30 Years

A post on another blog pointed out that this marks the 30th anniversary of Return of the Jedi.  And it got me to thinking where I was at the time, and what life was like in my early teens. 

When ROTJ came out, I was 12 years old, and living with my grandparents in Northern California while my mom completed Basic and Tech School for the Air Force.  I had already seen the previous two Star Wars films in the theater, and when my mom came to visit on leave before she went to Okinawa, she took me to see the third film.

I was in junior high at the time, and in the throes of many forces of nature.  Aside from the obvious puberty that was beating the crap out of me, I was also developing a love of science fiction and fantasy, mainly through playing D&D and watching TV (mostly Saturday morning cartoons).  However, also during this period, I got to go to the theater by myself for the first time.  I remember it was at the mall in Concord, CA (the theater is no longer there, though the mall seems to have doubled in size).  The movie was Rocky III.

I had only ever seen bits of the first Rocky on TV, so I was only vaguely familiar with it.  At this point, I'm not even sure what motivated me to go see it.  Probably the novelty of being allowed to see a movie by myself.  Little did I know what an impact that movie would have.  Not only did it plant the seed of hero-worship for Stallone (that is going strong to this day), but it also introduced me to boxing and fighting.  As a skinny nerd who was constantly picked on, this was huge.  And I can honestly attribute watching this film on video dozens of times to me winning my one and only fist fight, in 9th grade.

So, anyways, it's been 30 years since the summer of 1983.  At the time there were many things I hadn't discovered or experienced yet that would later mold and shape much of my life.  Things like the works of Robert E. Howard, Star Trek (beyond TOS), Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, and of course, Girls (I had discovered them, I just hadn't experienced them yet).  Interestingly, these would all become part of my lexicon within the next two years, and each one is still with me.

But, all that being said, my first Geek Love has always been the Star Wars films.  So, I think maybe it's time to re-watch the Original Trilogy.  I have the re-releases on DVD (where Han shot second, ugh!), so those will have to suffice; my VHS tapes of the original cuts are long gone, as far as I know.  Sydney has seen them, and enjoys them, but I think it's time to introduce Connor to Star Wars.  I was six when I saw the first one in the theater, and he's four and a half.  Close enough.

I love Cat people!

No, not that crappy Stephen King movie. I’m talking about the long tradition in Sci Fi of having feline-esque alien races. I have to admit, I have a soft spot for these kinds of species. After a quick internet search, I found a really cool article on this subject over at Tor.com. So, I won’t bother re-listing the ones I know of.

Ok, I will mention David Gerrold’s Morthans (as in “more than human”) from his most excellent novel, Voyage of the Star Wolf, and sequels. Probably among my favorite cat-races.

So, if I’m not going to list them, why bring them up? Because I am making my own, of course! Not that this is something new. I’ve actually made or played cat-races in numerous RPG’s. I remember my very first superhero was for the old DC Heroes RPG back in the 80’s. I made Feline, a dude whose genes were accidentally mixed with his pet cat’s in a freak science accident (pretty standard fare for comics, no?). Feline has been made for every Supers RPG I have ever played to date since then. I’ve also made cat-races for different editions of D&D, and even adapted one from a 3rd party company for use in the Farscape RPG.

And now I am creating one for a Sword & Planet story I am working on. This one is inspired by the cover of the April 1985 issue of Epic Illustrated magazine (which I plan to acquire a copy of ASAP). Cat dudes fencing in John Carter fashion, with a hot, mostly naked princess in the foreground. That’s just freaking cool! Weird alien races are a staple of S&P, and its sister genre, Space Opera (Star Wars, anyone?). And I plan to embrace that tradition.

Speaking of Star Wars, in SW: The Old Republic, if you play a Trooper, your first companion is a Cathar soldier.  He's very cool.  And if you play an Empire character, you eventually go to that planet and get to fight a bunch of them.

Anyways, just thought I‘d throw that out there. So, do you have a favorite alien type? What are they?

I'm still here!

Wow, this place is still here? It’s been an off couple of weeks for me, so this blog has kind of fallen by the wayside. After my 5-day blogging marathon, I think maybe I was a bit burned out. Of course, last week I had my first overnight trip for work, and all of the stuff that went along with that. But really, there just hasn’t been much to geek out about for me lately. At least, nothing I haven’t covered in spades before.

One thing did occur recently. A friend of mine invited me to become a founding member of a guild for the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO. So, that got me all jazzed up over Star Wars again. Still haven’t had the urge to watch the movies, but I know that will come soon. In the meantime, I’m thinking of the game, and what kind of character I’d like to play. Right now, I’ve settled on a Republic Trooper. Heirs to the Republic Grand Army from the Clones, these are highly trained “Special Forces” types of soldiers. I considered going with some kind of Jedi, but I think there will be a glut of those, and since we’re playing the “good” faction, the Trooper seemed like a great fit for me.

I’ve also taken my Stargate pastiche idea and began modifying it into an original setting and premise. Had a huge flash of inspiration the other night, and wrote a bunch of notes in my notebook. I think it could be cool, though it will take some tinkering to get it to work on its own, and to not be a blatant Stargate rip-off.

My brain has gotten pretty derailed from fantasy and S&S lately, and though I still have occasional thoughts about those (particularly about Orcs), nothing in those genres is really pulling on me lately. Mostly I’m thinking about Space Opera and military sci-fi. I think I need to write something in that vein, just to see where it could go.

My computer is still on the fritz. Basically, the NVIDIA drivers stopped working, and I can’t reload them. I’m not sure if it’s a software issue or a hardware issue. I’m leaning towards software, as some of the Windows (Vista Home) elements have malfunctioned as well,. In particular, the Windows Updater. I can’t get updates to download and install properly, and I have had to shut off the updater, since it kept locking up my system. So, basically my computer is using a standard VGA driver, which restricts me to 1024x768 resolution, thus negating me playing any of my games. The plan is, when I get my disbursement from student loans, I will be buying myself a new laptop, and making my old desktop a “family” computer for the kids to use. That should all happen late next month, I hope.

Other than that, life is ok. My wife has some exciting things coming up. More on that as time goes on, but right now it’s a bit hush-hush for legal and financial reasons. My daughter will only be here for the week after Christmas, thanks to my ex-wife being…well, she’s an EX-wife for a reason. Let’s just leave it at that. My stepdaughter is getting to be handful. Love her dearly, but sometimes I want to give her a brain-duster. And my nearly-3 year old is way too smart for his own good. We’ve discovered that if we don’t engage him intellectually in public, he turns in to Jack-Jack’s demon form. Guh!

Oh, and I want one of the new Kindles for Christmas.