The Blog to Nowhere

Did you know that LJ only lets you go back 380 entries on your flist? I'm trying to catch up on everything I missed while I was away, but LiveJournal seems to have other ideas. So if anything important happened before September 25, well, I guess I'll have to find out about it another way.

Playing catch up was the theme of my day today. There wasn't a huge pile of work waiting for me when I got in today, mostly because it was all sitting on the other admin's desk. I guess she got super swamped while I was gone so it all started to accumulate. I don't want to complain, the lady was essentially looking after every single project, but it's sort of a mess and it's not fun trying to sort through someone else's work. Oh well. That's life.

Vacation was great, though. Being cut off from the internet for two weeks wasn't horrible, but I feel like I missed out on a lot of stuff, most notably TV. So much TV to catch up on...

Vacation highlights:
- Awesome cruise ship. I'd totally sail with this company again. The staff were super awesome about my nut allergy. And my god, there was so much food. It's so hard to resist when it's sitting right there.
- Pandas! Not on the ship, but at the San Diego Zoo. Only two of them were out, and both were lazing around because of the warm weather, but that's two pandas more than my local zoo has. Only downside to the zoo trip was the overwhelming number of kids running around. Two words. Free admission.
- Penguins! I got to pet one! I bought tickets to do a behind the scenes tour of the penguin exhibit at Sea World and it was so worth the money. For the curious, penguin feathers are super soft. I thought they would be sort of rough, to cope with the cold weather. Nope. It's very downy, almost soft as cat fur. Yet again, tons of kids at Sea World. I'm not sure if I enjoyed Sea World as much as the zoo. Sea World is too much like an amusement park and that's not for me.

I did some other stuff, too, but nothing as fun as petting a penguin. I wished I could have smuggled the penguin home. The enclosure is the same temperature as where I live right now. It'd be right at home. ;-)

Whew, I'm back from London. I got home in the afternoon yesterday but I was so pooped. I think it is virtually impossible to sleep on a plane.

But London was good. Saw way more stuff than last time. Two days total of sunshine, I think. Rest of the time it was cloudy. Oh well, it's London. ;-) So amongst the many things I did, I had high tea, visited a few museums, ate a ridiculous amount of fries (chips), toured the Harry Potter sets, and, oh yeah, saw the Queen. Okay, it was from a distance and she was in a car leaving Windsor Palace, but it was definitely her. She was on her way to Ascot and wearing a pink outfit that matched all of the pictures of her from that day. She even waved at us.

Only downside? My pedometer broke on the friggin' first day! So angry. So I did a ton of walking but I don't know the exact total. I'm going to have to get a new battery or a new pedometer when I get back to work tomorrow.

Also, there is nothing to watch on the BBC when Doctor Who isn't on. ;-) I watched that show with David Tennant and Billie Piper, True Love, but only because it was on. Mostly I ended up watching QI. So amusing. I might have to find some eps now.

I'll post some more later. I want to blab a bit about the Harry Potter tour.

T-minus 6 days until I'm off to London. Thank goodness! Though, it looks like I'll be trading one rainy and grey place for another rainy and grey place. Sunshine! Is it too much to ask?

I can't wait to get away from work for awhile. While they have hired another admin, it still feels like I'm doing all the work. Okay, yes, the new admin is still training and stuff, but it doesn't seem like she's trying to learn at all. Yet again, someone who doesn't take notes. I mean, unless you have a photographic memory, you need to take notes. The job isn't rocket science but there's a lot of stuff to keep track of.

And there are times where I find she isn't doing the work. I'll hand her something to do, something fairly easy, and an hour later it's still sitting on her desk. When I was told who they were hiring to replace the other admin, I thought, "Okay, not bad." I had met the lady before and she seemed competent enough. She pretty much had the same role I have, but on another project, so I thought she wouldn't have a tough time learning our project. Not that she is having a tough time. I would certainly hear about it if she did. This lady is so talkative. There are times where I wish she'd stop going on and on about her old project and it's not like she's praising it either. It's constant complaining about how stupid our job can be. Yes, some things are stupid, but I don't need to hear about it all the time. I just wish she'd stop talking and pay attention because there will be a lot of things to look after while I'm gone.

