So what is my deal? Meh; I don’t know. I’ve been busy doing other things lately, and my blog has been pushed into a dusty corner. I’ve been busy with language learning, where my list of target languages has grown rather large – perhaps unbearably large. As of right now, I’m actively studying German, Russian, French, and Spanish. Oh, and I have materials on the way for Dutch, as it seems like a pretty easy target knowing English and German.

I’ve been gardening a bit (gardening, great gods), and quite enjoying it. Not only is it relaxing, the fruits of it shall be wonderful on homemade club sandwiches (we’re growing tomatoes, among other things). The one thing I’m not so fond of: the bits of dirt that I can’t get out from my hands. Scrub as I might, I can’t get it out.

I’m still chugging along with No-S and shovelglove. I had to climb back onto the No-S wagon after falling off of it during holidays, but I’m back on now and holding on for dear life. Shovelglove never fell off my radar, and I’m actually considering upgrading my sledgehammer to a slightly heavier version. While I still break a sweat, my arms are no longer burning by the time I’m done; I daresay swinging the hammer around has become routine. That’s a Good Thing (TM), but I think I need to kick it up a notch (two T.V. star phrases in one sentence, that must be worth a gold star or something).

While shovelgloving, I generally watch a bit of a Stargate SG-1 episode; sometimes only 15 minutes, but sometimes I go ahead and finish the episode when I’m done exercising. With such a steady rate, I’m now up to episode 4 of Season 6. Just over halfway to the end; when I’m done with it, I’m going to be rather sad. Shovelgloving and SG-1 are like peanut butter and jelly for me at this point…

I guess all of that was a roundabout way of saying: I have plenty to blog about, I’m just not doing it. I’ve been too busy doing the whole, um, life thing to blog about it. But I do miss doing so. I may try a post schedule, say 3 posts a week, or something like that. Cas went for a daily post, Monday through Friday, but I know I wouldn’t stick to such a thing, so I won’t even bother attempting it. Maybe I’ll even take a look at some memes; I used to do Friday’s Feast (which is either dead or just not working right now).

Quick, someone motivate me!

On returning to the series this time, I went ahead and started over with season 2, as I couldn’t remember much about the first episode, and the second episode was even hazier in my memory, despite the fact that I recognized the opening scene. Maybe I had started watching it and never finished it; who knows. I’ve now watched the first 7 episodes of season 2, and something peculiar has struck me: on the planets that have inhabitants… well, where is everyone? Whenever SG-1 goes to a planet that has humanoid inhabitants, generally, those inhabitants seem to number in the dozens or perhaps hundreds. The Nox had a huge ship hovering over their planet, which could have held thousands of inhabitants, but overall, it seems that most of the planets that SG-1 finds are relatively sparsely populated. In talking to my friend Joshua about it, I remarked, don’t these people ever reproduce? Shouldn’t their population increase, especially if they’ve been on the planet for a thousand years, which one would assume about, say, the Viking population on Cimmeria?

He said that perhaps the Goa’uld preferred to keep the people spread out on a planet in small village units to make controlling them easier. I suppose that could make sense with some of planets, but what about the Viking descendants in particular? Until SG-1 broke the protection device, the planet of Cimmeria was protected from Goa’uld by Thor’s Hammer. The Asgard seemed to obviously care about the people on the planet, and so I can’t see them controlling the population growth in any way. So, why is the population level still so low?

When you get down to it, I’d guess it’s simply a matter of money: they can only hire so many actors and actresses, and so the population depicted in each episode is rather small. However, what’s stopping them from using CGI to throw in some cities or large towns here and there? People are expensive, CGI is (relatively) cheap. Even just having a single panning shot of a CGI town or city would gift some realism to the episodes.

