tracker7 | Entries tagged with star wars

Jesus, April was a heck of a year.

Finished watching Daredevil: Born Again this week. Mostly satisfying, and Vincent D'Onofrio was just amazing as the Kingpin, but it didn't stick the landing. It felt like more of a mid-season soft cliffhanger than a real finale, and I guess that's appropriate since there are another nine episodes coming next year.

I'm rewatching the first season of Andor before diving into the second, and damn, this is still some terrific work. If I can pull a quarter of this tension in my games for Slur I'll be pretty happy.

Had a couple of good game sessions over the weekend - Delta Green on Friday and Old School Essentials on Sunday. The little community in the Somerset store is becoming a good group of friends, and they're helping me handle this self-imposed exile.

Sadly, that's about all I remember of the weekend. Well, watched a little pre-season football with Dad. I wasn't drunk or anything, I just didn't do anything, and wasn't very happy with myself. I guess I read some, wrote a tiny bit, watched hurricane forecasts. Not much else.

The storm, Idalia, hit Florida pretty hard between Tampa and the panhandle, then shot across southeastern Georgia and into South Carolina. I have a few people down that way, and as far as I know, everyone's okay. I'll still keep an eye on reports for a day or two.

The third episode of Ahsoka was heavy on action, but it felt like half of an episode.

I need to get a haircut, and that'll probably happen tomorrow morning. Right now, that's what's passing for excitement of any kind.

Dad asked if I was okay this morning, concerned, I guess, that I wasn't as talkative as I sometimes am. I just told him that I didn't have anything to talk about, and that's true enough. Alongside that, I didn't want to talk, because I don't know if I'd be able to shut up before I said something that would, I don't know, go too far or reveal too much or lead to more questions or something.

The Cyberpunk Red demo went really well. Three players, and they got into things quickly. Had a funny moment when a customer passed by and asked about the big battle map I had out on the table. He asked if the characters were low-level, and seemed just gobsmacked when I told him that the game didn't have levels.

The week's been uneventful, notable only for the heat. Heat indices have gone over 100F; at 7:35PM, we're sitting at 86F, indexed to 97. The two window units have struggled, and I haven't slept all that well. Stormy weather is forecast for tomorrow evening, and that'll help. For a little while.

As I'm writing this, an ex-POTUS is being processed at a jail in Fulton County, Georgia. Lots to, well, process here. In my interested layman's opinion, Georgia has a solid case against the miserable bastard - state-level charges, a stack of evidence, and what looks like some co-defendants flipping. Gods, I hope the fucker faces real consequences.

Got around to watching Guardians of the Galaxy 3. Pretty good, and a solid sendoff for much of the cast. Great soundtrack, unsurprisingly, and it's put In the Meantime on repeat in my head, and I am fine with that.

Even better - the first two episodes of Star Wars: Ahsoka. It, so far, feels very much like a continuation of Rebels - Hera and Chopper and Sabine are front-and-center, and Clancy Brown put in an appearance. I have the feeling that Sabine is going to just going to steal the show out from under everyone.

The Repubs are going to get the House, but we're keeping the Senate. Georgia's going to have a runoff election between Raphael Warnock and some dude who played football several years ago. A Warnock win would be tremendous, as that would mean there are enough votes to advance legislation without having to bow to Manchin or Sinema. Word is, Kevin McCarthy will seek the Speaker of the House position, and I think he'll get it if he does; I've read here and there that he doesn't have the chops to wrangle his fellow Representatives, though - made some enemies along the way. Still, Democrats fall in love while Republicans fall in line.

The orange bastard announced his candidacy for 2024 yesterday. See above - some of his allure is probably gone after 2020 and his chosen candidates' losses in the midterms, but, there's that benighted cult.

After a hojillion delays, NASA got the Artemis 1 mission underway this morning. The SLS is a mighty rocket, and the launch was spectacular. The Orion is already on its way out of Earth orbit and towards Luna. Still a long-ass way from a crewed mission, but it's a forward step at last.

