finale of 24 tonight
Mood:  energetic
Topic: TV, music, movies, etc.
Yup, on Fox at 9! Although I wouldn't watch it if you haven't been keeping up with the show... I would recommend renting/buying all of the previous seasons (1 & 2, 3 when it comes out) and watching them. Trust me, it will be worth your time and you will be hooked, too!

I sent Kurt the which character are you test for 24 and he's Jack, lol... no wonder I like him! He sent me the email at work, so I'll have to copy & paste it up here tomorrow.

I might watch a little of American Idol tonight, but I doubt it... I'm still bitter that Latoya was voted off and I don't really care who wins. I hope that AI revises their voting system for next season... they might not, because they probably want to cause controversy, and for Fox, controversy = ratings in most cases. Gee, Who wants to marry a millionaire? The Swan? I watched the finale of the swan last night, it was pretty good... my favorite, Rachel won. :)

Well, here is some Engrish for your reading pleasure... I have a lot of emails that I should have written this week, but I haven't had much of a chance to slack at work. :(

Found a cool Quiz thingy on 24 messageboard
Mood:  happy
Now Playing: 3 doors down
Topic: TV, music, movies, etc.
I'm Tony Almeida (45) followed closely by Michelle Dessler (35). :)

Here is my complete score:

Which 24 Character Are You?
Jack Bauer
15

-5 0 100


Tony Almeida
45

-5 0 95


Nina Myers
15

0 95


Kim Bauer
15

0 95


George Mason
20

0 90


Kate Warner
15

0 80


Sherry Palmer
10

0 100


David Palmer
20

0 95


Ryan Chappelle
10

0 95


Michelle Dessler
35

0 95









Which 24 Character Are You?
You are MOST like TONY ALMEIDA. You pride yourself on being stable, fair, loyal and staying true to yourself no matter what, and you value the same qualities in others. You may come off as brash or cold at first, but once people get to know the real you, they realize you are quietly passionate, extremely trustworthy, sensitive and ethical.

weekend, cicadas, etc.
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: maroon 5
To save time (I'm hella busy at work today), I'm going to cut & paste from emails that I wrote to my dad and my cousin Heather. My allergies are horrendous right now, June 16th can't come fast enough - that's the day that I'm going in for allergy testing. The guy I'm going to comes highly recommended by several people, apparently he's one of the top allergists in the state. Fine by me! And it's only going to cost me $15 which is even better. I'm so glad that our company changed insurance policies, god only knows how much it would cost with the old insurance (allergy testing costs around $800)... ugh! Hopefully this will be the only time in my life I have to have it done.

Email to my dad:
Have you been back to the set since the last time we talked? I imagine that it is very time consuming - especially if you aren't getting paid for it! Vince Vaughn seems really tall from most of the pictures I've seen of him. Did you say he was "wired" or did you mean weird? Maybe he's on something - or maybe he needs to be on something, haha.

From the description, it sounded like a chick flick. Sounds really cute. Speaking of cute, Kurtis and I saw Shrek 2 yesterday, it was really cute and funny! The animation was just incredible - it's amazing how far technology has come in the last 10 years.

The cicada wedding had no cicadas - I was rather disappointed! I actually didn't see any cicadas until yesterday when we were at Arundel Mills ... Kurtis had one fly into him, lol. The weather turned out perfect for the wedding... it was supposed to be 90 degrees, but it felt like it was in the mid 80's and there was a breeze some of the time. So they really lucked out - especially during the ceremony which was entirely outside with no alternate plan. The couple wasn't thinking too well, because they left the wedding cake in a car for several hours... obviously, it started melting and the top tier was doing a good imitation of the leaning tower of Piza. I won't go into all of the sordid details, but attending their wedding was a good example of what not to do. I know that weddings are expensive, but I think that there were some ways that she could have cut costs and made it a better production.

Are we still on for this weekend? Where would you like to go? We should decide on something soon so that I can tell Mary. Maybe we could eat at one of the restaurants at Arundel Mills or maybe somewhere in Annapolis.

