SpaCeMonKeY UK

Thursday, October 31

Well this is bizarre:

Dear Miss Berrington, we've got a wide range of gifts to please the women in your life - Our wide range has something for everyone at Tesco.com

The women in my life?

I'm not quite sure how to take that!

Wednesday, October 30

So, I'm back from Blackpool. :)

I suppose I ought to tell you all what I did at the convention. I keep thinking of things I want to mention, so I'm loathe to write anything. But it's probably time. :)

Quite a lot of my photos are online on one of my websites, so check out the Fun Factory. If you want to. :D

Enough emoticons, let's talk convention! The SG-5 convention was held at the Norbreck Hotel in Blackpool, which has hosted Star Trek conventions in the past (like Voyager: The Return), as well as the medical ODA¹ one. Bit of a difference..! It's a big slightly tatty in places hotel, but there's a lot more space than the Heathrow Park Hotel that SG-3 was held at.

We didn't stay at the Norbreck because it was too expensive; I booked rooms at the Bringewood Hotel². The success of this booking is slightly surprising, since I was working down a list of cheap B&B's that were relatively close to the Norbreck. It was the second one I tried - the first one was full. The lady sounded nice on the phone, and boy, she and her husband were really nice in person! It took us approximately 6 hours to get to Blackpool from
Leicester (it took about 3 to get back) due to several accidents on the M6, and they were worried about us! Aaaah...

The funniest thing about the place was that they thought it was cool that we were there to go to a Stargate convention! The bloke looked quite like Peter DeLuise, which made it even more amusing! He seemed to be a big Sci-Fi fan. He wanted us to ask Christopher Judge if he'd like to stay at his B&B, but unsusprisingly we didn't. :)

They gave us a bottle of wine each, too. Because the sinks' hot water taps stopped working when their boiler broke. Other things had hot water, so it wasn't a complete disaster, but it was a nice thought. Shame I don't drink alcoholic beverages! But hey, I'll find someone who does!

Anyway, we were a bit late on the Saturday because we had to eat our lovely breakfasts. Plus the B&B proprietors kept asking if things were okay and talking to us about... well, Stargate. Heh....!

We sat there all day (ouch) and listened to the guests. After sitting there all day we were up for some exercise by the time the break came around, so we set off to visit Starr Gate tram terminus. That's all the way down the other end of the promenade. I like riding on things like trams, so I enjoyed it even if the people I was with didn't! At Starr Gate I felt compelled to take a picture to prove it existed, then we decided to get some food rather than get the tram straight back. With hindsight, this may have been a mistake...

We walked back to the Pleasure Beach, where I ate a lukewarm undefined meat and potato pie and chips and drank some evilly strong coffee. Then we decided to get the tram back. But oh no, disaster! The trams were all full! So we thought we'd walk part of the way and see if we could catch a tram later. Unfortunately, we ended up walking 6 miles (9km) back to the Norbreck. Well, walking and skipping. Heh. But it was nice to walk along the beach and soak up the atmosphere (and drizzle).

Incidentally, what's all the fuss about the illuminations? Sure, there are a lot of lightbulbs, but... Really odd. Some of the huge illuminated billboard type displays are obviously ancient. There's even a My Little Pony one! And that's not the oldest! The illumination subjects were bizarre. There was a fat boxing alien with Rocky written on his tummy - I don't remember Sly Stallone being a fat alien. Hmmm....

When we finally got back, Mark changed into his dress blues and Ali and I collapsed. Then we watched the Fancy Dress contestants and eventually found space on a table with some Dutch fans. Before long we decided we weren't enjoying it much, so we left. It was too loud to make new friends, and the music was pretty awful. Oh well.

We had tea at the B&B and went to sleep. Mmmm, sleep.

