Monday, November 23, 2015

The fun of Amazon Prime's streaming video

Through the amazing fun of Amazon Prime , I've been watching a lot of TV in the background - streaming on the Kindle while I muck around on Farmville, mostly.

So far:

  • Warehouse 13, except for the last season, which isn't Prime-free
  • all of Star Trek: Voyager
  • first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  • All of the Stargates that are Prime-free
Right now, I've just finished the first season of MacGyver.  I really need to start watching this one on the real TV - the kidlet is of the right age to be introduced to the amazing awesomeness that was MacGyver.  

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Stargate: Atlantis - season 1


Rising, Part 1

- Rodney, still being Rodney
- Carson, already afraid of the chair.  I really expected "I'm a doctor, a medical doctor!" to be followed by ", not a ___" a la Bones on Star Trek.
- RDA was channeling some of the MacGyver voice-overs for a minute.  Very deja vu-ish, since I've been introducing the kid to MacGyver.
- "He's . . he's Canadian.      "I'm sorry."  snerk
- If this was presumed to be a one-way trip, shouldn't they have been taking along a crap-ton of food, ammo, and other supplies?  It didn't look like they shoved that much through the 'gate.
- Sheppard lucks out and sits in the chair, then turns out to be super good at using it.
- Ancient architecture is cool.  Those rotating door panels, and the lighted markings on the vertical part of the steps are cool.  There's a little Frank Lloyd Wright/Art Deco thing going on with the panels that look vaguely like stained glass.
- No sign of Zelenka or Rodney's ponytailed nemesis in the expedition team, but a few of the background faces did end up with larger roles.
- Kids playing in the forest at night.

- Teyla is awesome.
- And I've seen enough to know that the re-found necklace comes up again.

Part 2

- Rainbow Sun Francks is the coolest hippy dippy name ever
- Heyerdahl is also memorable
- the crawling Wraith arm is freaky as heck.
- The kid is the one who knows the addresses?
- Atlantis rising up out of the ocean is freaking amazing.  Well worth the chunk of CGI budget they must have spent on it.  Freaking awesome.  (Also, Zelenka's telling of it later, in Czech, in the letters home episode.  Also full of awesomeness.)  That little tidal wave is just icing on the cake.
- And we hit the ground running, with the Wraith.  Although, what's with the Wraith with face-masks or whatever?  Is that removable, or what?
- Puddle jumper vs gateship.  "You don't get to name anything. Ever."  And Rodney loses the argument. :)
- Poor Carson.  "How come I never make friends like that?"  "How much more out can I get?"  And them McKay leaves to ask about lemons.


Hide and Seek

- Carson's so happy about the gene thereapy, and the illegal-on-earth human trials
- Shep looked awfully happy after he pushed McKay off the ledge.
- Shep's horror story gets derailed with "What's a hockey mask?"
- Ford is already on the way to being the designated guinea pig/punching bag/one step up from a Red Shirt character.  Poor guy.


Thirty-Eight Minutes
- Good episode. 
- Zelenka is mentioned for the first time, but not seen in the brainstorming session.  Also Kavanaugh.
- Stressed McKay is always fun to watch.
- Not a wormhole expert,  but wouldn't the front part of the jumper be stored in the buffer, like Teal'c was in some episode?
- 15 minutes in, we meet Zelenka, my favorite tertiary character (secondary? he got a lot of screen time later)
- Cling-on.  LOL
- Kavanaugh hits the ground running as a prime jackass



Friday, May 29, 2015

Stargate - end of Season 8

Winding down on Season 8

Threads
- Ah, Threads, the heart-breaker episode. 
- Au revoir, Jacob and Selmac, it's been a real trip.
- Au revoir, Pete.  Hope you get the deposit back on that house.  At least you survived, unlike most of the other boyfriends.
- And then the uncomfortable moments at the cabin with Jack's temporary girlfriend.
- And Daniel's hilarious yet-another-nude-appearance.  Bra'tac's expression killed me.

Moebius part 1
- I need to find a screen-cap of the price list on Jack's boat.  Something was "Free" but I couldn't see it.
- Nerdy Daniel and Nerdy Sam are a hoot, especially the reproductive organs line reappearing.
- Jack was laying the Minnesota/Canada accent on really thick there
- Major Davis!
- General Hammond!!  


Moebius Part 2
- Kawalsky's back (again)
- Retired Jack is back
- How much time does SG-1 spend in various prison cells?  I wonder if anyone's added it up?
- First Prime Teal'c is here!
- As always, Daniel just wades in trying to explain it all in detail.  No dissembling.
- How is Daniel still mentally sound, after all his experience with the Goa'uld brain scrambler?  Does it not have a cumulative effect (like concussions)?
- "I don't really like guns."  "Neither do I.  How do you feel about explosives?"  "Those I like a little better."  (Priceless, coming from former-MacGyver and Sam the ace shooter)
- Oh, rot.  Goa'uld Daniel just got blasted.
- And shot.  A lot.
- Kawalsky dies, again.  He's getting as many death scenes as Daniel.
- Retired O'Neill thinks Nerdy Sam is "hot" but Nerd-Sam is more attracted to Nerd-Daniel.  Or not, so we get the under-fire make-out session.
- The miracle fish - wonder what else is "close enough" in this timeline
- Don't know why, but Teal'c's bright blue shoes always crack me up.