The air conditioner in my car is on the fritz. I'm going to be really pissed off if the dealer tries to screw me on it... when I called them to tell them the problem, they were like, "Well just to let you know, even though your car is under warranty, if we find out that a rock hit your compressor or something, you'll be liable for the cost, and there may be a diagnostic fee as well." Well that's just dandy. If they end up doing something like that, I'll never take it back to the dealer. I was going to take it to them to do all of the maintenance, but if they're going to be jerks about it, they're not getting my business! There's a shop right on Ritchie Highway that specializes in Hondas, so I'll take my car there.

Email to Heather:
I'm praying that there won't be anything blooming in Boston that I'm allergic to while I'm up there. For some reason, this year I've come down with horrible allergies... taking Claritin helped me last year, but this year it isn't doing anything. I actually woke up at 2 a.m. with a migraine and not being able to breathe through my nose -- not fun! I called an allergist last week and I'm going to have testing on the 16th of next month. Of course, that means that I can't take any medication the week before I go in for the testing, so that might be fun. :-P

Still no cicadas in my neighborhood, someone mentioned that the soil is too sandy or something. It's a new development, too... so that helps. Kurt and I saw our first cicadas yesterday -- we went to see Shrek 2 at the mall and they were EVERYWHERE! One flew right into him and he knocked it on the ground. BTW, Shrek 2 is such a cute movie -- you have to see it! No cicadas were at the wedding on Saturday... I was rather disappointed! That wedding was a perfect example of what you aren't supposed to do. The couple left the wedding cake in their car for several hours in 85+ degree heat, therefore it was doing an excellent impression of the leaning tower of Piza... their reception site was made up of two connected rooms, so you couldn't see what was going on in the other one, there was no AC in the room that we were in, they had to push tables out of the way so the bride & groom could have their first dance... ugh.

Grave's disease is something different, I think -- that's a lot worse. The technical name for what I have is "Hashimoto's Thyroiditis"... lol... sounds like the name of one of the Iron Chefs! Basically, it's some kind of autoimmune disorder where your body attacks your thyroid gland... It's really not that big of a deal, I just take thyroid hormone and have a blood test done every once in a while. Lots of women have it.

Ooh! Baby Gap!! Yay! I was in the Gap a few months ago and they had the cutest baby clothes -- one of my friends was buying something for her niece. Now I can buy something, too. :)

It seems that they have those whale watches several times a day, so I'm pretty sure that getting on one won't be a problem. I want to be flexible and not really locked into anything, since you never know what the weather will do. Speaking of which, do you know if there are usually tickets available on the day of Red Sox games? I don't know which team Kurt wants to see (or if he cares).

So ends my post for the day. Tonight we're going to do some cleaning and hopefully that will do something to assuage my allergies... I have enough trouble feeling rested to begin with and waking up at 2 am not being able to breathe isn't much fun!

last night
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: Clay Aiken
Topic: Friends and Family
I'll copy and paste an email I just sent Nick because I don't feel like re-typing it. I woke up late this morning - at 8:05 so I was pretty late to work. I don't feel like being here more than usual today.

I'll summarize my activities of yesterday evening that I apparently deleted from my blog : - (... met Kurt after work at Chevy's (apparently DuClaw was dead and there was no service to be had)... after a beverage and some tortilla chips & salsa, I set out in the mall to buy a gift for Ellen's wedding and I also wanted to stop at H&M to check out their clothes. DO NOT LET ME NEAR THAT STORE!! I am in LOVE! Such great clothes for such incredible prices!!! I guess that I don't have much of a conscience, because I'm sure that their clothes are made by children in sweatshops in 3rd world countries - but my GOD are they fabulous! Their sizes were a little off... I couldn't zip up a dress that was in a 10, but then put on a 12 and it was HUGE. I ended up buying 2 cute dresses, one is pink with Hawaiian type flowers and the other is pink & white striped (I am not telling you the sizes they were - I am appalled!)... then I bought 4 tank tops and a boat-neck shirt, a hair clip and a pink scarf that I'm going to use as a belt. I'm just so trendy. :-p~ Someone please cancel my Glamour and Cosmo subscriptions! I for some reason have this delusion that I'm a fashionista. Too bad I can't wear the stilettos that are so trendy right now... they kill my ankles. Anyway, I think that I am pretty much done shopping for my trip to Boston... I may try to get another pair of shoes, but I could make do with what I have now.

