SOCL

I suppose it's equally unlikely that I'll ever trek to Wisconsin, so that's fair.

That's quite a few, and all first gen members. I'm kinda sad that The Mask let his website lapse; it was nice to know it was there in case things got exciting again. But alas, all good things must pass ... First generation. So what am I, second generation? I actually didn't realize Mask had his own website. I can ask him about it, if you have any particular questions, Tex: he and I are in regular contact with each other -- probably more than the others. On another note, have you guys done any SWR get-togethers? I know Mask traveled to England and got together with Jahled and (I think) Elvis. I also know that LaForge, Mask, and Scath got together not too long ago in Rotterdam -- sadly, I couldn't make it because of yet another wedding... Also some -- what was it, 2 years ago? -- Mitth and his wife visited D.C. and we all got together for dinner and drinks. Good times!

And with that, I think we can safely lock this thread up. [/moderator]

I should say, I'm in fairly regular contact with Scathane, Trejiuvanat, Jahled, Lord LaForge, Mad, and The Mask via the Book of Faces. They all seem to be doing pretty well, as far as I can tell. Jahled is still happily a zoological photographer, Mad just got a job offer -- those being the more recent updates that come to mind. Ergh, since when did I have to click "Notify me when a reply is posted" every time I post? Didn't it used to be that you only hit it once and it kept going?

Even so, I'll try the extra sex first.

It would be unseemly for me to comment on the former, but regarding the latter: I probably should get some sort of supplement. I'm actually going to the store today to get some z-quil in hopes that it will start regulating my sleep cycle. I can barely think straight, which is bad when you're trying to do regular class work and research...

Insomnia for some reason drove me here. Not that I begrudge it, but I would much rather be sleeping. Yeah, reenactment is a bit of a ways behind me. And yes, "perpetual student" might be the right way to characterize what I'm doing these days, though it has more to do with "I'm wasting my life in jobs I don't particularly care for" than a need to be a student again, haha! I just decided to go back to get my Master's and maybe one day soon by Ph.D. in ancient art history/history/archaeology. Something like that...

I thought to pop in to. Nice to be remembered on page 2. Got hitched myself, to a Brit, no less. Not sure she's a lucky lady, but I'm sure quite lucky. Working, working, working, working. It consumes my soul. Still living in the DC area, now in Alexandria, though continue working within the city itself. Nice 30-minute commute that alternates between reading on Metro with people with bad breath or daring the streets on my motorcycle. I think the motorcycle is, in general, safer than the breaths. Errr... For those of you who don't know, some of Ye Olde BEAKers and SWRers keep in touch on Facebook - to the extent anyone keeps touch on thing named after your face... Anyway, hello.

Holy shit! So I expected Evaders to still be here (his site, eh?), but not Tofu! Um...and, yes, 1313 looks pretty damn cool, but I'm weary -- very, very weary in light of the garbage Lucas has given us recently. [cough]The Clone Wars, The Force Unleashed, The Force Unleashed II, The Old Republic, much of the Fate of the Jedi series...[/cough]

Pacifist Mandalorians... Retcons are all the rage, it would seem. Hate to see the Republic/Imperial Commando series not be finished, but, then, I have my own serious issues with Traviss, her style, and her writing, so...

I for one am happy to see Ms. Traviss go. Her Mandalorian fetish, not to mention inappropriate hate and degradation of Jedi epitomized in her tangents on "the virtues of being a Mandalorian (and not a Jedi)" in the Legacy series increasingly made her less and less attractive as an author. When she began openly insulting fans in school yard-style naming calling on the SW Forums, including her catchphrase "Talifan" for those fans who don't agree with her, I finally realized that in my mind she was both unwanted and a liability. I'll grant you, she has toned her rhetoric down considerably, likely because Star Wars was no longer consuming the entirety of her time as it had before (reference he new fetish, Warhammer, and these chainsaw-gun things... ), but that still does not make up for her blatantly unprofessional, sectional/factional behavior. It's one thing to take a side in one of these camps that divide the EU, it's another thing entirely to actively assist in creating and expanding those divisions - to me, that's the equivalent of sabotage, and it is something I did not see as favorable or at all welcome in the Star Wars franchise. I am happy to see Ms. Traviss, though I, in some ways, wish she had been dismissed rather than quit. And just so you know I don't completely hate Ms. Traviss, I did enjoy her novel Republic Commando: Hard Contact and have even begun rereading it. It was only with her subsequent works that I stopped enjoying them for the reasons named above. I'm not sure it's worth noting that Hard Contact was her first Star Wars novel...

