I can't believe the news today... ABC cancels Pushing Daisies

Well, my day is just ruined! Might as well crawl back in the bed! Okay, maybe not. The cancellation of Pushing Daisies doesn't comes as a HUGE shock, considering all of the reports here and on other websites about how bad the ratings where. This was my main concern with the show last year. Pushing Daisies is a complete 180 from what is on TV these days. And while we Americans might vote for a canidate who seems to love the word change, we don't like change when it comes to our entertainment. I guess in the end the change that Pushing Daisies offered wasn't what people were looking for or liked.

According to the article Bryan Fuller is trying to negotiate with DC to print comics that would tie up the storylines, becuase apperantely the season ends on a cliffhanger. I don't read comics and it might be leaping into a whole new sphere of geekdom, I would buy those just to see how the Piemaker and Chuck end up.

The article also mentions that ABC has cancelled Eli Stone and Dirty Sexy Money. I was never a fan of Eli Stone. I did watch the pilot, however that was becuase I like George Micaheal's song, "Faith". Dirty Sexy Money was a show I tried to get into last year and this year, but with its huge cast and coming in late, it was hard to understand everyone's history and what they currently where doing.

Today was suppose to be a good day for me. Today should've been the day that I voted in my first presidential election. But instead, due to a collosal jackass telling me (and repeatedly insuring me) that the deadline to register in the state of Tennessee was October 14th(it was actually October 5th), I missed out on the joy of casting my ballot for the highest office in the land. Words can't describe how angry I am. In the end my vote wouldn't have mattered(I know techinacally every vote matters, but I would have voted for McCain and he carried Tennessee anyway), but I have wanted to vote since I turned 18. I am one of those "you should vote becuase people died to give you that right" and "do your civic duty" guys. And the fact that I didn't do mine, just pisses me off. And leaves me feeling like I missed out on something big.

No surprise here, Obama won. I think after the last eight years, the Democrats could've run out a chicken as their nominee with a turtle as his running mate and they would've beaten the Republicans. That said I wasn't very impressed with any of the Republican canidates back during the primaries. I sort of liked Mike Huckabee, becuase he was/is very confident when he speaks. He doesn't stutter and throw in alot of "ummms" and "uhhhs". When McCain won the nomination I knew he was doomed. He is not a very popular guy with the base of the party, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were alot of people who just didn't vote becuase they liked neither.

But, none of the matters now as Barack Obama will be the 44th President of the United States of America, when he is sworn into office in January. I don't agree with alot of his policies, but I hope he proves me wrong. I hope he fixes the economy, and restores our standing in the world. I hope he can be tough on foreign policy and get our country on a path towards energy independence. And I hope he can keep Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid in check.

On a minor note, and I know this is asking for way too much, I hope TV shows will finally start to scale back on all of the political stuff. Being a semi-conservative Republican I know I am going to be made fun and my beliefs are going to be made fun of. And that is fine. I can laugh at myself and my political beliefs, but after 5+ years of it I am tired. I am tired of shows spending two minutes on political "jokes" that don't have a damn thing to do with what is going on in the episode. and, yes, I am talking about you, Family Guy.

below are my top 5 changes I would like to see here at TV.com

1. This annoying white background. It appears That it has been softened some what but it is still real bright. I still get a headache if I am on the site for longer than 20 minutes.

2. Cut down on the clutter. The front page of TV.com is extremely cluttered. You have the 5 rotating new stories or show previews, then you have TV on Tonight, What's New, New Videos, News, New Photos, Community Spotlight, TV.com poll, New DVD Releases, Top 10 shows, Video Preview, as well as 2 ads. Isn't that a bit much? Everytime you visit a forum or open up a thread, you have the Fresh Forums and Top Forums on the side. Why? If i didn't click on them on the Community page i am not going to click on them while reading through a thread.

3. Bring back the Favorite boards. It was so easy to be able to click on one of my favorite boards on the Community page. Now I have to click on a topic and access my favorite boards from a drop down menu. Couldn't you replace either Fresh Forums or Top Forums with our Favorite boards?

4.Allow us to track more than 4 blogs. It is hard to keep up with everyone with only 4 blogs.

