SOCL

According to what I've read, no one on the staff is at all proud of having made it. Harrison Ford refused to answer questions when interviewed about last February, Carrie Fisher claims she never did a Star Wars holiday show (she probably doesn't remember it because she was high the whole time), and George Lucas really, really, really hates it. Of interest, though, the new Timothy Zahn novel Allegiance is set immediately before the Holiday Special to tie in with it; that, combined with Rick McCallum's comment that he wants to see a lot of the less-known SW material released for the 30th Anniversary (that is, this year), there is speculation about the community that the Holiday Special may in fact be released in the future, perhaps sometime this year... We shall see, I suppose. We can only hope (and dread).

I'm not a billionaire, but my uncle owns a lot of malls and real estate in Puerto Rico, Boston, Miami, and Portugal. He's helping me pay for study abroad this summer, and as I mentioned before, I'll be in the UK between 08 July and 03 August, the last week of which (23 July to 03 August) will be spent in London. Sorry to keep pushing it because I certainly am not trying to rub it about, but I would very seriously like to meet up with Elvis and Jahled for a night or two, or seven, of good times. Anyone else who wants to meet up is welcome!

I watched The Producers on HBO with my parents and sister, had some bad red wine, then played Caesar IV until four in the morning when my parents raised a ruckus because the damn dog pissed on the carpet in my parents closet. I took her outside in the rain to then go home and not fall asleep until 5 in the morning. A very fun evening/morning, over all.

I heard a rumour that the Bloodlines won't be coming out in paperback at all. Same goes for the fourth one in the series, by that I mean the next one to be released. So say the folks at the bookstore where I work... I hope it's not true.

That would be quite funny, since thats how we would say it in my country among with all others, like amerikai, austriai or braziliai LaForge! Glad to see you around every so often! As far as I understand Coruscanti is the correct term, though, for a Coruscant-native.

On behalf of the staff, moderators, and administrators from SWR: HAPPY NEW YEAR! -

Look, everyone, Tofu can do math. Interesting. Perhaps we should schedule an online party of sorts.

The Department of Defense just confirmed: 3000 total United States deaths since the beginning of the war in Iraq.

And once more, Tofu, you have shown that the younger generation is far more Internet-savvy than even someone who is a mere seven years your elder. What is skype?

I'm not quite green enough... Coruscant natives? I believe the term is Coruscanti. BEAK Wasn't there at one time a plot of some sort where Lucas had the Corellians as Earth-based humans? It's somewhere on Wookieepedia, I believe...

Novel about Fel? Wasn't that just a short story from Insider? "Red Sky, Blue Flame" or something like that?...

We are in agreement in that regard, Elvis. Lumiya and the revived Sith from the Legacy era comics. Sadly, it all boils down to sales. I agree with you wholly, Elvis, and would love more novels about outsider/minor characters, especially the tragic tale that most certainly must exist concerning Pellaeon's career following Thrawn to the time of the treaty. Even so, I think it's a minority of fans who will find it interesting. Look at Outbound Flight the novel--it's all about minor characters with only two major characters (namely Obi-Wan and Anakin) taking on minor roles which could have been totally excluded from the novel's plot as they didn't contribute a damn thing. Well, I'm not sure about overall sales across the market, but I've worked into two separate bookstores since the release of that novel and from my observations, it is one of the least sold Star Wars novels. Novels like the Thrawn trilogy and Jedi Academy trilogy continue selling much better.

Star Wars Holiday Special cartoon It includes the first ever appearance of Boba Fett in all of Star Wars-dom. Do a general search of YouTube for the rest of the Holiday Special. I find this of interest since the special only aired once and has never been made available to the general public in any other form but that single airing. Enjoy!

On a related note, perhaps the closest thing to a meeting of the SWR-ers could happen this very summer. Just today I received an invitation from my university to attend a study abroad program at Cambridge University in London from July to August! Though I know London is a big city, it would be the closest I would be to some of our more famous members, namely Jahled and Elvis. If anyone from there abouts (and that's relative because by "there abouts" I mean Western Europe or simply anyone able to visit London for a bit in mid to late July) wishes to attend, I want to try to get as many of us together at least one evening for a night of laughs, fun, and extreme drinking. Elvis, Jahled, are you up for it? Oh, if anyone wants to go to the Balearic Islands with me afterward to help dig up a Roman Republican fort, you're welcome to also! I'll be doing that early to mid August, going directly from London there.

