who didn't break down and talk about quitting the show and he was the eventual winner. I'll give Crystal about a 45% chance of winning if she makes the final 2.
Casey James: He is kind of in the middle for me. He is not the weakest of the Top 6, but he is not the strongest either. The main problem with Casey is his performances often seem too safe or predictable which does not allow for "a memorable performance." I'd give him like a 33% chance of winning if he makes the final 2.
Siobhan Magnus: She is kind of out there with many of her performances. I feel sometimes like she is a one trick pony because of the loud yelling at the end of several performances. This is the person Crystal needs to be in the Top 2 with to have the best chance of winning, because Siobhan is likely to lose a lot of votes because she is the least popular for many people because of her "way out there" fashion choices and song arrangements. In order for Siobhan to win this season, she would probably have to face Aaron in the Top 2 which again is not going to happen. So I think Siobhan's chances of winning are only about 10% if she makes the final 2.
Michael Lynche: He is a wild card. He could be really great when it matters the most at the end. If he faces Aaron or Siobhan in the final 2, he will win easily. If he faces Casey or Lee DeWyze in the final 2, it could be a toss-up. If he faces Crystal, I think Crystal will probably beat him by a slim margin. So I think his chances of being the winner if in the Top 2 are about 50%.
Lee DeWyze: To be fair, I want to point out that he has been my favorite of the Idol contestants for several weeks now so I might be a little more biased about him. He could potentially beat any of the other 5 contestants in the finale, but so could Michael or Crystal or even Casey. But Lee has been the best creative wise in my opinion and has been making the most of his Idol run of the remaining 6 contestants. The main problem with Lee is that he appears to try too hard to make one of his song choices work and that he doesn't feel relaxed enough on stage. But he has that underdog quality about him. So for those reasons, if Lee makes the Top 2, I think his chances of winning are about 63%. I think his biggest competition would be Crystal and possibly Michael if he had really good performances during the finale.
So here is my prediction as to how they will finish:
6th Place - Aaron Kelly
5th Place - Casey James
4th Place - Siobhan Magnus
3rd Place - Michael Lynche
2nd Place - Crystal Bowersox
1st Place - Lee DeWyze
Remember Idol has not yet filmed the remaining episodes. These are just my predictions that I am making for the fun of it. So I could be way way off. So stayed tuned!!
Monday, April 26, 2010
Dockers Dress Pants Review and More Bad Fred Meyer News
Today I am going to write a review for the Iron Free Cotton Khaki Pleated D3 Classic Fit Dockers Dress Pants that I purchased a few days ago at Fred Meyer. By now I think you can tell Fred Meyer is not paying me for these reviews since I have been rather upset with them lately. It just so happens that I prefer to shop at Fred Meyer, but as of late, Fred Meyer has made a lot of bad decisions, and with my personal & financial situations being way up in the air for the last several months, I might have to start shopping elsewhere.
These dress pants from Dockers, which is part of Levi Strauss & Co., were purchased because one of my old pairs wore out about a week earlier. The regular price of these pants at Fred Meyer to the best of my knowledge is the same as MSRP (Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price) which is about $65!! Fred Meyer had the pants on sale for only $25 the day I bought them plus I had 2 coupons that I could use together when I purchased these pants that day making them around $15 for the pair I bought.
To get a $65 regular-priced pair of pants for only about $15 at Fred Meyer on sale seems like a really good deal. However, because of my shopping & living arrangements, I could not try on the pair at the store, unless I tracked down a salesperson at Fred Meyer and then I would have had to leave important merchandise in my cart alone where someone could steal or walk off with the merchandise in my cart. So I found the biggest size pair of these Dockers pants they had which happens to be the same size as the pants I usually wear during the week.
Well I get home and I try them on a few days later. Guess what? The pants were very, very tight. Dockers apparently has a different size measurement system than other companies such as Wrangler.
The pants I bought were made in Malaysia. They had both a button that fastens on the inside and a clasp type fastener that also fastens on the inside of the dress pants. But I could not fasten the button on the inside of the dress pants above the zipper because there was no room. I had to stretch really hard the one side of the metal clasp thing to reach the other piece of the metal clasp or whatever you call them. I was finally able to hook the one side with the other side, but I still had to tuck my shirt in, and then the one side of the clasp thing broke off!!
