As if the stress of getting into an accident isn’t enough to make me want to hibernate for a month, I’m in the middle of that other life-changing event that adds unnecessary stress to one’s life: moving.
Yes, it’s time to move once again, to pack up everything I own and move from one home to another. When I was younger, this wasn’t such a big deal. Sure, the inconvenience of having everything I own packed up and largely unavailable to me as a kid was mildly irritating, but I didn’t have a lot of stuff that was really mine back then. Clothes, toys, video game consoles, and a few odds and ends were all that I claimed as my own. I also lived in apartments for most of my life. I’ve lived in 10 homes up to this point, and only 4 of those were houses. Living in an apartment meant you couldn’t have too much stuff, there’s no place to put it all. It also meant that non-essentials could be kept in that box until you needed it. That made moving again so much easier, if it was still in a box for ease of storage and transport.
Now that I think of it, I’ve never really lived in one residence for more than a handful of years. I do believe I set a record with this last apartment, having stayed there for over 7 years.
In preparing for this move, I promised myself that I’d toss anything that I hadn’t used or even looked at since the last move, and I did a fair amount of house cleaning in the past couple weeks. It gave me something to focus on other than dealing with insurance companies and car repair places, and helped me deal with shock from the accident. It’s been tricky getting this move going since my car is still being repaired, but I’m blessed with some wonderful friends who, for the most part, haven’t complained about me using them as substitute transportation. Loki, especially, has been very helpful in getting me settled into my new place, but my beloved is always so wonderful to me.
So, it’s safe to say that this isn’t my first move, and it certainly won’t be the last. The difference between this move and so many others is that I’m the one doing all the legwork to make it go smoothly. There’s no one else to delegate to, no one else to make all the decisions for me. Nope, this is all me, and I’m happy to say that I’m doing a pretty good job of handling this, all things considered.
You’re maybe wondering how I’m going to link this into my writing. Well, it just so happens that this journey of moving from one place to another, of trying to find home, plays in perfectly with my trilogy, particularly Book Three. I can’t say much about it, but there are certain characters who have been moving for as long as I have, and my current ordeal is helping me remember what it was like to live that kind of life. Between this move and my accident, it’s been a very inspirational (if stressful) month for my writing, and I hope bringing that to bear in my writing will make it that much more engaging to readers.
Do you have thoughts, comments or rants about moving? Leave ‘em in the comments below!
Friday, June 24, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
I Don't Want To Read The Book! ...Yet
The last episode of Game of Thrones season one has aired, and damn was it good! I must confess, however, that worse than the cliffhanger final scene the show ends with is the response I get from everyone who has read the books when I bemoan the 9 month wait for season 2: "Read the books!"
I've had people trying to get me to read these books for years. In fact, name any popular book series adapted for TV or movies, and odds are good I've had at least one person trying to sell me on reading the books. (Except the Twilight series. Those who recommend books to me know I have good taste. Besides, I'm done with the whole vampires in the media thing now. Moving on...) And there's one thing I'd like to tell those of you who insist that I should read the books, that they're so much better than the show/movie, that I'm missing out on so much story by not reading them:
LAY OFF!!!
As an author (albeit unpublished, but that will change soon), I know full well the depth of storytelling that goes into a book, and how little of that actually makes it into any adaptation for stage and screen (both the big screen and the one at home). When I was younger, I read Jurassic Park before it was made into a movie and walked out of the theater wondering where 2/3 of the story went. I did the same more recently with The Dresden Files. Having read Harry Dresden's adventures and come to know the people around him in the story, I spent more time wondering why they changed things as arbitrarily as it seems they did, instead of enjoying the show for what it was.
Enjoying something for what it is. It needs to be said again, because some people let loose with both barrels when a movie or TV show doesn't include all of their favorite bits from a series. Comic book fandom is especially guilty of this whenever a big-budget movie comes out and liberties are taken with their continuity-laden comic book heroes and their sometimes cheesy, often rewritten backstory and adventures. The Harry Potter movies have taken their share of liberties with its literary source material, but each film is better than the last. Some movies leave out and/or change so much that it's almost an entirely different story (I'm looking at you, Percy Jackson and the Olympians), and that's OK, too.
Why? Because it's impossible for a movie to express everything that a book can. A book isn't limited by budget constraints, or available actors, or studio politics. A book is limited only by the talent of its writer and the imagination of its reader. OF COURSE a movie isn't going to be able to give you all the backstory and hidden thoughts that a book can. OF COURSE the big CGI effects aren't going to be as grand as what your imagination conjured. OF COURSE it's not going to be the same experience, because it's not meant to be. Unless you get out there and direct your own fan film imagining of your favorite book, you're never going to get the exact experience you'll expect from reading your favorite story. That's the wondrous power of books, and why I'll always love them over any blockbuster movie. Sometimes, though, the imagination needs a rest and wants to be spoonfed a good story.
I'll always want to explore the literary world of whatever awesome series ends up in movies or on TV. But personally, if I haven't read it already, I like to wait until after I see the adaptation before launching into the book series, especially if it has a definitive beginning, middle and end, and that end is in sight. That way, I feel like I'm getting a special behind-the-scenes look at the real story behind the story!
