Perhaps I should explain a bit about my feelings regarding the latest installment of Star Wars since I seem to have raised a few eyebrows with my comments.

I liked the movie. It was fun to watch, it was made with care, and it filled in the story that was both introduced in 1977 with the release of the original Star Wars as well as wrapping up the story that began in 1999 with The Phantom Menace. Now, that being said, I have to admit that I was fairly bored throughout much of it. I found the lightsaber battles to be somewhat repetitive, the droid antics to be too silly, and the acting, well, anyone who’s seen Episodes I and II knows how horrible the acting has been in the second Star Wars trilogy. Honestly, the only real standout performance in the movie was the Emperor, and I found myself wanting to see more of him as the movie went on. I found that somewhat ironic as when I was younger, I used to fast forward through the scenes with the Emperor in The Return of the Jedi since I was bored by him and I wanted to get back to the space battle scenes.

My biggest complaint, though, was that I didn’t buy it. The second Star Wars trilogy that was made was intended by Lucas to detail the fall of the Old Republic, the rise of the Empire, and the transformation of Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader. When it comes down to it, it’s all really one story. The problem was, I didn’t buy his fall to the Dark Side of the Force. There was no explanation for his behavior in the previous movies and why he was so angry, and thus in my mind, no reason for him to fall to the Dark Side. He’s angry, violent, arrogant. Yeah, but why? Lucas essentially just had us learn these facts through dialogue, never really showing us why Anakin was arrogant, violent, and angry. He was a good pilot, yes, but not a very good lightsaber duelist (at least in the previous movie). His mother was killed by Sandpeople so he goes and kills all of them. Why? He hasn’t seen or spoken with his mother in what? Ten years? Why so bent on seeking revenge?

In the end, I found that because I didn’t understand Anakin’s behavior, I didn’t buy his fall to the Dark Side. Because I didn’t buy that, the whole point of the movie itself didn’t make sense. As I put it to Erika, it’s like watching the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy and not buying the fact that The Ring is evil and that if Sauron gets his hands on it, he’ll conquer Middle Earth. You don’t buy that fact, and the rest of the movies just become a bunch of things that happen to some people and not a real struggle of good vs. evil.

Am I making a mountain out of a molehill? Perhaps. I don’t feel like I deserve something more form the movie, after all, it’s just a movie! But since Star Wars was a chunk dropped into this melting pot we call popular culture, it does have a certain…importance attached to it, at least in my mind. After all, like it or not, Star Wars has made its impact on the world one way or another.

So that’s what I have to say about that. I do recommend that you all see it, of course, especially since it does redeem the other two movies and is a head and shoulders better than both of them, but it’s certainly not without its own flaws, however blinding in places.

I finally went and did something last week that I have been meaning to do for close to two years now: I bought a new pair of running shoes. Up until last week, I had been wearing my running shoes nearly every day, and then going home and jogging in the same shoes. They were showing signs of pretty severe wear and tear, but then again, I have been wearing them for about seven or eight years. So I went down to Gart Sports, tried on a few pairs, and settled for a pair of $40 Nikes that met my needs fairly well. I was a little hesitant about buying Nikes considering their history of overseas sweatshops, but I didn’t like the way the New Balance pair fit and the Reeboks just didn’t feel right. I wore them to work once to stretch them out and break them in, and I’ve only worn them for jogging since then. Now I don’t feel guilty about wearing my old shoes all the time, but it did make me realize that I need to go out and purchase some new shoes and sandals.

Right now I can hear Erika thinking, “Oh boy! I get to play dress-up!” She’s still saying she needs to take me shopping, though we talked about that last night and she made sure that I understood it wasn’t because she doesn’t like what I wear. She’s right, though, I do need some new clothes. I just gave away two big bags of clothes to Goodwill this past weekend, though, so I finally have room for some additional stuff, too. I’m thinking in a couple of weeks I might vamoose over to the Columbia Sportswear outlet in Lake Oswego and grab a few t-shirts, maybe a new pair of sandals. I like the pair I have now, but they have an odd habit of making my feet smell funny both to myself and anyone who may be in the surrounding area.

Speaking of giving stuff away, this past weekend I went through most of my stuff at my Mom’s house in preparation for her impending move. That’s right, she sold her house and she’s moving to a new and smaller place. Since Heather and I both moved out, she’s been alone in a four-bedroom house with more space than she knows what to do with. I’d pretty much just been using her house as long-term storage for things that I can’t store myself like mementos from high school and earlier, stuff from my room that I didn’t know what to do with, some miscellaneous furniture that I can’t fit anywhere, and of course, all my books and extra computer stuff. In other words, stuff that I want to keep but don’t have room for in a two bedroom apartment with two people not sharing a room. If I lived in a two-bedroom apartment of my own, then I’d have that second room to keep a lot of that stuff I want to hold on to, plus have room for all my books and a few other things. Since I’m working essentially with one room at the moment, I just don’t have room for anything else without making my room more cluttered than it already is.

