I gave my mom a small lesson today on basic photography, but naturally I had to handle her new Nikon D5000, because its been far too long since I've had a nice SLR in my hands. So today we took pictures of a gorgeous set of gladioli that I bought myself for my housewarming party yesterday. I thought I'd share a few of my snaps.

After all these years, I still love this movie. I was looking for some information on the song "What a Wonderful World" which is featured in one of the trailers for Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, and I saw this trailer for the first time EVAR, and it is awesome.

I so totally did very little this weekend, and I enjoyed every second of it!! what did I do? Other than catch a very good steak on fire (no worries, it still came out delicious!) and a couple of very much needed loads of laundry, I sat back and watched LOADS of TV, most of it with british accents. (LOADS was in the accent of course)
What did I watch? Literally I think the only way I might remember it all is if I write it down!!

1. Monarch of the Glen-a supposed comedy?/drama about the Laird of a Scottish Highland territory going through economic pressures and of bringing the aging dominion into the 21st century. Finished the premiere episode. Why did I watch it? I know a couple of people who just absolutely adore the series. Therefore I will watch.

2. MI:5-Not quite James Bond, but with Matthew MacFayden from Pride and Prejudice. I didn't realize he talked so much, because honestly as Darcy he barely spoke at all... and he's sooo much younger!!! The first episode really didn't engage me much, but no giving up just yet on it.

3. Babylon 5-I watched the extended premiere episode, "The Gathering". The commander is kind of cute, love the eyebrows. The spaceships are very clearly computer animations, but we can look past it. Again, I know people who just absolutely adore the show.

4. Andromeda-I watched the first five episodes (which considering I anticipated I would at least enjoy it, I have the entire collection that I got a while back at an amazing price and just now decided to watch). Kevin Sorbo still doesn't do anything for me, but Lexa Doig is adorable. I like Andromeda better than I like Moya, but thats because I like sarcastic ships. What can I say? I will continue to work through the series, if for no other reason than to hopefully get a glimpse at Michael Shanks somewhere in season 3. but by then i'll be hopelessly attached and will finish the series.

5. Doctor Who. First off, I'm now convinced that 10=<3. I watched a bunch of episodes from season 4, as that was where I was with OnDemand, but at least now I have a much better picture about where in the timeline those episodes are. I've always adored Rose Tyler, and Donna Noble has charmed her way in as well. I would love to know more about Sarah Jane Smith. I have downloaded as many episodes as I can from Netflix from previous Doctors. I just have no idea what the order is in which I should watch them.

6. Doctor Who. This time, I watched the premiere of Eleven. On a gut instinct, I think I might like him. He's okay looking, but Ten was just englishly hot. and Ten had reddish hair, which I find totally scrumptious. Eleven will earn a chance to be watched.

7. SG-U. While i'm on series that I normally watch, I actually liked this week's episode of SG-U. I think we are finally beginning to see some opportunity for greater plots than "Woe to me, we're stuck on a ship". And next week, Daniel Jackson returns!!! in hot season 10 glasses. *happehsigh*

8. Tudors. I seriously want to do some research to see if what they portrayed was real. I am sad to see the series end, as this is the last season, but it was SOOO well done! I'm not actually that up to seeing the episodes again, as I'm not into watching executions usually (its one of the few things I can't stand. Gratuitous violence is cool, but the thought of a planned and timed execution just bothers the crap out of me) but the show is about CHARACTERIZATION, which is why I love my favorite TV shows like Stargate so much. I can't wait to see Jeremy Irons in "The Borgias". Oh Lucretia!

9. Clash of the Titans (1981) Finally got around to seeing that. For once I agreed with my brother-in-law; one should see the original before going to see the new one. I thought it odd how it mixed the angsty plot of Perseus with a whimsical and seemingly out of place score. The mechanical owl was also a bit out of place, not in the plot itself, but some of its side characterizations. It was silly and playful, and it made me lose the excitement of the action. The special effects like the kracken (first off, srsly, reptiles don't have belly buttons because they didn't have umbilical cords, they were hatched out of eggs), medusa and Calabus were horrifically cheesy but lovable. If only they had hired the new ILM company, they could have been so much more better. I loved seeing a young!Dame Maggie Smith! She was gorgeous!!

10. Men who stare at goats. First off, I find it absolutely hilarious that Ewan MacGregor was in a movie about Jedi's that wasn't created by George Lucas. For him to say the word "Jedi" sarcastically was just fantastic. I don't want to say anymore for spoilers. Otherwise it was an okay movie.

11. Parenthood-I've been watching this on OnDemand since about the time it started, and I have found it to be a cute, well rounded perspective. It might not be something I would eventually own on DVD, but it is cute none the less, with a stellar ensemble cast. (Two episodes)

12. Ballet Shoes-Its a small, obscure film from last year or so starring Emma Watson (Hermione from Harry Potter) about three orphans rescued by a mad traveling paleontologist and sent to live with his niece in 1930's London. Brought up in abject poverty, the three girls are taken to a performing arts school where they independently thrive or not thrive and begin to take the stage or the next part of their young careers. As it was entirely british in the making, it delved deeper into british history than american films do, which tend to dramatize depression London. This brought the time period into a different perspective, and was quite interesting to see how the depression affected teenagers.

