Aqua Regia

Almost by accident (fate?) I happened to walk into Target on Force Friday. And was forcibly reminded by a million displays that (if I wasn’t already aware from the news articles that seem to come out minute-by-minute) there is a new Star Wars movie coming out this December.

So I think I’m gonna party like it’s 1999. Because that was definitely the last time Star Wars was given such a huge push in our collective cultural consciousness. I remember seeing products for The Phantom Menace everywhere from Taco Bell to Pepsi cans (only a few years ago we unearthed the character-specific cans from Episode I at my parents’ house and finally got rid of them. Heh.)

I feel lucky to have come to the Star Wars franchise at a point in time where it had ebbed in popularity. I first saw Episode IV in the early 90s when my Mom bought it on VHS as a gag gift for my Dad. Well, suffice to say my brother and I were hooked from the moment the Star Destroyer came onscreen. This gag gift led to many years of renting (over and over again, as Mom is quick to remind us) The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi from our local Star Video.

The only thing at that time for Star Wars fans outside of dusty VHS copies was the excellent Timothy Zahn trilogy: Heir of the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command. (I actually only read those books all the way through a few years ago.)

Then came the now-reviled Special Editions, which really kicked off the modern era of Star Wars as a franchise, eventually birthing the Prequels, comic books from Dark Horse, tons of novels, and action figures galore.

Star Wars is pretty much knitted into the fabric of who I am as a person. I think it was really the first story that I fell in love with, and certainly the first story where I absolutely wanted to know what happened next.

Yet somehow, I never got deeply into the Star Wars EU, and truthfully, by the time Disney bought the franchise and decided to nuke the EU to make continuity less of a pain, I could totally understand their reasoning. Truthfully, I was actually kind of excited. Much like DC Comics and their New 52 reset, rebooting the Star Wars EU meant that I would finally have a good jump-in point to start enjoying Star Wars expanded universe material again.

And of course, I was tickled by the idea that the new material is now considered “canon.” Yes, there are things I wish they had kept like Shadows of the Empire and several of the Prequel-era stuff like the Jedi Apprentice children’s book series, but reading through the five books pictured above made me realize how great it was to read material that was informed by the Prequels, The Clone Wars series, Rebels, and even hints at the new trilogy. Little throwaway comments like the age of a beat-up old ship being “Clone Wars era” instantly helps you date things now. It adds a beautiful cohesiveness to the universe that simply wasn’t there before.



I’m trying to not let myself get completely swept away with Star Wars mania again this time around (unlike 1999, haha). But boy, is my inner kid practically quivering with excitement to find out what Luke, Leia, Han and all their friends have been up to for the last 30 years in a galaxy far, far away.

And after reading those books, I think it’s going to be a fun ride.

So yeah, I haven't posted anything here for quite awhile. That tends to happen on my breaks - I barely open my laptop. In fact, I barely even use the computer period.

This break has been strange. The first week and a half (roughly) was nerve wracking as I awaited my grade from the hardest class. We were supposed to know our grade by the Friday of the first week of break, but ended up not finding out until the following Tuesday. This led to some very vivid dreams. YES, I HAD MULTIPLE NIGHTS OF DREAMS ABOUT MY TEST. I swear my subconscious was trying to run through every scenario that could possibly happen (whether it involved passing the class or not). Thankfully, however, I passed the class and will be moving on to Second Year. I also had the best grades this semester of any so far in graduate school, which was kind of exciting. :D

So aside from work I've basically been a bum/hermit over this break. And work had an interesting shocker this week when we found out that Longs was bought out by CVS. I'm not sure what this means for my job however, and am a little anxious to find out. Otherwise, I find the work fairly interesting and enjoyable (except when people are real dicks because they want you to solve their insurance problems) and of course I love actually having some spending money again after a year of being broke.

Actually, I've been a little stir-crazy and ended up taking a trip to Barnes and Noble to buy books last Friday, which was lovely. Also, today I saw the new Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie. When I looked up reviews, I was surprised how much people hated it. Granted, it's not like it broke any new ground or anything, but it was fun nonetheless. The animation (while rather stylized, which I actually liked) seemed rather stiff for being associated with the company that owns Industrial Light and Magic. The character's movements and a bit of poor dialogue were the movie's only real problems to me, though. Especially when you remember that it's basically a pilot for the upcoming TV series.

So this break has been full of movies and books, basically. I'll give a mini-review of each.
Books read this break include:
1. Shadow of the Flame by Chris Pierson. I was glad to finally finish this Dragonlance trilogy, possibly the last I'll read for a very long time. I used to love the Dragonlance world, but lately it feels strange. However, this was an excellent trilogy that you could probably read without having read almost any other Dragonlance books.
2. The City of Ember by Jean DuPrau. I've had this book sitting around for awhile, but was compelled to read it once I found out the movie adaptation is coming out this Fall. Nice and very imaginative first novel, even if the writing could have possibly used a little more polish.
3. Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox by Eoin Colfer. It's no secret that I love the Artemis Fowl books - this is no exception. Fun, FUN book with witty writing and totally engaging characters. This series probably beats out Harry Potter even in my book. I really need to re-read this series from the very beginning too.
4. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. Yeah. So I finally broke down and read the damn book. And you know what? I secretly enjoyed it. It's nothing ground-breaking, but at least Meyer thinks outside the box a little when dealing with her vampires. I'll probably have to read the rest of the series now...>_<;
5. Fawn and the Mysterious Trickster. Another fairly standard Disney Fairies entry, which, while enjoyable, seemed like it didn't really add anything to the world.
5. The Host by Meyer and Esther: A Story of Courage by Trudy J. Morgan-Cole are also both in progress.

