I haven't been on TV.com in a year!!

Ooops.

I wasn't on here during the summer last year because of the reruns. Then my computer died right before the season started up. Then I decided not to replace it and see how much money I would save if I didn't have access to internet shopping - A LOT! I didn't replace my computer until February. From the looks of my bank account, maybe I shouldn't have replaced it at all... lol.

And THEN my NEW laptop decided to just go ahead and die on me in May, so it was in the shop for a couple of weeks. I'm just now at a point where I am remembering all the sites I used to frequent.

And tonight I discovered this show - a 16yr old show, go figure - called The Odyssey. Wow. I can't figure out if it's really morbid or really good or just both. I think now I understand a little bit more where Tin Man came from (instead of just coming from DSotM and SW and WoO) (and Indy). Tin Man is my new all-time favorite mini-series (I love the 10th Kingdom, too) (need to watch them both), so I'm really glad to have found something new - er, new-to-me - to watch... and hey! Three seasons worth!

It is a bit dark, though. What if Dorothy had never come back from Oz, never woke up at the end of Wizard of Oz, and Aunt Em had to put her in an extended stay facility?? And they were to have cut back to Kansas to show her almost coding and having seizures, etc. That's the basic idea. I'm very surprised that this was listed as a children's show. Granted, in college I wrote a very dark fairy tale which got criticism from the only other girls in the class for being - gasp - a dark fairy tale - and was defended by the people who had actually read the original versions of Grimm... but still. That was a long time ago. And this show is a bit graphic at times, showing how bad off Jay is.

Was. The show WAS graphic at times. I forget it's been off the air for thirteen years. :-)

Anyway - I just know my sister would NOT let her kids watch it. They are 9 and almost 11. But I LOVE it.

I have never had any problem doing anything on TV.com. I've rated shows with no problem, and saved them to my favorites, and rated episodes. I've found actors and rated them and saved them to my favorites. TV.com is well set up and always seems to work. I can't say the same for filmspot or mp3.com so far. My main problem on filmspot is that my ratings don't seem to "take" - I rate something and then later it hasn't been rated by me. That's frustrating. On mp3.com, it's not saving my ratings OR saving artists or albums to my favorites. I have a few in there right now, but not nearly the number I tried to save.

Also on mp3.com, it SAYS you can rate AND review artists, albums, and songs. HOW?? I see how to rate the artist and the album (if the rating will "stick," that is), and I have seen the spot for reviewing the artist, but there doesn't seem to be a separate place for reviewing each album, much less a song, and I can't even find a rating scale for the songs. I see where other people have posted album and song reviews under the artist without saying what song or album they were talking about - THAT'S not confusing at all...

I'm starting to wish I hadn't ventured out from TV.com, but I have a lot more music I could rate than TV shows, and I figured I might as well start in on the movies, but the sites are driving me so crazy I don't know if it's worth it!

I really do love JJ Abrams. Granted, I have refused to watch Lost after the first season because I was irritated at the way the third season of Alias was mangled, and I blamed it on his distraction with preparing for Lost... but I was SO thrilled to find out that he was going to be in charge of the new Star Trek movie! That just sounded perfect! Such an amazing producer in charge of one of my most beloved shows? GREAT!

And then I check the credits on filmspot, and I see two things. Number one, Matt Damon is listed in the cast???? I don't want to think of him as Spock OR Kirk. Ack.

But even more disturbing, when I click on JJ's credits to add him to my favorites, I see... that HE is the one who wrote the script for Regarding Henry.

Sigh.

