Sure, tomorrow is only Thanksgiving, but some ‘2 day’ black friday deals have already been spotted.  Techbargains has some decent deals from Best Buy, Sears and CompUSA…no door busters of course, but overall not bad.

Check them out here – more deals are being added by the minute.

I’m on episode 12 of this year’s Top Chef, and so far this season hasn’t been much of a competition.  As far as I can remember, all of the elimination challenges have been won by one of three players:  the Voltaggio brothers or Kevin.  I would say of these three Kevin has been the most consistent, winning a number of Quickfires and elimination challenges, while Bryan and Mike Voltaggio have been going back and forth.

At this point, the other three chefs left, Robin, Eli and Jennifer don’t really have a chance – their skill level is clearly much lower than the other chefs.  I would say of those three, Eli is the best, but still he’s not making it into the top 3.

Robin has gone much farther than I would have imagined.  She seems lost all the time, her food is usually very poorly received, and she doesn’t work well with her peers.  I think however, Bravo may be keeping Robin in the game because she is such an irritating character.  Really, it’s not as interesting to see 6 chefs who all like each other and get along – Robin has added a ton of conflict and lets face it, that’s interesting.

Halfway through episode 12 though, it is clear that Robin will be eliminated very soon.

My guess would be that Kevin walks away with the win here.  He has been the most successful in terms of winning challenges, and he has has been able to work through the various curve balls that Top Chef threw.  Additionally, I don’t think he has ever been in the lower end of an elimination, and he hasn’t been close to being eliminated at all.  Kevin is also a very likeable character.  He’s humble, and he works well with others.

Mike Voltaggio has kind of picked up the douche tag after Mike I. was eliminated.  Mike V. is cocky, domineering and condescending.  He is talented though, so Mike has been very successful despite the negative aspects of his personality.  But in the finals, Mike will be in trouble if he gets stuck with Robin, or if he isn’t able to control his temper with other chefs.

Bryan has been laying pretty low – he does pretty well, but doesn’t win that many challenges.  He also has avoided being in the bottom of challenges for the most part.

It would be interesting to see a final of brothers with Mike and Bryan, but I think it’ll end up being Mike and Kevin, with Kevin taking the win.

I’m 4 episodes into the sixth season of Top Chef, and so far it’s one of the better seasons I’ve seen so far.  The big benefit here is of course the location – Las Vegas.  Many of the best chefs in the world have restaurants in Vegas, including Daniel Boulud, Joel Robuchon, and even Top Chef head judge Tom Colicchio.

Early on, I think the favorites are the Voltaggio brothers, with Kevin and Jennifer in the running as well.  The Voltaggios have been dominating so far, while Kevin won the quick fire with Daniel Boulud, which was impressive.

I don’t think Ron, Robin, Mike Isabella, Hector, Eli or Ashley stand a chance.  These guys seem way out of their league this season – most are just too limited in their ability to compete with the more experienced chefs.

The most annoying players so far are Mike Isabella, who pretty much defines douche, and Ashley, who defines angry lesbian.

Ashley, in particular, made a ridiculous objection to cooking for an engaged couple because gays can’t get married.  I don’t get why gays feel they have to make everything into a political forum, but this was incredibly annoying.  And of course, at the end of the day Ashley sold out and cooked for the challenge to win what, $100,000?  If you’re gonna complain and you want to make a statement, then do so.  Don’t complain, then ditch your cause in order to play a chef’s game.

Still, I’m liking how this season is turning out.  After just four episodes there have been a bunch of great competitions and great judges.  With all the other incredible restaurants in Vegas, I think this season is only gonna get better.

Oh yeah, and Padme continues to be incredibly f’ing hot.

Jak pointed out today that Punahou has adopted a new slogan on their website - “Kindergarten through life.”  Sure, the slogan is a bit pompous, perhaps, but it does really underscore the appeal of Punahou for parents in Hawaii.

I think the greatest benefit of Punahou is that the school focuses heavily on preparing students for college.  Few students that graduate from Punahou end up skipping college, particularly if they attended the school since kindergarten.

And, given that college does play a key role in the future prospects of a student, I think it’s fair to emphasize that the education at Punahou will have a lifelong effect on a student.

What Punahou’s new motto doesn’t capture, however, is the lack of diversity a student would experience if they went to Punahou from K-12.  While academically these students would probably be very well-off, I think the private-school environment makes it difficult for a student to develop street smarts, the understanding of different viewpoints and ability to interact with people who do not fit within the private school mold.

