Who is the Best Living Female Vocalist ?

I love Shakira. She has a very endearing vocal style, but I would not try to tell anyone that she is the most technically gifted vocalist in Pop Music. Who do you think has the best set of pipes? Christina Aguilera? Regine Velasquez? Sarah Brightman? Annie Wilson?

This is, to a large extent a matter of taste. Obviously people who lack range or power or sing off key don't qualify. Many women with exquisite voices do not become superstars because they don't have the right look or they don't want to play the sexuality card. One of my favorite voices belongs to Mary Jane Lamond.

Find the Right Cartridge at CartridgeFinder.com

I have a history of getting hand-me-down technology. I am cheap and I keep my eyes open for stuff that people might want want to give me. On more than one occasion I have been the recipient of a printer that came to me without a cartridge. I am not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but when the cartridge isn't there is makes it harder to find a replacement.

The Cartridge Finder is the place to go when you want to be able to punch in the information that you have and get an answer about which cartridge to buy. I tried it out and it is very easy to navigate.

My New Microphone

I just bought a new microphone. I tried it out and it has one huge advantage over the one that I had been using. There is no noise. I feel very self conscious about my singing voice, so I like to amplify it and add reverb and stuff afterwards. When your recording is noisy, you end up amplifying and reverberating all that noise too.

I am hoping that this omni-directional mic will work well for recording voice and guiar at the same time.

It is a bit weird that it makes me happy. It only cost about $3.

Blackpool For Fun

As far as Amusement Parks go, it's hard to beat Blackpool's Pleasure Beach. There are over 125 rides and attractions. I like that fact that entrance to the park is free. You have the option of getting a wristband or paying for individual ride tickets. There is a special on this months with an all day wristband going at the bargain price of twenty pounds.

I remember seeing a very special episode of Little Britain that took place live at Blackpool. The place looks like a lot of fun. The Pepsi Max Big One is a remarkable roller coaster. It has its own Wikipedia entry. When it was opened in 1994 it was the tallest and the fastest in the World. The height record has since been broken by a coaster in Japan. I suspect that riding a really big roller coaster is a thrill that may become extinct on the future, so you would do well to get out and experience it soon. I have been on some very small roller coasters. I recommend that you avoid breakfast buffets on the day that you partake of a roller coaster.

World Music Wednesday

These guys are awesome. Checkout the noisy kids and the traffic noise that blend seamlessly with this quiet and intricate arrangement. I think these guys are from Cape Town, South Africa. It looks like it is pretty chilly outside in the winter there.

I love this music.

Dell Desktops Offer Value and Quality

I have purchased Dell desktops in the past and I have found the service to be satisfactory. The computers have been very dependable and they were well suited to my needs. Given the pricing and the marketing strategies used by Dell, it's not surprising that many people buy their first computer from Dell. The advice that I would offer to those people is for to research the applications and programs that to are planning to use with a new computer and make sure you get a computer that is a better than what you have calculated to be the bare minimum. Some of the pc deals on Dell.co.uk are for computers that are well equipped for what most people want to do TODAY. If you are a gamer, or if you are planning to use the computer for web development or other kinds of work, the entry level computer could be obsolete in less than a year. Get the best computer that you can easily afford and you will save money in the long run. I am typing this post on a Dell that I bought three years ago.

This was the official anthem of the 2004 European Football Championship. Nelly Furtado is of Portuguese ancestry and lives in Canada. Comparing and contrasting her life and career with that of Shakira is an interesting exercise. In my opinion, they both achieved success based on their beauty and their stage presence and then each of them developed further as an artist and a person after the fact. Shakira has been choosing to put her career ahead of her personal life so far. Nelly had a child with her partner in 2003. Her relationship ended with the father of their child, but they share parenting responsibilities and remain friends. Nelly grew up in a multi-cultural country and speaks English as a first language. She is fluent in the mother tongue of her parents as well. Shakira learned English as a young adult and her early songwriting and recordings in English are sometimes criticized because of her lack of mastery of this difficult language. Both of these women grew up comfortably middle-class. Shakira has devoted a great deal of herself to helping the poor. Nelly has supported various causes, but it does not seem to be a priority.

