AND THEN THERE WERE 20

It's the end of the road for American Idol Season 7 hopefuls Garrett Haley, Amy Davis, Joanne Borgella, and Colton Berry.

I wasn't really impressed as well with their performances. Garrett, who, if you have read my previous blogs did not have any video of his previous audition performances, sounded like a violin. Amy, who sang Where The Boys Are, didn't put too much emotion on her performance. It was like she and the song were two different entities. Colton, who Simon didn't want to be included in the top 24, did a performance that looked like it was really exaggerated. Joanne, was a real disappointment. Bad choice of song I guess although she could have easily nailed I Say A Little for You. Hmmm, she might have caught the flu that time. She was really great in her auditions, really dunno what happened to her Top 24 performance.

So now we only have 20 contestants left. Yipee for my favorites who are still on the list. Randy, Paula, and Simon simply adored the performances of David Archuleta and Ramiele Malubay. Ramiele, being a big fan of Lani Misalucha, did her own rendition of the Lani revival of You Don't Have to Say You Love Me. She did great performance. David A. was really into the song when he did his performance. Being a pro at performing, he did not find it hard to be confident on stage.

This coming Tue (Wed, Phils time), I hope to see more great performances from my favorites. Keep voting for my favorites please. Thanks!

AMERICAN IDOL TOP 24 -- NOW IT'S OFFICIAL

Now it's official -- no more rumors, even though the rumors were correct :) Hollywood week of the American Idol season 7 has finally ended and we now have the top 24. Hollywood week this season was completely different from previous seasons. For one, there is no more group performances, which I think is a real pain in the "B." Hollywood week was all about solo performances. A first in Idol history, during the first round of elimination, the hopefuls were allowed to use instruments during their performances. Some used the keyboards, one used drums, several others used guitars, and still others just relied on their voices. During the first round, if the judges think their performance was good enough, they will automatically advance to the third round, which would be the elimination for the top 50. However, if the judges think that you didn't do well, you can still have a chance by advancing to the second round, wherein they would have to sing in a capellla. The second round is a do-or-die round. If you're not good enough, it's the end of the road. If the judges think you have what it takes, they will let you advance.

Ok now, the third round ... on this round, the contestants would have to sing a song out of a list of 200. They have to choose one. Another Idol first, is that a full band, complete with three background singers would accompany the contestant during his/her performance -- pretty much like the setup for the Top 24 elimination. This is also a do-or-die round. If you do well, you'll advance to the Top 50. This is where it gets hard for the judges. Out of the chosen 50, they have to deliberate as to who will have the chance to be included in the Top 24 and advance to the live performances next week.

Ok, to make the long story short, remember the rumored top 24 from my previous post? Well, they are indeed the official top 24. I would just like to make a correction regarding my last post, since we were all in a blur, the photos of the supposedly top 24 taken by some paparazzi(?) were in fact photos of the top 50 on their way to the elimination for the top 24. So anyway, here are the top 24 contestants for American Idol Season 7:



Now if you want to see clips of the top 24 contestants during the Hollywood week, you can view them on the following videos (some contestants didn't have any performance videos, sorry you can only see them on one video) plus you can also click on their names to see their bio on americanidol.com:

* Garrett Haley, Kady Malloy, Chikezie Eze, Amy Jean Davis, Alaina Whitaker, Jason Yeager

* Jason Castro, Luke Menard, Alexandréa Lushington



* Danny Norriega





* David Cook





* David Hernandez





* Michael Johns





* Robbie Carrico





* Colton Berry





* David Archuleta





* Kristy Lee Cook





* Amanda Overmyer






* Joanne Borgella



* Brooke White





* Syesha Mercado





* Asia'h Epperson





* Carly Smithson





... and finally, a FILIPINA on the Idols season 7 ... presenting ...

* Ramiele Malubay





Well, there you go ... the official Top 24 for the American Idol Season 7. Please, please, if you're from the US and are reading this, please support my favorites on my behalf. Please support Ramiele Malubay, David Archuleta, Carly Smithson, Michael Johns, David Hernandez, and Syesha Mercado -- in order of preference. Although I have not listened to the other contestants yet, these would be my favorites so far.

