Hoyoyo! Seem to be blogging more often now that it's summer. That said, check my latest post over on the Animation Revelation blog.

Today's topic:

I finally pick up on the awesomeness that is The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Coming from a shounen follower, you should really give the series a try!

Well, TV.com's apparently going through some sprucing in the guide submission department(*cough*shouldbeendonealongtimeago*cough*) so I figured now would be the best time to let you kiddies into the life of an editor... petewrigley style.

For the uninitiated, you can think of TV.com as basically what IMDB would be if it ate Wikipedia: an all-encompassing guide an any and all television shows. But wait, with the bad, bad, spammers and the like lurking about, just who decides what gets passed as a guide submission? Well, that's where editors come in. Before submissions can be published to a guide page, a guide editor for that specific show must process through what was submitted-checking to make sure the page is as accurate and precise (yes, those are two different things) as possible.

From what I know in my time spent on this site, TV.com's guides can be basically split up into two different types: people guides (for actors and actresses) and TV guides (no pun intended). I'm more of the latter, so apologies if you wanted to know just how you can become editor of the Emma Watson guide here.

In order to become an editor for a show guide, one must have contributed 80 points worth to that particular guide. Each submission is worth a particular number of points (ie: recaps are worth more than quotes) so keep that in mind when you have your eyes on a particular guide. But enough with the formalities; it's about time you see exactly how an editor operates... or at least how I do so.

With the bulk of my guides being of TV shows that have long ended, I honestly don't do that much work with them anymore and at most will update things when I have absolutely nothing else better to do. But as is the case with my latest editorship of Dragon Ball Kai, I figure I have to stay at least somewhat on top of things. So at the barest, I'll have the latest episode title up, along with the basics (episode number, air date and summary).

With stuff like college stuffs, I got a bit behind in adding details to some of the episode entries, but I'm sure that will be fixed after a while .

Anyways, once I get into the editing mood, I pull up the episode on the ol' laptop, and play it alongside a newly opened word document, keeping a running list of the cast members, some quotes and of course the recap.

So, after a repeated cycle of watching and pausing and typing, I eventually end up with this:

After all the hard stuff gets outta the way, I now pull up the according guide page on TV.com and copy/paste the according information in erm... accordingly:

(Note that bold and italics tags have already been added for the sake of making things easier later on.)

Cast submissions are a bit different in that you have to go through and check the boxes accordingly, but that's not all that bad once you get the hang of things. The control+F function helps out, too.

... and vi-o-la! You've got yourself a somewhat finished guide page. Every now and then, I'll run into the occasional "rogue meatball" that is some kind of episode goof, but I just type that down and keep it off to the side to add accordingly.

Now if only editors were allowed to insert banners into episode and show guides...



...life would be perfect.

You should have been expecting this one.

At what is now considered only a moderately old age of 50, famed pop star sensation for as long as I could remember and then some, Michael Jackson, has died of a cardiac arrest (which apparently is completely different from a heart attack). While in recent years, the man has been synonymous more so with his performances off stage than on, that does not make his impact on the musical world any less significant. I would follow this up with something about how he influenced me in taking up some kind of musical instrument that I continue to play to this day, but that's far from true. For me, Michael Jackson (yes, his name must be said in full or not at all) was just another of those super-rich people who seemed to be able to get away with anything as long as he had a couple thousand or so dollars on him. Sadly, the fact that he forever changed the musical world with his dance, music and overall performances takes second seat to such theatrics. Regardless, upon learning of his death, I think everyone had to have stopped for at least one second to think back on just how big of an impact this man made on our world. And if I hadn't thrown out enough clichés already: People like that come only once, maybe twice if you're lucky, in a lifetime.

Rest in peace, good sir. It's sad to see you go, but it was fun while it lasted.

Now with all that said, time to make this a little more relevant to myself. Michael Jackson was someone who had been in the world of music and public performances since the age of five or so. Having been brought up under conditions far from ideal for child rearing, it only made sense that over the years Michael Jackson's actions became a bit more... eccentric? Watching the ongoing coverage on CNN throughout the day, one thing was repeated that remains in my mind for some reason: when his body was being recovered, reporters made note of the detail about one of his rooms being dedicated solely to superheroes such as Batman and Superman. Larry King brought up this detail, saying how when he visited Michael Jackson a while ago and asked about the room, he simply responded saying that he loved those guys and looks up to them. How awesome is that?

Though the more I think about it, the more it probably seems more eccentric than anything else. While I support the whole concept of keeping some sense of your childhood with you into your adulthood, this is just so extreme. But with that said, just how would I do transitioning into the adult world? Would I end up just abandoning everything I accumulated in my previous years? Would stacks of manga and DVDs end up in boxes in my parents' garage? I remember having a similar discussion with a friend of mine, telling her that before even thinking about having kids, I would first and foremost have to learn to get over myself and all my ridiculousities. That's not to say that I frown upon my childhood, or anything, but when you get down to it, that aspect of my life just doesn't seem to fit well with that of the adult's life.

It's a question that I'm sure all people have to go and find their own answer to, but that's what makes it all the more interesting. And if you think about, it could be the very reason why the beloved King of Pop turned out the way he turned out.