numfar_ptb

Take the Quiz.
A fun Harry Potter related quiz I got sometime ago, just got time to post the results now.

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Yeah, I was gonna post these thoughts like 8 months ago. But, I'm slow. Sometimes, really slow - sometimes to the point that I'll realize that a girl was flirting with me two days later, and this comes from a practical multi-tasker.

Anyway, I was going to talk about this long before the start of the new season, not long after the end of the previous one. But now since a good time to reflect about this subject. As most new shows from the new season has already debuted (there are still a few ones pending, but they`re close to debuting), we can now all wonder what will be the first one to fall. I won't count reality or semi-reality shows, so "Nashvilles" close demise, doesn't really count right now.

I`m back from my long hiatus, just didn't have time to post, even the most pointless line.

Anyway, will have some updates in the next few posts...
As this will be brief, I'll just leave with something that I was just wondering.

EW.com posted a few days ago, some sort of post about the greatest TV show  opening credits sequence. The new shows from the new season are out there, and I was just thinking, what is with this new trend about almost non-opening credits.
Just like Heroes or Lost, it's just like a 5-second thingie with the show name, and the "real credits" come afterwards during the first act. It seems like a trend to most of the new shows, at least the ones I`m watching.
I know, I know they're actually attempting to be viewer friendly, as now 1-hour shows have only like 42 minutes of real content, you shouldn`'t waste almost a minute with lengthier opening credit.
I really miss them though. Even the more abstract ones, like the openings from Medium and Ghost Whisperer, or The 4400. It seems that  opening credits are becoming more dissociated to a show identity day after day. The CSI franchise identity were strongly built around their openings with The Who songs. They're still great, to this day. Even One Tree Hill opening credits can be annoyingly addicting, and Smallville got the one with that Remy Zero song. Dead Like Me had a hilarious opening credit with those reapers and all (which annoys me that neither Chuck or Reaper get to have some funner Credit). If I'm not mistaken Dexter actually one an Emmy, because of it's Opening credit - it's fun, not my favorite though. Heck even trashy new Flash Gordon got a nice looking one.
I miss those opening like the ones from Buffy, Angel and Firefly, or even the ones from Friends. They were so great, that everytime I hear the theme, some tingly feelings always comes to mind. In my opinion they're still part of the greatest opening credits ever done. Heck even those how my cast is pretty openings from 90210, should count for something.

Here are a top 10  (in no particular order just listed alphabetically and randomly numbered) list of my current favorite opening credits from the shows still on the air:
1) Battlestar Galactica
2) Bones (I think is the one most resembles the golden examples of Buffy/Angel type of credits)
3) Doctor Who / Torchwood / The Sarah Jane Adventures (I know Torchwood it's stylistically different, but I like keeping it a combo)
4) How I Met Your Mother (yeah - I know, a non cast, non-lengthy credit opening, but I just luuuuve that parapappa thing with their theme)
5) Jyuken Sentai Gekiranger (Especially the new version since Lesson 28 - I'll post another day about my obsession with Super Sentai shows).
6) Mad Men
7) Psych
8) Scrubs
9) The 4400
10) The Office

On  "normal"  tv I'm getting the finale for the 3rd season of Medium, and might consider watching the CSIs, if I don't find anything better to watch by then.

Studio 60 ended last week on a warm note, and Doctor Who finished it most recent series on a very high note (actually make quite excited for the return of Torchwood sometime in the next months). Loved the episode, and its resolution. Added the fun Burn Notice to the watchlist, and Psych will return in a few weeks, so it's not like changing much the load until fall.  There's still 2 episodes of Traveler left (but no episode this week), and Fox just postponed the final episodes of Drive... AGAIN. According to MyFuton (The Futon Critic customizable thingie - very useful), this is my watchlist for this week.

[monday, july 02, 2007]
8:00 PM	ABC FAMILY	kyle xy: balancing act (#204)
[tuesday, july 03, 2007]
8:00 PM	FOX	on the lot: 12 cut to 11 & 11 directors compete (OTL-108)
[wednesday, july 04, 2007]
[thursday, july 05, 2007]
10:00 PM	USA	burn notice: identity (#102)
[friday, july 06, 2007]
10:30 PM	SCI FI	painkiller jane: something nasty in the neighborhood (#112) - [new episode - special time (projected)]
[saturday, july 07, 2007]
[sunday, july 08, 2007]
9:00 PM	USA	4,400, the: the truth and nothing but the truth (#404)

"Heroes" still has it problems. It was a slow burn experience for me after all (It also took me some time to really fall in love with Firefly), I did mention in a comment in Whedonesque, after watching the pilot, that I thought that the show took itself a little too seriously. But, although I might not call it the best show from the US 2006-2007 season, it's definitely my most favorite for all the shows I watched.

