Editorial
Got a newsletter from starwars.com which mentioned some of the visual (and one audio) Easter Eggs in Episode 2. What interests me is that despite the fact that Lucas has expressed a basic lack of interest in the “Expanded Universe”, one of the secret items is a freighter which has only ever appeared in the EU. (Talon Karrde’s freighter Wild Karrde is visible for an eyeblink in one scene).
I wish Lucas understood that the Star Wars universe isn’t his personal property any more, and it’s his own fault. Any time a storyteller does as good a job as he did with the first trilogy, people will take it to their hearts and run with it. Just ask Lewis Carroll, or Edgar Rice Burroughs, or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. SW is Lucas’ legal property, sure., and it wouldn’t exist without him, but it resides in more places now than just his head.
Would Star Trek be on its fifth incarnation if the show was still under Gene Roddenberry’s inflexible hand? I don’t believe so.
Ah well… even with his blessing removed, the fans and pros will still continue their own Star Wars… and in this creative age, some of it will be as good or better than Lucas’ “vision”.
And I just heard that “Jedi Knight II” will be ported to the Mac and will run on my machine. Soon, I’ll be wielding a lightsaber just like Mace Windu. Okay, Anakin Skywalker. Would you believe Han Solo in Episode V?
20,000 Yards Through The Biosphere
I’ve been reading Kevin Anderson’s “Captain Nemo”, a ‘biography’ of the man as seen through the eyes of his childhood friend Jules Verne. It’s a good read, but so far, I wouldn’t put it on my “best books I’ve read” list – honestly, actual Jules Verne books have usually been better.
In that spirit, I’ve been looking around Roanoke for a copy of “From the Earth to the Moon And A Trip Around It”. Barnes and Noble had the first half, which is the one that most Verne fans know, but no one has the combined books. I’ve found all the copies I could want of “20,000 Leagues”, but I already have that one.
Walked into Givens Books for the first time in years. I need to go there more often: they had a stack of old paperbacks begging to be culled through, and I just didn’t have time yesterday. Maybe they even have one of the Randall Garrett “Lord D’Arcy” books I’ve been looking for for years! You have to love a bookstore that’s several musty rooms of shelves with haphazardly stacked books filling every inch of free space, and several prowling cats on mouse patrol. That just rocks.
simliar shmimilar
The Similar Minds test says that I am 81% similar with Meiran and 80% complimentary. I think it means “complementary”, but it is too late in the evening to be sure.
Readers who wish to compare themselves to me (yeah, right) can do so here: How Compatible are You with me?
Ninja Missions
All right, ninjas… your new orders have come in and you may find them here…
http://www.masterninja.com/weapons/mission/
I’d tell you which one I got, but I’m afraid I’d have to kill you.
Ow. (Achoo.)
I have been moving heavy furniture and kicking up serious dust since Wednesday afternoon. Now, I have a cheap bargain respiratory tract which is allergic to everything, so by last night I was sore from the neck down from lifting and carrying, and my nose was plugged solid.
I can breathe now, but everytime I sneeze I still feel a burning sensation in the muscles of my back. And right now, everything I eat or drink tasts like dust.
On the other hand, now when meiran comes over to do her video editing, she won’t take one look in my office and refuse to associate with me ever again. So that’s a plus. Also, there’s now enough floor space that I can actually walk over to my desk, slide the chair out, and sit down normally, instead of doing the complicated “hop-hop-pirouette” I had to do before.
Now if only that @$%&* new hard drive would get here…
Yes, I have a lot of driving to do this weekend
Imagine a world where the Star Trek transporter had been absolutely perfected, to the point where it was as safe and as easy to use as a telephone. To go somewhere, you find the nearest booth, stick a dollar in the slot for a local trip, up to $25 or $50 for international travel, and punch in a 12-digit number. Before you have time to get your hand 2 inches away from the “enter” key, *blink* and you are there.
Telephone-booth-sized units are spaced every few blocks in urban and suburban areas – wider spread in rural and wild areas. If you live anywhere that has decent phone or Internet service in the real world, going anywhere is a matter of walking a block or two, using the booth, then walking another block or two. Show-offs have their own booths (in locked waiting rooms, of course – no point in inviting thieves into your home). The local super mega-mall has four or five. Large travel centers have dozens.
The SF writer Larry Niven wrote a half-dozen stories about this situation, and its effect it has on society. Private cars disappear. In crime, the idea of the alibi is no more – you can leave the dinner table to use the bathroom, kill someone in another state, and be back before anyone notices you’re gone. You can now work in New York City and come home every evening to your house in the Rockies.
There would be issues, there always are; but I’d like it. There’s so many people I want to meet, so many places I want to go – I’d just love to be able to phone a friend in Britain and say, “Hey, are you busy? I’d like to come by this evening.”
Like everything else in the 21st century, this desire of mine is the Internet’s fault.
