Okay, well, I'm back, but I think you all have left. Let's see if we can get this going again.

Hello, folks! Quite a bit has been going on in the Odyssey fan community, but considering it's been two weeks, it's not the busiest it's ever been. Let's start with.....
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The Boredom Buster Podcast's Episode 9 is out! Oh, hallelujah! Of all amazing phenomena! It came out! It really did! Just a little bit of information, the BBP has been on an EXTREMELY extended hiatus since June 23, but it's back! The summary for this episode is, "Finally! Season 2 is out, and we review Family Vacation, The Day Independence Came, and Stormy Weather."

This episode also features, a guest star!!! In the words of Irwin Springer, (Once you hear the episode you'll get it.) "OH, WOW!!! OH, WOW!!!" Also, if you listen closely, Hallie says things that are quite hilarious that only Hallie would say. Here are my two favorites from today's episode:

Hallie: ...And she was over here, and Noah was like, 'Oh, I gotta do a podcast today. They're gonna roast my heart on a spit.'....

Hallie: ...Listen to us online at PBS Kids.org!...

So, this is an amazing episode. However, I've talked to Noah and it will be quite a while before BBP 10 comes out. So, we'll just have to stay on his back about it. You can listen to the episode at http://boredombusterpodcast.weebly.com/podcast.html .

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Austin and Tasha Peachey have been quite busy lately with the Adventures in Odyssey BlogCast. They have released two new episodes: #38 and #39. In #38, the season premiere, they give their predictions for Album 56. I have already listened to this one, so I will say, they have a very sad announcement. They will no longer continue the BlogCast. This is its last season. BUT, they plan to make it the best season ever, so that is good. Also, in #39, they interview Blimey Cow, which according to what I have heard, is a YouTube channel which makes a comedy series known as "Messy Mondays", and are also Adventures in Odyssey fans. Here are the summaries for the two episodes:

"We're back with Season 6 of the Adventures in Odyssey Blogcast! And with a brand new Odyssey season coming up, it's time for our pre-season podcast!"

"We've got a really fun interview for you guys! We interviewed Jordan, Josh, and Kelli Taylor, the people behind the Blimey Cow YouTube channel! During our conversation, we ask them about their Odyssey fandom, including their favorite episodes and characters. Also, they tell us about the origin, and the making of their Christian comedy videos, Messy Mondays. Big Head Kid even pops in to say hello!"

So, you can check that out at http://aio-blog.blogspot.com/ .

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In other news, Official Podcast 156 is out, with no Get in the Show news! *Crowd Gasps In Shock* This time Bob and Jesse chat with Christopher Maselli (the author) and Dennis Edwards (the illustrator), the creators of the new Captain Absolutely comics in Clubhouse magazine!

This is amazing. I have always loved Captain Absolutely, and I really wished they could have used him more in the Odyssey audio dramas. Hopefully he will continue to make cameo appearances in the show, but until then, we have his whole line of comics to chronicle his adventures! I am a massive comics fan, so this combines to of my favorite mediums, cartoons and Odyssey. You can listen to the podcast at their website, or read the first comic, which you can find at this link: http://media.focusonthefamily.com/aio/pdfs/Captain-Absolutely-Episode-1.pdf .

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I know this is older news, but the summary of Whit's End Mealtime Moments devotional book has been released. Here it is:

"Your family's gathered around the table. What's on the menu? Cold stares? Stale prayers? The same old leftover questions about "what happened at school today?" Next time you sit down to eat, enjoy some spiritual food, too! Get everyone talking-and learning-with the nourishment of Whit's End Mealtime Moments! Encourage quality family time and pass on a strong spiritual heritage with these 164 devotions created to engage children in fun, lively, productive dialogue."

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Episode 47 of the Ceiling Fan Podcast, titled "Permission: Impossible",  has been released. Josh Taylor of Blimey Cow guest stars in this episode, as well. No summary has been released, except for "Go on a mission with Phil and Bernie." You can check that out at http://www.ceilingfanpodcast.com/ .

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Alex Jefferson of Just Another AIO Blog has released a "Top 5 Best Saga Episodes" list, as well as a Pound Foolish Wisdom on Liz, and an article on Joanne. You can check out all these things, and more at http://justanotheraioblog.blogspot.com/ .

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A new site, The Odyssey Gallery, has sprung up. (I absolutely love the logo, by the way.) This focuses on Adventures in Odyssey and art. Just when I thought all of the original ideas were used up, someone comes out with an even more original. Currently, it is off to a really great start, so hopefully he can keep it up. The link is http://odysseyfanartgallery.blogspot.com/ .

