So I completely feel like I have lost days of my life. So here is what happened. I went to Shipley’s Birthday party on Saturday, like everything was normal. We had a great time at the party, watched a lot of the funnier videos like IMPS and such. We drank, a lot. But ironically enough I stopped drinking and even started sobering up towards the end of the night (Lots of water). One of our troopers brought some Balloons and we had a blast. Overall, great time. That is, until Sunday morning. So I wake up at around 10am Sunday, still at Marcs place. I am feeling ok at this point, just a little bit of a sore throat. We decide to go to Hard Time Café for Lunch (breakfast?)

Around this time I am starting to feel a little sluggish and I start getting really really cold. I am wearing a fleece and am still cold. When we left I was starving for food and by the time we got there and I started eating, I had pretty much lost the will to eat and, for that matter, to move as well. I tell Amy that I want to head home and she drives. Keep in mind that Marc’s place is in Fredericksburg, so it’s about an hour or so to get home. The whole trip I am fading in and out of sleep. By the time we get home, I can barely walk. Amy makes me a bath and I crawl into bed shortly afterwards. At this point My Fever is 102.5. I am grasping for every blanket under the roof because I am still freezing.

Amy calls up Lee to get some advice and he says that I shouldn’t be under that many covers with a High fever. As much as she didn’t want to do it (mostly because I was begging for covers) she took them away to help get my fever down. By about 7pm Sunday night, I was so sick and sore all over that I decided to make the trek to the emergency room. Side note here, I hate going to the Doctor, I mean, I really hate going to the Doctor, and emergency rooms are that much worse because they are rushed doctors. So know that, if I make the decision to go to a doctor, willingly, I must be feeling bad. So when we go to the hospital, I was already having trepidations about going, then the nurse said it would be about a 2-3 hour wait. At about this time my fever was down to about 101, but my back was killing me. There was no way I was going to sit in a waiting room chair for 3 hours. So I made a deal with Amy, if I wasn’t feeling better by Monday, then we would come back.

Monday was spent in a drugged stupor. The plus side is that my fever was dropping. By the end of Monday I was actually up and moving a little. I thought I might actually be able to go to work on Tuesday. Yeah, so, I was wrong. Oh, I went in alright, and sat at my desk in a daze. I made it through a few hours and then just gave up. I believe my fever at this point was around 99-100. I think this is when I started my NyQuil binge as well. I took a dose of NyQuil at around 4pm-ish and was starting to get woozy by 6, but not asleep. You see, I was having a hard time sleeping this whole time. By 7pm I really was getting pissed that I wasn’t sleeping yet. So by around 8:30pm I took my second dose. Flash Forward, I now realize that the time period between Doses was 6 hours, not 4 hours. Meanwhile back in un-happy land, the visions were out of this world. This would have to be one of the weirdest trips I had ever been on. (not saying I have really been on that many.)

Try to imagine this, when your eyes are open, everything is perfectly clear, your thought pattern is clear, you are thinking in coherent clarity. When you close your eyes, the world of modern art becomes your reality, colors smear together, objects morph into other objects. The oddest ones were the child cartoons. You have seen on TV where they take a child-like drawing, stick figure and such, and then animate it. It was like that only much more horrific. There was a point where Amy was sitting with me and stroking my hair and I had images of this cartoon stick figure pulling his hair out at the roots with blood going all over. Needless to say I swatted her hand away. The other weird thing about it all is that, although I had clear thoughts when my eyes were open, I couldn’t form clear sentences, or walk straight for that matter. I could think of what I wanted to say, but couldn’t really say it. Out of all of this, I still couldn’t sleep. (Could you sleep with all of that going on in YOUR head?)

Wednesday I just took the day off work. I took DayQuil through out the day, and felt much better. I was able to get up and do things in the house, but still couldn’t stomach looking at the computer, so that stayed off. By the time Thursday came around, I was feeling much better and felt that I had survived. And now it’s Friday! After much discussion and deliberation, we have decided to not go anywhere this weekend! Every weekend for a while now has involved going somewhere and doing something. This weekend is going to be a relaxing one. I am going to catch up on some gaming, maybe make some new sounders for the RFZ Newborn “Awakened Radio.” More on that subject later. I will, of course, do my best to fill you in on Monday.

