In the next month or so, some big changes are coming to my life. Some have already started... 1. I've seriously ramped up my sales on eBay. I'm becoming quite good at it and have a number of great items listed, including rare plush toys, rare coins, first edition books and more. A number of these items are stuff that I found sitting gathering dust in my attic and are now being converted into money for me (and great items for other people to acquire!) 2. Beginning on January 3, I am moving up to a better position at work. I currently work as a library aide within a particular branch of the local library system. On January 3, I will become a substitute technical assistant. This comes with the following perks: - I am on call, which means I come in when they need me and if I'm not available, I can say so. I am no longer tied down to a fixed schedule, which is great when it comes to having time to run my eBay business (which I may eventually live off entirely.) - Hourly salary increase - More downtime. A library aide shelves books and maintains the shelves, etc. - they're basically expected to be working. Library technical assistants often spend time sitting at the desk, and when you're not assisting someone that needs help checking out, or paying a fine, etc., then you're free to surf the Internet and such. 3. I am moving! I'm currently paying $595 a month in rent for the house that I'm currently at, plus all utilities, and it's not even a very good house. I found out that there are other, better houses within the neighborhood I live in for $200 a month or less, and that's for a mortgage to own! I was scheduled to go look at some houses yesterday, but we had a heavy snowfall in my area and the real estate agent wasn't going to make it, so it'll probably be rescheduled for sometime next week. 4. I've been getting into shape. My weight on my temporary driver's license (I don't drive yet) is 195 lbs, and I think I might have weighed around 200 lbs at some point. Today, for the first time in a while (my scale wasn't working, so I bought a new one), I weighed myself and I found that I now weight 170.5 lbs. I am going clothes shopping this weekend. One last thing about me - I've been spending some time lately at a cool site called RewardTV, which is by Nielsen, the same people that do the TV ratings. Each day, they have trivia games for most of the major television shows that aired the night before, including most of the news programs, and primetime shows such as Survivor, The Mentalist, Mythbusters and much more! Playing the games earns you points which can use to enter into contests or bid on stuff, plus once a day you get entered for $10,000 if you play one game and another $1,000 second chance contest if you play another. There are also numerous surveys you can do to earn points, though some of the info they want on those can sometimes be pretty personal. (So it's up to you whether or not to share that.) If this sounds like something that's interesting to you, then please, don't just sign up. PM me your e-mail address so that I can give you a referral. Now, TV.com. I noticed that it's now properly showing the new comment indicator for blogs again, which is good. They're also making a number of format tweaks that seem useful. I recently had the opportunity to talk with one of their staff by phone, and it went very well! They're even sending me a free gift for telling them my thoughts! And to find out what's being developed, visit TV.com Labs. It looks like they're working on a delightful new design!

This was posted to the board for The Amazing Race here at TV.com as the episode was airing... Previously: 11 teams set off. "Teams sank, crashed and clashed. Some got stuck, overheated and overwhelmed. ... They experienced emotional highs (engagements) and lows (Nick yelling at Vicki.)" Eight came up short. Brook & Claire got off to a "smashing start," there was the first ever Double U-turn, but they made it. Jill & Thomas won the Express Pass and they later used it to potentially avoid elimination (though they could have avoided using it). Their athleticism and decisions (U-Turn) took them to final three. Nat & Kat "approached the race with surgical precision.) They took a Fast Forward - eating meat, one of them was a diabetic. Calm and steady attitude put them in the final three. Tonight, one will win the million dollars and The Amazing Race. Promo: Everyone's scrambling in Survivor 8:32 P.M. Seoul, South Korea - name means "Capital City." Pit Stop - Temple of Heaven. 