I doubt anyone could convince me I watched too much tv for my good this weekend, but oh well, sometimes I just have to sit back, chill, and take a vacation (which apparently was mostly to London with sidetrips to outer space.)

For those of you who may not have seen, fignewton is hosting Gen Fic Day on the 7th of April!!! As part of Gen Fic Day, she is also coordinating one of her fabulous Alphabet Soup Ficathons, this time featuring Jonas Quinn!! The soup is still in need of five more authors, so hurry up and go get a prompt letter for at least 100 words about Jonas!

In honor of Jonas Quinn Alphabet Soup, I have a couple icons for the ficathon!

They are snatchable and useable, whether for contributing or leaving feedback!

(on a complete sidenote, I've got several updates to post that have been sitting on my desktop. Hopefully I will actually post them soon! RL=crazy)

OMG, I was in a book store this evening, and I found this on the shelf:



No, seriously, a real book! I literally started geeking out!! I know a lot of you gals on my flist are castle fans, so I couldn't wait to share it! It's not a long book, but by the looks of the reviews on Amazon, actually well written! (It was apparently released in September of 2009, but as I've been desperately trying not to purchase books in order to pay for my mortgage, I haven't actually been in a bookstore fiction section in ages!)
Link to Amazon page is here

I'm on my way to Georgia tomorrow, so now I have something to read on the plane!! I promised myself I'll wait until tomorrow before opening it up and starting to read!

First off, I've finished Battlestar Galactica!!! I finished "Daybreak" yesterday, and I must admit I liked it a lot. I was wondering how they were going to mesh in the arrival of the colonials into the earth timeline. I particularly liked Starbuck throughout the show, and Laura Roslin was a very dynamic character. I'm not sure I'll go all fangirlie for it, but I fully intend to finish "the Plan" tomorrow night, and I might just have to pull out the DVDs of the original series and watch it just so I can see the difference. One question for BSG Original series fans: is there a difference between the 17 episodes I have on "The Complete Epic Series" DVD set and Battlestar Galactica 1980? The series I have ends with the episode "The Hand of God".

And on American Idol: while watching the auditions for this upcoming season in Dallas, Todrick Hall auditioned, and it brought a laugh to my day! So I thought I'd share it. ( cutcutcutCollapse )

the first part is an introduction to the day, so skip ahead to about 1:11 in to get to the actual audition. For Idol fans, the song makes more sense than to those who don't watch the show at all. It was too cute, and so I am sharing.

I can't believe its been over a month since I've updated, not to mention that this is the first post for the year!! The year started out incredibly busy, hosting my first dinner party on new years day, which went of smashingly I thought!! We're beginning our peak busy period on the US Census in anticipation of Census Day (April 1st) only for me to get a nice garden variety flu on the 7th which took me out of commission through Tuesday. Fortunately I have the resources necessary to do most of my job from home so I didn't actually have to emerge from my home until last Thursday.

While I've been confined to prevent infecting everyone I know (and even then I'm fairly certain I've passed that onto at least three people) I did have one fannish upside--I had plenty of time to watch Battlestar Galactica! I asked for the DVDs for Christmas (I got the first two full seasons plus all the movies) and after starting them on Saturday, I hunted down the other two seasons at a local Best Buy and ordered them Monday. So, in the past 11 days, I've finished three and a half seasons, and will be completed by Sunday of the entire reimagined series. I can totally see the fannish attraction to the show, especially mainlining it while in a feverish haze, and now I can see the comparison between BSG and SGU. The show is fabulous, but I'm not sure its got my fannish heart like Stargate won it over.

I also managed to plan my birthday today, with tickets to American Ballet Theatre's Romeo and Juliet at the Kennedy Center!! I'm already getting girlishly squeeful over the performance coming up. I don't think I was able to take advantage of any programs last year, and that is certainly something I plan to change this year.

I also am trying to desperately catch up on all the movies I missed in the theatre in November and December. I saw a 1030pm showing last night of New Moon, which was actually not that bad. The whole sparkly vampire bit is just ridiculous, but it was explained in the book reasonably so I'm just going to let that go. But seriously, half naked buff native american men running around in the forest? Totally a very valid reason for seeing the movie, even if it is otherwise lacking. I have the strong suspicion that New Moon won't make it past thursday in the theatres here in MD, given that its down to a single showing a day, late at night. I'm seeing "The Blind Side" with Sandra Bullock tomorrow evening, which I expect won't last more than a week or so longer, though it currently has a theatre all to itself and showings throughout the day. It'll be eventually cut down to one and then it will disappear altogether. All I need to do is catch up with Sherlock Holmes and I'll be pretty much caught up (unless anyone can think of an amazingly awesome movie that is still out for me to see?)

