Stupid Router

I am typing this from my phone, which is not an ideal way to do this, because my router won't let me on the internet.

Thus, the remaining December anniversaries, which I meant to do last week when this went to hell, will have to come after the new year.

Have a happy one, and sorry again.

Happy Merry

What are you doing online?! It's Christmas! Open Presents! Be with Family!

Yeesh!

Expanding and Expanding

(Originally Written for Jedi News)

There seems to be a strange sort of correlation between ardent I-III haters and hardcore fans of what is known as the Star Wars Expanded Universe (EU for short), the collection of books, video games, comics, and even a cartoon or two detailing events in the galaxy far, far away that was not covered in the films. While this is certainly not true of everyone, I am never surprised to see a large selection of EU material in a hater’s library. In fact, there are many haters that hate on the fact that the films are not more like the EU, and in fact contradict it from time to time.

"This is Just the Tip of the Iceberg"

So I thought it would be “fun” for me to extrapolate upon my own opinions regarding the EU, which I have thrown out from time to time. But before we get into the opinion stuff, I do want to reiterate one solid fact that many EU fans either forget or purposefully neglect to mention:

The EU is, by design, since inception, for all intents and purposes, not canon.

My Armor is like Tenfold Shields, My Teeth are Like Swords...

...Mt claws, spears! My tail, a thunderbolt! My wings, a Hurricane!

And my breath?

DEATH!!!!!!

WARINING! MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!

Can of Mace

(Originally Written for Jedi News)

No matter how much you love a work of fiction, there are going to be characters you don’t like for one reason or another. And that’s okay, it doesn’t necessarily reflect on the film itself. Some characters will not appeal to some. There are heroes that some find contemptible, villains that some find sympathetic, and every other permutation.

Sometimes, that’s the desired effect. I think JK Rowling would be glad to know that Dolores Umbridge was the one character in the Harry Potter series that I actually wish had died in the end. Gruesomely. And I have no doubt that instilling that level of loathing was a major purpose of her character.

But what I find far more interesting is when a character is presented in a more neutral way, and whether or not an audience likes a character is more left up to their own interpretations of events. Which brings me to the subject of this week’s article.

I See Fire

As "An Unexpected Journey" solidifies itself more and more as my favorite of Peter Jackson's Middle-Earth films to date, and as I hear more hypocritical criticisms about it (too clean? Did you SEE Radagast covered in bird poo?!) and calls for "redemption," I'm convinced that Jackson's Tolkien saga is shaping up to be the new Star Wars.

I wish him all the luck in the world, I really do. The LotR films are fantastic, and in spite of what people are saying the Hobbit films are also. Yeah, I don't care if only one is out yet, I can tell. It's just a question of exactly how awesome at this point.

But I'm not exactly enamored of the prospect of having to smack people upside the head (verbally, of course) about another set of long-awaited prequels that somehow disappointed people despite doing exactly what they needed to do. And I really hope that this gets nipped in the bud before it turns into a full-on I-III situation. The positive and negative are pretty equal right now, but then again it was the same with Phantom at this point in the releases.

But I'll get into all that another time, I'm sure. Today, I wanted to talk about a specific little teaser for the upcoming "Desolation of Smaug" - The song.

Hanukkah 2013

So here's how I made out This year:

Listmas 2013: Eight Crazy Nights - Eighth Candle

So here's the final update list, and like last time I'm going into slightly more detail. I've upped the number and broke some ties to bring you my

TOP 25 FAVORITE FILMS OF ALL TIME

Listmas 2013: Eight Crazy Nights - Seventh Candle

Some more important changes and rearranges here in the TV list. It's been a while since I've been able to really think about television even though it's been a huge part of my life.

Of course, some of you can probably see the biggest change coming...

Listmas 2013: Eight Crazy Nights - Sixth Candle

There's a new addition to my Video Games list, and it's right near the top:

Top 20 Favorite Video Games of All Time
20. Crash Bandicoot 1-3 and Crash Team Racing
19. Desert Demolition with Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner
18. Final Fantasy VI and IX
17. Spore
16. The Lost World: Jurassic Park
15. Freaky Flyers
14. Lego Pop-Culture series
13. South Park Rally
12. Star Wars Episode I Racer and Racer Revenge
11. Sonic the Hedgehog 2
10. Star Wars Battlefront II
9. Super Smash Bros. series
8. Mario Kart series
7. X-Men Legends/Marvel Ultimate Alliance series
6. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
5. Star Wars: The Old Republic
4. Skylanders series
3. Pokémon series
2. Kingdom Hearts series
1. World of Warcraft

Skyrim places a close 6th, just narrowly missing ToR. Not bad for a game I used to avoid like the plague.

Listmas 2013: Eight Crazy Nights - Fifth Candle

A very small change to a very small list:

Top 11 Favorite Novels
11. Frankenstien by Mary Shelley
10. His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philup Pullman
9. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
8. Darth Plagueis by James Luceno
7. The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins
6. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
5. The Spider-Man Trilogy novelizations by Peter David
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
3. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
2. IT by Stephen King
1. The Harry Potter saga by J.K. Rowling

Because Darth Plagueis was awesome and Revenge of the Sith novelization was not quite as awesome as I remembered when I wrote the last list.