Which brings to mind past advertising gaffes. Like McDonald’s memorable “I’d hit it” banners, part of their “I’m lovin’ it” campaign, that depicted some schmo eyeing a double cheeseburger and the words “I’d hit it” – which is essentially slang for “I’d like to have sex with him/her” (note: Feel free to insert your own “special sauce” joke here). Or the Snickers commercial in which two auto mechanics are so overcome with a desire for the chocolate bar that they eat it from opposite ends and unwittingly end up kissing, a spot that managed to offend gay, lesbian and conservative groups alike. No easy feat. And, of course, New Coke. ’Nuff said about that one.
On the other hand, people seem to think they know better. Which, of course, they don’t. There was this guy I went to high school who used to fancy himself a comedian. Whenever I’d show up at a party with bottled water, he’d feel the need to point out “You realize you’re paying for water.” I’d have to point out that I was paying for a certain quality of water. Specifically, water that didn’t taste like it had been gathered from a public swimming pool. The other day, my writing partner scoffed at the very notion that someone could actually tell the difference between tap and bottled water and challenged me to a taste test. He went to the kitchen, filled two cups with tap water, two with bottled water, brought them back to his office and had them sit on his desk for another until they were both room temperature before letting me at ’em. Marty G. videotaped the challenge for your viewing pleasure. Check out the exciting results below.
Went in today and watched Rob’s partial director’s cut of Vegas. Rob did a terrific job on this one and, once completed, it’ll be a truly cinematic out-of-the-box episode. A Day 1 Mix of The Prodigal is on tap tomorrow after which we all scatter to the four winds for a week or so. Rob, Paul, and Brad head to Vegas. Marty G. is off to Toronto. Carl returns home to California. And I retire to my home office to continue work on my pilots, catch up on my reading and t.v./dvd-viewing, and spend some quality time with the dogs.
P.S. Last day to get your questions in for actor and occasional wraith Tyler McClendon.
bottled water rocks
Well done on the ‘water taste test’…We have the same problem in West Australia with the swimming-pool taste of tap water. There is, however a very simple solution. By putting the tap water into a glass bottle, and putting it in the fridge WITHOUT a lid on it, you’ll find the chlorine seems to evaporate over a day or so of refrigeration, and it tastes OK.
Simple trick! And cheaper alternative to Evian.
I’m with you on the whole advertising drivel. Which is why I promptly go make a cup of tea, go to the dunny, or find any excuse to do anything rather than sit in front of the boob-tube when the commercials come on.
See? Advertising does NOT work on the more cerebral percentile of the population.
Ugh. The tap water down here is so bad and laden with chemicals, when you put it in a clear glass and let it settle, the water is actually a little cloudy. We were advised when we first moved out here that we would have to set up a delivery with a filtered water service company because the quality is so bad, most people who move from places with better water supplies (in my case, Chicago) are sickened by it. Between the calcium, flouride, chlorine, and whatever else the Nevada water district decides to add, I can definitely tell the difference between bottled vs. tap. Bottled water, even the recycled pool-water taste of Sparklettes, is better than the vaguely metallic taste of Vegas water.
I don’t even give tap water to my animals. (Well, we give it to the German Shepherd and Rotty, ’cause I figure they can handle it, but my cats and geckos get the same thing I drink.) Mainly I’m concerned that tap water’s not clean, but also it doesn’t taste very good. When I moved to Cali, for about a year I drank bottled water just like, apparently, everyone else. Then when I finally got an apartment by myself, I got one of those filters that goes over the faucet. I’ve always been more for a filter than bottle, myself, mainly for the cost and convenience. I think that, even filtered, the water in Oregon tastes better than LA water. Not that that surprises me.
And in case anyone doesn’t know, Dasani is salt water. Seriously. Check the ingredients.
Hey Joe,
Haven’t they (read: I don’t know exactly who) admitted that a lot of bottled water is just tapwater in a bottle? I do agree that there’s lots of glorine in GVRD water.
You should watch the experiment that Penn Gilette did. He put water from a hose outside a restaurent in wine glasses, gave it to the customers and made up some fancy name for the water. Most of the people totally believed that the water was from exotic places.
If you buy one of those filters (either for on the tap or the pitchers) you won’t be able to taste the difference between bottled and tap water. Maybe you can make that your next experiment.
Also with tap water, leave it for a day or two in a bottle and it gets some interesting growth. And they say that Melbourne is meant to have some of the best drinking water in the world. Pft. We are down to the last dregs in our dams, which means we are probably drinking the remains of the decomposing bodies of ’87 Corolla’s.
Did I hear that it was a hair issue on set? It could only be a Wraith or JF that would have such an issue surely.
Bottled water is okay if your only other choice is high fructose laden soda, but otherwise, go to the tap!
Heh, Evian. Naive 😉
Meanwhile, some questions for Tyler McClendonK/B>:
1) Just what is the process it takes for you to be made into a Wraith, such as how long does it take to put on and remove the makeup, how long do you have to be in it, what are the drawbacks? Like those contacts that cover your nice blue eyes (yes, I was looking at pictures at IMDB) 😉
2) Have you done roles like this before (extensive makeup)?
3) How did you get into acting?
3) Are you in anymore SGAs, and if not, what is your next project?
Thanks! 🙂
I do not understand those Microsoft commercials. They’re money would be better spent on…anything else.
McDonald’s has some of these worst commercials, especially those on the radio. Every time I hear them, I change the station. Annoying commercials are going to dissuade me from buying said product, not trick me into thinking I want it. Ugh.
Hey Joe.
I agree with you…bottled water does taste better than tap water!!! That video was hilarious!
Thanks Joe!
—–
Question for Tyler McClendon:
Hey Tyler. I have two questions for you if it’s alright, I’m not sure if they’ve been asked already, but I’ll try anyway:
1) What got you started in acting? Had you always wanted to act?
2) What are the pros and cons of being a Wraith?
Well, I guess that’s actually three questions, but..
Thanks Tyler!
Hey, have you seen my mind lying around here anywhere?
I lost it a few days ago and can’t seem to find it.
While it was micro-chipped and tagged I have a bad feeling it was deemed unsuitable for re-homing and got put down.
See what I mean? Gone.
I am with you Joe; I will not drink tap water. NO way no how! I use the Brita filter for me and my cats. It is so much better! And it saves on the plastic bottles… Go green Joe… Go green!
Cheers
Patricia Lee
Hi, Joe.
LOL! New coke! My family — maternal grandmother, mother, my brother and I — were addicted to coca cola. When new coke came in, my mom went out and bought every bottle of the original coca cola she could get her hands on. Our garage was filled with crates and crates and CRATES of coca cola.
Then, when Coca Cola realized their error, and brought back Coca Cola “classic,” my mom swore up and down that it wasn’t the same. She wrote many letters of complaint to Coca Cola. They finally sent her coupons — with NO expiration date — for FREE coca cola. A lot of them. I believe they were the largest part of my inheritance when she passed in ’00.
I’ve finally stopped drinking sodas about 16 years ago. It’s been rough (especially when the craving kicks in all of a sudden), but my heart appreciates the efforts!
🙂
Bottle water over tap water any day. My fav is Fiji and second Evian (bottled waters taste different too). Here in the US, some bottled water is just bottle from a City water filtered. Dansini is bottled from my City’s water (Manchester NH). I found that pretty funny. Since finding that out I look at the bottles to see the bottling process. Found some others bottled by well systems in Pennsylvania.
Love the video. “This is more important than set”- PRICELESS I love a laid back work environment. I believe I have said it before, I work with my 4 brothers and sisters and we keep it light with everyday, what did you do last night to the conspiracy to take Tom Brady out so we wouldn’t win the football season, to the Patriots better be looking for a new Quarter Back if they know what is good for them, jokes, pranks, how our kids are monsters sometimes, and, oh yeah, sometimes even work itself. And most recently my Dad calling me to tell me to order a new laptop and ship it to him because he dropped his in the camper unknowingly and when recalling the slide out of the motor home, it crushed the computer which was only 2 months old. we all laughed at that except my brother who now owns the company and will be paying for the new one as well as the computer tech to come in again and downloand the VPN stuff and so on, but everyone else was laughing.
