Happy Memorial Day...

To all of our current, retired, DAV, and fallen service members,


Thank you for your service. Your sacrifice is never forgotten.

LEE DEWYZE!!!

I could not be happier right now. Lee has won American Idol and triumphed over yet another judge's pet. This is the 4th year in a row that this has happened and I am happy.

Jordin Sparks slid by the beatboxing favorite Blake Lewis.
David Cook beat the adorable yet boring favorite David Archuleta.
Kris Allen surprisingly crushed the overly praised and obvious favorite Adam Lambert.
And now, Lee DeWyze has beaten Crystal "Mamasox" Bowersox to claim the Season 9 title.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't dislike Crystal. I actually like her a lot. I think she has a neat sound and she is very interesting and unique. However, I like Lee more. He appears to be normal and genuine and he never once looked arrogant and never once gave the impression that the voters needed to know he deserved it. He was a true competitor. I look forward to hearing more from him and I love him to death. I intend to enjoy myself while watching him perform in August.







PS... This is also the 4th year in a row that I have predicted the winner from early in the season. I pegged Lee back in Hollywood week as one we would be watching in the finals. I predicted Kris a winner, or at least a finalist, when he sang "Man in the Mirror" in the Top 36. I said David Cook was one to watch and I said Jordin was going to win when she sang "Broken Wing" during Country Week.
I still got it baby.

Almost over already...

It's hard to believe May is almost over already. Time seems to be flying by faster than ever before.

A couple things have had my mind occupied for the past couple of weeks, though...

I bought a new computer on impulse. I really didn't need it but I wanted it.
I'm still in the process of packing away old stuff and de-cluttering my walls a little bit.
The kid I have considered a little brother for many, many years is graduating high school this weekend. I am so proud of him and couldn't be happier.
I bought Daria on DVD and have been watching nonstop. I really know where I got it now.
My Stanley Cup prediction got flushed down the toilet. Damn Flyers.
I still need to decide whether I'm going to go to the reception or not.

Out of all these things, I think the most important is the fact that I really need to decide whether I'm going back to school or not. I just don't really care. I have wasted enough money and time already on something that I never cared about. I hate college. Hell, I hate school. I always have. I've been saying since high school that if I could get somewhere to do something I love without having to be formally educated I would be the happiest camper ever. I always feel like I'm underwater when I am in school. I don't absorb anything, I suck at tests, and I have a hard time communicating with people. The fact that I passed a communications class with such ease shocks me still.
I never even wanted to go to college. I went to Metro State to make my parents happy. That's all it was. I didn't know what I wanted to major in, what career I wanted, or even who I wanted to be. When I realized I hated college so much I figured transferring to community college was a good option because it would be similar to high school in terms of ease and accessibility. I quickly found out that I hated it there too. How I lasted as long as I did will always remain a mystery. I failed classes, didn't show up for a lot of them, and had to take 2 remedial math courses. For as smart as I am, and yes I do believe I am, I don't feel like it sometimes. I don't know how someone who graduated with a 3.7 GPA could be such an academic failure 2 years later. School was always a breeze. I hardly studied, half-assed my homework, didn't care, and I still passed with flying colors. The only classes I had to devote any time to were any math course, Architectural Drawing (roof plots were a pain), and Chemistry. Physical Science was simple, Biology was even easier, English was always easy, Social Studies felt like kindergarten, and electives were electives.
I wasn't popular, despite being in honors classes with all the popular people, but I was alright with that. I didn't participate in much, attend school activities, or worry about what college I was going to as early as 9th grade. I didn't even worry about it in 12th grade. I briefly toyed with going to the University of Georgia because they had a great biology program with an emphasis on forensic sciences but I realized how in debt I would be and how far away from home I would be. It's one thing to go an hour away, like to CSU or UNC, but Georgia was on the other side of the country in an area that I had never been before. I'm not ashamed to say it scared me. That is the main reason I declined Berklee College of Music despite the scholarship I kept a secret from everyone. Not only was it more expensive than it was worth but I didn't want to live in Boston. I had never been there and it was even farther away.
But to tell the main reason why I didn't leave... I felt like it was financially dumb. I had no goals and no motivation from the start. Knowing my parents were paying my tuition and fees wasn't something I wanted to take advantage of no matter where I went. Sorry to say it but I learned from observing my brother's college experience. My parents paid for him to go to the Colorado School of Mines and we all watched him earn an engineering degree. He's making pizzas at a restaurant in Minnesota 6 years later and my dad is still paying off the student loans. I know my parents want me to get an education but they also have the typical parental thought process of wanting their children to be happy. The problem is I'm not happy even when I'm not in school. I know what I would love and I am sure that I would have a blast doing it. I just don't want to sit through earning the $30,000 a year piece of paper to prove it.
When it comes down to it, college is a waste of time and money. Half of the student body at any given university is wasting someone's money and time. They're too busy ditching class, getting wasted, getting laid, and cramming for exams at the last minute because they haven't been to the lectures all semester. Naturally there are exceptions but come on, just how many are there? Take a poll on campus and ask how many students have gotten drunk or partied since they've been in college. All of my friends went away to school and I have heard a lot of their stories. The fact that people actually pass their classes is what shocks me. I didn't do 99.9% of what they, or their friends, have done and I'm the one that failed classes. Really?