Sunday we were still late even though the stuff started later. This was because we were leaving so we ended up talking to the nice B&B people for quite a while! I showed them some of the photos on my camera. That sort of thing. It was incredibly windy trying to walk from the car to the Norbreck: I had to run forwards, otherwise I ended up being blown backwards. Eek! And apparently the rest of the country was worse. Weird English weather. :)

Hours of excellent guest talks later, we queued for Chris Judge, Lynn Smith (locations manager) and N John Smith's (producer) autographs. Lynn and John Smith were clearly really enjoying it. Understandably Chris was slightly jaded, but being that close to him actually made me a bit shaky..! I bought a rather funky Teal'c print to get signed (part of it's my birthday present, woo!) and also got him to sign the cover from my Action Man video. This confused the minder ("Were you in this?") and amused Chris ("How did
you know about that? I've never seen one of these!"), so it was kinda fun. :D

Then we had some more talks (including holding time of Chris Judge, Garwin Sanford and JR Bourne's bottoms being auctioned - 30s of Chris's went for £350!), before grabbing some food, and getting the rest of the guests' autographs. (I had my programme signed.) And then it was the closing ceremony (where holding time of Jacqueline's bottom was auctioned). And then we went home. We were all very tired.

So, that's what happened, but I expect what you really want to know is what the talks were about.

I couldn't be bothered to write this all out in a huge narrative, so I've made points. And there's no way I could cover everything! And the stuff in the guests' sections wasn't necessarily said by the guest whose section it is. It's just about that person. If you know what I mean!

Christopher Judge (Teal'c)

He doesn't know how much longer he'll act for - he wants to be able to eat and drink!
He's only lost one job because of Stargate, as far as he knows. It was for the part of an undercover cop, and they said he looked too much like the guy from Stargate. Heh.
The one scene that he thinks defines Teal'c is the one from Redemption where he's sitting on the steps with Rya'c.
When he was acting on Gabriel's Fire he was called into James Earl Jones's trailer. He thought he was going to be complimented on his great acting, but he was chastised for overacting! He was told the following words of wisdom, "Let stillness be your strength".
His favourite Stargate episode is the Season 6 episode Changeling, which he wrote. He's brought back as many people from previous episodes as he could! He originally pitched an episode about the Amazon Women, but that didn't get very far... The episode asks the question of what things would be like if Teal'c had been born on Earth. It sounds great!
He would most like to duet with Mary J Blige and sing Marvin Gaye's "What's going on".
Other songs he likes a lot include Robbie Williams's "Angels".
His heros are Mohammed Ali and streetchildren.
He justified Teal'c's "hot alien love" in Crossroads. (Teal'c had been years without "hot alien love" and his wife and remarried!) He also told us a related Jaffa joke: "What does a Jaffa priestess do when she wakes up? Goes home."
He did a demonstration of "puff and ruffle", where all the men on set try to make themselves look manly to attract female guest stars. (The women "puff and ruffle" too, apparently!)
If he could choose to be in anything, he'd love to be in Matrix Reloaded.
He answered questions as Teal'c. Teal'c's favourite TV programme is (apparently) Temptation Island..!
He had long hair when he auditioned for the part of Teal'c, and he didn't think he'd got the part, so he shaved his hair off. And then he was called back. But they liked the bald look, so it was decided he couldn't have any hair until Season 3. When Season 3 came around, they said he still couldn't have hair. But he kept his blond caterpillar beard as a matter of principle...
And finally, the bear story! He was playing golf one day with one of the Stargate crew, and he hit a great shot. He spun around in joy and discovered he was face to face with a bear! Suffice to say he was very scared. Michael Shanks decided to use this, so when they were filming he kept looking around like he'd heard things. Chris grew increasingly nervous and mistook a grip digging in a ditch wearing a black hat and coat for a bear. He nearly ran off of a cliff. (When Chris tells the story the man's wearing a big fur coat...!)

JR Bourne (Martouf)

Chris Judge says he has a, "skinny little white boy arse".
Many people commented on his long hair - usually to say it's a wig. (Which it's not!) He got us to vote on whether we liked it more than his short hair.
He kept making us do Mexican waves so that he could take action shots of us.
He talked about Thirteen Ghosts, mostly about the cast he had made for his death scene. He had to pull the sort of face you pull when you get sliced in half so that they could make a cast. He wanted to take the cast home, maybe drive it around in his car. :)
He's just made a film with Amanda Tapping called Stuck. It takes place entirely in a lift!
When he was filming Futuresport he had a great tattoo on his face, and they thought they'd save time by having him leave it on overnight. He tried to stay really still, but when he got up there was black everywhere! He left it on to show the makeup people that their idea wasn't the best in the world. He was a mess.
If he could play one person in Stargate he'd play everyone else in Divide and Conquer and also the writers in an attempt to keep his character alive!

