A Leap In Time

Who would have thought that this once in a lifetime opportunity would present itself?*

*I guess I should say once every four years opportunity, my bad.**

**Well, actually, I guess it isn’t even once every four years. Good old Julius Caesar’s simple method has been altered slightly for the Gregorian Calendar (yeah, that’s the one we’re using now). There’s an actual formula for creating this very special day:

1)      The year needs to be divisible by 4. (Simple enough right, been doing it for ages), but …

2)      If the year is divisible by 100, it is NOT a Leap Year (OK then, but wasn’t 2000 AD a Leap Year?)

3)      Ah hah! #2 only comes into effect if the year is not divisible by 400. If it is, like Y2K was, then it goes back to being a Leap Year!

Now that we got all the technical stuff out of the way, what does that mean? Well, it just means that Y2.1K (2100 AD) will not be a Leap Year, so we’ll have to keep that in mind 84 years from now. It also means that had I been born on February 29^th, which would mean either 1968 or 1972, I would only be 11 or 12 years old right now. I seem to recall an ancient Little Rascals episode that mentioned this very quirk when Froggy indicated that he had been born on a Leap Day and was only 3 or 4 years old, technically speaking.

So little February, the shortest month of the year, gets a little longer this year. Now why is February the shortest month? Well, that gets back to our good friend Julius, and his successor, Augustus and something about having their named months be no shorter than any other month in the calendar and the fact that the Roman calendar actually didn’t track months during the winter – making it a three season only calendar.

Let me get back now to that opportunity I mentioned. A thought occurred to me that I can use this occasion to make a special 4 year time capsule every time February 29^th rolls around (except, of course for the future exception mentioned above). The last Leap Day was on a Wednesday in 2012, and I have been thinking back to what things were like way back then …

I was in the midst of my Tech Support job, feeling very stressed and still wondering if I had made the right career move. Little did I know on this day back then, that our wonderful US government would facilitate a change in just over a year from that point, ultimately to my relief and mental health. It shouldn’t go without being mentioned that in the previous Leap Year of 2008, I was contemplating a change in careers to go into the Tech Industy.

Of course we had the big topic of discussion being the end of the world come December of 2012, and naturally Hollywood capitalizing on the prediction. As it was, the end of the Mayan Great Cycle came and went without any real fanfare. Though I do still wish that Atlantis has sprung up from the depths of the ice in the middle of Antarctica to take over society and chastise the human race for the atrocities we seem intent on committing against Mother Nature, and each other.

We had the Summer Olympics take place in London and the closing ceremonies that highlighted significant British accomplishments, traditions, and staples pretty much snub the best one of all – Doctor Who. It also was the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, so I guess things weren’t all bad over there.

In world news, we had the Arab Spring going on, as well as the attack on the US embassy that killed American Ambassador Stevens. The worst power outage in world history occurred in India, and Hurricane Sandy marched into New Jersey and devastated the Northeastern seaboard enough to actually postpone Halloween for a week.

Now, what’s going on in 2016?

Well, on the International front, we’ve got this year’s Summer Olympics hosted by Brazil this coming August in the midst of the Zika Virus outbreak. We’re talking about the terrorist organization ISIS and the fear of lone wolf and small independent cells making attacks on US soil and elsewhere.

We’ve got the next Presidential election coming up with Donald Trump of all people leading the Republican Party candidates. On the flip side we have Hillary Clinton making a bid to be the first woman President and self-proclaimed socialist Bernie Sanders on the Democratic side. So, in essence, no matter what happens, the US is really going to be screwed for the next four years. It’s not the fact that we have the real potential for a woman President, but the fact we don’t have a good choice of one to actually be able to vote for in November. Looks like I’ll be voting for the perennial Ficus Tree this year.

We’ve had a pretty wacky winter – with almost summer like temperatures for this past Christmas, followed by our first big blizzard in January, then back to spring-like weather these past two weekends, with a big Nor’easter the middle of this past week, which thankfully dropped rain on us instead of snow. As much as I like those big storms, having to dig out before going to work was not something I was looking forward to this past week, if it came to pass.