Maybe there is just something wrong with me. I've felt like there was since as far back as I can remember.

Give me your heart and soul...

I have been addicted to the Muse song "Hysteria" for the past 3 days. Something about the bass/synth riff is just an eargasm for me.

So much of one that I felt the need to learn it on drums this afternoon... My hands hurt now. On the bright side, it only took 4 play throughs. Well, 4.5.

RIP Dio...

Music will miss you so much.

Such a sad day...

I found out this morning that my neighbor Curtis, who I had known since I was a toddler, was killed in a car accident this past Friday.
He was in the car with another person when they went off the side of the road and crashed into the concrete barrier. The police concluded that neither of them were wearing seat belts and Curtis was ejected from the car into the wall. The other man in the car is alive but Curtis died at the hospital from massive injuries. He was only 23 years old.

I have so many fond memories of Curtis. He was an extremely nice guy and very athletically talented. We always cracked jokes with him saying we would be attending an NBA game one day and have nothing to say but "I knew him back when." I just can't believe he's gone. Realizing that I'll never see him shooting hoops in front of my house again just breaks my heart.

I just want to cry.

Counting out our potentials for VII...

Seeing that the pages of our calendars are quickly getting ripped away (yes, it's already May 9th) I started thinking about Saw VII a little bit more. I know it's not coming out until October and we're just starting to get minor details about the film but we have a little bit to work with so far... and like I said, it's already May 9th. It will be October before we know it.

Let's think about the information that we have so far... Betsy Russell, Costas Mandylor, Tobin Bell, and Cary Elwes are the major big names confirmed so far. Our Saw writers, Marcus and Patrick, also hinted at us a couple months ago that not only was Saw VII going to be the last Saw (well, they wrote it as the last Saw) but that it will have the most returning characters out of all the movies in the franchise so far. We also got the official plot synopsis introducing a new character named Bobby Dagen. It describes him as a fellow Jigsaw survivor that will team up with other survivors for a "new wave of terror." This got the gears turning in my head after Cary Elwes' return as Dr. Gordon was made official and after being introduced to Dagen. Who all survived either their own trap or just survived a game in general?

Jeff "

Allison Gordon

Diana Gordon

Dr. Lawrence Gordon (speculation and we don't know this for sure, but I'll indulge the Gordonites for now)

Daniel Matthews

Corbett Reinhart

Morgan

Brit^

Mallick^

Simone

Addy

Emily

Shelby

Pamela Jenkins*

Tara Abbott*

Brent Abbott*

" Was saved from the drill chair in Saw but we've never seen or heard from him again. Presumed alive.

^Saw V ended with them having just finished their game and there was no mention of them in Saw VI. We are still unsure whether they are alive or not but they're presumed alive.

