Sunday, August 12, 2007

American Idull


American Idull

More people watch and vote on this show than they do for the Election of The President. What a shame! This just shows that America cares more about a person singing than they do on who is running the country. Perhaps, we should make a show called “The Next American President” and make them do a Dog & Pony Show to get Americans to vote for the next US President. It sounds like a viable option to me with several categories like dancing, singing, political issues, general health and mental wellbeing.

Where r they now? Perhaps the only one that has made a career from the show is Kelly Clarkson. She rode the fame and became a true Pop Star with good music and lyrical content. All the way from working in a theater to top of the charts. Where are the rest of them? Ruben Studdard(2003), Fantasia Barrino(2004), Carrie Underwood(2005), Jordin Sparks(2007)

Carrie Underwood has made some impression on the music scene. With her cross over hit from Country to Pop and some success on the Country charts, I would place her as the second most successful act to come from the show.

Taylor Hicks (Soul Patrol)(2006) from Alabama has done a big whopping ZERO in the charts. Why and how did Americans pick such a dud? His soulful vocals were better served in some bar in Louisiana than in front of 50million people voting for his gray haired ass. He is not even in the charts and yet he is an American Idol for this year.

Katharine McPhee would have been a better choice as her voice was good and she really had the looks to make it. She was a very promising upcoming star but due to the draconian contracts they are placed under to do tours and with a major percentage of most of their profits going to the producers, she will not see the light of day for a while either. I wonder if they know they made a mistake in not choosing her? She was much more saleable than Hicks.

Now, about the hosts (from Hell). The Tool(Ryan Seacrest)Train wreck(Paula Abdul), Asshole(Simon Cowell), and on the level(Randy Jackson). Paula, as we all know was a choreographer for Janet Jackson way back in the 80s and at best a B-List star/musical act with her dancing and animated cat in her videos with at best 3 number one hits. Hush-Hush or Lush, Lush little Paula. In some of her actions and looks on the show, you could clearly see that she was trashed and on something by slurring her speech and some of the random comments. In my opinion, she makes no contribution to the show at all, perhaps she needs to go to So You Think You can Dance on ABC and trade with Sharron Osborne. Her randomness is not a good attraction and makes for good conversation. I will give her one thing; she has a good voice, too bad her voice did not carry her through.

Simon Cowell; He is notorious for his unsparingly blunt and often controversial criticism of the contestants. He is estimated to be worth about 200million US dollars. Not to shabby to be an asshole on TV. His personality is that of a piece of cardboard, not too impressive to me and I think that he gets off on slamming people on the show. That is all I have to say about him. Now on to the next one.

Randy Jackson in my opinion is the only one who gives the show any sort of clout. From Wikipedia: “Jackson played bass in violin virtuoso Jean-Luc Ponty's backing band and toured with rock band Journey in 1983 and 1985. His numerous credits range from playing with Aretha Franklin, George Michael , Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Billy Cobham, Blue Öyster Cult, Herbie The Car, Richard Marx, Billy Joel, Journey, Bon Jovi and Bob Dylan to playing at the Grand Ole Opry with The Charlie Daniels Band. His production/songwriting work in the San Francisco Bay area with Narada Michael Walden and Walter Afanasieff led Jackson to be quite in demand as a producer himself.

While in the Bay Area, Jackson played in bands with Carlos Santana and Jerry Garcia. He moved to Italy in the late 1980s and produced a record for Italian pop star Zucchero. The record Zucchero and the Randy Jackson Band produced one of Zucchero's biggest hits, "Donne". Jackson was bass guitarist for Tracy Chapman featuring on several Tracks on her 1992 release Matters of the Heart. He performed on the single "Bang Bang Bang", "Open Arms", and "Dreaming on a World". Jackson has also recorded, produced, or toured with many well-known artists and bands, ranging from Mariah Carey (whom he knew when she was still a teenager; he was in her band at Live 8 in London in 2005) to *NSYNC, Céline Dion, Wild Orchid, Bruce Springsteen, Stryper[1], and Madonna (he played bass on her # 1 hit "Like a Prayer"). He has also worked as an executive, spending eight years as vice president of artists and repertoire (A&R) at Columbia Records and four years heading A&R at MCA Records.