Things watched this break:
1. Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo. I've loved this story ever since I saw the movie a couple of years ago, and this futuristic anime adaptation didn't disappoint. Very highly recommended.
2. My Fair Lady. I haven't watched this in years, but Mom wanted to see it (since she's reading the Jule Andrews biography and she starred in the stage version). It's still very enjoyable, and full of very interesting art direction (not to mention the lovely Audrey Hepburn and hilarious Rex Harrison).
3. Batman and Batman Returns. It preparation for seeing The Dark Knight (which I have yet to actually go see), I wanted to see the previous film incarnation of the Joker. This lead to wanting to see the other Burton Batman (which is much darker than I remembered).
4. Star Trek I-VI. I've had this box set of DVDs for probably 2 years now, and finally had the time to sit down and watch them all. I was surprised by the amount of continuity between the films, which showed up in little ways. The Original Crew films are always a pleasure to watch.
5. The Infinite World of H.G. Wells. A fun Hallmark mini-series where a fictionalized H.G. Wells (yes, the writer) experiences various scientific phenomenon with his scientist friends and gets inspired to write his stories. Much better than I'm making it sound.
6. Nim's Island. I generally enjoy "family" movies, and this didn't disappoint. Jodie Foster was especially wonderful as the adventure writer who happens to be afraid of leaving the house. :)
7. Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. I LOVED this movie - it's heartwarming and imaginative and terribly sad and nostalgic all at the same time. All four of the main character had very touching storylines which I could relate to. The whole thing ended up coming out like a modern fairy tale. I really want to buy this movie.

So anyway, after that exhaustive list, I'll mention that I'm leaving on vacation tomorrow for five days. Yay for renting a house by the coast at Sea Ranch (no actual horses or cows). :D Hopefully I'll be able to finish Chapter 3 for my Jewel Riders fic while I'm there (I'll have the laptop but no internets!).

I feel as though I've been running a mental marathon that started back on the 17th of this month, and is only finishing up (sort of) now.

It started with the super-busy weekend that was detailed in my last post. That led into the following crazy week (with new, up-to-date descriptions!)

Monday: Health Poster Project Presentation, which went well. Big relief there. :)

Tuesday and Wednesday: Started work at Longs Drugs for Early Experience rotation hours. I was going to post about these earlier in the week, but was just too tired. After the first day of standing for roughly five hours, my feet felt like someone was pushing hot pins into them. I have since ordered more comfortable shoes to minimize this issue. However, the work itself was very interesting - I learned quite a bit about inputting information into the high-learning-curve Long computer system, filling prescriptions, etc. I even got to mix up some of the liquid medications, which was fun. :D

Thursday: After lab, I came home, registered for classes (getting none of my first-choice sections!) at a Panera Bread while trying to eat dinner, and went to Phantom of the Opera. Which was amazing, as I expected it to be. It was just as wonderful as I remembered from when we went a couple of years back, and now the songs have been running through my head for DAYS. They simply will not go away. (To complicate matters, my family also watched the movie on Saturday night so that Dad could finally understand what was going on in the story, which only further cemented the songs in my brain. XD) However, we got home rather late, and I had school the next day.

Friday: I killed my arm doing six puppet shows in a row. I am also totally in debt to the AMCP folks for helping out and letting out committee people sit a few out to recover. I also missed class to do this, and had to listen to the lecture recordings later.

Saturday & Sunday: Rested during Sabbath, and tried madly to catch up with work during the rest of the time. I also worked from 10-4 at Longs on Sunday, which sucked up most of that day. It was also super slow though, so I had the opportunity to do some research online for school work.

Monday: FINALLY took a short breather and went with the family to see Iron Man. It's seriously one of the best movies I've ever seen. Tony Stark comes off as such a HUMAN character, and his sort-of-relationship/friendship with Pepper Potts is really touching - especially when she gives him the little gift! :) It totally blows the socks off of the X-Men movies. Now I can't wait for the sequel. Also, it had a preview for the new Indy movie, which just made me more and more excited for the time when I can squeeze it into my schedule!

So, the rest of the day has been spent studying.

I have also slept horribly this weekend for unexplained reasons. Blah.

Also, in a scary turn of events, I have started reading Star Wars novels - Heir to the Empire to be exact. This was very unexpected. @_@

Go read Kate Beaton's comics - they'll make you feel better. http://www.katebeaton.com or here on LJ at beatonna.