See, this is why I don’t offer people lifts more often. No, that’s not right. I don’t offer people lifts because I can’t be bothered to take ten minutes out of my day to help them save twenty to thirty minutes out of theirs. I also have a terrible sense of direction and often end up losing my way, driving around aimlessly, and arriving home way too late resulting in a later than usual blog entry. Tonight, I was out with my language exchange partner, Miho who, in addition to helping me practice my Japanese, administered the following “psychological” test.
You’re transporting five animals – a lion, a monkey, a cow, a horse, and a sheep – and have to drop off one of at a time along your route. List the order in which you drop them off. My response: 1. Cow (the methane factor makes this one a no brainer), 2. Sheep (an otherwise passenger who would add little to the enroute conversation), 3. Horse (I figure he’d rather walk anyway), 2. Lion (he, on the other hand, would probably have plenty of great anecdotes – or, as one actor used to say, “antidotes”), 1. Monkey (he’d keep the mood light). Anyway, according to Miho, in rating the animals you are subconsciously rating the things in life you find of greater/lesser importance. I think I know a guy who did his PhD dissertation on this very study. Anyway, my priorities in life break down thusly: Of least importance for me is money (represented by the cow) which is dead-on as I’m the type of guy who would be just as happy backpacking through a Honduran jungle as I would staying at a five-star hotel in Tokyo. No wait. I’m the opposite of that guy. Anyway, of almost equally less importance to me is love (represented by the sheep). This is no doubt the result of the fact that I have no soul, misplaced five years ago along with a pair of sunglasses. Of middling importance in my life is business (represented by the horse of course). Then, coming in a close second is, believe it or not and probably not if you’ve watched by Weird Food Purchase of the Day videos, pride (represented by the lion). Finally, at the top of my list is friends, represented by the monkey. And, given some of the people I hang out with, I can’t think of a better animal to represent (although hyenas and lemurs tie for second).
Congratulations. Several of you finally guessed the title to episode #1 of season two – and all you had to do was run through every word in the English dictionary starting with I-N-T. So the newly revised SGU second season episode list looks like this:
#1: INTERVENTION
#2: AFTERMATH
#3: AWAKENINGS
#4: P*******
#5: C*********
Mom’s making progress. She’s actually strolling up and down the hall like a woman half her age who also happened to break her hip.
Mailbag:
susan the tartan turtle writes: “Joe – I know that screening the series of SGU in two segments with a HUGE break in the middle is a network decision. But do you know the logic/reasoning behind such a decision?”
Answer: I believe it’s part of the network’s strategy to air original programming year-round.
Flagitous writes: “1. Two Part Question:a.) Are the gates in Universe made of Naquadah?
b.) If so, can the gates be used to find other sources of Naquadah by resonate frequencies?”
Answers: Yes, the gates in Universe are also made of naquadah. The use of gates to locate other sources of naquadah by “resonate frequences” sounds like a reference to something we’ve done in the past 16 years/325+ episodes – but it doesn’t ring a bell (although I do remember using naquadah detectors to locate source deposits.).
Flagitous also writes: “2. Do stargates use direct, gate to gate dialing all of the time, or do they sometimes use chained gate sequences like we used for the gate bridge?”
Answer: The Destiny gate dials directly to single gates. Alas, no chained gate sequence capabilities. Short of locating a power source capable of dialing back to Earth, chained gate sequences would be the only other viable means to return home.
Will answer more of your gate questions in the coming days.
Taylor writes: “Just wondering if you knew when mgm would be releasing any more of the kino webisodes?”
Answer: No idea, but I would guess somewhere in the lead-up to the second half premiere.
Bryan M. White writes: “Since you are so close to Vancouver do you or any of your staff have plans to go to the winter Olympics?”
Answer: Ironically, most of the Vancouverites are getting the hell out of town. Brad, Rob, and Paul have travel plans. Carl, on the other hand, is actually sticking around for the “fun”(?). As for me, I have a friend in town so I’ll be entertaining.
Andy Brind writes: “when you write about something technical in the series, do you refer to your blog to see whether or not you have already discussed it so that your blog can remain faithful to the series? or do you just write it, even if it contradicts something that you have already said on here?”
Answer: When I respond to a technical question, my response is based on a) what we’ve discussed in the room and, b) common sense. Of course, either are fluid and something that is established in the room can be easily “un” established if it hasn’t made it to the small screen.
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