It's my tv.com anniversary today. It's hard to believe I've been at this site for 4 years already. It really doesn't seem that long. I was just thinking that this last year has gone by so fast. It seems like it was just last year's anniversary a couple of months ago. I've met so many wonderful people here and made so many friends. I'm glad I'm a part of this site.

Hubby's having surgery on his left foot again on July 13. While the first surgery fixed some things, it didn't fix everything and it created additional problems. He's still in constant pain and can't stay on his feet for any length of time. I guess it's easy for these things to go wrong because he's found that a lot of people have had the same issues after foot surgery that he's having. I really hope this second surgery fixes everything. You just can't do anything when your foot hurts all the time. When you're feet hurt, it's the only thing you can think about.

Work is going well, but I'm so busy there. I'm not complaining because it's better than being bored with nothing to do, but it gets so crazy sometimes. I prefer it to be steady rather than manic. I'm on call this week, but haven't been paged (touch wood). I don't really feel like going out to the plant after hours right now.

I haven't been watching a lot of television lately since just about everything is on hiatus. Torchwood is going to begin airing here on July 20 and I'm looking forward to that.

BBC America also aired the Doctor Who Christmas special on June 27. They'll be airing the rest of the specials instead of SyFy as well. I'm glad. They treat the show a lot better than SyFy did. SyFy cut scenes from every episode to make room for ads. The only time BBCA does that is when they re-air episodes that last an hour or more. They never cut it on the first airing, so we always have at least one chance to see the entire episode.

I'm renting Invasion from Netflix. I didn't see it when it aired and I'm sorry I didn't. It's an excellent show. It's too bad they cancelled it. It turns out that Shaun Cassidy is pretty good at creating stories. At any rate, I have 7 episodes left and I'm looking forward to them. I'm pretty sure it ends with a massive cliff hanger, though.

I've gotten hooked on another show by renting it from Netflix as well. It's called Dexter. Unfortunately, I don't have Showtime so I can't watch this when it airs. The season 3 DVD is going to be released next month, but I won't be able to watch season 4 in September.

It's been dreadfully hot here the last month and we've had only 1 day with any rain. It was only enough rain to wet the surface of the ground as well. The ground is so dry and we can't really water because it just evaporates. The city has even asked people not to water their yards on even number days. The temperature has reach 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius), but it feels like 110 degrees (43 degrees) with the heat index. I'm sure it's going to get worse because August is the hottest month of the year and it's been like this for the entire month of June. The electric bill is going to be huge. There's just no way to tolerate it without air conditioning. I sure hope we don't get another hurricane. The water is so warm, the thing would become massive fairly quickly.

That's it for me. I hope everyone is having a happy and safe 4th of July.

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Happy Mother's Day to all moms and mums! I hope your families give you the day off and let you just relax.

It's been a crazy week. It's my rotation to be in the Workstation Depot at work and there's just so much to do that nobody can possibly get it all done. There are two of us in there at a time and we're still always behind.

Initially, I was very frustrated because I don't like not being able to complete the tasks I'm assigned, but I've gradually come to accept that it's just this way and there's nothing I can do about it. I just do the best I can and that's all I can do.

It sure has given me a different view of things. I know what it's like to have more than you can do in a day, a week, or a month now. I'm behind on everything else too because I'm too tired to do much of anything when I get home. I've spent the weekend resting rather than cleaning. I'll have to do laundry, but that's all I'm going to end up getting done.

I did read an entire book yesterday. I was surprised by that. Once I started reading it, I didn't want to stop so I didn't. It was nice to just sit quietly and read. Geoffy got on the couch with me and slept there the whole time so we got to spend hours together, which was nice.

Since most shows are done for the season, I'm not watching as much television. So far, I haven't seen anything new I'm interested in picking up in the fall either, so it looks like I'll have a much lighter viewing schedule at the end of the year.

One of my favorite shows got canceled and I'm not happy about it at all. Life is a wonderful show and I hate that they chose it as one to make room for Jay Leno's new show. I wonder what else will be canceled to make room for him? They haven't made a decision about Chuck yet, but I don't hold out much hope for its survival, despite the fan campaign of buying Subway sandwiches and filling out comment cards saying they purchased them because of the product placement on the show. Buying one product simply to save a show will make that company happy, but doesn't demonstrate that the revenue will continue if the show is renewed.

CBS hasn't made decision about Eleventh Hour yet. I hope they renew it. That would make me feel a little better. I'm pretty sure The Mentalist will be renewed even though I haven't seen an official announcement yet. I read an article in TV Guide that made it seem like it had already been renewed, so I'm encouraged by that.

