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Trooping: New York Comic Con 2009

Posted on February 17th, 2009 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Costumes, Food, NYC, Star Wars.

[Me, breaking out of my germ infested apartment, wearing stormtrooper handcuffs and sporting a stolen E-11.]

As I had spent the week with a triple digit fever, spending time in Midtown Manhattan with 60,000 of my closest friends was not high on my priority list, but I did, in the end, manage a few hours, plus a brief appearance at the Legion dinner.

[Snowtrooper making a withdrawl at the ATM.]

Too exhausted to suit up myself, I walked the floor with Kris, spotting him and helping him take some fun pictures…

[Myself with an R2 unit - wee!!!]

…and I served my time at the Legion table, which had such a hideous location this year that I proposed that next year, if we don’t get a floor on the main table, we don’t bother with the table at all.

[Myself with a Republic backpack, and a baby Rotta the Hutt - I want an ABS version of this backpack.]

I walked the floor briefly and looked at some of the toys and such.  The above $35 Republic backpack was very tempting, but I want a hard, ABS backpack, and this one, while supposed with cardboard, is still soft…and not right…  When someone makes these, send me a note and I’ll send a payment through PayPal.  Seriously.  I want one.

[Best costume of the con: the Incredible Hulk.]

I also saw some neat costumes, but this towering hulk, who easily cleared 7 feet, was quite impressive.  (I love seeing people’s creativity come out at cons.)

[Stout’s burger, with swiss and guac, and a side of sweet potato fries.]

After the con, the 501st and Rebel Legions headed over to Stout, on 33rd Street between 6th and 7th Avenues, where Danny and I indulged in burgers.  Burgers and fries run you $10, but you have to pay an additional dollar for each topping.  I wasn’t well, so it’s hard to judge, but it was made to order and was quite satisfying, even though I was dying, so if you’re in the area, give it a try.

[Steve Sansweet, head of Lucasfilm fan relations, I believe.  He looks like he could be my uncle in this pic.]

Steve Sansweet stole my chair when I stood briefly for some reason I can’t recall.  Now the temptation was there to forcefully reclaim my chair, but as I was still on the mend, and as it seems like a bad idea, I instead stole Steve I.’s chair when he stood for a moment (and Steve I. was nice and did not steal it back.)  Sansweet was a really nice guy, spent the whole evening with the Legions, and sat at out table signing trading cards for us to snatch up.  Good times.

Randomly:

{OM NOM NOM NOM!]

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Book: The Threat Within

Posted on December 20th, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Books, Star Wars.

Title: The Threat Within
        (Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice #18)
Author: Jude Watson
Genre: Young Readers
Anna’s Rating: 3/5

Book number #18, like #17, just wasn’t that impressive.  It didn’t outright suck, as at least there was a message in the end of the book, and a link or two back to the movies, such as Qui-gon’s concern that Obi-wan would never become a Jedi Knight because he could envision no future in which Obi-wan served alongside him as a full-fledged Jedi Knight.  It serves to remind us how limited our perspectives are by our tendancy to be self-centered individuals.

It just makes me sad that the series doesn’t seem to end for any more reason than that they’d run out of decent ideas.  It would have been nice if there had been an overall plan for where to take the series and how to wrap it up.  (Things to keep in mind when I write a book series, I guess.)  Admittedly, I do have the two special editions to read: one arrived this week, and the other is on its way via Amazon, but these books tell the story of Obi-wan and Anakin, so, it’s different, I expect.  We shall see.

And crap or gold, I shall blog about it.

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Troop: The Family Center Holiday Party

Posted on December 14th, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Costumes, Star Wars.

 
[Troopers at the armory at Lexington and 26th!  Rob in the background, then left to right it’s myself, Kris, Danny, and Steve in the Rex.]

So, after endless complaining that we never get charity troops in the City, this event landed in our laps: a holiday party by a group called The Family Center, which offers services to children who’s lives are acutely affected by parental illness.  (For privacy reasons, I can’t put up pictures of us interacting with people, so here’s a slew of pictures of us geeking out instead.)

 
[Kris in his Vader, threatening Jolly ol’ Saint Nick with a lightsaber.]

For families who cannot, because of medical bills, afford to give their children the kind of Christmas they might otherwise offer them, they hold a holiday party, full of food, games, dancing (ever seen a stormtrooper do the electric slide?) and, of course, Santa Claus (we had fun with him.)

 
[Left to right it’s Danny, Steve, Rob in front of Santa, then myself and Kris.  One happy, dysfunctional family.]

Adults and kids alike were delighted by our appearance, and we had a lot of fun, too.  (Especially when we found the hummer parked out front, which Rom somehow managed to climb into, but I, for the life of me, could not.  Sitting in a chair is a talent I amaze troopers the world over with, but I’m afraid the special skills end when I have to lift a foot more than two feet in the air.)

