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Indiana Jones: Getting Ready for May 22nd

Posted on March 30th, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Costumes, Movies.

My Christmas wish list was a huge success - I got tons of neat stuff that I wanted but had a hard time justifying, such as an Indiana Jones hat.  How did I make it this far through life without a fedora?

[Myself in my Indiana Jones costume that I pulled together today.]

Then I used the Christmas money from my grandma to buy a brown leather coat.  And THEN my dear sweet brother gave me one of the two whips that he’s had since forever.  Pull out a pair of khakis and this shirt that I never wear but KNEW would come in handy…  I am amazing.

[Not the largest or most intellectually challenging set, but it’s fun]

I also recently purchased an Indiana Jones LEGO set…  I’ve loved LEGOs since I was a kid - they’re the best.  Personally, I collected Castle LEGOs, but I’ve got some Star Wars and Harry Potter LEGOs scattered about as well.

When I dumped the set out, of course, Tarzan felt the need to leap into the middle of the LEGO pile, grab something in his mouth, and wander off.  After I got the chokable piece away from him, he started swatting Indy’s dad around.  “Hey, you can’t do that!” I scolded him.  “That’s Sean Connery!”  After that, he left me and my LEGOs alone.

[LEGO Indiana Jones - the video game] 

I’m also looking forward to this summer’s LEGO Indiana Jones video game.  The LEGO Star Wars games rock, and I suspect that LEGO Indiana Jones will be equally awesome (and equally funny looking, which is half the fun of the game!)

4 comments.

Book: Star Wars: Revelation

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

NO SPOILERS: As always.  I’ll just vaguely comment on the whole thing.

And randomly, yeah, I know I haven’t posted lately, or sent my mom’s birthday gift, or spent time with my friends…I’m sorry…life’s been busy.  I only managed to plow through this book because I was stuck waiting at the DMV for four hours yesterday applying for a New York driver’s liscense, as my old Minnesota one’s expiring next month.  (And they didn’t even let me keep my Minnesota liscense.  The bastards.  Now no one will ever believe I’m just a sweet little Midwestern girl.  I could cry.)

Title: Revelation
.        (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, book 8.)
Author: Karen Traviss
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Comments: 4/5 (Chock full of all things Mando - love it or leave it.)

I did enjoy this book, but I guess it wasn’t what I was looking for.  I was expecting a Luke and Ben book, but what I got was a Jaina and Fett book.  I was never a Fett fan, but I’m fast becoming a Mando fan.  I even picked out a few quotes about Mandalorian culture.

I think I’m frustrated, too, because by this point, we know who is going after Darth Caedus, and it’s neither Luke nor Ben.  We really never get to see how powerful Luke is, and I thought that this series would finally show us.  I’m really enjoying all the other character development, mind you, but I can’t help but feel that the character central to the whole Star Wars series is horribly neglected.

If not that, I had the impression (starting from the middle, mind you) that this would be a series about Ben’s coming of age, and while the Solo kids carry as much Skywalker blood as Ben does, Ben is really the heir to the Skywalker legacy, so I had the impression that Legacy of the Force would be more about him and his development as a Jedi Knight…which it’s really not.  He’s horribly annoying in the first half of the series, then he gets really interesting and sophisticated…and then we forget about him.

Ah, the frustration.

The complaint I mostly see elsewhere about the Legacy of the Force series, however, is that it’s basically a repeat of history - the prequels all over again.  And while parts of it run parallel to the prequels, I find it fascinating because Legacy of the Force gives us a deeper understanding of how a good person could fall to the Dark Side, how they could justify their actions, and how others could let it all fall apart before their eyes.

On another note,  Admiral Daala re-emerges…I can’t remember having seen her since 11 ABY…  I read those books more than ten years ago, so I can’t remember how she was portrayed in them, but it didn’t ring any bells reading it…  It was like she was a new character.  The only way I can justify it is by reasoning that people can change the lot in the span of 30 years, and perhaps she has untold stories from an Imperial viewpoint.

