Tag: stargate

Posted on

Drawing A Blank

Have no idea what to select as a title. Drawing a blank.

Job – the beatings will continue until morale improves. Well, it’s about a month and a half until the end of the March, we’ll see what’ll happen then. My bet – nothing major, which will trigger me looking, which will trigger the hostility, which will trigger me looking even faster and round and round and round we go again.

There is, of course, always a chance that someone up there will turn up just a little smarter than usual, but even if they were – why would they bother? I don’t get my expectations higher than usual.

Stargate Atlantis Rewatch – done! That CSI episode (Vegas) always makes me sad. Besides, it’s weird that not a single person from SGC had said – let’s beam down the containment team to pick up the pieces. And rescue Sheppard, while we’re at it. Sad.

Photography and Instagram (somewhat new topic) – decided to try out a few auto-posting services for Instagram. Created a secondary account, bought a subscription at Postfly.io and – kaboom! – it expired the next day. Now I am trying to contact the seller (TheNextWeb) and the Postfly Automation website to get it restored. Obviously no one is responding within reasonable time. TNW has a funny return policy, saying – if you ask for refund via PayPal we will cancel your TNW account and forever ban you on our website. Because – reasons. Will give them another couple of days, since obviously, all interns are busy at the moment and they’ll return your call as soon as they stop jerking off in the bathroom.

Also trying out Later – another scheduling service that allows combining Instagram, Twitter, FB and a couple of others (Google+, anyone?). Looks a lot more professional, will keep an eye out on the sales.

Posted on

Saturday Wait, And Sunday Always Comes Too Late

And I need another song to pull the titles from

Since this is Saturday/Sunday kind of post – no job updates. I have, however, spent whole day today doing absolutely nothing – felt really good and I got some rest.

Stargate Atlantis Rewatch – that episode (S5 E15) where Woolsey is being seduced (damn, just writing this looks funny) by an alien AI projection and Sheppard has to run around from Kolya again… I went and checked and it seemed that it’s one of the episodes written by William Waring. To be honest, each episode in season 5 written by him feels just a tad weaker than the rest. Which is kind of sad, because he did 13 episodes of SG-1 before that, so I can see why they let him direct, but cannot see why they didn’t help with the overall quality. Anyway, a kind of weak episode, I don’t buy their motivation to isolate Sheppard – not for a second. Just doesn’t add up.

Photography – I am still stuck on that pinup shoot, I can’t bring myself to edit it properly. It’s fucking annoying as hell, but something about the whole thing just… looks wrong. There’s no “punch”, she’s not selling the look, or selling it wrong… I don’t know.

On the other hand – the article is up: Male Boudoir Photographer. Feedback welcome 🙂

While on the topic of boudoir photography – I like this picture because it says “tranquility” to me more than anything else. I wish I could get a girl like that again to do the same thing but in the river or a lake or something like that. She’s amazing here.

Rated R
Posted on

Friday – I’m In Love

Back to the writing

Job – I’ve got not just one, not event two, but three emails from my boss saying he liked the shit I am doing. I was worried there for a bit until I remembered that during one of the meetings he mentioned that he doesn’t feel well and is on antibiotics. While I do want him to feel better (he’s a good human and a smart guy), I figured this explains the emails. Oh, well, let’s see what the next week will bring.

Stargate Atlantis Rewatch – I still firmly believe that wraith are an evolved version of vegans from Milky Way galaxy. Convince me otherwise!

Photography – editing through the backlog. Posted a couple of updates to Zealus Media – my main photography web site. Almost immediately got this shit from Tumblr:

So, basically, fuck you, Tumblr – says I and deletes the account. Bye, Felicia. Where there is no trust – there is no safety. See the image I posted below, there’s more here.

FUCK YOU TUMBLR
Posted on

Thursday – I Don’t Care About You

So even the weekly posting is in jeopardy. Monthlies, start worrying.

