oh man, what a guilty pleasure this show is. i love how they do the intro of a contestant and you can’t tell until the moment they open their mouth if they’re going to be really good or really bad. i find it hard to believe that some of these people are taking themselves seriously, but it doesn’t matter, i enjoy watching them make fools of themselves.

i also didn’t mind that bikini girl, katrina darrell, who had a tight body and a decent voice. she made it to hollywood, and i only hope she doesn’t get snooty and start wearing clothes. so far i really can not stand the new judge, Kara DioGuardi, who just seems irritating without the paula abdul charm and warmth. i’ll go ahead and give her a few more shows to find her place, but i wouldn’t be surprised if she doesn’t get the boot next season. so fire up your tivos, this… is american idol!

man, so last night while me and taka were watching the american idol finale on about 1 hour delay (because i was watching that awesome lakers comeback), we got to the very end, i mean *THE* moment, and ryan seacrest said “by twelve million votes of american idol two thousand eight is…. david” and then i swear to god, my tivo made that little *bloop* sound and asked if i wanted to delete this recording. the fucking recording ended because the show ran long and it stopped *right* before they said the last name of the winner. taka and i started screaming, then laughing, and then looked it up online since it actually happened like 4 hours ago. i didn’t get to see his reaction until this morning when i watched the re-cap on good day la. stupid tivo.

and was i the only one imagining costin, ben and me in these blue suits during this entire performance?

ben called it and chekezie is out. i’m loving this top 10 though, ’cause they’re all so good/so hot that i hate to see any of them go.

i usually drink in the evenings while i watch tv (especially while i watch these american idol auditions!). i’ve had this ralphs-brand bottle of brandy that ben and i bought when we wanted to get drunk before seeing a movie a few weeks ago, that by itself is very hard to drink… so this evening after realizing i was out of jack, i tried mixing it with my diet-caffeine-free coke? it actually tastes pretty good. kinda like raisins with sugar on them, although when i read that back to myself it doesn’t sound as appetizing as it is.

so back to these american idol auditions. as dirty as it makes me feel, i fucking love them. the bad are so bad and the good? like the horseback-riding, ufc-fighting, absolutely gorgeous country girl at the end of yesterday’s episode are so good.

it’s such a guilty pleasure.

so jordin is the new american idol, and from her performance on tuesday, she definitely deserves to be. i was secretly hoping for blake to win, and while i even bothered to vote for him, dial idol had him losing by a large margin so i knew there wasn’t much of a chance. i’m sure he’ll have a great career regardless, and i’m gonna be first in line to buy his and sanjaya’s cd when they come out <3

and while the rest of my top predictions were on track (blake beating melinda and them both beating lakisha), i had thought jordin was going to be gone long ago, before sanjaya and haley for god’s sake!

the rest of the show was pretty entertaining, but a little annoying that it was more than 2 hours of filler performance before the winner was actually announced. i even missed lost for it, but at least now i have something to watch during my lunch break.

not much has been going on lately, especially during the weeks with these 9 hour workdays and all the exercise. the more i exercise though, the less i seem to need to sleep. this week, i’ve been going to bed at around 11p and waking up before 6a and do a run around the colorado lagoon and down to marine stadium before work. after work i usually go straight to the gym and don’t end up at home until after 8pm.

since taka’s leaving in a few weeks and i don’t need / want to pay for a 2 bedroom apartment while she’s gone, i’m moving to a single unit in the same complex this weekend. i was thinking of moving closer to the office to save on gas and whatnot, but dave wisely pointed out that summer is here and it’d be a bad time to move far from the boat. last year we even started going after work, so i’m taking his advice and staying here for now. when taka moves back in 6 months, we’ll likely move up to the southbay since we’ll both be working there and likely with different schedules so carpooling wouldn’t be feasible.

american idol was pretty boring last night, and i fear that blake might get voted off tonight. this season of 24 is one of the lamest in my opinion, and should’ve just ended at the episode where jack killed abu fayed. hereos is awesome, and i’m really looking forward to next season of lost since they’ve committed to ending it in the next 51 episodes. now that they have a distinct end date, they won’t waste any time with filler side-stories. i’m also watching survivor again this year… i really hope yau-man wins it.

I finished reading “airframe” by michael crichton, which is a suspense/thriller about a defense contractor in the southbay named “norton aerospace” it’s funny, because they mention all the other companies like boeing and lockheed by their real name, so it’s easy to tell the company they’re talking about. kekeke

all the parts for my new road bike should be coming in the week and i might even have it put together this weekend. i’m building up a 54cm giant tcr aero, which should be a better size for me, and should be 1.5lbs lighter than my current road bike (2.5lbs once i get my new wheels) which i’m giving to taka. to break in the new bike, eric and i are talking about doing an irvine to san diego ride later next month.

on my drive in this morning, kroq played that “los angeles is burning song”, and it’s funny, ’cause right now los angeles *is* burning. yesterday i could see the fire from my director’s office when it was small, but today it’s just a hazy mess… i can’t even see downtown.

man, those american idol folks are tricky. they got me to watch a 2 hour telethon, expecting to see who gets voted off, and the payoff? nothing! bastards. but it was a pretty sweet show nonetheless with all the stars and stupid skits. i particularly liked when jack black sang kiss from a rose, and then seal was there, and the celine dion singing with elvis was pretty amazing too. man, and how much were paula abdul’s boobies hanging out? mmm… those are some good 45 year old boobies.

the rest of the show was actually pretty sad and heart-wrenching. as i was browsing the internet looking at which $1000 road bike frame i want to buy, i started feeling guilty and donated $20, so i could watch the rest of the show and continue my conspicuous consumption in peace.

anyway, next week, lakisha and phil are going home… i hope.

well, like all good things, sanjaya’s stay on american idol has come to an end. i was actually pretty shocked that lakisha and blake joined him in the bottom 3 this week. i’m sure i’ll keep watching the show, but i definitely won’t be doing any more of my power voting. i received my phone bill yesterday and it was 56 pages long. they had to mail it in one of those fed-ex type envelopes… suckers.

i’m still pulling for blake to win it all, although with the results from last night, it looks like he might not be too long for the american idol world unless he can pull out another blake-tastic performance. *sigh*

oh man, was he great last night or what? we went out to dinner so we got home just after the show had ended and the voting had opened. i took a quick peek at votefortheworst.com to see what his call in number was, and proceeded to vote for him as we watched the recorded show and then house. i didn’t count, but based on the 5 calls on average i can make per minute and the 2 hours that the voting is open, that’s around 600 votes.

while he was dressed more like a pirate than a country singer, he’s still my favorite. i have a sinking feeling he might be in the bottom 3 tonite. i guess it’ll be a true show of how much support he actually has.

ben posted his updated predictions for how the rest of the season would go, so i’m going to go ahead and post mine too:

next - Phil
next - Jordin
next - Haley
next - Chris R
next - Sanjaya
next - Lakisha
Final elimination - Melinda
Winner - Blake