Whaaaa!  I can't wait to see this episode!

 

 

(Hat tip:  Pharngula)

I gotta say, I don't get this person hatein' on Pete like that.  Pete was great!  I would have fallen in love with him in a heartbeat.  Are you kidding?  Sweet, sensitive, yet capable of action...nice guy who doesn't let people push him around...wears his heart on his sleeve but doesn't whine and bitch when it gets stomped on?

Hes a DOLL!  It's not his fault that Sam is in love with Jack and (despite being a cosmic genius) has the emotional IQ of a turnip.

'course, I might have been more generous to Pete just because I figured he was going to die.  There's two things that'll get you killed in the SG-1 universe:  Being Daniel and loving Sam. 

 

Here's a better quality video

The right kind of wrong?

WRONG!

 

The RIGHTEST kind of wrong.

 

 

You know...the cleft-chinned, square-jawed, unruly-haired, lopsided-grinning, sensitive-tough-guy, piercing-blue-eyed, Intergalactic-Man-Whore kind of wrong.

 

Discalimer:  This entry will make no sense unless you are a fan of Torchwood, and up-to-date on the Dr. Who universe.  The video will only be funny if you have a warped sense of humor...and even then, you will feel guilty for laughing.  Sorry.  I can't be alone in my Schadenfreude.  The Scott Lively connection is just one of those random association firings that my brain subjects me too...but if you can't mock the Rev. Scott Lively, who CAN you mock?

 

 

OK, a while ago I heard about the Rev. Scott Lively, and his book The Pink Swastika and I thought "Who the hell would buy this?  It's ridiculous.  It's completely craven, ahistorical re-imagining at it's most cynically manipulative.  I've seen sand-choked engines run more smoothly than this guy's logic."

But then I see this, and I realize the horrible truth!

NSFW  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!   (seriously, the ways in which this is not safe for work defy numbering gravity description)

 

Also, my understanding of the German langauge is even worse than I thought!

 

I realize that Dr. Jackson's talent, grace-under-pressure, uber-coolness, and bespecled sexiness can inspire resentment in lesser individuals but come on, let's not be so catty about it.  It only makes YOU look small.

Instead, why don't you go out, get yourself a team of professional writers, a mittful of advanced degrees in esotaric subjects, and fantastic make-up artistry and lighting.  Then you wouldn't have to feel so jealous.

Oh, and by the way, Daniel Jackson speaks 26 languages.

So there.

 

Ya know, It frightens me a little bit, but for some reason, I just totally relate to this scene.

 

 

This fanvid is for anyone who ever fell in love with someone who made them want to be a better person.

And, for that matter, for anyone whoever fell in love with someone who knocked them off their high horse, shook them out of their complacency, and completely robbed them of their equalibrium.

I give you:  Daniel and Vala.

 

Pssst...don't look now, but I may have somehow become a Daniel/Vala 'shipper without realizing it. It took me even longer than it took Daniel! LOL.

What can I say, if you really love something, you're willing to let it go. 

I usually get bored watching You Tube videos where people are just speaking extemporaneously about things they like.  But this guy has a charming voice, and I liked his take:

 

 

My favorite quote: "I was getting worried that they were going to lose all the knowledge of the Aasgaard. That would have pissed me off because the Aasgaard, they were - you know sometimes they were kind of dicks but what super-powerful alien race isn't at one point or another?"

Indeed.

One of the things I love about Stargate SG-1 is the characters…but not just the primaries.

There’s all these great secondary and tertiary characters that you just get to know so well, and they jump off the screen.  Like the hapless but stoic Sylar, or efficient and humorless Walter, or the very dapper and urbane (but very, very evil) Ba’al.

But the one I probably am the most impressed with is Woolsey (played by Robert Picardo).

Woolsey is an efficient and relentless bureaucrat for an international organization which helps fund the Stargate program.  He’s an unlikeable man, doing a difficult and unpopular job.  And yet, for all that, he’s incredibly sympathetic.

After all, civilian oversight is an important part of our government.  We WANT someone watching those that we are giving use of our money and power…to see that it is exercised properly.