11th Pit Stop in a race around the world. Jill and Thomas depart first at 3:57 A.M. Fly to final destination city, Los Angeles, over 6,000 miles away. Then travel to Port of Long Beach Pier J to receive next clue. Jill says they've worked and played hard. Says the others could make history, but it won't happen. Thomas says he could care less about that. He'll break out his Spanish skills in LA. Brook and Claire - 4:23 A.M. $400 for this leg. Think they could take first if they use communication. They need to be "more hungry than Thomas." Nat and Kat - 4:27 A.M. Team @ lived in LA for four years. Jill & Thomas get to Korean Air. B + C arrive. They're wearing matching outfits - Brook and Claire flair. Team @ arrives. Everyone is waiting for the ticketing to open. Thomas is "last male standing." Girls gang up on him. :D "A few pedicures later?" Everyone begins scrambling for flights. All teams on same flight. Phil: All teams are now headed to final destination city, LA, California. Teams arrive at LAX. Team @ first out. Jill & Thomas second. Team @ gets cab. J + T get cab. Brook & Claire get cab, now in last place. Team @ is glad their driver is fast. B + C would rather be in LA traffic than Bangladesh traffic. Team @ arrives at the platforms. Heights are not Nat's thing. Cluebox - welcome to the drop zone. Nearly 14,000 cargo containers passing through. Giant cranes will take teams "one drop closer to finish line." Ride to top of train, get clue, then bungee 150 feet. Nat doesn't want to think about it. Flashback to past height moments. Kat tells Nat to take deep breaths. Jill & Thomas and Brook & Claire arrive. Nat & Kat get started. The other teams pull up. Jill and Thomas seem slightly nervous. Brook says she's just going to have to deal with it. Nat is "doing awesome." Jill & Thomas begin the task. Brook & Claire get the clue. Nat goes for "mind over matter." Thomas notes Nat's problem with heights. Commercial break. 8:43 P.M. Back from break. Nat is petrified. Thomas says the view is gorgeous. Nat and Kat bungee. They scream, they seem to find it thrilling. Kat interviews that Nat screamed she'd never do it again. "Can you believe we just did that? I didn't even pee my pants." Jill & Thomas bungee. Thomas says it was sweet. Kat says Nat did great. They're apparently on standby. Nat & Kat get their clue - take a helicopter to your next destination. Brook says she doesn't like free-falling B + C bungee. Brook says she just about lost her bananas. She's screaming like crazy. Jill & Thomas get the clue. Helicopter to surprise destination. Brook and Claire are "coming in hot." Brook thought she was gonna die. They get the clue. Team @ reaches their helicopter and it takes off. They find it "awesome" and "cool." Jill & Thomas board their helicopter. Brook & Claire board theirs. "Oh my God. Oh, this is awesome! This is the best way yet! This is what the race is about." Team @'s journey continues. "Ride of the Valkyries" plays. Thomas says it's "so cool. A lot better way to see LA than stuck on the 405." A stadium can be seen. Landing in hte Rose Bowl stadium. Team @ lands. Cluebox. Take letter A - Roadblock. Tournament of Roses parade a New Year's Day event tradition. In the shadow of the arena - mental and physical stamina, surprisingly difficult - work on a float that would normally take 10,000 hours. Decorate three sections of the official float. Judge is 2009 Rose Queen. Nat takes the Roadblock. Starts with mums. Kat says J & T must be right behind. Nat likes interior decorating, but she's left-brained, not an artist. Nat does Section A. Jill & Thomas lands. Nat starts on roses. Thomas takes the Roadblock. Jill says they've been working the Roadblocks so he could do the last one. Jill - "shoot." Thomas - "I've never crafted anything. Would have been better for Jill to do." "He is not crafty... were hoping for upper-body." Brook & Claire land. Brook takes the Roadblock. "This is what you do in your free time. This is where we normally catch up." Brook says she's been on a couple floats - she feels "at home." Nat is decorating a rose. Following an example. Thomas trying to go as fast as possible, but also do everything correctly. Nat asks for hers to be evaluated. Told she didn't prep her roses correctly. Didn't notice that they were filled with water. Now fixing her roses. Nat asks again. Certified. Receives next clue from Rose Queen. Solve a riddle and then make their way to that location. Nat & Kat take off. Three clues to next destination. Nat & Kat move, others continue Roadblock. Nat & Kat ask for iPhone or telephone from taxi. Their driver doesn't know the answers. Nat & Kat search for another taxi. Commercial break. 