Month / May 2005

by TheJames

Revenge of the Sith

There have been quite a few favorable reviews of the Star Wars Revenge of the Sith and for the most part I would agree with the reviews. I do have a few gripes, however.

The amount and sophistication of technology that is available in episodes 1-3 seem to be much more plentiful and advanced than what is in episodes 4-6.

I can’t remember exactly who said it, but “The future is old.” Meaning, if some stuff is old now, imagine what it will be like in the future. I know that in the beginning of the movie it says, “A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away…”. But, all of that culture did not just miraculously appear. Some of it should be old… very old. For example, Los Isley (sp) space port in ep4 is falling apart. The Millennium Falcon is always in disrepair. Some of these things make the story more palatable.

Ok, now that I’m done geeking out about ROS, I have to say that I really enjoyed it. The opening scene is better than all of the others, excluding ep5 on Hoth (the ice planet). Overall the movie pulled together several points about Anakin’s character and how he becomes Darth Vader. Check out Kottke’s review for some nice (spoiler) details about the final development of Darth Vader’s character.

CNN.com – Midnight ‘Sith’ showings set record – May 20, 2005

Star Wars: The Revenge of the Sith (kottke.org)

CNN on Star Wars ROS

by TheJames

Sand Key Triathlon – Training Programs

While looking through some up comming races in the Tampa – Clearwater- St. Petersburg area I found this “The Sand Key Triathlon Training Program“. While it may seem a little pricey @ $600 it seems to be a fairly complete “one stop shop” for prepairing you for their sprint distance triathlon.

The Sand Key Triathlon is a sprint distance (Swim 1/4 mile — Bike 10 Miles — Run 3.1 Miles) in Clearwater, FL.

The clinic takes you from beginner to well prepaired over the 12 week span. It starts on June 26th and the race is on September 25th 2005. There are weekly seminars as well as weekly group training events. They are also putting on 2 free workshops (July 30 & August 27), if you are not interested in the whole class.

by TheJames

Towel Day!

It’s Towel Day!

In celebration of the amazing works of Douglas Adams. Primarily “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”.

To quote from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have. Partly it has great practical
value – you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you – daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.