Quiet Saturday

Today was the first Saturday since the first weekend in May when I didn't have anything planned. I woke up at 8:30 this morning and thought "8:30 is good, but 9:30 would be better." Five minutes later, my arms were asleep and I had trouble seeing my watch. It was 9:30! It felt more like I passed out than like I went back go sleep. Usually when I sleep late I have vivid dreams, but not this time. I needed the extra sleep and I'm just glad I was finally able to get it.

I kind of goofed off until about 11:30 and then I started cleaning my room. The bed was covered with all of the clothes that fit while my closet was full of clothes that are too small. I hauled out and boxed up the smaller clothes so I could put away the ones I have to wear because I can't seem to get back on the South Beach wagon. I didn't toss out the smaller clothes, they're in a box in the basement just in case, but I'm losing hope that I'll ever need them again.

One of the plans for today was to take out the old air conditioner and put it in my dad's office and put the newer, better one in my bedroom. I'm super sensitive to heat and I can't sleep at temperatures over 75 degrees. Unfortunately, when I opened the window, I lost my grip on the a/c unit and it fell in to the bushes below my second story window. Oops, sorry Dad! We won't tell him, maybe he'll never notice. He's been in bed all day because of his cataract surgery yesterday. I don't blame him, if I had an excuse to sleep all day, I'd take it, too. We got the new a/c unit in my window and I put my room back together about 6:00. Mom and I watched Freedom Writers, and it was ok. Kind of depressing for most of it, but it had a happy ending so it's not all bad. Movies like that are like broccoli... you know they're good for you and they're full of all kinds of good things, but you would rather be eating ice cream. I am a junk food movie addict. I like things like Pirates of the Caribbean or Pirates of Penzance or pretty much any movie with pirates in the title, actually. I want to laugh and/or be scared and end up in smiles at the end. I don't want to have to think too much. I felt sorry for the husband. I can relate, that woman would make a saint feel selfish and unworthy.

I'm heading to bed in a few minutes. I have to work on my book tomorrow and I need to catch up on more sleep before work starts again on Monday. Seriously, I need a vacation.

No Rest for the Wicked

Let's see, on May 5th I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. The following weekend was my three day camping trip to Virginia. The weekend of the 19th my mom and I went shopping and saw Spidey 3 and Dad and I went to our writer's group meeting. Last weekend was four days of Balticon 41. That's a lot of busyness for an entire month of weekends. You would think I had earned a rest, right? Not hardly.

Today we went into DC for Learning and Product Expo: Art! DC 2007. They had a juried show with one of my mom's pictures in it. They didn't have the good taste to give her an award for it, but it was an honor just to have a picture in the show. It's not my favorite of her pictures, but you can judge it for yourself here.

I bought a lot of art and scrapbooking supplies and we took a watercolor class together. I was actually enjoying the class until the end. The teacher asked me to take my picture to the front of the class so he could demo something on it. I was so flattered until he took out a spray bottle and splattered all but a tiny spot with blue paint and then splotched a couple of ugly purple flowerlike objects on that one spot. It was horrible. My mom knew immediately that I was very angry and leaned over to reassure me that she would help me fix it, but it was too late. The entire picture is ruined. It wasn't good before he destroyed, but now it's hopeless. I would think I was just being picky, but one of the other students and I talked afterwards and she gave me her sympathies because she was appalled at what he had done. It was the very end of the class and I think he got in a hurry and just didn't care what he did. He's probably so used to slopping these things together that he forgets how much work this is for students. Idiot.

Tonight I got out my new colored pencils and pad of paper and tried to do the first of the exercises in one of my books. It turned out pretty badly. I guess I should have saved my time and money and done a little computer art instead. At least with computer stuff you can always hit CTRL-Z and undo the mistakes.

I'm ready for a break, but I won't get it anytime soon. Next weekend I'm meeting with my accounting client to talk about his website and his bookkeeping and one of the guys from work wants me to redo his website. In the meantime I'm working on a complete solution for the 30 Stories in 30 Days website and I still need to rewrite my novel and figure out whether or not it's salvageable.

Anyone want to guess why I haven't been blogging lately? LOL

How important is Star Wars, really?

Back when I was in high schoo/college and they first started talking about VCRs I remember thinking how amazing it would be to watch Star Wars in my own home any time I wanted to. Now I'm finding out how much of a dinosaur that makes me, not just because I can remember a time before VCRs but because I actually remember when Star Wars was the new, exciting movie franchise.

We were living in Munich, Germany when the first Star Wars movie came out and someone who had seen it before moving to Germany was trying to tell us about it. It just didn't sound that interesting to me, but when I finally saw it, I was a complete convert. The epic nature of the movies, the startling special effects, Harrison Ford... Star Wars had everything.

When Empire came out I was living in Las Vegas and was in college. We went to see it over and over again in the theaters even though we really couldn't afford it. I gave my sister tickets to see it one more time for her birthday, even. These days, how often do you go see a movie at the theater more than once? I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean twice and that was a big deal. I don't remember how often we saw Empire at the theater, but it was probably five or more times.

So, what is the point of all of this? Well, I TiVo'd all of the movies, starting with the disappointing 1-3 saga and ending with the original films. The special effects in the old films don't hold up well, nor does poor Mark Hamill's acting, but I still prefer the originals. Anyway, I was watching Empire this morning, still my favorite, and I mentioned to my buddy, Chris, that Mark Hamill never looked the same after his car accident. Chris didn't know what I was talking about! Now Chris has lost all computer geek credibility. He's got to spend the weekend watching Princess Bride, Young Frankenstein and Monty Python to prove he's a true geek.

In the meantime, I asked the girls from work if they knew who Mark Hamill was. Four out of four could not identify him and only one of the four has seen the movies, and that was under protest. When I expressed shock, they told me that maybe the movies were only a West Coast thing. What??? This is Star Wars, people, not some obscure indie film. Am I the only one who remembers how much impact these movies had on our culture? Star Wars ranks up there with Star Trek and... I can't even think of anything as big. The Star Wars phenomenon dwarfs the Harry Potter franchise. Sure HP is fun, but it is not Star Wars. Of recent movies, only the Lord of the Rings trilogy can really compare.

So, how important is it that people know and love the same movies? If you believe, as I do, that every culture is defined by the stories they tell and the legends they share, then movies perform a much greater role than merely entertainment. They give us a frame of reference, a shared experience. We no longer sit around firesides and listen to stories of heroes who face down evil and survive, we sit in darkened theaters, but the effect is the same. Sure, most of the movies we see are forgettable and many of them are pure dreck. But when something comes along that speaks to our core values and connects with us on a deeper level, it binds us with other human beings who feel the same feelings. It gives us a starting point and a shared experience even if we have only just met. It gives us a history together.

How important is Star Wars... it's just entertainment, or is it?