Randomness

[panyasan]

:lol: I love how the Germans voted for Israel. Very amusing!

Azerbaijan is in Eurovision? Isn't it in Asia? And Israel too?

A lot of countries that were part of the old Sovjet Union, are also taking part in the Eurovision. Strictly speaking they shouldn't be, because they are indeed Asian. Also Turkey is mostly Asian (only 3 procent of the country lies in Europe), but is seen as part of Europe.
Israel, they always have been in the Eurovision contest - and I don't know why.

[Escriba]

Yeah, since Eurovision is a song contest done by televisions and not strictly the countries, and there is this TV conglomerate... they're quite lax with who can take part. So the number of countries are growing. At this rate, I can predict that in 2053 China will take part.

About Israel... They don't just take part in Eurovision, but in most of European championships. For example, they play in the Football Eurocup and in the clasification stage of the Football World Championship, they play in the European group. I can understand this, since if they played in the Asian group they would have to play in countries that... don't like them much. I can imagine the Israeli players coming back from Iran and getting out from the bus, all bruised and limping and people asking "Whoa! Has the match been so hard?" and they answering "The match? We didn't even get to the Stadium!"

:lol: I love how the Germans voted for Israel. Very amusing!

And true! I think there was only one year when they didn't vote for Israel. It was shocking! Israel, on the other hand, never votes for Germany.

[Escriba]

Youtube is astonishing, I've found the year in which Germany didn't vote for Israel (but they gave their 12 points to Turkey, because, and that's tradition, they always give 12 points to Turkey.) And somebody has been kind enough to put that contest, the 2006 contest, in youtube. So I can torture you! Niahahahaha!

This way our non European friends would have a perfect chance to witness what is Eurovision and why it's so loathed and fascinating at the same time.

First, the opening act one and two (and it goes worse!)

Second, the songs (see? it's worse):

1- Switzerland (please, light your lighters )
2- Moldova (Great, really bad song with Spanish gibberish.)
3- Israel (yes, this is the song that Germans didn't vote. Shameful! )
4- Latvia (a capella song.)
5- Norway (weak song, voted by all the neighbors)
6- Don't, for your mental sanity, listen to this. This is the Spanish song (don't say I didn't warn you.)
7- Malta (actually, Malta is one of the few countries that has the right to sing in English. But the song is horrible.)
8- Germany (what happens with the Germans anyway? They don't send a normal song. This is country!)
9- Denmark (welcome to Grease)
10- Russia (Oh, look! Hot boy and forgetable song! How unpredicable from Russia!)
11- FYR Macedonia (with a song like this, I'm not surprised that Greece thinks you don't exist, boys)
12- Romania (except for the fact that Romanian emigrants are everywhere, is there a real reason why this song ended fourth?)
13- Bosnia & Herzegovina (actually I thought it wouldn't have so bad if this song won. I kinda like it. C'mon, compared to the others...)
14- Lithuania (the boos at the beginning are because they were blatantly saying that they were going to win. And the song is funny )
15- United Kingdom (this is... some kind of... rap...)
16- Greece (the applauses are because they were the hosts, I'm sure. Not for the song.)
17- Finland (yeah, baby! orc version of AC/DC, baby! )
18- Ukraine (really, really forgetable song.)
19- France (Oh, look! A woman singing a ballad! How unpredictable!)
20- Croatia (OK, this is shameful but I kinda like this song )
21- Ireland (this, rather than bad, is very, very boring)
22- Sweden (OK, this isn't very good, but at least it isn't a rip off of ABBA.)
23- Turkey (this actually is a bit different entry for Turkey, compared to other times.)
24- Armenia (I can't believe this ended eighth, but it was funny that they entered just after Turkey.)

So this is the torture that anybody must endure before the votes As you can see, since most all the songs are awful and make your ears bleed and the perfomances are hilarious at best and very boring at the worst, it is very difficult to choose the favorites songs. In fact, you usually choose the songs that you think are less bad.

But, as I've said, all this about the songs it's just theatre, a preliminarie for the real purpose of Eurovision: The Votes. I recommend you to take an Atlas, because it's much, much funny that way

Part 1 (Slovenia, Andorra --these are our neighbors and they are like the French, they speak French just to annoy--, Romania, Denmark and Latvia.)
Part 2 (Portugal --our neighbors too but they had taste enough not to vote for us--, Sweden, Finland, Belgium --love the mention to Kate Ryan!-- and Croatia --they had the nerve to vote top that country that doesn't exist called FYR Macedonia! --)
Part 3 (Sebia & Montenegro --AND Montenegro, don't forget that! --, Norway, Estonia, Ireland --you know, UK should be your enemy-- and Malta --Switzerland! --)
Part 4 (Lithuania --the so loved country that year--, Cyprus --or the Southern Switzerland, as we call them --, Netherlands --with humor everything is better?--, Switzerland --the Northern Switzerland -- and Ukraine --they couldn't help to give those 12 points to Russia--)
Part 5 (Russia --the country with so many friends--, Poland --et ego, et ego et ego--, United Kingdom, Armenia --you don't know how to conceal it!-- and France --in French, of course, but they did what Germans didn't--)
Part 6 (Belarus, Germany --they definitively had lost it--, Spain --I can't believe she spoke French! We gave 12 points to Romania in French!--, Moldova and Bosnia & Herzegovina --having neighbors is so great--)
Part 7 (Iceland --gorgeous background, lesbian undertones--, Monaco --they have TV?--, Israel --shalom from Jerusalem -- and Albania --I swear to God they have no taste. SIX points to Spain? Really?--)
Part 8 (Greece --the hosts talking to the hosts--, Bulgaria, FYR Macedonia --the host from the nonexistent country sings in Greek!-- and Turkey.)

