New Year's Eve

 

For the month of December, I took just over 310,000 steps, so I hit my goal of 10,000 steps average per day for the first time in three months (I was short 30,000 steps in October and 40,000 in November.) That puts me 425 miles from where I started, near Rocklyn, Washington, pushing toward Spokane and the Idaho border, another 120,000 steps away.

I need to make up those 70,000 steps from the previous months. In December, I came up very short on six different days and lost over 20,000 steps, but I made those up on the other days, so if I can avoid bad days, I know I can make up ground.

To recap briefly, I started on the West Coast at Cape Flattery, WA, crossed the north edge of the Olympic Peninsula, took a ferry to Whidbey Island and walked across the island to another ferry to Edmonds, then took Highway 2 from Everett east across the Cascades, down to and across the Columbia River, and am now proceeding across Eastern Washington mostly along Highway 2.

Despite being behind on steps, I am happy with my progress. I have walked a long way, and December was my best month by 30,000 steps despite the holidays, and despite snow and temperatures in the twenties the last few days.

Since I retired, I have felt that even though I have things to do, I lack any major goals that might amount to a sense of purpose, but I am realizing that this walking, and writing about it, has become something of a purpose. Every day I start with a goal of taking at least three walks and getting those steps up, and every week I track where I am on the map and think about what I will write. It is not a huge thing, but it is something.

The last two years have not been the greatest because of COVID, and 2022 will not get off to a great start, but 2021 was better than 2020, and since the bar set by 2021 is still very low, 2022 has a decent chance to be better.

I hope everyone has a great new year.

Merry Christmas

 

Steamboat Rock

Both boys are home this year. I am not sure that will be a regular thing in the future, so we'll enjoy it while we can.

Walking is going well. I am writing mid-day for a change, but as of now I have taken over 5,000 steps today and 226,900 for the month versus a goal of 230,000 by end of day, so I am right on track. Before I started trying to take 10,000 steps per day toward Miami back on October 1, the most steps I took all year in one month was 214,000 in August, so I passed that mark yesterday, with nine days left in December. The next monthly mark is to pass the 279,000 steps I took in October, which should happen next Tuesday.

766,000 steps to date equate to 383 miles, which puts me in Hartline, Washington, a place I did not know existed as of this morning. I passed Coulee City twenty miles back, which I know I have been to more than once, because more than once I have driven past Steamboat Rock, a rock which looks a bit like a steamboat rising from the ground, and that means I drove between Coulee City and the Grand Coulee Dam.

A little geography: A coulee is a ravine, and the Grand Coulee Dam is at the north end of a large ravine called the Grand Coulee. So it is the Coulee which is the grand item in Grand Coulee Dam, not the dam, although the dam is quite large.

Past Coulee City, I do not recognize the towns until close to Spokane, and I may have never been this way. I only have 220,000 steps or so left in Washington State, and I am already looking past Idaho and on to Montana, which will take about 1.4 million steps to cross. The good news is that once I cross Montana, I will be close to halfway across the US west to east.

If you are reading this, Merry Christmas, and if you are not, Merry Christmas anyway.

Walk Update, December 15, 2021

I have made it past Wenatchee, which means down out of the Cascades to the Columbia River. At Wenatchee I went across the river and east into parts of Washington where the towns are small and far apart. The last town I passed is Waterville, WA, about ten miles back. Twenty miles ahead is Coulee City (not quite the site of Coulee Dam), which I have been to, but beyond that, I do not think that I have ever travelled this route.

I believe it was our first full year in Washington, 1996, when we visited Wenatchee for the first time. We planned a three-day driving loop that took us east on Highway 20, the farthest-north major Washington road across the Cascades, then south to Wenatchee to catch Highway 2 west and back home. It turns out that loop is one that websites will recommend as a great driving tour, but we did not know that at the time. We just wanted to see the state.

It has been a long time. Lucas was less than one year old at the time; now he's 26. I think we stayed in Winthrop, a town with an Old West motif on Highway 20, then in Wenatchee. I remember finding a steakhouse in Wenatchee based on a recommendation. I also remember that the snow on the pass on Highway 20 was at least ten feet high on Memorial Day weekend, a real you're-not-in-California-anymore moment. The highway had just been opened after being closed all winter. It was a really nice weekend trip. I'm sure of that much.

A few details on the full route:

I am walking Highway 2 almost all the way across Washington, from Everett on the Puget Sound to Spokane near the Idaho border. From there, I walk on or near I-90 across the narrow part of Idaho, almost all the way west to east across Montana, through a little corner of Wyoming on to Rapid City South Dakota, then to Omaha, Kansas City, Memphis, Montgomery, Tallahassee, and Miami.

