Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Disney Princess Poll - Final Results

At long last, we have come to the conclusion of the Nondescript female protagonists in an animated Disney movie, hierarchy not requisite poll. (a.k.a. The Princess Poll).

And the winner is:


The other two princesses are mine. :)

Here are the final results:

  1. Belle (Beauty and the Beast)
  2. Rapunzel (Tangled)
  3. Ariel (The Little Mermaid)
  4. Merida (Brave)
  5. Cinderella Cinderella)
  6. Jasmine (Aladdin)
  7. Aurora (Sleeping Beauty)
  8. Snow White (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)
  9. Pocahontas (Pocahontas)
  10. Mulan (Mulan)
  11. Vanellope von Schweetz (Wreck it Ralph)
  12. Jessie (Toy Story 2&3)
  13. Tiana (The Princess and the Frog)
  14. Dot (A Bug's Life)
  15. Maid Marian (Robin Hood)
  16. Lady (Lady and the Tramp)
  17. Perdita (101 Dalmatians)
  18. Sofia the First (Sofia the First (television))

Thank you everyone for participating, and I am sure there will be another poll up here, wonder what it'll be about?

Have a great day!



Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Science Doesn't Know Music

I love it when scientists set out to prove stuff and come up with some really outlandish and silly ideas, and try to back it up by saying that science says this, so it must be true.

A pair of doctors from the University of London recently released their top ten catchiest songs of all time.

Of.All.Time.

Dude, that is pretty awesome that science can determine what we all think of as being catchy.

Dr. Alison Pawley - a musicologist. What is a musicologist you ask? So do I, so I looked up a definition of it...

This is what Dictionary.com says:


musicologist

  

mu·si·col·o·gy

  [myoo-zi-kol-uh-jee]  Show IPA
noun
the scholarly or scientific study of musicas in historical research, musical theory, or the physical nature ofsound.
Origin: 
1905–10; music + -o- + -logy


mu·si·co·log·i·cal  [myoo-zi-kuh-loj-i-kuhl]  Show IPA adjective
mu·si·co·log·i·cal·ly, adverb
mu·si·col·o·gist, noun

Okay, so there really is a science to being a musicologist, who knew? I could have easily dedicated my life to studying music, no problem whatsoever.

I digress. 

Along with Dr. Pawley is her colleague from the University of London, Psychologist, Dr. Daniel Mullensiefen. Together they did a study to find out the ten catchiest tunes of all time and they based their results on the following criteria: 1) Long and detailed musical phrases. 2) Number of pitches in the hook. 3) The singers were male (sexist). and 4) The pitch was noticeably higher.

According to Dr Daniel Mullensiefen's:

Every musical hit is reliant on maths, science, engineering and technology; from the physics and frequencies of sound that determine pitch and harmony, to the hi-tech digital processors and synthesizers which can add effects to make a song more catchy.
We’ve discovered that there’s a science behind the sing-along and a special combination of neuroscience, maths and cognitive psychology can produce the elusive elixir of the perfect sing-along song.
We hope that our study will inspire musicians of the future to crack the equation for the textbook tune.
Okay, so do you want to see what science has determined to be the top ten catchiest tunes, of all time?
  • 10. Living on a prayer by Bon Jovi
  • 9. Teenage dirtbag by Wheatus
  • 8. Brown eyed girl by Van Morrison
  • 7. I'm always here by Jimi Jemison
  • 6. Ruby by The Kaiser Chiefs
  • 5. Monster by The Automatic
  • 4. The Final Countdown by Europe
  • 3. Fat Lip by Sum 41
  • 2. YMCA by The Village People
  • 1 We are the Champions by Queen

See what science has done there? How many of those songs do you even recognize? Be honest.

Living on a Prayer is a great song, but I don't even think it is Bon Jovi's catchiest, what about "You Give Love a Bad Name" or "Wanted Dead or Alive?"

Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus - um who? I will admit to having heard the song before, but had no clue what it was until I went to YouTube and listened to it.

Brown eyed girl by Van Morrison deserves to be in the top ten, no doubt.

I'm always there by Jimi Jemison  - most of us have heard it before and never knew it more than the theme song for Baywatch. Yeah, Baywatch.

Ruby by The Kaiser Chiefs, I only know it from Guitar Hero, to be honest. Top ten material though, no I don't think so.

Monster by The Automatic, never heard of it or them before, have a listen...
I still say no.

The Final Countdown by Europe. NO. NO. NEVER, NEVER, NO!

