CURRENT Television

[Mad Maud]

ADoS mentioned this thread after I sent him this article.

I wanted to cry after reading about the father of a ten-year-old autistic boy who set up a recording device on his son to find out just how he was being abused by the teaching staff at his school. He'd been getting notes about how the boy was supposedly acting out at school. The kid wasn't able to tell him just what was upsetting him.

Turns out the teaching staff were bullying him, calling him a "bastard" and even bragging about how much they'd drunk the night before.

Compared to ADoS, I'm definitely a lot more tolerant of and friendly towards kids, but I do have my limits. Bratty kids acting out and screaming when they don't get their way are one of my biggest pet peeves. I spent the four summers during my high school years volunteering for an art program in the children's room at my local library--I'm no stranger to them. Unfortunately, it's hard to tell whether or not a child who's acting out is doing so just out of brattiness or a more serious cause. It breaks my heart to hear about autistic and/or otherwise disabled kids being treated poorly just because they're not behaving according to someone else's preconceived idea of "normal".

With that said, I scored a 33 on the AQ test. While I've never been diagnosed as or suspected of being autistic, I do share a lot of traits with those on the spectrum.

[Roland Deschain]

The teacher and both aides should have been sacked, rather than just one aide being let go and the other two being transferred. All that does is move the problem elsewhere, and doesn't deal with the issue at all. The Father's Website for those interested.

Good point there, Roy, although finding the causes (note the plural) would help lead to a better understanding, and hopefully not only to preventive measures, but also to some form of treatment.

[Almighty Doer of Stuff]

I finished watching all the episodes of MLP:FiM thus far released, which is the first two seasons.

The two-part season 2 finale was FREAKY. This show sure as hell isn't for five year olds, despite what nay-sayers think! The OLD shows were for five-year-olds, the ones from the 80s and 90s. This show is probably aimed at the 7-10 year old age range, with plenty to keep the attention of their parents, and bronies of course.

I still think you should all give the show a chance! It's awesome!

[PKMKII]

At long last, Kristen Wiig is leaving SNL.

Many a skit was ruined by her. Nearly every character of hers was just plain annoying, with no secondary aspect to make it funny.

[Roland Deschain]

I just watched part 1 of what I can only assume is the BBC's adaptation of Sebastian Faulks' Birdsong, an excellent book set just before WWI and during it, following the love affair of a young man and the fallout from that. The book is beautiful, and introduced many (including me) to the tunnellers of WWI. The first part was superb, and I cannot wait to watch part 2, which is up on the BBC iPlayer along with part 1.

Episodes series 2 has started, and the first 2 episodes are on the iPlayer. It's a good start to the series, and I hope there are many more good episodes of Episodes to come.

[Roland Deschain]

So more iPlayer goodness has followed. Part 2 of Birdsong was great, and did justice to the book. Episodes episodes 3 and 4 have been good too, continuing a great story arc. I also watched all 3 hours and 20 minutes of The Eurovision Song Contest, with not a single song standing out as being very good. The Russian grannies were funny, although i'm sure they were meant to be serious, but the winning song was really crap. Meh. Bring back Lordi!

What really caught my attention this week was Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here, an hour long documentary on the making of one of Floyd's best albums, and certainly one of their most melancholic. I sat in rapt attention for the whole thing, my eyes, ears, body, and brain soaking up every little nuance of the music played. It was a truly beautiful thing to hear, which i'm following up with the album itself whilst writing this. Not that I can really concentrate on this, as there's something taking my attention away, wanting me to fall into its sad beauty. Definitely one for DB.

[Roland Deschain]

Ok, so this is a new situation for me...triple post!

I've just watched the latest episode of Have I Got More News For You. They had that Nick guy from The Apprentice on there, and he was surprisingly funny, but this was not the highlight. After 10 years of being asked to come on the show, Alastair Campbell finally said, "Yes." Oh dear. This was definitely not good for him, although he took it good-humouredly. Ian Hislop spent almost the entire show making jokes and comments about Campbell, Blair, the war in Iraq, war criminals, etc. It was awesome; one of the best shows this season, for sure. If you can, check it out on the iPlayer before it goes. You won't regret it.

