Every once and a while I check my web site logs. I like to see the search terms people use to find my site. I mentioned in a previous post that I was getting hits for J Lo's fat ass (based on this entry).

Well, I wrote two other entries. This one had to do with emoticons, and this one had to do with Viagra commercials.

Apparently someone searched for:

kristen kreuk tv commercials in 2003

Google returned the following:

A musing or too much?: March 2003 Archives
... one who finds these Viagra commercials a little ... like I am thinking of Kristen Kreuk)
www.thespeichers.com/musings/archives/2003_03.html - 43k - Cached - Similar pages

Note that Google concatenated the two portions of the entries into one well-formed (but not at all intended) sentence.

I found this to be supremely funny.

I went to get gas today, and it reminded me of one of my pet peeves. I really hate that the gas stations try and trick you into getting the unleaded plus (89). How do they do this? By arranging the gas as:

89 87 91

They figure that the supreme people will go all the way to the right, and the cheap people will go all the way to the left. As such, they end up with plus.

I get a bout of heartburn every couple of weeks. Each time I take a little Alka Selzter and each time I do I carefully try to reproduce the plop plop of the two tablets slowly rolling out of the package and splashing in the water.

147 tries and I have yet to do it. I am convinced that they have changed the packaging. I can either get plopplop or plop        plop, but dammit I just can't get plop plop.

Once every couple of months I treat myself to a BurgerMaster hamburger. For those not familiar with the Seattle area, Burger Master is an old school hamburger joint. You know the kind, the ones where they place the little tray on your window and you sit in your car and eat.

As you eat your meal you do your absolute best to be clean about it. However, the law of french fry gravity is working against you. At some point in the meal, a tractor beam fires up and sucks a fry into that little space between your seat and the center console. You see it happening, but there is nothing that you can do.

You are then faced with a dilemma. You know that if you don't rescue that fry then and there, it will be lost forever. On the other hand, you really don't want to stick your hands down in there. After all, this is a burger joint and you probably are using those same hands to eat. So you let it go. You finish your meal and, in the process, you forget about the fry.

Well this happened to me the other day. It wasn't until later that I realized the fry was still down there. This got me thinking; how many fries are currently under seats? Better yet -- how many fries are there per mini-van? You have to assume that there are at least an average of three fries per mini-van. But could there be more?

You know -- I could have used this time to rescue the fry. Instead, I wrote about it. I think that there is something wrong with me. ;)

It is ridiculously expensive and if it weren't a little treat to myself I wouldn't use it; however, I just love Cascade Complete Orange Scented Detergent. It leaves my place just smelling great. It has a nice fresh orange scent. Yum!

I just wish that it came in something other than a 45 ounce container. I want the 247 ounce uber warehouse container.

I'm sure that it was well intentioned when it started. Bigwigs probably sat around a big table and began brainstorming. VPs threw out catch phrases like "establishing a relationship with our customers."

In my mind the following conversation took place:

"We need to establish a relationship with our customers. We need something to differentiate us from the other mega-stores."

"That's great! We will use the information from their club cards to personally thank them when they checkout."

Two thousand memos and thirty handbook revisions later, I can't walk out of my local Safeway without the checker thoroughly butchering my name and really pissing me off in the process.

Does ANYONE actually like this? It doesn't make me feel special. They are just reading the receipt.

In psychology there is a phrase "correlation doesn't mean causation." It isn't the fact that you SAID my name, it is that you KNEW my name.

* While it is spelled Speicher, it is pronounced Spiker.

"stabbing your tongue leaves it nice and bloody"

"stabbing your tongue leaves it nice and bloody"

*original source

If it didn't fly in the face of the first amendment, I would have a great fix for American politics.

The answer -- make it illegal to print (D) or (R) next to the name of a legislator. This ban would include but not be limited to television interviews, ballots, and news articles.

It seems crazy, but just think about the ramifications those two little letters have.

Guess who's back. Back again. Steve is back. Tell a friend.

Well it's been a little while, but I am re-entering the world of the written word. A few days of Spring came to the NW. Add that to the season-finale marathon and you get a missing Steve.

My TiVo season passes have been trimmed from 30-something to 10. I am sure that as the summer trash starts the number will increase, but until then we shall have some fun here.

I guess that I should start with a little American Idol.

WOW did Ruben suck last night. Don't get me wrong; I like Ruben, but he forget his "A game" back in the hotel room. All three of his songs sucked. :(. Clay, on the other hand, went 2/3. He delivered two decent performances which bookended a delivery filled with falsettos that were just a little off.

Based on last night's performances Clay should win. However, if you trust Fox (which you shouldn't), it is a REALLY close race. It's anyone's race.

The thing I like about Clay is that he makes songs his own (or at least his and Barry Manilow's). I think that Randy and Paula really hit the nail on the head. Randy commented that he hates the song that they gave him, but Clay did wonders with it. Paula said that Clay can find what really "makes the song" and sing it that way. I tend to agree with both of them.

With all that said, I still want to hear Clay as the voice to a Disney classic like Aladdin.

On a separate note, I ran into someone last night. We started talking about American Idol. He commented that he was rooting for Josh "Just to irritate Nick." Apparently I wasn't the only one!

"A less reputable site would have something to say about this picture"

"A less reputable site would have something to say about this picture"

*original source

"I miss my big tanks"

"I miss my big tanks"

I will be traveling over the weekend so logging could be light.

