Starwars

More Black And White

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So, yesterday I watched Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, AKA Star Wars Episodes 2 & 3, again in black and white. First up was Attack of the Clones with its sappy romance between two actors with zero chemistry with each other and the sheer amount of screen-filling, fast-paced CGI just because they could. The lack of color did not help at all. After a dinner break I waded into Revenge of the Sith, where we get to watch the creation of big bad Darth Vader. Here is where Hayden Christensen did have chemistry; he really nails the angsty teen, pissed at the universe, persona. Still way too much excessive use of CGI to the point of distraction.

This afternoon I went ahead and cued up The Empire Strikes Back in B&W (remember I watched the OG Star Wars very recently). Stopped a little more than an hour into Episode five because the Red Sox game was starting. I’ll finish it after the game.

I wonder if I like this black and white thing because we didn’t get a color TV at home until I was almost thirteen?

Mos Eisley Cantina

Mos Eisley Cantina

You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

I did get it right; I waited until about 3:00pm before getting my latte and walking a couple miles along the Sandy River on a paved trail. Should have taken a picture. It was in the 50s, and there was not a cloud in the sky. I even put the top down on the Miata on the way back.

Happy Star Wars Day

I guess I could have redone my Darth Vader CubeCraft one, but I wanted to try something new. This is a simple one sheet R2D2. I have a 4 page, much more detailed R2D2 papercraft template, but it would have taken a lot longer to complete than I had time for. Maybe if I start on it tomorrow I could have it finished by next May 4th.

May the 4th Be With You


Our previous Miata was named The Emperor and this little “action” figure adorned its dash top for several years. The car may be long gone, but the figure still resides with us on a shelf in the computer room.

Coincidentally, I just noticed today that The Emperor’s twin brother is for sale on Bring a Trailer. Poor thing has been locked away for nearly its entire 16 year life, it has less that 7,000 miles on it. It listed for $26,195 new and right now the high bid is only $6,600 with 2 days left.

I was half tempted to bid on the thing, so much so, that I actually created an account on the site, but then figured the sale price would probably be more than $10 thousand in the end and it just wouldn’t be worth it. I am still going to keep an eye on the auction out of curiosity though.

Jedi Mind Trick

This morning Donna went along for a ride in the Miata, which she misses, to the local Dunkin Donuts for a quick breakfast. She wanted to go this particular morning for two reasons, 1) the a fore mentioned Miata ride and 2) because the local DD has free copies of the Aiken Standard for customers and Wednesday is the day there are grocery coupons in the paper.

We are getting away cheap because we bring our own drinks and all we buy are a muffin for me and some doughnut holes for her. When the girl waiting on us asked what we wanted I said, “I’ll have a Coffee Cake Muffin and my wife will get 4 Munchkins.” As I was about to say, ‘Two glazed and 2 chocolate glazed’, as that is her go to order for the doughnut hole variety when Donna said, “I want 4 chocolate glazed.” I repeated to the server, “Four chocolate glazed Munchkins”, all the while thinking, ‘She usually gets 2 glazed and 2 chocolate glazed.’

We sat down and when Donna opened her little bag and showed me – 2 glazed and 2 chocolate glazed.

*The force is strong with this one.*

May the Fourth Be With these Mop Tops

You just had to know that a person who actually bought a DVD off the internet of the Dark Side of the Rainbow would like this. To borrow a phrase from the AV Club, “Good Job Internet!” Just in time for the 40th anniversary of the release of “Episode IV – A New Hope” (AKA Star Wars) the fine folks at Palette-Swap Ninja have created a mash-up of that movie and the Beatles album Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. The above video is just to the first song, here is a link to the playlist so you can watch the whole movie/album/music video. Now we need someone to string them all together removing the filler for real seamless experience.

One other random Star Wars Day link for you: Did Inadequate Women’s Healthcare Destroy Star Wars’ Old Republic?

Until next year,
May the Force be with you.
Bri’us Winew

Backup Man With A Backup Plan

“Don’t try to frighten us with your sorcerer’s ways, Lord Vader. Your sad devotion to that ancient religion has not helped you conjure up the stolen data tapes, or given you clairvoyance enough to find the Rebel’s hidden fort…” – Admiral Conan Antonio Motti

The Valve Store has actually hired a real IT Guy1 a couple months ago, so I am back to being just a back-up. And right now my only actual duties when the primary IT Guy is off is to change the backup tape every day in the server room2. Occasionally I get called upon hand out a cable or go lay hands on an ill PC, but the tape is really it. I remove the previous night’s tape and put in the current day’s, then take the used tape over to the main entrance door and hand it to the Security Guard (where later he gives it to a courier for off-site storage.) The highlight of this duty is to make up something different to say about the contents of the tape: “Just fast forward to the hour and 15 minute mark because that is where all the nudity is.” or “Don’t let Congress get a hold of this, its got all of Hillary’s emails on it.”

Unless you have been out west protesting an oil pipeline for the last 2 months or so you probably know there is a new Star Wars movie coming out. Well, over Thanksgiving week while the real IT Guy was on vacation I thought it would be cool to make a label for Friday’s tape referencing the supposed plot of Rouge One. That way when he pulls out the tape on Monday to swap them, he’d notice my little Easter Egg and get a smile. Trouble was, because I wouldn’t be in on that Friday, the guard was going to do the swapping and I didn’t want to take a chance he’d notice the different label, not get it, and call somebody because of the “error.” So I didn’t do it.

But last week I got a second chance. The IT Guy had to visit a sister plant for a project and would be gone from Tuesday through the end of the week. Friday afternoon I scoured the internet for a Galactic Empire logo and I also found out that the “Death Star” had a real name – Orbital Battle Station. I made a label just a touch smaller than, and used a glue stick to paste it over, the existing one on the tape.

Monday morning I heard the IT Guy get paged a half dozen times in the first hour by at least 4 different people, so I knew he was hopping around like a one-armed paper hanger. Around mid-morning I finally stopped in for a visit and asked him how the visit went and updated him on any IT problems that arose. I then asked if he had changed the tape yet. “Yep” “Did you notice anything different? Like the label?” “Yeah,” he replied, “I thought the storage site messed up somehow and just put the tape in the box and sent it off.” He totally missed my joke…sigh.

1. His name is Matt Somethingorother, but I like IT Guy better. And besides it gives him a bit of anonymity. The previous fellow’s real name was John Smith, but that’s got the anonymity built right in.
2. This is what the new IT Guy calls it because that is where our plant’s servers are. John and I always referred to it as the computer room because it was purpose built to hold the AS400 mini-mainframe we were supposed to get.