Jackson also hosts a radio top 40 countdown known as "Randy Jackson's Hit List" syndicated on hundreds of stations nationwide by Westwood One. Every week Randy counts down his top 30 Urban AC and Mainstream AC hits, gives us a peek into AI with American Idol Underground, and shares what's currently in his iPod.”

So he has the real credentials in the music industry to actually know what the hell could/and should make a star and for what qualities they should look for. He is the leveling factor between Cowell’s cynicism and Abdul’s childishness. Where as he has the clout in the industry, that does not make a star, only gain access to the keys. The final vote is from the viewing public and I think that the three should have more of a final say so in the end. Kind of like a Veto or final vote, but hey, I am not the show’s producer. This is just my two cents worth with a gracious helping form Wikipedia.


What is your opinion?

Some Funnies!!!!





What is your opinion?

Bad For them Good For Us...

A problem at the switch board at a transformer substation led to a power shortage at 2:30 p.m. (0530 GMT), the company said.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. said on Friday it shut down six of its chip production lines after a power cut at a plant near Seoul, prompting expectations of tighter supply and a rise in prices.
Some said the incident could wipe out as much as a month's worth of Samsung's total production of NAND flash memory chips, which are widely used for data storage in portable electronics.

"It is probable that at least half of the chips already in the fabrication process will have to be discarded," said Lee Min-hee, an analyst for Dongbu Securities.

"Taking into account another two weeks for ramp-up of the lines after cleanup, Samsung could very well lose a month's worth of chip shipment," he said.

"When the power goes down, some of the wafers die in the process and they ... become obsolete," said Lee.

Overall NAND production at Samsung is likely to be particularly affected by the outage in Line 14, an advanced NAND flash line using larger wafers.(300 MM)

Sometimes Karma is a bitch... They changed 2 of their plants from Flash Memory to DRAM and flooded the market pushing the prices of DRAM down into the gutter. This hurt Qimonda and the rest of the companies that make this product.
--
RMSTringer
+++++++++++++++

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Poco Park Tomorrow morning...

Mark and I are going on a ride tomorrow morning at Pocahontas State Park. I think we are going to ride the Red and Blue trails depending on how tired i am from working all night.

Anyone up for a ride?



What is your opinion?

Blog Stuff...

Over the last 2-3 days i have signed up for a few more services to get my blog out there and noticed. I have signed up for the Blogger's Choice Awards, EXLINKS.net, BlogRankings.com and BlogsRater.com

So, please feel free to go to a site and vote for me.


What is your opinion?

Work Thoughts

I am 36 years old and i have been in an industrial/commercial environment for many years. I have worked on all sorts of projects from Chemical Plants to Paper Mills to Semiconductor Fabs and never in all my life have i seen a place not work well after some two years. I have been a tech for nearly a year and this system has only ran well over the Christmas Holidays when the engineers were not there.

I have built units and did install work on complex systems that have started up and ran with a minimal number of errors; systems that ran perfectly after the "bugs" were corrected. I have never seen a system like the one i work on that just runs like hell all the time, no matter what is done or not done to it. I just do not understand it...



What is your opinion?

Radar Jammer...


Very intersting. i always wondered what kind of device could do this? I am suer that a person in the USA would get their self in a very big mess over something like this!!

Error ... Cop laser signal is jammed by the electronic gate controller.

What is your opinion?

Link Exchange

If anyone is interested, i am willing to do a link exchange with him or her. It is a good way to get your blog/site out to different people. Let em know and we can get it set up!!

Thanks...



What is your opinion?

Friday, August 10, 2007

She finally took her own advice...





Amy Winehouse finally went to rehab. The stories of exhaustion and the such were just ways to try and divert the masses from knowing the truth. She was a drinker and partier from the get go and we all knew it. I hope that she gets the help that she needs.
What is your opinion?

120v AC in a car?