Unfortunately, Dollhouse is not likely to be renewed since it's had atrocious ratings. I wish it would be because it got awesome and I want more of the story. I'm sorry to see Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles go. It turned out to be one of the best shows on television. It's too bad that more people didn't think so.

Nielsen has been bugging us to let them install a box. We keep refusing it. That might sound like the wrong decision because we'd be counted as viewers if we had one, but we feel it would also be condoning the use of the antiquated ratings system. That system is the reason many of the shows we watch get canceled, so there's no way we're going to participate in it. Well, mostly it's stuff I watch that gets booted because hubby watches documentary type shows rather than scripted shows, but he still has the same opinion of the rating system that I do.

Hubby and I went to see X-Men Origins: Wolverine last weekend. We both really liked it. I know a lot of people didn't, though. Maybe I just have some sort of odd idea of what a film like that should be, but I found it entertaining. It didn't bother me that it didn't stick to the story in the comics. I was a bit skeptical about the choice to cast Taylor Kitsch as Gambit, but I thought he did a pretty good job. My only complaint is that they didn't really give him a Cajun accent. That's part of Remy LeBeau and I think it should be there if they have the character in future films.

That's it for now. I'll see you guys when I can. I'm here for a short time in the morning before I go to work and again for a short time in the evening when I get home from work.

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Hubby and I got a new bed a couple of weeks ago. After having the same one for 15 years or so, I think it was past due. Our previous bed had hills and valleys and we'd both wake up with lots of aches and pains. The new one took some getting used to, but it's definitely so much better. It's one of those now flip mattresses, which is a good thing because it's a lot heavier than our other one. It also has individually wrapped spring coils that are supposed to give you more support.

We also got new pillows. We had down pillows, which are nice and soft, but don't provide much support. You can fluff them in the dryer, but they get mushed down really quickly. The new pillows are made by a mattress company and have spring coils inside them. They're great. It's like having a mini mattress for your head.

I'm not sleeping much longer than I have been the last few years, but at least I don't wake up in pain anymore.

The thing we'd all been dreading at work finally happened. One of us got laid off on April 17. I don't know if anyone else will or not, but there's a good chance of it. It's been pretty slow in the field since they took most of our work away from us.

On the plus side, I've been reading a lot again. I forgot how much I enjoy reading. I've been reading a book a week. I'm a slow reader, so that's really fast for me.

Hubby's foot is getting better. He can do a lot more now. It's still healing, though, and can take up to 6 months to be 100% healed. He has to take breaks when he does something like mow the yard. He can't go for an extended shopping spree either. We went out to look for some work boots for me and his foot started to hurt after about an hour. We didn't find any boots either, so I don't know what I'm going to do about that. The shoes I've been wearing weren't made for what I do, so I'll have to find something better somehow.

I guess that's enough rambling for now. I hope everyone has a nice week.

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Personal Stuff

Hubby's stitches and pins are out (came out Wednesday) and he's doing a lot better now. The doctor had to deaden his toe to get the pin out, though.

The one in the top of his foot came out ok, but it hurt a bit for a second when the doctor pulled it out of his foot. The one in his toe was a different story, though. It turns out that it was bent on the end and that's what was giving him constant pain and keeping him from sleeping. The third batch of pain meds we got helped, but they still didn't relieve all the pain or allow him to sleep for more than an hour or two at a time. I didn't post about it, but we ended up having to meet the doctor at his office Saturday (two days after surgery) night so he could have a look at it because the second batch of pain meds started acting like a stimulant and hubby's foot hurt even more.

He got yet another type of pain med and the doctor re-wrapped his foot. Re-wrapping it helped some because there was a lot of dried blood on the bandage putting pressure on the top of his foot, but nothing was ever going to take care of the pain except removing the pin. Of course, we had no idea until the thing came out because we couldn't tell it was bent. I don't know why the doctor didn't do an x-ray. Not that he could've done much about the pin at that point because hubby's foot was too sensitive for the pin to be removed, but at least we would have known what was going on with it.

Anyway, we're past that now and he can finally get his foot wet this evening so he's looking forward to taking a shower without having to try and keep water off his foot. His foot doesn't hurt and he's sleeping much better now as well. The He can't drive yet. We both have manual transmissions and he can't put that much pressure on his foot (it's his left foot, which is his clutch foot). If we had an automatic transmission, he'd be able to drive. I think that's ok, though, because not being able to go anywhere forces him to rest more. That's good for his foot.