The New Jedi Order strikes me as the Star Wars of the 21st Century, moving away from the rather chaotic, if not utterly confusing storylines and plots which normally didn't even connect of Ye Olde EU (i.e. post-Jedi to Hand of Thrawn duology) to a clear direction. The fact that the authors actually worked together on an overarching plot made it all the better and easier to understand. On the other hand, the NJO brought some poison in the EU. First is the idea of retroconning every last aspect of the Star Wars universe so that not only does everything connect (which is rather good), but makes every last bloody thing related. A lot of people blame this on the prequels, but the fact of the matter is that the NJO came before the big retrocons in the prequels (namely between Episodes II and III) and attempts to make sense of the older EU. In so doing, though, it takes away a lot of the value many of the characters and plots had, reducing them to pawns or minions of some other power (e.g. how Thrawn was trying to prepare the galaxy for the Vong invasion rather than trying to take it back from the Republic for the sake of the Empire). It just left a bad taste in my mouth, I suppose. The Vong, though, were awesome, but I think that they weren't quite as well utilized as they could have been. I mean, for goodness sake, the Black Fleet Crisis trilogy had more realistic action (namely military engagements) than the NJO, and they had a whole slew of books to play with! Further, the NJO opened the door to a lot more nonsense leaking into the EU. Take for instance Karen Traviss and her fetish for Mandalorians in general and Boba Fett in specific. I mean, no offense, I liked her Republic Commando novel Hard Contact, but Triple Zero was full of nonsense with the "ultimate warrior" clones actually going out and trying to mate and what not. If the Kaminoans were so perfectionist as Traviss explicitly states, wouldn't they have suppressed all those feelings and such? So now we're going to have a Jedi-Mandalorian-rogue baby of a clone commando trooper and a Jedi Knight? Absolute rubbish! (if you have no idea what I'm talking about, read Republic Commando: Triple Zero). I don't know. The NJO was good alone, but the effect it has had on Star Wars as a whole I think has been rather negative. That's not to say more communication and cooperation between the authors of the various novels isn't good, but they're allowing a lot of rubbish into the series. I think of it this way: Here are some things I think are really cool: -Tyrannosaurus rex -Ford Mustangs -Roman history -sandwiches Got it? Those are all really cool things, so let's combine them to form the coolest thing ever! NO! That's what the NJO has done to Star Wars, in my opinion: it has tried to take a lot of cool things and combine them into one under the mentality that it will be especially cool! And they couldn't be more wrong. Personally, I don't want a damn Tyrannosandwichistorymustango rex.

My sister and I laughed for a while, then went back to sibling bickering. Enjoyable!

Oh, God, Elvis, it's so damn good to have another moderator about. No longer do I have to babysit these children whilst Jahled jabs them with cowprods and Evaders eats their young! Oh, happy day! In any event, I heard a fellow once say that all Star Wars fans are, in truth, Wookiees. Why? I didn't really quite understand it as he had a rather thick Welsh accent and we were both rather inebriated at the time, but it had something to do with Wookiees being the most recognizable creature from the Star Wars universe. Rather how the Star Wars Wiki is called "Wookieepedia", I suppose.

Go read Unifying Force, Tofu. BTW, I believe his name is Trej. Welcome to the BEAK Imperium, Psycho!

SOCL's Forum Christmas list: -return or stabilization of Scath, Elvis, wormie, dude21, and Trej -new rank list :lol: Woo yay!

Thanks for the feedback bit, folks, concerning my tiny print. Not to worry, I've been away from my family before for important holidays, so I will enjoy this one even if it kills me! Happy Christmas, all!!!

And a happy holidays to all! I certainly hope you enjoy it more than I am with my bitching parents and sister...

My favorite character is Sandy. Yeehaw! How old did you say you were, Tex?

Well, welcome! Hopefully you won't follow these others' lead in spamming up a one-track thread (*cough*Mad and Slocket!*cough*) and find a niche of your own in our slightly insane online family!

What a zoo to work at! They've got a rather funky website: http://nationalzoo.si.edu/default.cfm?fonzref=index.htm What would you be doing there SOCL? Well, I would have to start as a volunteer likely cleaning cages, preparing food, and such. The way it works at the National Zoo and most other zoos here in the States, you work your way from doing those sort of jobs for free to doing those same jobs for pay, and then comes the progression in the ranks. Being a zookeeper is something of childhood dream of mine...

Yes to your first question. No to your second statement. We've had three new join today and three new join yesterday. In any event, it's not up to you, my friend. So go ahead and take this moment to (re)introduce yourself to the community, and again, welcome!