The World of Scott Mindeaux

Gosselin to be on Dancing With The Stars

Ok…now I’ve heard it all. Let me say that I have been a huge fan of Jon and Kate plus Eight. I’m sad the show is off the air due to the shaningans of Jon and the alleged activities of Kate. But what about the kids?? What’s happening to these poor kids.

So today ABC announced the celebrity lineup for this season of Dancing With the Stars and Kate Gosselin has been invited to join some other suspect contestants. Joining Kate will be Buzz Aldrin (2nd man on the moon) and Pussycat Dolls lead, Nicole Scherzinger.

Kate has been reportedly working on a new TLC show that focuses on her and not the kids. Jon, in the meantime seems to have disappeared in the headlines recently.

I don’t know….all I know is that I’m glad that Glee returns in a few weeks and that I’ve got Idol to bide my time.

Being a TVHolic

Well I finally did it.

After almost three years of saying I’m going to buy a flat screen television – I finally did it. I have been so giddy the last three days its not even funny. I sit there and flip between regular broadcasts and the HD broadcast so I can see the difference. Now that I have clarity, its amazing how much I have missed as a result.

Did you know the runway for Project Runway was carpeted??

Do you know how awful David Ono’s (Anchor ABC 7 in LA) makeup is in HD?

Did you know how much more enjoyable a show like Ace of Cakes is?

on the flip side…

Did you know that in HD, some of your channels are in the East Coast timezone?

That now I have to invest in an HD TiVo?

That my old TV (bless its heart) needs a digital converter to get signal?

I have thoroughly enjoyed that last couple of days with my new flat screen. I have re-connected my old MacMini that I have turned into a Media Center using the PLEX media center application. Some of you might know XBMC – its similar and easier to use. You can buy a DVI to HDMI converter for about $19.99 and get your mac to display on the flatscreen. You have a choice in your Display Preferences for 1080i or 1080p. It also gives me a choice between 24 and 60 hz but not sure what the difference is yet. Does anyone know? Since I last loaded Plex, there have been some upgrades to the offerings. Netflix had an update patch. I have the entry level service plan which gives me unlimited instant view videos. I also have full access to my iTunes and iPhoto and all the other movies that I get from various sources. It’s great!

I have moved my old TV into my bedroom, but I’m seriously thinking about just getting rid of it. Its an old 27″ Toshiba TV built in 1989. Has two cable inputs for two tuners, speaker outputs and s-video.

Following in the Toshiba tradition, I got the 37″ Toshiba 37RV525 1080p TV.

American Idol 9 – Top 24 Results

Are you ready?

Is the person you couldn’t stand the last two nights going home? Did America vote the right persons off? Stay tunes….THIS is American Idol!

There was a little bit of tears as we saw the first group song of the season. Moreso, I was excited to see Kris Allen and Alison Iraheta!

So the group sang American Boy - a contrast to last night’s American Woman. I’m always amused how the choreographers give them all these robotic steps. There were a few times where it looked like Casey was a little lost and other times where it looked like they were lip-syncing. My how clear my TV is! I finally bought a Flat Screen and can see every pore on those kids! First time ever I get to watch Idol in HD!

So we’re back from the break and already, Ryan askes the back row of girls to stand up. Siobahn, Haeley, Michelle, Katelyn all safe. So we’re down to Katie and Janelle.

Oh no! Janelle is going home. I was really rooting for Janelle. I know her performance wasn’t the greatest, but I really wanted her to stay. In my opnion, Haeley should have gone home. The whole time Janelle and Katie were standing there, Janelle looked very nervous and fidgety. She’s really holding true to herself and is exiting with style. Isn’t weird how the 2nd performance of their last song always sounds better than their previous performance? We’ll miss you Janelle.

Allison Iraheta is back and I have missed her so much from last year. I miss that sultry, raspy voice of hers. Tonight she sings her released single, Scars. Nicely done Alison. Scars will be added to my iTunes library for sure!

Here we go, next set of girls. Paige, Lacey, Lily and Crystal all safe. So we’re down to Ashley and Didi. I said last night that Ashley would go home. What do you think? Ashley Rodriguez goes home. Another gracious contestant.

So here we go, first set of boys. Back row, please stand up. Michael is safe. John Park is up. I think he’s going home. Did America agree? No, John is staying. Cutey Aaron is also moving forward. Here we come to Todrick and he is another I think will go home. America keeps him in. So we’re down to Tim Urban and Joe Munoz. Joe looks really nervous. I think between these too, Tim should go home. Tim will probably get girl votes. I liked Joe’s performance last night. OMG, Joe is going home. Tim is in shock and VERY surprised. So am I. Tim should have gone home. Joe I’m so sorry. Here we are listening to your final performance and again, it is way better than last night. Good luck to you Joe, hope to run into you around town. Last night you should have ditched the guitar and did the performance just like you did tonite.

Kris it is sooo good to see you. Thank you your part in helping out with the Haiti effort. Please download the song by purchasing his song from iTunes and 100% of the fees will go to the Haiti effort. It was a very moving performance Kris. Thanks again for being there on the ground in Haiti and lending a hand.