Honestly, this would have been an okay way to end the series.  Free Jaffa, no Ori, and the SGC goes on exploring happily ever after. 

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Stargate - Season 8

Here we go, campers:

New Order, parts 1 and 2

- My, Dr. Weir, you look different.
- Teal'c has hair!!
- Yu puns
- When did tank tops become so popular on this show?
- And they lost the super-ship
- And this would be when lying to Fifth comes back to bite them in the butt.  Big-time.
- I hate human-form replicators, but not as much as I hate the Ori years.
- Thor!!
- This whole brain-stabbing thing may be part of the reason for my replicator hate.
- And once again, self-destructing a ship is the only solution.

- Well, the Asgard ship Daniel Jackson.  Space Monkey's ego will grow. :) But did they ever name one after Sam or Teal'c?
- Twins?
- And now we have nasty human-form replicators that are gun-resistant.  Gah.
- Who's your daddy?  Really?
- "I've never had a desk" is a con?  How so?
- Can't go off-world anymore.  But Kirk did it all the time, so there's a precedent. :)


Lockdown
- Russian guy.
- Russian guy with lesions and acting odd.
- Daniel shooting up the Gate room.


Zero Hour
- Personal assistant from Hammond?
- "In position" ??  Something underhanded?
- Peridot again.
- I like O'Neill's locked room method
- Oh no, rings.
- And a ship.  Not good.  Run away!!
- Siler, man of all work.  Giant wrenches, flame throwers, whatever you need.
- I really want to see all of that resignation letter, especially the part about the paper cuts.


Monday, May 18, 2015

Garden notes

Taking a break from Stargate, since we worked in the garden & yard today.

So.

Took a trip to the hardware store.  Bought a bunch:

- 5 packs of marigolds
- 12 tomato plants
- 2 candy corn vines
- cardinal climber
- hyacinth vine (both of these because I haven't started my seeds yet, and it's mid-may)
- lemon thyme
- some other herb that I forgot
- 4pk of purple verbena for the kiddo

And then:

The tomatos are in the garden, which meant transplanting the mass amount of volunteer dill and tomatillos.  Saw the first swallowtail caterpillar munching dill, too. 

Planted the surviving dahlia roots.  We'll see how they do.  I'm ready to throw in the towel with these, getting them to over-winter is a lot of work and not very successful.

Marigolds around the mailbox and the front beds.  Finally got the rail planters out front going - cardinal climber in one, hyacinth vine in the other, and they will be filled out with either morning glory, moonflower seed from last year, or scarlet runner beans if I can find the seed.  Or all three.  Thinking about putting the candy corn in bigger pots, then setting those pots into the ground below the rail planters, to make a vine curtain like last year's.

Cut down 3 of the 4 pokeweed stalks, pulled mass amounts of weeds.  Put 4 bags of topsoil in the maple stump hole, and seeded it. 

The bluebirds are back!  I've been dragging sparrow nests, and later wren twig piles, out of the box for a couple of weeks.  Cleaned out a twig pile last Wednesday, and by Friday there was a neat nest, about 4 inches deep.  Not sparrows or wrens, so I was hopefull.  Saw the bluebirds today, but unfortunately we were gardening near the box.  I hope they aren't pissed off enough to leave again.  We got the stink eye and some aggravated tweets though.

Still to do: third rail planter with herbs, big pot of basils, the herb and mint stack.  Possibly 2 window-box planters with spinach, since it won't grow in the ground.  Rosemary and a leftover-from-last-year fuchsia to plant.  Oh, and that coral bells that I nevr planted last year.  And seeds - cosmos, zinnia, etc.

Friday, May 15, 2015

Stargate - end of Season 7


Inauguration

- That Utter Git is back.
- And unfortunately, Woolsey seems to be working for/with him.  I thought he knew better.
- But Woolsey is a pretty decent guy, who learns who to side with.
- Hammond of Texas + Woolsey = trouble for Kinsey, I hope
- As a clip show, this one was one of the better ones.  Not too many clips, and a good story to tie things together.


Lost City part 1 & 2

- Poor cell phone
- Still don't get the crossword clue.  Up Down Charmed Strange?
- My, Doctor Weir's looks certainly changed.  Still not a fan of the Meg Ryan frizz hair, no matter who it's on
- And here's the Utter Git again.
- Beer party at O'Neill's!!

