So I need to get back on a regular sleep schedule pronto. I’ve always been a night owl and off and on through grad school I’ve had bouts of insomnia when I’ve been overly stressed. Lately though my sleeping issue hasn’t been that, it’s been “Big Brother After Dark” on Showtime. I’ve been staying up too late to watch those morons and I’ve paid the next day as I don’t want to get up! However I have to nip this in the bud. For one, they are getting boring and not doing anything fun to watch, at least not until very late their time which isn’t on Showtime my time. I mean if they are going to be boring, can’t they be naked? At least I can look at something then and be somewhat entertained.

Anway, I’m in a crunch the next two weeks to processes a lot of my dissertation data and write it up, so I need to force myself to get to bed and get up early. I have a conference at the end of February I have to go to and I agreed to give a paper at it. Why why why! I said I wasn’t going to do this again until I was finished! Grrrrr! Fortunately I don’t have to start from scratch this time, which I think is why I agreed. I’m taking the paper I presented at the last conference, taking some things out, adding new stuff in and solidifying the results a bit more.

So a few months back, actually now that I think about it several months back, I had blogged about a big decision I was facing. I made it, but couldn’t comment on it and didn’t know when I could. Now because an announcement has been made, I can. Well, kind of an announcement has been made, but not everyone may know about it yet.

*Sigh* Here goes . . . .

As you may or may not have heard, I have in fact sold my site SoapOperaFan.com to one of the companies that advertise on my site. The sale was actually made months ago, I had just stayed on to continue running the site for the time being until they took over. It now seems they are finally going to be taking over soon, and even posted on the site’s forum about the site being sold and what not. It’s not on the main site yet, but soon changes will be made there and it will become evident. Probably within a month I’ll no longer be working on the site anymore, or if I am in a very limited capacity while they take over and get the hang of things.

I’ve actually been waiting to be bombarded with emails about this from the forum, but they never came. Most people who post there asked me questions, I answered them. I had also written this standard explanation right after the sale and plan to set it as the “auto-response” for my email when the time comes and I start getting tons of emails about what happened. Here’s what I wrote . . . .

I’ve been doing my various soap pages (Days, Another World, Passions, The O.C.) for almost fourteen years now. What started out as a hobby essentially blossomed into pretty much a full time job over the past several years.

For well over a year I had been receiving offers from parties interested in taking over or purchasing the page. I turned down initial offers, but a year later when more came along, I was at a point in my life where I had some choices to make regarding my future. As many of you may or may not know, I’ve been in graduate school for a long time now, and I’d really like to finish! The soaps were supposed to be a hobby, not my life and career, but that’s what it started to feel like for me. Due to the fact that I am now on a very strict deadline to finish school, I opted to make the difficult choice to give up the page.

Other issues also factored in my choice. As I have said, it was not an easy choice as the page has been so much a part of my life for almost 14 years now that I couldn’t imagine not doing it anymore. That in and of itself was a major issue for me believe it or not. I felt I was putting too much of my time into the page, sacrificing school, personal time, and well a personal life for the page at times. As many who have been with me for a long time know, I would even keep the page up to date while on vacation. Let me tell you, that doesn’t go over well with those you vacation with!

So all these factors contributed in my decisions to give up the page, and I truly hope you can understand. Again this wasn’t an easy choice for me, but essentially for so long I feel I have put the page first and now it was time to put me first.

Well okay that pretty much is the explanation and reasoning why, but to be honest a little was left out of the story I had received my first offers 2 summers ago, but it just came out of the blue, I wasn’t prepared at the time to even enter negotiations of that kind without fear of being taken to the bank. I basically said not at the moment for a few reasons, but would be open to talks in a few months. I figured that would give me time to get my stuff together I needed, and it would give me time to decide if this was something I really wanted to do. They didn’t call back though, I guess they lost interest. Then a few months later came the decision at NBC to cancel “Passions” and remarks were made that “Days” future wasn’t so solid either past 2009. Immediately I thought about the opportunity I had to get out while the going was still somewhat good and wondered “WHAT DID I JUST DO!” I was pretty sure at that point nothing like that would come along again. Of course “Passions” was picked up by DirecTV, but “The OC,” another show I covered, got permanently canned around the same time. I honestly didn’t expect to ever get another offer for the site, imagine my surprise when I got two!

