According to Gateworld, Stargate Atlantis will end this season...

BAM! Out of the blue! It's been doing VERY well... What on Earth is SciFi and MGM thinking?! Going strictly from the vague article, I'm going to go out on a limb and say they got punch-drunk on the pseudo-success of the direct-to-DVD movies that Stargate SG-1 was doing and decided to toss Atlantis and do it the same way. What is WRONG with people? Even Doctor Who is going this route! It's going on hiatus for who knows what reason and instead of a season, they're giving us a few 2-hour TV specials sprinkled throughout the year.

Regardless, this season of Atlantis has been nothing short of amazing. Last season felt off-beat and slow, but I'll chalk that up to a bit of actor reassigning going on, but they really seemed to step it up a notch this season... Story, acting, effects, everything. But seriously, please enlighten me as to what SciFi plans to run in its place? The only other show they have worth watching is Eureka... It's awesome and all, but it has such a short season and I'm always worried it's not coming back. Honestly, I don't know why anyone would even conceive of killing off a Stargate series this early... 5 Seasons is too short. At least 6... SG-1 went all the way up to 8 before they reimagined it and screwed it up completely for the next 2 seasons.

Ugh. I'm NOT looking forward to Stargate Universe. I went through this with Stargate Atlantis, of course, wanting SG-1 to keep airing and being extremely skeptical of Atlantis. Eventually, after those blasted Ori, I took up Atlantis as my flagship series... So I don't know. The writers are amazing and I think they'll do a good job, but nobody WANTS Stargate Atlantis to end this early! They've done it again and managed to axe the series before the season is over, but after anyone could change the scripts so it's still going to end on a stereotypical publisher-induced cliffhanger. Bah! Very upset with SciFi. As if cutting Eureka's opening titles from a paltry 60 seconds to a shocking 10 seconds... They're the classic example of a publisher who enjoys screwing around with the creative processes and demanding stellar ratings even as they break the season up into as many segments as possible with as many reruns as possible to get as many people as possible to keep watching their dumb commercials. I'm not against them making money, but I sure am against being cheated.

Enough ranting... Thought I should let you know.

Obama has just gone on record for calling McCain out on his "attacks" on Obama's patriotism and character... Since Obama has the media spotlight, the headline is actually a pretty good summary: "Obama Tells McCain Not to Question His Patriotism." He goes on a long diatribe about how he does not, in fact, put his political agenda before the best interest of the United States and yadda-yadda-yadda...

What I want to ask is this: Why shouldn't we question his patriotism? No, honestly. Why shouldn't we? Does nobody remember the whole flag lapel pin fiasco? Now, hold it. I know one of you liberal readers are going to flare up and rant about how that's a whole baseless Republican scandal and that it's not important. Maybe, maybe not. The fact that he didn't wear a pin? Not important. The fact that Obama HIMSELF made it an issue is what made it important. Yes... He's the one who started it and we "scandalous" Republicans just relayed his information. Here's an article from NewsBusters, if you want to read it for yourself. Even though NewsBusters provides many sources for their articles, here's the direct link to the Time article that says, in their own words, that the "pin saga" started with an answer straight from Obama:

The pin saga started on October 3, 2007 when a local ABC reporter asked Obama why he didn't wear one. Instead of the standard Beltway refrain, "My patriotism speaks for itself," Obama launched into a long explanation of his decision-making process: "The truth is that right after 9/11, I had a pin. Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we're talking about the Iraq war, that became a substitute for, I think, true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security," Obama said in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. "I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest. Instead I'm going to try to tell the American people what I believe what will make this country great and hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism."

HE tried to make a huge deal about why he wasn't wearing a pin... Not Republicans. Still don't think we should question his patriotism? Still don't think we should ask him exactly what he loves about this country? Even after his own wife of 16 years decided, in February, to declare to the entire country that she was only just THEN proud of her country? Not before Obama was a potential candidate? There's absolutely nothing she was proud of before? In the 232 years of this country being independent, she wasn't once proud of ANYTHING it had accomplished? Even then, you still don't think we should question their patriotism when Michelle Obama goes out and decides to list all the faults of this "downright mean" country we all live in? Do read the entire article for a careful list of facts that completely destroys her contrived poverty numbers. To be blunt, she lied in that little speech of hers about how America is so desolate. After all that, we can't question Barack Obama's patriotism?

"Oh, but GS," I hear you say... "His wife is not HIM." Well, you know what? She should be. No, I mean... When you marry someone, you don't marry them because you're complete opposites. You marry someone because you work well together! Because you share the same beliefs and views on life... Because you work together! If Barack Obama seriously didn't know what his own wife thought of the country for 16 years, then he's an extremely poor judge of character and what she says STILL hurts his position. But let's leave his wife on the sidelines for now... I have two more points to make!

