Thoughts, ramblings and other stuff

The popularity of the new Star Wars is still soaring. And it's very popular - it just became the highest grossing film in US ever and third in the world already and despite everyone saying China doesn't care for Star Wars it's also did extremely well on it's first day there (I knew it - what does it matter they didn't watch the originals in cinemas - they stay on point on popular culture as well as everyone else and love big spectacle as much as everyone else - maybe even more). This kind of popularity means inevitable fan art and parodies.

There are the beautiful mash-ups of Star Wars with Calvin and Hobbes by Disney artist Brian Kesinger. The most popular one is the most classical:


By my favourite one is this - so true


After all we all know Kylo Ren is the emo one (I wondered if he dies his hair from the start - noone in the family had hair this dark). He shows us all how misunderstood he truly is through his twitter account. Misunderstood by his parents and picked on by his very lonely uncle Luke.

You should talk, @KyloR3n I taught you to levitate rocks You dropped them all when a girl walked by Then you stormed off to write poetry.

— Very Lonely Luke (@VeryLonelyLuke) January 7, 2016

It's a hard life. The one that's may lead one to drank Force calling that girl Rey and keep offering to teach her the Dark Side. Because "No" is never an answer and and she will eventually want him if only Hux stops putting his tantrums on Youtube. It's all described in Kylo Ren needs to Chill.

So the sunshine is still not here. The best we got was few days of just clouds instead of clouds and non-stop rain. And it switched from hot and raining to cold and raining. Three days ago I had to switch the AC back on because it was getting 25C inside my apartment (same as outside) and with the humidity it was just too sticky. It at least got the humidity down (92% outside but only 72% inside). Then Sunday came with cold wind and no rain for a moment so I enjoy a moment of getting a little drier. And then I woke up today to the sound of falling rain. It was barely above 10C and rained the whole day. Of course as a Polish person (and generally European from North side of Alps) this is what I consider true November weather. This is why it is the worst month - rain, mud, cold and very short days made even shorter by the clouds and rain. The trees are bare, the skies are grey and the days are getting shorter. November in Europe is what depression looks like.

Here usually is not that bad. US is generally much much sunnier - way more sunny days in a year (except Pacific Northwest which has similar weather to Western Europe). I started to get used to autumn and November being sunny and pretty warm. This is usually when the best fall colours happen around here - the yellow, red and orange against blue skies looks amazing. But this year all the rain has already taken all the leaves out. They were still getting not fully changed last weekend and this one they were all gone. I blame the El Niño - I'm told it makes this part of the continent very rainy when it happens.

So this is the best autumn pic I got - a week ago (if you look closely you can see the rain)


So here is something to take the mind off the weather - new Star Wars trailers with new footage

The Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer is out

In last two days teaser trailers for both Star Wars and Batman v. Superman dropped and now everyone is in a fritz analyzing what is and isn't there. All I can say is that the Star Wars one actually made me want to see the film (Luke passing the mantle to his niece(?) and Han and Chewie) and BvS just made me laugh (Batman's mask has built-in frown - almost as bad as nipples)




Showing of the Star Wars trailer was part of the Star Wars Celebration and the best part of that was learning that the new, jabulani-like robot is real. So now everyone is wondering how the head is attached.

I decided to try to make myself feel better and see something nice and uplifting. So I went to see Big Hero 6. It such a pretty film. And cute. It's also very predictable - at least most of the plot points are obvious to anyone with even rudimentary knowledge of superhero origin stories. But it makes up for it with the characters and emotions - it is a beautiful story about grief, anger, sacrifice and family and friendship. And about growing up and finding something to care about. It is moving and funny and very, very pretty. My only issue was that Hiro kept Baymax design for himself - everyone needs their own health care companion.

One important advice - one shouldn't choose a movie that's about loosing someone after losing someone (even a pet). I was very glad it was dark in that theatre few times. Also - one for the Feast short - that's no way to feed a dog. Don't do this to your pets.

Everyone else was watching the new Star Wars teaser trailer that just dropped today. I know most people have different priorities but for me the most interesting point was that apparently not all Storm Troopers are clones Or is John Boyega's character only pretending to be one?

