Reflections on 30

30 years old today.

I've been on this planet for three decades.

What.

I speak to adults who say they grew up with things that didn't exist until I was in my teens.

I'm the new adult generation.

I'm only a "young man" in the technical sense with lifespans ever expanding. Just a few centuries ago, I'd be middle-aged.

I'm already flabbergasted by "kids these days".

And the worst part?

It doesn't really feel any different from my late 20s.

I've learned so much in the last six years, that I am in many ways a different person than I was in college, but that's not tied to any specific number.

I thought I would have more insight, but frankly I don't know how I feel on this milestone of a day.

...

...I'm going to go play some WoW....

You Underestimate My Power

2005 was a whirlwind year for me. The end of High School and the beginning of college.

And, after years of waiting, Revenge of the Sith.

2005 was the Year of Star Wars. Burger King had their saga collection toys (of which I still have quite a bit, including the much sought after Vader with Anakin inside). I started collecting the action figures again after the disappointingly posed AotC lines. I got Racer Revenge and the game of the film with the lightsaber fight minigame.

As for the film itself? I saw it three times in the theatres.

The first was with my father and grandfather. We were all blown away, and they both came out of the theatre feeling like they were back in 1977 they said.

The second was with my mother, though I have no specific memory of that.

The third was on my senior trip to the Poconos. I remember vividly spending most of my time unlocking racers in Racer Revenge because I had forgotten my memory card and wanted everyone to have full options - unaware that nobody else cared. Everyone saw movies the next day, and I had to see Sith again. I was the last one out and so psyched I bought a General Grievous figure at the next Wal-Mart we stopped for supplies in.

It wasn't until the year ended that my Dark Period began, when I finally saw the full extent of the hatred and couldn't really argue much against it. But the summer of 2005 was the closest repeat to the summer of 1999 for me.

Oh, and the germ for my current love of Hayden Christensen's performance as a whole may have started with being pleasantly surprised by his character turns during Sith.

Check out the SWPAS for more memories of 2005

My Wife is Amazing

Look at my wife. My wife is amazing.

Well, you can't actually LOOK at her here, because I'm not posting her pictures here because privacy. If you're that curious, she's on Facebook all the time (and I am NOT, despite what a page that hasn't been looked at much less updated in years might suggest).

The Future

Okay, so just in case the Frozen post distracted, this is everybody's absolutely last chance to save the Anniversary Reviews. Truth be told I'm sick of them and want to give up on them, so if nobody cares I'm going to discontinue them. If you do care, PLEASE let me know and I will acquiesce to my readers - you guys do matter, you know. All of you.

In the meantime, I want to draw attention to the following website: MovieVillains.com, formerly known as CrazyMofo.com, was one of my favorite websites in High School, and I frequented it nearly every day. It was a rating of various film villains, and it was pretty entertaining.

Of course, it used to look a lot flashier. As you can see, the site has fallen into major disrepair, having not updated in nigh of a decade. Furthermore, some of the entries need to be cleaned up a bit for grammar, updated information, and in some cases even rescoring (sexual assault should always be a 10 in Vileness, no matter what).

It's obvious that the previous webmaster, one "Destro", has abandoned the site. I would see it returned to its former glory.

There's no more working contact link, and "Destro" has obviously moved on from that life anyway. Still, if anyone knows anything about this (or if "Destro" is somehow reading this), I would like the permission and opportunity to update and add to what was once a treasure of my adolescence.

Anniversaries Further Postponed

It's times like this that I kind of want to give up the Anniversaries. They take a long time to research, and then I often don't have enough to say.

I've barely had any computer time to myself because my wife needs my laptop for homework, which is kind of more important. She'll be getting a new desktop in the beginning of March, which might give me more time to catch up.

So if my dear readers give me enough comments saying they miss them, the Anniversary reviews will be coming back sometime in March - all caught up.

Prestedigitoleum!

One of my favorite Disney films had an Anniversary this past December. The Sword in the Stone turned 50. Even though it's one of my favorites, and it deserved its own post separate from the rabble, I'm finding it difficult to think of much to say on it.

It was certainly fun, and it had many memorable parts, though if I had to be honest the episodic nature of it felt more like a TV special to me than a feature film. And for all of the film's awesomeness, when it gets to the ending (logical a point as it may be), it kind of fizzles for me.

Ah, no matter. We still get the underwater bit, the Squirrel episode, Archimedes' fantastic laugh, and the incredible wizard duel with Madame Mim ("Did I say no purple dragons? DID I?!")

This will be the last separate December Anniversary, and the generic one will be lumped with the January '14 ones. My router at home is still on the fritz (I'm using someone else's internet right now), so I'm not sure when those will come. But I have my phone which will allow me to check e-mail and comments.

And my new Jedi News article is up on that site, and I've scheduled it to appear here tomorrow.

The Thing About Stories Is...

...that anything can be the truth depending on the point of view of the person telling it.

Big Fish is Ten Years Old

The End of All Things

Sons of Gondor! Of Rohan! My brothers. I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me!

A day may come when the courage of Men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship,

But it is not this day!

An hour of wolves and shattered shields when the Age of Men comes crashing down,

But it is not this day!!

This day we fight!!!

By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand!

Men of the WEST!

(Translation: Return of the King is Ten Years Old)

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out, Kid!

You know, I wanted to give this its own space because it deserves it. But you know what?

It's a Christmas Story. It turns 30 this month.