- Bra'tac!
- And he's worried that Hammond of Texas has fallen in battle
- Kitchen sink joke. LOL
- Even with a stab wound, he can take down a younger guy.
- I'm liking President Hayes more and more.
- This is sort of the beginning of the end: Hammond is gone, O'Neill isn't around much, and with only 3 seasons left, we're heading for a lot of the Ori (which I was never a fan of), and all the New Guys, aka Vala and Cam Mitchell.  The later seasons were still Stargate, but almost like a semi-spin-off or something. 
- This was planned to be the end of the series, opening the way for Atlantis.  And it would have worked well for that.  Except for the whole "O'Neill locked in stasis" cliff-hanger, but Atlantis could have handled that storyline.

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Stargate - Season 7 (middle)



Evolution, parts 1 and 2

- Space Monkey's been working out
- Holy crap, it's Enrico Colantoni.  Instead of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, I could totally ace 6 Degrees of Canadian TV.  It's not linear, it's a freaking spider web.  I'm up to at least 4 links between SG and Flashpoint, and 2 (minimum) between SG and Due South.
- Siler's helmet joke should have gotten a stink-eye from Selmak

Grace
- Sort of a bottle episode, with no clips.
- This would be, I guess, what started Sam down the road to dating the Third DeLuise Brother.  Which, as I recall, ended the way all her other boyfriends did.  Poor Sam.
- There's talk of cake.  - Cake?   - My idea.

Fallout
- Jonas is back.  Looking younger again.  I think it's the longer hair and the polo shirts.
- Oh, geez.  Jonas' hair looks suspiciously Bieber-ish.  Very weird.


Chimera
- Yep, here we go with the Other DeLuise brother.
- Sam humming the Stargate theme in the elevator.
- Quarks!
- He's not dead yet.
- How many dead(-ish) boyfriends does Sam have, anyway.  Narim, Martouf, Orlin. . . Have I forgotten anyone?



Heroes, Part 1
- Oh crap, this is the one where Janet dies.
- Peridot and Mary Steenbergen.  Snort.
- Artie, my Artie.  I miss Warehouse 13 something awful.
- Daniel's chase scene is great.
- Holy crap, it's Jayne!  i'd apparently forgotten all the cross-pollination between every Canadian and/or sci fi show ever made.
- "Doctor Jackson is gonna die when he sees this!"  "What, again?"  Snort.
- Ooopsie, floating evil shielded drone thingie.  Who's the red-shirt, Jayne, red-headed geek, or dad-to-be?
- Crap, it's that Utter Git, Kinsey, again.

Part 2
- Oh, crap
- Janet tweaking the guy with the line about Cassie being from another planet
- I remember now, the promo monkeys made it look like Jack was the casualty.



Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Stargate - Season 7




Enemy Mine
- Chaka!
- Major Lorne!


Space Race
- the news broadcasts are interesting to watch
- I like how Teal'c invited himself along.  Indeed.
- Carter and the big book of "It's my language, sir"
- Does Carter ride a motorcycle now?
- Still not liking the Meg Ryan hair.
- You'll need a hat.

Avenger 2.0
- I love this one and The Other Guys.  Felger is sounding a lot like Nephew Harold (Patrick McKenna's character on Red Green)
- Could Felger's apartment be any more of a geek stereotype?
- "alternate method of transportation"
- Felger's make-out session. 
- Trollop!

Season 1


Fallen
- No, but he plays one on TV.
- Sam's doing the fluffy-hair thing.  Not a fan of it, it just looks too-much something.
- Jonas isn't as annoying as I found him the first time through.
- Un-ascending has made Daniel a bit of an ass.
- Of course, let's not . . . dwell.
- Everyone who thinks this is an absolutely insane idea, raise your hands.
- Wackier than blowing up a sun? Yep!  He's probably right.
- Corin Nemec looks older this season.  Something with the hair.

Homecoming
- Anubis again
- Naked Daniel
- Daniel's not-dead, again.  2nd time?
- Bye, Jonas.  That was fast.


Fragile Balance
- Young Jack clone
- Cloney can really channel the Colonel's attitude very well.
- "Okay. Love to.  Who are you?"
- I can hear RDA's voice saying this in the back of my head.  Kid did his homework, and he's a very good mimic.
- I'll go set up a Playstation.
- You both are enjoying this a little too much.
- People who work here are going to have to start getting used to unusual things happening.  LOL
- Where did the SGC find a uniform to fit Young Jack for the briefing?


Orpheus
- Really not liking the Meg Ryan hair they've got Carter in.
- Movie discussion :)
- Not peppy enough?
- I want to see Hammond of Texas and Bra'tac trading warrior stories in a bar 


Saturday, May 9, 2015

Stargate - the end of Season 2


Serpent's Song
- Gee, this was an Apophis-heavy season.
- Also seems to be when RDA started going noticeably grey (seemingly all of a sudden, but I have to remember this wasn't filmed as fast as I'm watching it)
- Martouf!  Boy, the Tok'ra have some good dentists.
- Simmons survived the "Message in a Bottle" incident, yay
- Daniel probably shouldn't have told Apophis where Sha're's child really is.
- Oh, Martouf!? Why the #^$&*( didn't you mention this sarcophagus issue before the body got sent through the wormhole?????

