The unfortunate victim

Suspect #1 - Shifty-looking and has a rap sheet as long as her ears.

Suspect #2 - Lawyered-up immediately.

Suspect #3 - Steadfastly maintains his innocence.

Suspect #4 - Doesn't seem overly concerned. He remains cools under questioning.

I would seem my laptop is not long for this world. Twice, yesterday, I fell victim to the blue screen of death. One second, I’m copy and pasting the day’s blog entry into the wordpress window and, the next, my computer is rebooting. I ended up spending most of last night watching Mad Men while I backed up two year’s worth of blog entries, scripts, pics, videos, and contacts. It was while I was going through my photo archive that I discovered a whack o’ Whispers snaps I was holding back on, some of which I’ve posted today, plenty more of which I’ll be posting in the days ahead.

In addition to getting myself a new laptop, it looks like I’ll have to pick up a new pair of dress shoes as well.  I arrived home the other day to discover my Franco Visconti’s the victims of a brutal and undoubtedly unprovoked attack.  It was too late.  There was nothing I could do for them.  I had four suspects, all of whom were discovered at the scene of the crime yet none of whom proved particularly cooperative under questioning.  I have my suspicions as to the identity of the guilty party but without either hard evidence or eyewitness testimony to back me up, it looks like the perpetrator will amble free.  I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again.  Our contemporary justice system is soft on crime, allowing serial chewers to thumb their noses at authority while the footwear-sporting public is left to fend for itself.

And another reminder that if you read The Church of Dead Girls and have a question for author Stephen Dobyns, let’s seem ’em.  Allie, this means you!

Today’s blog entry is dedicated to soon-to-be birthday girl Theresa.

Today’s video: The return of The Weird Food Purchase of the Day.  In this installment, guest eater Carl Binder samples ox-tail.

Mailbag catch-up:

GrapesofWraith writes: “A quick question – do the stairs at the end of the video lead up to the production offices, or are they in a different building?”

Answer: Yes, they do. The stairs let out onto a corridor. Take a left, and it will take you down past accounting to the art department. Take a right and you’ll hit a door (see the production offices walk-thru vid).

Anais33 a ecrit: “Pourquoi ne jamais répondre a mes questions? Vous n m’aimez pas?”

Reponse: Si vous avez envoyer votre question, j’ai pu l’avoir manqué. Si vous avez une question, Il est plus facile pour moi à repondre a vos questions ici.

Translation: If you’re looking to get a question answered, post them here instead of sending me an email.

Ben writes: “And also where do we sit in terms of getting another SG1 movie?”

Answer: If all goes as planned, we should be filming both the SGA movie and the third SG-1 around the same time next year.

Muddypiddypop writes: “Joe, Was the “your a good friend Arthur” line in the Shrine an adlib?”

Answer: Actually, I’ve already answered this question. The line, the reaction, even the spit take by Sheppard, was scripted by Brad Wright.

MrsB108 writes: “Will we get a deeper look into Michael’s thoughts/emotions?”

Answer: Yep. Plenty of Michael angst to come.

CDB writes: “Do you know if they are going to use the SG-1 or Atlantis cast to kick off Stargate: Universe like they did with Atlantis????”

Answer: Haven’t a clue.

DasNdanger writes: “Have I mentioned my irrational and ungodly fear of spiders??”

Answer: You and my writing partner would get along swimmingly.

Wonderingbrit writes: “The future of TV is going to be completely web based and it’s really about time viewing stats reflected the download capabilities of this medium.”

Answer: That neatly sums up my sentiments on the topic. So long as the onus on gathering ratings rests on the existing quaintly antiquated system, it will be shows like ours (those possessed of a more technologically-inclined viewer base) that will continue suffer.

ShippyChick writes: “It seems that Jason has been quite the ham in front of your camera lately. Is he typically the most welcoming of all the cast members when the flash starts going off?”

Answer: I’ve always gotten along well with Jason but I’d say it was during the prep, production, and post on Broken Ties that he grew comfortable enough to start dropping by the office on a semi-regular basis. This episode was very important to him and I’m guessing he appreciated the fact that I welcomed his input and tried to address any concerns he may have had rather than siccing the production office hounds on him. Since then, he’s been more than happy to strike a pose or two. Whenever I’m on set, Jewel, David, David, Bob, and Kavan have always been good sports about the photos. Rachel is a little camera shy at times but I have snapped some good pics of her.

Alexandria writes: “Can I ask a huge favor? Can you speak to someone about getting SGU to air at the same time here in Australia as it does in the USA when it premieres?”

Answer: Sorry. I have absolutely no say on what gets aired where and when.

PG15 writes: “Good to know we’ll get to see the SGC one last time before the Atlantis series…*sniff*…finishes. Does that mean we’ll see Walter too?”

Answer: Yes, Walter will put in an appearance before the series ends.

Chevron7 writes: “1. Are you really afraid of heights? And flying? Anything else?

2. Did TPTB ever seriously consider having someone take over military command of Atlantis and having Sheppard just be the leader of the no 1. team (whatever it’s called)?

3. What’s happened to the Weird Food vids? Haven’t got the stomach for it lately or just maintaining some variety?”

Answers: 1. I hate heights. I don’t even like it when someone I know stands on a balcony. As for flying – I’m okay when we’re in the air, but I am a tad nervous during take-off and landing. 2. Never. 3. They’ll be back.

NIMBUS writes: “I’m wondering why the Destiny crew won’t be able to land on the new planet and use its Stargate to send a rescue team to a previously visited planet?”

Answer: I can’t wait to find out the answer myself.

2cats writes: “Joe do you happen to know where SG Universe is planning to be shot? Will it be at the Bridge?”

Answer: I believe that’s the plan.