OK, now that the background color has changed back from red to blue, I can access tv.com from my computer again.  Could the red background color have affected something? 

AARGH!  For some reason, I can access tv.com if I'm on Dan's computer, but *NOT* on mine... and I'm at a loss to explain why.  We're both running the same version of IE, so that's not it.  Grrr...

The most recent example I can think of is the PlayStation commercial with the two people in the mall singing along to The Cure's "Friday I'm In Love."  Love the song, but these two people singing in the mall really shouldn't give up their day job...  ;)

That's OK.  It's better than a song that was used in a commercial about a year ago... for a while during the kids' programs, I'd see a commercial for a pull-up training pant (made by Pampers, I think) which used Snap's "The Power" as bed music (and at the end of the commercial, after the kid has successful gone to the bathroom by themselves, you hear: "I've got the power!").  Oh, let's just say that the mental images I get now when I hear that song are quite different than when I was hearing it on the radio 16 years ago... oi!  :X

I'm actually in the middle of making a soup for a potluck for my oldest child's class this evening at school, so my review will have to be quick.

We start to see Aang mastering controlling himself in the Avatar state, until he has to let go of Katara, but doesn't want to.  Poor Aang!  And when he sees Katara is in trouble, he's willing to sacrifice being able to enter the Avatar state ever again to rescue her.  Although near the end, we see him enter the Avatar state during the climactic battle, but Azula shoots him down while in the Avatar state.  There's been a lot of debate as to whether Aang was "killed" in the Avatar state before Katara healed him with the special healing water from the Northern Water Tribe.  It will be interesting to see how that ends up playing out.

Oh, I swear I wanted to yell at the television when Zuko betrayed Iroh to help Azula.  OK, I know Zuko was disappointed and jealous when, just as Katara was going to try to heal his scar, Aang and Iroh come in and Katara rushes over to Aang... but... but.. .Zuko!!!!!  And I have a pretty good feeling that next season, Azula is going to double-cross Zuko somehow.

Speaking of Azula... damn, she's crafty!  I loved how she turned the Dai Li against Long Feng, and her comment to Long Feng was priceless: "You weren't even a player."  Long Feng definitely had that coming, although I hate that it's at the expense of Ba Sing Se and the Earth Kingdom.

Toph can bend metal!  She *IS* the greatest earth bender in the world!  :)  Go, Toph!

I felt kind of sorry of Sokka, though... just as he "proved" himself to be a man to his father and was about to go out on a mission with him, Aang had to take him away to rescue Katara.  I wonder how the water tribe's mission will play out in Book 3?

And I have to wonder is Mako (the voice actor of Iroh)'s death may have affected the ending.  The last we see of him is telling Katara to take Aang and get out, that he'll hold off Azula and Zuko.  Then, Iroh is captured.  I suspect that Iroh was supposed to be Aang's Firebending teacher, but Mako's death may have forced this change.  Again, it will be interesting to see how this plays out in Book 3.

In some respects, these last two episodes of Book 2 can be compared to The Empire Strikes Back.  Book 3 will show Aang and his friends in their darkest hour, and hopefully we'll see a "good" resolution.

BTW, what do you think will happen to the Earth King as his bear?  The Earth King is definitely a wimp, so it's not like he'll able to help Aang and the others all that much.

Speaking of the bear, I loved it when Azula's cohort won't fight the gang, and tells them to :"Just take the bear."  :)

Sorry this isn't more comprehensive, but still have a lot to get accomplished today...

Now, is it just me, or is Cartoon Network really hyping the heck out of their upcoming TV movie, Reanimated?  While I normally have some kind of interest in projects that mix live action and animation, this one just isn't appealing to me at all (and the over-hyping doesn't help matters).  Between this and the Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer special coming up Friday night on Cartoon Network, we're not going to be watching Cartoon Network's Fridays.  Hopefully Nickelodeon will have a decent alternative this week...