Camelback Truss Systems Rock

There are many different kinds of 'shows' that require a versatile truss system as the backbone of their visual display. Camelback has products for everything from instore demonstrations to rock concerts. The common requirements of most events are quick and easy setup and reliable engineering. I once saw a woman on stage at an outdoor concert when a speaker tower fell down in strong winds. She was a solo performer on a big stage and if she had decided to sit on the left instead of the right, she may have been hurt. Ideally, these speaker would have been securely in place with a truss system. It was the first year for that festival. I think they have learned a lot since then.

Shakira as Pepsi Spokesperson

Shakira has done her share of advertising for Pepsi. I don't know if she was ever a lifesize cardboard cutout in the isle of a truckstop. If she was, I want to know where I can get my hands on one of them. I have a Britney cutout and an Xtina cutout. Once I get my Beyonce and Shakira cutouts, I can make that stop-motion tag-team wrestling movie that I have been planning.

Check Out Recruit'n

If you are looking for some unique human resource, or if you are looking for a job, Recruit'n is an online networking site that you need to check out. I joined for the purposes of this review, but I was immediately impressed by the platform and I went about promoting and pursuing my interests in a number of different ways.

Bloggers will be very comfortable in the editing sections of this site. The profile creation process is pretty basic, but you can build a fairly flashy resume. It appears that you have full use of HTML in the resume creation box. This means that you can place images and live links on your resume. The resume appears on your profile page. I created a thread on the forum as well. The text editor on the forum has lots of features.

When I was browsing the forum I did see some WAH scams being promoted. It is hard for moderators on an employment related forum to police that kind of thing. I am just mentioning it as a word of caution. Overall, I would say that this reactively new site has a lot of potential. If you are busily posting your resume all over the Internet, be sure to include Recuit'n as one of your regular stops.

The Best Musical Instrument

Do you have a favorite musical instrument? I used to have a small collection of several different instruments. When I sold almost everything I had before moving far far away, I had to decide what instrument to keep. I decided upon the acoustic guitar. I miss my mandolin and my wind instruments. They are not as versatile as the guitar. They are not a ubiquitous as the guitar.

Can Oil Wealth Help the Poor?

Fortunes are made and lost in relation to the supply and demand for oil. Lives are lost as well. I was curious as to whether there was an oil industry in Colombia, a country with by some estimates the second worst humanitarian crisis on the Planet. It is not a significant factor. The country accounts for about 4% of the regional demand and only about 2% of the supply.

A country that gets a lot of international attention in relation to oil is Venezuela. The windfall from huge oil production there has been nationalized and the wealth is used in some inventive ways by the country's leader. Hugo Chavez got lots of free publicity when he sold subsidized home heating oil to poor people in the United States.

Given the sporadic and sometimes dramatic rises in value, oil investments might seem like a way to cash in on the fact that we live in interesting times. Politics that lead to nationalization result in huge losses for investors. You need to know whose oil you are investing in.

Shakira Believes in the American Dream

Shakira makes a fantastic speech while sitting on stage with Bill Clinton and Bono.

Please take the time to listen to this entire speech. The concepts of interdependency and activism are very well explained and this speech will hopefully inspire many people to dream and to act.

This speech was made some time before Shakira announced her multi million dollar donation to worthy causes. She is a woman of action.

Garage Cabinets

Some people spent a lifetime accumulating stuff. Quite often people end up filling their garage with stuff and parking their car on the street. This can result in excessive UV damage to your car and it puts it at greater risk for vandalism and theft. A good selection of garage cabinets can help you get organized and make enough space for your car. You will be glad that you organized your garage when winter comes. Right now I had landscaping equipment, automotive tools and summer recreational stuff like boards and snorkel gear sitting around on the floor in boxes. Cabinets get you stuff up off the floor where they are safe from flood damage.

Her Lips Don't Lie

As far as singing goes, much of this performance is a bit breathless and the volume control is not the best. This what it sounds like when you sing and dance at the same time. Try it sometime. The front row presence of Bill Clinton may have made her nervous as well.

This is why pop stars opt for lip syncing. I actually prefer the real thing. If I want perfection, I can give the album a listen. A nice bonus in this performance is an extended drum riff, which it well timed to give Shakira a chance to catch her breath,

Halloween Quizzes

Do you like quizzes? Quibblo is a quiz oriented social website. The quickest way to decide if it is the place for you is to hit the RANDOM QUIZ tab a few times. There are some pretty lame ones, but after about six clicks I found one that was interesting enough that I hit the profile link of its creator. The profile pages include a list of the quizzes that the member has recently taken and also the ones that they have created. Since the only night when door to door extortion is socially acceptable is fast approaching, why not go check out the Halloween quizzes? The results are frightening (not really).

