Since I went to see the Iron Man movie at the theaters, I'd been looking forward to getting the DVD. Now, unfortunately, I found that the studio didn't bother to release any in the Fullscreen format, which is a major disappointment for me because I absolutely detest wide screen. Call me idiosyncratic, call me crazy, call me stupid if you want, but I will not get a dvd if it's only available in widescreen. Why? Well, for years all our family had was a simple black and white portable tv. The tube on this tv (yes, it was that long ago) finally started to go and while it was, across the top and bottom of the screen were thick black bands, just like those you get on wide screen letterbox formatted movies. I could never tell if we were losing part of the picture because of it, but I still have suspicions to this day that we were. These widescreen movies remind me so much of that, and I know people say you actually get to see more in that format, but I don't like having to be right up to the screen to be able to see the movie, which is what I'd have to do, because widescreen shrinks the picture so much. I don't feel it's fair that the studio took the chance to choose formats away from customers like myself who prefer full screen and can't afford a blu--ray player. If this is how things are going to be in the future, maybe it's time I reconsider shelling out any money to their studio at all. Unless of course they want to pay for me to get a blu-ray player, but I doubt that'll ever happen. On the positive side of things, though, I finally was able to find the first season of Charmed for a more-affordable price than I've seen it before. Since that was one of the series I've wanted to get (at least up to season three), I made sure I picked it up. Granted, I didn't expect to be getting anymore TV seasons on DVD until after Christmas, and I'd thought my next would be the last season of Beauty and the Beast but... ya gotta get em when ya can. So at least that's out of the way.

http://www.parentdish.com/2008/09/23/bus-driver-leaves-five-year-old-to-make-his-own-way-home/?icid=200100397x1209846058x1200629934 I saw this today and I just couldn't help but wonder. With so many children these days being taken or going missing... how can something like this be allowed to happen? This is a story that, luckily, had a happy ending, but it could so easily have turned out tragically different. What was this bus driver thinking? I thought school bus drivers were supposed to bring the children back to the school if a situation like this occurred, not just kick them off the bus because "it's the last stop". Suppose something HAD happened to that child? Would this bus driver's apology make up for it? I don't think so. Whoever the woman in the story was who brought him back to the school...she's an angel, and this world needs more people like her. I don't know what, if any, disciplinary action will be taken against the bus driver, but there surely needs to be some. School bus drivers have an incredible responsibility for the safety of the children on their buses and this one failed in that, big time. That person would no longer be driving a bus for me if I owned that company. Yeah, maybe people ordinarily deserve second chances, but when you're dealing with children's lives... there's no such thing. Sorry just wouldn't cut it if something had happened to that little boy. I don't have children, but I do have nieces and nephews, and I could just imagine how I'd feel if something had happened to them. No, this driver's behaviour is not acceptable. Children are just too special to take chances like that with.

When I first heard that the site was going to be redesigned, I had a bad feeling it was going to cause problems. I didn't realize, however, that it was going to be as bad as it's turned out to be. I haven't found anything yet that's been changed for the better, but there are certainly a lot of steps backwards, and I'm obviously not the only one who feels this way. I have done a lot of reading of the feedback board and have found that an overwhelming number of people are greatly disappointed with this new design. As someone said, when a site's redone, it's usually to improve it, but this has done nothing but the opposite. It's nowhere near as user friendly as the old style, nor is it as visually appealing as the old site was. People who edit shows are having headaches on top of headaches, apparently, and I can't even understand half of what they're talking about with their problems because I'm not an editor and I don't want to be one, now less than ever. Although forum posts disappeared on me after i'd hit submit, at least i understood how to overcome that problem from something someone put in to get around it. Now I'm seeing replies to blogs disappear instead, and yesterday's blog about the driveby seemed to disappear as soon as I hit submit as well, not showing up until today. I don't understand all this computer code so that's part of the reason I don't try to do anything fancy. Plus i'm on dial-up, and my connection is very slow compared to others, so that's another reason I don't try to do any videos or animated things or anything else. But something tells me that is causing trouble for people too. Another thing about this new version I don't like is the screen size. Where before it all used to fit in the window, now i have to keep scrolling from side to side to view it all. I saw a post in one of the feedback forums that went into great detail about how to deal with a lot of the problems now, but something that needs so many instructions to get around the problems it causes just makes me wonder if it's worthwhile to even bother trying. I had recently had a friend of mine join up here. She only used the site the night she signed up, but that was back before it changed. I can only imagine how confused she's going to be when and if she ever comes back here again. I've been here for three years and I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing anymore (not that I had all that much clue before, but now it's even worse.)
There were other things I'd wanted to write about for this blog, but this new design has just annoyed me too much to hold off on getting my feelings out there. I don't understand why TV.com felt it was needed, and I don't see that anyone really likes it any more than I do, so here's to hoping they change it back once it's realized how few of their users actually approve of it. But unfortunately, I won't hold my breath.