Think back... Back to October 2007. Back when the race had just begun and everyone was wondering just who this Obama guy was and what guts he had to run against the media circus that was the Clinton family. Remember that? I doubt it... People can't even remember something as important as September 11th and why we're even in a war right now. But try your best, okay? I know it's difficult... Back then, Time magazine once again helps us glimpse Obama's nature. Obama did NOT place his hand over his heart for the National Anthem. All he does is stand there looking like a clueless buffoon while the others are actively displaying the expected acts of patriotism and respect for this country. Are we still not supposed to be able to ask Obama if he respects this country? We're supposed to give him a free ride on all this because... Why? I think they're all perfectly legitimate questions and I'm going to tell you right now that I would indeed question ANYONE, even my best friends, about the reasons why they're not doing things like this.

As if all that isn't enough? Here's the coup de grace:

For months during the initial campaign, Obama made it absolutely clear that he was an avid member of a church called Trinity United Church of Christ. He made it clear that he regularly attended services, was a member for 20 years, and was, quite obviously, a "Christian." (Though how any Christian would vote to allow partial and post-birth abortions is BEYOND me.) He made this a rallying cry back then... He was a religious man and he could bridge to gap between Democrats and the religious Republicans. Then what happened? To be honest: All hell broke loose! His own preacher got caught on tape preaching a sermon AGAINST the United States. Remember that? "Not God bless America. God damn America!" "US of KKK A?" This after Obama had gone on record saying that his church wasn't controversial... Whatever! What happened after that, you ask? Well, the church seemed to fire that nutty preacher and then white-washed their website. (I mean that both literally and figuratively... It was reported that they even removed the bits about black values after this debacle.) Luckily, NewsBusters and WorldNetDaily were among the few that managed to record what the site said beforehand, so you can still read it all for yourself. Then, after all THAT? The Obama campaign releases a notice declaring that Obama did not, in fact, leave the church over political reasons. Are you kidding me?

Obama tells the world that he's such a great Christian because he attended a common Church of Christ for 20 YEARS and then when the preacher (who Obama had known for all 20 years) got caught saying things in his sermon? After some quick covering of butts, Obama said he'd left the church. (And then the preacher decided to make some comments about chopping Obama's manly parts off, so that whole relationship is now in complete and utter ruins.) My point here is that... Once again, you simply don't NOT know what people believe after 20 YEARS of going to church with them! It's impossible! How could Obama not have known what the preacher believed after all this time of being up there PREACHING? If, for some reason, Obama seriously and honestly (which I doubt) didn't see this coming? Then, once again, he's a far worse judge of character than anyone could have ever imagined and it still works against him... He either tolerated racism in his church for 20 years and saw no problem with it, or he's absolutely clueless with people. Either way, he should have been held accountable and asked some tough questions, but the media didn't and now they'll never bring it back up like they would if this was a Republican candidate.

So I ask you again... Why can't we question Obama's patriotism and character?

Evan Bayh... Indiana Senator along with Richard Lugar. Called a "centrist" by Wikipedia, but those of us in Indiana know just how laughably WRONG that is. "Tyrant" would be a bit much to describe his handling of political power since, somehow, he manages to get voted in every time it comes up, but it would almost be perfect in explaining his position. He (and Lugar) promises all these things that he'll do for "everyone", Republicans and Democrats alike, in Indiana, but when he actually gets into office, he completely and totally falls in with his own agenda each and every time without listening to what is SUPPOSED to be a primarily Republican state. (Which begs the question... Why is he being elected over and over again?)

I'm telling you, we Hoosiers know exactly how these guys work... To me, at least, when I see Obama thinking about picking him as a Vice-President, I can't help but laugh my head off and feel sorry for you folks. He's NOT going to deliver what he promises because he hasn't delivered on his promises for the last 10 years. (Yes, somehow, he's been our Senator for 10 years... 10... Years... How can Indiana keep voting this guy in?) He promises to work for you, the voter, but when it comes down to it, he follows through with his own ideas each and EVERY time.

Wikipedia is a sickening glamor piece... He and Frank O'Bannon (the next Governor in line who happened also to be Democrat) managed to team up and wreck this state's economy (along with everything else) and it's only just now getting back together with Mitch Daniels. (You guessed it, Daniels is a Republican with true conservative economic principles, among others.) They have a laundry list of things that have been attributed to him... But you know what? He's been a typical liberal in the sense that he ignores the wants of the people who actually elected him. Almost literally. Things you know the majority of Indiana will and does support and then he goes completely opposite of what we want and votes for his own dilluted schemes. I'm telling you... He's been gunning for a position in the White House for a long time now, and he's not who you want as a Vice-President. But, then again, he WOULD be a perfect match for Obama. They both act so much alike! In the sense of "here's what we believe", he would be perfect for Obama.