On a more personal note, things have come almost full circle on the career front as I am back in retail, but in a much better position so to speak that is much less stressful and has better hours than previously. While I can’t always say that I enjoy having to go to work, I can say that I finally don’t dread it as much as I have in a long, long time. We’re also expecting a new nephew on Shannon’s side of the family this year, by the name of Finnegan.

Instead of a one child family, we are now a two child family. The oldest is now a 5^th grader going on 6^th – instead of the 1^st  going on 2^nd she was four years ago. Obviously, this year is the year to look forward to our trips to Hershey Park and Dutch Wonderland as the toddler will be almost 2 years old this summer and much more able to enjoy the experience, not to mention this coming Christmas season. We still have the (older) labradoodle still acting like he’s a puppy, but with more frequent naps. Willy’s been gone almost a year now, and we still miss him a lot, but Flash is still hanging in there somehow, and Hershey is the troublemaker of the household. Buddy the turtle is still Buddy the turtle even though we have since learned that Buddy is a girl.

One thing we are certainly looking forward to is finally getting some work done on the house in March. We can’t wait to gut and redo the downstairs bathroom as well as get a new kitchen floor. We’re adding some electrical to the basement, which I am still trying to clean up and declutter from the sump pump system we had put in back in November. Perhaps by the time the next Time Capsule entry rolls around in 2020, I’ll have it all done.

Of course, we can’t end this entry without mentioning it being the Year of Star Wars. Even though Episode 7 debuted a couple of months ago, it very much sets the course for 2016 and beyond. Boo and I are looking forward to the first Anthology prequel coming out at the end of this year which tells the tale of the events immediately preceding Episode 4. And of course, we have Episode 8 coming out in May of 2017.

All in all, it looks like 2016 will continue to bring a lot of changes and interesting things to look forward to in the months to come. I actually can’t wait until 2020 to look back at this entry and see how things have changed in the intervening 4 years and see what I’ll be writing about then.

National Hanging in the Outhouse Day

That wonderful time of year again. It kicks off with the car and furniture commercials – usually featuring good ole George Washington and Honest Abe Lincoln. Oh how incessant for a couple of weeks, those wonderful sales commercials pushing for the new sofa or pickup. Then, just when you think it’s over – oh joy! – it’s the after President’s Day Weekend sale, because, you know, the sales event was such a big success we just couldn’t let it end now!

Oh God, the banality of it all. Nothing makes me want to buy a car or armchair less than these annual traditions of sales pitches. The same goes for WaWa and the damnable summer of Hoagie Fest we have to suffer through, and the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week promos – which usually start a good two months before the damn week arrives.

But that’s only a drop in the bucket compared with what every year brings to us nowadays. It seems that it wasn’t all that long ago that we only had to tolerate a handful of those made-up “holidays” – you know the ones that are really only there to keep the greeting card people employed. Not that I think they are all bad people – in fact there are some very creative ones I have come across over the years. The thing that really irks me are the “holidays” that help boost those sales. It really kicks off with the one that is impending as I write this – the oh so wonderful Valentine’s Day. That day where we are supposed to celebrate the one special person in your life – unless you are single, in which case it is a glaring reminder of rejection and loneliness. What a bunch of friggin’ nonsense.

Personally speaking, I think every day should be a day where couples should celebrate, support, and appreciate each other. I don’t need somebody trying to sell a greeting card with a heart on it that this one day is more important than any other day. Same goes for all those other “Special” days, like Secretary’s Day, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Grandparent’s Day, Third Cousin Twice Remove on Your Half-Step-Brother’s Side day. What a bunch of bull. No day is any different other day – be it one of these days, a birthday, or what have you. Dinner still needs to be cooked. The Cat still needs to be fed. The Dog shit still needs to be picked up from the yard. Whether I do it on one of these days, or just a “normal” day is pretty much irrelevant. Same thing with Birthdays. I don’t think it is possible for me to care any less about the anniversary of my birth. It’s not like I did anything special on that day – it was pretty much out of my control – just another random day out of 365. If anything should be celebrated it should be God and my parents for bringing about the event – and God gets his day every Sunday.