Fat Lip by Sum 41 - I like this song and do find it catchy

YMCA by The Village People - I find this song, like I have always found this song - annoying as all get out. I will have to admit that it is catchy though, but I still don't like the over saturated pop song, and never will.

We are the Champions by Queen. Great song, no doubt about it, but when you think Queen is this the first song you even think of?

Off the top of my head I give you ten more that are worthy of being called the catchiest tune, in no particular order...

  1. Chelsea Dagger by The Fratellis
  2. Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond
  3. RESPECT by Aretha Franklin
  4. Shout by The Isley Brothers, performed by Otis Day and the Knights
  5. Never gonna give you up - Rick Astley (you're welcome for my not including the video and completely "rickrolling" you)
  6. Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO
  7. I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor
  8. Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da by The Beatles
  9. Another Brick in the Wall pt 2 (We don't need no education) by Pink Floyd
  10. Barbara Ann by The Beach Boys
Those ten came to me without really thinking too much about it and I'm sure there are more in my head that I haven't shared.

So what am I really saying here? I don't think science has anything to do with catchy tunes and I can pretty much guarantee that you can come up with a different ten than either science or I came up with. 

Please share them all, or just one, of your catchiest tunes in the comments and we'll see how wrong science really is, in this case. 



Sunday, June 23, 2013

Disney Princess Poll, final round

Okay, I was going to have this last for two more posts, but thought, "nah, let the people decide it all now." So guess what people? I listened to myself and decided to have both the third place round and the championship round in one final post.

Well there will still be a wrap up post, so I guess this is the penultimate post, right?

We have two red headed princesses fighting it out for third place, while a brunette will battle it out with a blond to find out who really has more fun. So shall we get to voting?

Good.


Third place match:





Championship match, (cumulative) with Belle leading 21-16 currently, so she has a five vote head start:





That's it! Now I leave the voting to you fine readers.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Disney Princess Poll, round seven

Back after an extended time away for another round of voting. Only six princesses remain and after this round there will be four in the Disney Princess Poll.

In the last round we saw Belle defeat Jasmine handily by a score of 20-7.

Rapunzel also had an easier than expected time against Merida by sending her to the loser bracket with a score of 18-9.

Speaking of the loser bracket...

In a battle of two classic princesses Cinderella narrowly beat out Aurora 15-12.

Likewise Ariel defeated Snow White by the slimmest of margins 14-13.

That means that princess Aurora and Snow White have been sent back to their princes to live happily ever after, just without the big crown they would have received had they won this tournament.

This round we will see the elimination of two more princesses and set the table for the final battle.


First up, our two remaining undefeated princesses...





In our first elimination, for this round we have...





And finally we have...





So who will go home, and who will have the edge by making it to the finals first? It's all up to you, so go vote and then go out and recruit friends to help push your princess over the top. I'm only going to have this round open for about 48 hours, so time is ticking away. Because the poll will only register one vote per IP address, if your family wants a say, either add it to the comments below, or email me with your picks and I will add them to the tally.

Thanks again for participating!

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Disney Princess Poll, round six

And then there were eight.

Eighteen lovely princesses entered the ring, and ten have been sent back to their castles, heads not hung in shame, but wondering why their fans let them down.

You won't let your princesses down from here on out now will you?

I highly encourage you to recruit your friends that love your princess as much as you do to this site and have them vote. In fact, if you need to include all your family members, feel free to leave a comment or send me an email with their votes.

Okay, enough pandering. :)

Here are the results from round five, which was not as close as I thought it would be in several matches - but what do I know.

Aurora defeated Pocahontas 19-10

Mulan lost out to Cinderella 12-17

Ariel didn't let the sweetness of Vanellope von Schweetz deter her in winning 21-8

and Snow White showed Jessie what a real princess will do by winning 20-10.

So we must bid adieu to Pocahontas, Mulan, Vanellope and Jessie - thanks for playing ladies, you were all great.

This round has four awesome match ups that will get us closer to the grand champion of the Nondescript female protagonists in an animated Disney movie, hierarchy not requisite poll. (aka The Disney Princess Poll)

Enjoy the matches, and vote for your favorite princess so that she can move one step closer. Two princesses will lose for the first time, and two more will be eliminated, who they are is up to you.















Thanks for participating!

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Disney Princess Poll, round five

Welcome one and all to round five, of the 

Nondescript female protagonists in an animated Disney movie,
 hierarchy not requisite poll. 
(aka The Disney Princess Poll).


in this round we will be eliminating another four princesses from the tournament of Disney princesses.

