I still have absolutely nothing interesting to say, so I'll go with a linkspam instead!

-- In honor of the new TV season, Salon offers snarky clip-guides of the dramas and the comedies. And Tuned In lists the best TV pilots ever.
-- Vulture interviews Sophia Myles.
-- PopWatch asks do you prefer your movie theaters empty or full?
-- (Sad) blast from the past: Any Taylor of Duran Duran talks about his - and the band's - cocaine addiction.
-- Making the rounds: Alison Bechdel talks to NPR about women on television. After you read, check out the blog post for more interesting commentary.
-- Jezebel talks about the "sexy librarian" stereotype.
-- The Times wonders if the cupcake craze will die out.
-- Newsweek lists five surprising benefits of massage.
-- Wired examines Bono's charitable causes.
-- Today's creepy link: ten things your body can do after you die. And non-creepy: ten words that will help you win at Scrabble.
-- And from Slate: Are mechanical pencils better for the environment than the regular wooden kind?

Whew. My fabulous friend elly427 is now in transit back to Canada, and I am at home where it's almost too quiet. I had such a great time making some new friends, and I wish I'd met more of those of you who came to ATL for the con -- after a while, my eyes started to glaze over when I scanned badges; plus, I felt a bit silly staring at everyone's chests. ;)

Also, Indi sent us some fabulous "Adama '08" buttons, similar to the ones at Zazzle, but ours has "Leland" at the top, and the "O" is octagonal. Very clever, dearie! Then this morning I found some freebie swag for The Middleman just sitting on a table. I scored a square button with a photo of Noser holding his guitar. Poor Elly had to listen to me randomly blurt out, "I've got a Noser button!" BTW, don't forget that the season (possibly series) finale of The Middleman will air tonight on ABCFamily. If you've never seen it, pretty please give it a chance!

Here are the last two videos that I took with my mediocre digital camera, from today's solo panel with Olmos.
-- Video 1: EJO discusses whether he thinks things will ever work out well for the Adama family. (Slightly spoilery.)
-- Video 2: Elly (yay!) asks him to talk about Katee and the other younger actors on the show. He's quite complimentary and funny.

I haven't done a linkspam since before the con, so here goes.

-- Things are looking very grim at NBC. Sounds like 30 Rock really needs that Emmy win in order to stay afloat. *sigh*
-- Only one more season of Flight of the Conchords.
-- Salon interviews Leighton Meester and the creators of Yo Gabba Gabba.
-- Jezebel rereads Bridge to Terabithia, waxes rhapsodic about the awesome Tilda Swinton, and wonders why period commercials are ridiculous.
-- The Times reports on controversial photos in Vogue India's new issue.
-- Slate tells us how to get new eyeglasses very cheaply.
-- And Time has a cool photo essay on volcanoes in our times.

Wow, I am exhausted. Decided I need a break from the con for a few hours, so right now I'm at home and sprawled out on the sofa. Elly and I got up early for Tahmoh's Dollhouse panel this morning, which was odd because he didn't have much to say (yet) about the show, and the audience couldn't really ask questions about something that we haven't seen yet. (Plus, Tahmoh was very hung over.)

We then waited in line for nearly two hours for the BSG panel, which had some great questions and answers but wasn't really as much fun as the others. I do like how they've started ending each one with a "So say we all!" chant. Aaron also said that he'd heard we might not get S4.5 until April, but that came as a surprise to the others - so, who knows?

Right after that, my friends decided to get into a truly massive line for the Firefly panel. I was tired and didn't much want to go, but now I'm so glad that I did because it was hilarious. Fillion, Baccarin, Staite, and Tudyk play so well off each other, and I could tell they were having a marvelous time. We even got an Inara/Mal kiss. Sorta. ;)

I'm still very, very tired, so I'm going to lie down for a few minutes before heading back to the hotel. Meanwhile, I uploaded more videos from the BSG panels. Too exhausted to type up descriptions, so just go find them at my DailyMotion page. As I said last time, the picture quality is dreadful, but you can hear them pretty well.