Reposting here since the /r/Stargate post didn’t pick up.

This is something I wanted to share with /r/Stargate and see what the feedback would be. I read through comments at a previous discussion and listened to the whole podcast episode. I probably am not going to win any awards here but just wanted to share my 2 cents. Disclaimer: I am just a SG fan, no affiliation with anyone. I am not even from Canada, but I plan to visit it this Summer/Fall.

– studios are large corporations, who excel at corporate double-speak (CDS). TV/film studios are doubly so. It makes sense that what they’re saying and “what they’re really saying” are two different things.
– keep in mind that three things coincided here – wrap up of Travelers and availability of a large creative crew, a downturn in interest in SG franchise (after an abomination of a SG:O, which to my surprise holds a 4.8 star rating for the Stargate Origins: Catherine release and 4.0 for series proper) and a chance to invite Brad Wright to the podcast. If you listened to the podcast – he’s clearly talking over landline phone, so it’s just a schedule window where he can dedicate an hour to participating in the podcast. I.e. – not like a huge convention or event. Just people talking.

– if I can decipher the CDS that Brad is using – he is saying he is a little upset that the studio went ahead with plans for Ronald Emmerich reboot. Dude officially said he wants the SG-1/A/U out of the window and studio was running with it for some time. Don’t know if I remember correctly – there were talks about a three-movie deal that would bury the canon for good. For someone of Brad Wright caliber, it must be throwing piss in his face. I’d remember I was mighty upset too, but I am a sucker for continuity.

– once they have reconsidered and Emmerich was out of the picture (at least, officially) – that’s what he calls “they’ve reconsidered”. Which means the canon is not out of the window, which means the “acknoledgement” of “hours and hours” of his contribution. Which is what he is, apparently, happy with.
– the “we’re talking” can literally mean anything in CDS. It could mean – they are calling him daily, but he purposefully not picking up the phone. Could be the other way around. Could be they’re working on a schedule of meetings to actually sit down and brainstorm what can be done with this IP.

– from the studio management point of view, I think I understand the dilemma. On one hand, the overall landscape of the TV shows has changed. You have Game of Thrones, you have House of Cards, you have Better Call Saul, Orange Is The New Black – huge hits based on original material. And there’s definitely a different mood in those shows, they are more intense, there’s more drama, more of everything, really. And then you have reboots of old top-level shows, like McGyver, Lethal Weapon, Lost in Space, Star Trek: Discovery, that are not doing as good. So the problem is – how to make a powerful show, but not alienate existing fan-base (which is what almost happened with SG:O). How to please existing fans and get new ones invested in the show. It’s a serious problem and someone’s got to solve it. And, to me, Brad Wright is a much better solution than Emmerich – because Independence Day 2 isn’t anywhere near Independence Day the original and because Brad Wright has a lot of experience catering to the audiences that like SG-like shows.

– one more thing Brad had mentioned was that he’s working with many new people in addition to people from Stargate teams. What I think he’s saying is that things have moved on and there’s very little chance we can see same cast/ensemble we saw in SG. Individually certain people can appear, occasionally, but not as a rule.

– and now, the most important question – because everything else could be resolved with enough money, experience, patience, and ass-kissing (just like anything else in the corporate world) – what would the show be about? If it’s a prequel – we aren’t capitalizing on the canon, because it didn’t happen yet but it’s already limiting us should the show run for more than a season. If it’s a sequel, like “20 years later” – then we’ll get either a Star Trek or BS:G, depending on if we’re winning or losing to bad guys. The interesting idea (don’t hate me, I am just thinking out loud here) would be along the lines of the original rebooted Star Trek – where things are positioned in another “dimension” or “reality” so you can start fresh while still capitalizing on the canon. Same way, like ST brought over Spock – new SG can bring over Teal’c or Harriman 🙂 They can even pull a GoT here and consistently kill off characters as they live (and die) through dangers of missions of Stargate Command. Or not. But this ultimately need to feed both the old fans (do not break the existing canon but give me something new and fresh) and new fans (give me something I will like given the current show landscape/competition).