Lastly, I want to send a shoutout to stargazercmc congratulating her and D for bringing home Baby Thor from the hospital!! Colin is seriously too adorable for words, ya'alls. She has some current pictures on her LJ for you to aww and squee at.

*psssst* gazer, I PMed you--hopefully you see it soon!

I've never resorted to putting my fandom deadlines into my calendar, but now I'm paying for it!! (although I might get some questioning looks if someone looked at my calendar and saw fiction deadlines in there). sg_rarepairings has its posting period this week, and naturally I just went back and remembered that I had signed up for it and that i've got like a week to post it. So, what I am in desperate need for is a beta who can do quick turnaround on bits and pieces I send over. I'd prefer someone with some sort of instant messaging access for real-time bouncing ideas, but email is a great option too.

About the fic:
I'm doing a gen pairing for Daniel and Nick Ballard with the prompt of "following in footsteps", which fits quite well into the whole world of "Young Daniel" but out of it as well, as it deals with Daniel as an adult, not just a child. The outline is just shy of 1000 words, and the fic itself might go as far as 5000 or 6000 words, but done in vignettes that can be beta'ed independently of one another. My timeline is to have everything completed by Friday, the 11th, beta through the 13th, and post that evening on the 13th.

In terms of beta'ing, my primary focus is on grammar, as I have an unhealthy love for semi-colons and sentences with double dependent clauses plus an independent clause. Sometimes I think my dialogue might be too robotic or too grammar perfect, but that really depends on the character. I also am looking to keep in canon, so any canon errors are something I desperately want pointed out.

Another Note:
I'm always looking for betas, by the way, so even if this week is a total crushingly busy week, but willing to help out otherwise, let me know, as I will certainly be in need of one soon!!

"Every kid needs a dog!" So quoteth Jack, and rightly so, even if you are only a kid at heart. I'm thrilled to introduce the newest member of my family, a baby girl yellow lab named after our favorite Hankan, Cassie (well the jury is still out on the name, but Cassie is the front runner and the decision will be made by tomorrow). My parents adopted her and she arrived to their home tonight all the way from Kentucky. She was born on the 13th of August, and is just over nine weeks old. This weekend I will re-educate mother on the importance of Cassie in the SG-1 world with a mini marathon, and perhaps Cassie might sit and watch with us!


Baby Cassie with her new mommy (who is also mine!) when we picked her up at the airport!

Calling for help!!

I'm in need of opinions as to the plot holes people see for the episode, Legacy (3x04). They can be big gaping holes a mac truck could fall in or little ones that tickle annoyingly at you. I know my awesome flist can help me out here!

Additionally, How much do you want to hate Janet for what happened? Or Jack? or even Hammond or MacKenzie?

I'd also appreciate links to metas written by others on the topic (I know sg_fignewton wrote a fabulous essay for redial_the_gate on MacKenzie, for instance) as it turns out aurora_novarum wrote the meta on MacKenzie, but I was still right on it being fabulous-- I do remember that. That's what I get for not looking it up and posting in a hurry.

A burgeoning plotline is growing in my head, and lets face it, almost everyone who's a proclaimed dannywhumper tries writing a Legacy Tag or a First Ones tag at somepoint. Now its eating my brain (which is AWESOME because I thought my muse left me again).

Some of the faces made in the bloopers were just too perfect for me not to iconize. A few more from previous icon making sessions are also included as they were never formally introduced.





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Wow, its been a while since I've updated here at all for my Stargate Update Fridays. A lot of this has been because I haven't been overly active on my "All Stargate All the Time" blog for the month of June. So here is a huge update.

Fic:

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*NEW* T is for Thanks and companion drabble Mercy. T is for Thanks was written for sg_fignewton's Janet Alphabet Soup in May. Mercy was written as a companion piece for the Stargate Drabbles List's Eye Spy "Loaded Syringe" Challenge. PG-13/R.

Posting for Archival:
1. Three Aspirin on the Road to Hell. Humor. PG-13.
2. Enemy at the Gate Ficlet #2. Humor, Ep Tag to SGA Enemy at the Gates, but from SG-1 perspective. PG.
3. Becoming a Team Written for the Jack and Sam Friendathon. Ep Tag to Fire and Water. PG.

Meta:

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Reviews and Questions:
| Audio Drama: Gift of the Gods | Question: SG-U Stargate, Stargates and DHDs in General-This spawned SG-U Stargate Review | Review of SG-U Stargate and DHD |

Revelations and Commentaries:
| Walter, Meet Walter! | You can't just slap a US Air Force Sticker on the side of a death glider and call it yours. |

Artwork:

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Full size:


Icon Dumps:
| 4 Icons, Daniel, Tomin, & Walter |

Yahoo!artwork:
| Two Gates and Desert!Camo!Arm!Porn! with eilidh17 | Fanart of Season 5: Enemies, Replicators! | Happy Birthday, Daniel Jackson! |

Food!artwork:
| Stargate Cupcakes! |

Fic Recs:
| Only Winning Move by synedochic | Infirmary Notes by Aurora Novarum | W is for Wound by Ayamgila | Three Men, an Astrophysicist and a Boyfriend by FridaysChild85 | Trauma Confusion by Aurora Novarum | R is for... by Lokei | ...And a Time for Healing by Aelfgyfu | Janet Alphabet Soup by Various | Birthdays and Other Major Disasters by Lady Anne | Daniel Jackson, Accidental Hero by Lady Grey | Gift of Consolation by Fig Newton | Kid Jackson vs. Slugger McKay by Eilidh17 |

Following up on the Question on SG-U's Stargate and Stargates and DHDs in general, I thought I'd put a little thought into it, explore around the brand new sites coming up for SG-U and try to sneak a peek at what's available.