What are your thoughts on book adaptations for stage and screen? How do you tackle the "read the books" retort? Leave your comments below!
I've had people trying to get me to read these books for years. In fact, name any popular book series adapted for TV or movies, and odds are good I've had at least one person trying to sell me on reading the books. (Except the Twilight series. Those who recommend books to me know I have good taste. Besides, I'm done with the whole vampires in the media thing now. Moving on...) And there's one thing I'd like to tell those of you who insist that I should read the books, that they're so much better than the show/movie, that I'm missing out on so much story by not reading them:
LAY OFF!!!
As an author (albeit unpublished, but that will change soon), I know full well the depth of storytelling that goes into a book, and how little of that actually makes it into any adaptation for stage and screen (both the big screen and the one at home). When I was younger, I read Jurassic Park before it was made into a movie and walked out of the theater wondering where 2/3 of the story went. I did the same more recently with The Dresden Files. Having read Harry Dresden's adventures and come to know the people around him in the story, I spent more time wondering why they changed things as arbitrarily as it seems they did, instead of enjoying the show for what it was.
Enjoying something for what it is. It needs to be said again, because some people let loose with both barrels when a movie or TV show doesn't include all of their favorite bits from a series. Comic book fandom is especially guilty of this whenever a big-budget movie comes out and liberties are taken with their continuity-laden comic book heroes and their sometimes cheesy, often rewritten backstory and adventures. The Harry Potter movies have taken their share of liberties with its literary source material, but each film is better than the last. Some movies leave out and/or change so much that it's almost an entirely different story (I'm looking at you, Percy Jackson and the Olympians), and that's OK, too.
Why? Because it's impossible for a movie to express everything that a book can. A book isn't limited by budget constraints, or available actors, or studio politics. A book is limited only by the talent of its writer and the imagination of its reader. OF COURSE a movie isn't going to be able to give you all the backstory and hidden thoughts that a book can. OF COURSE the big CGI effects aren't going to be as grand as what your imagination conjured. OF COURSE it's not going to be the same experience, because it's not meant to be. Unless you get out there and direct your own fan film imagining of your favorite book, you're never going to get the exact experience you'll expect from reading your favorite story. That's the wondrous power of books, and why I'll always love them over any blockbuster movie. Sometimes, though, the imagination needs a rest and wants to be spoonfed a good story.
I'll always want to explore the literary world of whatever awesome series ends up in movies or on TV. But personally, if I haven't read it already, I like to wait until after I see the adaptation before launching into the book series, especially if it has a definitive beginning, middle and end, and that end is in sight. That way, I feel like I'm getting a special behind-the-scenes look at the real story behind the story!
What are your thoughts on book adaptations for stage and screen? How do you tackle the "read the books" retort? Leave your comments below!
Friday, June 10, 2011
Paradigm Shift
"Seize the moment. 'Cause tommorow you might be dead."
—Buffy Summers, S1Ep1 Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Buffy had amazing insight into how to live life for a teenage girl. And while this is wisdom from a fictional character, the quote stands as a very good way to live one's life.
A couple of days ago, I was in a car accident. Nothing too serious, I assure you. I'm fine, though my car is currently at the body shop having the damage assessed. The other guy was not nearly so lucky. For a motorcyclist, he was not practicing safe driving by hurling down a street in front of a school well in excess of the speed limit, and paid the price for his lapse in judgment. That didn't stop him from getting back on his bike, despite suffering heavy injury to the leg that got trapped under the motorcycle, and speeding off to put more lives in danger. Blood loss + reckless driving = another accident waiting to happen.
In the aftermath of the accident, I've been reflecting on how it could have been much, much worse for both me and the guy who hit me. Thankfully, none of the kids getting out of school at that time were injured. My car was damaged, but not nearly as much as it could have been. And, of course, my lack of physical injury could just as easily have gone the other way if the motorcycle's trajectory had been different, or if I'd been moving instead of stopped at a red light.
We go through life never really understanding that it can all change in one catastrophic moment, and not even through any consequence of our actions beyond being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I used to envision certain dangerous events that could happen in the course of stepping outside my front door for use in my writing, but it's something else entirely when one of those scenarios comes true. This is not the product of my overactive imagination. This is real catastrophe, with real consequences and a very real impact on my life.
I haven't really been in my right mind since that day, and I'm fortunate to be surrounded by wonderful people who love and care about me enough to look out for me and help me through this ordeal. I think part of that altered mindset is that I'm going through a paradigm shift, for lack of better phrasing, a change in my way of thinking in the face of a dramatic and life-changing moment. Old assumptions are being cast aside as a new reality asserts itself in my way of thinking, a reality that I'm still trying to come to terms with.
I'm not sure where my writing fits into this reality, but I know that I've come too far to simply declare it insignificant in the grand scheme of things. I want to revisit parts of my trilogy and write all new stories, now that I have a different vantage point on potentially life-threatening moments that might occur within the course of the narrative, but I don't know if I'm ready to tackle it so soon after the accident. Naturally, I'll keep you all posted here once things settle down and my life isn't in upheaval.
