Monthly Archives: August 2005

Battlestar Galactica

Are you watching this? If you are, I am sure I am just preaching to the choir. If you aren’t, what are you waiting for?
I know what you’re thinking… I do. That’s what I thought too, when I first heard it was coming back. But I was wrong.
smBGBook.JPGNow, I watched the 1970’s version. I was, like, 10 or something, and it was the coolest thing I ever saw. We named our dog “Muffy” after Boxy’s dog. I had the book. Here it is, I still have it, from 1978. I was remembering it from my 10 year old brain. I was in love with Starbuck. My best friend loved Apollo. It was perfect. A few years ago, when the re-runs were on, I tuned in hoping it was as cool as I remembered. It wasn’t, it was super-cheesy. Especially when they were down in the pyramids with those falling blocks of stryofoam. I was so sad.
When I heard it was coming back I thought, “Oh no, how can they remake that? It’ll be cheese – the next generation!” I thought it was a horrible idea. Then I saw the previews for the miniseries on SciFi Channel. I programmed my Tivo to pick it up and forgot about it, and then suddenly it was here and I watched it. And I thought, “Wha?! They can’t just stop here, this is SO GOOD!” And thank the Lords of Kobol, they didn’t stop there.
No Cheese!
It didn’t have all the things I always complained about when watching the Trek shows. It didn’t have a happy ending. The ships didn’t all fly as though space was flat, the ships approach from different angles. This is different. Six is HOT! Baltar is crazy and HOT! The characters interact like real people. It’s got the long term-story arc that I loved about Babylon 5. Nothing is neatly wrapped up at the end of each episode. The characters are familiar, but all new. By about episode 2, I started caring about the characters, wanting to know more. That’s something I never had with shows like DS9 or Voyager. I never cared about those characters. When there’s an episode that lingers on one storyline for a long time, I find myself wondering what’s going on on Caprica or Kobol or… or…
Some things never change, and Everything old is new again
Still got Apollo, Boomer and Adama. We still have Starbuck, but now she’s a girl, but Starbuck is still hot! Still got the octagon paper, pyramid games, cigar-smoking Starbuck. Still got Centurians, but these guys are way scarier than any stormtrooper-wanabe 70’s Centurian. The first time you see one flip overhead, in person or in a ship, it’s just amazing. There’s no Boxy, actually no kids and mechanical dogs at all… yet. If I have to complain about one thing, it’s this – where are the hot male cylons? And really, that’s not so much to complain about.

Book Signing

A couple of years ago, she was someone who (whom? why don’t I know this? NH Grammar failure!) I thought should have a blog. Not because her writing was bad, but because of the gushing that followed each posting. This was shortly after I started knitting, before I found my home on certain mailing lists because of being annoyed by others. So, she did finally get a blog, and I didn’t actually read it for a long while, mostly because I hadn’t discovered the beauty that is RSS yet, and blogrolling was just reminding me of how much I haven’t actually updated this blog.
Eventually I found a nice newsfeed client, then switched to Bloglines since it’s more portable, and added her blog to my feed and once and a while checked in but mostly ignored it because I tend to get distracted by shinier things. Like, two weeks ago it was Harry Potter.
So there I am at BORDERS, and I am looking at the “Buy 2 Get 1 Free” table for some summer reading, and I come across this book (by the way, the other purchases in this transaction were and , and ) and I thought – hey, that name sounds familiar…! So I picked it up and laughed out loud and brought it home with me.
Some folks in my local Stich n’ Bitch mentioned going to her book signing, but it was on a Monday which isn’t usually a convenient day for skipping the carpool, but the huz wanted to do some errand that made us have to drive separately and so then I could go. When I got to the store, I ran into some other people from my SnB, not the ones who I expected, which is normal for California.
Do you ever see someone out of context and completely know that you know them, but when you see them, you have no idea who they are? This happened to me at knit cafe yesterday. This woman is talking to me, I completely know who she is but can’t figure out who she is… Finally she says “Skylar‘s mom” . Oh, I am so embarrased. Especially since I was just mentioning how cool it was that Skylar and her mom started coming to SnB.
spm.JPG Anyway, we got that all sorted and had a great time at the book signing. Stephanie is a wonderful woman, just as approachable as she seems by reading her blog and book, and I had a really good time. Retelling some of the stories to my huz the next morning has him even more convinced that I am actually Canadian – I even knew the answer to Stephanie’s secret question to check for authentic Canadians. He accuses me of it all the time, what with the BNL and GBS fandom. Oh and the Frü-fannage.
So this picture is of Stephanie holding up a sign that says “Happy Birthday Sue” so Sue, there you are. No one seemed to know who Sue was, but Stephanie can follow directions. Sorry Stephanie, that you were so cruelly tricked by the Knitting Factory.

Baby boom or what?

There are so many babies popping out everywhere, and I see big bellies everywhere I go, so it’s no surprise I have been knitting on some very small things.
Presents for AVA.JPG
For my niece, who was born first in my circle of baby boom, I made these lovely prezzies: A sweater of my own design in Baby Ull, a teddy in a bunny suit from a Debbie Bliss pattern, done in Falk and Baby Ull, and finally some mini converse so baby can be just like dad, also knit in Baby Ull.
Presents for WYATT.JPGFor my nephew, who was born next, a sweater re-gauged from a Debbie Bliss pattern in Classic Elite Flash (i think), another Debbie Bliss bear in Falk and Baby Ull, and some creamsicle booties also in Baby Ull. Mom likes Orange. I haven’t actually seen him in person yet, but the photos look promising. He may come south for a visit in August, which will be nice.
Presents for AKWB.JPG And for a coming attraction, whose parents are planning to be surprised at the birth, a sweater of my own design in Cotton Fleece, which I have used before for baby sweaters and I think is quite nice. This is for a girlfriend at work who I am really going to miss while she’s out, but can’t wait to see the baby once he’s here! (Yeah, I think it’s a boy, but red looks nice on a girl too!)
I hate boring pastel-ly baby stuff, so I went for bright and colorful. I hope the moms like the stuff as much as I did knitting them!
I have a few more little things for the new babies, but they may wait for xmas gifts or something TBA.
There you can see my Anacondas snow globe on the right. Scary, isn’t it?