It's all happening!

In the US Toys'R'Us are gearing up for late night launches of the new Clone Wars tie in merchandise with themed, instore 'boutiques' featuring, well, Clone Wars.

Not sure what we're going to see in the UK yet... (hint)

Meanwhile, at San Diego Comic Com, Lucas Arts are getting set to unveil a slew of Star Wars fun and games.

Star Wars: Force Unleashed

Star Wars: Clone Wars

and...

the first of the Star Wars Galaxies trading card game,  Champions of the Force.

Del Rey Books and Epic Games have announced the first in a trilogy of Gears Of War novels from Republic Commando author, and champion of dysfunctional young men in armour with heavy weapons, Karen Traviss.

More details over at The Escapist and, of course, at the lady herself's own site karentraviss.com



Only one thing to say to that....

OYA!!! 

So. That was it?

What? I'm a bad person for not buying into the whole 'Joss has just written the most totally brilliant three act play *evah*', He's *just* *so*  the new Shakespeare rolled into Hitchcock in a Lucas sort of way..." thing? He's the new Shalespeare rolled into Hitchcock in a Lucas sort of way..."

It was good. It had some catchy if derivative ditties, much in the style of Rocky Horror meets any high school musical, with some amusing character acting and a suitably cliched B-movie style to costume, sets, etc.  But there y'go, it was what it was, now it's finished. A bit like the writers strike that brought it about.

... given the chance of an afternoon sans family you think  "Oooh, I could clean the kitchen and then have a nice cup of tea and watch the Sunday film...".  "Lovely sunny day. Could do some laundry and get it hung out..."   WTF?? I've turned into my mum?  

Another reason I know I'm slipping into Fuddy-Duddydom.  Looking at tents the other day and thinking "Whatever happened to 'Just shut your eyes and go to sleep?" when I saw the new trend.  Seperate 'childrens bedroom'  with blackout material and.. a 'hammock soft ball play area'.  You don't go camping to bloody well enjoy yourself.   HAMMOCK SOFT BALL PLAY AREA??  What's wrong with playing outside? Or, if it's too wet / late / early for that... reading a comic book and listening to the radio? Quietly.

And don't even get me started on the 'easy erect' two-hoop tent with built in fairy lights and mp3 player.  A torch isn't good enough? The mp3 player in your phone, in your pocket, in your car.. not enough?

Ah well, think I'll go do some dusting...

After seeing elf_fu 's recent work I decided to break the old graphics pad out and get drawing again.

And, after about an hour of cursing, swearing and generally bitching and whining, I've realised two things.

First, drawing is SO not like riding a bike. Stop doing it for a while and it's bloody hard to get back into.

Secondly, the graphics pad I'm using has been out of use for so long for a reason. It fuckign SUCKS donkey balls through a straw.  So much for the Wacom, time to go raid the box room and see if I can find my seriously cheap and chearful, generic / no label "garphics digising pad" that I picked up for 1/10th the price of the Wacom about 5 years ago.

(Dunno what the problem withthis Wacom is. Might be that it's only a tiddly postcard sized drawing area, might be the drivers, might be that it's just shit. But it'll be relegated to the kids PC so he can faff around in MS Paint. Should about handle that just fine)

Meanwhile, here's one I prepared earlier...




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• 18:19 twitter is rate limiting more aggressively resulting in errors, including in registration... trying to work around, bear with me. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

OK. I'm giving it one more chance..

I mean, it's from the same people that brought us Life On Mars and Ashes To Ashes, with a halfway to decent cast. It can't be as crap this week as last week, surely?

Bunch of jalapenos from the freezer, chucked in the blitzer and reduced to DANGER DANGER red paste.
Couple of onions slowly melted in the heavy frying pan.
Two sweet peppers (capsicum) chopped chunky for contrast.
Roughly as much sugar as other ingredients.

Add the chilies to the onions (leave kitchen and grow new layer of skin and fresh eyeballs)
Add the sugar and render the lot down till a drop from a teaspoon just runs on a cold plate.
Add the sweet peppers.

Allow to cool, bung into scalded Kilner jar.

Serve with mince and tatties and think "Oh man.. my mouth is REALLY burning. Must have more..."



Reckon it'd be REALLY nice with cheese...



(Thanks to RC for the original suggestion)

Over at karentraviss.com KT has details of the dates she'll be appearing at which Cons to pimp Order 66 and mentions her her new sekrit project*.

No great surprise to see San Diego Comic Con in there. ONE YEAR I WILL GET THERE!



*Yes, I probably know what it might be, but seriously, Ma'am scares the living shit out of me so you can wait till there's an official announcement or somebody else spills the beans.

Karen Traviss' "City Of Pearl" is being offered, for a short time only, as a free eBook download by Harper Collins n a number of ebook formats.

