‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Introduction (Part 6)

So it’s New Year’s Eve.  Heather got up early again this morning and headed off to work.  Luckily, she doesn’t have to be in to work as early tomorrow morning because they are not opening up Wendy’s until noon.  Anyway, I managed to actually sleep in a little this morning and I didn’t wake up when the alarm went off.  I got up around nine o’clock this morning and in keeping with tradition, I went downstairs and watched (you got it!) Dr. Phil.  I like watching Dr. Phil when I have days off from school.  There is something about the advice he gives on his show.  Besides, it reminds me not to be a jerk like all the guys he has on the show.  Not that I would ever be one, but it’s a way to make sure I keep myself in check.  While I watched Dr. Phil I also started to reflect about my year this year.
It’s been an interesting year for me.  2007 has had it’s moments of good and bad and even for me and this blog and podcast there have been some rocky moments this year.  I started off the year on a good foot.  I started out with one of the fastest growing costuming groups, The Mandalorian Mercs.  I was also involved with one of the fastest growing FanForce groups right here in Binghamton.  My podcast has grown a considerable audience and even my blog has really started to take on a life of it’s own over the past year.  I want to thank all of you for helping to support this blog and my podcast in taking on these lives they have taken on.  In all reality, it’s nice to know that the work that you do is appreciated.  I have had some rocky points this year to go with all of that.  My blog has gotten admitedly behind and I’m scrambling to try and catch up.  Much of that had to do with my marching band season and having problems with my laptop that I had to catch up from.  My podcast got shut down and then reinstated all within the same year and I even had my spun off podcast, “Novel Ideas” go down as well.  But, with all that negative, there are so many positives, that it outweighs all the negatives.
Now, as I look to 2008 I have some big hopes for the future.  I hope to have a sponsor for this podcast soon.  I hope to have a forum for my podcast and blog soon.  I hope to get this blog and podcast advertised more and recognized on the Internet more.  I hope that I can continue to entertain and meet entertaining people with my podcast.  I’m looking forward to 2008.  But as I look forward, I can’t help but pause and look back and say that 2007 has been a good year.
Onto my life.  I reflected throughout the day today and Heather got home around two o’clock or so and found the kids and I just totally vegging out.  This time, she expected it and wasn’t upset to find out that we had.  She took a nap as well as the kids adn then we got ready to go out to Ponderosa with our neighbors.  Our neighbors were awesome and bought my family and I an “all you can eat” buffet at Ponderosa, which my son of course took advantage of this.  We really had a great time!  They really like our kids and it was nice to get to know them and I think they enjoyed getting to know us.  We also found out some history behind our house which was nice information for Heather and I to know.  Evidently, back in the day, our house was the “party” house in the neighborhood.  In other words, everyone had kids that would come to our house and hang out.  That’s why our hallway had all the drawings on the wall because everyone from the neighborhood was allowed to write on the walls.  We learned about how the front bedroom was taken out and about how the basement used to be a fully functional basement like we’ve made it.  We also learned about how the previous owners destroyed this house and the yard.  Like letting the back yard getting muddy enough to rip around on a snowmobile on it and ripping up the soil and the grass.  It was a fun and enlightening meal.
We got done with dinner and went our seperate ways and Heather and I went home with the kids.
We had the kids up late watching movies and then we switched to CBS that was covering the ball dropping with Hannah Montana, Hillary Duff, and the Jonas Brothers.  It was a great way to celebrate the New Year.  And, on top of it, Heather cooked some awesome food for us by nine o’clock.  We had some chicken wings, shrimp, and other various snacky type foods.  This time, the kids stayed up till midnight and we all celebrated together.  Heather and I toasted the new year with some wine she likes and the kids toasted with some nice sparkling grape juice.  We had some party hats, noise makers, and even some confetti bombs that went off on the new year.  It was a nice night.  The kids were exhausted by the end of the evening and so were Heather and I.
Okay, let’s talk about Part 6 of the Introduction of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..