Woolsey obviously takes his job very seriously.  He doesn’t have any kind of a political agenda.  Whenever he is in conflict with Stargate Command, he is professional and unyielding.  He is not cowardly, and he is not to be intimidated nor dissuaded with bribes nor blackmail.  He’s a straight shooter when it comes to imparting intelligence, and he’s an honest broker when it comes to arguing courses of action.  He's intelligent, thorough, and earnest.

He is the perfect bureaucrat; except for one little thing.  

He constantly forgets that he is there for the purposes of ACCOUNTABILITY.  Instead, he constantly steps in to uh…”pre-correct” is the kindest word I can think of for the activity, the actions and decisions of the professionals whose job it is to make the decisions and take the actions in question.

Instead of letting them do their damned job, and then hold them accountable afterwards if what they did was wrong…he often steps over the line from doing HIS job, to messing with THEIR jobs.  And he just can’t seem to get that this is the problem.  He feels badly about being wrong, and he takes responsibility for the bad outcomes, and he doesn’t flinch from admitting he was wrong…but he doesn’t get that he’s wrong because  He.  Doesn’t.  Know. What. He’s Doing.

He’s like so many people you come across who think they know someone else’s job better than they do.  He thinks he knows what the risks and the pay-offs are, but he has no way of knowing because he doesn’t have the training or the experience to know.

He is trained to analyze facts and results in retrospect, not to respond to a fluid situation in the moment.  He gives inappropriate weight to certain facts, and has different expectations becasue he is used to dealing with situations that have already happened, where the outcome is known.  He's not equiped to handle them on the fly and put his butt on the line based on that analysis.

I hope that he learns, eventually.  But then, of course, he will not be nearly the useful plot device that he has been in the past. 

 

J

Rocky bought "The Ark of Truth" and we watched it Friday night.  I enjoyed it very much.  I chuckled a wry chuckle over the idea of a box full of ancient technology containing the Truth that the Orii (whose religion is modeled on Calvanism) are false Gods...and referred to as an "ark".

I love that the ancient's misguided egalitarianism WAS their undoing, and the evil Morgan LaFey was right:  There is no "right" to force your destructive self-delusion upon others; and when it comes down to you being forced to worship false Gods, or force others to see the truth...you gotta do what you gotta do.  And I think that they did a good job of showing the conditions under which such force becomes necessary.  Also, I think it was clear from the narrative that there was a clear distiction between something being NECESSARY, and something being RIGHT. 

On the other side of the very fine line...

It showed the cost of believeing something enough to believe it is right to commit atrocities.  Belief that can over-ride all of the human instinct about what is right.

Teal'c's monologue to Tomin was extremely powerful:  You alone have to live with what you have done.  You can blame the false Gods and the false doctrine, but it's a lie.  When you were doing wrong, you KNEW it was wrong.  But you did it anyway.  You're never going to be able to excuse it.  The Gods who gave you dispensation for your sins were a lie, give up any desperate hope that you may have for dispensation in the future...it will only lead you into more error.  Now, the only thing you can do is face the truth, suck it up, be a mench, and go and sin no more. 

I don't like replicators, and I strenuously objected to their presence in this movie.  However. I have to admit, in retrospect, that it was the right thing to do.  Old enemies are never fully defeated.  Evil knowledge can never be erased.  There will always be some misguided Eddie-Haskell-esque putz trying to dredge them up for their own purposes.  Even if you win the big "final battle", you will always have to deal with those enemies going forward, and have to re-defeat them again and again.  It's just the way of reality.  Final solutions are not only immoral, they are impossible.

I have to say that is is a good thing that they released this directly to DVD.  As such, it was merely a special 2-hour episode, and the perfect thing for us fans to enjoy without trying to pander to the general population, or put it before them to have them mystified and frustrated by it.  I hope it makes enough money for there to be more of them.

If I had to choose a guy on Atlantis, it would be Mckay. 

 

But of course, my first choice would be celebacy because McKay is just a little too...uh well...McKay.

'nuff said.  Charming moments and a few endearing qualities do not a heartthrob make.

But he's growing on me.

(P.S. David Hewlette is an AWESOME actor.  It is difficult to portray a character that is so unlikable in a way that makes him sympathetic and gives you glimpses at the person he could be...and to carry the character development on into time, showing him becoming more and more his best self.)

