American Idol 2011; 11 perform (again)

My Review of Casey in my previous post: "but may have been forgotton since he was first in the night" Wow America forgot about him.

Wow was I right. Casey left us last week. oh wait he was saved. Seriously America, was he that bad? I didn't think so. So he must have been forgotten. Though I don't think he was that great last week, I think there are alot worse competitors than Casey. Casey's one of the most talented contestants I've seen in the last 2.5 American Idols that I've watched.

In any case, with the Judges' Save used, 2 people will go home this week.

My Rankings

1. Haley (Voted for) - Wow, what a comeback. great job.
   
2. James (Voted for)
3. Scotty
4. Jacob
   
5. Pia - Another ballad... 4 weeks in a row. lets try something different
6. Casey (Voted for) - Really good, but may have been forgotton since he was first in the night
   
7. Thia - I yawned...
   
8. Stefano - not impressing
   
9. Lauren
   
10. Paul - When they say he's "Unique" is that a compliment or an insult?
    
11. Naima
    

This time America: GET IT RIGHT. Anyone ranked 7-11 should be going home. My Guess is Naima and Paul. Other than last week, Naima has had alot of bad weeks; really inconsistent. And Paul's voice isn't strong enough.

Those are my choices.

UFC Rankings ( exiting UFC Fight Night 24)

Ultimate Fight night doesn't really effect rankings much, but provides the newer fighters to become known and establish themselves.

HEAVYWEIGHT:

1. Cain Valezquez
2. Junior Dos Santos
3. Brock Lesner
4. Frank Mir
5. Roy Nelson
6. Brandan Shaub
7. Stefan Struve
8. Shane Carwin
9. Pat Berry
10. Minotauro Nogueira

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT

1. Jon Jones
2. Rashad Evans
3. Shogun Rua
4. Rampage Jackson
5. Lyoto Machida
6. Randy Couture
7. Forest Griffin
8. Phil Davis - not impressive win.
   
9. Ryan Bader
10. Luis Cane
    

MIDDLEWEIGHT

1. Anderson Silva
2. Chael Sonnen
3. Yushin Okami
4. Wanderlei Silva
5. Vitor Belfort
6. Nate Marquadt
7. Brian Stann
8. Micheal Bisping
9. Dan Miller
10. Mark Munoz
    

WELTERWEIGHT

1. George St Pierre
2. Jake Shields
3. BJ Penn
4. Jon Fitch
5. Carlos Condit
6. Josh Koscheck
7. Diego Sanchez
8. Martin Kampmann
9. Mike Pyle
10. Anthony Johnson - Dan Hardy's defeated...
11. Amir Saddollah
12. John Hathaway
    

LIGHTWEIGHT

1. Frankie Edgar
2. Gray Maynard
3. Anthony Pettis
4. Ben Henderson
5. Donald Cerrone
6. Melvin Guillard
7. Clay Guida
8. Jim Miller
   
9. George Sotiropoulos
10. 
    

FEATHERWEIGHT

1. Jose Aldo
2. Mike Hominek
3. Josh Grispi
4. Kenny Florian
5. Tyson Griffin
6. Diego Nunes
7. Mackens Semerzier
8. Chang Sung Jung
9. Leanord Garcia
10. 
    

BANTAMWEIGHT

1. Dominic Cruz
2. Urijah Faber
3. Miguel Angel Torres
4. Joseph Benavidez
5. Brian Bowles
6. Micheal MacDonald (winner; establishing rankings)
   

American Idol 2011; 11 perform

Karen left us last week. Lets be straight. She really wasn't that good. At least she wasn't as good as the competition. No big surprise here.

This Week Mo-Town. Who blew it out of the water, and who blew up? well no one blew up, but all to of good performances. Hard to say...

My Rankings:

1. Jacob (Voted For)
   
2. James (Voted for)
   
3. Scotty
4. Casey (Voted for) - Really good, but may have been forgotton since he was first in the night
   
5. Pia - Another ballad... 3 weeks in a row. lets try something different
   
6. Thia
   
7. Stefano
8. Lauren
9. Paul
   
10. Naima - Brought everything in: music, dancing
    
11. Haley

Overall, it was a really strong week for everyone. I don't know who is going home. I'm going to guess Haley. She's not as good as the rest. And if you notice the bottom 3s, week 1: Asthon (elim), Karen, Haley. Week 2: Karen (elim), Haley, Anima. so next in line is Haley. and I think America has it right so far.