It seems like Carl is really taking to your blog process/video sessions. He is becoming silly like you. Hooray for him! At first glance, he looked very serious and reserved.
As for advertisements, I flick channels or get up to do stuff. However, I do see some, but all they may do for me is make me crave chocolate if it is for a candy bar or get hungry if it is for food. The cravings are not necessarily for the food being shown, it just reminds me of what I try not to do at night and that is EAT.
No! NO!! Not a Mac! Never a Mac!!! I can’t believe that you, Joe, would fall for it! I thought you were intelligent!
They’re EVIL, don’t you know? EVIL. Them and their one-button mouses. Yeah sure, you can get 2-buttoned ones, even 3-buttoned, but that costs extra time, effort, and money, I’m pretty certain! So what if it’s nerdy? YOU’RE THE EXECUTIVE PRODUCER OF A SCIFI SHOW. You’re SUPPOSED to be nerdy! Nerdy, to the fans, is streetcred! The nerdier the better!
That’s it. The next time I see a Mac Air, I’m gonna judo chop it in half. It shouldn’t be that hard.
Anyways, that vid was awesome. Full of humor, intrigue, twists and turns, and redemption! I’m with you on this; I’ve been drinking bottled water for a few weeks now, and they have no taste, really. Other water has a…taste. Ick.
So my sabatical from Gateworld’s working out pretty well. I’m getting more work done (marginally, but still), after all. Still, as I continue to lurk there *waves back at Peg*, I couldn’t help but notice that there are times where wisdom such as mine would surely be of help.
Some Stargate Universe ramblings below, in response to some general complaints that I’ve seen. Read at your own peril and rage-inducement:
—
Is it me, or do old people whine more? No really, it’s pure logic.
Ok, so obviously the older crowd who’s criticising Universe loves SG1 and SGA to an extent, and we’ve known for some time that those shows appeal to an older audience than what Universe is intended for.
But do you see the problem here? What about us young folks? Do you see us whining about the way how SG1 and SGA kept appealing to older people, while leaving us younguns in the dust? What are we, healthy, vibrant, unwrinkled, rogaine-devoid chop liver?
Well, no, we don’t whine about that, usually, because we too are entertained. Just because the show’s aimed at an older audience, it doesn’t mean us young people are left out in the dust; we can relate to the older characters as well.
So what’s going on with Universe? Why do old people think that, just because the majority of the characters have the potential to be younger than them (no one’s been cast yet), they can’t still relate to them, just as us young people have found a way to relate to the older characters on SG1 and SGA? My favorite SG1 character is Jack, and my favorite SGA characters are Sheppard and McKay; all of them are TWICE my age (more so, in Jack’s case)! And yet, I find them to be great characters, and totally relatable most of the time.
So, the logic is airtight. Young people don’t complain about older characters, and yet old people complain about younger characters. Ergo, old people complain more. Huzzah for logic!!
That last point about Sheppard and McKay relates to something else I’ve been itching to post on Gateworld but won’t because of the principle of the sabatical: why do people automatically think that people in their early 20s are vacuous, shallow, and uninteresting? Ok, sure, some probably has to do with the character descriptions (but again I remind you that they are for agents and actors, not storytellers and fans), but a lot of the complaints I see boils down to them being just “too young”.
Excuse me? I’m 20 years old. By all accounts I’m YOUNGER than any of the characters as described. How do you think people like me feel when young people are talked about like that? What kind of agist crap is this?
I just like to say that that “old people complain more” thing is so NOT agist, because it was tongue in cheek, and stuff. Yes, good excuse.
Ahem.
Anyways, my point stands. What is it with older people and their inability to imagine us young people as anything more than drunk pot tokers who fart for a laugh and vomit on command, also for a laugh? We’re not like that, and chances are the characters of Universe won’t be like that either.
Ask yourself this: why would they be? No really, think about it. In context of what has happened in Stargate thus far. After 300+ episodes, why would they suddenly change the format into the oft-brought-up “Stargate 90210”? This is disturbing, because it seems that the only catalyst for such a remark is that the characters are less-than-perfect, and YOUNG.
So young suddenly = Stargate 90210? Yeah, this young person isn’t impressed with the “maturity” shown by those making that remark.
And what the hell is maturity anyway? I see that brought up a lot; please define it.
Ok, so you say that Chloe is a party girl. So what?
Do you not go to parties?
Do you not hang out with friends and have some fun?
What kind of parties do you think young people have?
Ok, sure, there are the wild raves and orgies, but I’m pretty certain that’s just…not the general case popularized in the media. At least I hope not. I’ve certainly never been exposed to any here in real life, and one of my friends is certainly a “party girl.” She’s in a sorority.
And you know what? She’s one of the most well-rounded, well-liked person on campus here at my University. She’s humorous, nice (much nicer than me), and a generally good person. And hot.
So that’s bad now? Interesting.
And then there’s a laughable complaint that “oh no, she’s a party girl, so the show will be full of parties”. That…that…no really people, what the hell. I take it that that’s knee jerk reactions, because it has zero, NADA base in reality whatsoever. They’ll be stuck on a ship in the middle of nowhere. Why would they have parties?
They wouldn’t. At least, not the ones you think us young people participate in on the nightly basis.
Especially not someone who’s trying to become a Senator later on in her life. Hey, it’s in the character bio. You can’t deny it.
And another complaint I see: oh hey, and why do all the bios have such emphasis on looks? Well, it’s very simple. Because they’re for actors and agents, not fans. It’s not very hard to figure that out, folks. Yes, the entertainment industry is shallow. Welcome to the real word. Enjoy that red pill?
And finally, there is this point: generalizations are bad, m’kay? I don’t doubt that there are young people who may act like party animals and are consistently drunk throughout the weekends of the year, but similarily there are normal people who don’t do that, and live a fairly boring life with no real thrills or parties or whatever. This is true for 20 year olds, 40 year olds, and maybe even 60 year olds.
So why do young people automatically get picked on as one monolithic group? Why is age so bloody important? Look at Shep and McKay; both (roughly) 40, but 2 completely different people. Same is true for all ages.
So there. Thank you Joe for putting up with this.
But…a MAC? WRRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!?!?!
And tomorrow you should make your very own stargate and pass through it lol
Dasani water is from Coca-Cola, which is based out of Atlanta, Georgia. It is bottled Atlanta tap water. Read the label and check it out. Whoever buys it is paying $1.59 for what the happy citizens of Atlanta get for free. Seems to be a rip off to me! Some bottled water is better than tap but it all depends on where each one is from!
I use commercials to determine which products I will not buy. If I hate the commercial-Head On for example-I don’t buy the product.
Enjoy the week off! I can’t wait till Friday and Daniel Jackson! Yay!
While I love bottled water, I have to say that Vancouver has the best tap water I’ve ever tasted.
Our water comes from Lake Michigan, and it’s actually not bad at all. There are benefits to living less than a half mile from one of the Great Lakes. However, they still put chlorine in it, and that is just foul, although necessary so that we don’t all die of icky things. And since I hate the taste of chlorine, and I carry water around all the time, I’ve spent years doing the bottled water thing.
Being concerned about all the plastic bottles using up resources and ending up in landfills, however, I tried a Brita filter pitcher a while back, and the filtered water tastes pretty good, better than some bottled waters. I suppose that you have to have pretty decent water to begin with, and water from the Great Lakes is pretty good. So I bought a couple of stainless steel bottles from LL Bean, and I carry those around instead of plastic bottles, regularly refilling them with filtered water.
My cat likes the filtered water, too.
(And when I do have plastic bottles, I make sure they get recycled instead of ending up in landfills).
