Oh! Boobs! That's down to one word and works perfectly! See? I need an editor.

The Base/Screen/Soft Light combo works for an amazing variety of pics, doesn't it? Sometimes you have a picture that has too much red & yellow in it and that just makes it worse. In those cases, you can desaturate one of the layers (screen if yellow is too strong, soft light if it's the red). I've started working sometimes with a technique from awmpdotnet for lightening some of those irretrievably dark caps (Supernatural, anyone?) and found it very useful.

I feel very sorry for Torri fans. She has had an, at best, poorly written role and I think she did a better job than they deserved with it. She has been quiet about the situation and that, too, is more class than those clowns deserve.

I'm in a weird position of being entirely casual in watching Atlantis. I don't make it a point to watch but if it grabs me in the first few minutes after SG-1 ends, I tend to wander off. So I don't have a deep emotional attachment.

However, I've been the fan whose favorite character is thrust aside and whose beloved show gets pushed and pulled into a pretzel shape by these particular writers and I know how much that both angers and hurts. I have a lot of empathy for fans of Torri and of Weir.

I *am* a Sam Carter fan but I probably am different from most of her fans in that I think this is a TERRIBLE move for everyone. SGA fans rightly don't want their cast broken up to make room for the refugee character from another show; they're rightly worried that it will become the Sam and Rodney show. Sam fans shouldn't be happy because she's being shoehorned into a new show, engendering a whole new group of fans to perceive her as replacing the real stars and thus hating her. I think it's bad for Amanda Tapping because inevitably this bad feeling will spill over into bad feelings for her personally. From everything I've read about her, Amanda Tapping is a genuinely nice woman who adores her fans and I hate to see this sort of garbage slosh onto her.

I think it stinks that they're more willing to kill off or otherwise get rid of characters that are "difficult" for them, specifically the only African American non-alien and the woman in charge, rather than stretching their writing skills and developing the characters. This is the whitest, most male-centric group of "international" explorers I've seen.

I'm sorry for all of that. And I'm not a bit surprised because I have no respect for these writers. :(

I think Boobs works every time. LOL

Btw before you read this next part...
I hope it's okay to have a different opinion than you?
You wont unfriend me? Hate me?
Because one thing I love about LJ and friends I meet is that we some times think alike and some times don't.. how boring the world would be if we all where clones of each other, right?!
The somebody I refer to later told me that she refused to disuse this further cause she didn't want to be "enemy's"....sigh

Yeah, I know what you mean about Torri's part.
She did a great job with what she had to work with.
It never seemed like she was developing like the others. Sure there was a few things in the beginning with Simon and I think they could

have done more with that.

Unfortunately I never got into the whole SG1 thing because they royally fucked it up here in Sweden. I really just caught into it these past 2

years. If I remember it correct we did an all month watching through all of the season to get up to speed. LOL
With SGA I was onboard from the beginning.... and I love the interaction between all of them.
I mean sure I "love" Ronon, but without the others it would be a boring series.
And if I take a step back I can understand in sort of a way.
And I understand the disappointments to, but (yes there is a but) I don't understand how somebody can say: - Amanda is a bitch and I'm

not watching SGA any more. She should have said no to the part..."

I watch the show for all of them. The friendship between the characters, the bad guys and and... well you get the drift (I hope)
I on the other hand is looking forward to what they will come up with in this season.
And BTW why assume the worst? We have no idea how big her part will be or how her character will act being "full time" in Atlantis...
Oh and I'm pleased that they didn't replace her with say Cam.

Or maybe all this is cause my brain is too little..... I'm terrible on remember all those tinny little details that some fans notice....
Or maybe it's just that I've given up and always assume the worst.
I mean look at Jericho! It is/was an amazing serie and they just canceled it...we will maybe never find out what happened.... *sigh*
Sometimes I wonder why I even bother to start look at a show....
Ah well / end rant.

HUGS!!!

Of course you're allowed to disagree with me! Good heavens, if someone stops being friends over an honest difference in what a person enjoys in a television show, well, they're a little crazy, no?

You know what? I hope you're right. I hope that Sam's addition to the cast of SGA turns out to be just what the show needed and makes it better.

I'm more cynical than you, though, so I think the likelihood that this plan of theirs will work to make SGA better is extremely low. I'm not fond of these writers or they directions they took SGA. Many of the complaints I see from fans of SGA on my flist sound VERY familiar, I'm sorry to say. :( I'd like for the Boys at Bridge to surprise me. I just don't think it's very likely.

I still feel that Torri and Rainbow and Paul all got raw deals from these writers. However, it's a business and they know it. I'm sure they'll go on to bigger and better things. I wish them all the best; success is the best form of revenge. :)

I'll never understand how people take their dislike of a character or the way a show is being written and transfer that negativity to the actor herself. I don't know Amanda but I've read innumerable nice things about her from people who have actually met her so I tend to think she's a nice person.

I wish she hadn't still been under contract because I didn't want to see ANY SG-1 character crossover to SGA because I knew it would create lots of bad feelings. However, Amanda was/is under contract and if they say, "you'll play Sam Carter on a new show," that's what she will do. I don't hate her; I don't hate Sam.

Actually, I don't hate anybody though my opinion of the writers tends to be negative.

You are allowed your own opinion, of course, and there's nothing wrong with it. I'm not one who is hoping that Sam/SGA/Stargate will fail. I hope it succeeds. Of course, I'd be even happier if it succeeded with writers I loved so that I, too, could enjoy the rush of fandom for SGA.

I'll admit that I've generally stopped watching new shows for the very reason you state. Now that I can get the shows on DVD, I tend to wait, make certain it's good and that it's going to be around for a little while BEFORE I commit to a show. :)

Thanks, Babe!

The thing is that I try to stay positive and hope all things work out with the show.
I do agree that they made a huge mistake on bringing Sam to Atlantis.
But I must say that I have enjoyed her guest appearances on SGA. Maybe that was just because she was a guest....

I ♥ Ford, I thought they did a great job with him starting out all bouncy and young, to turn dark.... then nothing. What's up with that?
And Paul! I ♥ him too. *sigh*
His sexy accent and puppy eyes...... Oh and he got a lead in Hewlett's movie!

I think your right about Amanda, I've heard people who meet her and they all prise her.
I heard about the contract and that sucks, mostly for her.

We should probably stop watching show's period. Until they decide to write in a good ending in any new show they make. *nods*

*smooches*