After H&M, I went down to Bed Bath & Beyond where Ellen & Scott have their gift registry... of course, the item that I was going to get them happened to be $10 more at the store than advertised on their website, so I ended up getting them something else. Of course, I saw something else that I had to have... my hair dryer has seen better days and is rather bulky... so I decided that it was time for a new one... they have new ionized ones that are supposed to make your hair shiny and not damage it (which my old dryer was certainly doing), so for $20 I bought it. I used it this morning and I really liked it! My hair is shinier than normal, too. There is a "cool" setting on this dryer which my old one doesn't have... whenever I have extra time to dry my hair, I'm going to use that one... plus I can use it for dry styling. My hair is finally getting a little longer again... I'm going to wait another few months before I cut it. I think that I'm going to keep the layers in it and start curling it... of course as it gets longer, I'll probably have to get up earlier to do it (ugh) since it takes longer to dry. That was one nice thing about short hair - no drying time. Speaking of hair, I think that I'll bite the bullet and get it colored again in the next week or so. I'm thinking about trying someplace new... although I like Rumors, they are pretty pricey. I'll probably go back to Split Ends... maybe today at lunch I'll stop in and get some prices. I won't go as drastic as last time; too much upkeep. Just the regular high & low lights... probably lighter since it's summer now (or practically summer).

Oh, more fun stuff... when I got the mail last night, there was a notice from the MVA asking me for proof of coverage for my Jetta. Of course I don't HAVE the Jetta anymore, but I can tell this is going to be a fiasco and a major pain in the ass. I was freaking out about it pretty bad last night, but I really calmed down once I started IM'ing my aunt. Here is what happened... I bought my Civic on 2/11 and had to call my insurance company (Progressive) on the spot to add it to my policy. Well, they REPLACED the Jetta with the Civic instead of just adding the Civic and I decided that I was going to get rid of them as my insurance provider anyway because they were getting too pricey... So I left it as-is and the very next day got a new policy for both cars. So really there was no lapse in coverage. But I'm sure that the MVA won't see it that way, bastards. :-/ So now I get to straighten all that stuff out... I may end up getting a $150 fine since I didn't get coverage for the car ON the 11th, even though it had it for that day. Does that make sense?


Oh well. Anyway, here's my email to Nick. I still want to post my conversation with Aunt Nancy, but it's saved on my home `puter (fortunately I saved it) so I can't access it here. If I think of it tonight, I'll put it up. It's pretty funny, I think and it gives you a good idea of all the other stuff going on that I haven't mentioned.

How exciting!

I guess you should be glad that he didn't pop a cap in your ass!

I meant to respond to the email that you sent last week, but I've been rather busy at work.

I'm quite perturbed by something I apparently did last night. I had an IM conversation with my aunt in Australia and had copied & pasted our conversation into my blog along with another paragraph or two on my activities after work yesterday. Well I apparently clicked on the "cancel" button instead of the "submit" button. :(

No entry!

Time to make some unnecessary changes to irrelevant documents.

Take care,

Lauren

P.S. Kurtis and I are attending a "cicada wedding" on Saturday. The wedding is being held at Gambrills State Park in Thurmont, reception is at Pinecliff Park in Frederick. Should be fun!


BTW, my "how exciting!" reply was in response to an email from Nick describing a harrowing road rage incident in PG County on Tuesday.

Iraq and 24
Mood:  not sure
Now Playing: Isaak -- Always got tonight
Topic: Miscellaneous goings-on
I just read about the accident in Iraq with the helicopter firing on the wedding party... I remember when this same thing happened in Afghanistan. I also read that this occurred near a place that still has holdouts of rebel fighters.

Now I understand that it is a tradition in the middle east to fire weapons in the air to celebrate. Wouldn't you think to curtail that when you're in the middle of a war? I mean, come on!! If I hear gunfire, I'm going to think somebody is shooting at me. The Iraqi people can start shooting their guns in the air again when we're finished over there - now is NOT a good time.

I also read that there have been rebels firing weapons out of windows at a shrine. Now they're mad because we destroyed their shrine. What the hell do you think we're gonna do?? Yeah, sure... go ahead and fire at us, you're safe since you're in a holy place. Kind of like being on "base" when you're playing tag.

It's a shame that there are so many scandals going on over there right now. What we need is Jack Bauer! If David Palmer were our President and we had Jack in charge of CTU, this shit wouldn't be happening.