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Josh and Ally have released two news posts on Out of Control in Odyssey. One is a Sunday Morning Scramble School, and another is on the Golden Age of Odyssey. You can check both of those out at http://odysseyoutofcontrol.blogspot.com/ .


One more thing before I go. Though I am not a crafty person, I found a site by a really crafty person that some fo you might like. Here is the link: http://lynnisebowman.blogspot.com/ . Tell me what you think of this site in the comments below.

Well, that's all for now, so stay tuned, and I hope you enjoy Twists and Turns!
                                                                                                                    ---The Old Judge

 
Hello, everybody. I thought I should do something special, since we're inching up on Twists and Turns' 3 month anniversary. So, here is the Battle of the Message Boards! And afterwards there will be some miscellaneous news.
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First, of course, must come the Town of Odyssey, also known as the ToO. Probably my most favorite thing about this message board is their cool acronym. Now, I am not a member. I will be saying flaws in all of the message boards, as well as the good things, so don't get mad if your a ToOite, or whatever.

The Town of Odyssey started on April 1, 2005, when the first Adventures in Odyssey forum, The Town Hall, began to get "a little heated", as the AIOWiki describes the situation. People went hog wild for this new board, with approximately 1,500 posts made in just that first day. Currently, there are 945,939 posts on the Town of Odyssey, with 1,172 members. The statistics are just mind-boggling, honestly, that a message boards for a radio drama could even exist in this day and age, much less have almost one million posts.

Now, time to give you my opinions on the ToO. You would think since I am not a member I have no idea what I am talking about. Though I am not proficient in this message board, I still check it quite frequently, and know a good deal about it. I have talked with CreativeThinker101 quite a bit on this topic, as well as a little with whittaker96, both ToO members. They both have under one-hundred posts on there. CreativeThinker stated in a post on Campbell County:

"...I would say the ToO is a very big, very confusing board that gets off-topic. I don't like it all that much,since half the time you don't know what anyone's talking about. And it's becoming a little old-fashioned in the age of web design, to be honest...."

And that's from a ToO member. Now, here's what I think. Like I said, I check the ToO for Odyssey discussion mainly. Trouble is, the Odyssey subforum, "Whit's End", is one of the least popular places on the board. In the last week, only five topics have been commented on. Maybe I am being too judgmental, without being on the board and all, but this is an Odyssey forum, so let's at least include Odyssey in there somewhere, folks!

Also, I've noticed on several Odyssey topics that they turn it into an Odyssey/Doctor Who mashup. I don't watch the show, I've only heard of it, and a good portion of what I know of it comes from rading the AIO-related topics on the ToO. If you don't believe me, follow this link: http://thetoo.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=32063 . Though it starts out like a normal topic, it quickly turns into the Twenty-Seventh Annual Doctor Who Convention.

But, let me give a tip of the hat to the notable members on the ToO. Notable members include Peachey Keen, Marvin DeSanchez, Christian A., Bren, Vic (aka Victoria Donahue), and fodo14.

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 After several years, another message board appeared. Previously, the ToO had some competition from a smaller message board called the Electric Palace, run by Brendon McFarland of the Whit's End Podcast. After that died, Brendon took another whack at the message board scenario, in which he produced The Campbell County Message Boards. This board was launched in October 6, 2009, and became an immediate success, though not such as the ToO.

Campbell County, no matter whether you like it or not, has to be given credit. It's been shut down, at least one time to my knowledge, and I believe there were several other times, as well. The County currently has a total of 30,377 posts, and 128 users. A far cry from the mighty ToO. However, this place has some of themost unique features. Examples include:

1).Usergroups for people of different interests. Includes Debate Team, The Artistes, Girl's Group, Guy's Group, and more!
2).Blogs. Ever wanted to start a blog? You can do it on CC!
3).The Bookshelves. A place where the users can put their own pieces of literature.

This is just an amazing board that everybody should be a part of. If you're not posting on it much, you should post more. Bren did an amazing job getting this together and restarting it. One look at the board tells you how amazingly creative a person he and the members are.

Notable members for this board include: CreativeThinker101, Pound Foolish, Marvin DeSanchez (former), Peachey Keen (former), HannahJ, and T.S. (myself).

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In May 9, 2012, (Before Campbell County was relaunched, mind you.), Jacob Isom opened a whole new avenue in the form of an Adventures in Odyssey message board. Not just any message board, though. Not like the ToO or Campbell County. This was a whole new setup, designed to talk specifically about Adventures in Odyssey. In the words of Jacob Isom himself:

"...We understand that there are larger scale message boards in the AIO online community to allow for fans to discuss anything and everything from Adventures in Odyssey to prunes (and we recommend them!). The Soda Shop Message Boards have been provided mainly to discuss Adventures in Odyssey- a more narrowed-down message board pertaining to Focus on the Family's popular audio drama for "tweens". Age doesn't matter at the Soda Shop. Feel free to step up to the counter and join the conversation....."