Somewhat related to the population issue: do the civilizations that SG-1 finds ever do any of the things that civilizations have to do to keep going? I don’t think I’ve seen any farms on any of the planets, for example. What are these people eating¹? I’ve seen setups where there was essentially a king or similar figure with his royal helpers, and then the slave population, but the slaves have, as far as I can recall, never been producing food. The planet P3R-636 and associated civilization, from the “Need” episode, is an example of what I’m talking about. Shyla the princess and her father control a slave population that seems to be largely used for mining naquadah, while Shyla, her father, and the other high class folks live “in the lap of luxury.” Okay, but who’s making all of that stuff? Who’s growing the food, raising the cows, sewing all of the flashy clothing, etc.?

Yes, yes, I know. I’m picky! I do wish the civilizations seemed a bit more realistic. Despite all of my nitpicks, however, it’s still a great show. I don’t think it’s as good as Battlestar Galactica, story-wise, but it’s still a lot of fun to watch. It also gives me geeky things to write about, as this post bears witness to.

1. If you recall my posts about Battlestar Galactica, you might think I’ve got some weird obsession about food in television shows. Not really. Food is just one of those essential things (duh), and so if, in a show, seemingly no one in a civilization is producing it, the civilization just seems flat and fake.

So, here’s the question: am I going to keep watching the series? You bet. While a lot of season 1 struck me as cheesy, all in all, it was an enjoyable show. The final four episodes – Tin Man, There But For for The Grace of God, Politics, and Within The Serpent’s Lair – were great. A lot of season 1 suffered from episodes that were all self contained; there was no solid overarching plot. Sure, we knew the Goa’uld were “out there”, but many of the episodes simply consisted of SG-1 going to a planet, finding a problem, solving the problem, and coming back home. The last four episodes switched gears however, and got back into the Goa’uld plotline.

I read an interesting review of season 1 at amazon, which basically said this: season 1 wasn’t great. In fact, the bulk of the episodes could be considered mediocre. However, a lot of shows get off to a bumpy start, until they’ve introduced and established the main characters, and the makers have decided exactly where they’re taking the show. While season 1 of Stargate SG-1 wasn’t great, it was fair, and at least a lot of fun to watch. More importantly, it laid the foundation for following seasons to build on. I’m looking forward to watching those seasons.

When I created my first blog at WordPress.com, I used netJosh as the title for a while, but I didn’t care much for it. I wanted my blog to have a title that held at least a bit of interesting-ness to it, so “Josh’s Blog” or “The Life and Times of Josh” just wasn’t going to cut it.

Shortly after I created my blog, I started getting more interested in science fiction, which would explain why, when I wanted to have a more interesting blog title, I turned to science and science fiction. I started digging around on Wikipedia, looking for science / space terms that could be converted to a blog title. Galaxy? Nah. Universe? Too big, and I didn’t like the ring of it. Star system? Now hey, that could be interesting. The definition for a star system, according to the almighty Google ‘define’ command:

A star system or stellar system is a group of stars (and possibly smaller bodies such as planets or asteroids) that orbit one another (systems with planetary bodies orbiting stars, are referred to as solar systems or planetary systems). Although this is similar to the definition of a star cluster, the term is generally used to describe a group of a small number of stars, often two or three, emphasizing the gravitational influence they have upon one another.

I figured I could play that to fit my blog: my thoughts, ideas, and opinions could be likened to a star system, with lots and lots of different things orbiting each other, interacting in interesting ways. Certainly a long shot, and I’m sure the science is shoddy at best, but hey. I liked the idea, so I ran with it.

The next question that might follow then, is, “what’s the meaning behind the 13?” I’d love to have an explanation, but I don’t. I wanted a number after ‘System’ to kind of mimic how stars and planets are initially named, and 13 sounded good. I wanted a simple number, one that would have a decent ring to it. For an example of what I didn’t want, here’s a snippet from a Stargate episode:

Gentlemen, these planets designated P3575 and P3A577 have been submitted by Captain Carter’s team as possible destinations for your next mission.

Hmmm. Check out my blog, it’s called System P3A577… ?
Nah, I’ll stick with System 13.

I’m going to be blogging a bit more about this. The next entry in this ‘set’ will be about making my theme to match the title of my blog, and second thoughts on doing so.