The design of the pants were poor after comparing them to 2 other similar pairs of pants from other companies. For example, both of the non-Dockers pairs seem to have the one part of the clasp thingy much closer to the edge of the pants which probably makes them easier to put on than this Dockers pair I purchased. And one of the non-Dockers pairs had a button, but they had like a little piece of fabric sticking out with the button hole that makes it easier to button up the inside button on that pair that Dockers didn't have.
Because the pants are too small for me and the Dockers design used in these dress pants doesn't help you out much if you are buying a pair that is kind of on the tight side, these pants will go back to Fred Meyer the first real opportunity I get to take them back which could be several days unfortunately.
Now more bad Fred Meyer news. Things might be continuing to get worse for Fred Meyer. Their electronics section has been eliminating a lot of the more nicer expensive electronics products lately such as wireless headphones, nicer Laptops, & programmable remotes with cheaper products such as those cheap smaller laptop-type computers that run only Windows XP and remotes that have only regular buttons but no programmable macro ones.
In my last trip to Fred Meyer last week, I noticed that many of the Philips Magnavox Audio & Video products have been replaced with GE brand. That means the Philips MP3/CD Car Cassette Adapter model number PH2050W which is one of the very few items I actually gave a very positive review here in this blog is no longer carried at Fred Meyer. They do carry a GE version which looks almost identical to the Philips version, but I can't make no guarantees that the GE version of the product works as well as the Philips version.
Well this is likely not the last of the bad news from Fred Meyer, but I will stop here for now.
These dress pants from Dockers, which is part of Levi Strauss & Co., were purchased because one of my old pairs wore out about a week earlier. The regular price of these pants at Fred Meyer to the best of my knowledge is the same as MSRP (Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price) which is about $65!! Fred Meyer had the pants on sale for only $25 the day I bought them plus I had 2 coupons that I could use together when I purchased these pants that day making them around $15 for the pair I bought.
To get a $65 regular-priced pair of pants for only about $15 at Fred Meyer on sale seems like a really good deal. However, because of my shopping & living arrangements, I could not try on the pair at the store, unless I tracked down a salesperson at Fred Meyer and then I would have had to leave important merchandise in my cart alone where someone could steal or walk off with the merchandise in my cart. So I found the biggest size pair of these Dockers pants they had which happens to be the same size as the pants I usually wear during the week.
Well I get home and I try them on a few days later. Guess what? The pants were very, very tight. Dockers apparently has a different size measurement system than other companies such as Wrangler.
The pants I bought were made in Malaysia. They had both a button that fastens on the inside and a clasp type fastener that also fastens on the inside of the dress pants. But I could not fasten the button on the inside of the dress pants above the zipper because there was no room. I had to stretch really hard the one side of the metal clasp thing to reach the other piece of the metal clasp or whatever you call them. I was finally able to hook the one side with the other side, but I still had to tuck my shirt in, and then the one side of the clasp thing broke off!!
The design of the pants were poor after comparing them to 2 other similar pairs of pants from other companies. For example, both of the non-Dockers pairs seem to have the one part of the clasp thingy much closer to the edge of the pants which probably makes them easier to put on than this Dockers pair I purchased. And one of the non-Dockers pairs had a button, but they had like a little piece of fabric sticking out with the button hole that makes it easier to button up the inside button on that pair that Dockers didn't have.
Verdict
Because the pants are too small for me and the Dockers design used in these dress pants doesn't help you out much if you are buying a pair that is kind of on the tight side, these pants will go back to Fred Meyer the first real opportunity I get to take them back which could be several days unfortunately.
More bad Fred Meyer News
Now more bad Fred Meyer news. Things might be continuing to get worse for Fred Meyer. Their electronics section has been eliminating a lot of the more nicer expensive electronics products lately such as wireless headphones, nicer Laptops, & programmable remotes with cheaper products such as those cheap smaller laptop-type computers that run only Windows XP and remotes that have only regular buttons but no programmable macro ones.