*Saw VI ended with them still in their game but they are alive as of right now.

Compared to all of these guys that have fallen victim to Jigsaw and died in a trap or during a game that isn't a bad list of people...

John Kramer (kind of fell victim to his own philosophy)

Amanda Young

Paul

Mark

Zep Hindle

Adam Faulkner

The man Amanda killed in the original RBT

Det. Tapp

Det. Sing

Michael

Gus

Obi

Jonas

Laura

Addison

Xavier

Det. Kerry

Troy

Jeff Reinhart

Judge Halden

Timothy Young

Danica Scott

Lynn Denlon

Sgt. Rigg

Det. Matthews

Rex

Trevor

Art Blank

Ivan

Brenda

Cecil

Seth Baxter

Luba

Charles

Ashley

Agent Peter Strahm

Agent Dan Erickson

Agent Lindsey Perez

Eddie

Allen

Hank

Debbie

Dave

Josh

Aaron

Gena

Sachi




The main question I have is, which survivors are going to appear, why, and how? I am still going to be really pissed if Dr. Gordon is alive but I have accepted the fact that in all likelihood he will be. The writers have mind fucked us like that before with Det. Matthews and Agent Perez so if he hobbles in on crutches I'm going to try not to be too angry and surprised. It's not right and it's stupid but that has never stopped them before. The survivors I really want to see are Daniel and Corbett.
I honestly think that Daniel was the one to give the police information on Amanda as an apprentice, especially if Hoffman was an officer he was questioned by. Daniel was in the house until the end with her and unless he lost consciousness after he jumped Xavier in the bathroom and didn't know she administered him an antidote he would have seen that she knew the combo to the safe and knew how to protect him the entire time. Even a teenager could see that she hadn't done anything the whole time to work with the other players and figure out the combination. He of all people would know because he was close to her almost every second of the game.
Corbett could open up a number of windows, too. She was told by Amanda not to trust the one who saves her and she was saved by Hoffman. It wasn't until she was saved and handed over to the police that Perez and Erickson went after Hoffman with intensity. Strahm was on forced medical leave and thought Perez was dead. He wouldn't have been communicating with the FBI and giving them any information about the clues he was onto or what he had uncovered about Hoffman and the victims. Plus, Erickson was successfully bamboozled into thinking Strahm was an accomplice via Hoffman luring him to the end of the Fatal Five. It just doesn't add up. It makes the most sense to think that Corbett said some lady with a gun told me not to trust the person that saved me. However, Amanda could have talked to Corbett about that previously. More often than not the keyword "remember" implies that you have already told someone information and you're stressing how important it is to remember it while repeating it.



The more I think about Saw VII the more nervous I get. Seeing that it's apparently the last film I just hope that it's good and that it ties things up correctly. No contradicting information, no last minute connections that don't make sense, no more bringing back people from the dead, etc.. I have faith in Kevin because he managed to produce a winner with Saw VI after 2 extremely shitty movies but the fact that he got screwed out of Paranormal Activity 2 at the last minute and had little to no time for Saw VII pre-production has made me nervous from day one.

I just don't know.

A Aaron...

I'm actually really sad Aaron was the one to go on American Idol last night. He was good enough to last another week and definitely better than Mike and Casey were on Tuesday. The fact that Casey wasn't even in the bottom two shocked me. Based on performance and not looks or popularity the bottom two should have been Mike and Casey. People are still voting Mike's corny, theatrical fat ass through for some reason. It is on my last nerve. I can't stand him.

YOU A WINNER!

I won the autographed Cary Elwes Saw script! I am still super excited about that. I can't believe I won.

Out of all the emails in that mailing list. Wow. Just wow.

Never sleep again...

A Nightmare on Elm street was such a mistake. Jackie Haley ruined Freddy Krueger. The face, the Rorschach/Batman voice, etc..

I didn't like it at all. Don't see it.

The only plus side is that it was better than the Friday the 13th remake they released last year.