America Needs a Shakira

Shakira has been actively working to help the poor children in her native Colombia long before she became a huge international pop star. It would be nice to see an American star make a show of trying to help the poor children of America. With the President vetoing bills that were meant to provide health care for 10 million poor American children, something has to happen. The pop star who gets the most media attention is Britney Spears. Here is a quote from Britney from 2003:

"I think we should just trust our President in every decision he makes."

I guess those kids are on their own :(

Jewelry from JrDunn

The fine designer jewelry available from JrDunn includes pieces from some famous designers and also some famous people who design jewelry because they can. Russell Simmons is best known as the founder of Def Jam Records. He is also a blogger for the Huffington Post. He also designed this bold cross pendant. It comes with a stainless steel chain. These days wearing religious icons is a bold statement regardless of the design.

Shakira DVD Release

If you were not one of the 2.5 million people who saw Shakira in concert during her most recent tour, you did not miss out entirely. A DVD featuring 17 songs performed live is set to hit stores on November 13. It will feature some great guests such as Wyclef Jean. There are some great bonus features including a travelogue of the 397 day World tour. I look forward to seeing the short documentary about her foundation, Pies Descalzos.

Find out more about the Shakira DVD.

CreditCardSearchEngine.com

Come the Holiday season, many of us rely on Credit Cards to help us with those festive and joyous expenses. No, I am not ESL, I am being sarcastic.

CreditCardSearchEngine.com had a landing page that has a lot of links to lenders. The top of the page has links to cards divided into twelve categories, mostly based on the type of rewards. These days they are all charging the same brutal rates and the best thing you can do is get a card with incentives that will be of some real benefit to you. The student cards have some special features and some reduced costs that make them attractive to first time card users who are still in school.

Cards that give you cash back on gas and car maintenance expenses seem like a good thing to have on a road trip.

For many people who have already run into trouble with debt management, it's not a matter of deciding which card they want as much as which one they can get.

Armenian Genocide

While I was looking for recent Shakira videos, I witnessed a bizarre trend. There are YouTubers who are using popular tags like Shakira to get views of their political statement denying the Armenian Genocide. I decided to see what there was on YouTube in relation to this issue and it appears that both sides of this issue are trying to get their points across.

I think it is a situation where the 'truths' that both groups of people want to believe have been reinforced for generations and are not questioned within those cultures. Promoting those conflicting 'truths' to the outside world has been a war of words for the most part. I would like to see actual truth win out in the end, but I don't think that is what this is all about. It is about hatred and grudges. The countries that were the major players on the World Stage back in 1915 have just as much to answer for.

More On Coupons

I think people probably use Coupons more during the Christmas shopping season that at other times of the year. There is no putting off all those obligatory gifts and putting off the payment by using credit cards is a vicious cycle. Reducing spending is the best strategy, and coupons from NCNatural.com can be a valuable part of that strategy.

The site features enough vendors that you can comparison shop right there for some items. For instance you could compare printer supplies at 123InkJets and Dell. I would go offsite to look at consumer reviews of competing items and then come back and compare the Dell coupon codes to the 123Inkjet coupon codes. A big plus to this particular coupn website is that it is updated daily.

Shakira Beyonce Video Footage with Replacement Music

This is interesting. I generally try not to include copyrighted material on this blog. This seems like fair use and it is also an interesting use. The music is Turkish and it may be called Yalan Dünya. That may be the artist's name or the particular style of music.

Anyway, it is an interesting juxtaposition and it is also a condensed version of the sexiest parts of that video.

When People Name their Pets after You... You have Arrived

This is a slideshow about a horse named Xakira. The X is pronounced like sh in many other languages. This is filmed in France. It looks very hot and dry there.

I think that having a horse named after you is an honor, unless it is because of some perceived similarity in facial appearance. It does not appear that this horse can shake it like Shakira, but like I said, it is very hot there.

Coupon Chief > Santa Claus

Coupon Chief has coupon codes from a huge number of great stores that you may shop at even without the attraction of extra savings. When you are budgeting for Christmas and you have a big family, you have to save money wherever and whenever possible.

For my darling wife, I could make great use of the Fragrance.net deals. They have brand name scents at very reasonable prices.

For my son, I think he would be pleased with a gift from Best Buy. One of the Best Buy coupons is for a set of Sony headphones. That is one of the gifts that I had in mind for this year.