Have you had a brush with fate that changed your way of living, or been close to someone who has? Share your stories in the comments below.
—Buffy Summers, S1Ep1 Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Buffy had amazing insight into how to live life for a teenage girl. And while this is wisdom from a fictional character, the quote stands as a very good way to live one's life.
A couple of days ago, I was in a car accident. Nothing too serious, I assure you. I'm fine, though my car is currently at the body shop having the damage assessed. The other guy was not nearly so lucky. For a motorcyclist, he was not practicing safe driving by hurling down a street in front of a school well in excess of the speed limit, and paid the price for his lapse in judgment. That didn't stop him from getting back on his bike, despite suffering heavy injury to the leg that got trapped under the motorcycle, and speeding off to put more lives in danger. Blood loss + reckless driving = another accident waiting to happen.
In the aftermath of the accident, I've been reflecting on how it could have been much, much worse for both me and the guy who hit me. Thankfully, none of the kids getting out of school at that time were injured. My car was damaged, but not nearly as much as it could have been. And, of course, my lack of physical injury could just as easily have gone the other way if the motorcycle's trajectory had been different, or if I'd been moving instead of stopped at a red light.
We go through life never really understanding that it can all change in one catastrophic moment, and not even through any consequence of our actions beyond being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I used to envision certain dangerous events that could happen in the course of stepping outside my front door for use in my writing, but it's something else entirely when one of those scenarios comes true. This is not the product of my overactive imagination. This is real catastrophe, with real consequences and a very real impact on my life.
I haven't really been in my right mind since that day, and I'm fortunate to be surrounded by wonderful people who love and care about me enough to look out for me and help me through this ordeal. I think part of that altered mindset is that I'm going through a paradigm shift, for lack of better phrasing, a change in my way of thinking in the face of a dramatic and life-changing moment. Old assumptions are being cast aside as a new reality asserts itself in my way of thinking, a reality that I'm still trying to come to terms with.
I'm not sure where my writing fits into this reality, but I know that I've come too far to simply declare it insignificant in the grand scheme of things. I want to revisit parts of my trilogy and write all new stories, now that I have a different vantage point on potentially life-threatening moments that might occur within the course of the narrative, but I don't know if I'm ready to tackle it so soon after the accident. Naturally, I'll keep you all posted here once things settle down and my life isn't in upheaval.
Have you had a brush with fate that changed your way of living, or been close to someone who has? Share your stories in the comments below.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Judging A Book By Its Page Count
I'm always highly resistant to starting a book that has more than 400 pages to it. I like to take my time with reading, so when I see a book with 900 pages between its covers, I automatically think "This book is a massive project that will keep me from enjoying other books for MONTHS." You see, I'm not one to jump between different books while reading. I commit myself to one and see it through to the end before starting up a new one. (If it's good, that is. If the writing doesn't grab me after the first couple chapters - or scares the crap out of me, like Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves
did - I don't care if it has a great ending, I'm going to put it down and move on.) A long book, to me, is worse than a long movie. I can sit still for a long movie if it's good. I don't know if I can say the same for a long book.
My beloved, however, gave me this piece of literary wisdom: "Large books aren't a big deal. There's just that much more to read!" I had to sleep on that to wrap my brain around it, but she has a point. There are some books I've read that I wanted to be longer. Much longer. The last Harry Potter book, which is sizable already, could have been longer and I would have been perfectly fine with that. Same for most of my favorite writers. And the large book I'm presently faced with, Anathem,
is written by one of those favorite writers of mine, Neal Stephenson. So why am I having such a hard time starting this up?
I could give a list of reasons, all of which would be a smokescreen for the fact that simply looking at the book makes me want to pick up my Highlander prop replica katana and cut it in half. That would not be nice to do to a borrowed book, though, especially since my beloved's father loaned it to me and I'd like to stay on her family's good side. The thing is, if my imagination is so vivid that I can imagine cutting that page count by half, why can't I simply alter my mode of thinking and pretend that each page is a unit of measurement that represents my enjoyment of the book?
So I did. And let me tell you, I have no problem picking up that weighty tome now.
What's your take on the page count issue? Is it something that you take into account when choosing a book to read, or is it a non-issue to you? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below!
did - I don't care if it has a great ending, I'm going to put it down and move on.) A long book, to me, is worse than a long movie. I can sit still for a long movie if it's good. I don't know if I can say the same for a long book.My beloved, however, gave me this piece of literary wisdom: "Large books aren't a big deal. There's just that much more to read!" I had to sleep on that to wrap my brain around it, but she has a point. There are some books I've read that I wanted to be longer. Much longer. The last Harry Potter book, which is sizable already, could have been longer and I would have been perfectly fine with that. Same for most of my favorite writers. And the large book I'm presently faced with, Anathem,
is written by one of those favorite writers of mine, Neal Stephenson. So why am I having such a hard time starting this up?I could give a list of reasons, all of which would be a smokescreen for the fact that simply looking at the book makes me want to pick up my Highlander prop replica katana and cut it in half. That would not be nice to do to a borrowed book, though, especially since my beloved's father loaned it to me and I'd like to stay on her family's good side. The thing is, if my imagination is so vivid that I can imagine cutting that page count by half, why can't I simply alter my mode of thinking and pretend that each page is a unit of measurement that represents my enjoyment of the book?
So I did. And let me tell you, I have no problem picking up that weighty tome now.
What's your take on the page count issue? Is it something that you take into account when choosing a book to read, or is it a non-issue to you? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below!
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Tell the Truth Tuesday
It’s that time again! Let’s cut to the chase, shall we?
1. All of the stories for my anthology are edited! Yay! I’ve compiled them all into one document, along with an introduction, and I’m working on the formatting now.
2. My goal is to make my anthology available across the board, from Kindle to Nook and everything in-between, and I have a program to help me with the conversion process, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to accomplish this right off the bat. Anyone know Calibre well enough to give me some pointers? Also, I'm likely going to make a PDF version available for those who want to make their own dead tree edition. More on this another time.
3. Nutella ice cream is epically delicious. This needs to be mass-marketed so I can have it all summer.
4. My Star Tours review is officially my most-viewed page! If you haven’t read it yet, check it out here. And if you have, check it out again because I put up a link to some video I made of my in-line experience!
5. Colorado is a great place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there. I like my SoCal weather way too much.
6. Thor was more fun than I was expecting. There are a lot of big summer movies coming out, and this one was a strong start to the season. I can’t wait to see The Avengers movie coming out next year! (On a side note, I really need to start making some good money so I can see all these movies coming out.)
7. Game of Thrones is seriously my favorite show on TV right now. I rarely watch TV, but I make it a habit to see this one every week, even inviting friends and family over to catch the show with me. There are only 3 episodes left to the first season as of this writing, but I’m sure HBO will run a marathon of all the episodes once the season wraps, and it should be on DVD by the end of the year. If you have the means, I highly recommend catching this series from the beginning.
8. My beloved’s dad let me borrow Anathem, which I was very excited about because I love Snow Crash
and I’ve been looking forward to exploring more of Neal Stephenson’s writing. I’m ashamed to say that, since borrowing it last month, I’ve read a total of 5 pages of the book. The thing is MASSIVE, and I have a hard time getting through large books like that because the size always turns me off from picking it up. I feel like it’s a massive undertaking to read it, like I’m about to face down an army of a thousand pages. I suppose I just need to bite the bullet and just knock ‘em out, one page at a time.
9. I need a new day job. Badly.
10. I need a new apartment, too. Fortunately, I have a room lined up so I can get out of my current place, but I need a new apartment, STAT. A new job would help here, too.
And that about covers it for this Tell the Truth Tuesday. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to help my gorgeous girlfriend make a half-elf ranger for tonight’s D&D game….
1. All of the stories for my anthology are edited! Yay! I’ve compiled them all into one document, along with an introduction, and I’m working on the formatting now.
2. My goal is to make my anthology available across the board, from Kindle to Nook and everything in-between, and I have a program to help me with the conversion process, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to accomplish this right off the bat. Anyone know Calibre well enough to give me some pointers? Also, I'm likely going to make a PDF version available for those who want to make their own dead tree edition. More on this another time.
3. Nutella ice cream is epically delicious. This needs to be mass-marketed so I can have it all summer.
4. My Star Tours review is officially my most-viewed page! If you haven’t read it yet, check it out here. And if you have, check it out again because I put up a link to some video I made of my in-line experience!
5. Colorado is a great place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there. I like my SoCal weather way too much.
6. Thor was more fun than I was expecting. There are a lot of big summer movies coming out, and this one was a strong start to the season. I can’t wait to see The Avengers movie coming out next year! (On a side note, I really need to start making some good money so I can see all these movies coming out.)
7. Game of Thrones is seriously my favorite show on TV right now. I rarely watch TV, but I make it a habit to see this one every week, even inviting friends and family over to catch the show with me. There are only 3 episodes left to the first season as of this writing, but I’m sure HBO will run a marathon of all the episodes once the season wraps, and it should be on DVD by the end of the year. If you have the means, I highly recommend catching this series from the beginning.
8. My beloved’s dad let me borrow Anathem
, which I was very excited about because I love Snow Crash and I’ve been looking forward to exploring more of Neal Stephenson’s writing. I’m ashamed to say that, since borrowing it last month, I’ve read a total of 5 pages of the book. The thing is MASSIVE, and I have a hard time getting through large books like that because the size always turns me off from picking it up. I feel like it’s a massive undertaking to read it, like I’m about to face down an army of a thousand pages. I suppose I just need to bite the bullet and just knock ‘em out, one page at a time.9. I need a new day job. Badly.
10. I need a new apartment, too. Fortunately, I have a room lined up so I can get out of my current place, but I need a new apartment, STAT. A new job would help here, too.
And that about covers it for this Tell the Truth Tuesday. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to help my gorgeous girlfriend make a half-elf ranger for tonight’s D&D game….
Thursday, May 26, 2011
100!