As a K-12er myself, I feel that Punahou did do an excellent job of keeping me on the right track, while eliminating many of the negative influences that could have derailed my education.  At the same time though, eliminating negative influences does not teach one to deal with negative influences – in many ways it just creates a false sense of security.

I suppose if a student was fortunate enough to be able to attend Punahou for their entire life, then that’s an opportunity that shouldn’t be overlooked.  However, I do think there are aspects of childhood that Punahou hides from its students, and this is something that the school and parents need to be conscious of.  After all, once a student graduates from college, they will be exposed to colleagues and competitors from a variety of backgrounds.  This is where street smarts are needed, even in a professional environment.

I hate it when kids misbehave in general, but most of all I hate kids crying or acting up on airplanes.  You’re in an enclosed space, you can’t move, and sitting near a whiny kid on a long flight is infuriating.

Now, some people would argue that controlling kids is a tough job, and I should have sympathy because I may be in the same situation at some point.

But guess what, that’s not my problem.

If you can’t control you kids, then don’t take them on a plane.  Sure, they may not be able to visit distant relatives or see disneyland, but again, not my problem.  Get a sitter, or keep your kids in check, but don’t ruin my flight because you’re a shitty parent and inconsiderate.

So, I was happy to hear that a mother of two got booted from an Allegiant Air flight when her two kids wouldn’t behave.  Now, if you look at the report here, you can tell that first of all this mother looks like she is still a teenager, and probably shouldn’t be having kids in the first place.  Clearly, this kid isn’t going to be able to control her own two kids, and this would mean a flight of horror for those around her.

I applaud Allegiant Air for booting her.

As far as not receiving a refund – well, that’s the airline’s policy.  This mother probably got a cheaper ticket because of it, so she shouldn’t complain after the fact when she can’t get a refund.  And of course, this would have all been taken care of if this woman knew how to manage her kids in the first place.

We all visit CNN.com.  It consistently ranks within the top 100, and often within the top 50 websites worldwide.  Recently, the site went through a dramatic renovation.  And I hate it.

I think the new CNN.com can be summed up in one word:  obnoxious.

When you first visit the site, your browser will likely be taken over by a huge animated graphic that will probably take up most of your screen.  See the ‘Droid’ ad above.

Not only is it bad form to force your viewers to wait through a processor-hungry ad, it’s also quite low res of CNN.  I mean sure, times are tough, but you’d think that CNN of all sites would have a bit more class in their website design.  Their intrusive ads have become so bad that when I visit the site late at night I almost expect to see an infomercial.

Next, if you’re trying to read a news story you’ll most likely be directed to CNN.com’s ridiculously slow and buggy video player.  Oh, and for that privilege you’ll be forced to watch a commercial before seeing the story that you’re interested in.

Look, I get that CNN would like to make money and would like to be big in video, but Google gets me to the same news, if not better news, through a streamlined interface that doesn’t take over my browser with intrusive ads.

IMO the new CNN.com has taken the site in completely the wrong direction, and I urge people to avoid visiting the site completely.

The f-word has become the most dangerous word in sports.  Think about it – a football player can curse all day, say horrible things about other players and even use the n-word without penalty.

But say fag, and you may lose your job.

That’s what happened last week to Chiefs’ running back Larry Johnson, who called a reported a fag under his breath, and tweeting the f-word (above) to a heckler.  Of course this brought on the big guns from the gay community, who among other things started a petition encouraging the release of LJ.

To be clear, all accounts point to LJ being an arrogant ass.  But so are many football players.  However, there is no evidence, other than the use of the word ‘fag’, that LJ has any hatred for the gay community.

So why is the word fag so important?

It seems like gays now interpret the word ‘fag’ to automatically suggest some kind of hatred for the gay community.  But I don’t think that’s a fair definition.

Fag is similar to ‘sissy’ in that it indicates some level of girlyness and/or lack of manliness…but what’s wrong with that?  If you grow up playing football, clearly a very physical sport where girlyness isn’t really effective, shouldn’t ‘fag’ be an appropriate insult?  It’s like a woman insulting another woman by calling her ‘butch.’  Is that a discriminatory term against heterosexuals?

At the end of the day, the term ‘fag’ is insulting to straight guys just like the term ‘manly’ or ‘butch’ is insulting to straight girls.  It’s an insult because it’s calling someone something that they don’t want to be, that’s all.

I really get the feeling that gays are just too quick to pull the ‘homophobic’ card, and it’s getting annoying.  Sure, gays deserve the same rights as everyone else, but they don’t have the right to define the words that other people use.  Most of all, I hate the idea that they not only get to define what LJ meant by ‘fag’, but they also feel empowered to end his career because of it.