Peter Williams (Apophis)

He has a degree in Geography and Archaeology from Nottingham University in the UK.
But he's originally from Jamaica.
As a Jamaican he's always wanted to play Bob Marley. He's auditioned three or four times, but the film's never made.
He originally for the part of Teal'c, but got the job of Apophis because he looked a bit like Jaye Davidson (Ra in the film).
He does an interesting Desmond Tutu impression!

Marshall Teague (Frank Cromwell)

He has several stories about the time he spent filming on The Rock. He's hard of hearing, so he once spent 11 minutes guarding a piece of real estate when everyone else had gone to lunch. He also grabbed Sean Connery in an unfortunate place because he tried to surface when they were going to blast fire over the top of the water. (He feared for his job!)
He toured NASA when he was preparing for Armageddon. He saw how the astronauts were preparing for working on the space station - memorising the surface by touch. And he got to sit in a space shuttle.
He reckons his voice was a lot higher at the end of A Matter of Time because he spent three days hanging in a harness!

Gary Jones (Master Sergeant Davis aka Chevron Guy!)

He's written a lot of comedy, including JR Bourne's character on Big Sound.
Peter DeLuise has made him do lots of silly things, including drinking Peptobismol (?sp) in the background of a scene and telling General Hammond to "open his own iris"..!
He has perfected "reaching and grabbing". He has to pretend he's operating a whole load of buttons and switches!
It doesn't take him long to memorise his lines. ("Yes Sir"?)
When he auditioned he thought he had the part, since Mario (the director) thought he was perfect. So he read the lines in a silly voice. Thankfully they thought that the silly voice was a good thing, since he was the only person who'd put effort into the reading of "Chrevron one encoded" etc! By the time the pilot came round, they had to keep telling him to tone it down. Eventually he was so toned down that he sighed. They told him not to sigh. :D
He has to deliver his lines to the glass. Sometimes he has to tell General Hammond something really exciting, and he thinks he'll get to turn round and deliver his lines, but they tell him to look over his shoulder, check Hammond's there, and then say the lines to the glass. Aaah...
Sometimes things get really exciting and he sits in a different chair.
He has also been told (sometimes) to deliver his lines in the style of William Shatner. He does a hilarious impression!
His character has no real name. O'Neill has called him Walter, but he can't be called Walter Davis because there's a Walter Davis somewhere that objects. At the moment his name badge reads "Norman Davis".
Once he was promoted (given more ribbons). The costume department were keen to see if he'd noticed, but he hadn't. :)
He does a very funny impression of Don S Davis after fluffing his lines. ("I'm sorry.")
When asked "boxers or briefs" he answered military issue thong. Eep!
He's HILARIOUS!!!

Douglas Arthurs (Heru-ur)

I can't really remember much about his talks. Eek! I think he was the guest who said they liked British Sci-Fi, namely Red Dwarf and Doctor Who.

Jay Acovone (Kawalsky)

I can't remember much of what Jay said either. He didn't seem anywhere near as lively as he was at SG-3.
He reiterated how he felt about being killed in the second episode. For those of you who don't know, Kawalsky was originally supposed to be played by the film actor, so they wrote it so that he wouldn't have to be in it for long. But then he dropped out, and Jay got the part, but the first ten episodes or so were already written. So they couldn't change it so that he didn't die. :(
I think he also told us about torturing Mulder in The X-Files. Mwahahaha.

Jacqueline Samuda (Nirrti)

She gets really excited because she thinks she's going to be in episodes a lot, then it turns out she's invisible...
In an upcoming episode she gets to take each of the SG-1 team into a room and have her way with them. :D
She reckons that Nirrti does everything she does for good. Nirrti thinks she's benefitting mankind by helping evolution along. She would never admit she's bad.
I think she was the guest who mentioned the "Teal'c mirror". All the guest stars do a Teal'c impression, and the photos are stuck round a mirror in makeup.