I wouldn't call the resolution from it's finale a disaster, it just didn't live up for its hype. As they were really flashing some really cool things in the episodes before that, that those build ups never really payed off.

Great article about Pixar's position on Animation movies.

I'd reinforce John Lassiter a bit, onto making things for kids, or actually including the kids to what they do. People have to stop underestimating children, their brighter and sometimes more mature that you might believe, what they need is guidance. Don't patronize them, and things produced for children don't have to be Telletubby-esque stupid.

Well onto the article: "We make our movies so they play for everybody. There's a perception in Hollywood that animation is just for kids. And it's not. These movies do huge business and they live much longer than any other film. I don't understand why Hollywood doesn't look at it and say ‘Wow, this is something special,' the way we do. It's the only thing I've ever wanted to do in my entire life."

Onto a completely unrelated topic. Went to one of Blue Man Group World Tour concert last weekend. Enjoyed it a lot. Now, which one of them was the demon, according to a certain someone on "Angel"? hahahaha

I never was really into the muppets thing, but Muppets Babies must still be one of my favorite cartoons when I was a kid.
Wonder if that will ever come out on dvd.

Anyway got this test from catalyst2  journal.

Which on of the Muppets I am?

Didn't find time to sit down and write an entry which I already got a title for called "Closure". Hopefully, I'll get to do it this weeks.

Had an epiphany yesterday afternoon, which might end up as something really positive for my future plans, and might finally allow me to seek the Masters course I've been longing for since before I graduated.

I'll post more, as soon as it's something more concrete.

Check out The Futon Critic's Bryan Ford Sullivan reviews on the pilots produced for the 2007-2008 season new shows.

It'll give you quite good perspective of how next season new shows will really sound like, and also Bryan added additional feature for his daily reviews, which is include review on non-solicited shows pilots.

Day 1: Review on ABC's "Big Shots" and "Mr. and Mrs. Smith".
Day 2: Review on CBS'"Moonlight" and "Babylon Fields".
Day 3: Review on Fox's "The Sarah Connor Chronicles"and "The Company Man".
Day 4: Review on NBC's "Chuck" and "Lipshitz Saves the World".
Day 4: Review on The CW's "Gossip Girl"and "I'm Paige Wilson".
Day 5: Review on ABC's "Samantha Be Good" (was "Sam I Am") and "See Jayne Run".

This was originally to be posted yesterday. But something got wonky at home, as my mom's Chinese browser wasn't agreeing with livejournal

Originally I was planning to make a post about the end of Veronica Mars (which was originally planned to be closer to the upfront presentation week) and the possibility of it pulling a "Buffy" which was the latest news from yesterday, and also something for Buffy Season 8 (which can be done later, cause it will be pretty much copy+paste and some html editing), but something else came up as I was checking the news on Reuters. As this will be a long and lengthy post, I'll leave those for later, or for tomorrow, provided that nothing else comes up.

(As a side note "planning" seems like a very common word for me. I was born under the sign of Virgo, know for some perfectionist tendencies. Those tendencies in my case tend to manifest themselves in the form of obsessive planning sprees, even if those plans do not turn out as I planned before. I simply like to plan things. I don't mind the plans not working as -well - planned, but better safe than sorry.)

First let me explain what led to make this post a priority. Yesterday, late afternoon, we had a work meeting, in which we were pretty much setting several deadlines for reports on some of the things our research team been doing related to OLPC's XO and other low cost mobile platforms. As we're the only group making both ends in the technological evaluation and also in actual educational site testing in a school, we've got a lot of issues to cover. One of our researchers who work mostly on site directly with teachers and the kids, brought back some alarming information, which are not exactly new, but one thing is when news outlets throw in statistical data which just seem random numbers, another thing is to have actual real first degree (well, in my case second degree of the sorts) contact with it. What's the alarming information? There are many children who reach 5th grade, pretty much illiterate, they're what are commonly identified as functional literates (which means that you can write your name and read the alphabet). And that's with only a class of 5th graders, in a school which is not considered to be big in São Paulo, that another four 5th grade classes during the same shift. Last week, Sao Paulo's city Secretary of Education announced the reinstatement of the "Not-holding" back policy for student in Sao Paulo's city public schools. So, even if a student perform poorly by the end of that year turn, he won't be held back to repeat the grade again the following year, instead, he'll just advance for the following grade. Of course the teachers will try to improve the student's learning curve, but mostly end up happening, is that you reached later grades with completely uneven class, with students in complete different points of the learning level . It's something that I know it is also in action in a lot of other cities in the country. The unevenness can be so large to the point in which, in the 5th grade class mentioned previously, we can find students who can read and understand a text, and from that produce something of his own, and find the other extreme which are kids who couldn't even identify the word Einstein, because they're not capable of reading whole words properly.