Unfortunately, he can't mow the yard either and neither can I. I just can't handle doing that anymore. It's going to be a jungle in a couple of weeks when he's able to mow it. I think we'll have to bag the grass and I'll have to help with that. I can handle bagging grass.

Geoffy had his follow up visit with the vet and he was fine. The vet wanted me to keep giving him drops until they were gone, but I only did it for another 3 days. After that, he would run and hide from me whenever he heard me coming near him. I didn't want him to think of me as the drop lady, so I quit giving him drops. He's not running from me anymore.

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What I'm Watching

Chuck
I still love this show. It's so much fun to watch. Unfortunately, I think NBC will cancel it to make room for Jay Leno on Prime Time.

Heroes
I'm not sure why I'm still watching it because it's nothing like season 1, but the most recent episode was better than seasons 2 and 3 have been thus far. Maybe there's still hope for it.

Dancing With the Stars
This is my one guilty pleasure and I watch it every year. I love dancing and I enjoy watching the celebrities try and become decent dancers.

The Mentalist
This one was a real surprise for me. I've been hooked on it from the first episode and it just gets better and better.

Life
I feel the same about this one as I do about Chuck. Well, not quite true. I like this show more. It's also on the bubble because NBC has to make room for Leno, though.

Smallville
I'm about ready to give up on this one because it's getting a bit tedious now.

Bones
I don't think I'll be back next season if it doesn't improve. I can't decide. I've been with it since the beginning so I hate to give up on it, but it's just not as good anymore.

Eleventh Hour
I almost didn't give this show a chance because it was a bit of a slow starter. I'm glad I did, though, because I really enjoy it.

Dollhouse
It's getting better. Last week's episode was the best one so far and tonight's episode looks really good. The ratings aren't very good, though, so it may not be around long.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
It's gotten really good. I think it's going to get cancelled because the ratings really plummeted when they moved it to Fridays, but I'm really enjoying it.

Ashes to Ashes
Episode 3 was a bit better than the first two. While it's not as good as Life on Mars (the UK version, not the US version), it's pretty good and I'm enjoying it.

Ok, so you can tell it's a slow day at work today, can't you? Have a good weekend.

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I'm posting this from MT because TV isn't functioning from work.

Hubby's surgery yesterday went well. It was over in two hours like the doctor said it would be and there weren't any complications. He was feeling great when we got home and I kept telling him that he shouldn't try to push himself, but he didn't think I knew what I was talking about because he was feeling no pain.

At about 3:00 am this morning, that changed because the block wore off and his foot started hurting. The pain meds didn't help one bit either. They weren't very strong and I figured they weren't going to work, but you never know. Hubby doesn't have a high tolerance to drugs like I do, so I guess it was possible it would work for him. Finally, we were able to get something better from the doctor and he's resting now.

I'm still at work, but I'm ready to go home and check on him. I have a few hours more to be here, though. I don't get off work until 4:30 pm and it's only 12:24 pm.

The results of Geoffy's blood work came back and everything was normal. The retinal detachment wasn't caused by a disease. I'm so glad about that. I was really worried he'd have something fatal. I guess the retinal detachment happened because of his age. While I've had cats who've lived a good deal longer than 14 years, I know that's pretty old for a cat. He's in his early 70s or so.

He's doing really well with being blind. You'd really never know he couldn't see. A few times, he's run into the coffee table leg because hubby moved the table over just a little to prop his foot up on it, but that's about it. Once I move the table back, he doesn't have any trouble.

His hearing was superb before, but now it's bionic. I've always heard that when you lose a sense, your other senses become more acute to make up for it. I believe it now. I think he can hear us breathing when he's in a different room.

He has drops for inflammation, which he hates. He's never liked having drops put in his eyes and that hasn't changed. I have to take him back to the vet on Monday for a follow up visit, but I don't see there being any problems.

I hope everyone has a good weekend.

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Ashes to Ashes finally started airing here on Saturday. I liked it ok, but it's not as good as Life on Mars so far. I'm going to give it a chance, though. I really like the cast and I think it's going to turn out to be good once they get away from the main character analyzing her situation so much. It sure was a long wait for it to air here! I don't know why it took them so long. I'd started to think they'd decided not to air it here. It premiered on February 7, 2008, so we had to wait over a year for it. Just a side note, for those who aren't familiar with David Bowie's music, the blog title is a line from his song entitled Ashes to Ashes on the Scary Monsters album.