Thursday, May 7, 2015

Stargate - Season 2


Serpent's Lair
- Bra'tac!
- How did Daniel get into the sarcophagus?
- "Bite 'em in the hand!"
- Hammond of Texas.  SGC must have a bald warriors club.
- Bra'tac is a tough old guy for 133.
- how fast did the Shuttle manage to grab the survivors, land, and transport them to Cheyenne Mountain?
- Space monkey!  Did SG1 t hink Daniel was dead?


Prisoners
- First time Hammond went through the gate?
- Prison episodes are always fun
- And we get first-hand evidence of what happens when you get hit with the vortex.
- In prison, death could be seen as a kind of escape.
- Is this their first jail break?  Official jail, of course.
- Ooooh, Linea.  I remember now.  Destroyer of Worlds!  Run away!! !!

Gamekeeper
- Alternate realities and Teal'c with hair.  
- Kind of a meh episode overall.  Watching Daniel see his parents die repeatedly was too sad.

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Stargate - More season 1

So, I'm not watching in any sort of order right now.

Children of the Gods

- Did we ever see Apophis in his Serpent Guard outfit again?  Or any other system lord in a similar get-up?
- Don't recall seeing that much blood from a staff weapon blast later in the series.  Cauterization, I guess.
- Why did Popsie come through the gate with just a pair of guards?  Why not delegate to someone else?
- If matter through a wormhole is a one-way trip, what happens if someone on the destination side tries to walk through?
- Retired."
- Sneaky, General.  Don't accuse Jack of lying outright, just circle around it.
- So, was RDA coloring his hair, or did he just go grey really fast?  Or am I just noticing somehting that's not there?
- Hammond calls Jack "Airman" in his "four bodies in the infirmary" line.  Error?
- The Kleenex box scene just screams MacGyver.  "Nope.  This'll do." 
- Kleenex is nice, but I'd swap a truckload of it for a bottle of Claritin, if I were on an alien planet.
- And here comes that damned "reproductive organs" line.  Who thought that was a good idea?
- I would pay $$$ to see Sam beat Jack at arm wrestling, though. 
- MacGyver as a verb. 
- "Captain Doctor, you're gonna love this."
- The Sam & Daniel amazing flood of technobabble is really impressive.  Double geek-out.
- The goodbye scene was beyond sad.
- That iris was fast.
- Here's a promotion, Kawalski.  Too bad it comes with a red shirt. 
- How did you meet Sha're?  (Daniel dissembling)  She was a gift.  And you accepted?!?!

Monday, May 4, 2015

Gardening


Irises are blooming, so are the columbine.  Roses will be blooming by the weekend, I think.

Sparrows seem to have given up on the nest box - I dragged twigs out today (wren again?).

Planted a dozen coleus in various places, plus Bob's verbena that were half dead.  Need to replace those.  Oops.  Watered everything.  Need to plant more annual seed and start the porch curtain again. 


Stargate - Season 1

So, the Tor.com rewatch is behind, and I've jumped back to catch some of the Season 1 episodes I missed.

Hathor
- Hathor sitting in a tank of shrimp boil is hilarious
- Jack's "Crunches" line also
- Poor General Hammond, with that dopey infatuated look on his face.  He had the right idea when he didn't want her to kiss his hand
- The Sam & Janet show was a kick.  "Feel like a woman now?" and "Libidinous"
- Daniel donated some juice
- "Yeah, my career's over"
- Was that the only mention of Janet's ex?
- Reversed footage of Hathor coming out of the shrimp pot

Thor's Hammer
- Love the Vikings
- Poor Daniel, had to destroy the thing that could save Skaara and Sha're.

Fire & Water
- Teal'c, rockin' the hats
- Who's the woman Jack's telling the kiss story to???
- Ol' Doc Fraiser, standing up to the General about time off.  Favorite tertiary/secondary character.
- Oops, broke the General's window.

Solitudes

- This your first broken bone?  No . . . nine.  If you count skull fractures.
- I was afraid you'd try to put a splint on it!
- Hey, it's Siler!  AKA RDA's stunt double, and the stunt coordinator.
- It's my sidearm, I swear.
- Lightbulbs over heads!  
- How did Hammond and the SGC folks get to McMurdo so fast?  That's gotta be at least 12-18 hours on a plane. 

Sunday, May 3, 2015

May project - Decluttering

Okay, I'll try again.  Goal for the month is to find one thing a day to sell/recycle/rehome/donate/whatever.