I kind wanted to clarify something from yesterday's post. As the title says, I'm no saint.

But that's not really the issue. Because I chose a work style, in which I somehow, help the world n- and education and culture seems to be the ways I found to reach that end. I don't really wonder if the world is giving me back what I'm investing, but just knowing that I can play even a little part in these changes, makes me happier. Even if the changes doesn't mean that much at all.

On my way home something kind of stuck on my mind, from the previous long post.
If I'm so interested in helping the world, why wouldn't I get more engaged, either politically or even in more active roles, or giving more of my time and money to those causes.
I'm no Angelina Jolie.

Well, she's not cast yet, but they do plan to reveal who's playing her during San Diego ComiCon.

This kinda makes me miss Peter David's run on Supergirl, some years ago. Well, she wasn't the traditional Supergirl, but Linda Danvers is still missed a lot.

But back on "Smallville", I wonder if they won't start to be stretching themselves a bit with this. Not that I mind another supposedly strong female character on screen, but with Clark, still not fully on Superman mode, someone has to wonder, when if ever this Clark will consider becoming that Alter ego.

From Zap2it

Supergirl Swoops Into 'Smallville'

Clark's cousin has yet to be cast
June 11, 2007

Can she, how should I put this, act?
As I posted elsewhere, don't think she should've one. There were other fine ladies that looked better for the crown.
Seems that she auditioned for the role of the new love interest for Nakamura Hiro.
As of now for the 4 o5 rumored new characters we have about one casting confirmed in the form of BtVS' and X3's Dania Ramirez as Maya (character name to be confirmed), and Alias' David Anders rumored to be up for one of the other roles.

Back in August / September last year (2006), I was planning a big upheavel of this journal / blog thing. Maybe I'd finally really start posting, writing, whatever. Never happenned.

Yes this is finally the post that I was planning for a while ago, sort of. It changed. Now, it'll be a lot about my thoughts, and less about some hokey reality show.

Originally I was planning a big post for comparisons between the original Trump's Apprentice, with Brazilian version of it with Justus and how I got a scoops about the finale before it aired. It was fun. Being someone who dealt a lot with Spoilers since the days of Buffy, it would be funny to be the source of some. But who really cared.

As you might notice, from the archives and from my comments, it never happened.

New Shows I'm most excited about:
1) THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES
2) PUSHING DAISIES
3) BIONIC WOMAN
4) REAPER
5) THE TALISMAN
6) WOMEN'S MURDER CLUB
7) FLASH GORDON

The list below is listed Alphabetically.

I was listening to the most recent Podcast for Teachers episode, and was just reminded of something.

And I can't believe I never really posted this anywhere (I did send it to some personal friends though).

It was a news report show, so it got nothing to do with SAG (I wish... heh), but I made my american tv debut a few weeks ago in CBS' "60 Minutes" and I even got a silly line in (re-thinking later it only sound silly, is actually deeper in meaning).

You can check it out here:
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=2830221n

Next post, my show pics for next season.

Announced on May 17th, 2007.

Announced in May 17th, 2007.

As the especialized media has been reporting, The CW's second year will mostly be covered by the demise of most shows brought from the WB and UPN era, and the introduction of - bleh - a lot of reality show projects. There is only 4 new scripted shows debuting next fall and another 1 in mid-season. Wonder how many new pussycat dolls they really need.

As Smallville probably heads into its final season, I wonder what will be left in THE CW after that.
Definetely an uninspired line-up.

For cancelling VM, I really wish they fail badly next season, despite having 2 or 3 shows, that I'd like to keep up to.

Announced in May 16th, 2007.

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Announced on May 15th, 2007.