edlib

OK... So who wants to do the honors? I'm not home or at a computer, but I can if no one else wants to.

Somewhere here... but I'm not sure which is the correct sub-forum... http://www.lucasforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=783 The Cantina is my guess... but I'd personally like it in the Pilot's Lounge for old time's sake... Who is gonna start it? I thought Link said he'd get the ball rolling on the new one...

Whelp... that's it: 1/1/ sweet 16 here on the East Coast. Bring on the new thread. 1879 replies on this one. Not too shabby. Happy New Year, buckaroos!

I was looking for Tie Fighter mods, I believe. I wandered into the Electric Sheep Joke thread, and it was all over after that. I'll miss this place... but progress must... keep progressing, I guess.

I have no idea what to do tonight... No work... Girlfriend at home in bed with nasty sinus/ ear infection... Maybe I'll go see TFA again. Or watch more of the Mythbusters marathon and go to bed early. Last time I had a NYE off, about 7 or 8 years ago, I spent it playing Portal. I'm the most exciting person on the planet. Ever.

Slappy Newt Ears!

I listened to the soundtrack on iTunes. It had some moments... but wasn't as classic as the others. I'm not sure if that can be chalked up to Williams' age... or he wasn't given an inspiring temp track to work from. I've yet to see a J.J. Abrams movie with a great score, so I'm leaning towards the 2nd. But I also think the score was mixed low... another Abrams signature. Lucas has many well known faults and flaws... but his movie music choices are always genius.

I saw it in 2d first. Whenever I see a movie in 3d and/or IMAX it's a bit too overwhelming, and I didn't anything want to spoil it. Plus my girlfriend is prone to migraines, and other formats can sometimes trigger those. I got a black Fitbit watch, a book of "1001 movies you must see before you die", and a waterproof Bluetooth speaker system. First icky slushy gross snowfall/sleet/ freezing rain storm of the season. Guess which morning my girlfriend's car decided to break down on the side of the road shortly after leaving her place? Fortunately I was just behind her... but it's 3 hours later and my feet are still freezing from standing at the side of the road in 4 inches of slush, getting splashed by every car that passed. It couldn't have been one of those sunny warm days from last week where I was driving around with the sunroof open. No... of course not.

Merry Happy Everything Everybody!!! to y'all!!

Before watching the movie. And maybe after as well...

Yeah, it was obvious in the trailers that it was the saber lost on Bespin, with Luke's right hand. It seems like it's going to be a tricky thing to explain away how it was found again after falling out of the bottom of Cloud City into the heart of a gas planet... But that's the magic of sci-fi movies isn't it? And yes, Rabbit... Run to the theater. The Spoilers Awaken. Have you felt them?

There's a Spoiler OK TFA thread over at Star Wars Gamer. I read through it this morning, though I haven't posted yet. I probably will later. EDIT: As soon as I posted that, I opened Slate.com, which had an article discussing the ending as well. I won't post the link, because spoilers... But it sums up why I felt weird about it.

Yeah... but it's the first SW movie to end that abruptly and unresolved. Even ESB and RotS had formal, resolved endings of sorts, despite both technically being cliffhangers of the series. But I get it. It just didn't feel very "Star Wars-y" to me... after sitting through a movie that seemed to be trying very, VERY hard to feel that way. It's not a dealbreaker... just seems a somewhat surprising jarring note from out of nowhere.

Well, I saw it yesterday. For the most part, I liked it. But there were a few little things that bugged me. I'll have to see that if on subsequent viewings I come to loathe those things (like Jar-Jar...) or can learn to accept or ignore them (like Ewoks...) Most of the things that REALLY bugged me were all very J.J. Abrams signature shots... and the reason they bugged me is mainly because he used almost the exact same shots in Star Trek. I counted 3 almost frame-for-frame homages, and a couple that looked very close, and every time it immediately took me out of the movie for a minute. The other things were the times it became apparent that it was self-consciously trying too hard to remind us all that IT REALLY IS A "Star Wars" movie. I laughed at all the obvious references to the OT this time... but I have a creeping suspicion that some of those jokes will start to grate after a couple of viewings. I hope not... but a few of them felt a bit forced and heavy-handed. The acting, visual and sound effects, sets and locations were all great. Much of the plot lifted just a bit too closely to a previous chapter... but that wasn't unexpected. The ending felt a bit... incomplete. But mostly, I really liked it.