I was going to change my goal a bit, to walk to Key Largo, because Miami is not quite at the southern tip of Florida. However, Google Maps says you can't walk to the keys, so Miami is still it.

 

Another Walking Update

A walking update, because I have not been watching a lot of television lately, and I have not been inspired to watch The Empire Strikes Back yet, but I have been walking.

I posted six days ago, and in the six days since, I have walked 68,000 steps. For the first time, I am walking more than my goal of 10,000 steps per day. This actually starts twelve days ago, the day after I got back from a wedding in Colorado, as I have walked 126,000 steps in those twelve days.

I am getting into a groove.

My formula is to take the dog for a walk in the morning, walk with my brother (and the dog) at night, and then get a couple thousand more steps in by stretching out the morning walk, going to Costco or Walmart, or taking a third walk.

The 570,000 steps I have stepped since October 1 put me just past Leavenworth, Washington, still in the mountains, but well on the way down the eastern slopes. I went to a Christmas lighting ceremony in Leavenworth once, around this time of year. The picture above is of one of those ceremonies, but it was not taken by me, and probably was a different year. It looks about the same though.

I remember that there were lots of people, and that it was cold - maybe 15 or 20 degrees, really cold. We went inside some to keep warm, but we froze enough that we slunk back to the bus about 45 minutes early to thaw out, only to find that about half the people on the bus were there ahead of us.

That's a nice reminder that I'm glad that I am walking across the US in the comfort of my own neighborhood rather than actually walking across the US. If I ever do decide to walk all the way from Cape Flattery to Miami, I'm going to hole up in an Airbnb for the winter. Not that I will ever decide to do such a thing.

The next town of any size is Cashmere, which is touted as the geographic center of Washington, although it is well over halfway to Idaho from Cape Flattery, my starting point on the Olympic Peninsula. This appears to be because Cape Flattery sticks out farther West than the rest of Washington.

Despite my twelve days of progress, I am almost 70,000 steps short of where I should be by now. Much more walking to do still.

Walking Update

Today I passed 500,000 steps since I started keeping track on October 1. In theory, I should have hit the half-million mark eight days ago, but I didn't. Still, I'm happy with my progress. Two hundred fifty miles of walking puts me just over halfway across Washington State and just past the high altitude point of my walk through Washington, Stevens Pass on Highway 2, at 4,061 feet elevation.

One fourteenth of the way to Miami. I think I can do this.
 

Star Wars Episode IV: The Original

 

I decided to review this movie without watching it again, because I have seen it several times, and because this review is a bit different, more of a reminiscence than a review.

No one needs to review Star Wars anyway; it's a good movie, one of the greatest ever.

Google says that Star Wars was released May 25, 1977. I saw it after it had been out more than a week, so probably in June. Times were different way back then, so we had not seen trailers on the Internet and heard all about the movie from our friends, and I had not heard about it at all. However, my friend Raul had heard it was really good, so we went to check it out in San Francisco.

In fact, the movie was only playing at one theater in San Francisco, an exclusive engagement, something you won't see anymore for a major movie. As I recall, Star Wars was still playing in theaters a year after it was released, because there just were not enough seats available for all of the people who wanted to see it, even though eventually it went to wider release.

So Raul and I went to see Star Wars, and when we got to the theater, we went to the back of a long, long line stretching block after block. The line was not moving, so it kept getting longer. Then, it started to move, and it moved a long ways, but it stopped again before we got to the theater. Word filtered back through the line: One showing had ended, then they let people in until the theater was full, and now we were waiting for the next showing. We stuck with it. As I recall, the weather was nice, and we stayed there in line through an entire showing of the movie. When that showing finally ended, after we had been in line maybe three and a half hours, the line started again, and we got in.

The first time I was really blown away by this movie was right at the beginning, when the big Imperial ship passes over the screen, with the camera under it. The scene created the illusion of a huge ship, very impressive. Probably it was done with low-tech special effects (this was long before CGI) and tiny models, but I had not seen anything like it.

The second time was when the Millennium Falcon went to light speed and all the stars stretched out. The whole theater cheered.

It was a good story, good versus evil with one of the best villains in movie history and some memorable heroes. However, it was the look of the film that was really amazing. Tatooine looked like another planet - much of it was filmed in the Sahara Desert I believe. The droids were well done. The bar scene with numerous kinds of aliens was great. The ships were impressive.

But for that reason, this movie probably wouldn't seem so impressive to someone who grew up later and has seen more recent movies, whether Star Wars or other sci-fi. Special effects have improved tremendously, the jump to light speed has been done many times, the ships don't look any more impressive than the ones in lots of movies. Thing is though, at the time, it was just amazing. We had never seen anything like it.

