I'm sorry for my nearly two months of absence but you know how time school is- time consuming. And this blog isn't at the top of my priority list right now. So, what has AIO been up to meanwhile? Not much. I suppose we are just in the lull between two albums. Yes, there have been a few repacks, and some podcasts, but nothing very exciting.
  It's needless to say that I will not continue with the album reviews for "Clanging Cymbals and the Meaning of God's Love" But here are a few bits of information of my favorite and least favorite episodes (Not to say that I don't like them, but I have to be a little bit critical right?) and overall rating.

Favorite Episodes: You're Too Kind
                               Never for Nothing
                               How to Sink a Sub

Least Favorite Episodes: Forgiving More... or less
                                        Anger Mismanagement

Overall rating: 93%

"The Deep End" Album Cover

  The cover for "The Deep End" was released several days ago. It looks a bit weird to me. Whit is the only one who looks normal, but it looks like they put the original drawing of Whit and stuck him in the water. The other characters look strange; Connie's eyes look much too large for the size of her face, and Eugene looks just plain creepy.
  I must however give them credit for originality, there hasn't ever been an album cover where the characters were swimming. It will definitely stand out, and so do the vibrant colors. But in the end the album cover really isn't what matters, it's what we hear in the episodes. So, I am still hoping the best for this album.

 

Reveiw: The Amazing Loser

Summary:

When Whit's End sponsors a band camp, Matthew, Jay, and Barrett compete in a musical scavenger hunt.

Review:

This episode to me was enjoyable; still not my favorite in the album, but I liked it fine. It was very detailed with all of the extremely complex clues for the scavenger hunt and we got to learn something about the geography of the "new Odyssey". The episode had to require much music knowledge from the writers that were involved. I'm very surprised that so many of the kids in Odyssey are so musically talented, I mean those clues and questions are not something that your average kid-who-plays-an-instrument would know. I have played the flute for six years and I had no idea what the answers were to any of those questions, but then again music is by all means not my forte.

  Has anyone else noticed that bullies, or Odyssey bullies at least, always call kids by their last name? Such as Jay calling Barrett, Jones rather than Barrett, and calling Matthew, Parker rather than Matthew;  just as Rodney used to call Alex, Jefferson. Just an observation.

  I just listened to "Game for a Mystery" for the first time in a long time, and I cannot believe how different Barrett’s voice sounds. It must have been a little gradual, because I didn't think it was that big of a difference before, but now it sounds like a totally different person. At first I wasn't too sure whether I liked it or not but now I am. It sounds so much better. If you haven’t listened to "Game for a Mystery" in a while I would recommend going back and taking note of how different his voice sounds.

  All through the episode it was predictable. I could tell that somehow Barrett was going to win, at the end I was wondering how, when the odds seemed to be so much against him, but I knew that justice would prevail as it always does in Odyssey.

I was very surprised to see Matthew and Jay paired up although I'm sure Jay wasn't Matthew’s first choice. In fact I was surprised to see Matthew there at all, and doing so well since Emily said in "Stage Fright" that she and Matthew didn't have musical talent. But with Matthews’s knowledge about seemingly everything and by reading the music book, I guess he would do well.

  So yes, in all this episode was very enjoyable and entertaining.

Rating: 4/5



Review: "A Penny Saved"

"A Penny Saved" wasn't the episode that I was expecting it to be. It was something that gave us a sort of resolution to the previous album. I think it was probably to hold us over and keep our minds somewhat on the story line of the "Green Ring Conspiracy," since we will be continuing that story line later on next year.

I was expecting that it would be covering the false Christianity that Penny and Dr. Trask were a part of, but I guess that we will have to assume that they got that sorted out in between the lines. Rather than being saved in matters of salvation she was saved in that she was given a place to live.

There was also the return of two characters that I wasn't expecting. There was Ted Humpfries, a news reporter and Detective Polehaus. I am assuming that these characters will be as others have previously, they will show up every once in a while, but enough so that we will view them as consistently occurring characters.

In "Wooton Knows Best," Wooton was more of a wise/extremely odd person that he used to be, but again he went back to his rambling that serves as more of a distraction than a help or a character. He sounded like just background noise that added clatter to the scene.

