The Official Site for the Lackluster Goings-On of Michael Kaiser
Posts tagged star wars
Read and That’s It 2009
Jan 4th
| Title | Author | Series | Series Part | Reading Date | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace | Terry Brooks | 3/8/2009 | 6 | ||
| Treason | Peter Davis | Star Trek: New Frontier | 17 | 4/30/2009 | 8 |
| The Road | Cormac McCarthy | 6/14/2009 | 10 | ||
| Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? | Philip K. Dick | 9/9/2009 | 8 | ||
| The Gunslinger | Stephen King | Dark Tower | 1 | 10/31/2009 | 8 |
Sad sad sad. But hey, it was my first year of marriage, and I have a new step-daughter at home, and another kid on the way, and more stuff to do at work and… okay okay, I think I was just lazy. Nothing was really grabbing me last year, or calling to me either. Hopefully I’ll do better this year, but so far it doesn’t feel any different.
Galactic Surprise
Oct 13th
The Girl turned 30 this week. Or, as she puts it, she celebrated her first anniversary of being 29. We celebrated on her actual birthday with a little party at our house, so that The Kid could participate. My mom and in-laws were all in attendance. Then the plan was to go to Outback on Saturday, but (insert nefarious mustache twirling here) the REAL plan was for her mother and sister to take her out shopping so we could set up a surprise party at her sister’s house. Totally worked, and she got suckered. I was sure she was on to us, but I guess not, though now her hindsight is 20/20. Good thing I’m an excellent liar! (“Hi honey!”) And even though she has told me she doesn’t like surprises, none of us were maimed or killed, so I guess it worked out. This was my first planning of a surprise party, and while it was not my idea, and I did have help, gotta say it’s not all that fun! Found it to be a big source of stress, actually. Ultimately worth it of course, but I think on her 2nd anniversary of being 29 I’ll plan something out loud. The Girl handled turning 30 much better than I did. I had a real crisis of DC proportions, but she seems to have cruised through it. I guess it helps when you’re pregnant and have bigger things to worry about.
Next day, went to Star Wars: In Concert with my Best Good Friend at the San Jose Pavilion (home of the Sharks). The crowd was pretty good, though not sold out, which worked for us because we moved up a couple rows to give ourselves some elbow room. The music was, of course, amazing and it was great to hear it live. Sometimes the videos set to the music were equally amazing and moving, but sometimes it seemed like whoever made all those up was just mailing it in. But it’s hard to beat a stadium full of persecuted people all loving the same thing, cheering for all the same things that make you cheer. It’s very energizing! And unlike conventions, no discernible B.O. that I noticed! Aside from the concert itself, there were a bunch of Star Wars props in the lobby, but the crowd and lighting were too intense to score any decent pictures. What was really cool was, even though it was a 7-10 show on a Sunday night, many delinquent parents brought their kids anyway. It’s awesome to see that something I loved as a kid is still going strong for the next generation and it warms the heart to see a bunch of little dudes holding lightsabers and head banging to the Imperial March!
I created a site for myself called Desktop Geekery, so that I have somewhere to put the wallpapers I make for myself, instead of discarded them after I get bored. It’s also my first Wordpress theme. Even though it looks like the Default them (and essentially is from a style perspective), I learned all kinds of fun stuff about built in Wordpress functions to get it to automatically display the Wallpaper thumbnail and download links the same way for every post. Ginchy! Well I think so anyway…
Awkward
Sep 24th
Was out deliverying a shipment to Hayward for work yesterday. On the way back, saw a Toys R’ Us and couldn’t resist. (Still working on that growing up thing.) I was actually looking for a “first toy” to get The Dude, but didn’t find anything that struck my fancy. There was, however, a huge Star Wars section right up front that pulled me in by its tractor beam, and amongst the fairly cool offerings, I saw about three of these:
Stormtroopers are cool. I get why, even though they are murdering foot soldiers, people want to own their toys and dress up like them. But this toy is a bit too weird for me. “Hey kids, now you too can question, torture and burn the Lars family alive!” Not that we ever saw this scene play out on screen, but we know the end result:
You can just hear Owen telling Beru to get back in the house. Shiver!
Beeps and Whistles
Sep 10th
UPDATE: Replaced screen shot photos with 3-D renderings by John Jongsma where available.
Astromech droids are cool. I want one. I want them all. All the R-series models produced by Industrial Automaton , at any rate. If I had one, I bet I would never have to do dishes again, even though they can’t reach the sink. Here is a list of all the G-canon astromech droids. Aren’t they pretty?