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Introduction (Part 6):  Mace was enraged by the idea that Depa Billaba would be invovled in this act, but todl the agent that there was no sign the Jedi had partaken of this practice.  Palpatine asked Windu what the military prospects of this planet were and the agent answered none.  He said they were attacked by Balwai jungle prospectorss better known as Jups.  But he was warry as Jups never bring along their children.  He told Windu that bioscans reveal about a dozen children involved which means it wasn’t militia.  Palpatine asked what Balwai are and Windu explained that they are off worlders interested in the spices and exotic woods in the jungles of Haruun Kal.  Palpatine was shocked that people would risk thier lives over such things, but Windu pointed out the price for thyssel bark has skyrocketed lately.  Mace said he can’t see Depa being involved with civilians this way, but Yoda points out they don’t have all the evidence.  That’s when attention went to the agent and he produced a crystal and explained that it’s audio only.  They did a voice print analysis and with the ambient noise, makes a match a 90% possiblity…..

‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Introduction (Part 5)

Sunday.  A day of rest.  Today we did our usual Sunday things.  We got up at our usual time for church and got ourselves and the kids ready for church.  There was somehow a finality to the feeling with church today as Ruth pointed out on our way to the service that this was the final church service for 2007. I had never thought of it that way, but then again, I had never thought of anything that way.  So, we got to church and had an interesting service with a sermon about the Wise Men.  I always forget that the wise men didn’t get to Jesus until months after he was born.  So, a good service and a good message.  We got done with church and came right home.
Heather and I took a nap.  She went to the bed upstairs and I came downstairs to watch some football on T.V.  In reality, I watched more of the back of my eyelids than I watched the T.V. and the games.  As usual, my Rams ended the season on a bad note and lost.  They ended the season at 3-13 with a loss against the Cardinals.  It’s almost back to being the old crying Rams fan that I used to be in seasons past.  My only hope for the football season now is that either the Patriots get beat early on in the Playoffs or they have one of the most embarassing upsets in football history ever!  I still can’t stand them ever since they beat the Rams in that Superbowl about four years ago.  Now, after last night, they are one of only two teams to have and undefeated season and I really think they have become way too cocky for their own good!  Someone needs to bring them down a peg or two!
Okay, so enough about football.  Heather woke up this afternoon and came downstairs and did her usual sewing while watching T.V. and Austin joine me in watching football.  We lounged around all afternoon and all evening and even ate leftovers for dinner.  It was a nice relaxing day.  Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve, so it will be a late night and we’ll be eating dinner with out neighbors which may or may not be an interesting experience.
Okay, let’s talk about Part 5 of the Introduction of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..

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Introduction (Part 5):  Then Mace saw something and pointed to some wounds on bodies in the woods.  The Republic Intelligence agent said he can’t as the image is primative, as he sneezed and complained about his allergies.  Mace insisted, so he enhanced the image and apologized for the primative system.  Mace walked forward and leaned down to the larger image of the bodies and pointed out something to Yoda and the Jedi Master said no conclusions could be drawn.  Palpatine asked them to explain what they saw.  Mace pointed out that the wounds that were on the body could only have been created by a dead blade, which is just a piece of metal, ceramic, transparisteel, or even carbonite.  Palapatine said it sounds crude and Windu agreed.  Mace pointed to one set of the wounds and said they are parallel and at differing lengths which means they were done post mortum.  Then the agent in the room said it could’ve ben done while they were tied up.  The agent explained that there has been a history of recreational torture with the conflict on Haruun Kal on both sides, as they believe the enemy needs to go through pain and suffering before death…..

‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Introduction (Part 4)

Saturday and Heather still had to get up early and be to work.  Bummer!  But she really needs to make up for the unplanned loss of hours from her District Manager being a jerk on Christmas Eve.  So, she woke me up fairly early again this morning.  All well, soon I’ll have to be getting up at six-thirty again anyway.  I got up around eight o’clock this morning and started  to work on putting together the notes on my next podcast and as I was flipping through previous notes it dawned on me that I do not have any contact with Flying Turtle Toys.  So, I tried contacting them again today, to no avail.  I’m starting to get annoyed at having to contact them and I’ve decided that one of my New Year’s Resolutions is to get a sponsor for my show and to get a local sponsor for my show.  It will require me having to really be agressive with the concept, but I think I have to.  So, I decided I better come up with a way to both promote my show and promote my sponsor, whoever they may be.
I helped the kids organize their rooms this morning so they could fit in all the new toys they got for Christmas this year.  We talked about how much work they needed to do and luckily for me, they took the time to get it all done right.  By the time they finished with that, Heather had come home and asked if we could go out now and get some things together for a small New Year’s Celebration at our house.  I told here I was all for it.  It was only going to involve the family, but she wanted to put together a spread just for all of us and she wanted to actually have some party favors on hand.  I told her I understood and that it would be nice to actually celebrate the New Year instead of just watching T.V. and starring at the ball dropping in Times Square.  So, she no more than got home till we left again this afternoon.  We went out all over town getting things.  We went to Maines to get decorations and party favors/noise makers.  We went to Aldi’s and Wal Mart to get food and we also decided to go to the mall and try to get her some clothes she’s needed to get for a while.  We also stopped at The Christmas Tree Shop to see if they had some baking pans she needed.  We were out so long, we decided to get dinner out and got home around eight-thirty or so.  By the time we got the car unloaded and put the stuff away, it was time for the kids to go to bed.  Heather and I went downstairs and relaxed for a while and then went to be ourselves as we had church tomorrow.
Okay, so let’s talk about Part 4 of the Introduction of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..

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Introduction (Part 4):  Mace tells Yoda that the only other person that could lead The Republic through these dark times is him, but Yoda says that his visions are clouded by an evil and a darkness that he fears will last for a long time.  At that moment, Palapatine entered the room and both Jedi stood up and bowed out of respect.  Palpatine looked tired and another man entered with him that was short with borwn hair which made Mace assume was a spy.  Palpatine said they have news about Depa Billaba and said this man has information as he has come from Haruun Kal and said they shall examine the evidence themselves.  Mace asked what it was and asked if she was captured, but Palpatine said it was much worse.  The agent that came into the room pulled out an old holoprojector and turned it on.  They all starred in shock at the image on Palpatine’s desk.  There were burned huts all around a pile of nineteen corpses which the spy identified as the Loyalist Partisans under the command of Master Billaba……

‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Introduction (Part 3)

Friday.  I’ve looked ahead and it’s hard to believe that my vacation, believe it or not, is almost over.  I basically have this coming weekend followed by Monday and Tuesday and then I’m in school next week Wednesday.  Somehow, this vacation seems to have shortened up quite bit.  I feel as though I just got used to the idea of being on vacation, now I need to start thinking about the other side of vacation.  I got up at nine o’clock this morning again, but this time I was so tired, I sat downstairs and watched “Dr. Phil” and did nothing else.  I even kind of faded in an out as I watched the show because of how tired I really was.  For some reason, this morning when Heather’s alarm clock went off, it woke me up too.  I’m not exactly sure why.
In all honesty, the kids and I had a very slow and lazy day.  They came downstairs and watched me play Madden on my PS2 for about an hour or so after watching T.V. and they asked to play “Star Wars: Legos” on the PS2 and I told them they could.  I decided to work on my blog and they played the game for a good two and a half hours.  We then stopped for lunch and then went back downstairs and watched “High School Musical 2″ for the millionth time since Sunday.  I’m actually beginning to hate the songs in this movie, but it’s all for my daughters.  Heather came home to us “vedging” out in the basement.  I knew she would be a little upset about it, as she was, but as I reminded her, it was vacation and we all wanted to just take a moment and relax.  She went in the other room and sewed and we talked about the fact that the kids have worked hard all week long and deserved a day off from all of the house/room cleaning.  We got done watching “High School Musical 2″ and I watched Season 4 of “Farscape” some more while I continued to work on my blog and catch up on other work.
Around five o’clock or so, we went upstairs and ate some dinner together as a family and Heather and I went back downstairs and watched some T.V. while I continued to try and catch up this blog (which obviously didn’t work too well).  We headed to bed a little early as Heather had to get up early again tomorrow.
So let’s talk about Part 3 of the Introduction of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..

