R2-Opus2

What's good too is building up another character to do all the risk taking and using Vader along with some special forces as the decoys. Course if you didn't know if an enemy force character or Luke was there first, it might spell their doom. I'm not sure if the leadership rating matters for the one leading the decoy half of the mission or not, but perhaps you could have a smaller investment in spec ops if you had Vader or the Emperor acting as the decoy.

Yea, I've been meaning to try out a few cards and so forth, just not enough time.

I'm playing an Imp game after having not played the game in a while. I decided that I'd check out the cutscenes I'd missed and try to lose, but its so hard. I get carried away, and instead of losing, I'm building too much I don't know what's up with the AI, they won't attack as much as I'd hoped even on hard and raising the importance of every sector/planet. I don't even think they've tried to make a run on Coruscant yet. Heck I even left them an incentive to attack by letting them have 5 planets in Sesswanna. Maybe if I play a bit of peek-a-boo at those worlds with a Death Star visit.

Howdy, its me, back from wherever the heck I've been, reeking of mothballs. Anyway, I'd love to see if they'll expand the final space battle at Endor. If they do it wouldn 't surprise me if they, like me, unmothballed some things. Truthfully, I wouldn't mind seeing some N1s, but I'd hope we see a bunch blow to pieces (I mean they are supposed to be inferior in some ways, not just in age but performance). Blech on all the Yoda/Jabba/Ewok/Vader/Anakin CG changeovers. Like others, I found the ESB yoda puppet alright on its own (in fact, I wished they'd used that for Menace, but oh well. The CG yoda in ep 2 wasn't all that bad, but still don't think they should swap it in for the ESB puppet...If anything, they should go back to Menace and maybe add the ep 2 cg Yoda so there's a better age progression ending with the puppet yoda heh). Anyway, Yoda's movements as he ages shouldn't be that fluid anyway, makes more sense in my mind that they begin with CG, and end with a decrepid and more arthritic Yoda puppet Ok, enough about the green gremlin, back to space battles! It would be interesting to say the least if even some of the rumors of the Hoth ground battle were there (still want the stop mostion stuff on the walkers, they should be clunky and intimidating as ever) about the landing ships deboarding them, that could be cool. Wouldn't mind too seeing some other side battles going on down there too. As for the evacuation, maybe they'll spruce that up a bit as well. Wouldn't mind seeing a few transports not making it as in the literature Mostly I'm all about the space fixes, I'm a nut for the space battles.

Well with CG they can save a lot of money that's for sure. It may not help the production times all that much, but ifn' they don't have to spend time shooting models of ships that is. They can then just do what Trek does now and mainly invest in sets or partial sets with greenscreen for later CG stuff. Though too, if they go an do a lot of location shoots, it may save time and money, depending on if they're building elaborate sets or not. As to many of the alien characters, if they've made masks and whatnot already, they may not even have to CG some of that.

I think this idea could work, I mean, its no different than Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, or the shortlived Space Above and Beyond. Plop the setting down during the period of an expansive conflict, only with the twist being suggested, show the Squadron's evolution over the 20 years or so the GCW was occuring...just from the squadron's perspective. Members came and went from that group, either living long enough to retire, got promoted out, or went out the old fashioned way, through nifty explosive deaths that would look awesome on our TVs To keep costs down on such a production though, I think they'd have to go with very new actors. I doubt they'd want to pay for, assuming they'd even want to participate, all the old actors, even for just cameos. The second string supporting guys like Wedge they might be able to swing but I wouldn't count on that either heh. The one downfall I see to such a series is that these guys were largely restricted to their fighters when we see them in action. I think a better series might be one about a covert ops squad or something. At least then you could have the whole gambit of situations to put them in. i.e. they probably have all kinds of skills including fighters, but here you have the bonus of having them be on foot too, thrown into all kinds of situations and on lots of worlds to boot (places where it may have not been feasible to have fleet support) Either way, I do like the idea that the setting could change from early in the war - pre first Death Star death - to late in the war - i.e. Palleon signing the cease fire (the supposedly "official" end to the GCW). Every 10-15 episodes or so out of a given season could represent a different conflict that related to a specific timespan (i.e. Just the Bakuran thing, Just the Thrawn thing etc.)