Well my 'American Idol' prediction didn't pan out. However, I still have hope for my 'Survivor' prediction.

It looks like I am on a beverage roll today. I don't know what to say here. Really what can you say about carbonated bubble gum-flavored milk?

In a trend that I find disturbing, Coke has released an 8.4-ounce can of Coke that costs twice as much as a standard 12-ounce can of Coke. That's right; Coke took 8.4 of the same drink: put it in a Red Bull-type can, chic'ed it up, and then charged nearly $1 per can for it.

For the love of god, please send a message and don't buy this product. I love nice looking things, but for Christ's sake it is a soda. If you have time to appreciate the beauty of your soda can, you have WAY too much time on your hands.

Josh, Ruben, Clay, and Kimberly have performed and we now eagerly await the results. For details and his takes, please see Nick.

For my part, I will offer a prediction and the reasons behind it. Who gets the boot this week? Drum roll please.......

The answer is Kimberly.

Besides being a mediocre singer and possessing no marketability, she is lacking the most important thing needed to win this competition, a group to champion her. This is a problem.

While MANY MANY people hate Josh and don't like the country thing, those people are inconsequential. There is no real way to vote against a person. Oh sure, you could vote for all the other candidates and not him. But that's three different calls. In the time it took you to do that a Josh lover (and there are plenty of them) has voted for him three times. The net result is that you are in the hole.

So what do you do? You choose which of the remaining three candidates you really want to win and vote for him. Let's face it -- it isn't going to be Kimberly.

Clay is going to get a huge number of votes because his voice rocks and he just seems like such a nice person.

Ruben will get the "Holy crap that was close" vote.

Josh will get the anti-"Holy crap that was close" vote (i.e. People know that voting for Ruben will be big this week. As such, they need to get serious about voting for "Josh.")

Kimberly, on the other hand, is uninspiring. Yes -- 90% would say that she is better than Josh. However, those 90% just don't champion her like the 10% champion Josh. Josh doesn't split the 10%. Kimberly losses nearly all her 90% to Clay and Ruben.

The results would be different if this were done like College football rankings where points are awarded for first, second, and third place, but it isn't.

There is my prediction. All that remains is to see if I am right.

"For the record he also has small hands, small feet, and drives a really fancy red sportscar."

"For the record he also has small hands, small feet, and drives a really fancy red sportscar."

"Can't we do it doggy style? I'm not sure about kitty style"

"Can't we do it doggy style? I'm not sure about kitty style"

It's a shame that MT didn't include some sort of about box/about page in their setup. As I read blogs, I find myself wondering who these people are. A little information about an author helps to understand whence that person comes. As silly as it seems, I think that much of this stems from the omission of an about page in the default MT setup.

"The real Cher or a drag-queen? You make the call."

"The real Cher or a drag-queen? You make the call."

I am a huge coffee drinker. I love my lattes. Whenever possible I eschew the megachain of death. You know the one. It starts with an S and ends with 'tarbucks.'

I have found, however, that even my wonderful coffee house does something that drives me nuts. It isn't that they pronounce that mystery X when they speak of espresso. It is the disgusting dirty rag cleanup.

Do they teach this in barista school?

For those of you who don't know of what I speak, let me explain.

Step 1: Take a questionable rag.
Step 2: Spend the day wiping counters with said rag.
Step 3: Dribble steamed milk down the side of my cup.
Step 4: Use the same rag to wipe my cup down!

I find this practice to be both universal and disgusting. I don't profess to know the solution, but I do know that I cringe every time I see it happen. Yuck.

With every passing week I love Rob even more. He brings to the table many of the same qualities that Richard brought and he does it while still being funny and (for the most part) likable.

Like him or not, you have to admit that he is one of the best players that we have seen in a long long time. He has also made this season the best so far.

Every week he manages to convince people to trust him. He does this in spite of the fact that the jury is now littered with Rob's "It's you and I till the end" alliances.

Seriously, he was going with Deana till the end. He was going with Alex to the final four. In the previous game Christy named Rob as the person with whom she trusted with her life. You can't tell me that Matt and Butch don't trust Rob. It's brilliant.

He has managed to screw everyone over and never really be on the chopping block. The immunity challenges have been pretty much a non-factor for him. Yes, he won one, but he didn't need to.

Now he finds himself with a really good shot at winning. Play it out. Rob convinces Matt and Butch that the three of them have an alliance. As such, it makes sense to vote the Jenna-Heidi block off next. That leaves three. If Rob wins immunity, he is in the final two. If either of the others win, they have to think, "Who do I want to take with me?" The answer will of course be the guy who "screwed over" the rest of the jury.

Then who knows what happens. At some point, the jury has to say, "He deserves it."

If you want some good blow by blow analysis, I would check out Nick, Erik, and Jennifer. They are good reads all.

Edit --- I am adding a link to Erik's 10 things about Rob post. In a post entitled "All Hail Rob" it seemed appropriate.

As someone who likes a good energy/protein/meal/whatever bar, I would like to share some of the ones that I have found to be decent.

1) Kashi Vanilla Spice
2) Balance Gold Chocolate Peanut Butter
3) Balance Satisfaction Bar (Oatmeal and Chocolate Crisp)

While the above vary in nutritional content (some have more protein, some have more sugars, etc.), they all have two things in common. 1) They are all better for you than a Snickers bar. 2) They all actually taste half-decent.