David Cook wins American Idol!! Yahoo!!

WOWZA!! America got it right this time! I thought for sure that with all the praise the judges heaped on Archuleta Tuesday night that Cook was doomed. But he wasn't! America saw through the judges' crap and voted Cook the winner by a 12 million vote margin! Simon himself said that after he watched Tuesday night's show on TV that the contest wasn't as lopsided as he had made it sound.

Finally, American Idol has a rock 'n' roll winner...and a damn good one, at that! Ryan Seacrest said that a record 97 and a half million votes were cast...I'm thinking America was just trying to right itself after screwing over Chris Daughtry two years ago. Probably everyone thought he was safe back then when he wasn't, so he went out fourth place (but went on to sell the most albums of anyone from that year). So America decided that THIS year they wouldn't let the rocker lose! Congrats, David Cook...and America!

David Archuleta wins American Idol, David Cook sells more records

David Archuleta will win American Idol tomorrow night, but David Cook will sell the most records. It will be a virtual repeat of what happened two years ago with Taylor Hicks and Chris Daughtry, with Hicks winning American Idol and Daughtry selling FAR more records (Hicks has sold 702,000 copies of his album, while Daughtry has sold 3,200,000 copies).

Archuleta has a good voice, but the little girls that are his fan base aren't going to buy his album, because Archuleta is NOT a pop singer. He's like a crooning, adult contemporary singer. He's a nice guy, and he has a great voice, but he's not going to appeal to the masses as far as record sales. Plus, he looks like he's about to throw up when he's on stage sometimes, especially when the judges heap praise on him.

David Cook, as opposed to Archuleta, has shown that he can sing a range of songs in different styles. He would appeal to the teenage crowd, as well as older folks. He also has a lot of stage presence.

Cook's album will sell more copies, so that means he'll continue to make more music in the years to come. Archulea? Not so sure. If his album is a pop album, he might sell some records. But the fact is, he never sung ANY songs in a pop style on American Idol, so that makes one think that he can't sing in that style. That means he'll have to sing his adult contemporary style, which is good, but will children want to buy adult contemporary? And will adults buy an "Aw shucks" kid singing adult contemporary?

Company Convenience time again!

I'm off work again! For eight weeks, buddy! And getting paid for it, to boot! Can't beat that with a friggin' STICK!

My favorite since the first episode wins Rock of Love 2

Rock of Love 2 with Bret Michaels ended tonight, and Ambre won...who was my favorite of the girls since the very first episode! As a matter of fact, she was one of the girls eliminated in the first episode, but when one of the girls that Bret had picked to stay decided to quit, he decided to give Ambre a second chance. And she wound up winning the whole thing! Can I pick 'em or what?

DC Comics to start making movies about their super-heroes

DC Comics has finally done it! They've decided to catch up with Marvel Comics and make their super-heroes into blockbuster movies! You see, years ago, DC was the only game in town as far as super-hero movies, whereas Marvel had hardly any, and what few they had, sucked. But for the last few years, Marvel has kicked it into high drive with movies about their super-heroes, whereas DC has been thinking that the only super-heroes they have are Superman and Batman. But not any more!! DC has announced that they will be soon be making solo movies about Wonder Woman, Green Lantern (the Hal Jordan version, mind you), Flash, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Captain Marvel (but they'll have to call it Shazam!), Zatanna, Lobo, Black Lightning, Elongated Man, Firestorm, Nightwing, Booster Gold, the Atom, and many, many more! As a longtime DC fan who has always wanted to see their super-heroes made into movies, all I can say is, it's about time! For more on these cool developments, click here!

I believe in Harvey Dent

Harvey Dent is thinking about running for District Attorney in Gotham City. We all know that crime is rampant in Gotham, and I think that he would be just the right man for the job to clean up the streets! Read about his campaign at IBelieveInHarveyDent.com! The website wants people to send in their pictures and videos supporting Dent in his run for D.A. So Friday I went to Memphis and had my picture taken in front of some famous Memphis landmarks while holding a Dent campain sign. They published my pic, and you can click here to see it!

