I'm against it

Despite the ‘power’ of my geekdom, it’s directed in some, what could be called, non-standard directions, especially for an American geek. I have a deep fascination with British television; not everything generated in Britain obviously, but much of the humour and telefantasy certainly. I’m big on Godzilla and other kaiju movies. Comics are a big thing for me. I tend to gravitate towards older American drive-in movies, the ‘B’ or ‘Z’ pictures rather than the normal Hollywood product. None of this is too far out really. There is one area that tends to separate me from the rest of my fellow geek friends; a topic that occasionally causes some deep trauma for us.

I’m not a fan of George Lucas or of the ‘Star Wars’ cycle.

Occasionally this is a problem. My buddy Pete is a big ‘Star Wars’ guy and he is prone to comment that my lack of interest really bothers him at times. Brett took it upon himself to make sure that I went to the Special Editions when they were released in the theatres to see if that would change my opinions. For that matter, Brett made me watch the original trilogy because it bothered him that I had never seen them all.

I saw ‘Return of the Jedi’ at a friend’s house when I was twelve. I’d been watching ‘Doctor Who’ on and off for four years by this point. As a twelve year old, I thought ‘Jedi’ was dumb and it killed any interest I might have had to see the other two movies. Brett was having people over to watch the trilogy and ‘made’ me come and join them. I was 21 at the time.

See, that’s the thing. I have no nostalgia at all to associate with these movies. They don’t take me back to a warm place in my childhood like they do for millions of other geeks. To me, they’re just movies and, as a whole, I don’t think they’re very good either. As a whole, I think the writing is poor, I don’t like Lucas’ direction and that the special effects weren’t so much revolutionary as they had some money and time to actually have special effects (they weren’t ‘new’ effects as what ‘old’ effects should look like if you’re spending more than $5 and 5 minutes on them). I like ‘The Empire Strikes Back’. That’s about it. To be fair, I haven’t seen all of ‘Attack of the Clones’ yet and I’m in no hurry to fix that problem.

I went with the Edge Geeks – North Chapter (v2) to see ‘Revenge of the Sith’ on opening night. I was curious to see what it would be like. It felt strange not to be that guy, the guy that knows everything and is excited to see it and all that. For once I was the geek outsider and that was interesting. The movie was okay, enjoyable for what it is. I don’t plan to ever see it again. Which is the same reaction I had to ‘The Phantom Menace’ now that I think about it.

I believe ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ is my favourite of the bunch since it seems to have the least Lucas influence. The dialog is better than ‘Star Wars’… sorry, ‘A New Hope’ (I’m not used to the name change and don’t really care either) and it just felt less like a movie and more like a loose collection of ideas.

My distaste for Lucas’ writing and directing was much more revolutionary before the release of ‘The Phantom Menace’. For some reason, people started arguing with me less after that. Except the aforementioned Pete. He’s fond of them all. I think Lucas is a great ideas man and producer. He can merchandize like nobody’s business. I just think he’s better at the idea generation than he is the idea execution.

But that’s my opinion. And oddly enough, I love the Lego Star Wars games. So much fun! So cute!

I stayed up late for that?

There are a lot of things that I have an interest in but, when it comes right down to it, only know so much about them because I don’t do them. I have an interest in how movies and television shows are made. I’ve read books, I’ve watched ‘behind the screens’ specials but I’ve never been involved in the creation of a television show so I really don’t know what it takes to do so. I’ve been on television once or twice in the background of shots but that’s not the same.

Hang on, maybe I was on television. Mark! Did that interview ever air or was it just for your class?

Anyway, I’m straying from my point. My point was football. I’ve watched football for years. I’ve played football video games. I’ve even occasionally participated in playing football with my friends. Do I know what it takes to be a professional football player or coach? Heck no.

That said, if I feel that, as a consumer, I can express my opinion regarding movies and television shows I’ve watched, despite never having professionally having done those jobs, I don’t see why I can’t express my opinions on football in the same manner.

The Packers played a very decent first half against the Eagles last night. Pity they had to play two halves.

Ahman Green may be a nice guy but he’s an injury prone player. I was for him getting dropped last year and I find myself having to repeat the request now. He fumbles regularly, is injured regularly and, when he’s not doing those things, plays well. Not well enough to make up for the injuries and fumbles in my opinion.

Ahman Carroll still isn’t getting the hang of his job. Al Harris seems to understand his job but doesn’t do it well. The Packers need corners and these guys ain’t them.

Is Charles Woodson officially a bust yet?

It’s gonna be a long season…

You have Memory!

I moved into my current work department about a year and a quarter ago. I have a habit of humming or making noise when I’m thinking and I made a conscious effort to stop that when going into this department as I would be around people much more often and I didn’t want to annoy anyone. On and off for the first few months, I had a habit of humming a specific song to myself. I didn’t notice it at first and then I realized it was a real song and not some ideal tune that I was generating on the fly. I grew annoyed once I realized what the song was: ‘If I only had a brain’ from the Wizard of Oz.

I’m not sure why that memory popped back into my head today but it did. It’s the sort of thing that keeps you humble.