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Everybody has commercials they can’t stand. As we get closer to the Super Bowl I am sure there will be even more that really get on my nerves. A few months ago we had the “Saved By Zero” Toyota commercials. Most commercials that feature a jingle can get old really quickly. An example that comes to mind is Subway’s song about 5 dollar footlongs. Speaking of sandwiches, remember that Quizno’s commercial a while back that had a lady with a really annoying laugh raving about the Quizno’s sandwich and how it wasn’t “lacking any meat”? I have found that commercial for those of you who haven’t seen it. How about you? What are some commercials that make you want to throw the TV out the window?

Unlike Sanjaya, Kelly Clarkson really does have a good voice. Of course, Clarkson was the winner of the first season of American Idol. She has had a successful singing career, with her fourth album coming out in a couple of months. Her new single is called “My Life Would Suck Without You” and it will be interesting to see how her career continues to progress. Here is a video of her very first audition for the show. She sang well and they put her through to Hollywood, but Kelly was just happy that “the British man didn’t make me cry”. Luckily for her, she no longer has to worry about what the British man thinks.

Today, season 8 of American Idol begins on Fox. In honor of that, let’s take a look back at one of the most infamous finalists on the series. Sanjaya Malakar sang during season 6 and soon became known more for his hairstyle than his singing. In fact, his singing was quite bad at times. He kept making it through to the next round several weeks in a row, due in part to internet campaigns such as the website votefortheworst.com. Sanjaya still has fans out there, apparently. He has released an album this year and written memoirs. Here is Sanjaya appearing in a recent Nationwide commercial.

On Sunday, before the Eagles-Giants playoff game at Giants Stadium, the Star-Spangled Banner was sung by American Idol winner Jordin Sparks. It was a great rendition of the national anthem, as I attended the game and I don’t think they showed it on television. The stadium was very loud as there was also a plane flyover, and the fans went into a frenzy. By the end of the song the cheering was so loud that the singing could no longer be heard. Jordin also sang the anthem at last year’s Super Bowl between the Giants and the Patriots. I guess the Giants must have thought that Jordin was a good luck charm, but they were not so lucky this time.

The first time I tied my own tie, I was ten years old. I learned how to do it for my grandmother’s funeral. I practiced for hours until I got it right. Since then, I’ve tied my tie every so often when the occasion calls for it, but there have been times when I have really questioned if I was doing it correctly. To this day, I still don’t know. I make adjustments so that the tie looks okay, but I have no idea if my technique is correct, and I certainly can’t show somebody else how I do it. I will need to take a look at the video below and brush up on my skills.

This morning I was watching Comedy Central and I saw I comedian I had not heard of before. His name is Eugene Mirman and he had his own “Comedy Central Presents” show that was made about a year ago. I found him to be pretty hilarious. Eugene was born in Russia but for some reason I thought he was probably Canadian. He certainly jokes about Canada quite a bit, as you can see in the clip below. Most of his humor borders on the absurd, which I love from time to time. He has a lot of signs and props and stuff but doesn’t overdo it. He was quirky and entertaining and I hope to see more of his stuff soon.

Sometimes learning can be fun, or at least it makes for a pretty jazzy commercial. I remember this song and commercial cartoon from back in the early nineties sometime. It was made by the Buzzco Associates for the National Science Foundation and is pretty catchy. It’s also longer than your average 30-second commercial. It gets me really pumped about science. I don’t know if I can name a different type of science for each letter of of the alphabet, though. They only came up with A, B, C, and Z. If somebody can think of an -ology for the other 22 letters I’ll be pretty impressed.

Well, there are some who think that they should get rid of fighting in hockey. Those people will probably use this week’s latest fight as an example. The annoying forward for the Ottawa Senators, Jarkko Ruutu, actually bit Andrew Peters of the Buffalo Sabres during a fight on Tuesday. That must have actually been difficult to do, since he bit Andrews on the hand while they were fighting. His bite got him right on the thumb. It also got Ruutu a two game suspension without pay. Did he deserve such a punishment? Take a look at the video and decide for yourself.

Boy, did I get ripped off. I spent so much money this holiday season on iPod chargers and other accessories. Then I remembered a video I first saw about a year ago. All I really need is an onion and some Gatorade. Check out the video here. It turns out that Gatorade really does have electrolytes and they can be used to charge stuff. Using this method can successfully charge an MP3 player for up to twenty minutes. And yes, Powerade will work too. I have yet to try it out, but if I ever get stranded on a desert island with just an iPod, an onion, and some Gatorade, I’ll know what to do.

I was looking around on the NFL website today, and they had this really cool music video that showed the top plays in football for 2008. Yes, I know the new year is almost a week old, but it was so well done I wanted to share it. Then I chickened out because I thought that the league would have the video taken down from YouTube. So instead, you will see the top plays of 2008 according to ESPN. The difference is it is for all sports, not just football, and it is not as cool as the NFL one. It is still worth watching, take a look!