This is it! Historic blog post number 100! And to mark the occasion, I made you all a little something special…
I’m in awe of the fact that I made it to entry number 100. I’ve had a historically bad record of letting blogs drop by the wayside, and the only people who followed them have been close friends. This is the first one I’ve started that I’ve actually kept with, all brief lulls aside, and gathered a following far beyond my small circle of friends. (Seriously, you should see where some of my followers are from. Hi, Russian followers! Hi, Netherlands followers! Hi, Peruvian followers!) Truly, you all keep me going.
Thank you all so much for your support. It means the world to me.
Now, let’s see how long I can keep this winning streak going!
I’m in awe of the fact that I made it to entry number 100. I’ve had a historically bad record of letting blogs drop by the wayside, and the only people who followed them have been close friends. This is the first one I’ve started that I’ve actually kept with, all brief lulls aside, and gathered a following far beyond my small circle of friends. (Seriously, you should see where some of my followers are from. Hi, Russian followers! Hi, Netherlands followers! Hi, Peruvian followers!) Truly, you all keep me going.
Thank you all so much for your support. It means the world to me.
Now, let’s see how long I can keep this winning streak going!
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Disneyland Star Tours Preview Day
NOTE: You can also view video highlights from that morning here!
I was only supposed to ride Star Tours once. By the time I left Disneyland, I’d been on it five times.
How is that possible? Let me start at the beginning.
I won’t bore you with how I woke up far earlier than anyone had any business being up in the morning, or where I met my guest so I could get someone else’s measure of the ride without all the judgment I was carrying with me, or how astoundingly long the line and the wait was that Friday morning. (But seriously, if your event check-in closes at 7:30 AM, and the event itself starts at 9 AM, what’s going on in that hour and a half in-between? At least we had good music.) I won’t wax poetical about what the park was like without people in it so early in the morning. I won’t even go into the awesome guy we met in line whose excitement for the ride was so infectious, we carried it with us through the whole day. No, this post is going to be long enough as it is, maybe even longer than my short stories. I’ll focus instead on the event itself and what it was like to be one of the first non-cast members (that’s what they call Disneyland employees) to experience what is both the most anticipated and most dreaded ride in all of Disneyland.
“Dreaded?” I can hear you thinking. “Why dreaded?” I’ll get to that in a little bit.
The Disneyland Star Tours Early Departure was promoted as a preview event, granted initially to a select 1,200 or so randomly selected contest winners and the one guest each that they were allowed to bring with them. Even if only half of the winners brought a guest like I did, you’re still looking at around 2,000 people who all wanted a sneak peek of the newly revamped ride.
The assembled participants were gathered outside the gates of the park and led in, single file, to fill in the queue outside of the new ride. Once the blast doors officially opened, under much media coverage, everyone in the queue would be able to ride Star Tours once and only once, trading in their ride wristbands for an exclusive button marking their participation in the event as “First in the Galaxy” to ride the new attraction. Then the ride would shut down until its official grand opening on June 3rd.
At least, that was the plan.
While full details of what happened are hard to come by, I was able to gather from certain employees around the ride that someone from ABC 7 News accidentally extended an open invitation for people to come down and participate in this private event. As Disneyland has a strict “truth in advertising” policy, they had no choice but to open up the preview for anyone who wanted to ride Star Tours in the afternoon. While this pretty much defeated the purpose of a private sneak peek event, it did give those of us who wanted to ride again (including myself) a chance to get right back in line for a second go. Or third. Or fifth!
“Yeah, that’s all very interesting, but what about the ride? Is it any good, or did Lucas screw up one more piece of our Star Wars childhood memories?” I’m so glad you asked!
From the moment you step into the Star Tours building, you’re faced with the antics of R2-D2 and C-3PO as they banter while performing diagnostics on the spaceship that will take you to the far-flung corners of the galaxy. This part is very familiar to those who have been on the ride before, and the only real changes made here are the new lines of dialogue referencing the all-new Star Tours videos that play on the big screen and the new color scheme. As this takes place between trilogies, the Starspeeder 1000 isn’t as stark as the original ride’s 3000 counterpart and has a paint job reminiscent of the Jedi starfighters. So far, I have no complaints.
In the next room, visitors come face to metallic face with RX-24, AKA Rex, who fans of the original Star Tours will recognize as your bumbling droid pilot. Since this takes place before the original ride, Rex is still in his shipping crate and is, in fact, marked defective for return to the factory. This status is made more apparent in his stuttering attempts to activate and recite lines of dialogue from the original ride. The pang of nostalgia for the little pilot droid is soon replaced with awe directed toward the two security droid occupants in the room, one scanning luggage and the other scanning people, both utilizing all-new special effects that really impressed me. You can see some nifty 3-D effects at work even here in the scanners and control panels, but it’s mostly subtle and adds to the atmosphere of the ride. Aside from poor Rex’s condition, I have no complaints.