What's it about?

Three separate alien societies have claims on Cavanagh's Star. But the new arrivals -- the gethes from Earth -- now threaten the tenuous balance of a coveted world.

Environmental Hazard Enforcement officer Shan Frankland agreed to lead a mission to Cavanagh's Star, knowing that 150 years would elapse before she could finally return home. But her landing, with a small group of scientists and Marines, has not gone unnoticed by Aras, the planet's designated guardian. An eternally evolving world himself, this sad, powerful being has already obliterated millions of alien interlopers and their great cities to protect the fragile native population. Now Shan and her party -- plus the small colony of fundamentalist humans who preceded them -- could face a similar annihilation . . . or a fate far worse. Because Aras possesses a secret of the blood that would be disastrous if it fell into human hands -- if the gethes survive the impending war their coming has inadvertently hastened

Who Is Karen Traviss

Karen Traviss is a former defense correspondent and TV and newspaper journalist. She has worked in public relations for the government and the police and has also been an advertising copywriter and a journalism lecturer. She has served in both the Royal Naval Auxiliary Service and the Territorial Army. A graduate of the Clarion science fiction and fantasy workshop, her work has appeared in Asimov's, Realms of Fantasy, and On Spec. The author of City of Pearl, she lives in Wiltshire, England.

(edited for borked "javascript void" nonsense in link)

I somehow accidentally managed to polish off a *lovely* bottle of red plonk last night while pootering about on the 'puter.  This morning I woke early, fully expecting the sledgehammer of doom to be pounding at the inside of my skull and yet... I felt FINE.

In fact, I felt so fine I ended up walking all round Dumfries and then back through Lockerbie after dropping the car off for a bit f work to be done. Probably going to pay for all that walking tomorrow (already starting to seize up) but it was REALLY good. Like old times.

Had to go back into town in the afternoon to collect the car and, unlike my usual response of  "OMG.. going back outside? In the weather? Nah, I'll stay here.."  I was stood at the door, keys in hand, chivvying everyoe else along for being so slow, come on hurry up, chop chop...

So, two, three years of dicking around with random meds to try and get me back inthe land of the living and all it took was a ten year old bottle of Portuguese paint stripper :)     Now, if I can get it on prescription...

This rant is dedicated to amarafoxand princealbertwho are both being victimised by tiny terrorists... and the little blastarts have had a pop at me too...

Gaaah!!!! I can't write *anything* because there's people outside the GB postcode that won't see it for a bit yet and I don't want to spoil it for them....  Still, at least, thanks to iPlayer, most of them will have seen it by midweek, heh.

All I can safely say is that there is a very definite 'end of term' feeling to the whole thing, what with the production team changing so much at the top end and... some other stuff.  It's almost as if RTD wanted to use these last few episodes to remind us just what a clever boy he's been. Well, just what a clever team they all have been.

And you know what? Even if there's a massive amount of ego massaging going on in there, they bloody well deserve it.

(Oh, and if you haven't seen it yet? Better keep the hankies on standby)

go on, I dare you...


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Random House have revealed the cover art for the new Clone Wars novel from Karen Traviss.

Below the cut:

Larry Harmon, of Bozo The Clown fame, died today and muskrat_john posted a DIY Obit / tribute for us to PShop...  have fun.

From the Official release from SOE:

LucasArts and Sony Online Entertainment announced today the Star Wars Galaxies™ Trading Card Game as part of the fifth anniversary celebration for the massively multiplayer game, Star Wars Galaxies.  The first release for the online trading card game, Champions of the Force, is scheduled to be released late this summer, following several months filled with in-game anniversary events.

The release of Champions of the Force marks the first ever Star Wars® trading card game offered exclusively online.  Available only through a valid, active, fully-paid subscription to Star Wars Galaxies, Champions of the Force provides Star Wars Galaxies subscribers an entirely new gameplay experience by combining the challenge of a trading card game with the adventures and community of the massively multiplayer game.  For the first time, players can:

• Choose between the light and dark sides of the Force and build their own Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game decks to fight virtual matches for the Rebel or Imperial factions;
• Challenge their skills in story-based solo-play or against other Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game players in epic one-on-one matches, cooperative Heroic Encounters, and official tournaments;
• Find more than 20 “loot” cards in the first release, Champions of the Force that can be redeemed for fantastic virtual items for use within the Star Wars Galaxies massively multiplayer game;
• Adventure in Star Wars Galaxies and collect desirable cards that enhance their virtual trading card game deck.

All Star Wars Galaxies subscribers with valid, active, fully-paid accounts in good standing are scheduled to receive five Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game booster packs per month, included at no additional cost, as part of their valid monthly subscription to the game, providing a simple way for players to quickly and easily build their decks.  In addition, all subscribers will be able to purchase booster packs and starter decks through Sony Online Entertainment’s Station Store at www.store.station.sony.com.