That is one of the few movies I ever saw with my late husband that he just truly, truly hated, and for good reason. Like the kid in the movie, he had a father who suffered a traumatic brain injury when he was a child - but unlike Harrison Ford's character, Ian's father didn't change for the better in the end. He went from a wonderful, loving father to a man who had violent mood swings and had to be helped with everything, and in the end, Ian's mother - with a five year old and a new baby (she was pregnant when the accident happened) ended up divorcing him to protect her children. Ian never saw his father again. His sister grew up being told that her father had died, not learning the truth until she was in either high school or college, I forget which, when she visited her paternal grandparents (their mother had died when Ian was nine - they were raised by their maternal grandmother and had little contact with their paternal grandparents) for a weekend and suddenly was introduced to her father. The only memories Ian had were of a man who was wonderful when he was four, then went away for a while and came back completely different - mean and unpredictable and NOT his father, and his life was torn apart. It wasn't ANYthing like the movie, and he resented the implication that it should be. I think he kind of didn't like the end to Return of the Jedi for close to the same reason... he never wanted to see his father again - he wanted to try to keep the memories of the highly intelligent man who was going to college and the editor of the literary magazine on campus, and not see the man he had become.

I met his father at the visitation before the funeral. It was strange. This Tuesday, the 26th, it will be 10 years since Ian died. He would have turned 39 in August. As far as I know, though, his dad is still alive. After the funeral, his sister tried to keep in touch with her father and that side of the family for a while, but old habits die hard - they didn't keep in touch with her for long. I guess because none of them had actually kept in touch with her father, either... keeping in touch with her would have reminded them of that.

Anyway. That movie was over 15 years ago, and JJ isn't actually writing the Star Trek show, so I'm sure it will all turn out fine.

But seriously. Matt Damon??? What, is Ben Affleck playing Captain Kirk??

Have I mentioned lately how much I love Spinelli on General Hospital?? I need to go back later and write down the exact quote, but I started watching yesterday's episode before I realized exactly how tired I am (I've been up almost 24 hrs), and I just absolutely love the way they write for him. Ric was badgering him to "talk" - to confess all he knew about Jason murdering Alcazar, saying that he would be charged as an accessory - and so finally Spinelli said that he would tell all. Ric put a tape recorder in front of him, and Spinelli started talking about how in the beginning there was Sauron and the rings... LOL!! Like I said, I'll have to go back later and write down the exact quote - it was much longer than that. At some point I'll have to post the quote from a while back where he managed to reference Julius Caesar, greek mythology, and Star Wars all at once!

The writers at GH just totally rock when it comes to Spinelli!!

Arghgurgleargh.

That's me making pathetic strangling noises.  In ABC Soaps in Depth (the June 19th issue), there is a "Star Search" blurb about an opportunity to meet Bradford Anderson (Spinelli on General Hospital).  It's on page 100, for those of you who want to read along.  It says that you can bid for the opportunity to join him at a fundraising gold tournament for the Friends of Manchester Animal Shelter in Manchester, NH.  Aaaarrrrggghhhhh...  If only I didn't have two dentist appointments lined up this month (had to get them both in before the end of my assignment here in Kansas the first week in July because I'm not certain where I will be after that - hoping to get my NY license so I can go to Buffalo for the summer), I would SO be bidding and flying there for a couple of days so I could go to that (because I WOULD bid enough to win).  I even have a week off right at that point, the way the schedule worked out.

 Argh.

For anyone else who wants to bid, you can go to http://www.manchesteranimalshelter.org for more details, or call 603-628-3544.  Bidding ends June 11th, and the event is on Monday, June 25th.

It's so funny - I have not been this hooked on a soap character since I don't even know when, but Spinelli is just so, so CUTE!!!  I have a note on my computer reminding me to go to SOD online and vote for Lulu and Spinelli as the top couple (even though they aren't one quite yet) each week, because unfortunately, since you can only vote once a week, I tend to forget without a note...  I need to figure out if Bradford Anderson has a fan club!

I wrote a review of "Honor Among Thieves" this morning, and the stupid form ran the first three paragraphs all together into one paragraph, and I keep trying to edit it and it won't separate them!  And now it has two other paragraphs towards the end together, too.

 Grrr.

Okay, I apologize for the title.  I couldn't resist. 

 I finally got up the nerve to submit something (trivia) to tv.com.  In the Criminal Minds episode "Derailed," this has always bugged me - Elle is going to Dallas, but she flies to El Paso and takes a train back to Dallas.  Having lived in the DFW area since 2001 (and it's the first place that has ever truly felt like home - I think once you're a Texan?  You're a Texan - unlike when you move to Vermont and are never truly a Vermonter, or whatever they are called) (or was that New Hampshire?), and at least having a basic knowledge of TX geography, and knowing the size of the DFW airport, this bothered me a little.