IF EVER YOU'RE IN MY ARMS AGAIN

The upcoming post-valentine romantic movie event from Star Cinema is another surefire hit. It stars Sam Milby and Toni Gonzaga on their third team-up on the big screen. I hope My Big Love would be as entertaining and heartwarming as their previous feel-good movie, You Are The One (I cannot comment on You Got Me because I was not able to watch that flick).

The song above is the theme song of the movie. I cannot find a good video of Sam and Toni with their duet of the song so I just took Peabo's song from Imeem. This song brings back old memories. Hope you like the song as well.

AMERICAN IDOL S7 TOP 24 (or so they say)

I've never been a big AI fan but I guess it kinda grows on you especially when you're living with people who love to watch the show (my sis and my bro-in-law, and yeah even my niece's yaya). I must say, it's really amusing. Anyway, so the audition for Hollywood part of the show has just ended and so by next week, they will start to air the search for the Top 50 and then Top 24. Humors are already spreading as to who made it to the Top 24. So far, based on speculations and photos (yes photos, click here if you don't believe me), here are the people who THEY say are included in the list:

Top 12 Girls

• Asiah Epperson
  

• Alaina Whitaker

• Alexandrea Lushington

• Amanda Overmyer

• Amy Davis

• Brooke White

• Carly Hennessy Smithson

• Joanne Borgella

• Kady Malloy

• Kristy Lee Cook

• Ramiele Malubay

• Syesha Mercado

Top 12 Guys

• Chikezie Eze

• Colton Berry

NO VIDEO (SEE PHOTO)

• Danny Noriega

• David Archuleta

• David Cook

• David Hernandez

NO VIDEO (SEE PHOTO)

• Garrett Haley

NO VIDEO (SEE PHOTO)

• Jason Castro

NO VIDEO (SEE PHOTO)

• Jason Yeager

NO VIDEO (SEE PHOTO)

• Luke Menard

NO VIDEO (SEE PHOTO)

• Michael Lee Johns

• Robbie Carrico

There you go. Sorry I can't find any videos for the other male hopefuls but you can click on the link to see a photo of that contestant.

I think I'd stop at that for now coz I'm really getting a headache with my PC crashing and Firefox quitting on me. Hope I can get a new PC :(

TRICKSTER ONLINE

Trickster Online is another MMORPG that is free to play and is brought to you by Ntreev, Inc USA. It is pretty much like Ragnarok if you are familiar with that. However, since I'm not a hardcore player of RO, I can't differentiate one from the other.

This is a cool game because there are tons of freebies and events that are being offered to players. Aside from that, the gameplay is also nice, not to mention the graphics. It's not full 3D but it's a nice 2D scrollable game.

You can choose amongst 8 different characters with 4 different major growth stats or types. The characters are composed of the Power-types: Bunnys and Buffalos; the Magic-types: the Sheeps and the Dragons; the Sense-Types: Raccoons and Lions; the Charm-types: Cats and Foxes.

My major character in-game is a Dragon that I am training to be a Dark Magician. I really enjoy playing it because you get to meet people from different parts of the world. In our guild, there are people from the US and from Canada, some are from Europe and there are also players from the Philippines. In the game, there are also people from other countries like Brazil (which we don't understand because they don't speak English, and even if they do, you'd have a hard time understanding their point) and Spain.

If you want to experience a nice game like this, just click on the image above to open the website so that you can register and download the gamne client. Just make sure you have a graphics card.

KUNG HEI FAT CHOI

Happy Chinese New Year to everybody!!! This is a video I took of a fireworks display near our place in QC. The quality isn't that good because I just took it with my N5330 phone. Enjoy! Kung Hei Fat Choi!

DoMyStuff.com - Outsource your life:

This is a cool website. Imagine people doing your task. If you want someone to have your toilet bowl cleaned, post it as a task, and wait for people to bid on that task so they can do it for you. This is only available in the US. I once saw on TV someone who was totally clueless as to how he was going to setup his TiVo. What he did, because basically the only techy thing he could do is use his PC and surf the net, he posted his problem as a task on this website and viola! Somebody who is an expert in TiVo installation came to the rescue.

Here are some tasks posted by random members:
* Clean up yard
* Cut tree branch
* Pet sitting
* Refinish antique desk & chair
* Lighting fixture & pot rack installation
* Handyman services
among many others.

How I wish we have that here in the Philippines ... well, guess not. We're not that dumb and busy