And the story still holds up.

Walking update

First, let me say that I am almost 40 miles short of where I should be right now. I have taken more than 12,000 steps several days, including today, but I find that it is easy to come up short for various reasons, and some days very short, so it's hard to make up. Still, I have a pattern for a normal day that includes walking the dog, walking again without the dog, and then walking a third time with my brother at night, and that gets me close to 12,000 steps. If I can do better at avoiding short days, I can make up the distance.

Meanwhile, I have walked 455,000 steps, 227 miles, which puts me near Skykomish Washington, well into the Cascades, on or near Highway 2. I should be more than half way across Washington State and over half a million steps by the end of November.

Rogue One - Everyone Dies

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is not one of The Nine. The story takes place between Star Wars Episodes III and IV, in fact right before Episode IV. It is the story of how the Rebellion got its hands on the death star plans, giving Luke Skywalker the chance to blow the thing up...anyone remember that story?

Rogue One is not one of the Nine, but it is a good movie, better than several of the movies in the three main trilogies.

A look at the IMDB page for the movie gives us a list of the heroes in the film. Here they are, with a comment for each telling what their condition is at the end of the movie (Spoiler alert - check the title of this post.)

Jyn Erso, our main character and daughter of Galen Erso. As a young girl, Jyn sees her mother killed and her father captured by empirical soldiers, but she hides and is eventually retrieved by Saw Gerrera.

Status at end of movie: There are two blasts from the death star in this movie, not planet-destroying, but just little blasts similar to a huge nuclear bomb. Jyn dies in the second one after watching the shock wave move toward her.

Cassian Andor, a resistance pilot who rescues Jyn and is part of her adventures afterward.

Dies with Jyn as the two embrace.

K2-SO. There is always a droid, in this case a large re-programmed empirical droid, voiced by Alan Tudyk of Firefly fame, just wanted to mention that.

"Killed" in a firefight.

Chirrut Imwe, a blind, not-really-a-Jedi monk-like user of The Force who joins Jyn.

Killed in a firefight.

Baze Malbus, friend of Chirrut, who carries a really useful and shockingly accurate machine-gun blaster. Baze must be the inventor and manufacturer of this weapon, because if they were available at the store, everyone would have one.

Dies from a grenade during a firefight.

Saw Gerrera, a friend of Jyn's family, the guy who came and got her and looked after her after her parents were attacked.

Dies in the first death star blast, before the one that kills Jyn and Cassian.

Bohdi Rook, a pilot who escapes the Empire with the death star plans, sent by Galen Erso.

Dies from a grenade in a firefight, same firefight as Baze Malbus, different grenade.

Galen Erso, father of Jyn and a main designer of the death star, who builds a flaw into the death star so that it can be eventually destroyed by Luke, then sneaks the plans out to the resistance.

Killed in a resistance attack on the facility where he worked. Survives long enough to say a few words to Jyn before dying - very dramatic.

So yeah, all dead. While I was watching this movie during the last couple of weeks, it occurred to me why they all had to die: None of these characters showed up in Episode IV, of course; if they had survived, we would wonder why not.

The main story starts when Jyn, now a young woman being held prisoner, is rescued by rebels, who need her help. They have learned that Saw Gerrera, who Jyn knew years earlier, has captured a pilot (Bohdi Rook), who has information they need. The problem is that they don't have a good relationship with Saw, who fights against the Empire but is considered too fanatic by resistance leadership and does not deal with them, so they cannot contact him directly. The resistance needs Jyn to approach Saw for them. Once she finds out that her dad is trying to create a way to destroy the death star, she falls in with the resistance and goes after the death star plans.

Rogue One is the type of story in which one action leads to the next, each one dependent on the previous step, and each one dangerous and with a significant chance of failure, and of course there is a glitch or two at just about every stage, all to be overcome by our heroes. They have to go to the planet where the plans are, slip through the shield around the planet before the Empire figures out they are coming, break into a heavily guarded library, and plenty of other stuff. In the end, they have to slip the plans through a crack in the door so they can be passed to Princess Leia with Mr. I-Don't-Like-Sand himself, Darth Vader, bearing down on a whole room full of fighters whom he kills with just his light saber (and makes it look pretty easy.)

The story holds together well, and part of what makes it works is that everyone dies. After all, these kinds of attacks on the Empire are dangerous, and sometimes we are asked to believe that the heroes all somehow made it out alive, no matter how improbable, because that allows for a satisfying ending. But when the main characters die, and not just a Ewok, or Dobby, it makes sense.

