Friday Notes

Today, I want to cover a couple of little tidbits that are on my brain, but that I haven’t considered worthy of an entire post.

The Office Season Finale, plus Lost OR Idol?

Last night’s season finale of The Office was a doozy, as expected.  I won’t spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet (The Office is among the most-downloaded and DVR’ed shows), but it makes up for some of the not-as-great episodes earlier in the season.

Unfortunately for one of the main cast members, it was a bittersweet finale.  Jenna Fischer, who plays recently-liberated secretary Pam Beesly, was injured in a fall at a party to celebrate the end of the season.  She broke her back in four places, but she’s expected to recover in time to shoot next season.  Hopefully she’ll blog about it soon and explain exactly why she fell down a flight of stairs.

The rest of TV Land is also abuzz with season finales, and next week I’ll have to choose between two of my favorites.  Lost will be having a two-hour season finale next Wednesday at 9 (their old time), which will compete directly against the American Idol final results show.  I’ll probably watch Idol live and record Lost (something to watch on Thursday with no Office).  I’m hoping for a Blake Lewis win on Idol, and Lost had better be a good one.  They laid an egg last week before recovering somewhat this week, so the finale will probably make or break the series for me.

Pandora.com

My buddy Jace alerted me to a cool site that’s apparently been around a while.  Pandora.com is part of the Music Genome Project, which is an ambitious attempt to aggregate information about songs and artists of all genres.  The cool part about the site is that you can input your favorite bands/singers and/or songs, and it will predict other music you might like based on your selections.  From what I can tell, it does a better job than other online jukebox deals that are out there.  It’s free with ads or $36 for a subscription, and it’s only available in the US (thanks, DMCA).

Making the Dean’s List

I received a curious email from my alma mater yesterday:

Dear John:

It is my pleasure to inform you that you made the Dean’s List at Harding University for the past semester.  Recognition on the Dean’s List is a high honor because only students who have earned at least a 3.65 grade point average on twelve or more hours are eligible.

You should be proud of this significant achievement.  We feel that Harding offers a very challenging academic program.  Therefore, your academic success is one indication of your potential for success throughout your life.

I am glad that you chose to attend Harding.  May God richly bless you in the coming year.

Sincerely,
Larry R. Long
Vice President for Academic Affair

I appreciate this recognition, but there’s a small problem:  I graduated last year, and I haven’t even been back to Searcy since graduation day a year ago.  I’d be curious to know how many of my fellow alumni received this notification (my wife and sister-in-law received it as well, so I suspect quite a few).  Hopefully my transcript remains intact.

Good old Harding.