Well folks, this is it: My farewell blog.

If you have been following my blogs (like the only real friend I have on here, pokeyfz), you know that I am leaving for the next two years to do religious stuff. And if you know that, you should also know that my red-writing cousin is taking over the account while I am gone.

He has not been overly active on here, so I hope he doesn't get passive while it's his job and end up going MIA getting me fired from my editorships. I hope he does bother to log in at least once a week, if just to look at the queue.

I'll still be floating around for a few days, doing last-minute work, but no more blogs (I think).

I hope when I get back two years from now I can jump right back in to this wonderful online community. I expect by then I'll have lost my "Top 1000 User" status, and it's possible I'll have lost an editorship or two (I'm more likely to lose The Flying Nun since I have fewer CPs, but anything's possible). Who knows, maybe by the time I get back I'll have lost all interest in this site. But I doubt that.

Well, I can't think of anything else to say, except goodbye, it's been fun talking with you, and hopefully I'll talk to you again in 2009.

Au revoir,

borisbalinkoff

Wow, I haven't written a blog post since July, although you might have seen my cousin's blog a few weeks ago. (The red and blue color coding hasn't worked quite how I wanted since my cousin seldom writes and blog comments no longer allow the color formatting). I thought it was time for a new one.

In June I mentioned how I will be going on a religious mission this fall. Well, I've since learned I'll be going to the Eastern Washington area. I wanted to learn a foreign language (I took four years of Spanish, two years of French and one year of American Sign Language in junior high and high school, and got A averages in all of them), but I am glad to be only a few states away from home in a familiar culture.

I love holidays, so there were two dates I was hoping to leave (it's always on a Wednesday). The length of the mission is slightly less than two years, so I was hoping for November 7 which would likely make me miss just one Halloween, or November 28, which would almost certainly have me miss only one Thanksgiving. Well, I got the former date, so it's only one Thanksgiving I'll miss (and it's slightly possible I'll only miss one Halloween as well).

To honor my last two holidays, I wanted to get shows to watch for them by buying TV shows on DVD. For Halloween I got Volume One of the Ultimate Collection of The Beverly Hillbillies, which has the episode "Trick or Treat." For Thanksgiving, I took a bigger risk, and bought the second season of a show I had seen very little of. I have seen most of the season now, and like it, so my list of favorites now has a new show: That Girl.

It's an entertaining show--well written, clever, funny--and feminine. Meaning I like it and it's a good show, but it definitely is more of a chick flick, making it less appealing to a guy. But, like I said, it's still a show I like.

With the addition of a new show, it was time to reevaluate the mental list I have of the order of my favorite shows. The ratings on TV.com reflect the order of my favorite shows. Here is the newly revised list of my favorite shows, their previous rankings, and my reasons for the placement. This does not include the Charlie Brown shows I track, which are not technically series, or my cousin's modern shows.

1. Gilligan's Island ( Previous ranking1): Even though I have the DVDs, I seldom watch this show since I have tons of other TV DVDs I haven't watched, but when I do watch it, I find it quite fun and entertaining.

2. The Munsters (2): Between DVDs and airings on TV Land (including the weekly mini-marathons in 2004), I have seen every episode a million times, but, although some novelty has worn off, I still find it entertaining and pick up new things.

3. Green Acres (3): While I find the previous two shows more entertaining, I think this is the funniest show ever, and think it could be wildly popular if more people saw it. On what other show do you have a lady named Ralph, a pig who watches westerns and a county agent who's completely incompetent? Well, he's not completely incompetent, he's only--well, I guess you could say he's incompetent.

4. The Flying Nun (8 ): When I discovered the editorship was available for this show, I went out and bought the first season, an investment that turned out to be wonderful. I had not seen the show for quite a while, and even then I had only seen a few episodes. This is a wonderfully entertaining show, and the second season turned out even better than the first. (Come on, season three on DVD!)

5. Bewitched (5): Increased viewing of this show due to DVDs has both lowered and raised my opinion of it, leaving it in the same ranking.

6. The Andy Griffith Show (4): This is a brilliant, clas$ic, appealing show, but I have seen it so much it is not as entertaining. The Munsters is more viewable because everyone knows turning into a bat is more fun to watch than locking a drunk in jail.

7. The Beverly Hillbillies (7): I don't get to see much of this show, but when I do it's funny. It was my #1 show many years ago. It's coming back to TV Land, but I'll be gone. Hopefully it'll still be on when I get back.

8. The Addams Family (9): Not as good as The Munsters, but still fun to watch.

9. My Three Sons (6): The last time I updated this list was when I added this show to my faves, so I was a little more enamored with it then than I am now. But it's still entertaining.

10. I Dream of Jeannie (10): Entertaining, but they tried too hard.

11. That Girl (n/a): Clever and well written, if a little feminine. Marlo Thomas as Ann Marie was very pretty.

12. I Love Lucy (11): A brilliant show for its time. I think later shows were better, but much of the humor still holds up very well.

13. The Lucy Show (12): I think I liked the few episodes I saw of this show. It's been years. I probably would like it if I saw it again.