Believe it or not I am in fact still alive. I've just been really busy lately...really busy. A 17 hour school secedule will do that to you, especially when 11 hours of it is all math and science. Physical Chemistry is the worst of them all, it's the kind of class that has the ability to drain you of your will to to do anything. It has the reputaion of being the hardest class taught in the chemistry department, if not the entire school.

Now that the initial shock of my course load is over I may be able to scrape together enough time to come back to the Smallville fourms in a limited capacity. Likely just a few posts a day in the episode disscussion thread of the week. At least once I get through the next few weeks that are overflowing with tests and papers.

So dismantle your memorial shrines, and put out your funeral pires. I coming home.

P.S.

I still don't like Lana, even if she has stopped whining about secracy.

First things first, both me and my girlfriend are okay, we both walked away from the crash with only a few cuts and bruises, which given the state of my truck is a miracle.

Okay, here's what happened. Friday, Karla and I were on the way to visit my mom for the weekend. Mom live's in Fort Worth, about an hour and a half trip from where I live. We had just past Bowie, about halfway, when my rear driver side tire blew out. Since, my truck was rear wheel drive, this ment I had lost almost all of my traction and therefore control of the truck. I tried to steer the truck to the side of the road, but the truck had already begun to flip over. So we skidded awhile on the roof of the truck and eventually we get fliped right side up, and the truck finally came to a stop in the median.

I have never been so scared in as long as I can remember. I'll I could think of the entire time was Karla, hoping she would get through the wreck uninjured. After making sure she was okay, several times, I called 911 and then my mom. The ambulance got there in about ten minutes, and mostly because Karla has CP we both agreed to go to the hospital as a precaution. When we got to the hospitol, we were both treated for minor abrasions, and Karla got her foot x-rayed (funny part of the story comes here, by strange coencidence the x-ray tech on duty happened to have been Karla's cousin) and we were discharged afterabout half an hour. My mom picked us up and drove us the rest of the way to her house. Today I came home in her truck, and she's going to get herself a new car.

So no matter what, always where a seat belt, I probably wouldn't be here now if it hadn't been for mine. I'll try to post some pictures of the damage to my truck latter this week.

Curse you physics. Curse for zapping all my will to do things with your boring Vector addition.

I have officially come to the conclusion that summer classes suck. Hard. Don't get me wrong, I like physics in all but two hour classes, four days a week is just two much. Next session shouldn't be too bad though. We should get to cover waves and electricity.

I should probably apologize to my friends for the recent lull in posting. The lack ofa break from school has left me completely drained when I get home. I just don't want to do anything but hang out with Karla and watch Futurama. I've also been visiting a new forum recently and I have to get used to trying to juggle the two. For those of you intreasted, NYC this one should be right up your ally, the other forum is Voltron Rant, http://forums.voltron.com/eve/forums. It's a lot of fun. Plus it's connected to the official Voltron website so we get advanced notice on all things Voltron.

Enough blatent site pimping, I've been away from home for far too long. So all you Clana shippers beware, me and my irrational hatred of Lana are back...

... with a Vengence

Well, my final exams started today. I had three test in one day, and I am wiped out. On the plus side I only have one more exam left and it's not until Thursday, and I think I did really well on all the tests I took today.

Let's see, what else is new? I picked up Volume 3 of Voltron today. The collector's tins for those box sets are so awesome. I need to take time to rewatch the first volume and actually watch volume 2. Maybe that will be my project this summer.

 Also I just found out a friend I met in college is dating a guy I went to high school with. The wierd thing is that neither me or my girlfriend set them up. He didn't even know that Karla and I went to highschool with the guy until I told him. Yeah they're both guys. They're also the first gay couple I've ever seen; it's kind of wierd. I don't have a problem with gay people, in fact I've had several gay friends, but seeing them as couple is still... bizarre.

Hey guys, it's been awhile since I last posted something. Stupid school work keeping me so busy. I've decided to take this opratunity to let my friends get to know a little about me. So I stole this survey from Emily, who infact stole it from some one else. 

