I'm cooking and contributing, so I'm short on time, today. Hope your holidays are terrific and check out the funny cats in hats link below:

http://pet-fun.blogspot.com/2006/12/cats-in-hats-for-christmas.html

Sorry folks. I was busy traveling yesterday. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday and had a feast.



I made homemade cranberry sauce, which was a big hit. I took the recipe off a sugar box and used half the amount of sugar. It was so sweet that I can't imagine using any more. Do the people who write the recipes even taste the results?

Check out my new cat, Libby. She's practicing her contortionist routine for the circus.

On each show episode, the location of the reviews is just plain wrong. Reviews are the items most likely to contain plot spoilers. These belong on the bottom, or hidden, if you ask me. Plus reviews are the most subjective items and the least useful. I avoid reviews for the most part, and prefer to be able to do so, without a lot of work.


What does everyone else think about the change of location for reviews, from the bottom of the page to the top?

Today's Chuck episode (the wedding) exemplifies the reason that I watch TV. Don't worry--no spoilers here--feel free to read on. Chuck has everything---drama, romance, action, smart writing, and especially humor, the great character-based stuff. Plus, I don't always guess the plot twists. If NBC cancels Chuck--it would be a real crime.


I think I only watch Heroes, most of the time, because it follows Chuck. If I'm tired that day, I'll wait a week and watch the recording of Heroes a week later. But Chuck, I rush home to watch Chuck, even though I'm recording it, and it always makes my day. I have the paranoid fear that on a day when I don't make it home by 8pm, a power outage will shut off my equipment, and I won't get my weekly Chuck fix (I live in the country--we do get quite a few outages). And on a Monday, I always need a smile at the end of the day. I hope NBC doesn't do it's own power outage thingy and pull the plug on Chuck. If anyone knows any Chuck news, please let me know. Ok--one teeny tiny spoiler:





Jeffster performs in this episode. Enjoy!

What the heck happened to our show guides? I can't find anything. The front page is a mess. Navigation is counter intuitive. Where are the notes? Where are the allusions? Why is an episode page not complete with all of our pieces? Where is our list view of episodes? Too much clicking is required to navigate, which is bad for my carpal tunnel. If the company is trying to increase advertising, it won't work, because no one will find this mess appealing or useful enough to put up with this navigation nightmare. It looks horrible and is confusing. I predict a major exodus to competing websites.

Kudos to staff for the Beta test.

However, the new design makes me feel like I have ADD. I can't focus on anything. It's way too busy without the lines. I consider it unusable. The added color--I can barely see it, except for the ugly black line at the top. Every new design, unfortunately, seems to go from bad to worse. If the new design is implemented, I don't know if I will use the site. It's too frustrating to use.

Sorry to tell you but my cat Abby passed away this morning. She was stable with her kidney disease and took a sudden turn for the worse in 24 hr's time. I'll write more later if I feel up to it.

My cat Abby, a pretty little dark tortoiseshell cat, is very ill and in the hospital and could use your prayers. She started having seizures last night and I'm not sure she'll make it. Thanks, everyone.

I don't get it. Didn't staff pretend to hear us that the new design was too white and we were going blind? Guess what! It's even whiter? What gives? Does TV.com want to chase away all it's users?

This is a true story. Life in the country is funny. I was in the hardware story today and a woman (she looks to be in her seventies, BTW, bless her) walks up to the register and tells the sales clerk that she wants to sharpen an axe. She then adds that she has an "axe to grind". If that wasn't funny enough, one of the men hanging around waiting for help said, "Watch out, it's a woman with an axe to grind". We were in hysterics.

Anyhoo, here's my current song that I'm addicted to. It's got a syncopated rhythm and meaningful lyrics that will move you. It's "Hold On" by KT TUNSTALL. I'll post an excerpt of the lyrics:

Hold On

Underneath, I felt the fire of a burning question
Tearin' me apart
Right from the very start
And now I see
That it don't take a trick of the light to excite me
So strong
So long
You'll see

Hold on
To what you
Been given lately
Hold on
To what you
Know you got
Hold on
To what you
Been given lately
Hold on
Cause the world will turn if you're ready or not

Go see Twilight. It's an enjoyable movie. It's more about teen angst than vampires (though I love a good vampire flick that's not too gory). There was a lot more humor than I expected. The acting is great and the cinematography is striking. I didn't think it would be that good, since the critics panned it. The story stayed close to the book, so the book fans of this series should not be disappointed.

It would have been a perfect evening, except two teenagers spent the movie by talking loudly to each other (and on the cell phone) and giggling during quiet scenes. Of course they were sitting close behind me.

Have these worked for any editors out there? I tried locking a thread and it didn't work for me. I use Firefox.

I am still frustrated with these tiny fonts and the Great White Site that remains months after the redesign. It's so frustrating not to be able to use this site for more than a few minutes at a time.

I'm sure the fact that my eyes are still having trouble with bright lights (still have that sinus infection ) doesn't help either--but I had this problem with the new site before I was sick.

Have a great weekend everyone.

I've been sick all weekend and I'm not yet well. I think it's a sinus infection. I have to go get some antibiotics, I think to get well. Sorry I haven't been around much.

A storm knocked out my power and internet on Saturday. I have been playing catch-up since then. I'll get to my queue soon. Thanks for your patience.

I don't have the patience to submit cast while it's so buggy and time consuming. We had an almost perfect cast tool and it was taken away from us. Submitting cast is too thankless a job and too time-consuming for too few points. The tool we had made it less onerous and faster. I was in the middle of finishing adding cast to a show that I edit and about to start on a new one that I edit, when the redesign happened . For those that are keeping up on the cast bugs, let me know when (or if) the previous functionality is restored and I will finish submitting cast to my half-completed show and start on the new show that I edit. Thanks, everyone.

Yeah, Sanctuary looked like it might be a cool show, but I'm so heartbroken that SciFi cancelled Stargate Atlantis that I decided not to watch it. The money that should have gone into making Atlantis went into making Sanctuary, I bet, so I just don't have the heart to support it.

Atlantis is the only show that I am excited about and look forward to watching every week, as I used to be with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Crow: STH, or Veronica Mars. I enjoy watching other shows, but not with the same level of excitement.

Apparently, even high level users can increase their levels at TV.com without making any contributions! I have not been contributing, though I want to, because of the bugs and the difficulty seeing the site. It's too easy to make errors that way.

Since the previous site redesign, it was not possible to increase your level, once you were no longer a newbie, without contributing, but apparently the new redesign has turned back the clock on this. My level went up six percent in the past week and the only things that I've been doing have been posting, blogging and blopping, and modding my queue. And I haven't even been doing a whole lot of any of those things.

Maybe it's a bug, or maybe it's a perk to pacify those of us who are having issues with the redesign. So take advantage, everyone and leave me lots of blog comments, LOL . Your level will love you for it!

I think my new personal image speaks for itself. For some reason, I felt this personal image was appropriate right now. I know the saying is out of order, but perfection is a lost art. 'Nuff said.

Bring back the stats
Bring back the pie (chart that is)
Make sure the fonts
Are easy on the eye.

I miss the stats. It's one of our incentives for submitting. And get rid of this blog portal page! Why should we have to go to another page to do anything? The portal page also ruins our blogs .