I was also suspicious of the train thing.  When I was in Vermont last summer, there was a train line that ran through the state and had stations close to me, so I thought it would be cool to take the train to Maine for a weekend.  So I looked it up.  Was that going to work?  Nooooo.  The route was going to take me through BOSTON and be more than twelve hours, and be as much as round trip airfare for just one leg of the trip (of course, I'd have to drive to Boston for a flight, too - driving to Maine would have been the easiest)!  There was no way I could have done it in a weekend.

So, I got a little obsessive (who, me?) and went to priceline.com and amtrak.com and looked it all up, and found that no, actually, it wouldn't have worked...  She could have flown non-stop to Dallas in three hours, but instead, she flew 6 hrs to El Paso (with a layover in either Dallas or Chicago), waited a day, at least, since the train schedule shows that the train from El Paso only leaves at 9am on Mon Th and Sat, and no plane would get in early enough for her to make the train, and then she took the THIRTY HOUR train trip to Dallas.

So I send it in, and then I tell my brother about it, and he tells me that I sound like a "Foamer" - someone who is completely obsessed with trains and knows where all of the engines are at all times and apparently bothers the people at Amtrak quite a bit... my brother had a friend who worked for Amtrak and told him about them.  So now I'm slightly embarassed.  I mean, it's one thing to be taken as being obsessed about what you really ARE obsessed about (in my case, time issues and anything lab related), but to have people think you're obsessed with something you know nothing about... well, that's just terrible.  :-)  So, for the record, I know nothing about trains.  I just know how to use the internet, and I believe in verifying details.

Personally, I can understand them having Elle on the train (the audio commentary says she wanted to work with Chris Bauer, who played the "bad" guy (although he wasn't quite so bad - I HATE it when they have the misunderstood guys end up getting shot at the end!), but couldn't they have had some throw-in line explaining why she went to El Paso in the first place?  She could have had family there.  And maybe she liked trains.  Maybe all the flights were booked for the next week.  :-)  Something...  But it was still a very good episode.  I like the episodes with the delusional characters.  :-) 

Once again - where were Anna and Robert when Robin was being forced to pretend that she didn't love Patrick anymore, she was in love with Nicholas, and she had to live at Wyndemere while Mr. Craig/Mr. Brosnan/Jerry Jacks was poisoning the dear boy?  No normal hospital lab has the equipment to analyze toxins at ALL, much less come up with a counter-agent to cure it.  I imagine Hobby was really popular at work during that time period, doing nothing to help his fellow lab techs with all of the regular work that he was getting paid to do, and instead focusing all of his time and energy on a secret, NOT ordered therefore NOT being billed or paid for, project for Dr. Robin which had him monopolizing extremely expensive equipment and reagents.  If Dr. Ford is so concerned about the hospital's finances that he's sending uninsured patients away as soon as they are stable, he needs to look in to the lab and - I hate to say - cut some of THEIR funding!! Normal hospital labs don't do half the stuff soap labs do - DNA testing?  ha! Not any of the hospitals I've worked at, that goes to a reference lab, and most of the hospitals haven't even done the collection since it's such a sensitive subject - but the toxin thing was just too much.  They seriously need a lab tech, or at least someone who understands what actually goes on in a hospital - especially where the lab is concerned - on staff as a consultant.

 Another example - once again, Liz got all concerned about "what if something happened" when the baby was born and the baby might need Jason's blood.  AAARRGGGHHH.  She actually said that they needed to "think like responsible parents," and that Jason needed to be ready to come forward if something did happen.

 Do they have no idea how that could have made all of those single mothers out there feel?  That they weren't "responsible" because the father hadn't been with them when the baby was born?  What about all the women who used sperm donors?  That certainly doesn't make them irresponsible!  The fact is the father does NOT need to be there to donate blood if anything happens.  PERIOD.  Between not knowing if he's the right type, not knowing if he's CMV negative, the processing time, and just the fact that if there's an emergency the kid is going to need it NOW, it's just ridiculous to think that he WOULD need to be there and donate right then.  But still they perpetuate the myth and do their best to make women feel bad.  Grrrrrr.