Mary
@Narelle from Aus
“drinking the remains of the decomposing bodies of ’87 Corollas”…
ROTFLMAO!!! Yeah, in Perth, they’re mixing GROUND water with the dam water…we’re all rusting from the inside out! And when they drain the ground water & cause major salinity, they’ll probably recycle pee!
Hi Mr. Mallozzi, the tap water in Florida is the foulest s–t I have ever had the misfortune of drinking. Try making a cup of tea with this stuff and you will be smelling and tasting things that have nothing to do with tea. We’ve used the Brita jug and filters for a few years, and the difference is amazing. I’m with you 100% – you can definitely taste the difference between bottled and tap 😉
PG15: “No! NO!! Not a Mac! Never a Mac!!! I can’t believe that you, Joe, would fall for it! I thought you were intelligent!”
…Run. Run fast. There is no head start. ¬_¬
Hey, I’ve been a bottled water drinker for two and a half years now. Unfortunately, I have this habit of taking the bottles to my room so I can drink before I go to sleep and when I wake up, but then I kind’ve… leave the bottles everywhere. It’s been called a shrine. I’ve actually overflowed the recycling bin with collected water bottles (though that was after the shrine had been growing for roundabout a month).
…My carbon footprint could totally kick yours.
Fresh well water is way better than city tap water. We live out of town about 10 miles and have a well on the property that we’re renting. That is some awesome water!
Certainly in Auckland the water is just foul. A mix of huge doses of chlorine, cow shit from the Waikato’s tributaries and whatever other crap enters the water. I kid you not, I could do your taste test by smell alone. Auckland water actually manages to have a distinct cow smell to it.
Hi Mr. Mallozzi,
PC’s marketing campaigns are terrible, and almost always have been. I know, I’ve been watching them closely for awhile. But before you jump ship to the “hipper” Macs, you might want to check out the “Mac killed my inner child”vid.
Don’t kid yourself: There are a lot of “bottled waters” that taste like recycled feces too. Nasty stuff, especially the ones with “additives”. But actually I’ve caved to the pressure of the greenhounds and cut back on the amount of bottled water, and opted for more filtered water.
Too bad I missed, Mr. Binder Q&A session. (“Michael” is still in my top two favorite SGA eps!) Did you give him the nickname “the Truth” or did someone else?
And as for the DVD-watching, does that mean reviews in the near future? And do watch a lot of foreign films (i.e. European, Asian)?
JM, you do realize that all the water on earth has passed through an organism at some point or another, and so your “recycled feces” remark is irrelevant.
While bottled water is convenient when I’m not near a water cooler, I would rather drink water I know has been through a treatment plant than water in a plastic bottle that some salesman claims is “pure”. Have you not heard of the contaminant scandals associated with bottled water producers?
If you’re that concerned, a home filtering system is best.
No, tap water is not recycled feces and urine. Water is brought into the system from some source, resevoir, lake, river, etc, treated to ensure no nasty bacteria and creepie crawlies make it into the citizens, and then pumped out through the system. The later byproducts are then sent through the sewage system for treatment before the now acceptably clean water can be dumped into the envirement. Unless you’re on a spaceship bound for Mars or Tau Ceti, in which case you’d have to use the reclaimed water.
As for the bottled vs. tap water issue. To me, it’s all where I am at. There are towns and cities I blithely drink away from the tap. Other places I’ll not even take a shower in the stuff, and will pay whatever it costs to drink the bottled stuff. I don’t like most of the mineral waters; just nice filtered waters are enough. And at places like my father’s, the well water there is naturally filtered and exactly what people pay those bucks to obtain anyways.
Also, I notice you were prepared to protest the test setup/conditions until you found out you had in fact won. I suggest that the test used too small a sample, or samples. Surely not all the municipalities in your area have identical tasting tap water. To be fair, you should obtain as many samples as possible from around the region, and match that against an equal number of differing bottled waters. I think the test may come out a bit differnt then, though I in no way wish to inpugn your well trained palate.
Still, enjoyed the video. It’s keeping me entertained as my supposedly adult coworkers engage in a round of pillowfighting. No kidding. And to think people’s lives are in our hands….
Although I do agree with you that bottle water tastes better, I can’t justify supporting corporations who exploit public water sources and the pollution that goes with the production and marketing and transportation of bottled water. I worked with Corporate Accountability International’s Think Outside the Bottle Campaign last summer and there is so much we can do to change the way we think about bottled water. Recycle! Reuse! If you think that bottle water tastes better than use a Brita filter, pack a water bottle. Every little bit helps to reduce unnecessary pollution.
http://www.thinkoutsidethebottle.org/
–
All right. Now that I have gotten that out of my system: I really enjoyed the video! Did you win anything?
I can’t wait to see Vegas. I’ve always been a CSI fan so I would love to watch an episode that combines the two.
I admit it. I drink tap water. It’s a lot better around here since they put the new water plant in, but I drank it before, too.
What can I say? I like to live dangerously.
I am so there with you, Joe, on the bottled water. Obviously, if I’m dying of thirst or simply am unable to find bottled water, I will drink tap. But I prefer bottled. Firstly, I don’t have to take the time to pour it into a bottle myself in the morning (I recycle, though!). Secondly, taste. And thirdly, I really don’t like all the additives they put into tap water nowadays. I got my flouride done at the dentist, thank you very much. I have to think I went through that horrible, gag-inducing bubble gum crap for something.
Though, if you’ve ever watched a little movie called Return To Me (doubtful), there’s this great scene where a woman insists on non-bubbly bottled water. The waitress becomes so annoyed, she pours out the bottle water and fills it with tap. One of the guys at the same table catches her and they both have a little laugh when the waitress comes back and the lady drinks it, exclaiming over how much better it is.
Lt Col. Errandboy:By putting the tap water into a glass bottle, and putting it in the fridge WITHOUT a lid on it, you’ll find the chlorine seems to evaporate over a day or so of refrigeration, and it tastes OK.
Oh, ew! The chlorine taste may evaporate, but then it just picks up the fridge flavors. No matter how clean a fridge is, its still going to happen. I refuse to drink soda that’s been in the fridge without a lid on it, too.
Anyway, great video. I am amused by what the writing staff has been reduced to. Taste tests. What will come next?! Also, Carl’s little insertions were rather hilarious.
Well, Joe, wish me lots of luck. I take the GRE on Friday and am scared witless. I’ll need all the luck/prayers/instantaneous-genius-when-it-comes-to-math I can get!
Joe, vancouver has the best tap water around. It comes almost straight from the reservoirs in seymour and capalino (basically fenced in natural lakes) only time its bad is when it gets really stormy because the silt from the bottom of the lakes makethe water murkey otherwise its great. You should try toronto tap water its absolutely horrible basically they dump their treated sewage into the greatlakes and then reuse the water heavily treated for tap water.
Some tap water isn’t so bad, but most of it these days is pretty disgusting. As much as I hate to buy bottled water, I will if I forget to bring my bottle of filtered water from home or if I run out. The tap water here in the town I live in is some of the worst I’ve ever had to drink and often comes out of the tap green and smelling like a dirty fish tank, but the water filtration system I use does an excellent job of filtering out all of that crud. You might consider getting your hands on one of the Royal Doulton ceramic water filtration units, they do a better job of filtering out impurities in water than most systems and are much less expensive in the long run that buying bottled water. I found the least expensive units at Fresh Water Systems.
As for the commercials, I usually don’t pay much attention to them, unless they have annoying music and then I hit the mute button. Like Lt.Col.Errandboy, I tend to use commercial breaks for other things and your description of the new Microsoft commercial makes me glad that I do so. :-p Oy.
Doesn’t matter where the tap water comes from, if the pipes in your building or house are filled with gunk and crap you are drinking that too…
@Narelle, perhaps the Hair issue was Ronon’s Wig escaping from its cage and they had to call Animal Control.
I can’t complain too much about the tap water where I live (used mainly for my espresso/cappuccinos) but filters/pitchers are a good compromise if you don’t like tap water. Of course you must also get the BPA-free plastic bottle or sigg to up both your ‘green’ and hipness factor.
