Work was brisk today, as it has been all week. It seems to be a little more support-heavy lately, as opposed to sales, but there’s still enough to go around. That sentence hardly makes sense.
Well the big news everyone will be talking about tomorrow is that Sanjaya Malakr was finally voted off American Idol. Not a huge surprise. The only problem is that there’s not as much to talk about with American Idol now that he’s gone. He was the big story this season. Michael Mercer, my live-in brother-in-law, only watches the search part of the competition, but he would often come by when the show was on and ask us if Sanjaya was on yet or if he was voted off yet. Whatever, talent-wise the kid should have been off weeks ago. I’ll bet he ends up a host on TV Guide News or some E! show. More power to him for marketing his quirky-ass self on the show if he does.
One thing to note about when Sanjaya was given the boot: the Bottom Three consisted of Sanjaya of course, then LaKisha and Chris. Chris was sent back, leaving the other two. LaKisha is a very talented singer, but this is American Idol we’re talking about and people do go home before they seemingly deserve to. Anyway, when they told Sanjaya he was going home, Amanda let out some sort of loud noise of happiness. I don’t remember if it was a “yeah” or a yelp, but she was pretty happy. She immediately called her co-worker Alison. Alison told Amanda that when she heard the phone ring she told her boyfriend Mike that it would be Amanda. My point in all this is that Amanda was happy.
So no one else this year will be Sanjayaed. Or come down with a case of Sanjaya. Or Sangina. That’s my favorite, calling him Sangina. Sangina Sanjayaed. Okay, I’m just sounding loopy now.
Amanda made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. While we were cleaning up Bruce jumped up on the table and ran off upstairs and hid under the bed with a meatball. I’m sure it was a nice snack for him. We were about to give him a Sentinel tablet, which takes care of heartworms and fleas and is administered once a month, but Amanda didn’t want him to think he was being rewarded, since we always have to wrap the tablet up in a bit of bread or something.
Before American Idol came on we watched the show Thank God You’re Here, an improv show featuring different celebrities who enter a room into an unknown situation. It was okay. The show we watched featured Sulu from Star Trek, Tom Green, Shannon Elizabeth and a C-lister who has a show on E! or something, can’t remember her name. She was also on Girls Behaving Badly. Maybe she’s a B-lister. Anyway, the show was entertaining enough I guess, but not outstanding. Maybe we’ll watch it some while Friday Night Lights, our usual Wednesday night fare, is off.
Michael got news that his Xbox 360 was repaired and back home, the only problem being that it’s back home, as in Richlands. He’s going to pick it up Friday. In other video game related news, Michael downloaded Punch Out on his Nintendo Wii. I kept trying to coach him, but he didn’t much listen to me. After he got beat a couple times I played and got as far as Bald Bull before ever getting knocked down. I think at that point I’d only even been hit five times. Not too shabby. I had trouble with Soda Popinski though. He’s tricky in his timing. I did better the first time I played him than during the rematch.
After Amanda went to bed I watched the last of BBC’s Robin Hood that I have recorded on the DVR. I enjoy the show, although it’s pretty formulaic and I might go so far as to say not only that it’s not a good show, but that it’s kind of bad. Or that it is bad. One of the issues I’ve had with it is the costuming, which is very anachronistic. Another was the fact that Maid Marrian has shortish (shoulder-length) hair, which looks fine and stylish for modern times, but not for Medieval times. The episode I watched last night changed a couple of my perceptions though.
See, I’ve been watching things out of order because I wasn’t able to record all of the episodes and didn’t have a way of telling what order they were in without getting a few minutes into any given show anyway. The last one I watched explained why Marrian has short hair. It also showed a relatively brutal scene about the death of one of Robin Hood’s men. So even though they’ve pussed out in the violence Robin and his men will do, they’re willing to do things like stab a man to death a la Julius Caesar and cut people’s tongues out. Not saying violence validates the show, but I have more respect in it now for not being as mamby pamby as I thought it was.
Oh, another annoying thing is the way they try to make it reflect modern times by dropping terms like “war on terror.” I guess they’re just trying to make the show relevant and relatable.
Back on the subject of the Virginia Tech shootings, I was talking to my good buddy Jason Revill today about it. One of the things that has come out about Cho Seung-Hui is that he had some very disturbing writings. I pointed out to Jason the stuff I would write in ninth grade in Mrs. McGlohon’s class and said that if I’d written stuff like I did back then these days I’d probably be locked up or at least be forced to get counseling. I’d write some pretty macabre stuff, and the class really liked it. When we read stories people would actually ask for mine to be read. Jason countered that I wasn’t like these shooter people, and I agreed of course but said that I had warning signs. I was even nice and quiet. Then he pointed out a major difference- I was happy and I had friends. Still, I suppose I shouldn’t have read so much Stephen King at that age.
Zach Dotsey