There I said it.

Yes, it was very good, and it was by far better than the first two of the prequels, but….. It still wasn’t the best one. I figured that it’s been over a week since the movie came out, now would be a good time to write a review. WARNING!!! This review will probably have spoilers in it, so if you haven’t seen the movie and don’t want to spoil it then Get your butt out of that computer chair and go see it. Then come back and read this. If you have seen it and want to compare notes, then read on.

First I have to say that, reading the book before seeing the movie help in so many ways. There were entire plotlines that were not even mentioned in the movie. The whole Rebelling Senators story, and Anakin’s search for Knowledge and Master hood were only touched on. I really felt that these things were vital to the story and they were just dropped. I really thought that Haden Christiansen did well as Anakin this round, defiantly better than the EPII Anakin. And where Anakin’s character got better, I really feel that the Character of Padme got worse. Natalie Portman is a great actress, but, I guess the dialogue and direction just weren’t there for her this time around. Padme didn’t seem like the “Take Charge” Strong woman anymore, instead it was too overly caring and mushy. And the Scenes with both of these two together? In a word, Painful. I am very Thankful to Uncle George for giving us the Star Wars Universe, but the man can’t write/direct love scenes.

This movie was probably one of the Darkest of them all. I mean, I know it’s supposed to be dark, with the whole turning to the Dark Side bit, but really, it was very dark. There are some scenes that you just didn’t expect to see in a Star Wars Movie. It truly shows that Darth Vader is pure dag nasty evil! He very ruthlessly kills unarmed civilians, tears through the Jedi Temple like a mad man, He kills the Younglings (the kids from Episode II) and he chokes his pregnant wife. Sounds like a bad episode of C.O.P.S. It was great to see how Anakin gets confused by Palpatine and turned into Vader though. It really brought the story full circle. Now I need to go back and watch the Original Trilogy and see how it affects the story.

The effects in the movie were amazing, as per normal with anything Lucas does. I actually found myself getting a little motion sick during the first scene with the ships zipping around in space. The main complaint I have about all of the CGI (which was much better this round than EPII) is the Troopers. I guess it’s ok when the troopers are helmeted and moving around like normal, although I know there is no way someone in armor can move like they did. But, when I see a trooper with his helmet off and the body doesn’t match up with the head……. It makes little stevie cry. Why couldn’t he just make the armor like he did with the original? It’s not that hard, and I personally know a number of people he can contract out to to make it! The scenes where Obi Wan and the clone troopers are discussing plans, and the Troopers helmets are off just look goofy. You see a clone walk from one area to another and the head doesn’t match.

General Grievous. What’s to say about him? He was very evil, in a Snidely Whiplash sort of way. It was a cyborg, but yet he had a bad cough. No doubt he was a bad A$$ but, there wasn’t all that much of a fight with him. Obi Wan took him out very quickly so that the movie could move on. Much more detail went into Grievous in the book. I know that they can’t make the whole book into the movie, but they really left far too much out. And the Grievous I saw in the book, well he was 100 times the tyrant than he was in the movie.

Now, don’t get me wrong about the movie. I liked it. I liked it a lot. It completed the story that was started in 1977 and I am thankful for that. But I really wouldn’t rate it as the best Star Wars Movie.

So, that had to be the largest movie review I have done on this site to date. Well I guess since it’s a genre that is so ingrained in my life, it’s warranted.
Well then, on with life. This weekend is a party down at Patton’s house, its Shipley’s birthday and it’s time to get Jiggy with it. I could use a good party. The past few weeks have been pretty busy. Of course I will be back, most likely on Tuesday, to give the weekend report. It will be nice to have the 3 day weekend. Maybe I should have taken today off?

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Yeah I don’t know, I am so running out of titles for random blog posts. This past weekend was a very slowed down relaxing one for me. I think I actually managed to do a little gaming, though not all that much. I think Friday was mostly a re-coup as I was still pretty wiped out from the Wed Night premier.

Saturday became cleaning day, and boy howdy did we clean. The living room and kitchen were starting to get pretty bad so we had to do something about it. I think maybe next month I may go out and get me one of those rug shampooers and do the whole house. It’s getting about that time.

