Microsoft Surface, Star Wars things, & a New Logo!

I have been an Apple guy when it comes to computers since 2008 when my older brother convinced me to buy my first iMac.  Since then I have also gotten an iPhone and have definitely been involved in the Apple ecosystem.  This summer I had been looking around trying to find the best tablet device for taking handwritten notes with superior palm rejection technology along with the ability to run some of the older games I was feeling nostalgic for (basically, older Windows based games including my personal favorite: the Space Quest series & of course the various Star Wars PC games).  This led me to look at Windows based PCs once again (I grew up on them, but hadn't used one in years).  Unfortunately Apple's iPad does not do so well in the palm rejection field of handwritten notes on a tablet, but Microsoft's Surface Pro does phenomenal.  So, long story short, I purchased my first Surface Pro 3 about a month ago.  I'm still learning how to work with it and only just discovered the built-in app called Fresh Paint.  This app allows a person to draw using various art utensils and styles (acrylic, water-color, crayon, etc.).  I started playing around with it and decided to put my art skills to the test (I don't brag them up by any means, in fact I don't consider myself an artist at all).  I drew up what I think is a pretty neat little logo, one that I have decided to adapt for the blog.

The idea that I tried to capture in this drawing was a feeling of old and new when it came to Star Wars.  The lightsaber is obvious for what it is, I just drew it without any reference point (I did not intentionally make it look like any single person's lightsaber, just a generic one).  Green because green is my favorite lightsaber color.  The background symbol is that of the Legacy Era of the Star Wars Legends (EU) universe.  This era contains my favorite stories including the Legacy of the Force series, the Fate of the Jedi series, and the Legacy comic series.  That symbol represents the old that I love so much and will carry with me into the future.  BB-8 represents the new.  He is one of the new characters coming in The Force Awakens and will keep the ball rolling (so to speak) into the future of Star Wars.

I hope that I am able to convey those sentiments with that drawing (a drawing I'm pretty impressed with considering my lack of talent).  I'll leave it up to you, the reader, to find any other meanings beyond what I intentionally placed in the logo.

I also got our Twitter account up and running so be sure to follow Sean and I there: @clubbwuatu

It's Like Endor Out There.

So, apparently if you've ever wanted to know how the Forest Moon of Endor feels like, just go to the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming.

Yesterday, a Catholic priest friend, Fr. Brian Hess, and I headed up into the Big Horn Mountains to go camping.  Rather than just tent camping we had something else in mind for this trip.  We reserved and camped in the Sheep Mountain Lookout Tower, located in the Big Horn Mountains near Buffalo, WY.  This is a historic fire lookout tower constructed in 1950 which sits atop Sheep Mountain.  It served as a fire lookout tower until the early 1970's and has since been cleaned up and now anybody can go online and reserve it overnight to go camp up there.  It sits right at about 9,600 feet above sea level and the view is absolutely phenomenal.  The building itself is square with windows on all four sides so one can see out in every direction.

Drinking coffee with my Empire Strikes Back mug

Being up in the mountains with the beautiful forest surrounding me I couldn't help but stand in admiration of God's handiwork in all of creation.  It is incredible what beauty nature holds.

That evening we saw three mule deer bucks as they scrounged around for food up near the tower.  The night sky was clear and since the full moon is close, we got a good view of the moon itself, but less so of a star-filled sky, which would have been awesome as well.  The morning brought a couple more deer to the area as we drank coffee and watched the sun rise higher into the sky.  I also took that opportunity to look up a geocache that was on the same mountain and find it.



Since I had a little quiet time, I decided to catch up on some reading that I've been trying to do.  I finished my second read through of C.S. Lewis' Perelandra (2nd of his Space Trilogy), I am reading it with a friend.  When that was finished, I picked up and read Dark Horse Comics' Star Wars: Jango Fett - Open Seasons.  This comic has been on my shelf all summer to read and I'm pleased I finally got to it.  This is the second new Star Wars literature (new to me, not new in publish date) I've read this summer, the first being Christie Golden's new novel, Star Wars: Dark Disciple (which, by the way, was fantastic!  I hope to write a post on that too).  Anyways, I am a big fan of Jango Fett and I'm probably in the minority when I say this but I like him more than Boba Fett.  I think for me this is true because after seeing Star Wars: Attack of the Clones in theaters was when I really got into Star Wars and Jango Fett was a big part of the plot.  That being said anything in the Star Wars EU that explores Jango Fett is great by me.  The comic itself was good, giving his backstory and how he became the template for the clone army in Attack of the Clones.  This is of course one version of that story, with the video game, "Star Wars: Bounty Hunter" giving a different version.  Personally, I prefer the story in the video game since I owned and loved playing the PlayStation 2 version of "Bounty Hunter" when I was younger.  At any rate, the comic was enjoyable, although definitely too brief for my liking.  Maybe in the new canon Jango's character will be explored a bit more, but I won't get my hopes up.



