I'm a wee bit late but the wishes are as enthusiastic as the ZPM in Rodney's pants: Happy Birthday, halowrites!!

• The trailer, alone, for "In The Shadow of the Moon" is enough to make me tear up. It looks phenomenal. I can't wait. Unpopular opinion or not, I'm bitter that Neil Armstrong didn't participate. I respect his decision to remain relatively reclusive but a documentary like this is part of this historical record and, like it or not, the title of "first human on the moon" comes with an obligation. Though, interestingly, I suppose some of the anecdotal reasons he was first tie directly to the same reasons he isn't interested in contributing to a documentary.
  
  
• And has anyone else seen this footage of Buzz Aldrin punching a guy in the face? That's when you rightfully get when you tell Aldrin the moon landing was a hoax.
  
  
• My stress level right now is a 10 plus. I had to leave work at 5:20pm to get my car from the dealership which means I'm going to aim to get in by 7am tomorrow to finish everything I would have done tonight. There's a lot. With many moving parts. I really need to get my ass back to the gym to blow off steam. In the meantime I have Sally who is honest to goodness animal therapy for me.
  

• Is anyone else watching Mad Men on AMC? Over the past weeks, at least three different people have recommended the show and I finally took advantage of the On Demand I'm forced to pay for with my DVR. It's a GREAT show. 1960's ad men on Madison Avenue with all the tact and political correctness you'd expect of 1960's ad men. Every other scene is cringe-worthy and I love it. (Now that I've seen Firefly, I can also tell you that Saffron/Bridget/Yolanda is on the show as is Zoe Bartlett.)
  
  
• As part of my desire to watch everything and anything with Rob Lowe, I queued up Stir of Echoes: The Homecoming this afternoon. It was just as bad as I expected and Rob Lowe was just as pretty as I expected. REALLY bad, actually. But Lowe's five o'clock shadow made up for it.
  
  
• It's a shame to hear Jennifer Morrison and Jesse Spencer called off their engagement. They were so cute in their In Style Weddings photo shoot. Doesn't an In Style photo shoot mean forever?
  

I'm through with both the Firefly dvds and Serenity and I want more! Someone please tell my why Jennifer Love Hewitt has a television show but I can't get more Mal or Kaylee or Simon?

My favorite episodes was "Ariel." I love hospital capers and I love that it was Simon's idea. The fact that Jayne is a such lovable prick says a hell of a lot about the character development on the show. (And in such a short number of episodes.) A close second is "Heart of Gold" for three four reasons: 1) Melinda Clarke will always be the biggest badass of Madames. 2) Yellow-eyed demon cameo. 3) I actually liked Morena Baccarain. 4) Nathan Fillion was hot. Back to #3...clearly, if MB isn't going to annoy me, they had to find someone who would. Kimberly McCullough gets that prize in "Heart of Gold." She may be Robin Scorpio but she can't act.

Here's my rank of characters in order of most favorite to least favorite:
1) Mal
2) Kaylee
3) River
4) Zoe
5) Jayne
6) Simon
7) Book
8) Wash
9) Inara

And now I rank the episodes:
1) "Ariel"
2) "Heart of Gold"
3) "Trash"
4) "Serenity"
5) "Out of Gas"
6) "Jaynestown"
7) "Shindig"
8) "War Stories"
9) "Our Mrs. Reynolds"
10)"The Train Job"
11) "Safe"
12) "Bushwhacked"
13) "Objects in Space"
14) "The Message"

Summer Glau is fantastic. No one else could have played river and she's equally awesome in The 4400. Did anyone see her in last week's ep, "Daddy's Little Girl?" She played "50's schizophrenic chic" so well. And I can't wait to see her in The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

I'm off to buy food and competitive shop and pretend tomorrow isn't Monday.

August '06, lizardspots drew this awesome Daniel Jackson art for me. I considered bringing it to last November's Stargate con for Shanks to sign but changed my mind at the last minute because what if he ruins it with a smudgy marker or poorly placed signature? Or, um, gives me a blank stare reserved for people with commissioned character art. But there's another con coming up next weekend and I'm reconsidering. I love the art and having him sign it would be fantastic but the concerns above still apply.

Help me?

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• I'm not changing my default but, if I was to, this icon would be it. I have such a love affair with Adama and Roslin (and Mary and Eddie). I'm almost dreading season 4 because it's the last. WOE.
  