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| R1-G4 | R2-A5 | R2-A6 |
| Episodes: IV | Episodes: IV | Episodes: I |
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| R2-B1 | R2-C4 | R2-D2 |
| Episodes: I | Episodes: I | Episodes: I II III IV V VI |
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| R2-M5 | R2-Q2 | R2-Q5 |
| Episodes: I | Episodes: IV | Episodes: VI |
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| R2-R9 | R2-T0 | R2-X2 |
| Episodes: I | Episodes: I | Episodes: I |
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| R3-A2 | R3-T2 | R3-T6 |
| Episodes: V | Episodes: IV | Episodes: IV |
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| R3-T7 | R3-Y2 | R4-A22 |
| Episodes: II | Episodes: V | Episodes: II |
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| R4-E1 | R4-F5 | R4-G9 |
| Episodes: IV | Episodes: III | Episodes: III |
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| R4-I9 | R4-M9 | R4-P17 |
| Episodes: IV | Episodes: IV | Episodes: II III |
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| R4-P44 | R5-A2 | R5-D4 |
| Episodes: III | Episodes: IV | Episodes: II IV |
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| R5-D8 | R5-F7 | R5-J2 |
| Episodes: IV | Episodes: IV | Episodes: VI |
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| R5-M2 | R5-X2 | |
| Episodes: V | Episodes: I |
Some stuff to take from this:
- Episode IV is the clear winner in amount of astromechs on screen. Guess they saw a good thing and went crazy with the paint schemes!

- And of course, of the five series shown on screen, the R2 series is the most prevalent.

- George Lucas named and dictated the design for one of the R4 (can’t remember which one, probably R4-P117) and the props guy said “uh…I think the fans have all these R-series worked out and R4’s have a different head than R2’s” and George Lucas didn’t care and went with it anyway, so now all these R4’s that don’t have a cone-like dome for a head are considered R4’s with R2 replacement heads. True paraphrased story (probably). Funny how the fans are always fixing Star Wars for George.
- Aside from R2-D2, I think my favorite astromech listed above is R4-D4. I love me the counterparts, and he was so close to being sold off to the Skywalker’s over R2-D2. What would have happened? Good thing his motivator blew out, eh? He was also the only other astromech besides R2 to get a toy in the first Hasbro wave, which I had of course.
- R4-P17 apparently has female droid programming. How can anyone tell? They look the same and all beep and whistle the same. What about “her” is female? What about the rest are male, for that matter?
- Speaking of, R4-P17, R2-D2 and R5-D4 are the only three astromechs to appear in more than one film.
- Aside from the R4 series, it seems like the naming convention for each series has a range of A-Z and 0-9. If that’s the case, each series can have 260 different droids, leaving quite a few left to be discovered. Of course, I didn’t include anything from the EU, which I’m sure has already accounted for every fricking model that could ever possibly exist.
- Speaking of the EU, though we only see series 1-5 on the big screen, in the EU there is an R6, R7, R8 and R9 series of droids.
- C-3PO reminds me of my grandmother. This has nothing to do with astromechs.
Emanations
Jan 20th
Is it just me or does it totally smell like 80s childhood today? I smell He-Man and Transformers and Star Wars and G.I. Joe and forts behind the levee and movie theaters by K-Mart. And bike rides! Lots and lots of bike rides.
Another Facebook Fight
Dec 22nd
Last time I looked at the fan count of Batman vs Superman, with Batman the winner. Now let’s look at the two franchises that are closer to my heart, Star Wars vs Star Trek, and guess who’s going to win? (Der!)
| General Search | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Title | Fans | Title | Fans |
| Star Wars | 535,428 | Star Trek | 22,176 |
| Specific Search | |||
| Title | Fans | Title | Fans |
| Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope | 971 + 20 | Star Trek: The Original Series | 1,281 |
| Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back | 2,032 + 72 | Star Trek: The Next Generation | 28,095 |
| Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi | 1,458 + 55 | Star Trek: Deep Space Nine | 7,885 |
| Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace | 211 + 16 | Star Trek: Voyager | 15,546 |
| Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones | 772 + 20 | Star Trek: Enterprise | 3,801 + 1,561 |
| Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith | 216 + 63 + 24 | Star Trek (film) | 102,776 |
| Star Wars: Clone Wars | 1,509 + 693 + 224 + 65 + 44 + 21 | ||
| Ship Search | |||
| Title | Fans | Title | Fans |
| Millenium Falcon | 351 | U.S.S. Enterprise 1701 | 289 |
| Character Search | |||
| Title | Fans | Title | Fans |
| Luke Skywalker | 0 | James T. Kirk | 1,361 |
| Han Solo | 8,493 + 96 + 84 | Spock | 0 |
| TOTAL | 552,938 | TOTAL | 184,771 |
| WINNER: STAR WARS | |||
Did you see that coming? I did! Trek did pretty good on the individual entries but it was the generic search at the beginning that done ‘em in.

