8:58 P.M. Back again. It's been intense so far, eh? Nat & Kat are still in first - excellent. Hope they don't have too much taxi trouble. Okay, back to the show... Team @ still can't find someone who knows Sancho Panza, the first clue. Thomas completes Roadblock. Team @ decides to call for information. Nat: "Hi. I'm sorry. I'm in a race." - title. Thomas and Jill are in a taxi, ask for a call. Ask to call a friend near computer. "No, it's my computer." Thomas: "What?!" He asks for dispatch. Brook says she's done. Go see the Rose Queen. Receives clue. She loves the Rose Queen's crown. Team @ learns he's in Don Quixote. Thomas and Jill's cabbie doesn't understand "Google search." Nat & Kat think they need Quixote Studios. J & T's cab driver admits he doesn't know what the Internet is. Brook & Claire ask for Internet. Thomas asks to use cabbie's phone. The cabbie is on the phone. Jill says they need to get off. What is with this guy? Where's he driving them to? Nat & Kat find there's a lot of Quixote Studios. Make sure they're going to the right one. Brook & Claire get Internet at a hotel. J & T's driver thinks they want Pasadena. He tries his GPS. They tell him it's not a computer. Nat & Kat are arriving at Quixote Studios. Find that they need Stage 7. Find cluebox. "That's entertainment" - Hollywood game shows have tested trivia. Now, the teams will be tested on whether they've been paying attention. Pictures of 48 people - 11 of them were greeters. They must identify all eleven and put them on their TV screens in the correct order. When they do, legendary game show host Bob Eubanks (Newlywed Game) will give them next clue. Nat & Kat begin the task. Think number 31 an African woman is #3. Brook & Claire still at hotel. Think they have the answer. Griffith Park - Stage 7 - correct. Jill says they need to get out of the cab. He stops and they exit. They find a place with Internet. Now on standby. Nat & Kat continue task. Think #38 is Korea. They say they wrote everything down and they got out their notebooks. They're not going in order, which is okay. Find a guy from Norway. Brook & Claire on their way. Say they're in big hurry, not all lost. Jill & Thomas still looking for Internet. Ask a woman, no response. Thomas says he doesn't know what he's doing. Nat & Kat find a Russian guy that they don't remember. Brook & Claire still in taxi. "We could be in first or last." Nat & Kat seem to have about 8 of 11. Seem a bit stuck. Commercial break. 9:12 P.M. Nat & Kat could very well have it sealed up. They're very much ahead. I sure hope so. Less than 20 minutes left! Walmart advertising "toys, toys and more toys." I bet. All sorts of closings and delays running at the bottom of my screen - major winter snowstorm here. Rain and ice changed to snow, 3 to 5 inches expected. Back to the show. Nat & Kat decide to try another number. Have two blank slots. Brook & Claire still on their way. Nat & Kat think 8 is Oman. Still missing #7. Lock their answer in - all correct! Bob Eubanks gives clue. Race to finish line!!!! Travel by taxi to finish line - Greystone Mansion. First to check in will win Amazing Race and one million dollars. Nat & Kat on their way, in taxi. Ask to use phone. B + C arrive at Roadblock. Thrilled to see Eubanks. Claire, "Good old Bob just standing there." They begin the task. No sign of J & T. They're well out of it. Brook & Claire begin the task, seem to be moving fast. Nat & Kat aren't sure if being on surface streets is good or bad. B + C continue. Nat & Kat say it's hard to sit in gridlocked traffic. Completely stopped. B & C are completing the task. They are... correct. Get clue from Eubanks. They are in a taxi and on their way. Jill & Thomas back with their old taxi driver. Say it's brutal. Jill thinks they're screwed. Nat & Kat - very nervous. Traffic is "killing" Kat. B & C's driver says he knows where he's going. "Can you make us win?!" Team @ says they like honking. B & C imagine being told that they won, first ever female team. Pit Stop can be seen. Past eliminated teams... Nat & Kat have won The Amazing Race 17!!! "Are we first? Are we first?" 9:17 P.M. "4 continents, 30 cities, 32,000 miles, Nat & Kat you have made history and become the first female team to win The Amazing Race. You win one million dollars." Nat talks about racing as a diabetic. Brook & Claire arrive. "Brook and Claire, you are the second team. Congratulations. Another all-female team. One and two for the women. Congratulations." Phil asks if they're glad they did the race together. Brook says that Claire shocked her. Says they broke the stereotype of the strong woman - you can tap into your femininity. "Brook and Claire flair." Jill & Thomas arrive. "You're the third team to finish this race." Says they've been so consistent, made a few mistakes, but not like today. Thomas says it was a bad day. It didn't come through in the end. Jill - "Why am I crying?" Thomas says that