In my last trip to Fred Meyer last week, I noticed that many of the Philips Magnavox Audio & Video products have been replaced with GE brand. That means the Philips MP3/CD Car Cassette Adapter model number PH2050W which is one of the very few items I actually gave a very positive review here in this blog is no longer carried at Fred Meyer. They do carry a GE version which looks almost identical to the Philips version, but I can't make no guarantees that the GE version of the product works as well as the Philips version.
Well this is likely not the last of the bad news from Fred Meyer, but I will stop here for now.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Potentially Very Bad Fred Meyer Stores Earth Day News
Today is Earth Day which is April 22. But the Fred Meyer retail chain has got me very disturbed about the direction that the retailer is going in.
It started with an e-mail from Fred Meyer saying the rewards rebates you get in the mail if you earn 500 points in their specified 3 month period will still come but in a different form of payment.
For example if you had 2000 points, currently you would get 3 separate rebate coupons that total $20 since 2000 pts. = $20 of rebates while 1000 pts. = $10 of rebates. So with the current system you would get like $10, $6, and $4 reward rebate coupons that that total the $20 that you would use on 3 separate trips to Fred Meyer.
Well Fred Meyer decided to change it starting with this current points earning period to just one (1) rewards rebate coupon. Fred Meyer claims this is better because before you had to spend $10 to use the $10 rebate coupon while under the new system you can spend less than the rebate and use the remainder on future trips.
So under the new system, it is basically the same idea as a GIFT CARD that EXPIRES unlike a regular Gift Card for Kroger's that has no expiration date. Fred Meyer is probably hoping for people to use only part of the new rebate "GIFT CARD" and forget they had some money remaining on this "GIFT CARD" until after it expires to save the retailer some money. The old system was 3 rebate coupons that had to be redeemed on 3 separate trips.
I like the current idea better than the new one, because under the new system I would spend the entire amount of the rebate in one visit and then you are already stuck waiting for another 3 months for another reward to arrive in the mail under the new Rewards system.
This new system in my opinion actually is more likely to hurt Fred Meyer rather than help it earn money. Because if you can spend your whole rebate in one trip, there is less to draw the customer into the store for future visits. And if they aren't coming back as frequently as they used to, then the customers don't earn the required 500 points to get the rebates in the future, and they will just shop elsewhere from that point on. At least under the current Rewards system, Fred Meyer had 3 opportunities for customers to come into Fred Meyer and use their Rebate Coupons. I just think this is a move in the completely wrong direction to issue an expirable Gift Card disguised as a Rewards Rebate. The savings from the customers who forget to use part of the remaining value of the new Rebate is not worth the amount of lost sales and customers who use their new Rebate in a single trip.
More BAD news for Fred Meyer:
Today we get a 3-day ad with many of the coupons saying that you get so much off ONLY if you use a reusable bag with the coupon. Well again this is another bad idea. Here's why: Several of the coupons that require the reusable bags were already featured on Sunday and are still good until the end of the week and DON'T REQUIRE the reusable bags to get the same amount of savings. So what is the point of requiring people to use coupons AND reusable bags to get a discount that they already can get with just a coupon? As a fairly long-time user of reusable bags I feel cheated that I am not getting the extra implied savings from using their reusable bags and in reality getting the same savings as someone else who doesn't use reusable bags.
Yet more BAD news for Fred Meyer:
Fred Meyer really needs to drop the voting portion of the judging for the Design-a-bag contest. Because from what I can tell, no one is voting in this contest except for their own designs or their friends or family which is completely unfair since some families are bigger than others.
OVERALL, a very bad week for Fred Meyer. Will I still shop there? Yes. Will I spend as much money there in the future? Possibly not.
It started with an e-mail from Fred Meyer saying the rewards rebates you get in the mail if you earn 500 points in their specified 3 month period will still come but in a different form of payment.
For example if you had 2000 points, currently you would get 3 separate rebate coupons that total $20 since 2000 pts. = $20 of rebates while 1000 pts. = $10 of rebates. So with the current system you would get like $10, $6, and $4 reward rebate coupons that that total the $20 that you would use on 3 separate trips to Fred Meyer.
