Hey Y'all.

Well, if you know me, you know that I used to be totally addicted to this site. I managed to get away but with the show starting tomorrow... somehow I just couldn't help myself. Plus, I missed my myIdol friends. So here I am.

Last year I wrote a blog after every show, and I usually spent 2-3 hours on it. I hate to be a party pooper, but I simply cannot do that this year. Last season I was, well, kind of a lazy mooch -  I didn't work and sat at home all day. Now I have a job (a big reason for my disappearance about 6 months ago or so) and sadly, I will be gone from 7:30-5 every day. So I will not be able to spend the following morning writing an amazing *pats myself on the back* recap of the show.

This is not to say that I will not blog. I am sure that I will... probably more than I am planning to do so right now. I just won't have a word for word recap.  And if I do... I just won't be able to post it the following morning.

You know, I started off writing this post thinking that I would blog occasionally. Now, on paragraph 4, I am trying to work it out in my head how I can still write my recap. Could I stay up late? Get up really early? Do it after work the next day? The addiction is creeping back in!!!!! Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

Hope the show is great tomorrow... or at least somewhat entertaining.

Some commercials just really crack me up, because of how seemingly undesirable the product is.

You've all seen them...

...The headache medicine whose possible side effects include "blindness, heart attack, and death." Thanks, but I'll take the headache.

...The muscle pain reliever that could give you "anal seepage, Mad Cow disease, or scoliosis." Once again, I'd deal with the pain.

...The anti-diarrhea pill that will make you "lose bladder control, change your sexual preference, or even become incurably addicted to Jello Puddin' Pops."

Sometimes it seems like the announcer on the commercial spends more time listing the side effects (or who should NOT use the product) than they actually do on advertising the product.

What also gets me is how some commercials advertise a product that seems absolutely amazing - a miracle diet pill that will change your life- but it's actually just an expensive way to throw away your money. The commercial is on all the time, so you've probably seen it. It is "clinically proven" that you will lose body fat - all you have to do is take Lipozene. People are not asked to change their daily lives. But if you read the fine print - it says people lose an average of 3.86 pounds over 8 weeks. Wow. That's a whole half pound a week.

There's also fine print that says "diet and exercise are advised." Hmmmm. Methinks maybe diet and exercise could make you lose a half pound a week.

SCAM!

Now, what would a post dedicated to commercials be without mentioning Head-On? Or Activ-On? Or Prefer-On? Or First-On? Or Renew-In? How many of these products is that company going to make?

I've always had my own idea for the next one in the series. Groove-On. Apply to directly to the feet. Then go out and get your Groove On.

I'll miss all the trolls that emerge on here throughout the season. Although trolls can be harsh, disruptive, and hurtful to some, sometimes it's just plain funny. When you imagine that those comments probably came from some unshowered, unshaven 40-year-old guy sitting in his underwear in his mom's basement, you really can't help but laugh.

I'd like to write a little farewell tribute to a few of my favorite trolls.

The "no your wrongg!!" Troll.

This troll often takes shape of a pre-pubescent girl. Sometimes they do not even realize they are a troll. This troll sees a well-constructed, tactful paragraph which politely states the poster's feelings on a contestant. These trolls are scared of such paragraphs and refuse to read them. This troll is very good friends with the "u guyz r all haterz" troll.

The "I can't believe you people have nothing better to do" Troll.

These trolls are hilarious - they think WE have nothing better to do? How, exactly, are they making the best use of THEIR time? Of course we all have something better to do, but we choose not to. We may be "wasting our time" on this website, but at least we're having fun.

The "American Idol is rigged" Troll.

This troll believes that their opinion is extremely important; therefore, they usually post the exact same message on the Top 10 blogs. This troll also enjoys communicating through PM (probably because they don't know how to leave a comment, and press the wrong button). This particular troll usually understands basic English grammar, but still fails to make much sense.

The "Inappropriate Picture" Troll.

This troll likes to post a picture of full-frontal male nudity. Their Blog title blatanly alludes to the content of their blog. And yet, I still click on their post, and laugh.

There are many more, but those are the first ones that came to mind. Feel free to write a tribute to your favorite troll here.

Now that the season is over, most of them have moved on to bigger and better things.
Some move on to 5th grade and learn the difference between "your" and "you're".
Some learn how to turn their Caps Lock off.
Some move to a different website, posting controversial messages on a topic that, honestly, is much more important than a TV show.
Some finally take a shower.
And some are still here... hiding behind a rock, smelling of B.O., waiting...

Beware... in the off-season the community here is much closer... and we like to band together for a troll beat-down.

Congratulations David Cook!

With the exception of Season 1, this is the first time that my favorite won. In season 1 though, I was a casual non-voting viewer, and really didn't care. Last year I thought I was obsessed with this show - boy, was I wrong. Season 7 has received the most emotional investment from me.

I just wrote out a whole recap, and decided that it sounded stupid. So I deleted it and I'm going to keep my blog relatively short.

I LOVED David Cook and David Archuleta singing "Hero." When David Cook came out and started singing, I was just so impressed. He sounded amazing. When Archie came in on the harmonies, the song got even better. They both sang their solos wonderfully, and the harmonies were tight. I also really enjoyed Cookie with ZZTop - it was so cool to see him rocking out on "Sharp Dressed Man" with Billy Gibbons!