1.What does your TV.com Name MEAN? Jonsphantom. My name is Jonathan. I used to have a cat named Phantom. My mom first got the internet when I was about ten and I decided to combine my name with that of my cat for some reason and it's kind of stuck.

2. Where was your avatar pic taken??  It's Jermey from Code Lyoko. I got it from the TV.com samples

3. What is your nickname? Jon 

4. Your current relationship status? Dating the most wonderful girl on the planet

6. What is your current mood? Content

7. what do you love most: My girlfriend

8. What makes you happy ? My girlfriend... and Mythbusters

9. Are you musically challenged? Nope

10. If you could go back in time, would you change something? I would stop myself from going back in time.

11. If you MUST be an animal for ONE day what would you be? A wolf

12. Ever have a near death experience? No

13.Something you do a lot: Surf the web. 

14. What's the name of the song stuck in your head right now? There isn't one.

15. Who did you copy and paste this from? Emily and there're nothing she can do about it 

16. Name someone with the same b-day as you?  Latina has the same birthday 

17. Have you ever sang in front of a large audience? Yes, I used to be in choir.

18. What's the first thing you notice about the OPPOSITE sex? Oddly enough the nose, then the eyes

19. What do you usually order from Starbucks?  Nothing

20. What's your favorite color? Red

21. Do you still watch kiddy movies or TV shows? Yep

23. Do you speak any other language? Some spanish, but not much

24. What's your favorite smell? Jasmine, It's such an intoxicating scent

I find myself on the forefront of an interesting transition in my life. This will be my first ever Valentine's Day during which I am romanticly involved with someone. I have no real idea what's expected of me.

But then the whole concept of Valentine's Day has never really made much since to me. It has always left me asking questions. Shouldn't everyday be a celebration of love? Why is it  on a date which has no historical significance save several people getting brutally murdered by Al Capone. Why do elementary school's insist that you give a valentine to your entire class? When you think about it isn't that kind of bizzare? You have to give everyone a little pink card with a sucker attached and the only way you could differenitate between the cute girl that sat behind you and your worst enemy was that she got what you believed to be the best flavor, only later to discover that she in fact hates cherry.

To make things worse, because of poor forethought on the part of my professor, I'm going to have to spend my first Valentine's day studing for a Chemistry test instead of spending it with my girlfriend. I'm sure she'll understand, but still that sucks. I'll probably take her to a movie this weekend to make up for it.

It's really looking like this Valentine's Day will really be just another average day to me. Maybe it'll just take time to get aclimated to having something to celebrate.

Well, kiddies it's ranting time again. Now you may wonder what's bothering me today. It's the quality of televison programing avalible these days.

Now I grew up in what I consider to be the Golden Age of the Saturday morning cartoons. The late 80's - early 90's produced some of the coolest cartoons ever to be shown on televison. Don't get me wrong the 60's and 70' had some good stuff too and nothing will ever top Bugs Bunny, but the 80's and 90's were something all together different. The 80's were all about the action shows. G.I. Joe, Voltron, He-Man, The Real Ghostbusters, and of course the classic TMNT, all of them came out in the 80's the recent release of all these shows on DVD within the last few years has left me feeling like a kid in a candy shop. The 90's brought change, though not for the bad. The 90's gave us comedy and not toilet comedy or stupid comedy but good smart comedy. This was the era of Tiny Toons, and Freakazoid, Animainiacs and Pinkey & the Brain. Funnily enough these all came from Warner Bros. I guess they just know how to make a great cartoon.

Don't think this is just about cartoons though the time of my youth also had great TV shows too.Things like Diagnosis Murder and Murder She Wrote. I admit I was raised on evening mystery shows.

But then something happened. Something horrible. At somepoint something trigger a chain reaction that started an out of control snowball of crap that has only gained size and speed since it's creation. Channels that once provieded me with intertainment now mock me with their line-up of unitelligent, cookie-cutter crap.