What we know:
1.) The stargate and DHD we see on the vessel Destiny is among the oldest of the stargate designs. (for reference, see this Gateworld article on the teaser trailer released 7-7-09.)
2.) The Destiny stargate fully spins even though it is partially buried in the floor. (For reference, see teaser trailer at above link to gateworld or my previous post on the stargates and DHDs)
3.) The symbols on the gate are not recognizable as constellations like the Milky Way and the Pegasus stargates.
4.) The DHD is of significantly different design than the DHDs found in the Milky Way and Pegasus. (see images below)

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( The Stargate:Collapse )

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( The DHD:Collapse )

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Resources:
Stargate Solutions Wiki: DHDs
Wikia Stargate Wiki: DHDs
MGM Stargate Site (credit for all Destiny Stargate images)

Last night, July 7th, Syfy Network premiered its new branding with a third teaser trailer for the upcoming series, Stargate: Universe (SG-U). Watching the trailer, embedded below, I had to ask myself a couple questions.

( Trailer embedded...Collapse )
Is it me, or is the SG-U Stargate spinning? With the premiere of the third gate in the new series, we once again see the Stargate operating differently. The gates in the Milky Way have an inner ring of symbols that spin around a stationary outside ring with orange chevrons. The Pegasus gates have digital symbols which rotate around like a rotary phone, but seemingly no spinning at all of the gate. The progression makes sense as the Ancients, the gate builders, "upgraded" the gate so to speak. But to see the whole gate spinning, including the chevrons, seems very odd. How do they lock the symbols into place? With the first gate, the symbol needed to lock a chevron spins to the topmost chevron to secure the dial. Even the Pegasus Gates, the symbols moved to match stationary chevrons. But, hopefully we'll see how the new gate works. In the meantime, I'm rather curious to what the gate locks or the point of reference for dialing the gate.

It may take a few views, but in the dark as the gate is spinning, we also see symmetrical symbols like the one we see below behind the blonde woman instead of constellations.

( two images...Collapse )

I'm very much looking forward to see how the SG-U stargate works and what the DHD looks like (as we haven't seen a definitive look at one, although perhaps this photo might illuminate us on a rudimentary DHD?).

( and one more for good measure...Collapse )

Now, this could very well not be the DHD, but until we see the first episode, we really have no idea. However, this scene seems to be in the same room as the blonde lady above (which looks like there's a stargate behind her) and they seem to be in close proximity (which would be about right for a location for a DHD.)

It seems to be much more sophisticated in terms of its interface despite being older than the Milky Way or the Pegasus gates. Could it be because they don't expect indigenous civilizations to eventually use this particular gate? Since they are (supposedly) aboard a ship, the gate users could be trained to use it, therefore allowing for a more complicated interface? Or they just expect only Ancients or those with Ancient knowledge to be able to use it? When I come to think of it (and at this point I'm rambling, but oh well) the DHDs we see in Atlantis and on the Puddle Jumpers is actually quite different from the DHDs we see on the planets, which except for a change in color from orange to blue are remarkably like the DHDs in the Milky Way. Could it have been that the Ancients "dumbed down" the DHD interface for gates on planets, only using the more complicated interfaces for their exclusive use? It makes sense if they were populating the many planets and expecting each civilization to develop on their own timeline like the Asgards.

Now I'm very curious. Perhaps a meta will come of this in October? Hrm...

Update: Gateworld had this article on the new SG-U trailer, which indicated that this should be the first of the designs for the Stargate (which means that its older than the Milky Way design). However, other than noting that it should be some stunning visual effects, it fails to comment further on why the entire gate spins. *sigh*

zats_clear is hosting an Anon Love Meme!!! Its definitely more than time for one, so drop on by, share the love and take back the glee!
Anon Love Meme-May 2009

So, chances are this is for my fellow Dreamwidth account holders as most of my friends list already are members, but I do have a number of unused invite codes. So, if you are a) lacking a code and you want one, or more likely b) know someone who wants one but ran out of them yourself, let me know so I can ship some off!

What I wanted to do today: Finish my Janet Alphabet Soup entry.
What I did: just about everything but that, including a couple more icons! whoohoo!



The last came directly from Heroes (season 7) when he makes the film crew go running after him for a carbon dating fax... he's such a geek *squishes Daniel*

so, now its only 6:30pm... I need another six hours of procrastination... damn...