On the returns side of the scoreboard, one USAF's X-37Bs quietly (well, without much fanfare, anyway) landed at KSC a few days ago after 900+ days in orbit. I know those things are up to no good, but it is a nifty little craft, and I would have loved to have seen another version of the X-37 enter service.

Andor continues to be darned good Star Wars. This week's episode got some spaceship fighting in, so there's some SFX action to back up the vary darn good storytelling, personal drama, and everything else.

Thanksgiving's next week. Looking forward to seeing Dad and the Doberman, not looking forward to the time on the road.

It's the first day of summer, and last week's heat has roared back into the Ohio Valley. Only 84 right now, but it's going to be in the mid-90s this afternoon. Maybe some rain to help things out tomorrow.

Stepped away from Butler when the third Expanse novel became available from LFPL. Got about 50 pages into Abaddon's Gate last night. Good stuff.

I've been pretty happy with Obi-Wan Kenobi. The actress playing preteen Leia is a delight, and I just love Reva the Inquisitor. Obi-Wan's return to the Jedi path is a good part of the story. Vader is terrifying, just casually murderously cruel. I wanted this to be good, and it's been better than I expected.

I'm having second thoughts about going to Charcon. The event list is pretty scant, with only two RPG sessions listed. I'm sure there'll be Adventurers League and Xfinder Society stuff, but those are less than interesting. I can soak the cost of the badge, ask the convention staff to donate it.

Ryan B wanted some Armada time before Adepticon, so I put together a Rebel fleet for Friday night. I played reasonably well, had a good time with a fleet built around a MC75. I want to play that one more - it has a terrific set of firing arcs and hits hard when you get it into position. The escorting CR90s did good work, too; a pair of them worked over the opposing MC80 pretty well.

MLB can't get things together, so Opening Day is pushed back until whenever. NCAA and Minor League Baseball are moving forward, and I guess that's going to be my religious devotions this year. I'm not signing up for MLBtv this season - hoping that I'll be living somewhere else for most of the season, anyway.

I dropped Amazon Prime, too. I have enough to watch, more than enough, if I'm being honest.

I started watching Netflix's Cowboy Bebop. I never watched the anime - back when I could have, it would have meant watching with those kinds of fans, and, like I said when watching Evangelion via Netflix, even my self-loathing only goes so far. John Cho is terrific, and the rest of the cast enjoyable, but ... it's not very good otherwise.

I watched Strange Days, as is my tradition now. Went to bed around 10:30, played Louisville's favorite guessing game Fireworks-or-Gunshot, and got plenty of sleep. Happy New Year.

Since avoiding spoilers is becoming a sucker's game, I renewed my Disney+ subscription sooner than I had planned to. Watched the first episode of The Book of Boba Fett - it's okay, not bad, but not yet good.

Another rough day of weather in the Commonwealth. Flood watch here, high winds again down around Hopkinsville, and five inches of rain in Casey County, leading to flooding in Liberty. Again.

TNT ran a lot of Star Wars movies last weekend, so I watched some, leading up to The Rise of Skywalker Sunday evening. I watched the damn thing, just to see if it was as stupid as I remembered it being. It was. Oh my goodness, it was.

It's a gloomy day here. Gray sky, occasional rain, enough wind to blow leaves off the trees. This is very much my kind of weather, except, you know, when it's not. I was going to camp out at the Bon Air library this afternoon, but I think I'm just too comfortable at my own desk right now.

Like just about everywhere, there's a Dollar General near Mom&Dad's home. It's convenience store utility without convenience store pricing, and I don't think I've spent more than a couple of days down there without a visit to the store - the two stores near my home get business from me, too. Anyway, went in to the one down there and was surprised to see that the grocery side had seen a big change - a fresh produce section was added. Not big, but it's something more than processed and frozen food. The chain is adding these sections to over half their stores; it's hopefully profitable, because that'll put a dent in some food deserts.

I now confess to having a box of Chicken-in-a-Biscuit crackers and a can of Easy Cheese right here on this desk. Finest snack combination known to humankind.