Speaking of Jack, 24 was incredible as always last night. Sherry Palmer and Julia Milliken are dead... it's about time they took Sherry out, that meddlesome woman! Now if only they'd get rid of Kim and stop wasting our time. I think that the pictures I posted yesterday aren't going to happen. I think that they were put out on the `net just to throw people off. Someone posted on a messageboard that they even filmed an entirely different ending last season just to throw the extras off. Pretty sneaky! On the preview of next week's (finale) episode, it showed a shot of Jack asking "Are you ready?" to Chase... but then it cuts to a shot of a red wire being clipped.

I wonder who will die in episode 24?

Tonight I'm meeting Kurt after work at DuClaw (he's been in the Frederick office most of the week). Haven't been there in AGES! So much for the diet. Maybe it will start this weekend!

24... only 2 hours left! Don't sleep on it!!
Mood:  chatty
Now Playing: incubus
Topic: TV, music, movies, etc.
Tuesdays at 9 on Fox! If you haven't been watching, you might as well not watch the next two episodes and instead rent seasons 1 & 2 to watch... then watch season 3 reruns (probably showing during the summer) and pick up with season 4 -- yes, there will be a season 4. :)


I've got some great spoiler pictures for the final episode of 24... of course it remains to be seen whether or not these scenes will really happen... but it looks like Julia is going to kill Sherrie Palmer tonight - YAY! That'll take care of that meddlesome bitch. Then maybe that pill bottle will just conveniently disappear. ;-)

I'm wondering if Jack will really cut off Chase's arm? I know that he's hardcore enough to do it, but maybe they'll be able to somehow diffuse the bomb. If Jack cuts off his arm, Chase will probably have to retire as a field agent and raise that baby with Kim like she suggested.

Wonder what's going to happen with Chloe? I know that she'll have some impact on tonight's episode... she is really a priceless character. That's it for now, I have to get back to work.

More Idol stuff.
Mood:  quizzical
Now Playing: LMP -- Important
Topic: TV, music, movies, etc.

http://entertainment.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=158533



Report: Jammed Phones Skew 'Idol' Tallies
May 16, 9:55 AM EST
The Associated Press
Many would-be "American Idol" voters are disenfranchised by overburdened phone lines and by "power dialers" who hog the system, the magazine Broadcasting & Cable reported.
According to the magazine's issue being released Monday, "the only people choosing the next 'American Idol" are the ones lucky enough to get through -- or skilled enough to get around -- tremendously overtaxed phone lines."
Fox TV, which airs the talent contest, has failed to address the difficulties viewers must overcome to log votes, the magazine said.
The show is a ratings winner and valuable property for its producers and Fox, but Broadcasting & Cable said the network is alienating viewers who repeatedly get a busy signal when they try to call in their votes.
The voting system has been called into question in recent weeks as contestants who appeared to be front-runners were dumped in favor of others who many viewers have complained were lesser performers.
Last week, favorite La Toya London was voted off while Jasmine Trias survived a shaky performance.
Fox said both it and the show's producers have "gone to great lengths" to ensure the integrity of the voting process.
"While acknowledging that dedicated fans may be unhappy with the outcome, the system only reports the decision of the voting public," the network said in a statement.
The contest winner, who gets a record contract, will be decided in the series finale May 25-26. Trias, Fantasia Barrino and Diana DeGarmo are still in the running.
Questions about "Idol" voting are nothing new.
In last year's finale between Ruben Studdard and Clay Aiken, a total of 24 million votes were recorded, with Studdard declared the winner by a slim 134,000-vote margin.
But on the same night, Verizon, the nation's largest phone company, saw its daily volume increase by 116 million calls while SBC reported a call-volume increase of 115 million, according to Broadcasting & Cable.
That indicates a logjam in which millions of potential voters never got through, the magazine said.
Fox dismissed the allegation as speculative.
Viewers are allowed to vote repeatedly by phone during a two-hour window following the Tuesday show. Votes also can be cast by text messaging, which hasn't seen the same problems, the report said.
Jammed local phone lines, not the long-distance carrier network, creates the problem for callers, AT&T told the magazine.
Fox acknowledged there are times the phone network can't handle all calls due to the volume, but said it is using "the most sophisticated system available in the nation."
Ratings and call volume have risen over the show's three seasons.
Broadcasting & Cable said so-called power-dialers, who use fast Internet connections and computer autodialing software, also affect the outcome by the number of votes they are able to cast and by tying up lines so that others can't vote.
The magazine cited an August 2002 story by The Associated Press in which "American Idol" producers acknowledged power-dialers were casting thousands of votes.
In its statement Sunday, Fox said there are procedures in place to prevent individuals from "unfairly influencing the outcome of the voting," adding that producers can remove votes identified as power-dialing.

