Well, the article is FINALLY up. Please feel free to tell me how I did. It took a while, but I'm VERY pleased with the outcome myself. Enjoy the spoiler.

Well done, Rob.

Unless I've been under a rock, that's the first time I seen Skaar. I really like the sculpt. Really like it.

Nope, you've not been under a rock. I got the exclusive privelege of previewing the dial! YAY!

(And thank you for the kind words)

I don't know how you can keep it a secret. A better man than I in that regard.

Well, if we let it leak it would ruin the chances of anybody at HCRealms EVER doing previews again. This was the second preview that I've gotten to do. (First one was FF: Doctor Manhattan)

I enjoy doing them, so if I ever want to do it again it's not an option to leak it.

Totally agree.

I'd be dropping hints left and right, because I'm easily influenced by my brain and it's evil.

So I've felt like I've been lacking in nerdocity as of late.

Before the beginning of the year, I had never seen Star Wars. I remedied that. One down.

I've never seen He-Man, GI Joe, Thundercats, Transformers, Voltron, She-Ra, Silver Hawks, and, really, all the cartoons that shaped a generation. I know I've missed some, but you get the gist. Granted, I was probably not born, still in diapers, or just learning to talk when these shows were on, but that's not an excuse.

I have just started watching He-Man on Netflix. I don't regret it. It's so bad it's good.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

And as part of one fella's effort to catch up...
Yes, that's correct. But the bigger question is: are you still a Vikings fan?

Something to Ponder, eh...(though I already know we both are, the W-L record notwithstanding)
Geez, I'm sorry to learn that. Timing's not the only thing, but it can be the one thing that makes or breaks an opportunity.

Any possibility of getting a mulligan on the just-taken physical? If not, at least know that you'll have your own personal rooting section out here, cheering you on for the other city's department.

Meanwhile, glad to see you back here, my friend.
Jon, sorry to hear you've been feeling under the weather (as tho' the weather were some kind of bizarro limbo stick that indicates wellness or the lack of it), especially around this time.

Hope you and the family wake up feeling ready to tackle that turkey today!

One of the disconnects I found coming with age is that something like this - which I saw while in high school - lacks the same context as it does for people markedly younger than me. For many it's just part of the video haze that makes up the world once videotapes, then DVDs and now Blu-Ray and streaming video have become commonplace.

People who were five or so years younger than me also really got into the Star Wars toys, but I was almost unaware of them. While in years since it's become common for young adults to buy action figures and pose them around for decoration at home and office, that wasn't part of the culture back then. So, the closest I came to any of that was buying a model of Slave 1 (Boba Fett's ship) to make and paint, and around the mid-nineties buying a re-released Millennium Falcon toy (with a ludicrous number of colored stickers to be applied to it, inside and out) for the kids one Christmas.

Occasionally I've met someone who had never seen the films, and I must admit there was that initial flash not unlike finding someone with two heads.
Good luck!

I'm on the other side of that gulf, as those were all things that came along when I was getting into my twenties, and as I didn't go the stoner route I was only peripherally aware of these. With so many other things I actually care about waiting for me to catch up on them, I don't see eighties cartoons working their way onto my To Do list anytime soon.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.!!!

Well, I'm off to work. See you all later tonight.

Rob, that's GREAT!!! I'm hoping to steal a few minutes to read it today, so I can enjoy the fruit of your labor -- and learn a few things, in the bargain -- as a Thanksgiving treat!
Holy Crow....Curt, that is AMAZING to me that you managed to go this long without seeing "Star Wars." Wow...just wow.

That said...I'd love to know more about your experience in seeing it at this point --- what you thought, whether you liked it, etc. I'm figuring that, at the very least, you likely enjoyed seeing the origin of some references (e.g., "These are not the droids you are looking for" or "I find your lack of faith disturbing...") that moved beyond the films.

I can't say that was part of my experience, as I saw the original "Star Wars" film when it was first released in the theaters --- so it was a new thing to the bunch of us who went. What I remember was how we sat there when the lights came up, thrilled and already impatient for the next one. I also remember thinking that Han Solo was a Flash Gordon -- the ideal space opera hero -- for our generation.

But since your own experience was so different from my own...well, curious minds want to know.

As for those cartoons...yup, they shaped a generation's appreciation for animation and more (though, like you, the next time I see them will be the first time). You might be surprised -- as I was recently, in seeing the old Dick Tracy cartoons from the early '60s again -- with how well they stand up to the test of time.

Even if it's their badness that remains impressive.

Happy Thanksgiving right back atcha, Dana!

Thanks guys. I can't retake it with them until the next time they are hiring. Agencies (PD's) are pretty strict about that sort of thing. I am still pretty bummed about it, but now looking forward to the next test with the next city and trying to prepare. If anything, I feel like I really let a friend down. He referred me to the position and then I wasn't able to make good on his recommendation so I really feel like I let him down. The next test is next Friday, but I might go into the doctor tomorrow because now I'm wondering if this little thingmajig is strep throat.

Well, Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I'm off now to do more training in my pathetic condition and then off to eat!

You know when it comes down to it for me with transformers all you need to know is Dinobots. I'm glad Bay left them alone and I don't look forward to Transformers Prime on the hub crossing that path. Although the Hub version is far superior to anything Bay gave us by a large margin.

I expect that Star Wars (Epsiode 4: A New Hope) is one of those items that can't have the same impact on a newer audience that it did on us in the context of the times. Then, bad dialogue and all, it was such a breath of fresh air, such a new direction, that it bowled us over. A key element was that it was approached in a very lived-in, matter-of-fact way. Things were dirty from daily use, and many things obviously under stages of repair and disrepair.

Prior to this, nearly all science fiction/space opera items found everything to be clean and gleaming, and not only did they use things such as "space-" as a prefix for items they were using ("I'll get on my space-boots!") but they would tend to refer to them in odd, arch bits of exposition, playing to an unseen audience of dimwitted outsiders. It would be as if we went about our daily lives making declations "I'll activate my computer device and engage the electro-screen!"

So, not only were we blown away by the blend of detailed miniatures and digital video tracking and effects, but when we descended to Tattooine to see Luke, etc., everything was very lived-in and the characters treated it just as one would expect.
Luke's speeder was the junker he managed to keep in use, missing an access panel here or there, dinged up and in need of Earl Sheib's or Maaco.

My expectation is that someone sitting down to watch the six films in story order would hit 1977's Episode IV and not only wonder why so much looked run down, and be made somewhat uncomfortable by Luke's getting warm for Leia, but also wondering at how wimpy The Force had become. In that film it's mostly a sort of ESP; the only active uses of it were Vader starting to remote-strangle an officer who insulted his religion and Ben using it to influence a couple weaker minds, make (or implant in the minds of others a sound) to scare off some Sand People and distract another couple of Imperial Troopers on the Death Star.

If not seen in its original context, it's not going to work. It's much as I found with giving newer comics readers a copy of the Watchmen limited series/graphic novel. Divorced from its reheated 1980s Cold War context and with so many of the conventions from it having long since become comics cliches, most of its impact is lost.