  
• GO DANNY! For the first time ever, I voted for a reality show contestant. I love the top four but Danny's been my favorite from the moment he performed the Viennese Waltz with Anya and he got my (2) votes last night. I'm already set with tickets, too, for the So You Think You Can Dance tour stop in Detroit on 11/3. Go Danny!
  
  
• The weekend after the SYTYCD tour is Key West! I'm taking a long weekend and heading to Key West with three of my Florida friends. I can't wait! (If I'm still off alcohol in November, that weekend will be the test of tests.)
  
  
• But before that are TWO Chicago cons aka Seedy Hotel Room parts 2 and 3. First up is the weekend of the 24th with Shanks and McGillian followed by October 5th when I'll have my photo taken with Cmdr. Riker. The 16 year old in me is absolutely freaking out about that photo op. OMG COMMANDER RIKER.
  
  
• synecdochic kindly shared a zip file of 32 awesome acapella songs. It's a great mix of music so I've uploaded it to share, as well. Right click/save here. [zip file, 168mb, please comment if you dl and feel free to share the file but do NOT share the link.]
  
  ( Song list... )

I was decently wrecked from Friday's food poisoning so I took it easy all weekend and didn't drink anything that could upset my stomach including alcohol and caffeine. My daily habit is coffee every morning and wine every night but the 3 day caffeine/alcohol fast motivated me to see if I can give them up more permanently. I'm convinced I'll sleep better. I made the transition to morning herbal tea fairly easily but, I have to admit, I've really craved my glass of wine these past two nights. Like, a lot. It's habit. It relaxes me. But I'm determined to give this a shot.

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PS. Season 3 of BSG isn't out on DVD until JANUARY. How do they expect people to catch up before season 4 starts? And don't they want holiday sales? Studios are so self defeating.

Woke up. Threw up.
Dragged my ass to the final day of my class. Threw up.
Dragged my ass home. Threw up in the driveway.
More of the same. Rinse. Repeat.
Threw out my back with the exertion of all of the above.
Did not get on a 7pm flight to NY.

I'm starting to feel better and assuming it was food poisoning. My sister was kind enough to book me on a 1:30pm flight tomorrow which gets me in to JFK with enough time to make it to the rehearsal dinner.

In the good column, I did take the afternoon to start watching Firefly. FINALLY. Jewel Staite is adorable and I still maintain that Morena Baccarain can't act.

It's only been 2 days but I feel like I haven't posted in eons. That's probably because I've spent this week locked in a classroom learning corporate finance. That's 40 hours of finance class in one week. The first day was tedious but it's been great since then. There are any number of real life applications to my business and, as a bonus, I'm going to help my sister calculate the do & don't NPV of a personal finance decision. Plus, one of the professors is hot in that way really smart middle aged professors often are. (Meaning, objectively, not at all but toss in some fancy financial math and WHOOOO watch out!) Tonight's our "graduation" dinner at one of my favorite restaurants and tomorrow is our final case study. Then I'm off to NY for my cousin's wedding. (A wedding I'm very much looking forward to. They've been dating for 9 years - since their freshman year in college - and they're an awesome couple.)

What else can I tell you? Jason and I continue to date successfully. (By my own definition of success which means frequent dates, no games, and no overt declarations of our feelings or intentions.) And Sally turns 3 this month. I love her tremendously.

That's all I've got. Off to dinner!

I spent the day in 8 hours of classes reviewing balance sheets & income statements to help determine whether it's better to leverage debt or equity in a particular case study where the officers of said fictional company clearly missed their own lesson that explained the difference between net income and operational cash flow. Tomorrow we're back at it but for 12 hours instead of 8.

How was your day?

I'm really here, though, with a rec. This story is exactly what would have happened if Vonnegut ever dabbled in SGA fic. I'd quote a bit but I'd have to quote it all.

Thank you for flying Church of England by someinstant

While I'm at it, have an SPN rec: What Music They Make by notthequiettype. It's vampire fic! LOVE.

And let's throw in some HP, too: The World of the Living by fourth_rose I found this story by accident through a comment exchange in another rec post. Which is a long way round to saying, "very good story." It's post-war Harry/Draco from Luna's POV. I love Luna and this fic captures all the reasons why. Not even a little DH compliant.