I think I would have been happier doing everything myself. I would have been super busy, yes, but it would help to pass the time. Sigh. Oh, and random factoid: since joining this project, I have gone through three co-admins, four if you count this new one. I'm not sure what that says about me, the project, or the position.

Anyway, I can't wait until I'm in London. Tea! Museums! Castles! Harry Potter!

Back from Las Vegas and I survived the heat! Though, mainly by staying indoors lots. I think the longest I was outside for was about 10 minutes and that was to walk to a casino.

The Star Trek convention was good fun. Apparently it broke a record, at least in Creation Entertainment's record book. They said around 4000 people showed up on Sunday. I believe them. The room was huge. Luckily, I had awesome seats about ten rows back and right in the middle. :-) So I had a great view when three Trek captains - Kirk, Picard, and Janeway - were on stage together. They were a hoot. Kate Mulgrew got in a nice, playful jab at William Shatner. She was talking about how she and Patrick Stewart both had seven years as captain and then she looked over at Shatner and she was like, "And how many did you have?" And apparently, Patrick Stewart wore the same outfit he did last year. Whoops. He was still awesome, though.

And Brent Spiner crashed his panel! It was hilarious. He got into the Q&A line and started acting like a misinformed geek. He kept calling Picard, "Micard" and Patrick had to correct him. I couldn't tell if he was genuinely happy to see Brent Spiner, but he looked amused. There were other great moments, too. Jonathan Frakes got into a huff about how he wasn't on the poster for the con but Brent Spiner was, all jokingly of course. And he was nice enough to walk around the room during his panel and a poor security guard had to follow him around.

This was also Leonard Nimoy's last Las Vegas convention. He had a really nice presentation about his life as an actor and his time on Star Trek, complete with pictures from his personal album. He didn't take any questions, which was good, I think. He didn't have to answer any lame or awkward questions. At the end, when he was saying good-bye, he actually sounded a bit choked up.

There was also a really bizarre Klingon panel. They had four Klingon actors in make-up, the Duras Sisters, Gowron, and Martok, and they were in character the entire time. They were kind of there to promote the Klingon edition of Monopoly, but they also asked questions. At one point, Gowron tried to chase down a girl dressed like a Tribble. I don't know if they had done something like this before, but the four of them seemed used to each other. And we got to shout "Qapla'!" :-)

I'm not sure I'd go back though. I really don't like Las Vegas. The casinos all stink because everyone smokes. My allergies went nuts. Maybe for the 50th anniversary I'd go back, but this isn't something I'd do every year.

I also bought something for myself while in the dealer's room, not Star Trek related. I couldn't help myself. I'll post about it later once it's out of the packaging.

Back in Canada. So tired. This is the part of travelling that I hate the most. The flight there and back. Inevitably there's always a crying baby who doesn't stop bawling for the entire flight.

Does the sun ever appear in the UK? The entire time I was there it seemed like it rained every day. And then I got back home and it was cloudy and rainy, too.

I need to fall asleep now.

Off to London tomorrow!

Okay, I won't officially get there until Thursday morning, but still, tomorrow's the start of my vacation.

I don't know, it must be a law or something, but every time I've gone on vacation while working with this company I've been loaded with last minute work. Last year was horrendous. Today wasn't so bad, I managed to get it all done with an hour to spare, but I am utterly convinced that the office would grind to a halt if it weren't for admins. I was training my buyer today on how to create a purchase order in our system and this is stuff he should have learned already. Hopefully everything isn't in utter chaos when I get back.

But I figure admins are like the engineers on all the Star Trek shows. People expect us to be miracle workers. I think I'll take a page from Scotty's book. Overestimate how much time a task will take and when it seems like you've taken less than that, when really you only did the task in the usual amount of time, you'll be proclaimed a hero and everyone will praise you. ;-)

I'll be taking a netbook with me this vacation so the first time I'll be able to stay connected while I'm gone. I warn you now there might be a lot of squeeing, especially around Friday/Saturday. Doctor Who Experience! Doctor Who watched properly on the BBC! I won't be ashamed if those two things are the highlight of my trip. :-)

Yay, my London/Scotland vacation is coming together! Got a flight lined up and I think I might have found some good accommodations in Edinburgh.

