Spinning on that dizzy edge

WOWSERS. I hadn't realize that I'd been neglecting my reading page, until it took a SKIP=320 on DW to catch up on my gap week.

Hi! Happy imminent Thanksgiving to the USians, and a lovely late November to everyone!

I have been really distracted lately, for Reasons. I put so much work into Halloween and the Emperor's birthday that I went into utter slack mode afterward, with bonus time lost on The Fool and His Money (a game 10 years in the making that is fiendishly difficult and makes you feel really accomplished when you can solve a puzzle - if you like word games, this might be a good fit for you) and general surfing.

So with that and the rushing change of seasons (I do love winter, but the early setting of the sun is bumming me out, and the temperature change needs to stay away until I can dig up my parsley for overwintering), I am...adrift? Vaguely unsettled, or some such. I need to work on my Festivids entry (Have music, should vid), and cleaning my house has become my Sisyphean chore. I want to actually decorate for Christmas this year, seeing as I punted last year due to an excess of crap in my living room.

I won a free TV at work a couple of weeks back, and the next day our big TV (10 years old and still a fine model) died. The cause is speculated to be professional jealousy. Unfortunately, the new TV, while free, is neither big nor quality enough to truly replace the former one. So I delved deep into Consumer Reports and the current shopping frenzy going on, and emerged victorious with a floor model at a 50% discount. We are Pleased with the results. :D

Now I'm doing similar forays into the Black Friday sales, which feeds the obsessive research monster and bargain hunter in me.

I'm also half-way through the hormone treatment for our next IVF cycle. My belly is a string of bruises from the four daily shots. I am so glad that I'm not needle phobic. We are schedule to go in next week for the egg harvest and then the *fingers crossed* implantation. Any good thoughts/wishes/prayers/mojo you feel like sending my way would be greatly appreciated.

I hope you all are doing well! In the spirit of the season, I am very thankful to have you in my dwircle and flist. *HUGS*

My brain continues to be fixated mostly on Avengers. It's kinda crazy. I made a vid FOR NO REASON (no cons, no vid exchanges), other than I wanted to. (Anybody wanna beta my Avengers vid? cee_m, I'm hoping you'll still have time this weekend.) I've got the beginnings of a kink_bingo story brewing, in which Steve Rogers wants to get a tattoo. (Which I hope I can churn out in a week, because I don't want to default and miss a year of kink_bingo.)

However, Stargate has been popping up lately, like an ex that's become an occasional friend-with-benefits. For instance...I was curious about the next Stargate con and read today that Rachel Luttrell is bowing out of the Chicago Creation con, on account of being pregnant. Sad for fans, happy for her. But they booked Kate Hewlett to fill her spot, which is pretty freaking awesome.

My husband's brother, who is living with us, has raced through most of our TV-on-DVD sets and is now on SG-1. Having just finished season 6 and beginning season 7, confronted with Daniel Jackson's naked re-entrance, the BiL's quip was "Shanks but no Shanks."

Then to top off the weirdness, I tuned into the radio today just in time for a call-in interview with Michael Shanks himself, who is stumping for his new show "Saving Hope". The radio hosts weren't total idiots, and Shanks was his usual charming self. He said that being a ghostly surgeon is using different acting muscles than sci fi, so it's been an unusual stretch for him. He also mentioned bonding with Bruce Campbell during his "Burn Notice" stint, as he's exactly as personable, "have a beer with" kind of guy as he seems, and on the both of them doing bad movies.

In completely other news...I have never been a girly-girl type who coos over shoes. However, I think I've been channeling too much fanon Pepper Potts, because I suddenly want this pair of Mary Jane Louboutin pumps. "But they're on sale!" Really, brain?

OK, it's not as bad as that. But this kind of grey (or rather dark, now that DST is done), gloomy, rainy weather is best appreciated from the comforts of my couch, with a blanket and some form of chocolate in hand.

I have several long and/or thinky posts in my head. This is not one of them. This is a "I have got to close some of these tabs I wanted to share before Firefox blows up" post.

David Hewlett posting covetous pictures of his son's shoes ("I know That thou shalt not covet thy sons running shoes...but they're Darth Vader light-up ones!") makes me all kinds of happy. One, because he again proves that he is a geek after my own heart. Two, I want a pair for me, and Three, because the Emperor would love those, too. (Though after reading the negative reviews, I think I'd be nervous about buying them.)

This interview with Kevin Murphy about Caprica is fascinating, as he talks about working with Jane Espenson, the problems in their storytelling, the process of writing, and overall making me :( that we never got to see what they had planned for the future. Even if you didn't watch Caprica or BSG, it's still a great article about sci-fi shows, writing for TV, and how advertising can adversely affect the path of a show.

This link (from inlovewithnight, I think?) about giving yourself permission to eat was both good and hard to read. It's a topic I struggle with basically every day. I wish I could rush out and show this to everyone, and internalize it myself at the same time. I hope it's one of those issues that repeated exposure will make it easier to adopt.

