by Christina

And the polls are OFFICIALLY OPEN!​  Notes for this round:

• Polls close at 9PM PT on March 12th.
• The winner of the wild card has the opportunity to replace the winner with the fewest votes this round as long as they themselves receive more votes.  The ships chosen for the wild card were chosen because, despite losing, the received the four highest vote totals last round.  There will be another wild card next round.
• Please share your recs and reasons for loving your ship in the brackets.
• You can view the updated bracket here
• Good luck!

by Christina

[EDIT 3] It seems like some of the polls ended early, but I have no way of telling which ones.  So I'll be reopening all the polls for three hours starting at 12PM PT/3PM ET today.  Then the next round of polls will open tomorrow at 12PM PT.  Thank you to those of you who have reached out with kindness in their hearts,  I can't tell you how appreciated it is.  This podcast and website was started with one of my best friends, and we came up with the ship bracket together as a way to create a more interactive experience with our listeners.  Since her passing, ALNM is one of the strongest connections I still have with her.  This first round has been rough for me, but I'm working to remain open about the future of the bracket dependent on how the rest of it goes.  So I will not let myself make a final decision about next year until the bracket is completely over.

Some things to look forward to in the rest of the bracket:

• A wildcard in the next round to give a chance for one eliminated ship to return for the Sweet Sixteen (details to follow).
• Will assemble a full rec list of all the recs people provide in the comments (or via e-mail).  Looking at the comments, I may be able to assemble a cookbook too...
• A project where I hope to make either a podcast episode or article consisting fully of you all sharing your ships and why you love them.  That was an idea Kelly had come up with previously.  Thoughts?

See you all in a couple hours.

[EDIT 2]: This will be the final year for the ship bracket. Reminder that first round of polls close at 9PM PT. There are no bots I can see, no cheating that I can see, and only so much control I have through a third party site running the polls. Friendly requests for help I will continue to respond to and assist via e-mail and comments below.

[EDIT]: We're about an hour into the ship bracket, and it looks like I'm already getting hate mail and threats in my inbox.  So I've removed CAPTCHAs and I guess I'll just add them to polls if people start cheating.  I'll figure out if I'm going to put any different restrictions on it tomorrow.  Just leave a comment if you have any other problems with the polling, cause I'm going to ignore the inbox for a bit for my own mental health.  Thank you to everyone in the comments being nice about everything.

And the polls are OFFICIALLY OPEN!  A couple notes:

• I've invested this year and added CAPTCHAs.  Hopefully that helps with some of the issues we've had each year.
• I didn't put any restrictions on the number of votes.  I don't know if that means the system will still have issues after 25 votes.  So you all will need to let me know on that front.
• Polls close at 9PM PT on March 6th.

Good luck, have fun, and share your ship love/recs/anything else you think of in the comments!

Click image to view larger version:

Welcome to the opening of Ship Bracket 2020!  The final list of ships will be posted this evening with polls beginning tomorrow, but I wanted to level with all of you first.  After the last few months I do not have the energy nor the emotional capacity to deal with anyone being cruel to each other or the threatening messages that often get sent to me in the later rounds.  Kelly and I had talked about this very ship bracket in one of our last conversations.  We wanted to keep it going because it seemed to bring a lot of people so much joy.  The vast majority of people participating are those who bring only positivity and I don't want the few who don't to ruin it for everyone.  So please please be kind to each other.  We welcome all your comments of positivity, praising your ship, sharing your favorite recs, stories of how you came to love your ship, and forming connections with your fellow shippers.

Thank you and here's to a fantastic ship bracket.
​
This year's schedule:
Round 1: March 2-6
Round 2: March 8-12
Sweet Sixteen: March 14-18
Elite Eight: March 20-24
Final Four: March 26-31
Championship: April 2-7

Just popping on here to wish everyone a happy and prosperous 2020.

I don't know what the future holds for this site.  I have a few episodes in the can that have never been posted, and was working on some "Best Of" episodes over the summer that are languishing half-finished on my desktop.  Whether or not I'll ever be emotionally ready to post them is the bigger question.  I still intend to run the ship bracket this year, because I know how much joy it brings people and I love to watch fandoms rally together.  When it came to fandom, Kelly was always the first person I'd run to to talk about breaking news and our latest theory.  I think I may continue to post articles here to let me keep the conversation going with her.

For now, I'm leaving you all with DJ Earworm's Decade of Pop mashup.  Checking YouTube for his year end mixes was a tradition of ours that I'm now sharing with you.  Love to you all.

I’ve never been good at things like this, and I still wake up hoping this is all a bad dream, but I know you enjoyed a good social media post for important moments. So here it goes.

I love how we can stay on the phone for hours, barely speaking but just wanting to know the other was there. I love geeking out with you over every fandom news story and ship development. I love how you want to be Suzie’s favorite auntie so much that you let her sit in the passenger’s seat of my car and lick your Starbucks cup. I love how you pick my drinks at the bar and then take care of drunk me with Cheez Its and Aaron Tveit albums. I love our yearly trips to San Diego. I love our podcasting dates. I love our inside jokes (#porklet, #dayofrest, #bugsinmystarbucks). I love your laugh. I love when you cheer for the Giants or the Sharks or the Warriors just to make me happy. I love keeping each other company during our commutes. I love our memories from college, like watching horror movies for Valentine’s Day or resting on your futon with instant mashed potatoes when I was sick or watching that Jonas Brothers concert movie over and over. I love when I text you breaking news and you call me to shout about it. I love that even when you can’t talk, you find a way to let me know what you really think about my hair (good or bad). I love spending all day with you at Disneyland acting like kids. I love all the wonderful people you brought into my life (especially you). I love when you call me CME, the Dean to your Sam, your favorite co-host. I love that even when we’re arguing, I know you’ll have my back. I love how much you love our origin story. I love your strength. I love how much you love.

I’ll miss you. I love you.

by Christina

Disney+, the upcoming streaming service from The Walt Disney Company, is one of the most anticipated things in entertainment this year.  Will you be subscribing when it launches on November 12th?  If you weren't already planning to, some of the announcements from D23 today might convince you:

If you're anything like me, you tend to get a little lazy on a work night when it comes to picking what to watch.  You get home from work and plan to get some chores done and watch the latest summer drama, but instead end up in your sweatpants watching a marathon of Real Housewives.  To give you a little help, here are some of the newer shows and TV movies I've watched lately:

Available on: Amazon Prime Video
Official Summary: This fantasy series sees fussy angel Aziraphale and loose-living demon Crowley team up to form an unlikely duo. The two have become overly fond of life on Earth, and they are forced into forming an alliance in an attempt to stop the approaching Armageddon. To do that, they have to find the missing Antichrist, an 11-year-old boy who is unaware that he is meant to bring the end of days upon humanity. Michael Sheen, David Tennant and Jon Hamm star in the series, which is based on the book of the same name by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.
Starring: David Tennant, Michael Sheen, Adria Arjona, Miranda Richardson, Michael McKean, Jack Whitehall, Jon Hamm and Frances McDormand.
Number of Episodes: Six