Ugh. It just makes me a little bit ill when I keep hearing about him being a possible VP candidate. Everyone thinks he'd be just great on the team... Maybe he does have views in line with the unstable leftist philosophies of the Obamessiah's campaign, but I'm going to tell you right now that, from experience, he will NOT listen to what you say after it's all said and done. He'll do his own thing... Which I guess is "good" if you like him doing his own thing, but America shouldn't have to be constantly reminded that a politician is supposed to go "hey, you all voted me in, so tell me what you want done and let's get it going" and NOT "hey, you all voted me in, so that must mean you like me for what I am, so I'm going to vote without asking and if you don't like it, then you should have voted for someone else." That's not how it's supposed to work, but that's exactly what Evan Bayh (and Richard Lugar) practices... Not a good politician. Not a good representative. Not a good choice for Republicans and I wouldn't even wish him for the Democrats.

Alright, enough of that sad Uru community for one week... On a brighter note, I just want to say that I decided to finally buy those Gilligan's Island DVDs and, boy! Am I glad I did. We recorded them off a fuzzy antenna station when I was really, really young and all the shows were buzzy and full of static, and, apparently, were cram packed full of really sloppy commercial cuts. The DVD cuts have a crystal clear picture with crystal clear sound and maybe 5 to even 10 more minutes of extra footage simply because there's no amateur at the commericial button. It's better than I could have ever imagined! Plus, I already have a favorite line! Behold, Mr. Howell's amazing response to Skipper's offer to dress up as a girl to lure out a gorilla who captured Mrs. Howell:

Er, and just so you know, the footage is full screen... I trimmed it to 16:9 just to make it fit a little nicer, and I, of course, added the captions. You know, just so you don't go thinking it's widescreen. It's not. Not that it matters since it wasn't even filmed in widescreen, anyway! But yeah! I bought the entire series... I'm almost through with Season 1 and it's absolutely AMAZING! It's better than I remembered. I would entirely recommend it... But really only if you have an open mind, or already like it. I've seen some pretty scathing reviews of the DVD releases just because the moron reviewer had never seen it before and thought it was cheesy and that the opening theme was annoying. (So he disliked it for the very reasons that make Gilligan's Island what it is? Yes... Yes, he did. Like I said: Moron reviewer.)

To me, though... Even though they were reruns on an old TV station that didn't know how to work the video, Gilligan's Island was firmly entrenched as part of my early childhood and I absolutely ADORED it and I still do, without a doubt. I watch an episode and suddenly, all the cares in the world are swept away... I better be careful or it'll be labeled as an addiction like World of Warcraft (or anything else that's fun) and they'll list it as a disease in all the latest psychological medical journals... Yes, it's THAT good.

EDIT: Er, I guess the following link once again managed to leave a trackback comment on Paradox's post... My apologies. That wasn't intentional... See, when my blog was hosting on TW's server, trackback didn't work very well and it didn't usually go off that easy. I'm not sure what's different, but ever since I moved it to my personal server, I've been receiving pings and sending trackbacks like you wouldn't believe! I guess that's a good thing as far as traffic goes... People will be more apt to see what I have to say, but, at the same time, it's a little annoying how it makes comments everywhere now. Guess I should remember to uncheck that option per post if ever I think it might do that when I don't want it to. I'm sure I'll manage to gather another record-breaking day of traffic for it... Oh, the humanity!

Once again, certain people have displayed the uncanny ability to misread what I'm trying to point out when I bring up my history of discussing what was wrong with Uru. They tend to think that I'm trying to rub it in their faces by claiming that I was somehow the "original" person to say what was wrong. You know what? You can think that if you want, but I want to make it absolutely clear that I completely understand that I wasn't the first, and I clearly wasn't the last... But you know what else? I fail to see how that matters in the least bit. Taking credit for "complaining" first is like arguing over who was the first person to scream "the boat is sinking, patch the holes!" It doesn't matter!

My point has been and always will be the fact that the community in general decided to string me up (along with others) because I was one of the people who decided to say "hey, I love Cyan, but Uru has some problems that need addressed." It doesn't matter what I specifically said... It doesn't matter what others specifically said. What matters is that the people who turned on me for saying their favorite game wasn't all it was cracked up to be suddenly had a complete change of heart when Uru failed (for the second time for the same reasons) and decided to fill up the community blogs with why THEY thought Uru failed and then others clambered to be the first to comment about how sooo right they were. The same people who clambered to be the first to comment about how so insanely WRONG I was. The posts might rehash what I've already said was wrong... They might have other ideas, too. To be honest, that's never been my point... My point has always been to point out the sad fact that they ripped to shreds the reputation of good people OVER A GAME when they thought it was in their best interest to be part of the group who adored Uru without reserve so they could gain standing with them, and when it turned out that the group they wanted to gain standing with started listing reasons why Uru failed, they spammed the sites with wholehearted agreements so they could STILL be in "good standing" with the in-crowd.