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Introduction (Part 3):  But, Yoda said this is all speculation and told Mace to have patience.  Mace said that ten years ago they could have reached out, but Master Yoda cut him off and said they can no longer look to the past.  Yoda starred at Mace as he tried not to think about the shadow that darkened their us of The Force.  Yoda said she was a great and Mace interjected saying she better be, as he had trained her.  Yoda told him he worries too much both for her and the Jedi after Geonosis.  Mace deflected the comments saying that the Chancellor’s office has changed quite a bit since Valorum’s days.  Yoda said Valorum was the last in a great line of Chancellors as he contemplated the last 900 years of The Republic.  Yoda did point out to Windu that Valorum’s downfall was the fact that he was a Chancellor stuck on the past while Palpatine at least seemed to be looking to the future.  Mace looked around at the office noticing it was simple.  He liked the simplicity and told Yoda that it’s a shame that he has no connection to The Force as he may have made a fine Jedi.  Yoda asked Mace if he admired the Chancellor and Windu says he supposes that the election of Palpatine was a shatterpoint to The Republic…..

‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Introduction (Part 2)

Thursday.  Heather was back to work today and not too happy about it.  She was furious at having to work and she was even more furious about having lost six hours this week with them taking her job away as the schedule writer for the week.  It was six hours she had planned on, instead, she had to pick up some hours at the store, which the District Manager wanted to force her into doing.  I told her she needs to start an investigation into Wendy’s about their treatment of female employees.  Her District Manager makes some VERY sexually charged comments like, “women can’t work the grill properly” or “women can’t handle organizing paperwork correctly, they just think they can”.  For some reason, Heather won’t run with the idea and said she has too much dignity for that.  I told her that she is being taken advantage of because she’s a woman and because she’s a hard worker.  This guy should be out of a job and my wife should be recognized for all the extra work she does for this store.
While Heather was at work, I slept in until nine o’clock.  I got up and immediately went downstairs and watched “Dr. Phil” while I worked on the new podcast page a while.  You can find that page at:  http://www.jedicouncilspeaks.mypodcast.com.  Hopefully this idea will take off soon and I hope everyone will enjoy all the work I’ve gone through to move the podcast.  When I got done watching the show, I joined the kids upstairs and we goofed around with each other doing things like painting and crafts until about noon when we decided to eat some lunch.  I told the kids while we were eating, we would be cleaning the house after lunch, which they agreed to.
When we got done with lunch we took to cleaning the house.  And what a task it was.  We reorganized the kitchen, cleaned the dishes and started there first.  It took us three hours just to get that done alone.  Heather even came home while we were in the middle of cleaning the kitchen.  Heather worked on other parts of the house while we continued.  After we got done with the kitchen, we worked on other parts of the house, mainly the bedrooms.  We changed sheets and got all of the dirty laundry downstairs.
We worked well into the evening right through dinner as we got turkey leftovers on the fly!  It was a lot of work, but tomorrow with a little bit of work, we should have it all done.  Heather told me today that one of our neighbors actually wants to take us out to dinner on New Year’s Eve because she likes our kids and all the things they have done to help the neighbors out.  I told her that we should graciously accept even though she didn’t want to.  I told her it was almost rude not to in this case and she reluctantly agreed and called back tonight and accepted the offer.  We really didn’ t watch any T.V. tonight as we were busy cleaning.
Okay, let’s talk about Part 2 of the Introduction of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..