Here goes:

May 1: A bunch of stuff from the bathroom counter: expired eye drops, ancient lotion sample, etc.  Cheap purple Easter basket Mom gave Bob (which he would keep just because it's purple, so I'm not asking his opinion.  He's got a perfectly awesome wooden basket my late aunt and uncle made him anyway.)

May 2:  Matted print of Osceola from the first store I worked at.  A puzzle (cookies).  Grade 1 BrainQuest deck. Family Circle magazine that came today.  Two issues of Field & Stream (free subscription).  Finished dismantling the pair of expired car seats that have been hanging around, but I won't count those.

May 3: Bob the Builder flashlight, couple of magazines. Horse puzzle, Snoopy wind sock, Happy Meal hex bug

May 4 - bird identification VHS, Mickey & Minnie Mouse Christmas towels

May 5 - magazines, Happy Meal Lego cup

May 6

May 7

May 8

May9

May 10

May 11 - Two shirts (one the Kid's), 2 bras that will never fit.

May 12

May 13

May 14

May 15 - Sample toothpaste in a flavor no one likes

May 16

May 17

May 18

May 19




Saturday, May 2, 2015

SG-1, end of Season 6



6.22  Full Circle

- The elevator conversation is comedy gold
- Skaara! ! !
- You guys don't think I'm nuts? 
- Anyone wanna bet Sam's going to give Daniel some crap about appearing to everyone else except her? :)
- For someone who wanted to leave, Shanksy isn't staying gone long.
- Skaara's getting married.  And Sam and Jack are "going to a wedding as friends"
- "Is that my stuff?"
- And there's the beginning of the trail to Atlantis
 - Skaara ascends.  Jack doesn't look that upset (yet?)
- And ascends again, and that's the end of Abydos forever.

- Seasons 5 and 6 (or 6 and 7) were confusing sometime for me.  We were watching syndicated SG-1, since we didn't have Showtime.  So, when the first-run episodes moved to Sci Fi, we were watching two seasons at once.  Must have been 5 and 6 - 6 in first-run on Sci Fi, plus the year-behind 5 in syndication.  We were watching the Jonas episodes before we saw Daniel's Ascension, so Jonas pops in out of nowhere in the Sci Fi episodes. 

Friday, May 1, 2015

SG-1, Season 6

Missed a few episodes..


6.16 Metamorphosis
- Jonas flirting!
- The Russian team still exists.
- Nirrti's back.  Ugh.  (O'Neill makes it sound more like "Nerdy")
- And that has to be one of the worst ways to die so far. 
- And there's that other shoe hitting the floor.
- Where do the Goa'uld get their wardrobe made?  Is there a planet of Jaffa sweatshops, taking measurements for tailored one-of-a-kind leather outfits?
- Goodbye, Evanoff.
- How the heck did Jonas end up in Nirrti's bed?  And did anything PG-13 happen off-screen?
- Hail, Dorothy!

6.17  Disclosure
- I miss General Hammond
- Clip show!!!
- Oh, crap.  That utter git Kinsey is back.
- Kinsey, you lousy rat bastard NID-loving toad.
- That blast door in the Gate Room really needs to drop faster. 
- Wish Thor had taken Jack's advice on where to leave Kinsey. 

6.18 Forsaken

- Bingo!  If that third survivor is who I think it is, I just won Canadian Actor Bingo, and my Canadian TV show family tree has looped back on itself, turning into a  Stargate - Due South - Flashpoint wreath. 
- I really don't remember ever seeing this one before.
- Yep.  David Paetku on Flashpoint and Stargate, Patrick McKenna on DS and SG, Jessica Steen on all three,. 
- And Unas!  Unasses? Unii?
- Or, not Unas.
- So, up to SG-15.
- Jonas gets kissed.
- And there's that other shoe again.  Prison transport.
- Aliens speak English.

6.19 The Changeling

- Hey, it's the fire station episode. 
- Very weird to see everyone acting "normal"
- Bra'tac!
- Daniel!!
- And Tritonin appears again! Yay.

6.20 Memento
- Nice triumphant music when the buried gate is lifted
- And here comes the APC, guns blazing.  Combustion engines?


Thursday, April 23, 2015

SG-1, Season 5



2001
- Good one
- That tilting stargate the Aschen had was pretty nifty


Wormhole Extreme
- Will never not be funny.
- Mozzie's back
- Not one, but a pair of DeLuise brothers.  And the third one shows up later (also giving Carter another name on her list of ex-boyfriends.


Proving Ground
- Sir, your wound is getting all over my lab.
- However, he did appear to enjoy shooting me.
- "Have fun, Daniel."  And I laughed.
- The test w ithin a test within a test was good.