[Rob in the Hummer bed and Danny standing by - I’m actually behind Danny, trying to figured out how to get up there, too - a task I failed in.]

Whenever it got too hot, we just slipped outside to enjoy the randomly cold day that New York City was offering us.  It’ll be 30* one day and 60* the next…and this is December in the Northeast, folks.  For some reason, we also decided it’d look cool to take a picture standing in the middle of a busy road like Lexington Avenue, making sure to get the Chrystler building in the background, assuming that out-of-towners will mistake it for the Empire State Building and somehow be impressed.  (Remember that we’re geeks.)

 
[Geeks in plastic on Lexington Avenue with their backs to the soon-to-be oncoming traffic - and you thought geeks were smart!]

In other random geek news, Danny broke out his new Elite TK for this event: it’s awesome and makes me want to do a new TK as well, but it will have to wait ’till next summer…I’ve already got another project or two on my hands for the moment…but all in good time…

[Danny in his new elite TK: “I was trying to pose like I was thinking of how to ask Santa for a new blaster rifle.”] 

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Book: The Only Witness

Posted on December 14th, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Books, Star Wars.

Title: The Only Witness
        (Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice #17)
Author: Jude Watson
Genre: Young Readers
Anna’s Rating: 2/5 (Very disappointed.)

What can I say…?  This is the most disappointing book in the seventeen that I’ve read so far.  It took me about two weeks to finish, and considering how easy of a read these are, that says something.  I’ve been known to read two a day.

There was just nothing to enjoy.  No exciting plot.  No interesting twists.  No good character development.  No good quotes.  No links back to our beloved films.  It just exists.  And if you’re reading the other 19 books in the series, you might as well read it just to say you’ve completed the series, but all the same, if you’re buying a lot off e-bay and book #17 is missing, bid away.  You’ll get the incomplete set far cheaper, and you really won’t be missing anything.

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Star Wars: Darth Vader Toaster

Posted on November 29th, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Star Wars.

I own a toaster.  I inherited it from my grandmother after her death.  It came into my world neither new nor clean, nor did it ever function exceptionally well.  (But I’d come back to America toasterless some years ago and my parents had, for unknown reasons, saved this white plastic-encased toaster from my grandmother’s empty home, so it became mine.)

Now, I don’t often make toast.  Perhaps partially because, although I still brought it to my new apartment, my former roommate reported to me that it doesn’t work.  (Having yet to test it, how could I chuck it?)  Even still, I don’t feel an overwhelming urge to go out and procure a new bread-baking mini-appliance.

So, it’s hard to justify wanting this:

And yet…how can you not want it?  And would I start making toast if I had the inspiration of seeing a Sith Lord on every slice of bread?  Really, I can see me toasting bread if for no better reason that to see it work.

Though, I do wish they made the toaster with changeable panels, so my toast might be able to alternate between Darth Vader, C-3PO, a stormtrooper, and maybe a good quote, such as “May the Force be with you”, “It’s not my fault!” or “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…”

Then I would definately drop $50 on a toaster. 

Pity it won’t be available for Christmas…  What were the good folks at LFL thinking?

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Book: The Call to Vengeance

Posted on November 23rd, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Books, Star Wars.

Catching up on my blogging of Jedi Aprentice books just made me want to read another one…sigh…  Read half of it Saturday night, and the other half Sunday morning.  I’m a sinful creature…

Title: The Call to Vengeance
         (Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice #16)
Author: Jude Watsom
Genre: Young Readers
Anna’s Rating: 4/5

Yet another trilogy exists between numbers 14, 15, and 16.  In this continuation, Obi-wan is watching as his master, Qui-gon Jinn, slips to the Dark Side in the wake of the trauma that left the reader in shock at the end of book 15, The Death of Hope.

Good kids mystery book, wherein I suspected the real culprit early on, but it kept the reader guessing…very nice.  Not very quotable, but it kept the reader engaged - that’s the primary job of a book, after all.  (Yet so many fail in this, don’t they?)

Reflecting on Obi-wan in the movies, the events that unfold there seem all the more traumatic, as he watches people he cares for most, time and again, slipping to the grip of the Dark Side…and I’m left to wonder: Is Obi-wan the perfect Jedi?  Does he never falter when everyone around him seems to?  (This is, perhaps, why some people hate his character.)

Of course, I still have books 17 and 18…and I should order the two special edition books as well.  Maybe there’s more left to Obi-wan’s story.

QUOTE:

“Use your time.  You’ll find one day that you have too little of it.”
- Qui-gon Jinn, as recalled by Obi-wan Kenobi, p. 85

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Star Wars: One Season More

Posted on November 22nd, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Music, Star Wars.

This is a nice piece of CGI animation to accompany the song “One Season More” from Star Wars: The Musical, (which I have never seen.)  I listened to parts of the other songs, but I wasn’t really impressed.  “One Season More”, however, is a fabulous song in general - not only in the realm of Star Wars.