Scott Dawson, a civil engineering graduate from the University of Houston put an in-house AC unit on his car. You might have expected this from someone that went to Texas A&M, but not University of Houston. That campus borders a not so good part of the city and he is just asking for trouble…
What is your opinion?

Monster truck makes Monster mess...


When this happened in DEKALB, Ill, it was a terrible shame. What impressed me about this is the fact that no one was killed. If you got to see the video, the truck went very fast over the smashed cars. It looked like it jumped up on the first one and then bounced off the end. I can understand why the driver had such a problem trying to control it. Have you ever watched those shows on TV? The trucks are always crashing and rolling over. They break down often due to the amount of power that the engine is putting out, snapping stabilizer bars and crank shafts due to the torque. It amazes me that we have not had many of these things hurt more people at bigger events.
What is your opinion?

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Screen Shots of The Simpson's Movie...






The movie was really FUNNY!! They did a good job on it and if you like them, then by all means go and watch it. All of the characters were in the show. I took my daughter and her friend and we all had a good laugh!!
What is your opinion?

Today

I am going to take my daughter and her friend to go see The Simpson’s Movie today.  Fun Fun!

I am very sore today from my workout yesterday morning. 

My back is kicking my but…very sore, and I need to go and workout again today. 

The weather is very hot once again with no rain in sight…

 

RMStringer

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The significant problems we face

cannot be solved at the same level

of thinking we were at when

we created them: Albert Einstein

 

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Random Space shots...

Uncovering the Veil Nebula
















Galactic HII Region RCW 120















The Sun Loses its Spots















Bullet Cluster


What is your opinion?

Interglatic Crash...




I was reading earlier about the big crash between 4 separate galaxies. They say it will make one big mess of a galaxy much larger than our own Milky Way. With all of those stars and planets, who can there not be any life on them? I am Christian, but how can we think that we are the only people alive? Isn’t that rather presumptuous of us?

I guess that if we are the only inhabitants of this universe, then that is a big waste of space out there. And with us only beginning to explore space, we may never get to those other planets to see what they are all about. If we are the only people, then why did God just make Earth the only planet with a Sun and a moon? I mean that is all we really need. We do not have the technology to be able to go and use resources from that we have found on other planets. Gentlemen, We do not have the technology to achieve this goal. I guess that they give us something to look at during the night.

I kind of boggles the mind to think that when we use the Hubble Telescope to look deep into space that we are looking back in time. The light that we see has been traveling for millions and billions of years to get to the earth. For all we know, some of the pictures we see are no longer there and have been gone for millions of years and in fact, I am sure some of them are that way.
What is your opinion?

Nothing to post about...

Well folks, at this very moment, i have nothing to post about. I read the news and it is just the same crap every day, murder, car wrecks, war, oil prices...ect ect. It is going to be very hot here today. They say around 102 degrees! That is really hot and with the lack of rain, the grass just burns up. We have a sprinkler system at our house. I like to water early in the morning and late at night so as to not burn the grass up. I see other people in our neighborhood watering their lawns like at 3.00pm What a bunch of dumbasses!! That is the hottest part of the day and it will burn the lawn up. The water acts like a magnifying glass with the sun. People, Water Late at night or Early in the Morning, NOT during the day. The other day, on the news, they reported the highest water usage in Chesterfield County ever. It was something like 65million gallons all due to us South west yuppies needing to water our lawns.

I am reading Bush at War by Bob Woodward. It is a very good book I am on chapter 8 at the moment. I just wonder how he got all the information in the book? It talks about the days before September 11 and in chronologically the days after that with exact quotes and Bush’s locations and Top Secret document titles. How did he get the information? I seams to me that some of this should be classified. Just my thoughts so far. I hope to be able to finish it soon and start on the next one. I guess sometimes that it is nice to be able to ramble on about nothing specific.

I got an invite to my fraternity’s reunion this year in Texas. The frat is called Phi Boots Roota. It is a service frat for the Drum Line at SFA. It was very fun to be in for 3 years while I attended SFA from 1989-1992. If I am settled I would like to go to it, but I also have my brother’s bachelor party and wedding to go to in November. The reunion is in October, might be too close for me to pull off.

