'Twas the Night Before Christmas

Madness ensues... I have just woken up (12:47pm) and I can hear the rest of my family racing around our house preparing Christmas Eve dinner (turkey) and cleaning like their lives depend on it. I suppose at some point I must join them.

The last few days have been a bit hectic. I actually had work training for three days this week which is alright since I got a better feel for what the job will actually be like and obviously it is better to get more work days on the next paycheque, since I missed most of that work period being unemployed. It should be interesting to see me adjust to this job on my own in January, but until that time, I won't worry. I just know it is going to be degrading. You can ask me about this later, but just trust me for now. I know that someone with an MA shouldn't be doing half the tasks that are involved in this job. But I'll suck it up because I need an income.

Michaela and I went downtown to MEC on Thursday to get a gift for our step-mom and we happened to see the actor Aaron Ashmore (with his girlfriend buying backpacks).
If you don't know who he is, he was last seen to my knowledge as the evil Troy Vandegraff on Veronica Mars (see photo at left).
His twin brother Shawn is better known as Iceman in X-Men 2 and the upcoming X3 movies, as well as Terry Fox for Canadian CBC movie watchers. My sister was quite amused at this run-in because for some reason she always runs into one of the Ashmore's every year. I'd call that luck.




Anyways, speaking of Veronica Mars again, it's my newest TV show obsession. The obsession started in the summer but it died down since I didn't watch TV consistently.
It's a very very well written show with a lot of witty writing and clever plotlines. There is a lot of parody and satire of the high school drama genre and even detective fiction from both books and TV.
Right now it doesn't air in Canada (Thanks to CTV loyally listening to the viewers on this) but in the States it's on UPN on Wednesdays at 9pm. And if you watch another certain show at that time on a different network (*cough, cough, Lost, cough* ) than you will understand why VM doesn't get very high ratings in its current time slot. The entire situation boggles my mind since last season it wasn't doing that well either, but UPN renewed it because VM fills a niche in the same way that Buffy the Vampire Slayer did. However, for this season, some genius at UPN changed its timeslot from Tuesday to Wednesday at 9pm. Which kind of leaves me to wonder, is the network just looking for a way to get this show cancelled?
I'd like to think that UPN is the network that gives a television show's last chance a decent shot at staying alive. UPN was the network that picked up BtVS after the WB dropped it from its roster, and it was carried for three more seasons. So I have some hope that VM could be around for a few more seasons because obviously the network knows what purpose/demographic it fulfills. It just needs a chance for fans to propagate its wonderfulness. But you shouldn't just take my word for it, you should watch it for yourself... what are you waiting for?
It bothers me that networks don't seem to give the decent shows a fighting chance to develop over more than one or two seasons (2 cases in point: My So-Called Life, Arrested Development). They're too impatient, always searching for the next INSTANT-MEGA-HIT. Anything remotely quirky or intelligent just doesn't seem to draw the masses right away. I'm convinced that if you give it time, a show that is genuinely great will draw in more viewers, or at least you will see a core audience that is devoted to the show. It's too bad only specialty networks like HBO cater to such audiences. So basically what I am saying is that, if VM is cancelled before it's time there is going to be one angry Denise!

P.S. If you can't watch Veronica Mars in Canada (like myself) than go for the gold and download it, while it's still legal of course.