Spoilers are after the bump.

First, let me just say this. Every season of Hell’s Kitchen seems to get worse every time. It seems the chefs who compete are not chosen for their skills in the kitchen, but instead on the amount of drama they can generate. I understand the entertainment value. I really do. But I like to see a genuine competition between chefs of equal caliber.

Top Chef, for instance makes Hell’s Kitchen look a lot like Jersey Shore. A really big joke. Hell, I’ll even say that Gordon Ramsay’s newest series, Masterchef, makes Hell’s Kitchen look like a joke. I really did not like any of the competitors in Hell’s Kitchen at all. There were a couple of people I thought might be worthy to win, however, a majority of the contestants this season were a joke. seriously. Some of them I’d say you’d easily find them as line cooks in Old Country Buffet. Not to say they don’t belong there. But I have to admit the screening process could be better.

Anyways, enough of my complaining and on to the winner.

Congratulations to Holli as winner of Season 7 of Hell’s Kitchen. Let’s hope she really does end up being the head chef of the Savoy restaurant in London. If you were faithful and watched this season, you’d notice that Holli was a sleeper. At first you weren’t quite sure if she was up to the challenge, but she really did pull through. I thought she did a great job with a lot. I also want to add that she’s from San Bernadino, CA and I used to live in Redlands, which is just about the same place, and it was almost like rooting for a home team.

I also want to say while Jay, her competition, while skilled, did not impress me as a person and came across as a pig. I want to say that 60% of that was probably editing. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt and say they probably put a lot of words into his mouth because that causes more ratings and thus, more viewers. It was a bit too bad, however, since he did seem very skilled in the kitchen. Although I have to admit on the pass, when he was in charge, Ben had to lend a hand, which I thought was not a good thing. Let’s not forget the incident where Chef Scott just about lost it and yelled at Ben when he tried to help out with the pass for him. A matter of opinion I’m sure. But honestly, if someone else started doing my job, right in front of me, and breaking my pace, I’d have to yell at them too. And believe me, they would have felt like they shouldn’t have woken up that morning.

I think if Jay had probably concentrated more on his work, and less time wondering if he was going to sleep with Holli, he probably would have won. He totally underestimated Holli, I think, and he paid the price for it by being the #1 loser of Hell’s Kitchen.

Can you tell I was a fan of Holli? I’m gonna go ahead and stop you right now and say it wasn’t because I thought she was attractive or anything. It was because of 2 simple reasons: 1. She was the underdog. I always root for the underdog. 2. She really was a skilled. She actually had improvement as the season progressed. Everyone else thought they were already the shit and didn’t improve as much as they should have.

So there you go. Were you team Holli or team Jay?

If this sounds too good to be true, wait till you hear the best part. The best part: since you don’t have to worry about the hardware, if there is a port for your type of computer OS, you can play it. Currently, Mac and PC are available, with a desktop box with wireless controller available soon to connect to your TV. Now it sounds too good to be true for sure right?

Not quite. In my opinion, it works great. I was lucky enough to join in on the Founding Fathers program and I’m currently getting one year for free and the second year is 4.95 a month. I’m not sure what the normal rates are. It could be 4.95 for all we know.

They’ve only got a few selection of games, probably about 15. (yes I’m too lazy to count the number of games and tell you.)

So far, I’ve no complaints about the service. But keep in mind that I have a very good cable connection with 10mbps of bandwidth available to me. So if you’ve got a very fast internet connection, definitely check this out.

I’m curious to see what other similar type companies (i.e. Steam/Valve) will do that may compete with this. Interesting to see how it evolves.

They are still taking in applications for the Founding Fathers program so if you’re not signed up, go ahead and sign up today!

Before I post any spoilers though, has anyone noticed that the quality of the chefs have plummeted? I mean seriously. It seems more like the producers said, “let’s choose the most dramatic and loser-ific people who would be perfect for any reality show and put them on there. It just so happens that they know how to cook.” I would really like to know exactly how they determine who shows up on the show, because I surely would not have chosen half of these people. And honestly, I don’t think Gordon Ramsay would ever choose any of them himself.

I swear it’s no longer quality but rather it’s for ratings. Oddly enough, however, I keep watching it. Funny how that works. But honestly I might have to shelf this show and forget about it. It’s getting ridiculous.

Now, does anyone feel that Ben is just an asshole? seriously. He’s pretty much high and mighty, and looks down on the rest of his team. Honestly, if he was a good leader, he’d spend more time helping them improve as a team than telling them everything they’re doing wrong. He needs to go. His cooking is judgment is flaky at best. I don’t think he deserves to win. Ever.

Autumn. Oh my lord. I think she has a great chance of winning only because I don’t want her to. Her cooking is questionable as well. Actually I don’t think a lot of them has any really good cooking skills except for a couple of them. At least consistently good. But I digress. Autumn better not win. She is another that needs to go.

Ed is another questionable one. He seems to be on and off. I think of him as a chef who has made it this far because there have been weaker chefs than him. I don’t think he’ll last much longer. I think Gordon is getting tired of him anyways.

Jason. Ok, he’s really good. Sometimes I don’t really like his attitude, but I think he has a really good chance of winning. I don’t have to like all the good contestants. There is no question he knows how to cook. I think with him it’s whether or not he can actually perform and deliver it. We’ll see if and when he has to actually run the kitchen.

