Goodbye Kellie Pickler

She's as cute as a button, but she just didn't have what it takes to be the next American Idol.
Miss Kellie Pickler was given the boot in last night's results show, which didn't really surprise me all that much. My original prediction placed Kellie in the top three finalists, but her last two performances were downright awful. I figured she might have established a big enough fan base to keep her in the running, despite her poor performances, but I must have overestimated the power of her adorable charm and southern innocence.

Katherine Mcphee is my personal favorite and I'm confident she'll make it to the final two. (I gave her 50 votes this week!)Last night's results placed her and rocker Chris in the top two, and I'm sure they will remain at the top until the bitter end. Next to go is Paris, then Elliot, then Taylor (I like his unique "bluesy" style, but he doesn't have what it takes, either.)

Go Katherine! I've got McPheever!

Avengers Assemble! Sort of...

For my birthday, my kind old mother gave me the hardback book of Young Avengers: Sidekicks (collecting the first 6 issues of the series) and I recently finished reading it. I gotta tell ya, I really enjoyed this book! In the aftermath of the Avengers being disbanded (and The Vision getting ripped in half by She Hulk), these young heroes step up to fill the void, but they aren't exactly what they appear to be...
The storyline is fun ,the dialogue is awesome ("Where's my superhero handbook? Oh, right, I left it in my other tights"), and the characters are interesting. My only complaint are the names. While "Patriot" is fitting for the Junior Captain America, I'm not very fond of "Iron Lad" or "Hulkling" (probably because it makes me thing these guys should belong to the Legion of Super Heroes and the Teen Titans (Marvel rules and DC drools!)
"Asgardian" was an okay name, then they went and changed it to "Wiccan" after it was revealed that this kid had no connection to the Norse Gods whatsoever and was only a novice magic user. And "Hulkling" isn't even Gamma radiated, but is actually a shape shifter (again, very similar to another green teenage superhero who bore a name ending in "ling.")
Whatever this book lacked in originality, it made up for in plot, character development and fantastic artwork. I would recommend it to any Avenger fan and it's well worth the $20 price tag.

As for game news, I wasn't able to play with the fellas on Friday night. The wife took the night off from work and I decided to spend some time with her and the chillun's. I guess my absence sort of altered the original plans of continuing the Marvel RPG campaign, since they played video games instead. Sorry guys, you could have gone on without me - I really wouldn't have minded! We'll have to see what sort of craziness we can involve ourselves in this Friday...

The best part of waking up...

I'm always in an odd mood at 0530 on a Saturday morning.
Probably because I know I have no business being at work this early on a day usually considered a part of my weekend. I know I should be at home, snuggling with my wife or trying to coax baby Xander back to sleep, or a combination of the two.
But instead, I sit at my computer at work, sipping the bland Aramark brand coffee provided by the company (hey, the price is right) while surfing the internet instead of working - trust me, I'll get around to it.
I've already had what I will call the "coffee incident" of 2006, which is undoubtedly a foreshadowing of the day I have ahead of me. The first two things I do when I walk in the door each day is:
1) Brew a fresh pot of "coffee".
2) Turn on the copy machine.

Now, anyone who makes coffee on a regular basis knows that you have to dump out the old coffee left over from the day before as well as the old filter and grounds, rinse out the pot and put in a fresh set of filter and grounds. Well, this morning, I negleted to dump out the old stuff and just hit the "brew" button before leaving the break room. When I returned about ten fifteen minutes later, I walked into an full pot and a puddle of coffee on the counter.
In the words of the immortal Homer Simpson: "D'oh!"
So, a roll of paper towels and a string of obscenities later, the break room was returned to normal.

But all is well now, because I have X96 playing on the stereo and I have the office to myself for a couple more hours. (Bring on the ladies!)
Speaking of music, I've recently changed my personal soundtrack from Don't You (Forget About Me) by Simple Minds to Hate Me by Blue October. I don't know why, but it strikes a deep, melancholic chord of an all-too-familiar self-loathing I've struggled to live for half of my existence. Either that, or because it has the word "porno" in it. Ha ha.
Here are the lyrics:

(Verse 1)
I have to block out thoughts of you, so i don't loose my head
They crawl in like a cockroach leaving babies in my bed
Dropping little reels of tape to remind me that I'm alone
Playing movies in my head that make a porno feel like home
There's a burning in my pride, a nervous bleeding in my brain
An ounce of peace is all I want for you, Will you never call again?
And will you never say that you love me just to put it in my face
And will you never try to reach me, it is I that wanted this
(Chorus)
Hate me today
Hate me tomorrow
Hate me for all the things I didn't do for you
Hate me and wait, yeah wait for it to swollow
Hate me so you can finally see whats good for you
(Verse 2)
I'm sober now for 3 whole months, it's one accomplishment that you helped me with
The one thing that always tore us apart is the one thing that I won't touch again
In a sick way I want to thank you for holding my head up late at night
While I was busy waging wars on myself, you were trying to stop the fight
You never doubted my warped opinions on things like suicidal hate
You made me compliment myself when it was way too hard to take
So I'll drive so fucking far away that I'll never cross your mind
And do whatever it takes in your heart to leave me behind
(Chorus)
Hate me today
Hate me tomorrow
Hate me for all the things I didn't do for you
Hate me and wait, yeah wait for it to swollow
Hate me so you can finally see whats good for you (
Verse 3)
And when the sad hard eyes say bye to you and wave
Kicking shadows on the street for every mistake that I have made
And like a baby boy I never was a man
Until I saw your blue eyes cry and I held your face in my hand
And then I found out I can't make it go away, just make it stop
Come back and shine just like it used to be
And then she whispered "How could you did this to me?"
(Chorus)
Hate me today
Hate me tomorrow
Hate me for all the things I didn't do for you
Hate me and wait, yeah wait for it to swollow
Hate me so you can finally see whats good for you, for you, for you, for you...

Well, Frak Me Running!

My friend Beau was kind enough to lend me Battlestar Galactica 2.0 last Friday night, which I eagerly viewed over the weekend.
This is really a great show, for any of you slackers out there who haven't gotten around to watching it yet.
I vaguely remember the old series, which I hope to someday go back and watch again, but in the meantime, the revamped version is kicking Cylon ass and entering their names into the ship's log book. The special effects are great as are the storyline, plot, and character development (take notes, will ya George Lucas? You could learn a thing or two about how a sci-fi story is supposed to go.) Actually, I'd like to see a dog fight between squadrons of X-Wings and Vipers, just to see who would win. While we're at it, let's throw some Original Cylons in a pit with some Stormtroopers to see who comes out on top. We can then have a match between the new Cylons and some Battle Droids. Sounds like fun to me! They should do a comic or a cartoon with that idea...

Game night last Friday was awesome, despite the fact that the only players who could make it were myself, Neal (Hobbes), Beau (Pyscho, or Ohcsyp if you're dyslexic), and Victor/Victoria. We played the Spectre scenario a couple of times since I got the massive Heroclix fig delivered early last week, and had a total blast with it. It's similar to the Galactus scenario, except that The Spectre throws out angry spirits against anyone who attacks him (little bystandar tokens) who take pot shots at the offensive figs. I used my custom LE Nova (a copy of the Wizkids version) and my custom Unique Death which turned out to be a pretty deadly 600 point team, while Neal weilded his Infinity Gauntlet Big Fig Thanos. Vic tried his luck with the Phoenix/Dark Phoenix Big Fig combo and Beau borrowed my Galactus who almost perished! A good time was had by all!