When I heard the plot of the story starting to close my thoughts were, "That was an episode?" It didn't seem like there was much to it. It left me not knowing what happened, I mean Penny was lost and then they found her, it seemed like there should be more to it than that. I wasn't sure of what the moral was either; so I looked it up on the back of my album and it said, "Love always protects." I guess it is fitting, Connie and Wooton were showing Penny love by looking out for her, it might not be strong but it fits.

Rating: 2.5/5

Review: Wooton Knows Best

Summary:

Wooton needs a camp assistant and Olivia Parker and Matthew Parker compete to be Wooton's What-A-Nut Camp assistant. Wooton doesn't know who will be his camp assistant so he says he's going to give them a test, and whoever succeeds with the test will be his camp assistant. So Wooton takes Olivia and Matthew to Sunday school for kids to show them what they are going to do being doing: listening to kids and answering their questions.

Review:

The episode "Wooton Knows Best" was simple, having only one conflict through out the story, rather than the normal two, but at the same time was attention holding and age appropriate, giving kids entertainment and a lesson at the same time. Last season it seemed like sometimes  the episodes were geared more for entertainment than the moral value.

  Kelly Stables who also voiced Jill Segler has started to play Olivia. I actually didn't notice until half way through the episode. So obviously there are only subtle differences in their voices, and honestly I don't have a preference between the two, but I think that she is a good replacement.

I enjoyed Woonton a lot more, than in albums 51-53. He was absolutely ridiculous as he normally is,telling the chicken stories, but he also showed that he had wisdom, like he did previous to album 51.

In the end, Olivia did get to meet Melissa Siphers, and in my opinion she sounds like she made a complete fool out of herself. By screaming and freaking out, it sounded kind of weird to me.

Rating: 4/5

Overall Album Review

  Last Friday, I purchased "Clanging Cymbals and the Meaning of God's Love," I have listened to all the episodes minimally three times. I found them to be very simple, especially when comparing them to "The Green Ring Conspiracy;" some of the episodes only had one conflict. Even though they were simple and childlike, which I suppose they should be, I found them to be interesting and for the most part they kept my attention. One thing that I need to keep in mind is that I am reviewing a kid’s show, and the morals and themes were set in a kid-friendly range.

  I am excited to say that they were all biblical based, exploring a different aspect of God's love each time. And I also enjoy episodes that aren’t continuing like these are; I find that I end up listening to them more often. Over all, I enjoyed them; there were some episodes that were better than others, I will wait until they start airing to go into that.

Album 54 Released

"Clanging Cymbals and The True Meaning of Love," is now available to buy as a hard copy. You can buy it here at Focus on the Family. I'm exited to listen!

New charcter Illustrations

There are now Illustrations for Richard Maxwell and Phillip Glossman.
The picture of Richard Maxwell is below, on the right. I think it's okay,
 I really don't visualize any of the characters in my head. I only hear
 them as voices. I don't put faces to them. I may think of certain
 characteristics that they have but I cant see them.

The drawing for Philip Glossman (below) on the other hand I don't like at all. I didn't think that he would actually have a villain like look to him. he was on the City council, and some people still thought of him as good. I think that he would have more of a professional look to him.


Thank you for reading,
             Jessa

Album 54 Avalible for Download

  Last Monday it was announced that you can now download "Clanging Cymbals and the Meaning of Gods Love" is available for download just as the Green Ring Conspiracy was last spring. I have listened to the previews, and I think I will just wait until the fall to buy the physical copy of it, or I will end up spending twice as much money as I otherwise would have.

  For all of you who seem to hate Olivia's adult like sounding voice might be exited to hear that she is going to be played by a different adult this album. she is played by Kelly Stables, who also played Jill Segler in "The Truth Chronicles." Their voices don't sound exactly alike so It will be hard to get used to.

  The AIO repacking project is still continuing, with a new cover for album 29, "Signed Sealed and Commited."

There is now a summary for album 55 which doesn't even have a name yet. It looks like it will be another action-adventure album, continuing all the story lines from "The Green Ring Conspiracy."

"When Jason Whittaker tracks the villainous Mr. Grote to london, England, he discovers another ominous plot. With the help of some old friends, will he unravel it in time? Back in odyssey, Eugene and Red reveal the story of a World War I hero—Sergeant Alvin York."

It is all starting to pick up again, now that we are aproaching the next season. Thanks for reading!



The Very Last GRC Review

I got my Green Ring Conspiracy album in the mail about 1/2 a month ago. I am so pleased about the way it looks on the shelf next to album 52. But the two disappointments to me were on the inside.