UFC Rankings (exiting UFC 127)

The Light Heavyweight division is all shaken up with the dethroning of Shogun Rua by Jon Jones. It was complete domination by Jon Jones, therefore a new #1 fighter in the LHW division.

Urijah Faber has proven himself to be the #1 contender to Dominic Cruz's Bantamweight Title, defeating Wineland. And Brandan Shaub's KO of Mirko Crocop will propel Shaub up, and Crocop into retirement.

My personal opinion
HEAVYWEIGHT:

1. Cain Valezquez
2. Junior Dos Santos
3. Brock Lesner
4. Frank Mir
5. Roy Nelson
6. Brandan Shaub
7. Stefan Struve
8. Shane Carwin
9. Pat Berry
10. Minotauro Nogueira

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT

1. Jon Jones
2. Rashad Evans
3. Shogun Rua
4. Rampage Jackson
5. Lyoto Machida
6. Randy Couture
7. Forest Griffin
8. Ryan Bader
9. Phil Davis
10. Luis Cane
    

MIDDLEWEIGHT

1. Anderson Silva
2. Chael Sonnen
3. Yushin Okami
4. Wanderlei Silva
5. Vitor Belfort
6. Nate Marquadt
7. Brian Stann
8. Micheal Bisping
9. Dan Miller
10. Mark Munoz
    

WELTERWEIGHT

1. George St Pierre
2. Jake Shields
3. BJ Penn
4. Jon Fitch
5. Carlos Condit
6. Josh Koscheck
7. Diego Sanchez
8. Martin Kampmann
9. Mike Pyle
10. 
    

LIGHTWEIGHT

1. Frankie Edgar
2. Gray Maynard
3. Anthony Pettis
4. Ben Henderson
5. Donald Cerrone
6. Melvin Guillard
7. Clay Guida
8. Jim Miller
   
9. George Sotiropoulos
10. 
    

FEATHERWEIGHT

1. Jose Aldo
2. Mike Hominek
3. Josh Grispi
4. Kenny Florian
5. Tyson Griffin
6. Diego Nunes
   

BANTAMWEIGHT

1. Dominic Cruz
2. Urijah Faber
3. Miguel Angel Torres
4. Joseph Benavidez
5. Brian Bowles

American Idol 2011; 12 perform

Quickly... I've been busy.

Last week's elimination: Asthon, I wasn't surprised she was elminated. Though there were others who could have gone before her. She wasn't goign to make it far.

After last's nights performances, here are my rankings

My Rankings

1. Pia - First girl to really really shine.
2. Stefano
3. Scotty
   
4. Casey (Voted for) - Laughing the entire time to his facial expressions. FEARLESS
   
5. Jacob
   
6. James (Voted for) - Not strong performance, but controlling his voice/scream.
   
7. Thia - nothing new...
   
8. Lauren
9. Haley
10. Paul - Not strong enough
    
11. Karen - Not making it. 2 weeks back to back of poor performances.
    
12. Naima - Getting more and more pitchy

Tonight I think Paul, Karen, and Naima will be bottom 3. Karen will probably go home.

Sounds like they are all getting sick too. so hopefully they will all recover. Keep washing your hands!

American Idol 2011; 13 perform

Well there were some ups and downs tonight. But all was good.

My Rankings

1. James - Showed a sensitive side
   
2. Scotty - Consistently good
   
3. Casey - Knows how to play to the Crowd; and they love him.
   
4. Pia
5. Lauren
6. Ashthon
7. Haley
8. Jacob - had some cracks tonight.
   
9. Stefano - Was that West Side Story?
10. Thia - a little sleepy.
    
11. Karen - got overwhelmed
    
12. Paul - not strong; but unique
    
13. Naima - dancing and singing. don't forget to breathe

So Here's my guess: Karen or Naima is going home tonight. They were the two weakest performances. I think Paul doesn't have a strong voice; I didn't see it, but the judges said they liked it.

I think Paul was the pick that the Judges would not have done. He wasn't the best performance and he hasn't excelled (in my opinon). we'll see tonight.

UFC Rankings (exiting UFC on Versus 3)

What did we learn coming out of UFC on Versus 3? While all fights were very good, I don't know if anyone really made a huge dent in the rankings. No heavyweights even fought.

My personal opinion
HEAVYWEIGHT:

1. Cain Valezquez
2. Junior Dos Santos
3. Brock Lesner
4. Frank Mir
5. Roy Nelson
6. Stefan Struve
7. Shane Carwin
8. Pat Berry
9. Minotauro Nogueira
10. Brandan Shaub

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT

1. Shogun Rua
2. Rashad Evans
3. Jon Jones
4. Rampage Jackson
5. Lyoto Machida
6. Randy Couture
7. Forest Griffin
8. Ryan Bader
9. Phil Davis
10. ?
    