My impression of these "insurgent terrorist types" is that they are largely mercenary, fighthing for power in the same way that brought Hussein into the picutre 30+ years ago. They're all wannabe dictators and thugs or they're plants from other arab countries looking to mold Iraq themselves into a more amenable arab state to themselves. I think they are scared to death that there could be a democratic arab state right in the middle of everyone else in the region. Actually I think what they are more afraid of is a government that is tolerant of its citizens' and actually cares about their futures. I also think that without tolerance, there can be no peace or for that matter, freedom. I am still finding insidents of terrorists who still blow themselves up to take something of their enemies with them to be ironic. I mean, its been many nations' policies for a couple of decades now not to negotiate with them, so I can't see the reason clear enough in my head as to "why they fight". I don't see what it is they're hoping to gain other than to force us out like Vietnam through guerilla tactics, and we all know that ain't going to happen. I also think the media's portrayal of events is terrible as usual. I still hear the same stories as everyone else, but when I hear an interview with soldiers over there from time to time, they still get nods of approval by many Iraqi citizens, because they all know what is at stake here all too well, and I think what the media forgets is that its their futures at stake here, a future without a dictator, then the process of building a government from scratch that respects its citizens. I've known all along that there is no such thing as an instant solution to something like this, and its appalling to me to get this vibe from those in the media who think nation building is a fairly straight forward process. I know we cannot ignore the money that is needed to do all this, but what's more important is we cannot ignore the human element on all sides. We can't leave this job half done like Somalia and "hope" everything turns out ok so we can say "we did our best" just so we can sleep at night. The Iraqis have been living in fear for 30 years. I know its not easy for some of the generation thats there now to give up their predjudices...many have only known life under Saddam and fear change and this is understandable. But like Yoda says, they need to unlearn some things they've learned (heh, bet you were wondering how I would tie this in to Star Wars ) Anyway, now they've got their freedom, the rest will take time obviously, and while we can quibble over the reasons why we went in, the point now is that we're there, now what? I just think we need to leave that place in better shape than the way we saw it before. As for the terrorists, I almost feel sorry for them...They'll only ever always know war, because they will never want to associate themselves with the concept of the tolerance of others.

heh well, if lightsabers were around here, I would bet you a nickel those things would be superduper regulated. We're not talking swords here, we'er talking about a sword-like weapon, that just so happens to be able to slice through just about anything material-wise, and in a compact package nonetheless

My dad's over in Britian this week on a business trip so I look forward to anything he's seen or heard while there. I know he's not a Bush fan, but I'm curious to wonder if some anti war nut has lured him into some stupid debate just cause he's American heh. What's interesting in its own right is he very much dislikes (and that's a kind word to decribe his feelings on the subject ) politics let alone talking about it.

*checks pulse* I'm still alive....I think.

hehe nice picture. Yep, even the hiring of illegal aliens hasn't slowed Wal-Mart down hehe. Kinda questions if they even pay their people, American or not, decent living wages. Also last I knew, they weren't unionized but maybe that's changed. I would think that their workforce is big enough that it ought to be. I've worked for both union and non-union establishments, and one of the things I think is a must these days is job security...no matter how people feel about them, I think that aspect is key in a large company like that.

By the way, didn't they advertise a night that they'll recap a whole bunch of them? I fear I'll end up missing too many and I can't figure out my crappy vcr to record it hehe. I suspect I'll end up waiting patiently for the DVD.

aintitcoolnews.com had a bunch of articles about AvP. I don't necessarily agree with all those assesments, but they sure are fun to read nonetheless

Something else that seems a little unsettling is the release date, I'd have thought this would have been a 2005 summer type thing, not a summer/fall 2004 release. I would have also thought they'd need time for all their post production magic (cgi work and what have you).

I had a list a long time ago of stupid sayings on them, but the only one that I can remember was..."All things being equal, fat people use more soap."

Well I think colonies are one of the next logical steps to take when you think of the commercial aspects to space, and trying to draw the average citizens' interest. Tourists need places to go after all. Then with any luck, the costs in flying people to and from those places will help pay for the spacecraft services that bring them, but perhaps even pay for the sustainment of those colonies to some extent.

yea I heard they'd started principle photography just last month. Good 'ol Lance Hentrikson will be in it from what I saw on that space.com link. I'm siked despite opinions I'd heard of the director from other fans. (still grumpy that they didn't accept the first comic plot offered) But who knows, with all the producers having one thing or other to do with each franchise, maybe it won't be so bad.

