Virginia Breeze

Syesha was the first to perform this evening singing One Rockin Road. She had a miscue on start and a few pitch problems but otherwise did very well. It was probably her best performance and she seemed happy that they competition had moved towards Broadway. This is probably her niche as they say.

Jason sang Memory and put his heart into it. But it was not good. Some of these songs are done a grave injustice when they cut them up so they will fit between the commercials. And this is one of those songs. Also he was off in the lower register. David could have done this song.

Brooke White sang You Must Love Me and had a very unfortunate brain lapse at the beginning. But she got it together and sang well. I really am starting to think she wants to go home. Or she has no confidence. This is one difficult to figure out contestant.

David A. sang Think of Me and it made Beth cry. Neither one of us knew the song but he made it his own. Randy called this one. It was the performance of the night.

Carly sang Jesus Christ Superstar and did a very nice job with it. She put the big voice into it and energized it with her performance.

David C sang Music of the Night and pulled it off. Once again it is difficult though to hear this music cut off in midsong. It’s like having someone wake you up just as you are getting to sleep and starting to have a wonderful dream.

This choice was a big departure from style and David showed us that he really can sing and is not just a rock guy.

The two Davids finished one and two.

It seems like Brooke will be going home. Or maybe Jason. Eventually we will get down to the two Davids. It will be very interesting to see those two go head to head. David A seems to be slightly ahead in the voting but David C is the more mature performer. He is more interesting to watch and the better entertainer. Once the other voting blocks go away he will probably move ahead in the voting.

Danica Patric/ Historic IndyCar Winner

This is the number one story right now on Yahoo Buzz. A woman won the big race.

I don’t really have a lot to say about it other than “Great”. I don’t follow racing except when I am out on Interstate 95.

But having watched women drive I have been saying for awhile now that all they needed was the right car and a matching set of tires (along with a few other color coordinated accessories) and they could win any race they entered.  Am I serious?  No!  Of course not!

Jake Long signs with Dolphins/ Top pick in the NFL draft

And to guarantee that he will be there the first day of training camp they guaranteed he will get thirty million dollars. Can you spell DESPERATE? You can bet his body will be there on the first day but what about his mind?

He knows he has thirty million dollars. He has climbed to the top of the NCAA heap only to find himself on the worst team in the NFL. What does that do to a young person’s mind?

The Redskins went down this road a few years ago. I forget the guy’s name. They gave him millions. And he said “Thank you” and proceeded to get beat every time he took the field.

He never played. Welcome to the NFL.

Miley Cyrus signs a seven figure book deal.

Congratulations Miley. The book will focus on her life growing up in Tennessee. And it will cover how her family and especially mother Leticia kept her grounded.

WAP! Do them dishes girl!

No. That’s not right. I must be thinking of somebody else. I saw Miley for the first time when she was on stage with Billy Crystal at the American Idol telethon a few weeks back. She sings really well but my memory of her has been totally overshadowed by Fergie who came out later in leather pants and did a couple of cartwheels while she was doing a dynamite rendition of Barracuda with Heart.

I don’t think I am ever going to forget that

“American Idol” Season 7 Mixtape

The next Buzz moment seems to be an attempt to make fun of Chikezie’s rendition of “She’s a Woman“. This happened back when they were doing Beatles tunes and the rest of us were trying to figure out when Spring was going to arrive. I am sure we wondered about Chikezie too but maybe not as much as this post suggests.

Still it is all in fun and there is even a YouTube video of Chik doing his thing before he headed back to LAX and the intimacies of airport security. See it here if you must.

And finally we have politics in the news. Senator Barak Obama slammed the retired peanut farmer Jimmy Carter for going to Israel and talking with Hamas.

But I have some questions. When Carter goes to talk with these guys how does he know where to find them? Aren’t they supposed to be hiding? And putting that aside can’t the Israeli’s follow his movements and discover where their enemies are hiding and kill them?

What about all the Secret Service guys who protect the former peanut farmer? What happens if hundreds of Hamas guys show up with guns and decide to kidnap the former peanut farmer?

And am I still going to be able to get Jiff Crunchy Style Peanut Butter if something happens to the former peanut farmer during one of these jaunts beyond the outskirts of civllization? Because I really don’t like the smooth kind and Skippy Peanut Butter gives me a rash.

I have lots of questions as you can see. But we have run out of time. Our discussion of the top ten Buzz subjects will continue later at NewsLink Briefs.

That’s my humor blog for those of you who may not know it.

So in fact that’s for everybody.

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Instead of just writing the post today we are going to do something a little different. Why? Because I’m sitting outside with my laptop and don’t feel confident enough to write an entire post. Something might happen. It might start raining again. Somebody might come by and interrupt my train of thought. A bee might decide to attack me.

So tonight when I return to the confines of the inner sanctum I will have to write two posts. The first one will be about the American Idol gang. They are doing Andrew Lloyd Webber tonight.

That ought to be crazy as hell. I’m sorry but I don’t have much confidence in this group. And I fear they are going to butcher Mr. Webber tonight. It will be like somebody let Sweeney Todd loose on American television.