I have no problem being shallow but it feels a bit different when it's over a boy born in 1987. But there you have it. My colleague's 14 year old daughter has her bedroom plastered in Zac Efron posters and I'm about to devote an entire post to the star of High School Musical (which I have NEVER seen, thank you very much).

I saw Hairspray today, though, and Zac Efron is the most adorable little thing! If I was fourteen I'd have my room plastered with his image, too. See?



( Three more photos )

( And here he is performing 'Ladies Choice' in the film )

( And, for kicks, a Much Music interview with his adorable shaggy hair )

I'd say I'll never speak of this again but I'm not sure I can promise that.

• After four hours in the office this morning, I stopped at Borders on the way home for season 10 of SG-1. My shelf is complete! (cranberryink - Seasons 1- 4 of SG-1 are in the mail on their way to you. Enjoy!!)
  
  
• A friend at work also did some work beefing up my DVD collection when he gave me a collection of DVDs including: Dark Angel seasons 1 & 2 (!!!), Little Miss Sunshine, Notes on a Scandal, The Last King of Scotland, Kingdom of Heaven, a season of The Simpsons, a season of The L Word and a whole host of DVDs I can't remember off the top of my head. The best, though, is the Star Trek Captain's Log Fan Collective. It includes 15 episodes from all five series as voted on by the fans including "Chain of Command." THERE! ARE! FOUR! LIGHTS! So awesome.
  
  
• It's officially official that Mandy Patinkin isn't returning to Criminal Minds. I love Criminal Minds but a lot of that is thanks to Patinkin and his character's dynamic with this team. It's so disappointing to hear that he simply didn't show up on set at the start of this season. Without knowing any details beyond what EW and the internets tell me, I declare he's an ass.
  
  
• I have school next week. I'm taking a week long course at the University of Michigan as part of their Executive Education program. It's Finance for the Non-financial Manager and, OMG, it's been almost a decade since I've taken a class! I'm (mostly) looking forward to it though. I anticipate practical applications and I'm interested to meet the other people in the program. They're from all over the country and all different companies. But still. I hope it's not boring and I hope it's not stuff I already know.
  
  
• I saw Bourne last night! First, the non-spoilery bits about Bourne in general: I LOVE JASON BOURNE. He's like MacGuyver and Rambo and Danny Ocean all rolled into one but BETTER. I also love how Paul Greengrass films the movies. They're intense and suspenseful and EW's got it dead on when they write, "the movie doesn't seem to be creating the action but catching it on the fly — and the result is that hardly a moment goes by that we don't experience in the moment." ( More on Bourne Ultimatum. I use the word 'love' a lot. )
  
  If you want to read what other people have to say, check out CNN's review here and EW's review here.
  
  
• Tonight some friends and I are cooking dinner and tomorrow I'm off to another friend's for brunch and then Hairspray. It's a lovely weekend.
  

Please tell me the rest of you have seen this, to. I have no idea of the context but, somehow, the inmates at a prison in the Philippines are off reenacting MJ's Thriller video.



You can see an abbreviated version on CNN here which also includes the "Sister Act" and "Radio Ga Ga" interpretations.

Really? I've got nothing. (Except to say that I wish my entire office building of 1000 would pile into the parking lot one day at lunch and do the Thriller dance.)

• Moonshot is updated for July and it's clear I had some time on my hands. May recs? 31. June recs? 31. July recs? 74. All of the July recs are here and breakdown like so:
  
  9 SG-1
  10 SGA
  1 BSG
  31 Harry Potter (19 post DH)
  23 SPN
  
  I added a tag specifically for post-DH fic but be warned if you're scrolling around the page: summaries for HP fic do include DH spoilers.
  
  
• While I'm busy reccing, I need to specifically rec this post-DH story by femmequixotic. The Years That Walk Between. I don't want to risk spoilers out of a cut tag yet so go to the link for the pairing and then stick around to read the fic. The story is aching and touching and tremendously fulfilling.
  
  
• J is back from Cambodia & Vietnam and Friday night we have a date with Jason Bourne. I'm mockably excited for this movie.
  
  
• Galacticasitrep.blogspot.com has the video of the BSG Comic Con panel. I LOVE BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. Just look at this picture! Mary McDonnell is a goddess. And the icing on the panel is that it's moderated by Mark Bernardin of EW who loves BSG almost as much as I do.
  
