Welcome to the Rosblog of shapeshifter (aka lizmythologistshapeshifter aka liz aka Nancy aka therealshapeshifter aka shapeshift-her) and anyone else who sends thoughts in an email which I deem worthy of posting on this blog. Please note: If I do not add your comments, it might be because I am busy or didn't get it, so feel free to send a follow-up email.

I began this blog because:

1. FanForum's pruning policy meant that threads must have frequent postings or else disappear.
2. The current FF thread was about to reach 250 posts which will also mean it would disappear.
3. SciFi's bb threads were difficult to track.
4. Blu5 and UPN-ll and Foreverdreaming were/are good, but I am a bit of a control freak, er, ah, I mean I am an archivist. (I really am a degree-holding Librarian.)
5. Roswell was on an indefinite hiatus at SciFi.com and so postings are likely to be infrequent, and I wanted to have a place that was bookmarkable to which Roswell mythologists and members of the Roswell Bureau of Investigation could return.

Wednesday, March 9, 2005

"And the sky shall roll back as a scroll."

I've been busy thinking about things. Like, last night I saw The Elegant Universe on PBS -- about String Theory as an answer to Einstein's quest for a merger of Newtonian gravitational theories and the already melded electronic and magnetic theories.

Sorry if I offend with my layman techno-speak. I'm too old to have studied it in school, hence I watched this definitely grade-school-level program, so that is the level on which I now speak.

Anyway, it always seemed to me that these were just different manifestations of the same thing -- like your visceral perception of the temperature outdoors versus the temperature measured in terms of a specific scale and/or scales (Fahrenheit, Celcius, Kelvin).
That is, gravity is just the wind that we (don't) see, and electro-magnetic energy is the power pushing the 'wind.'
So, is it just finding the formula that describes the relationship of these ways of feeling/measuring that is going to explain the universe?
It sounds a little spoiled-80's-child simplistic to me. But, as the children's book teaches, "Simple pictures are best."
Okay. That was my brain speaking -- to state the obvious. And this is my brain on legal drugs supposed to make me more adaptable to the work place:
(click for 780 kb image)
Not so different.
Just more intense.
Anyone out there know or care to google the Amish saying about how we never really change, we just become more ourselves?
Recalling now one of many phrases that have echoed in my mind for decades (everyone has that, right?) from the 70's when I was in the Santa Cruz mountains, painting a landscape and washing dinner dishes for 60 hippies.
Wavy Gravy was there.
And some other guy whose name escapes me.
I gave him the still wet oil painting, which he was going to hang on the ceiling of his bus to dry because my typical style of working* caused them to ask me to leave, after which, when they saw the fruits of my labors, they were sheepishly remorseful (also typical).
Anyhoo -- a lady whose name also escapes me (I think the bus-guy's jilted lover) told me not to leave the wet oil painting with him (though I had only a backpack at the time...oh, I guess she wanted it...and maybe my friendship? whoops) because he was a former horse-trader, and, as she quoted, "Does the leopard change it's spots?"
Hmmm...did she know this was a Biblical reference?
No matter, I have left more paintings behind than Leonardo da Vinci -- though not many more.

The reason for the meds is that my boss is a micro-manager -- who constantly interrupts my personal flow of interrruptions.
But, then, I do the same to her.
So my workplace computer's screen saver is a scrolling text of, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."

Qfanny? Are you out there somewhere?

*(i.e., private, so as not to confuse casual observers with my melding of the best of the effects of ADD & OCP -- which is ADHD and OCD when on medication which is theoretically supposed to relieve both)

*************************

Oh, yeah, back on topic of the blog: Battlestar Galactica (late Friday nights on SciFi) is the best, IMNSHO, out there right now -- perhaps because the old BSG fans are so anti- the new show. It makes Ron D Moore & crew work at it more -- which is sort of the inverse of Roswell's trajectory: When the fan base was angry about the space-opera-ish turn of plotlines, it became cool to spend huge resources of time in bashing the show. This only caused the writers to feel free with campiness (like Andromeda now), but the producer$ and youthful actors picked up the fans negative attitudes, which may have led to the show's ultimate downfall.

