AI:7 - Results
Once again, I’m late to the party on the results show happenings. This might be, let the reader understand, a recurring pattern…
Also once again, I have nothing of all that much substance to observe about the results show. It unfolded largely like I thought it would, insofar as the bottom 3 comprised Kristy & Ramiele (both of whom I predicted) along with Brooke (I said Syesha, but hinted that Brooke was vulnerable). Brooke was the logical one to send to safety first, and Ramiele was the logical one to send home.
Rarely have we seen a front-runner fall from grace so quickly. Even before the finals started, Ramiele seemed to be regressing. Danny’s elimination only seemed to lock her into a negative mindset & direction, as she never regained the the buzz or the momentum that she displayed earlier in the competition. If anything, she de-matured, relying on a baby-ish persona that she seemed to think was cute, but that grated on the last nerve of adults who tired of her pouty-lipped, hurt-little-girl looks that sprang up at the hint of any criticism or tough going. No, it was time for Ramiele to get off of the stage, and we’ll all be better off now that she’s gone.
This week, we have Idol Gives Back to look forward to. Whoopee! I can hardly wait for the self-congratulatory guilt-a-thon that they have in store for us over three, count ‘em, three days this week…
-ghp
Insert ‘LCMS has Issues’ pun here
The whole Issues, Etc. debacle keeps rolling along & picking up steam. I’m not going to try to summarize things here, one because it’s too big & wide ranging for me to pull it off, and two because I think most of the folks who read my stuff are already plugged in to the best sites.
I will say this: Largely because of these three posts
- Issues, Etc. and the Ideology of Hybelspongism
- About that letter to the editor, President K.
- BREAKING: Political motives exposed
I think that we’re getting very close to the point where we will be unable to use rank incompetence as the best-construction explanation of events. Treachery is fast becoming the only feasible explanation, as sad as that is to contemplate.
I hold no illusions that this will cause some grand reformation of the LCMS. It’s too big a corporate entity, with too many folks who depend on (and believe in) it, to go away. This whole sordid tale, however, might just serve a good purpose in that it will open the eyes & hearts of enough folks (lay and clergy) so that good, salutary organizations like the Augustana Ministerium & the Augustana Confraternity can gain critical mass.
-ghp
Chapin & iTunes
Just a quick follow-up on my post from earlier this week about Harry Chapin. Legends of the Lost and Found is, to me, the quintessential Chapin — a live, double LP, with him at his storytelling best. The problem has been that it was never released on CD. For the longest time, all I had was the cassette tape copy that I made of bigsis’s LPs (btw, did you buy that set, or did Dad? 
). About 5 years ago, I finally got around to borrowing the LPs & ripping them to mp3, and burning those mp3s to CD. The problem with that was that I’m not a sound engineer, and the albums had the usual clicks & pops that come from having been played lots & lots over 25+ years.
That, however, didn’t really lessen the frustration I felt at not being able to lay my hands on a better quality electronic/modern copy of this classic album.
Now, I’m happy to report, this has changed, as Apple has made Legends available at the iTunes store!
Very, very cool.
-ghp
WordPress 2.5
Well, I’ve jumped in & done the upgrade to the newest version of WordPress. Version 2.5 came out about a week ago, but I haven’t had the time to get to the upgrade, what with all the testing & checking for updated themes & plugins, until today.
Those who visit the site directly will notice a new theme has been installed. Not because I was necessarily dissatisfied with the old one, but more because I like to change things up every so often, and picking a new theme that was 2.5 ‘compliant’ seemed as good a reason as any.
I think that I was able to test things out enough to ensure that nothing is broken, but it’s almost a certainty that something will have slipped through the cracks. So, if you run into anything that doesn’t work right, please let me know by dropping me an email or just clicking on the ‘Contact’ link near the top of the page.
-ghp
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