Four for Thursday

ONE

Emma did not like the book she read most recently for A.R. called Ungifted. "It made gifted kids look like really socially awkward weirdos. Like John Sheppard is when he hugs people," she said.

TWO

What should I do with a can of beets? Don't really want to pickle them or serve them in a cold salad.

THREE

We are nearing the end of our SG-1 watch. *sniffle* I have so thoroughly enjoyed watching this show with Emma. I hate how that episode with Vala and her dad is so close to the end of the series, though; I get so ticked off at Daniel and Landry, and it taints an otherwise perfect season for me.

Vala is a grown woman. She's perfectly capable of deciding whether or not she wants to allow her father back into her life. He abandoned her and neglected her; the show implies that he exposed her to potentially dangerous criminal elements/activities that could have harmed her, and he gave her some psychological issues out the wazoo that she has acted out in dangerous ways as an adult. Landry I feel a bit more forgiving towards; he's clearly projecting his own familial issues onto Vala and her father. As a dad who neglected his family (albeit for legitimately important matters of national security), Landry would like to believe that family can forgive him, so he looks for Vala to do the same. Daniel just pisses me off. When he compares Vala to her dad, it literally makes my skin crawl. I'm not denying Vala's life of crime, but I am saying that she didn't damage any children. In fact, she tries her damndest to save her kid even when that kid is evil incarnate. So for Daniel to suggest that Vala owes her dad forgiveness for having shit-all to do with her because she ran some scams in the past is incredibly insulting at best. The final scene of that episode when she reveals that she *has* kept Jacek's box of trinkets and the letters he sent her--it breaks my heart.

FOUR

I just finished Mark of Athena and House of Hades. Anybody up for some discussion of how awesome this series is?