Garwin Sanford (Narim)

He talked at some length about his "underwear epiphany". This stemmed from the frequently asked question, "boxers or briefs". Apparently when he was a student he washed all his clothes apart from the jeans and top he was wearing. While the things were being washed, he decided that it was far more comfortable to go commando. He no longer went along with society's lies! He says this "underwear epiphany" was a defining moment in his life. Heh.
He was very annoyed with JR Bourne, since when he came back to Stargate, hoping to rekindle romance with Carter, he discovered she had a thing for Martouf. He asked a question about this during JR's talk. Oh, and he kept calling Martouf "Melmak". Which was odd. :)
In Enigma he was wearing what he called a "body condom". The suit zipped up at the back, and was really hot. Not only that, but it was an inch too short so he kept hunching over. Having to hug a really hot cat didn't help matters! So when he came back to Stargate they gave him pyjamas to wear instead. :)
He seems to have an interesting opinion of Narim. He calls him a "wet noodle" stalker.
One of his worst acting jobs ever was on Dark Angel. The part he auditioned for (and got) was one of a scientist. When he got the script, he couldn't find himself in it. It turned out that his part had changed to that of a large breasted priest? I'm sure that's what he said! It was definitely a priest, anyway..!

N John Smith and Lynn Smith (Producer and Locations Manager)

A blooper reel has been prepared. Hopefully it should make it onto DVD in the near future!
Season 7 is "98.5%" likely. Richard Dean Anderson has said he'll do it, it just needs a few things to be ironed out.³
The rating for Abyss (Michael Shanks's guest starring return) was the lowest of Season 6 - 1.5 instead of regular 1.8's.
They sold the show to Sci-Fi with the 1.5 rating, so they're doing better than they expected!

That's about all I can remember at the moment. A final interesting fact is that a memo has been issued regarding Corin Nemec. Apparently he's no longer allowed to eat or use props unless specifically required by the script! He had to eat about 40 bananas because the banana "didn't look right". There are only so many takes you can do before you get fed up with it, but the eating was good! :)

¹ Operating Department Assistant.

² The Bringewood Hotel: King Edward Avenue, Blackpool, FY2 9TD; tel: 01253 351728.

³ I know there has been some confusion over this. People are quoting Hank Cohen (MGM President) and saying that Season Seven won't happen. Mr Cohen said, "Regretfully, it was incorrectly stated at an event in the [United Kingdom] that Stargate SG-1 was a firm go for a seventh season." John Smith never said that, he's been misquoted to Hank Cohen. He just said it was looking increasingly likely! He'd been hoping to have a definite answer over the weekend, but no such luck. And as he's a producer, I'm inclined to believe what he said over the words of the MGM President reacting to misquoted information!

Thursday, October 24

I'm thirsty.

Aaargh, not long to go now. I have a whole day at Flag Fen before gadding off to Blackpool. Yikes!

Yikes to Blackpool, not Flag Fen. Although Flag Fen is kinda swampy, by all accounts, so I could sink or something.

Where's the orange juice?

Wednesday, October 23

Which Angel character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Wow, online people call me Fiery Fred and I'm Fred! This amuses me. :)

I'm getting too paranoid. Not paranoid about scary things like people stalking me. Paranoid about stupid things. Paranoid probably isn't the word.

Most of it stems from the convention.

Let me give you an example. I bought two lots of NiMH batteries for my camera. They're supposed to last longer than non-rechargable alkaline batteries (and they're expensive, so I should be saving tons of money with the NiMH ones). But now I'm scared that they'll run out and I won't be able to take pictures. I mean, does that really matter? Mark will have his incredible digital camera too, so... And they'll probably be fine! Hmmm...

The worst thing is I'm scared I won't enjoy it. And it cost a lot. And seeing as I have no money coming in any more, every penny counts. Or something. I keep worrying that I'm overspending and I'll run out of money before I finish my MA. In the olden days I used to worry all the time, so suddenly worrying about stuff again feels odd. I don't think I like it...