Jay is definitely one of the stronger chefs. I think he has a good chance of winning. I don’t question if he can cook or not, or his leadership skills. I think if he doesn’t choke, he’ll run the kitchen just fine. As long as he doesn’t choke. I think it’s a good chance he will.

Holli seems like she’s gotten by because she’s pretty. But I don’t think so. She’s consistently been a good chef, and she knows how to cook well. She puts out good dishes and on this last episode, she ruled the dessert course of the challenge. However, that was only the desserts. How will she perform for the rest of the meal? And will she be able to run the kitchen well? She may very well surprise us.

In my opinion, the last 4 chefs in this competition as I see it right now would be Jason, Jay, Holli, and Autumn. I’m questionable about autumn actually. Well if it came down to the last two, I’d choose Holli vs Jay. I think those 2 are the strongest competitors in the competition.

We can only see how it will turn out. What are your picks for the final two?

Fact 33: I used to work at Earthlink Network. I was a Technical Support Representative, Tier 2. I took care of escalations yes. It was a crazy job. You’re pretty much a slave to the phone and I remember after call time was pretty much your break time. I have so many crazy technical support stories. I think I’ve submitted a couple of them to various sites on the internet that take in crazy technical support calls.

I don’t miss those times, but I definitely miss the people (well most of them), and the good times I had. When I worked there, Earthlink wasn’t really the super giant company it is now, and was based in Pasadena, CA. I also remember Sky Dayton’s offices being right across from my cubicle, and he’d look out on the TS floors once in a while. He was pretty cool. He also had an Earthlink Network surfboard in his office as well. I’m sure there were days he just took off to go surfing. “It’s good to be king” hehe.

WordPress 3.0 or ExpressionEngine 2.0?

I’ve gone and upgraded my license for EE 2.0 only because Leslie Camacho, President of Ellislab has said that the release of ExpressionEngine 2.1 is “near”. That’s very encouraging to me. So I’ve set up my test site and I’m familiarizing myself with all the new features of 2.0. There are some things I won’t really know how they turn out until I go live, (such as spam comments and how well EE 2 handles them), however it seems pretty encouraging.

The control panel for WP 3 is pretty much the same as 2. There are no real big surprises here. This is a good thing in my opinion. The control panel for EE 2 is very different from 1, but at the same time, very familiar to veterans of 1. I’d say there are improvements, and there are things that probably didn’t need to be changed. I have yet to explore a lot of the new version.

More to follow.

Anyways, one of the songs I remembered the most was Honky Tonk Women. When the music started, these giant balloons of women on both sides of the stage blew up. It was awesome. I just remember the entire stadium (the old Vet Stadium in Philly) was in an uproar and we were singing the song as loud as we could. I have to admit I think that was the most fun I had in a while.

I was trying to find a good video, unfortunately I couldn’t find a good one. You’ll have to excuse me. I’ll update this post when I do find one.

First of all, it took forever for it to arrive. After about 3 weeks, I received an email that said my order was back-ordered and there was no date of shipment. Luckily, the Yoshiblade did arrive about a couple weeks later. I’m sure that wasn’t a common occurance.

As for slicing and dicing, the knife is very sharp. It comes with a cover which is good, since most people (like me) like to keep their knives in a drawer. Of course, if I like a knife, then I store it carefully in another location such as a knife box or sleeve. But back to the Yoshiblade.

I love it so far. I’ve been using it for a couple months now, and I haven’t had any issues. I admit, however, the blade is a slicing blade. Don’t expect to do any big chopping with it. It’s not very heavy and is actually quite light. The handle is very nice. You can grip it and not worry about slipping, since it’s one of those grip feels similar to rubber and it’s feel.

Overall, I’d say it was a pretty good investment. The only thing I can say about it is the typical “As seen on TV” warnings of this: it might cost 19.99 but shipping and handling costs just as much if not more. Video after the bump.

When I hear this song, no matter what mood I’m in, I guarantee most of the time I will get cheerful. There’s something about this song that just reminds me of good times.

I mentioned in 2008 that it reminded me of a time spent in Philly. But honestly, I am starting to think that it just reminds me of good times, no matter where they were.

I admit that a lot of my good times were spent going to concerts in Philly, eating with my friends in all the diners in Jersey. Especially Golden Dawn on Rt. 38. Is that diner still there? I know Olga’s was closed down, which was kinda sad to me. We went there for a mini reunion, which was really cool. Getting to see some of my old friends was very awesome. At a diner even. Sometimes I think a lot of my youth and good times were spent just talking away in a diner.

I admit though some of those times were rather bittersweet. I think that’s why I am reminded of these times when I hear this song. Of course, this could be just a bunch of babble. Regardless, as usual, I have included the video for your viewing pleasure. I hope it gives you some enjoyment, as much as it gives me.

Video after the bump.

So we’ll see how it goes. Does anyone have any suggestions for the theme? In the past, I’ve done the movie quotes game, where you hear the quote and name the movie. But that’s a lot of work and well we shall see how things work out. Hopefully it won’t be like in the past. *crossing fingers*