I will get around to sharing my thoughts on Avatar, but I thought I'd quickly post about this, since I saw an article about the Annie Awards this morning:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061204/ap_en_mo/animation_awards

The article focuses a lot on the film categories.  Admittedly, the only one of the films mentioned that I've personally seen is Cars (and we just finally saw it for the first time on Saturday, when we rented it from Blockbuster).  So I guess I'll have to root for that one.  :)

For television series, it's a toss up for me between Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends and The Fairly OddParents (although I'm disappointed that Avatar isn't one the series up for this award).  I've never liked Charlie and Lola, I haven't seen King of the Hill over the past few years, and I have never watched Wow! Wow! Wubzy.

This was originally posted in my MySpace blog back on August 6:

I just saw the Meet Blue's Baby Brother special for Blue's Clues (oh, excuse me, I mean Blue's Room).  Let me just say that it was bloody awful.  It looked like it was either made quickly or cheaply (or both); it looked like they didn't go to a lot of effort to try to make Joe meld with the CG background (compared to normal, anyway; it was much more obvious than usual that Joe didn't "fit in" with his surroundings).

In this story, Blue and Joe go to Puppyville to find Blue's baby brother; instead of playing "Blue's Clues" to find him, they played "Gold Clues" (gold pawprints instead of blue ones).  The first clue was really ridiculous (it was the word "puppy"... ummm... hello, Joe and Blue made it really clear that they were looking for a puppy before they found that clue... and... HELLO... they went to PUPPYville...)

While in Puppyville, they encounter a shy little white puppy named Sprinkles.  Sprinkles is going on an adventure to find his spots; Joe and Blue invite him to go along with him on their quest for the gold pawprints.  Along the way, they stop in areas where Sprinkles can learn his letters, colors, numbers, and shapes (and each time he learns one of these concepts, he gets some spots).  Joe and Blue also find the other gold clues (circles and colored swirls (yellow, orange, and purple... which match the colors of the spots that Sprinkles got)).  And guess what... when they go over the clues in the golden Thinking Chair, they discover that... a ha... Sprinkles is Blue's baby brother!

Overall, I think this story would've been stronger if it had been a normal length episode (there were times it felt like they were stretching things out).  Also, they probably could have come up with a better first clue (sorry, but the word "puppy" was a cop-out!).  I'm not really adverse to the idea of Blue having a baby brother, but I think he could've had a much better introduction (as well as a better name!).

This is a little review of "Arthur's Lost Pal" that I originally posted in my MySpace blog back on August 25.  I thought I'd share it here, too (and I also have one for a Blue's Clues special that aired over the summer, I'll post that in another post after I find it).

My review of "Arthur's Lost Pal":

Today, the kids and I watched the newest Arthur special on PBS (Arthur's Missing Pal).  They decided to do this special with 3D CGI, instead of the regular 2D animation (which they used as a big selling point in the commericals -- "see Arthur like never before," or something to that effect).  After watching the special, the 3D was definitely done as a gimmick, because there was absolutely nothing in the story that necessitated the 3D.  Basically, the plot concerns Arthur's dog disappearing (with a subplot of Arthur's sister, D.W., trying to get tickets to Mary Moo Cow on Ice).  Basically, lots of storytelling cliches used when telling the story of Pal's disappearance (especially for the search; basically, several times, Pal passes by when Arthur and his friends have their backs turned, or just as they're about to locate the dog, he ends up getting away).  And yes, the two plots do come together near the end... but I'm not saying how, so I don't spoil the story.  It was rather disappointing that not all of the main characters were used (although the ones that were used, most really didn't do much of anything to progress the plot... they were just kind of "there").  Also, I think they did a bit to "stretch" this story out to an hour; this special probably would've been stronger if it had only been 30 minutes.  Oh well.  I'm definitely not in any hurry to pick up the DVD that was released on Tuesday.  I just hope that future seasons of Arthur will not be done with the 3D, that it was just a gimmick for this special.

I'm not going to go into too much detail right now, due to the fact that one of my readers hasn't seen it yet.  But let ne just say one word... "wow."  After seeing these two episodes, it's going to be very interesting to see where Book 3 takes this story...

We still have another three hours before the Avatar finale airs on the west coast.  I am very impatiently waiting for it.  :P  The promo teasers on Nick have really piqued my curiosity.

Time is going to move so slooooowly, I just know it...  :P