Bobby Brown: The Best Deal Maker Ever?

HD DVD: Taunting Me from the Beyond

A week after being pronounced dead, I got my 5 free HD DVDs in the mail today. I pretty much gave up ever receiving them because it has been like 13 weeks since I mailed in the form. But lo and behold, here they are ... taunting me.

Just DIE already!!

HD Format War: Blu-ray Wins

Well, folks ... it is official.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080219/ap_on_bi_ge/japan_toshiba
http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/2008_02/pr1903.htm

Toshiba has bowed out of the HD format competition with Sony's Blu-ray. It was Sony's race to lose considering that they had the most leverage.

1) Sony's Playstation 3 contained a Blu-ray drive
2) Sony and Walt Disney went exclusively Blu-ray
3) Blockbuster video went to Blu-ray
4) Netflix and Wal-mart decided to go exclusively Blu-ray a couple of weeks ago

I recently acquired a Playstation 3 and I must say I have been impressed with Blu-ray. In the past I have been adamantly against Sony products because their exclusive formats (ATRAC, MiniDisc, etc...) rarely survive. Also I had a Sony DVD player it died two weeks have the warranty expired.

After several losses (Betamax vs. VHS, ATRAC vs. MP3), Sony seems to be back on top. HD DVD prices will fall dramatically because retailers will be trying to get rid of all the discontinued merchandise. I think I may stock up on some HD DVDs if the prices fall below $10.

Since the format war is over, would you now consider buying a Blu-ray player?

Biopsy

I couple of weeks ago, I was at the Marrying Guy's house and he persuaded me to get to get into his hot tub. I was against it because I am not a hot tub type of guy. I like saunas, but he didn't have one of those. After some cajoling, I decided to get in, against my better judgment.

Four weeks later ...

I went to a dermatologist because I started to develop a weird rash a couple of days after being in the hot tub. It started on my left shoulder, and now it is all on my torso and back. It is not horrible, but it just won't go away.

The dermatologist I first went to didn't know what it was and wanted to do a biopsy. I was not about to let some guy cut my skin off. Especially since he had a framed certificate from the American Board of Dermatology which expired in 2002. When I arrive back home I called another dermatologist at UT Southwestern and I was able to get an appointment for the same day 20 minutes later. I ran out the door and arrived for my appointment just in the nick of time.

Filled out forms, waited in lobby for 15 minutes before the nurse brought me to the examination room, waited 35 minutes before being seen by the resident dermatologist.

He looked me over and gave me a more through examination than the first doctor I saw. He presented his ideas to the doctor, who was wearing a leather jacket (?) and they both weren't sure what I had. Which was great, and frightening. I told them about the hot tub and they thought it was the cause but they needed to do a biopsy to be sure.

I was prepped, and had Lidocaine injected in the part of the skin that was going to be removed. Ten minutes later, the doctor cutting my skin off. I was unable to see the skin as it was being cut off, but seeing the doctor's hands cut me while feeing no pain was very odd. My wound was stitched up, and I giving a prescription for Cipro just in case what I got was a bacterial infection.

I go back next week to get my lab results, and hopefully I will have a definitive answer regarding what I have. Meanwhile, I am half way through my Cipro and I haven't experienced any of the bad side effects (knock wood). Until then...

...I wait.

Project Runway 4 - Episode 10

This is the episode dedicated to all of the straight guys who are forced to watch the with their wives, girlfriends or girl they're trying to nail.


You got to keep your audience happy.

But before I get to my thoughts of the shows, I have some sad news. I must report that the word "fierce" is now dead due to overuse. It has been utter so many times during the season that the word has lost all meaning. Now with Tim Gunn is saying it, you know the word has to die.

You will be missed.

The Challenge:

Create an outfit for the WWE Divas to wear in the ring
The designers head to Spandex House for the materials needed for this challenge.


This makes me laugh for a couple of reasons:

1) just the notion of store with nothing but spandex.
2) the lack of creativity of the name.
3) that thought Mood being too classy to carry spandex in their inventory.

All the designers meet with clients and Sweet P had the hardest time with her WWE Diva, Candice Michelle. This is how Candice describes her style:

"It's the classy sexpot, you know. To the whore sexpot."
Great ... now the word classy has lost all meaning now. I mean, can she really use the word classy wearing that outfit? Or doing this:


Klassy, yes. Classy, no. I say this but Candice is not completely delusional. During her fitting with Sweet P she made this comment:


"...I could buy this at the stripper store, just the boy shorts and the top."
I wasn't sure if it's called The Stripper Store, or just a general term for a place to get trashy clothes. I Googled "the stripper store" and I found a website called the Stripper Zone (obviously NSFW). It's basically like Office Depot for strippers. Doesn't it look like Candice is trying to lead Sweet P to the Champagne Room for a "private dance". No sex in the champagne room, Candice.

