Star Wars author Karen Traviss

Jeff's favorite Star Wars author, Karen Traviss, was in town for a book signing. Jeff has chatted with Karen virtually over Yahoo and they've become a sort of friends. Since Jeff is off in Germany (and soon to be Iraq again), Sandy & I went down to get her latest book signed for him. The event took place at Mysterious Galaxy Books in San Diego. The staff at the bookstore were all very friendly and helpful, passing on well-wishes for me to give to my brother. The store was populated by fans and members of the 501st Legion.

Karen had a Q&A segment followed by the signing line-up. When it was our book's turn to get autographed, she happily remembered her Sgt. Clemins and was glad to meet him "by proxy," graciously posing for a couple personal pictures. She expressed her hope for his safe return from deployment and to one day meet Jeff over a pint.

Star Wars Exhibit

On Sunday (04/22/07) Amy, Tony, Michelle, Steve, Sandy & I drove up to the California ScienCenter in LA for the Star Wars - Where Science Meets Imagination exhibit.

Click for full Gallery

I'd never been to the ScienCenter, frankly I'd never even heard of the place, but a few months ago Sandy found out about this show and we all thought it would be fun. It sounded similar to the exposition Sandy & I saw back in '98 at the Smithsonian in Washington DC.

This presentation was quite different. It wasn't near as big as the Smithsonian version and it had a lower "production value." But the Center made relations between modern technology and SW tech. For example, next to the medical droids was a display on real life cybernetics and implants. And next to the Land Speeder there was a display about mag-lev trains and other uses for magnetism. This included an interactive demonstration with magnets attached to Legos and a train track so you too could build your own bullet train. Unfortunately the Legos were all busted and/or missing.

All of the similar "hands-on" demos that I looked at were similar busted. The place was packed and I saw few, if any, staff to keep an eye on things... Plus this is near the end of the exhibit's run, so there you go, disappointing.

Still, I had a good time seeing the props and models. There was a Millennium Falcon cock-pit "simulator" that we sat in. It didn't move, but ran a mini-movie narrated by Anthony "C-3PO" Daniels and R2-D2 about the exploration of our solar system and galaxy. Movie was ok, but it was most nifty to sit in a replica Falcon pilot seat. We weren't supposed to take pictures inside, but I snuck one... Heh.

There were a couple dozen people wandering around in various Stormtrooper and Rebel Pilot costumes. I don't think they were officially associated with the Center, but they appeared to be welcomed and given VIP status. Hmmm... Perhaps they were volunteers. I didn't think to ask. They were quite accomodating when asked for pictures.

After we'd had our fill of the SW Exhibit we found they had a Rose Garden outside. It was beautiful. We spent quite some time wandering around. And after Steve's story about how honey bees are disappearing it was pleasing to see them doing their jobs.

The day finished with a stop on the way home in San Marcos at The Old Spaghetti Factory. I ate the usual (Manager's Favorite with Meat Sauce and "ala Homer"). A perfectly satisfying end to a fun day.

CJ's Blog, R2-D2, and Picasa.

First let me welcome CJ to the wonderful world of Blogging which you can visit here. Welcome CJ! At first I too felt pressure to supply regular content, now I do as my time/motivation allows and realize that it's all good. I'm happy you've found the same to be universal. Heh.

Speaking of the universe, 30 long years ago in a galaxy far far away, St. Lucas created Star Wars. The US Postal Service is honoring Star Wars with its own stamp series. USPS Jedi Master.com has the details. The promo features postal boxes decorated as R2-D2:

Which brings me to Picasa. The above photo album is hosted there and you can check out my full gallery here. I've just started adding pictures and have only 11 albums online as of this writing (with many more to come, so check back often). I've found that Kellie has a gallery in which she shows off her new house. Go Kellie!

Unlike other photo hosting services that I've tried and/or seen others use - this one allows the viewer to download a full-sized/resolution photo entirely free and anonymously.

Again - You do not have to pay, sign up, or give any information to view or download the photos at the full rez uploaded by the author. To download a picture, go into the album, click on the picture and then click the "download" link on the right. I prefer to upload an "Optimized 1600" format of my pictures. These are at a high enough resolution to use for most wall papers and printouts and yet compact enough to be web friendly.

If you choose you can sign up, have your own free (or pay) account for posting and hosting photos, you can buy prints, etc. But this is all optional. Let me know your gallery link so I can add you to my favorites as I did with Kellie.

Besides the service there is a Picasa program that you can install on your computer to get all sorts of nifty features. For starters, when looking at an album you can download all the pictures, instead of each picture individually.

The program will organize, edit, and generally process the photo collection on your PC. It has caption editing, search screens, red eye removal, printing and blogging features, etc. I'm still learning how best to use it and working the bugs out. Some things I like, others I don't like, but overall I'm glad to have it. The red eye fix for instance can be picky on what it will and won't clean up. Some eyes are done perfectly. Others, not so much. And then there are the "original" poops. The program backs up a copy of the pre-edited photo in a hidden folder. This is nice if you ever want to go back to the original version, but once you're sure you want that red eye gone you have to go in and manually clear this bloat out of the way. There are some other "features" that seem quirky that I'm still working out, perhaps I'll write a full review someday.