Posted by Dustin on 05.11.2008 at 2:22 pm

I’m not sure if this is anything anyone would be interested in, but I thought I’d throw it out anyway. Tonight is the “Brothers and Sisters” season finale, and other ABC shows are soon to follow. I thought it might be fun, if enough want to, to gather in the chatroom and discuss the shows as the finales are going on. This is something I’ve done with my friends before, actually we usually all gather and talk about “Housewives” on Sundays and they talk about “Lost” (and of course I’m lost!) on Thursday’s.

So if you are interested head into The Chatroom and poke around. If enough people show an interest I might have to make rooms for the shows on any given night. Currently the chatroom dumps everyone into “The Lobby.” Other rooms can be created by users for various shows at any given time/night.

I’ll be in there tonight (I’m usually there every night actually) for “Brothers and Sisters” if anyone wants to watch and discuss. I am on eastern time though, so if your west coast, you might not want to show up unless you want to be spoiled

Posted by Dustin on 03.26.2008 at 11:28 am

I haven’t shared this news here, but I have on my personal blog. I couldn’t talk about it for a long time because I didn’t know if I was allowed to, what I was allowed to say and when I was allowed to say it. It has been semi-formally announced, it’s been trickling around the web slowly and I’m starting to get emails about it. Because of that I feel I can now speak about it.

Many have probably wondered why I took down the reciprocal links between here and the soap site months ago. Well it’s because months ago I chose to give up the soap site. The following is a post from my personal blog from about a month ago explaining it all . . . . .

As you may or may not have heard, I have in fact sold my site SoapOperaFan.com to one of the companies that advertise on my site. The sale was actually made months ago, I had just stayed on to continue running the site for the time being until they took over. It now seems they are finally going to be taking over soon, and even posted on the site’s forum about the site being sold and what not. It’s not on the main site yet, but soon changes will be made there and it will become evident. Probably within a month I’ll no longer be working on the site anymore, or if I am in a very limited capacity while they take over and get the hang of things.

I’ve actually been waiting to be bombarded with emails about this from the forum post, but they never came. Most people who post there (the forum) asked me questions, I answered them. I had also written this standard explanation right after the sale and plan to set it as the “auto-response” for my email when the time comes and I start getting tons of emails about what happened. Here’s what I wrote (and posted on the forum as well) . . . .

I’ve been doing my various soap pages (Days, Another World, Passions, The O.C.) for almost fourteen years now. What started out as a hobby essentially blossomed into pretty much a full time job over the past several years.

For well over a year I had been receiving offers from parties interested in taking over or purchasing the page. I turned down initial offers, but a year later when more came along, I was at a point in my life where I had some choices to make regarding my future. As many of you may or may not know, I’ve been in graduate school for a long time now, and I’d really like to finish! The soaps were supposed to be a hobby, not my life and career, but that’s what it started to feel like for me. Due to the fact that I am now on a very strict deadline to finish school, I opted to make the difficult choice to give up the page.

Other issues also factored in my choice. As I have said, it was not an easy choice as the page has been so much a part of my life for almost 14 years now that I couldn’t imagine not doing it anymore. That in and of itself was a major issue for me believe it or not. I felt I was putting too much of my time into the page, sacrificing school, personal time, and well a personal life for the page at times. As many who have been with me for a long time know, I would even keep the page up to date while on vacation. Let me tell you, that doesn’t go over well with those you vacation with!

So all these factors contributed in my decisions to give up the page, and I truly hope you can understand. Again this wasn’t an easy choice for me, but essentially for so long I feel I have put the page first and now it was time to put me first.

-Dustin

All of the above was written by me back in early February. The whole transition has taken a little longer than expected. I honestly didn’t expect to be doing the pages past the end of last year to be frank. This as well as other things caused a mini-melt-down for me recently, which unfortunately has forced me to say goodbye rather abruptly I know.

Sadly all obligations I have to the site have ended. I stayed on past when I was obligated to mainly out of concern and care for it, as it was my “baby.” However the point of selling was for me to be able essentially retire from the daily workings, the updates, the time consumption and the frustrations; to focus on school and moving on with my life. At this point my staying on as long as I have and any further is just defeating that purpose.

So I’ve brought you all up to speed now. The reason I’m posting this here and now is probably evident at this point. I wanted it all out in the open in case people started leaving messages in the shoutbox about what is going on, which they are. And like I said, emails have already started trickling in. The site will continue to be updated, just not by me. The updates should start up again this week with an official explination as to what is going on. Eventually there will also be a sleek new redesign of the site.

Again, I’m continuing with this site as well as all my other personal sites/blogs. I can now focus on my school work from pretty much 9 to 5 and then have time to relax and enjoy myself for once. Once my dissertation draft is turned in and it’s all about editing then I hope to expand this site a little more than the personal blog it is now. As I mentioned before, I’m hoping to pull some others in to blog about shows I don’t.