You may still find plenty of 2nd 3rd 4th 5th printings but its the 1st printings that are worth anything significant, most especially the individual first printing books. I don't know that the paperbacks themselves are worth much (even first printings), but the hardcovers if you find them, probably are, seeing as how some of them are signed by artist and writer. Incidentally, I liked that comic's look, Cam Kennedy did some wonderful things with his watercolor work (before this series, I wasn't aware of any comic artists doing watercolor), and of course Dave Dorman's covers are great. I have a couple lithographs he did (one is Indiana Jones, and the other is from an Alien vs Predator comic cover from the first comic crossover). The funny thing I found at the time of getting those lithos was that they appeared to come in different series. i.e. Mine are all signed and numbered out of 1500...the like long after I got mine, I still saw ads for obtaining the same litho but in another series of 1500. So I dont know for sure that they are different than advertised at the time (being a different artwork) or if the numbering system was continued i.e. 1501+ etc.

Also Empire's End or something that immediatly followed the Dark Empire 6 issue story (you can still find those in either the all-in-one trade paperbacks or hardcovers floating aroud, should have both stories in them). I think the first series had one of those ships, and the last had the other

I can't say for sure if its an exacting piece of history, insofar as the characters. The settings, technology and the circumstances of the time seem accurate to me though but I'm no history buff . I could also be wrong, but I think Richard Harris' character and that of his son were real people...if they were, Hollywood definitely took some liberties cause as far as I know no king died in his own arena

Agreed on the nuclear waste thing. Still there are promising alternatives. I saw recently on one of those science channels about a satellite mission to visit an asteroid (the craft name eludes me atm), and the craft was the first to use this Ion drive technology. While that may solve the propulsion issue with regards to contaminating space with our waste, there's still the matter of protecting crew for a manned space flight. The problem with that propulsion tech though, is it takes a long time to get up to speed, but once it does, its goin pretty good. Another problem that came up with that engine in that show I saw, was they had a very small foreign object that interfered and they were afraid they wouldn't get the engine started. Anyway, watching this made me realize that, while we're making strides in some areas, others are still lacking big time. Still, in the end, I think from a general sense, we're living in exciting times. We're witnessing the dawn of some impressive technology in respect to manned space flight, and even unmanned space flight.

I don't know of the Batman vs Alien, but its been a long time. Its possible I have one where Batmans in the middle of messing with the Preadors again, but this time among a hunt they had with Aliens. I vaguely recall that sort of plot. Also there was an Superman vs Alien one I remember as being an interesting read where the man 'o steel had one inside him heh (if there was more than one I don't know, but I saw the first) On a similar topic, from that space.com site's entertainment area, I saw they are getting the AvP film underway, unfortunately, not with the original comic book plot, but following the games (I still think the first comic plot rocked more than any game plot). Also Stan Winston wasn't invited to do his supurb creature effects, even though he's worked on both monsters. I think the only saving grace for this project is that, whether people like or hate the directing choice, all the producers involved had one thing or other to do with both franchises...so perhaps all is not lost and it won't be a major dud we feared heh.

Yea they had some funky little web games there too (probably still do, I didn't look this time). If you can remember that quiz type game with Robert Picardo in it from way back, that's about the time I first started going there. They must change stuff up fairly frequently with their games so I'd look into those too. One game they always tend to have, which I never really get sick of really, is a variation or other on that classic Lunar Landing game (last time I looked, I think they changed it from the moon to Mars or something), its a good time waster hehe

I've never heard of a short film, but I do have the first Batman vs Predator comic (I think there were two stories or more, but I know I've got that first).

Yep, I visit it once in a blue moon, but each time I do I'm not disappointed, great stuff there. I thought that report incidentally was spot on about NASA, it touched on many of my concerns about the future of manned space missions. They need to worry about the lives in their control out there, not some bottom line on a budget or pressure from politicians. I especially found that bit about congressional earmarks – congressional additions to the NASA budget request that reflect targeted members’ interests. Disturbing stuff, but I wouldn't put it past some thieving politicians. Still, it makes you angrier to realize they're taking these earmarks out of their total budget. I'd be less angry if they had added more to their budget rather than gouging from it for their own special interests which had nothing mind you, to do with NASA operations in general. Makes me kind of wonder where experts like this were when they investigated the JFK assasination heh, they did a pretty good job on NASA and I especially love how they slammed Congress (gently though it seemed). No one single entity was at fault for any failures, but a bunch of groups factored in. I also thought it a shame that the shuttle program was competing directly with the station's...that's a huge conflict of interest considering the station wouldn't exist without the shuttle.