Sententiae Draconis

First and foremost - Gatecon was fricking amazing!

The guests were wonderful and hilarious (and they filmed everything so I think I'm going to buy the DVD when it comes out). Everything was very relaxed. I spent WAY too much money, and was stilling restraining myself from spending more.

I got hugs from loads of TV celebrities. Went out to an Irish Pub with Paul McGillion, Peter Flemming, Frank Cassini and a bunch of my new fannish friends. Saw Ryan Robbins sing at a fundraiser for Sanctuary for Kids, which is a new charity Amanda Tapping has started up to do all sorts of cool things. And got to hear more about filming Continuum in the Arctic from Barry Campbell.

It ended off last night sitting on the patio of the hotel and having a few drinks with a bunch of fans. Then we were joined by Corin Nemec and Dean Alyesworth (Anubis), followed by Musetta Vander (Shaun'ac) a bit later (just before we left for sleeping).

All in all - a FANTASTIC weekend. I took loads of notes and many photos (most of which I still have to get from S because my camera didn't do so well in the poor lighting and she was usually busy volunteering so I used hers.) So there will be a con report (probably way longer than you actually want to read) in the not too distant future.

I leave for Toronto tomorrow and then a few days there before heading back to K-town. And then I get to sleep, and maybe take a few deep breaths.

:)

I recently got my Stargate DVDs back from the lovely and talented affabletoaster which is really awesome. I knew they were in good hands and I didn't have a huge need to watch them, but it's really nice to have them back. It's my first fandom and my first true TV love - except maybe Star Trek and Sesame Street, which were shows I grew up watching. So it's just good to have them around. They're like my teddy bear Frob - not necessary, but I feel better when he's where I can see him.

She also brought back one of my favourite hats which I'd left at her place by mistake the last time I saw her. So very win! I mean it was also great to see her - she is lovely and talented after all. :) And it was a very long time. I hadn't seen my Stargate DVDs my hat her at all since May. And since we used to be roommates (in the Room of the Lack of Not Coolness - lo these many moons ago) that is a very long time indeed.

I also ordered some clothes on the internet and they arrived yesterday! I don't particularly dislike shopping - and in fact I kinda love going shopping with C and E because they make everything fun! - but I often find it frustrating because I can never seem to find anything that fits. I've been on an informal quest for skinny jeans for ages because most places with jeans seem to think that because I have a 40 waist I want elephant pants to make me look huge instead of a slimmer cut of pants to make me look like a normal, fashionable person. Le Sigh. So hobbitbabe pointed me to this site in the states which does plus sized skinny jeans. Awesome says me. I dicked around the site a bunch and found a pair that look good, checked the size chart to make sure I was getting the right one, and found a bunch of other things while I was there because I might as well get a few more bits while I'm having something shipped. So I ordered a pair of jeans, a pair of sandals (I have size 12 feet, my life is difficult in the ladies footwear department), and 3 bras. I was leery about the bras because they're bras, they never seem to fit right.

I'm sure you're waiting for the kick in the pants. I mostly was too. The first hit was from customs (thanks guys). I had to pay $69 worth of duty (only $20 short of half the price of my items) because these goods were made in China. I bought them from the States! I hate duty. Then both the shoes and the pants are too big. Too BIG! (Says my Dad re: the shoes "I thought that was impossible." Thanks Dad, very nice.) Mum says that we can alter the pants since the legs fit really well and we can just take in the sides around the hips and waist. I'm not sure if I care enough (although I'm seriously thinking about it). But I don't want to send them back and then have to pay even more duty on an exchange. We'll see. I have a lead on some skinny jeans at the Gap which might fit so I'm going to go and check them out today and if I can get them from Gap I'm definitely sending these back instead of trying to fix them.

On the up side the bras are awesome. One of them needs an extender, but it's strapless anyway so that's really not a problem at all. They're really comfy and they make my boobs look great - definitely a win.

Now all I need is some gold-pressed latinum (and some skinny jeans) and I'll be set.

For some reason completely unknown to me I am super tired today. I fell asleep on the couch after finishing my Roman history reading and I only recently got up and made mac-and-cheese for dinner. I may need something more than that later.

Today both of my amazon packages of textbooks arrived. The second one (which actually arrive first) had Stargate: The Ark of Truth as well as my enormous Smyth's Greek Grammar (at least it's pretty), so I spent my afternoon watching special features and telling myself that I didn't have the time to watch the whole movie again right now because I had to do work! Of course I totally did have the time to watch it, because it's not like I actually spent that time doing any work anyway. I still have ten pages of Latin to do by Monday and two or three of Greek for Tuesday (and I work Monday nights). I'm really looking forward to next term because then I'll only have to worry about one language course for the first time since first year.

I talked with the honours advisor (?) today and he assured me that I could probably do the Latin Sight Passage without any review ahead of time because it's written for the second-year level. It has been a while since I took that class. But I definitely going to take that exam sometime this term (I'm planning on taking the others next term because I have a smaller course-load then) because I'm still doing Latin right now.

Also the special features for Ark of Truth are pretty cool. They had a recording of the Stargate Panel from the San Fransisco Comic Con and it was awesome. One of the reasons why I love Ben Browder is that he's this really attractive leading-man actor, but when you see pictures of him at cons and stuff he just looks like a normal guy. Still attractive (ob-vi), but his hair is a mess (and not in the styled way) and he's wearing normal clothes, and he seems like the kind of guy it would be great to hang out with and watch some sports and drink some beer. Also in all the special features interviews Michael Shanks was wearing an old Canucks shirt with the flying skate logo, which made me really happy. I mean I've known that Shanks was a Canucks fan even before I became one, but it's still great to see it. Especially since I've been getting pumped for the season lately. Yay more hockey!

SEASON 10 DVDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm afraid you won't be hearing from me for a while...

Hopefully I'll manage to continue to do my schoolwork at the very least.

:)

Summer-time with only a part-time job and (*gasp*) no homework, has left me with enough time to catch up on a lot of the TV-watching that I've been meaning to do for a long time (yeay!). So I finished up all of due South and I've been keeping up with NCIS and Doctor Who (The Doctor! And Captain Jack! And Martha! And The Master! And YEay!) and to a lesser extent House (I have yet to see the last few episodes of season 3) as they've come out (I love you TV-on-the-internet). Also I fell in love with Blood Ties, which is based on a series of books that I love!

But lately I've been watching Buffy for the first time. I realize that most of you will be surprised that I haven't seen all of (or most of) Buffy yet, especially since I love both Angel and Firefly. But I never really got into it before now. I'll admit that at the peak of it's popularity there was definitely an element of "I will not submit to peer pressure" going on there, but also I did watch a few episodes and I never really liked Buffy (not BtVS but Buffy. Now you realize why I'm being careful with Italics in this post), she always seemed whiny and girly and kinda boring to me, and it's not easy to love a show when you really don't love the main character. (I actually had the same problem with Angel, but for some reason [I think it was because I loved the sidebar characters and the story-lines more] I still loved the show and I actually grew to love Angel too. But it definitely took long enough.) Anyway I've just now finished the second season of Buffy (and I've just rented the third), and I'm really enjoying it. I still don't like Buffy, but my love for Xander and for Spike and Dru knows no bounds! Also Willow and Giles are the coolness, and I love seeing the slow development of Cordy, especially knowing how things go in Angel.

In other news, apparently the series finale of Stargate: SG-1 just aired in the States. I'm sad to see it go, especially since I really enjoy the new dynamic with Cameron and Vala, but on the up side we still have ten seasons of a good show to look back on.

I first started watching Stargate back before Season Six had aired in Canada (I don't remember what year it was, but definitely somewhere in the middle of High School) and just as Seasons Five and Six were coming out on DVD (there was only a few months between them I remember). My very first episode was Urgo from season three, I randomly came across it when I was watching TV. I enjoyed it, but I didn't think that it was anything special (I have since changed my mind about this, I love this episode, it's just so much better when you know the characters). About a month or so later my brother and his friends rented season one and had a marathon (I don't remember why, but I know that J hadn't really watched it before). I wasn't around for the marathon, but the next day I joined in with my brother and we picked up where they'd left off the night before, which was on disk four of season one. My real introduction to SG-1 started with the episodes Singularity, Solitudes and Tin Man, and from there on in I was hooked. I started it again from the beginning and slowly worked my way through all of the seasons and managed to get several other people hooked as well. Stargate was the way that I got into fanfiction and through that the culture of online fandom which eventually I extended to include many other shows that I love. I've been told that I can relate anything back to Stargate and there was certainly a time in high school when I both could and did. I haven't finished watching season ten yet, partially because I'm in denial and want to keep the new episodes for a long as possible, but also because I'm going to buy it on DVD and this is going to be the last time that I'll be able to see new episodes on DVD (something that I haven't done since season seven).

So inspired by a similar post by kuwdora here are a few sets of favourites from the 10 years of the series.

( A few favourites after 10 years of my favourite show. )

I'll miss not having new episodes, but other than that it's kind of hard to miss a show that has ten seasons to continue watching over and over, and reams of good fic out there to be read.

And it's entirely homework's fault.

I have to read some Plato for my Greek Tragedies class and it reminded me about how much I hate the man and for some reason I ended up with this stuck in my head and screaming to get out. It's short and a crossover between Stargate and Highlander, but the important thing is really the diss that I'm giving Plato (because I'm imitating an imitation!!! Take that you nunce!). Also no beta and barely any editing so it's probably crap, but whatever. General spoilers for Stargate Season 8 Moebius and none for Highlander.