From the AI message board:
There will be a TWIST on Finale night... if you saw the latest AMerican Idol promo commercial it said there will be a "TWIST" on finale night...
wonder what the twist could be???

Here are some mb members speculating on the twist:
It could be a twist similar to the 'Survivor' twist at the end.
One winner is declared. And then they will let another winner be picked by America from all the other eleven contestants. Both will get instant contracts. (I like this one)
or maybe we can vote off the judges (Not a bad idea, either... except for Simon!)
The producers hand selected Idol will win; It was said from the beginning that the winner will definitely be a black female; and it is obvious who she is now; It was posted before the season even began; Everyone keep raging about the public voting when they really don't count anyway. The reason Jasmine is still there is because it's how the producers set it up. It had NOTHING to do with her getting so many votes for any reason at all. They want people to believe that and it is working just as they planned. Although Fantasia has been in the bottom votes a few times; Is'nt it ironic how she will all of a sudden win in the end; So go figure...it does'nt take much of a brain to do so. (Another conspiracy theory, this person is obviously adding fuel to the racism fire, stupid.)
the twist should be a duet with a famous singer (that would be VERY cool)
Maybe simon will do a little strip-tease.. (I'd pay to see that... how funny)
Yup, the last show will switch over to Fear Factor...the AI's face off! Whoever eats the highest volume in pig intestines wins! Woo Hoo!...oh wait...that's NBC...maybe they'll just let Alex decide which one he'd rather marry....but they only win if they correctly decide whether or not the groom is gay, LMAO.
maybe they will reveal that Paula is not a woman. simon is william hung's long lost father. randy and ryan are lovers (hehe)
How about they let the remaining girls fight it out? First Fantasia and Diana would go at it and the one left standing would face Jasmine since she is probably the weakest of the three. The method of fighting would be either boxing or mud wrestling. What y'all think? :-) (that would be great!)
maybe fantasia will get kicked off this week, and then on finale night they'll tell the truth and say that jennifer, latoya, and fantasia were the real top three and have an honest vote amongst the three. that would sure cause a big ol' hub-bub.
I heard they're bringing LaToya back for another chance..apparently there was some errors in reporting the votes (if only this were true...)
jasmine will gonna win the AI. do you remember when she was in the bottom 2 with camille and george she sing also, no one ever in the bottom 2 sings with the voted off finalists. it was only jasmine so far who were privileged to sing. therefore, jasmine will be the next AI, she is bankable because of her millions of solid fan base who is faithful to her all over the world. I for one is waiting for her single and album to come out. Mark my word, she will be the next AI 2004. no doubt and it is very true. (grrrrrrrrrreat, now if only she could teach her fan base proper use of the engrish...er, english language)


Yet another article:
Will your 'Idol' phone
vote really count?

By BILL HUTCHINSON
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Millions of fans desperate to vote for the next "American Idol" are being thwarted - and frustrated - by busy signals when they try to call the hit show.
And Broadcasting & Cable magazine says the next songbird to become "American Idol" is more likely to be picked by computer geeks called "phone phreakers" than by fans with a run-of-the-mill phone.
That's because the average fan of the Fox TV blockbuster is getting outfoxed by computer-assisted speed dialers, the magazine reported.
"It's a bandwidth problem. There's only so much volume they can run through that pipe at one time," said Tom Cobbs of Database Systems Corp., which designs complex telephone networks.
Hundreds of so-called phone phreakers have rigged their computers to flood the show's switchboard automatically with votes using high-speed Internet connections and auto-dialing software, leaving even phone speed-dialers in the dust.
"This is thousands upon thousands of moderately tech-savvy fans who really get emotionally compelled to do something about who they want to win," Kurt Knutson, a high-tech expert on TV's "Cyberguy," told the magazine.
"They're not only using the system to vote for whomever they want, they're using it to tie up the lines so that other people can't vote," Knutson said. The show's lines are open for two hours after broadcast.
But the show's producers insist the voting system is not problem-plagued.
"The producers and network have gone to great lengths to ensure the integrity of the voting process on American Idol," Fox officials said in a statement. "America votes, an independent company calculates the tally and the show reports those results."
The focus on fair play got foggier last week when fan favorite LaToya London was ousted from the show, while lesser-liked Jasmine Trias moved on to join Fantasia Barrino and Diana DeGarmo for a big showdown tomorrow night. The contest winner, who gets a record contract, will be decided in the series finale, May 25-26.
Viewers were still E-mailing the show's Web site yesterday to complain about getting shut out of the voting.
"I had my phone set on speed dial for Latoya and never once got thru. And I dialed and dialed!!!! Something is wrong with the voting system and it needs to be corrected or the country will [lose] complete interest in the show!!" one fan wrote.

Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Weekend happenings
My weekend was much calmer than last... not much going on, just a lot of running around today.

The tastefully simple party on Friday night was a lot of fun, I've decided that I'm going to have a party myself. I scheduled it for June 18th, but I'm going to have to choose another date because we have too much going on that week and Kurt wants to redo the bathroom before I have the party. :-P~ Fine with me, I guess. We seem to be on a big home improvement kick lately -- the neighbors must be in shock! On the tastefully simple note, the thought has crossed my mind about being a distributor -- or whatever they call them! It seems like something I wouldn't feel bad trying to sell people, because I think that the products are really good... I'm also thinking that if I can't get financial aid, then that might be a good way to supplement my income.

Speaking of school, I checked on classes for the fall and found the perfect combo -- on Mondays and Wednesdays, there is an Intro to Psych class from 5:30 to 6:45 and and Eng Lit & Comp class from 7 to 8:15! Yay! That'll be good that I can mix it up -- I was a little concerned that I would have to take a two and a half-three hour class one day a week of each subject... an hour and fifteen minutes is a lot more bearable. :) Not to mention that I'll still have my Tuesdays for 24 and Thursdays for Survivor, hehe. I'm so bad! Knowing my luck, my shows will be switched to different days. Oh well, that's what a VCR is for.

Well, it's getting late, so I must sign off... hopefully I'll post tomorrow.

At least America got something right!
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: Isaak
Topic: Miscellaneous goings-on
Rupert won the million bucks voted on by the American public. Johnny Fairplay won "best villain" and was in the audience last night. I still can't believe the dead grandmother story!! The next Survivor is taking place somewhere in the south Pacific, it looks pretty cool.

The rumors are still flying about American Idol. Everyone knows that Latoya was robbed -- I know that I'm still bitter! Hopefully something will be done about the voting system. I'm sure that Latoya will become more famous than any of the other contestants - she is truly a class act! Jasmine's behavior has been bugging me. She solidifies my opinion that kids can't handle the pressure of AI... I saw it at auditions! I could barely deal with the rejection and stress of it all - I don't know how a 16 or 17 year old kid can do it.

There's not much left in the way of TV (ugh, McAnnoying is stomping around - it's a nice Friday afternoon, why can't he just leave and go play golf or something and leave me alone???) this summer. That's kind of a bummer!

This weekend we might be painting the fence and the shed... I don't know if I want to do it just to have it over with, though. I think that this weekend would be nice to take a break from housework. Tonight our neighbors Keith & Andrea are having a tastefully simple party... I think I'm going to get some stuff... probably book my own party, too.

That's it for today, I believe. Don't have much time... hopefully I'll get a chance to post over the weekend. I'm posting some of the latest stuff from Engrish.com.

AI3 has gone to hell!
Mood:  incredulous
Now Playing: Isaak
Topic: TV, music, movies, etc.
American Idol has gone to hell...