  Click for a larger image.
  
  

• So, Sunshine. Very intense, solid character development, bot at all what I expected. Cillian Murphy's eyes continue to mesmerize me, though. He's as oddly creepy as Christopher Walken with the added bonus of those eyes and the most finely chiseled face on the planet. (How is his name pronounced? Hard C or soft C?)
  
  
• My most anticipated movie of the summer is The Bourne Ultimatum and it's coming on FRIDAY!
  
  
• And, with all of the movies I've been to lately, I've seen a whole bunch of awesome trailers. 1) Laura Linney is in The Nanny Diaries! She's going to be fabulously wicked. 2) Eastern Promises reunites Viggo Mortensen and David Cronenberg! If it's even 1/2 as good as A History of Violence, I'll be happy. Actually. I think that's it. I'm excited for The Golden Compass but have only seen trailers on-line and I was excited for The Dark is Rising but the trailer looks pretty awful.
  
  
• As Kiffle mentioned, Seedy Hotel Room 2 is only a month away and she, Blue, and I have mastered the coordination needed to secure us sequential seats. Shanks!
  
  
• I have the most thoughtful neighbors ever punctuated by the fact that they just left me a voicemail to make sure I know that Dateline is airing an interview with JKR tonight.
  

To Entangle So To Know by idyll - SGA: Ronon/John, PG, ~2900 words

Summary: When Ronon was ten his mother sat him down and sectioned his hair. I love Ronon and, most than that, I love stories that tie to Satedan tradition and explore how that tradition lives at the absolute core of who Ronon is. This story is stunning.

I finally caught up on the last two weeks of So You Think You Can Dance. I think the final 8 is the right final eight. Danny remains my favorite guy but I'd be hard pressed to choose between the girls. Gun to my head, I'd probably go with Lacey for her consistent technique and infectious style/personality.

Did anyone read the New York Times article about Danny? The journalist calls Danny "a prince among the rest" and goes on comment on Nigel Lythgoe's questionable approach to dance. The article is from July 11th, just after Danny received some of his harshest criticism and I'm curious whether such a bold statement of Danny's talent has had any affect on the judges' approach to their subsequent critiques.

( Complete article behind the cut )

I'm off shortly to meet some friends for a 12:40pm show of Sunshine. I hadn't even heard of the movie until yesterday but the cheesy space plot (A team of astronauts are sent to re-ignite the dying sun 50 years into the future) and Cillian Murphy are right up my alley.

• Borders' Water For Elephants book club is up! Sara Gruen is delightful and everyone should go watch! Be warned: It includes spoilers for the full plot of the book. If you haven't read the book, go read - you're done with Deathly Hallows, after all - and then watch.
  
  
• I'm shamelessly smitten with, and easily amused by, the Harry Potter Puppet Pals. The most recent addition to the archive is Harry Potter Puppet Pals - The Mysterious Ticking Noise. "Snape. Snape. Severus Snape. Dumbledore!"
  
  
• I want to go to Prophecy.
  
  
• ( Nine more fic recs set during or post Deathly Hallows. SPOILERS ahoy )
  
  
• I am stressed for about 394574839 things that I'll spare you except to say that I'm either going to medicate myself with tylenol pm or wine to get to sleep tonight. I really need to get my ass to the gym.
  
  ETA: Zachary Quinto, Sylar on Heroes, has been confirmed to play young Spock in the upcoming Star Trek movie. Nimoy will cameo. Awesome casting.

Got to work at 6:15am to prep for 8am and 9am meetings. Meetings. Meetings. Ice Cream. Meetings. SIMPSONS MOVIE PREVIEW.

The move is SO GOOD. Go. Go this weekend. You will laugh and laugh and LAUGH.

I organized a Harry Potter book discussion at work for Friday from noon to 1pm. I wasn't sure if anyone would show up but it looks like we'll have a pretty decent turnout and sometime, between now and then, I want to put together a short discussion guide. I have a few things jotted down but I need to pull together a bit more. What would you want to talk about at a Deathly Hallows book discussion? (SPOILER ALERT: If anyone answers this question, there will likely be spoilers in comments. Proceed with caution.)

( So I got to thinking about the prophecy and how it all played out... )

( So I got to thinking about the prophecy and how it all played out... )