Alright, I'll admit it ... I used to know everything that was going on in the Star Wars Universe. That was a long time ago (in a galaxy far, far away?). After the last two movies were, in my humble opinion, lackluster at best, I had even lost my interest in seeing the final film. That sentiment has since changed.
I just read an article on CNN.com about how lucrative the franchise has become. This, in turn, led me to the Official Star Wars Website to check out the trailer for the next movie which, finally, has a firm release date of May 19th (not too far from now).
Watch the trailer and DON'T get excited, I dare ya.
I sincerely hope that this final movie is better than the previous two. I just hope that viewing the trailer hasn't set my expectations too high. The trailer certainly hints that it might be the biggest, baddest of them all and I'm looking forward to it with those expectations.
Let's be honest, can expectations BE to high for this movie? The conclusion to the largest media franchise ever SHOULD be the best movie ever, no??
It's not often that I'm reminded about my time spent on Lehigh's campus but, for some reason, the spring revives collegiate memories in full force. Maybe it's because those were the only days (other than summer vacations) that I could get outside before the middle of the afternoon. Sure, I didn't get outside every day of the spring but my schedule did allow me the time (on occassion) to get outside more often than I do now (which is pretty much never).
I can remember sitting in class just looking out the windows right behind me (yes, I sat in the back row in just about every classroom) thinking about what I was going to do as soon as I got out of class. This eager anticipation coupled with my innate ability to tune out teachers and professors made for some great daydreams.
I can also remember the longer days on campus where I ate lunch at Burger King and then proceeded to walk to my first afternoon class about a half-hour early. It was a Literature class (Innovators of Sci-Fi no less) and I often sat on a large, stone patio (for lack of a better word) overlooking part of campus as I waited. To be honest, I don't even remember the name of the building but it was a great location to relax on a nice day. I usually spent that time waiting by reading whatever book I should've read the night before.
As the semester went on and I actually became more and more interested in the course, I got my assignments done well ahead of time and had no need of the quiet patio. However, I still sat on the shaded patio for about a half hour before every class. Sometimes I'd read other things. Sometimes I'd bring my discman and listen to my favorite CD's. Sometimes I'd sit and write but, as the semester went on and I became more and more aware that it would all be ending soon, (the semester AND my time on Lehigh's campus) I began to spend more and more time simply sitting and daydreaming.
I realize that this post is poorly written but I find writing about daydreaming without actually daydreaming to be damn near impossible. My mind has left my fingers struggling for premature closure ... this'll have to do.
For those that celebrate Easter, I hope you had a good one. For those that don't, I hope you (at least) enjoyed a half-day or a day off anyway.
It struck me how eerily similar the weather was on Easter and Christmas. If I lived in the tropics or the artic circle, I would've expected that. As it stands, I'm losing patience for the weather in the LV.
I shouldn't say that. It's actually MUCH easier to be at work when it's cold and dark. The nicer it gets, the more difficult it becomes for me to stay in the office all day. However, I'm ready to have some daylight after work so I can get outside again.
I'm not saying I need 85 degrees and sunny but a nice cool 70-80 and partly cloudy would be fine with me.
Okay, I REALLY try not to bring my job into my blog, however, I can't help it this time. I just had a customer come in who had called earlier about upgrading his PC. He wants to upgrade his K6 machine with 92MB RAM from Win98 to WinXP. We explained to him, several times, that he should probably just get a new machine for the money he'll wind up spending on upgrading his. Still, he showed up and wanted to buy a 256MB dimm we had in stock.
The icing on the cake was when this guy showed up in overalls with what appeared to be his father in a flannel, button-down shirt. You'd SWEAR they just came from their farm somewhere.
This is nothing against farmers or even people that just happen to live on farms or in barns but, damn, is it any WONDER why they tend to get taken advantage of all the time? We could've sold him hundreds of dollars worth of upgrades, far more than a newer, more powerful PC would have cost and he would've bought them all because HE thought upgrading was the way to go.
I'm sure he's a great guy and probably hard-working to boot but I REALLY hope he makes a better attempt to get acquainted with society (technology) before he has kids and they grow up never leaving the farm either.
I don't know why but I was suddenly reminded of a movie called The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Once I start, it's VERY hard to stop.
It's been a couple months since I checked out Ebay with any real interest. At the request of a client, I checked out what's involved in starting your own "store" one night and since then, I've been on it several times a day.
A week and seven winning bids later, I'm officially addicted. I'll stop. Really, I will ... once I own one of EVERYTHING! :-)
Alright, here it is, the poll to redefine our lives.
The word is ACCESSORIES.
Is it ack-sess-oh-rees ...
or is it ah-sess-oh-rees?
I know, I know, so seemingly simple yet, trust me ... comment on it and it'll change your life.
A quick "thanks" to all that have participated in the last two polls. With a quick break for a non-poll entry, rest assured that Friday's poll will be, as my nameless friend would say, as awesome as a "really, really, big ... window".
Well, the last game I got excited for was MechAssault 2. After I beat it the night it came out, I was SUPREMELY disappointed to see that starting multiplayer games was just as bad as it was in the first game which was SO disappointing that I haven't touched it since. (I'm still hoping to play it with my friends one of these days but I don't have tons of time to spend in game lobbies with a bunch of idiots so regular Live play is out.)
Some of my best memories of my xBox are from playing the first MechAssault game in the middle of the day (wasn't college great?) for hours on end with new people I met online. It was the first real success for Live and, to this day, the franchise still does pretty well from what I've read.
I don't play xBox let alone anything on Live much anymore and I'm okay with that. I've just found other things that interest me while xBox games have languished as barely-better-iterations of most PC games from 10 years ago. That, from what I understand, is about to change with the May 3rd release of Forza Motorsports.
I don't get too into racing games as I would much rather be on the road in MY car but, after looking at the car list for Forza, I must say I'm looking forward to it. Not only does it have my favorite Cadillac's from Speed Channel's racing series, it has a bunch of other actual "race" cars to run against the best street legal cars in the world. Best of all, a 427 cid twin-turbocharged C5 from non-other-than the late John Lingenfelter.
There was an article in this month's PopSci about how realistic it is ... I'm officially anxious now. For ONE, it should keep my moving violations in check as I will, hopefully, enjoy thrashing around in the game almost as much as on the street.
I'm going to buck the trend and go back to back with my polls. Sure, sure, you might say that this is because I'm too lazy to write anything substantial and that might be reasonably true, however, I'm also anxious to get this poll up after some conversations I've had recently.
It hasn't been mentioned in a while but, while my friends and I were all in college, we often thought about whether or not we'd go back in time to relive our time in highschool. As it becomes all too clear to me that highschool was longer ago than I care to acknowledge, I wonder whether I would still consider going back.
Would you? Why or why not?
Would it matter if you were really "starting over" or if you were simply going back to highschool with all of the knowledge you currently have? What would make or break your decision to go back?
Alright, it's been quite a while but it's poll time again. I've been wanting to ask this one for a while but never got around to it. I'm really not sure if this will be an easy one or not but I certainly have my answer all ready to post.
So, if you could croon by stealing someone else's voice, whose voice would you take? This question is partly motivated by people that watch American Idol and apparently aren't satisfied with their own voice or the voice of anyone else they've heard. They're insistent upon listening to Randy's and Paula's opinions as to what voice is "the best".
I, for one, have determined to make that decision myself ... no need to force anything on anybody ... I know what I like and even though it bothers me when people are too ignorant to talk about music intelligently, I'll take comfort in knowing that I chose what I like because I chose it, not because Randy and Paula said I should.
So, what've you got? If you could serenade your significant other, pump up your friends with a pop tune, honor someone with a musical tribute or just sing a beautiful melody to yourself in the shower, who's voice would you take?
Ya know, I just don't understand how people don't see the "big picture" when it comes to the environment. Well, I guess I understand, but it's still tough to digest.
What would compel you to throw your cigarette butt out of your moving vehicle? Is it perhaps that you don't want it in your vehicle even though it's YOURS? What makes you think that someone ELSE wants it in their yard or picked up by their child? What makes YOU so special?
Well, yesterday I paid a traffic ticket online that was issued to me by the state of Virginia (Carroll County to be exact). Those f@#&ers hit me with radar by hiding behind a f@#&ing hill in the middle of ... err, sorry, where was I ... right, paid a ticket online.
While the issuing officer was a friendly enough sort, I think it's complete bull$#!& that you have to go BACK to the state in which the ticket was issued just to plead not-guilty. This is a serious inconvenience in a day and age where teleconferencing can be done on even the lowliest desktop PC.
Call me a crazy conspiracy theorist but I think they do it banking on the fact that if your license plate is from three states away, there's a better than even chance that you'd never come back to plead your innocence. Hell, I guess I can't even blame them for it.
It's a flaw in the system and while I'm happy that certain counties in the state of Virginia are advanced enough to actually accept credit card payments online, I'd MUCH rather see their technological advances in the form of teleconferencing in order to ease the adjudication process NOT the payment process.