Let's all help Harvey Dent take back Gotham City!!

Semi-Pro stuff

Dial 1-800-TROPICS. You'll hear a funny message from Will Ferrell about his upcoming basketball movie Semi-Pro. He's trying to sell you season tickets to the ABA team Flint Tropics for the upcoming 1976 season!

Also, at the Grizzlies game Barbra and I went to Friday night, during a time-out, people played a game on the court and the winner won Semi-Pro stuff for their section of the arena. Stuff like trading cards, pom-poms, and a stick-face of Will Ferrell. Pretty coo! (Well, it wasn't our section that got the stuff, so we just went over to that section and scavenged!)

Which is bigger news today: Castro resigning...or HD DVD resigning?

Fidel Castro finally resigned as dictator of Cuba overnight last night. The old coot is just too weak and feeble to run an island anymore. Hopefully this will be the first step (of probably many) to Cuba becoming democratic one of these decades. Hopefully Raul (Fidel's brother who will probably take over) will be coming under pressure worldwide to open the island up, and Fidel quitting can only be a good thing. Maybe one day I'll be able to take a cruise to Cuba, instead of having to bypass it on the way to other islands in the Caribbean. I mean, the last few decades, Cuba would have had money coming out the WAZOO with all the American tourists visiting the island. But no, Fidel had to ruin it for everybody, not just American tourists willing to pay money down there, but the Cuban people who would have reaped the benefits. Instead they're all dirt-ass poor while Fidel's been living the high life. Well, up till now anyway, since he's about to kick over.

As to the other resignation making news today, Toshiba, the folks behind HD DVD, have announced that they're ceasing HD DVD. Which is wonderful news, because the format war between it and Blu-ray Disc was just pathetic. There should have only been one high definiton disc from the start. So when Blu-ray Discs and machines get a little bit cheaper, I'll be ready to go all Blu!

Star Wars event in Memphis? And I get on TheForce.Net for it!

Scott stumbled upon a webpage yesterday about a Star Wars event planned for Memphis for November 7th-9th, 2008. The page is here. So I told TheForce.Net about it, and they posted it, saying that I told them about it! Check out their article about it here!

Another cool bumper sticker

It seems like every time I go on an out-of-town vacation lately I see a cool bumper sticker on a car! Two months ago, on my Gatlinburg-area trip, I saw a bumper sticker that said "Pro-America, Anti-Bush." (Check it out here.) Well, this weekend I went to Huntsville, Alabama, to visit the Space & Rocket Center, and on my way back home, I saw the below bumper sticker...and on a Navy person's car to boot!

Heat suck

Hey, ain't it funny that the Miami Heat have the worst record in the league? That's what Pat Riley gets for forcing Stan Van Gundy to quit two years ago so Riley could take over the coaching job and get the coaching glory when the Heat won the championship that year. And now they've gotten rid of Shaq, which sucks, cause now Shaq is on a good team. It'd be funny if the Suns started sucking now that Shaq is on their team, even if it did make Suns GM and ex-Bull Steve Kerr look bad. But Shaq probably won't be able to bring them down THAT much, though, although I'm sure he'll try. HAHA!!

My birthday on Deal or No Deal (again!)

In my 11/5/06 column, I commented on an episode of Deal or No Deal in which the final two cases in a game were 12 and 23, which are my birthday numbers. (December 23.) Well, here's a picture of a Deal or No Deal home game that also just happens to have my birthday on it! Maybe these are signs that I should apply for the show, eh?

East Tennessee rules! Bush sucks!

I just got back yesterday from my vacation to Sevierville/Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg, Tennessee. It was the first time I had been there since 1994, so I was ready to go back. And it was awesome! One of the highlights of the trip was the following bumper sticker that I saw on a vehicle while I was there and just had to take a picture of. It describes me to a tee!