she's trying to say it was a special experience. He wouldn't have done it with anyone else. Everyone applauds. All hug. Some words from the past eliminated teams. Words from Mallory. "Can we do it again?" Stephanie says they'll cherish every moment. She can't wait to tell her kids about the adventure. (Well, there is one on the way.) Nat & Kat - "It's about time a girl-girl team won. We're honored to be that team." Phil: A special sneak preview of next season - They are some of the most memorable, dynamic and interesting - Kynt & Vyxsin and more. They didn't come in first, some didn't cross the finish line, but you love them. The Amazing Race has always unfinished business for them. Now they get another chance to run the race again. "Dig deep, and prove they are the best." Harlem Globetrotters. "What will it take to win a million bucks?" Your favorite teams return to finish what they started - Brook & Claire! New Amazing Race for first time in high def. Season Premiere, February 20, only CBS. End of episode.

I haven't blogged since the big blog problem we had a while back. it seems that everything is all sorted out now, so I thought I'd just pop in with a quick quote from a book that I'm currently reading and enjoying-- Cat in a Topaz Tango: A Midnight Louie Mystery, by Carole Nelson Douglas and Midnight Louie. The quote is from Midnight Louie, who is a feline P.I. who "writes" part of the story-- "I cannot tell you how sick, ticked, and piqued I am about cell phones. These miserable little devices are like a medieval infestation of rats. They breed everywhere. People are entirely at their beck and call, and run shrieking to cuddle them every time they squeal. And they have a thousand annoying voices, some famous. This fad to have unique 'ring tones' is a plague on humanity. Anyone with sensitive hearing is assaulted daily, and also left out of the loop watching folks speak loudly as they wander down the street. Time was, people behaved that way, they were put in custody 'for observation.'" That is all for now. More detailed blog entry coming soon.

Today, TV.com made some excellent and long overdue fixes to its submission interface and other aspects of the site. These are really great changes and hopefully a sign that the site is moving in the right direction. Let's break them down one by one: Level 1 Users May Not Submit: I know some people aren't happy about this because they feel it's going to lead to an increase in junk submissions. But let's look at what we had before-- anyone whose level was 1 was bounced to the homepage! No error message, nothing explaining that you must be at least Level 2 to submit, just the homepage. Some of these people would come over to Technical or General Support to complain, but I get the feeling many others simply got disgusted and left the site. I'll take the new way, thanks. Submission History Restored: How lame was it that you could only see a single page of your submission history? Very lame. Full submission history is now back in play. Check your status for any submission, sort by show or person and view any submissions made all the way back to the start of the site TV.com. Fantastic. Checkboxes for the Import Feature (Cast/Crew): The previous Import feature was cumbersome and terrible. Now you can just use checkboxes instead of having to click and scroll, click and scroll, click and scroll. A breath of fresh air. Emblems Restored: i don't really care too much about emblems, but it's nice to see the emblem wonkiness finally taken care of. Trusted User Granting Restored: Editors can now once again assign Trusted Users. Very glad to see this back. For those that don't already know, I recently got a brand-new computer system not long after I got my new monitor. This is one fantastic system. It's an HP Pavilion desktop, model #a6700y. It's a quadcore AMD Phenom 9150e at 1.80 GHz. Operating system is 64-bit Windows Vista Home Premium SP3 (yeah, I know, but I really don't mind Vista too much) and it has 4 GB of memory and approximately 500 MB hard drive space. Its Windows Experience Index rating is 3.0 out of 5.9. I know that doesn't sound like much, but the Index score rates to the lowest of all of the individual scores. Let's take a look at each of those. Processor (calculations per second) is a 5.8 out of 5.9. Memory (RAM) is a 5.9. Graphics (Desktop performance for Windows Aero) is a 3.9. Gaming graphics (3D business and gaming graphics performance) is the 3.0. And finally, Primary hard disk (Disk data transfer rate) is 5.9. So, really, the scores are generally pretty top-flight, it's just the graphics that drag it down, and I didn't buy it to be a gaming machine. I get quite enough of gaming from my Playstation 