You know what day I find special? The day where I don’t have to go to work and can just sit on the couch and vegetate … I mean mediate on the meaning of Life for the whole damn day. Now that’s something worth celebrating. Now what’s really gotten to be completely asinine are all these “National Days” that seem to be the vogue thing – National Ice Cream day, National Cookie Day, National Peanut Butter day, and so on and so forth. Pretty much every damn day of the year is a National Celebrate this thing day. It’s gets to the point where it just becomes pointless. You know why days like Christmas, Easter, Saint Patty’s Day, and the like are special? Because they are celebrated once a year. To have a National whatever day every day pretty much makes celebrating anything one step above banality. Again, I don’t need a day in which Ice Cream is more special – frigg, I’ll eat ice cream every damn day and enjoy it the first time just as much as the 365^th time. I don’t need some day in July to feel that it is more special or worth celebrating more than any other day of the year.

You know who and/or what should get their holidays and National Celebratory days? Those who have helped mankind advance in a positive manner; those who have found cures for disease and those who are still working diligently on finding cures for those afflictions that still ail us. I mean hell, Columbus gets a special day, and all he did was take the long way to the orient until he bumped into a bit of land. Frigg, it’s not like he was even the first to reach the Americas for crying out loud. How about Marie Curie, Jonas Salk, or Edward Jenner? Where the hell are their days?

Now, if there’s any day that I can actually get behind, that would be May 26^th. That day is Cosmos Day, and that’s one of those “lesser” holidays that I can actually get behind. So until then, you can take all those other holidays and stuff ‘em. I’ve wasted enough time today – gotta go get the pooper scooper and get back to work.

The Snowy Shade of Winter

When I started this blog, it was partly on the inspiration of reading my sister’s blogs, but I was also planning on using it as my outlet to comment upon the current events that get me irritated or put a smile on my face. However, it seems that more often than not, it became a way to reflect on the past and to talk about things remembered. This time however, I can talk about that bit of fun from last weekend – the Great Blizzard of 2016 aka Jonas, or something or other.

I look forward to times like that during the winter like I look forward to vacation during the summer. Snowstorms make the winter more interesting and breaks up the mundane of the daily grind. There’s something quiet and calming about snowfall that seems to turn down the noise of the rest of the outside world. Even shoveling isn’t that big of a deal – when it can be done at one’s own pace without having to worry about doing anything else that day. It is quite annoying to have to shovel out with the purpose of going to work instead of the purpose of making a nice sliding hill in the driveway.

This season has been quite unusual as we had the record-breaking warmth for Christmas. Now we are in the icy grip of winter, or at least we were before the blizzard. As fun as the big snows are when they come, it seems a habit of the climate here in Pennsy that as soon as it’s over, the warmer weather flows right in and melts all the fun away. Within the first couple of days after it was all over, we must have lost at least seven or eight inches to melting. Easy come, easy go I guess. There was that one year, though, a few years back where we had a few storms almost back to back, so that made things really interesting for a couple of weeks.

While it’s nice and all to have that break from the grind, it often makes me wonder how other people who live in areas where snowfall like this isn’t out of the ordinary look at us in the Tri-state area. Two to three feet of snow in one fell swoop is one thing, but it seems that our region gets paralyzed if there is anything more than a couple of inches. Sometimes it borders on the ridiculous. However, one of the things that really irks me is that constant nagging by state and local officials and the news stations about staying inside and off the roadways if it is not absolutely necessary to be traveling. To me, if it’s that damn important, then they need to be shutting things down and making sure a state of emergency is just that – only emergency personnel are allowed out on the roads. For God’s sake, year of year of these storms and none of them have realized that certain businesses are simply not going to close, and as such force their employees out into the mess unless they are forced to close. If everyone is so concerned about safety and such (even as those very businesses claim to be), then just shut them down, otherwise it’s just so much asinine lip service. There is nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, that is so important that it can’t wait a day or two to go pick up at the store – especially when we have far enough advance notice of these storms nowadays.