Saturday, February 5 (Layla's birthday!) and Sunday, Feb. 6, 2005

Here is a link to a new sub-section for the recently recovered Roswell Bureau of Investigation (RBI) threads. It's sort of a discussion by fans of Roswell who are OCD and ADD, as well as having a philosophical bent. More about this directly below.

Just in case you were wondering...
I will not be writing about the War.
I was a Vietnam era teen; been there, done that, no desire to redo it.

The Tsunami? It may be a step towards political world peace. "No great loss without some small gain" (attributed to the mother of Laura Ingalls Wilder) and, the corollary, "Thank God in all situations" (James).
Although, realistically, it will be one step forward, and how many backwards? Last night my youngest daughter got her pocket book picked while at a fundraiser for the victims.

***************************

For anyone using Powweb who similarly has been unable to ftp since about Friday, January 28th, you are among "the effected," and will have to change the address to which you ftp from:
yourdomain.com
to:
terra.powweb.com

***************************

Friday night is pretty much it for now for me for TV:
Current critiques

Monk--
is still great, but his new assistant does seem to be struggling with the pressures of a role against an Emmy-award winning actor. She's got the right look and natural demeanor for the part, but she doesn't always deliver longer lines with authenticity. Practice more, I guess.

Stargate--
On this week's SG1, RDA as O'Neill remarked something like, "Gosh, I miss going off-world." I can't help wondering if this line is for the purpose of commiserating with the fans (who also miss seeing O'Neill off-world), or if it indicates a possible return of the actor to a larger role in the show.

SG Atlantis--
I'm wondering how wide-spread was the blackout of the opening scenes.

Andromeda--
How come SciFi.com no longer includes Andromeda as part of it's "SciFi Friday" in the ads? It seems to have improved, just as Angel did shortly before it was cancelled. Maybe after the plug is pulled, the creative juices of the writers, directors, and actors are free to flow without network PTB micro-managing.

Smallville--
Not watching at present. Maybe the reruns.

Early Edition--
Still love the reruns.

Roswell--
The SciFi channel will air a marathon of the following episodes (with links to archived FanForum discussions) from 7am CT through 3pm on Wednesday, February 16th: Crazy, Tess, Lies & Videotape, 4 Square, Max to the Max, White Room, Destiny, Skin & Bones, and Ask Not.

***

Oh! Very cool! While updating some stuff from the Archives, I discovered that FanForum's lovely programmers have heard my pleas, and now we have an option to "Show 300 posts on this page" for the Print View! Thank you!
Oh, for those who don't get it--this means I can *easily* save an entire thread with 2 clicks and a save (and, of course, appropriate linkage).

But that's not all! The link to the Roswell Bureau of Investigation #3 was still alive, even though it is no longer on the board!

Thank you all FanForum folks, for (I imagine) trusting I would find it and archive it.
Umm...a little too much ego here?

More likely I'll eventually get a 'cease and desist' email (like I did from TVWithoutPity.com) because they intend to make money off of it with banner ads. But Tvwopity's reviews were their own, excellent writing, whereas a lot of these threads are mine. Hmmm...maybe I could threaten my own cease-and-desist...but they provided the hardware, software, and web space to make it possible--much like a publisher. Besides, it doesn't sound like a very Christ-like thing to do.

***************************

I've been feeling inspired lately to write a paper about the sociology of fan boards, and this latest turn of events is just further encouragement. But I guess I'd want to do it towards another degree. Or skip that for now, just start doing it, shrug if someone else does it first and better, and then, if I finish it, and/or if I get totally into it, I can try to present it as a project for another degree (e.g. second Masters or Ph.D). Or forget that and publish it in some pseudo-scholarly online zine or journal (yes, yes, much fewer hoops though which to jump).. Okay, back to one of my other commitments...

Wednesday, January 26, 2005, 1:49am.

RWMHB (Roswell, What Might Have Been), the creation of notable Roswell commentators Joan Pickering and Erica Cavin, has been updated with episode 122. The "teaser" (the part that would be before the first string of commercials) starts here.

