I'm cute - and God I hate that. Because that's not cool. I'm like your niece and nobody wants to date their niece. It's the chubby cheeks. The whole reason people voted for me on American Idol is because I'm an everyday normal girl.

All of my favorite people - people I really trust - none of them were cool in their younger years.

The cool thing is that now that people have made this evolution where cooking is cool people are doing it on weekends they're doing their own challenges. It's back to cooking. And it's real cooking.

The simple truth is that balding African-American men look cool when they shave their heads whereas balding white men look like giant thumbs.

Learning can take place in the backyard if there is a human being there who cares about the child. Before learning computers children should learn to read first. They should sit around the dinner table and hear what their parents have to say and think.

When I was in Japan on tour in 2010 I felt like I was 30 years into the future. I love technology and they are so advanced with their phones computers everything. I think they had the iPhone way before we did in the U.S. I love gadgets games social media and I try to stay ahead on all that stuff but they get it all first.

Obviously our children who have been playing with their computers since the age of five or six don't have quite the same brain as those who were brought up on wooden or metal toys whose brains are certainly atrophied by comparison.

Kids are finding out about the potential for discovery online from other sources many of them have computers at home for instance or their friends have them.

People are on their computers more than watching TV because you can only watch voyeur TV which is basically what reality shows are for so long.

I am a huge supporter for cash for caulkers - which allows people to make improvement for energy efficient in their homes. We should do the same for Americans purchasing appliances and computers and for that matter new air-conditioner and heating units.