Randomly Extended Thoughts!

 Yo, faithful fams/friends/readers! Good to see you again. It's been a bit. Thanks for coming. Did you get a haircut? No? Well, something's different...A good different. No, I like it. You're looking good. Enough with the compliments! Let's get to the blogging:

—As I mentioned, I was going to Pittsburgh to work on The Dark Knight Rises with my buddy, Greig. Well I did that. And it was awesome. I can't tell you what I saw because I signed a piece of paper that prohibits me from doing that (which, in and of itself, is pretty gnarly). What I can tell you is that Pittsburgh was frakkin' cool. It helped that Greig and I stayed with a great host who showed us around South Side. Had a lot of good drinks and food, not to mention a day of classic arcading at Games N' At (I know people rave about it, but Primanti Bros. was over-rated and overpriced). Met a bunch of cool people, some sketchy folks, and Christian Bale (not really). I pretended to be one of the Hanson brothers from Slapshot on the prompting of a magician. So yeah, great time in Pittsburgh. Go check it out if you've never been. Mucho thanks to Phil and Lauralynn for putting us up and showing us around!

—Also out in Pittsburgh is this cool little shop, The Exchange, where I was finally able to pick up some original Xbox games: Knights of the Old Republic, KotOR II: The Sith Lords, and Spider-Man 2. Now, you all know by now I'm a Star Wars fan. So, in 2003, when KotOR came out, I fell in love. I stand by that that game is one of the best. It's absolutely a favorite, along with its sequel. The first is one of the most compelling stories told in the Star Wars universe, and I'd argue both are a metric shit-ton better than the prequels (which were a metric shit-ton themselves). So needless to say, I've been adventuring with Bastila, Mission, Zaalbar, Carth, Canderous, T3, HK, Jolee, and Juhani for the last several days. 

—George Lucas changed Return of the Jedi for the blu-ray release of the saga. George Lucas is a disappointment and a shell of a creator. Granted, I've never made a movie, had my vision put on screen, or had a studio sit there and tell me parts of my vision don't work, that I need to do things differently, etc. I've only workshopped stories, but as that's what I have, that's what I'll compare here: At some point, you stop editing and let the story stand. I've reread what I had published in the Creative Writing department's collection of graduates' work, and I laughed, to see just how different the stories are now. But I didn't then ask them to republish with the new version. I let it stand as a moment in time. George Lucas can't do that. He has full control, and keeps right on meddling. We need to accept this fact about him, and just stop buying his movies. We're enablers, even if we bitch and moan on the internets. Because most Star Wars fans will cry foul, but still drop their money on the blu-ray set. What is that doing, but encouraging George Lucas? There's also got to be some sort of willful ignorance of the backlash. Or he's just really turned into the Emperor and doesn't give a crap about us.

—Steven Spielberg, on the other hand, seems to have realized a few things: Indy 4 sucked and fans don't want to see revised, edited, "special" editions of classic movies. In this case, he'll be releasing both E.T. and Raiders of the Lost Ark as they were originally seen in theaters on blu-ray. More than that, the man recognizes just what exactly editing a classic movie, or even a non-classic movie, really is: "

For myself, I tried [changing a film] once and lived to regret it. Not because of fan outrage, but because I was disappointed in myself. I got overly sensitive to [some of the reaction] to E.T., and I thought if technology evolved, [I might go in and change some things]…it was OK for a while, but I realized what I had done was I had robbed people who loved E.T. of their memories of E.T. [...] If I put just one cut of E.T. on Blu-ray and it was the 1982, would anyone object to that? [The crowd yells "NO!" in unison.] OK, so be it."

Ya know, he had me worried. Since Jurassic Park, I'd lauded Mr. Spielberg with praise. A lot of it. But his last few movies have made me reconsider. But then he does this, and reaffirms that he has an understanding of film other directors ought to take note of.

—Guess what I'm doing by the end of the year? Yup, building a PC! How spectacularly awesome! I'm pumped about it and open to advice from any experienced builders. I'm trying to keep it around $900 and wow, friends, can you build a rad machine for that money that blows the specs off the standard HP, Dell, Mac, etc. My buddy Jason will be giving me a hand with it, since I've no idea what the hell I'm doing. I've been checking out www.reddit.com/r/buildapc, where there's a pleathora of information and advice. This is easily one of the nerdier things I've done, but I. am. pumped!

—Well, the government brought me back to work, if only until the end of the month. Since I've been back, Matchbox 20 has popped up on my iPod's shuffle a lot. You know what? They rock. They're one of the bands of the '90s that really was talented, both lyrically and musically. Just good music to listen to.

—And if only to end on a(nother) nerd note, Tatooine exists! Not entirely, but kind of: it's a planet orbiting twin suns, which may as well be Tatooine, desert, Tusken Raiders, and Jawas not withstanding. This whole discovery just keeps up with my whole "space is mind-boggling" mind boggle. It's really humbling and exciting to stop and look up at the stars and realize that you aren't just looking into the past, but also millions of miles away. Billions even! Goodness, amigos. The 'verse is something to behold. Here's hoping for interstellar space travel!

That's all this time, folks! I left out the propaganda stuffs because it was bringing me down. Maybe some other time when I'm pissy. Right now, though, I'm going to enjoy this wonderful weather and the Jets' throwbacks! Happy Sunday, folks and friends.

Help Me, Blog-Reading Friends, You're My (Girlfriend's) Only Hope!

I had a whole parody of Princess Leia's plea written out, but re-reading it, well, it kind of sucked. I'll just stick with my own words:

My galpal is currently partaking in a contest on SmugMug. In case you aren't aware, she's currently in the process of building up her photography portfolio, getting a better, killer website, and making moola off taking pictures of things and/or people (which she happens to be very good at). Now, this contest is pretty neat and will go a long way in helping her set herself up as a professional photographer.

If you don't want to do it for her because you don't know her, do it for me. Because she hits me. But only when my friends don't vote for her photos in SmugMug contests.

All I'm asking of you, faithful readers, is to click these links, click the "Like" button, and maybe add a comment should you feel inclined. Then pass it along to a friend you think would like it (see what I did there?).

Converse in Love

Toryn Green: A Voice & The Instrument That Carries It

Kick Off Your Shoes

Converse Play Time

Partnership of B&W and Color / Water and Sky

Helping Hands & Feet

And as a thanks for doing this for her (and me), here's a few of the topic of the upcoming Random Thoughts:

—Freedom and liberty as the propagandist tools they've become.

—George Lucas, a bigger tool than propaganda.

—The little I can legally say about my time working on The Dark Knight Rises.

—My new obsession with building PCs.

—Plenty more, too. Probably no football though (sorry Beth). Maybe a dash of politics.