In just two days, an era will come to a close for me and thousands (if not millions) of other Star Wars fans. More than likely, we’ll never see another new Star Wars film. With the viewing of Revenge of the Sith, the story of Luke Skywalker and the rise and defeat of the galactic empire will be complete.

It sounds a bit silly to say, but I think I may have a hard time really looking forward to another movie for a long time. The original Star Wars was, for me at least, the beginning of the really big Hollywood blockbuster films on the late 70s and early 80s. Maybe I’m getting old and a little jaded, but they just don’t make movies like they used to. Sure, there are still movies that I anticipate and look forward to seeing. Sometimes, I even pay some money and brave the annoying cell phone-addicted theater-goers to check these movies out on opening day. But, overall, there are no big summer films that draw a crowd and create long lines outside of theaters. The last movie that I remember waiting in a long line to see was Independence Day!

Where are the Lucases and Spielbergs of today? Where are the Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the E.T.s? How about the Raiders of the Lost Arks?

I’m sure I’ll overcome this depression because movies just don’t have the same impact on my life that they once did. But, I wonder if this is because films and film-making have changed or if me or my lifestyle have changed. In any case, a little chapter of my life will come to a close on Thursday afternoon. This makes me a little sad and a bit excited. Perhaps now, the part of my mind that’s devoted to thinking about Star Wars can be freed up making room for remembering things like putting down the toilet seat or taking my keys out of our front door after I enter the house.

[url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393307069/bujinkanmartia0b/]Post Captain[/url] – by Patrick O’Brian . (begun on February 2, 2005) I finished reading this a couple of weeks ago. It took me quite some time due to some other books I was reading and other distractions. The second book in Aubrey-Maturin series was a bit different than the first. This time around the author focused much more on the private lives and loves of Jack and Stephen including Jack’s status as a pauper due to the disappearance of his prize agent and the doctor’s involvement in a bit of a love triangle. It seemed to me that there was not enough happening to really keep one’s attention focused for very long.

Overall, I would say that the book was enjoyable, but I’m going to take a bit of time off from this series.

I almost panicked back in March when I began having some weird problems with my iPod. It all began when I was listening to an audiobook version of George Orwell’s “1984”. It seemed that letting the iPod go into sleep mode after listening to the audiobook tracks caused a problem. The result was that the iPod was difficult to wake up from it’s sleep. I had to manually restart it each time. The timing was coincidental with moving the book files to my Pod and I thought that this may have something to do with it.

I managed to get through 1984 and after removing the audibook files, the problem went away. I then began listening to the audio version of “Tale of the Otori” and the problem began again.After much searching, I found a thread on the iPodLounge forum that referred to a bug in the iPod OS. Mono bookmarkable (these are files that remember where you last left off listening) apparently cause the iPod to go into a sort of coma. Upgrading the audiobook files to stereo format resolved the problem and restored my faith in my iPod.

Last week I watched a very interesting film called [url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00020X94W/bujinkanmartia0b/]Touching the Void[/url]. This “docu-drama” presents the story of two young adventurers (Joe Simpson and Simon Yates) who set out to conquer the unclimbed face of Siula Grande in Peru in the mid 80s. During the team’s descent, Yates breaks his leg. The story that follows that event is at once tense, frightening and amazing.

I won’t give the details because I suggest you check it out for yourself, but I will say that it’s an amazing story that makes me wonder about the limits of the human body, mind and spirit. What makes some people push themselves to incredible lengths when others would just give up regardless of the consequences? As you ask yourself this question, you are really asking “What would I do in these circumstances and would I survive?” Although one’s physical condition certainly plays an important role in answering that, I think it ultimately comes down to the mental and emotional state and some “inner drive” that apparently exists beyond the conscious mind. I believe that this will to survive is an unconscious trait because survivors of tragic events will often say that they acted without thought while in a state of shock or while mentally incapacitated.

In any case, I highly recommend Touching the Void. On a related note, have you seen the Discovery Channel’s “Welcome to BUDS” documentary about the training of Navy SEALs? I think watching this will also serve to back up my point.

The Star Wars Episode III trailer premiered on TV last night during The OC. I’ve purposely been keeping my hopes and expectations low for the last installment of the SW saga. But, after watching the trailer about ten times (I downloaded the trailer last night after watching the one I taped about three times), I have to admit that I am getting excited.