This entry is posted at http://samantilles.dreamwidth.org/8297.html. Please respond here using OPENID or anonymously. Please tell me who you are when you reply anonymously.

So, I've been a bit of a busy girl over at Dreamwidth, updating and moving things over manually. Stargate has eaten my entire week, and I can't really complain.

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Review: the Music of Stargate I had actually started working on this back in November, and I've just now completed it. I've always been a huge fan of movie scores, and completing this review was very satisfying... the music is terrific, I just wish we had more albums.

Stargate Ringtones: Volume 2 Made ten more custom ringtones for the iPhone from the Stargate: Movie soundtrack, Stargate: Ark of Truth and Stargate: Continuum soundtracks. This is what happens when you try to write a review of the music.

Thoughts on why I chose "Meridian" for redial_the_gate's Season 5 Recaps.

I Baked a Stargate Cake! Really, I did! Check it out!

Icons! Yup, made some of those too... Daniel, Jack, and a Ziggurat for the most part.

And more icons! Icons made for future Alphabet Soups by sg_fignewton

yahoo!Artwork by eilidh17 and myself: here and here. Featuring a Ronon-looking Fangirl/Unas, WTF two stargates, and Daniel!Jacket!Arm!porn.

Question: The Six Eyes and Ska'ara I'd love input on what you remember about the six eyes that Anubis had and Ska'ara in tok'ra robes and yet went back to abydos?

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Updates:
uploaded the following fics:
X is for Xerox
Heinz or Hunts?
Asgard Against Voter Suppression
P is for Photo Album
added my introduction into Stargate in verse: here (quite ingenious if I do say so myself!)

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So yeah, I was totally all about dreamwidth this week when I had a moment or two to spare...

I'm a huge fan of personalization, music, and my iPhone. So naturally, what's cooler than custom ringtones? Stargate custom ringtones! Back in November, I created ten ringtones compatible with the iPhone. I've since edited ten more, mostly from the Ark of Truth, Continuum and original movie soundtrack.

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Disclaimers: The works are still copyrighted to the respective creators, David Arnold and Joel Goldsmith, as well as the owners of the Stargate Franchises. These ringtones are created using DMC free music (therefore not violating copyright laws reposting them) and created by me using GarageBand. These are not for sale, therefore I am not making any profit off of these. These are for personal enjoyment only. They are designed for the iPhone, however I do not know if they are usable by other phones. If anyone wants to try it and get back to me, I would greatly appreciate it. As of this time (May 2009) they are not usable on the iPod Touch, but that may be a feature in the near future.

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Stargate: the Movie~Mastage Drag

Stargate: the Movie~Daniel's Mastage

Stargate: The Ark of Truth~Discovery at Dakara

Stargate: The Ark of Truth~The Journey Begins

Stargate: The Ark of Truth~Journey to Celestus

Stargate: The Ark of Truth~The Supergate

Stargate: The Ark of Truth~Tomin

Stargate: Continuum~Daniel's Book (1)

Stargate: Continuum~Daniel's Book (2)

Stargate: Continuum~O'Neill Buys Lunch

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Downloading instructions: Right click to save the linked zip files. Open the zipped file and move the ringtone right into iTunes by either dragging it or add it to your collection as you normally do with electronic files. Both Windows and Macs do have a drag-ability function, so saving to a desktop and moving right into the program should work. The files will automatically move into the Ringtones category in iTunes at the very top under "Library". From there, once you connect your iPhone to iTunes, simply drag the ringtone into your phone, reset your phone settings for the new ringtone, and you are on your way.

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Cross-post on Dreamwidth is here

So, I try to mentally keep a list of scenes with great icon potential in my head... unfortunately, I am blonde. So then I go in search of said scene, and find others instead (in episodes I knew it wouldn't be in, but I got distracted... again, being a blonde that happens a lot). This time I was a wee bit successful. I was trying to find a couple good scenes from season 5 (though most ended up being from season 6) and came up with these:


for sg_betty I changed the last two into her particular color scheme:


This entry is posted at http://samantilles.dreamwidth.org/5525.html. Please respond here using OPENID or anonymously. Please tell me who you are when you reply anonymously.

So, following discussions on the previous posts, fignewton made a request for another icon, so I finally found some time to get to it. I'm also posting the rest of the first set I made when I did Janet Alphabet Soup icons.

The last three are because there are generally two three ways of spelling her name, and I didn't want to just pick one. Thanks Cleo for the update! This entry is posted at http://samantilles.dreamwidth.org/4657.html. Please respond here using OPENID or anonymously. Please tell me who you are when you reply anonymously.

For all you fabulous Stargaters out there reading this blog, here is my weekly update from my "All Stargate All the Time" blog, Samantha's Diversions at Dreamwidth.

I've been quite busy starting to flush out and add in previous Stargate Fandom posts, so for the next few weeks I anticipate a bunch of posts-for you Dreamwidth people out there, I'm spammin your reading list with loads and loads of Stargate goodness! (lucky you!)

New Posts:

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Fic Request Meme! - Open request for ficlets!

"Gamekeeper" Thoughts - Gamekeeper vs. Matrix quick commentary, random thought.