The first wave of COVID vaccinations is underway. A lot of Pfizer's initial production run went through Louisville, thanks to the UPS shipping hub here; healthcare providers started getting their shots on Tuesday, I think. We're nowhere near out of danger yet, but this is an important step. Moderna's vaccine got emergency approval today, so there's another defense against this thing.

The finale of season two of The Mandalorian hit this morning, and it was something.

Lord have mercy, Disney dropped some bombs today. Some of this stuff we knew already, some expected, some just out of the blue. So, here goes ...

Ahsoka: Figured this was coming. Dawson was quite good in her episode of The Mandalorian and Filoni's star is ascending.
Rangers of the New Republic: Surprise! I expect this to be a vehicle for Cara Dune, Gina Carano's character. Lando: A Lando series! Please let Glover come back to the role.
The Acolyte: Set in the new High Republic era, described as a mystery series. Interesting imagery, what looks like a lightsaber slash across the series name.
We got a little look at the Cassian Andor series. I'm excited for what's been described as a Star Wars espionage series.
Hayden Christensen is coming back as Darth Vader in the Obi-Wan series. Surprising, and I'm good with this.
On the animated side, there's Visions, done by a collection of anime directors, and the Bad Batch, introduced in the last season of The Clone Wars, are getting a series. Ambivalent about both of these.
The big one, for me, was the announcement that Patty Jenkins is doing the next theatrical release - Rogue Squadron. Jaw-dropping. Mike Stackpole offered his congratulations. A T-65 in the teaser. Look, I don't expect an adaptation of the Legends novels, but Jenkins gave me a terrific Wonder Woman, and that's enough to get me excited.

Tons of Marvel stuff, too - Don Cheadle in Armor Wars. Ironheart. Fantastic Four in the hands of the recent Spider-Man director. Super-exciting!

Woke up this morning to the news that General Chuck Yeager had died. Yeager was, well, a hero of mine. A product of West Virginia, he was a shining example of the right person at the right time. Shortly after he joined the Army Air Corps, to fill the need for pilots, the Corps created a program to get sergeants into cockpits, and Yeager sure qualified. His mechanical aptitude helped him as both a combat and test pilot, and he became the first pilot to crack the sound barrier.

Most people learned about Yeager thanks to Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff and its film adaptation. I think some of my dissatisfaction with Disney+'s series is its near-exclusive focus on the Mercury 7. Those are compelling stories, but there's time to be more inclusive. And the series just doesn't capture much in the way of a sense of wonder or hope.

The UK started COVID-19 vaccinations today. Emergency approvals all around, and this isn't going to be a magic bullet by any means. Pfizer's vaccine will start distribution here soon, rolling out in stages. The plan is for vaccines to be nationally available by late spring or early summer, and while that seems a long while away, 2020 has lasted approximately 49 months, so June 2021 will be here tomorrow.

The Mandalorian hit hard last week, bringing back Ming-Na Wen's character from the first season, and taking a dive into movie and EU lore. A lot of action and story packed into that 35 minutes.

I'm dropping the D+ subscription at the end of this billing cycle. I'm subscribed to four services, including the free year of AppleTV, and that's just too many. Netflix and Prime have the libraries I really want, and I'm patient for what's not there yet.

The Clone Wars product for Armada started hitting last week. Sat in on a Separatists-Rebels match a few days ago - the new play options are great, but what struck me was the incredible improvement in the models. The Sep cruiser had really great details and paint, but the tiny squadrons were just terrific. I'm not interested in buying into either faction, but playing against them is going to be a blast.

The LGS delivered, getting me both print and electronic copies of Cyberpunk Red Friday afternoon. The book is utterly gorgeous - clean layout, killer art, and the kind of prose I wanted. I didn't put as much time into reading it as I had planned to this weekend, though. Something for the coming days.

Got in a X-Wing match Friday evening. Flew against the new TIE/rb, which was a neat experience. I had flown the thing quite a bit in playtesting, but never against it. It was a great opposition ship, and backed up by a couple of Defenders, it was just murderous. Afterwards, instead of the loosely-planned Armada match, we gave Gaslands Reloaded a try, and boy-howdy that is some darn fun post-apoc minis wargaming with dolled-up Hot Wheels cars. It's a great beer-and-pretzels game.

