What kind of Phylomon are you? How do you do the things you do?

I've recently involved myself in a project that is so far helping me fulfill two New Year's resolutions (how I hate those): Fill a Sketchbook page every day and get in on this ACEO thing. That project is "Phylomon".
Essentially, this is an open-source free-for-all good-for-your-children trading-card game I can sum up in one phrase: "Pokemon" with real species. The website better explains the basis behind the concept.
My one little caveat is this: I put the "kids these days don't know biodiversity from a hole in the ground" blame on standardized testing; "Pokemon" is largely innocent here (seriously, where else can you befriend parasitic fungi and Monkey Cups?) The tests put so much emphasis on arithmetic (that is, math problems with one right answer) and reading comprehension (ie, you can tell me that Jack fell down the hill first but keep your opinions about the story to yourself because we can't grade those with the system we use). Science falls by the wayside under this system. I could go on and on about this but you really only need to know that the MCAS is the reason why I am not working in a classroom right now.

Aaaaanyway, the Phylomon project is constantly looking for submissions and I've been having a great deal of fun with it so far. I'm also periodically selling the ACEOs on Ebay, so check my seller page.
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Feederwatch Friday! How's this for biodiversity?
Red-tailed Hawk 2 (Coooooool!)
Rock Pigeon 4
Mourning Dove 2
Downy Woodpecker 1
Blue Jay 1
Black-capped Chickadee 3
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
American Robin 1
European Starling 1
Northern Cardinal 1
House Finch 1
House Sparrow 20
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And this has absolutely nothing to do with anything but it's too fun not to share.

In which I feel bad for not telling more people to watch "Dollhouse"

Warning: some Nerd Rage ahead.
Tonight marks the end of Joss Whedon's "Dollhouse", a series that flew under the radar of nearly anyone who'd like it best. We've had a lot of excellent speculative fiction television series the past few years and this could have easily turned into a classic. Admittedly, the first five episodes or so were slow, slow, slow and it took several months for the show to find it's voice, but once it did (round about Episode ten I'd say), it did what only the ballsiest speculative fiction does: It explored every last disturbing implication of it's fantastic premise. Sadly, Whedon only had a few episodes, mostly in the second season, to fully explore that premise without having to keep the advertisers and network happy.
The history of this series has been... interesting to say the least. Executive Meddling (take a shot) plagued the first half of the first season, but then Joss was allowed to do his own thing for the second half. Certainly, all the while the traumatic experience of Fox's treatment of "Firefly" was hanging over his head. So he came up with an episode called "Epitaph 1" that could act as an ending for the series as a whole *or* a good cliffhanger for the first season if the series miraculously didn't get canceled. Sure enough, the series miraculously did not get canceled -- but Fox decided not to air "Epitaph 1", opting to end the season on a comparatively cheerier note. So the second season went ahead business as usual as if that episode never existed.
And then Fox decided to cancel "Dollhouse" anyway. That's hubris for you.
So in the past month's worth of episodes or so, Joss Whedon has been doing an excellent job of building towards the events portrayed in "Epitaph 1" so that he can use it as the first half of a two-part final episode arc. 
Which would be awesome, except Fox *still* isn't going to air it, so good luck understanding what's going on in the series finale.


By the way, "Dollhouse" gets canceled and yet Seth MacFarlane is apparently getting a fourth Illustrated Radio series. Oh yeah, I went there.
Dammit, is it February 2nd yet?

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In happier news, it is Draw a Dinosaur Day! I am probably drawing one right now and will post it here when I'm finished! Until then, here's the Singing Tyrannosaurus:

EDIT: The Singing Tyrannosaurus stays but here is the link to my entry in the Draw A Dinosaur Day pool. I submitted today's Sketchbook page.

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Feederwatch Friday!
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1 (Just hung out in the neighbor's lilacs. Chickadees were not one bit happy about this.)
Rock Pigeon 4
Mourning Dove 2
Downy Woodpecker 1
Black-capped Chickadee 2
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
House Sparrow 25

Another scary storm on Monday, this time of the soggier variety thanks to unseasonable warmth. I could hardly see the birds, much less count them.
But count them I did. For the science!

On Fraggles and Apprehension

Well my beloved Tetrapod Zoology blog has informed me that the "flipper photos" that so captured my eight-year old imagination back in this special (note the bad-ass Phil Tippet stop-motion animation) are fakie-fake-fakes. Wah.

I'm going to come right on out and say that "Fraggle Rock" is the greatest television program for young people ever created. (I know, I know, "Sesame Street" was there first but I'm considering the rewatchability factor here.)

There is a film on the way, which you may have heard of. Reaction from the Muppet fandom has been markedly mixed thus far, though it is hard to blame them as the initial announcement happened in 2005. There have, naturally, been many rumors in all that time. Some of them have been intriguing: Frank Zappa's son Ahmet is involved somehow, as are several original cast members. Some of them have been deeply, deeply troubling: the Fraggles are apparently going to be CGI for no good gorram reason. Try to sit through this clip from "Sid the Science Kid" ("Uncanny Valley - The Musical!") to understand why this is a bad, bad idea.

There is also a spin-off series starring the Doozers coming in the autumn. Sure as heck never saw that coming.

Here's the thing. Honestly, I'd rather have the Season Four/Five DVD box set. Please? Soon? Within the next three years, maybe?