Dear McDickhead,

NEWSFLASH: It is possible to have a philosophical difference on political issues without it being due to your opponent's, "just not understanding."

You came across as a condescending dick every single time you repeated it. I'm a bit sensitive, perhaps, but it struck me as a subtle race dig to imply that Barack Obama fails to understand the issues. That he somehow can't handle the fundamental concepts. That's patronizing and manifestly untrue. Also? Prattling on about someone not understanding when you're the one who chose a running mate who has to be tutored in order to achieve her current level of incoherence? That's some serious chutzpah.

Absolutely no love,
Me

p.s. Yes! I have electricity, cable, AND internet just in time to see the debate. :)

Sorry to have been out of contact for so long. We have no power at the house. I'm at the office for the moment because I need to recharge our cell phones and other equipment. We lost two trees: the Arizona ash that I knew would fail and the fig tree that I adored. We lost a significant number of shingles on the roof. We were extremely fortunate. It's a lovely thing that the Better Half and I each have a long history of camping because we already had most of what we need to survive without power. It's annoying to stand in line for ice every single day but we're all alive, in good health if you don't count mosquito bites in the dozens, and have much to be thankful for.

I'm *especially* grateful for an early taste of fall. So often it's even hotter after one one of these storms so I'm thrilled to have what around here passes for cool weather. The lows are in the low 60s and the highs are in the low 80s. As I'm without air conditioning at home, I'm ecstatic for the nice weather.

I don't know how often I'll be at the office. The Better Half's mother has a house on one of the bayous near Galveston Bay. We're needed down there to help salvage what we can as the mold is taking over her house.

beeej? If you're reading this, I don't know how much I'll be able to do for the final challenge in sg1_lims. :( I'm really sorry about this but I want to warn you that I have no good idea when I'm getting power restored. My neighborhood suffered a heart-breaking number of downed trees. On my block alone, there are two huge, uprooted trees being held up by the power lines. This is not unusual within our neighborhood. Maybe it'll go really quick once power crews get to our neighborhood but thus far we haven't seen anyone. Center Point Energy estimates that our power will be restored, "after Monday, September 22." (*.pdf map is here in case anyone's interested but hasn't yet found it.)

We decided to evacuate inland 50 miles. the hurricane is expected to hit somewhere around 2-4 a.m. and we were concerned that if we did have debris break a window or roof damage, we'd be three people huddled in a hall with a storm-phobic dog, no air conditioning, and pitch black. That sounded unpleasant so we're north of Houston in a hotel suite. The Better Half is quite happy as he can turn the room temp way down without my bitching about electric bills.

We'll be breaking out the margarita fixings once the sun sets. Hope everyone stays safe and dry.

Looks as if we here in Houston are likely targets for this week's hurricane. I spent today preparing so now the question is whether to stay in place for the storm or to evacuate to a hotel a bit more inland. We can make that decision around noon tomorrow. If Ike doesn't get stronger then it makes sense to stay home. Otherwise, I have reservations at a hotel in The Woodlands that will accept my dog. Hotel taxes have just been suspended so that option is looking far more attractive.

I expect we'll lose power so I'll be out of touch for a while. I don't live anywhere near the storm surge area so I'm not in any real danger. We've stowed our desktop computers, Joe's recording equipment, and his MANY instruments at my super-secure office. This house is normally a bastion of healthy food but veggies tend to rot quickly and taste better when cooked, so...the kitchen is now brimming with junk food like PopTarts for the boys, Fritos, pretzels, bean dip, water, Gatorade (for post-hurricane when it's stinky hot & humid and we have no a.c.), juice, bread, and margarita ingredients. I'm planning to watch Farscape on my laptop and drink margaritas. :)

Just announced was that New Orleans is offering discounts on hotels and restaurants to evacuating Houstonians. We aren't headed that far away but I'm seriously touched. *hugs NOLa*

Tuesday I received the SG-1 movie, Continuum, which I enjoyed way more than I expected. Some things could have been better but overall I'd say I enjoyed it more than most episodes of, say, Season 8. That's a miserably low bar but I've found with Stargate low expectations of the writing are often helpful. Pure fluff, perhaps, but quite entertaining nonetheless.