Thanks, Rob. Who's left of the old crew?

I've been accepted and enrolled at the University of Maryland, College Park, just outside D.C. where I'll be working on my M.A. in Ancient Mediterranean History, studying the transformation of Roman power (structures and institutions, as well as the de facto, though unofficial powers) on the Mediterranean Basin from roughly the Second Punic War (202 BCE) to the death of the emperor Augustus (14 CE). My specialty will be on the evolution of the Roman military system, the so-called "Marian reforms," with an intention to revisit and provide a better and more accurate understanding of Roman military's transition from the manipular system of warfare to the autonomous cohort system. After that, I don't know. If the ROTC program cooperates (and they're being real pains...), then I'll be commissioning as a Second Lieutenant in the Army in the summer of 2011. Barring that and a decision to not try the OCS route, I'll probably just continue my studies and acquire my Ph.D.

Hello, all. I haven't been around much - been busy with finishing my B.A., which comes to a conclusion at last this May, not to mention the sort of busy stress that comes with applying and preparing for grad school. I'll do my best to drop by more often, though I might as well say famous last words...

Did they sweep the floor with you?

I'm on my single-day-long midterm break. We start up again tomorrow and then I'll be gone unless I manage some spare time on the weekends; otherwise, I'll see all of you in August.

Exciting news! Now I just have to get around to owning a console system from the last few years...

What I'm saying is to find a school that both has your program and is large. You're not looking for the very best program in the world because then you're liable to pay far more for far less than you expected. Undergrad isn't the end of the world and where you studied often matters little so a good program but at a large school where you can make good contacts in your field and have many, many more opportunities to study and excel, something you won't often, if at all, find at the smaller level.

You may have missed my point, Tofu. I wasn't advocating a large college for the sake of a large college. When I started applying for my undergrad studies, I also applied to UF and I'm absolutely happy I did not go there. Yes, it's a big school, but the first qualifier has to be that it has a program suitable to your interests and studies. UF is not a power-house of ancient history, to say the least, though, if I recall, it has decent environmental studies, agriculture, and engineering programs, which may be up your alley. Let me reiterate: find a school which is both large and has a good program, not just large or the other.

Shadowspawn isn't really a Sith Lord, per se... The cover art makes me drool. Shadowspawn looks awesome! I'm actually looking forward to something like this. We have yet to see a major surface engagement in Star Wars that doesn't result in a retreat. I mean, Luke is still dealing with very powerful Imperial forces, still only four years after Endor. These are essentially still High Empire forces at their prime, just before their total collapse--you might say the "last gasp/stand" of the Imperial Army.

Okay. I didn't hear much aside from an reiteration of what you and I just said in the last posts. Actually, I only cited one battle where Thrawn was present, namely Sluis Van, and ironically he failed to predict or even act against what happened there, which is most interesting after your post, Tofu. He didn't always win and, take note, was only able to predict on an individual basis, not on a larger basis. The generalization of psychology for any given enemy is also not all that unusual or even wrong. In handling relations and tactics with North Korea (namely during the war and in war-planning for the possibility of future war), there are entire departments devoted to studying the North Korean psyche and how to incorporate that against them. It's called psychological warfare. What we saw with Thrawn was just an extreme version and, admittedly, odd, but your statement that he could predict everything is simply incorrect: Sluis Van, Joruus C'baoth's behavior, the Noghri, his own death, the loss of the Peremptory, Niles Ferrier's incompetence, the unification of the smugglers against the Empire, the loss in Hyliard City on Myrkr, Mara Jade's assistance to the New Republic (especially during the commando raid on the Palace to kidnap Leia and the twins), just to name a few. He actually did miss quite a few. His abilities were very clearly in tactics, and we actually only have his word that he used artwork against individuals; he don't actually know if he was just a damn amazing tactician. In any event, he also very clearly states that he does not believe that all members of an individual species will behave the same way, just that at a certain level, cultural training and upbringing will limit certain reactions, which is again not inherently untrue. The way a U.S. Marine Corps general reacts to a given situation will often vary, sometimes vastly, from the way a U.S. Army general will, will vary from the way a colonel of either branch reacts, a captain, etc. You don't have to like it, Tofu. No one says you have to. But there are merits in it, real-life ones.