Monday, Jan 24

According to the Futon Critic, the Dead Zone's season 4 premiere is "tentatively" scheduled for Sunday, June 6th, at 9 CT. Thanks to NEfan at the USA network message boards for posting that link: tinyurl.com/52b7c

Gack. Do I have too many days in February? (see left)

Sunday, January 23

Battlestar Gallactica had a great socio/political/psycho plotline -- complete with psychos.

Monk's new "assistant" is great, except...please tell me this isn't going to be a romantic thing.

Just in case anyone did or did not notice -- I put the last day of January back into the calendar(s).

Verses rattling around in my head and even coming out of my mouth in the last week or so:

1 "Do not judge, so that you won't be judged.
2 For with the judgment you use, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3 Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but don't notice the log in your own eye?
4 Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' and look, there's a log in your eye?
5 Hypocrite! First take the log out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

-- Matthew 7:1-5

If you are using a screen reader for the blind, just so you know, I have cataracts, minus 6 myopia, and generally don't see as others do. So, hey, there! Have a nice day!

Thursday, January 20, 2005

So.

If I can still see, and if I get home that early, Friday I will be watching Andromeda at 5pm, then, with an hour off in between, it's the second-half-of-the-season-premiere of SG1 at 7pm, and then at 8, the second-half-of-the-season-premiere of Atlantis.

So far so good. If I see 'em great, if not, there's a good chance of catching reruns. And the same is true of the next 2 shows running oposite each at 9: Battlestar Galactica (which was quite good last week, and I don't think I want to wait until midnight or Monday night to see it), or Monk's the second-half-of-the-season-premiere without Sharona (which does re-air as early as 11pm).

K. Too Tired.

Monday, January 3, 2005

I've made one update (below) to those January TV premiers which are of interest to me, and probably to most viewers of this site.

Sunday, December 26, 2004

It's been awhile. Sorry, but, to quote Liz to Sean, "My life is falling apart!" Well, at least my body and source of income are. And my daughters. I think we're all mice trying to run the rat race. Okay. On to the great escape...

3 Roswellian Web events:

1. Roswell -- The Promise has a new addy:
   roswell-thepromise.com
2. Roswell: What Might Have Been (RWMHB), after a long (6-month) hiatus (which was preceded by a 12-month hiatus) has offered us this surprising and good news:

Current Status: Episode 122 is now in the hands of the beta testers. Check back after January 12, 2005 for further updates. Happy Holidays! :-)

3. Roswell, The Final Chapter (RTFC) has made a post-mortem recovery. They're latest news states:

We created season 4 which can soon be found in the episodes section of this site. Soon, we hope, season 5 will begin appearing there as well.

And, making a nice seguey is this web-available info straight from the keyboard of Brendan Fehr, who answers a question:

Mystique - Have you been approached about a Roswell movie? If so would you do it? Sorry if this is a repeat question.

No and let's just say no.

Having read much of his stuff before, my interpretation is, "I am soo tired of that old q. So, if I say 'no,' will you go away and never ask it again?"

But then again, I've neither met nor talked to the young man, so I'm just throwing out my interp. It could also mean, "I just don't think it's going to happen at all."

And on another web-related front: For those of you who are in the process of migrating over to the FireFox browser from IE, there are 2 things I'd like to point out:

1. First, FireFox is designed to display correct code correctly, whereas IE allows for mistakes. This is different from the old Netscape browsers that, in addition to being unforgiving of sloppy code, didn't always interpret correct code correctly.
   So, if any of you notice something displaying on this site incorrectly in FireFox, please Thanks.
2. And I want to point out a very nice enhancement in FireFox (which will undoubtedly appear soon in IE since FireFox is open source coding, which allows lots of folks to put code up for testing and also for MicroSoft to clone it): Specifically, as in Word and other text editors, you can use the Shift+arrow keys to continue highlighting a section of text on a web page viewed in FoxFire. This will also cause the Selection option to appear in the File\Print window.