Mad Fun with Yahoo Messenger - the Doodle IMvironment leads to new ways of unleashing my stargate glee! New category added: yahoo!artwork.

Stargate SG-1 Virtual Season 11: Stargate Odyssey - A new massive ficathon just launched earlier this month!

Updates:

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Fic: Sacrifices - The first story fully moved over to Dreamwidth (and one of my personal favorites).

LJ News:

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I've gone ahead and created a syndicated feed from my Dreamwidth here on LJ: samantillesdw for those of you who do not regularly read your reading list @ DW, do not have an account, or want to keep all your fandom on one site.

I noticed for the first time a small sapling tree my neighbor planted a few years ago has finally started blooming flowers. So, having had my camera on me, I snapped a couple. I love Dogwoods. Personally I prefer white dogwoods, but I think in general the pictures came out well for an impromptu photo session.







The images are large enough to make into PC and Mac desktop backgrounds if anyone is interested.

The latest of the Harry Potter Trailers are here! The crazy part is, I swear I don't remember half of what is going on in the trailer, which means I desperately need to re-read the series before this comes out in the summer.
( perty perty effects!!Collapse )

In celebration of the upcoming Janet Alphabet Soup hosted by sg_fignewton, I couldn't help but get cozy with me photoshop and do some icon-makin'! Alphabet Soup contributors: feel free to snerk and use to your pleasure! I hope you enjoy!

and
for an authentic alphabet soup rendition!

So, after careful consideration, I've decided a few things:

1.) LJ is still my main journal (I <3 my permanent account and that I've been here six years already) and I don't want to import it to Dreamwidth. Any imports I do with this LJ is for backup purposes only, not to move servers. My posting here (my topics, frequency, etc) shouldn't change (well, hopefully frequency will be a bit more, but other than that...)

2.) Dreamwidth is now "All Stargate, All the Time" and my primary posting point for all things Stargate. Some will continue to be cross posted here and to my writing journal, as they always have been. I look forward to having a totally fannish journal!! (some may notice that my main journal has a bit of Stargate, but not nearly as much as I might find a reason to post about, as I do have some non-stargate readers on my flist and those who visit the site but are not members. This corrects that!)

3.) I also started up samsnewhome and I plan to start blogging this weekend with some backup pictures I have from before. I'm actually quite excited about that!

I'm totally in the mood to do nothing but update everything this weekend, but goodness knows I've still got tons of Laundry to do and other setbacks to 24hour blogging. *sigh*

A few things:

First off, to the Producers of American Idol:

What you did tonight was one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. Sacrificing the judges comments on the performance for arguably more commercial time is the most annoying when a judge is cut off after a single sentence so we can go to SEVEN minutes of commercials. I'd argue that since you decide to destroy your own show for the sake of commercial dollars, I would on principal not purchase from anyone who advertised during that time. However, it is impractical to actually implement a threat, but I refuse to watch them. I now deliberately watch the show on DVR and fast forward through the commercials. Second point: running over isn't cool. I didn't see Adam's performance last week, and I wish I had. Next time cut out that damned Ford Commercial that played six times in the previous intermissions before cutting off judges next time.

Secondly,

I know that Adam is an amazing artist, but Simon was right on the money tonight when he said that there would be a part of the audience that would not like his interpretation of "Born to be Wild." I'm not a fan of Adam's style, and to be brutally honest most of the time his performances make my ears hurt from the high pitches and the semi-screams into the mic. Its not my type of music, though I can appreciate he does have quite a talent.

Thirdly,

Allison, Anoop, and Danny--they rocked my socks off!! I love "Don't Want to Miss A Thing" and "Everything I do, I Do it for You" and Allison and Anoop did amazing renditions of them. Steven Tyler and Bryan Adams would be, I think, impressed with their interpretations. I just <3 Danny's voice and soul that goes into his songs. Again, Simon was right--Dump the Harp-- but the vocals gave me warm fuzzies.

So, I soo wasted loads of time today I should have been working on my volunteer work updating my samantilles@DW layout in Stargate goodness. But I think it looks not too shabby (though some tweaking will be necessary shortly!)

*happeh/satisfied sigh*

Howdy peoples! So, i've been noticing that about 90% of my flist (coincidentally 90% of my flist are Stargaters, or is it really coincidence?) have been branching out to Dreamwidth and so with crazy curiosity, I'm now also samantilles there as well.

Now, I've always had multiple blogs and usually they have different purposes, but I have no idea what I want to do with my new shiny DW account. So maybe ya'lls help me out a bit!

holdouttrout pointed to this performance by a Ms. Susan Boyle on Britain's Got Talent 2009 show this past week, and let me just tell you how much glee there is to be had by all. I've watched this now maybe five or six times, and I am just blown away by it all, by the expectation of what I should have heard from her, what she actually sings, the personality, the response by Simon Cowell (of American Idol Fame--and yes, I'm an Idol fan. Simon and Randy are my favorite judges, and they are usually right during performances.)