Good episode of The Mandalorian on Friday morning. I don't see a lot of the story seeds getting resolved this season, and to be honest, this episode had a real feel of being a backdoor pilot. And Michael Biehn as a hired gunfighter was just darn near gilding the lily.

Woke up around my usual time Saturday morning. Showered, packed, loaded the Mariner, and hit the road. Took the 64-151-127 route this time, making really good speed all the way. Mom&Dad and Kaiser were all happy, and we had a good weekend together. Plenty of Thanksgiving leftovers, some Netflix, a good walk with the Doberman. Didn't get the PS4 out of the truck, so the planned Squadrons games didn't happen.

Headed back to Louisville about an hour after sunset. Took the 150 route back, as I had planned to stop by Meijer for a few things. Traffic was very light all the way from Danville to north of Mount Washington. Easy drive, a couple episodes of the Unobscured podcast to keep me going, and now I'm home for the night, rewatching this week's Star Wars TV, and the happy groove I wrote about last time is still just rolling along.

It's been a quiet week. The Mariner's behaving. I finished reading another Android Universe novel. The print copy of a MCC adventure I Kickstarted came in, and it's really nice.

It being the best holiday weekend, players had plans last night, so I played a CoC solo investigation. Three more sessions of DG.

The Mandalorian kicked off its second season with a rock-solid episode. Timothy Olyphant is just a stone-cold steely-eyed gunman, be it in the Galaxy's Outer Rim or in Kentucky's.

I tore through a lot of the Star Wars comics available on Prime Reading over the weekend. Good stuff all around, from Darth Vader to Doctor Aphra to the various stories in the main Star Wars line.

Gas is about a buck-fifty a gallon at the Speedways around here. It's not going to last, but it's pretty nice to see. A buddy out in western Kentucky saw several stations selling for under a dollar a gallon.

Forever ago, I had this enormous Chevrolet Caprice with a 305 V8. It was surprisingly easy on gas when it could get up to speed, better than the little Mercury SUV I'm driving now. It also had a big, big fuel tank - something like 25 gallons, IIRC. For a few months one summer, the combination of giant tank plus highway fuel use made it worth my time to drive to one specific gas station in Frankfort to fill up instead of hitting up stations that I knew of in Lexington.

There's an episode of The Clone Wars that has adulterated tea as a plot point, and I'm feeling a little bit threatened by this.

Rain, again, but little risk of flooding this time. The river was high last night, water up around some of the benches at Waterfront Park. Maybe a little snow mixed in tomorrow night.

The Iowa caucus turned into more of a cockup, with contradictory results trickling in over a couple of days. The app didn't work, and the caucus system is a ridiculous relic anyway.

At about the same time, the Republican members of the Senate (except for Mitt Romney, if you can believe it) rolled over and gave that orange motherfucker a blank check to be even more horrible.

In better news, utter shitbag Rush Limbaugh announced that he has advanced lung cancer. Look, fuck cancer, but fuck that guy more.

I'm looking, hard, at a couple of job postings that I came across this week. I'm overqualified for one, and slightly underqualified for the other (at least, on paper), but they're both promising gigs that look like good stepping stones to better things. They both would require moving from Louisville, but that's not nearly the hangup it was a few months ago. My ties here would survive, and I could easily get back here every few weekends to keep the social networks alive. I'm just about fucking done with my idiot housemate, too. I'm taking a break from updating the resume and drafting cover letters, but tomorrow morning, I'm throwing my hat into the ring. Interestingly, the listed point-of-contact for the position I'm underqualified for is one of my oldest friends, and am not too proud to make use of that resource.

Friday night's D&D session was okay, with a perilous combat at the climax. More fun was this morning's CP2020 kickoff. I'm playing a Netrunner, and that's a whole new experience. On top of that, it's being played over Roll20, and I'm not all that familiar with its various functions and features, but the GM and other players are patient and helpful and ultimately it's a chance to play in one of my favorite games and indulge in some nostalgia for a future that never was.

Weather's roaring in. Wind's really picking up, and there's some steadily increasing rain. Dad's on the other side of this, in Jefferson City, Missouri. He unloads tomorrow and then heads for home.

I'm reading another Star Wars novel, Alphabet Squadron. Decent enough so far, and it's sure as anything a Disney-canon try at replicating some of that old Rogue Squadron magic.

I finally got around to seeing The Rise of Skywalker, and I'm glad I didn't avoid spoilers at all (sought 'em out, honestly) because otherwise I probably would have said "Oh fuck you movie" a few times. There were a handful of good emotional beats and good performances all through it, but the story was just awful.

I definitely chose the right theater, though. Baxter Avenue Theaters didn't subject the handful of us there to 20+ minutes of previews before the show. Two previews, and then it was movie time.

It is 2020. As an old gamer, I have been waiting for this for over half of my life.

I'm past going out and partying for NYE. I can't remember the last time I did; there was 2000, of course, and there had to have been some years since, but darned if I can remember them. I'm more excited for the new wall calendar than about going out and spending too much money and being around too many people.

Still haven't seen The Rise of Skywalker. Maybe this weekend, just going in and enjoying the action and not paying much attention to the story. The Mandalorian was so good that I'm spoiled.

I've been putting money aside for a new iPad. Mine is showing it's age - a late first-generation Air, with only 16GB storage. Saw the new 10.2" with 128GB on sale this week, so I guess the update is going to happen. I'm looking forward to this.

The wreck was finally removed Friday afternoon. Took some social engineering, but I'm unable to care.

New refrigerator is shiny and larger and quieter than its predecessor. Glass and/or plastic shelves instead of wire racks, and little drawers here and there. Should be more energy efficient, too.

The X-Wing league championship was Friday I placed second out of a six-player free-for-all. Could have placed higher, or more importantly, prevented the eventual winner from coming out on top. A few weeks of casual (well, even-more-casual) play, including at least one Epic night, until the next season's format is announced.

The Mandalorian continues to deliver. Solid Star Wars action and storytelling. This week's episode dropped a couple days early because of The Rise of Skywalker's release, which was okay, but it means waiting two extra days for the season finale - relatively speaking, I mean. I've let myself get spoiled on Rise, and my already low expectations have dropped.

I left the farm early Friday afternoon. A game shop in Lexington announced the obligatory Black Friday sale, and poor impulse control convinced me to detour that way instead of heading straight back to Louisville. The visit reminded me of why I quit going to that store when I lived there. Headed on to Louisville, got to Heroes and got in a couple games of Outer Rim.

Bought a copy of Goodman Games' gigantic D&D 5th version of the old Expedition to the Barrier Peaks module - I've resisted the previous tomes, but D&D characters exploring a crashed spaceship is what I want right now.

So, I guess I'm going to run some goddamned D&D soon. My GM burnout seems to have been setting-based, not role-based, because I am pretty darned excited for this.

SpaceX got another Falcon 9/Dragon stack up this afternoon. Successful first-stage recovery, and the Dragon looks to be working just fine and should dock with the ISS in a couple of days. Next big milestone is Boeing's unmanned CST-100 test in two weeks, barring another delay.

We're halfway through the first season of The Mandalorian, and it has not disappointed. Before the launch, I was more excited for it than Rise of the Skywalker, and I'm still there. Everything about the show is working for me, and among the highest points is the music. It's flawless, going right down the line between Williams and Morricone.

Roadside Picnic

Bright Ideas, Dark Futures

Catch These Fists

The Baddest Man Alive

Looking Through Patient Eyes

Across the Lines

Spill the Wine

Cowboy Gospel

Crossing

Quintessential Superstar

She Sells Sanctuary

Ashes to Ashes

Love Action

Radio, Radio

Radio, Radio

Cities in Dust

Sphere of Influence

The SigInt Tableau

Close Quarters

Outlander

Tesla Girls

Reach Out

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