Life as an Extreme Sport

Author: Kelly

American Idol, Top 24 Gals, Week 1

...and everything else, Academics, American Idol, Pop Culture

Unlike the guys, there isn’t a clear division of the awesome and the not for the women. Well, there is, it’s just that only three stand out strong, as opposed to a much clearer delineation for the guys. That said, apparently the girls are, almost as a whole, fighting off the flu, which could have certainly accounted for why so many of them sounded awful this week.

Top Three: Ramiele Malubay, Brooke White, Alaina Whitacker
Bottom Three: Joanne Borgella, Amy Davis, Kady Malloy (for the bad attitude alone!)
Top 6 prediction*: Ramiele Malubay, Syesha Mercado, Brooke White, Alaina Whitacker Carly Smithson, Asia’h Epperson
Going home: Joanne Borgella, Amy Davis

* I want to note that this is not nearly so clear for the women as it is the guys; there are four people competing for two spots, and who’ll get those two spots (Asia’h, Alexandrea, Carly, or Amanda) is going to depend on their next performances.

American Idol, Top 24 Guys, Week 1

Academics, American Idol, Pop Culture

American Idol has started back up; I actually started watching last week, during Hollywood week. Now we’re in the top 24, and it’s time to get my predicting hat on (let’s see how well theory holds up to practice). I’ll skip the long recaps at the moment, because I think the manipulations become more interesting when it’s down to the top 12. I will, however, note that we’ve had one contestant pull the dead relative card already – Jason Yeager – and I suspect that will backfire for him. And it’s also worth noting the difference between successfully sassing a judge (Danny Noriega double-snapped Simon most awesomely, and even Simon laughed at it for what it was) and just looking like an argumentative ass (Chikezie). People should remember to skip the sass and backtalk unless they’re really good at improv.

Also – I’m not fond of assigning theme weeks so early; everyone had to do a 60s song, and I really liked the free and random spirit of past season’s top 24. You never knew what you were going to get, and it was delightful for the unexpected. That said, I do think it was a way to prevent the contestants from shooting themselves in the foot by picking an obscure song. (Well, that and the fact that with the music now being available next day for iTunes download, I’m sure licensing became more tricky – I’m actually convinced this is the reason for the narrow selection.)

That said, here’s my take on it so far:
Top Three: Robbie Carrico, David Archuleta, Michael Oz
Bottom Three: Chikezie, Jason Yeager, Colton Berry
Top 6 predictions: David Cook, Robbie Carrico, David Archuleta, Danny Noriega, Jason Castro, Michael Oz
Going home: Jason Yeager, Luke Menard

Joe R over at TWoP thinks Like and Garrett are going home Thursday.

hands

...and everything else

My hands are wrapped in bandages – typing is near impossible – and I’ve had several shots of benedryl, taken more orally, and have a cortisone cream slathered over the hands (hence the bandages; idea is to keep the moisture in, so that the rash doesn’t dry out and split my hands into bloody messes).

I’m tired (see: massive amounts of benedryl). Staying awake is hard. So why fight it?

kelly, kelly, wherefor art thou, kelly?

...and everything else

Yeah, I haven’t been online much at all lately. Two storms in a row made internet connectivity a bitch (wind, then ice), and this morning Time Warner finally came out to swap out some equipment. In theory, this places me back online. Except.

There’s always an except.

To help control pain, I use something called lidoderm patches. They’re basically glue and lidocaine, topical patches. They work really well to control surface neuropathy. Perfect, right? Well. Sort of. The problem with the lidoderm is that some people? Have allergic reactions if you wear it too long.

Some people like me.



I’ve taken benadryl, and am going to see if I have any cream that will help. If not, I think I’ll paste up some benadryl as a topical. Sigh.

In the meantime, typing hurts like you wouldn’t believe – both from the neuropathy, and also from the allergic reaction. I’m going to curl up in bed and whimper some more, like the broken doll I am.