Click here for my latest article. Tonight's American Idol featured one of my favorite points in the competition: the group song performances.  In this part of the competition we get to witness: personality conflicts, frayed nerves, group cohesiveness, stage moms and dads, hurt feelings, and joy.  And we got all of those (and more) on tonight's show. The format for the group song round is a bit different this year, as apparently the groups were chosen for the contestants, rather...

Click here for my latest article Hello there once again, and welcome to my own little look back at tonight's episode of American Idol. For what is -incidentally- my 400th JoeUser post, I will list off the most memorable occurences of a show that was surprisingly light on judge-contestant interplay. Instead of numbers tonight, I will just give all of my comments little asterisks. * Anthony Fedorov , the blonde-haired Russian boy sang really well on stage. I am sure that the girls w...

Later on today I will go in for a job interview for a part-time job teaching night school.  I wasn't really looking for a job at the time, but my wife found an ad in the newspaper for a position that I am qualified for, so I decided to give it a shot. Before going in, I had to prepare a resume.  Prior to learning about the job I wasn't really searching, so I had to write a new resume (as my old one was out-of-date.) Going over the templates on Microsoft Office, and pondering resu...

The other day at work I was cleaning up a bit.  (I have lots of extra papers all over my classroom.) On one paper that I was about to throw away, I noticed something that I could make into a little "puzzle" for my weblog friends.  I spiffed it up a bit, and then I scanned it, and I present this for your enjoyment: The question is: What is this?   (Answer hint: It is a pun.)   Finally:  Let me make a plug for my previous weblog entry . ...

The other day at work I was cleaning up a bit.  (I have lots of extra papers all over my classroom.) On one paper that I was about to throw away, I noticed something that I could make into a little "puzzle" for my weblog friends.  I spiffed it up a bit, and then I scanned it, and I present this for your enjoyment: The question is: What is this?   (Answer hint: It is a pun.)   Finally:  Let me make a plug for my previous weblog entry . ...

Here in Minnesota it has been quite warm this week.  Today's temperature was around 50 degrees F (~16 C). The kids at the school where I work were nice little angels in the morning, but then after recess they were off the handle.  I can understand.  I watched them out on the playground.  They were having a lot of fun running around in the snow with their coats off.  They didn't want to come inside and study. So I wrote a little song that I had my first graders sing...

Click here for my latest article. Tonight’s American Idol featured the last audition episode before the show moves to Hollywood. Apparently the second round has been titled “The Road Ahead.” (Was it named that before?) Simon, Paula, Randy and special guest judge Brandi took the show on the road to see what San Francisco had to offer. (I might be wrong about this but, weren’t there supposed to be Alaska auditions this year too?) The five most memorable items on tonight’s show: ...

Click here for my latest article. Hello there and happy February!  Tonight's American Idol audition round took us to Cleveland Ohio, and Orlando Florida.  We were once again treated to a few good singers, a few colorful personalities, some awful auditions, and an extra-compassionate guest judge. Here are the top five points of tonight's show: 1) I want to start with one of the best auditions of the series thusfar: dayglo wearin, karate kickin', Aretha singin' Vonzel...

So a lot of us out there have anecdotes where a teacher at school melts a bunch of snow in a glass to prove the point that kids shouldn't eat snow.  I think that witnessing this demonstration is a "rite of passage" in one's early primary school years. One of my students was eating a snowball out on the playground today.  I got the snowball from him, and decided to stick it in a baggie to prove the point that he shouldn't be eating the snow. After a half hour the snow wasn't melti...

Every winter, the Minnesota Twins hold a charity event at the Metrodome called Twinsfest.  It is a chance for fans to walk around the field, look at memorobelia, buy souvenirs, get autographs, buy tickets, and stuff like that.  There are concessions and games for the kids and all of that.  It is a pretty fun day for Twins fans. Since my wife had some work-related training in Minneapolis, I decided that I would take my son with me to see the activities.  (My wife and I went...

It seems as if one of the old jokes is dead. I told this one to a group of first-graders at my school: Me: Guess what? Kids: What? Me: That's what. Kids: (Stunned silence.) When I was a first-grader, this joke killed.  It doesn't seem to have the same effect these days.

Click here for my most recent article. So tonight's audition show was from Las Vegas Nevada with special guest judge Kenny Loggins.  There were all sorts of bad auditions on tonight's show, but none quite memorable enough that I will recall them tomorrow morning.  For tonight's review I will stick with the positives. January 26 Positive List: 1- Mikalah Gordon: Pretty sixteen year-old with apparently a nice voice.  (Did I hear right that she's a single mother? ...

Click here to see my latest article. Tonight's audition show from New Orleans was probably the most interesting audition show that I have ever seen.  I was impressed by a few of the auditions, interested by the bahavior and comments of the judges, and was entertained by a few of the performances. Tonight's Show Top Five: 1. The Amazing Leroy Wells- Leroy's audition is possibly my favorite audition of all the auditions I have ever seen.  Leroy blasts into the room stompin...

Today was the last day of the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament from Tokyo, Japan.  The winner of the tournament with an impressive perfect record was Yokozuna Asashoryu.  Other notable occurences were: Tochiazuma's earning of another Ozeki promotion, Hakuho's 9 win performance at Komosubi , and the possible Spring-tournament promotion to Sanyaku of Kotooshu. So to commemorate the end of the first tournament of the year, I decided to rearrange (and add to) some of my sumo memorobe...

Last night a snowstorm came through most of Minnesota.  We had lots of the white stuff, along with wind that made some pretty sizable drifts.  That was our first significant snowfall of the year. It was bad enough that my wife got my car stuck in the driveway as she was backing out of the garage.  We both had to shovel the car free before she could go off to work.  (She drove my car to work today because it is better in the snow.) Once my wife got home fr...