One of things I did find amusing however, in the headshaking way, are those questions inevitable asked by reporters when the unusual weather is a topic of newsworthy discussion. It usually goes along the lines of “what do you think about this (insert unusual weather event).” I’m not sure the reason for it, but it seems they want some type of “hype” reaction from the people of whom the question is asked. Once in a while, they’ll get that person like me who has no problem with the weather as it is unfolding, yet the reporter acts incredulous that the interviewee is not affronted by the non-conformity.

Wild weather has always been fun for me. Sometimes I think I missed my calling as a meteorologist. Like those winter blizzards, those summer thunderstorms bring one of those tiny thrills every time they roll around. I can recall a few that were preceded by some really neat cloud formations. A really cool sight to see are those rolling thundercells out West. It’s pretty cool to be standing out one some plain somewhere watching a huge thunderstorm some 20 miles away glide by in all its anvil shaped glory. So it was nice for Jonas to grace us with his presence for a day so we could watch the ebb and flow of the snowfall and continue to be amused by the local news stations and government officials. Time to look forward to the next one, hopefully sooner rather than later – and again on my weekend off.

It Begins All Over Again

And so another Christmas has come and gone in virtually a blink of an eye. It really hits home when the time comes to click the last date on the annual Jackie Lawson digital advent calendars that Mom sends us every year. It’s sad that the daily surprise is over until next December. Day after day, a new scene or activity to do while counting down those days to the big moment. Every once in a while, catching the odd Christmas show on TV, and the month full of all those tunes and songs that we are more than familiar with, yet still seem refreshing this time of year. Even though this year has been a bit warmer than most, and thus another year (among many) that we did not have a white Christmas, it’s all those other things that really make the season for me.

It’s really not all that surprising how fast Christmas sneaks up on us when days are filled to the brim with activity, be it work or taking care of things around the house. Heck, I’ve been in the process of writing this since before my last entry, and only just now can finally find a few moments of piece to get something written down before heading off to bed before another day of the usual grind begins again. It's hard to fathom that it has now been just over a year that I started this blog. Today, though, the finality of the end of the holiday crunch is more poignant as the last song of the final Christmas collection came to the end. For me, I think it’s the music above all else that brings the most joy for the season. Most likely it stems back to those days of youth of listening to those classics on those big vinyl records while laying about the living room during that final week of school, anticipating a week of freedom and playing with all the new toys that Santa stashed under the tree.

It’s a tradition that I’ve had to carry over now that I have a family of my own. Except this time, its music on an USB stick in place of cassette tapes in the car, and watching a slideshow of family pictures play their way across the TV screen thanks to the old desktop computer hiding behind the screen as the tunes provide the inspirational backdrop from its hard drive. At least that’s something that I can still seem to have time to enjoy, even those days of having an actual holiday vacation are long since gone. The one good thing about the current traditions that I never really got to experience as a kid, though, is having “multiple Christmases” throughout the week. It makes it nice for the kids that now they can experience the gift giving and opening on more than one occasion as the extended families make their rounds during the week. It helps to make the holiday last a little bit longer.

But today the end is nigh. Most of the decorations and lights have been tucked away for the next eleven months or so – except for those that seem to magically appear a week later after we think we’ve finally gotten them all. It’s just the music that has been left playing during those trips to and from work, and running the errands. But now, it’s time to put that to rest until November 24^th, when the cycle begins all over again. There was the one year a few years back where I was determined to play Christmas music at least once a month. That only lasted until March, though, when I just couldn’t bring myself to keep it going – perhaps something deep inside me wanted to make sure the special feeling of hearing it wasn’t diminished when the proper time for listening came again. But there was that one time, about 15 years ago or so when I left up the tabletop mini-tree up and decorated all year. It made for a great nightlight the 13 months it was up, but also became a very difficult to clean dust magnet, so that was a feat that was not repeated.

One thing that seems to have not been repeated over recent holidays was the so-called War on Christmas. A decade ago, that seemed to be the only thing you heard about every year. Now though, it appears that the need to be offended by the 25^th of December has become a thing of the past. The irony of that whole situation never ceased to amuse, and annoy, me. It was inevitable that at some point following Thanksgiving, someone would become offended and cry about the intolerance of wishing society to have a Merry Christmas. I wonder if anyone else ever saw that irony of those shouting about the intolerance of Christmas were they, themselves being just as intolerant. I never felt the need to be offended by Christmas or any other holiday that is celebrated in the world even if I don’t celebrate them myself. I never felt the need to be offended by someone wanting to me to have a Happy Chanukah, a Merry Kwanza, a Great Boxing Day, or whatever holiday it happens to be. If you celebrate it, and want to wish me to have a happy whatever-the-heck-it-is, then go for it and a happy one right back at you. Why that should offend anyone is beyond my comprehension.