So here I was with two more offers to buy the site. I knew at this point I couldn’t just say I need time, I need to think about this some more. I did that before without even hearing any kind of offers and regretted it, I didn’t want that feeling again. I examined my options, the way the shows seemed to be heading, the fact had I gotten out the summer before I probably would have finally finished school already. What should I do? One option of course was to keep the page and either ride the current shows out till the end, and then possibly pick up some new soaps if need be to keep the page going. I always got emails asking me to cover this soap or that soap, so I knew it might work. However it also meant adding more work on, something I didn’t have time for, as well as the fact that I really didn’t feel like “starting over” with soaps I knew nothing about as is. Plus I had around this time started exploring doing more stuff with primetime shows, as that’s where more of my interest was laying (hence The Primetime Dish was born).

So I worked out a deal to sell the site. Of course the ironic part is now that I’ve sold “Days” is the best it’s been in years story-wise. “Passions” however has been canned yet again, and there is still no certainty that “Days” will survive past this year. No looking back though, only forward to whatever the future holds I am keeping The Primetime Dish, and once my dissertation is drafted I’ll probably explore expanding it a bit. Oh I have ideas for it, just no time right now. I also actually have a few other site ideas I have been itching to launch when I get the time.

-Dustin

I’m trying to adjust and get back into the groove of things and work. I’m still working on the vacation recap slowly and to get more photos up. I realized I never uploaded my photos to my webshots from LAST years cruise. My bad! For some reason I thought I had, but then I remembered that was when I was in the midst of computer troubles and dealing with HP to get my laptop fixed.

Slowly getting the house cleaned up bit by bit each day. The chore of course will be to KEEP it clean and straightened up once I get it there. One day I will tackle the hell hole that has become the basement, but not this day or year. The BF meanwhile is planning to re-wallpaper the bathroom, and possibly do something more in there, I don’t know. It does need to be redone . . . badly.

The lack of anything on TV lately is getting to me and is not helped by the lack of anything to rent at the video store! Big Brother 9 starts soon and will probably take over my television viewing habits once again. I just hope there is a more entertaining crew this time, not filled with people I just loath.

I wish I had something more thrilling or exciting to blog about, but I don’t. Oh for those who missed the New Years Eve cam craziness, this Friday as well as next Thursday might be a bit insane

Last year I bitched and moaned about the ABC Family Channel and their “25 Days of Christmas” programing. Now in years past I’ve always enjoyed it, because it was Christmas programing. Last year (and the year before) they started adding things like “Harry Potter” to their line up, obviously to fill in and draw viewers. While the movies have a 3-5 minute Christmas scene in them, they AREN’T Christmas movies. Now they’ve added “Mary Poppins,” again NOT a Christmas movie. Well I just saw a commercial for “The Incredibles!” While I like this movie, to my knowledge, there isn’t even a Christmas scene in it! What the hell ABC Family Channel? You need to invest in purchasing some Christmas movies to show for your “25 Days of Christmas” programing! You are being beaten out this year (and last), in my opinion, by the Hallmark Channel and even Lifetime: Television For Lesbians.

And not only outside. I was in fact hit with yet another cold, which I’m sure I picked up at the hospital. I spent most of the weekend asleep and medicated actually. I can’t afford to be sick, have too much to do!

I’ve been enjoying this miniseries “Tin Man” on Sci-Fi. I don’t know if anyone else is watching it. It’s a re-imagining of “The Wizard of Oz” with a futuristic sci-fi spin. I hope Sci-Fi puts it out on DVD as I’d love to pick it up. I didn’t think I’d enjoy it as much as I actually am.

Anyways, back to “Tin Man” and my rest. It looks like we may be getting snow by the end of the week.

I woke up this morning with that old familiar feeling, an itchy throat and plugged up ears. Yup, time for another cold! I’m currently working to fight it off before it takes hold and makes me miserable. I really really really don’t have time to be sick right now!

It’s finally feeling a lot like winter, though technically I don’t think it starts for another 20 days. It’s so damn cold out already though! Let it snow let it snow let it snow! I am hoping for a white Christmas, but I won’t hold my breath. It so rarely happens, but it would be nice.

Speaking of Christmas, I got some requests for the DVDs my mom bought. Here are the links to them on Amazon.com. The one with the Rankin-Bass specials you can actually find at Best Buy and other stores. However the one on Amazon.com comes with a bonus DVD the ones in the store I’ve seen don’t have. It’s a special called “The Cricket on the Hearth” and it’s based on a classic Dickens tale. I believe it’s where Disney stole Jiminy Cricket from actually. I have never seen it, hope to watch it tonight or this weekend.