Paranormal Activity has been the surprise scary movie of the year.  It racked up a few weeks at #1 while earning about $100 million to date.  The most spectacular part of this movie is that it was made for only $13k.

I don’t really get the appeal of this movie though.  The plot, and I’m going to give away a bunch of spoilers here, is that a couple has had some weird stuff happening in their house.  So, the boyfriend gets a camera and starts recording.  It’s kind of like the Blair Witch project, except you’re looking at basically the same house the whole movie.

That’s boring.

The scary parts of the movie are even worse.  Since the movie is filmed with a cheap handheld video camera, you can’t really see very much – it’s like you’re looking at surveillance tape from a convenience store or something.

And, you don’t really see anything scary…it’s all implied.  For example, you don’t see the demon, but you see his foot prints.  And you don’t see the demon attack the girlfriend, but you see her zoom across the room.

I guess the movie would be scary if you believe that all this crazy shit was recorded, and the police and FBI decided to take this evidence and release it as a movie instead of going to court with it or showing it to reporters.  Because…you know…that happens all the time.

But if you don’t buy into that, then you’re left with a pretty tedious low res movie that really tries your patience more than anything.  I mean, you don’t even see anyone getting killed or attacked.  You just see this couple freaking out constantly, and that is boring.

Not a bad idea - plastic martini glass with pre-mixed martinis for $2. Seems like an ok solution for the low res crowd.

This sounds like a silly topic, but it really makes sense.  I hate those little chicken wings because it’s so hard to get to the meat.  And undoubtedly you end up leaving lots of good meat on the bone.

Well, the video below shows you proper wing eating technique, and it’s no joke.  It gives you a nicely deboned wing in just a few seconds and a bit of work.  Check it out.

The big story this weekend was Brett Favre’s return to Lambeau field.  Favre beat the Packers win Week 4 when they came to Minnesota, but Sunday’s game was much bigger since Favre was returning to his former home field.

So how’d he do?  4 TDs, 244 yards and zero INTs, leading the Vikings to a 38-26 win.  Actually most of the game wasn’t that close – the Vikings led 24-3 early in the 3rd quarter.  The Packers made the game interesting, but really could not stop the Vikings from scoring.  It also didn’t help that Rodgers got sacked 6 times, compared to Favre, who wasn’t sacked at all.

Favre was booed quite loudly when he started the game, and he held back tears as he left the field.  But really the story wasn’t Favre versus the Packers, it was the Packers o-line against the Vikings defense – and the Packers lost that fight.

Other news – two winless teams ended their losing streak, while an undefeated team fell.

St. Louis picked up a win against Detroit in what looked like a horrible game where the starting QBs threw for a total of just over 300 yards, 2 INTs and 0 TDs.

The Titans also got their first win with Vince Young at QB.  Really though, the story here wasn’t Young, it was Chris Johnson who ran for 228 yards and 2 TDs.

The Broncos notched their first loss of the year, losing to the Ravens 7-30.  That score is misleading, because the Broncos kept the game pretty close throughout three quarters.  But they really couldn’t move the ball, with less that 200 yards combined from starting QB Orton and RB Moreno.

Right now we’re halfway through the season, with the Colts and Saints still undefeated.  Minnesota is also pretty comfortable at 7-1, along with the 6-1 Broncos.

The NFC East still doesn’t have a standout team, with the Eagles, Cowboys and Giants with 5 wins each.  The Pats lead the AFC East, due in large part to the flailing Jets, but they still only have a 1 game lead.

But after watching the Saints yesterday, I think they have the best shot at the Super Bowl.  Their offense is incredible, with a ton of capable RBs and even better WRs.

I’m an Archos fan. I think their devices are well made, sleek and perfect for traveling or the gym.  The Archos 9 is the next generation of Archos devices, and unlike other devices which mostly just played media, the Archos 9 is a full-fledged Windows 7 tablet computer.

That is awesome.

The Archos 9 has a 8.9” screen, WiFi, Bluetooth and a 60GB hard drive.  The device only weights 1.8 pounds and is 0.7 inches thick.

The device is a bit underpowered with a 1.1 GHz Atom processor, but Archos claims the 9 can still play full 1080p video.  Also, that Atom processor is important to extend the battery life of the Archos 9 to 5 hours.

You can preorder the 9 now for $549.99 – not a bad price considering you’re getting a pretty versatile Windows 7 computer.