The biggest offender is the most recently created and that wich as fallen the fartherest and fastest from grace: Adult Swim. When Adult Swim first came out there were a few less than quality show, but it was mostly gold. It was a safe haven for shows that just couldn't have made it anywhere else. Show like: Futurama, Baby Blues, and Home Movies. But, apparently someone over there got a hold of some bad 'shrooms because it's latest offerings are the absolute bottom of the barrel: Tom Goes to the Mayor, 12 Ounce Mouse, Assy Mcgee, Squidbilles. One can only hope there is a special place in hell for the creators of this dreck. At the very least they should be locked away for the rest of time, but Adult Swim has seen to give them a chance to produce the television equvilant of an impacted colon. The creator of Tom Goes to the Mayor are even getting a second show.

On to offender number two: Nickelodeon, At one point my TV never left this channel. It was home to Are You Afraid of the Dark, Rugrats, Ahh Real Monsters, and Rocko's Modern Life. To be fair at least Nickelodeon is still trying to make good shows, failing but trying. I mostly sight this channel for one thing, a show so mediocore so mindless that is meteoric rise to popularity could only arise from a pact with Satan. I am of course refering to Sponge Bob Square Pants. The mere tought of it alone instills me with the desire to vomit with rage. Maybe I'm just out of the loop, but to me this is just thirty minute of triple-distled pure stupidity.

Next up: Reality Shows. I hate  reality shows.Survivor, American Idol, Fear Factor. The all make my blood run cold.

But at least there are a few precious rays of hope. House, Smallville, Monk, Psych, and I'm sure if I hadn't missed almost the entire first season, Heros would be on this list. And one paticular channel gives me hope. Ironicly it's the channel I dispised above all others as a child, the Discovery Channel. I simply don't know what I would do without the Discovery Channel. It's about all I find stimulating anymore. Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs, How it's Made, It Takes a Thief, New Detectives. These are the shows that keep me going.

Well that's enough for now, but as the great Govinator of California once said, "I'll be back," but unlike Arnold I'll be ranting.

That's right, at 6:14 this evening I will forever shed the title of teen and pass into the twenties. My girlfriend is estatic about this as she will no longer feel weird about dating a teenager. Why she felt weird in the first place is beyond me as she's only a year older that me. Oh well who cares. It's my birthday.

Let me start  by saying this: This is the first blog I've ever done, so if I break some taboo bloging rule that I have no idea existed, then let me apologize in advance.

I am, however, intimatly familiar with the art of ranting, having been a fan of Dennis Miller for years. I feel that it is the best way to relieve tension about minor irritants while getting a few cheap laughs along the way. Therefore this and all further blog I post here on TV.com will likely be me rating about what's been bugging me.

For starters, as you can probably tell given the title I've chosen, one of the major things that bugs me is, you guessed it, Hollywood. Now of course I have no problems with the geographic location that is Hollywood, but rather with the movie industry itself that has become synonymous with said location. It is just me or has the movie industry only released about three different movies since the early 80's. I have no problem with the quality of the movies, its just they're all the same.

Don't get me wrong, I do understand that there is a reason that movies are formulaic. If you're a big time production company and you're about make a billion dollar investment, you want to be sure that you're going to get a good return, but when you take established titles from other media that don't fit the mold and then take a hacksaw and hammer to what was a great story only to make it like everything else, then I have a problem.

I've gone and given myself away now. Yes, a book that I hold dear has been made into a movie, specificlly Blood & Chocolate. Now for those of you who don't know Blood & Chocolate was a book written by Annette Curtis Clause about ten years ago, and I had the pleasure of reading it in high school. Now before you say "But Jon, all movies based on books make a few changes. It's not that big of a deal." I know that, but this case is special. Blood & Chocolate was above all else a story about a girl finding herself. True she was a werewolf, but that's really inconseqencial in the grand scheme of the book. It had romance. It had action, but at it's heart it was a character study.

Hollywood has taken this amazing piece of fiction and turned into Underworld, only the vampires all called in sick. Worst of all it appears that given what I've seen from the previews they've changed a major aspect of the book's ending, essentially changing the entire story the book was trying to tell. If you want to make Underworld 3 fine, but don't give the characters names you read off the back of a paperback and try to tell me it's a faithful recreation of the book that almost got me detention because I couldn't stop reading it in class.

Now, will I go see Blood & Chocolate? Probably, to be fair you can't always get a accurate depection of a movie from its previews so it may be better than I think, but I doubt it.