5. I am not sure how much can be done about this but, TV.com runs extremely slow for me. I have DSL and the fastest connection speed my ISP offers, yet TV.com lags and takes forever to load. Sometime up to 20 seconds for certain pages. I have no problem with any other site that I visit regualrly or semi regularly.

My blog last week has sort of got me jonesing to post more. Suddenly, I see topics popping up eveywhere. And with the fall season fully underway now I wanted to post my thoughts and views on the shows I am watching. But I am putting all of that on hold for atleast the next 24 hours.

Like most people I hate the new layout. At first I thought there was nothing I could do about it. But then I heard of the blackout day. At first I thought it was a small group that wasn't going to get any traction. Then I read Glenn's blog and saw that he actually had a plan. And it wasn't calling for unreasonable and outrageous changes. He was taking a more realistic view on the layout changes. Something that could actually work. And something that actually had the higher ups at CNet and/or CBS taking notice. So I decided to throw my hat in as well.

So for the next 24 hours I won't be logging on to any CNet OR CBS site. After I post this, I will be logging out of my TV.com account for the first time in a couple of weeks. I hope that our blackout atleast makes CBS consider to listen to some or our concerns and problems with the new layout of TV.com. Hopeflluy, everything will go well.

See you on the other side...

I think we all can agree-TV.com v3.0 sucks. There is no other way to put it. Version 2.0 wasn't perfect, but it looks flawless compared to this. Everything that was bad has been made worse. I thought with the new wide look it would cut down on the small amount of clutter, but the clutter is magnified. Everytime you open a topic in the forums you have the top forums and the fresh forums on the right. Why? You showed me that information on the Community page, I don't need to see it continously. Why do the top news stories show up on every page, too? I understand that CBS has to make money, I do. But do we really need 3 ads on every page? The site runs sooooo slow now, and I have DSL, I can't imagine how slow it runs for people on dial up.

Then there are the redundant features. There is no need for the "My Profile" button on the dashboard. You can access your profile by clicking on your username. Why do we need a "Blog Archive" when you can view all of your old blogs by clicking on "My Blog"?

Worst of all has got to be the white background. I used to get lost on this website. I would come here to look up one thing and that would lead me to spending an hour or two cruising around the guides. I used to come here to post in one or two topics and then spend a while posting all over the site. Now, I can barely spend 20 minutes on here before my head starts pounding. The white background is so bright my monitor looks like a fog light at night.

But that's enough complaining for now...

I said in my last blog, which was about 5 months ago, that I was going to try and blog more over the summer. Mission Failed. To be fair though, this summer was the worst of my 20 years on this planet. At the end of June I came down with what was originally a small summer flu bug. However it quickly turned into something much more serious. I still don't know what it was and I won't give you all the grpahic details, but it almost killed me. Seriously, no joke. It did almost kill me.

When I wasn't busy dying this summer, I was watching the Cubs. This is the best the team has ever played in my life. I remember '98 and '03 and this team blows those out of the water. The talent and depth are just so much better. The lineup is solid from top to bottom. And they may have the best 1 through 4 rotation in baseball. I am trying to cherish every moment of this season. With the Cubs these type of things don't happen too often. I think its too early to be talking World Series, but I don't think the Cubbies will get swept this year.

Football season is laso underway. The Giants are off to a 3-0 start and have their by week this week. Eli Manning continues to improve. He looks alot more confident in the pocket. He has quit forcing the ball and is taking what the defense gives him. It helps that the offensive line has been playing well, and that Brandon Jacobs continues to be a montser rushing the ball. After losing Michael Strahan and Osi Umenyiora it looked like the defense was going to struggle but they've been as good as last year. Justin Tuck and Mathias Kiwanuka have been great at the DE posistion(s). Barry Cofield and Fred Robbins have been great at the DT as well. The one hole in my opinion is the secondary. James Butler and Michael Johnson shouldn't be starting.

Like last year we are doing a pick 'em contset in the Sports forum. Unlike last year we are doing it through Yahoo this year. Almost everybody from last year is back and as well as some new blood. Two of my friends Tommy(Cubtracker) and T_Brennan joined in. I am doing good so far. As of week 2 I am tied for 3rd overall and a game out of first. Last year I struggled out of the gate, but fought my way back and finished 4th. I look forward to the rest of the season and hope I can keep my good fortunes going.