MIDDLEWEIGHT

1. Anderson Silva
2. Chael Sonnen
3. Yushin Okami
4. Wanderlei Silva
5. Vitor Belfort
6. Nate Marquadt
7. Brian Stann
8. Micheal Bisping
9. Dan Miller
10. Mark Munoz *** He's in with a KO of CB Dolloway
    

WELTERWEIGHT

1. George St Pierre
2. Jake Shields
3. BJ Penn
4. Jon Fitch
5. Carlos Condit
6. Josh Koscheck
7. Diego Sanchez
8. Martin Kampmann * I'll put them both in because they both deserved to win.
   

LIGHTWEIGHT

1. Frankie Edgar
2. Gray Maynard
3. Anthony Pettis
4. Ben Henderson
5. Donald Cerrone
6. Melvin Guillard
7. Clay Guida
8. George Sotiropoulos
9. ?
10. ?

FEATHERWEIGHT

1. Jose Aldo
2. Kenny Florian
3. Tyson Griffin

BANTAMWEIGHT

1. Dominic Cruz
2. Urijah Faber
3. Miguel Angel Torres
4. Brian Bowles
   

Day in the life; Scott's Soccer Day, part 4

So the game didn't go as planned. We didn't play very well, or more so the other team played with more aggression and really outworked us. They pressured everyone who had the ball, causing bad passes and bad turnovers.

Personally I didn't play my best either. I didn't connect with my passes very well either.

Also the ref decided he wanted to enforce a rule that he never enforces. When the goalie gets the ball, he has to get rid of it in 5 seconds. well I got the ball, saw no one was open so I dropped it and played it. because i didn't leave the crease in 5 seconds, he decided to call it on me. My belief was you had to play out of my hands in 5 seconds. He's let people hold the ball for 10 seconds. So the inconsistency in enforcing the rules came out again. He threw off my game as well.

In any case, I usually talk to the players and give them feedback on what I saw and what needs to be improved on.

I ended up playing the game after since they didn't have a goalie. And it so happened that the team I played for is the team that we are playing next week. I told them that; they said it was ok. After the speed in the first game, this 2nd game was going in slo-mo. the team also didn't work as hard as my team. they gave up on the ball or gave up on the play too easily. And they don't connect too much.

So we'll see how they do next week. I think we got them. But I'm not going to tell my team anything. I don't want them to sit back. I want them to bring their A game.

Coming home from the game(s), I grab some food and get a meal in. Usually Victoria is already asleep so I'll kiss her good night then shower, then get food. I'll watch some Friday TV shows, like Smackdown and Young Justice and settle down. Eventaully I'll fall asleep, then decide it's time to go to bed. And that's about it.

But that's my game day. That's my routine for the day. Thanks for reading.

Day in the Life: Scott's Soccer Day; part 3

It's now 5:30, the work day is over. People are going home. But I'm still here. See ther's 4 more hours before gametime. So I can take the time to either go home or stay here and get some stuff done that I normally can't get done because there are people here.
Today is one of those days I have to stay here and gets stuff done.

One thing I forgot to mention is my manager work. Every week is a new game. Every game requires an evite (or invitation) to go to the team to see who can make the game. Anything before 6:00 is pressure on the team to show up. There are people who don't get off work till 6PM. so they end up missing it. Then I have to find players to come in and play.

This week though, I don't have that issue. Everyone except Jeff will be there. so I will have a full team, 5 guys, 6 girls, and me (goalie). Any more than that will end up cutting into people's times. So I'm happy. the pre-6pm games are madness. last pre 6pm game, half the the team couldn't make it. So I scrambled. I emptied my Soccer Rolodex, and even found new people from my Six40 (Church) group to come in and play. It sucks; even more for those who paid and can't make these games. it's part of being the manager.

But I also have a rule on that. If you're a guest, you don't start. Starting is a privilege for people who are paying members of the team. Of course, if we don't' have enough people, you'll start.

2 more hours till dinner. How much work can I get done.

Day in the Life: Scott's Soccer Day; part 2

Since the game is a late game 10:15, i'm more open to what I eat for lunch. Usually I'll eat a subway Sandwich (5... 5$ foot long) because it's just enough meat and carbs to get through my day, without too much steak/beef to weigh me down.

