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

Well, it’s Sunday and it’s so many things today.  It’s the last day of my vacation.  It’s the last day of November.  It’s the first Sunday of Advent.  It’s the last chance to get the latest episode of “The Jedi Council Speaks” out.  So, as you can see, there were a lot of last minute decisions that had to be made!  We got up around eight o’clock this morning and started to get ready for a nine-thirty church service today.  The kids got excited this morning because Heather said they could wear their Christmas dresses and dress shirts for church today.  Heather and I got ready, but Heather was not feeling so well.  She has a little bit of a stomach bug and a stuffy nose and headaches.  For a while, I was concerned she was going to say to me that she wasn’t going to go to church and I would get stuck with just the kids and myself.  Luckily she came to church though.  It was a very nice service this morning, but they had some issues with the sound system again.  Major feedback this time and I knew I was going to get some questions at the end of the service.  Sure enough, Rodney asked me if there was a free day I had this week and I told him I had Thursday night free.  Not only did they have sound issues, but they had video issues as well.  For whatever reason, their screen for videos, etc. has stopped working and all they did was install a table in the back and replugged in all the cords.  We (a guy from Ed) and myself along with Rodney tried to get it working again, but to no avail.  We got done with church and went home a minute and then came back and picked up the kids.  Heather said she needed eggs and flour and I wanted to get some craft brushes, so we headed straight from church to Wal Mart.  We got what we needed and we got out simply because it was MASS chaos in Wal Mart today.  I would love to shop at this point in the season, but Heather sees it as pointless since we have no extra money to spend.  I’m not sure why we’re so strapped.  The only thing I can figure is that Heather is saving for the holiday season.  We got home and I hate to admit this, but I was exhausted.  I was still tired from all the work I was doing with the desktop computer and all the late nights I was spending on it.  So, I took an hour and a half nap and then it was back to work.  I spent the rest of my afternoon editing, editing, and more editing of the latest podcast.  I edited so much, that Heather brought dinner down to me and I ate while I continued to edit.  I got done editing around six o’clock or so and then I had to wait for Ian to show up around seven-thirty to finish recording.  Ian showed up around quarter till eight and we finished the last bit of the show in about an hour.  Ian left around nine o’clock and I spent from nine until ten-thirty editing.  I then spent from ten-thirty till twelve forty-five in the morning post processing the show.  It’s done now, but not on the ‘net yet.  That will happen tomorrow!  What a day.  There’s hope for a snow day tomorrow, but I’m not putting much promise in that.

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 1 of the Afterword of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..

‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 23 (Part 12)

Well, it’s Saturday and my vacation is really starting to wind down.  Reality is really beginning to set in that my vacation is about to be over.  I got up fairly late this morning not waking up before nine o’clock this morning.  Heather was still at work.  She had to go to work today because she had Thanksgiving day off and they are trying to make sure that she still has enough hours for the week.  I watched “The Clone Wars” with the kids this morning and then tried to download more patches for my Pinnacle product and was frustrated when nothing worked, yet again!  I’m really starting to get frustrated with this product and I’m wondering if I’m ever going to get it to work again.  Who would have thought that upgrading towers would be such a pain?  During the course of the morning this morning, I got upset with the loose toilet paper holder and towel holder in the smaller bathroom, so I decided to fix them.  I got done with that and went downstairs and watched some T.V. and worked on finishing up paperwork for school.  Heather came home and we ate come lunch together and I went back downstairs and started the daunting task of editing for the upcoming release for TJCS.  I got a LOT done in that department!  So much so, that by tomorrow night, there’s no reason that I shouldn’t be able to have it completely edited out.  That is my hope anyway.  I worked all through the afternoon and watched some college football and then “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” (Jim Carey) with the kids.  After that, I continued to work on the podcast and ended up working until about eleven o’clock at night.  It will be worth it, I believe, when you hear the next podcast.

Okay, so enough about my podcast, let’s talk about Part 12 of Chapter 23 of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..

‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 23 (Part 11)

Well, it’s Black Friday and I have to say that I’m a little depressed today.  This is the first Black Friday that I have not gone out and shopped in the 30 years of my life I can remember.  I’m not quite sure why it happened other than the fact that my wife works for J.C. Penney’s this year and she told me that we could not afford to shop on Black Friday this year.  I have made it a fun and adventurous day in years past.  But, I guess that didn’t matter to Heather.  I got up around nine o’clock this morning and started to watch “Dr. Phil” and in all honesty, I got bored with today’s show.  So, out of boredom and sheer curiosity I headed over to the Sci Fi channel and they were running a marathon of the “Mork and Mindy” show.  I have to say that I have really been enjoying those shows and kept switching back and forth to the show as the day went on.  While I did that, I caught up on my blog and did some editing for the next TJCS episode.  I also did some more grading for school and I just have to input them tomorrow and I’m done with it for a while.  Heather got home around noon and we watched “Mork and Mindy” upstairs and watched T.V. together for a little while.  Then Heather and I took a little nap togehter while the kids watched “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer” on DVD.  When we got up, we all went downstairs and watched “Elf” and “The Santa Clause” to continue our Christmas spirited day going.  In amongst all that, I continued my fight with Pinnacle to try and install the software for my Dazzle hardware and still have yet to solve the actual problem.  We then ate dinner and then put up the Christmas tree while we all watched “The Polar Express” on T.V.  It ended at ten o’clock and I continued watching “Mork and Mindy” while I blogged for today.

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 11 of Chapter 23 of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..

‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 23 (Part 10)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!  I realize you’re all probably reading this a day late, but it’s not the end of the world, because I decided to take a day-off from blogging today.  But, I thought since it’s the day after Thanksgiving, then I should take a minute and update from yesterday anyway, so here’s the info on my Thanksgiving.  I got up this morning and decided to get to work on the desktop computer and try to fix it up so we can use it.  I spent HOURS this morning trying to get the home network, and especially the printer, working.  It took me almost two hours to get it all together and another hour to get the printer online so I could use it from my laptop!  All I can say is that I am REALLY beginning to hate Windows Vista.  I still haven’t solved the problem with PInnacle and my Dazzle.  It sucks!  I basically bought a product that I may never have the ability to use EVER again!!  So, what’s the point in someone selling said product then?  It’s just frustrating!  I got that done while we were all watching the “Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade” and helping Heather get the dinner together.  She got up around four-thirty this morning to put the turkey in and I helped her put a bunch of the other stuff together.  We got the table together and Heather spilled some gravy on it, so we scrambled to reset the table and Linda and Ian came over.  We had a wonderful dinner and had some great conversation.  We ate all sorts of food; including turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, corn, green bean casserole, three different pies, and a pumpkin cheesecake.  It was ALL good.  My wife did an AMAZING job cooking yet again and it was just a good day overall!  We got done eating and went downstairs and watched the rest of the Tenessee Titans handing the Detroit Lions handing them their hearts on a platter.  We then watched the Dallas Cowboys hand the Seattle Seahawks a loss.  I have to say the games today weren’t even games, they were slaughter-houses.  It’s kind of a shame.  We go done with that and watched a Peanuts Thanksgiving special and Ian and Linda decided to leave.  After they left, Heather and I maintained the tradition of watching “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” and then went to bed.

Okay, so let’s talk about Part10 of Chapter 23 of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover……

‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 23 (Part 9)

