Evolution of Dance

Everyone will find some part of this dance video that resonates with some timeframe of their life. It is entertaining, trust me! It's 6 minutes long and turn up your speakers to fully appreciate.

Flying Car

I'll take two. My birthday is coming up, you know.

Is "ET" really out there?

Interesting article on a scientist who claims that he's discovered some mysterious cells to be of an extraterrestrial nature.

If you are seriously interested in the search for aliens, you can participate in the SETI@home study.

I guess I consider myself to be an "interested skeptic".

The Chicken or The Egg?

I knew it all along!!! Well, maybe I didn't have the whole scientific analysis to back up my choice, but I was still right in the end:-) Here's an interesting hypothesis to the age-old question "Which came first; the chicken or the egg?".

My 8 yr old concludes that the chicken came first, stating that "God put two of everything on the earth". It's hard to debate that with an 8 yr old without quickly getting into the discussion of "Darwinism vs Creationism". I'll leave that for a rainy day.

Could it really be that the mystery has been solved? Now, what about the "Meaning of Life"? I'd really like to be able to answer that one, too!

American Idol - And the winner is....

Well, I'm a bit late, but wanted to share some quick thoughts on the finale on Wednesday night. It's no secret that I've wanted Taylor to win since very early on. So, you guessed it, I'm quite satisfied with the outcome. I just really enjoy watching Taylor perform and I can see his future album fitting in nicely with our CD collection.

Overall, I felt that the finale was a good show. Lots of superstars performed with the idols. Above that, clearly, they were reaching for material to fill the 2 hours. I was bored with the awards with the exception of the one that went to Elliott's mom. That was kind of nice. It should have been just one hour. Then, I wouldn't have taped the last hour to watch the finale of "Lost"!

To all of the Katharine fans. She will be fine, I'm sure. She's talented and now has huge exposure to launch her career.

I hope that Elliott is not forgotten and that he is given some opportunities. I feel badly that I didn't develop an appreciation for him until he was voted off. On a side note, I heard on talk radio the other day that they had posted a link on their website for dentists/orthodontists, etc. to volunteer to fix Elliott's teeth. Remember, one thing that Elliott wanted to get out of this experience was to get his teeth done! Looks like that may happen for him.

I still have trouble understanding what the heck happened when Chris was voted off. I need to get over it. Still a HUGE fan of his. However, I didn't really like the song that he sang with that band that I'd never heard of.

Kelly Pickler...what can I say. There's nothing not to like about her. She's clearly not a fan of seafood! Not the best singer, but could show up on a sitcom, don't you think?

And, oh, yes. How could I have forgotten about the guy who was trying to be like Clay Aiken and then was surprised by Clay on stage. The look on his face was priceless. What was the deal with Clay's new look? Talk about a makeover.

Anyway, another season gone. And, we'll probably be sick of the Taylor Hicks single after the first week. I'm looking forward to next season. Till then...

American Idol - And, then there were two.

Well, it wasn't a huge shocker that Elliott was the latest casualty on American Idol. Actually, I must admit that Elliott's "likability" factor had increased with me a bit over the past couple of weeks. He seems like a really nice, down-to-earth kind of guy. Regrettably for Elliott, that's not what this competition is about. It can help, though. Clearly, he can sing. The R&B genre is definitely his niche. However, he needs to work on his stage presence. I honestly don't want to watch him perform. I guess the same could have been said for Clay Aiken, but there was still something about Clay that kept me routing for him. Probably his geeky (in a nice way) underdog status.

What was surprising (to me), was the distribution of the +50M votes. First of all...let's try to phathom 50M votes. Clearly, it's not 50M people voting. It's <50M people casting mutliple votes. I wonder what those stats are. Imagine how much $$ the phone companies are raking in because of the text messaging. And, what about the revenue from ad sponsorship. Anyway, I digress.

Taylor, Katherine, and Elliott were all within <1% of the votes from one another. That was pretty crazy. I was nervous because any one of the three could have left that night. And, we all know now that I really want Taylor to win!

Work-Life Balance

With a full time career, two kids, a husband, a house, a dog (no picket fence, just plain old chain-link), it is safe to say that our lives are pretty darned crazy. Between homework, community service organization meetings, sports activities, after-school concerts, birthday parties, doctor appointments, play-dates, the list goes on...we are lucky to have time to watch the 20-minute American Idol (taped, minus commercials) after the kids are asleep before passing out from exhaustion.

I realize that my life is no crazier than anyone elses. As much as I would like to say that I have it harder than others, I'm fairly confident that I do not. We all live in the same world with the same family, social and economic stressers. Finding a healthy work-life balance has always been a challenge. Until an alternate time continuum is discovered which allows for more than 24 hours in a day, I don't see this changing within my lifetime. So, I will continue to "press-on" every day like everyone else. A lot of years from now, when I am no longer gracing the earth with my presence, I hope that I will be remembered for being a good mother, wife, daughter, sister, and friend, rather than for the lucrative business deal that I closed last week or last month. Off to check my email and office messages...

"Can you raed tihs?"

I received the following in an email a few days ago and found it to be interesting. I've never taken a speed reading class, so I don't know if this is true, but it's kind of fun and interesting.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is one of the many tricks to speed reading. They teach you to look at the frsit & lsat letetr of a word and your brain will fill in the rest. Pretty cool.

If you can read this, you have a strange mind too. Read it out loud!

Can you raed tihs?

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs
is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!