So, the site is back to not functioning properly when I'm at work which means I can only read stuff during the day. It's so frustrating. I should stop hoping it's going to work from there. At first I thought it was the site, but now I'm not so sure. It may be the blocking software they use on the network. I think that doesn't always work as it should so stuff they want blocked isn't always blocked. I think the software thinks this is a streaming site sometimes, so parts of it get blocked. At any rate, I'm posting this from MT because that site isn't blocked. If you see that I've logged in, but I haven't dealt with my queue, this is why.

I've been watching Dollhouse. I like it, but I don't love it. I think it's just a slow starter, though. The A plot is not all that strong, but the B and C plots are what have drawn me in and are keeping me interested.

Hubby is having surgery on his foot on Thursday, March 12. I don't know exactly what that means for my internet time, but I would imagine it will be reduced. He's not permitted to do much for 4 to 6 weeks until it's healed, so I'll have to do all the cooking and cleaning since he won't be able to help at all. Plus, I'll still be going to work every day.

Our rose bushes died. They got scale and they had it for so long before we figured out they had it that it killed them. Well, they weren't completely dead yet, but they had a large amount of dead wood and wood boring insects had even gotten to them. I've never seen rose bushes with lichen on them before, but it's pretty much too late for them once that happens. We were going to get new bushes Saturday and get them planted before hubby's surgery, but that didn't happen. We'll probably have to wait until next year since it's going to be too hot to plant them by the time his foot's healed. I'm sad that we lost the ones we had, but we did enjoy them while we had them. We didn't pick them either and we wouldn't have picked the ones that were chosen anyway, so maybe it's best. Now, we can pick exactly what we want instead of relying on someone else's opinion.

Geoffy (our 14 year old cat) is sick. In the last couple of days, his pupils won't contract properly. He's agitated and can't see very well. I'm worried because I've never seen this before. Hubby did some research and found it might be high blood pressure. If that's the problem, it's treatable. If something else is causing the high blood pressure, things might be worse. I sure hope it's not anything worse, but it could be since he's 14. His sister, Moochy, started getting sick last year when she was 14 and she didn't last but a few months. Anyway, hubby's taking him to the vet this afternoon and we should know more then. I just hate having to wait. It was the fastest we could get an appointment without it being an emergency. Since he's eating normally and doesn't appear to be in pain, we didn't think it was an emergency.

Hmm, this is a pretty long blog. I haven't said this much in quite awhile. I hope everyone has a good week.

Update
Hubby's back from the vet. Geoffy's completely blind due to having detached retinas. I heard cats adapt well to going blind, but I didn't realize just how well. He can still jump up on things without a problem. In fact, that's why we thought he still had some vision. We still don't know if he has a issue that caused the detached retinas, though. The vet is going to run some tests on his blood to find out and we won't have an answer until tomorrow.

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I'm blogging from work because I can. It's the first time I've ever had the chance to do so because the site didn't load properly for me until today. I know it might not last, but I sure hope it does.

I haven't really had a anything exciting happen. I've just been working, which is going well. A friend of mine got married on January 31 and I was her Matron of Honour, which was nice. It was a very small ceremony with only about 20 people in attendance and it was at a bed and breakfast.

I'm looking forward to Dollhouse next Friday...Friday the 13th.

Anyway, that's all I have to say for now. It's lunch time and I need to go. I just wanted to post a blog since I can now. I hope everyone is doing well.

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Matt Smith is the Eleventh Doctor. I'm not sure what I think of this yet. I suppose it's really too soon to tell until he's actually appeared in the role. I think he seems to be taking the right approach to it, which is good. I'm still sad that David Tennant is leaving, though, so it's hard for me to digest this bit of news at this point.

As many others are, I'm trying to keep an open mind about it. I'll definitely give him a chance. I realize I've known this would happen because I've known David Tennant was leaving for awhile now, but making an official announcement solidifies it.

There's a part of me that's looking forward to seeing what he does with the role and is quite excited about that. At the moment, it's only a small part, but at least I have plenty of time to prepare for it since we won't see see him in the role until next year.

I trust that they put a lot of thought into casting the role and chose someone who is a good fit for it. I'm sure everything will be fine. I sound a bit like I'm trying to convince myself. I suppose I am really.

Anyway, congratulations to Matt Smith.

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Happy New Year! I hope everyone has a safe holiday and that 2009 brings you all the best. I also hope the economy improves for all of us.

