Had the pleasure of a few visitors this week that I'd like to let you know about....

Melody and her brother Everest came by and visited the Atlantis set after Melody won a charity auction. Her prize was a "walk on" role during the episode "The Game" (I believe), so you all have to keep an eye out for her lingering in hallways and looking wise and important before Ancient consoles. Melody was a bit timid with yelling "Action" at first, but after snarkastic abuse from me (that's what I'm there for) she was screaming it out like the best directors I've worked with. Melody and Everest were a very classy duo and even went so far as to leave us all thank-you cards and a book...which Jane has already stolen because "oh goody! I always meant to read that one". Thanks to Melody for looking out for others and getting herself a day of sitting around listening to me flub lines!

Next up we had Angela...poor Angela, who for some unknown reason, identifies with McKay and actually admits to it! She finally explained the term "Thunk" to me and showed off her McKay teddy bear while I was "in hair", which generally consists of moving what little there is around to make it look like there's more there, a highly technical science that requires a vast team of highly trained professionals. I ended up stealing teddy's voice box and recording my own Angela-specific abuse for it to spew when poked in the stomach. Not many Teddy's in the world come packing that kind of snark! I have to remind Angela, to pay attention to her day job as she works on satellites. I don't fancy one of those things crashing down because she's drifting off on one of her "thunks"! Angela had also won a charity auction so was "walking on" dressed in medeaval sackcloth as a member of the McKay worshipping country of Geldar...a wonderful country decorated with flags and painting of me...Heaven! Thanks to Angela for her charitable donations and her abuse for me not attending more conventions...please take care of that bear!

Angela had to share the set with Jane's father, Mr. Don Loughman who has told me many times to start calling him Don instead of Mr. Loughman...thus Mr. Don Loughman. He can be seen in "The Game" working hard with quill and parchment while McKay tries to persuade the beautiful and talented Laura Harris that while he was not a God, he was just as smart as one. Mr Don Loughman, by the way, is 86 years old, the father of the most brilliant and attractive woman on the face of the planet (Jane) and watches both SG1 and Atlantis every week with his friends Kathy & Paul...the creators of a mean curry buffet I might add. I think they're going to be rather jealous when they see their weekly guest up on the big screen (they've got a great TV) writing up McKay's country of Geldar's plans for war against Sheppard's feeble country of Hallona, and chatting up the blonde background at the same time. There really is nothing like a good English curry!

Last and least...only in stature...was the beautiful Liz who came to us from the Make-A-Wish Foundation. What a treat she got! A very grumpy McKay (and Hewlett for that matter) in a full space suit with a brutal day of techno-panic for the episode "The Ark". You won't be seeing Liz in any walk-on roles, but you should know that I worked her like a dog doing all the digital effects shots. You see, when they shoot a scene that requires digital effects, they have to get a clean, actor-less plate shot. I'm not sure of the specifics (I guess I better find out) but it requires some poor self-conscious member of the FX team to stand before the cameras holding a grey ball on a stick for a few seconds. The unfortunate soul then has to move the ball around a bit, spin it to reveal it's shiny silver side and then get laughed at and generally mocked by the crew. Liz has changed all that. She has now elevated the grey ball into an art form, and as a result got more than a few well deserved standing ovations. So much for me trying to make her life misery! She also convinced Martin Wood our director to let her have a go at the directing side of things. She quickly learned how to deal with difficult actors (I was the only one there for most of the day so she learned quickly) and soothed me about my performance with calming words like "That was only slightly terrible" and "good enough". All the best to her and her family. That said, I expect to be working with her again shortly. I've made her promise to hire me when she gets out of film school. Admitedly Liz is only 15 years old, but I need all the work I can get!

Peace (I'm a hippy now)

D!

How can you not LOVE Fridays?! (I know it’s not Friday anymore, but I had time yesterday... until I got stuck in Stargate Atlantis’ Puddle Jumper set for the rest of the afternoon)

Not that I don't love life on Atlantis, but by the end of the week my sad little brain has been filled with just about as much geek speak as this nerd can take! Fridays mean that I've got nothing to learn for tomorrow which means I get to chat properly with the cast and crew and read (wait for it…) non-Stargate related material...which these days means anything about film: film cameras, film directing film production, film distribution...what can I say...I read the manuals...I am a dull, dull man.

Entirely off topic…Funniest thing I've come across recently is about this guard dog in England that went berserk and maimed an entire collection of irreplaceable teddy bears. Apparently a security service was hired by the exhibits' insurance company to guard the priceless teddy bears which are worth over a million dollars (so, not exactly "priceless" then are they Mr. Hewlett?!) The insurance company even insisted on the guard! Turns out the highly trained doberman got jealous of Elvis Presley's teddy bear and tore it to pieces. Then the murderous mutt gets “fluff lust” from his first teddy victim and goes psycho, taking out the rest of the irreplaceable teddies in the process. I was laughing so hard...the image of that poor guard coming in to find the Doberman with a “who me?” look on its slobbery Doberman face…surrounded by millions of dollars of teddy arms and legs and bear stuffing everywhere...Something very “Dog's Breakfast” about the whole thing.

Let me put this out there…if you get a second, post the funniest dog related news or outlandish mutt’s misadventure and maybe I’ll pick a few faves for us all to laugh about! Maybe I’ll make it an on-going “feature” on the “Dog’s Blog”.

Big 200th SG1 party tonight…may even have to break out the suit I’ve been given from an upcoming Atlantis episode…an episode that you are going to completely freak out about…nuff said! (I really am evil!)

G’night!

Greetings All!

We've had such a huge response to "The Dog's Breakfast" clip that I just had to make sure that I took the time to thank all of you so much for watching and caring and commenting..."Thank you all so much!"

Okay, that's off the to-do list.

On the "Breakfast" front, Jane & I are putting our evil brains together to make one big brain and to create a marketing plan...I love all the research and the business side of making a movies…who knew!? Every stage of getting the film from concept to completion is just about the coolest thing on earth. I kept dreading the next phase and every time I ended up loving every minute of it and even sadness when it was over...I think I know what I want to be when I grow up. I can't wait to get this film (A Dog’s Breakfast) up on some local screens and get a giggle or two out of the lot of you in the process. We're thinking about doing some kind of "Book Tour" approach to the theatrical release (with or without distributors attached). We thought maybe, select a few cities where we can screen the film, do some Q&A's sign a few DVD's maybe, shake a few hands, have a few drinks (fizzy water right now…more on that later!) and say a few hellos. The film has started going out to distributors so hopefully we'll have a better idea of what's available to us in the near future...excited!

Meanwhile back in space...McKay is as talkative as ever...if not more so (hard to believe I know)! That said, it's too much fun and we've had some great guest stars to play with. I really think that you are going to get a kick out of what we've been up to up here in Atlantis...although I have to tell you all...there have been some pretty shocking developments on the story front...and some huge changes on the horizon...I can say no more...but be warned! Also it looks like I'm hopping over to do another SG1 and have yet more fun with poor Samantha Carter in another alternate universe...as if Rodney wasn't causing enough chaos on our side of the universe...now he gets to do it in some fancy threads...Hello Giorgio Armani McKay!

Peace, Love, Laughter and Snarcasm!

D!