Oh, and before I go any further… there will be spoilers in this post! So if you’ve not seen this episode and don’t want any of it ruined, turn back now (or browse more of my blog, whatever works for you). If, however, you’ve seen it (or don’t care if it’s spoiled)…

I enjoyed Thor’s Hammer quite a bit, but it there were a few things that were rough on me, mostly because I have a keen personal interest in Viking history. So, every little thing that was ‘off’ kind of jumped out at me. Some of the clothing was a bit odd for Vikings, particularly Kindra’s. I wasn’t able to find a decent picture of her at Stargate Caps, but I recall her sleeves being a rather odd pattern for Vikings. I think it was a stretched out fleur de lis, but I could be wrong. At any rate, it just didn’t really fit the Viking look very well.

One thing I was impressed with though, was that they got the Viking helms right, mostly! I honestly expected to see a horned helm somewhere during the episode, or perhaps one of the winged ones. The only helm that I saw during the episode was the one worn by the ‘answering machine’ Thor, inside the labyrinth where O’Neill and Teal’c are transported.

While it seemed a bit big for the chap wearing it, the overall shape of it was pretty darn close. Here’s a good website detailing various Viking helms, if you’re interested in comparing Thor’s helm to the real helms that have been found.
I feel inclined to nitpick a little more about the languages in Stargate. This is all I’ll say this time around: why is it that these Vikings understand ‘okay’, but instead of saying hi or hello, they say ‘hail!’? Oh well.

I was a bit surprised to find that James Earl Jones played the voice of this ugly chap. Apparently he’s one of the Unas, the first race that the Go’uld enslaved. The labyrinth that him, O’Neill and Teal’c are in is sealed off with this Hammer of Thor doorway thingamajig. Basically, whenever a Go’uld tries to go through it, the doorway zaps it. (And, incidentally, that’s part of the problem during the episode: Teal’c can’t leave the labyrinth because he’s got one of those irksome worms in his gut.) Anyway, that’s basically why this ugly guy is hanging out down in the labyrinth. He’s got a Go’uld in him and leaving would kill the Go’uld, and thus kill him. So, he just hang out down in this labyrinth and eats whoever comes through.

I found James Earl Jones’ voice a bit odd for the character, because Jones actually has a very pleasant voice. It worked for Darth Vader with the added stuff (hisses, breathing, etc.), but they didn’t really do much to his voice for the Unas. It was just his smooth-as-butter voice, coming from this rough-and-ready-to-kill character. I didn’t find it to be a very good fit, but I found it cool anyway, that Stargate had such a high profile actor taking part at such an early stage of its production.

One last bit before I wrap this post up: Sam is still getting on my nerves quite a bit. I’ve spoken to my buddy Josh about this, and he warned me before I started watching Season 1 that Carter could be a bit annoying in the beginning. Man, was he right. It just seems like she goes out of her way to be difficult, always going against what everyone else in the group feels they should do. She’s not as bad as she was when I first started watching Stargate, but I still frequently wish that she’d leap through one of the gates and never come back.

GW: Don, are you a fan of science fiction?

DD: I am now. I wasn’t always. I never really liked science fiction in film and television because when I was your age it was all cardboard and very crude, and it wasn’t realistic. And I could read someone like Asimov and envision all of these wonderful things. Or Wells, or whoever, and then I would see it on TV or in a film and — no. In fact, my son, when he was about four years old, I guess — or five years old — “Star Wars” came out. And he had to see “Star Wars.” He really had to make me lots of promises in order for me to get me to take him to it. And I came out of that movie a Star Wars nut.

GW: Really?!

DD: Oh, yeah! Then with the Star Trek, — not the original Star Trek. Again, it was silly — the crudity of the thing. Even though the actors, a lot of them now, are friends of mine. But I don’t like crudity. I’m a painter and a sculptor. I spent twenty years teaching people how to be artists and craftsmen. And then to see something, especially on film, that looks like a retarded two-year old created it in their back yard, is not entertaining to me.