Apart from worrying about things, and reading archaeology articles online, I watched Stargate tonight. And set the smoke alarm off whilst cooking dinner. But that's another story.

Some would say I liked Abyss because it had lots of torture. It also featured the return of the Goa'uld who looks like Damon Hill. Well, like Damon Hill used to look before he retired from Formula One and grew his hair all long and straggly. Baal.

This could be the last time I write in here before going to the con.

Not that I've needed an excuse not to blog, not lately!

*sigh*

Wednesday, October 16

I haven't blogged for a few days because I didn't know what to say. Wait, that's not what I mean. I mean, I mean that, but not because I can't think of loads of peculiar things to blog about. I just don't think it seems right to discuss pointless aspects of life when there are people grieving. I'm not even sure if I'm phrasing this explanation correctly. Having been... introspective... lately, it's strange to be so forcefully shown perspective.

I'm talking about the Bali bombing, if you haven't realised already.

It was odd to hear PM Tony Blair saying that the bombers didn't care who they hurt. I think they did care, otherwise they wouldn't have done it. They didn't decide to bomb the nightclub because they wanted to destroy a building. They wanted to hurt people, to kill people, to cause chaos and heartbreak.

War against these invisible terrorists isn't going to help, although something has to be done. War is only going to make more people hate America and her allies. There is no easy answer.

I'm glad I don't have to make such important decisions...

Saturday, October 12

Okay, tonight I'm going to stop wallowing in self pity and talk about something else. Or someone. For tonight I am going to talk about John Otway! Yes, the amusing fellow who graced the stage during last night's Top of the Pops.

The aforementioned Microstar had a number 27 hit back in 1977, called "(Cor Baby That's) Really Free", but after that his career went downhill. Luckily for us, he's back! And in a remarkably novel way. You see, he created a CD of songs and got his fans to vote on which ones they liked the most. The idea was to get him back in the charts for his 50th birthday. And where did the song enter the charts? Higher than number 27? Did it ever! It's number 9!!!

And how entertaining was he? Hilarious! Completely hilarious! And the lyrics are just... well, hilarious! If you don't believe me when I say it's hilarious, you can watch last night's performance here! I mean, it's gotta be better than Holly Valance, right? :)

And I'm clearly not the only person who thought he was hilarious. You can vote on which performance was the best, and he's currently winning with a massive 70.8% of the votes! Poor little pop idol Gareth Gates is way behind (in second place, mind you) with 14.9% Mwahahahhaa!

The amazing thing is that he's reached nine in the chart even though several major retailers have refused to sell his song. Yes, the shops include my former employer WHSmith. (As well as Woolworths and Asda.) Shame on you! When I think about how I was forced to push Will Young on everyone who came in, I feel even more ashamed! *grin*

If this isn't weird enough, wait until you see the lyrics. They were inspired by his daughter's homework - it's all about chemistry. Well, in a strange way. Oh, I'll just put the lyrics (as I worked them out) in here and you can see for yourself!

I didn't have the very beginning, so it starts halfway through the spoken bit. Sad.

And the "acid" "I said" play on words... well, I wasn't sure how to write it down.

It's based around the disco classic - I'm sure you'd have noticed that, but hey.

So without further ado, the lyrics to John Otway's sensational new hit, Bunsen Burner!

(spoken) …basic organic chemistry.

I’m an alchemist baby,
I can turn heavy metal into gold.
I can make an unstable compound
Of mercury explode.
I can make you glow,
I can make you phosphoresce.
I can burst your bubble!
I can make you effervesce.
Science tells us love’s a chemical reaction in the brain,
So let me be your Bunsen burner,
Let me be your naked flame!

(Burn baby burn)
Let me be your Bunsen burner!
(Burn baby burn)
Let me be your naked flame!
(Burn baby burn)
Let me be your Bunsen burner!
(Burn baby burn)
Let me be your naked flame!

You’re gonna turn bright red
When I do my litmus test on you.
Acidulous, acid it is,
And what I said is true!
Check out what’s in the test tube baby,
You’re my little pipette.
You’re my favourite piece of apparatus
In my chemistry set!
Science tells us love’s a chemical reaction in the brain,
So let me be your Bunsen burner,
Let me be your naked flame!