I am not an overly religious person, heck, I have barely been religious at all in my memory, but even I can accept the reality of the situation and understand the “reason for the season.” I may not necessarily subscribe to all the events that are believed to have occurred a couple millennia ago, but to me that does not lessen the fact that whatever happened, it was powerful enough to last all those centuries and bring us our traditions of today. I can say that I do believe in God, but perhaps not in the way that others do. In all reality, if you think of “God” (or whatever deity or deities that mankind has believed in at one time or another) in its base form – as the creator of life on Earth, then most absolutely God must exist, because here we are. Whether that life was created out of the clay of the Earth, or via the simple and complex mechanics of evolution, the Creator of Life is there and continues to be there every day, as life continues to exist and evolve. Whether God is some all powerful mysterious force or the Laws of Physics as we currently understand them, I don’t think there’s anything worthy of offense regardless of which end of the spectrum you find yourself. All in all, I think that’s the one thing I have been eternally thankful for over the last couple of years – all that asinine silliness about having to be offended by traditions that bring joy to millions across the world seems to have been realized for just that.

So I’ll end this by saying that regardless of what you celebrate, and what you believe, I hope 2016 is a great year for everyone and I hope that, despite those that would destroy society, this year brings us all a little closer together and we can celebrate our differences instead of being offended by them.

In A Galaxy Far, Far Away

And they have finally improved hologram technology! It’s been over 10 years since the last Star Wars film was released in theaters, and I can say that J.J. Abrams has redeemed himself for the drivel that the Star Trek reboots are – for now at least.

NO SPOILERS

I couldn’t remember the last time I went to see a movie in the theater, until I was kindly reminded that it was Saving Mr. Banks, a couple of years ago. Before that, it very probably well was Revenge of the Sith. I was surprised today about the amount of anticipation I had felt today leading up to movie time. Perhaps part of it was the fact that I was lucky enough to get a showing this week with two seats next to each other. Buying the tickets on line almost gave me flashbacks to those glory days in the 90’s of standing in line waiting for the local Ticket Master location to open so I could grab good seats to whatever upcoming Rock concert was scheduled in Philly. It took a few tries, but I finally got the late afternoon show, but had to settle on front row seats. Not that it mattered that much – it’s pretty much how it ended up with each of the other movies the first time we saw them.

So with that in mind, Erin and I sat down in our seats just shy of 30 minutes before the “show time” (which of course means when the usual movie previews begin before the movie you’re actually there to see). Naturally, there’s the previews preview time now, so it was with some annoyance I tried to occupy myself with my phone until the lights dimmed, hoping that time would move a bit quicker (not that it hasn’t already moved fast enough at this point – but that’s for my next blog entry). Then after that first eternity, the quiet whir of the screen curtains opening wider and … let the previews begin. Previews of movies that ultimately I have no interest in seeing, save for one. At this point, I don’t even remember what the other movies were except for the Warcraft movie, and I never even played the game, with the exception of World of Warcraft on rare occasion over the last couple of months. Based on the previews, it looks like it might be the first actually decent movie based on a video game. But again, that’s what previews are for – unless it’s Star Trek Beyond – now that’s one preview that pretty much encapsulates all that is wrong for the franchise as it stands now.

Anyway, so on they went for what seemed like an even longer period of time - although it really wasn’t that long by my reckoning as I checked the time after the end credits completed their roll. But such was the nature of my anticipation, touched with a bit of anxiety. As I mentioned last in my last entry, I could no longer prevent my curiosity from getting the better of me (even so far as tracking down a bootleg video of the genuine opening scroll), and went into the theater with full knowledge of the plot that was about to unfold. Part of it, I think was because of who took over the reins of the franchise – Disney and Abrams, and the result, at least of the latter’s influence on my other favorite space opera series. I needed to know if it would actually be worth my time and anticipation to see.