I'd hoped, based on the promo pics, to see more of the"old time" characters but most were cameos. Baal was, of course, excellent and Cliff Simon was brilliant. He's such a wonderfully evil, smarmy villain. Oh yeah, *and* he's gorgeous and shown to nice effect in the sleeveless number they whipped up for him. I've long maintained that the scariest sort of evil is the attractive evil. It's easy to resist the lure of the Dark Side when it's ugly and repulsive (c.f., albino priors with bizarre face bumps). When it looks like Cliff Simon, though, that could really tempt a person. Happily, he has more than a pretty face; he has the gravitas necessary to be a credible menace. I've loved his gleeful villainy since he first lit up the screen in Season 5.

This was utterly a movie for the Cam fans. Not that there wasn't a little something thrown in for fans with other preferences but this was a love letter to Cam fans. I hope we get more movies because even when it annoys me, Stargate continues to entertain me. :)

I watched the movie and all of the specials in one very long sitting. All that's left is to watch the commentary. *sniffle*

~~**~~

Yesterday I received my Witchblade DVDs and I watched the pilot again last night. I was pleasantly surprised at how nice the case was. In this age of cutting costs with flimsy disc housings, this one keeps all of the discs separated and easily accessible.

The back of the DVD set had some ominous verbiage claiming that one of the DVD "features" was a whole new soundtrack selected by the executive producer. That pulled me up short since part of the look and feel of Witchblade was the soundtrack. Can't speak to anything beyond the pilot but I didn't notice any changes to the music. I was surprised that this many years later I could remember so much of the pilot nearly verbatim. Considering that my memory isn't what it used to be, I wonder if this is the first sign of early onset senility? ;-)

I'm looking forward to re-watching Season 1. I'm already seeing a few familiar faces and names from SG-1. The pilot's soundtrack? Joel Goldsmith, better known to Stargate fans as the composer for SG-1 and Atlantis. The doorman in the pilot? One of SG-1's recurring rebel Jaffa, Cha'ra -- and the guy who was on the SciFi show, Pain Killer Jane. (Ah! IMDB says his name is Noah Danby -- and that he was Captain Astro in Queer as Folk. I believe that fills a card. Bingo!)

I expect that if I were more familiar with the background faces of Queer as Folk I'd see even more overlap as Witchblade was filmed in Toronto.

ETA: SPOILERS for Continuum in the comments.

If you like SG-1 and/or have an opinion on what makes a "good icon" we'd love to hear from you over at sg1_lims.

In particular, this week's voting is very close with some ties. If you'd like to help us out, your assistance would be greatly appreciated:

Link to Vote.

You do not have to a member of the community -- and you needn't have participated previously to vote. Votes are screened so only the mods know how you voted. You don't need to be an icon maker to vote; in fact, I *like* the diversity of opinion that comes from involving non-makers in the mix.

We ask that you look at the icons, pick your two favorites and your two favorites based on technical merit, and give a brief explanation of why you do or don't like the icons. If you have the time in the next 3 hours, we'd really appreciate it! Thank you. :)

From what I'm seeing on my f-list, Don Davis died yesterday. I just...how sad. He was always a pleasure to see and he was a genuinely warm man. I hope that Ruby and Teryl are holding up well. :|

My brother is moving in with us on Sunday.

In the past year he lost his job in the mortgage industry, finalized his divorce (giving nearly everything he owned to the ex-, incl. the furniture, household, & kitchen stuff we bought him before they got married), apparently worked some deal for Volkswagen to sell off his car that hadn't worked in over a year but for which he couldn't afford repairs & insurance anyway to satisfy the last few months on his car note, worked in a laptop repair facility that was a modern day sweatshop before his ride to the building disappeared when his coworker got a new job, and has generally hit bottom.