48 Hours
- Oh goody, Tanith is back.  As much as I like Peter Wingfield, if Stargate = MacGyver, then Tanith = Murdoc. 
- Hey, hey, it's Dr McKay.  Looking very young and very, very cocky.
- Tanith + Q.  A duo of annoying.
- And here's Maybourne.  It's old home week.  
- David, or Shaun?  Butch!
- Good grief, McKay looks about 22 there.  But still with a full-grown ego.
- Major Davis is always good to have around.
- And McKay still has that winning personality.  Really surprised Sam hasn't decked him yet.  Especially after the "Dumb blondes" comment.
- Good news: Teal'c's back.  Unfortunately, we've fried the Russian DHD.
- Sparky!
- And Rodney's sent off to Siberia :)

Summit
- Tanith, Zippy, Daniel's ex, and Elliot's back, too.
- Zippy's got a better costume this time
- I would swear (15:50 in) that Jacob just called Daniel "Danny"
- Martouf returns
- Ah, Baal.  He'll be back again.
- "Renal" is not the best name for a symbiote.  Kidneys.
- Elliot/Lantash!  Will they survive? I honestly don't remember.
- So, here's another Daniel-ex, and now he won't want to gas the place.

 ?
- All sorts of Goa'uld fun
- Poor Elliot/Lantash.

Fail Safe
- Amateur Astronomer dude looks familiar
- Loved Teal'c's look when they found out the crew was responsible for the X-301
- Major Davis!
- I miss Hammond of Texas.  He was a very good General, and Don S. Davis did an outstanding job.
- Oooh, naquadah-asteroid-bomb-nova
- "Carter, I can see my house!"
- So, how far on the other side of Earth did the asteroid emerge from hyperspace?  Hammond and the President had the impression that it "just disappeared" so I guess they couldn't see it again afterward.


Warrior
- Bra'tac (Bratac?) is back
- Tek'ma'tek."     - "Back'atcha"
-Hey, you! In the skirt!
- Major Carter is a formidable warrior.  And is of course the best shot ever.
- When will the other shoe drop?
- Lovely Matrix-y slow-motion fighting
- And there's the other shoe all right.  K'tano was Imhotep.  Oops



Monday, April 20, 2015

Season 5, part 2



Red Sky

- Elves!
- Nice use of over-exposure in the filming.  I guess the K'tau eyes are adapted to it.
- "They could be drawn and quartered before nightfall."
- Who knew an Asgard could produce a "You WHAT?!?!" look with only his eyelids.
- "Echo! ! "
- "Little grey butts"
- "Sir, I've been thinking." "I'd be shocked if you ever stoped, Carter."

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Even more Stargate - Season 5


Enemies
- "Welcome to my world."  Jacob/Selmac can smart-ass about as good as Jack.

Threshold
- Always good for Bra'tac to be back, even if he's talking about the coming end of his life (hooray for the symbiote-replacing-chemical)
- We see the beginnings of Teal'c's disillusionment
- Were they going the eye-candy route?  Teal'c seems to be losing his shirt (litereally) a lot.  Plus eyeshadow.  At least the chin worm is gone. 

Ascension
- "Don't turn it on!"
- Nice car, Carter. 
- Hey, it's the older Young Indiana Jones!
- I remember now, this is the one where Sam and Indy buid their own stargate out of a toaster or something.
- I want Sam's house.  Or at least her interior designer.  Because I have no design sense, no $$ for someone else to do it, and my house looks like I'm still in college.
- "Gas leak" - the go-to excuse for any and all sorts of official-type people trying to be inconspicuous.  Is there any show that hasn't pulled this one?
- "you know me and sci-fi"
- Teal'c in a Western cowboy get-up will never not be funny
- "I have heard of a place where humans do battle in a ring of Jell-o."  "Call Daniel"
- It's Q!! 
- Can I have an emerald the size of a peach pit?
- How does Q expect his goons to take a non-corporeal entity into custody??
- Poor Sam, she has Cartwright-son levels of bad luck with the men she dates.


The Fifth Man
- More Q.  And, once an ass, always an ass.
- Janet Fraiser still reminds me of Mary Ann.



Thursday, April 16, 2015

Yes, even more Stargate



Tangent
- So Major Davis is also a pretty smart cookie? Sam leaves him to figure out the missiles while she works on burn rates
- Possibly the funniest line ever:  Daniel Jackson speaking Goa'uld and pretending to be the Great and Powerful Oz will always make me laugh
- Jacob and Sam's argument over arrogance and infantility
- Teal'c and Jack's enthusiasm


The Curse
- Another round of Spot the Canadian Actor: Ben Bass, who's also been in Forever Knight, Flashpoint, and a couple of other Canadian-produced shows.
- Daniel gets his brain probed again.


Serpent's Venom
- Teal'c betrayed again.
- "Of course, Colonel O'Neill is always fun to have around."
- "It's all Phoenician to me, sir."
- Stargate meets Dr. Seuss:  Green is bad? Yes, bad.  How bad? Very, very bad. Dad?!"
- Trust me, it's a math thing.
- And Teal'c gets all eloquent (especially for a very taciturn person) about false gods.


