A while back, a friend of ours who is a teacher invited my wife & I to a Learning Festival that’s happening at her school this Saturday (May 12th). I can’t wait to go check it out! All of my favorite stuff is going to be in one place. Garrison Carida of the 501st Legion will be walking around in Star Wars attire, there will be a dude showing his guitar collection (there’s 50 of them!), they’ll be raffling a Fender Stratocaster from Moonlight Music, there will be free appraisals of collectables, and much much more! Looking at the flyer, it’s like I put the thing together with all of my favorite stuff.
Our friend is taking her 7 year old nephew, my wife is taking me. Ha! At any rate, I know other geeks read this that may be interested. Here’s the official flyer:
Apollo-Ridge Education Foundation Learning Festival – Sat. May 12th, 2012 (Click the image to go to their website.)
This year, on Dec. 16, Katie’s mom urges fans to show off their Star Wars pride by wearing a Star Wars shirt — but to also consider donating a Star Wars gift to toy drives with the condition that it can go to a boy OR a girl, not just a boy! This helps spread the word that Star Wars is for both girls and boys!
Please join us in the second annual Wear Star Wars, Share Star Wars event on December 16, 2011. Celebrate this day of geek pride and anti-bullying by wearing something Star Wars or science fiction-related.
Since it is the holiday season, please also celebrate the day by donating a Star Wars or science fiction toy to a child in need (but be sure to put a post-it note on the new, unwrapped toy specifying that it can go to a girl or a boy; otherwise, these traditional “boy toys” will be given only to boys!)
You can bring the toy to a hospital, a shelter, or drop it off with any organization collecting toys. Feel free to host a similar toy drive at your child’s school, although you could call it “Proud To Be Me Day,” like Katie’s school does, so that the reach goes beyond science fiction.
Here’s our goal: let’s get Wear Star Wars, Share Star Wars to spread to as many people as possible! Every time you read or write a blog post about the event or upload a photo of what you’ll be wearing, share it on Twitter with the hashtag #WearStarWarsShareStarWars.
If you are on Facebook, you can join the event here.
Well. Mr. Simson & Ms. Baker have some competition in the grifter circuit. Seems all these scam artists really like chicken Caesar products. I’d still like to know how they got my email & why it’s associated with ordering food. Mr. Smith would like to throw his hat into the ring:
From: paul jason
Date: Fri, Dec 9, 2011
Subject: mr paul smith food order
To:
Hello how are you doing today my name is paul smith My Mom birthday is coming up on the 22th of december and i will like to place an order for 150 grilled chicken salad in individual pack for the 150 guest, it will be pick up by 3pm on the given date and i will like to inform you that am ready to make the full payment with my credit card today so can i know the total cost for the order plus tax…..get back to me with this following information below.
Restaurant address:
Personal cell number:
Total cost for my order plus tax:
Type of the credit card you accept
Regards
paul
Ah, the 22th of December is indeed a fine day.
From: Waldo Lunar <world.and.lunar.domination@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Dec 12, 2011
Subject: Re: mr paul smith food order
To: paul jason
Hello Paul,
What a wonderful son you are! It’s so nice of you to plan a party for your mom on the 22th. Which of our locations would you want to pickup from? Generally, I like to personally deliver to ensure the quality of the food upon delivery. In fact, I can give 1 free grilled chicken salad in individual pack if I can deliver & hang out at the party. I can ensure quick delivery too, my van made the Kessel run in under 5 parsecs.
Does the party have a theme? Have you thought about a Star Wars theme? I can make excellent TIE-fighter shaped chicken caesar wraps, that I display in front of a giant cheese-ball Death Star. It really is quite breathtaking. I have some friends in the 501st Legion that can come out too. They work for a charitable donation made in their name, we’ll just have to feed them.
The price would be $10 per person, so if you have 150 people, and 5 from the 501st Legion, we’re looking at $1550 total, and $1658.50 with tax.
