Britain’s Got Talent – Final

As predicted, Craig Harper was unable to convince the judges. My wishful thinking turned out to be unjustified and Nemesis made it to the final – IMO Flava would’ve been the better choice but alas…

Anyway, favourites for tonight:

Faryl Smith, Escala, Signature and Andrew Johnston. If you couldn’t win the semi-final, how likely is it that you’re gonna win the final? See? George Sampson doesn’t really stand a chance.

Among those four, Faryl Smith is obviously the favourite. She practically has to win it – at least that’s what’s expected from her. Andrew Johnston – well, don’t really see him beating her and Signature might be fun to watch but they don’t really have that much to offer in terms of long-term prospects. Escala – tons to offer in terms of long-term prospects but they lack the “likability” factor. They’re too talented, too professional – they didn’t really need BGT but it’ll certainly help them.

So yeah, long story short: unless something unexpected happens, Faryl Smith will win.

Britain’s Got Talent, Semi-Finals, Final Round!

Well then, I’m growing more confident tonight.

I’m gonna say it: Craig Harper wins the public vote. That’s part wishful thinking (because there’s no other way for him to get to the finals – the judges won’t let him through IMO) and part growing confidence in the voting public. Jeremy Lynch got to the top three! Got Faryl Smith right and Andrew Muir in the top three as well.

Anyway, top three tonight: Escala and Madonna Decena. Per Diem don’t seem so strong anymore. Escala wins simply because they’re more professional. No idea which judge speaks first (and I’m too lazy to check) but here’s my prediction: Cowell and Morgan for Escala, Holden for Decena.

Seriously though, what kind of shit name is Escala? I know they had to change it (hey, that’s what wikipedia says and wikipedia would never lie, right?) but still, Escala?

This looks so awesome…

it’s bound to be a disappointment, IMHO!

I might check back after I dare read some of their articles – but damn they’re looking mighty awesome.

Found http://www.spiked-online.com through an article by their boss (?) on Reason. He calls himself a left-libertarian and likes Marx, so there’s obviously something wrong with him somewhere deep down.

Nevertheless, looking at their website:

spiked campaigns

For Europe, Against the EU

Challenging China-bashing

Open the Borders

Now, the first two just sound absolutely awesome. The third one raises some eyebrows (mine?) [obviously, not on principle but on practical reasons] but then check out the title of the first article:

Exploding the myth of trafficking

How awesome an article could this be?

And on their frontpage:

Body Mass Index: a big fat lie

As I said – this sounds so awesome it’s bound to be a disappointment.

Random Question #4

The long-term impact of free trade is huge. Recast after calculating the net present value of the stream of future benefits, a realistic Doha outcome could increase global income by more than $3,000 billion per year, $2,500 billion of which would go to today’s developing countries.

What’s the discount rate? I’m guessing not the spectacularly useful 0% that environmentalists use, right?

Britain’s Got Talent – Semi-Finals – Round Four

Well, I’m getting ever better – got the top three right but mixed up the order. Lucky George Sampson, heh.

Anyway, here goes: predictions for night four.

Winner of the public vote: Faryl Smith. Obviously. Personally, I’m looking forward to her screwing up or the public getting tired with her – that’d be rather amusing and I might even smile a little. Being the overhyped favourite that she currently is and all, you know. Not seeing that happen right now though.

Two and three: Andrew Muir and Charlie Wernham. Charlie Wernham wins despite being yet ANOTHER child. Not terribly confident with this prediction but alas – whaddayagonnado?

Disappointing for Jeremy Lynch though.

Major Changes Coming Up

Yeah, I have done some thinking – and there’ll be more than one blog afterwards. It’ll take at least another month (realistically: 27th June I’m done with exams (haven’t got to the part where I have to remember the name for what I’m planning to do here – corporate discount, maybe?) so I’ll be busy drinking for that weekend – Yeah, 30th June sounds reasonable) though.

Daniel knows nothing of this (as of yet – heh ) but there’ll be at least two blogs. Maybe that means they’ll both die but this just doesn’t really work. Depending on how much free time I can find, there might be three (or if I were to come across LOADS of free time, there might be four – but that number four would be quite time-consuming, me thinks). So, what will change?

Basically, no more entertainment posts on here. Those’ll be outsource to a new place. There, I plan to write reviews – mostly for TV shows (the first show I plan to cover will start just long enough after my exams are done for me to review on episode of its first season per day before), probably for movies. That one might take anywhere from something like 2 hours during quiet times a week to maybe 10 hours during buisy weeks. Anyway, I plan to concentrate on what I can do – at least what I think I can – no use in linking to news stories, other people do that and they do it better and with more resources. Just content I manage to create.

As for this blog – until end of June, nothing much will change. After that, I’ll focus more on politics. Actually, just politics. Again, not necessarily lots of useless reposting of stuff that other people posted but rather more in-depth analysis of interesting and more basic stuff. Not yet sure what’ll happen to “various links” and “random questions” as I quite like these (same goes for the random youtube-vids which wouldn’t necessarily fit well into the new entertainment blog) so that’s where number three might come in. Not very time-consuming, just posting those fun things. Basically, a “fun blog”.