The boarding area that comes up next holds my only real complaint about the ride, and why I and many other Star Wars fans initially dreaded going on it. After picking up your “flight glasses” (AKA 3-D glasses) and going through the turnstile for placement at a “departure gate,” you’re treated to the usual instructional video, this time narrated by spokesdroid Aly San San, preceded by a short bit of story featuring C-3PO and pilot droid AC-38 (Ace for short) to set up the circumstances of the ride’s adventure. While both videos do include live actors in their segments, the story video in particular seems as heavily CGI-centric as the prequels are… which is to say that the whole “Golly gee, look at how awesome our CG characters are!” approach makes the featured droids look obviously fake and detracts from the realism they’re trying to build to sell the storyline of the ride. This was my greatest fear, that the fakeness of the prequels would worm their way into my beloved ride and ruin it beyond recognition. Seriously, if you can take the time to film guys in jumpsuits as they prep your Starspeeder for take-off, can’t you get someone to put on Threepio’s suit and act out his bits? You’ve already got Anthony Daniels voicing him, you may as well put him in the suit, too. Or at least work on improving the realism of your CGI effects so they’ll hold up after multiple viewings over the years. My guest complained about the videos, too, but only because a particular hand gesture of Aly San San seemed particularly bitchy. I had to agree. At least the videos are short.
After watching the CGI spectacular, the doors opened, we took our seats inside the largely unchanged but subtly upgraded passenger cabin, and were instructed to put on our flight glasses.
I want to address the matter of the 3-D glasses separately, because it’s going to be a concern for some people who can’t stand 3-D movies or the headgear that goes with them. Personally, I love watching 3-D movies. I don’t get the headaches that some people complain about when watching them, but the glasses annoy the hell out of me. I wear eyeglasses to see any detail more than 5 feet away from me, so it’s obnoxious to put those cumbersome and ill-fitting glasses over them. The glasses for this ride, however, are incredible. They fit over my prescription glasses without a fuss and didn’t slip at all. I didn’t feel like I was wearing a fire hydrant on my face. They felt light and natural, and looked awesome, too. If I didn’t think it’d raise the prices of 3-D movies higher than they already are, I’d start a petition to have them made for movie theaters everywhere.
As for the 3-D ride itself, I won’t spoil anything in regards to the story that plays out on your journey. I doubt I could ruin everything in the ride, anyway, even if I wanted to. With 54(!) different combinations of characters and locations to experience, you could ride Star Tours every week for a year and still not see every scenario. I went on it 5 times, and each ride was different from the last. I can say, however, that I visited four of the six destinations listed on the Star Tours page (you get to see two locations every time) and saw each of the featured characters at least once. Some characters pop up that you don’t expect to see, and one character made an appearance that I had hoped to never see again. (Meesa dun wanna give it away to yousa, but I’ll bet you can figure out who it is on your own. Thankfully, his cameo is mercifully brief and SILENT.)
All that said, I’m happy to report that Lucas and co. did not, in fact, totally ruin Star Tours. Quite the opposite, they finally made the attraction I had wished for after the umpteenth time of riding through an ice crystal asteroid to attack the Death Star. Sure, there are some parts that irk me (I’m looking at you, CGI extravaganza), but the majority of the original Star Tours experience remains the same and is made even better in all the ways that really count. Truth be told, I’d really like to renew my annual pass so I can become a regular Star Tourist.
Now, how do I get a pair of those 3-D glasses so I can take them with me to the movies?
I was only supposed to ride Star Tours once. By the time I left Disneyland, I’d been on it five times.
How is that possible? Let me start at the beginning.
I won’t bore you with how I woke up far earlier than anyone had any business being up in the morning, or where I met my guest so I could get someone else’s measure of the ride without all the judgment I was carrying with me, or how astoundingly long the line and the wait was that Friday morning. (But seriously, if your event check-in closes at 7:30 AM, and the event itself starts at 9 AM, what’s going on in that hour and a half in-between? At least we had good music.) I won’t wax poetical about what the park was like without people in it so early in the morning. I won’t even go into the awesome guy we met in line whose excitement for the ride was so infectious, we carried it with us through the whole day. No, this post is going to be long enough as it is, maybe even longer than my short stories. I’ll focus instead on the event itself and what it was like to be one of the first non-cast members (that’s what they call Disneyland employees) to experience what is both the most anticipated and most dreaded ride in all of Disneyland.
“Dreaded?” I can hear you thinking. “Why dreaded?” I’ll get to that in a little bit.
The Disneyland Star Tours Early Departure was promoted as a preview event, granted initially to a select 1,200 or so randomly selected contest winners and the one guest each that they were allowed to bring with them. Even if only half of the winners brought a guest like I did, you’re still looking at around 2,000 people who all wanted a sneak peek of the newly revamped ride.
The assembled participants were gathered outside the gates of the park and led in, single file, to fill in the queue outside of the new ride. Once the blast doors officially opened, under much media coverage, everyone in the queue would be able to ride Star Tours once and only once, trading in their ride wristbands for an exclusive button marking their participation in the event as “First in the Galaxy” to ride the new attraction. Then the ride would shut down until its official grand opening on June 3rd.
At least, that was the plan.
