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"Why isn't the fossil record one continuous change, instead of entirely separate suddenly appearing 'kinds'?"

Because the vast majority of fossils get destroyed by mother nature. Only ones preserved under specific circumstances are preserved well enough for us to learn from. Add that to the fact that we've only dug in a relatively small number of places around the world. Allow scientists to dig up every inch of dirt across the globe, as well as dig up all the dirt and such under the world's oceans, and the picture provided will be far more accurate.

Imagine kids in Holloween costumes parading through a door as a stationary camera takes pictures. Imagine it's a million kids, and 100 pictures are taken per kid at equal time intervals as the parade moves by. Ok, you have 100 million pictures. 99% (randomly selected) of them don't develop. So now you're left with 1 million random pictures from the bunch. 99% of those (again, randomly selected) are lost in fires and floods. Now you have 10,000 pictures. Now, take those pictures, hop on an airplane, and take a trip around the world letting the pictures fly out the window as you go.

Now, using only the pictures you're able to then locate, put together a complete picture of what that parade looked like.