ETA: One costume pic for my sister. ( The Flying Spaghetti Monster! )

Reason #427 why I love elly427: She stopped the remote on ABCFamily when she noticed that The Sound of Music is on! She knows me so well.

Anyway. More DC video. Shorter files this time, thanks to me hitting the wrong button once or twice. On the plus side, the Adama/Roslin shippers might be quite happy! :)

Video 1: Why does Adama still wear a wedding ring?
Video 2: More about A/R.
Video 3: The second movie (a joke) will be about the night Adama got laid.
Video 4: Hogan on Tigh and Ellen's relationship, with Tahmoh praising them.

(I'll post two more after dinner.)

While watching a cute, Yorkshire-accented actor in a random panel on the Hilton's closed-circuit TV....

Elly: "Oh, my god. Is that Neville Longbottom?"
Me: "Wow, I think it is! He looks like an adult!"
Elly: "He looks like a HOT adult!"

ETA: He just admitted that he plays World of Warcraft. How adorable is he? AND he gave out his WoW handle. "How dumb is that of me? I should've just lied."

Ah, the fun of D*C. This year you can watch live video of the panels on the hotels' closed-circuit TV. I'm watching a panel right now with a guy who's kinda cute in a generic way and funny/self-deprecating, and I had no freakin' idea who the heck he was despite his apparent popularity. It took me a good five minutes (and someone namechecking him) until I realized that it's Michael Rosenbaum from Smallville. Wow, huh.

Anyway! I'm currently in the hotel room while Elly's at a Stargate panel. Just got home from the first BSG one, where we had seats in the fourth row. The guests: Callis, Douglas, Olmos, Hatch, Penikett, and Hogan, who was definitely the most beloved by the crowd (and he seems like such a sweet guy!). In fact, halfway through the panel there was a question from some guy in full Tigh costume -- down to the voice -- and while the whole audience cheered and even all the actors thought it was great, I nearly injured myself from all the cringing. Ah, well. We had two other guests: Kevin Grazier (very meh) and some random actor who played a Marine in two episodes (you could practically hear the collective "Huh?"). Anyway. No real spoilers aside from something that may confirm my current pet theory about S4.5. It was a fun panel, though nothing particularly earth-shattering.

I finally got the video to upload. The picture quality is horrid, but the audio's decent. Since I'm recording with my mediocre digital camera, I usually pause it during the questions themselves. So, here are somewhat detailed descriptions:

-- Video 1: Baltar and sex; Aaron's most embarrassing moment on set (perhaps NSFW.)
-- Video 2: Hogan and his two wives; Callis NOT having a good time with the Letterman taping.
-- Video 3: More on Tigh/Ellen; casting for Caprica; EJO assuring us that the second half of S4 will be the most depressing thing in television history (no spoilers); and nicole_anell's question about Six/Tigh.

ETA: If any of you are currently in one of the four hotels, DCTV just started replaying the panel.

I have an elly427! Yes, we're sitting side-by-side on my sofa, both typing on our laptops. Obama's paused on the TV because we weren't paying attention. I picked her up at the airport (with offerings of Chick-Fil-A), and we headed downtown to pick up our badges. When we saw the lines already stretched around the block, we muttered, "Screw it," and came home to veg in front of the television. Heck, we'll have to wait in long lines anyway, so we might as well put it off as long as possible. (And of course I'm sure we'll regret this tomorrow. ;)

For those of you who are coming to D*C, we'll be at tomorrow's 4pm BSG panel. Come find us and say hello! We'll also be staying at the Hilton on Friday and Saturday nights. If you need my phone number, e-mail me at the address in my userinfo.

P.S. Atlanta folks? Definitely heed the warnings and avoid the Connector. As we drove back home tonight, traffic was at a standstill all the way up to Northside and 75. GAH! That's the worst I've ever seen, and the construction isn't even supposed to start until Friday night. I'll probably take 285 to 20 tomorrow, though I'm sure that will also be dreadful.