So here we go the last elimination of the night. Casey James, of course is safe. Jermaine is up. What are those? Glassless glasses? Jermaine was on my list of guys to go – he is staying. Lee Dewyze is staying. YES!! We we go and we’re down to Andrew Garcia and he makes it thru! You better bring it next week. So we are down to Tyler and Alex. Tyler I thought for sure would go thru from a popularity point of view. Alex is here too. Alex looks dejected and looks like he is prepping himself for bad news. WHOA! Tyler is going home. I think he played that 70s rocker thing too far.

It certainly is always sad to see the goodbye footage. Good night Janelle, Ashley, Joe and Tyler.

Macworld Day 3

I had a weird night last night so getting up this morning was a bit hard. I’m not going to get into it.

First let me get this off my chest. To the guy eating his late lunch in the session, please don’t choose to eat FISH in the class. It smells in here. You obviously didn’t buy your lunch here at the conference. To the guy to the right of me…stop fiddling with your bag of chips, it makes alot of noise. You’re trying to be discreet that you can’t open your bag, so stop trying. Oh good, you got it. Now, stop playing with your empty bag, its distracting. Ugh.

Today was the following classes:

• Administering Macs in Exchange 2003/2007 and 2010
• Demystifying Digital Asset Managment
• Adobe CS Administration

In addition, the expo show floor opened. I was pleasantly surprised to find lines of people lined up for their badges to get into the show. What was disappointing was the show floor unfortunately. Now the show flow was crowded, but it was because everyone was squeezed in. This year only the North Hall was sused and even the entire hall wasn’t used. The aisles were full of people looking at new software, but not seeing the big hitters like Apple, Quark and Adobe it seemed to be sparse. I walked the floor and had to get out. I started to feel anxious and trapped and had to get out in the open. It was weird.

Fellow blogger, Rebel Price, aka Jeff Tabaco was at the show at the same time and we had missed each other by feet it seems. He has posted pics on Facebook and I saw that and saw that we missed each other on the floor.

Tomorrow I will be in classes all day. Happy Friday.

p.s. to everyone out there…it is Macworld, not MacWorld or Mac-World or Mac World. It’s amazing how many don’t spell it right on their materials. Amazing.

28 hours and counting…

Good morning everyone.

Well the rain has left Southern California and the sun is shining and the sky is blue with big white puffy clouds.

I woke up a bit groggy this morning, but got myself out of bed and started to pack for my trip to San Francisco tomorrow. I’m leaving for SF to attend Macworld and get in 5 days of training. This is no vacation! I’ll be in classes from Tuesday to Saturday. Here is my tentative schedule so far:

TUESDAY, Feb 9  & WEDNESDAY, Feb 10
10:00 am to 5:00 pm
In-Depth Final Cut Studio or AppleScripting

THURSDAY, Feb 11
1:00 pm to 2:15 pm
Demystifying Digital Asset Management

2:30 pm to 4:00 pm
Adobe CS Administration

4:30 pm to 6:00 pm
Administering Macs in Exchange 2007

FRIDAY, Feb 12
10:30 am to 12:00 pm
Mastering OS X Administration

1:00 pm to 2:30 pm
Scripting for Deployment and Sys Administration

3:30 pm to 5:00 pm
Advanced Integration with Final Cut Server or Enterprise Level Scripting

SATURDAY, Feb 13
10:00 am to 11:30 am
Installer packages for Admins

12:30 pm to 2:00 pm
System Image Creation and Deployment

2:30 pm to 4:00 pm
Advanced Apple Remote Desktop or How to survive an IT Audit
or
Deploying iPhone, iPad in an Enterprise environment

It will be a bit of a wet week up in SF. We have rain forecasted for Monday night thru most of Tuesday and then again on Thursday to Friday. Temps will hold in the mid 50’s all week with nighttime lows in the mid 40s.

I also want to get in some foodie-time while I”m here so today I need to scope out some restaurants. A dear former co-worker of mine, Kimberley Davis is back in SF so I have plans to meet up with her this week as well. Kimberley and I worked together at Sur La Table corporate. Also in town are friends Michael, Mauricio and Brett. Brent (aka Larry from the Little Fatty Cast) will also be attending Macworld and will be there for the week. He is actually there today cheering on a friend of his in the Kaiser Permanente SF Half Marathon and 5k Fun Run.

I have quite a bit of packing to do and I still need to get into the office to do a few things before I can leave.

See you guys in San Fran!

Smallville’s Absolute Justice

I couldn’t wait to get home on Friday night. It was the two hour event called Absolute Justice on Smallville. Yes, those of you who know me probably hear about my continued support for Smallville and it’s “slightly” re-imagined storyline.

I had heard about this upcoming episode a few months back and I honestly forgot all the details. When I got home and found that I had already missed the first 15 minutes I came into an already moving storyline. So I rewinded back to the beginning. I’m not going to spoil it by going into the storyline (for those that haven’t seen it yet) but I was on the edge of my seat the entire 2 hours.

There was one character that caught my eye and was taken by him the entire evening. There was a commanding, yet gentle part of him that was very attractive. The entire night I couldn’t help but be taken by this actor. Who was he? As the story progressed we come to find he is Hawk Man.

The two hour event is worth watching again and I’m going to do so tonight with a nice warm bowl of New England Clam Chowder to go with this wet, damp night.

So I”m online and decided to look up who played this character who held me hostage for two hours. I was absolutely STUNNED when I found out it was none other than my favorite, Michael Shanks of Stargate fame. Yes! It was Michael Shanks. I write this entry still not convinced it was him.

Here is a clip from Smallville: Absolute Justice