2, thank you very much. The display adapter is an NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430. I've heard that's on the lower end, but I can always upgrade it if needed. The new computer is great. It's really quite a nice difference not having to deal with slowness while running multiple applications, or sitting for long waits, or dealing with instability in general. Finally, some big news! I'm finally making the switch to high-speed Internet Service. I've ordered ZoomTown DSL from Cincinnati Bell. No more tiresome waits for pages to load or having to block slow-loading content or content just not loading at all. With DSL, my high speed, high power experience is finally complete. My DSL modem is on the way and the estimated delivery date is July 7 (though hopefully sooner.) And then, it's sayonara to slow dial-up! I had a bit of a problem-- I was going to order the slower "Lite" DSL for $20 a month, but when I went to the page to order, it insisted on doing a "bundle" with phone service, even though that wasn't what it said in the advertising and on the original page. I thought about pressing the issue, but decided to just go ahead and go with the $30 high-speed. It's over 5 times faster than the "lite" version, so that's really a much better deal. It'll set me back a bit, but I'll make do, and the higher speed might just help with making some money, as I'm getting pretty good at eBay. :) Oh, and I've updated my profile and picture here at TV.com. Check it out if you have a moment.

More TV Than I Can Shake a Stick At Well, a couple of days ago I made the "switch," as such, to digital TV. I purchased a converter box and an antenna and now have them set up and working. Those that have read my blog before may be asking, "Agent George, why would you need that? You have satellite TV." Well, yes, but those who are reading that have satellite know what you get with as far as locals-- the basic set of locals for your market and that's it. Digital subnetworks? Fuggedaboutit. With my new setup, I can now get five different PBS channels and two different versions of most other local stations. I also get a station devoted mostly to playing the weather, though they also air sports and other special programming. In particular, they air the televised baseball games of the local minor league team,the Dayton Dragons and baseball is the only sport I care even remotely about watching. Of course, my having done this may beg another question-- if I have this, then how about I stop paying the satellite company for locals now? An interesting idea, but if I were to do that, then I could no longer record the new episodes of any of my favorite major network shows such as Medium or 24 onto my DVR. So it looks like I'm stuck paying for now. Has TV.com Been Supplanted by Wikis? No, I'm not talking about Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that any moron with a mouse can vandalize. I'm talking about Wiki communities, particularly those on Wikia.com, devoted to one subject. When TV.com first came out as TV Tome, it was new and revolutionary. Never before had there been a model quite like it on the Internet. The Editor system, in particular, was sheer genius. However, I'm beginning to think that TV.com is slowly being supplanted by Wiki communities. For example, let's say I want to know about Tony Almeida. I can go to http://24.wikia.com and type in Tony Almeida in their search and bam! -- I can find out the entire history of character Tony Almeida on 24. Can I do that on TV.com? No, since despite multiple requests, TV.com does not have character guides. Here's another one. Suppose I want to know about how to get 24 on DVD. I can click on the 24 media link on the main page for that Wiki and find out all about DVDs and other media. Can I do that on TV.com? No, because TV.com doesn't have DVD guides. Some other great Wikis include the Muppet Wiki (where you can find more information than you could ever want on shows such as Muppet Babies, Sesame Street, Bear in the Big Blue House and others) , Wookiepedia (the Star Wars Wiki) and the Final Fantasy Wiki. And yesterday, a new Wiki, the PB&J Otter Wiki was started. Within minutes, I began adding info -- screenshots, character info, song pages-- none of which you could ever do on TV.com Of course, you can link to pages on TV.com from Wikis, though you can't ever link back, thanks to TV.com's asinine "no linking to outside sites" policy. Is it time to maybe just let TV.com do what it wants and become a video portal? Well, maybe, but I love TV.com and will continue to submit for such great shows as The Amazing Race, Hell's Kitchen and PB&J Otter. But I will also be spending my time at Wiki communities.