Last round we had ourselves some thinning out to do, and saw some of the weaker and more obscure (whatever! it's Disney, dude!) princesses. We had an actual princess lose out to a non-princess from Pixar, actually bother were from Pixar now that I think of it.

Stream of consciousness blogging rocks, doesn't it?

We also almost had a dog beat out a sugary sweet princess from a video game - that would have been a shocker and if there were only two more votes for the canine, well that would have been something. Luckily though, for the princess, my kids liked her more than the dog. 

Results from round four:

Pocahontas - 23
Maid Marian - 6

Cinderella - 20
Tiana - 9

Vanellope von Schweetz - 15
Lady - 14

Jessie - 26
Dot - 3

You can see how far your princess has made it by going here.


Now for this week's match ups, which will also see four more princesses heading back to their palaces empty-handed.










There are your competitors, and they are counting on your votes to get them through to round six, which will feature two more eliminations and two battles of the undefeated princesses.

Happy Voting!



Saturday, June 1, 2013

Friday Flash (on Saturday) - Bell Ringer

Church desperately needs a new bell ringer.

Ad posted.

Man answers ad… He has no arms.

How?

Use my forehead.

Hesitant response, thinking of risks…

Okay.

Running start… Face impacts… BONG!

Running start… MISS!

Fall…

Death...

Police called.

Who is he?

Don’t know, but his face sure rings a bell.

Friday, May 31, 2013

Disney Princess Poll, round four

Time for round four, finally! Hey life gets in the way occasionally, what can I say? Okay that was a lame excuse, I shall make no more. So welcome one and all to round four of the


Nondescript female protagonists in an animated Disney movie,
 hierarchy not requisite poll. 
(aka The Disney Princess Poll).

The last round wasn't too kind to many competitors as there were a few blowouts, and fewer voters as well - what's up with that? I think it had something to do with when I released the poll, too late for many and since I am not always on your mind, many of you didn't even notice. 

Sad Face.

Not really.

We all have lives after all.

Go here to see how we are progressing along, if that interests you. I will tell you that the next two rounds will be elimination rounds as half of the competitors in this round will not make it to the next, and so on...

Enough rambling, here are your choices, have fun and don't forget to tell your friends!











Happy Voting!

Friday, May 24, 2013

Friday Flash - Trust Your Heart

Ding- Dong.
What the hell? Who could that be at this hour?
Those, my friend, are the first thoughts I had as the doorbell rang. After all it was well past the hour of decency for doorbell ringing. Not to mention, made me miss that critical Lost plot line. Ugh. Now I will never know, until the summer reruns.
Anyway, I digress.
By the time I answered the annoyance, all I saw was somebody running away dragging a rat? I’m not sure, but in this light it did look like that. Now why would they do that? I knew I should have picked up that TiVo, or at least went in for the DVR that the cable company offered. 
Maybe I can “catch up” next week.
I digress, again.
This person takes off running after ringing my doorbell, ruining my Lost moment. I turn to head back into the house, when I notice some pink paper sticking in my mailbox. 
You have to be kidding me; I have been hit with an eviction notice! 
Wait, I bought and paid for this home years ago, that can’t be it. So I grab this piece of wisdom and read this…
To Whom It May Concern:
I write this letter, because it is now someone else's turn to have some fun.  Here are the rules:
~ Think of a place where you want to go.

~ Say the words "Trust Your Heart."
As if by magic, you will appear there!

Awesome, huh?

There are some conditions though... and do please remember this, my friend, once you use this phrase, it is YOURS.  
   
Whether it a blessing or a curse to you, the ONLY way to pass it on (or get rid of it), is to write another letter with three new words.

Now... go and.... Trust Your Heart. 

From:

A Friend :-)

Okay.

That is weird, but I doubt that I will be in Paris just by saying "Trust your heart"

Bonjour, monsieur!

Wow. That is pretty awesome, I wonder if I can travel through time as well and go to Gettysburg to witness president Lincoln's address, "trust your heart."

"Four score and seven years ago,..."

This is going to be awesome, but I should go to bed and rest up before I start, "trust your heart."

Arriving back at my house, I immediately started to research places to see and things to do. Life is definitely going to become more adventurous from now on, that's for sure. I can see the dinosaurs from when they roamed and ruled the earth.

I just have to "trust your heart."





