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Creator Joss Whedon has announced the “air” dates for Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. The episodes will air on the official website drhorrible.com as follows:

• Part 1 – Tuesday July 15
  
• Part 2 – Thursday July 17
  
• Part 3 – Saturday July 19

These episodes will “air” online only until July 20.

Following that they will be made available for download at a “nominal fee” and in the near future available to buy on a very special DVD “with the finest and bravest extras in all the land”.

Now it’s time to spread the word far and wide to all the corners of the interweb. Grab some banners from the official site and post them everywhere you go – and be sure to cover those places people wouldn’t normally hear about this.

This is your chance to play a part in changing the face of the entertainment industry forever.

Joss Whedon: “[Do] What you always do, peeps! What you’re already doing. Spread the word. Rock some banners, widgets, diggs… let people know who wouldn’t ordinarily know. It wouldn’t hurt if this really was an event. Good for the business, good for the community – communitIES: Hollywood, internet, artists around the world, comic-book fans, musical fans (and even the rather vocal community of people who hate both but will still dig on this). Proving we can turn Dr Horrible into a viable economic proposition as well as an awesome goof will only inspire more people to lay themselves out in the same way. It’s time for the dissemination of the artistic process. Create more for less. You are the ones that can make that happen.”

• Digg This
• Joss Whedon Post on Whedonesque
• The Official Website & “Air” Location

Teaser from Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.

Ok, I don’t normally resort to posting youtube videos on my blog but I simply couldn’t resist.  This had me in fits of laughter today. Enjoy.

I remember a big old oak tree where I lived as a kid, next to an historic mansion just out of town that was used as a “boy’s home” for a while (the mansion not the tree!) anyhow, I remember one day, I must have been about 7 at the time, my brother and sister and mum and I were walking to the scary old concrete swimming pool on the property and we were stopped by a photographer who asked if we’d like to be in a photograph she wanted to take under the oak tree.  On further questioning it was revealed the photo was to be given to the Duke & Dutchess of Kent because his father, King George V had planted the old oak tree back in 1901.  It’s known as the “Federation Oak Tree”.  The most crazy thing about the whole experience is that my family are acutally from (and I was actually born) in Kent!

I reported a couple of months ago about the new Stargate series that’s in the works called Stargate Universe.  It seems that more news is on the horizon with the network expected to make an announcement soon.

With the second SG1 movie Continuum due to be released next month there’s talk of more movies in Stargate’s future.

Unfortunately producing two television shows and an SG-1 movie all at the same time seems out of the question so either something will have to wait, or Universe won’t get started until Atlantis ends and this is aparently what’s holding up the decision by MGM and SCI FI.

I think the permise of the new series is an intriguing one but I don’t want it rushed in at the expense of Atlantis, if they can find a way to do both AND the movies – now THAT would be something!

There’s more news on the GateWorld website.

I’m sure everyone loves my blog so much they want to know the minute I write a new entry….right?…. well, ok, maybe not, but I’m sure there are plenty other blogs or “feeds” that you would like to keep up with… but you never knew how…right?

Here I am to save the day and tell you how you can do it. There are infinite number of ways to get your feeds but I’ll outline a couple of simple ones for you.

1. FeedReader

FeedReader is a standalone program that you can download to manage your feeds – download here – or go to the FeedReader website to download the program or learn more about it than cover here.

Once you have downloded the program install it and then launch the program.

Unless you actually want them, don’t select any of the options you’re given to subscribe to feeds, just click cancel and move on.

Click on the File menu, and then select New Feed, paste the URL of the feed you want to add and click ok. The URL for the blog feed of this website is http://talhost.net/feed . So long as you have pasted the correct feed address you should get a list of the latest posts. Click on the title of the one you wish to view and it will magically appear in the window on the right. Clicking on the title of an article will give you an unformatted view of the post and double clicking it will show the full webpage in the window and give you an option to open the page in your browser.

You can edit options for each of your feeds to determine how often FeedReader looks for updates, how many articles are archived and so forth.

2. Thunderbird

If you use Thunderbird for email (an ever increasingly popular option and my email program of choice) it has a built in feed reader section. This is very useful if like me, you always have your email program running while working on your computer, because in addition to be notified of new emails, you’ll be notified of new posts on your feed sites as well.

First you need to add a Feed section to your account. Go to the Tools menu then Account Settings. Select the Add Account button and then select the option RSS Feeds & Blogs option. Click Next and name it whatever you like – “My Feeds”, click Next, then Finish.

Next you’ll need to start adding feeds, you should see in you side panel (where your inbox etc is) that you now have a new section named “My Feeds” (or whatever you called it). Click on this and then click on Manage Subscriptions. Click the Add button, then paste the URL of the first feed you want to add. The URL for the blog feed of this website is http://talhost.net/feed and click OK. Continue to add further feeds if you wish and close the box when you’re done – you’ll now see the new feed listed under the “My Feeds” section of Thunderbird. You’re done!

There are many other options available for viewing feeds, if you don’t like either of the options I’ve outlined above, try a google search.

I just bought some chickens….

I purchased them in the names of my nieces & nephew through TEAR Australia – a non profit organisation that created “The World’s Most Useful Gift Catalogue” – where you can buy everything from…well….chickens to toilets! It’s a great idea for buying presents for someone who has everything. You get a gift card to give that person and the donation goes to a help community where they don’t have all the daily stuff we so much take for granted.

If you feel you’d like to donate something – you can buy a gift for as little as $5 – most of us can spare that much at least – and it does give you a warm fuzzy feeling knowing that your chickens will feed people and also provide them with a source of income

How Does it Work?

TEAR Australia pioneered the idea of useful gifts for people who need them most. The concept is simple.

If you purchase a goat, for example, TEAR will allocate your $50 tax-deductible donation to one of our local partner organisations in Afghanistan (or another of the countries listed).

Our partners are grassroots Christian organisations who work alongside the poor – of many faiths and cultures – in their own communities. They will use your donation to provide a goat for a family taking part in a community development project that incorporates goat breeding.

This means that a goat isn’t just a goat; it’s part of a long-term program that helps people identify new and sustainable ways of supporting their families, and assists them to gain relevant skills and resources. The same project may incorporate a number of different gifts to address a range of problems, such as health care, income generation, education or water management.

(Please note: when programs are run in several countries, costs of items are averaged.)

• Tear Australia Useful Gifts Catalogue

Inspired by a friend’s photos from Russia (umm…yeah, so that sounds weird!) here’s a pic I took while in Shepparton (Vic) a couple of years ago. These particular cows were outside the art gallery – or museum… or something.

There are a lot more around the town now than when I was there – definately worth checking out!

Hilarious – just stumbled across some blog site that rated my blog as an 8.3 – gotta wonder if that’s purely a search engine tactic ’cause you see…now they’ve asked me to include this (below) on my website to verify I’m the owner of said blog… and of course, incoming links helps to drive a website’s search engine ranking up.. but none the less…there you go, someone rated me 8.3