– the last, but not least – SG is one of the very few franchises that has aged well. SG-1 launched 22 years ago yet, despite the crappy resolution of first 7 seasons, you can still watch it today and not be distracted by sub-par special effects or things that don’t make sense to you anymore. Another few years aren’t going to do a significant amount of damage to the property, so MGM can sit on it a little longer and assess more options.

Posted on

And Wednesday’s Blue

My fucking back hurts like a motherfucker.

Job – pushing through, although it seems like the more I push the less interest it generates up above my chain of command. It’s a complex product and it takes the time and the patience. And, apparently, while we enjoy the former, we severely lack the latter. At the very least I’ve got good experience, and at most – we’ll actually succeed in moving this damn skyscraper of a product into the market.

Stargate Atlantis rewatch – Broken Ties and the first half of Daedalus Variations. I remember when I watched Variations the first time, it was one of the very few episodes in the franchise when I actually was concerned with team’s fate. I didn’t believe for a second that they’re not going to survive, but the episode as a whole came very close to my pain threshold. Basically, knowing it’s the last season you think that anything can happen. They can pull Pa’u Zotoh Zhaan on any character or put someone on the bus for the sake of wrapping the show (Dr. Janet Frasier, anyone?). Or, you know, replace Rodney from this reality with one from one of the alternative ones. Fun!

Amazon Wishlist – done, go buy me shit! Support your favorite artist photographer. Aside from coffee, that I require to function properly (I can function without it, but you’re not going to like it), everything else on that list is about photography. I promise! And most of it isn’t even expensive. Well, except that monitor thingy. Actually, here’s a novel idea – anyone who’s getting me stuff under $100 gets a custom printed random photo – say 5×7 – mailed to them, under $250 – 8×10, above $250 – 12×18. Random photo. Same way I don’t get to choose what you buy from that list – you don’t get to choose what I will print. However, keep coming back to this blog and you’ll see what you may get in the mail. This shit’s not on Instagram or Facebook because it’s censored.

Uncensored 18+ stuff
Posted on

Tuesday’s Gray

Mostly because nothing of significance happens and it’s all just a wall of a gray woosh.

Job – spent some pretty productive hours and learned a thing or two about one of the major technology companies. Can’t say what, can’t say who, but I am flabbergasted. Pushed some buttons, pushed some people. Interesting how some shit’s coming around and around.

Guess that’s why I can’t just up and start writing stuff every day about every day. On one hand I am busy doing things, on the other hand – some (most) of it is boring, some of it is under NDA, and some just my private shit that is so not interesting…

Stargate Atlantis – as I moved to fifth season in my re-watch, I had an idea. Wraith are just next iteration of predatory vegetarians. We have vegans and vegetarians who don’t eat meat, fish, eggs, whatnot. Then we have some who only consume sunlight. Obviously they die out rather quickly because their bodies aren’t equipped with necessary mechanisms to consume sunlight as energy. That’s basically what Wraith have – a mechanism to consume a “life force” (energy) but not from the Sun – this would have made them true vegetarians, but from other life forms. And this is exactly what makes them predatory.

Home IT – my desktop started staggering today, which is pretty fucking unexpected. So I went straight into Task Manager… and holy crap – I’ve got Chrome eating up 30% of CPU time and about 4GB of RAM for six tabs. While Firefox sits at 15% with 3GB of RAM running twice that many tabs open, half of them – Gmail and Outlook email accounts, which is pretty heavy. As a first approximation experiment – kicked the Chrome off and loaded same tabs in Firefox Developer, just to keep the two browser picture. Both CPU and RAM consumption immediately dropped. I’ll run similar test tomorrow with MS Edge, but it kind of doesn’t make sense as they’re moving to Chromium anyway. Still, pretty indicative how shitty the Chrome have become – practically an IE 6.0 all over again.