The video (watch first as it better sets you up for what you're about to see): Here

The HD cut down version (better for rewatching as its about half the length): Here

*snerked from aurora_novarum because icon glee is love.

1. Reply to this post with 'Icons!', and I will pick five of your icons.
2. Make a post (including the meme info) and talk about the icons I chose.
3. Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
4. This will create a never-ending cycle of icon glee.


I was walking around the Atlanta Underground with a friend I met through a Lord of the Rings community when we walked into a candy store and saw the gummy letters. Immediately I thought of ways of using them, so I bought enough to spell my name and handle (so double Ls, triple As, and double Ss). I came back to the place I was staying at (with a friend from college) and we had an impromptu photo session, using her platewear and my gummy letters. Fun was had by all, except her cats, who were unhappy not to have gummy goodness.

Who doesn't enjoy Daniel clad only in an SGC flag?? Wonderfully made by cleothemuse, I can't help but think that the question WWJD? would actually have been asked by one or more leaders in the SGC as Daniel (Daniel Jackson for those of you not of the Stargate fandom) was the conscience of the SGC.

This was the first really good picture I took, one I enlarged and framed as a piece of artwork. The flower itself was part of a mother's day bouquet and taken out in our front lawn. When I move into my new house, the framed picture will be hanged in my new dining room with two other really nice flower pictures I took after this one.

The original icon was by hsapiens as part of her absolutely amazing collection. The image of Daniel with the headache just exuded "this is all Jack's fault" so I just plopped in the words. I use this frequently, as many things are easily Jack's fault in the gate'verse.

Dragon Army was Ender's army in "Ender's Game" and "Ender's Shadow" for those of you not familiar with the works of Orson Scott Card. Ender, the boy strategical genius who leads his Jeesh through the final battles of the Third Invasion against the Formics, begins his military career at Battle School, geared to train children ages 5 through 14 in the basics of combat through the frequent battling of rival armies in "the game". Dragon Army went undefeated under Ender after years of bad luck and was disbanded after Ender left for Command School. Much like I wear a wonderful garnet and gold scarf for Gryffindor (Harry Potter) this icon is my Ender Saga equivalent. Made by one_third

You know, it seems that I start a lot of posts and somehow never finish them to get up here... anyways, all you stargaters on my flist, make sure you check out jacksamfriends for the new Jack & Sam Friendathon going on right now! Fics went live yesterday and the authors will be announced next week, so we have six more days of reading and wondering who the heck wrote these! Fun times for all!

jacksamfriends | jacksamfriends | jacksamfriends | jacksamfriends

Never have been. But beyond that, I still came up with a cheesy (so cheesy the gooeyness oozes from the bread) poem about how I came to fall in love with Stargate. It was originally written as an introduction, but not used, so here it goes.

( be warned: 22 couplet sets with a triplet at the end, each line eight syllables... yeah, I nearly lost my geek status with this one...Collapse )

Did I mention how hard it was to find something that rhymed with Teal'c? Yeah, it is. I also noticed how kind of sad it is that I admitted my original writing may never come back... *sob*

Its a tiny little ficlet, but strangely it has me a bit speechless, which is actually quite rare. a_loquita wrote a very curious and thought inspiring "Footnotes" I haven't pinned down what I like about it yet, but its definitely something. I'll have to think about it for a while, but while I do, I thought you Stargaters on my flist might enjoy it as well.

Its one thing to feel like crap, its totally something else to not be able to move your head around without excruciating pain.  What started as the flu last friday has now progressed to a full blown ear infection, throat infection, and a separate nose infection.  I've got a swollen gland on the left back that is so inflamed and swollen, any movement against it is wimper-worthy, including leaning my head forward, backwards, turning to either side, laying down, sitting up, drinking, etc.  The stuffy nose and coughing I could sleep through, but not this in two days.  *wimpers* the underside of my nose feels like its got a few-day old first degree sunburn.

But despite all this, I must admit the late night stargate chatter going on is very distracting--i don't quite notice that at three am I still can't go to sleep or get more comfortable.  Its quite a shame that one of these days i'll go back to sleeping semi-normal hours and have to catch up on all of it in the mornings.  I've had loads of laughs (even though each one of them hurt!) and it just makes me fall in love with stargate all over again *squishes youknowwhoyouare* 

It might take longer than expected to shove Gibbs, Tony, Jack, and Daniel in a box to ship to texas (as they are are heavily armed) so in lieu of that not showing up on time, I'm posting this for you!
 