Chain Reaction
- Starsky & Hutch
RDA's dog, I think
- That damned Kinsey turns up
- pretty sure that's English Bay, Vancouver, where Jack & Maybourne are eating on the beach
- Sam saves the day again
- Bauer's not really good in a crisis, is he


Prodigy
- Jack's meeting with General Ryan is awesome
- Did we ever hear of Cadet Hailey again?
- There should really be a Lego MALP


Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Stargate - Season 4, part 2

Notes and comments on Stargate SG-1, Season 4.

Watergate
- I'm with Teal'c on the whole para-jumping.  Not my thing at all.  
- "The sub is Swiss."  "Okay, so they occasionally catche fire, but they keep perfect time."    Someone really has been around Jack too long, the smart-assiness is spreading.  :)
- Also, "Actually, this is quite charming."  AKA, you haven't even seen the tip of the smart-ass snarky iceberg that is Jack O'Neill on a bad day.
- When the person-cicle starts to breathe, RUN AWAY!!

Beneath the Surface
- Interesting dreams Jack was having.  

Point of No Return
- OK, not even up to the theme yet, but when I heard the voicemail recording, "Oh my God, it's Mozzie!!!!"  

Monday, April 13, 2015

Stargate - Season 4

Just started season 4.  I forgot that's when the Replicators showed up.  Never liked them, too bug-like, too hard to defeat, and that whole brain-stabbing thing was too creepy.  Better them than the Ori,  though.  I still kind of think the Ori were a bad idea for an ongoing villain, since they weren't really defeatable (as I recall).  But then, as much as I liked Mitchell & Vala, Stargate just wasn't the same after RDA cut down his time on the show.

Oh, yay, it's also the Teal'c-chin-worm season.  Did they ever explain the skinny blond soul patch?

Small Victories:
- The Asgard can start the Gate without the Whoosh.  Interesting
- Meet Teal'c's chin worm
- Yah sure youbetcha
- "Someone dumber than you"
- Carter may not be dumb enough :)
- The Asgard ship named The O'Neill

Upgrades
- aka Stargate x Six Million Dollar Man

Crossroads
- Oh, look!!  It's Methos! And then he goes all evil.
- How do the Jaffa do the gold tattoo/brand thing?  Because Teal'c's looks like metal, and that just makes me cringe, thinking how the Goa'uld would go about the process of metal brands/body modification.
- Freya may be one of my favorite Tok'ra.  And Jacob, of course.
- Apprentice O'Neill  - LOL
- Finally, a love interest for Teal'c. Not that she lasted long, in time-honored don't-date-the-hero fashion.  Seriously - watch Bonanza, or Big Valley, or Gunsmoke:  any time one of the Cartwrights or Barkleys started fancying a girl, her days were numbered.  Gunsmoke did marry off Newly, but the bride was a goner before the end of the episode, thanks to a blood disease.

Divide & Conquer
- Au revoir, Martouf, my other favorite Tok'ra.  JR Bourne shows up regularly on other Canadian-filmed shows, and I almost always have to make some comment about 'Toufie. 
 

SG-1: Maternal Instincts, Crystal Skull

More Stargate:

Maternal Instincts, aka Meet Oma Desala and speak in Riddles. 
- Bra'tac is awesome fun, and still kicking butt at the age of 130ish.
- Jack and the smelly feet
- Daniel forgetting his shoes
- Daniel fell for the "you can light fires with your mind" hoax awfully fast.




Crystal Skull
- Odd that they never mentioned Grandpa Nick again.  Would have been interesting.
- First visit to the skull was crazy fun.  Daniel's drooling over the skull, Sam's all over the muons and leptons, and Jack's being Mr. Practicality, wondering how far down the drop is, and what it would cost to heat the place.
- Daniel dropped something over the edge, it looked like, when he was c hasing Teal'c.  Wonder if that was a flub?
- Again with the out-of-phase people who can walk through walls, but not fall through the floor.  This one's been done on lots of SF shows - I know there was a TNG episode about it, maybe Eureka also.
- "Napoleonic powermonger"  (snort) and then Teal'c dropping Jack back on the bed like a sack of flour.

Friday, April 10, 2015

SG-1 Season 3 - 100 Days and after

Random thoughts on the latter half of Season 3:

100 Days
  - Was there anything left to harvest after the Fire Rain anyway?
  - Curling!!
  - Between Daniel, Sam, and Jack, there's a whole Kirk-ish girl-in-every-port thing going.  Sam's got Martouf, Nareem, and a couple of others.  Daniel has Sha're, of course, and Ke'ra (aka Destroyer of Worlds).  Jack has just had his little vacation fling with Lara on Edora.  Teal'c may be the only one who finds a pretty girl to flirt with on every planet.