Ah well, as usual – big plans. We’ll see what’ll happen in the end.

Britain’s Got Talent, Semi-Finals, Round Three

Here we go again – two for two on the public vote, zero for two on the judges (but dayum was I close). I’m beginning to see a pattern – Piers Morgan decides based on merit and the other two cancel him out on some kind of “emotion”-y reasons.

Anyway, predictions for today as they’re finally up on Wikipedia:

Charlie Green wins the public vote. Strike over George Sampson for the judges’ decision.

Can’t have too many children in the final after all. Besides, Strike are somewhat similar to Flava. Yeah, a bit of a stretch but still – somewhat. They need something like them in the finals especially as we’re gonna get more singers in the semi-finals yet to come (Faryl Smith, anyone?) and musicians (Scala!). It’s becoming harder and harder for the remaining groups – Faryl Smith is in the final with almost 100% certainity, Scala are about 90% certainly in as well.

That leaves something like to remaining places for Per Diem, Jeremy Lynch, Andrew Muir and Craig Harper (my favourites – yeah, sounds kinda gay, I admit it). And not even included in those four (remember, two more places!) are Madonna Decena, Charlie Wernham and Nemisis.

Those are who I’d call favourites right now, most of the others don’t really stand a chance (possibly with the exception of the dance ensembles).

Britain’s Got Talent

Well, first results are in – and most importantly, Piers Morgan was right: Dean Wilson is actually gonna go on and do something useful – which can’t really be said for the other two. The girl and the dog – well, she might become an animal trainer for movies or something, who knows.

Not surprisingly, Signature won the public vote – even though it was a rather disappointing performance, if you ask me. Anyway, at least got that prediction right.

Now, for today:

It’s just become a whole lot easier. Andrew Johnston wins the public vote. Flava win the judges’ vote against the Mandy Ellen Dancers. Very disappointing for Iona – she was awesome, so are the Cheeky Monkeys. Ah well.

Heh, maybe I’m wrong – we’ll see.

Britain’s Got Talent – Semi-Finals

Well, some horrible match-ups they’ve created there…

Let’s see:

Monday:

I’m gonna have to go out on a limb seeing how this is on RIGHT NOW (I think). Worst group, IMO. Terribly hard choices.

Prediction: Signature will win the public vote (the Michael Jackson impression). It’s the best one. Not by much but still by enough to make them win. Craig Harper and Scala in the top three with Scala winning. Very, very, very sad because Craig Harper’s brilliant. Scala is younger and less desperate (IIRC that’s the word Simon Cowell used).

Especially sad for Charlie Green and the girl with the cat as well (Kate & Gin). Great group over all. Could have spread them out a little better IMNSVHO.

Tuesday:

This one’s tougher to predict. Again, great acts. Urban Gypsies and Hoop La La are the weakest of the group and I don’t quite know where Irresistible belongs (as their YouTube clip is very short). Per Diem take the public vote, with Sophie Mei winning over the judges against Strike in the top three. Very sad for the two young ones if I turn out to be right.

Wednesday:

Again, enormously strong group. The two strongest children are in here. Faryl Smith wins the public vote. She got quite a bit of media attention already and she’s pretty awesome. Strong favourite for the overall title as well, in my opinion. Andrew Muir will fight the other Andrew (Johnston) for the other place and I’m gonna say the young one will win (because I said Per Diem would win on Tuesday and they’re somewhat similar).

Couldn’t find a clip of Boogie Wonderland so I have no idea who they are (can’t be that great, eh?). The Cheeky Monkeys are pretty cool but not ready yet, Vizage and Kay & Harvey simply aren’t good enough. Sad one for Madonna Decena who will probably something like fourth.

Thursday:

Dean Wilson for the public vote and Iona Luvsandorj over Jeremy Lynch in the top three. Again, complete shite act with Michael Machell in here and the Deans of Magic just aren’t good enough. James Stone’s alright but not brilliant, Bang On aren’t even on YouTube and the Mandy Ellen Dancers are hard to find as well (and hard to judge from what’s available).

Sad one for Jeremy Lynch but I guess Arsenal had a reason when they parted ways with him. Just don’t see him going any further because he’s a sports act.

Friday:

This, to me, appears to be the weakest group which should make the predictions fairly easy, right? I’m gonna say Flava for the public vote (we need a dance act, after all!) and Phil Blackmore over Caburlesque in the top three. Unless, of course, he kills himself.

The rest are hard to impossible to find on YouTube (impossible in the short amount of time available to me) so I can’t really comment on them. Again, fairly weak group.

Finally, for the winner at the end: I’m torn between Signature and Faryl Smith but leaning towards Faryl Smith because she’s got the children’s bonus.

So, there you have it. It’ll be funny to see how it actually turns out.

Edit:

Someone on Wikipedia’s removed the listings for the different shows and replaced them with just a list of all names. So maybe my work was all for nothing. Awesome.

Random Question #3

When you double-click on a word, it gets marked and you can copy it. If you keep clicking, you’ll get the whole line or the whole paragraph. When will there be software that gives you the possibility to double-click and it’ll mark an entire name, i.e. “first name + surname” but not the whole line?