We didn't go anywhere to celebrate, but we never do. We prefer to stay off the road. We had a glass of champagne to toast the new year, but that's about it. I rented some things and hubby just messed about online for awhile. We're rather boring I suppose.

I watched State of Play, which was quite good. I recommend it. I also rented X-Files: I Want to Believe, but haven't watched it yet. I know a lot of people didn't care for it, but I'll reserve judgment until I've seen it.

This will be year 4 for me at tv.com. It's hard to believe I've been here so long. It seems like I only joined just a short time ago. So many things have happened here during that time and I've met so many people who have become friends. I know some people have left, but I love this site and I'm not going anywhere.

I don't make resolutions so I have none of those. Long ago, I found that I only get stressed if I make them and then don't keep them. I decided it's not worth putting pressure on myself like that. If I want to change something, I just try to change it.

So, what did you guys do to ring in the new year? Did you make any resolutions?

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Hey everyone. I wanted to wish everybody a Merry/Happy Christmas. If you don't celebrate Christmas, I wish you a Happy Holiday for whatever holiday you celebrate.

Hubby put the lights on the house a week and a half ago. I think they're beautiful (as I always do) even though they're a single strand of mini lights. I guess we're sort of minimalist because we don't like a lot of lights. One of the people in our neighborhood always over does it. You should see their house this year. They have even more lights than they did last year! I didn't think that was possible. We had to get new lights because our old ones had all quit working. That made it easier in a way because we didn't need to worry about which sets worked and which ones didn't.

We're not going anywhere for the holiday since I had to work today and have to work tomorrow. We're just spending a quiet day at home tomorrow with Geoffy. He'll be happy about that because he loves it when we're both home.

We decided to exchange gifts this year, but we didn't spend much on each other. That turned out to be a good thing since our DVD recorder broke last night and we had to replace it. That was our Christmas present to ourselves. Hopefully, the new one will last longer.

I'm sure I'll be around some tomorrow, but probably not as much as I usually am. Have a safe and wonderful holiday!

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Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day in the US. I just want to wish everyone who celebrates it a Happy Thanksgiving. If you don't, I hope you have a great day anyway. I won't be around much, if at all, tomorrow because we're driving to my brother's for the day. He lives 250 miles away, so we have a lot of driving. We can't stay overnight because we have to be back to take care of Geoffy. He's the only cat now since we lost Moochy a couple of weeks ago. I hate the long drive, but it'll be nice to see my family. I don't know how long it's been since we've seen them. Too long really.

Has it really been almost a month since I've written a blog? It doesn't seem like it's been that long. I wish the site would load properly from work. I miss being able to post during the day. I come here after work, but I don't usually spend a lot of time here because I'm tired and I have to get sleep for the next day. I do like my job, though. I'm glad I got it. There are some boring times, but it's nice when I get to go out into the field instead of sit at my desk. I'm starting to learn the layout of the plant, so it's not as scary as it was going out there on my own like it was at first. You may laugh, but the plant is so large that you need a map to find your way around it. It's really like a small city. There are two other plants as well, but I haven't gone to them by myself yet. They want me to get familiar with the large one first and then I'll get to go to the others.

I'm still watching television at night so that takes up some of my time too. My favorite new show this season is The Mentalist. I really love it and I hope it continues to do well.

I also like Eleventh Hour. Yes, I know it's based on a British show of the same name, but I think they've done a pretty good job of it this time. It started out a little slow, but it's picking up now.

I'm still watching Life and loving that one very much. The same goes for Chuck.

A friend of mine told me that Comcast is offering episode of Farscape online, so I've been watching that too. Until that, I'd only seen one episode of it and that wasn't enough to tell anything. I really like it. I wish I'd known about it when it first aired. I'm sorry I missed that, but I'm glad I'm getting a chance to watch it.

Well, that's enough for now I suppose. I'll see you guys around.

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So, David Tennant won't be The Doctor in 2010. I'm sad. He's my favorite Doctor and I was hoping he'd be in the role through 2010. I wonder who will be in the role? It's not going to be easy for the person who takes over from him. He's a hard act to follow.

I got a new job, so that's why I haven't been here much. For some reason, the CSS wouldn't load when I came here from the office and I couldn't post anything. That seems to be ok now, though. I just don't always have time to be online from work is all.

I hope everyone is doing well.

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Hey everyone. I'm posting this quickly from Best Buy because we still have no power. It's been out since September 11 at 7:30 pm. Anyway, we're ok and I'll get back here as soon as I can. Thanks for all your good thoughts. I appreciate it very much.