I really hope your mom is a Star Wars fan. Does she need a date to the party? These are the grilled chicken caesar TIE-fighter wraps you are looking for.
Regards,
-Waldo Lunar
Owner, Operator, Emperor
OMGWTFBBQ, Inc.
I thought it was time for a departure from the Hawaiian Toga Party theme. In hindsight, now I really do want a Death Star cheese ball. Can someone get on that?
No one took the time to make TIE-Fighter crackers?
From: paul Smith <paulsmith5485@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, Dec 12, 2011
Subject: Re: mr paul smith food order
To: Waldo Lunar <world.and.lunar.domination@gmail.com>
Thanks for your email,I am very happy to hear from you with the cost of the order plus tax of my order which is $1658.50 for my order and its okay by me and i want the chicken salad so I will prefer them packed in to-go boxes. Mean while i would like you to add an additional $1275 plus the total price of the order so that you can have all that charged on my credit card now. The funds will be wire to the private carrier who will be coming for the pick up of the food in your place in cash via western union money transfer. i would like you to add it all together plus extra $100 Western union charges for wiring the $1275 to the private carrier and let me have the grand total price inclusive of the tax fee and the 3% credit card company charge fee for the transaction all together,so that I can give you my credit card to charge for the total. I will also like to know what type of credit card you accept for payment. i just want to let you know that i am just back from the hospital i was down with a diagnosis of cancer of the lungs as such i had to spend some time in the intensive care. so i cannot go to western union money transfer for now and pay the driver that is why i want you to help me pay them and you will charge my credit card for the total estimation for the food and the Carrier charges,Hope to hear back from you soon with the grand total so i can forward my credit card information and the carrier’s information to wire the cash via western union transfer to them asap.
Final Break Down:
Foods Order :$1658.50
Carrier’s fee: $1275
Western union fee: $100
3% CC company fee: ?
Unfazed, he was all about putting together a price, but not sure to what end… he wanted to give me a total? Where do I get scammed here? Does the “oh I’m paying the courier and he’ll pay you” come next? I really don’t want to take any credit card information, in case the action in itself is illegal.
This one does not look appetizing at all.
I wrote back offering to be more helpful…
From: Waldo Lunar <world.and.lunar.domination@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Dec 12, 2011
Subject: Fwd: mr paul smith food order
To: paulsmith5485@yahoo.com
Hello Again Mr. Smith,
May I call you Paul? I hope your mother is well, have you talked with her about the Star Wars theme? I hope that your lung cancer treatment has gone well, Paul! I’m sorry to hear that you were down with the sickness. Ooh ah ah ah. (Sorry, I have a form of Tourette’s that only comes out when I type. It prevents me from using the Backspace or Delete key too.) Perhaps you can wear a suit like Darth Vader to improve your breathing? His lungs weren’t cancerous, but burned quite badly. I believe all of life’s problems can be solved using Star Wars as a guide.
Why don’t you let me make this easy for you, and I’ll deliver to your location, free of charge! That way, you don’t need to pay a courier, and I can take your card info. upon delivery, it will save you $1300… or give you a higher beer budget! A true Jedi would carry out the mission himself. I’ll even knock a dollar of of each head & provide the Death Star cheese ball free of charge. Do you know if anyone attending has food allergies? The cheese ball comes two ways – boy (with nuts) or girl (no nuts).
Does your mom like to drink? I’m a fan of blue milk & several alcoholic beverages. Sometimes at night when I’m all snuggled up in my Tauntaun sleeping bag, my R2-D2 trash can is my only friend. Sometimes I sleep with leftover chicken caesar salad in the bag, because Tauntauns apparently smell bad on the inside. I imagine rotting chicken, mayo, & raw eggs would simulate that smell pretty well. I’m drinking blue milk now, mixed with some bourbon. Actually, the blue milk is eggnog with food coloring. Aldi doesn’t carry blue milk, and they look at me like I’m crazy every time I request it, so I have to make my own.