I'll try to get there this weekend.. with the GF. I'll probably be too tired tomorrow... just got through a 15-hour shift. An $800-above-and-beyond-my-normal-salary shift, which is awesome... especially going into the holidays... but a 15 hour shift, nonetheless. Especially after leaving my house a bit before 7 this morning, after getting home from work a bit before midnight. Short sleep; long shift; tired ed. Star Wars is awesome... but Star Wars can wait. Health first.

Maybe... But who knows? It could be scripted events using the modified engine. Whatever... It looks amazing. Whoever spent the time making that deserves some kudos, even if it doesn't turn out to be actually playable. Here's a funny-ish review of the Trek trailer you might agree with Keyan: http://arstechnica.com/the-multiverse/2015/12/theres-a-new-star-trek-trailer-and-it-looks-terrible/ I mostly agree with the points made there myself. I thought Chekov was over-the-top annoying most of the time, Sulu was way too subdued, and Uhura came across as way too sultry to be taken seriously in a professional environment, but that all of the actors did all right in the highly unenviable position of recreating the iconic roles from now world famous actors. (But yes... Bones and Scotty were the cast standouts by a parsec.) It's too bad they didn't have better scripts to act to.

That was kinda my initial feeling too. I recently re-watched both of the new Trek films with my girlfriend who hadn't seen them... and I loved the job each of the actors did, as well many of the sets and effects... but the stories left me with nothing substantial. Undiscovered Country came on a few days later, and within the first 20 minutes, there was more meat in terms of plot and moral dilemmas than the other 2 movies combined.

There's a new Star Trek Trailer out now too. Seems to be very much in the "James Kirk: Last Action Hero" mold of the last 2. Lots of fights, explosions, and very little moral questioning about humanity's place in the universe. But I found this more beautiful and exciting: (This BBCode requires its accompanying plugin to work properly.)

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/a21dddf852/scott-stapp-reviews-creed

Perhaps... But it's possible he's just grumpy that they did a better job than he would have. I'm still not getting my hopes too high though.

Now... in IMPORTANT news...

To me it's about respect. Do you need to agree with someone's positions on everything to respect the fact that they have the right to an opinion, and that perhaps that they feel as strongly about it as you do? If you truly respect someone, you will listen to what they have to say, and try to see why they feel so very strongly about it, and then say: "Well, I see things as X... you see things as Y. Here's where we have overlap, and here's all the places we differ. OK... so how do we move forward from here?" At best, you can come to an understanding and a solution. At worst, you will have to agree to disagree, and stay away from that subject in the future. But I also think a lot of people need to start realizing that nobody gets things their way all the time... at least when you are talking about the issues that affect millions of people.

Yeah... but if we dig in so far on the important issues we feel strongly about to the point where we refuse to even have contact with anyone with a differing point of view, even family members, then it's doubtful that anything will ever get done, and the division will only grow and get more toxic. Understanding, acceptance, compromise, and change doesn't happen when we shut each other out from the conversation, and vilify anyone who disagrees with us. Or at least that is if we are all working under the assumption that we are living in a democratic republic. One where we all have an equal say in how we want to live our lives, and are forced to hammer out the spots where we don't agree, and find a working compromise that isn't exactly 100% what either side's extreme elements wants, but one that most of the population can kinda live with. If either side suddenly says: "We have this whole 'human existence' totally figured out, and the other side has it 100% wrong, so at this point we will no longer accept any input from them, and everybody will from this moment on have to live the way we say or face the consequences!" then we are now talking about a completely different form of government. One that a frightening number of people I see, on both sides, more and more seem to be implying every day that perhaps we should make a leap to.

I've pretty much stopped discussing politics with family and friends... even when I agree with them, and I'm barely on Facebook anymore because 90% of what is actually there these days seems to be extremist political screeds of one stripe or another, and most of the fun has really gone out of the experience for me. (The remaining 10% seems to be mostly a mix of self-promotion and viral videos that I've only seen a hundred thousand times...) I'm hoping once we get through this next election cycle, people will learn to be tolerant, or at the very least civil, about differences in political opinion once again... but I'm guessing that Pandora's box has been fully opened on that one, and that the fracturing of America into different camps, (or tribes, if you will...) based on ideology is now the new normal as far as the eye can see. I have no advice, except to give it time, and the hope that blood proves stronger than the box of affiliation one checks off in the voting booth...

It could be a bias setting thing... When you change tubes to a different make, sometimes the bias gets slightly off. But I've never encountered an all tube amp that was perfectly silent. At best, you can still hear some hissing from the tubes themselves, and if there's a spring reverb, those always add some noise.