Bad day.

I'm having a bad day. I can't really pinpoint anything really bad happening to me today, I just feel like I had a bad day.

I guess I'm going to try going to sleep, even though I'm not tired at all.

I wish I could sleep like a normal person.

Good Things for Tomorrow
New Battlestar Galactica.
New Dresden Files. (Cheesey, but addictive.)
Adult Swim.
Green.

And by the way, this stuff is coming up:
Stargate SG-1, last season--April 6th
Stargate Atlantis, third season--April 6th
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, third season--this summer
Aqua Teen Movie--March 23rd (supposedly)
Stargate SG-1: The Ark of Truth, movie--this fall

"So say we all."

WARNING: Major Atlantis Spoilers.

I am very, very sad. I finally saw "The Ark" and "Sunday" last night. "The Ark" was good--funny, good things happened, etc. But "Sunday"--well, words fail me. It's incredibly depressing.

Of course, Mom and I had been reading all over the Internet that they were going to write Carson Beckett out of the show, and for the longest time, we didn't know when, how, or why. We still don't know why. There was already tons of stuff by the time we saw the episode that confirmed that "Sunday" was in fact the episode where Carson "disappears"--and that he wasn't just being written out, he was getting killed off. We spent the whole episode hoping that it was somehow all a big mistake, but he does die at the end. The worst part is that they set the whole episode up with tiny details that, if only one of them had been different, Carson would probably be alive. At the end, they really screw the fans--he was just a few steps away from being away from the bomb enough to survive.

I feel like the writers have let me down. I thought he was safe when he made it into the opening credits season two, but apparently I was wrong. This sucks. Mom and I were crying pretty much from when he went into surgery until about half an hour after the episode was over. Why are they doing this to us? It was one thing to kill off Grodin in season one, then get rid of Ford in season two (where the hell is he now, by the way?), but killing off Carson is almost like killing off Sheppard or McKay. Mom also told me that they're writing Weir out of the show and replacing her with Carter from SG1! That really, really makes me mad. I love Carter, don't get me wrong, but she does not belong on Atlantis. Weir has been in charge for three years, and she is the most qualified to run that base. Not to mention that if Carter really takes over, Sheppard will be outranked and no longer in charge of the military operations. I think that's just shitty. He's been ranking military officer since about halfway into the first episode, and he deserves it.

I used to watch SG1 and be amazed at how in tune they seemed to be with the fans. They made jokes at their own expense, they brought up things people had said, they even spoofed Daniel Jackson's return to the show via the fans. A lot of times lately though, when I watch SGA (which is probably my favorite even over SG1), I feel like they're really letting us down. I used to defend the writers' decisions because I believed that they were truly trying to do things for us, but I definitely don't feel that anymore. Killing off Beckett was almost as pointless as killing Wash in the last twenty minutes of Serenity.

I guess I'm just scared that, with all of these negative changes and stupid moves, the Stargate franchise may really be over soon. That makes me incredibly sad. It was my very favorite of all shows, and it helped me escape from my problems in the world for awhile. Now, though, it's becoming another problem for me.

When I watch TV shows, I don't want to see a lot of death and sadness. I watch TV as an escape from death and sadness in the real world. I don't need it thrust upon me in my shows. Some characters are okay to kill--but only if they're extras, and you need to label them as such so we know that they aren't going to make it. (Just do it like SG1--if you're some high number team, like SG13, you're probably not going to make it.)

Mom and I made a pact that, if for some outrageous reason, they ever kill off McKay or Sheppard, we will stop watching. That's a pretty big deal for us. Mom's been watching SG1 for ten years, and I am so in love with Stargate that I have a tattoo on my wrist of the origin symbol for earth. But without our guys, the show is truly over for us. Fortunately, I doubt that will ever happen (although after this, I'm not entirely certain anymore).

We will miss you, Beckett. You were a good man, and a good friend. You will always be remembered.

Term Paper.

I'm attempting to get a head start on my term paper this year. I always wait until the last minute and then I hate myself.

