Tangled in a World Wide Web

I watched American Idol tonight and I have just about had it with this show. I have watched from Season 1 and it has just gotten more and more annoying. Tonight, there was approximately 45 minutes of screeching and caterwauling and 10 minutes of stupidity (not contestants) and a five minute "recap" of the talent found.  The new judge is, in the words of our favorite cranky judge, "forgettable". She adds nothing to the show or the competition. The original judges are still the same, sometimes annoying, sometimes strange, sometimes just plain rude. Tonight, I was offended. I have never been on the AI website forums before but I signed up (another annoying process) to be able to spend my two cents. (This is more or less a copy of my post there.) I have to insert a brief summary of the incident for the ten or twelve people who don't watch so that they can follow the logic... This is an excerpt from another post from the forum... ...the auditions in Louisville ky, t...

Inauguration Day   Today was a momentous day, no doubt. No one can argue the achievement of being elected President of the United States of America by a poor black kid from a broken family with a name like Barack Hussein Obama. If ever there were an underdog with cards stacked against him, this is he. Add to that his youth and reputed inexperience and you must give credit to the man, the candidate and the entire campaign. If you stop to consider, not just his victory, but the staggering number of voters who turned out on election day, most notably the younger voters, who so often are not only uninformed but unconcerned, you should feel proud, regardless of your party affiliations or politics.  Again today, an unbelievable number of Americans braved frigid temperatures to get a glimpse, to be a part of history. It was awe-inspiring. I wish I could have been there. Never before have I given a thought to watching, much less in person, an inauguration ceremony.  The Real Job Now the real w...

Well, I had decided to write a blog today about the fact that "The King" would have turned 74 today. It is a sad thought, maybe sadder than the fact that he did not. I cannot imagine a 74 year old Elvis.  None of that matters, however, because I also signed over my car to the insurance company today and picked up my 16 year old Cutlass from the shop... over $900. That, in itself, is unremarkable until you factor in the fact that I left work early so I could get there before the shop closed at 5, left my perfectly good (yet, still totaled) car there to be towed away tomorrow to the crusher and made it approximately 1/3 of the way home. First, there was a shuddering, then a clacking noise; then, as I rolled up to a red light, it cut off. Hmmm. Curious. I started it up, dropped it in gear, it cut off. Fast forward, three or four more times and I 'roll' in to the mall parking lot. Now, here I feel I should mention the enormous similarity to the events that led up to the c...

RESOLUTION Some years ago, when I felt a need to change who I am/was, I used to make a short list of resolutions at the beginning of each year. It was the usual. And just as predictably, I rarely made it to St Patrick's Day. Even when I quit smoking, it never had anything to do with a new year.  I haven't found anything I needed or wanted to change bad enough to even make the feeble attempt for quite a few years. Or maybe I just haven't cared. I certainly gave up a long time ago trying to change to suit others.  But, I was thinking the other day, if I wanted to change something or make a resolution to change something, what might I choose. Well, I'm forty, single, a little overweight and stuck in a job with no promise. I suppose there's room for a couple of resolutions. I could definitely stand to lose 10-15 pounds. (ok, maybe 20) I could stand to have a job where it would not be so easy to replace me with a monkey. (Need to send out more resumés) I could most defin...