Mind if I share with you a letter I just received?
It is from a “respected” university in our town.
“You are invited to participate in a research study which aims to develop a questionnaire to measure quality of life in the mental health area”.
So they want to ask me questions so they can get answers on how to ask more questions.
They also add that they have already asked a group of people with confessed mental issues a list of questions to help them develop the questionnaire…. Hmmmm.
So where does the question asking stop? At what point are they actually going to care about the issues of mental health? Or are they just going to keep on asking questions about what questions to ask? It also makes me worry about how directed the questions will finally be in the questionnaire. As with a lot of questionnaire’s, a lot of thought is put into how the question will be interpreted so that the sponsors of the questionnaire get the results they want.
As my business partner said, “They’ve chosen you as part of a random sample of sane people. Who says you are sane?”
He’s known me for too long.
But he points out a very obvious flaw in their sampling.
bottled water=AMAZING!!!
Brita filters= also amazing… especially when refrigerated!
I think you should bring the camera in when you’re all hanging out together more often, because that was just hilarious!!! And a highlight of my day, which was pretty crappy for the most part. This college business is lots of work. I’m pretty sure they warned me about it, but I wasn’t paying attention!
I’m a fan of Macs and I have yet to see this Bill Gates commercial. Hehe now I’m gonna Youtube it!!!
Lt.Col.Errandboy
Water is a real concern in this dusty country. There’s only 20 million of us, but that’s still too many for our water supplies.
But you shouldn’t be worrying, if we are to believe the media, everyone in WA is earning 2 gazillion dollars a year and showering in Perrier.
I used to be a bottled water drinker, but people have to be careful on the amount of sodium in the water. It can help to cause high blood pressure if someone drinks too much. I’ve also heard rumors that bottled water, especially ones claiming to be from fresh springs, are just bottled tap water.
I did live off of bottled water when I worked for the NPS in Dare County, NC. Cape Hatteras (Dare County) is an absolutely stunning place that everyone should visit at least once. However, their water has arsenic levels that are higher than regulation. http://www.superiorwatersystems.com/arsenic.html
I also remember studying a report about the water in southeastern Ohio. One side of the road had a higher risk of heart disease than the other side, and it was all attributed to the water supply.
We have a chiller/water filtration machine here near Melbourne, Australia. It works nicely. Our cats are even spoiled, as they have a water fountain that can also filter the water. Surprisingly enough, the cats love drinking running water. Here’s a link to it http://www.lovemypet.com.au/shopexd.asp?id=1213
We do not have new filters for theirs currently (which is optional), so they just get our filtered water poured into it.
You’re absolutely right though, one can tell a difference between bottled water and tap water.
Hmmm. I’m not so sure about the scientific reliability of that taste test.
I’ve been drinking Los Angeles tap water almost all my life, and I’m fine. Well, there is the occasional full-body muscle spasm. And the uncontrollable winking. But I always figured that was nerves. 😉
Oddly, the only time I feel the need to drink bottled water is on my regular summer vacation in Vancouver. Something about that GVRD water just doesn’t agree with me. But maybe that’s because I always stay at UBC — I think they’re doing something strange to the water there…
– KB
Yo Joe,
Baron Destructo has some good competition! Check this out!
Very inventive and funny!
http://wraithfodder.livejournal.com/243220.html
Cheers,
Patricia Lee
LOL!! Joe, do you know that those ads with Bill Gates doing his wiggling and that robot thing creeped me out SO bad I have had a few nightmares about them? LOL!!
I find it amazing that Microsoft managed to make commericals that enforce their competitors point.
I too share your love of bottled water and loathing for tap water. Good work on that taste test! Thanks for representing us misunderstood bottled water drinkers. 🙂
Hi Mr. Mallozzi!
Has there ever been a story idea that you really wanted to write for Stargate Atlantis but never got the chance??
Hi Joe,
I have a question about the SGA movie. So when the network decided to end the series and make a movie, did they tell you “hey guys, give us ideas about a SGA movie”, or they have a starting point and it’s like “hey guys, we have an idea about SGA movie about…” and you go from there?
Try a Mac. They’re wonderful machines. My iMac never freezes, never gets viruses, and never gets bogged down by spyware. It is a breeze to use.
Regarding water: Dallas tap water is fine, but I’ve lived in a couple places where the tap water was so nasty tasting/smelling, that I had to filter it before either I or my cat would drink it. Benbrook, TX is one place, and Shreveport, LA was the other.
The absolute worst tasting water I ever had in my life was while I was on drum corps tour. We were somewhere in West Virginia, and I remember filling up my water thermos at a drinking fountain that was orangey-red from all the rust deposits in the water. We didn’t want to drink it, but we had to. Oh god, it was foul.
At his former workplace, my father took the empty water cooler bottle and filled it from the tap, then placed it back onto the cooler. No one ever noticed or said anything.
It sounds like he and Paul would agree.
I enjoyed the vid very much – it’s fun watching everyone having a good time at work!
But – and it’s a very small but – didn’t Marty G go (not quoting accurately here): there are two cups of tap water (pointing to two of them) and two cups of bottled water (pointing to the other two. With the camera, that is. Pointing. Subtly. Argh. You know what I mean!)
Now I am not saying you noticed this on a conscious level. Not at all. But, well, it was a bit of a giveaway, maybe? Or perhaps he consciously pointed to the wrong ones in order to try to put you off 🙂
I don’t have any problem with our beautiful clean tap-water here in Yorkshire. I have a problem with the pipes it arrives in constantly breaking and flooding the road, though. It breaks in one place so they mend that, then it breaks up the road, so they mend that. Then it breaks – you get the picture.
The last time they mended it was at night. They turned up with no lights, so the young guy used the light from his laptop to inspect the situation.
Never let it be said that we Brits know what we’re doing. Cos we don’t.
When I was in college, the local water tasted like sulfur. Even putting ice cubes in a drink would make it taste horrible. After a while, though, I didn’t notice anymore. I’m not sure what that says about me & my taste buds, but it’s a little scary.
Here at work I just drink tap water, in a big insulated cup that my husband got about 6 years ago when he was in the hospital…hey, it has a lid and a straw, and it was free! Well, sort of free. I suppose the insurance company paid for it.
Tap water all the way. I recently read that a bottle of Evian costs three times the money you would pay for the same quantity of gas… I don’t know about you, people, but here in Germany people only complain about skyrocketing gas prizes, but still buy bottled water… which they could get for much less in the same (or even better) quality. And not to mention all the waste the bottles produce. Inconsiderate much?
BTW, deciding to buy a product because you don’t like the commercials of the rivaling company means you let yourself be influenced by commercials as much as buying a product because you like the commercials… don’t go for the Mac just to spite Microsoft 😉
*gasp* I almost forgot! Tomorrow, the 25th, is my birthday (my 24th)! Pure coincidence has one of my favorite Wraith taking over your blog that day too.
Can I get a ‘happy birthday’? Pweeeeeeaaaaasssseeee??? *puppy eyes* 😀
Mornin’, Joe
I have to amit that, even at this insanely early hour of the day, I am traumatised by the thought of Bill Gates shaking his tush in front of *anyone’s* tv screen. It’s almost enough to make me slap my own PC senseless before launching it through the nearest solid wall. Some people should simply be put down for the greater good of the viewing public.
Which brings me to my favourite oxymoron.. Microsoft Works.
Perhaps someone should tell Bill that it doesn’t. And no amount of arse waggling is going to change that fact.
I can empathise with the advertising turn-offs though. Last christmas, one of the high-retailing supermarket chains over here, decided that it might be a good idea to get the Spice Girls to dance through their food-stocked aisles and aid us all in flocking to their doors. Obviously, they are unaware that I don’t need that sort of spice when choosing my food and the thought that I might obscurely bump into one of the Banshees whilst out doing my weekly shop, was enough to send me scurrying off towards the nearest competitor with my ears stuffed full of cotton wadding.