Wil Wheaton shared this link of an acoustic guitar duo named Rodrigo y Gabriela playing their hearts out. I love everything about this performance: their energy, the intricacy of the playing, the woman's enthusiastic percussive guitar playing (just look at her smile as she sweats!), and the delight of the audience.

Also, can someone explain why I can view YouTube links here at work through Google+ and through Gmail, but not YouTube directly, and how I can exploit this to view anything from YouTube? Right now, I can view embedded video and anything that comes up on the Recommended list or whatever YouTube calls the related videos, but I can't input a search. I love that it works (it's a pleasant relief from the relentless Big Brothering of my network access), I just want to bend it further to my own needs. *grin*

I don't own an iPad or iPhone or anything of that ilk, but with apps like this Warehouse 13 Farnsworth Video Communicator, I really, really want one. (Original messages from Artie and Claudia! What's not to love?)

Now I need to go home and similarly relieve my DVR by watching and deleting some of my saved shows. Too much TV to watch is not the worst problem to have.

...but the clipping that's the hardest part. I'm through the first verse of my vid and onto portraying Sheppard as Universe Man. The portion with McKay as Particle Man was soooo much easier in comparison. I still have two months until the deadline; hopefully I won't need it all.

Open tabs! Getcher open tabs here:

Star Wars cookie cutters. I need these like you can't imagine. Never mind that my cookie baking in recent years has been limited to Christmastime...with these I could conquer a galaxy! Or eat Yoda's face, your choice.

With thanks to seperis, and of hopeful importance to dsjones, Technique yields potential biological substitute for dental implants. Stem cells are so damned amazing.

Ancient Egyptian eye makeup might have helped prevent or treat eye disease and skin ailments. I wonder what Daniel Jackson would say about this. I can just picture the Egyptian scientists in the Stargate timeline scrambling to replicate Goa'uld tech once they buried the Stargate.

A review of "Torchwood: The Radio Adventures". These sound REALLY good. *ponders acquistion*

I was talking with miniglik a bit ago about how much I love "Glee", but that I would be leery of hanging out with Lea Michelle, since she gives off the impression of having more than a few of Rachel's more obnoxious personality traits. This interview with her and Jonathan Groff only further confirms my feelings. Um, yeah.

In other news, I continue to Hate Exercising. I've been hitting the treadmill most mornings for a 2-mile brisk walk for the past two weeks, and my weight seems to be bouncing up and down the same damned 2-3 pounds. I'm thinking (hoping!) that it's a case of my muscles gaining ground on the fat. The corners on my thighs seem to be re-emerging, and my husband has noticed a new firmness in my derriere. (He would know, since he checks it daily. *grin*) I have observed too that, though it's not really a burst in energy, I'm developing an aversion to being a couch slug. I've been gardening and weeding much more than last year, and I think I've kicked the Mafia Wars habit. Phew! But between the exercise and giving up chocolate at lunch, I had expected to lose more weight than this. *sigh*

In other other news, because I am a ridiculous fangirl for David Hewlett (and because my inner sulky brat is still pouting about missing the Vancouver opportunity), I am attending both the Minneapolis and Chicago Stargate Creation Cons, but I have doubts that the former is actually going to go forward. Ticket sales have been abysmal (why yes, I have been checking them on a daily basis), and the VIP passes and SGU people meet'n'greet didn't even have any bids. What would be awesome (like a renovated room) would be if they kept it going and simply went ahead with limited attendance - small crowd FTW!

*glares back at vid* John Sheppard, I'm going to make a Universe Man out of you no matter what. Onward!

It looks like Amazon has Farscape: The Complete Series back in stock and on sale for $59.99, so those of you that missed out before Christmas have another chance.

(For those that are boycotting Amazon right now, my apologies - anything that gets Farscape into people's hands for cheap(er) can't be all bad.)

It's Friday! I'm basically caught up with stuff! So, some links...

Bringing back 'they' as an all-purpose pronoun. PLEASE YES. As an occasional writer of user documentation, I hate the awkward acrobatics involved in trying not to use 'he' or 'she'. Because I really hate defining the gender as one or the other when it's unspecified. It's a thing.

I saw a rash of cool icons recently pop up on my flist, then someone finally clued me in: Mad Men Yourself. What I love best about this is that you can pick a person of size. Like, wow! Zaftig as a choice! *two thumbs up* Plus, the end result is kind of an uncanny resemblance.

A free e-reader from B&N. Not that I've tried it yet, but I intend to, especially considering the freebie books they're offering as well.

Dr. Horrible for $7.42 and free shipping. At last, it shall be mine.

Hmmm...I could have sworn I had other things. Ah well. Onto the weekend!

Not that I get to wear T-shirts at my place of employment on any kind of regular basis, and trumpeting this would be inviting all sorts of trouble, but..."I'm not slacking off. My code's compiling." should be mine. I'm just saying.

Oh, and for my SGA buds? McKay needs "Stand Back. I'm going to try science" and "SCIENCE It works, bitches.", doncha think?