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Introduction (Part 2):  Mace had jogged to the Supreme Chancellor’s suite beneath the Senate’s Great Rotunda to find Yoda on his hovering chair.  Yoda commented about Mace’s untimeliness and Windu said the courier had told him that this was something about the operation on Haruun Kal.  Yoda commented that Mace seemed concerned for Depa and Windu pointed out that the Seperatists have pulled out of their base on Pelek Baw, but Yoda notes she has not returned.  Mace pointed out that Haruun Kal is still mostly Seperatist and she’s got a price on her head.  That will make it nearly impossible for her to get off the planet.  Yoda said Mace cared for her, but Mace knew it went deeper than that.  She had been on the planet for four months and Windu tracked her movements by the failed attacks of the Seperatist guerilla bands.  They failed so much so, that the Seperatists had pulled back, but Mace wondered at what cost.  Mace couldn’t help but wonder if they were going to tell him bad news or there would be no need for this secracy…..

‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Introduction (Part 1)

The day after Christmas.  And the house looks like a Nuclear bomb went off in it.  BUT, it was a happy nuclear bomb!  It was quite a time yesterday at Christmas and today was the day to try and pick up the pieces from all of that.  My parents and my brother and sister-in-law all got up fairly early this morning around eight o’clock or so.  Robbie had evidently gotten most of them up early, including my own children.  In some ways that was okay.  My parents and brother got their things together and by about noon, everyone had left our house.  It was almost depressing to go from that many people in the house to only the five of us left.  But, it was a fun weekend and week so far, so it was all worth the time we spent preparing for it all.  After everyone left, we all decided to sit down and have a little bit of a lunch.  We got done with lunch and I was going to have everyone help to pack up the house, but Heather convinced me not to.
So, we spent this afternoon lounging around the house.  I took an hour nap and played a lot of “Guitar Hero” downstairs as well as some football on the PS2.  It quite honestly, was nice to take a moment and step back and relax for a day considering how much time we’ve spent working over the past week or so.  It got to evening and we all fended for ourselves for dinner out of the fridge.  Tomorrow Heather would be back to work and the kids and I would be cleaning the house up from all of the festivities.
Okay, so today we start our new book.  Let’s talk about Part 1 of the Introduction to “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..

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Introduction (Part 1):  Dangerously Sane – From the private journals of Mace Windu – I am perfect in my dreams.  There they are below in the arena.  Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Senator Amidala.  And within reach of my blade are Nute Gunray, Jango Fett, and Count Dooku.  In my dreams I do it right and I don’t hesitate.  In an instant I take down Dooku and save the galaxy form an intergalactic Civil War.  I could have done it, and I felt all the greed and sheer deception.  I could sense that Dooku held it all together within the Seperatist movement.  He became the shatterpoint.  I knew it because of my Jedi powers.  I sensed it was much like the Corusca gem.  Upon normal use, the gem is as hard as any metal or rock, but if tapped, even lightly, on a shatterpoint and it can break into a million pieces.  Me, I see the shatterpoints.  It’s not a sight as much as a perception.  I noticed I had this ability when I was a young Jedi in The Temple, as young as seven years old.  If I put it in simple terms, I can see where you bend and break using my connections with The Force.  I used this power to find a weakness in one of the most powerful bounty hunters, Jango Fett on Geonosis.  However, a moment of a shatterpoint is dependent upon timing, and time is fluid.  There is no such thing as a second chance and I could have stopped this war by killing Dooku on Geonosis.  Later Master Yoda said there was no way I could have cut down a former colleague, but I feel that I should have.  I became split about which feelings I should trust.  I had to choose whether to kill a former Master or save current ones and I made Jedi decisions.  Many have died for my choice.  There is much I regret and many Jedi now have nightmares over my choice.  This many Jedi have not died since the Sith War over four thousand years ago.   I am probably the only Jedi who doesn’t have nightmares about what happened on Geonosis.  My nightmare is a living nightmare, even Jedi have shatterpoings….

Merry Christmas everone!!!  Ho, ho, ho!!!  I have to say that today was a great day and Christmas at the Crissman household went VERY well.  We got up around eight o’clock this morning which surprised me as my kids usually get up around six o’clock in the morning.  There was excitement and pandemonium abound!  There were lots of gifts opened and many people were happy with their gifts by the end of the day.  I have to say that I even got some cool gifts including a 2 GB flash drive for school and a Madden NFL football game for my PS2.