I'll also get a 2nd sandwich for the evening. 3hrs before game time, I will eat half of that. This makes sure I got enough energy. But again, late game, and 3 hrs before is 7PM, so it's dinner time already, so I probably will eat the entire 2nd sandwich.

Today, my co-worker, Joe, and I went out to his choice, which was Subway. I had a meatball & pepperoni sandwich (the march special). Cover it with Provolone and it was delicious. Just enough to keep me full without over stuffing myself.

And now I'm back to work. I got my Ipod Nano 6G with my Gameday Mix. Usually stuff that will get the blood moving, Santana, Lifehouse, Eminem, U2, Kid Rock, Christina Agulera. Stuff that is ROCK, fast and stuff to pump up the adreniline. I just have to make sure I don't "peak" too early. 2 weeks ago, I got ramped up by my music too quickly, and I didn't do to well in the game. funny how music does that to you.

For now, I'll play some DJ Kn0wledge... If you don't know, that's my best man, Noah.

Day in the Life: Scott's Soccer Day; part 1

Today I woke up late. I didn't get to sleep till about 1AM. Restless. But I got up and showered. Today is gameday. so I go in to my game day routine. The day before I pack up all my gear. Gloves, Goalie Shirt, Goalie Pants, shorts, shoes, shinguards.

For breakfast, I had 2 pieces of toast. I was going to have cereal, but I was running behind. I also had to get my water and gatorade.

I kissed Victoria goodbye, and gathered all my stuff into my car. this was at 8:20.
I arrived at work at 9:20. Traffic was a mess. 101 and Tully had an accident. Plus the construction going on there SUCKS and everything backs up there. only 6 more months to go with that. yuk.

Arriving at work, everything is calm. lots of projects to do. Layout my day (hopefully not to many interruptions.

I'll check in, during my lunch.

American Idol; Top 10... err 13

To me, no big surprises from the guys. I predicted 4 of the 5 guys:
Top 5 guys:
Casey
James
Scotty
Jacob
Paul McDonald

Top 5 Girls; again. no one really stood out, but:
Pia
Thia
Lauren
Haley
Karen

Then the wild card round. No rules were set till it happened. Judges picked 6 people to perform for their lives. the remaining 8 were eliminated. No big surprises here. The ones that didn't get picked were ones who performed poorly, or didn't see a "big" future.

By the way, when a judge says, "You're the best karaoke singer I've heard", it's not necessarily a compliment. Best part was when Clint started crying. haha

Back to the wild card, from the 6, they chose 3. I thought they would pick more than 1 guy, but they took one: Stefano, who was very good. They took 2 girls, Naima and Ashthon, and rightfully so they were pretty good.

But I'm telling you, the guys have it (again) this year. The girls are not as strong as the guys. and they don't have the talent or verity the guys have.

My Rankings:

1. Casey - Multi-talented creative "sexy" as J-lo said
   
2. James - Rocker
   
3. Jacob - Gospel
   
4. Scotty - Country; He needs his country to connect with the audience.
   
5. Pia -
   
6. Thia - At 15, will she crack under pressure?
   
7. Stefano (WC)
   
8. Paul
9. Naima (WC) - Stronger than some of the ones voted in
   
10. Ashthon (WC) - Ditto!
    
11. Lauren
12. Haley
13. Karen

And finally, the "crunch for time" was because we had to show J-Lo's newest music video. and I had to force Victoria to fast forward through it. Apparently she's a closet J-Lo fan.

American Idol 2011, 24 down to 10.

Here it is, American Idol blog for 2011. After alot of auditions and Hollywood, we have our final 24. I will say that I was disappointed Chris Medina was not selected. I thought he was good. But the competitions is deep. Kinda. It's one sided again. The guys are very strong and the girls are... not as strong.

Since its going from 24 to 10 (5 guys, 5 girls) +wildcards (1 or 2). I'll predict who will go on. of course if voting goes awry, then it's all messed up.

Top 5 guys:

1. Casey Abrams
2. James Durbin
3. Scotty McCreery
4. Jacob Lusk
5. Jovany Barreto

Top 5 girls

1. Pia Toscano
2. Thia Megia
3. Naima Adedapo
4. Ta-Tynisa Wilson
5. Haley Reinhart

In all honestly, other than Pia and Thia, none of the girls really stood out.

If there is only 1 wildcard, it will be a guy; as they stood out more than the girls.

I was disappointed in Julie Z. as I thought she should have done better than she performed. Jordon (Chris Tucker look alike) failed. can't do an Usher song. that's HARD if you can't perform.

Results are tonight!