Can I come to your party? I really need this. In fact, I’ve never made a chicken caesar salad in my life. But, I found a few good recipes on COOKS.com and I’m willing to try. OMGWTFBBQ is mainly barbecue as the name suggests. I cook my chicken breasts in a modified Darth Vader toaster so they come out looking awesome. Our ribs are delicious, they’re Mustafarian style, blackened with smoky seasoning.
Can I ask where you found my email address? This all has me very excited. I think I’m really drunk, so I should end this email before I become incoherent. I really need your business. Can you send some photos of your mom? Does she need a date to the party?
May the force be with you, from OMGWTFBBQ to you, happy birthday mom!
-Waldo Lunar
Owner, Operator, Emperor
OMGWTFBBQ, Inc.
No more correspondence. Apparently Mr. Smith has no patience, or just is the same person as “John” & “Lori” from the last 2 times and was exasperated at the onset.
I Googled "Death Star Cheese Ball" & this came up. |-o-|
Why do these people prey upon us here in the United States? From the email, I hope English is their second (or 3th) language. Are we seen as easy targets? Are we more Gullible? There’s more of us? Is there general hatred towards our country? Do any of these emails ever work?
So, who’s going to start a catering business with me called OMGWTFBBQ?
Seriously, about the cheese ball… Someone tell my wife. My birthday’s coming up. Let’s go Death Star cheese ball instead of a cake. I want some TIE-fighter shaped crackers too. I don’t think she reads thins unless I call her attention to it directly. Something about “I listen to your insanity all the time in person, you expect me to read it too?” is her (valid) argument on her blog reading stance.
I happen to consider the author Thanita a Twitter friend, and a proud member of the #FoodAllergyMomArmy. It’s got a great message. Obviously the first thing it brings to mind is racism, but it can now be applied to any group facing discrimination.
As I’ve said before… I’d like to see any changes brought forth from a consumer side of view, not a legislative one. When we’re dealing with schools, parents really need to get involved and not just the parents of the food-allergic children. Legislation in this area may be the best answer as far as schools are concerned. After all, it’s a gub’ment institution, right? (Things like the School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act are extremely important to protect food-allergic kids, as well as any that may have reactions to thinks like latex or bee stings. Pennsylvania now seems like it’s on top of things.)
All in all, some earnest thinking about the whole thing will bring forth a hopefully easy decision:
When other parents tell the family of the anaphylactic child to just “home-school, it’s safer, we’re looking out for your best interest”, it’s a joke. Separate Is Not Equal.
When a child is forced to peer over a sea of smiling, laughing, socializing children, all the while sitting on a separate table alone, “for his/her safety”, it’s Separate and Not Equal.
We have to ask ourselves, how far have WE come since the 1950’s? Would we be doing this to a child with autism? To a child in a wheelchair? To a child with dark skin? If the answer is never, then do not do it to a child with an anaphylactic disability.
By the way, just one mistake can be fatal. Have I mentioned the shocking levels of stress in parents of children with food allergies?
So this morning I dressed my son in one of his Star Wars t-shirts and talked to him about Katie and how it’s ok to be different and not ok to tease or bully someone else. I packed an allergen free lunch, gave him hugs and kisses, told him I loved him and sent him off to school with a prayer that he would come home safely, something I never take for granted.
To the kids with food allergies and their parents, may the force be with you. You’re going to need it.
One mistake can be fatal. Let’s all help make sure it doesn’t come to that. These food allergy moms & dads (& brothers & sisters, etc.) are badass, I tell you. It takes courage to muster up the confidence to put together a safe plan for your kid(s), and to be strong for them when you probably just want to break down & cry about it yourself sometimes.
Prevent Bullying
It’s up to all of you reading to inform schools, restaurants, and everyone that you’re not going to exclude yourself or your kids from society or live in fear from your food allergy. It’s up to you to be ever-vigilant and cautious, but it’s all so up to you to not back down or let your kids be ostracized for being different.
Now, where can I get an Epi-pen case that looks like a lightsaber?