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It looks like Hurricane Ike is going to hit us. They've called for a mandatory evacuation of our area beginning at 8:00 am tomorrow morning. If the path hasn't changed significantly by then, we'll be leaving. It'll probably be Sunday before we can return. I won't have the internet while we're gone, so I won't be here at all.

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Why is it that every time hubby and I try to do a simple home improvement project it turns into a major production? We thought we would replace the worn out weather stripping on the bottom of the front door and one of the back doors. We have French doors on the back, but we never open one of them so the weather stripping isn't worn on that one. It sounds like it's easy enough to do. You just buy new weather stripping, take the doors off, put the new weather stripping on, and put the doors back. Yeah right!

It took three trips to the store and over two hours to get it done. While we do have new weather stripping, it's not right. Both doors stick now and I can't even open the front door because you have to pull so hard to get it open. That's not even mentioning the fact that we had to turn the air conditioner off during this whole process and it ended up being 85 degrees Fahrenheit in the house. Add 100% humidity to that. It was miserable.

We're going to have to re-hang the front door. Hubby's pretty sure that's the problem with it. We took it down a different way and it wasn't the best way to do it as he couldn't get the screws in tight enough when he put it back. This time, we're going to take the pins out and make sure the screws are tight before we put the door back. It's going to be difficult to get the hinges to line up correctly, though. The door is very heavy because it has a big leaded glass window in the center.

The back door shouldn't be as difficult to fix. We have French doors that open on to back patio, but we never use one of the doors. We're going to try swapping the original piece of weather stripping from the door we don't use with the new piece from the door we use. The original is more flexible, so it shouldn't cause such a problem opening the door.

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I watched Spaced and Extras last weekend. I liked them both, but I found that I liked Spaced more. I was surprised by that. I'd seen the finale of Extras and really loved it, so I expected to like the show more than Spaced because I'd also seen a couple of episodes of that. When I looked up the guide for Spaced here, I discovered that they're making a US version of it as well. It won't be the same and I'm not going to bother with it.

Thanks to Newbie and LMH68, I've started watching two other shows; Primeval and Coupling. I know Coupling is older, I missed it the first time around.

I've read some negative opinions about Primeval, but I like it. I wouldn't say it's the best show I've ever seen, but the concept is great and it's fairly well done. The dialogue is a bit wooden, but I can deal with that. I'll keep watching. They did something strange with the advertising here because I thought they were starting series 2, but that wasn't the case. They've just started series 1, so I'm in from the beginning, which is always nice. They also cut bits, but they offer it on BBCA On Demand so I can watch the full length episode there the next day.

I think Coupling is fantastic. It's just so funny. I was watching it with headphones the other night so the sound wouldn't disturb my hubby while he was trying to sleep and I caught myself laughing out loud quite a bit. I hadn't realized it was a Steven Moffat show when I started watching it, so that was a nice surprise. It's also available On Demand, which is great since the episodes are 30 minutes long and they only put it in a 30 minute time slot. The original broadcast is cut to allow ads. I also read that they made a US version of this show which failed miserably. Why doesn't that surprise me?

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Have you seen GameSpot's face lift? I like it. I wish we could have that here. It's nice that the entire banner shows. Once you get used to it, it's really easier to find stuff as well. Not that I have enough emblems there to need the feature, but I like that no more than 8 of them show unless you choose to display them. Word has it that they're going to add a feature so you can choose which ones you want to display. That would be nice.

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I've been working on adding cast to a guide and I've run into quite a few duplicates. It surprised me to find some for well known people. I'm making progress; although, it's slow, on consolidating all the credits, tagging the guides, and submitting them to be deleted.

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That's all for now I suppose. Take care everybody.

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We now have a way to report problem editors. Staff created a ProblemEditor profile, which is similar to the ReportMIAEditor profile. Obviously, staff would like us to try and resolve any issues before reporting someone, though. Unfortunately, that doesn't always work, so it's nice that there's a way to report it when the issue can't be resolved any other way.

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I've been trying to keep up with Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog to see if they found a solution for international viewers. I've heard that it's available on iTunes, but that's the only place I've heard it is so far. I have no idea if it costs anything there for international viewing or not. I know it does/did for US viewing via iTunes, though. It's also on Hulu, but I don't believe that's available internationally. You can keep checking their MySpace page because they do update that frequently. If they find other solutions for international viewing, that's where you'll find the information posted.