• #1. The episode names. I haven't heard anyone else say anything about this but the Green Ring Conspiracy part 1, part 2, etc. sounds very boring and makes them hard to distinguish which one is which.

• #2 The look of the cds- Aside from a different title, the cds look the same as the ones from album 52, and that's okay for one album or maybe two, but I hope they don't plan on making all them so plain and unoriginal from now on.

  Now I will share my thoughts on the last section of the GRC episodes. Thought that wasn't coming didn't you? But, NO! Slow and steady wins the race, or at least finishes it.
  So I will be doing this in a simple, short, and easy way.

• Jay- In the last part especially Jay easily turned into my favorite kid character. I love how, in this album he has become more of a good guy bully in contrast to Rodney in album #25.

• Stiletto- Jason is the stiletto! I really didn't expect that and I have to say, the first time listening through it I didn't recognize his voice at all. Now that I know it is him I can easily tell, but the first time I was still for some reason obliviously thinking Richard Maxwell.

• Penny- Penny's weird version of Christianity was confirmed as they were trying to find God in art. I'm glad Connie didn't have to learn this lesson again after "Bad Company." I am looking forward to hear Penny getting set straight next fall.

  Now that was probably the last Green Ring Conspiracy review that we will hear, so I hope you enjoyed it!AIO news and such is really boring in the summer, Nothing but a few podcasts and Avery Awards. I hope it starts picking up soon!

Duggars Go To FOTF

Last week I was privileged to be in a hotel, while the Focus on the Family-19 Kids and Counting episode aired. We don't have any TV channels at home but of course we had it their. It was fun to watch since my family had gone several years before, when I was Twelve.

  Unfortunately we went at exactly the wrong time we were their in July and the special 20th anniversary celebration was in August, my parents talked about going back, but it was just too much money. If only we would have gone a few months later I could have meet Katie Leigh, Will Ryan, and Paul Herlinger before he died. I still haven't quite gotten over that.

  They did all of the same stuff we did, they went to the Garden of the Gods, the Royal Gorge, and of course we went to Focus on the Family. We recorded and AIO episode of our own, went down Wooton's slide and all that fun stuff. But it is sad to say that I did not try a WOD-FAM-CHOC-SOD, something about chocolate soda sounds kind of weird to me.

  You can still see the episode if you want to buy it here. So yeah I liked it a lot and if you ever get the chance definitely go visit Whit's End. It's not quite what I think the real (or imaginary) one is like, but you could never really get Whit behind the counter.

Episode Titles

I apologize for not blogging for so long, something has been up with this website and I have not been able to log in. Now I finally got in and I'm on vacation and will be for another week. It is hard to type on my mom's lap top that we brought along so I won't type my review at the moment, but the good news is that I have started to relisten to the episodes and take notes on them.

  I just got a chance to look on the Odyssey scoop, and I see that the official episode titles have been released for album 54.
 

691: Wooton Knows Best

692: A Penny Saved

693: The Amazing Loser

694: Anger Mismanagement

695: Forgiving, More or Less

696: You're Two Kind

697: A Penny Earned

698: Never for Nothing

699: Emily, the Genius

700: How to Sink a Sub

701: Unbecoming Jay

702: Childish Things

  I do wonder if it is a consistence that two of the titles have the word of perhaps the name Penny in them. I thought that they were going to take a brake from the story lines introduced in The Green Ring Conspiracy. It would be nice to be able to find out what is going to happen in the Wooton/Penny story in the fall rather than waiting until next spring.

  Three weeks ago I ordered the actual Green Ring conspiracy album. I wasn't in such a hurry to get it this time since I can still listen to it any time, but I really needed to buy it to have a complete collection.

  I hope every one is having an excellent summer so far!

Green Ring Art Conte$t

Finally there is a new contest at the Whit's End website. You get to design your own Odyssey dollar. You simply need to go to www.whitsend.org and print a copy of a odyssey dollar and design it however you want. The best part of the whole thing is the prize. The prize is a signed copy of the yet to be released album 54! I do believe that this one is worth entering!

"The Green Ring Conspiracy" Review - Parts 4,5,6 and 7

 I know that these are long over due but here they finally are anyway. And I am not sure if the next episodes will come any sooner than the previous four since I am starting to wrap up the school year.