I... couldn't. I don't think. Don't feel I'm cut out for it. However, having edited the guide here (and formerly TV Tome) for fourteen seasons, I'd like to think I know a few things about how to do well in the race. So... Learn a Foreign Language or Few - I'm not saying you have to be fluent. Far from it. But before going on the race, it would probably be a good idea to learn certain words and phrases such as "hello," "taxicab," "airport," "Where is this?" and such in Spanish, Arabic, Chinese and maybe two or three other languages to boot. And maybe pick one language to study in somewhat more detail, say, Spanish. Politeness Pays - While you're learning those languages, you might want to also learn "thank you," "please," "excuse me" and "I'm sorry." And if they aren't already in your vocabulary in English... Don't Brag, Just Do - So you know how to speak the languages, you have great flight skills, etc. That's great-- but why would want the other teams to know about all that? Don't brag about your skills, just do what you know how to do. If You Can't Hack it Physically... - Then the Race may not be for you. If you can't climb that mountain, if you don't want to do that bungee jump, then it's time to think about not coming on. And before you do come on the show, it might be a good idea to practice stuff, such as running. On the same token... If You Can't Hack it Mentally... - Knowing how to book flights. Getting from place to place. Working things out with your teammate. If these things aren't your strong suit, then it's also time to put down that application. Know the Rules - Read the rulebook from back to front before you go on. Memorize it. Watch past seasons of the show. Keep the rules in your head. You don't want to get a penalty. Leave Nothing Behind - Know where your personal possessions are. Don't set anything down mindlessly and especially don't ever part from your passports. It's a Race - Which means that mechanisms such as the U-Turn and the Yield are okay. Use them smartly-- try to take out a stronger team if you can. If you're running behind, try to delay somebody else. Alliances are also fine, but never at the expense of your own victory. Money, Money Money - Money is usually provided at the start of every leg. Manage it well, or you could run out later. If you have the people skills, use them, and get money from others. Use it as you see fit. And finally... On Foot Means Walk, Don't Take a Taxi - Or in other words, "read the clues." Read them carefully. Follow the directions exactly as stated. Otherwise, you're looking at a penalty and could very well be out. Note: This is also being posted simultaneously to my blog. Edit-- I added one below Learn a Foreign Language.

