Reader? I Hardly Know'er!

At Cians suggestion in my post lamenting all the time I waste checking peoples blogs for non-existant updates, I decided to look into Google Reader. As it turns out, it's easy to use, clean, and does exactly what I need it to do!

I now have all the blogs I read listed on it, as well as a few websites. My only worry is that, as bad as I am at stopping to take the time to comment on sites, will this make that even worse!?!? Now I'm not even going to my friends blogs, instead letting Google do all the work for me!

Only Bob gets away from me. For some odd reason I can't add his blog to my list. Curse you Bob! Why must you make me waste precious megabits checking your blog on a daily basis?!? I have more important things to be doing with my broadband connection, you know!

Call Me, Beep Me

I just finished watching the finale to the fourth season of the Disney Channels Kim Possible. If you haven't heard of this amazing cartoon, then you really have missed out on the show that has set the standard for all childrens action entertainment. Like Gargoyles, another Disney property, Kim illustrates how a cartoon aimed at a younger audience can build an astounding, passionate and vocal fanbase among older viewers.

For the uninitiated, Kim Possible is a 30 minute cartoon series following the adventures of high school cheerleader and part-time world saver Kimberly Ann Possible, known to friends as Kim, or KP. Tagging alone by her side is best friend Ron Stoppable, and his naked mole rat, Rufus. Ron is well meaning, lovable and clumsy, and bears a huge crush on KP, though never really does anything about it, instead, helping her ask the guy of her dreams to the ball, or comforting her when things go bad. Ron also has a habit of losing his pants at every available moment, much to his annoyance.

The colourful cast of villains are the true strength of the show. While most cartoon series can manage to have a strong, well written main character or two, Kim Possible manages to also have incredibly well written villains as well. It's almost impossible to not love Dr. Drakken and his far more capable female sidekick, Shego, Senior Senior Sr. and his son Señor Senior Jr., or the nefarious fashion orientated evil doers, the Fashionistas, among others. While the writing and character developments go a long way to making these fun villains, the voice actors can claim a lot of the credit themselves. Dr. Drakken is voiced with obvious relish and joy by John DiMaggio, Futuramas Bender, while Señor Senior Sr. is voiced by Ricardo Montalbán, Star Treks (arguably) most loved villain, KHAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!

One of the greatest aspects of the series, and also that which sets it apart from almost 100% of every other animated series I can name is the character development throughout the four seasons. Over the first three seasons, Kim and Ron attend Middleton High, with the final episode of season three not only mentioning that they are moving into their final year in high school, but also dramatically altering their relationship. At the time, the third season finale was to also be the series finale, the TV movie So The Drama. The new relationship would not be an issue, as there would be no more episodes to deal with it. But when season four was green-lit, the creators promised no backing out, and better yet, no soap-opera drama. This has the previously unheard of, entirely unique result of the two main characters in a childrens cartoon series by the Disney Channel remaining together throughout the new season, and not only that, they have locked-lips on-screen more than once! Mature writing and an insistence on the part of the creators to not "write-down" to children meant that this was pulled off with grace, and proved once again that a childrens show does not have to ignore certain real-world issues to succeed. Kim and Ron are high school seniors, and their actions within the newest season are realistic and believable.

By the close of season four, Kim and Ron are still the happy couple. They continued to have crazy adventures, while exploring the new territories of their relationship. Not once throughout the 22 episode run was their relationship ignored in favour of plot, nor did they break-up in favour of drama. While the relationship did allow for some new areas of comedy, Kim and Ron stayed not only as a couple, but also as best friends through to the end. And while Kim and Ron are now old hat at the dating thing, the final two-parter ended with love blossoming rather unexpectedly for two of the other characters.

It will be interesting to see if KP ever gets a fifth season. Kim and Ron are on their way to college, allowing for new friends, new situations, and new settings. The creators were smart enough to wrap everything up for the end of the season, while allowing room for more TV movies, or even, so many fans now hope, another season. And as unlikely as a fifth season might sound, it is clear that the Disney Channel love Kim as much as the fans do. In order to celebrate the last episodes, they ran a megamarathon of every episode and TV movie ever made, over three days at 18 hours a day, culminating with the first airing of the series finale, Graduation.

Updated Yet?

I have quite a few friends that blog regularly, and I love reading them all! What I hate is checking a list of five or six blogs every morning and evening for updates, so I've come up with a solution, of sorts. Unfortunately, it needs your help, fellow bloggers!

See, I'm going to archive a direct link to this post at the side there, under the heading of "Terrific Updates". Any time you update your own blog, my friend, just pop over here, click the link, and leave a comment on this very post!! That way, I get an instant email telling me you updated, and I can go read all about your interesting life, and the crazy adventure you got up to today that makes me want to buy a bus/train/plane ticket to wherever you are and hang out with you right now!

If anyone out there has similar problems keeping up to date with your friends lives, just copy this idea, and text, into a post on your own blog!! Only we can make life easier for all.

So get posting and commenting. I look forward to reading your next entry.

The Buffalo: New King Of The Savanna

Unlike my last video, this is awesomely cool! Not only can I say "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" and have a complete grammatically accurate sentance, but it would appear that they have recently taken their rightful place as Kings of the Savana! The following video is about 8m30s long, but worth every second. It has about fours "acts", all over a single incident, each one topping the last for amazingness. After the first minute or so the footage is a single, uncut shot.

Reason 6,438 For Why People Should Need A License To Spawn

This is insane. I mean, yeah, it's kinda cool to see, and the baby seems to be enjoying himself, but it's still not acceptable! The poor animal is scared to death.

Overheard On...