On the other hand, GH does an incredible job of writing Spinelli.  I actually got a letter about him posted in Soap Opera Weekly.  :-)  Just saying that I adore Spinelli and Lulu together.  Which I do.  Sigh.  I did love Lulu's Three Suitors, though.  They were hilarious.  I'm going to miss Scott Clifton.  I hope he does well in the future, of course, and maybe this bodes well for Spinelli, but still... at least I have theose episodes saved on DVDs!!

I don't even know if Standoff is still on tv, but General Hospital this week seriously needed some help from that show.  Mac wasn't getting anywhere negotiating with the hostage-takers in the Metro Court Hotel, but we all know that wasn't his fault - they want Alcazar's briefcase (although I'd love to know exactly how they plan to open it w/o the code, and now Alcazar has amnesia), and the vault won't open for 12 hrs.  But then RICK LANSING decided to take over?????  The DA?  As a hostage negotiater????  He can't even negotiate custody of  Molly with Alexis, how the hell does anyone think he can free a dozen or so hostages??  And what gives him the right or power to do so?  And how is it that Port Charles has a SWAT team but no kind of person with background in negotiaging a hostage situation?

And WHERE are Robert and Anna????

I think the BAU should be called in, too.  :-)  But then, I think they should be in every show.  I just watched The Terminator again tonight and laughed at the criminal psychologist with Reese - I had totally forgotten about that!  I have T2 at home - I'll have to watch it tomorrow now.  Poor Sarah. 

And Lance Henriksen was a detective in The Terminator, before he was a profiler in Millennium... a couple of years ago I did a marathon weekend of all the Predator, Terminator, and Alien movies (right before AVP came out) - you wouldn't believe how many of them he was in...  :-)  I just love him.

Anyway.  I got off track.  GH has issues.  I love it anyway.

On Friday's show, they had a woman come in, conveniently confide to Liz (who is pregnant with Jason's baby and letting everyone believe it's Lucky's baby) that the baby she was in labor with was not her husband's baby, it was his best friend's baby.

ffwd to the delivery, when there is a problem with the baby AS SOON as it comes out of the mom, and all of a sudden they are saying the baby needs a transfusion, and Liz magically knows that the baby is NOT the same blood type as the mom, so it MUST be the same blood type as the dad, and since the guy there is NOT the dad, SHE has to be the one to break patient confidentiality (so she shouldn't have a job Monday) and tell him this fact and have the police go get his best friend (how exactly did they know who he was besides his first name??) and drag him to the hospital so he could provide blood for a transfusion.

SO MANY PROBLEMS.

#1 - any blood bank is going to just give a baby in that situation O negative blood.

#2 - they hadn't had time to even send the Blood Bank the cord, much less get the results back.

#3 - do you have ANY IDEA how long it takes to process donor blood?? There is no way they would take blood from the father, even if the baby turned out to magically be the same type.

#4 - how would they know the father's type?  Blood banks routinely test the mother's type before delivery, but never the father.

#5 - blood types don't work like that. Just because the baby isn't the same exact type as the mother doesn't mean it's going to be the exact same type as the father. You get two genes - the dominant gene is expressed and you get the phenotype, the A or B. If there's not one, you get O. If Mom's genotype is AO and Dad's is BO, baby could very well be OO and not match either of them. And that's not even counting the Rh factor. If the baby needed that transfusion NOW, they would give them what they had - O neg packed cells, and AB plasma, since those are the universal donors for each category.

GH did this when Sam was in DIC back in May, too. Emily went around recruiting people who were O positive to give plasma when Sam was AB - O plasma has antibodies to both the A and B antigens which would be on Sam's red cells. That plasma would have killed her. AB plasma is universal because it has no antibodies to anything - you can safely give it to any of the four blood types without causing a reaction.

Call me silly. I just think that a show which revolves around a hospital to the point of having the word in the show title should pay a little more attention to getting actual medical "stuff" right.