Practical idea – instead of Patreon, OnlyFans and other crap – just run the Amazon wish list. You like my work – buy me something I need to continue doing my work. Speaking of work – today’s Instagram picture.

Uncensored
Posted on

Totally Not Depressing Tuesday

I need to start coming up with less creative titles for my posts. Really.

The morning started with work, then more work, then even more work. Figured out this, talked to that, did a few phone calls, yada yada yada. Really, most of the day was just work, then slight driving here and there, then work again.

Registered for training next week – it would be cool to hear the real people talk about real product management. Not that I use any of that in my current line of work, but a good brush up on skills never hurts. And I will be in Pennsylvania for 3 days, so might as well have some fun there.

Which reminds me – I need to post a bunch of casting calls for PA. Knowing how shit usually goes down I’d be lucky if I get at least one photo shoot out of the 3 nights I’ll be spending there. Not that I would mind just spacing out for 3 evenings, but I’d rather stay productive. Also, the place has a fitness center, if it’s at least half-way working it would be nice. Yogurt and free weights, here I come.

Watched SGA: Vengeance today. Every time I rewatch this episode I can’t help but notice it’s the same place where half of the underground episodes were shot – SG-1, SGA, and even SGU. Also, Sheppard’s team really looked stupid in this episode – every time the plot required one of them just suddenly ventured into one of the rooms with steel doors. Just because. Without alerting or even prompting the rest. I mean – I am not a military person, but even I would have said something.

And to wrap it up – another image that’s not social media acceptable

Continue reading “Totally Not Depressing Tuesday”
Posted on

Junk Food Sunday

Okay, I actually did something productive today – in addition to buying junk food and eating it all by myself.

Started the day by reading Reddit – at least there are more fresh topics than in Russian FB groups. I am pretty sure people enjoy those 3 topics immensely and I would have too – if I had more time and less intellect, but I just can’t go over same 3 topics over and over and over. Seriously, I understand how they are being used just as a conversation starters, but really…

Got that stupid idea into my head about figuring out what’s a Reddit bot and how one would go about building one.

Tried to dissuade myself from spending any time on the bot – my thought was that it’s probably some sort of Python script that needs to talk to reddit’s API and blah-blah-blah. Spent almost an hour making bacon for breakfast and thinking up all the crazy use cases for a bot. Turkey bacon is awesome.

Checked with the model that I had sent 20 edited pictures yesterday instead of 15 she was asking for. She was pretty good about me being an asshole of a photographer and delivering images from the August shoot all the way in January. I did apologize, of course, but still – I shouldn’t have sat on these for so long. Got a good 20 images from that shoot, and she seems to be happy – even remembered she promised to pay for them. Which is always welcome.

And of course, I gave in to temptation and went to figure out the Reddit bot thingy. I was right about API and of course, someone has already put together a sample bot script in Python. I’ve decided that I am extremely lazy and don’t want to look up the code in other languages, I set up Python on my desktop, googled a couple of Python things I never knew (hey, I am not a developer) and went to have a lot of fun with BDSMpersonals subreddit.

While driving around during a second part of the day, decided to start reading Stargate books (a.k.a. Stargate Novels) – officially sanctioned fanfiction set in Stargate universe. I’ve finished the SG-1 book a couple of days ago and decided to switch it up a little and go for Stargate Atlantis. I am on a fence for now. It isn’t first-class literature, but it’s better than some of the official Star Wars drek I ended up reading at some point.

Finally ended up home and re-watched a couple of episodes of Stargate Atlantis – The Ark and Sunday. It’s a part of my rewatch anyway and this time around I went all in with books too. That’s where the junk food came in – I haven’t eaten Pringles in 6 months and I just had to eat two cans of that shit with ginger ale.

Next couple of hours were all about cleaning this blog and making the entries. Good day to start as any. Also, /r/ListenToThis is not half as bad as I thought.