Another Famous Person Has Died

Apparently Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcette, Billy Mays, and Ed McMahon weren't the only celebrities to die recently. Check it out.

Southwest Airlines Goes WiFi

That's right folks, at right, your looking at the latest and greatest in mobile internet technology. Southwest has launched the first ever satellite-fed WiFi for commercial airliners. What you see in the picture is an antenna that Aerosat Corporation developed. The antenna is able to track and hold a WiFi satellite signal as the airplane pitches, rolls, and yaws (as a satellite antenna has to be pointed exactly at the satellite in order to get the signal properly). It's able to accomplish this using a complex computer tracking program, which was developed over an 18 month period of testing. On a test flight, one of the technicians reported getting 54 Mbps connection speed! Regular broadband gets about 2.1Mbps. Check out this podcast at Southwest for an up-close perspective on the technology!

A Musical Experience

I just bumped into this video not knowing what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised. In this video a pianist and a cellist do a mash up of Coldplay's Viva la Vida

Double Stack!

This past fall, a friend and I would regularly stop at a McDonalds every Tuesday on the way to visit some friends. The biggest attraction to eating there was McDonalds' 99 cent cheeseburgers. They were cheap, and good for a late night snack. Unfortunately, whatever appeal these supposed morsels had was utterly and totally destroyed in our minds after we repeatedly received salty and bitter excuses for food called cheeseburgers. It was time for a change. Change, it seems, came in the form of an off-hand, split second decision, that changed the course of our lives forever. That decision was Wendy's.

We saw it across the traffic circle, that seemingly equal fast food place to McDonalds. Casually, we pulled up to the drive though and discovered that Wendy's offered a similar menu item to the McDonalds 99 cent cheeseburger: the Double Stack. We decided, "Why not," and ordered a couple. With money exchanged, and Double Stack's in our laps, we both opened the wrappings. It was love at fist bite.

Naught is there a burger in existence that radiates such potent flavor. Naught does any other burger rivet the entirety of you attention with one bite. It's so simple, but so elegant. Its just two delicious hamburgers, a few fresh onions, some crispy pickles, a slice of melted cheese, and two buns all topped off by richly flavored ketsup and mustard.

We then began to regularly order four or more each. One time, my friend had seven double stacks in one night. Suffice it to say, we never went back to that McDonalds again. Now, if ever I'm out, and there's a question of what to eat on the fly, I default to Double Stack. In fact, it's now one of my prerogatives in life to open others' eyes to the grandness of the Double Stack. If only people knew, if only people tasted, maybe the giant, McDonalds, would fall. Maybe people wouldn't settle for worst, never mind second best. Maybe people might smile more often.

Please, please try a Double Stack, then tell everyone you know about the experience. It is truly an under-appreciated delicacy. Here's to the Double Stack!

A Sad Day has Occurred.

Danny Gokey has been voted off American Idol. I am continually amazed at the public's ineptitude to at all judge good singing. As I mentioned in my last post on this subject, Allison Iraheta was voted off last week. Allison, Danny, and Adam Lambert are all clearly superior vocalists to Kris Allen, but somehow he managed to make it to the finale with Adam. Allison is a powerhouse, rocker singer, who can really belt it out and sound great. Danny can sing great in a soft voice, in loud voice, in falsetto, and he has excellent control of tone in whatever range or volume he has to sing in. Adam, can hit some of the highest notes I have ever heard anyone hit, and he's perfectly on key. None of this did Kris have. Kris is a competent vocalist who is almost always on key, but there ends his singing ability. All three of the aformentioned are also much more talented than him. I guess I can't blame America, because loyalties easily suprecede objectivity. However, there's one thing lurking in the darkness that no one probably wants to talk about. It's that element that has most likely gotten Kris this far when he probably shouldn't have even been in the top ten. Neither Danny nor Allison have it. That's right, it's girl appeal. Kris is the young, "cute" guy of the bunch, and perhaps for no other reason than that, he has advanced to the finale.

In any case, Danny will be missed. I hope he goes on to have a great career and prove America wrong in voting him off. He was just so on, on everthing he sang (except, of course, that one note last week he sang wrong). He was so balanced. Any range or volume he had to attack, he did it with great control. The one thing I like about him more than Adam is that he didn't scream out every song, but had the reserve and control to be quiet and tender sometimes. Here's to you Danny, an awesome vocalist and one of the best at that!

Star Trek review up over @ GM4R!

After staying up late last night watching Star Trek I woke up late today and headed on over to Wendy's to have some double stacks for breakfast (Seriously, it's a guilty pleasure of mine. I'll post about it later). Following that I finally got up the gusto to take a few hours and write up a review of Star Trek. Check it out over at GM4R!

Star Trek Surpise

It appears J. J. Abrams and co. have decided to pull a fast on the world and release Star Trek a day earlier than the announced US release. It comes out tonight at 7:oo pm in theaters. I have no idea why they decided to do this. Everyone is expecting to see it "opening night" on Friday. Why release it a day early when no one knows about it? At any rate, I may hop over to a theater tonight (if there are any tickets left) so I can give it a day-of-release review over at GM4R. Stay tuned!