 

As this is being developed by the same SOE Denver studio that's responsible for Legends of Norrath, the EQ/ EQII CCG I've got fairly high expectations that it'll be delivered on time, relatively bug free and that it   WILL LOOK GORGEOUS.

^Artwork from the CCG (c) SOE/LAE

The forums haven't quite lit up with cries of indignation, which is encouraging. Although that might just reflect the fact that most of SWGs players don't read the forums and those who do largely only look for the few subjects that are of direct interest to them.  Having said that, there are a good number of posts that seem to be receiving the news pretty positively along with a goodly number going "What's a CCG?" "Do I have to go to my local game shop to buy cards??" etc.

 

Between this and the soon to arrive Voice Chat service, SWG's changing big style.   Here's hoping that these ideas give the game a much needed jab in the arm and are better received than, say, Empire Day....

 

(Thanks to

princealbert for flagging up this article in The Escapist magazine earlier)

 

 

  

Being a kid in the 60s I was *really* into the space race.  Posters on the wall with all the different astronauts, a collection of patches for the various missions collected from cereal boxes, an irritating and near encyclopedic knowledge of the thrust, weight, height and number of rivets in every single launcher, lander and capsule.. ever.

I so wanted to be an astronaut and, at 9 or 10 years old, it never occurred to me that there was any reason why I shouldn't become one.  OK, so I'd have to move to the US but that was OK as Disneyland was in Florida too and that'd be fun between missions...    I'd be stuck to the TV or the radio to listen to every launch and splashdown knowing that each one brought me closer to the day when the letter from NASA would come in saying "Hey, Ken Harvey, you've been picked as an astronaut..."

Then, horror of horrors, they scrapped manned missions and the bottom fell out of my world.  Seriously. Barely out of primary school and on the scrapheap.  It was a bad time.

Then the Shuttle arrived and, nah, it wasn't the same. I was still interested but these guys were proper rocket scientists and I'd also figured out just how much work was involved in gettign selected as a crew member.  Besides, apart from one school teacher, how many shuttle crew members names does anyone outside NASA know nowadays? The magic was gone.

OK,spooling forward to today.  I've got a vanity news filter running on Google that watches for my name coming up. Well, y'never know, one day somebody might write about me and I'd hate to miss it.

What I usually get though are updates on the career of Ken Harvey, NFL player and former pro bowler.  It's fun reading what my name twin is up to, though sometimes confusing as there's a poet of the same name who will pop up and throw a surreal spanner in the works briefly.

But the news that Ken Harvey, NFL player, will be heading off on a sports and fitness based space mission alerted me to the fact that my mail has been going to the wrong address all these years.  See, *I'm* Ken Harvey, wannabe astronaut, not him. Don't these people know anything..

To add insult to injury the other Ken will be heading off with Richard Garriott, Lord British of Ultima Online infamy.  COME ON!! It was so obvoulsy meant to be *my* ticket!

Who do I write to? I so want to complain... ;)

With the Clone Wars animated movie hitting the cinema this summer and the new TV series coming "soon"(tm) the announcement of a series of tie in novels from Del Rey should come as no great surprise.  (Though the 'unnamed novel' on Amazon, as ever, has kicked off plenty of lively debate on the interwebs)

What IS a (pleasant) surprise is that the first five books will be written by Karen Traviss and Karen Miller. ( karenmiller) KT's Republic Commando series has been one of my favourite EU story arcs and her handling of the iconic characters in Legacy leaves me with a warm, fuzzy sensation as I look forward to more of her 'brand' of fallible jedi, humanised bounty hunters and Clones we actually give a frack for.










(Added link to Karenraviss.com as she's got a little update up)
((And hehe, yeah, other books coming... goodness goshness)

After having so much fun with the basic Creature Editor last week I thought I'd give the full fat, sprinkles and a marshmallow on top Creator a whirl.  Well, it was under £5 and it took me over the 'free delivery' option on my order...

OK, have to uninstall the previous version, fair enough. Done that...
Machine chugs for a little while and installs the new goodness.

Click on the shortcut and.... after the second splash screen we get a CTD.

:(

Looks like it's getting way past time to upgrade this machine. Apparently it's overclocked 1.76gHz wind powered chip just isn't beefy enough for these modern games.

So... new mobo and processor. AND as technology has done that moving on thing again I'll probably have to get an IEDE (?) graphics card and HDs with those dinky little SATA (?) plugs...  So much for "oh it's only a fiver..." HAH!

I wonder if Mrs Alma would get me something like this...



The Chillblast Juggernaut  3.4gHz of artic cool.

Or maybe something with even *more* ports'n'things...

Ah well, we can but dream :)