Wednesday, and it was my first day of vacation.  I had plans on being relaxed and getting a bunch of things done.  Of course, not many things go completely according to plan.  I got up this morning around nine o’clock and started my day off by watching “Dr. Phil” on T.V.  Then I did the worst thing I could do on a day off from school.  I put in “The Force Unleashed”.  I spent the rest of my morning trying to beat the game.  I sincerely got stuck on the level where I had to bring down the Star Destroyer and got stuck on it for over two hours.  It was frustrating and I paused the game around noon in order to go upstairs and ate some lunch with the family.  The gentleman from Rent A Center came and basically told me we needed to replace the computer, so he was going to come back with one.  In the meantime, Heather had gone to work and came home and I was able to spend some time with her.  We talked for a little while as she made pies and what-not for Thanksgiving tomorrow.  Then I went back downstairs and continued playing “The Force Unleashed” and finally beat the game.  I took a little bit of a nap and then got up and started doing my research and show notes for the latest episode of “The Conservacast”.  While I did this, Heather left and picked up the new computer from Rent A Center and did some errands and came home.  I finished my notes in time for dinner and I went upstairs and joined the family for some dinner.  We ate and I went back downstairs and recorded the show.  I got it done and put it up on the website, and it can be found here:  http://www.conservacast.mypodcast.com.  I then watched some T.V. with Heather and we watched “The New Adventures of Old Christine”, “Garry Un-Married”, “Criminal Minds”, and “C.S.I.: NY” while we taped “Law and Order”.  I then went upstairs and started to work on the new computer tower.  I spent most of my night frustrated with “Pinnacle”, as I went to reinstall their software for the “Dazzle” I have upstairs, but my serial number no longer works.  Frustration!  So much so, I couldn’t solve the problem and I went to bed at midnight without a solution to the problem.  Well, tomorrow is Thanksgiving, let’s hope it will be just as relaxed.  We have Ian and Lynda coming over and I can’t wait to spend some time with the two of them.

Well, enough of all of that, it’s time for us to talk about Part 9 of Chapter 23 of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..

‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 23 (Part 8)

Well, it was Tuesday and Heather’s day off from work for this week.  I got up this morning to their being snow and ice on the ground.  I turned on the T.V. and found out the kids had an hour delay today and I had to get to work on time.  Heather helped me out and made breakfast for me while I took a shower and got ready for my day.  I was a little upset that I didn’t even have a delay this morning and I have to admit that as I drove my car to school, the roads were not good.  I even got stuck behind a truck and got to work a little later than I wanted to.  I got things together for the day and worked with my classes this morning.  Some of my students were upset that we were actually doing work in my class.  But, as I explained to them, when I only have ten weeks for my class, I really don’t have the luxury of not doing work just before breaks, especially this quarter as I have less time this quarter than I do in other quarters.  At lunch I went out with the usually group of teachers to the pizza shop.  We got back from lunch and found out all the other bloc leaders had a meeting at lunch that I never got contacted about.  I have to say this was a bad turn to a day that turned out worse. I was pretty miffed about this the rest of the day and I was just ultimately NOT in a good mood.  I found out through the course of the day today that Heather let our Netflix membership lapse and got on her case about it.  She wasn’t happy with me because I was upset with her for driving out to her sisters on a day that had such bad weather.  I really thing she just doesn’t care that I worry about her, especially when she is on her own.  But, I was now officially having a bad day.  I called her on my way home and vented about my problems with Netflix and with school.  She then told me that she was trying to check on Netflix and the computer wasn’t working.  I got home and took a look at our desktop computer and learned that our desktop was pretty much dead.  She had called Rent A Center already telling them that we had a monitor problem, but I told her it was a problem with the computer as the computer was acting like there was no hard drive inside.  It literally wasn’t working anymore.  Now I wasn’t happy at all.  I went downstairs and checked on some things while Heather made some dinner upstairs.  We sat down and ate dinner together.  Not too long after dinner, Ian showed up and talked with Heather and I.  He and his wife asked Heather and I to be the godparents for their future baby.  I was honored that he asked and Heather and I said we would have to discuss it and would talk to him later about it.  We got done talking and Ian and I went downstairs and started recording for the latest episode of TJCS.   I taped “Fringe” while we did this and at ten o’clock I watched my tape.  Then Heather and I went to bed.  I’m looking forward to having the day off tomorrow.  That, and Rent A Center is supposed to show up and fix the computer and I plan on having a relaxed day.

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 8 of Chapter 23 of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..

‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 23 (Part 7)

Well, it’s Monday and it was time to get back to work.  I got up this morning and really began to wonder where my weekend went.  I did so much work on a weekend that had nothing going on, that I’m beginning to wonder if I’m better off having a busy planned weekend than a weekend that was not so busy.  Anyway, I also got up this morning with a bunch of Billy Joel songs in my head.  Maybe that’s because we went to see “Movin Out” last night and I got all the songs stuck in my head.  It’s not a totally bad thing I guess.  I got up and got the kids going for the day today.  We were all dragging a little bit today, but the kids sounded excited about knowing that this Thursday was going to be Thanksgiving.  We got breakfast and got ready for school and work and our babysitter showed up on time.  I was then off to work and the kids were off to school.  I got to work late this morning because I got caught behind a truck on the way to school.  I got to school and started my day.  I got through the day today and my one sixth grade class was better behaved.  Maybe my threat of throwing out students that are going to interupt me is now working and I think they are understanding that I mean business.   I got done with my day and came home.  The kids were working on homework and Heather was busy getting dinner together.  I went downstairs and set some things up for later tonight and came upstairs and visited with the kids a little bit.  I helped Ruth with her homework a little bit and then we all ate dinner together.  I then went downstairs and decided to play “The Force Unleashed” on the PS3 for a little bit.  Then I took Austin to Boy Scouts and came home and continued to play the game.  When I drove Austin to Scouts, the roads were terrible and I was beginning to hope that we would have a snow day tomorrow or at least a delay.  After some time, I stopped playing the game and Heather went and picked Austin up from Scouts and came downstairs and joined me.  We watched “The Sarah Connor Chronicles”, “Heroes”, and “C.S.I.: Miami” while I tapped “Big Bang Theory”, “How I Met Your Mother”, “Two and a Half Men”, and “Worst Week”.  After that, we went to bed.  Tomorrow was going to be a big day as it was the last day of work before vacation.

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 7 of Chapter 23 of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..

‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 23 (Part 6)

Well, it’s Sunday, Sunday, Sunday (as yelled by a monster truck announcer)!!  Today was quite the jam packed day of fun, excitement and a nice ending to a nice and relaxed weekend.  We got up around eight-thirty this morning and got ourselves and the kids ready for church today.  My son became a numpty this morning when I found out that he broke one of the snowmen lights I had just put up last night.  When I asked him how it happened, he said the dog did it.  Nice, he didn’t pay attention to the dog and let the dog knock the light over and break it.  I was so furious with him because he doesn’t take responsibility for anything!  So, I told Heather HE was going to pay for a new one.  We started to get ready for church and Ruth suddenly “remembered” she needed to be to church early as she was an accolite this Sunday, so we scrambled and got ourselves to church.  Ruth did a good job as the cross-bearer, but Austin was supposed to sing with the choir in the beginning of the service and he remembered at the last minute.  Then he got up there and just stood around.  He didn’t know the song or the words to the song.  So, I had to take him downstairs and have a talk with him about responsibility.  He’s just not getting it, and I only think he’s going to get worse as a teenager.  That boy can really drive me nuts!  We got done with church and Heather and I left the kids there while we went to “Christmas Tree Shop” and got another snowman light.  We also stopped at Lowes on our way home and grabbed a different type of extension cord for the heater in the basement at home.  We got done with that and then stopped by the house quick.  I started to install the extension cord and Heather decided to go get the kids and meet me at home.  She met back up with me and I had just finished the project and we left together and got some lunch at Subway.  They were having a fundraiser for a girl that’s going to Europe for a music program and we really wanted to help her out, so we ate lunch/dinner from them and the proceeds went to their trip.  We got home and ate while I watched some football.  I then went downstairs and watched more football as I continued to work on show notes and even took a nice nap.  I then woke up and ate a light snack and got dressed.  Heather and I then left the house on our first date night in YEARS!!!!  We had tickets to The Forum to go see “Movin’ Out” the musical based on the music of Billy Joel.  I have to say that I LOVED the show!  It was awesome, the music was stellar, and the band was AMAZING!!!  I have to say that I’m re-attuned to the music of Billy Joel.  AGAIN!  It was a great way to end a great weekend.  We got home and watched “The Unit” and then got ourselves ready for the week and went to bed.

Okay, so enough about my hectic Sunday, let’s talk about “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover.  Let’s talk about Part 6 of Chapter 23…..

‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 23 (Part 5)

Well, it was Saturday today and you would think that with nothing happening I would have plenty of time to get things accomplished.  But, somehow that just didn’t turn out to be the case.  I got up a little late this morning at about nine o’clock and Heather and I talked to the kids for a little bit and then got the girls ready for a day at the local “Giant” food market to fundraise money for Girl Scouts.  While Heather was gone, the guys from Rent A Center stopped by and dropped off Heather’s new recliner for the basment.  I had to scramble quick and get things set up so we could get her chair into the basement and now I had to move a chair into my game room and we agreed we’ll move it close to the T.V. at the bottom of the stairs.  I got done with that and Heather came home and told me that the girls wanted to stay at the “Giant” all day until four o’clock, which is okay, but we hadn’t packed them lunch nor did we plan on them being gone.  SO, we had to head upstairs to make a lunch to drop off to the girls.  Once I finished with that, Heather headed out to take the lunch to them and I started to put the snowmen lights we purchased last night together and started to put them into the ground.  I finished with that project by about noon and it was then time to eat lunch.  We ate lunch together for a little bit and Heather started to work on the walls in the kitchen, while I went downstairs and started to work on show notes for the next episode of TJCS.  I got about two hours or so work on that done and then I decided to relax a little bit and watch the Penn State game on T.V.  Well, I relaxed so much, I took a half hour snooze and then it was right back to working on the notes for the show again until dinner time.  After dinner Heather and I decided to head downstairs and watch a movie, so I pulled out 3:10 to Yuma which we had, but had not watched yet.  The movie was okay, but was hard to follow at times because of the plot line.  Of course, that may also be because we weren’t really focusing on the movie as I continued with show notes and we kept getting interupted by the kids who were upstairs watching “The Santa Clause”.  After the movie, we watched a little T.V. and then went to bed.

Okay, so enough about my boring day today, let’s talk about Part 5 of Chapter 23 of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..

Clone Wars VIII

Well, it’s Friday and it’s payday and I should be excited about this, and I am a little bit.  In all honesty I’m just too tired to be excited about anything right now.  My alarm rang this morning and I couldn’t believe it was time to get up.  I got up and got the kids going for the day and overall we had a decent morning this morning.  I was a little foggy, but managed to make myself through the morning.  I got to school and got things ready for the day.  I prepared to have my students go to the library to do research for their music video and podcast projects and I have to say that they did pretty well in the library.  They had to be reminded to settle down a few times, but overall they weren’t bad.  My sixth graders gave me an interesting time and I have to say that I stood my ground with my one class and actually removed someone from class today.  I believe that is only the beginning of the problems that are going to persist with this particular class.  We’ll have to wait and see.  We went to “New York Chef’s” for lunch and Heather met me there.  We had a good lunch together and Heather mentioned wanting to go out and get her shopping done tonight and not tomorrow so she could focus on the house tomorrow.  So, I told her that sounded fine and that I would make sure I got home in time to do this.  So, as soon as wok was done, I raced home and got changed out my clothes and we went right to shopping.  We had to do this in order to get back for tonight.  We went right to Penney’s and got Heather the drapes she’s been begging me for, for the sliding glass door and the window of our kitchen.  We then stopped in to “Guitar Center” just to see what they had and I hate to admit it, but I was kind of in seventh heaven there with the electronic recording and lighting equipment.  Then we went to the Christmas Tree Shop and found LOTS of nice things there.  Probably too many, but as I said to Heather they were all good things for the house, includig some nice snowmen solar powered lights for our walkway that I promised Heather I would install tomorrow.  We got done over in Johnson City and stopped by Burger King on Front Street and got some dinner and then we stopped by Lowes, ran into Ian and got an electric heater for the basement along with some extension wire to run along the basement to hook it up.  We got done there and raced home.  I got the heater hooked up and Heather put away some of the things just in time for us to watch “Clone Wars” with Ian and then we got done watching that and headed right to bed.  Speaking of “Clone Wars”, catch our latest commentary on the latest episode here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?nnxmmrznuzx