I guess I only technically speak two languages, but I can understand and read Latin (if not speak it by the end of the summer) and Portuguese, as well as some limited French and Italian. I figure all those partials add up to a third language, so I polled as 3.

Engineering, eh? Why not a field so noble as, say, history? I think GA Tech is a good idea. Look at Virginia Tech, too. In general, Tofu, I would suggest against going to a small university. The fact is, going to a small university, as fun and exciting as it may sound ( ) is not going to fulfill much of the college experience that you'll want, and I don't just mean parties. I know I regret going to a small university my first two years and even now regret going to George Mason because it, too, is rather small, so the opportunities are limited. I'm spending the summer studying Latin at the University of Virginia and wish I had applied here. So for your undergrad, stay away from the community colleges and the small state colleges and just go to a large one. Besides, if you think you might get a Masters later, then you're more than likely to end up at a smaller, more specialized school, or at a large one but in a small department so it feels like a small school. Sounds superficial, but trust me on this one.

Some good, if not at least interesting news for we Allston fans: http://theforce.net/books/story/New_Aaron_Allston_Novel_On_The_Way_115774.asp

I seem to have a similar memory about the lack-luster of fleet battles in the NJO. There were a few exceptions, but that was towards the end, and then only really starting in Star By Star in what I think was one of the best inch-by-inch battles in Star Wars over the Coruscant system. That was truly awesome. Another good one was the battle right after Bastion (the name doesn't come to mind) where Pellaeon was leading the entire thing from a Bacta tank, but that got kind of stupid (as did much of the Force Heretic trilogy, which seemed pointless itself) with the super-dooper-extra-secret-technology Dreadnaught being the key to the battle. A Dreadnaught? Old Republic technology is apparently still the bit that will save the day. I think large fleet battles are simply difficult to write because inevitably you are either stuck seeing it from the perspective of a single (or few) characters or you get a mess of this and that happening without a coherent plot and lots of sparks and fizzles. Large fleet battles are better left to the staging that only a motion picture or motion picture-style shooting can do, like the Battle of Endor in ROTJ or Coruscant in ROTS, though I am still convinced the former was vastly superior to the latter, the battle over Coruscant suffering from a lack of plot, direction, and general coordination, making this sort of spurt-start-fizzle-spark I mentioned earlier. Therefore, in writing, unless incredibly skilled, I think authors ought shy away from large fleet engagements and keep them as (I hate to use this term) "fillers" that either occur between scenes or as backdrops, much as we saw in Star By Star, The Unifying Force, and emost recently in Invincible, the latter-most, if you'll recall, starting in the middle of a large battle but with attention paid to only a single (or very few) character (i.e. Jaina) and then later another fleet battle (the one with the destroyed SSD), but this time happening between scenes. The implication of large fleet battles in writing I think is superior to showing it because it allows the imagination to run and be, well, imaginative; additionally, it implies that there is much more happening in the background that we can't/haven't/won't see, making the struggle all the greater since it implies other battles of the sort have occurred "off screen". Showing a major fleet battle and messing it up, though, not only ruins the implication of other battles, but also ruins the notion of catastrophe in battle. I think Revelation suffered from this when Daala's "Maw Installation" nonsense fleet showed up out of nowhere. Traviss simply didn't pull off the large fleet battle well, and then to throw in nonsensical superweapons just... Well, I digress. I agree with you, Tofu, but would take it the next step to say that authors ought concentrate on detailed small-level engagements and not concern themselves with great catastrophic ones. The ones that spring to mind are the Allston one you just mentioned at the end of Solo Command (if I remember correctly), the Battle of Sluis Van in Heir to the Empire, the battle for the Katana fleet in Dark Force Rising, the Battle for Centerpoint Station at the end of the Corellian trilogy, and the Battle of Yaga Minor in Vision of the Future. It may sound like I have a Timothy Zahn bias, and perhaps I do for his earlier works, but I think he did a marvelous job of pulling off the low-key engagements of a few ships, but with the implication of something larger at work. Just my two cents.