So, finally after that second eternity of waiting, the LucasArts logo materialized on screen, then that simple phrase in blue lettering, and I was instantly transported back to being a kid again, the theater blasting with the all too familiar theme while those two words outlined in yellow peeled back into the starfield. And then the opening scroll. The journey through a new era and a new saga began. I haven't felt that way in a long, long time.

Like I said in the opening, Star Wars is truly back, and The Force Awakens is easily the best of the bunch after New Hope and Empire. Is it derivative, as seems to be the critical response of many? Absolutely, (even the imagery and setting of certain scenes seemed ripped right out of one of the previous outings) but then again, so was everything after Empire anyway. Heck, every James Bond movie is basically the same recycled plot for all 30 odd movies, so the fact that this is just another version of Episode I, IV, or VI isn’t that much of a big deal.

It wasn’t completely perfect – I did have a couple of head scratching moments, like that whole deal with R2 that seemed like a decidedly convenient plot hole. And that they decided to go with a new desert planet instead of Tatooine, but I am sure that that point can be explained by someone somewhere – even as a future plot point in one of the other episodes. What really makes the difference is that I was taken away to another place for a couple of hours and thoroughly engaged to the point where I forgot I was watching a movie (except for the proximity of the screen, but whatever). Unlike the Prequels which, from beginning to end, gave the feeling of unreal worlds (i.e. fake green screen concoctions), this movie felt real – even the scenes that had to be digital for obvious reasons. The future of a long ago past is in good hands.

And what about that pit in my stomach? It’s lessened, and while what happened wasn’t a shock in that I already expected it, there still is that sense of loss that it ultimately had to happen. Like I mentioned to my sister in the comments of the last blog post, anyone who is a fan of the previous movies (yes, even the Prequels), that the big shock isn’t really all that shocking. In every lightsaber battle in the previous six movies someone loses a limb, or is killed. In all but Empire one or more major characters get killed off. So the fact that someone important dies in this movie can’t really be a surprise. And in all reality, even death isn’t all that permanent in the Star Wars universe – as good ole Ben Kenobi shows us. What I really look forward to now is how the tale of the events leading up TFA are relayed to the fans. There’s still too much disconnect from Episode VI to VII that even the book Aftermath hasn’t filled. I think, perhaps that we will not see the last of all of our favorite characters for quite some time – even those who have, and may yet still, meet their demise.

For the first time in, oh about 35 years or so, I eagerly await what the next decade of film making will bring to us. May the Force be with us all.

A Long Time Ago …

…Or so it seems. I was not quite 7 years of age when the world was changed forever by the release of a science-fiction film on May 25, 1977. A generation grew up with the phenomenon that was Star Wars permeating their lives – as much and more than Star Trek or Doctor Who. The former had exploration and transporters; the latter had a blue box shaped time machine and the perennial character who could change his appearance every now and again. Star Wars, though had lightsabers and epic space battles.

It was in the Star Wars universe, more than any other that my brother and I imagined ourselves fighting those epic battles. And then it faded as we grew older and Star Wars became a distant memory with only an occasional blurb now and then about the other untold six chapters of the saga. The only thing that fans had left were the VHS tapes and what eventually became known as the Expanded Universe – all the novels and comics that started coming out, telling the further adventures of all our favorite characters in the movies.

And then, in the mid-90’s, thanks in part to the EU, there were the whispers of the return of Star Wars to the big screen. There was indeed a New Hope of seeing more lightsabers and epic space battles. Star Wars was on the cusp of a comeback just as Star Trek was in its decline and Doctor Who was a decade gone (aside from the one-off attempt to kickstart it in America). Along came all the hoopla and excitement as it became more and more clear that a new trilogy was in the works. Then the Special Editions of the original movies were released.