Thursday, May 23, 2013

Disney Princess Poll, round three

Welcome back to the,

Nondescript female protagonists in an animated Disney movie,
 hierarchy not requisite poll. 
(aka The Disney Princess Poll).

round three.

Last round saw a princess that fell in love with a Beast take dog out, so Lady will have to go up against a preschool princess from television, Sofia in one of two elimination battles this round. The other will see Perdita going up against Maid Marian which is a battle of the canines.

We had a sugar princess, Vanellope,  try to take down a classic, Aurora, and come up short by a large margin. Aladdin's  love Jasmine stepped on and squashed the ant known as Princess Dot in a battle that was clearly not in the social insects favor. Meanwhile a legendary ancient Chinese figure Mulan win a fierce battle against everyone's favorite cowgirl toy, Jessie.

Spunky teen Rapunzel had no problem matching up against Robin Hood's Maid Marian which sent her to an elimination match, while the other spunky teen Ariel took care of native American guide Pocahontas. Our first upset saw Scottish firebrand Merida barely beat out Cinderella, I wonder how the Prince feels about that, and Snow White took down restaurateur Tiana.

All in all, it was a great second round, thanks to everyone that took part, I hope you are all back for round three, as the fate of two of our princesses will be decided in this round as they will be eliminated and sent packing back to their castles.

Before I forget, here is the link to see the bracket as it now stands. However if you don't want to click the link here are the results from round two...

Belle - 27
Lady - 6

Vanellope - 6
Aurora - 21 (for some reason this one didn't generate as many votes, interesting)

Jasmine - 25
Dot - 6

Mulan - 16
Jessie - 14

Rapunzel - 22
Maid Marian - 5

Pocahontas - 8
Ariel - 20

Cinderella - 13
Merida - 15

Tiana - 10
Snow White - 21

So let's see this rounds match ups...















Happy voting!!

Monday, May 20, 2013

The Disney Princess Poll, round two

Welcome back to the

 Nondescript female protagonists in an animated Disney movie, hierarchy not requisite poll. (aka The Disney Princess Poll).

Round Two.

Last round had the dog "princesses" going up against one another, with Lady from The Lady and the Tramp comfortably beating Perdita from 101 Dalmatians.

16 to 11.

Meanwhile in the other poll we had Maid Marian from Robin Hood battling the child princess from Disney Junior Sofia the First, and I'll be honest here in saying that this vote was a lot closer than I thought it would be (18-9) - lots of Disney Junior viewers read this blog apparently. To which I say COOL! I will make extra certain that my language is rated G, PG-13 at the worst.

So now comes the big vote, there are eight different battles going on in this round, so let's get to them, shall we?


























There you go, your round two competitors, good luck choosing one over the other, some of these are going to be tough, and only get tougher.

Thanks for participating and I'll have results in a couple of days, so now go up and vote, and if you have already, get your friends to vote too.

UPDATE: Link for brackets

Friday, May 17, 2013

The Disney Princess Poll, round one

As promised here is round one of the Nondescript female protagonists in an animated Disney movie, hierarchy not requisite poll. (a.k.a. The Princess Poll).

The rules?

Each round will have a number of polls posted, depending on the round. For instance, today's round will have two polls, whereas the next round has eight.

The contestants have been randomly seeded into eighteen positions (the Disney official eleven, plus a few few more wannabes).

The contestants will compete against one another in a popularity vote, in a double-elimination tournament. So if your favorite loses in one round, fret not, as they can still come back and win from the loser's bracket - although that term is a bit harsh, as the contestants are all winners, right?

The poll will be up and totals will be taken, within 48-72 hours, depending on how busy I am.

That's it, except that the decision of the judges are final, etc. That would be me, but I'm just keeping track of who got what vote and so on.

First off, here are how the computer seeded these fine young princesses, in a random manner, with the exception of the final four which I hope will make sense when you see who it is.


  1. Belle (Beauty and the Beast)
  2. Rapunzel (Tangled)
  3. Cinderella (The Love Bug - I kid, y'all know where she's from)
  4. Jasmine (Aladdin)
  5. Mulan (Mulan)
  6. Tiana (The Princess and the Frog)
  7. Pocahontas (Pocahontas)
  8. Vanellope von Schweetz (Wreck it Ralph)
  9. Aurora (Sleeping Beauty)
  10. Ariel (The Little Mermaid)
  11. Snow White (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)
  12. Jessie (Toy Story 2 & 3)
  13. Dot (A Bug's Life)
  14. Merida (Brave)
  15. Maid Marian (Robin Hood)
  16. Perdita (101 Dalmatians)
  17. Lady (Lady and the Tramp)
  18. Sofia the First (Sofia the First)
Did I miss anyone? Probably, but I had to cut it off somewhere, right? Some will know where Sofia the First comes from, if you don't she is a princess on a television show on Disney Junior, and there is a young lady out there that I don't want to be mad at me, so I included her. :)


So there are your seeds, and here is your first round poll...