Ick.
In general, I quite often find advertisements more entertaining than the shows they subdivide. There’s so much crap on tv nowadays, that it’s refreshing to watch drivel that only blinks onto the screen for a few seconds at a time. And some are funny. Hilarious, even, when done subtley enough to capture this roving mind. I’m not one for slapstick, shove-it-in-your-face, slipping on a banana skin type of humour.. I guess Python, Black Adder and Spitting Image put paid to that. But there are a few out there that have made me chuckle.. Take the Ravendale Cow’s Milk ones, for example. Sinisterly, I find it amusing to watch a man being stalked by a herd of psychotic Dairy Cows. Especially when they’re all shoved into the tiny space of an elevator and following him up to his Penthouse flat.
Classic.
As for the bottled water.. Well, after working in the nuclear power industry, lets just say that i’m happier to pay that little bit extra for my drinking water, rather than taking whatever comes out of the tap. I can tell the taste difference a mile off and don’t need to chew my way through the first quarter pint of additives, before eventually quenching my thirst.
As you so eloquently put it.. ’nuff said.
Seriously, water tasting? Well done on getting them right. Here, in our house, we have something between the two called filtered water! Which filters the chlorine and other icky chemicals (which I probably learned about in Chemistry last year and now can’t remember them) out for you.
I told you I had bad timing with questions. Lo and behold, yesterday I asked a question, and today there was no mail bag. It’s a conspiracy.
Ah well.
Anyway, something Marty G said in that video: “and now, as is customary with Stargate bets, Paul you have to give Joe your car.” What do the people in Atlantis do? Bet their puddle jumpers? 😉
Joe said: Mac’s ARE for everyday cool people while PC’s ARE for uncomfortable-looking nerds
I’ve kinda got a foot in each camp. Working in IT during the day I use PCs. I’m a proud geek. But when I come home, I’m one of your “everyday cool people” sitting in front of a 20-inch iMac (purchased last year).
Why the change? Well I needed a new computer and while shopping I started comparing them. With a PC I’d have the big decision to go Vista or XP. In the end I chose to get a Mac. It’s a learning curve sure, but I like that. I must say I loved the number of programs it came with – none of this demo BS that you get with a PC.
Although it isn’t perfect. I’ve had a stuck CD in the slot drive (design flaw methinks) and a software update has messed with iLife and I may have to reinstall but it’s been pretty good. Stuff happens.
I like bottled water. I don’t drink it exclusively. I drink the filtered stuff at work. The tap water at home is fine. Usually it’s mixed with cranberry juice to which I’m addicted.
I’m not sure how scientific that test was. I’d have to rewatch it but didn’t Martin point to which were bottled and which were tap at the beginning? Maybe needed more samples too. If you’re going to do it, you may as well do it properly Joe.
Next you could do a taste test between all the diff, varieties, brands of cola (an extension of the Pepsi/Coke challenge).
Of course, if this turns up in an upcoming script you can say the time was well spent “doing research”.
Thanks for getting Carl to stop by, I’m sorry I missed sending in questions. Carl rocks!
Cheers, Chev
pg15 said:
If you’d ever tried to teach a beginner computer course you wouldn’t say that.
I’ll ignore the intelligence joke because I’m better than that. Let’s just say that I’m not surprised by your post.
Let us know how the judo chop goes. My money’s on the MacBook Air. 😀
Cheers, Chev
Wow. You guys really are out of things to do! And, you managed to waste 3:22 of production time while you figured it out, too.
I think that’s brilliant!
You guys are hilarious. I hope that you all decide/get to come back to SGU. It needs you. 🙂
Hi again Mr M!
Boy! You guys sure are busy…..Mmmm…
On the whole tap vs bottle… To take this one step further, there is also one fundemental aspect that you need to incorporate…The glass versus plastic debate…
My favourite bottled water is San Pellegrino (also S. Pellegrino) which (as you probably know) is produced in Lombardo in Italy. But (and here is the kicker) it tastes fabulous from the glass bottle it usually comes in….But transfer it to plastic and it tastes different. Sounds crazy I know but there you go…It’s a bit like the milk from a carton versus milk from a glass bottle Completely different taste.
Keep up the Quality Control please!
I feel also that Atlantis is a water bound city that these “water trials” are some good background research….I think?
Best to all
Shirt’n’Tie
@ Joe – I actually laughed out loud this morning…at 5:30 am (DAMN this ‘early to bed, early to rise’ shit!)…at today’s blog entry. First time in a while that you’ve tickled my funny bone (in a non-creepy kinda way) since all this depressing ‘end of SGA’ stuff has been going on.
It was the ‘special sauce’ comment that did it. Good thing I wasn’t drinking coffee at the time. 😆
I agree with you about bottled water, for more reasons than one. For one – a big 3L bottle, and a tissue box – are at this moment acting as a blockade, keeping my kitty from laying on my keyboard as I type. She has this real clingy-needy thing going on with me right now, and one way that she fills it is by resting her head on my keyboard…and specifically, on my esc button. 😕 I bet even Lulu doesn’t do THAT.
For two – I grew up on well water, it was very good, even if it was pure poison. Up until I got married I lived in a farming community…surrounded by fields sprayed with pesticides and fertilizers and stuff. I blame all my eccentricities on drinking well water tainted with DDT, nitrates, phosphates, and anything else you can think of. Heh…people buy it. It has ABSOLULTELY nothing to do with mom catching me sniffing my brother’s airplane model glue when I was two… *shifty eyes* Hey, I was too young to know that it killed brain cells! It just smelled good! And gasoline, too! 😛
ANYHOO, when I got married I moved out of the rurals, and into town, and I started drinking city water. Yuck. My sister’s water, over in Wildwood, was even worse – pure chlorine. But Cape May’s wasn’t much better. Then, we moved to where we live now, and still on city water – and it comes out of the faucet…brown. BROWN. Not rusty, but muddy. I called the water department, and they said they were probably flushing hydrants and lines…let the water run a bit.
I did.
It’s still brown.
So, a few years ago I switched to bottled water for all drinking and for cooking needs. I feel better, it tastes better, and so I’m not going back to tap. I don’t drink the same bottled water all the time – but switch it up – sticking mostly with spring water over ‘purified’ water, like Dasani (I like Dasani, though, even if it is just better-tasting ‘city water’ – it’s good in a pinch).
@ pg15 – LOLOL!!! Now I can ask you – what are YOU smoking??! Thanks to you and Joe, I’ve had quite the morning laugh! 😆
You’ve gotta give us old farts a break, though. See, we hate being reminded of our lost youth. I especially find this true of women; often we hate younger women…with their perky boobs and smooth skin and tight little asses. Yeah, WE were once like that…and now…now we are reduced to wearing industrial-style bras in an atttempt to keep our boobs from migrating down to our navels, or worse…to under our armpits. Underboobs. What fun. And no matter what we do, our skin is turning grey and wrinkly and blotchy and – ACK! “Since WHEN did I have a moustache… AND a beard!!” And then there’s our behinds. They’ve gone from ba-donka-donk to cottage cheese in a Glad trashbag, overnight. It’s all very depressing.* So…when we look at those young, pretty girls bouncing around on the screen, it just reminds us of our own lost youth, and we just wanna punch ’em. Hard.
However… I personally have NO problems whatsoever with watching a buncha young, pretty men bouncing around on the screen…if fact, I welcome it! 😀
My biggest fear about SGU is that it will be all about relationships – I don’t like soaps or nighttime dramas because of the focus on romance, and that’s what I’m afraid this will turn into. I’d much rather see the development of friendships over romances, simply because I’m not a very romantic type, and watching two people make doe eyes at one another makes me kinda squirmy…I just can’t watch it. Ugh…and I HATE romantic relationship angst! I have never been in that sort of conversation with anyone – so to watch an hour of someone fretting over whether or not Bob likes Betty, or whether they should have sex or not – is…well, it’s worse than bamboo shoots under the fingernails, that’s how bad it is. Gimme me Dirty Harry over When Harry Met Sally ANYday!