While full details of what happened are hard to come by, I was able to gather from certain employees around the ride that someone from ABC 7 News accidentally extended an open invitation for people to come down and participate in this private event. As Disneyland has a strict “truth in advertising” policy, they had no choice but to open up the preview for anyone who wanted to ride Star Tours in the afternoon. While this pretty much defeated the purpose of a private sneak peek event, it did give those of us who wanted to ride again (including myself) a chance to get right back in line for a second go. Or third. Or fifth!
“Yeah, that’s all very interesting, but what about the ride? Is it any good, or did Lucas screw up one more piece of our Star Wars childhood memories?” I’m so glad you asked!
From the moment you step into the Star Tours building, you’re faced with the antics of R2-D2 and C-3PO as they banter while performing diagnostics on the spaceship that will take you to the far-flung corners of the galaxy. This part is very familiar to those who have been on the ride before, and the only real changes made here are the new lines of dialogue referencing the all-new Star Tours videos that play on the big screen and the new color scheme. As this takes place between trilogies, the Starspeeder 1000 isn’t as stark as the original ride’s 3000 counterpart and has a paint job reminiscent of the Jedi starfighters. So far, I have no complaints.
In the next room, visitors come face to metallic face with RX-24, AKA Rex, who fans of the original Star Tours will recognize as your bumbling droid pilot. Since this takes place before the original ride, Rex is still in his shipping crate and is, in fact, marked defective for return to the factory. This status is made more apparent in his stuttering attempts to activate and recite lines of dialogue from the original ride. The pang of nostalgia for the little pilot droid is soon replaced with awe directed toward the two security droid occupants in the room, one scanning luggage and the other scanning people, both utilizing all-new special effects that really impressed me. You can see some nifty 3-D effects at work even here in the scanners and control panels, but it’s mostly subtle and adds to the atmosphere of the ride. Aside from poor Rex’s condition, I have no complaints.
The boarding area that comes up next holds my only real complaint about the ride, and why I and many other Star Wars fans initially dreaded going on it. After picking up your “flight glasses” (AKA 3-D glasses) and going through the turnstile for placement at a “departure gate,” you’re treated to the usual instructional video, this time narrated by spokesdroid Aly San San, preceded by a short bit of story featuring C-3PO and pilot droid AC-38 (Ace for short) to set up the circumstances of the ride’s adventure. While both videos do include live actors in their segments, the story video in particular seems as heavily CGI-centric as the prequels are… which is to say that the whole “Golly gee, look at how awesome our CG characters are!” approach makes the featured droids look obviously fake and detracts from the realism they’re trying to build to sell the storyline of the ride. This was my greatest fear, that the fakeness of the prequels would worm their way into my beloved ride and ruin it beyond recognition. Seriously, if you can take the time to film guys in jumpsuits as they prep your Starspeeder for take-off, can’t you get someone to put on Threepio’s suit and act out his bits? You’ve already got Anthony Daniels voicing him, you may as well put him in the suit, too. Or at least work on improving the realism of your CGI effects so they’ll hold up after multiple viewings over the years. My guest complained about the videos, too, but only because a particular hand gesture of Aly San San seemed particularly bitchy. I had to agree. At least the videos are short.
After watching the CGI spectacular, the doors opened, we took our seats inside the largely unchanged but subtly upgraded passenger cabin, and were instructed to put on our flight glasses.
I want to address the matter of the 3-D glasses separately, because it’s going to be a concern for some people who can’t stand 3-D movies or the headgear that goes with them. Personally, I love watching 3-D movies. I don’t get the headaches that some people complain about when watching them, but the glasses annoy the hell out of me. I wear eyeglasses to see any detail more than 5 feet away from me, so it’s obnoxious to put those cumbersome and ill-fitting glasses over them. The glasses for this ride, however, are incredible. They fit over my prescription glasses without a fuss and didn’t slip at all. I didn’t feel like I was wearing a fire hydrant on my face. They felt light and natural, and looked awesome, too. If I didn’t think it’d raise the prices of 3-D movies higher than they already are, I’d start a petition to have them made for movie theaters everywhere.
As for the 3-D ride itself, I won’t spoil anything in regards to the story that plays out on your journey. I doubt I could ruin everything in the ride, anyway, even if I wanted to. With 54(!) different combinations of characters and locations to experience, you could ride Star Tours every week for a year and still not see every scenario. I went on it 5 times, and each ride was different from the last. I can say, however, that I visited four of the six destinations listed on the Star Tours page (you get to see two locations every time) and saw each of the featured characters at least once. Some characters pop up that you don’t expect to see, and one character made an appearance that I had hoped to never see again. (Meesa dun wanna give it away to yousa, but I’ll bet you can figure out who it is on your own. Thankfully, his cameo is mercifully brief and SILENT.)
All that said, I’m happy to report that Lucas and co. did not, in fact, totally ruin Star Tours. Quite the opposite, they finally made the attraction I had wished for after the umpteenth time of riding through an ice crystal asteroid to attack the Death Star. Sure, there are some parts that irk me (I’m looking at you, CGI extravaganza), but the majority of the original Star Tours experience remains the same and is made even better in all the ways that really count. Truth be told, I’d really like to renew my annual pass so I can become a regular Star Tourist.