[daftbeaker]

Germany - Portugal. Half an hour in and nothing's happened, Germany are keeping the ball, Portugal nick it and go on a run, Germany get it back, repeat.

[daftbeaker]

Spain - Italy was nearly as dull as Germany - Portugal. I do like Croatia though, they actually play football and attempt to score rather than hanging around in their own half playing pass the parcel with the ball.

England play France tomorrow and on Tuesday there will be great enjoyment of the national hobby of complaining about the pitch/referee/linesmen/other officials/weather/police/ball/supporters/noise as the reason why England lost Well, it might be a bit much to accept the England team is composed of self-obsessed tosspots that have footballing skill but cannot play as a team

[Almighty Doer of Stuff]

I've been sating my appetite for more ponies since season 2 ended with stuff like these:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sob1t-iUCmE - About two characters from the show who the fans have decided are roommates. They've each only appeared twice, very briefly, but they're quite popular. The gray one is unofficially named Octavia and is a cellist in canon, seen with a serious expression on her face when she plays. The white and blue one is unofficially named Vinyl Scratch, and was unofficially called DJ Pon-3 as her stage name, until Hasbro made her fan-picked stage name canon recently due to her popularity. We'll see when they release the toy this fall, whether the notes that come with it state her "real" name as well or only her stage name, I guess. As I said, DJ Pon-3 and Octavia have no lines on the show, but the impressions of Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Discord are spot on. It's amazing how well the fans can do this stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP8Wmw0UpBg - A video personals ad from Twilight. Again the Twilight impression is spot on, and Spike the dragon's voice is close.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U0QDt8wiCs - About a minor background pony and a fan favorite. The brown earth pony is unofficially named Dr. Whooves, due to his hourglass cutie mark and supposedly his resemblance to one of the Doctors (I don't know, I don't watch the show). He has one speaking line in the show, and he does not have a British accent, but in this video he does for humorous effect.

The pegasus's name is in flux. She has been known in the fandom as "Derpy Hooves" since the beginning of the series due to appearing in one scene with eyes pointed in different directions, and as the show went on it became apparent that she is clumsy and airheaded. She has several lines in one episode, and Rainbow Dash called her by name as "Derpy", and she had a dramatic lisp. Most people loved this, but some crybabies decided that the word "derpy" was "OFFENSIVE OMG" to developmentally disabled people, and Hasbro and/or The Hub (the station where it's aired), not wanting to cause trouble, redid the beginning of the episode, removing her name, changing her voice, and making her less crosseyed, much to the dismay of fans. Originally they wanted to call her "Ditsy Do" but they changed it last-minute to Derpy, and as far as anyone knows they may change it back. The show's crew still call her Derpy though. There was a big "Save Derpy" movement when that happened, and although she continues to appear in the show with her normal personality and misaligned eyes, she hasn't had a speaking part since. This controversy was what first drew me to MLP:FiM. Anyway, both the original and modified versions of the episode are available in full on YouTube, so you can compare for yourself. It's called "The Last Roundup". I haven't listened to the modified version much, but I think Derpy's voice, in this video with Dr. Whooves, is close to her new voice on the show.

EDIT: Also, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYf64O-tsy4 - Just some silly walk cycles with pretty colors and chiptune polka music.

[black bart]

Have you noticed that male TV archaeologists usually wear silly hats and look like this:



Whereas female TV archaeologists have got no chance unless they are totally gorgeous like her:

[Roy Hunter]

A programme about Willie Campbell from the band Astrid on BBC2 Scotland tonight.

Campbell's life 'fell apart' when, during the making of Astrid's first album, he was drunk every day, not going home, waking up in strange places...

...yeah, he woke up in my flat a few times.

We ran the open stage where the boys met Gary, their future drummer, we were there when they sealed the deal with Belle & Sebastian to provide support slots (which led to meeting Edwyn Collins and him agreeing to produce their album). Astrid were our protégés. Looks like we didn't do too good a job of protecting them...

[Roland Deschain]

Whereas female TV archaeologists have got no chance unless they are totally gorgeous like her:

Bringing back memories, Roy?

[black bart]

The best the ladies can hope for is a a bit of Astronomy with:



By eck petal the Universe is sooooooo beautiful.

[PKMKII]

The best the ladies can hope for is a a bit of Astronomy with:

FTFY