(*Disclaimer – I do not necessarily have underboobs, a moustache, or a cottage cheese ass – nor am I insinuating such of any fan complaining about SGU. I’m simply speaking in generalities…and not pointing to anyone in particular.)
…
……
Hey, anyone see my tweezers this morning???!!
😛
das
Hi Joe,
Thanks for sharing what the producers get up to to entertain yourselves 🙂 I know it was just for fun but there was another flaw in that test, in that Martin pointed out (prehaps unconciuosly) which cups contiained the botteled water and which contained tap water earlier when he was describing the experiment! lol
Hey Narelle – did you see there’s an Atlantis marathon on Saturday October 4 & Sunday October 5 starting at 9am on each day showing Season 1, also featuring the doco From Stargate to Atlantis? Are you on that doco Joe, or is it Brad and Rob?
I know I have the DVDs and can have a marathon any time I want, which I do occasionally, I love the TV marathons too.
I guess this is a question for everyone. Do you prefer to watch TV one episode at a time or several episodes at a time, or does it depend on the show?
While I like the anticipation of what’s going to happen on next weeks episode I love seeing a bunch together. I watched the entire Season 4 in a weekend (from Friday night until Sunday morning). I did actually get some sleep in between. Have you had similar marathons?
Cheers, Chev
Great vid ^^ Carl was fun (the “hey, I’m on TV!”-look) and you won ^^
I think pretty much every water (tap or bottle) tastes different, but I usually prefer bottled water because that’s just what I’m used to (even though I tend to drink tap water for weeks because I’m too lazy to get new bottles 😉 thankfully it doesn’t taste like chlorine at all, I wouldn’t even be able to shower regularly if that were the case because my body doesn’t take it well and my eyes get all red and burn like fire >.<).
I’ve been thinking about getting a Mac one day (at the moment I’m not having the money) but I’m used to Microsoft so I don’t think the change would be easy… the change from Windows 98 to XP has already been strange enough 😉
but generally, I really think a Mac is the better choice
I’ve got no questions for Tyler McClendon (there have already been asked many interesting ones) so I’ll just say thanks for great wraith performances and wait for the answers: Thanks, Tyler!
Tap water verses bottled. My first instinct would be to prefer the tap, but only because I was raised on a farm and our tap water came from a well which came from an underground spring. The water was cool, clean and tasty. The first time I had bottled water I couldn’t understand why people liked to drink it. Our tap water was so much better. Then one day I had some of my cousin’s tap water wich came from a man made lake reservoir and treatment plant. The smell alone was….well, as you said, the smell of a swimming pool. Then the taste…yuk!
I’m glad to say that they have greatly improved the processing since then and now the only time there is a smell or taste problem is on those rare occations when we have a very serious drought and the lake gets low. Then there is nothing that can stop the dead fish smell and taste from appearing. However, since many of the small towns around here still feed their water supplies off of the underground streams, you don’t have to go too far for that really good tap water.
My thanks to you and all the guys for the video Joe. My husband lost his battle with a failing liver last night, so it was nice to smile while watching the testing. It was very much needed.
I switched from my old desktop PC to a new iMac a couple of months ago and I still miss the PC. I think it will take a while with the Mac until I think I did the right thing. Mostly because I’m a bit of a technophobe and terrified incase I break it. I knew where everything was on my PC, I knew what every button meant, I’m was used to my keyboard with my big chunky keys and I liked the right click on my mouse. The only things that make the Mac better are it looks really cool and it doesn’t take up as much space on my desk.
…And here is something for the book club. Joe, I remember when you said that he is one of your favorites:
“Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro has signed a publishing deal with HarperCollins imprint William Morrow to pen a trilogy of vampire thrillers with Chuck Hogan, Variety reported. The first book, The Strain, hits bookstores next summer.
The story will revolve around an invasion of New York City by a vampiric virus. The series will trace the roots of the vampiric race back to its Old Testament origins.”
The paper cups can throw off the flavor and make it much more challenging sometimes to find out which would be bottled water. It would be better to have 4 bottles of water where 2 were changed to tap water.
I drink brita water from my filter at home and bottled water elsewhere.
Joe,
I worked in a water bottling plant one summer during university. It was dirty, dusty, smelly, moldy and damp. (and this is a well known company!) We were constantly fighting mold growing on the equipment – using lots of chemicals of course! Oh, and there’s no guarentee that the employees were actually washing their hands after bathroom breaks. You’d be surprised how many different brands of water come from the same source. “Okay, we’ve filled that order! Switch the labels in the labeling machine!”
Also, it takes about 5 litres of water to make one litre of bottled water.
I prefer my well water thank you very much. We have a Infra-red bulb as well as reverse osmosis so I feel quite safe drinking it. And it tastes far better than anything you could buy.
ooh, did i get censored joe?
cheers, chev
@ Becky L:
*hugs*
Thoughts and prayers are heading your way.
looks like no, the other post suddenly popped up.
cheers, chev
O.k. y’all are having too much fun. That taste test reminded me of the RC Cola, Pespi, Coke Cola taste test. ( I think I’m dating myself here.)
I personally like bottled water, Zephyrhils to me tastes better, Dasani – if water can be dry it’s Dasani. My mother in law who lives seven miles away from me in another town has better tap water than we do. I like the getting tap water from my hometown – RI, in the winter, where it actually comes out cold. Unlike here in S. FLA where the tap water is always warm.
And I chose Zephyrhills not because of the advertising. I chose it because it tastes better to me. It has to be healthier, but there has been some debate regarding it’s filtration. I have become an informed consumer and am on to the tricks of these advertisers. Has anyone noticed that Excedrine Migraine and regular Excedrine are the same thing? Being a migrainer, I wondered what made Excedrine Migraine so “special”, nothing, It’s the same mix of drugs and the same amount of mix of drugs. The only thing that’s different, is the package. If only it worked like Imitrex, I’d be saving my self aboout 60.00 every other month or so and Glaxo Welcome would be out of business.
Ok, my question for Tyler – Aren’t you just waiting for someone to say “Hey, you killed Kenny?” (tho I am not a fan of South Park)
I see that you played hockey when you were 7, Do you still play? What or who is your favorite hockey team/player? I am a Panther fan, I hope they do better this year. Luongo is one of my favorites. And what do you like to do in your spare time to decompress and relax?
Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions today.
I only drink bottle water – I’m super picky, I want it to be spring water, none of that tap water repackaged (although, in a pinch, I will drink Dasani, but don’t even talk about Aquafina). Thank you for your proof. I feel vindicated 🙂
Of course, recent studies in the US have shown that they’ve found prescription drug traces in our tap water o.O Kinda scary…
First off Joe, LOVE the blog. Always brightens my day! Have no idea how you managed to become so freakin’ awesome, but I’m glad you are!
“pg15
No! NO!! Not a Mac! Never a Mac!!! I can’t believe that you, Joe, would fall for it! I thought you were intelligent!
They’re EVIL, don’t you know? EVIL. Them and their one-button mouses. Yeah sure, you can get 2-buttoned ones, even 3-buttoned, but that costs extra time, effort, and money, I’m pretty certain! So what if it’s nerdy? YOU’RE THE EXECUTIVE PRODUCER OF A SCIFI SHOW. You’re SUPPOSED to be nerdy! Nerdy, to the fans, is streetcred! The nerdier the better! ”
Mac’s aren’t that bad, I recently made the switch and couldn’t be happier with my computer. My macbook is faster, lighter, more intuitive, and prettier than ANY PC I’ve EVER had, (and I was on PC for a long time, as a 20-something, I was raise on the damn things) A combination of Windows Vista and Mac switching to an Intel based machine, got me to switch. I HATE Vista! The whole deal about the right click not existing on a Mac is not true, it just works in a different way (also it’s not at extra anything, what looks like a 1 buttoned mouse is actually a touch sensitive multi-button mouse!). Also the 2-fingered trackpad controls are Awesome!!