Okay. Moving on, here are the January TV premiers which I think will be of interest to...well, to me:

SciFi Channel (data cobbled from sg1archive.com, scifi.com, gateworld.net, and elsewhere online):

Andromeda, reruns from the begining

Starting Jan. 3, M - F 3pm CST

Andromeda, Season 5 (last season?), new episodes continue

Friday, Jan. 7, 6pm CST

"Behind the Stargate: Secrets Revealed"

Monday, January 17, 9pm CST

Friday, January 21, 6pm CST

Saturday (Friday night), Jan. 22, 1am CST

Sunday, Jan. 23, 10:30pm CST

Monday, Jan. 24, 5pm CST

Stargate, Season 8, new episodes continue

Friday, Jan. 21, 7pm

Atlantis, Season 1, new episodes continue

Friday, Jan. 21, 8pm

Battlestar Gallactica, Lowdown Primere

Friday, Jan. 14, 9pm

Battlestar Gallactica, season premiere

Friday, Jan. 21, 9pm

USA network

Monk (not scifi, but I'm the character's female alter-ego)

Saturday, Jan. 1, all-day marathon

Friday, Jan. 21, 9pm, season premiere (Preceded by three repeats.)
Atlantis better be good!

The Dead Zone

From the USA Network Message Board:

According to ddcatwoman over at vision of johnny, production starts on 13 January and runs to 16 Sept. Though nothing on when it will start airing on television.

 

Monday, December 6, 2004

I'm sort of watching the made-for-tv movie, The Librarian.

Definitely not Emmy or Oscar material.
I didn't care for Raiders of the Lost Ark either.
But, hey, I'm a Librarian.
So for me it's all an inside joke.
Jane Curtain's character is a caricature of my supervisor.
Bob Newhart's character is very much like the Director of the first library where I worked--a great guy, if a bit overly even-keeled, and surprisingly strong (when it comes to lifting books or boxes, not kung-fu fighting) for someone who lives a sedate life.
And sometimes, when I'm able to find a key piece of research for an assignment due tomorrow, or when I am able to rescue a paper due the next day that was accidentally saved to the Temp folders, then I too am applauded as a superhero.
Okay, here's a line from the movie that could be lifted from a real Librarian's workday: "People have been trying to find out the name of God for 4,000 years, and now you want me to figure it out in 15 minutes?"

Monday, November 29, 2004

roswellbrat just alerted me to this (posted 11/27/04 by LizPark, producer of Roswell The Final Chapter--A Virtual Season 4):

R:TFC will not be returning in any form. Sorry guys, but lack of funds (I was paying for the site myself on a very limited budget despite having asked for money SEVERAL times) and lack of a full staff forced me to close it down. If R:TFC returns, it will be by me or another member of the staff when we closed.
Perhaps I will post an outline of what we had planned for Season 5 but it's doubtful.
Thanks for all your support and interest.
-Liz Park

If I put the episodes up on this site, it will be announced here.

*********************

Okay, moving on. I watched Tim Allen, Signourey Weaver, Tony Shaloub ("Monk") and Alan Rickman (Snipe in Harry Potter) in Galaxy Quest, a spoof on both SciFi TV and the fandom that supports it. A must see for Roswellians, Trekkies, Gaters, etc.

Friday, November 19, 2004

So Stargate SG1 is going to have a 9th season.

About Windows Service Pack 2 issues for web page developers:

So, by now you've probably heard about the Mark of the Web tag, which looks like this:

<!-- saved from url=(0014)about:internet -->

and which allows JavaScript, Flash or other activities to occur on your page without the ActiveX police demanding a click to grant permission. (View the top source of this page to see the Mark of the Web tag.)

Both Microsoft and MacroMedia have support pages documenting this fix (aka hack).

But what they neglect to say, is that when viewing and testing your pages on your local hard drive, any links to pages on your hard drive will fail if those pages don't also have the Mark of the Web, even if those pages have no Javascript or other active media imbedded.

Oh, and just in case you're wondering, the "14" in the code refers to the number of characters in the url. So, I (or you, or anyone) could also use this snippet:

<!-- saved from url=(0059)http://thesmudge.com/
shapeshifter/Roswell/stuff/rosblog.htm -->

Hmmm...I wonder what the Google search bots are going to think of it.

Tuesday, Election Day, Nov. 2, 2004

Okay. So this is primarily a blog of science fiction.
Which is a vehicle for exploration of political and religious issues. (Separation of Church and State? Where?) And since the Roswell Archives are full of philosophizing about these and other topics, I have used alien green font below to note those terms which you might search in the site's search engine to see just how deeply we think about things.