I saw this when browsing through the disc packaging, so of course I assumed it had to be there. I mean, Boba Fett riding a dragon/dinosaur? Certainly not in any of the films proper…
Star Wars The Complete Saga Blu-ray Inside Artwork
Star WarsBlu-rays released today! Woo! I pre-ordered from Amazon with slow-boat shipping. What agony I will be in until they arrive, but it’s a good agony. (If there is such a thing.)
The originals were timeless, the new ones are terrible. I’m surprised the nav/targeting screen graphics in all the ships haven’t been redone. I can’t wait to watch these movies yet again, no matter if I’ll be grumbling or not… and I’m really looking forward to all the onus stuff, and hopefully some sweet Easter Eggs.
Damn you, George Lucas. I’m pretty sure you could sell the proverbial air conditioner to the Eskimo (is Inuit the correct term now?) without a problem, but I bet you can also amazingly re-sell him the air conditioner that he already has just by cleaning it, maybe adding a new filter, and putting a shiny sticker on it… and repeating that process every few years for the next 30 or 40. You are a genius.
Fanboy rant that you’ve already heard a million times over aside, George Lucas is a creative genius, and no matter how much we love to bicker about changes with new actors/voices, re-releases, re-edits, mis-colored & re-colored lightsabers, flying CGI droids, who shot first, and dancing Yoda… it all comes down to the fact that we love the Star Wars films and feel some kind of connection to them. If we didn’t feel so strongly about them, we (hopefully) wouldn’t waste our time bickering. (Sorry, can’t let it go: I still want “Yub Nub” back, I hatehatehate the new Ewok song in Jedi.)
Of course I’m going to get the Blu-ray version. To have them all in one package? Awesome. Seems like forever-ago that I was pontificating on what I’d like to see on a Blu-ray release. Now that it’s almost here & available for pre-order, I’m getting jittery… like I’ve had too many cups of coffee. Maybe I did that, too.
Bill Hunt is a lucky bastard that got a preview of the discs, and he shares the goods with us. Basically there are a lot of error fixes, clean ups, and a bunch of sound remastering and rebuilding. Some cool bits…
One thing I should confirm for you at this point: The original theatrical versions of the Original Trilogy are not included on these discs. Personally, I never expected them to be. I know a lot of fans want them, but it’s clear that Lucas has no intention of making them available at least for the foreseeable future.
Figured as much.
In addition to these sorts of fixes, significant additional dirt removal has been done, more garbage matte lines have been cleaned up and other little “fixes” have been applied as well. Here’s an example of one such fix done to Episode V. For years, fans have complained that in this shot of the Wampa attacking Luke’s Tauntaun, you could see part of the puppeteer’s arm because the costume didn’t extend quite far enough… Now, that’s been fixed.
For Episode IV, however, “getting it exactly right” required a rather extensive forensic effort, as this material just wasn’t cataloged with future surround remixes in mind. In many cases, Matt and his team went back to original analog tape recordings made in 1976 to get the best quality of all the required elements. As a result, it’s fair to say that the surround mix for Episode IV was almost completely rebuilt from scratch, with Matt comparing his work to the original print master to ensure its creative accuracy. And at every step of the way, director George Lucas and original sound supervisor Ben Burtt were consulted to ensure that the mix reproduced as closely as possible their original intent for the film’s sonic experience. In fact, Matt says he played the film’s reels many times for George, in 15-20 second chucks, to get his feedback.
Crazy. I think I’m going to have to break down & buy a surround-sound system just for this Blu-ray release. Maybe a better Blu-ray player too. Any ideas on how to convince my wife why this is necessary?