We heard Monty's voice for the first time since he was a kid and appeared in album 7. I was curious, wondering what his voice would sound like. I didn't know if the would be able to get Chad Reisser to act for them after all these years, but they did and I love it. You can listen to a podcast interview with Chad Reisser here.
 
  Katrina is back for the first time since album 49 in 2007. It was good to hear from her again. I think she is a very important part in Odyssey. She is interviewing Buck for the job at Whit's End and she is starting to get suspicious when Buck is unclear about his past. She meets Mr Skint Bucks guardian behind the hall of mirrors at the carnival. And she gets even more suspicious.

   

  Detective Polehaus is starting to believe Monty and Mr.Whittaker and almost Wally Haggler more than he does Agent Tanner although he is careful not to trust anyone completely. But he does find it especially suspicious that Agent Tanner came to Odyssey impossibly fast and also without any backup.

  When Monty and Whit went to the dock at Trickle Lake where Monty met Mr. Skint the find a backpack and inside the backpack there is a CD with hearts drawn all over it. They met up with Detective Polehaus at the dock and the three of them went to Whit's house to find out what is on the disk. They find that it is a poster for the carnival which lets them know that Mr.Skint (or the mystery man as they call him) has something to do with the carnival. It also leads them to Penny Wise who drew the poster.
 
  Penny and Wooton drawn together by each of their eccentric personalities become fast friends while it leaves Connie watching on the sidelines. Personally I would really like for Wooton to remain single he is just not the kind of character who would do good being married and I think the writers will see that. But I especially wouldn't want him to marry someone who is vague about her Christianity and just might be in on the counterfeiting ring. Nor do I specifically care for her all around personality.

  Matthew has taken the phone that he and Nelson found from Hagglers junk yard to Whits end and Eugene is helping him find the password so he can return it to it's rightful owner. But he still doesn't know that that is the phone that Whit, Monty and Detective Polehaus would love to get their hands on because it has information that could be useful.
  Emily and Buck are looking for the same phone and Jay accidentally gives it away that Matthew has it. And as Jay says you shouldn't trust Buck. And why not? Because he is not to be trusted.

  Monty is again missing. And Whit finally starts to turn all of the ongoing problems to God where they rightfully belong.

Album Art

Two album covers were released a while ago. The cover to the Blackgaard chronicles and album 54. The cover to the Blackgaard chronicles is very detailed and is of the same quality as the cover art for album 53. When you look closely you can even see that the chess pieces are either characters or things that played an important part in the Blackgaard saga. While the art for album 54 isn't quite as good but it does look better now that it's finished.

 

Album 54



"The Green Ring Conspiracy Part 3" Review

 

  We finally got to hear more about Connie's classes and we meet Penny Wise and Dr. Trask. Penny's name apparently from something else that I don't know about, and she is a slightly odd. I am surprised that Connie actually likes her. It seems as though she might get frustrated with her like she did with Lindsay in "The Best of Enemies."
  Penny was very vague about her Christian kind of praying. Which sounds suspicious. And Dr. Trask has a very strange soft and kind of creepy voice and my first impression of him was that he seemed like a person who might turn on them later. (I am not saying I was right or wrong)
  There were many objects in the backpack aside from the counterfeit money there was a book, "Oliver Twist" by Charles Dickens, a flight plan and a revised one, A map of Odyssey with trickle lake circled and a sheet of paper with hand written numbers. Is it a coincidence that Buck's last name is Oliver and the book in the backpack was Oliver Twist? I still don't know; I am not sure if I missed it or if they never mentioned it again.
  Buck responded to the job opening at Whit's End in search for Dirk Beggs phone and meets Emily, I won't say much about that except that I thought detective Emily would be smarter than that.
  Agent Tanner is also introduced. I don't like the performance of her actress so far or her personality.
  A Rabbit with fangs? That's bad. A 20-30 something year old should know that rabbits don't have fangs. And then she does an amazing job on a replication the Monet Lisa.
 Okay, I don't really have much to say since these episodes don't have a full plot with a conclusion.

 

When I got onto the computer this morning I saw this:

"How so many clowns fit into a circus car - An insider reveals the secrets behind being able to stuff in 21 zany performers."

That sounds exactly like "Like Father Like Wooton." Doesn't it?