Lyrics are below:

One Season More
Lyrics by Timothy Edward Smith & Hunter Nolen

Is this all that there is for me?
How long ’til I am finally free?
This can’t be my destiny -
planned for me -
can it be?

Somewhere far, far away,
a new life is waiting for me.
For every sunrise
and every new day,
I know it’s closer than before,
but I’ll be waiting here
one season more.

Uncle Owen, I’m not like you:
I can’t just bury my dreams
(in the sands of Tatooine).

And I don’t want to turn around one day
to see that one season became
a lifetime thrown away.

So when the harvest comes
and the winds change,
no more waiting at the door:
I will spread my wings
one season more.

Biggs and Tank are gone away;
gone so far out into space.
That is where I long to be:
among the stars so alive and free!

But nothing seems to change;
just like before.
‘Til the harvest comes,
you will find me here
one season more.

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Book: The Death of Hope

Posted on November 22nd, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Books, Star Wars.

Title: The Death of Hope
         (Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice #15)
Author: Jude Watson
Genre: Young Readers
Anna’s Rating: 4/5

My first thought when I finished this book more than a month ago: Wow…

I have hardly developed more articulate thoughts since then.

A continuation of The Ties that Bind (#14), The Death of Hope is the continuing tale recounting Qui-gon Jinn’s efforts to change the future, not realizing that his own actions set into motion the very future that he is trying to avoid…

QUOTES:

“Accustomed to lie, you become.  Easy it becomes to be false in big things, if false in small ones you are.”
- Yoda, as recalled by Qui-gon, p. 141

“We could be rivals.  But I think it would be better if we were friends.”
- Talh, speaking to Qui-gon after a close match, p. 144

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Book: The Ties that Bind

Posted on November 22nd, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Books, Star Wars.

Title: The Ties that Bind
         (Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice #14)
Author: Jude Watson
Genre: Young Readers
Anna’s Rating: 4/5

This and the next book definately are on the list of this series’ higher quality volumes.  This story was excellent, with multiple aspects that relate to the real world rather well, but the best, and overarching aspect, of the story had two main points: reminiscing over the past, and trying to control the future.

This is mostly a Qui-gon story.  It begins with him taking Obi-wan out to a place he had been long ago with another dear friend, Jedi Master Tahl.  They had promised to return together, but life happens, and often times we never get around to doing the things we say we will.  Days and weeks turn into months and years and the things we value slip through our fingers. 

Now Qui-gon takes Obi-wan on the same trip in an effort to grasp at what was lost, but he is only plagues by visions of Tahl’s death.  Desparate to change the future, he chases across the Galaxy, to the world of New Apsolon, in an effort to change the vision of the future that he sees.

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USA: NYC: Village Halloween Parade

Posted on November 3rd, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Costumes, NYC, Star Wars.

(Can’t label it as a troop as it wasn’t an official event…still, I was trooping.)

[These awesome skeletons start off the parade each year.]

It’s that time again: yes, the time when all the women and gay men of New York City use Halloween as an excuse to dress up like prostitutes and hit the streets, massing in downtown Manhattan along 6th Avenue.

[Randomly ran into Havoc at the 43rd Street costume store!] 

We were supposed to be walking with the Kostume Kult, but we lost that pretty early on.  We headed forward to find a less crowded area so Danny could run (cause, unlike normal troopers, he can run in armor.)  I found a small marching band and danced along to the beat - a dancing stormtrooper can make just about anyone smile, I find.

 
[Left to right, it’s Danny, myself, Danielle, Denis, and Ian]

We had a few people come out and join us.  Denis (TK-7333) from the French Garrison came out and spotted us, along with his wife, Danielle.  Eric came out to do photography for the event.  Other than that, I saw Ruby, Jen, Ralph, Jessica, Ian, Coop, and a number of other troopers that I didn’t recognize.  There were also two giant wookies.

 
[Ruby and Jen, in an awesome pair of costumes at Batman and Batgirl.]

Ruby learned that night that he can tickle me by reaching in the side gaps in my armor…obviously, I need to close those up somehow…  It’s not very effective armor if I can be taken down without a single shot being fired…  “Ticklish soilders fall in battle”.  The shame…

[It fascinates me how I still look girly, even in stormtrooper armor.]

Now, the down side to the event was that dancing around caused my suspenders to looser, and my ab and back plates were slipping, which in turn caused my thigh pieces to slip, and eventually pinch the back of me knees as they came in contact with my shin armor…  It was horribly painful.  When we got home I checked…I thought it was just a bright red armor bite (I was insanely tired) but in truth, it broke skin and bled.  I know this because I have scabs on the back of my knee now.

[Myself (TK-7888): Stormtrooper giving high-fives to the crowd…awesome image.]

Sad of a story as that is, there is still the warmth of knowing I made hundreds of people smile…  I wonder if my new dancing stormtrooper routine has made it up onto YouTube yet?

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