Yahoo Stop Stealing My Searches!

I have my homepage set to Yahoo because it has a lot of general information on it and has some features use such as email. I like Gmail better but I still have a couple Yahoo accounts. Anyway, when I go to do a search, I don't use Yahoo. I use the Google bar up in the top right of Firefox. I just find Google results to be the most accurate.

Anyway, for some reason, when you click your cursor up in the Google search box, a split second later it jumps down to the Yahoo search box. This is incredibly annoying! You either have to wait a second after the page loads so Yahoo will not steal your cursor, or it will take your whole search or part of the word you are typing.

Not only that, sometimes when you manage to get the whole word typed in the Google search bar, Yahoo still manages to redirect you to a blank Yahoo page with a search bar! I am so close to switching my homepage away from Yahoo. I want to, but I'm just so used to it. One of these days I will switch it. This is not the first time I have been annoyed by Yahoo. It's things like this that contribute to the downfall of popular websites.

Update: I know have Google set for the home page so problem is solved!  I still go to Yahoo for some things like mail, news, and finance, but for most searches, I use Google. 

So You Think You Can Dance: Season 7 Review

Ok so we are a couple weeks into SYTYCD, so I thought I would weigh in on the new season. So far, it has been ok, but many of the new changes I do not like.

First off, there are only 10, make that 11 dancers that were chosen for the top group. The other 10 spots are taken by "all stars" which are former dancers from the show. I don't mind seeing the older dancers, but many of them I don't even know because they are from the earlier seasons that I didn't see. Also, the ones that I do know from the past few seasons, are not some of my favorites.

With only having 10 new dancers, that means there are 10 dancers that didn't get a chance with America. In past seasons, some of the top dancers actually started out in the bottom 20, some barely made it. And look what happened. They became stars. This is a missed opportunity this season.

Next there are some new judges that I don't like. One of the strengths of this show is the great personalities on the judges and the dancers. This season they have brought on some new guest judges that are not very likable.

Another difference this year is the judges going to the dancer's houses to let them know if they made the show or not. This is good for the ones that made it, but for the ones that didn't, it is heartbreaking. Why go to their house and bring a camera crew if you are just going to tell them they didn't make it?

As for the top 10 this year, my early favorites are Kent and Billy Bell. They have a ton of talent and are very likable. Things can change over the course of the season, so we will see what happens.

My Thoughts and Reaction to the Lost Series Finale

So one of my favorite shows "Lost" just had it's series finale last night. Overall I think the series is one of the best shows to air on television and I recommend that everyone watch it. In fact, if you haven't seen it, you are so lucky because you have 6 seasons of amazing television waiting for you. This is a review of the finale so don't read it if you have not seen it.

My first reaction once the show ended last night was... what? I was more confused than anything. This being the final episode in the series, I was expecting to finally get some solid answers. But of course this is Lost, and they are known for leaving the viewers with more questions than answers, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. Since there was not a straight forward ending, I was initially disappointed. However, the more I thought about the finale and analyzed it, the more I began to understand it and appreciate it.

What Lost did was end the series in a way that was not exactly clear and instead is open to many interpretations and theories. This is actually the best way to do it. If you give a definitive answer, only those who want that answer will be happy. Everyone else would be disappointed. But if you leave it open, everyone can think about it and decide what happened on their own.

So what is my theory? I think at the end, all the characters in the room are basically at the "gates of heaven" or the place right before you go to the after life. I think the good characters made it there and were able to go through, but the bad characters were not able to go through. This is a theory I haven't heard from others yet. For example, Ben Linus stayed outside the church. I don't think this was really his choice. I think he was not able to go in with them or pass through because he had been very bad over the years. Some other bad characters also were not present.

So were all the people in the room dead at that point? I'm not sure. It seems like some of them were, but maybe some were not. If they were all dead, then this had to take place some time further in the future. Yet some of these characters did not age, so that is kind of strange if this is the case.

Overall I thought the finale was good, but a few things I didn't like. I was wondering why Sayid ended up with Shannon. What happened to his long lost love Nadia? Shannon was just a short fling on the island. His whole purpose was to get back with Nadia, so the choice to put him with Shannon was a poor one in my opinion.

Another thing is some characters did not get enough fulfillment. For example Charles Widmore. He was an important character and we really never figured out what his angle was. I mean he finally gets back to the island and he is fighting against the man in black. Then he whispers something to the man in black and Ben shoots him. And that's it for him? We should have at least gotten a better understanding of him and his purpose.

One thing I am confused about is why the man in black turned into the smoke monster when he was thrown down the waterfall. I believe he was killed when he went down, but what turned him into the smoke monster? Desmond and Jack went down there too, but remained human.

I was worried when Desmond uncorked the energy of the island and all the powers were lost. It felt like the magic of the show disappeared in that time. I was glad to see it restored when Jack put the cork back in. However I don't like that he sacrificed himself to do it. I think he should have survived and been Jacobs replacement.