Album 54 cover

            It would be hard for any of you to have not seen the pictures of the cover art for album 54, but I will share it anyway. I was a bit disappointed after album 53, which had such details in the background and in the characters. In the picture on the left you can see that at the bottom it looks very unfinished. I don't look on the kids faces or the funny looking whit in the background. But because this is just our first look at the cover I have the feeling that there will be more details added later.

And to the right is another picture of album 54 with the non-official border around it. It looks a lot better with the border, I think it will work even though I was expecting something more to the quality of album 53.

"The Green Ring Conspiracy Part 2" Review

Summary:

Whit discovers that his visitor has a secret job that seems to be related to the backpack of money that Emily found. Matthew and Nelson get a surprise call from people with an interest in the Appleberry phone.

Review:

 The second episode of, "The Green Ring Conspiracy" starts out with the introductions of two characters, Buck Oliver and Mr. Skint. You can tell from the very beginning that they are both part of the green ring conspiracy, and although they are part of a scheme they are both great characters and I love their voices.

It is really sad that Whit knows so little about his Grandson it seems as though he would be a wonderful Grandpa which is the role that he plays to most of the kids in Odyssey. But I know it is hard as they live on separate sides of the country.

Detective Polehause seems as though he is very skeptical of everyone especially Jay's Uncle, who has evidently done something bad in the past.

It really didn't take long for this mystery to take us to Whit's End. Buck is already heading over there to find Matthew Parker and the Appleberry phone.

At this point we know that Mr. Skint, Buck and Dirk Beggs are on the bad side, while we cant quite tell about the other characters such as Detective Polehause, Monty Whittaker or Wally Hagler. It seems to be a pattern in Odyssey for characters who are assumed to be good to then turn to the wrong side. And all around with the suspense, question answering, acting, music, and new characters it was another amazing episode.

"The Green Ring Conspiracy Part 1" Review

Summary:

A plane crashes in Gower's Field and both Emily and Matthew make surprising discoveries nearby. Meanwhile, both Whit and Wally Haggler meet friends from the past.

Review:

 

  I was so surprised while hearing this episode, I did not expect the new season to sound so good!

  There were a few parts that seemed pointless. I didn't understand why they had to have the game fact or urban legend at the beginning or why Eugene needed to tell us about crashing a plane while it has nothing to do with the story.

  The overall sound of the episode was the best I have ever heard it was all around so good with the sound effects, acting, and music.

  I was so glad to hear Jay and his uncle all throughout the episode. Jay is starting to sound more and more less of a bully, but I don't mind that.

Connie is finally starting to go to collage! She did graduate 22 albums ago, I think it was about time. And I love the subject although she has never seemed to take an interest in art before.

  It is interesting how there are guns now in AIO, I don't think there is anything wrong with that back in the Blackgaard era they never used real guns.

  I have decided because the story is so long I will give it a rating at the end of the album. Thank you for reading.

Picture Day

Here are some pictures that I have taken within the last month.



  1. Contest entry- Yesterday was the last day to enter the Odyssey Scoop contest Scoop Yourself. The picture to the right is my entry.This literally took me hours to do!







AIO Dominoes



 





Sasha

  2. Honduras- The following pictures are from my trip last February to Pena Blanca, Honduras.

  This is Sasha. He is a wild tame monkey. Does that make sense? Every one who lived there and thought that monkeys were every day occurrences didn't mind picking him up and treating him roughly. My cousin and I on the other hand were scared of him and he ended up chasing us a few times.

These plants were everywhere







My friend Maria

  It would be really hard to explain Maria but I will do my best. If I would describe her in two words I would say that she is loving and crazy. She was a thirteen year old girl who lived just outside of the Seventh-day Adventist compound where we were staying. The compound was also a orphanage and all of the kids living there were sponsored to go to the Seventh-day Adventist school. You really couldn't walk by her without her yelling, "Amiga" picking you up and swinging you around. I went to her house one day and it was literally made out of cardboard and sticks, she lived there with her sister Kenia.  The day that we were leaving she started sobbing and hugging me she told me through a woman who spoke both Spanish and English that she would love me forever.



I am holding a monkey!

I actually got the courage to hold Sasha!

 

3. Blossoms- My favorite part about February are the almond blossoms which are everywhere where I live.











Frozen Blossoms

My review for, "The Green Ring Conspiracy Part One," will be coming tomorrow, hopefully.