It’s not going to be pretty. But in any case the second post is going to be about the top ten Buzz topics on Yahoo Buzz. And the first five will go here. While the second five will go to NewsLink Briefs. Because I have been ignoring NLB for too long.

I put a cool video of Teri Hatcher and Charlize Theron duking it out on the first page awhile ago . I figured it would entertain readers for about a week. And I wasn’t disappointed. So I let it go for two weeks.

It really just gets cooler with the passage of time. I know some including my wife might disagree. But others (and there are many of us) feel that it is a great video and should probably go into the Smithsonian at some point.

I don’t really know Teri Hatcher. And I don’t actually know Charlize either for that matter but I had a dream about her recently and wrote about it here. Then I was inspired to write to her person who handles these matters and request a signed photo of her lovely face.

Well it came yesterday. Beth brought it to me and sat there while I opened it. Then she told me she was going to find her old David Duchovny poster and put it back up on the wall. I said that would be fine but it couldn’t be any bigger than my 8′ by 11′ photo of Charlize.

She reminded me who makes the rules in our family and then went off to look for David.

Meanwhile I have been looking at this photo of Charlize and I am not sure I like it. She isn’t smiling for one thing. She is just staring at me with these beautiful eyes that seem to say “I am more intelligent than you by at least 1000 percent”.

Why would I want to look at that every day? Plus she has lousy penmanship. She wrote “Love and Thanks” Charlize Therone on it. Have you ever heard the phrase “Love and Thanks” before?

It’s a new one on me. I have heard of “Love and Kisses” many times before and I feel like maybe Charlize is having a little joke here. And I’m not even sure what it is. Because she is so much smarter than I am.

The whole thing just has an air of impersonality about it. She scribbled this phrase on a photo that could easily double for a mug shot. This is the first time I have ever requested a photo from anyone who is famous. And it’s probably going to be the last.

At least Beth couldn’t find her David Ducovney poster. We are even for the moment. But if she ever finds it I am sure she will be way ahead. Because David has such a sweet smile.

And I am going to have to look at it for a long, long time.

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Update: Wait a minute! I looked at her photo again and I see where she wrote X X X under her name and next to her right ear. It seems like I may have misjudged this entire situation. So we have “Love and Thanks” PLUS Kisses.

I am sorry I ever doubted you Charlize. Will you forgive me?

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Entrecard, LinkReferral and 125Exchange have become three major sources of traffic for me in the past month. I had reached a point where I was discouraged about my sources of traffic. Not you! You are a great source of traffic my faithful (paid) reader.

But everything was StumbleUpon and American Idol. And I like both of these entities but I just felt like I needed something else in my life. AI is going to be over soon and SU keeps telling me they are not a traffic source. So I decided to look for some different sources and came up with these three.

And it seems to be working out well. I only have about 200 Entrecard credits but the good thing is that I am exploring other blogs. And discovering new things in the process! Entrecard motivates me to get out there and look around.

And LinkReferral does the same thing. Plus LinkReferral gives you the opportunity to review other blogs and be reviewed. The reviews I have received have been encouraging. Every day I try to look at ten or twenty blogs there. And they don’t time you so if you see something you don’t like immediately you can leave and still get credit.

It’s pretty easy to stay in the top fifty blogs in your category. And they have many thousand of visitors per day. I get an average of about 60 visitors each day from this resource since I started last month.

If you join please use me as your sponsor and I can get credit for that too. I would really appreciate it if you did. And I will do something nice for you too. See the sidebar for a link.

But the main thing again is that I am becoming acquainted with many more blogs.

This is really the slow and steady road to success. And I am not going anywhere so why not try it? Right? And by the way you are coming with me on my way to the top are you not? I hope so. Maybe we can go there together!

125Exchange is my third new venture and it also encourages me to look at other blogs by putting attractive ads in my sidebar that I can view without going anywhere. But it is also interesting for very different reasons. Basically it is motivating me to learn how to design 125X125 banners that will be attractive and encourage folks to click on my blog.

The great thing is that they really work with you on this. I have talked to “Granny” at least twenty times in the past week as we tried different banners. It’s more fun than editing photos and I have gotten better at it. Here is my latest creation. After looking at it awhile I think maybe I should match up the colors a little more.

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It’s smaller than this of course. And I am trying out seven different banners right now for my three blogs. I bought one from Bannerszen for 25 dollars so I could compare the performance of one done by professionals with my own. Do you like it? Here is another one I am thinking about throwing into the mix.

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So far BannersZen and your blogger friend are about tied in performance I am happy to say. Actually I may be a little ahead.

So this is free traffic. You don’t have to do anything or pay anybody (except if you start buying banners) in order to benefit from it. And it’s a creative endeavor as well.

If you or someone you pay comes up with a really good banner that sends folks to your blog like moths to a porch light you are going to be happy. Right?

So that’s what I have been doing lately. It’s a new direction. And I wanted to share it with you in case you are looking for something new too.

Have a great weekend.

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