We all had some breakfast but we all waited for the dinner that my wife was putting together.  And what a wonderful meal it was!!  We had turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, peas, carrots, gravy, cranberries, and all sorts of other food including the stuffing.  It was a great meal and we didn’t start eating until around noon or so.  So, we were starving by the time we ate, but that just added to the excitement of the feast.  The rest of the day was a blast.  Robbie was a hoot to watch and he sure likes to try to create chaos when he can.  What can I say?  He definetly lives up to his namesake!  J  I had some fun downstairs this afternoon and evening playing some football on the PS2 with my brother and also showing him “Guitar Hero”.  I think my brother was frustrated with the fact that he couldn’t get the game to work and was frustrated at the coordination it took to play that game.  Even Ruth and my niece Katie tried it and they didn’t do so well either.  I also showed my brother how to use Limewire and how to get MP3’s from there onto his daughter’s MP3 player she got this morning.  We got done with everything today and my house looked like a cyclone hit it, but that was okay.  That’s what Christmas is all about!

Amongst the chaos, I managed to continue to work on moving my podcast, but my laptop is still going to be working all night tonight and into tomorrow finishing up.  So, after tomorrow I will continue on in reviewing my Star Wars books starting with “Shatterpoint” by Matthew Woodring Stover.  It was a busy day, so I’m sorry for the short entry, but I’ll continue tomorrow.

Christmas Eve.  It was a busy day from the beginning of today to the end, but worth every moment of it!  I got up fairly early this morning and continued to keep things going on my podcast.  I have to say that moving the cast is taking a LOT longer than I thought!  While I was downstairs working on it, I watched a little bit of Dr. Phil this morning.  It was an interesting episode about husbands that just don’t know how to treat their wives.  I have to say that I learn a lot by watching these idiots to remind myself that not only do I treat my wife right, but that I’m not a complete idiot about it all as well.

Okay, so I got up till about Special Edition #2 uploaded this morning when my parents showed up and I was distracted.

We spent some time with my parents and not too long after they showed up, than my brother showed up with his wife.  My dad, brother, and I took about an hour to unload the gifts from my parents’ car that they rented and I have to say they needed to rent a car because they would never have gotten all those gifts in their regular car.  We all goofed around all afternoon long and it was quite the time.  Heather decided she needed to head to work to get some info to write the schedule this week which she figured she could start a little bit tomorrow.  She came home, furious!!  She told me they took the schedule from her (which equals about five to six hours of work a week) because her boss claims he didn’t get an email of some numbers he needed when he wanted it.  So, quite literally, my wife got demoted on New Year’s Eve.  I was so tempted to go up to the store and give the district manager a piece of my mind.  Way to make your employees, especially ones that work hard like my wife, feel real appreciated for all the extra things they do for you.  Way to go Wendy’s!!  (jerks!)  So, now that my wife’s evening was ruined, we had to get ready for our Christmas Eve church service.  We got ourselves ready and headed off to church.

Ruth was less nervous about playing tonight and I have to say that she did much better with her performance.  She felt better about her performance and I think it was all deserved.  We had a great time at the Christmas Eve service and Trish had decided that she would sing in the choir after seeing the wife of her former private vocal coach in the choir as a guest this evening (Barb Powell).  I didn’t have the guts to tell her that I didn’t get along with the lady much myself as she is just stubborn at times.  We had a great time at the church service and, of course, the kids were about loopy by the time we left church as their excitement over Christmas got almost overwhelming.  The kids were excited, and even Heather and I were excited to have everyone at our house this Christmas.  We had a great time this evening watching “A Christmas Story” (as is Crissman tradition) and then feasted on some great food.  Everything from shrimp to mini hot dog wieners to crackers and chips.  We had a great time visiting with everyone this evening.  Somehow, in the process I still managed to continue work on moving my podcast from the podomatic website to the mypodcast.com page.  I’m looking forward to the day when I can finally find all of my podcasts on one page.  It looks like that day may be coming soon. 