That evening we met up with some of the other 501st guys and saw EPIII again on the DLP screen at the Lee Highway Multiplex. This is the only Digital screen in all of Virginia. The screen looked great, although it was a little smaller then I would expect. The theater, however, sucked. It sucked a lot. Every seat in the house squeaked really bad. There was no stadium seating. The sound system was horrible. DLP or not, I doubt I will ever go back to that theater. You know, it floors me, WHY would you put a DLP projector in a crappy theater????? Of course the corporate answer would be “To get you to go to the crappy theater that you would otherwise avoid” but that just doesn’t cut it for me. Modern theater projectors are not so bad that I would sacrifice sound and comfort to attend a DLP showing.

The rest of the weekend was a relaxing one as we had finished everything that we needed to do. One of the routines we have started is a Sunday morning movie. Assuming we are home, every Sunday morning, as a way of getting up and moving, we watch a movie on DVD. The past few weeks it has been Episode I and II. Yesterday’s movie was “Phantom of the Opera.” We had owned it for quite a while, but with Star Wars week last week, we just didn’t have the chance to watch it. Hehe, I was actually thinking about reviewing it again when it donned on me, I already did. Well the rest of Sunday was spent doing some gaming and helping Amy sew her first project. She made a Scrub Top for her work. I was very proud of her. Outside of all that, it was a pretty quiet weekend. Now to just figure out what the week holds.

A long time ago, in a blog post far far away. Ok, so here in my Plan. Yes, I saw the movie. NO, I will not be reviewing it just yet. I have a number of people who don’t want to know anything about it. And I can’t really give you my thoughts on the movie without giving a lot of things away. What I will talk about is the Trooping of the Event.

We managed to leave the Fairfax area around 2:30pm which, with traffic, put us in Richmond by around 5pm (ish). There were already some people in line, and a bunch of the guys were already starting to get into gear. The theater was great to us, we were offered free soda and free popcorn. I believe we even had a dinner provided to us. At around 5:30-6 I managed to throw on the Scout costume and start working the lines. The people lined up were, well for the most part, pretty good. There were a few that really should have just stayed at the back of the theater. One in particular was a moron who was wearing a pair of shorts and a Vader helmet (sand faceplate). He was walking around with a cheap Wal-Mart lightsaber claiming that he could beat any one there in a dual. Sad thing was that he got beat quite a lot. He probably is one of those asshats in SWG that stands at the star port asking people to duel him.

At about 7:30-8pm I went to transform into the Special project. With the Help of the good Reverend Patton, who supplied the prosthetic face, I became Emperor Palpatine. I am still working on the costume. I plan on making a special clasp for the cloak, and getting a mask of my own. But it looked awesome. I was very happy with how it turned out. A huge thanks to Amy who was kind enough to follow me around with a drink and a straw so I wouldn’t dehydrate. Also big thanks to Lindsey who was dressed as Mara Jade. She walked around with me Killing people I pointed to. It was very odd feeling becoming the Emperor. When I was working on the cloak, I would try it on for fitting and such and everything was just normal, I stood normal, I walked normal, etc.. When I finally threw the mask on for the first time and threw up the hood, I walked hunched over, I limped, and my hands shook. I guess it’s all those years of acting training. So the downside to this is, I was walking with all of my weight on the front of my feet. This over stretched my calves and now I am super sore. Ah the pain of the arts.

At around 10ish we were all rushed into the theater and sat for the movie. I will say this….. It was very Dark. There were some scenes that I was very astonished to see. They rest will come with my full review. Pictures from the event can be found in the Gallery.

So now the weekend is upon us. I plan on going and seeing the movie digitally this weekend. The rest of the time I am just going to relax and clean up the house a bit, this last week has taken it’s toll on me.

On a Completely separate and somewhat sadder note, my grandmother passed away on Wed. She had been in intensive care for about 3 weeks with a large number of problems. These of course were problems that she had before my grandfather passed. I firmly believe that she felt it was her duty to stay around until my grandfather moved on, then it was her time. Trust me when I say, she had lived a very full life.

Please do not worry about sending me messages asking me if I am ok, or saying “I’m sorry.” This was her time to go, and she went according to her wishes. I am ok. (Saying this I know that as soon as Amy reads this she is probably going to walk over and give me a big hug, most likely asking if I am ok.)