All-in-all a fantastic little overnight trip into the Big Horn Mountains.  I love to get out and go camping and so this was a slightly different experience for me.  Ultimately I would say that my preference would be to camp near a mountain stream, but this kind of camping, perched atop a mountain, definitely had its own awesomeness too.  The beauty in creation and some great literature proved to be a good combination for me.

I think I can see the Endor Shield Generator Bunker from here!

Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens

The news came a couple weeks ago that Disney Publishing Worldwide and Lucasfilm are implementing what they are calling Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  This is a huge publishing program that will include more than 20 books ranging from books for kids, to comics, and to all kinds of novels, all with the goal of filling in some of the gaps between Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  This is the first time any sort of narration will explore the unexplored time between "Return of the Jedi" and "The Force Awakens" as part of the Lucasfilm Story Group's official canon (of course the Expanded Universe had this charted out for quite some time).  

This has me excited, but also nervous.

The analogy that came to my mind when reading through these press releases was that of a kid transferring to a new school, and I'm that kid.  I had been content and happy to live in the EU, I loved the authors that helped create the EU, and I knew the territory of the EU extremely well, having read through the New Jedi Order, Legacy of the Force, and Fate of the Jedi series multiple times.  With the declaration of the EU as "Legends" and a clean slate for the storytelling, I felt like a kid being told he was moving to a new school.  I had to leave most of my friends, I had to go to a new place with new people, and the direction that I would head was entirely unknown to me.   Most of my friends hadn't come with me (i.e. the authors I have come to love, including, but not limited to, Timothy Zahn, Kevin J. Anderson, the late Aaron Allston, and Troy Denning), but some did (like Christie Golden who is writing "Star Wars: Dark Disciple" to be released this summer), and hopefully more will follow.  New friends are to be made, like Chuck Wendig who is writing the first of a trilogy of novels set after Return of the Jedi (see below).  So being the new kid in this new school, I miss what I had to leave behind terribly and want to go back, but I'm also seeing the potential of a new beginning here and am excited to venture into this new unknown territory.  

So in the end this program has got me excited a great deal.  These books to be released as part of Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens will lead directly into movie and I'm certain the hype is worth it.  I am not particularly interested in the upcoming comics (not for lack of talent or content, I've just never been a fan of graphic novels; however, I do like Sunday comics and in particular Calvin and Hobbes, Zits, and Frazz).  On the other hand, I am incredibly interested in the upcoming novel releases and five of them in particular have caught my attention.  (UPDATE: I have been reading the Legends comics recently and have really enjoyed them.  Especially the Legacy comics and Jango Fett: Open Seasons.  I am now interested in Shattered Empire, which is a comic to be released this fall as part of the Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  I have not read any of the new Marvel Star Wars comics yet and Shattered Empire is first on my list).

"Star Wars: Aftermath", the first of a trilogy of novels, written by Chuck Wendig, will narrate what happened after the Battle of Endor.  The synopsis doesn't tell us a whole lot (of course), but I would say that this is the most anticipated book of the line up for me.  This will be a full blown novel set after Return of the Jedi, which is exactly what I want to read about.  I'm going to be very curious to see how many nods to the EU are present (I still really hope they bring in beloved characters from the EU in some way) and also will do my best to be attentive to the hints at what is to come in the movie.  

The other Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens books are young adult novels (I'll still shamelessly buy them and read them...I still consider myself to be a young adult after all).  "Lost Stars" is a Romeo and Juliet sort of tale between two people on opposite sides of the galactic conflict (one is a Rebel pilot and the other is an Imperial officer).  That ought to be interesting.  "Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure", "The Weapon of a Jedi: A Luke Skywalker Adventure", and "Smuggler's Run: A Han Solo Adventure" are all books set during the time period of the Original Trilogy.  The Weapon of a Jedi sounds promising, we get to read about Luke's first fight with a lightsaber.

This year is shaping up to be a jam packed year heading into Star Wars: The Force awakens in December.  This is such a fun time to be a Star Wars fan.  Now I just have to wait and see what surfaces at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim occurring April 16-19, 2015.  Sadly I can't make it.  What is interesting to me, though, this is the first time I've ever paid any sort of attention to Star Wars Celebration.  Actually it was the first time I'd ever really heard about Star Wars Celebration (which seems surprising, but all I used to do was bury my head in the EU novels and that was about it), and part of me really wants to go this year...but it doesn't fit in with my obligations here at home.  That particular weekend I'll be helping out at a Catholic Vocations Retreat for priesthood and the religious life in my diocese, which I am looking forward to immensely. 

What a great year we have to look forward to!