Adam's Blog

Am I the only one who felt gypped by last night's American Idol? The premise of the show is that they sing on Tuesday and someone goes home on Wednesday. I understand that last night was taken over by a two hour telethon, but to lead us on all night just to screw us felt wrong. It would have been much more appropriate - and much less cruel to poor Jordin - to let us know up front the results and let the show stand on its own instead of treating the audience like a bunch of suckers. The second to last episode of The Apprentice pulled a "Don't fire anyone" moment, and I wonder if this is a trend in reality TV - keep 'em hooked longer. Frankly, it pissed me off. The result will likely NOT be the same next time, and whoever would have gone home last night might not go home next week. Certainly, that's possible. I find the whole thing objectionable. This from someone who was wholeheartedly rooting for Sanjaya! Update: I am told "gypped" is a pejorative slang form of the word Gypsy, which is the common name of the Roma. Being part Romanian...

Well, it had to happen. Eventually, all cult phenoms either die or reach a new level of cultural acceptance. At some point, we forgot about the "Pogo Bal" (sic) and slap wraps and Tamaguchi eggs whilst integrating American Idol into our lives and terms like "D'oh!" into our vernacular. Every underground eventually dies or is exposed. Thus, after my generation used the term for 15 years plus, nymag.com exposes the term "MILF" for all the world to see. They conveniently forgot to define the acronym, and even if they did, they'd probably use one of the gentler definitions (Who could forget Tana of The Apprentice fame defining it - "mother I'd like to fool around with?") The MILF is an exclusively post-1980's term - and one I expect to be around as long as tweens and teens worship trashy celebutants like Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. As younger girls because more and more loose, older, classier, more mature women become more attractive - if only by contrast. Now that the secret is out, a new age of the MILF has begun - where she may be very aware of her own MILFhood. It will be interesting to see if our...

I saw a movie last night called "Melinda and Melinda." Here's the two sentence premise: two men - a comedy writer who believes life is tragic and this must be offset by moments of comedy, and a dramatic writer who thinks that only tragedy can make poignant the comedy of life - are a given the shell of a tale and must share their view of the story. Thus, over dinner, four friends recount two very distinct journeys of a mysterious dinner guest, Melinda, and her effect on the dinner guests. All in all, the movie was decent - it wasn't a defining point for cinema or anything, but it certainly plucked a string for me. In the end, you are left with one unavoidable conclusion: comedy, tragedy, meaning... it's all in the eye of the beholder, and where you look for empty and desolate, you will find it. Likewise, where you look for meaning, you will find it. It's important for me, a soon-to-be parent, to see happiness and joy and love and hope and charity and comedy and meaning in life. And I do. While life may seem small on a cosmic scale, it's up to us to...

Fer chrissakes, this is the crap we deal with in America today. This is pathetic: This is a real soldier's view on the war. She condemns all the flag wavers who pretend it's patriotic to send your unarmed, unarmored soldiers into a country that doesn't want them. You know what's truly patriotic? Having the guts to say, "Supporting my troops is getting them out of Iraq and back into the USA as quickly as possible. Supporting my troops is restoring this nation's standing in the eyes of the world. Supporting my troops is beginning to undo all the bad karma George W. Bush - never again refered to as "my" president, has done, so that our troops do not continue to serve as the exploding meat suicide bombers continue to terrorize. That would be supporting the troops. Anything else is anything but. Just a few red states away, a high school news paper editor has been suspended for publishing an article encouraging tolerance. The bible says "Judge not, lest ye be judged. It's a safe bet that an article on the bible would be A-OK, but an article that suggests that you allow your Lord to punish the amoral -...

If you are one of the few people NOT reading this from either a feed reader or the OSNews Staff Blog, you'll notice I've completely redesigned the site (with a little help from Site Studio). The new site is much simpler, easier to use, and less overwhelming. I will be adding some of the previous material - links and such - back in over the next few weeks.

I'm going to be redesigning sethadam1.com shortly - no backend changes, just front end. As such, I have been playing with the current layout just for fun. Look for a new sethadam1.com within the next few days week few weeks month or two.

Lee Iacocca has said everything I think about America and our leaders better than I could say it myself. If you get a chance, this is really worth 5 minutes of your time: Iacocca: Where Have All the Leaders Gone?

I moved to Opera browser on Windows sometime ago, and I have no regrets. Apparently, most Opera users agree. Nothing feels as perfect as Camino on my Mac, but it's seriously lacking in the developer department. No javascript console, no web developer tools, no draggable tabs. Hopefully by 2.0 this will be ironed out.

Last nigt, Jenn and I went to see a band called The Decemberists. Now, I have been to probably 200+ concerts over the last 15 years, and I have to say: this was top 5. Top 10 easily. Click 'Read More' and I'll tell you why.

Johnny Hart, creator of the long-lasting syndicated comic strip B.C. died at the storyboard Saturday. He was 76 years old. Although in the later years, BC tended to have religious undertones, I remember reading BC book from the "Book Fair" as early as 4th or 5th grade. Many of Hart's strips remain in my memory, some as my first experience with some more highbrow humor. There was an ongoing series about a caveman at a dictionary that used to regularly make me chuckle. BC was never a lazy man's comic and rarely took cheap shots or cracked cheap jokes. Sometimes, as a young kid, I wouldn't even totally understand the words - I remember one where the rules of football are explained to someone, and he stands still, blank expression, through the play. When asked why, he delivers the punchline: "I'm still marvelling at the jargon." Mr. Hart, you will be missed.