The biggest downfall I find with Mac is it’s lack of “mac version” software. I work in an Architect’s office, and run AutoCAD pretty much all-day long. We use PCs at work, since AutoCAD is a windows only program. Which is fine, cause I don’t bring my laptop to work and don’t take work home. And any “non-work” projects I do, I have to come into the office on weekends, or stay late. Which can be a pain in the ass at times, but is totally worth it to have my wicked little macbook at home. Although with the new Mac OS you can install windows on your mac and run all PC based programs from there. (to which end, I’ve seen autocad run on windows on a Mac, and it was the fastest I’ve EVER seen this program run in the 10+ years I’ve been working with it.) There are also programs like Crossover and Parallels, which let you run certain PC only programs on your Mac OS. So it’s getting better. However I still find that I’d rather come into the office on my off hours, than corrupt my pretty little Apple, with windows. But that’s a personal choice I made!
Wow, I totally didn’t mean for that to be as long as it was and I realize that a bunch of what you said in your post was in jest. But I found your post hypocritical, you just sounded off on older people raking young people through the coals for being young with media misconceptions and stereotypes (which I totally agree with BTW) but just did the same thing to Apple. Also there are TONS of nerds that use Mac, they’re just not the pocket-protector wearing kind. They’re the “hip, never would of guessed you were such a nerd” kind. Which I think more Joe’s style.
Peace.
-G-
*pant, pant, pant – whew!*
Dressed, house is cleaned up and just now sitting down to eat a little something. Hubby is away today for classes, then leaving again early tomorrow and won’t be back until late Saturday, so I had one of our employees come over to clean out our gutters in preparation for the storm…the storm that will surely interfere with my SGA enjoyment tomorrow night. If I miss Todd…grrr. 😡
So, I have my coffee now…time to read a bit more…
@ AV eddy – So glad you’re home, safe and sound! Happy your little ‘tuttle’ is fine, too! Sorry about the stinky mess – I’ve seen and smelled abandoned fridges – NOT nice. Of course, the ones I’ve seen have been let go for much longer than a week or so…but still, I can imagine. Did the milk explode? I’ve seen that happen once. Eww.
There was this house my husband had to change the locks on, so I went along. The place had been empty for a while and there was a faint odor, but nothing over-whelming. Well, I opened the fridge – NOT expecting to find anything since no one was living there. Guh…it was beyond stink! Everything inside was black and putrefying…nothing was identifiable…just ooze and puddles and…stuff. Eggs on the door had exploded – some were dried up and hard, others…worse. Flies and beetle-type bugs EVERYWHERE! I’ll never forget it – it was something straight out of The Mummy. 😛
@ Joe – Being relatively new to the whole Stargate thing – and being mainly obsessed with only one small portion of it 😳 – I’m still clueless about a LOT of things. For one, until I just read a few things here I didn’t realize Carl also wrote Michael. I wish I had known, because I would have liked to tell him what a great episode it was – I feel the most moving and thought-provoking thus far, so much so I find it very difficult to watch. The one scene – where Michael watches himself as a Wraith, struggling and yelling as he’s held down and restrained – just guts me. Even if a Wraith won’t show fear, doesn’t mean he can’t feel it. I’ve only seen it twice, but that scene is totally burned into my brain. Both times I’ve watched, it makes me SO furious at the humans, and so sympathetic towards Michael, that – although I hate him for turning on his own kind – I still can’t hate him for what he’s become. It just wasn’t his choice. I saw it in whole for the first time this past winter (probably in February) – after I had already become totally hooked on Todd, and the Wraith in general. But it was that episode (with a bit of help from Poisoning the Well) that sealed it for me – it’s why I’ll always favor the Wraith over the humans, and why I’d love to see them take back what is rightfully theirs – the Pegasus Galaxy – and drive the invaders from earth back to whence they came.
Yeah. I know. Not going to happen. But a gal can have her fantasies, can’t she? 😉
das
PS: Joe, did you fix the Rogue Winkie somehow? Smilies – when I do them right – seem to work properly now.
Hey Joe!
Bottled and tap? I could probably tell the difference as well, due to the chlorine. I personally prefer tap water due to the fact that it has flouride in it, unless the bottled water comes from the tap (Dasani?) which provides flourine as well. I was grown up on tap water, so I guess I prefer tap water. However, if I need to get water out/take water, I’ll usually take bottled water. Nice test nonetheless, you guys definitely have way too much fun. 😉
Thanks as always!
– Enzo Aquarius
@chevron7:
Yup. Had tons of marathons. In fact, I think the first one was probably season 1 of SGA. After watching SG1 for so long and deciding that I couldn’t cope with O’Neill being relegated to pen-pushing, I initially refused to watch Atlantis on principle.
Duh.. Well, that lasted about two seconds after getting into my first dose of ‘Rising’. And after that, it took me about two days to finish off the boxset.
But, i’ve done the same with Firefly, Bones, NCIS, House and Rome (which was awesome, but I had to gag and blindfold the dog for. Such sensitive and innocent little ears). I think the longest marathon was going through LotR on one Saturday. I’d had surgery on my wrist and was banned from using the compy by an over-indulgent, belligerently snarky Consultant. Soo.. rather than deck the man and spend the weekend behind bars, I consoled myself with Middle Earth. *That* was a blast, although I came away talking gibberish for a while thereafter and took to wearing a hat over my pointy little ears..
No-one *wants* to be called a Hobbit >.>
Next on my target is the Star Wars marathon, although i’m guessing that will involve some heavy drinking and ignoring the incessant headache Mr Lucas’ name brings to the forefront. And i’m not past just re-hashing old marathons either. Atlantis 1-4 is a hotspot, followed closely by X-Files, Angel and believe it or not, Starsky and Hutch.
What can I say? I don’t read, so the tv gets to take the brunt of things around here.
Agreed Joe. I only drink bottled water when I’m out. My home water is triple filtered, and quite yummy.
BTW: A place for you to check out the next time you’re in Arizona http://www.heartattackgrill.com
For Tyler:
In the promo shots for “The Queen,” we’ve seen something that wasn’t shown on television, namely Todd with brushed out hair and a smile on his face. Was that part of a cut scene? I was maybe expecting an official welcoming for Queen!Teyla on the Hive, but we went from Teyla in the infirmary straight to ‘Throne Lessons,’ instead. So, if indeed it was a cut scene, is there anything that you could tell us about that? Were you in it? How did Kenny react to having a fake Queen on board? I do not think we’ve seen much interaction between her and Kenny, unfortunately. Unless there was again something that wasn’t shown due to a time problem?
I must say I liked Kenny better than “Rhys”. (Although Rhys was a cutie.) It was high time for us to see Todd interact with a fellow Wraith, and you did so in a very good way. His dry ‘I’m not on the ship’ was hilarious, and I hope to see more of you, and hopefully the character of Kenny, in the upcoming 2-parter, and I believe he’ll also be in Infection? See you then. Thanks for reading!
Spikey
Tyler questions:
1. Do you ever find yourself wanting to put on the Wraith gear and go grocery shopping or to the car wash just to see people’s reaction?
2. How long does it take to go from Tyler to a full Wraith?
3. How do you mentally prepare for being a Wraith?
4. Do you get to keep the cool coats?
Love the Wraith!
Janice
Ah, bottled vs. tap.
I am lucky I live where tap water is clean and tasty. Our city sends a yearly analysis annually to every household.
I dislike bottled water for the most part, except for a few brands like Arrowhead and Mt. Olympus, which is right here in Utah and the water is from springs. Plus my fridge has a built in filter. Nice.