In any case, Heather and I essentially got 99% of our stuff moved out of the garage and into a 5′x10′ storage unit that we’re going to rent for a couple of months while we figure out what to do with some of that stuff. I know that I can sell some of the things I moved like my second (third, actually, since I still have to sell my old monitor that I replaced with an LCD not too long ago) monitor, my scanner that I can’t use anymore, and other random things. I also have my dorm minifridge that I used at college, and while I could probably get a fair amont of change for it, I’d feel bad about selling it. Something like that I could probably use, but I just don’t know when or where. It’ll probably end up getting sold, but I’ll hold on to it for the time being.

I also have to do something about my bike. That sucker’s been ridden essentially once in the last six years, and as a result teh tires are both flat, the gears aren’t really connected, and the brakes are funky. If I take it in for a physical down at the local bike shop, I could probably get it repaired for a decent price (less than the cost of a new bike, at least), but the question then remains, what do I do with it? I just don’t have a place for it in the apartment. The complex doesn’t have a storage room for bikes or even outside places to lock bikes, which means I’d have to leave it on our terrace, which isn’t a great idea. I did have a flash of insight this weekend, though, that I could lock it to the post next to my parking space. It would be covered, out of the way, but still readily available. I saw a couple of other bikes locked to random things outside, so I’m sure it would probably be safe, but I guess the first step is getting it cleaned up and fixed. After all, it still has Badlands dirt on it from my trip back from Beloit two years ago, and since it’s been sitting in my Mom’s garage since then, it’s got garage crud on it, too. I think a hose should do the trick. Or maybe a powerwasher….

Being Memorial Day weekend, I had Monday off from work. I think I made good use of my weekend overall. It began with my being released from servitude 90 minutes early on Friday afternoon. Of those of us who typically go out for drinks on Friday after work, only two were still around and only one was willing–and even then he said he was only up for one drink. Last week was so hot here in Portland that I was wearing shorts and t-shirts all week, and I had a hankering to go up to the Goose Hollow Inn and sit on their deck in the sun and drink beer. Well, since it was in the 90′s it was a bit too warm to be in the sun, but being outside was all I really wanted. Two hours and three beers apiece later, we decided to call it an afternoon.

Saturday night Erika came over, though she was a bit dogged beacsue she’d been on an 8-mile hike with her Mom for most of the day while I’d been moving boxes. I convinced her to walk down with me to where I jog so that I wouldn’t have to go alone, and then we finished the evening with fine dining at our local Applebee’s.

On Sunday, Mother Nature finally figured out that it was a holiday weekend and dropped the temperature by about 15 degrees or so and gave the metro area a lovely cloud cover. That didn’t stop us from going swimming at the pool at my apartment, though. It felt so good to take a dip and then sit in the hot tub for awhile. Erika confessed that she might be coming over more oftent han she does now, so I assume that I should expect her on sunny days this summer where the temperature gets into the 80′s and higher, yes? Not a big deal, though. After all, I’ll probably be out there myself on those very same days.

On Monday, Erika, Heather and I just did a simple traditional Memorial Day meal: hot dogs, baked beans, chips and salsa, and of course, some beer. I was really the only person who partook in the beer, but eh, I’ve come to expect that by now. It’s not that Erika doesn’t ever drink, but since she’s been watching her weight and trying to lose a few pounds she put on, she’s pretty much cut alcohol out of her diet. It was good beer, too.

That’s my most recent weekend, and things are going very well. Last week I met with my boss about a project I was working on, and I expected to get the standard boss treatment (“This is what you need to do, get right on it.”) but instead I found that I was on the right track with what I was doing, I was further on my current project than he thought we’d be by that point in time, and he wanted me to finish up with what I had so that we could move on to working with some more interesting pieces of hardware and software than what we’re doing now. He also apologized for an email he sent me the week before in which I had inquired about making up time that I’d missed while sick, and his response had been somewhat sharp. I discussed that fact last Friday with my coworker over beers, and he was a bit surprised because it seemed out of character for our boss. He must have been in a good mood because it was the Friday before a long weekend, but in any case it made me feel pretty good.

As far as sickness goes, I’m all better. I finished up my antibiotics more than a week ago, and I’ve shown no signs of strep returning and no subsequent secondary infections. It feels nice to be healthy again, and the memories of swallowing glass for five days are fading quickly as they should.

My daily commute is still easy and fast by bus and MAX, and I’m still stopping every morning for a muffin and coffee in lieu of cereal for breakfast. Besides, I’ve come to like the blackberry oatmeal muffins, and while they don’t explicitly say they’re low in fat, they’re just too chewy to be bad for me.

I tried to go to my first baseball game of the season with my Dad two weekends ago, but we were rained out. He got the tickets for free at work, so it’s not like we were out money or forced to reschedule which game we were able to go to, but it was still a little disappointing. I had been hanging out with Erika earlier in the day, and since I was just going to go back to her apartment after the game, my Dad and I instead met her for dinner at the Bridgeport Ale House on Hawthorne. We ended up spending less on food than we would have at the ballpark, anyway, so it worked out for the best.

For those who asked about a previous entry in which I wrote about my six month anniversary dinner with Erika, Papa Haydn’s excellent dessert list can be found at their website. I tried to get the Baked Alaska, but they were out for the night and I ended up with something else that was too rich more me, I don’t even remember what. Erika got something with chocolate and rasberries, I believe. Whatever we had, they were very good to eat and very bad for us.

That’s about all I have for now since I’m sure there’s been a bit of skimming as I go on and on. Have a good week, all.