 

Here's a Daniel Jackson fan vid for you. I don't want you all thinking that Captain Jack has tuned my head away from my main fictional sqeeze, after all...but I don't understand why there's so much footage of THAT WOMAN in this vid.

NSFW:  Warning, doods kissing...no homophobes.

 

And there's no denying it...Captin' Jack is just Hot.

Discuss.

A charming little tale full of whimsey and adventure.  Steamer-punk elements.  A little disjointed in parts, and with a tepid ending that screamed sequal.

In other words, a good story burdoned by it's condition as a movie adaptation of a novel.

Cool effects.  Some really good performances.

Skanky blond villian named "Coulter".

A certain scene I like to call "bowling for cossacks".

All-in-all, it was a nice little family outing.

Awaiting final verdict until after the sequal.

For those of you who do not believe that our great Republic benefits from the constant infusion of culture, language, and perspective of our alien residents, I offer a challenge to your closed-minded ways.

On December 8th, 2007; At 7:30 PM; for the mere pittance of $20 USD (effective price dropping daily) you can witness the charming and immortal tale; "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens.

But this isn't just ANY rendering in ordinary English.  No it is not!

 

Come to the University of MN Saint Paul campus

Student Center Theater

2017 Buford Avenue

St. Paul, MN 55108

 

There, you will witness the moralizing, liberal, whiney, orphan-hugger words of Charles Dickens transformed!

Commedia Beauregard will give that pallid old Englishman an infusion of Klingon-American honor, courage, and (I assume) bloodlust!

That's right "A Klingon Christmas Carol".

See it Dec. 8th at 7:30 PM  Tickets at:  www.ticketworks.com or (615)209-6689

Oh, did I mention that this is a fund-raiser?  Proceeds from this performance will assist in funding future productions, commissioning new translations of foreign-language plays, and helping to further the understanding of the world's cultures, and (I assume) other world's cultures.

Don't miss it! 

Oh, and...Q'aplah!

Some people are apparently a little confused about how I can reconcile my love for Daniel Jackson, and my loathing for Eric von Daniken.

Well, it's easy.

Eric von Daniken lives in THIS world, where the pyrmids were build by extraordinary human effort using advanced, but still ancient and very human, ingenuity, math, technology and skills.  All of which we can abundantly demonstrate that the humans of that time had.  Nevertheless, he believes that alien astronauts came to our planet and assembled the wonders of the ancient world with the magic laser beams.  Despite the inability to support these claims with equally extraordinary proof, he continues to promote his ideas as though they are established fact.

 

Daniel Jackson lives in a fictional world where the pyramids were ACTUALLY BUILT by extraordinary human effort using advanced ingenuity, math, technology and skills which were given them by ancient astronauts posing as gods in order to obtain hosts for their parasitic selves, as well as intelligent, adaptable and fast-breeding slave armies.  Unlike Daniken, when Dr. Jackson went looking for the alien astronauts, HE FOUND THEM.  Then, they pissed him off, and he tweaked their noses, kicked the asses, rolled them in tar and feathers, and kicked them out of his galaxy...with his brain.  He hardly had to flex those nicely proportional arm muscles at all.

 

Also, Eric von Daniken is a paunchy, dusty old crank who is technically old enough to be either my father or my grandfather, and he spouts enough unsupportable superstitious B.S. to be my pastor.  Anyone creeped out yet?

 

Daniel, though fictional, is only two years older than me (born THE DAY BEFORE ROCKY), is adorable, and works out on a regular basis.

 

So, there you have it.  Happy now?

I saw Michael Shanks  guesting on EUReKa...and that was alright.

But he wasn't Daniel.

I miss Daniel.

Sigh.

I think my favorite part of Convergence was our friend "Saveau's" "motivational" posters.  Here is a sample:

 

 

Unfortunatly, someone didn't get the jokes and left snarky post-it notes on the Battlestar Gallactica posters...but that's what Con is all about.  Fans getting together and getting their obnoxious on in a safe environment.

 

Well, that's ONE of the things that Con is all about.  Other's include seeing friends, and drinking and geeking out over stuff that would normally get you locked away in the real world...like the Great Luke Ski, for instance.