Well, I read somewhere a while back that with the shifting nature of television, May sweeps just aren't the big deal that they used to be. Maybe so, but they sure are hitting us hard with the finales and other great programming. So far, I've already seen the season finales for Hell's Kitchen (the right person won) and Numb3rs (what an ending.) Oh, and The Amazing Race, last week. Good ending there too. Those were Thursday and Friday and the fun continues starting tonight. Sunday: Tonight is the season finale of Survivor. This season was Tocantins: The Brazilian Highlands and there have been a lot of great moments. One of them was the most recent episode. I've already rewatched Coach's amazing boot several times. My favorite part is watching the reactions of the jury as he reads that ridiculous poem of his. BTW, if anyone wants to, go visit the Survivor forum here at TV.com and post a question for their interview with the Survivor cast. It seems like not many people are asking questions and the interview is supposed to be today, so I think they really need more. In any case, I'll be looking forward to tonight's finale. I'm rooting for either Taj or J.T. and I'm also rooting for Coach taking up as little time on the finale and live reunion show as possible. Monday - 24 airs its explosive season finale from 8-10. I've been a fan of this show from the beginning and it's really been great this season. Kim is back and, well... that's not great, but it does set things up so Jack is being made to try and rescue Tony, his surprising arch-nemesis. Can't wait to see how that's going to go. After that, I've got Medium. This one's not actually a finale-- the way NBC is scheduled things, that won't air until a couple weeks from now, in June. At least it's not two hours, though, like the past couple weeks. I'm going to be very curious to see what happens with Medium, though once NBC starts airing Leno at 10 every weeknight starting next season. Where are they gonna put it? The word I read in USA Today is that it still isn't definitely renewed, but they'd be really, really dumb to cancel it. It just rates too well. If they did that, I think I would be officially done with NBC. There is nothing else I want to watch on there. Tuesday - At 8 P.M., it's the final two performance for American Idol. Kris Allen vs. the show's biggest surprise to date, the amazing Adam Lambert. I haven't always liked all of Adam's performances, but he's definitely fresh, surprising and current. It should be quite interesting to watch. At 10 P.M., it's Without a Trace. Swan song? I don't know, but I do know that there's going to be some great stuff with the upcoming marriage of Danny and Elena. Oh, and there'll be another missing person, of course. Wednesday - American Idol finale. Two+ hours -- the schedule indicates they've got it coded till something like 10:06 -- of fluff, followed by the crowning of the winner. My plan is to tune into my recording at 9 and power past the junk and the commercials. And that's it. After that, my fall finale schedule will have petered out. No more finales until Medium on June 1. Time reclaimed to do other stuff. :) Nickelodeon, however, has been programming for sweeps. Last week, they aired a week of new episodes of Ni Hao, Kai-lan! which were really quite fun. I started watching the show regularly recently and quite enjoy it. This week, it's The Wonder Pets! I'm very excited about it. Tomorrow, they're going to have an episode featuring the voice of the late Eartha Kitt, who won a Daytime Emmy award for her role on The Emperor's New School against The Wonder Pets!'s Danica Lee. And it turns out that they had a chance to perform together. :) Also, at the end of the week, a special episode celebrating the pets' 100th save. Next season, there are gonna be some changes for me. I've decided to drop Heroes, which I feel has gotten mostly ridiculous. Furthermore, and more importantly, I've come to realize that I no longer really care about what happens to the characters. And, if I don't care, then why watch? Instead, I've decided to slot in The Mentalist. I didn't watch that program this season, but I've come to realize that's a mistake. I have seen bits and pieces of it and I've really liked what I've seen, so I'm going to get the show on DVD when it comes out and put it on watch so that I can be all caught up. Also, I haven't decided for sure yet, but I'm giving serious consideration to dropping American Idol. It's such a time drain and I already use DVR to skip most of the stuff I don't care about anyway, such the clip packages and group performances, etc. In fact, most of the last few results shows, I've spent a good portion of the time watching DVRed recordings of Qubo's airings of Babar. Without a Trace - I want this show to come back, but it seems like there's a good chance it could be canceled. Won't know for sure until I think sometime this week. If it is, then that's another show off my schedule. It would really be a shame if they did, though. Apparently it actually still rates pretty good, but they're looking to cut costs. The other shows that are competing against it to stay on the air are NCIS and The Unit, neither of which I watch. Also, there's been some slight talk that it's uncertain if Numb3rs will be coming back, but I don't put much credence to this, since I've heard nothing suggesting it's actually endangered. I'd be very surprised if it was canceled.