Yes, yes, you can say now "Europeans are crazy!" And KTR can kill me now.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

Yes, yes, you can say now "Europeans are crazy!" And KTR can kill me now.

Depends on the reason. I wouldn't kill you for saying we're crazy, because this stupid "contest" is proof positive that we are. However, I could kill you for just posting all this Eurocrap!

And no, I'm not going to watch this stuff tonoght. Maybe I'll load my DVD with some old Trek instead...

[Escriba]

Bad, bad Swedish

To desintoxicate I usually watch "Yes, Minister." It makes me recover my cynism and irony (and some of my lost neurones.) Its view of why a politician shouldn't do his duty (or rather work) with those pedantic secretaries or how to use polls to get the opinion you want or the British Diplomacy are hilarious (and very true) even now.

[panyasan]

Bad, bad Swedish

To desintoxicate I usually watch "Yes, Minister." It makes me recover my cynism and irony (and some of my lost neurones.) Its view of why a politician shouldn't do his duty (or rather work) with those pedantic secretaries or how to use polls to get the opinion you want or the British Diplomacy are hilarious (and very true) even now.

"Yes, Minister" is one of my favorite shows too.

[Aquarius]

Oh, I love that show! They used to show it here on PBS. I miss it.

[JadziaKathryn]

That British diplomacy bit is great!

[Alelou]

And it's Norway...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiH4BFTELME

Gotta love those dresses. Reminds me of Lawrence Welk in more ways than one.

I figured I'd learn this HERE, but instead it came from the Italian American San Franciscan X-Files friend because one of our mutual XF pals is of Norwegian descent...

[Alelou]

Intuit/TurboTax makes me so mad. I went ahead and did the state e-file this year, figuring it would save me some running around, and it got rejected (like the federal return) because of some obscure social security thing that certainly has never interfered with our tax returns in the past and didn't again this year. So I had to do all the printing out and running around and mailing anyway.

But now I find they still charged me that $19.95. Even though I got NOTHING for it. And they claim the service was still worth that, and no, they're not interested in giving any refunds or discounts.

So here's my advice: don't ever gamble on any fee-based e-file with Turbo Tax. It's not worth the risk or the annoyance of being ripped off. That service is a rip-off in the first place with those prices. With that kind of profit margin, you'd think they could at least afford to refund people who got nothing for it. And to think I've actually spoken positively of them in the past. They sure lost me.

If you have any recommendations on where I can post my experience in order to warn others off, please let me know!!! (I already hit Amazon.)

[panyasan]

And it's Norway...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiH4BFTELME

He sure has the "cute-factor"!

[Asso]

[JadziaKathryn]

My mom and I were going through boxes out in the garage and I found a couple of boxes with Trek stuff. One had a few of my (older) Trek TV Guides - the ones with Trek covers. It so happened that the one on top was Sexiest Women of Sci-Fi from 2000 and it had Roxann Dawson as B'Elanna on the cover.

Mom: (disbelievingly) Sexiest Women of Sci-Fi?
Me: I got it because it has a Voyager cover.
Mom: I know that. But sexy? She's got scales.

[TPoptarts]

I have the Trek TV Guide from 4/17/2005 that they had like several different Trek covers, like for the captains, first officers, engineers etc. I have the one with the first officers on the cover. Because that's what they had left at the store. I got it like a week too late LOL the new one was already out, and the cashier was like "are you SURE you want THAT one??" and I'm like yeah, and she keeps going like "that's the OLD one" I knew about the special Trek covers but I didn't intend to buy any because I need the money, but like then someone emailed me saying there's a picture of me from the Save Enterprise rally inside with the story so I ran and snurched one anyway.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

My mom and I were going through boxes out in the garage and I found a couple of boxes with Trek stuff. One had a few of my (older) Trek TV Guides - the ones with Trek covers. It so happened that the one on top was Sexiest Women of Sci-Fi from 2000 and it had Roxann Dawson as B'Elanna on the cover.

Mom: (disbelievingly) Sexiest Women of Sci-Fi?
Me: I got it because it has a Voyager cover.
Mom: I know that. But sexy? She's got scales.

Hey now, I think B'Elanna was very hot, and that's with her Klingon ridges. I actually preferred her over 7of9.

*****

100+ Funny Photos Taken At Unusual Angle (Warning for those that might get upset! Some pics are sexually suggestive. But not racy of anything.)