Now, you’ll recall that a little bit ago, I said these should probably be best considered new 2011 versions of these films, and not the 2004 DVD versions. All the fixes and corrections alone justify this in my opinion, but there’s another reason too… and you can probably guess what it is: Once again, George has apparently added a few new “surprises” into these films. I don’t know what they are and didn’t get to see any of them on Friday, but I was assured that there will be “new things to notice” when we watch the films. I think we can safely assume that one of them will be the new all-digital Yoda in Episode I…
More tweaks? Hopefully more archive/deleted footage put into the films in lieu of additional background lizards, droids, clones, or new musical numbers. (Although, if more aliens popped up in the background… like the ones from Close Encounters, Alien, Predator, Cowboys & Aliens, or even a Klingon, that would be kind of geeky fun.) I’d like to see the Revenge of the Sith ending that Simon Pegg wrote about in his book.
What the other changes to these films may be, I have no idea, but I suspect there will be no lack of blog posts on this very subject within hours of the first discs becoming available to fans.
Now then, let’s move on to the extras. Is it really worth getting the Complete Saga set just to get the three extras discs? For me at least, the answer here is clear: Absolutely. Yes… I’ve now seen many of the Original Trilogy deleted scenes. No… I can’t tell you much about them (believe me, that drives me as crazy as it does you). But I was pretty surprised by them and in a good way. What I can tell you is that they are substantial – at least for the Original Trilogy. This isn’t just dribs and drabs stuff – it includes long sequences. And they’re extremely cool. Frankly, for me this is the real draw of the entire BD release. As you’ve seen in some of the teaser clips Lucasfilm has released, they’re not pristine, but most of them are in HD – at least the Original Trilogy clips. And trust me, they’re well worth seeing. It’s stuff some of you have wanted to see in good quality since 1977, along with a few things fans may not have known even existed.
What’s more, each film has two audio commentary tracks – the ones that were on the previous DVD release as well as an all-new commentary compiled from tons of vintage and archived interviews with the cast and crew. Finally, I’m assured that there are indeed a handful of “very fun” Easter eggs scattered throughout the set.
OOOH. How will I find these? Ha ha. I’m going to have to set up a Google News alert or something. I’m never good at just finding them on my own.
Go read the main article, it’s worth it if you’re a geek… and there are some killer photos!
In with that, they point to yet another article, that says exciting things like…
On the special features, we spent 3 years sifting and digging through 30 years of material that is in the vaults at the Ranch, it’s been quite an undertaking. We uncovered boxes that hadn’t been opened in over 20 years, it was a very dirty experience! We looked through work prints, we found dailies, we went through behind-the scenes videos, we really uncovered a slew of new gems that we’re really excited to share with the fans.
Oh what I wouldn’t give to dig through those archives.
Q: Is the holiday special on there?
A: You’ll have to wait and see! The holiday special is a challenge, but look for some Easter Eggs – what’s a Star Wars release without a couple of Easter Eggs?! J
I’m guessing not the whole Holiday special, but maybe a clip… especially the Boba Fett cartoon. A clean version of that would be excellent! (If it exists, watch it have overdubs fromTemuera Morrison
If the whole special shows up, that would be killer. No one ever asks about the Ewok movies. What about those? When are we going to get more forest creatures, lost footage, and an all-new CGI Gorax? How about Cindel & Mace running around in Jedi somewhere?
Oh yeah, maybe Troops will pop up as an easter egg!
Thanks to HarrisPoll Surveys, PNC/Visa Points, and a jar o’ change, I was able to pre-order from Amazon for only $2.49 out of pocket.
So recently I finished two books that my reader(s) might enjoy.
The first is Nerd Do Well by Simon Pegg. It’s a great book, & gives you insight into Pegg’s fanboy roots, aspiring to be an actor, and some really funny stuff thrown in. Also, in a bit about how Revenge of the Sithshould have ended… he couldn’t have been more spot-on. I won’t go into crazy detail as you can find many reviews online… but I have to say for fans of films like Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Paul, and the new Star Trek… you need to see this. It also reminds me that I need to get my hands on some Spaced DVD’s. Also… where/when in the hell can I see Burke and Hare in the US?
"I do not have any money so am sending you this drawing I did of a spider instead"
World (and Lunar) Domination 