(Burn baby burn)
Let me be your Bunsen burner!
(Burn baby burn)
Let me be your naked flame!
(Burn baby burn)
Let me be your Bunsen burner!
(Burn baby burn)
Let me be your naked flame!
(Burn baby burn)

(spoken) In order to achieve a faster, more sustainable reaction you must obviously use some form of catalyst. Or, possibly, a source of heat. For instance…

(Burn baby burn)

(spoken) …the Bunsen burner.

(instrumental)

You’re the kind of carbon
That I can date.
You’re the element that makes me passionate.
There’s a chemistry experiment I wanna try in my brain,
So come close to the Bunsen burner,
Feel the heat of the naked flame.
Science tells us love’s a chemical reaction in the brain,
So let me be your Bunsen burner,
Let me be your naked flame!

(Burn baby burn)
Let me be your Bunsen burner!
(Burn baby burn)
Let me be your naked flame!
(Burn baby burn)
Let me be your Bunsen burner!
(Burn baby burn)
Let me be your naked flame!
(Burn baby burn)
I know what I’m doing, I am a chemist.
(Burn baby burn)
Now this is quite interesting.
(Burn baby burn)
Have you tried covalent bonding?
(Burn baby burn)
Let’s try putting these two together!

(EXPLOSION!)

Heh heh heh, carbon that I can date.

I love it. :D

Friday, October 11

Wow, can you imagine what would happen if Christopher Judge looked at this blog? He'd not only think I was a weird obsessive stalker, but he'd think I had deep psychological problems!

Darn it!

I'd like to be able to say I now feel great, but I still don't feel on top form. But it's nothing to worry about. Maybe this is all a test to see how many of you e-mail me to make me feel better! Now I know who my real friends are! *grin*

Seriously, I think everyone goes through blue times, don't they? If it's just me then I'm in trouble!

Anyway, today I received my new Smartmedia card, for my digital camera. It's a 64MB card, which far surpasses my 16MB card. I can fit nearly 200 good quality pictures on it! Wow... Now all I have to do is hope my new NiMH batteries come before the convention in two weeks...

Oh, speaking of the convention, the B&B confirmation came in the post this morning as well. Excellent. Having said that, I feel a bit weird about going. Especially with the Christopher Judge thing hanging over me. And it does feel like it's hanging. I think it'd have been better if I'd never had the e-mail. Because now I feel like I tricked him into e-mailing and he's bound to think I'm some evil stalker. *sigh*

But hey, let's talk about something upbeat! Hmm. I updated Fiery Fred's Fantastic Fun Factory properly for the first time in ages. Well, I put some old stuff back on it and made one new thing which I'd already sort of made already. I had to move it from its old home, due to bandwidth problems. So now it's at Lycos, and it seems like a really good deal! If you want 50MB of free webspace, I can't see how you'd get better. There's no limit on file size, or bandwidth, and the banner ads are really unobtrusive. I mean, they disappear! Very neat.

Now the whole world can once again download the Kazoo Stargate theme. I bet the world's been missing that! :)

Oh yes...

Wednesday, October 9

Okay, so now I'm sad and not because I just watched a devastatingly sad film. :(

I don't really know why I'm sad. Hmm. I cut my hand on the baked bean tin, but it didn't bleed much. It was one of those, "There's stuff inside, I could stick my hand in and clean it out" moments. I knew full well it could end in disaster, but I did it anyway. I could come to a sticky end if sticking metal knives into the toaster backfires, but I'm not going to die from a baked bean tin injury.

I think the not knowing sort of sadness is the worst of all. Although I can figure out a few reasons why I'm sad. But why are they making me sad now? They weren't before. *sigh*

I mean, I miss everyone at home. I miss my family. I miss the people at Emmaus, the non-denominational church gathering I used to attend on Sunday evenings. I miss playing my bass guitar there. I miss my brother's drumming. I even miss work. Well, maybe not the work itself, but I miss the people I worked with. They all seemed to have such faith in my abilities. I can never tell whether people are saying really nice things because they mean them or because they're just being nice. I suppose they had no reason to pretend. They didn't pretend with one person who worked there for a while - evil Fiona. They told me to come and do a Masters degree. They all think I'll do it and end up a success. They think I'll end up famous. Why do they think that?