P.P.S. Indi? I was going to txt you, but my cell battery died! Will be in touch as soon as it's charged. *mwah*

Today we began narrative writing. My co-teacher had a lesson in which the kids will develop a concept and "pitch" for a television show, as a way to approach creative writing and plot outlines. We led the class in a brainstorm session, in which we decided upon a basic plotline that all students would use. First period chose "a rich person suddenly becomes poor", because poor people becoming rich is soooo overdone. (One student: "That's, like, every episode of Cribs.") Some of the kids had trouble coming up with ideas for characters. One wanted to write about P.Diddy. I told him that we wanted him to write about someone fictional, but he could certainly use P.Diddy as his inspiration – maybe borrow some of the details but make his story about "B.Tibby". (Yes, we're teaching them how to write fanfic.)

Then one of my adorable sixth grade girls turned around and – I swear I'm not making this up – said, "I'll use MC Hammer as my inspiration, but I'm going to call him 'MC Bamber'."

No, she is not a BSG fan. I even repeated it to make sure I'd heard her correctly.

I’m still giggling.

So, how has this morning gone?

1. I hit the snooze button even though I know better.

2. On instinct, I turned left and started driving toward the old school. Quickly realized my error, but had to turn around in the middle of crappy commuter traffic. (My usual commute is against traffic, thank goodness.)

3. Got a couple of minutes down the road when I felt a sharp poking sensation. Discovered that the underwire in my bra had snapped, and going without is not an option. So I had to run home and change. Thank goodness this did not delay me too much.

4. The delay came at Starbucks. I decided that I was going to stop, hell or high water, which is possible, given the rain. This location is usually quite efficient, but not today in spite of the near-lack of cars in the parking lot (they weren't that busy.)

5. My hair is frizzier than a cotton ball, and I feel hung-over despite not having had a drink in over a month. Here's hoping the day improves. NOW.

The Closing Ceremonies are beautiful and impressive from both artistic and logistical standpoints, even if the first production number is a bit too Willy Wonka for my tastes. But damn, this thing is also rather terrifying. I'm afraid one of the Oompa Loompa dancers is going to climb out of my TV and eat my arm. In conclusion: YAY LONDON 2012! And hopefully Rio de Janeiro in 2016! (NPR had a fun interview with a British comedian about what to expect from those opening ceremonies.)

I've spent most of the weekend straightening up around here. I cleared out all my knitting muck and found a whole part of my living room that I'd forgotten existed. I even wiped off parts of the walls with one of those Mr. Clean Magic Erasers, which really are remarkable. The hardest part was attempting to get a thick layer of cat hair off the other sofa. It's clean now -- and covered with a sheet to keep from accumulating more of the poof's fur before my guest (hi, Elly!) arrives on Thursday. The kitchen and bathroom still need tons of work, but I think I'll wait since they'll just get messy again before then. And I need to clean out my car, but that'll be tricky because it's supposed to rain all week. I *love* rain, but the car wash places will probably be closed. Maybe I can just find a vacuum somewhere.

Otherwise, not much to report. I'm having a hard time coming up with things to say in my posts. Ah, well. For now I suppose I'll just stick with linkspams.

-- Yahoo Sports has a really amazing profile of an Olympic runner from Somalia.
-- Making the rounds... Sex and the Olympic City: What athletes are doing after hours.
-- The Times has a list of online psychology tests. They also talk about weight on TV.
-- The Guardian lists the top 10 literary virgins.
-- Aww, Jemaine from Conchords got married!

Another sign that I'm getting old: I *need* a nap after work. Granted, much of this is because I stay up too late every night and need a bit of early evening sleep to offset that, but still. Today I had a 5:45 haircut appointment -- yes, it looks darling -- which meant no shuteye when I got home. Right now I am flagging.

