Geekery, Inc.“Insert nerdy quote here”

As a die-hard SG-1 fan, I can honestly say that I have watched every single episode of Stargate SG-1, plus all of the bonus features… at least twice if not more. Seeing as there are ten seasons and over two hundred episodes, that is no mean feat. It’s taken a lot of time and effort… you know, lifting the remote.. switching discs, etc*… to finish the entire series more than once. But it’s a sacrifice someone had to make.

Also, Richard Dean Anderson is my hero. (See picture)

Anyway… I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how many great episodes there are in Stargate SG-1, but up until last night I didn’t have a clear concept of how much the word “many” entails. When I counted them out, I found 60.  And so, after being prodded by Dan to write in our fabulously geeky blog, I decided to figure out which really ARE the best. So starting with this post, I’m going to watch them all and narrow it down (as best I can).

Here are the best episodes of Stargate SG-1, by season/episode: (be aware that there are 60 episodes in this list… so by reading on, you are asking for it…) Read the rest of this entry »

I found out about the Windows 7 beta rather late, apparently.  Everyone was aghast that I hadn’t already installed it on Saturday when they told me it was live.

Initially, I thought I’d just throw it on my laptop as a safety measure to see how it ran.  No sense in fouling up my main PC.  But once I had a chance to mess with it a bit, it went on my main PC anyway (to the suprise of no one, I’m sure).

Vendor and OEM hardware issues aside (I hate you, ATI… I hate you so much), there are a few things that bother me about this newest version, but there are many (fairly obvious) improvements.

The first nitpick is that the Windows key + E doesn’t immediately go to My Computer like it has in every previous version of Windows.  This same area is available by clicking “Computer” on the left pane when you open this window, but I literally use this key combination to get to My Computer dozens of times a day.  This extra step is a small annoyance that adds up during the day.

The second is one that I know the Microsoft team is touting as an improvement.  The Mac OS X Dock “Superbar.” Maybe it’s just personal preference, but I like having my quicklaunch and taskbar seperate things.

As for the improvements, the most noticeable is the speed. Windows 7 runs MUCH faster than Vista did. On my laptop, Aero doesn’t bog down the OS at all. I’d try gaming, but (as mentioned above) ATi and Dell do nothing but cause me heartaches when trying to get their drivers to do anything useful at all. On my desktop, Warcraft gained about 15fps. In Vista, I have all games turn off Aero when they start because I have two monitors. This increase was without turning the visual theme off.

Other than speed, there’s been a significant decrease in the number of UAC messages (especially when doing day-to-day things). They’ve even added controls so you can change how much you want the UAC to notify you about things.

Then there are little things that don’t matter much to me. Themes with sets of backgrounds you can have change every few minutes, for example. The taskbar itself is also prettier (with some nice mouseover, glowing effects).

The next step (other than using the crap out of the OS to see what else there is in there) is to wait and see if MS makes us any kind of deal on upgrades. They’re touting this as a “major upgrade,” but there’s little in here that warrants it, I think.

If someone were to ask me right now what Farscape is about, I would say love. Or maybe more specifically: making out with aliens. It occured to me about halfway through the first season, after Crichton’s little fling with Gilina, a Peacekeeper from Aeryn’s past. If I remember correctly, and I DO for the record, because I’m awesome, Crichton soon after realizes that he has feelings for Aeryn. Regardless of this, he makes out with EVERYONE. In one episode, in fact, I’m pretty sure he even kisses D’argo. And makes a pass at Rygel. But mostly, Crichton kisses lots of aliens, sometimes directly in front of Aeryn (which, if you as me, probably does not help one bit), and he likes it.

He is also partially crazy. He screams a lot. But I guess that I would do that too, if I were lost in a distant part of space with strange aliens who sometimes screw me completely.

It applies to more than just Crichton, though, because there is a lot of love on Farscape. Crichton loves Aeryn, but he also loves D’argo, and Zhaan. Chianna, too, but in a different way. Chianna pretty much only loves Crichton and D’argo. Zhaan loves everyone, except maybe Rygel. Aeryn has a deep connection with Pilot because she has his DNA embedded in her own, and she has strong feelings of love for everyone else except for Rygel. Zhaan loves Stark. Pilot, Moya, and Zhaan have their own weird little love triangle, incited mostly by Zhaan’s singing.

And that’s that.

I’m just writing this post to test out this theme and to get the ball rolling. Mostly I’m just going to put in filler text because I’m lazy like that, and currently have nothing geeky to say.

This performance of Adew Dundee: Early and Traditional Music from Scotland will cover musical selections from the 16th to the 20th century and from Scotland to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and Tennessee. Join us for a delightful afternoon with joyous, accomplished musicians.  Founded in 1980 to perform the instrumental music of Shakespeare’s time, the Baltimore Consort has explored early English, Scottish, and French popular music, focusing on the relationship between folk and art song and dance.