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The last episode of Doctor Who aired here last Friday. I'll warn anyone who hasn't seen it right now that there are going to be spoilers ahead.

I found it anticlimactic. There were things I loved about it, but as a whole, it was a let down. After giving it some thought, I've come to the conclusion that it was far too ambitious. There was no way to pack as much into it as it seemed to want to contain, so it didn't do enough with most of the story lines. Not that I have anything at all against Russell T Davies as I do like at least some of his work, but I'm looking forward to what Steven Moffat does with the show in 2010. Despite that, I will miss it while it's mostly gone in 2009, though. I'm not even sure if they'll air the specials here or not. If not, hopefully, my friend in the UK will send them to me so I can see them.

Speaking of my friend sending me stuff, I'm glad I was able to see the last two episodes of series 4 before they aired in the US since Sci-Fi decided to ruin them by showing major spoilers in the previews. They showed the huge cliffhanger for The The Stolen Earth. Yup, that's right. They showed The Doctor regenerating at the end of the episode as part of the preview for the episode! Unlike the airing in the UK, they showed a preview for Journey's End, which totally ruined the cliffhanger. To make matters worse, they revealed the major plot point that Donna became part Time Lord in one of the ads for Journey's End. I'd have been so mad if I hadn't seen them yet. Honestly, I have no idea what on earth they were thinking?! Between that and cutting important scenes from most of the episodes, I really wish the BBC could find some other network to buy the rights to the first run of the show here. BBC America airs it, but only several months after it's already aired on Sci-Fi.

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I have two shows on DVD to watch. They are Spaced and Extras. I've been wanting to see them for quite awhile now, so I'm really looking forward to watching them. There's not much on television here right now apart from reality shows anyway. Since I'm not much into those, it's nice to have something I like better to watch.

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That's it for now. This blog turned out to be a lot longer than I expected. I guess that's what happens when I don't say anything for three weeks.

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I hadn't heard of this show when someone asked Christina Hendricks about Mad Men at the Starfury convention I attended last year. It did sound interesting to me and I like her, so I was curious to see it, but I didn't think I'd get the chance to see it from the beginning and I didn't really want to start watching with season 2. Fortunately, AMC put it on their On Demand selection in preparation for the second season that begins on July 27, so I decided to give it a shot.

I liked it. I think it's really well done and gives you a good idea of what society was like in the early 1960s. I think they've done an excellent job with regard to authenticity.

It starts out a little slowly and I wasn't hooked immediately, but now I want to know what happens to the characters. I'll keep watching it. I had a curious reaction to the main character, Don Draper played by Jon Hamm. I find that I like him and don't like him at the same time. It's hard to explain. I've never reacted quite this way to a character before. In some ways, he's a real jerk, but he definitely has a good side. It's as if he acts like a jerk sometimes because he thinks that's what he's supposed to do. I love Christina Hendricks' character, though.

I also discovered that there were other actors with whom I am familiar in the show. I hadn't realized that either. I like the story and the character development, but I also like seeing how things were. We've really changed the way we look at the world over the years.

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Speaking of On Demand, our cable provider just added a load of channels to the service in our area. This is awesome news! I only wish we'd had BBC America On Demand when they were airing Life On Mars and Torchwood because they showed the uncut episodes on it. There's always a chance they'll offer the Life On Mars episodes when they get ready to air Ashes to Ashes, though. That would be great. At least, I hope they're going to air Ashes to Ashes here. I haven't heard a word about it yet. They also might have the previous Torchwood episodes there before the next series airs.

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It seems that Sci-Fi actually listened to all the viewers as they've alloted a one and half hour time slot for the Doctor Who finale. That makes me happy. Let's hope it's long enough so they can get all the ads in without cutting any of the episode. We have 3 more episodes left to air in the US before we have a long break. They don't air the Christmas episode in December here. They air it as the first episode of the new series instead. I'm hoping they actually air everything next year since there aren't going to be regular episodes. If they don't, I'll be mad.

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Just in case you forgot, the first act of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog will be released tomorrow. I don't know what time, though.

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For those who hadn't heard about this, it's what Joss Whedon did during the WGA strike. Well, at least one thing he did. He picketed and did some other stuff too, but I haven't read about any plans to release that on the Internet in the near future, so I'll leave that be for now.

Anyway, I've been waiting for Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog to be released and it's finally going to happen. The name is a link to the official site and it'll be the place where you can watch it when it's released.

