Paula Abdul… Just a Mess

I found the video from last night’s American Idol on You Tube. Here it is: http://youtube.com/watch?v=SGUyLet19ak

A lot of the chatter online suggests the show is scripted. And I’m actually about to defend why I think it isn’t.

Perhaps people don’t know that parts of the show are taped. I’m not talking about the little vignettes about the contestants. I’m referring to the performances. I read a while back that in order for them to do the re-cap at the end of the show, they tape the rehearsals and edit those. As a person experienced with video editing, I can see how that is a smart idea.

So, now I wonder if that was the source of Paula’s confusion. Maybe she attended the rehearsal. Maybe she really did mix up her notes since the format of the show was a little different last night. Whatever the case may be, the woman needs to get it together…. ASAP!

ETA: Oh, and I adore, adore, adore David Cook. I have a thought about his hair lately. Is it just me or is his hair starting to look like Christian’s ‘do from Project Runway? Not that I have a problem with that. I like Christian, too. It’s just something I observed last night…. Fierce!

Paula Abdul… ugh

Paula, Paula, Paula. Enough already!

It’s Neil Diamond night on Idol and Paula Abdul just showed how much she is on the crack. All of the contestants sang one of their two songs of the night, and the judges had the opportunity to give their quick comments before going to a commercial and starting the second set of songs.

I kid you not, Paula Abdul starts to comment on Jason Castro’s first song. Then she launches into her comments for his second song. (This is the point where you backtrack to find my italics, wondering if I have mistyped. No, I haven’t. Thank you very much.) So she starts rambling something about how he didn’t connect with her or something. Wha? Then everyone looks confused. It’s apparent that Seacrest and Simon want to save her somehow, but it’s awkward. Then she says she meant that those comments were for David Cook. This is one to look for on You Tube tomorrow.

Oh boy…. When is AI going to move on to a more coherent judge? I know that sometimes when we’re tired or lacking sleep we don’t make sense, but the same is true when you’re drugged up and/or drunk and/or having a stroke.

Seriously, I’ve seen someone have a stroke on LIVE TV and it’s not a pleasant experience.

Q and A: Sleep Cycles

I’ve had a lot of questions lately. They are just random little things I’m curious about. Many of my inquiries involve a song that I’ve heard recently and I want to know who sings it. Or sometimes I hear rumors and I want to clear things up. Once I wanted to know if it was OK for a dog to eat grapes. Turns out it’s not.

Usually what I do is type my question in to my Google search and then I hope for the best. In my quest for information, many times I am referred to Yahoo! Answers. Have you gone to this site before? I have to say, I really like it. For one thing, I’m reminded that I’m not an odd ball for wondering such things. Many people have had the same questions I have. For another, people have some really interesting questions out there.

I stumbled upon this particular Q&A and though the answer primarily talks about why some people remember their dreams while others do not, the end of confirms something I’ve been trying to tell people for years! I think I learned this when I took Psychology in high school.

Your sleep cycle is 1.5 hours long, so you should sleep in increments of 1.5 hours to get the best kind of rest. People have never believed me in the past because everyone hears that they need to get 8 hours, but that just isn’t true. Get 7.5 hours, people! Seriously. Unless that 8 hours includes the time it takes to get ready for bed and then the time you lay there watching TV, reading, or just trying to fall asleep, go with 7.5 or even 6 hours or even 9 hours if you have the time.

I also believe that it’s better to take an hour and a half nap than a 20-minute-power-nap. Usually when I do take a nap, I don’t set an alarm or anything. I know that I will wake up in either an hour and a half or 3 hours. Yeah, I know, it sounds like a long nap and yes, I can still fall asleep at night.

Here’s the full question/answer if you want to read it.

Why is it that some people remember their dreams when they wake and some don’t remember their dreams?

You dream only during the last third of a sleep cycle (each cycle last about 1h30). If you wake up while you’re dreaming and then concentrate right away about remembering the dream you just had, then you will remember those dreams.

I you wake up during the other two thirds of your sleep cycle, the parts where you do not dream, then you won’t remember any dreams.

If you want to remember your dreams, you have to wake up naturally, without an alarm clock and being awake by an outside noise or any other disturbance. You wake up naturally at the end of your last cycle, which is when you just dreamt. Then you concentrate on your dream and the more you think about it, the more you remember. Dreams are not meant to be remembered by the mind. You need to consciously concentrate to remember them.

People who never remember their dreams are just people who do not concentrate when waking up while they were dreaming or most likely, they wake up with the radio and miscalculated their sleep cycles. Like if you put the alarm clock to wake you up in 7 or 8 hours, you will likely wake up in the wrong part of the sleep cycle. They should sleep 6 or 7h30 (any multiple of 1h30), not 7 or 8. Also somebody being awaken after 8 hours by the alarm will be more sleepy than somebody being awaken after 6 or 7h30 hours, because you feel much more rested if you just finished a cycle.

Baby Mama

We just came back from watching Baby Mama starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. What a cute movie. It’s funny and heartwarming all at the same time. I personally think these two women are awesome. They are both so funny and they are not afraid to look a little silly for the sake of a laugh.