Well Fred Meyer decided to change it starting with this current points earning period to just one (1) rewards rebate coupon. Fred Meyer claims this is better because before you had to spend $10 to use the $10 rebate coupon while under the new system you can spend less than the rebate and use the remainder on future trips.
So under the new system, it is basically the same idea as a GIFT CARD that EXPIRES unlike a regular Gift Card for Kroger's that has no expiration date. Fred Meyer is probably hoping for people to use only part of the new rebate "GIFT CARD" and forget they had some money remaining on this "GIFT CARD" until after it expires to save the retailer some money. The old system was 3 rebate coupons that had to be redeemed on 3 separate trips.
I like the current idea better than the new one, because under the new system I would spend the entire amount of the rebate in one visit and then you are already stuck waiting for another 3 months for another reward to arrive in the mail under the new Rewards system.
This new system in my opinion actually is more likely to hurt Fred Meyer rather than help it earn money. Because if you can spend your whole rebate in one trip, there is less to draw the customer into the store for future visits. And if they aren't coming back as frequently as they used to, then the customers don't earn the required 500 points to get the rebates in the future, and they will just shop elsewhere from that point on. At least under the current Rewards system, Fred Meyer had 3 opportunities for customers to come into Fred Meyer and use their Rebate Coupons. I just think this is a move in the completely wrong direction to issue an expirable Gift Card disguised as a Rewards Rebate. The savings from the customers who forget to use part of the remaining value of the new Rebate is not worth the amount of lost sales and customers who use their new Rebate in a single trip.
More BAD news for Fred Meyer:
Today we get a 3-day ad with many of the coupons saying that you get so much off ONLY if you use a reusable bag with the coupon. Well again this is another bad idea. Here's why: Several of the coupons that require the reusable bags were already featured on Sunday and are still good until the end of the week and DON'T REQUIRE the reusable bags to get the same amount of savings. So what is the point of requiring people to use coupons AND reusable bags to get a discount that they already can get with just a coupon? As a fairly long-time user of reusable bags I feel cheated that I am not getting the extra implied savings from using their reusable bags and in reality getting the same savings as someone else who doesn't use reusable bags.
Yet more BAD news for Fred Meyer:
Fred Meyer really needs to drop the voting portion of the judging for the Design-a-bag contest. Because from what I can tell, no one is voting in this contest except for their own designs or their friends or family which is completely unfair since some families are bigger than others.
OVERALL, a very bad week for Fred Meyer. Will I still shop there? Yes. Will I spend as much money there in the future? Possibly not.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
American Idol Predictions for the Idol Gives Back Week Results Show
Well what a month it has been on American Idol. The women, who were supposed to be really good this year, according to the Idol people, were the first 4 out of 5 to go in the top 12 leaving just 2 women left this year in the competition.
Then there was the Michael Lynche episode where one of the front runners nearly went home if it hadn't been for the "Judges Save" that was implemented the last few years on Idol.
If you look at my post I made after the Top 12 performance show back in Mid-March, I had these following contestants in my Top 6 Prediction:
Michael Lynche
Casey James
Siobhan Magnus
Lee Dwyze
Tim Urban
& Crystal Bowersox
Well guess what?? They are all still in the competition which means that if Aaron Kelly leaves, which I believe will indeed happen tonight, I will have correctly predicted the Top 6 way back when it was still a Top 12. Of course I kind of predicted that one week that Siobhan would leave and I thought I would have to change my Top 6 prediction that week, but Katie left instead who I thought was better than Siobhan that week. So I just kept my Top 6 prediction from Mid-March and it looks like it may hold with Aaron not having a really great performance last night.
Like I mentioned to Marc Berman of The Programming Insider, I thought that for Aaron Kelly to do R. Kelly's "I Believe I Can Fly" which Aaron admitted he sang since he was like 5 years old, he ought to be phenomenal with his performance. But it just felt OK to me and felt kind of like one of those old "Star Search" type performances from several years ago and not a current "American Idol" type perfomance.
Who else will be in the bottom 3 this week? My predictions as Marc Berman mentioned on the podcast this morning are Michael Lynche and Casey James.