 

Adventure Boy came to Con for his second time, and Grasshopper joined us as a nubee.  Also joining us was Padewan...Adventure Boy's bestest friend in the whole world...who is moving to Montreal in just a couple of weeks.

The boys had cell phones, so we kept in contact with them and more-or-less let them roam the Con during the day.  They attended a surprising number of panels, and seemed to have every day scheduled tight as a drum.

Here are some of my other favorite posters:

 

I need to start a list of all the things I do that are "Evil".

Now I find out that heaven isn't going to allow Science Fiction either?  Forget about it.  I don't want to go.  I want to spend eternity wherever James White and Richard Biggs, and Andreaus Katsulas (among others) are.

You can keep the harp.

Go to:

http://www.progressivehistorians.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1443

Progressive Historian has posted the text from an old Moral Majority pamphlet from 1981.  It has 26 “don’ts” for students.  Some of them are actually pretty good.  Most are just silly.

#’s 1 & 2  made me laugh:

1. Don't get into science-fiction values discussions or trust a teacher who dwells on science fiction in his/her "teaching."

2. Don't discuss the future or future social arrangements or governments in class.

argh.  shortbread cookies, with a chocolate layer on top.  I am powerless before them.

They are my Jadarite.

(Hat Tip:  A Blog Around the Clock)

Cool bit of writing from the team at Stargate SG-1

 

Ori Prior:  "The village will be destroyed."

Tobin:      "Why?"

Ori Prior:  "They have been touched by evil.  There is no salvation for them."

Tobin:      "But we eliminated all the unbelievers."

Ori Prior:   "Not all of them."

Tobin:       "I thought the village had capitulated.  If you'll allow me..."

Ori Prior:   (quoting Ori scripture) "Marcon walked away from the Ori to satisfy his hunger, but no matter how much he ate, he did not feel full.

               Realizing his mistake, he ran back to the Ori, but they denied his pleas, and struck down the village that welcomed him back."

Tobin:      "Forgive me, Prior, but I was reviewing that passage just this morning, and Marcon prayed for forgiveness and took the first

               step..."

Ori Prior:   (interrupting) "...and the hands of the Ori enveloped all those who welcomed him back.  The village was destroyed.  All those who

               stand by and accept transgressions must be punished."

Tobin:       "That is NOT the implication of the text, Prior.  The Ori granted forgiveness when Marcon reaslized his mistake, and blessed the

                village with their light for showing him the way back to the path."

Ori Prior:    (threateningly) "You dare question my judgement?"

Tobin:       "No, it's just...not how I was taught."

Ori Prior:    "There are many words, but only one truth."

 

How many of us have been there?  How many journeys to freedom of thought began with someone quoting scripture, and invoking Biblical authority for their own purposes?  How many of us set out to refute those who misrepresent scripture because of our belief in the goodness of our faith?  A belief that it was good, but just being twisted, so we picked at the loose thread, and it just kept unraveling until we realized that there was nothing there?

For me, it isn't anger at religion, or anger at God or faith.  Sometimes I have frustration for all the waste and misfortune, but in the end I just realized that the Bible means nothing by itself.  It's ALL subject to interpretation, and no matter which translation you use, no matter what school of thought, you are going to come up against something that's just WRONG.

And when you say "That's wrong", the faithful always answer "Oh, well, that's just a bad interpretation, you should read this book or this essay, and then you will understand how to interpret it correctly.

This expert has the correct interpretation of Sodom and Gomorrah, but he fails to adhere to Biblical truth on what "modesty" means in women.  Such-and-such translation is correct here, but fails there...well, if you go back to the GREEK it means...but in the Hebrew text...no, the Aramaic...

ugh.

By the time you get the human bias of the writing, the translation, the re-translation, the selection of what scriptures get picked to even be in the Bible, the different translations from there, and then the different ways you can interpret the translations, you have a document that has all the "authority" of a Bazooka Joe comic.

Mark Twain once said "Get your facts straight, then distort them however you'd like."

I realize that this can happen in science and reason, but the Biblical scholors can't even do that much.  And in the mean time, everything bad that happens is the fault of humans, everything good that happens is to God's credit, and anything bad that people do invoking "biblical authority" is due to "misinterpretation" and everything they do that is good, they couldn't have done without the Bible.