The other DVD contains classic TV show christmas specials, some old made for TV movies, and a bunch of short 10-15 minute cartoons. It’s the short cartoons that that will probably be of interest to many, as some look to date back to the 50s. The made for TV version of “Miracle on 34th Street” is HILARIOUS though. It’s not the campy 70s TV movie, but one from some kind of “Fox Variety Hour” back in the 50s. It stars McDonald Carey (Tom Horton from Days!) as Fred and a bunch of other people, none of whom I know. However it’s worth seeing for when Santa “bonks” Sawyer on the head. It’s a completely different take, Santa gets mean and really beats the crap out of him!

Really nothing huge happened. The only visits from Mr. Ghost again seemed to be in my dreams. Not a peep out of him otherwise. I really tried to bring the animals upstairs, but Nikko is a little crapass when it comes to settling in on a bed. He has to jump off it and back on and back off if anything makes the slightest sound. Princess just sits there like, “please stop it.” He can’t sit still. I gave up and threw them out of the room I intended to bring them back when I was ready to zonk out, but since I slept half the day away with a migraine, I stayed up far too late.

I spent the night in bed watching TV really. I pretty much finished “American Gothic.” The DVD set has them out of order, so the final episodes were on the next to last DVD. Brilliant! Anyways, I was in fact left with a cliff hanger. I also watched “Dead or Alive,” a movie based on the video game series. This movie bombed in what few theaters it was shown in and basically is panned by any and all review sites. Well it’s a movie based on a video game, therefore it’s destined to pretty much suck isn’t it? I think “Resident Evil” is the only really good game to movie translation I can think of. I do however enjoy watching “Mortal Kombat” whenever it’s on TBS (usually when they’re not showing “The Mummy.”) For what it was, it was entertaining and enjoyable. If you’ve never played the games, you’ll probably just not enjoy the movie. The games are fighting games, and are known for, well the scantily clad women and their bouncing breasts. The movie did its best staying true to that aspect! Otherwise they just seemed to make up some story that didn’t really follow any of the storylines for the characters in the games as far as I could tell. I guess it’s not easy making a storyline for a game that really is just about a bunch of people fighting in a tournament.

That was really my fun night alone in a nutshell.

I got my new pajama bottoms and decided to include a photo

Yes, I did in fact buy Super Mario jamie pants. I know I know, you wish you had some too! They say, for the curious, ” Who’s Up For Italian.” I think that’s a tad sexual for Mario? I’m not sure. Oh well. Oh there is a better look at the china cabinet always behind me when I’m on cam. It always gets comments When I get the video editing software for my first video blog, I’ll be sure to mention it.

I leave you tonight with a commercial from the 80s for my favorite all time cereal, Fruity Marshmallow Crispies. Damn you Kellogs for stop making it!

It’s that time of year, the days are still warm enough for shorts and short sleeves, the nights aren’t. The past few nights walking the dogs in my summer jammies and flip flops I’ve froze my butt off. Same around the house late at night, it’s an old and not well insulated (okay not at all) house. Time for the fall/winter jammies to come out, though I don’t have any! I need to hit Kohls and but some I guess, my old ones I think I threw out because they were a wreck.

Lately I’ve been tuning into “American Gothic,” the old TV show from 95. I didn’t watch the first time it was on. The BF kept bringing it up every time we watched “Medium,” as Jake Weber is in both shows, so I have rented the DVDs from Netflix. Bizarre show for sure! I do like it, but it only lasted one season, so I know I’ll be left with an unresolved cliffhanger at the end. I hate when networks cancel shows and leave the viewers hanging!

Last, but not least, for some reason I’ve decided I want to try my hand at doing a few videoblogs. I have web cams to record them, but nothing to really edit them and post them. Sure I could do a one shot deal, hope I don’t screw up, and put it on youtube. However I’d rather be able to post them here, as youtube advertising to the whole world a tad too much for my tastes. Anyone have recommendations of some good video editing software? Easy to use would be nice. Free would be nice too, but easy to use and free normally don’t go hand in hand

-Dustin

Like many Americans I am guessing, I only tuned into the VMA’s to see Britney Spears open it. If you missed this, um, performance? Well you can watch it over at MTV. What can I say about this mess? First, the media is making her out to be a fat cow, which she’s not. She’s full figured, she’s had two kids. She probably should have made better wardrobe choices, but she’s by no means a cow. I know Britney loves to lip sych, but for her come back performance it was one time she SHOULDN’T have! She also stopped singing at times, as if she got confused or scared. As for her dancing, did she forget how? Terrible! She was stiff as a board. It is clear that she was petrified during this whole thing. Unfortunately now she’s being crucified! I don’t know, can she over come this? Will people buy her new album? Sadly I really wanted her to rock it, just to show the world and media who all talked badly about her.

-Dustin