Steroid Man Barry Bonds finally indicted

Barry Bonds, baseball's all-time leading home run hitter & all-time leading asshole, was finally indicted by a federal grand jury yesterday for allegedly lying about using steroids. About damn time! This guy has always been a first class jerk, and for the past few years he's made himself look even worse by pumping up with steroids. So he's finally going to start getting what he deserves, especially if he gets 30 years in prison like he should. (Although he probably won't get any, since he's a celebrity.) This is why Mark McGuire, another steroid-using baseball player, kept saying "no comment" a few years ago when he was under oath and was asked if he used steroids.

Yet another comic book movie at #1

Yet another comic book movie leads the pack, as 30 Days of Night opened in first place at the box office this past weekend. Not a movie that would ever I care to see, but nevertheless...comic book movies rule!

My video posted on trekmovie.com!

I've noticed that trekmovie.com (the best Star Trek site on the Web) has been finding and linking to various cool Star Trek videos that are on the Internet. I had a cool video of my own that I wanted them to link to. It is of two back-to-back episodes of Entertainment Tonight from July of 1987, showing one of the first, if not THE first, looks at footage of The Next Generation. This was a full two months before TNG was to premiere.

So I e-mailed trekmovie.com and told them about my video on August 23. They wrote me back and said they loved the video and would link to it on August 31, and sure enough, they did! They put it right there on the front page. Earlier on August 31, before trekmovie.com linked to the video, the video had 133 views, but within a couple of days, there were more than 1,600 views! And as of right now, there are 2,069 views! Pretty awesome if I do say so myself!

And here is the direct link to my trekmovie.com article!

Tom Welling to finally be Superman?!?!?!

I just heard one of the most awesome rumors ever: Tom Welling has been approached to play Superman in the upcoming Justice League movie!! Now THAT would be bad-ass! I always thought he got screwed over a few years ago when Warner Bros. decided to make a new Superman movie. They should have waited until the TV series Smallville ran its course, and then made a Superman movie starring Tom Welling. Now don't get me wrong, Brandon Routh was damn good as Superman. But Welling had played Clark Kent for years and wasn't going to get to wear the Superman costume at all, except maybe for the last scene of the last episode of Smallville. So this news today is totally cool. Hopefully it isn't too good to be true and Welling will be Supes in Justice League.

(And maybe this Justice League movie will FINALLY kick-start DC into making a gazillion movies about ITS superheroes, just like Marvel's been doing for the last few years...)

Teacher (finally) in space!

The Space Shuttle Endeavour lifted off about an hour ago with Barbara Morgan on board. Morgan was the backup to who was going to be the first teacher in space, Christa McAuliffe, in 1986, when McAuliffe died in the Challenger accident. After the accident, NASA told Morgan that she would fly eventually. Well, it took 21 years, but she finally did! Awesome!

Today is the 20th Anniversary of TNT Collectors Hut

20 years ago today, an awesome store in Osceola, Arkansas was opened. Why was it so awesome? Cause it was mine! Mom, Dad, and I opened TNT Collectors Hut on August 1, 1987, after we spent the previous two months getting it ready to open. The store was open for business until the mid-1990s. We've had other stores since then, but this one was the most special, because...it was right next to our house! I worked in it every day the entire time it was open. Now that did get tiresome, especially working every Saturday, but it was a cool place for me and my friends to hang out.

Following are some pics of the outside of the store from shortly after it opened.

Mom and Dad:


Mom and me:

I order you not to buy so many cars!!

The Osceola City Council tried to pass a stupid resolution last week that said that you could only park four cars on your property, or one car per licensed driver, whichever was greater! It was also going to say that you couldn't even park on your own grass! There were various other stupid things in the resolution. How stupid is that crap, telling someone they can't own as many cars as they want? Mary Milton and Gloria Copeland had a petition going around for people to sign who did not want the resolution to pass, so Mary brought it to my house and I gladly signed it. So when it came time for the vote in the City Council, a lot of people showed up to fight the resolution. So many people, in fact, that the Council didn't even vote on the mattter! It just flat out DIED. Bwahahaha!