At 3:30 this morning, I was still undecided. I hadn't decided what I was wearing the next day either.
In previous election years, I've frequently not voted or I've written in a candidate.

For whom to vote? My evangelical pastor had stated months ago (in his only political admonition) that, if all things were equal, he would vote for the Christian candidate. But if all things weren't equal, he would vote for the most qualified candidate. This set me free to not vote for Bush, if I chose, and still not feel I was going against any wise counsel.

But Kerry, though qualified, has been too hawkish in his rhetoric despite his anti-war leanings after his tour of duty in Vietnam. I do not hear him acknowledging that it is largely economic disenfranchisement that feeds terrorist sentiments.

Nor do I hear Bush acknowledging that the gratuitous sex and violence in which our Western culture is swimming serves to solidify alienation for Muslim and other fundamentalists who have no part in our society or economy.

So why vote?

For some time, I've been opposed to the Electoral College on the basis that it presumes an elite should decide government. After the Florida debacle of hanging chads, it seemed that the opportunity for the popular vote to count had arrived -- at least in the minds of news junkies and lawyers.

"On the third hand", there is the case (as articulated on public radio while I was in the bath) that the Electoral College of today protects the interests of the rural communities without penalizing metropolitan voters. The abolition of the Electoral College could effectively disenfranchise the rural vote. So, then, do I want my popular vote (in my already-decided state) to be counted? Especially if a wider disparity between popular and electoral vote could possibly ignite a movement to do away with the Electoral College? Should I just go shoe shopping on my day off, and not vote? (This is, btw, my first Election Day off in at least 4 elections.)

The past few days I had considered voting for Kerry so that my one popular vote would count for one Democrat whose registration was destroyed, or for one disenfranchised person of color, or for a working parent who simply did not have time. It seemed fair.
But then the issues of the effect of swaying the popular vote gave me pause about voting at all.

But I have decided.
For the record, I decided at about 7am this morning.
I am voting for Kerry.
Here's my rationale:
If Kerry wins, a larger popular vote will give him the legitmacy he needs to govern.
If Bush wins, there will be no change in the status quo.
And I will have expressed my utter frustration at his lack of oratorial skills--for which, btw, I do forgive him.

So, David Nutter will be happy with my decision--which, if I have reached, undoubtedly so have others like me. The majority of Roswell and Stargate fans will not be pleased. But they will forgive me.

Monday, Oct. 17

Watching Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars. A mini-series (4 hours including commericials, 2 hours 40 minutes without), created not so long after the series was cancelled amid much fan fury. Unlike Star Trek, the actors are not a generation older for the movie.

A baby is born under very Christ-like circumstances.

And the father makes the ultimate sacrifice for peace.

There is death and resurrection.

And 'peace without end.'

Oh, and Einstein.

****************

Am I the only one seeing that Emporer W has no right-to-life clothing when it comes to his stem cell policy? He says there shall be no "new" lines. Only those stem cells from embryos already sacrificed shall be used. Why does this sound so much to me like Joseph's brothers selling him into slavery? Will no one write the sci fi version of this story in which the experimental embryo lines are allowed to mature by crazed right-to-life scientists? And then...???? Well, if the Joseph story analogy follows...the Embryo Line becomes a type of Israel, and the rest of us are the 10 tribes swallowed up by Egyptians and Assyrians, aka Palestinians. And, if this is scifi, Earth is the Holy Land.

Oh, or is that what Farscape is about? I'm not a fan, so someone else will have to clue me in.

Friday, Oct. 15

Okay. I waited until after a Mother's day to buy myself the Season 1 Roswell DVD, and then my 366-day-old Gateway's DVD drive quit. So I didn't buy it. Well, thanks to a heads up from Joan Pickering, I just bought it from Amazon for $14.99. And eventually I'll either fix the DVD player or buy one.

Oh, and note (at the left) that for the November web calendar I have manipulated the cover of the Season 2 DVD, now available in all the usual places.

****************

Monday at 5 CDT, the "1969" episode of Stargate airs on the SciFi channel.