We all know it. We've all seen it (if you haven't, what's wrong with you? Either go out and get it or wait until Christmas and turn on TBS where they play it all day). We all love it. Even though it takes place obviously in the late 40s/early 50s, it's pretty much most Americans' childhoods in some form or another.

Honestly, 'nuff said.

What's the Pedulum of Doom Doing There?

I don't get people sometimes.

Many people remember fondly the film "Space Jam", a movie that nearly destroyed the image of the Looney Tunes by making them basically do a two-hour basketball commercial.

Yet when a good director captures the essence of the classic Looney Tunes nearly perfectly, while updating it for the modern age and adding some of the better (though admittedly not quite best) live-action/animation mixing since "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," it not only flops but goes down as a synonym for "bad Looney Tunes picture".

It's not fair.

"Looney Tunes: Back in Action" turns 10 this month.

November Anniversaries

Just to reiterate.

A) I'm doing mostly just movies this round. Next round I'll be more diligent with things like TV shows and Video Games (I'm upset I missed Animaniaces back in September...ah, ten more years, if I last that long).

B) I'm doing mostly movies I've seen or know enough about through popcuktural osmosis. If there's a movie you love that I've left out, shout it out in the comments! However...

C) Wait until the end of the month if you can, since sometimes I do special single anniversary posts, as I will do in just a few minutes.

With that out of the way...

Begun, The Clone War Has

Ten years ago, George Lucas and Cartoon Network conspired to tell stories from the fabled Clone Wars, taking place between the recently-released Episode II and the in-production Episode III.

They tapped Genndy Tartakovsky (of "Dexter's Laboratory" and "Samurai Jack" fame) to make a traditionally animated micro-series. The result was simply "Star Wars: Clone Wars."

Now, I'll admit to only having seen bits and pieces of this special over the years, but its lasting legacy is felt. Asajj Ventress, one of the more popular EU characters, made her debut here inspired by rejected concepts of what would become Count Dooku. General Grievous also made an early bird cameo, and became more of a player as events lead up to the Battle of Coruscant. And though I find its CGI spiritual successor a far better show overall, it's obvious that the character designs were greatly inspired by Tartakovsky's (and they work better in traditional animation as well).

Like any expanded universe story, much of it is not quite canon and from what I understand some of it was contradicted in the later series. While this is probably for the best, one must pay homage to this first and pretty decent attempt to tell of this legendary time.

You Finally Watched WHO?

Well, about a week ago, after years of everyone on the internet going gaga over it, I finally gave in and decided to give the long-running British TV show "Doctor Who" a chance. With 50+ years of canon and 11+ Doctors, where's the best place to start?

Well, going off of certain beginner's guide sites, I opted to start with the 9th Doctor at the beginning of the 2005 revival series, since that one was meant to bring in new viewers in the first place and it's easier to catch up to the present (at which point I can peruse the best of Doctors 1-8 at my leisure).

This post was meant to be a lot longer, giving my first impressions, but I'm going to hold off on that for now. I will say upfront that I very much enjoy the show and am looking forward to catching up. However, there's a disconnect I'm experiencing, and I want to get a few more seasons (or series, as the new ones are called) under my belt before I go off and talk about it.

These nagging thoughts aside, which will be discussed at a future date, I again must state I am officially a fan. I don't like it quite as much as other things - yet - and it's not one of my favorite shows - yet - but I am enjoying pretty much every minute thusfar.

More to come. If you don't want to wait, there's always the TARDIS...

....*whur whur whur*

Okay, so I wrote this earlier, and I'm coming back to edit that apparently the show turns 50 this month so...Anniversary! Bye now.

*whur whur whur*...

In This Town We Call Home, Everyone Hail To The Pumpkin Song

Twas a long time ago, longer now than it seems,
In a place I have often seen in my dreams
For the story that you're about to be told...

...Is that Nightmare Before Christmas is 20 Years Old...this month....

You And I Have Unfinished Business

There are two directors I know who can make films that are little more than gigantic homages to the films they grew up with, and have me enjoy it through them even if I've never seen what they're homaging.

The first is George Lucas, the second is Quentin Tarantino.

Kill Bill turns 10 this month.

October Anniversaries

There will be some special Anniversaries this month, but for now...

Coming Soon (tm)

So, some of you may have noticed that my article isn't up yet.

That's because things got crazy at work and I barely handed it in by deadline, and things are even crazier at Jedi News and my editor didn't have time.

So the article is set to go up next week, and my Editor is taking some time off and told me I earned it too.

So while I'll be preparing a bit, no new Star Wars articles after the next one until my editor returns.

That's not to say that there won't be updates here. We have the October Anniversaries coming up, and some Monday Mons-Day and WoW-Wednesday stuff I've been meaning to do for a while.

It'll take me a little bit longer to get used to my new schedule and find time to write all this stuff, but I swear to any and all deities that may or may not exists that they WILL be here and in a TIMELY FASHION!

For real this time!

September Anniversaries

I need to stop leaving these for last minute...

Beyond the Veil

Okay, so this should have happened in June, but as I explained before I've only been able to look up films for these. That said, this is one of the rare exceptions for this series of Anniversary reviews: A Book.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix turned 10.

August Anniversaries

First off, you've probably noticed I've only been doing movies so far this year. Well, that's because it's difficult enough for me to find the information on films in addition to looking for everything else. From now on I'll mostly be doing movies until the 10th anniversary of this site, in which time I will switch to television shows and other things. Of course, there will be a few small exceptions, including a belated anniversary from June that will shortly follow. In the meantime, please understand that I will eventually get around to honoring all of media. I don't plan on going anywhere for a while.

With that said, let's begin: