Snapshot Chronicles - Susan Getgood's personal blog

Meet MY Indiana Jones; Capital One/Newsweek Photo Contest

11.01.2008 by Susan Getgood //

Halloween 2008

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Twitter friends may recall my tweets yesterday morning about a PR pitch I received that was actually relevant. It wasn’t perfect by any means; it was still clearly a mass e-mail, a bit too long and promo-speaky, and had a press release attached. BUT… it was for a photo contest from Capital One and Newsweek. I do occasionally write about photo contests on Snapshot Chronicles.

I have no idea whether the agency who sent the pitch just got lucky or did a decent job of blog targeting. After all, the volume game in PR counts on the fact that if you send enough pitches, you are bound to hit on a few. I also have seen a fair share of not-so-great pitches from the same agency over the past few years. However, I will give them the benefit of the doubt.

And tell you all about the photo contest. The theme for the contest is American Life, and the angle is that Capital One lets consumers personalize the image for their credit card. Online consumer votes from January 6 to February 6, 2009 will determine 50 semi-finalists and Newsweek Photo Editor Simon Barnett will pick the winners. The prizes are reasonable, but not excessive, and you can enter up to five photos per day. More details on the contest page.

Chances of winning? Pretty slim unless you really work at it, tag your photos properly and get out the vote. But is it pretty simple to enter; I did it quickly through the contest page and you can also enter through a Flickr group, which should make it dead easy.

Here are the photos I entered:

All the pictures were taken during our vacation in San Diego last April. The beach pictures were taken on Coronado Island and the water slide was at the resort. The giraffe is Ivan the 19 year old male at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. We went on one of the photo safaris where you actually go into the enclosures and feed the giraffes. It was tremendously special at the time, but even more so when we learned that Ivan died of old age about a week after our visit. More pictures from that day on Flickr.

[tags] halloween, Indiana Jones, photo contest, san diego, beach [/tags]

Getting down to the wire on our country’s future

10.29.2008 by Susan Getgood //

Only a few more days until the election.

It’s no secret where I fall on the political spectrum, but no matter who you intend to vote for this Tuesday, you have to appreciate this anecdote from mom blogger Goon Squad Sarah recounting how her daughter tells the difference between the two presidential candidates:

She pointed at the man on the left “This is Narack Ofama” (meh, close enough for a four year old) “and this is John McCain. You know how I can tell?”

I asked her how.

“They have different color hair.”

And don’t miss this week’s posts on BlogHer by Jill Biden and Michelle Obama.

[tags] presidential election [/tags]

SciFi Snapshot: Stargate Atlantis, My Name is Bruce

10.28.2008 by Susan Getgood //

Some random things.

First, Stargate Atlantis. Its last and not best season. I am amused that we’ve now seen three episodes in which Torri Higginson is featured, to varying degrees, in flashback sequences. First of course there was Ghost in the Machine, the episode in which they (sort of) wrapped up her storyline and for which she refused to return. Leaving the part of Elizabeth to be played by a robotic voice and Michelle Morgan, the actress who did such a nice job as FRAN last season.

Then Weir was used to establish backstory for the Daniel Jackson arc and again last Friday fairly extensively in Inquisition, an episode consisting mostly of flashbacks recounting the Atlantis team’s various crimes against the Pegasus galaxy.

How to have the actress on your show without actually having her on your show 🙂

Now SGA is not the best science fiction television ever. IMO opinion that honor is shared by Firefly, Farscape and Battlestar Galactica. But its first three seasons were pretty good. In large part because of the dynamics of the characters.

But the ratings weren’t there.

So, the producers decided to shake things up and kill off a couple fan favorites. replacing them with other characters who haven’t really gelled with the audience.

Simply put, they f***ed up their show. It’s had a few good moments since, but it’s not as consistently good as it was in the early years. Even if you don’t like the Stargate franchise, watch the Atlantis pilot Rising. It hooks you, and good.

The ratings got worse, not better, after the late season 3/early season 4 changes.

It just wasn’t as compelling without the dynamic between characters John Sheppard (played by Joe Flanigan) and Elizabeth Weir (Higginson). I like Amanda Tapping and Robert Picardo, the actors who successively have played the leader role, but the chemistry just isn’t the same. And not only due to the “shippy” elements of the John/Elizabeth relationship.

Even if you didn’t “ship” John and Elizabeth (and I do), the characters had a real partnership that anchored the show and couldn’t/didn’t transfer to the subsequent leader characters Carter and Woolsey.

What made the show special was gone. Not surprisingly, the show won’t be back for a 6th season.

And they keep bringing Weir/Higginson back in flashbacks.

Hhmm? Just a suggestion, but maybe the producers should try a little harder to get Higginson on board for the planned Stargate Atlantis telefilm next year. You know, give her a real story that either truly wraps up her character or brings the character back to life. Preferably the second in case there are future films.

Instead of just teasing the audience with a few flashbacks.

Topic two. The long awaited My Name Is Bruce premieres this weekend in Austin. Actor Bruce Campbell will be doing personal appearances across the country at showings of the film. November 7th is the Boston date. I was thinking about going but we will be in Vermont that weekend so I’ll have to wait for the DVD.

Finally. Farscape. It doesn’t get much better than this.

As I have Joss Whedon’s Firefly, I’ve watched this series at least a couple times through, and some episodes even more. If you’ve never watched, do yourself a favor. Skip the dreck that’s on most channels today, and rent or buy the DVDs.

[tags] Stargate Atlantis, My Name Is Bruce, Farscape [/tags]