At least this book really seems to be trying to build strong female characters for us to cling to…maybe that’s because it’s a woman writing.  On the one hand I rebel against that…I don’t want anyone messing with stuff just to make women look stronger…but then, it takes all kinds, and the galaxy needs more strong women, so perhaps I ought to stop complaining.

QUOTES:

“Jacen couldn’t have committed murder because he was too busy planning an abduction, Your Honor.”
- Thoughts of Ben Skywalker, trying to justify logic, p. 8

“I hope you’re rushing to tell me the chef has acquired Jacen Solo’s entrails and is braising them for dinner.”
“Not quite, Admiral.”
“Life is full of disappointments.”
- Gilad Pellaeon to Vitor Reige, p. 10

“Empire can be different.  Provided we shoot all the lunatics who enjoy the idea.”
- Gilad Pellaeon, p. 140

“Corellia had always been a thorn in every government’s side, a planet of hobby dissidents who didn’t care who ran the show or what the policies were as long as they could rebel against them.  Perhaps the worst thing to impose on Corellia was a regime on Coruscant that agreed with them on their every whining objection, sending them into a spiral of confusion.”
- Thoughts of Jacen Solo on Corellia, p. 147

“Doing the right thing isn’t something special.  It’s the minimum.  It’s where we start each morning, not where we try to end up one day in the future.  You taught me that.”
- Ben Skywalker to Luke Skywalker, p. 198

“Now go, and stop worrying, or I swear I’ll come back as a Force ghost and bug you while you’re on a date.”
- Luke Skywalker to Ben Skywalker, before leaving on a mission, p. 203

“Never underestimate the calming power of a list.”
- Lon Shevu, as quoted by Ben Skywalker, p. 204

“You know what we girls are like.  We just can’t throw anything away in case it comes back into fashion years later.”
- Natasi Daala, commenting on her fleet of out-dated vessels, p. 309

“I need someone to dance on my grave.”
- Boba Fett, p. 330

Carid: “Why do people always run away from us?”
Fett: “Let’s go ask them.”
- Baltan Carid and Boba Fett, p. 332

“What’s a hut-uun?  A coward.  Physical coward, moral coward, any kind of scum without the spine to stand their ground or do the right thing.  We don’t have a word for hero.  Being prepared to die for family and friends, or what you hold dear, is a basic requirement for a Mando, so it’s not worth a separate word.  It’s only cowards we had to find a special word for.”
- Baltan Carid, explaining Mandalorian language and culture, p. 339

Carid: “I found a use for Jedi!  I knew I would one day!  Look!”
Jaina: “Now you know why Jedi apprentices spend years in quiet contemplation and earnest study at the academy.”
- Jaina Solo, after Baltan Carid has her perform a party trick at a wedding, p. 392-393

2 comments.

Book: The Paper Bag Princess

Posted on March 2nd, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Books.

Title: The Paper Bag Princess
Author: Robert Munsch
Genre: Children’s / Fantasy
Anna’s Rating: 5/5 (Brilliant work.)

I thought I’d take a moment to blog about my new favorite storybook, The Paper Bag Princess.  It made me so happy that I started carrying it with me and showing to first my colleagues, and then anybody that I could get to sit still with a picture book for five to ten minutes.

Anybody who I can get to read it inevitably makes a comment to the effect of “You would like this book, Anna,” and I’m not sure exactly what that means…

Primarily, the book challenges gender roles.  When the prince gets kidnapped by the dragon, the princess marches out to challenge the dragon, who she defeats by outwitting him.  It’s an amazing book, and I had no idea that it wasn’t new…it was printed in 1980.

I’m left with only one question: Mom, why didn’t I have this book growing up???

[I thought I could dress up as the Paper Bag Princess for Halloween some year and be unique…but I see that idea had already been taken…though this image actually comes from an interesting post at Franke James’s blog - check it out.]

6 comments.