He has had a rough year. Our first task after moving the paltry worldly goods he has left is to get him a job. One I can drive him to and pick him up from as Houston is NOT known for its mass transit system. *sigh*

Tonight and this Saturday I'll be cleaning out all the junk I have in the guest room. I have no idea where it will go; it's in there because I don't have anywhere else to put it. I suspect I'll miss tomorrow's Pride Parade for which I bought two expensive bleacher seats, damnit, because I'll still be working on it all. (I still have my bone collection in there from my days as a faunal analyst. I'm guessing at this point I could throw it away. I don't know anyone in need of a type collection who can come to get it before I move the brother in on Sunday morning. Good thing it's heavy trash on Tuesday.)

Our house is *small* and it already houses the two of us, the dog, Joe's business, Joe's recording studio, and the Flying Fish Sailors merchandise. I suspect everyone's stress levels will be running high for the next several months.

Does anyone have the original photo I used to make this icon:



I was asked by someone where I got the original photo but I've since discovered that I lost the photo and mis-remembered where I snagged it.

I feel like an idiot for having lost the original pic. I still don't know how I managed to -- but I have. I would have sworn it was something I'd snagged from whisper99's LJ but an exhaustive search of her Ark of Truth posts haven't revealed it. IIRC, this was one of the caps grabbed by someone from a flash animation that had a lot annoyingly small, low quality graphics that weren't released anywhere else. Grrrrrr.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me. :)

~~**~~

Very belated thanks to the kind, anonymous soul who gifted me with an adorable purple rhino. Not only is he cute, but money going to PFLAG is a beautiful thing. :) THANK YOU!

~~**~~

Lastly, my cold has given rise to what feels like a sinus infection. Bummer.

I've just posted new icons in my graphics journal:

52 SG-1 icons
19 stock icons (cities, ancient wonders)

(Click here to see the icons.)

Please consider voting in Challenge #6 over at sg1_lims. This week's theme was Landscapes and we got some phenomenal icons from it.

However, landscapes are even more of a personal taste issue than a pretty icon of a pretty person, so voting is more evenly divided amongst the entries. We have a lot of icons tied. If you can help us out, that would be great. :)

You do not have to be a comm member to vote; you do not have to have previously participated to vote. Voting consists of choosing 2 favorite icons and 2 least favorites, giving a short explanation of what about the icon you do or don't like.

I haven't posted in forever -- including to my fitness filter, which is supposed to be a daily thing for me.

I just returned late last week from a trip to Florida to see my ailing great-uncle. I went along mostly as my mother's arms since she is under medical orders to lift no more than 20 pounds due to osteoporosis. Anyhow, I spent a week ferrying relatives and cursing the lack of internet at the family beach house. It makes sense (the beach is supposed to be the point of being there so why have internet?) but I'd planned to continue working while I was away. Not so much. I did get to see the headstone that was placed on my grandmother's grave. It was the first time I'd been back to St. Augustine since her funeral 3 years ago.

I've been pouring my energy into getting fit and running sg1_lims. It takes almost all of my online time but it has been rewarding. I'm digging through a huge pile of comments, e-mails, and messages. I will answer everyone as quickly as I can.

I'm going to start using my LJ in a new-to-me way: as an exercise & diet diary. I plan on recording my thoughts, struggles, victories, defeats, books I've read, etc. about food & eating, exercising, and my battle to get fit. And then STAY fit.

This has nothing to do with the usual content of my LJ and I suspect it will contain little interesting content so my current plan is to take it all private. However, others on my f-list may be cutting a similar path and find that having a place to talk about it might be useful.

If you suspect you might want to read, think about, or discuss these sorts of issues, please comment here. If there's interest, rather than making my entries private I'll f-lock them and make a special filter for those who want to wade through it all.

This is going to be mostly navel-gazing, so consider yourself fairly warned.

I've been putting off dealing with the fact that I need more exercise for a long time. Yesterday I finally pulled up my big girl pants, joined a gym -- and got a personal trainer. ( Read more... )

The entire series will be released on DVD on 29 July 2008. I've already pre-ordered mine. :)

Amazon's Listing

Woo hoo!