I believe Michael will be in the bottom 3 mainly because he was the previous singer before Crystal Bowersox who had a really superb performance this week. I thought Ellen's comments that they were running out of time to Michael Lynche and then the great comments she gave Crystal at the end was unfair to Big Mike.
I believe Casey James will be there in the bottom 3 because he just didn't take any risks with the song and played it safe. Plus Simon pointed out very clearly that Casey wasn't very inspirational with his song choice or performance this week.
I believe Tim Urban (also known as Teflon Tim) and Siobhan Magnus will escape the bottom 3 despite the judges' comments this week which were somewhat negative. I think either Marc Berman or Michael Burgi from the Programming Insider Podcast had mentioned that the judges are tough on Tim but not so much on Aaron, and this week I have to strongly agree with that.
And of course Crystal Bowersox and Lee DeWyze will most likely be safe this week.
My feeling is that with 7 contestants left, tonight we will see Seacrest split the singers into 2 groups of 3 with Mike, Casey, and Aaron in one group while Lee, Siobhan, and Tim are in a second group. Then Seacrest will ask Crystal, the odd person out, to join the group that is NOT in the bottom 3. So this could be an interesting chance to see who Crystal thinks are the better singers that are still left in this year's competition.
So we will have to wait and see if my Top 6 prediction I made back in Mid-March holds and Aaron Kelly goes home. Or I could be completely wrong and maybe Siobhan or Tim leaves tonight. Anything can happen on Idol!!
Then there was the Michael Lynche episode where one of the front runners nearly went home if it hadn't been for the "Judges Save" that was implemented the last few years on Idol.
If you look at my post I made after the Top 12 performance show back in Mid-March, I had these following contestants in my Top 6 Prediction:
Michael Lynche
Casey James
Siobhan Magnus
Lee Dwyze
Tim Urban
& Crystal Bowersox
Well guess what?? They are all still in the competition which means that if Aaron Kelly leaves, which I believe will indeed happen tonight, I will have correctly predicted the Top 6 way back when it was still a Top 12. Of course I kind of predicted that one week that Siobhan would leave and I thought I would have to change my Top 6 prediction that week, but Katie left instead who I thought was better than Siobhan that week. So I just kept my Top 6 prediction from Mid-March and it looks like it may hold with Aaron not having a really great performance last night.
Like I mentioned to Marc Berman of The Programming Insider, I thought that for Aaron Kelly to do R. Kelly's "I Believe I Can Fly" which Aaron admitted he sang since he was like 5 years old, he ought to be phenomenal with his performance. But it just felt OK to me and felt kind of like one of those old "Star Search" type performances from several years ago and not a current "American Idol" type perfomance.
Who else will be in the bottom 3 this week? My predictions as Marc Berman mentioned on the podcast this morning are Michael Lynche and Casey James.
I believe Michael will be in the bottom 3 mainly because he was the previous singer before Crystal Bowersox who had a really superb performance this week. I thought Ellen's comments that they were running out of time to Michael Lynche and then the great comments she gave Crystal at the end was unfair to Big Mike.
I believe Casey James will be there in the bottom 3 because he just didn't take any risks with the song and played it safe. Plus Simon pointed out very clearly that Casey wasn't very inspirational with his song choice or performance this week.
I believe Tim Urban (also known as Teflon Tim) and Siobhan Magnus will escape the bottom 3 despite the judges' comments this week which were somewhat negative. I think either Marc Berman or Michael Burgi from the Programming Insider Podcast had mentioned that the judges are tough on Tim but not so much on Aaron, and this week I have to strongly agree with that.
And of course Crystal Bowersox and Lee DeWyze will most likely be safe this week.
My feeling is that with 7 contestants left, tonight we will see Seacrest split the singers into 2 groups of 3 with Mike, Casey, and Aaron in one group while Lee, Siobhan, and Tim are in a second group. Then Seacrest will ask Crystal, the odd person out, to join the group that is NOT in the bottom 3. So this could be an interesting chance to see who Crystal thinks are the better singers that are still left in this year's competition.