I'm doing the same basic paper for Plagues and Pestilence and Practice of History (I'll have to expand it quite a bit to turn it in for Practice), and I've now been on the computer for two hours going through medical journals looking for anything on Marburg and Ebola (which, of course, is the topic that I chose). I want to have a formal prospectus ready by tomorrow so I can get Dr. Anderson on board. Then I'll be at least a week ahead in P&P and 2 weeks ahead in Practice.

This is turning into a major pain in my ass. I'm actually looking for something really specific: a book of papers published in 1970 in a symposium at the University of Marburg about the outbreak in 1967. It would make a terrific primary source, and I would love to get it in the original German, but it's impossible to find. I need it, though. I'm going to keep looking forever, because that is the most perfect primary that I could ever imagine. It was the first thing published about Marburg, after the very first known outbreak. If only I could find it!

Well, back to my research. I want to have this paper done by Spring Break. (The best laid plans, I know.) Auf wieder...schreiben? Wieder lesen?

And on that note...

"So long! Farewell! Auf wieder sehen, good-bye!"

One more thing.

And also, just once, I wish that a professor would notice my Stargate necklace and talk to me about it. I could develop a real ccomraderie with another Stargate fan.

Okay, everything else aside, they're finally putting Get Smart on DVD!!! This is so exciting to me. I'm always complaining that TVLand stopped playing it. It's one of my very favorite shows. It was so funny. Sorry, but it kicks The A-Team's ass.

"Missed it by that much!"

School started.

Plagues and Pestilence is rocking my world so far, just like I thought that it would. Unfortunately, as part of my Practice of History class (yawn; the whole class is learning how to write a research paper, which you should have learned in high school) I have to write a juvenile paper titled "Why I Became a History Major." How is this different from "What I Did on My Summer Vactation" from fourth grade? There is no difference.

Disease is really scary, but there's something fascinating about it, too. Ebola and Marburg are my personal choices for study. This class will eventually get to them and AIDS too (another personal favorite of mine, because I saw that documentary about Hooper's theory that AIDS actually broke into the human population via the oral polio vaccine developed by Hilary Koprowski and given to many Africans during the '60s. Contreversial stuff, but also very, very interesting.

Can't sleep, but I have my P&P class tomorrow. I read the chapter and read the notes online. I'm so ready. Hopefully, I'll get my German book tomorrow and be just as ready for German Civilization on Thursday. (I like that class, too, but those two are really the only ones that I have any real interest in. Practice, Concepts, and American Government (as taught by Patrick Stewart--no, unfortunately, not that Patrick Stewart) are incredibly boring. I was actually looking forward to Government, too, but so far it's been a huge disappointment, and it's going to include group work--which I hate--and sitting too close to everyone else in the class--which makes me very uncomfortable. I need to sit in a more secluded area or I feel like people are crowding me.

Well, I guess I should go to sleep. I have class at 11am tomorrow, and for me, that's very early.

"Call me Mayor Chapstick."

My super cool dream.

I had this really cool dream the other night that I am really proud of. Kris and I were on some kind of game show where teams composed of two people had to do these stupid tasks. The only one that I remember was us using some kind of pump to inflate a giant yellow elephant balloon, but ours had a hole in it. I was trying to fix it, but Kris pointed out that the rules said we had to inflate the balloon, but not that it had to stay inflated, so once we finished, we just abandoned it with air leaking out of it. We were winning, too. We ran down this hallway, turned a corner, and I started running down the stairs so that we could get outside and run toward some kind of mountain, where our last task awaited us. As I ran down the stairs, I looked over and saw one of the other teams--oddly enough composed of Dick Cheney and Angelina Jolie--trying to inflate their giant elephant balloon, only theirs was purple. Angelina was wearing an evening gown and high heels with her hand on her hip while Cheney tried to inflate the balloon, and they were bitching at each other. I turned to Kris so that we could point and laugh, but I couldn't find him. I got to the bottom of the stairs and looked around, and suddenly he sailed down from this ledge up high, landed on his feet in some kind of kung fu pose, and looked over at me. I said, "Let's roll," and he rolled his eyes and said, "Let's just go." We started running toward the mountain, and that was about the time Kris woke me up. I still wonder what that last challenge was.