Sunday, and another busy day at the Crissman household.  For most people, today is the last day to really get some last minute groceries and gifts.  In my house, we began the mass chaos of celebrating Christmas over three days.  Heather and I got up with the kids fairly early today as there was much that needed to be done before we left for church today.  We got things prepped for a big turkey dinner as well as doing some other things in preparation for the celebration this afternoon.  We got things cleaned up around the house one last time.  We then headed off to church.  Not too long after we got to church, my in-laws showed up with Heather’s great grandfather and joined us for the church service.  We had a good church service and had a good time at the service.  We got done with church and Heather and I raced home to get things ready for the celebration.

Once we got home, we prepped things for dinner and had a great time visiting with family.  Heather cooked a great meal and I hate to say it, but I probably ate way too much.  But, the meal was good and I couldn’t help myself.  We celebrated Christmas with the others at our house and had a good time.  My in-laws had to leave around four or five o’clock or so.

Shortly after they left, we celebrated our Christmas with the kids.  There was some sheer excitement in the house.  Austin was ecstatic about getting his Republic Gunship along with the clones that came with it.  He got some droids in packages as well as some clothes and other things.  Ruth was excited to get her High School Musical bag and really got excited at getting her Special Edition High School Musical 2 DVD.  Tara was really excited about getting some Hello Kitty things.   But, she was more excited at getting her Darth Vader laptop.  She couldn’t put it down!  So, Heather admitted she was wrong considering that she didn’t think Tara would like it.  Heather was happy with everything she got and really liked the massage pad I got for her chair and immediately put it to good use.  The pajamas I got her fit fine and so did the bra that I got her, which made me feel better as I was real worried about that.  My only gift was exactly what I wanted.  I got Guitar Hero 3 long with a wireless guitar.  We got done opening gifts and I went downstairs.

As I continued to upload podcast episodes all night long, I started to play Guitar Hero 3 for about two hours almost three.  Heather thought I looked funny doing it, but I as about three-quarters of the way through completing the game on Easy level in one night!  Not too shabby.  Beating the rock legends is not easy, though.  I put Guitar Hero down around eleven o’clock or so and headed to bed with Heather.  Tomorrow was going to be another long day as it was Christmas Eve.

‘Star Wars: Outbound Flight’ – Overview

Saturday.  Much to do even though I don’t have school.  I got up early this morning and started to work downstairs.  I started last night on what may be an almost impossible task.  I have been struggling with the concept behind my podcast and quite honestly have been very upset with how things are going with my podcast.  The part that upsets me the most is the fact that my problems are generally not my fault.  I have been, over the course of the last two or three weeks, been looking for a place to move my podcast to.  At first I researched the concept of paying for a site for my podcast, but quite honestly my wife and I can’t afford to do that.  I also researched the idea of finding a website under which I can host my own podcast, but again money becomes an issue.  Then, on Thursday, I had noticed that James Everett of the Star Wars Podcast “Coruscant Cast” was thinking about switching feeds to another website called mypodcast.com.  So, last night I finally had some time to check out the site.

Honestly, mypodcast.com is EXACTLY what I’m looking for.  They have a great starter site going and quite honestly have some cool concepts already in place.  On top of that, they let me see the html version of my podcast page, which will be nice for editing purposes later on.  I also found out they have unlimited storage (HUGE for a show like mine that has been around for three years and has quite a few shows to move) and they have unlimited bandwidth.  Yeah, now my podcast site won’t be shut down for too much traffic!  So, after thinking about it and working on the concept, I attempted to start the move of my podccast last night.  I only had one problem.  Mypodcast.com wants my podcasts to be at 44100khz and at 96kbps (for those who podcast, you’ll know what I talk about).  Not all my podcasts are at this level.  As a matter of fact, most are of a significantly lower quality.  So, last night I started the humongous task of recoding all my podcasts.  Because of this, my laptop was on all night recoding shows.  I got up this morning and continued with the process.