Choose One
 
 
  
pollcode.com free polls 



Choose One
  
pollcode.com free polls 


Thanks for voting and have a great day/weekend!!

Thursday, May 16, 2013

And the Winner is...



In all honesty Finding Nemo won the last round, so instead of having the two go up against one another for a third time and prolong this poll/tournament I took the two scores and combined them. So the final tally looks like this:

Monster's Inc. - 41
Finding Nemo - 39

So congratulations to Mike and Sully on a tournament well won!

The final results are as follows:

Supreme Champion: Monster's Inc.

Worthy Adversary: Finding Nemo

Maybe Next Time: The Incredibles

5th place tie: 
Toy Story 
Toy Story 3

7th place tie:
Ratatouille
UP

9th place tie:
Toy Story 2
Brave
A Bug's Life
Cars 2

13th place:
Cars

What do you all think? Did Cars get shafted by being placed in the wrong seed at the beginning? Did Monster's Inc deserve the title? What's up with all the Toy Story movies getting knocked out so early?

Great news though, I have another poll/tournament starting tomorrow. The full title of the poll is the:


Nondescript female protagonists in an animated Disney movie, hierarchy 
not requisite poll.



I wish I could take credit for the full name, but that belongs to my friend Siobhan.

I think I might just call it the Disney Princess poll in the header though. .:)

As with the Pixar movie poll, I will randomly seed all of the princesses I have - currently I have seventeen - the Disney 11 plus six more - but I might have as many as 20. So please come back for that, as I pit the princesses up against each other in  a cage match throw down. 

Thanks again everyone that participated - hope you had fun voting and will tell all your friends. 

Have a great day!


Sunday, May 12, 2013

The Great Pixar Feature Film poll, final round unless...

... the movie that hasn't lost yet, loses. In which case there would be a rematch.

You know what? I'm going to throw caution to the wind and go ahead and say that this will be the final round to determine the best Pixar Feature Film, (when put in a double-elimination tournament while being seeded randomly and roughly 40 people vote on each round).

Got that?

Good.

So in the last round The Incredibles took on Finding Nemo, and you know what? That fish can punch and he caught baby jack-jack square in the jaw and he was down for the count. Wasn't even close.

Now I need to inform you that my blog polling place is having some sort of trouble and I couldn't the final results from there, but the last time I checked the score was 9-3 in favor of the clown fish with the bad fin. Added to the fact the office polling and unless there are some hidden votes in a closet somewhere, the super heroes met their match. The score I am going with is 24-9, for Nemo.

So that means Finding Nemo will now go up against Monster's Inc in the big finale, 

I also found a different vendor for my free polls.

So now it is up to you... VOTE!!


  • Monster's Inc
  • Finding Nemo
More polls: Free online poll

and thanks for playing along!

Oh and Happy Mother's Day to all those fabulous mothers out there - we would be so lost without you!

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

The Great Pixar Feature Film Poll, round seven.

Hello,

Did you miss me?

I was busy busy busy and completely forgot to post this update. Actually, I was shocked that it wasn't posted already, and was planning on posting the final round post, well maybe final round, but I'll get to that when the time comes.

First off, I would like to thank everyone that has taken the time to vote on these, be it my co-workers (who think I'm crazy) or my Plurk buddies, or everyone else that has voted. Y'all rock!

On to the results from the last round...

The Incredibles beat Up by the score of 21-19, which means that The Incredibles will now face off against Finding Nemo to determine who will go up against Monster's Inc for the chance to be champion.

Here are the rankings, as determined by your votes, up to now...

13. Cars
12. Cars 2
11. A Bug's Life
10. Brave
9. Toy Story 2
8. Ratatouille
7. Wall-E
6. Toy Story
5. Toy Story 3
4. Up
3.
2.
1.

This round will determine who will be the final two. Again, this does not mean that Cars is a bad movie - not at all. Like I've said before, I really don't think that there is a bad Pixar movie, I just was looking to see what your ideas were, when given a completely random seeding in a double-elimination tournament.

So here is this rounds poll, may the best movie win.