I don't think I'll ever be famous. I don't think I'd want to be, unless it was the sort of famous where I was walking down the street and people were saying, "That perpendicular meringulator is so cool", and I'd invented it. It'd be nice to be appreciated. And I know some people appreciate me. I just don't know if it's enough. I come online, I try and help people in whatever small way I can, and they go away and forget me. The internet is a place for fleeting relationships.

That's why I'd like to say, to those who still bother to talk to me after all these years of online friendship, thankyou. Thanks for the snail mail, the mail that takes extra effort to put together. Thanks for putting up with me.

I feel very introspective...

I know that Christopher Judge will never e-mail me back - who'd e-mail someone who's apparently tracked you down in an obsessive manner and then admitted to running a fan site? And the funny thing is, I'm not obsessed with Christopher Judge. I just started the site because he didn't have a fan site (and he should, Teal'c is great!) and I like collating information. (Sad, I know.) I mean, the apparently obsessive manner was me practicing some newly learned search engine tips. But I've never had a crush (or whatever) on Teal'c. If I hadn't been watching Stargate for five years, people might suspect that I was now watching it because of Jonas. Because I admitted on several lists that this smile makes me go all melty inside. Or it did. In my present insecure state, who knows what that means?

And to top it all off, yesterday morning I went to rinse out the milk container and there was a spider in the sink. It was a big spider, a proper one with a fat body. Not one of those spindly little things. 5 or 6 cm across. It was sitting there, waiting. But the weird thing is, it was completely submerged. Ali poked it and it was dead. (Obviously, they can't breathe underwater.) But people said that the native spiders can't bite people, and I've proved that wrong...

Ali kept on about how she'd found several spiders that size in the house. I'm so scared of spiders. If you're not scared, you can't understand what the fear is like. I really am terrified.

Now I'm scared and sad.

And recycling makes me bleed or find huge spiders.

*sigh*

Monday, October 7

I just watched Pay it Forward, and it made me cry so much! I can't believe how much it made me cry. I mean, it made me cry a bit, then something else happened that made me cry more, and by the end I was a complete wreck!

Anyone reading this blog might think I'm the sort of person who cries about all sorts of things, but I'm not. I think the last time I cried was that ER episode where Dr Greene died. I mentioned that on here, and people thought I was daft for crying. Honestly, I can't have been the only one! It was one of the most emotive pieces of television ever!! Forget George Clooney stuck in a storm drain, for crying out loud. :)

I didn't mean to waste my afternoon crying. (Who does?) I spent all morning drawing a medieval flagon (or two handled jar - you can't really tell when only half of the top remains!) and piece of Roman Samian pottery. After three hours of that, I headed off to the University library to borrow loads of books. By the time I'd carried them all home I wasn't feeling energetic! So I browsed along Ali's DVD shelf, thinking I'd have a nice relaxing couple of hours lounging on the settee. I thought the only reason she'd bought that DVD was because it had Jon Bon Jovi in it, but apparently she bought it because it was cheap. And to be fair, it does have lots of great actors in it. The ubiquitous Haley Joel Osment, and Kevin Spacey, and Helen Hunt.

Oh boy, it's sad. :(

On a more amusing note, on Saturday whilst in chat, I recorded a bunch of MP3's off of the computer and onto a Minidisc. I turned off the system sounds, but I was on the internet at the time. So it has loud knocking in one song (from when I entered the room), ribbits when other people entered (sadly only Daisy and Mark came, but Mark falls out a lot so he was responsible for many ribbits!), and the entry sound for The Kickstand website.

Ack.

I think I'll rerecord it!