****************

Here's the last of the Doonesbury-referenced political articles: tinyurl.com/4as3v (from the Texas Iconoclast).

Personally?

I'm afraid to vote.

Afraid that I will regret contributing to whatever comes down on us all.

I mean, what if Bush's seemingly stupid policies are right?

What if, due to no nefarious Republican evil doings, a Kerry win means another Nine Eleven due to the discontinuity of terror-watching during a change of party power?

Personally, I thought that was the primary cause of the first Nine Eleven.

And I get a definite chill every time I hear Kerry say he will 'hunt down the terrorists and kill them.'

Personally, I'd rather learn to talk their language and have my usual I'm-like-you conversation.

And I don't mind living in a low-rent apartment, as a low-paid academic, even at age 51.

Because when I walk in the door I know that I am living at a means by which all people could live if all did.

Hey, good neighbors, in the $1-4 mil homes,
how about taking in a couple of middle-eastern students, and even funding their tuition? Or...?

Thursday, October 14, 2004

OT: My daughter in NY is all jazzed because some unknown band is starting to get more gigs and she is sure they will be famous. They are A-something Fire. I couldn't quite catch it on my AT&T Nokia.

****************

Note quite so OT since Science Fiction has a long history of being the soap box for political speech:

The url's to some interesting political articles have been the focus of this week in Gary Trudeau's Doonesbury comic. Because the comic is an image without a map linking the addresses, and because they are difficult to see, I thought I'd link them here, since I am a librarian, and this is part of an archive:

• From Doonesbury 10-14-04: Rep. Doug Bereuter-R. Nebraska?, letter to constituents, Aug. 18: tinyurl.com/4je4f
• From Doonesbury 10-13-04: from Salon.com, Doug Bando, Sept. 10: tinyurl.com/5563f
• From Doonesbury 10-12-04: by Wall Street Journal reporter Farnaz Fassihi (email from Baghdad), Sept. 29: poynter.org/forum/?id=misc
• From Doonesbury 10-11-04: "Why I will vote for John Kerry for President" by John Eisenhower, published in the New Hampshire Union Leader Sept 9 and Oct 11: tinyurl.com/4ax8m

Saturday-Sunday, October 9-10, 2004

The last Smallville ep was greatly enhanced by the presence of Allison Mack as the character Chloe Sullivan. Like myself, she is of small stature. Few, if any, folks of small stature seem to become either big screen stars or president--at least in the U.S.

Shortness is genetically dominant (perhaps because short, stick-like structures--such as bones--are less likely to break than long ones). But the first king of ancient Israel, Saul, was "head and soulders above everyone else."

Similarly, light-skinned people, who are more prone to skin cancer, are quantitatively a minority world-wide, and yet enjoy higher status.

Just noticing.

I think there's a spiritual lesson here. Something parallel to the choices of Mother Theresa. And akin to Jesus teaching that those who are highest in this world will be brought low in the next. And to be first in the kingdom you must be a servant of all.

Hmmm...so why would we vote for someone who claims to be a follower of Jesus and yet wants to be President of the U.S.? Isn't that a deception right there? And since both leading candidates make that claim, well, it doesn't leave much choice. Yeah, I know it's called "serving." But there's a lot of perks with the job.

*******************

Moving on to evil doings on computers using Windows (which I am not willing to give up for OSX's issues):

My homepage on my computer is a page I maintain with the links and information I frequently use.
I have dial-up, so I access it from my hard drive.
When I installed SP2, everytime I opened IE or clicked Home, I got this error message in the "information bar":

To help protect your security, Internet Explorer has restricted this file from showing active content that could access your computer. Click here for options...

These options are:

Allow blocked content
What's the risk?
Information bar help.

The Allow Blocked Content option only works once. It has to be reclicked every time the page is reloaded.
I pursued every avenue on The Information Bar Help, to no avail. It seems that a user can only specify pages to be unblocked if the pages are not on the user's hard drive.

So I did a System Restore to the computer's state of several days previous. I am now rid of SP2.

Someone named Ankush S. at the MS chat help is supposed to be reporting it.

Too bad we humans can't yet do a system restore to an earlier date everytime we lose some functionality because society's latest norms do not work for us.