Rewatching Stargate

Tor.com is doing a re-watch of all the Stargates - SG-1, Atlantis, and Universe.  I'd been watching Atlantis last month anyway - mostly via Amazon Prime while waiting for The Kid after school, even though we own all the DVDs.  So I started over, and have watched about half the episodes from the first two seasons of SG-1 so far.  Right now, I'm on Season 3, up to "100 Days" right now. 

I miss the Stargates.  I've been a fan of Richard Dean Anderson since MacGyver, and even before, since I have vague memories of watching Emerald Point N.A.S. and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.  I like a good show with some humor to go with the drama. 

Friday, January 9, 2015

2015 Reading List

This year's list:

  1. Too Good to be True - Jan Harold Brunvand
  2. The Wild Truth - Carine McCandless  (1-7-15)
  3. Show Jumper (Saddle Club #87)  (1/14/15)
  4. Horse Capades (Saddle Club #64) (1/14/15)
  5. Horsenapped (Saddle Club #17) (1/14/15)
  6. Gift Horse (Saddle Club #40) (1/14/15)
  7. Back in the Saddle
  8. Three Cups of Deceit - Jon Krakauer
  9. The Old Blue Line - J.A. Jance (1/22/15)
  10. If I Grow Up - depressing
  11. Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror (1/22/15)- apparently turned into a series
  12.  Catch Rider
  13. Crunch Time
  14. The Whole Enchilada - end of the series, felt like it, the last chapter covered most of a year
  15. Give a boy a gun
  16. Let Sleeping Dogs Lie - Rita Mae Brown (1/21/15)
  17. Sneaky Pie for President - Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown (1/24/15)
  18.  Lily and Taylor - ? - Kind of depressing, deals with abusive boyfriend/relationship

  19. Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer (2/10/15)
  20.  
  21. If I Stay - Gayle Forman (3/x/15)
  22. Where She Went - Gayle Forman (3/x/15) - sequel to If I Stay
  23. Black Belt Librarians (3/5/15)
  24.  Hacking your Education (3/15/15) - Interesting, but I have a few areas where I disagree. 
  25. Life Hacks - Keith Bradford (3/16/15) - Not sure some of these are accurate, but there were a few good ideas too.
  26. Minecraft The Unlikely Tale of Markus "Notch" Persson and the Game That Changed Everything
  27. Crochet Boutique Hats 
  28. Arrows of the Queen - Mercedes Lackey (3/21/15)
  29. Arrow's Flight - Mercedes Lackey (3/22/15)
  30.  Arrow's Fall
  31. Exile's Honor
  32. Exile's Valor
  33. Carbon Diaries 2015
  34.  
  35. Whisper Please (4/9/15)
  36.  
  37.  Elementals (5/14/15)
  38. Rooftop (5/15/15)
  39. Age is Just a Number, by Dara Torres (9/25/15)
  40. Poisoned: The True Story of the Deadly E. Coli Outbreak That Changed the Way Americans Eat (9/15/15)  Amazingly readable without feeling like a textbook, and gets into the issues with the meat supply chain.
  41. Surviving the Applewhites
  42. Nick and Tesla's Secret Agent Gadget Battle (10/6/15)
  43. Nick and Tesla's Robot Army Rampage, by Bob Pflugfelder (9/24/15)
  44.  From Scratch: Inside the the Food Network, by Allen Salkin (10/11/15)  Interesting read, a good background of the network and why it's gone away from anything even remotely educational.
  45.  Murder, She Wrote: You Bet Your Life (10/x/15) 
  46. I, Freddy, by Deitlof Reiche
  47. Al Capone Does My Shirts (10/23/15)
  48. Al Capone Shines my Shoes (10/23/15)
  49.  Malice Domestic 10, an anthology of original mystery stories (10/24/15) - Again, interesting.  A good way to discover new authors. 
  50. The Darling Dahlias and the Silver Dollar Bush (10/24/15)
  51. The Darling Dahlias and the Eleven O'Clock Lady (10/25/15)
  52. Bead on Trouble, by Barbara Burnett Smith (10/25/15)  - Interesting start to a series.  Worth reading, won't be buying it though.
  53. Cryptid Hunters
  54. Tentacles
  55. Chupacabra (10/30/15)
  56. Pip Bartlett's Guide to Magical Creatures (10/30/15)
  57.  Al Capone Does My Shirts
  58. Al Capone Shines My Shoes
  59. Double Fudge, by Judy Blume
  60.  I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti (10/28/15)
  61. Last Chance Mustang
  62.  Darling Dahlias and the Silver Dollar Bush
  63. Darling Dahlias and the Confederate Rose
  64. Homicide in Hardcover
  65. If Books Could Kill (11/18/15)
  66. The Lies that Bind, by Kate Carlisle
  67. Murder Under Cover, by Kate Carlisle
  68. One Book in the Grave, by Kate Carlisle
  69. Peril in Paperback, by Kate Carlisle
  70. The Cookbook Conspiracy, by Kate Carlisle (11/23/15)