Anyways, It’s the weekend! Go out and have a drink!

Tonight is the night! That’s right, Tonight at midnight I will finally be able to complete the circle that began in 1977, I will see Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith!

I am so excited. I have heard TONS of great reviews. Tonight after work, Amy and I will drive down to the Virginia Center Commons Mall to troop the event with the rest of Garrison Tyranus. We decided to save time, we would load up the truck with everything last night and leave straight from work to head down there. So right now in the truck I have: My Full Scout, my “Special Project”, and my Regular Jedi Robe. I plan on using the Jedi Robe to unveil a different special surprise….. I got my hair cut.

Yup, after growing it long for over a year, I finally cut it all off. And as you can tell in the picture here, I left a braid running down the right side behind my ear. Indeed it is a Padawan braid. I thought, “What the hell, it’s Star Wars day, Why not?” I will most likely be cutting it off after the movie is over. Although, I have a number of people saying that it doesn’t look all that bad, and that I should keep it. Granted, most of the people want me to keep it just for the Ridicule factor. Well see. I may take a poll and see if I should chop it or leave it.

In the mean time, Go see the movie!

Well, this was certainly a weekend to remember. So here I am now, the big 31. Over the hump that was 30, now I am officially “Thirtysomething.” Strangly enough, the world hasn’t ended yet, I haven’t metamorphed into some hideous being, and nothing in my routine has changed (as of yet). I still plan on blogging on a regular basis, and doing my Star Wars stuff like usual. I am even working on a new special project that will hopefully be done very soon. So, on with the weekend review!

Friday was the Nationals vs. Cubs game! Paul and I headed to the game right after work and got there in a record 2 hours! (: I so hate traffic! Well we got there and had about an hour before game start. This was a good time to get food and drinks, so I got me my Italian Sausage and a Pepsi. Well after the Sausage I was still kind of hungry so I went back for some nachos. When I got back, I guess Paul had taken a moment for himself somewhere but there was some freaky old goy sitting in my seat. Not only that but he had spilled my Pepsi under the chair! When I told him, he just sort of looked at me and got up, then he sat in the seat right behind me (which also wasn’t his and he was moved again)

So the game was starting and so far it was pretty good. As a matter of fact it stayed a really close game until the Top of the Eighth Inning. Before then we had a bunch of entertaining incidents to keep us occupied. This included a guy dressed up as Superman holding a WWF style belt and running all the way around the stadium. I still have no clue why he did it, but I couldn’t get him to stop for a picture at all. The other incident was a girl who apparently had a tad too much to drink. She made it down the stairs but thought that the sidewalk in front of the seats ext to us was a good place to decorate using bodily fluids. This wasn’t so bad except that it was on a main through fare for many of the people walking by, including the beer vendors. One of them actually set down his beer carrier right in it. His comment was “That’s not puke, I’ve seen puke! That’s just beer Spit!” This had us rolling the rest of the night.

The infamous 8th inning. I have no idea what happened, apparently the Nationals chose that moment to forget how to catch a baseball. I…. Uhhhh….. you know, there is really no way to describe what happened. It was defiantly the suckiest suck that ever sucked!

So anyways, when I got home I played around on the PC a little, talking with some of the RFZ guys and whatnot. I decided to see what they were using for a DJ DSP (the tool that uploads the stream of music to the server). They are using SAM, a toll created by Spacial Audio. All I got to say is, wow, compared to what I used to do for TSN to broadcast, it feels like cheating. There is a full Deck, Crossfaders etc. etc. etc.. All the stuff I had to do manually, this thing does automagicly. It’s a great program!

Saturday morning, I woke up to a very special Breakfast. Amy had gone out and bought 31 balloons and a few other “party” items. She has Breakfast for me out of the patio with all the balloons tied to the table. She had some bagels with frosting set out there on some new plates, with a nice warm mug of Chai waiting for me. She bought me the Episode III game for Xbox and a really cool Darth Vader Cup. So we ate out there and enjoyed the morning weather. After that, I came inside and sat playing my game for a while. Once my thumb started to become sore, we headed to the mall and got an oil change for the truck. After the trip to CIII, it needed it. We perused the mall for a while and then headed back home for some more Jedi Action in the Episode III game. The weather changed dramaticly in this time as a HUGE thunder storm came rolling through. This storm was so big, (How Big Was it) It was so big that a bolt of lightning came down and fried the transformer providing power to my neighborhood! No kidding, the thing was on Fire! We figured this was a good time to go get some dinner.