Although it does add a little something extra. :D

Saturday, October 5

Here I am again, and today it's my brother's birthday! He's 20, and he keeps going on about how old that is. It's slightly worrying, since I'm three years older than him. :)

Anyway, what have I been up to lately? Well, I've actually started to feel enthusiastic about learning stuff! I was beginning to get worried, since my brain didn't seem to care, and I've paid nearly £3000 to do the Masters degree. (Eep!) And the thing that awoke the latent archaeologist within me? Ceramics. I'm aware that this ought to be deathly boring, but hey. I headed straight off into the library and read about PPG16 for a few hours. :)

Hmm, what else have I done? Can't really think of much. Oh, wait, I booked a B&B for Ali, Mark and my trip to Blackpool. I wasn't prepared to think about it much, so I worked out the ones in the map square nearest where the convention is being held, and worked through the cheap ones. The second one had three single rooms left, so I took them. We're pretty much sorted out now. I've even bought some lovely clothes to wear. Woo-hoo!

Ah, and I had an e-mail from Christopher Judge today, which was... somewhat startling. :D

Yaay!

Wednesday, October 2

Every so often there's a huge bang somewhere outside. To begin with I thought it was fireworks, but now I'm not so sure. It doesn't sound like it's very far away, but I can't see anything. I'm very confused as to what it might be. It's not like it's just started happening - it's been happening for hours. But at really irregular intervals. With big huge gaps inbetween. *sigh*

I've spent ages today trying to decide whether I should buy a Lexmark X83 imaging centre. After talking to Dad, I finally decided to get one, and now it turns out that Argos don't have any. Aaargh! For crying out loud! They'll e-mail me when they have more, apparently. Scum scum scum scum scum...

I didn't have to go into Uni today, which was nice. I spent quite a while writing all the lectures and seminars I'm supposed to be attending down on my calendar, with different colour gel pens. I wondered if I was being slightly Rimmeresque in taking so long doing it, but hey. If I don't get it sorted out, I'm bound to forget something.

I'm sure this blog has been getting less interesting lately.

Oh, you know what? My little brother (he's three years younger than me) went on his first date the other night. Apparently the girl was a friend of a friend, and, "It was like talking to a brick wall". The fact that he didn't enjoy it made it slightly easier to bear, but still, he's beaten me to dating. Thinking about it, I don't actually care. I really don't. Not at the moment, anyway! :p

To make it worse, he's spent several consecutive Saturdays out clubbing until 3.30am. Weird, really. He's obviously far less of a geek than me - not only have I never been clubbing, but I'm spending a lot of time at the moment trying to decide what to wear to Wolf SG-5. :)

Ah, I think I'll leave it there.

Oh, no, wait. If anyone's been reading the Double Fine weblog (highly entertaining!), they'll know that a sweater was left in their offices, and also that they like P!nk. Or one of them does. :)

Anyway, I e-mailed them to say that P!nk was number 1 in the UK chart. I'm not sure whether she still is, but she was last week. And guess what - they replied!

Really? I think she is touring the UK in November. If you go, could you tell her I said hi please? And, oh-could you ask her if the yellow sweater we found here at the office is hers maybe? Not that she's ever been here, but it could have blown out of her car or something. - Info Cow

Heh... cool. :D

Hey, that last bang had a flash of light accompanying it! But where's it coming from? And are the explosions fireworks, or something more sinister?

Who knows...

Tuesday, October 1

I feel I should say something, but I'm not sure what. I'm never sure what to say. Do the people who come here want to hear about my uninteresting life, or read odd rants about things? Or is it something else? I bet most people come here by accident, look at it for three seconds and then run away. :)

Ah, I know what I wanted to say. Stuff that's on telly. I keep meaning to round up all the new sci-fi type stuff that's started in the UK. Some of this has been on for a few weeks now, but that's what happens when you have a brain like a sieve. *g*

Witchblade (Sci-Fi) - is it worth it?! I'll give it ONE MORE CHANCE!
The Dead Zone (Sci-Fi) - WOW! Top class entertainment! Emotive, clever... Cool!
Stargate SG-1 (Sky 1) - and who said it wouldn't work without Daniel!? Woo-hoo!
Alias (Channel 4) - if you didn't see it on Sky, WATCH IT! I order you to!!

Well, that's all I have to say. Goodnight...