It was a strange time then. We finally got to see scenes in the movies that had only been talked about up to that time, but there were changes – some minor, and some major, that just seemed perplexing. And of course, there was The One. It was The One that pretty much highlighted just how much it looked like George Lucas has lost sight of the vision that Star Wars had become to millions of people. The One where Greedo shot first. Of course there was also the Other One where Hayden Christensen miraculously appeared where Sebastian Shaw should have been. These were just hints though, at what was to come. The Prequel Trilogy had its moments – mostly the lightsaber and epic space battles, but the rest left many an embittered fan behind. Star Wars became a victim to what I call the “Jurassic Park Effect.”

In June of 1993, the movie adaptation of a Michael Crichton novel brought the term CGI (Computer Generated Image) to the forefront of movie going vocabulary. It was with Jurassic Park that CGI finally reach the point technologically that it could be used in lieu of practical effects in movies and television. It changed the entertainment industry forever. But of course, not all changes bring everything that is good. It soon harkened the time where special effects became more important than the actual telling of a story. Whereas the original Star War trilogy relied on the characters to bring the story to life, George fell victim to the JPE and allowed the special effects to tell the story instead of the people around which the events centered. The CGI became more important than the story, and thusly the story suffered because of it. But of course, that was only part of the reason.

 

Any writer will always have an outline of a story they are writing with a rough idea of how things unfold from start to finish. However, how that story unfolds along the way is often a fluid animal and many a writer finds how things occur in one chapter much different than their original vision had planned. In addition to the JPE, it seemed that George was trying to force the story into the vision he had, instead of letting it evolve as it needed to evolve. Of course, the limitations of time and presentation medium did not help matters, but in the end, the will of the creator caused his creation to suffer more than it should have.

So here we are, over a decade after the last Star Wars movie made its theatrical debut, and the hype, hoopla and excitement are even greater that what we saw in the months leading up to that fateful May day in 1999. There is some trepidation as the new owner of the franchise brought in J.J. Abrams to oversee production and direct the new episode. While he breathed life back into the Star Trek franchise with the two reboot movies, both left a bitter taste in the mouths of Trekkies who felt those movies betrayed the original vision and passion of that series. Personally, I think that using the alternate timeline/universe trope to be a lack of creativity on the part of writers in such aspects. In any event, I found it promising that JJ made it a point to highlight the fact that he was using practical effects over CGI as much as possible for the new movie. Of course, at this point, with the results of the advance releases already hitting the headlines, it appears that Star Wars may have gotten the revival, and treatment, it needed the most. I will still hold judgement until such a time that I can see the movie myself and see if the hype and the wait were worth the effort.

I have fallen to the Dark Side however, in the process of writing this blog. By nature, I am one of those people who will skip ahead and read bits and pieces of a book ahead of the chapter I am currently on to see what happens, especially if it is a book I particularly enjoy. I think it’s more of a desire to ensure I am not going to end up reading something that ticks me off (like a favorite character dying or a particular bad guy getting away). As long as the future of the story meets my satisfaction, I can continue to enjoy reading the story.

I have struggled of late to keep from researching more and more of the plot of The Force Awakens as I wanted to see the movie with a fresh perspective, untainted by knowledge of the plot and events that occur in the movie. This is especially in light of the fact that the main characters from the original trilogy play a part in the new movie – surely, for the sake of the plot and based on the events from the first and third movies we can’t count on all of them making it through the story all in one piece. Plus, putting together the events portrayed in the various trailers that have now been released, it seems that even the new characters may not entirely be safe. But I managed to resist up until now, knowing that with the advanced releases, the plot is readily available online.

But I have failed in my venture. Upon doing a bit of fact checking to make sure I got names and dates right for this blog, the temptation became too great, and as I found myself clicking from one article to the next, I was inexorably drawn to the page that would take me to the details of The Force Awakens. Hand on mouse, the compulsion to use that scroll wheel to continue further and further down the page became a temptation that I could no longer resist. And like Anakin Skywalker, I fell and learned of things that I wish I could now unlearn – like a young Luke Skywalker was advised by a diminutive Jedi Master oh so long ago.

I can only hope that when I see Disney’s and JJ’s vision of the new Star Wars play itself out on the big screen some time in the next couple of weeks that the vision has done enough justice to the franchise and this fan’s vision for those characters to remove that pit that has firmly lodged itself in my stomach.