Well, the party on Saturday went fairly well. I failed to mention that The Engineer provided a surround sound system and once we got the bugs worked out, it ran beautifully. Had another friend of mine show up that I hadn't seen for a long time (we'll call him Cutter, since he records a lot of shows off of his satellite, cuts the commercials out of them, and saves the final product as good as a DVD release). He stayed for the first four shows (through the end of Episode III).
No one stayed for all 7 movies. I would be the only one who saw them all. Not even the Queen was available for them all, but I knew she wouldn't be able to. She did an incredible job supporting this insane party idea of mine, and I'm extremely grateful to her for the job she did. Cutter was the first one to show up with The Engineer about 15 minutes late. My father arrived about halfway through Episode I, and Optimus came in for The Clone Wars. Everyone else showed up for the party around 2 (when The Engineer had to leave), and we found we were running behind since we had a good 25 minutes left in Clone Wars about the time we should have been done with it. This was probably because I let Cutter and The Engineer fuss with the surround sound between movies and they took awhile.
We kicked back off about 2:50 when everyone who didn't want to was leaving, and my mother and my sister's boyfriend (we'll call him Mick) came in about the time Episode III was starting. Optimus was the next to go because he felt he was passing out having had a long morning before he arrived. My father got my sister who managed to miss the end of Episode III, and Cutter left after Episode III was over leaving my family and Mick. We had some pizza and then my sister and Mick left after Episode IV. Turns out, though (who knew?), we failed to order enough pizza, although I figured 4 would be ok since we are usually well fed on 3 when we all eat on Thursday nights, and we're even short one.
Some other friends of ours (who just for fun, I'll call Bond and Moneypenny -- they're married) showed up during Episode V while my parents were still there, and we shared a round of Pina Coladas. My parents left after Episode V, and Bond and Moneypenny left during Episode VI, leaving just the Queen and I to finish out the last film by ourselves. It ended at 12:05, only about twenty minutes behind schedule. Not bad, eh?
Moneypenny asked while she was there when we were going to do Lord of the Rings. Well, it'll be a few months, but that series is much shorter (only 11 hours and 22 minutes in its extended edition with credits) so it's much more doable in a single setting. Sure, we could stretch it out by running The Hobbit first, but unlike The Clone Wars in relation to the 6 movies, the old, animated Hobbit TV movie really is a separate entity.
So this post has been sitting stagnant since I began it on June 4th, so rather than try and recapture the rest of then, I'll end this one, and start a new one.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Friday, May 30, 2008
Star Wars Eve
I can't believe I let this go a week without updating anything. This coming weekend should prove to be very exciting. Some time ago, when I was still at the World's Largest Retailer, I decided that when I finally got out there, I wanted to blow a Saturday doing nothing but watching movies. Then, I settled on watching Star Wars. Which one, you ask? All of them.
Starting at 7am tomorrow, I'm going to kick on Episode I and watch all of the movies back to back until about 11:45pm, when Return of the Jedi should be over. Around 2pm, we're going to take a short break for a birthday celebration, and then kick right back into the films around 2:45. Should be very nice to be able to kick and just watch all of these movies.
Of course, we're throwing in the canonical cartoon network mini-series, The Clone Wars, as well, since it bridges between II and III and provides a nice little transition. We are not, however, going to watch The Christmas Special. You know, that TV movie from 1978 that only played once, but starred all the originals from Episode IV (before it was Episode IV)? Yeah, Lucas disowned it, so I prefer to view that one without an audience. Yes, I have it.
I just wanted to put something on here since I keep forgetting. It seems that once I left the WLR, I don't write as much. Maybe all that free time on the weekend is going to my head...
Starting at 7am tomorrow, I'm going to kick on Episode I and watch all of the movies back to back until about 11:45pm, when Return of the Jedi should be over. Around 2pm, we're going to take a short break for a birthday celebration, and then kick right back into the films around 2:45. Should be very nice to be able to kick and just watch all of these movies.