Only a week until Dragon*Con, and until my darling elly427 arrives from Vancouver! We seem to have some sort of bi-coastal stalking thing going on. ;) For those who are coming, asta77 has been compiling a great list of fandom-related panels. Looks like we'll also have a small Middleman fan panel; unfortunately, it's at the same time as one of the BSG Q&A's. Alas.

Speaking of MM... this headline in the AJC made me laugh when it showed up on my RSS feed: "Middleman files theft complaint against Bigfoot hoaxers". Nothing to do with the show, of course, but it does sound exactly like something he'd do.

Time for links:
-- Two interesting articles: Should the bond of friendship be legally recognized? And USNews investigates the science of aphrodisiacs.
-- The potential downside of the Olympics: After glory of a lifetime, some athletes asking "What now?"
-- An AP writer wants to know Why don't TV stars like to watch television? (C'mon, they can't be that busy.)
-- A local journalist interviewed Rainn Wilson ... and made the mistake of asking him the wrong question. Quite interesting. Love the last line. ;)
-- Three lists from Mental Floss: 7 places Jesus was spotted, 4 cool typing tests, and the 10 most popular tattoo designs.
-- Slate exposes how your printer tricks you into buying ink and toner when you don't need it. Eh, I just wait until the letters fade away.
-- Vulture asks, will this fall's movies be as depressing as last fall's? and why August movies are so bad.
-- The Broadstreet writers debate whether the semicolon is "girlie". Yay, semicolons! Boo to comma splices!
-- For my fellow YA book fans: NPR interviews Walter Dean Myers.

1. I'm trying to be more frugal right now so that I'll have a bit extra for Dragoncon weekend. This means that instead of getting the good cold cuts at the grocery, I went with the cheap packaged stuff hanging in the display cases. I might've saved five bucks, but I sacrificed a lot in flavor. Ugh. Can't wait for payday. And in other depressing sandwich news, I realized just how many grams of fat are in mayonnaise, so I got the lowfat version. *sigh*

2. Last night's Middleman wins for having vampire puppets! Almost (but not quite) as amusingly whacked-out as Puppet Angel. And on themiddleblog, Javi answers a burning question about the last scene. Made me very relieved. ;)

3. From Time: Making an Arguement for Misspelling. When I saw the headline, I growled because I'm pretty hardcore about spelling -- but the article does make some very good points.

4. Not much else to report, so here's a linkspam:

-- The Washington Post goes in search of The International Sweet Tea Line.
-- Jezebel wants to know are we "girls", or are we "women"? I don't really mind either way, but I agree with several of their points. (The header photo is NSFW.)
-- Mental Floss offers an environmental argument for boxed wine and lists five things I didn't get about Pixar's WALL-E.
-- Here's a very helpful guide to when leftovers go bad.
-- To promote the season two DVDs, Dexter has a Rorschach test to see if you're a budding serial killer.
-- Check out the teams for the new season of The Amazing Race. I'm not feeling the love so far.
-- I'm behind the times, but apparently spaghetti-eating cats are all the rage.

This afternoon I happened to glance at my userinfo and discovered that yesterday was the 6th anniversary of my joining LJ. Huh. Imagine that. I haven't been posting as much lately, but I don't plan on going anywhere. This place is still too darn addictive. I went through LJArchive, which is always fun. My top 5 commenters are wickedgillie, asta77, sarmoti, indigo419, and elly427 (hi, ladies!). I posted most often in the first two years, but things have leveled off since then. When I joined, I was in my second year of BTVS fandom. I was involved with Veronica Mars for the first season. Then BSG came along, and that's where I've been ever since. I know something else will come along to replace it soon, though hopefully not before the end of the series next spring. ;) I've posted a ton of fic. I've tried to get better about replying to comments, but I'm always going to suck at that. Still, I love hanging out here. LJ is great for fandom, but it's also wonderful just for talking about life and making some amazing friends over the years! [/sappiness]

1. Michael Phelps' last race is about to start. I'll probably watch, though I'm a huge jumble of nerves. Hell, I can already feel my heartrate increasing. I really like him and want him to win, but good lord, the media hype is obnoxious. Will the announcers remember that three other men will be racing with him? Sigh. I've discovered that the Olympics are far more enjoyable with judicious use of the mute button.

2. This afternoon I've been watching The Education of Max Bickford. A kind person has uploaded all 22 episodes to YouTube. It won't go on my list of favorite shows, but I'm enjoying it. Young Katee does an excellent job, and she's quite adorable. Good singing, too.

3. Just announced: Nathan Fillion is coming to Dragon*Con. (I'm trying not to think about certain other changes to the guest list. Sigh.) God, those Jossverse panels will be a madhouse. Too bad, because I'd really like to see Fillion speak. On the plus side, two of the Firefly panels are scheduled right after the BSG ones, which means we might have an easier time getting seats, what with ~10,000 people lined up to see Captain Mal. ;) I'm also very, very excited that certain friends of mine (Elly! OMG!) are now coming to D*C!

4. So, where do y'all stand on ( tipping at casual dining restaurants? )

5. Just a few links this time:

-- The NYT profiles Jon Stewart. They also have a long and fascinating article on New Orleans public schools after Katrina.
-- Three from Mental Floss: the origins of many words and names, funny metaphors used in high school essays, and 25 awesome foods you never knew could be deep fried! I definitely want a Pocket Deep Fryer (TM Jack Donaghy), but I'd never put some of those things in it.
-- From Jezebel: Confessions of a curly-haired traitor.
-- Next month, Alton Brown will have a new series, Feasting on Waves.
-- Via txvoodoo: If you join EHarmony, don't mention that you're a cosplayer.
-- Will Arnett (GOB!) lists 10 TV moments that made him cry. Bonus points for the Amazing Race shout-out.
-- And yeah, I linked to Cake Wrecks last time, but I have to repeat it with this Grand Theft Auto cake for a 4-year-old. Priceless.

1. School's going well so far. There are a few minor frustrations, and I'm exhausted from being on my feet in front of students from 8:45-2:30 almost nonstop (our lunch "break" isn't really one). But otherwise, pretty good. Thanks so much to everyone who sent good vibes the other night!

2. During my physical last month, the doctor said I needed to cut back on caffeine because my blood pressure was getting a bit high. I'll admit I drink WAY too much Diet Dr. Pepper, so I've started drinking more caffeine-free DDP without cutting out the regular version altogether -- I'd rather not deal with those caffeine-withdrawl headaches! I've also been ordering decaf vanilla lattes, which is apparently a good idea because a medium Starbucks coffee has over 4X the caffeine of Red Bull. ;) I know all this won't make a huge difference in my blood pressure, but it has to help at least a little bit.

3. One rant about Monday's 4x100 swimming relay. Much of the post-race praised Phelps' teammates for "keeping his medal hopes alive". Good lord. I'm sure they were thrilled for him, but I also think they wanted the victory for themselves. The four of them swam an incredibly exciting race, and I have a tiny crush on Cullen Jones. But please, media, give credit to the team, instead of making it all about Michael. (And I'll admit I'm getting rather sick of him, though I do hope he wins all his races.)

3b. Would someone please ban super-shiny metallic lycra from Olympics uniforms? Thanks!

4. Wow, I just looked at the calendar and realized that Dragon*Con is only two weeks away! Who's coming? :)

5. Links time.

-- Aww, the NYT has an article about Neil Diamond.
-- PopWatch interviews Honeysuckle Weeks, from Foyle's War. I have such a soft spot for that series.
-- From Slate: A mathematician explains the genius of the new gymnastics scoring system. From what I've heard, he's the only one.
-- From the "Huh!" files: why do elevator passengers always face the same direction?
-- Mental Floss's lunchtime quiz is on Shakespeare characters.
-- And today's odd picspam: the stupidest haircuts on the internets.