The show managed to work in a promotional tie-in with Blockbuster for their online movie rentals.


And it is totally natural looking. Not staged at all. I was kind of disappointed with Jillian shilling products for Blockbuster, because the service is horrible. But all was forgiven when I saw this:


Awesome. It's graceful, yet deadly.

Results:

Winner: Chris, Auf'd: Ricky, My Fav: Christian
I don't know how Sweet P avoided elimination because her final garment was straight-up stripper wear. I mean, the girl was wearing clear stripper heels and look at that hair and makeup.


Instead of being on Project Runway, she should be on HBO's Cathouse and working at the Moonlite BunnyRanch.

While I am on the topic of strippers, when the girls were coming down the runway I had this thought: if the WWE Divas were strippers, what song would they strip to?

Kristal


Song: "P*ssy Control" or "319" by Prince

Michelle


Song: "Here I Go Again" by Whitesnake

Layla


Song: "Hot in Herre" by Nelly

Maria (stripper Lara Croft?)


Song: "Black Velvet" by Alannah Myles

Candice


Song: "Sex Shooter" by Apollonia 6 or "Nasty Girl" by Vanity 6

Torrie


Song: "Barbie Girl" by Aqua

What would you choose?

I never been to a (straight) strip club but this is the music I imagine they would play. But it's moot, because they are wrestlers:


...not, strippers?

Ricky was auf'd, but you knew he was going within the first three minutes of the show.


"Even though I won, it doesn't really feel like it's gained respect by most of the people. But help me to realize, who cares what people say. Just keep doing this."
And oddly enough, I didn't hate his garment and he shouldn't have gone home because of this challenge. Also, the one time it would have been perfectly acceptable for Ricky to open up the flood-gates and allow the tears to flow, he doesn't.

Ricky, if I had my way you would have gone episodes ago ... but, thanks for the tears.

I will leave with this. During the critique of Rami's design Heidi had this to say:

"She definitely stood out because of the color. It was so pink, her hair is so blonde, and boobs are SO BIG. She got was she wanted, but not in a good way."
If you partly overheard this conversation, starting with "her hair is so blonde...", what would you think they were talking about?


Easy there, Heidi. I am not trying to pick a fight. I just making an observation.

Episode 11 preview: Two designers are going home, but all five have shown at Fashion Week. I haven't looked at the designers because I don't want to be spoiled, but want to take a peek, click here or here.

Project Runway 4 - Episode 8

I am back after a long absence. I am still distraught of the loss of my Kevin, that the show began not to make sense to me. Okay ... I am lying, but the hurt over the loss of Kevin will linger. I mean, instead of hot images of Kevin shirtless, we get this instead:


Do you now feel my pain? I need to get back in the swing of things so this recap will be a bit short.

The Challenge:

Create an avant-garde look inspired by you model's hairstyle
The models, once again, get screwed over because they were not in the last challenge and now two have go home. It is hard to compete when, you know, not part of the challenges. No more challenges without the models, please.

The challenge would require the designers to work in pairs. Rami/Sweet P, Victorya/Jillian, Kit/Ricky and Christian/Chris were random selected to work together. This the third team challenge in eight episodes. Please Bravo, no more team challenges. You only have them for the drama aspect of the show and they serve no real purpose.

The show is really struggling with the lose of Kevin:


If they can bring back Chris after being eliminated, why not Kevin? We just got to give someone a MRSA and we are golden. Who's with me?

When the designers got comfortable, Tim Gunn decided to drop a bomb:


No one was happy about this:


Christian was ready to cut a bitch:



And Jillian has no coping skills what so ever:

Trying to wake from the bad dream that is Project Runway
The Results:

Winners: Christian/Chris, Auf'd: Kit, My Fav: Sweet P

Does anyone hate Rami a little bit more after this episode? He didn't listen to Sweet P suggestions regarding his design, and when he was called out by Tim Gunn he basically blamed her for his bad design. His design was not avant-garde at all. Remember when the trend of wearing a dress over a pair of jeans was popular? That is what his design reminded me of.

I had high hopes for the coat that Jillian and Victorya but seeing the finished product, I was a bit underwhelmed (trademark Michael Kors). If the garments underneath were in a darker color I think I would have like the design a bit more.

And it is now time to give out the award for Best Over-Dramatic Reaction to Malfunctioning Machinery. And the award goes to:


Jillian. This is her 12th nomination and 11th win in the category.

Seriously, Jillian -- learn to cope a bit better.

Preppy

Preppy

I went to a party two weeks, and I was able to spend some time with the guy my friend is currently dating. He is a nice guy, and I enjoyed talking to him. This past weekend my friend told me that the guy he is dating thought I was preppy. I would have to concede that my style of dress is rather preppy, but I am not exactly sure what he meant by the comment. I was wearing a purple polo, jeans, and purple/teal Air Force 1s


... how preppy is that?

Is being preppy necessarily a bad thing?