CW announce they cancelled Star-Crossed, The Tomorrow People and Carrie Diaries and renewed The 100, Hart Of Dixie and Beauty And The Beast. From all of this I only doesn't understand why has Beauty and the Beast been renewed. I'm kind of sad about TTP - I will miss a lot of it's cast - but it was getting worse instead of better. I'm really happy for Hart Of Dixie. The 100 is my favourite of the new CW shows.

The article about making The Fault in Our Stars movie and John Green's rise to fame. Before you go there beware it contains spoilers for the book/movie when describing scenes being filmed.

Obviously the Skynet creation is fixed point in time and so is John Connor's birth so no wonder that Doctor is going to show up and not tell anyone (also another Brit in this movie it's almost like watching The Black Box and wondering why they even bother to make it America). But I'm all for Matt Smith getting awesome film career so I hope this will turn out to be fun.

You have probably heard about the epic William Shatner/Carrie Fisher fight about supremacy of Star Trek over Star Wars and vice versa. Despite the calls for peace the conflict still rages on. It's as camp as you imagine it to be.

When saw Wreck-It Ralph they've first treated us to a short, black and white, hand drawn animation. Here it is now - available to everyone:


The new Muppets movie is to be called The Muppets…Again! and the first official photos are out.


How LucasFilm President Kathleen Kennedy convinced J.J Abrams to direct the next movie and her plans for the Star Wars and work with Spielberg from Raiders of the Lost Ark to Lincoln. I'm going to wait and see before I have any comment on the new Star Wars movies because on one hand there is the last time we got new Star Wars but on the other Disney has done really nice things with Marvel.

Speaking of Marvel - as we all know SHIELD is coming to TV and Clark Gregg would be reprising his role as Agent Phil Coulson and it's not a prequel but sequel to Avengers. Is he a robot? Was he resurrected? Never died? Oh and Cobie Smulders might show up in it too from time to time.

After two days it's finally stopped raining. The weather actually reminds me of home firstly because that's what Polish autumn often looks like, secondly because that's how it was in Poland for almost all my stay last time I was there few weeks ago. But at home I was too busy with family and friends to care about the weather (although I was hoping for some cool pictures of sunrises and webs as they are usually prettiest in August but no luck this time). Here it just makes me miss the ceiling lights again.And the sidewalks are even more uneven then back home and drain system can't cope with the water. This means streets sometimes turn into streams. Of course this means closed schools and warnings everywhere. As with snow I find all this very funny. Such rains often happen in Poland but it's barely enough excuse to be late. I suppose the fear of lawsuit turns government into a nanny state better then socialism.

In other mishaps I got new CS5 Web Premium from the IT office but when I tried to install it the serial number was wrong. So I went there and after double checking everything and treating me like an idiot who can't install a program it turned out they gave me the code for Design Premium. Someone must've been meteoropathic

Not only people are affected. Today it took me twice longer to get home as the bus malfunctioned. Do you know what happens when a hybrid bus runs out of electricity? It's a little bit like normal one running out of gas plus funny door problem. At least it was funny to other people not on our bus. The doors didn't want to stay closed. It was a little bit like my cheap samsung camera when the batteries were low. it made the optics move out even when I tried to turn it off. Made trying to hide it kind of awkward. This time the door just wouldn't stay closed. We finally switched to another bus but then the old one blocked the road. Oh, and I learned the buses are leaky.

And since the misery needs to be shared here is your share. George Lucas is set on rereleasing the "Star Wars" franchise in new 3D conversions beginning in 2012. Suddenly the end of the world stopped feel as such a bad idea. Somewhere my best friend is hugging her VHS cassettes with the original version of original trilogy. And I'm reminded of a book I just read. The recording my not match your memory. The official version may not be the original one. On the other hand this might be just another signal of our culture going back to the times of storytelling. After going through the state of one unchangeable version in the age of print that made anything committed to page a true version of the story, we go back to the kind of storytelling like the myths with many versions from which you chose your favourite one. After all if something was on the web once one can never be sure it's really gone, no matter how many official versions come later. However I'm sure that in this case it's just Lucas wanting some more money. He will probably adjust it to every new technology that'll come out and gets popular enough. As long as it will be possible or until he dies whatever comes first.