I've never been overseas before, so this is going to be a completely new experience for me. I only have two days in London, which so isn't enough time to explore, but this trip is more about Scotland. I'll make it back to London someday to check out everything. But being the good geek that I am, I will have enough time in London to check out the Doctor Who Experience. It'll be near the end of its run by the time I get there (mid-May), so hopefully nothing has broken down in the mean time. Sadly, I didn't get tickets to see David Tennant and Catherine Tate in Much Ado About Nothing, though my sister did. Oh well. At least I have the knowledge that they were in the city at the same time I was. ;-)

For sure we'll be visiting Loch Ness while in Scotland. How could we not? And we're definitely visiting the Edinburgh Zoo. One word: penguins! They have a daily penguin parade where they let the penguins out of their enclosure. Well, if the penguins want to go out they go out, but the keepers don't force them to. Still, penguins! I'm fairly certain I could spend the entire day just watching the penguins waddle around. I'm not sure what else I want to do, but we'll play it by ear when we get there. Maybe a side trip to Glasgow to check out an old school police box? This is going to be so exciting!

Whoo, I'm on vacation day after tomorrow! Thank goodness. My gosh have I been busy at work. The other admin is on vacation, too, so that's probably why. It's been such a long time since I was busy at work. I forgot what it was like. :-) But in a couple of days, I'll be cruising down the East coast to Boston. Mmm, I can't wait for all the good eating to be had on the cruise ship...

And now for something completely different...

A side quest of mine, besides finishing Classic Who, was to watch the entire run of MacGyver. I think I started in January and I finished a couple of weeks ago. Even watched the two TV movies they did. And all in time for MacGyver's 25th anniversary, which is today. As much as I love Richard Dean Anderson, I prefer him in Stargate SG-1. It's the mullet. It was so hard to take MacGyver seriously with that hair. The 1980s weren't a great decade for fashion.

Still, MacGyver was a cute little show and, as Mythbusters has proved, some of the stuff Mac made actually works. Chocolate to stop an acid leak? Check. Egg in the radiator to plug a hole? Check. Airplane made out of bamboo? Eh, not so much, but Mac gets points for creativity.

Other things to love about MacGyver, the show and the man. Mac was a fan of Calgary Flames for no apparent reason. That made me giggle. The show was also shot in Vancouver for four seasons, and they filmed at Bridge Studios, no less. I wonder if RDA ever gets tired of Vancouver. He can't seem to leave the city behind. ;-) But that was another bonus with watching MacGyver: spotting all of the familiar Vancouver landmarks and Canadian actors. There were so many people who appeared both in MacGyver and Stargate.

I'm surprised they haven't tried to bring back the show. With all the reboots and re-imaginings going on, a new MacGyver would fit right in. I'm not sure how the show would work now though. A handy cell phone would be able to get Mac out of a lot of jams.

And I think I've said this before, but the Doctor? Totally the Time Lord equivalent of MacGyver. :-D



This will probably be my last post for a week or so. See you after Thanksgiving.

Saturday morning was set tour day. There were several choices as to when you could go, the first being the ungodly hour of 6:45. We went at 8:15, my logic being it was still early enough that it wouldn’t be a packed tour. Though, I think it didn’t matter. The con packs the same amount of people into each tour.

If you were expecting to see photos of the Stargate sets, I’m about to sorely disappoint you. Before stepping on the bus you had to sign a waiver saying the show wasn’t responsible if you got hurt while touring the sets and that you weren’t allowed to post any pictures that you took. Though, there’s nothing in the waiver saying you can’t show the pictures to friends. My mom is planning to show the photos to a friend of hers who also watches SG-1 and SGA. Whoo hoo loopholes.

( Con photos and much rambling )

As my first major con, I have to say the Stargate one is pretty good. Anything organized by Creation is worth going to, I think. Hopefully next year, you can visit the sets for all three shows. Now that would be worth it.

I consider myself to be a Stargate fan, but I'm not a hardcore Stargate fanatic. So it was a little weird spending five days with all these people who really do love the show. They know this show forwards and backwards and inside-out. Still, it was fun.

The first two days were non-con days, and while the third did involve an official locations tour, it was a day before the official con days, so I'm including it here. The actual con days I'll cover in another post once I'm done organizing all my photos. Once again, Gateworld, a better source for stuff than me.

( Various Stargate and sci fi show locations )

Basically, Vancouver is the place to go if you want to shoot your sci fi TV show/movie for cheap. You've got trees, rocks, and interesting buildings aplenty.