AND then people claim that bad things continue to happen because we don't give that logic enough authority and public sanction.

I have an idea.  How about if I respect and support your right to run your life by the Bible if you want to, and you refrain from insisting that you have a right to use it to run my life as well?

Ben at EclecticsAnonymous recently blogged about Daniel Jackson, and implied that my fan-girl mental frolics might be slightly less than purely cerebral.

Balderdash I say! (If you will excuse my language).

Nerdy less-than-physically-perfect men have been my downfall since I was very young.

My friend Barb will recall a certain spindly, large-nosed, acne-plagued actor from our highschool that nearly came between us as friends (I saw him FIRST!)  I was in the pit orchestra, he was playing “Marryin’ Sam”  in Lil’ Abner.  I learned all of his lines before HE did.

Certain friends still occasionally mock me for what they only assume must be my mental-illness induced view of Jeff Goldblum (Here's a better picture).  What can I say?  I think he's cute, and it's because of his quirky, nerdy persona.  (In my defense, I never saw The Fly…from what I hear, that would have short-circuited the Jeff Goldblum thing right out of the gate).

And come on, Jon Stewart, while he has gotten awards for sexiness, is not exactly a smoldering tower of cut –out masculinity.  Yet I find him incredibly sexy. 

Sorry Ben, it’s the brains, baby.

But I’m not ashamed to admit it...those new biceps Michael Shanks was suddenly sporting a few seasons into the show didn’t take any air out of the tires.  And there's no denying that without the nerding-up he gets to play Daniel Jackson for SG-1, Michael Shanks is classically georgous.

 

No more watching "Rome" and "Battlestar Galactica" in the same night.

I can't take that much of man's suffering and inhumanity to man (or Cylon) due to his petty, short-sighted, self-serving nature.

I was in and out of sleep with terrible dreams all night.  Between Adama on Galactica, and the prostitute/assasin boy on Rome (and what's become of Verinus), I was completely done for as far as a night of restful sleep.

Time travel, childhood memories, household tip on how to use a hairdryer.

...but I think there's a Cylon working at our local gas station.

One of those skin jobs, you know, not the big shiney kind.

Anonymously good-looking, blue eyes set just a little too wide apart, hair combed into a perfectly orderly non-style.

If he had no emotions at all, I wouldn't suspect him so much.  But he DOES have emotions.  He emits this sort of constant wave of low-grade background irritation, as if he has a pretense to keep up, but he's just waiting for the right moment to fulfill his evil mission.

Every social interaction is spare, cold, minimalist and completely devoid of any kind of human content.

A Cylon, I tell you.

The ancient Babylonian batteries have confused, and mystified archeologists for decades...those who don't outright reject their authenticity, that is.

For one thing, they don't appear to have served any useful purpose, as there have been no discoveries of ancient Babylonian motors, or ancient Babylonian wiring, or tablets full of ancient Babylonian building codes (other than the ones declairing that any house broken into have the body of the burgler sealed into the breach).

But I know what they were used for.

Don't tell anyone, but they were used to fuel the Stargate.

Thank you, thank you, ladies and gentlemen.  Yes, you may tell Dr. Jackson that I will gladly accept a position on his research team.  Late nights are not a problem.

And Teresa is a geek...moving on.

Is it hot in here?

You're all off my Christmas list, I'll have you know.

Specifically, Book.

Little quote from Babylon Five that I think of every once in a while when I'm watching certain politicians wiggle and squirm around public opinion to find just the right mix of rhetorical pabulum and concessions to maximize their "base".

Shamelessly quoted in it's entirety from Saveau.

Goodbye G'Kar

I've waited long enough. If you still haven't seen Serenity, don't read this is spoilers will bum you out.

Oh. My. God.

Serenity serenity serenity...geek geek geek....you know the drill. My brain is going to be the "all Firefly" channel until Friday.

albiet rather obliquely.

The best day of the week!

Ahhh...the wisdom contained in good Sci-Fi.

A primer.

really.

Nurturing my inner geek.

ahhh...

"It's the characters, stupid."

I am despondant - again.