I'm still getting over coming home on Sunday... mehness... but I did have some opportunity to really go through my photos and select out a few, (yup, actually just a few--I have an itchy trigger finger when it comes to a camera...) to share. We left off my narrative on Thursday night from the previous post, How I spent my birthday, or Damn Woolsey and the City Cloak, where I went to Fisherman's Wharf and San Jose. Well, friday, I had the opportunity to sleep in. Did I? of course not!! I was up at the crack of dawn. The friend I was staying with though was only working a half day, so I laid low rather than start something I might have to backtrack for later. So I relaxed, wrote up a post, and most of all, went grocery shopping. It was strange to see the exact same supermarket chain I go to set up so differently, let alone the different types of produce we just don't have out here on the east coast. It was interesting to have to guess what my housemate might like, as I didn't get a shopping list from her to begin with--I only knew what she already had in her place.
Anyways, by the time it was all set and done, we didn't even get out of the house till about three thirty. So, we nixed plans to shop around and went straight to the beach. I only had three goals in San Francsico:
1. Drive the Golden Gate Bridge Completed Thursday!!
2. See the sunset over the Pacific Ocean Check.
3. See ancient giant Sequoias (or Redwoods).

So we took a nice long windy road through the hilly peninsula to Half Moon Bay. We spent just shy of two hours out on the beach while it got progressively colder (and I of course forgot to bring a sweater or anything!) watching the sunset.

( Onto the Beach we go!!Collapse )

(oh, hey, the story isn't done yet!! I forgot!! So, it got dark, we nearly killed ourselves on windy hilly roads (though not nearly to the extent we did on Saturday) and made our way to Hwy 101, which is according to Phantom Planet and its song "California" (Think the O.C. Main theme people) its one of the biggest highways on the coastline (and we sooo totally listened to that song on single repeat the entire time) and made our way to downtown San Francisco. We did Chinatown by night and dined at the oldest Chinese restaurant in San Francisco, the Four Seas. Then we stopped in one of the cheesiest discount Chinese store in the area and had a blast looking around. It was very difficult for me not to walk home with Han Solo, Greedo, and Princess Leia bobbleheads (not to mention they did have Boba Fett!!) If they had Luke, Obi Wan, or Wedge Antilles, I wouldn't have been able to resist. I ended up with a cute over the shoulder teal purse thingie (half messenger bag, half purse) and a whole bunch of coin purses that fit respectively my iPhone, my camera, credit cards and a thick wad of cash (which thankfully, for all those of you who might think of coming and mugging me, is safely back in the bank, even if it was only singles...) We came back to the apartment and crashed within minutes, getting ready for our trip to Yosemite on Saturday (those pictures will be in another post in a couple of days!)

 It was a bit strange, walking around in a city I've never been to completely by myself to celebrate my birthday.  On one hand, the city is gorgeous, it was high 60s and even hit the 70s (which compared to DC, heck, screw the comparision--its my dream temperature anywhere!!) and the city wasn't crowded!!  I'm here visiting a friend from college, but she couldn't get time off during the week, so rather than cooping myself up in her appartment, I journeyed out into the city as a really independent gal.  

I should note that I planned this trip before the new year.  I only mention this because after I saw the series finale of Stargate: Atlantis, I got superexcited to come to San Francisco.  I geekified my entire trip by imagining half the SGC in San Francisco, and even pulled out my madcool Atlantis soundtrack while taking a boat tour of the bay...  Knowing I would be visiting SF helped me complete and write out the fic i popped out as a tag to the finale and how Daniel would react to the news...  it got me excited and squeeing as I repeatedly reminded people in my office I would be out of town.

So, onto the pictures (lj cut for your flist protection!!)

( see, i told you it was cut!!Collapse )

So, what was supposed to be a six hour trip to San Francisco became over ten hours when our plane was delayed approximately four hours while sitting in line to de-ice the plane.  Apparently the plane in front of us just wouldn't de-ice for anything.  The runways were clear, but they were severely short of de-icing crews for United.  It was not pretty...  I should have arrived in San Francisco approximately 11ish in the morning, but it was 4pm before I left the airport with my rental car and on the way.  But, between naps when I could grab them, I did take a few pics out the window of the plane to some really pretty mountains--I assume they are respectively the Rockies and the Sierra Nevadas, although I really avoided knowing what time everything was on the plane, and couldn't tell you which ones they were!  The bottom is a picture of the de-icer as she sprayed steaming hot pinkish goo to de-ice the plane...

( The pictures!!Collapse )

Technically its not until tomorrow, but I may have only intermittent connection between now and Monday...



(because I simply could not do something in b/w or monotone... its something I've got to work on!!)

And a superspecial extra gift right behind the box...

So, it has come to my attention that I ask A LOT of canon questions, usually via instant messenger to at least one of my canon SG-1 goddesses for a nitpicky question here or there, such as my current one: When is the first time we see Sha're's picture?? (As in, I really want to know if we see it prior to the season 2 episode "Secrets") If you happen to know the answer to this, please let me know!!

But then I also inquired if there were such a LJ comm that would be specifically for canon questions (for those of us that try desperately to stay in canon when possible when writing??) The Wikis are great, but when you don't know where exactly to look (like in cases where finding the answer to the question above either means watching all of Season 1 again until found (which may not be a waste of time, but may indeed delay the reason the question was asked in the first place) or going through the transcripts on the Wikis) it sometimes can be answered by a resident canon SG-1 goddess. So the question then is, is it worth having an SG-1 Canon community in which to ask these questions, do I just keep annoying people on my IM who might know the answer, or am I the only person asking these questions to begin with?