From what I’ve seen, the movie is going to be on the dark side (pun intended). The action/fight scenes looked incredible – at least one big space battle with X-Wing-like ships dodging laser blasts and flying around other huge battleships. The Jedi fight scenes looked great, too.

There’s a clip where Mace Windu and three other jedi enter Palpatine’s office and say “You’re under arrest Chancellor” while activating their lightsabers.

The Emperor/Chancellor says “Are you threatening me, master Jedi?”

Then we see Palpatine grab his saber and…

…leap to attack the group of jedi.

This got my heart pumping!

So, now I’m cautiously optimistic. It’s going to be a long 69 days until the premier!

There’s been a lot in the news this week and last about pro democratic reform in Lebanon. Could the elections that took place in Iraq have fueled the Lebanese to demand the withdrawal of Syrian forces from their territory? Perhaps seeing one middle eastern state take the first steps towards self-government persuaded others that this was possible? The situations in Iraq and Lebanon are entirely different, but the timing is certainly interesting given additional recent events in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Nay sayers would point out that “democracy” in Iraq is not guaranteed in light of the ongoing terrorism and that the Syrian pullout from Lebanon doesn’t mean the government will become secular.

Although I hesitate to believe Bush’s undoubtably forthcoming claims that he sparked this “revolution” with the ousting of Saddam Hussein, I’ll certainly be watching events closely.

So, the snow came and went on Monday night. We got about 8 inches or so at my house (lesser amounts to the south and east!). I wouldn’t have minded so much if I didn’t have to shovel a path to our back door so that we could have our new washing machine delivered on Wednesday. This was after shoveling the driveway and our small single-car parking area.

The “threat” of a big snow storm still brings about similar feelings of excitement as when I was a kid. The thought of a snow day, hanging out in my pajamas until noon and watching TV and reading all day. Then getting bundled up and going outside into the pristine white desert of the front yard and sledding down our road. Those were great days….

Unfortunately, we didn’t get the day off from work. I just ended up arriving about one and a half hours late.

Holy crap! It’s supposed to start snowing today!

Since it’s a Monday and weather forecasters have been talking about this storm since Thursday, the weather hype machine has had the whole weekend to work itself into full swing. Everyone at work is abuzz with their guesses about how much accumulation there might be and whether or not they’ll be able to make it into work tomorrow morning. Schools are already announcing their early closings! I think this is a bit ridiculous, but if I were a parent, I would probably appreciate knowing this ahead of time.

Me? I’m hoping to make it home safely this evening and take advantage of my ability to work from home (which I can do, but it makes my coworkers, who have to come into the office, envious) to stay warm and cozy at home tomorrow while the snow falls.

I attended one day of the seminar with Arnaud Coursegue that was held over the weekend. Jeff Christian and Anthony Lucas were the sponsors and the event was held at the Marriott at LaGuardia airport. Overall, training was great!

The day began with Arnaud discussing his take on the overall progression of Budo Taijutsu training as presented by Hatsumi sensei over that past 15 years or so. I often wonder if Sensei puts a lot of thought into what the training theme of the year will be. Well, I can tell you that Arnaud has put an equal amount of thought into it! Essentially, the progression that began back in the early 90s with “Gyokko ryu bojutsu” has covered long and short weapons as well as all the components of what we know as Budo Taijutsu (taihenjutsu, kosshijutsu, koppojutsu, dakentaijutsu and jutaijutsu). These things, combined with the sanshin no kata and the kihon happo present us with the skills to master this art. Arnaud presented several in-depth explanations throughout the day. These were accompanied by notes and charts written on an easel and of course, physical demonstrations of the concepts he was discussing.

After the opening discussion, we moved on to bikenjutsu and practiced suburi. On the previous day, Arnaud had gone into great detail about the proper way of gripping and cutting with the most minimal use of arm strength and the lessons continued into Sunday. The highlight of the morning was the whole group doing 300 simultaneous shomen giri with kiai! My arms are sore today.

Following that warm-up Arnaud instructed is in some advanced applications of ichimonji, jumonji and hicho no kamae. His use of distance, timing and rythm were subtle but the results were painfully obvious. The morning passed quickly and soon it was time for lunch break. The remainder of the day consisted of the 9 biken kata from Kukishinden ryu as well as muto dori from Gyokko ryu.

Arnaud is a great teacher because he can articulate his advanced understanding of the techniques into straightforward (but sometimes baffling!) explanations. His control of his uke was astounding – and definitely baffling! I came away with a lot of material and ideas on which to practice over the coming weeks.