What is it you ask? "It's the story of a low-rent super-villain, the hero who keeps beating him up, and the cute girl from the laundromat he's too shy to talk to." That's how Joss describes it. I think it should be entertaining and I'm looking forward to it. Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, and Felicia Day star in it.

Here's the schedule for anyone who's interested in watching it.

ACT ONE (Wheee!) will go up Tuesday July 15th.

ACT TWO (OMG!) will go up Thursday July 17th.

ACT THREE (Denouement!) will go up Saturday July 19th.

All acts will stay up until midnight Sunday July 20th. Then they will vanish into the night, like a phantom (but not THE Phantom - that's still playing. Like, everywhere.)

The above is a quote from what Joss posted on Whedonesque. You can read what he's posted here and here. Yeah, that guy posting using the name joss in purple really is Joss Whedon.

Unfortunately, it'll only be available in the US to start, but Joss said they're working on that because they want to share it with everyone. I'll keep an eye out and let you know when it becomes available outside the US.

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On a completely different (and unrelated) note, I just found out yesterday that Sci-Fi intends to cut 20 minutes out of the Doctor Who finale rather than giving it a two hour time slot. I'm not a happy camper. Not that I like all the ads they put in shows here in the first place, but I'd rather put up with a bunch of ads than have them cut 20 minutes of footage out of episode! I guess I should head over to the Skiffy site and complain.

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Dollhouse

I'm really excited about this show. From what I've seen in the trailer and the clip from the first episode, it looks to be excellent. I've missed Joss Whedon's work and it's going to be nice to have a new show from him. I know it's on FOX, but they seem to be behind the show. They ordered 7 episodes without seeing any footage at all and the casting hadn't even been completed at that point. Since the initial order, they increased the order to 13 episodes.

At this point, it's to be a mid season replacement, so it won't air until January. Having to wait so long is the down side, but it'll be worth the wait. I've heard that they plan to premiere it on Sunday night and then show the next episode in the regular time slot on the next day. While I hate it when they do that, I'm just going to try to pass the word as much as I can so people know that's happening.

I've also read that they plan to air fewer commercials during the broadcast. That will be nice. The number of ads during most shows drives me mad. It's getting ridiculous now. I don't know about everyone else, but I'm not interested in most of the products they advertise either, so the ads don't make me buy them.

Life On Mars (US)

I watched the clip on this site for the US version of Life On Mars (link to UK show guide). Apart from casting Colm Meaney as Gene Hunt, I didn't like anything about the clip I saw. It was boring and the dialogue seemed wooden and a bit forced.

It's nothing against Jason O'Mara, as I'm sure he's a fine actor, but I don't think he fits the role of Sam Tyler. Not that I ever thought the show should be or needed to be remade, but if you're going to do it, don't use the same characters. Nobody can take John Simm's place. That's true of the other actors as well. I think they did a decent job of casting Gene Hunt, but it's hard for me to see anyone else in the role apart from Philip Glenister.

I'm not even going to get into what I think will happen because David E. Kelley is at the helm. I think it's best if I just don't go there. I'll just say this; I could write an entire blog on the pitfalls of that.

I don't know if I'll give the show a try or not. Part of me is curious to see how much of a train wreck it really is, but another part of me doesn't want to have anything to do with it.

The Generation Game Question

So, that brings me to the question I have. I've been trying to sort out the credits attached to various guides for Sharon Lewis, but I've run into a bit of a snag. A Sharon Lewis appeared as a celebrity contestant or celebrity guest on The Generation Game, but I'm not sure who she is. At the moment, the credits are attached to a guide (381845) which has been allocated for a voice actress, but I'm pretty sure that's not the correct one. Most likely, other credits were attached to that guide in the past, but have since been transferred; however, it was long enough ago that nothing came up in cached versions to indicate what might have been there.

My thought is that it could be the costume designer (388576), but I can't be sure. I've also done a fair amount of research in an attempt to find the answer, but I came up empty handed. I've done a Google search for Sharon Lewis, checked the BBC web site, and checked the BFI web site, but wasn't able to find anything conclusive. If anyone knows who it is or if you know of other places where I might be able to find out who it is, I'd really appreciate it if you'd let me know.

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Apparently, someone misread my blog and thinks the credit should be removed. It shouldn't. This woman was someone in the entertainment industry and should have a guide here. I just don't know which person she was. That's what I'm trying to find out so I can attach the credits to the appropriate guide. Please do not make submissions to remove the credits or they will be rejected.
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That's it for now. I suppose that's more than enough really, isn't it? I hope everyone has a great weekend!

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