America's Got Talent - Season 8 - Top 12 Results Show

First off, no recap show? I looked forward to those because you got to see more of the judges' reactions. Now we got this lame Ryan Seacrest game show. I was hoping NBC would take that opportunity to make Kenichi's strobe light sky dance more visible because I'm pretty sure we viewers at home (and no doubt Hulu and YouTube viewers as well) missed out on some of the flashes because of technical issues (frame rates).

And what's this Snapple viewing party nonsense? We could've had some more time for farewells to the knocked-out participants from the judges. (The show went over a couple minutes, by the way.)

First up: Chicago Boyz versus Kenichi Ebina. Kenichi goes through. Respect to the Chicago Boyz who, quite literally, suffered for this competition. There was a mistake, but when they were up against Kenichi, I'm sure they knew their fates were sealed no matter how their performance went. They should consider it an honor.

Second: Innovative Force versus Cami Bradley. Cami goes through. Innovative Force seems like a more complicated Chicago Boyz, and not necessarily in a good way. (How many girls are in the group?) Their cheerleading/gymnast thing they got going on probably wasn't for me. As for Cami, I don't think I've listened to any of her performances from beginning to end (or anyone else's singing performances, for that matter), but she is beautiful. I mean, my goodness. Pretty sure she's married though, so I won't be doing any lusting. I prefer to lust with impunity, thank you very much.

Third: Kristef Brothers versus Taylor Williamson. Taylor goes through. I like them both, and I think both of them deserved the honor of losing to Kenichi in the finals. Respect to the Kristef brothers for also taking a big, dangerous spill; their routines are always unique and entertaining, but I'm always reminded that underneath it all is an act that's really cool. And Taylor, well, I have to admit he made me laugh, even though I wasn't in love with his first audition for some reason. America's loss.

Fourth: Branden James versus Forte. Forte goes through. I hate them both, but at least Forte is contributing towards world peace because of that Sri Lankan guy.

Fifth: Jimmy Rose versus D'angelo & Amanda. Jimmy goes through. And I hate that. Another boring singer? Thanks for your service and all, but I'd be the first to change the channel if I saw him on TV again or heard him on radio. At least D&A are entertaining. Again, that Snapple viewing party robbed D&A of a proper goodbye. They're really good, their last performance was excellent, and they definitely deserved to have the honor of losing to Kenichi in the end as well. All I'll say is, I can't wait till Amanda turns 18! 'Cause then she could really turn pro, you know?

Sixth: Collins Key versus Catapult Entertainment. Collins goes through. Only Catapult deserved the honor of losing to Kenichi in the finals, so why did Collins make it? Too many fangirls, no doubt. Howard's right; his pacing sucks. His Vegas audition was nice, but when he tries the same old schtick but longer and more drawn out, it doesn't work. America's loss.

I can't wait till Kenichi blows them all out of the water. I'm curious to see what kind of dance tricks he has left, too. While I voluntarily stopped watching his YouTube clips until AGT finishes, I was pretty sure the strobe light flight was his biggest and best move. I can't wait to be proven wrong.

New CRT TV

I picked up a Panasonic Tau (CT-36HL43G) for free last week on Labor Day. It was a struggle wheeling that thing back to my house, but it works. There's no input lag (most important) and the picture is beautiful on 240p and 480i games like Tobal 2, but I tried Super Mario Bros. the next day and I noticed some blurring against the blue sky background. Duck Hunt didn't seem to work at all.

After thinking about it quite some time, I've settled on the following:

I've resigned myself to keeping that thing on a wooden dolly because that thing is heavy. The TV is just under 250 pounds and at least on the dolly it'll be off the floor somewhat. I need to be able to move that thing around so I can rearrange the patio.

The jury's out on whether or not CRT HDTVs lag. My TV is 4:3 and I was pulling off just frames in Tobal 2 just fine, but I remember being at a shmupmeet nearly a decade ago and noticing there was lag on the host's HDTV... which I believe was a CRT due to its size. Again, I didn't notice any lag, and I suppose using the Tau for certain systems isn't a bad idea at all. I don't remember seeing any scanlines, and I kinda want (and need) those.

Maybe I should spring for a remote just so I can play around with the settings to see if I can eliminate the ghosting, or to be more precise, eliminate the image processing. And whenever I turn it on with the button on the TV, I actually feel the static electricity and that doesn't exactly make me feel comfortable.

Does this post mean you can actually play Duck Hunt on a Tau?