I am going to the gym this morning when I get off work to go and do my back and cardio while my daughter and her friend do yoga. I am going to be one tired puppy after I get home…

That is all for now.
What is your opinion?

Monday, August 06, 2007

Road Problems...?


I have lived in a variety of climates and states over the past 10 years. Some I have liked and some I have not. Let’s take Indiana as one example. I lived in Merriville Indiana. I worked about 2 miles from the Southern shore of Lake Michigan. The weather was less than hostipitable in that area. With many months of sub-freeing cold and snow/ice on most of the roadways; it was a continual cycle of construction. One thing that was used was salt to clear the roads. They use that in Massachusetts where we have lived also. Salt, as we all know, makes steel rust. Even if it is painted, it will rust. They have to be very vigilant in this duty in the northern environments and states. Just use the Golden Gate Bridge as an example. They have to keep it painted or it will rust.

The roads stay torn up die to the continuous expansion and contraction from the freezing/thawing process. I remember seeing rebar in the concrete roads that was rusting due to the cold/salt/thaw process going on. So let’s look at the bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis was a very tragic event. They gave out warnings that the bridge needed repair and that it had stress fractures. Given the environment that it is in: over water, up north, cold/hot/freezing; it is no wonder that it fell. It is just a wonder that more have not had this happen. It appears that America’s infrastructure is in need of some major overhauling.

In Massachusetts we lived about 62 miles from Boston. That state has the worst roads in the US in my opinion. You get free windshield replacement if you live in that state due to the road conditions. We lived in a cul-de-sac that had pavement sidewalks. When the snowplows came to clear our road, they would tear up the sidewalks and roadway. Just think about this on a concrete road that is uneven due to settlement or the roadbed, expansion and contractions due to weather both hot and cold and the added salt to help erode the surface.

In Colorado, the state uses a liquid de-icier called Magnesium Chloride to pre-treat the roadways to keep them from icing over if the temp is above 16 degrees. This solution has less of an environmental impact on the surrounding plants and animals as well as not tearing up the pavement or causing metal to corrode. Perhaps we should all look at how the roads in our area a maintained especially if you live in a colder climate. If we fail to do this, we may see a repeat of this happening soon.


What is your opinion?

Sunday, August 05, 2007

Cha Cha search



It looks like Google might have some new competition on the block. Cha Cha search gives better results than Google and they are more direct! Give it a try!

According to Slashdot, "Indiana University Dumps Google for ChaCha.
Cha Cha uses people to do their searches instead of algorithms like Google.
From their website:

INSTANT SEARCH - Just like all those other search engines... only better. Because ChaCha keeps getting smarter. Our search experts are constantly handpicking cool, hard-to-find sites so you get only the best, most relevant results... OR

LIVE GUIDED SEARCH - Instant search not cutting it? One click hooks you up with a live ChaCha Guide. A real person that will ask you questions, understand exactly what you want, and send you results that are dead-on. Computers can't do that. It takes a community of people who are motivated to help you get the answer you seek - no matter what it takes. The brainpower behind ChaCha.

The next generation of search engines is here. And it's all about people

What is your opinion?

Saturday, August 04, 2007

The Orb - Orbus Aquarium DVD



A friend of mine did this DVD. It is of a band called The Orb. They are a really good band to see live and i saw them in Washington DC at the 9.30pm club. They have some really nice atmospheres and beats. If you love this kind of music, go and check out this dvd!! You will not be sorry that you did. They have been around since 1992.


Link:





What is your opinion?

Two New Panorama Pictures

I took this downtown shot from the foot bridge that goes under the Robert E. Lee Bridge to Belle Isle.

This is the foot bridge to Belle Isle.





Established in 1847. U.S. Presidents James Monroe and John Tyler are here as is Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Gens. J.E.B. Stuart and George Pickett are joined by 18,000 Confederate soldiers including more than 2,000 removed from the Gettysburg battlefield.The southern section of Hollywood overlooks the James River and affords some of the best views of the river and the city skyline.