And everyone is fighting about it.
If you haven't heard already, Latoya London - the most talented person on AI3 was voted off last night. Kurt and I have been rooting for her from the beginning. Now I must fess up - I have not been voting. The reason that I have not been voting? My vote doesn't count. That's right, it doesn't. And if you vote, yours doesn't count, either. That is - if you only vote once. For your vote to really count, you have to sit on the phone for 2 hours straight hitting redial. Unfortunately, there are several hundred thousand teeny-boppers who have the time to vote a hundred times each for their favorite idol - who is usually someone closer to their age. I think that Latoya wasn't one of the teenager's favorites because they couldn't relate to someone like her. They prefer the screeching teenagers that are left. The three who are left are Fantasia (too Macy Gray for me), Jasmine (Ugh! Why is she still there??) and Diana. Diana has come a long way and if anyone left deserves to win, it is probably her. Jasmine was definitely the worst Tuesday night - she was HORRENDOUS and the judges all agreed. I thought for sure she was going home. Apparently her tears made everyone feel sorry for her and vote her through. Oh well, she'll see how good she is when nobody buys her album.
Here is the problem: everyone thinks that racism is involved, and it's really starting to piss me off. It's frustrating for me, because ALL of the people I know wanted either Latoya or Fantasia to win - and the majority of those people are white! So go figure. I want the best person to win and I don't care what color they are. It's become a popularity/obsessed fans contest, not a talent contest. How sad. That's not going to stop me from auditioning again this year, though, haha!
I'll copy and paste some comments from the American Idol message board that I've come across today. It's really insane. Funny thing though is that the majority of the people writing this crap only have a few posts - not the 350 or so posts that I have. :-P~ They're probably just trying to stir up trouble. The other ironic thing about people saying AI is racist is that only 2 of the last 6 contestants were white! The first 4 or 5 people voted off were all white!

You better believe it. It's not a talent contest it's a color of your skin contest

are u ok!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! la toya is gone!!!!!!!! and u cant change what happens!!!!!! the main reason why jasmine is still there is bcoz of her star potential!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ok!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! blacks are out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! asians are in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ha ha ha ha!!!!

I am very upset that Latoya, Jennifer and George is gone and I know that Fantasia is next to go next week. Do I think that this is racially motivated?-YES! Every since last year when Ruben won and Clay didn't. "People" rather see someone other than black win! Remember the upset of how Clay didn't win and how he is still in the for-front! Why did he perform last night and not the winner, Ruben? I am 28 years old and have been studying music and singing myself, since I was 3yrs old. I know vocal talent when I hear it and this competition is not focusing on that but the race/image of these people. How dare they also allow children, "America", to vote. There aren't any adults willing to stay up til 11pm est, calling in to vote or have any interest in text messaging in a vote.

Definately, will not watch the rest of this season. We have failed to recognize what the show/competition is all about. A large number of viewers are either incapable of recognizing talent or simply expressing our deep rooted racial prejudices.

I think "America" needs to heed to the words sung by the Final 4: "FREE YOUR MIND, AND THE REST WILL FOLLOW...BE COLOR BLIND, DON'T BE SO SHALLOW!" - EnVogue.

Clearly, Fantasia and LaToya "are in their own league" (superior to the others) but are being subjected to America's dirty and shameful institutionalized and systematic racist culture. The fact that John Stevens remained as long as he did, and Jennifer Hudson was voted off way too early, is only a testament that racism is alive and well in America.

Now lets get down to the one that's left that has all the talent in the world Ms. Fantasia Barrino,now if she don't win this show,I as one will never grace my television with the likes of AI again. I really think went they do auditions for next year's AI,all African-Americans should avoid their auditions and let it be just like they want it all along. The White People's American Idol. Some people may say so what that's not going to hurt a thing,but it would because they get their ratings from all races. So we will see what happens next week. I'm out

Yes i'm upset that Latoya has be voted off the show... It still shows that America belongs to the white folks.... The blacks always have to stay in the back.. while the whites do what the hell they want... This was more outrageous than when Jenifer got voted off....

I think the viewers of the show are racist and that no way in hell should Jasmine or Diana should still be in the top 3. I think they tried to rob Ruben last year and he still has not gotten all the fame and success as Kellie Clarkson. This show has blatant Racism and I will never watch it again if Fantastia does not win

You mean everytime a deserving talented black don't win.. See the problem is this... All the people that are advancing are the non talented whites. Thats why we proud*BLACKS* can see that is is hidden racism.

(this is one of my favorites from "HappyAsian"- - >) BLAMED IT ON ALL OF YOU STUPID AMERICANS !


Well, that's it for now. I'll have to post some more messages later, they are just too ridiculous.