( In which Aderam uses Daniel Jackson and Methos to diss Plato royally. )

Stargate Season 9 has arrived!!!! Am in a world of geeky squee!!!

Also my external hard drive is in at the PCPC! And I just picked up my Cicero book for Latin!!!

*Bounces like a mad crazy person!*

So I went on some errands this afternoon (things that HAD to be done before I leave) instead of doing some more packing; but, let's face it, I'll probably do some more packing later. So now I've deposited my last cheque from work and a huge tub of change (just under $20, $8.50 of which was pennies), changed over my account type so that I get the cheep student rates, and made it so that I can send the parents money electronically. I feel banked out.

I also went by the video rental place and returned Dawn of the Dead, which I rented for R's last Zombie-Night on Saturday which doubled as a last hurrah for the high-school friends since we'll all be buggering of to points away and previous evidence suggests that we're not very good at keeping in touch when not in the same town. Tom the video guy was at the movie place along with Lyn, both of whom are familiar faces from years of renting. I haven't actualy seen them in a while so we had a little conversation before I left. It's weird, throughout the years that my brother and I rented videos from them (starting before they became the place to go) we'd always see those two and Ray in there, and now Ray doesn't even work there anymore and the other two never seem to be in when I go. I've even seen some turn over in the other hands that're there. It's so weird, more evidence of the world changing into a different place.

And the most exciting of all my errands was going to the post office and mailing an empty Kleenex box to the President of the Sci Fi Channel. I don't know if any of you fandom people have heard of this, but there's an initiative to bring back Stargate where fan's send in a Kleenex box with "SEND MORE" written on the side to the Sci Fi people along with a letter explaining why we want SG-1 to stick around. J, one of my most recent converts was the one to point it out to me and now I have sent a box! She sent me the site but the links no longer work so I have a feeling that the lawyery types told them to shut it down. (But I still have the address if anyone else wants to send a kleenex box!) I feel kinda weird because this just proves (with hard evidence) that I'm totally obsessed with Stargate, which makes me kinda weirded out, but at the same time I've always felt kinda awed by the fans who stood up (like for Farscape and Firefly) and told the studios what they thought and what the shows mean to them. It won't be the end of the world if nothing comes of this, but it sends a message nonetheless and I'm proud to be a part of that. I also sent a letter to the MGM people to say thanks for all the fish (or something like that) and that I appreciated them tring to find SG-1 another new home.

Last night A and I ended up seeing Pirates since he hadn't seen it yet (Sorry highlandrogue I didn't see your comment until afterward and we didn't really feel like seeing Snakes on a Plane last night). We ended up flipping a coin between it and Bon Cop, Bad Cop which is a Canadian movie about police relations between Quebec and Ontario, it's also completely bilingual and apparently really funny. I still want to see that, but I was not upset about seeing Pirates again (I think I saw Bearded Jon this time!).

Tonight I'm going out to dinner with my Mum in disguise so that if I run into cowrokers they won't recognise me! (Okay, not really. And I haven't actually run into my coworkers outside of work ever, but with my luck I bet that I would and I really don't want to. I am ready to say "My ride got delayed" if all does not go to plan, but I'd rather not have to.)

So first of all... ( My thoughts on Friday's Stargate episodes (SG-1 10.06 200 and Atlantis 3.06 The Real World) )

Second of all I went to the Women's Art Festival on my lunch break and wandered around looking at all of the pretties and telling myself that No I don't really need that, or that. But I couldn't quite say no to this person, and although I don't quite know whether it's a he or a she o even what it's name is I am loving of it. I was also hoping that you guys could help me with a name (and a gender... if it's necessary. Do toadstools even have genders d'you think?) Anyway here are two pictures, I think that the second one is a better photo and perhaps I will turn it into an icon eventually. Anyway... ( Here is the cuteness. )

And Third of all I finished my scarf and it is the pretty. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it yet in here but for the past couple of months I've been knitting a big, long scarf with many different colours of yarn that has been sitting around (some of it since the seventies). If I have it around my neck it goes down to about my knees and when it's wraped once around then it's down to my waist. I knit it in the round so that it's double thickness and wonderful. ( Oh see the pretties that I have created! )

So I just finished reading (at work so it took me the better part of an hour to finish the last few pages. Grrr...) Making History by Stephen Fry, which leads me to believe that that man is far more talented than he should be. It's hilarious, but also serious and lovely since they are talking about going back in time to make it so that Hitler was never born. I'd say it was "gripping" if that wasn't so very chiche. Anyway if you ever get the chance (or the opportunity to manufacture the chance) then you really should read this book!!! I'm very tempted to buy it and look up the other things he's written. I'm still in that just-finished-a-good-book afterglow where half of you is completely satisfied and the other half is itching to hear more about the characters. That may have something to do with my character fetish.

Anyway...

In Highlander News I've just finished up the fifth season and am in lust ( with the Horsemen Episodes )

And ( the Stargate Weather Report. )