So we will have to wait and see if my Top 6 prediction I made back in Mid-March holds and Aaron Kelly goes home. Or I could be completely wrong and maybe Siobhan or Tim leaves tonight. Anything can happen on Idol!!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Review of Banquet Select Recipes Meals & updates on some old reviews!!
It has been quite some time since I have done a review of a product/service/etc. on this blog. So I have decided to review Banquet Select Recipes Meals. Since this is a food review and people have different tastes, this review is focused on what you are getting for the price rather than the quality of the food.
Now Fred Meyer sells these meals for somewhere around a $1.30 each and is probably priced similar at other retail stores. The regular Banquet meals sell for about $1 at Fred Meyer and probably about the same at other stores and they come in the red boxes (or the boxes that just have the Banquet logo without the Select Recipes Logo on them in case you happen to be color blind).
I was able to prove the above claim when I looked at the old meals I had in the freezer and I had one of the old "red box" Corn Dog Meals with the same included Fries and Brownie in them. For some reason Banquet feels that a Corn Dog meal or their Fried Chicken meal is worth charging a little more even though the portion of corn, potatoes, fries, or brownie that is included with the main food item isn't anymore than what you would get in the regular red boxed Banquet Meals that sell for like 30 cents or so less.
So if you want to get more food for your money, I would stick to the regular "red box" Banquet meals and skip the "Banquet Select Recipes" meals unless they are on sale.
Let me start off with the Samsung P3 Media Player I previously reviewed. I was hoping Samsung would get behind this product and support it here in the states.
Well guess what? IT DIDN'T HAPPEN!! No surprise here.
The Fred Meyer store I purchased this device at no longer carries it which is no surprise because I could tell no one was buying this $150 product that is nowhere as familiar or popular as Apple's IPods.
Also I previously reviewed the Belkin TuneCast II FM Transmitter and said it was OK for more rural areas where there is usually less interference. But after a while I started to have more problems getting the signal to be loud and clear over the radio and kept getting more static. Plus I was using 2 AAA batteries and this Transmitter appears to drain the batteries after just a few weeks of installing new batteries. So I would recommend rechargeable batteries to use with this product if you are going to use this product on a regular basis.
Now Fred Meyer sells these meals for somewhere around a $1.30 each and is probably priced similar at other retail stores. The regular Banquet meals sell for about $1 at Fred Meyer and probably about the same at other stores and they come in the red boxes (or the boxes that just have the Banquet logo without the Select Recipes Logo on them in case you happen to be color blind).
These Banquet Select Recipes Meals are about identical to the same meals that Banquet sold in the red boxes just a few years earlier!!!
I was able to prove the above claim when I looked at the old meals I had in the freezer and I had one of the old "red box" Corn Dog Meals with the same included Fries and Brownie in them. For some reason Banquet feels that a Corn Dog meal or their Fried Chicken meal is worth charging a little more even though the portion of corn, potatoes, fries, or brownie that is included with the main food item isn't anymore than what you would get in the regular red boxed Banquet Meals that sell for like 30 cents or so less.
Verdict
So if you want to get more food for your money, I would stick to the regular "red box" Banquet meals and skip the "Banquet Select Recipes" meals unless they are on sale.
REVIEW UPDATES
Let me start off with the Samsung P3 Media Player I previously reviewed. I was hoping Samsung would get behind this product and support it here in the states.
Well guess what? IT DIDN'T HAPPEN!! No surprise here.
The Fred Meyer store I purchased this device at no longer carries it which is no surprise because I could tell no one was buying this $150 product that is nowhere as familiar or popular as Apple's IPods.
Also I previously reviewed the Belkin TuneCast II FM Transmitter and said it was OK for more rural areas where there is usually less interference. But after a while I started to have more problems getting the signal to be loud and clear over the radio and kept getting more static. Plus I was using 2 AAA batteries and this Transmitter appears to drain the batteries after just a few weeks of installing new batteries. So I would recommend rechargeable batteries to use with this product if you are going to use this product on a regular basis.
Monday, April 19, 2010
NBC Today Show goes too far this morning... yet again!!
Warning: This post talks about something that some may consider adult content. I will try to keep this as family friendly as I can.
You know how much the Today Show bothers me. For example, there was the New Year's Day Broadcast I mentioned earlier in this very blog where they taped it an earlier day and tried to convince the viewer they were doing the show live that day.