I then worked on cleaning the house one last time before relatives were to start showing up for Christmas.  Tomorrow my in-laws are showing up to celebrate with us and my parents and brother and sister in-law will be showing up on Monday.  I’m excited to have our version of the Griswold Family Christmas, let’s just hope ours turns out better.  So, in between recoding podcasts I continually cleaned.  We had dinner and lunch on our own as it was kind of a “fend for yourself” day by eating leftovers out of the fridge.  Heather left this afternoon to do some last minute Christmas shopping for the kids for stocking stuffers and for me, she didn’t want me to know what she was getting, even though I begged her to get me Guitar Hero with the guitar.  We agreed that we were going to exchange our gifts tomorrow after my in-laws left and before my parents showed up on Monday.

By this evening, I was down to getting shows unto the mypodcast page.  I tried several times to do it via the wireless network in my house, but after hours of frustration and no results, I decided to hardwire my laptop to the router and try moving the podcasts to their website via that route.  After two hours of downloading, it worked!  Great, only twenty or more shows to go.  That’s when I realized that this was going to take a LONG time to move my podcast.  Well, slow, tedious, but it will get there.  So, tonight I will do my final review of “Outbound Flight” and then from now until Christmas day, I will blog without a review of any books.  I may not have much time online over the next three or four days while I try to move all these files.  Ah, the sacrifices I make for my love of podcasting and Star Wars.  All well, LOL!
Okay, so let me do one last final review of the book “Star Wars:  Outbound Flight” by Timothy Zahn…..

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FINAL REVIEW
Positives:  This book had many positive aspects to it.  I really liked the character development.  Although I knew the characters were going to live and I knew where most of them would end up, the development of these characters kept me intrigued and involved in the book.  But, I have to say that this is one thing that Timothy Zahn has always had going for him and that is what made his first book trilogy so successful.  I liked the introduction to all the alien speices that was explored through this book, especially the Vagaari.  I also like the mystique of the book and the surprise ending.  There were many twists and turns and you never knew what to expect and when the plot line was going to change.  This made the book intriguing.  I do like the fact that you didn’t know the twist until the last moments when they happened.  Another positive was the fact that the book went into the complexes of the pirates and smugglers in the Star Wars universe.  I just don’t feel that a lot of time has been spent on this group of individuals in the Star Wars universe and I felt a little time was spent here.  Also, I liked the idea of some of the weapons that were used throughout the book, including the grav projector.  I like the idea that they have a weapon that would pull any ship out of hyperspace.  This is a cool concept and could be scarily dangerous should it make it into the Republic at a later time.  Finally, the objects that were described, were described well.  Zahn didn’t take a lot of time describing these things, but did enough of an explanation that I could picture what he was describing.  So, not too wordy but enough words to properly describe the information handed to me.
Negatives:  This book did have some negatives, however.  I was rather annoyed at the fact that the story seemed to change tracks so quickly.  I really wish authors used the concepts of page breaks or chapters in a more efficient way.  There were points in time where I was annoyed at the fact that I did not know where we were in the story.  Another negative of this book was that I felt that we spent more time on Thrawn and his side of the story than on Outbound Flight itself.  Remember, the name of the book is Outbound Flight, yet somehow, this book seems to be more about the Chiss and the Vagaari than Outbound Flight itself.  The story at the beginning of this book was a giant wast of time and I believe that it could’ve been summed up instead of presented as an entire story.  Finally, I would have liked to have seen even more of a character development about the history of Jedi Master Joruus C’Baoth.  I wanted to know more about where this infamous Jedi Master came from and why he was put in charge of such an auspicious project.
With all of this considered, I really did like the book overall.  I have to say that a lot of it has to do with Zahn’s writing style which I have always liked.  However, I’m not so sure that this book is an absolute must read.  You already could get a lot of this information in Zahn’s original book trilogy and this story seemed to just take some of those facts and work with it.  Because of all of this, I give the book a:

Overall:  7