I saw the movie

With the kids Friday night (Mrs was late getting back from out of town). It was pretty good, a bit intense for MEB (MHB spent part of the time watching her to make sure she was not "sad.") Pretty good Star Wars movie.

Although George Lucas is a genius about many things, I am skeptical about his storytelling. How hard is it to foreshadow when you start at the end? I also do not believe he had it all planned out, I think he made things up as he went along. Especially after the first movie. Therefore some of the later movies boxed him in.

Examples: Why did Obi-wan say "you must learn from Yoda, the jedi master who trained me." How did Darth Vader ever figure out Luke was his son? If it is just feeling the Force as MHB guesses (probably correctly) then why when he was faced with Leia in the interrogation scene, did he not note the force was strong with her, etc? Also, Vader and Leia appeared to be acquainted in Episode IV. Why hide Luke on Tatooine, Vader's home planet, with people he knows? Why, when flying over Tatooine in IV, did Vader not note in some way that this was his home planet? And why wipe C3POs memory and not R2D2s?

Still, I liked the movie. Lots of action, and the bad dialogue scenes were mercifully short and to the point.

A very cool website

Is the Baby Name Voyager. You enter a name, and you see how popular, or not, it has been over the years. Try it. http://babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html

The best book I have read in a while

Is Duncan Delaney and the Cadillac of Doom, by A.L. Haskett (that's a good name for an author, isn't it?).
I found the book because it is recommended by Christopher Moore. Interestingly, it is out of print, having come out in 2000, but there are plenty of copies available on Amazon. This is one of those books that makes you laugh about every page, but the characters are interesting and the story is very good. It has a double ending that I really liked, I was surprised how good it is. Basically a tale of a young artist who leaves Wyoming for Los Angeles, with his full blooded Indian companion more or less tagging along after him. Once in LA, he meets the locals who are mostly bikers, strippers and art dealers. Is that redundant? I'm tired of typing and won't issue any spoilers, but this is a really great book. The author emailed me back (which I really appreciated) that he has another book in the works.

The hills are alive ...

My two current projects are learning to play the mandolin, and brushing up on my spanish. I have a case with a spanish speaking plaintiff, and the interpreters are driving me crazy. The plaintiff and other witnesses go blah blah for 30 seconds, then the interpreter leans back and says "...no." So I have a tape to listen to in the car.

The mandolin will take more time and starts more from scratch. I got a cheap one online, some books, tapes and videos, and am hacking along. The Mrs hates it so I have to practice out of her earshot. Of course, I will be great by the time Cape Cod rolls around.


The KM140 A-model Mando