If you have any questions, you can email me or leave them in the comments. Nasty comments will be deleted though

-Dustin

Posted by Dustin on 03.11.2008 at 7:18 pm

I figured I needed to post a bit about the site and my plans for it. I actually started the site almost a year ago as an experiment. I was trying to figure out if I wanted to add another primetime show to replace “The O.C.” I ended up rather liking being able to briefly cover a lot of shows I watch, rather than just picking one show and getting too in depth that the show I focused on no longer became fun for me. Furthermore let’s face it, shows get cancelled left and right nowadays, so it sucks to build up a site only to have the show you cover get the can (I’ve been through this three times now). This way I can just add newer shows in when older ones get the can. I like that

I actually have a lot planned for the site and where I want to take it. The main hang up is and has been school. I’m trying to finish grad school and have to have my dissertation finished around May. This is taking a lot of my time up right now. I have just enough time to post about the shows and news bits, but not too much else! I’d love to post more than I am and lengthier posts, but right now I just don’t have the time. Soon though!

One possible solution to that is bringing in some help, which actually has always been a plan of mine. I’m going to possibly recruit some help from my brother soon. I just have to find out what he watches. For Sci-Fi buffs out there, you’ll probably love him. He’s into “Battlestar” and “Stargate” and all that stuff. What he watches aside from it I’m not sure! I also have a friend who I might be able to pull into the site as well. One thing I’ve also had in my mind is pulling in help from readers, especially those active with comments and on the forum

I have always wanted to get a custom made theme for the site. I’m not sure If I will do this or attempt to make my own. I’ve been tweaking and changing themes left and right, but have found two I really like (this being one). What I hope to do is use them as a framework, change the colors and graphics around and hopefully settle on something. If I get frustrated, I’ll turn to a designer I know and used for another blog.

Photos photos photos! I’ve been working to incorporate more photos into the site to spruce it up. I also have the ability now to capture photos from the shows, I just have to record them all on my PC to do so (the part I often forget to do.)

Finally last week I refined my spam guards on the blog a bit. Blogs are notorious for getting spammed, but sometimes guards can be too strong and prevent real comments from being posted. If you ever have trouble with it, please email me!

-Dustin

Posted by Dustin on 02.28.2008 at 11:42 am

If you haven’t noticed, I’ve added a poll to the side bar of the site. Originally I didn’t modify the settings, and it was set pretty strict when it came to logging people’s votes. Therefore if you weren’t able to vote because it thought you had voted (IE dial-up users or those on shared IPS), sorry! I think I’ve fixed that now.

If a new poll is posted and you are unable to vote then you may need to clear your browser’s cookies. The cookies should automatically expire when the poll is set to end, but sometimes a new poll is posted before that date and may block you from voting again.

Also please don’t “cheat” and clear cookies to keep voting over and over, it takes the fun out of the whole process and forces me to add back in the option to block multiple votes by IP, which blocks a lot of people on shared IPs (ie AOL) from voting.

Posted by Dustin on 01.31.2008 at 3:06 pm

Because I can’t watch and talk about all shows on here, sometimes due to times, other times due to a lack of interest in the show, I’ve added a discussion forum to the site. This way people who want to discuss Jericho, One Tree Hill and the likes will have a place to do so on this site.

You can get to the forums at http://forums.theprimetimedish.com or by using the link at the top of the page. Right now it’s in the early stages, if people like it and make use of it then I’ll probably be tweaking it over time.

-Dustin

Posted by Dustin on 01.20.2008 at 9:16 pm

I’m finally back! I’m trying to organize my Tivo priorities for what to watch. Given there is a new “Medium” tomorrow, I’ll probably watch it tonight. Same with “Cashmere Mafia,” I have an episode of it to watch too. “Brothers and Sisters,” “Grey’s” and I think “Ugly Betty” are done (there might be one last episode of Ugly Betty, I’ll have to check). So I’ll be getting to them when I can. Sadly “Project Runway” didn’t tape! I’ll have to hope for a Bravo marathon soon to catch up.

Posted by Dustin on 01.15.2008 at 10:21 am

The vacation Gods decided that I should be vacationing and not watching TV. I have no access to any of the major networks! I’m shocked, usually on the cruise ships (where I am) they always have NBC et al, sometimes limited hours, but they have them. Not this time! So my Tivo will be getting a workover when I return home I guess.

Posted by Dustin on 01.11.2008 at 10:24 pm

Just a note, I’m on vacation. All my shows (well what shows are left) are being tivo’d at home for me to watch when I return. If I’m able to see a show though, I’ll add comments on it. I’m hoping to tune into “Brother and Sisters” on Sunday for sure

Posted by Dustin on 09.03.2007 at 10:33 pm

I’m still tinkering with the blog and the new template. There was an issue with the comment form and a lot of people’s comments got flagged as spam today. I THINK I rescued them all and have fixed the problem, but I will keep a closer eye on it. If need be I have a second template I’ll use, I am just more fond of the colors in this one

-Dustin

Posted by Dustin on 06.16.2007 at 12:13 am

I’ll do a reality round up again this weekend with my thoughts on what I was able to see. Unfortunately I missed “So You Think You Can Dance” entirely this week. I need to tape it in another room, there are too many other things on when it airs.

I finally got through the first episode of the new season of “Footballer Wives.” Now I just have to watch episode 2, which I only somewhat paid attention to the first run. I did tivo it though Loving the Amber and Bruno story there, I just wish they’d hurry up and get my Tanya back!

I’m now 2 episodes behind on “Traveler” as well. I need to try and watch them online and catch up this weekend. Has it gotten any better? I was starting to get a little bored with it, too much running around.