Currently there are 21,147 posts on the Soda Shop, as well as 137 users. Basically the board is about Odyssey, though recently there has been more of a downturn to Odyssey-related topics and an uswing in games. However, considering this message board is newer, things can turn around. Not that that's a bad thing, though.

Notable members include: T.S. (myself), Christian A., The Old Judge (Please don't think I'm conceited.), Wooton Bassett, CreativeThinker101, Aaron Wiley, Bren, and Jacob Isom.

Overall, I would say Campbell County wins, in my opinion. However, that may not be yours. Please tell me your favorites in the comments below. And now, for the news.

Social Shoutout 7 is now released, and in it Brock and Evan discuss the Get in the Show auditions, the Get in the Show Music Video contest, Clubhouse magazine, and more!
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Thre Imagination Station Books #1-#3 are now in a collector's pack, and only for $11.99, wheras, acoording to the AIO Update, buying them seperately would cost $13.47. Personally, I enjoy the books seperately, because they each have their book number, more cover art, etc. Here is the summary of this book: "Climb aboard, kids! Travel back in time and sail with the Vikings, meet a Roman emperor, come face to face with China's Kublai Khan, and experience a host of other historical adventures in the Imagination Station series for young readers. This set includes the first three books in the series: Voyage with the Vikings, Attack at the Arena, and Peril in the Palace."

Agent 3XQ has finally got to his twentieth post, roughly two years after his first one. This "Agent's Log" is titled, "Mysterious Notes", and is actually quite nice. You can check that out at
http://agent-3xq.blogspot.com/ .
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Out of Control in Odyssey has released their first feature, entitled, "The Odyssey Phone Book". It is a collection of all the people in Odyssey, where they live, and all that information. You can check that out at http://odysseyoutofcontrol.blogspot.com/p/the-odyssey-phone-book.html .

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I know, I haven't used this logo in forever. Do you know how you see a teeny-tiny detail in something, and are utterly shocked when it finally hits you what that detail meant? Well, I saw something on Google that the Boredom Buster Podcast's website had been updated twenty-one hours ago! So, I looked on it, and here's what I found: http://boredombusterpodcast.weebly.com/blog.html .

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Just Another AIO Blog released their AIO Websters ceremony yesterday, as well as a review of "Wooton Knows Best". Here's the link to the ceremony: http://justanotheraioblog.blogspot.com/ , and here is how Twists and Turns did in its respective categories. 

*Warning: The results of the AIO Websters will make you hoot and holler like a maniac at how Twists and Turns came up in the standings so loud and uncontrollably that there is a 99.999999% chance you will get shipped off to an insane asylum in the Aleutians. Thank you.*

In the category of Favorite New AIO Site/Blog/Podcast, Twists and Turns came in fourth with 13% percent of the vote.
In the category of Favorite AIO Blog/Site Post, "One Month Anniversary....And I'm Celebrating with Orbs", Twists and Turns' representative, tied for third place with 0% of the vote.
In the category of Best AIO Blog/Site Feature, The Courtroom came in fourth with 12% of the vote, and The Imagination Station came in fifth with 6% of the vote.
In the category of Favorite AIO Website, Twists and Turns ranked second with 21% of the vote, losing to The Odyssey Scoop, (That's a given.), which had 51% of the vote.

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Installment 8 of Adventures in Connellsville is out, and boy is it exciting! There's an alley! There's people tied up! There's a kidnapped little boy! There's....Well, you'll just have to figure the rest out. You can check that out at http://justanotheraioblog.blogspot.com/p/adventures-in-connellsville.html .

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Abby and Mandie's Adventures in Odyssey Podcast has hit its tenth episode! In this edition, they interview Ashley, a fan who made a video edition of The Labyrinth, Part 1. Now, ten is a big milestone, because all of the fan podcasts that didn't make it, to my knowledge, never broke the "ten" barrier. So, good job, girls. Keep up the great work! And, you can check that podcast out at their new website! That's right! Abby and Mandie got a new website yesterday! It's http://abbyandmandieshow.cluhost.info/ . ANd just so you know where to find the podcasts, go to "Blog". They're all listed chronologically, so Episode 1 comes first, and so on and so forth. The newest podcast will be at the bottom.

So, everybody, I hope you have a great Labor Day. I'm sorry if my last post wasn't good, considering I only garnered two comments from it. Well, that's all for now, so stay tuned, and I hope you enjoy Twists and Turns!
                                                                                                                      ---The Old Judge

(Oh, and just so everybody knows, I counted my posts a couple of days ago. This is Number 44!)