I was thrilled when One Republic began "Apologize" (I really love that song), and it got even better when Archie came out and sang with them.

David Cook's Guitar Hero commercial - wow. Archie's was cool, too, but David Cook wasn't wearing pants! You can't beat that.

I thought it was a great finale show. Granted, I had several glasses of wine while watching the show, so everything sounded wonderful to me (except for Renaldo... it was funny but horrible.)

I'm very glad that Simon apologized to David Cook. He said that his comments bordered on disrespectful, and I agree. I thought David Cook did a phenomenal job on Tuesday, and it's nice to know that Simon was able to recognize it.

I actually screamed, loudly, when Ryan accounced that David Cook won. I was so happy. I started crying, too, when he did. Actually, I have been crying like an idiot since last night.

The sexy word nerd admitted that he was at a loss for words, upon finding that he was the next American Idol with a 12 million vote lead. I'm really at a loss for words, too; I can't even express how happy I am with the results. To quote the man himself, from his song "Silver" (from Analog Heart), "Second place has never carried me home." He really did it.

Okay, now that I got that off my chest, here's what I thought of the show.

I've noticed that some people thought the whole boxing theme was stupid, but I thought it was really cute!

1st round -

They both did a phenomenal job. "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" is one of the best songs ever, from one of the best albums ever (The Joshua Tree... which I own of course). I thought it was a great song choice for David Cook and he was amazing. His voice was flawless. David Archuleta did an incredible job with "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me." I've thought all season long that he should do that song. They tied for me on this round.

2nd round -

Didn't really care for either song. David Archuleta's song showcased his voice more, David Cook's song was more fun to listen to. I guess for vocals, I'd give Archie the edge this round.

3rd round -

I preferred David Cook's performance of "The World I Know" to David Archuleta's repeat of "Imagine." I do like David Cook's song more - Collective Soul used to be one of my favorite bands. It's a beautiful song and his voice was just really in the zone last night. I cried when he cried after his performance. That was one of the most genuine and raw exhibitions of tears that I've yet seen on the Idol stage. Seeing him so honest and exposed like that in front of millions of people made me want him to win even more.

David Archuleta sang "Imagine" beautifully. But he's not only done it on the Idol stage before, but for other non-Idol performances, too. After the judges gave their comments, and David Cook said that he chose a new song because he felt that the Idol experience should be a "progression", and he didn't want to do something people had already heard, did anyone see Simon wink at him? I think Simon might have actually been setting Cook up for that statement.

So for me, it was about a tie.

I wish the judges couldn't say anything in the finale. And I'm not just saying that because they didn't praise my favorite. It's the same every year. After to listening to rounds 1 and 3, I really didn't know who the judges would give the edge to. I think at least for the finale, people should be able to make up their own mind instead of relying on the judges.

I also wonder if the judges praised David Archuleta so much so the non-voters would come out and support Cook to prove Simon wrong. Simon has before called himself the "kiss of death"... was he playing that up? I'm not denying that Archie deserved the praise, because he did. But it's no secret that Simon wanted Cook to win - he said it on both Jay Leno and Ellen this week. Just a thought.

Last night I voted until 1am, for David Cook.

Although my votes for the two hours or so were basically pointless... and here's why.

My fiance hates David Cook because he's jealous, and so he tricked me into giving him David Archuleta's phone numbers, and then he started speed dialing for him! Mind you, this guy has only watched an actual performance show two other times this season, and both times were when we had company (and the guests also wanted to watch.) He usually makes fun of me for voting.

So anyway, the second that Ruben stopped singing, I grabbed my phone from the charger and began dialing like a maniac. So anyway, he says to me, "What are David Cook's numbers?" So I told him... and then he started dialing and dialing. I thought he was helping out the Word Nerds. But no. I looked at his phone, and I saw 1-866-43657-02 and I was like "Whaaaaaat?" He thought it was so hilarious. Each time I'd get through, it seemed like he'd get through on Archie's line within minutes.

After an hour of voting I was ahead by one vote, 6-5. Yes - we seriously only got in 11 votes combined in the first hour - and we were speed dialing like crazy - with at least 1000 combined attempts. Each time one of us would get through, we'd stick our phone in the other person's ear and laugh. So we had our own little voting competition going on. I was so mad though! And he just kept laughing and laughing. Thankfully he had to charge his phone about halfway through the voting window, and after 11pm I was getting in votes much more speedily. And then I was thrilled when he finally fell asleep!

I tried at least several thousand times to vote. I got that stupid "All servers are busy" message more often than I got a busy signal. I wonder if the Verizon network just has so many people calling in my area. I know people can get through hundreds of times a night, but I've never been able to before. But I did get in at least 100 votes for my Cookie! After the voting was done, I was wide awake, so I was up till 3am posting on the message boards. I am tired.

So to reiterate what I just said (in case you came here just to leave a dumb comment and didn't read my post), they both did great, the judges need to shut up, in my opinion they're tied. May the best David win.

I can't WAIT until tonight!