ETA: sg1_lims -- We now have enough votes to say that yes, we'll be having a LIMS!! If you wish to participate and haven't answered the poll, please fill out the poll so that I know to track you down and let you know when we're ready to open the community. We're collecting caps, organizing themes, and setting up the community right now!

~~**~~

Is there interest among icon makers for a LIMS contest for SG-1? lantis_lims is a well-run community and I enjoyed participating; I'd really like to see something like it for SG-1.

I used to think LIMS was ego-destroying with its eliminations and reasons for voting, but I found that knowing I'd get feedback spurred me to try new techniques and take risks. It was immensely helpful to me as an icon maker to receive comments, both positive *and* critical.

I've wished there were a similar community for SG-1 for a while. So, is there interest? I'd be willing to mod but I'd like to have either co-mods or, as the lantis_lims has, a bunch of volunteers to help. And, of course, I would like to have participants!

( Poll behind the cut )

I'm sure there are lots of things I don't know about running a comm such as this; I've never done it. If you have any helpful suggestions or ideas, I'd love to hear them.

Also? Please pimp this poll. I would like to reach the widest range of SG-1 fans possible. Thank you. :)

Every Monday is yoga night. It has been for several months now. I'm in level 1A, which is sort of like training wheels yoga, and it's kicking my ass. I enjoy it but some of the things we do? Jee-zus. Sometimes they're difficult things and I'm okay with not being up to it. I'm simply nowhere near being ready to do a handstand so I'm okay with sucking at attempting them. (I do NOT want to think about what upper level yoga students are doing. Pinky stands? Wrapping both legs around their necks?)

It's when the move is easy that I despair. Like tonight. During one of our rest periods, we're supposed to sit back on our heels with our toes flexed under our feet. This is supposed to stretch the bottoms of our feet. Wrong. I feel no stretch. What I do feel is intense agony in the knuckles between my big toes and my feet.

In a former life, I was an archaeologist. An archaeologist whose specialty was analyzing human remains, in fact. I regularly analyzed how a person's life wrote itself on his or her bones. You can tell that someone kneeled a lot during life with her feet in that hyperdorsiflexion position because it deformed the bones. Finding it in a skeleton? Way cool talking point. Having it in my own body? Totally not cool pain point.

Every Monday night for a couple of five minute periods isn't enough to deform my metatarsals radically but the changes it causes are associated with osteoarthritis in that joint in older individuals. A couple of hours after finishing the class, those joints hurt. I think that's a move I'm going to have to pass on in future sessions -- but I hate being such a wimp over something like *kneeling.*

I feel compelled to report that I'm not a complete loser in the kneeling department because after that we kneel with our feet pointed rather than flexed and that's 100% comfortable to me. :)

A new icon post over at my graphics journal:

55 SG-1
05 Babylon 5

PLEASE NOTE: Some of the icons on the page are made from promo photos released by MGM for the upcoming movies. There is a possible spoiler in the first row of icons. Personally, I don't think it counts since it's taken from a promo photo but I know some folks are allergic to anything that has a whiff of spoiler.


(multi-fandom post of 60 icons, total)

If you live in a Super Tuesday state and haven't already voted: please don't forget to go and vote!

For the first time since I started voting at age 18, I might cast a presidential ballot that counts -- assuming that the Democratic party primaries go as expected today. I might have to choose between Hillary and Obama. Since neither lines up more directly than the other with my politics, I'll probably end up choosing based solely on electability.

( babbling about electability )

I see on my f-list that another round of discussion has opened in the ongoing debate of racism and privilege in fandom. I'm not commenting directly on anything said by anyone but seeing some of the same issues arise -- again -- prompts me to ramble about my thoughts and reactions.

( This is tl;dr stuff so I stuck my conclusion here at the beginning... )

Anyhow, I've been ruminating on this for a while and undoubtedly will for a long time to come. As this newest renewal of the race debate progresses, I expect to be challenged to keep an open mind and I want to have this to remind me of my thoughts and how I hope to develop as a human being.