People who read my blog should know by now that I've come to enjoy pointing out where hypocrisy lies... Whether it be in politics, in the computer industry, or even in the little Myst community. As long as people keep displaying this two-facedness, I'll keep bringing it up. I'm not trying to take credit for anything, and I realize completely that Paradox explained different points with different conclusions. That's not what I'm trying to draw attention to. It's all the comments underneath his post from people who at one time made sure I was entirely unwelcome for saying Uru was doomed if certain things weren't changed, and are now singing a completely different tune just because it was Paradox (he's an AGE BUILDER, after all) instead of me (someone without even the hint of a social rank) who said it all. I have no issue with Paradox himself, for the record... Only those who shunned me for saying something they didn't like being heard, and then had a complete change of heart on the SAME IDEAS when someone they wanted to impress said the same things.

Alas, I can probably say this until the end of time and the people who did this will still pretend it's somehow me trying to say "I told you so," or that it's me trying to take credit, or anything but the point I'm trying to make... But I'm used to that. This is how the liberals act in politics, this is how opensource fanatics act in the computer industry, and this is how the Uru-lovers act in the Myst community! If anything, it's a very interesting... Human social experiment? Humans are such odd creatures... This coming from a wolf, of course. Think of it as... Kind of like Data, from Star Trek: The Next Generation! An android trying to figure out what makes one human. Here I am, a wolf, trying to figure out what makes people act like they do! Yeah... It's kind of a stretch, but deal with it!

Yes! Novah apologized for her rude behavior! I guess some people really can humble themselves enough to manage to profess when they were wrong... One down, the entire MystOnline.com forum to go! She even provided a log of the context of the discussion, which I must also thank her for, since someone was interested in the conversation that took place, but I had used the Java client (since I no longer have Magenta) and didn't log the thing. But you know, I don't really think I was there for only a minute and a half... Maybe I was, but, to be honest, I wasn't watching the clock (and I don't see timestamps on her log) and the fact that I REALLY didn't want to be there coupled with the fact that I was trying to find Capella as quickly as possible probably made it seem longer than it really was. In fact, I resorted to using Facebook to email her, bypassing the community completely... So I didn't even need to go there! (And then there's Odo, who I completely didn't think of before I went into that chat room... Drat!)

DISCLAIMER: Yes, I realize that her post is completely sarcastic, so yes, this post of mine is also completely sarcastic, but this whole debacle is really too good to pass up... Especially when they're trying to make a joke at my expense, heheh. That's so great.

Another day, another "Why Uru failed" post.

It's not that I don't completely agree, but... Isn't this exactly why everyone unceremoniously tossed me out of the community and tried to destroy my credibility and seethe to themselves about how I'M actually why Uru could be failing? That there was too much complaining and that newcomers would see it and not bother to join? You know what? I think it was! But, for some reason, everyone still hates me, still ignores me, still mocks me, and generally still blames me for what I thought back then, but then completely and wholeheartedly agrees with people they know? People in "higher" positions than me... That's either blatant "sucking up" to the powers, or blatant hypocrisy in trying to find an excuse to dislike me.

This is why I'm so disparaging of the community and the people who continue to tolerate it in its current state. New Guard, indeed. It's not for any other reason at all that I dislike it, and I will continue to look poorly at the community until some of these people wake up and see what's going on... Apologies would be a good start, though I doubt the people directly involved with laughing in my face would ever humble themselves long enough to do that. Ah, well. Such is the likeness of the world we live in. It doesn't bother me, but I'm not going to ignore it, either. Well... I have to admit that going into CyanChat while I was looking for Capella and getting absolutely ZERO help and another baseless round of moronity from Novah them was really quite depressing... Honestly, can't they care enough to help someone find the whereabouts of an old friend to all in that room without breaking out the big guns for... What reasons, exactly? None that I can think of. It was completely unprovoked and completely absurd and nobody tried to be of any help, period. They don't seem to NEED reasons. That's really sad. I would expect as much from 4chan or a random Yahoo chat room. That's... Really sad. I would say "shame on you" but I don't expect any of them feels anything at all in the first place.

(By the way, my own forms of contact managed to get through to Capella and she's just fine... Just without a computer at the moment. You know... If anyone actually cared?)

EDIT: Since it looks like this post almost instantly pinged to Paradox's site, I will no doubt experience traffic from disgruntled community members... Thought I would mention that I'm going to be gone all day today, so any comments you leave will be sitting here without a response for at least that long. (But that's a good thing, right? Gives you a chance to try to justify yourselves and get the story right for when I get back to respond... Hahahaha! I'm just kidding... OR AM I? Dun dun dun...)