Star Trek and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Two big movies that lots of people are talking about and both of which I'm planning to see and am quite excited about (the latter much more than the former, though.) There is, however, another potentially big film that has caught my eye, though, and one that I'd really like to see, and that's Disney/Pixar's newest offering, Up. It's been promoted rather heavily, but for those that don't know, Up is the story of Carl Fredricksen. He and his wife, Ellie, always dreamed of becoming world adventurers, but ended up working at a zoo. Ellie has passed away, but Carl still dreams of adventuring. When a couple of people come to take him to nursing home, he takes his chance and floats away in his home, tied to a bunch of balloons. It seems, though, he's picked up a stowaway in the form of Russell, a little boy who's intent on helping him out. Well, that's the plot in a nutshell. I won't spoil the rest, but for those that want to know more, a number of books are already out, including a movie novelization, a limited edition read-aloud storybook with poster and an easy-reader book called Bird's Best Friend. I've read both of the latter two and, while the plot is highly simplified (though I'm sure it won't be in the movie novelization) I got a sense that this film is definitely going to be good. Don't read them though if you don't want to be spoiled! I've discovered a Wiki called TV Tropes. It's pretty fun and interesting. I think a lot of people here would like it. From its description-- "This wiki is a catalog of the tricks of the trade for writing fiction." So though it's mainly focused on television, they also cover movies and literature, etc., as well. A couple of my favorite examples include Here Comes the Science and Furry Confusion. In other news, today (or rather yesterday, I suppose, since it's actually after midnight here) I got a new monitor for my computer. The one I was using conked out completely the night before, so I had to replace it. This new one is a significant upgrade from my old one, which was (is?) one of those old bulky types that they don't even make anymore. This new one is a flatscreen. It's widescreen at 20 inches. It's the cheapest model I could find, but it's actually really very nice. The brand is Acer. Honestly, it's way more space than I'm used to; I don't really know what to do with it all. :D I feel like opening up both Firefox and Internet Explorer and displaying them side-by-side just for kicks, though that's probably not a good idea-- the monitor may be new, but my computer system is still pretty old.

Well, it looks like we've spoken and TV.com has heard. Next episode and Show Summary were restored to their proper places on the main show pages and all of the information for episode pages besides the episode summary is no longer hidden completely on separate tabs. Thank goodness. So hopefully this whole affair was just a little bump in the road and we can get back to things that will make this site better and more exciting to use. I've heard it in the wind that some possibly truly exciting updates are coming, so stay tuned! With things being restored on the site, I'm reneging on my previous statement of no longer pursuing any show guide editorships. I'm hoping to became Editor soon for a cute little show called Pajanimals. It hasn't actually been added to the site yet, but I'm hoping it will be soon. This is a short segment show that airs daily on PBSKids Sprout, as part of their "Goodnight Show." Normally, if a show puts someone to sleep, that's a bad thing, but this show is all about that. More info can be found about it-- here, you can even view a full video with the theme song, one of the episode songs and behind-the-scenes info. As far as Final Fantasy: Unlimited goes, I've actually recently discovered the Final Fantasy Wiki and have been adding the info there. It's pretty fun-- you can do full recaps with screenshots, links to character and term information and more. So far I've posted recaps for six episodes-- I've linked them from my user page if by some chance anyone wants to look at them.

This coming Wednesday is Earth Day (and also Administrative Professionals Day-- I bet you that's something you didn't know!) Yep, all day that day and all week leading up to it, we're going to be hearing about saving the planet. I've already expressed some of my thoughts about the whole idea in a past blog-- I certainly don't set out to destroy the Earth, but sometimes I think the whole thing sometimes gets a bit ridiculous. Well, as I said, this coming Wednesday is Earth Day... so ready to buy some stuff? Yep, it seems that Earth Day has become another opportunity for big sales. The other day, I received an e-mail from Amazon.com, urging me to "celebrate Earth Day with eco-friendly toys." And Disney is hoping to drive people to theaters (get it?! - drive!) so that they can watch their newest film, Earth. And various "eco-friendly" retailers are taking advantage of the holiday to push their stuff at a deep-discount and try to get people into their stores, or shop for it online. No doubt it'll all be in supposedly eco-friendly packaging, too-- but well (I honestly don't know what to say.) Well, if that doesn't jockle your jollies, I suppose there's at least the old tube. No doubt we'll be hearing all about Earth Day on it. Actually, Earth Day isn't so bad for someone like me who's a fan of children's animation, as networks like Noggin generally air various programming that actually isn't half-bad. My lineup will include "Franklin Plants a Tree" (really pretty cute) and the newest episode of Toot & Puddle. Erm, so remember folks-- save a tree-- buy some stuff! Or something.