So we understand that Hurley took on the role of Jacob with Ben as his 2nd in command. They never really showed what happened on the island after that time. Who was left? Was there any negative energy or evil left on the island? If not, what is there to protect?

I was kind of hoping that Jack would take over as the next Jacob and someone else would take over as the next man in black. I'm thinking Sawyer would have made a great nemesis for Jack as they battled so much though out the season. I think it would have been a great way to end with those 2 sitting side by side, staring out into the ocean and Sawyer saying how he is going to kill Jack one day. The scene would be much like the one with Jacob and the man in black before.

So overall what happened? From what I can tell, the Lost crew was currently living in the side flash reality and they were slowly remembering their experience on the island. I think their different realities kind of merged together into the sideways reality. What is real, what is imaginary, who is dead, who is alive... these questions are still confusing and I'm not sure of the answer. I think the creators of Lost left it like this so we will continue to discuss it and come up with our own theories and interpretations of the story.

Overall I had a great time watching this show over the years. This is one of those shows where, after you see the whole thing, you need to go back and re-watch it with a new understanding and perspective. One day I hope to do this and re-watch the entire series. Will there ever be another show as good as Lost? We can only hope. Maybe a spin off or a continuation of the series later on. There is so much potential. I hope we see something more from the Lost mythology in the future.

Good Still Exists

Lately I have been not depressed, but feeling kind of down by all the bad people that are out there in the world. It seems like there are fewer and fewer truly good people out there. It makes me want to avoid people just so I don't have to interact with the bad ones.

Today however, my spirits were brightened. I was shopping at Kohls and I was waiting in line to check out at the register. A young girl was working the register and I noticed she was very friendly to the customer ahead of me. Usually in a job like this, the sales associate is not very happy; they are just doing their job, so when this girl was extra nice, it caught my attention.

Then it was my turn to check out. She was very friendly to me also. She had a nice personality, but not overpowering. She even gave me an extra 15% off with a coupon that they probably give out for customers to use on their next purchase.

This girl made me realize that there are still good people out there.

This situation is similar to one of the fundamental concepts of one of my favorite shows Lost, which has its series finale tonight. The concept is good vs. evil. In the show, there is a good guy and a bad guy. The good guy has to exist to prevent the bad guy from getting out and turning everyone else bad in a sense. The bad guy wants to kill him, but the good guy keeps bringing more people to the island to join him in an effort for good. As long as good exists, it will triumph over evil. I think this is true for real life. Which side are you on?

How are these guys not topping the charts?

So I was watching this new show Jamie Oliver's Food Nation and they has this part where they sort of did a live dance/cooking performance on a college campus. They used this song and I thought it was pretty good. At 1st I thought it was Sean Paul, and I don't like Sean Paul, but this song was good.

So I go to look it up and find out it is by a group called The DNC and the song is called Jungle Flames. I look them up some more and they have 1 album out. I listened to their songs and they are all pretty good. They make the kind of music that is super popular right now, which makes me wonder why they are not supper popular? Apparently they have had songs featured in various tv shows and movies, yet I haven't heard them in the actual music scene until now. Anyway, check it out:

Youtube, Stop Changing!

Why is it that Youtube feels the need to keep changing everything up once we finally learn how to use it? I liked Youtube's format way back in the day and every update seems to make it worse.

Why is it that every feature you want to use seems to be hidden behind a button? It's like you have to jump though hoops to get to features that should be right there.

Information that used to be in the sidebar is now hidden underneath the video. So this means all the millions of video that were posted before this change which referenced content in the side bar are now obsolete.

And by the way, what happened to time stamps on comments? Now you can't tell if a comment was posted 2 minutes ago or 2 months ago.

Youtube, go back to basics. Stop changing everything to make it less user friendly.

UPDATE: 7-14-11

Youtube continues to mess things up and make the site less user friendly. Now they have decided to hide the most basic buttons that everyone needs including the play and stop button. What other necessary features can you hide from us Youtube? Why not hide the actual video so we have to click on something just to display the video?

Taxes, Returns and Deductions - Income Tax Reform Needed

So I just filed my 2009 income taxes. I did it myself online with one of the free services through the IRS. Overall it went pretty smooth but I didn't get back as much as I would have liked. I ended up owing the state a little which is annoying.

One of my main points to address in this article is how I think the tax system really needs to be changed. I understand income tax. But what I don't like is all these hundreds of tax deductions. It makes the system very complicated and leaves a lot of room for error. I don't understand why they have tax deductions in the 1st place.

There needs to be a better way to keep track of people's income and the taxes that are deducted from it. I don't see why they are leaving it up to individuals to report it. That is not good enough. I think it should be deducted and reported by the employer. But what about people that make their own money and have their own business? I guess they have to report their own.

Going through the filing process I just think there are way to many options and steps to consider when filing your taxes. It needs to be much more streamlined and accurate. It should just be, how much did you make and how much do you owe, simple as that. Maybe I don't know enough about the topic of taxes, but those are just some of my thoughts.