Amy had reservations at the Texas Roadhouse. All I got to say is, they serve up an awesome steak! Of course she had to inform them that it was my birthday, at which time they brought out this saddle and had me sit on it while they announced to all who cared (probably only us) that it was my 12th birthday! (: After dinner we braved the pouring rain to get home. As we drove up we noticed that the flaming transformer had been doused and it even looked like power had been restored! And we all know what that means….. More Gaming! Actually I didn’t game for all that long as Amy had set up a great massage with lavender oil and candles. Let’s just say it was wonderful and I was relaxed into sleep.

So for Sunday we hadn’t planned for much and that’s mostly what ended up happening. We watched Episode I to start prepping for the new movie coming out. I figure we can get Episode II in on Tues night. We also made a trip to the Fabric store. I bought some material for a top secret project and Amy bought some for a new Scrub top for her work. The rest of Sunday was spent working on those. With any luck I will be finished before Wed and I can have some pictures up.

Overall it was a great birthday weekend. I had a blast and I think Amy had fun as well. Wed night is the Richmond Premiere of Episode III so it’s going to be rather Interesting. Look for more updates just before then.

Retrospective time.

So 31 years ago the world was ultimately changed. A new light was brought into the world to wreak havoc upon the souls it came in contact with. Nations would crumble and rebuild due to some sort of involvement from this being. It made babies cry, and grown men laugh with terror. (They did that back then.) People all over the world began to rumor about the upcoming apocalypse due to its arrival. It was because of this that on the day after…..I was born.

That’s right, I have been sent to combat this terror that was brought down upon the earth 31 years ago. I have done my best over the past 31 years, and it hasn’t been easy. The Enemy is very strong and has done a lot of wrong to the world. Its name is boredom!

Ok, I admit, I have no Idea where I am going with this one, I just sat down and starting writing and then all of that crap just came out of……well we won’t discus where it came out of. I just wanted to say hi. Not a whole lot of stuff going on here. Tonight I will be attending the Nationals Vs Cubs game downtown. Of course that means that I won’t be getting home tonight until very very late. And to be honest, I really still have no Idea what Amy is planning. I am sure she has something in mind, she is pretty sneaky about stuff like this. You remember Valentines Day. So I am sure there will be something to write about on Monday. Take care everyone!

Ok, I think it’s safe to say that I am a pretty big Star Wars fan. No really, you can stop laughing now. I love Star Wars, it has helped me through many tough times in my life. When I feel sick or down, I can throw in Star Wars and loose myself in “The Force” for a while to get my mind off of things that bother me. I enjoy Becoming a part of that Genre and bringing that same joy to other people. Much like every other Star Wars fan, I am really looking forward to the new movie coming out. For once, it has even gotten a few good reviews! I was excited when Phantom Menace came out, and even Excited for Attack of the Clones.

But I didn’t spend weeks or even days in line.

Seriously, there is a difference between Fandom and Insanity. When Episode I came out, the whole “” thing was still just starting and no one really used it, so the theater near where I lived (in Denver CO) said they would sell the Tickets 1 week Prior to the movie opening, But campouts would not be tolerated. You could line up that Morning and tickets would go on sale at noon. Meanwhile, across town at the Big “Special” theater in downtown Denver, there were freaks lining up months in advance. Now I did show up at my theater that morning, and I stood in line for about 5 hours. The time flew by really quick and I made some really good friends in the line. Afterwards, I went home with my newly bought tickets, Stuck them to the fridge, and went in to take a shower and relax. Those guys downtown? Yup, stood in line for weeks, with no shower, no Couch, just a pup tent and a bunch of other smelly tents. The worst thing about this was that about a week later I went to see Episode I in that same “Big” theater downtown, just to see what the Hype was about. It Sucked. The screen was too small, the seats were horrible. I made the right choice.