Gmail! To be truthful, it was less "overheard", and more typed back and forth, with intermittent "bings" being the only actual sounds, but you get the idea!

Bob: help am being abductd

me: WhA?!? Dammit! They're supposed to take MEEEE! Here! I'm here! I want to see you alien mothership!!!

Whisk me away into the stars! I'm ready!

TAKE MEEEEE!!!!!

Sent at 12:03 AM on Thursday

Bob: ZAadefn #

me: What?!? Yes! I understand! I'll happily allow that.

As your people say, ZETdefreww CWE ~~@S Eef.

Sent at 12:07 AM on Thursday

Bob: dam it

me: Buh? Did they leave? Are they coming for me?? Oh god! I need to pack.

Sent at 12:10 AM on Thursday

Bob: ack

me: Ack?

Bob: ack ack ack ack ack ack ack ack ack ack ack ack ack

ack ack ack ?

me: Ack-ack-ack ackack!

Nanoo-nanoo!

Sent at 12:15 AM on Thursday

Bob: Durka-durka, durka-durka probe-u-later?

me: Probe-u-later? I hardly know 'er!! Ah-hahahahaha!!

Sent at 12:17 AM on Thursday

Posted direct and unedited, even leaving in the hurriedly typed awful spelling and grammar!

Daily Double Homicide

I was at home for a few days from Sunday through to Thursday of this week. Originally planned as just a nice trip home to see the family and chill out with no commitments or pressures, it would seem some higher force felt otherwise. However, more of that later.

While I was at home I got the chance to catch up on some television viewing. As some of you know, I don't have a television in my house, or to be accurate, I do, but it's not plugged in to any aerial, so technically I'm only short on channels, not the physical box. Anyway, the one show I enjoyed most while I was at home was an old favourite of mine, Murder, She Wrote.

RTÉ One are currently airing two episodes a day of J.B. Fletchers adventures in Cabot Cove, from 3:30pm in case anyone wants to catch it. I remember when we were really young my brother and I were let stay up to watch Murder, She Wrote when it was considered prime time viewing. My mum loved, and indeed still loves, this show, and we all watched it together. I often asked why we never saw any of Jessicas books in the bookstores, as I really wanted to read some of her stuff! Ah, the innocence of youth!

Watching it again, I know why I loved it so much back then, and I still do now. The show is incredible! When it's hitting its stride, the plots are clever and suspenseful, the dialog sharp and witty and the acting strong and engaging. The style and look of the show is classic, and even walking in during an episode, before Angela Lansbury appears as the master-mystery-writer-turned-detective, you can name the show simply by the framing of the shots, the colours and the movement of the camera. There is something distinctly unique in it.

Angela Lansbury is riveting to watch on-screen. She has a power that few actors possess, and her presence is powerful, yet never seems to overshadow the accompanying actors. Speaking of which, in the five or so episodes I caught of the show over the time I was home, Jessica was in three of them for less than five minutes each! Instead, master-thief-turned-detective (pattern emerging) Dennis Stanton headed up the case, getting into mischief along the way! Although I enjoyed this character, played with flair by Keith Michell, he wasn't Jessica. A little research into the matter proves I'm not the only one who thought that. Episodes like these I saw, as well as a few narrated by Jessica as one of her novels, and one or two other master-whatever-turned-detective were used to give Angela a break from the hectic shooting schedule, however, negative fan reaction meant that they were dropped in later seasons.

Watching Murder, She Wrote at home again was a joy. After seeing it I did some research and discovered the following:

• Angela Lansbury is the only one to appear in all 263 episodes of the series, during its 12 seasons, from 1984 to 1996, on CBS, as well as the four subsequent TV movies.
• On it's 12th season it was moved from it's Sunday evening slot where it had been hugely popular for over a decade to Thursday evenings, putting it against Friends. This was because CBS was trying to make Sundays more teen-friendly. The show floundered and was announced to be finishing on that season. The last four episode returned to the Sunday slot, receiving high ratings once more, the final episode being the 16th in the ratings and the most viewed show on CBS that week!
• None-too-subtly, the final episode is titled Death By Demographics and sees a station head changing the stations focus from classical to rock'n'roll to reach a younger audience. The experiment fails, and he ends up dead! Hmmm...
• Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski spent time as producer on the show, writing a number of episodes. He is credited as spending the most time emphasising Jessicas career as a writer, making deadlines and such a part of the episodes.
• I read somewhere that Straczynski attributes his time on Murder, She Wrote as invaluable in helping him learn how to write mystery's with effective foreshadowing. Apparently, writing for the show allowed for no short-cuts, as the audience had to be able to see all the clues in the episode, and potentially piece them together themselves. Straczynshi has said that this helped him in crafting story elements that would pay off much further down the line for everything from Babylon 5 to Rising Stars and even his run on Spider-Man!
• Angela loves Ireland, owning a home in West Cork. Because of this, there are a number of episodes based in Ireland, particularly in the south. Two of them are titled A Killing In Cork, and Another Killing In Cork. How imaginative! The most recent TV movie is also based in Ireland, The Celtic Riddle.
• And finally, in 1986 there was a cross-over with Magnum P.I., which began in Magnum and concluded in Murder, She Wrote with the episode Magnum on Ice! Sweet! Two of my favourite shows!

Sorry if all that was a bit long winded! I just loved reading about the show, and wanted to share! Besides, if you don't like it, tough! My blog! I get to write what I want! Ha! Anyway, thanks for reading, as always. I'll be putting up more over the next few days, including why my time at home wasn't all fun and games, what I thought of The Bourne Ultimatum (I'll save ya reading that one! Freakin' awesome is the summary!) and one or two other interesting bits and pieces that are itching to get onto the internet! Until then, have fun!