I finished watching The Professionals on DVD. Seasons 2 & 3 didn't really have any surprising guest stars, but season 4 featured Michael Praed from Robin of Sherwood as a student activist and Pierce Brosnan as an unnamed CI-5 radio operator.

Here's what struck me later. For a long time, Lewis Collins was utterly desperate to parlay his success from The Professionals into a gig as James Bond. He lobbied hard for it and even met with Cubby Broccoli at one point. He never got the part...but the guy who played an unnamed CI-5 radio operator in one episode of the TV show Collins starred in did. That's got to sting.

Now that National Craft Project Month is over, I'm resetting the ticker on my project to reflect the actual number of stitches required to complete it. I'm also back to thinking it might be a space gate. The shape and colors are exactly right for it to be the Ring Nebula, but when I matched the colors to the chart symbols, the colors were in the wrong places. I guess we'll find out what it is when I finish making it.

Why, show? Why do you keep doing this to me? After 2 seasons of unashamedly sucking, this season you've decided to tease me by repeatedly walking right up to the precipice of awesome, only to turn away at the last second. Either suck, or don't. My nerves can't handle the tension of you almost being good all the time.

( Spoilers )

I won't have time to stitch either today or tomorrow, so I might as well make my last post today.




Allow me to detail the ways in which I failed.

1) I only achieved 4.6% of my goal

I'm actually okay with this. I never really expected to come near 50,000 stitches. Plus, my failure to achieve my goal means I can try again next year. I still won't hit 50,000 stitches, but I can probably top 2,300.

2) I am probably not making the design I thought I was making

I bought this pattern from someone who was selling fannish patterns at MediaWest. She had a lot of Stargate Atlantis patterns for sale, so I somehow remembered this unlabeled pattern as being for a kawooshing space gate. Now that I've made a bit of a dent in it, it's starting to look like one of those nebulas photographed through the Hubble. In fact, I think it might be the Ring Nebula. I'm not 100% sure, but the shape and the colors look about right.

I'm actually okay with this too. It was a pleasant surprise. It also means I'm free to make the space gate pattern I actually do have (and I know that one's a space gate--I made the pattern myself) after I finish this one.

* * * * *

My original plan was to stop working on this project when November ran out and pick it up again next November. However, as much as I love my hands-free frame, getting Aida cloth on and off of it is a chore I'd like to experience as little as possible, so instead I'm just going to readjust the ticker to reflect the actual number of stitches in the project starting in December.

Someone gave me a copy of the HTML code to customize my sidebar where all I had to do was fill in the blanks with the bits unique to me. When I went to use it, it failed to compile with the following error message:

Error compiling layer:

Compile error: : Unexpected end of file. Unclosed string literal?

Anybody know enough HTML to look at the code and see what I did wrong?

Today, I give thanks that I'm not a member of any of these families.

( Spoilers )

So, I'd like to blame my current results on being the slowest stitcher in the world, which I am, but the truth is that real life has been taking up an inordinate amount of my time lately and I didn't get to touch my project for over a week. I'm hoping to make up some time over the holiday weekend.

I had a ticket for the Band From TV show in Madison tomorrow night. It's the first time they've played the midwest. I was planning on staring at Jesse Spencer in a creepy and stalkerlike manner until his image was permanently burned onto my retinas. Oh yeah, and Adrian Pasdar was going to be standing right next to him.

However, Greg Grunberg just Tweeted that the band was actually boarding the plane to come here when the venue called and canceled. There's a note that the show has been canceled on the venue's website, but no explanation as to why. I mean, it's not like a tornado blew through town tonight or anything. Yes, I'm being issued a refund, but that is so not the point. If you're going to pull the rug out from under me less than 24 hours before the show, then I think I at least deserve an explanation.

I think that's the most straightforward, least cracky episode Ben Edlund has ever written. I'm surprised. Pleased, but surprised.

( Spoilers )

ETA: The original listing has been removed and replaced by this one.

Reposting from Chicago Craigslist:

Dairyland Greyhound Racetrack in Kenosha, Wisconsin will be closing on December 31, 2009. 900 Greyhounds need to be adopted or they will be euthanized. Please help me get the word out; there is only 6 weeks to get this task done. Contact Joanne Kehoe Operations Director P: 312.559.0887 Or Dairyland Race Track Adoption Center direct at (262) 612-8256

***

[If you can't adopt, please consider passing on the message so that word gets around--The other Sandy]

So I was watching NCIS:LA last night and Kensi was interrogating a suspect.

Kensi: "Tell us about your involvement with the ELE!"

Overtired me: He works for the Evil League of Evil?

Yes, Sandy. Clearly he's Bad Horse's stableboy. ::rolls eyes::

Oh, for cryin' out loud. I can't believe I called it.

( Spoilers )

Last year, I was complaining that there were only 7 rows of general admission seating available on Sunday (Jensen & Jared's day). This year, there were only 4! And Creation oversold them like whoa. People were standing along the back and side walls because they literally had nowhere to sit. Creation staffers kept coming by and ordering them to sit down, and they kept explaining that they couldn't. After 3 or 4 rounds of this, Creation finally brought out extra chairs to place along the walls. I think the people who got them were lucky. I was crammed in so tightly that the only part of me I could move was my arms from the elbows down. It made taking notes entertaining. I could also only see about 2/3 of one projector screen. Thank goodness it was the side with Jared on it. ;-)

( Jensen & Jared )

( Julie McNiven )

( Rob Benedict )

So that was my weekend. It was great amounts of fun.

And I haven't typed this much since I finished grad school.

Once again, the general admission tickets sold out before I even knew they were on sale, so for the second year in a row, I owe somebody else for being able to come. asyouleft managed to score a gold ticket from someone right before the con and sold me her general admission ticket on Friday night. Yay! This is the first year I was able to attend more than one day of the con.

( Richard Speight )

( Aldis Hodge )

( Jim Beaver )

( Misha Collins )

Wow, that turned out so tl;dr I'm not even sure I would read the whole thing. And this was only Saturday. Stay tuned for the Sunday report.

I wasn't quite as horrified as I was afraid I'd be. Imagine my surprise.

( Spoilers )

Yeah, still no avatar slower than a snail. I was hoping they had a glacier or something.




I'm a bad fangirl. I'm like 1/1000th of the way done with my current project, but I still felt compelled to look for new ones. The Stargate fan community turned out to be full of creative cross-stitchers who make their own patterns. I now have 3 for Stargate Atlantis and 1 for Stargate SG-1.

I also followed a link I found in a discussion thread to a free program that lets you import images and convert them to cross-stitch patterns. I have since made a new space gate pattern from my favorite wallpaper, and a little Impala pattern.

Other than the Impala pattern I made, I haven't had much luck with Supernatural cross-stitch patterns. I tried to make one from the season 3 title card (my favorite), but it was too dark. My pattern-making program didn't know what to do with it. I haven't seen any fans posting their work either. Either there aren't a lot of cross-stitchers in Supernatural fandom, or they're very well-hidden.

( I just had to put this quote somewhere )

I don't know if I'm going to make it to the end of the season.

Be still, my beating heart.

( Spoilers )