Episode II came out and the online Ticket sales were in full swing. This time I was here in the DC area and there was a great theater in Alexandria. When it came time for the midnight show, they allowed people to line up that day. I believe I took a half day from work and got there by around 2pm. I was still near the front of the line. I met up with some more new friends and also had a blast. But no Camping was involved. It was great to see the movie with a bunch of true die hard fans (that were smart enough to choose the right theater) because it builds the intensity of the movie. For some reason though, I get the feeling that being crammed in a theater with a hundred smelly campers just wouldn’t be as fun.

So with Episode III just around the corner, we see that the lines have started to form again. But now they seem to have an excuse, “We are doing it for charity!” Uh Huh, sure, if that’s what it takes to give your life a little meaning. Seriously, how does standing in line and missing out on weeks of work benefit charity? If you want to do something for charity, go visit a children’s hospital, go donate time at a food shelter. These people are looking for a way to justify their need to stand in line. Its people like that that make people like me look like people like them. Err did that sound right? Anyways, I hope you get the gist of it.

Yes, I will be seeing the movie at midnight, just like I saw the last two at midnight. Yes, there will be a line formed where I am going. That line will be formed earlier that day with no camping. One of the nice things is that I will actually be trooping the event and already have my ticket, AND I won’t have to stand in the line as there is roped off seating for us. I get to see the movie with my hygienically clean friends in a theater full of fans. Because that’s the kind of Star Wars fan I am.

Ok so apparently I spent far too much time out in the large blue encased room with poor temperature control. Something about this yellowy power that bee’s have a craving for. Apparently it’s everywhere and half of the distribution of it seems to have ended up on my face. My eyes and nose have gone into overdrive. Now I know why I hardly ever leave the house (aside from being dirt poor). Well aside from all of that, the weekend went rather well.

After work on Friday I came home and pretty much just relaxed. I played a little bit of WoW with Doc and that lasted me well into the night. Good times were had by all, and of course I was listening to the newfound addiction of Radio Free Zion. I have to say it’s rather weird to be listening to a Matrix based radio station while playing World of Warcraft, but hey, good music is good music!

Saturday, Amy and I headed out for Richmond to attend Rusty’s armor party. This of course ended up being more of a Party than Armor, but that seems to be the usual case. We got there at around 2:30ish and stayed until around Midnight:30ish. During which we actually had a Reporter and Photographer show up to do an article on Star Wars Fans and what we do in off hours. One of the things that we did manage to accomplish was that I got a better understanding on how to use my Sewing machine and I manage to make that confounded extension for my cummerbund. So this is the lowdown on my cummerbund: February of 04 is when I managed to create my Biker Scout outfit and part of that involved sewing a cummerbund and pockets. I was so excited about making the costume I didn’t plan out and think about how long I would have it and any possible alterations that would be happening, to the costume and to myself.

Needless to say since that time I have gained a little weight. Not an insane amount and I still look good, but the cummerbund started to get really tight, and I didn’t exactly make any room to grow on it. So I have since decided that a small extension would be needed, something with Velcro on both sides so that I can adjust the size. I came up with this idea in sept of 04 (after an unfortunate washing/shrinking of said item), so it has taken 9 months to accomplish, but I finally finished it and it works great! Plus, now that I know how to use the machine (that I got for Christmas of last year) It opens up the possibility for even more costumes!

I apparently caught the cleaning bug on Sunday. Amy and I were talking about my son Andrew moving up and that got me going on the whole re-organizing and cleaning up to make room. I know this is going to be hard for some people to grasp but, I have too much crap! It’s true! I have boxes of stuff that I just can’t seem to part with, but I hardly ever use! We did manage to throw out a bunch of crap that was just sitting in a closet and served no purpose. And Dare I say that the Den/Andrews room is almost ready! The closet is cleaned out and everything that is in there should be staying in there in some fashion. Of course it was a nice out on Sunday so we opened all the windows and I did a lot of work in the outside closet, so that brings about more of the watery itchy eyes and sniffley nose. Gah!

Oh yeah, I am not supposed to mention that Amy forgot the camera and that’s why I have no pictures from the party, and I am also not to mention that she scraped a post with the truck (which all it did was scratch the paint off the post, I washed the truck off and it looks fine) But I am not supposed to mention those things cause she would be too embarrassed about it. So be really quiet about it and don’t let her know I said anything. (: