a99kitten's Musings

Yesterday at lunch there was a guy showing everyone his Samsung Galaxy #*whichever number is the newest one*. Literally every other person sitting there had an iPhone so he wanted to show us what he could do that we could not. He was trying that ‘talk to the phone to get it to do things’ like in the commercials. But he had to yell at it several times to get it to make a call. If I saw some guy walking on the street yelling at his phone, I’d assume he was crazy :) But maybe he was doing it wrong?

He showed us the new Superman trailer. Definitely looked very cool on his screen. Cannot deny the screen is its best selling feature. After we all watched the trailer (and the girls ogled at Henry Cavill!) he assured us that we would all switch over if we tried it out. No. No I won’t. Again, the screen was nifty – both in clarity and size, no denying that. But the size was also the problem. There was no way that giant thing felt right in my hand. It was considerably bigger – not just the screen but the whole phone was a LOT bigger. There is no way I could do 1 handed thumb typing on it like I always do when hiking. I’m sure it works well for guys. Or the lady with man hands from Seinfeld. But I really, really hope Apple figures out a way to give us a slightly bigger/better screen without making the entire handset bigger.

And there was no way it would fit in ANY of my pants, skirts or shorts pockets. Girl pockets are very small. I’d like bigger pockets since I’m always carrying my phone, dog cookies and poo bags in pretty much all outfits, but fashion seems to disagree with that and has since the dawn of time unless you rock the mom jeans look like Obama (Never. Ever. Ever.) And it wouldn’t fit into half my small handbags. Or if it did, nothing else would.

I already almost drop my phone out of my pocket or jacket on a regular basis. Or it will just slip out of my pockets when sitting in the car, etc. which then gets it drop-kicked across the parking lot. Sonofa… Anything bigger, forget it. I’d need a backpack!

Funny thing is remember back in the 90s when phones were getting smaller and smaller. The teeny-tiniest ones were the best and we were all convinced it would just become a node in your ear (or implant in your head!) Obviously that won’t work with a smartphone (yet…) but no way I want a “phablet”. Plus since I have a Mac and iPad, Apple TV and iTunes – I have no intention in messing with my eco-system.

So here is hoping Apple designers already know the above. And don’t just bow to the cries of fanboys who seem to have to watch videos everywhere so demand a bigger everything.

It’s pretty much done! I. Love. It.

Case – daytime!

There are still some figures that I don’t have but want, so I will add to it, but all of the loose figures that I have are in the case! It is a lighted cabinet so I had an electrician come out and install a plug right behind the cabinet so there is no cord to be seen :)

Lights!

Yay for the internet as I had to look up pictures of the figures to match weapons. I had all of the weapons in 1 baggie. Still have a few blasters. That’s like having extra screws after building something. Grrr. But extra is better than not enough! Right? :)

I used this Power of the Force 92-back as my display guide.

POTF92

It’s also why I got the yellow background case. It’s set up *basically* in this order but I changed a few around due to not having the figures, wanting a few together (big head and little head Han with Chewie, mail-in Emperor (still in sealer plastic) with his Imperial Guards, Amanaman having his own little space (one of my rarest!), etc. Plus there a few that were after that card/time period but still very display worthy – Han in Stormtrooper mail away, Spirit of Obi-Wan, Cantina Band members.

I shall now write a list of the figures that I don’t have and be on the look out for them. Perhaps at SDCC, maybe eBay for non-rare ones (sadly the Chinese have figured out how to counterfeit them although they tend to stick to mostly carded figures.)

I have wanted a nice way to display my non-carded figures forEVER. This makes me happy :)

According to Wookieepedia…

“The phrase dates back to at least 1979, on the day Margaret Thatcher was elected Britain’s first woman prime minister. Her party took out a newspaper ad in the London Evening News that said “May the Fourth be with you, Maggie. Congratulations.” ”

Iron Lady for the win! :)

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/May_4

As a Star Wars collector, I like to display my collectibles. Having them stored away in crates in the closet is silly.

Now, I have too much to be able to display everything. And some items are not as “displayable” (MIB original toys, etc.) But keeping my action figures stored away in a crate on the closet seemed very wrong.

Unlike a lot of kids who trashed their toys, I kept my original Star Wars action figures in great condition. After I “grew up” I kept them in my Darth Vader case and then individual plastic baggies stored away in a waterproof crate. I have some MOC figures too which are in protective cases (purchased as an adult) but, as a kid, I opened up my action figures and had them set up in my room by “setting” (Hoth, Cantina, Ewok village, etc.) So they were all opened, but kept in great condition.

Sadly, my original TESB open belly taun-taun has a broken harness due to the kid of my Dad’s business partners. He came over with his Dad and found his way into my room. When I went in my room and saw him there playing with my stuff, and he showed me the broken harness, I threatened to end his life if he ever went near my stuff again. He left and told his dad. My dad laughed. Might sound harsh but the kid was a horrible little racist brat who was on the path to becoming a serial killer so some fear did him good.

But these original action figures are actually a great part of my collection. I love them! I have searched and searched for a cool way to display them. But most cases are just simple acrylic or glass cases that comic book stores use and I didn’t really like that aesthetic. Plus it was a point of contention between my husband and I about displaying my Star Wars items.

Then I found it. A site that sold action figure cases for display that were cool (IMO anyway.) The owner allowed me to design the case as I wanted as he made them to order. He had some options on his website but then you could make whatever changes you wanted to it. And he said he will use my case as a sample on his site! YAY!

He just sent me the photo of the finished product this morning!!!

I’ve got the wall space waiting! And am SO excited to put all my action figures in!!! So it was worth the wait to find the right case :)

If you need a case, go here! http://www.figuredisplay.com/

It’s Oscar night!! Not sure what that has to do with eating (absolutely nothing, zilch, zero, nada) but I decided to make this since the chicken has been in my freezer for a couple weeks :) Call me glamour-puss! I found this recipe in a magazine and then changed it to suit my tastes…

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
About 1 lb of skin-on chicken drumsticks
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
12 cloves garlic (about 1 head)
2 lemons (finely grated zest of one, juice of both)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 pound frozen corn, thawed
3/4 cup whole milk

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle the chicken with 1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper, and 2 tablespoons flour. Add to the skillet and cook, turning, until slightly golden on all sides, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, lemon zest and lemon juice and turn the chicken to coat. Transfer the skillet to the oven; roast until the chicken is golden brown and cooked through, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the corn and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper; cook, stirring occasionally, until the corn softens, about 5 minutes. Stir in the remaining 1 tablespoon flour, then add the milk and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer, stirring, until thickened, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

I am pairing it with some Moet & Chandon Imperial as Moet seems to be the Hollywood bubbly of choice and this was already chilled in my fridge :)

I love watching the Oscars. Even though I love to make fun of celebrities too. Mostly because I think actors taking themselves SOOOOO seriously is rather amusing…but LOVE the outfits :)

So let’s see, how many news organizations/journalists touched this story without apparently checking any facts? And yet the facts were clearly there to be dug up.

Sports Illustrated
ESPN
South Bend Tribune
Fox Sports
New York Times
NY Post
CBS
Associated Press
Los Angeles Times

I’m pretty sure all of the above (except maybe the South Bend Tribune?) have WAY more resources than Deadspin. But there are almost no real reporters nowadays. There are just a bunch of jerks who sit around trying to beat the rest to the fastest tweet or FB update or the blingiest link bait. It’s entertainment now, not news. Have you looked at what passes as news stories nowadays? Too much time/space to fill up and eyeballs to try and catch. Who has time for silly things like fact checking or investigating what you are putting out there as fact.

There was tons of false data during “Superstorm” Sandy. Tons and tons during the Sandy Hook shooting. And those are just 2 recent examples. I’m sure there are plenty more on a regular, daily basis that doesn’t make such a splash.

I’ve never even heard of this guy and, frankly, don’t really care since besides making himself look foolish, I don’t know what real harm came from it. But I love when reporters are shown to be idiots I believe most are.

I have no idea if the above represents all of the “news” agencies who wrote about this. I simply read the Deadspin article and copied down the news agencies. But I’m not a reporter. And have never claimed to be. So I have an excuse to limit my fact checking to simply reading someone else’s report.

Today Disney (DIS) announced that they bought Lucasfilm. WHAT?!?!?! I ran into the living room to see the TV thinking that I must have misheard it. Wow. Lucasfilm has been held privately by George Lucas since creation. He, along with Copploa’s Zeotrope Studios, were created by these guys as a solution to the big studio system they felt wouldn’t understand them, let them make their films, etc etc.

Now, I have been a HUGE Star Wars fan forever. And Indiana Jones. And since touring ILM twice, I always look to see if they do the special effects on movies. George and his team truly created a new frontier. So when, in addition to the purchase, Disney announced a Star Wars episode 7 in 2015 with additional movies following every 1-2 years my head (figuratively – no Belloq action) exploded. I had given up on Episodes 7-9 after eps 1-3 and George said he was too tired.

Now, I was EXCITED. But a lot of twitter, mostly the self-confessed nerds and hipsters, were screaming NOOOOOOOO Vader-style. Some refused to even comment other than to comment that they weren’t commenting. But why? Disney bought Marvel and I have to say X-Men: First Class and Avengers have been 2 of the most enjoyable movies that I have seen in a long time. If you disagree – you just can’t enjoy fun films and probably prefer art house suicidal self portrait films. So if Disney can find some great talent and get Star Wars back into prime action – I say YAY!

I was reading some of the tweets and stories and was both annoyed and amused by their upset. I mean, you know this is mostly a group of evolutionists who can’t get their heads around their beloved childhood franchise evolving one little bit. That thought made me snicker. And all of them likely grew up loving at least one Disney (and/or Pixar depending on their age) movie, if not the entire catalog.

Now, let’s be clear – if Disney announced they were REMAKING (or even “reimagining”) the original trilogy, that would be a different blasphemous story. That. Better. Never. Happen. But they want to take the story past where it ended which is what George originally intended. And what we all grew up hoping for!

I have been collecting Star Wars (and Indy) related stuff (you know…collectibles) since I was a kid. I have quite a bit. Quite. I’m slowly getting it all out and displayed and thinking of new ways to display it. Now it seems I might need even more room. Although the original stuff will always be some of my favorites. But now I will need to get this poster (that was given to me by a friend) re-framed NOW:

I have bought a FEW Disney Star Wars weekend items over time but have tried to mostly stay away as Disneyana collectibles takes you down a long, dark road to bankruptcy. Or appearing on an episode of Hoarders. I do have Goofybacca though:

And have been on the search for a few years for Han/Donald in Carbonite:

I didn’t think I actually wanted it but then saw it in real life at ILM. Very cool. I have the action figure-sized one but I need the big one. To match Goofybacca of course :)

The fact that George wants to turn his helm over to Kathleen Kennedy and a Disney team, while remaining a “Creative Consultant”, bodes well I think. George is a genius. And he is great. But his constant monkeying with the original trilogy has been maddening. Now, I didn’t hate the prequels like some nerds or “truists”. I didn’t love them the same way as I loved the original trilogy but I can still watch them over and over and enjoy them. And the last 30 minutes of the Revenge of the Sith is pure nonstop awesome.

And let’s face it, George introduced Star Wars to an entire new generation or 3. Little kids walk around with toys and costumes because they think Anakin is a Jedi hero. And Ben is young. Yoda still kicks ass. And yes, Jar-Jar talked funny. If you want to expand your brand, you do what he did.

I JUST yesterday said out loud, after seeing a Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 billboard in San Francisco, that Twilight was probably going to be the last midnight movie I will wait in line for 2 hours for and care to stay up so late for. And now look – it seems there will be more :) OK, I can do it! Although I will still probably prefer the 10pm “midnight” show like we are doing for Breaking Dawn Part 2 :)

So to all the nay-saying geeks and fake geeks who just like to complain – I say a pox on you. Wait until we see what they give us before you have your nerdtearsattack. You might just enjoy it. You’ll probably hate to admit it though.

I am pretty sure that I will love it. And am damn sure that I will give them a chance. And will probably be as excited as I have been today until it gets here. In 2015….tick tock…tick tock…..I am about as excited as when I was a kid by this :)

The best parody ever!! I saw a little of this while at SDCC last week but never saw the entire thing. A friend just posted it on FB and reminded me of its awesomeness!

I also posted the original below so you can compare (yes that is the Biebs) :) Also…now I want to sit down and watch all 6 movies again!!!!

OG:

What makes even funnier (for me anyway) is that this song followed me everywhere while at Comic Con! In the hotel elevators, in the hotel gift shop (where the shop girls grabbed me and we all danced to it all arond the store while people stopped and watched us which made it pretty damn funny! And fun!), in the places we ate. I could not escape the song. And I think I had heard it a total of 1 time before going to Comic Con. So the fact that it now has a Star Wars parody ensures a special place in my SDCC memories :)

If you have not checked out yet, or as other TV shows wind down, and you find yourself with an hour or 2 a week with nothing to do, I HIGHLY suggest:

Season 2 just started on HBO (2 eps in.) I am probably 30-40% through Book 3. Book 2 – which season 2 of the show is going to follow – is CRAZY! Book 1 was awesome! And Book 3 is getting even CRAZIER. HBO just renewed the show and I read that they will probably break up Book 3 into Seasons 3 (and hepefully picked up season 4.) I am very stressed as I read it. But I cannot put it down either.

The casting and acting of the HBO show is amazing. Truly amazing. There are a lot of characters to keep track of but it’s very worth it. The GOT panel at last year’s San Diego Comic Con was GREAT! The actors were very engaging. Although I do wish they would have brought the direwolf puppies :)

Do yourself a favor. Check out this show. And the books if you are so inclined. House Stark rules!! (yelled out just like San Dimas Highschool Football rules!) :)

And we wonder why the term “tech bubble” is being thrown around. Well, at least they haven’t IPOed yet…

“Messrs. McKinney and Stansberry also call their business strategy cliché because they are focused on “building a great site” and aren’t sure how they are going to make money.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203918304577239230904697246.html?mod=e2tw

(p.s. I still do not get the allure of Pinterest….)