Then last week, Kate Gosselin shows up in a 2 part interview spread over 2 days. Not only does the Today Show air each part twice in the same day, on day 2 of the interview they show taped shots of Gosselin sitting in a chair waiting to be interviewed like it was a live shot when in fact it was taped the day before or earlier.
Well I was watching the Today Show again this morning though at the time I was busy doing something else so I had the sound muted. Then I notice SHARON OSBOURNE from CELEBRITY APPRENTICE is on being interviewed by the Today Show Hosts. So I turned the volume back on and the Today Show hosts are asking her if the rumors are true that she is going to have artificial implants in her body taken out to be used as her husband Ozzy's paperweights.
Here are 3 questions I have about this interview.
1. Why does NBC's Today Show have to ask such a gossip type question in the first place? They have the entertainment program Access Hollywood for those kind of questions.
2. Did Sharon Osbourne know ahead of time they were going to ask such a personal question in front of the Today show audience outside which probably included a lot of children? It is funny how they can warn you of disturbing video during their news sections of the Today Show, but they have no problem discussing artificial body parts used to enhance body parts of a certain gender.
3. Did Sharon Osbourne think that it was OK to answer the question in the affirmative on a Entertainment-type show disguised as a news program like the Today Show? I would hope that this was a joke gone bad; or if she was indeed telling the truth, that it happened so quickly that she didn't think of the consequences of admitting to something like that on morning TV.
Well I was going to mention this to Marc Berman of the Programming Insider this morning, but one of his sidekicks, Will Levith, mentioned it on the Podcast this morning. He too thought it was outrageous for morning TV.
Look, I know Sharon is on there to promote The Celebrity Apprentice on NBC, which she should have been taken off of because of her illness, and America's Got Talent on NBC, which airs this Summer, but there was no need for this kind of inappropriate question at that hour in front of what is a family audience.
I am just glad that at least Will Levith agrees with me that the Today show is going too far for morning TV.
You know how much the Today Show bothers me. For example, there was the New Year's Day Broadcast I mentioned earlier in this very blog where they taped it an earlier day and tried to convince the viewer they were doing the show live that day.
Then last week, Kate Gosselin shows up in a 2 part interview spread over 2 days. Not only does the Today Show air each part twice in the same day, on day 2 of the interview they show taped shots of Gosselin sitting in a chair waiting to be interviewed like it was a live shot when in fact it was taped the day before or earlier.
Well I was watching the Today Show again this morning though at the time I was busy doing something else so I had the sound muted. Then I notice SHARON OSBOURNE from CELEBRITY APPRENTICE is on being interviewed by the Today Show Hosts. So I turned the volume back on and the Today Show hosts are asking her if the rumors are true that she is going to have artificial implants in her body taken out to be used as her husband Ozzy's paperweights.
Here are 3 questions I have about this interview.
1. Why does NBC's Today Show have to ask such a gossip type question in the first place? They have the entertainment program Access Hollywood for those kind of questions.
2. Did Sharon Osbourne know ahead of time they were going to ask such a personal question in front of the Today show audience outside which probably included a lot of children? It is funny how they can warn you of disturbing video during their news sections of the Today Show, but they have no problem discussing artificial body parts used to enhance body parts of a certain gender.
3. Did Sharon Osbourne think that it was OK to answer the question in the affirmative on a Entertainment-type show disguised as a news program like the Today Show? I would hope that this was a joke gone bad; or if she was indeed telling the truth, that it happened so quickly that she didn't think of the consequences of admitting to something like that on morning TV.
Well I was going to mention this to Marc Berman of the Programming Insider this morning, but one of his sidekicks, Will Levith, mentioned it on the Podcast this morning. He too thought it was outrageous for morning TV.
Look, I know Sharon is on there to promote The Celebrity Apprentice on NBC, which she should have been taken off of because of her illness, and America's Got Talent on NBC, which airs this Summer, but there was no need for this kind of inappropriate question at that hour in front of what is a family audience.
I am just glad that at least Will Levith agrees with me that the Today show is going too far for morning TV.
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