In this movie, Tina Fey plays a successful business woman looking to have a baby, and Amy Poehler is her willing surrogate mother. Also in the cast are Greg Kinnear and Maura Tierney. There are some odd-ball supporting characters played by Steve Martin, Sigourney Weaver, Dax Sheppard, Holland Taylor, and one of the guys from 40-Year-Old Virgin. They make for some awkwardly funny moments.

I wouldn’t say that this was ROTFL kind of funny. It did have some good moments though and I enjoyed it.

As we left, I said to the husband, “Thanks for sitting through this chick flick with me.” He said, “That wasn’t a chick flick. It had people from Saturday Night Live in it.”

ETA: Oh, if you do see this movie, check out Amy Poehler’s abs. She has freaking nice abs. Anyway… not that I’m jealous.

Kicking a Monster’s… butt

This video has been making its rounds with our group of friends. It’s a good little chuckle, so I thought I’d share.

Kids are funny.

David Cook Performs Mariah

I missed whatever happened last week on American Idol, but when I found out Michael Johns was voted out, that was a bummer. But that is not what I’m here to talk about, of course.

David, David, David. Wow. David Cook just sang Mariah Carey! Mariah, people.

How does he do that? Even if this is a song that he has already heard another person sing, like Billie Jean was, this is just too much. He just re-vamped Always Be My Baby. Do you know how bubble-gum-pop that song is? That’s like taking Mozart and adding lyrics from a country song to it. (I think that might be a good analogy.) I couldn’t even wrap my head around how he would do this, but when I heard it, I was stunned.

It amazes me how people can totally change the feel of a song. It must be a good song when it can be converted to a different style. He was a bit teary-eyed after the judges’ comments, too.

This kid makes me cry. He’s incredible. I’m going to iTunes to make some purchases.

Food can be Gross

I was just watching Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives on the Food Network and they were featuring a place called … (nevermind, I choose not to include the name of the place. They do not deserve the publicity.) I was kind of sickened by the food that they cooked at this place. It’s not that it was inedible or made of some kind of strange ingredient.

No, friends, they cook things like 10-pound hamburgers. Read that again. Go ahead. I’ll give you a sec. *twiddling thumbs* Did you read it? Yeah, 10-pound hamburgers. That wasn’t a typo. That zero is meant to be there. They also make some gigantic hot dogs, too.

Excess like that is just plain gross. It’s sick. Seriously, is a 10-pound hamburger really necessary? How many people would you have to share this with? And people think we are a society of excess. Ha! I wonder where they got that idea. (Smell the sarcasm.)

Here’s an image I “borrowed” from their menu so that you could see for yourself because I refuse to link to their site. I removed their name also.

New Music

I was listening to 20on20 from XM and her song came up. I had never heard it before so I didn’t know who sang it and to me, it sounded like Mariah Carey or perhaps Jordin Sparks. So, of course, the only way to clear this up was by opening my iTunes and searching for words that I hear in the song.

The song is called Bleeding Love. And I really love the beat of the song and the sound of the chorus. That’s what mde me go out to pursue more info in the first place. The artist is Leona Lewis.

Strangely enough, she’s all I see now. It’s kind of like buying something new, thinking you are all sorts of original, and then you notice it everywhere you go. I’ve heard this happens when you buy a new car. Anyway, I was watching VH1 and there she was. I logged on to Facebook and a friend had just become a fan. On iTunes she is one of the artists features on the home page.

Turns out she is a product of an American Idol type show in the UK called X-Factor.

Saturday Night Live

The bits and pieces of SNL that I’ve seen tonight have been funny and disturbing. I noticed Cameron Diaz was in the Cougars skit but I think I must have started paying attention to the show during Weekend Update. Kristen Wiig as the travel lady was too funny! She did her dialog so quickly. It was impressive. I couldn’t believe how many times she changed her tune and then followed up with saying, “Just kidding.”

Death by Chocolate, umm, that really creeped me out. Was it just me or was the face painted onto Ashton Kutcher’s chocolate person just disturbing? I didn’t like it at all, but then I don’t like clowns because of how dishonest they are.

The Mellow Show was amusing only because it was hosted by Jack Johnson and the first guest was Dave Matthews. The second I saw DM, I thought for sure that John Mayer had to be next. I was right! And that’s made me chuckle.

Sucky, Irresponsible Writers

I’m a little ticked right now. I subscribe to this e-newsletter about TV shows and today I received the latest edition. Here’s the problem. For whatever reason, the writers of said newsletter decided to write a headline that basically revealed a lot of information about one of my favorite shows. I’m not going to say what show or what the information was because I’m not a jerk like these freaking writers.

Anyway, where’s the common courtesy here? Seriously. If you are going to have a spoiler, warn us so that we can skip it if we don’t want to know. And don’t put all of the information in the dang headline. For goodness sake! How hard is that?! They did that with one of the other shows that I don’t happen to watch, but why not all of the shows?

I don’t read certain magazines or any entertainment websites because of this very problem. Everyone is trying to beat everyone else in getting the information out, but sometimes I JUST DON’T WANT TO KNOW!