Asians. Them and their hair commercials. Gotta say, if this four minute commercial ever showed up on the US, I would have sat and watched it. Maybe there's a key to longform movie-esque commercials. I dunno, just brainstorming a bit.

Now I thought maybe, they'd get some NBC related people but the whole cast of characters ran the gamut from CW to (now) Lifetime. I guess we couldn't get away with no vampire representation these days.

Either way, it's my first official day as a graduate student. And I have no clue what the campus really looks like. So it's time to get lost. I'll see y'all later.

- Paz

There are days when I'm really snarky and it just so happened that I was reviewing a CD that day. Kristy got the brunt of my snark when I called her a bit unoriginal. But I guess that's what you get for making an album full of covers, you lack originality. I mean, I still stand by my points: it's a good but safe album. It takes no risks at all and because of that I really don't want to reward it. Read the full article below.

Article first published as Music Review: Kristy - My Romance on Blogcritics.

I stood mostly on the side of the stage as I got to watch different acts zoom by. Craig & Samantha, junior champions on Dancing With the Stars was there, as was some Filipino girl from a previous season of America's Got Talent. Sadly, she really didn't have talent. I don't know how she got past. Any who, I performed to my best and got compliments from the emcee and several other people. The big moment was when the emcee turned to me and said "How would you feel if you knew that someone sang something better than you?" I told him that I know I did the best of my abilities. He responds by explaining to me that I sang the song "This is the Moment" from Jekyll and Hyde better than he ever did (he apparently had a CD).

Suffice to say that I didn't make it past the semi-finals in lieu of two little kids and a girl that sang in Tagalog. That girl had a father/coach who was giving her the "eye of the tiger" speech behind the scenes.

Here's video of the 6-year-old girl that eventually ended up winning.

It was almost too cute to handle. Perfect choreography to match her singing. I mean it's going to become a problem in the future where the stuff becomes an annoyance because it's no longer natural and just heavily contrived, but at six it's cute. Mark points out that she has to lift into a key to hit the right key which is very annoying.

So I as a 23-year-old will continue to shrug. I guess TFC (or ABS-CBN) didn't want another 20-something person to win but rather a good television piece to win. Then again, how can I compete with missing front teeth?

When I was a child, I didn't get leashes. I actually got a concerned parent's hand. I get that there was less technology (and less people) back in the day [gosh I sound like I'm fifty], but that shouldn't make a difference. If a kid wanted to get close, they drag the parent or the parent took the effort to put the kid on their shoulders.

I find putting leashes on children to be a very lazy way of parenting. If you don't think that your child is ready to go out into the world, maybe you should practice in smaller areas. Let's start with the local park. Maybe go to a mall that had more people. Work your way up to local amusement parks. Then go to Disney World. It's just like bringing in new sneakers to Disney and realizing that your feet hurt after two hours of standing in the heat. What happened to sitting down and talking to your child? Telling them that the kids have to be on their best behavior because there are a lot of people at Disney. Hell, even threatening them that Mickey doesn't like naughty children (I'm pretty sure he doesn't).

Maybe it was just me, so I milled mentally, rotating my mental Rolodex, trying to remember as many Long Islanders that I've encountered in the past years. Sadly, most of them matched up. I looked across to the terminal on the other side of the walkway and there was a diverse group headed over to Newark. Maybe some of them were on multi-stopped routes to other cities, or maybe the fact is that the surrounding area in New Jersey has a more ranged population.

I thought to myself, am I being ignorant? But the agreement from Mark was enough to make me dispel that argument. I mean, there is a Bostonian/Massachusetts/Nantucket kind of look, but I don't really complain there. People wearing clothes from the Lands End collection at Sears or the women purchasing their looks from Talbots. Speaking in a very regionalized accent. The belief the Boston Red Sox are actually a good team. I can accept all that. This Long Island look though seems to be bringing the rest of New York down.

At Epcot I couldn't resist purchasing myself a small panda I saw in the Japan pavilion. (We're going to ignore the obvious question of "Why didn't you buy it in China?") First off, it's a panda and how can you resist that? Secondly, it was one of those cute unnecessary waving pandas, powered by a small solar panel the size of one placed in a calculator. It leans it's head back and forth and waves a piece of golden bamboo at you. (Ah, such is an easy life) This panda, who hasn't been given a name yet, has his solar panel on the side instead of on the top of the machine, but manages to get enough solar power nonetheless. I have yet to figure out a perfect spot for the new addition to my room/house, but he will definitely be waving to someone very soon.

It made me wonder, if one small solar panel the size of my Centrum Cardio pill I (should) take every morning can power a small waving panda or a panel the size of 3/4ths of a credit card can charge a battery to light a small light for five hours, what sized panels do I need to power a crock pot? How many batteries would I need to charge up so that it could pump a constant heat to my crock pot and produce some wonderful chili?

When I was younger, solar panel calculators felt like the peak of solar energy. While there is technology out there, I feel as though a lot of the items that have arrived into the marketplace have become quite cosmetic. Yes, there is a use for solar lights to light the way to your front door, and yes, you only pay the up-front fee (plus replacement batteries), but where are all the cool solar powered items? Hell, I still would kill for a hand-crank phone/iPod charger. I think if people want to throw around big "green" words, then maybe they should start selling alternate energy items at your local mega-mart.

Maybe I've been spoiled drinking massive amounts of bottled water. Don't get me wrong, I've cut 1/4 use of bottled water to my Pur filter and the water tastes fine. What I don't understand is why Disney can't get a sponsorship with Brita or Pur (or any filter company really) and get good water.

I went up the stairs to fix my hair. It had already poofed out because I spent too much time playing Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 to calm me down. I plopped in the product as best I could with dry hair and realized I needed a haircut. Before I could make it back to my room my mother reminded me that we're having Father's Day dinner tonight and I should get home as quickly as possible. Great, she probably just predicted that I will be lost in New Jersey, my GPS telling me to make legal U-Turns for the following hour.

My only lunch today consisted of reheated McDonalds. I stood over by the oven hoping i didn't burn the bun. I crisped it, but like an idiot I decided to touch a melted puddle of cheese, stinging my finger. Then I realized that a) my victory/defeat meal consisted of day-old McDonalds and b) I was eating cheese, a big no-no for singers. I crossed my fingers and hoped that for once McDonalds made their cheeses out of oil and FD&C Yellow No. 5.

I got up to pee, set my GPS and headed out. I grabbed my short sleeved shirt that I haven't worn since last May 2009; it was the shirt I was wearing the time I got rejected on the Disney version of American Idol. Irony. I tried my best to get some sort of comforting message from Mark, but I knew that the combination of his archaic cell phone with my moody BlackBerry I'd get "I *fizzle fizzle* you, so *fizzle*." I'd hope that fizzle actually meant something about luck, love, or even confidence. I better have confidence. I decided to Rick Roll myself.