Here is a Google Map of the location of the Cemetery and also seen is the Robert E. Lee Bridge where i took the top picture of downtown Richmond on 8.1.2007. Both were taken on that date. I took the Hollywood Cemetery pic from Belle Isle.



What is your opinion?

Jamestown Settelment




















It was better than i expected and it did not really cost that much to see all of the museum and attractions.

Pictures...

I have some to put up tonight. I will do a ping when I am ready.

 

RMStringer

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood

over questions of reality and illusion.

I know this: if life is an illusion, then I

am no less an illusion, and being thus, the

illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I

love, I slay, and I am content.

(Robert E. Howard, Queen of the Black Coast, Weird Tales, May 1934)

 

Friday, August 03, 2007

Chelsea

Dinner

Etha&Pawp!

The Last Supper with the family.

Virginia Company Charter

Jamestown VA, No Colonial Williamsburg.

We went to the Jamestown Settlement and did not make it to Colonial Williamsburg.  We will go another time soon.

 

RMStringer

________________________________

What have I done

What lies I have told

I've played games with the ones that

rescued my soul

Oh, have I come to the point where I'm losing the grip

Or is it still time to get into

The swing of things  - A - Ha   1986

 

Jamestown

Susan Conastant

Inside hut

Indian village

Jameptown Va

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

When NOT to Hypenate your name...

Many married women choose to hyphenate their married name and maiden name. But there are times when you just shouldn't!! I found these while reading an article on the net and just happened to look at another headline.

Some of these are just funny...
Peters - Rising
Aikin - Johnson
Busch - Graber
Wacker - Dailey
Fillinger - Goode
MacDonald - Berger
Beaver - Wetter
Butts - McCracken
Weener - Whipple
Gowen - Geter
Dunnam - Favors
Filler - Quick
Wang - Holder
Busch - Rash
Best - Lay
Crapp - Beer
Looney - Warde
Poore - Sapp
Hardy - Harr
Traylor - Hooker

What is so funny about this is some of the people looked like their namesakes...


What is your opinion?

Fast Cars on the streets...

While were walking down The National Mall yesterday by The National Archive Museum, we saw police on motorcycles come and block the cross streets in a very big hurry. Unbeknownst to me, yesterday, the new Prim Minister of Brittan was in Washington for a visit. Now back to the road.

There was a line of cars that came screaming through the road, not stopping for any red or green lights heading towards the Capitol. There was a black Suburban followed by 2 Black Limos. I am almost certain that I saw Cheney in the backseat of the last one and then followed behind him was 2 more black Suburbans (Chevy) with all sorts of antennas and servalence equipment on top of them. They were no doubtable the Secret Service in the Black Suburbans (Chevy) and they were all in a very big hurry!!

What is your opinion?

The Train Ride Back...

Well, while we were waiting for the train to come into the station; it was late. That is the second time that has happened to me. The train got there, it was 30 minutes late. When the train finally got there and we started to load, they asked that women, children, and elderly load first which was ok. There was a Congressmen standing there that smelt like a brewery and started raising his voice. He stated the "Wow, What’s so good about Richmond? It’s not going to be hopping town this weekend, No NASCAR, No Nothing. I wonder if I a Congressman qualify as a child as we are all infants." He was riding in the Business Class of the train, I wonder why?

I am not sure who he was and I wonder why he had to ride the train home to the boring city that he represents. Very funny if you ask me.

What is your opinion?

Posting Comments to the Blog.

Due to stupid ass spam that I am getting on this blog now from people, I have turned on Word Verification so I can’t get that mess again. I did not want to do that, but people have left me no choice.

I want to know that what i put out on the blog, people like of dislike it. Please give me some feedback on this question.

Thanks.

What is your opinion?

An Intimate Celestial Bond

If you want to Purchase any of my music(s), Please go to https://djrenigade.bandcamp.com/ 1st Track For The New Year! #DownTempo #RenigadeCi...