I really couldn't care less about American Idol this year or any year in the past, but I really hope that Taylor Hicks doesn't win. I would love to see Birmingham in a state of mourning on Thursday because the hometown hero didn't win it all. Plus, Katharine is cute. Frankly I'm tired of being bombarded with Idol this and Idol that. The TV has to be on Fox every Tuesday and Wednesday night in the student and faculty lounges. Who really cares? Are people stupid enough to think that they are really voting? Every results show should be like the Oscars where the results are tabulated by the law firm of old geezers and opened on air with no prior knowledge. As well, vote results should be given to the viewers. Maybe for the next Presidential election, we just declare a winner without tallying the votes. Wait, that's happened the last two elections. Anyway, until Fox can validate the votes (and even then they are probably fabricating the results), American Idol will continue to be the equivalent of teeny-bopper wrestling. The outcome is known after the auditions have finished and the rest is just for show (and ratings).

It has been almost a week since the Electronics Entertainment Expo (commonly known as E3 by gaming enthusiasts everywhere) wrapped up. Maybe it's just me but I was not impressed by this year's showing. The hottest thing at E3 was easily Nintendo's new console, Wii. Not to sound like a fanboy, but I was really excited at what I saw. Too bad I have to wait another six months before I get my hands on one. Although I think Wii is a ridiculous name, the inventive control and the games being released within the first few months completely wash away the naming controversy.

In honor of E3 and Nintendo, let us look back at one of the classics of Nintendo's past: Final Fantasy. A new CyberQuickie has been posted for Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls

Last week, Erika finished up her last class on her way to her doctorate. Now it's just a ton of research and a dissertation before she becomes a professor. To celebrate, we went to the Schaeffer Eye Center Crawfish Boil in downtown Birmingham. The Crawfish Boil is a two-day festival with plenty of crawfish heads to pinch and suck. This year the concert lineup was reminiscent of the concerts I'd seen in college (almost 10 years ago). On Friday night, we saw Gin Blossoms, Cowboy Mouth, Sister Hazel, and Blues Traveler. Saturday's lineup was Jason Mraz, Presidents of the United States of America, Better than Ezra, P.O.D. and Live.

The main reason to go Friday was Cowboy Mouth. As we have discussed over the past week, I have probably seen them ten times since 1997. If you've never seen them in concert, you are missing probably the greatest concert experience EVER! Don't expect to walk away from a Cowboy Mouth show without dripping with sweat and losing your voice. Admittedly it wasn't their best set they have ever played, but it was a good time regardless. Blues Traveler was a bore. They played 5-10 minute versions of every song and it all sounded the same. After standing around for 30 minutes, we snuck out to beat the traffic and get ready for the next day.

Even being robbed of sleep and energy after Friday, I was still ready for a high-energy afternoon and evening on Saturday. Jason Mraz played an acoustical show which put a lot of people to sleep, but I enjoyed it even if it was low-key. Presidents put on a great show as did Better than Ezra. During P.O.D., we went to grab some food and rest. It would have been nice to see them perform, but I don't know if could have made it through the rest of the show. Who knew being 31 was so tiring? I'm not a big Live fan, but their set was quite enjoyable even in the rain. It took a week, but I think I have sufficiently recovered.

Monday I was an honorary member of the Redneck Parade. I think I was driving one of 4 vehicles on the road that wasn't an RV or towing a camper. Of course I was coming home from work at 9:30 at night and the race at Talladega was over by 3 that afternoon. Did it take 6 hours to get out of the parking lot or 6 hours to sober up?

Speaking of RVs, there is a review for the movie, RV posted in Now Playing. Is it a coincidence that RV was released on the same weekend as a major NASCAR event?

Good luck opening a package of Hormel Natural Choice lunch meat. The first hurdle is opening the cardboard box surrounding the resealable bag holding the meat. For some reason, Hormel decided that super glue was a great solution to keeping that box shut. Even with the printed tip of where to lift, the flap is stuck down so well there very little chance of getting any leverage. The best solution is to stab the corner of the flap underneath your fingernail and hoping your nail doesn't rip off as you pull up.

Assuming you can open the box, the next task is to open the resealable pouch which is made out of some new space-age, clear metal. Hopefully you know Wolverine or Superman and can get them to open the top of the bag. Opening the top of the bag is only the first step in being able to remove the lunch meat. Theoretically, after opening the bag, you should be able to pull the resealable section on the bag apart and take out the lunch meat. But, since this product is all natural with no preservatives, one molecule of oxygen will apparently force the meat to spoil at an exponential pace. To prevent any air at all into the pouch, the pouch is sealed with a heat press to meld the layers of plastic together. Of course this requires another call to a superhero.

Finally you are able to retrieve the deli slices from the pouch. Of course the cheese may have hardened and the bread may have molded by the time that the package has been opened. Enjoy eating that piece of turkey or ham, but chew it quickly before it turns into slime.