Now, how do I get a pair of those 3-D glasses so I can take them with me to the movies?
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Quotables
"Formal education in writing isn't necessary. Professionalism is."
—Molly O'Neill, Children's & YA book editor, HarperCollins (pulled from her WriteOnCon chat)
—Molly O'Neill, Children's & YA book editor, HarperCollins (pulled from her WriteOnCon chat)
Monday, May 16, 2011
Levelling Up My Epub Skill
While I gear up for my tour a long time ago (this Friday), in a galaxy far, far away (in Disneyland), I'm working hard to get my anthology finished and ready to go online. All but one story is edited now, with appropriate changes made, and I'll be doing the second pass on my introduction today or tomorrow. This is really happening!
Meanwhile, I'm exploring Calibre with the intention of transforming .pdf files into .epub and .mobi for my grand scheme. My guinea pig in this effort is a revised and abridged version of the World of Warcraft blood elf paladin roleplay guide I wrote a couple years back, Chivalry & the Blood Knight Order. Seeing as how it's still racking up the hits on WoWFiction.net and spreading across such WoW sites as Sentinels Wiki and various server and guild forums, fans of my work might be interested in having my piece of community roleplay writing as an ebook. I still have a lot of work to do, mostly with the preservation of formatting between file types, but I'm making progress!
I'd also like to have a cover image done for the anthology, to make it look as professional as possible, but it's not a tragedy if I can't figure that part out. The important thing is getting my writing out to you, loyal followers, and to the world at large.
That's where things stand at the moment. I'll keep you updated on my progress here, and as always, you can make your inquiries in the comments section below. Thank you all for your support and encouragement through this grand ebook adventure!
Meanwhile, I'm exploring Calibre with the intention of transforming .pdf files into .epub and .mobi for my grand scheme. My guinea pig in this effort is a revised and abridged version of the World of Warcraft blood elf paladin roleplay guide I wrote a couple years back, Chivalry & the Blood Knight Order. Seeing as how it's still racking up the hits on WoWFiction.net and spreading across such WoW sites as Sentinels Wiki and various server and guild forums, fans of my work might be interested in having my piece of community roleplay writing as an ebook. I still have a lot of work to do, mostly with the preservation of formatting between file types, but I'm making progress!
I'd also like to have a cover image done for the anthology, to make it look as professional as possible, but it's not a tragedy if I can't figure that part out. The important thing is getting my writing out to you, loyal followers, and to the world at large.
That's where things stand at the moment. I'll keep you updated on my progress here, and as always, you can make your inquiries in the comments section below. Thank you all for your support and encouragement through this grand ebook adventure!
Friday, May 13, 2011
Happy Friday the 13th, You're Missing A Blog Entry!
Page not found
Sorry, the page you were looking for in the blog R. B. LeMoyne's Blog does not exist.
-----
So that's what happened to my latest entry, The Force Is Strong With This One. Bad Blogger, no biscuit! And, of course, it was one of those few entries that I wrote directly into the text window instead of a MS Word format first, so I don't have it saved anywhere to repost it. Bad blogger, no biscuit!
Rather than try to retype the whole thing word for word, I'll give you the TL;DR version:
Yours truly won tickets to the preview event for Disneyland's new Star Tours attraction. Yay! I have concerns that George Lucas will ruin the last pure childhood memories I have of this ride, just like he did with the Special Edition trilogy and the prequels. Boo. But I'll check my judgments at the door and blog all about the "Star Tours Early Departure" event here so you'll know if you should get your hopes up for the ride or not. Yay!
The event is on May 20th, but the ride doesn't officially open until June 3rd. That gives me two weeks to prepare you for whatever is in store for you this summer at Disneyland. In the meantime, here's me glaring at the offending sign while my friend weeps for us all.
EDIT: And lo, my blog entry reappears! This entry is pretty much superfluous now, but I'll keep it up just because. Thanks, Blogger!
Sorry, the page you were looking for in the blog R. B. LeMoyne's Blog does not exist.
-----
So that's what happened to my latest entry, The Force Is Strong With This One. Bad Blogger, no biscuit! And, of course, it was one of those few entries that I wrote directly into the text window instead of a MS Word format first, so I don't have it saved anywhere to repost it. Bad blogger, no biscuit!
Rather than try to retype the whole thing word for word, I'll give you the TL;DR version:
Yours truly won tickets to the preview event for Disneyland's new Star Tours attraction. Yay! I have concerns that George Lucas will ruin the last pure childhood memories I have of this ride, just like he did with the Special Edition trilogy and the prequels. Boo. But I'll check my judgments at the door and blog all about the "Star Tours Early Departure" event here so you'll know if you should get your hopes up for the ride or not. Yay!
The event is on May 20th, but the ride doesn't officially open until June 3rd. That gives me two weeks to prepare you for whatever is in store for you this summer at Disneyland. In the meantime, here's me glaring at the offending sign while my friend weeps for us all.
EDIT: And lo, my blog entry reappears! This entry is pretty much superfluous now, but I'll keep it up just because. Thanks, Blogger!
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