The rest of the interview is here.
I never would have pegged him as a painter / sculptor.

Note: Removed the image from the snippet. I’d copied and pasted it from gateworld.net, and had accidentally been stealing their bandwidth. I doubt I’d put ‘em out of business or anything, but it’s the principle.
Technorati Tags: stargate_sg1, stargate-sg1, science_fiction

The Nox were portrayed as very mystical, very ‘woodsy’ people. They reminded me a lot of fairies minus the wings, actually. They could do magic-like things, including a ritual that could bring people back from the dead. Furthermore, they could make themselves, or other things, disappear from sight. Like I said – fairy-like stuff.

It was actually their ability to make things invisible that led the SG crew there, as well as Apophys (one of the primary ‘bad guys’ in the Stargate show). There was a large flying creature on the planet that many believed could cloak itself. It had been hunted by many different peoples who wanted the ability to become invisible, but it always vanished. It was the Nox who were making the creature invisible, to protect it.

To make a long story short, Apophys and Co. actually killed O’Neill, Carter, and Daniel. The Nox bring them back to life. Because the Nox appear so weak militaristically and technologically, the SG-1 crew are concerned that Apophys will find them and kill them.

The Nox simply keep repeating, “You will go. We will take you to your doorway and you will go.” This in turn leads to the SG-1 crew repeating, “We can’t, we put you in danger, Apophys will kill all of you. We have to fight them and protect you.”

Near the end of the episode, right before SG-1 returns to earth, one of the Nox (Anteaus) says he wants to show them something. He then waves his hand through the air, and a gigantic ship appears in the sky.

Before disappearing for the last time, he says:

Fear not. Maybe one day you will learn, that your way is not the only way.

Awesome quote, awesome episode. That quote made me genuinely smile.

Edit: Speaking of the Nox, here’s a music video made out of the Nox episode. The song is pretty fitting for them (or at least for the appearance they give to outsiders).

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=qOoApGMrkk4]

Technorati Tags: sg1, stargate_sg1, scifi, science_fiction, sf

A few days ago while exercising on my elliptical, I watched episode six, Cold Lazarus. It was the second episode in which at least one of the characters had to act rather differently than they do normally. In Cold Lazarus, a crystal-like creature duplicates O’Neill.

I was really impressed how well Richard Dean Anderson pulled off this duplicate creature’s character. While it was obviously still Richard Dean Anderson, it didn’t really look like O’Neill at all. Very nice usage of facial expressions to differentiate the real O’Neill from the fake.

When I first started watching SG-1, I was a bit concerned. There were a couple of initial episodes that were pretty crappy (see my previous post about the Mongol episode…) But, by episode 6, it seems to be pulling out of crappiness and into ‘pretty damn cool’-ness.

Technorati Tags: stargate, stargate_sg1, sg1

While the Broca Divide still had descendents of ancient peoples from earth speaking English, it didn’t bother me as much. I was too caught up in the interesting plot line to really care much about the language.

The Broca Divide episode brings up an interesting question. What if the alien species that we finally make contact with has built up an immunity to a disease over the centuries? A disease that we have absolutely no immunity to whatsoever? What if the entire population of earth dies like the Native Americans died when Europeans came to the North American continent, bringing disease with them? (By the way, yes, I realize that all of the Native Americans didn’t die to disease. Just a sizeable chunk of them. But the analogy serves its purpose well enough.)

That’d be a pretty crappy bit of luck, eh? Years and years, searching for other life in the universe, to be wiped out by, what to them, may be on par with the common cold.

Damn. That would suck.

Of course, it could go the other way. We could finally find other intelligent life in the universe, and give them our common cold, wiping them out. Not quite as dramatic as an all out invasion, is it?

“Man wipes out entire alien race by sneezing on them.”

Oh, and speaking of Stargate… it appears there’s no rush in me getting caught up. The SCI FI channel is not renewing Stargate SG-1 for an 11th season.

Technorati Tags: stargate, stargate_sg1, sf