I think I'll just go with some basic clothes from the Gap for my daughters. They have very particular tastes, but they can always use more basic items like tee shirts and jeans. Here is a video showing examples of some Gap coupons.

Radiohead Album Review

I bought the Radiohead album. I was motivated to make this purchase by teh fact that I could pay whatever price I wanted to. I have not enjoyed their more recent releases, so I paid a relatively modest sum for this one. I am happy with the album based on my somewhat discounted purchase.

If you like dance music, you might find a couple of tracks quite enticing. If you like quiet, plaintive rock there are a couple of great tracks for you as well. Some of the album is very intellectually demanding, while much of it is easy listening. I think it requires repeated listening before I make up my mind.

I say buy it to support the sales model, but don't pay full price unless you are a current fan of the band and its current direction.

What is up with Shakira's Wedding?

There were lots of unconfirmed rumors about a September wedding for Shakira.

Did it happen without any media hoopla?

I don't know.

Maybe she took the opportunity to live her private life while the news cycle was busy chewing on her $40 million dollar charity donation.

I suspect that she did not get married yet. I also suspect that her plans involve maximizing her career up until a certain point and then just setting it aside for some years of family life. This strategy has worked well for a number of singers in recent years. Contributing a track to an occasional movie soundtrack is a smart way to stay in the public consciousness when you are not making album or touring for a few years.

Don't Let The BedBugs Win

Did you know that you can kill bedbugs with a steam cleaner?

These awful little creatures are becoming a major problem in places like NYC. In case you are wondering, they don't ask what your net income is before taking up residence. They are a plague on apartment dwellers of every class.

BedbugsGuide.com is a resource for people who are doing battle with these pests. They feed on blood. If you have had them, you already know that.

Distancing Yourself From Britney Spears

Believe or not, it has only been a couple of years since the media were making comparisons between Shakira and Britney Spears.

Shakira didn't like it very much. I made a post about it at the time. Shakira chose to take not exactly the high road with her response, but she didn't get too personal either. She criticized Britney's taste in men. Britney probably has to agree at this point. Shakira's engagement has lasted a lot longer than Britney's marriage.

I am actually quite skeptical about the accuracy of the quote in my original source, Ireland On-Line. Whether she said what she was reported to have said or not, I think she probably never gets mistaken for Britney Spears now.

Check Out HotelReservations.com

HotelReservations.com is a website that is a portal to information and booking for Hotels, Flights, Cars, Vacation Rentals and Vacation Packages. The search functions for Hotel Reservations are about as precise as you can get.

I am going to offer a little tip before I continue with my review. You can take this with as many grains of salt as you want. When I am going to stay at a city that has on e particular hotel that is renowned for its beauty and service, I don't stay there. I do a search for hotels and check out the prices on hotels that have a nice view of the renowned hotel. That way, you can wake up and look out your window at a really nice hotel. If you were staying there, you would have a view of the cheaper hotel.

Always look for customer reviews online. If more than one person complains about anything that is a deal breaker for you, like mildew or noise or the pool being closed for renovation, you should look for another hotel. You have to keep in mind that there may always be bad reviews planted by competitors.

Individual hotel descriptions are very detailed on HotelReservations.com. I just spent a good half hour browsing through them and day dreaming. I could spend days doing this because the site has 70,000 properties listed from grand hotels to B&Bs.

Here is another bit of advice for you...do not base your opinion of a hotel's rooms base solely on a photograph. Professional photographers can do wonders with lighting and I wouldn't doubt that there are the occasional digital touch ups as well. Most of the listings on HotelReservations.com go into great detail as to the amenities of these places. If something that is important for your enjoyment isn't in a listing, you should assume that the particular hotel does not have it. Using a site like HotelReservations.com with it's huge database should make it easy to enjoy yourself and avoid bad hotel experiences.

Make It Like Shakira

Earlier today, I was shopping for a new microphone. I was trying to record some original music at home and there was just way to much noise on the track.

I saw a few potential replacements in local shops and I went back home to read online reviews. I got sidetracked a moment ago and ended up looking at the results for some awards night for recording technicians. The folks that recorded La Tortura won a trophy. The masters were recorded at Sony in NYC. The link in this sentence shows the posh studio. I am so jealous. Oh, wait...it's closed down. Sony Music Studios was closed for complicated business reasons back in August.