Of course, we're throwing in the canonical cartoon network mini-series, The Clone Wars, as well, since it bridges between II and III and provides a nice little transition. We are not, however, going to watch The Christmas Special. You know, that TV movie from 1978 that only played once, but starred all the originals from Episode IV (before it was Episode IV)? Yeah, Lucas disowned it, so I prefer to view that one without an audience. Yes, I have it.
I just wanted to put something on here since I keep forgetting. It seems that once I left the WLR, I don't write as much. Maybe all that free time on the weekend is going to my head...
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Another Dark Cloud
My birthday is coming up, but when it comes to parties, I have some of the worst luck. I've already touched on my tendency to get sacked at a time that amounts to right before my birthday, but fortunately, the party side has been really good in recent years. When I was younger, I could never get anyone to come to my birthday parties because people tended to go on vacation immediately after school got out...which fell right on my birthday. My parents' church does church camp, which also tends to fall right around my birthday, and they've missed it because they've left for it before.
This year? Oh, I figured having it early combined with it being an all day, come when you like, Star Wars movie marathon lasting from 7am to nearly midnight would help some of the complications people have with showing up (at all). No, this year, a new kink gets thrown into the mix. Like any bloke who needs money, I like lapping up as much overtime as I can muster, and Optimus Prime is much the same way. Occasionally, my workplace will schedule a weekend work day to catch up on tickets. Guess when they decided to schedule a mandatory workday...
Yup... right on my marathon day. Now, we've both been forgiven that day for having a prior commitment, but you know, I kinda coulda used the $150 it would have been worth to come in that day. It would have been nice. I know he would feel the same way, so rather than a total day of freedom, we are freed for the day, with the idea hanging over us that if only I hadn't scheduled my day of fun, we would have worked. It's one freakin' crappy feeling.
I wish that just one year everything would go so perfectly in every regard that I could enjoy the day 100%. Even this year, my parents' church adjusted their church camp schedule and The Engineer is leaving town on the 31st for church camp. I thought for sure I had that missed, but instead, they did it earlier. Seriously, what do I have to do?
It's an annual frustration, and maybe this is why some people give up on parties after awhile. It's not even a matter of being important enough for people to show up. I'm a perennial victim of unlucky scheduling. It's not The Engineer's fault that the camp schedule is early...or really anytime they schedule it. It's not anyone's fault but my own I get sacked. And no one at work asked if anyone had conflicts with the 31st, but assumed most could make it.
I'll get over it, sure, but I'll always remember that fate threatened my party for one more year. Maybe next year will be better.
This year? Oh, I figured having it early combined with it being an all day, come when you like, Star Wars movie marathon lasting from 7am to nearly midnight would help some of the complications people have with showing up (at all). No, this year, a new kink gets thrown into the mix. Like any bloke who needs money, I like lapping up as much overtime as I can muster, and Optimus Prime is much the same way. Occasionally, my workplace will schedule a weekend work day to catch up on tickets. Guess when they decided to schedule a mandatory workday...
Yup... right on my marathon day. Now, we've both been forgiven that day for having a prior commitment, but you know, I kinda coulda used the $150 it would have been worth to come in that day. It would have been nice. I know he would feel the same way, so rather than a total day of freedom, we are freed for the day, with the idea hanging over us that if only I hadn't scheduled my day of fun, we would have worked. It's one freakin' crappy feeling.
I wish that just one year everything would go so perfectly in every regard that I could enjoy the day 100%. Even this year, my parents' church adjusted their church camp schedule and The Engineer is leaving town on the 31st for church camp. I thought for sure I had that missed, but instead, they did it earlier. Seriously, what do I have to do?
It's an annual frustration, and maybe this is why some people give up on parties after awhile. It's not even a matter of being important enough for people to show up. I'm a perennial victim of unlucky scheduling. It's not The Engineer's fault that the camp schedule is early...or really anytime they schedule it. It's not anyone's fault but my own I get sacked. And no one at work asked if anyone had conflicts with the 31st, but assumed most could make it.
I'll get over it, sure, but I'll always remember that fate threatened my party for one more year. Maybe next year will be better.
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