So...it's been a while.
(Sam rants about work and talks about Episode III)
Changing and chaotic conditions at work and general business can be blamed for the twenty-day lapse between this and my last post. Fortunately my readership (all three of you) is patient and forgiving.
First, let's do the rundown of general work crap, just to get it out of my system:
- My Miltoning is complete. My workspace is now a folding table in our data center.
- Our migration from Novell Groupwise to Microsoft Exchange is (more or less) complete. Naturally, we had some problems given the extremely aggressive schedule we were given by the suits over at IOT. Most of them were end-user problems, which I'm sure I'll get blamed for since I'm "the ZEN guy." Hey, buttclowns - your refusal to allow us adequate time for testing and documentation does not equate to a deficiency within ZENworks.
- Because of said migration, my vacation for this weekend was cancelled. More ranting about that below.
I'm still on the hunt for another J-O-B. I've had a few nibbles on my resume, but nothing serious. At least I've got until February to sort this all out.
In personal news, Jessi and I continue to settle into our new digs. We were supposed to go to Minnesota together (along with her sister and brother-in-law) for her friend Eva's graduation. The situation at work put the nix on my plans and my vacation request was denied. I was so pissed initially that I wanted to walk off the job, but reason prevailed and I'm a lot calmer about it now. The hardest part is being separated from Jess, even for just a weekend. I actually teared up a bit when she left Thursday morning. I've tried to keep my mind off it over the weekend. I hung some with my brother and some other friends, saw a movie (twice, actually...guess which movie) and have generally tried to avoid rattling around our apartment by myself. Today is the first day that I've really been home all day without her and I really don't like it. I really miss her and I can't wait until she gets back tomorrow.
Like every other person in America, I paid my penance to George Lucas and saw Star Wars: Episode III - The Revenge of the Sith this weekend. I saw it once late Thursday night with my younger brother and again on Friday night with a few friends. Rather than re-type my thoughts on the film, I'll just drop in what I said in the Lounge over at Ars when I got home from the movies Thursday night:
- Dialog and acting, the two biggest complaints that most people had about Eps. I and II, were greatly improved IMHO. Did this make them great, or even good? Not really. But it was a big improvement. Ian McDiarmid and Ewan McGregor both delivered good performances, and even Christensen and Portman were better than in Ep. II.
- Reuse of lines from Eps. IV, V and VI should have pissed me off. It didn't. I actually grinned when I heard the fighter pilot say "Lock S-foils in attack position" during the opening battle at Coruscant.
- General Grievous was stupid. I haven't seen the entirety of the Clone Wars cartoons, so perhaps I'm missing what's supposed to make him so badass. The movie could have totally done without him. LAEM++
- The Wookies, while neat to look at, where completely superfluous to the plot. It felt like the battle scenes on Kashyyk were an afterthought, which I'm sure they were.
- The opening battle sequence was phenomenal, a worthy successor (predecessor?) to the awesome space battles in Eps. IV-VI.
- The scene in which Palpatine reveals himself to Anakin as the Sith Lord that the Jedi have been seeking was one of the best of the movie, IMHO. Amazing acting by McDiarmid and a pretty decent performance by Christensen. Probably his best work of the prequels.
- Palpatine's use of a lightsaber, while neat to watch (like the Wookies), was unnecessary. The fight between him and Yoda should have been entirely Force powers, IMO.
- The assault on the Jedi Temple was too tame. I realize that they couldn't show Vader slaughtering children and keep their PG-13 rating, but a bit more footage of him tearing up the Temple would have been nice. It's really his first chance to shine as a villain and it was a little weak if you ask me.
- The lightsaber battle between Vader and Obi Wan was second only to the battle between Vader and Luke at the end of Ep. VI (and really only then because of the emotional weight of that last duel between father and son).
- I don't care if it was overwraught and melodramatic, Vader's transformation from man to machine was awesome. And I don't really think the "Nooooo!" was all that bad.
Anyone who knows me well can tell you that not only do I hold Darth Vader in very high regard when it comes to villainhood, he's actually my favorite fictional character of all time. While Christensen's portrayal of the tortured Jedi-turned-Sith was far from Oscar caliber, I do think it was far better than in Ep. II, as I mentioned above. I no longer want to kill him when I think of him playing the greatest galactic tough guy of all time, but I still wonder if there wasn't a better choice out there (given Lucas' directing chops, maybe not).
Let me also make the obligatory "people who talk in movies suck" comment. I don't know why the two teenage guys sitting a couple of seats down from us would possibly think it was acceptable to MST3K their way through the entire film, but they should know that they nearly got the heal of my jump boots in the backs of their heads. Okay, not really. But I almost said something to them, and I'm a really patient guy. Too patient, in this case.
Well, there's a lot more going on. There are a myriad of national and world affairs I'd love to comment on, but I've got a pizza on the way and some cleaning to do before Jess gets home tomorrow.
I will say this - Real ID is a freaking bad idea. That is all.
-Sam
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