The only thing that I remember from before the contest started was that we were on a ferris wheel with Kate Moss and she passed us a joint. Weird.

I'm trying to talk Kris into seeing The Holiday with me on his day off. I only want to see it to watch Jack Black and Kate Winslet get together, and now I've waited long enough that if we go to a matinee, there probably won't be anybody else there. (I hate crowds--well, other people, really--so I always try to time my movie experiences that way. The only one I didn't do that with was Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny, and I absolutely couldn't wait for that one, so I went to a matinee on opening day. There still weren't very many people there, but I was the only one laughing out loud. I'm still not sure what was wrong with everyone else.)

Time to finish my DVD. I'm putting Slither and an episode of Scrubs on a disc for Mom. Tonight we watch "The Game"!

"His chin looks like balls. Should I cover that too?"

New movies.

Been awhile. Hey, some of us have lives.

(Yeah, I know. I laughed at that one, too.)

Anyway, I've enjoyed some movies lately, and I would like to share them with you. The most important was Nothing, which I ordered from work and finally got a month later. It was God-awful, but I got it because David Hewlett starred in it, and I really liked it, but I also recognize that you'd have to be a DH fan to actually enjoy it. Kris actually watched the whole thing with me, if you can believe it, but he kept looking at me and rolling his eyes, and the only part that he actually laughed out loud for was when Dave was trying to play the drums better, and he kept trying to hate away memories that held him back, but every time he played, he still sounded the same. Finally, Andrew says, "It sounds exactly the same," and Dave replies, "Yeah, I know, but I just hated away that I gave a shit."

Next on my list was Clerks II, and it rocked my world. It was possibly even funnier than the first. My absolute favorite part was when Randall took on two Lord of the Rings nerds (because Star Wars is the ONLY trilogy), and he actually made one of them puke. Plus, he said the exact same things that I said about Frodo and Sam when I saw the movie. (Sorry, guys; Star Wars IS the only trilogy. Count it.)

Then Kris bought Dead Man's Chest because he couldn't stand not seeing it anymore, which made me incredibly happy, too. It was awesome. Also possibly better than the first. Johnny Depp rules one of my many worlds. I really, really hope he goes for it with Tim Burton and plays Sweeney Todd. That would make me happier than I can possibly describe. He would make the perfect demon barber of Fleet Street.

We also watched Superman Returns. It really didn't impress me that much--I just wanted to see Kevin Spacey play Lex Luthor, which by the way, he rocked. I love Kevin Spacey. My favorite Spacey movie is one of my favorite Jeff Bridges movies, too--K-PAX. Ah. I love the Bridges brothers, too. (Because as I'm sure you know, Beau Bridges joined the cast of SG-1 last year. Rock!)

I'm still hung up on Scrubs, and still for Cox. I love sarcastic guys. I also love these guys because I see a lot of Kris in them. Kris likes a lot of them, too, whether he'll admit it or not, because he sees hmself in them, too. (If you're counting, he likes Jack Sparrow--well, Johnny Depp, too; Dead Man is one of his favorite movies--Dr. Cox, and Randall, but he still hates McKay--my crush on him is too big--and Dante--he thinks he's a dork. Actually, we got into a big fight because I like Dante because Kris says he's ugly. He's not ugly, though, he's adorable, and I think he's sweet. Kris hates him.)

I also got a super cool talking Peter Griffin pen (Family Guy). He says a lot of really funny stuff, including my favorite, "A degenerate am I? Well you are a festezio. See? I can make up words too, sister," and the ever funny, "I have an idea. An idea so smart my head would explode if I even began to know what I was talking about." Good stuff.

Still can't sleep. I was up till 5:00 this morning, then slept for three hours. Then Kris brought me a Denver omelette burrito, and I was up for awhile longer. Mmm. It was good, too. Now I'm listening to the Scissor Sisters (quietly, because Kris is asleep, but he stayed up until midnight so that we could kiss. I can't believe this is our third New Year together.)

Anyway, Scrubs time!

"Form of...an ice menorah!"