As for tap water being “unclean”, uh, no … there are strict federal guidelines (at least in the US of A). Sure, some tap water sucks and is full of chemicals, but usually doesn’t contain contaminants. When we lived in San Diego, we had water delivered because the tap water was so heavily treated. But unclean? No, just tastes bad in some areas. On the other hand, bottled water is unregulated for purity. Even sodas have stricter controls. Just sayin’. Then again, I drank tap water in countries like Iran, so perhaps I have cast-iron guts. Except for SoCal water … yuck.
We have all kinds of refillable water bottles because we have to haul all our own water out to the desert, and haul all the trash back. Makes empty disposable water bottles a close up and personal pain in the rump. Camelbak bottles rock!
Hey, PG15 … old people huh? Come out to Burning Man and my old person butt will whomp your young person ass in the Thunderdome. I think when folks hit a certain age and experience level, speaking up is more natural and reasonable. Screw social conventions and polite nattering, we’ll tell you what we damn well think. I know I will. I was a shy child and a modest young woman. To hell with that. Come on, it ain’t whining, it’s an OPINION. You seem to have enough of them. Good on ya.
Old person, harrumph! I’m a curmudegeon!!!!!
@ Becky L *big big hugs* My deepest sympathies.
Hey Joe,
A question for Tyler:
How did you approach your audition for a Wraith role? It’s not like you could draw on personal experiences….could you?
Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions!
Jean
@ Joe…again… – So, I think I’ve been pronouncing your name wrong. Martin says ‘Mall-ah-tzi’ – or that’s how it sounded to me. I’ve been saying ‘Mall-O-zzi.’ How is it pronounced?
This is a great vid, btw…love all the background chit chat about feces and stuff (boys 🙄 ) And LOVE the guys just roaming around like antsy little kids forced to stay in the parlor and visit with spinster auntie Mae. Do you pay them to be in on your shenanigans, or do they do this stuff for free? And can Carl ever NOT make a face when a camera is around? He reminds me of my brother-in-law…always mugging for the camera (boys 🙄 ).
One thing that I just must give you credit for…when Paul said you had it wrong, I thought you were going to say, ‘you know what, I wasn’t sure about that last one’, or something. But you didn’t. Instead of being some wishy-washy milk-toast, you stuck to your guns, certain that you were correct. That’s a sign of a man who has real confidence in his choices – a true leader – a guy who won’t back down when he knows he’s right, no matter what pressure he’s under.
Either that, or you’re just plain ol’ stubborn. 😉
das
Well, give me bottled water anyday. I even give my cat, Teyla, bottled water in her bowl (nothing but the best for my baby!)
As far as PC vs. MAC goes, I have both, and I would have to say that even though I have used only PC’s until about a month ago when I bought an IMac for the house, I would still recommend a Mac over a PC. No viruses to worry about, fewer crashes, very user friendly, and tech support can’t be beat. And PG15 you are incorrect – the mouse that came included with my IMac has 2 buttons (it also has side ones as well), did not take extra effort to set up, nor did it cost extra. And I am able to right click (and do so all the time).
Mr. M wrote:
Beat sheet for what? A Universe episode? An SG-1 movie? A second Atlantis movie?
Anne Teldy
To Chevron 7: I love marathons. Doesn’t matter if it is TV or my collection. I will always support atlantis on TV even if it meant making sure I am home at 5pm here in the US when scifi had the reruns on.
I prefer the episodes all at once just because I am not someone who likes to wait. I will have my own marathons since I have from season 1 to now 5 from itunes. I can watch episodes from 8am to 12am (lol). In fact even my daughter, who at one time was forced to watch SGA once a month with me, ended up having her own little marathon during the summer cause she was on vacation and her plans fell through. I even laughed at that. Boy was she upset when it was then canceled, mad at me cause I got her hooked.
I told her don’t yell at me, I was so determined for it to be saved, I started thinking of people I knew in high places that might go to TPTB to save it, but the people I know in high places are just State Reps and senators and I didn’t think they’d have too much luck.
Becky L. I am sorry to hear of your husband.
@ dasNdanger: The milk didn’t explode (thank Ged), but the turkey in the freezer oozed…a lot. 🙁 Had a good time buying condiments and various foodstuffs today. Feeling blessed I have electricity and money to buy something to eat. A lot of people & businesses here still are w/o power and money is tight for many. 🙁
eddy
I haven’t had much time lately but I’ve tried not to be too much behind with your blog.
Very funny video! Yeah, you did it right. I’ve always thought that one can tell the difference.
I’m glad you’re there, fighting on the side of science, Joe. Congratulations on having the most discerning palate on the SGA production team! You should have taken a bow – and then yelled “In your face!” to the doubters.
I’d also like to take this opportunity to wish happy birthday to narellefromaus, as it is September 26 right here, right now. Have a great day!
I agree, bottled water tastes better (though some of it is truly just filtered tap water), but I also agree with the parting comment in the video…drinking bottled water increases your carbon footprint.
Do you have ice in your drinks when you’re in a restaurant? I’ll bet they didn’t use bottled water for the ice. I suppose in those cases, the drink buries the taste of the water, but not always. I’ve sure noted that my coffee tastes different based on the water source.
I’ve been wondering…folks there seemed upbeat about doing an SGA movie and encouraged fans to be thrilled about that. However, there were two SG1 movies and there’s been no word on a third one. And the two SG1 movies were announced together. Now there is nothing new coming along. That doesn’t bode well for SGA. Forgive me for today I’m feeling a bit blue about losing SGA.
On another note, does Paul always seem that grumpy?
Chev
Very much looking forward to the marathon. I’m booking the TV and some entitlement to quiet for that weekend.
I love marathons and any episode that a channel puts on for this reason…
1. Go to DVD cabinet
2. Look at your Seasons of box sets
3. Rub head and make face of confusion.
4. Think, “Hmmm, do I want to laugh, think, cry?”
5. Then, “I could go a Window of Opportunity, maybe The Curse? BAMSR? Should I start with Season 1 of Atlantis?”
6. Rock back and forth on my feet while I think some more
7. Walk away from the DVD cabinet overwhelmed by the choices and don’t watch anything.
Whereas with a channel airing episodes all that happens is:
1. “Ooo. Stargate’s on. Cool.”
2. Sit down and watch
So I have this issue with super-crappy birthdays. I’m at the stage of where I prefer not to acknowledge them. For some reason bad things just seem to happen on this day. Hubby wants this pattern to be broken so you should see what he gave me! ….. well a picture of it anyway until it arrives.
A 4 control, cocktail style arcade machine with over 1,000 games! Galaga, Double Dragon, 1942, Frogger …
You may never see me again.
It arrives on Tuesday.
My firing finger is going to be so sore on Wednesday.
Yes, I am now officially 31, but this is going to take me back to school holidays days.
BeckyL – Thoughts heading your way.
Bailey – And the tranquilliser rifle must have jammed. I hear that thing can eat through metal bars.
Hi all!
Would you all do me a favour? When “First Contact” has been aired on Friday night – could you all please got to the Hey!Nielsen-Site, sign in, vote and – each one of you – leave an opinion about the episode there? I would really like to know how many people actually are watching SGA.
And would you please ask others in every forum you are member to do same? When the Nielsen ratings at TV are not correct – as we believe, because most parts of the fans are ignored – then let us show them the reality. At least only once!
Aw shucks, thanks Riley.
Hugs for BeckyL.
The tap water from my city is pretty good but I still use a Brita filter. I always bring a bottle of my Brita filtered water to work as the water from that neighbouring city is horrible. I’d rather drink water from my parents’ pool. I don’t really like bottled water. I find it always tastes like the water has been sitting in the bottle for years even well before the expiration date.
My sincere condolences Becky L.
I completely agree about the tap vs bottle. I cannot drink tap water at all. Bottle water, I’ll drink, but it’s better with kool-aid drop-ins.
Never fear about the Gates/Seinfeld ads, they’ve been cancelled in favor of the “I’m a PC” ads. Only a few years late to retaliate against Apple.
@ Becky L – So very, very sorry. Really, there are no words…
{{{hugs}}}
Deirdre