Good movie - if you have not seen it, watch it. If you have not seen it recently, cue it up again.

Walk Update

In October, I walked 279,500 steps, or just about 9.000 steps per day average, so a bit short of my goal, but 65,000 steps more than any other month this year. That puts me just past Trillium Community Forest on Whidbey Island. Long, long ways to go. I am not sure when it will feel like I am getting somewhere, but right now, it feels like I have barely started.

One thing I find is that it is easy to come up short occasionally. My problem is not that I cone up a little short every day, but rather that I get 10,000 steps most days but then miss significantly every so often. I will have to aim a little higher and gain back some lost miles, then try to build a cushion.

Another issue is that I missed a couple of days just because I felt exhausted and tried to rest. I can only hope that my health allows me to do this.

On Bipartisanship

 

When it comes to including Republicans, and especially Trump supporters, in political discussions, I see some significant barriers.

If we are going to work together to use the government to help make this country the best we can make it, we need intelligent, rational, decent people to work on the best solutions to our issues.

Unfortunately, those requirements - intelligent, rational, decent - seem very basic, and should not be asking too much, but they disqualify virtually all Republicans, and every single Trump supporter, from having a seat at the table. Here's why:

Intelligence and Rationality

• If you imagine that Barack Obama was not born in this country, you do not get a seat at the table. We don't want to discuss or debate the issue with you any more than we want to talk about whether the Earth is flat; you're just wrong, not only wrong but mentally ill - maybe not clinically, but something is definitely very wrong with you. In addition, we do not need you to be part of any other political discussion about anything, as you have demonstrated that you are willing to stand by your own imaginary ideas drawn from make-believe world rather than accept evidence and facts. No one wants to know about anything you have to say. You're out.
• If you believe Joe Biden lost to Donald Trump in 2020, you're out.
• If you think that the activities of humans are not contributing to climate change, you're out.
• If you think that the FBI and/or Antifa attacked the Capitol building on January 6, 2021, you're out.
• If you think that Joe Biden is cognitively impaired, and you thought that was a reason to vote for Donald Trump...are you nuts? Why yes, you are. You're out.
• If you think that Donald Trump did not deserve to be impeached and removed from office, both times, you're out. You would think the opposite if a Democrat had done the same thing, and you are probably incapable of realizing that.
• If you think COVID is a hoax, you're out.
• If you think that not getting vaccinated for COVID is a good idea, because "freedom" or some other stupid non-medical reason, you're out.

If you believe some of the things in the list above, you are probably a Republican, and if you are a Republican, you probably believe some of the things on the list. There are many more. This kind of fairy-tale nonsense is not limited to some small group of fringe Republicans; these kinds of stupidities have become the heart and soul of the party.

If we need intelligent and rational people, Republicans are out.

Decency

Spoiler: no, not if you voted for Trump.

When Donald Trump ran for President, it was obvious to anyone that he was unqualified for the office. He had zero experience in political office, and he did not demonstrate a great knowledge of issues or even a particular interest in learning about them. He claimed, for example, that he knew more about the military than military generals know, but there was never any reason to believe him. Voting for Trump had to mean that you thought his personal traits made up for his lack of any qualifications for the job.

And what were some of those personal traits?

• Racism
• Sexism, including more than a dozen women who accused him of  exactly the kind of offensive behavior he bragged about on tape
• Xenophobia
• Inciting violence
• History as a business cheat
• Childish name-calling
• Cheating on each of his wives
• Lies - even before he was elected and told over 30,000 lies as president, he lied all the time as a candidate.

If you voted for Donald Trump, that list of traits appealed to you in some way. Donald Trump is truly one of the most despicable people on the planet, but somehow, he represents your values. This is who you chose to run the country, not because he was capable, but because you liked him.

Now, does that mean anyone who voted for Trump is a bad person?

It kind of does. I'm not sure how you get around that.

I admit I am somewhat reluctant to label all Trump voters, including some people I know, as bad people simply because they voted for Trump. That said, certainly there is something wrong with the moral compass of every single Trump voter. Certainly the choice to vote for Trump was a morally bankrupt decision.

So let's just say that when it comes to politics, Republicans cannot be trusted to be intelligent, sane, and decent. Maybe at work they are smart. Maybe they are kind to their neighbors. But the country has no use for them in politics.

Walk progress

This update is through 27 days, and I have over 236,000 steps in, which seems like a lot and also not that much progress toward my 7,000,000 ultimate goal. I have travelled 118 miles, which puts me two miles from Port Townsend, WA, maybe on the edge of town. From Port Townsend, I will take a ferry to Whidbey Island, so I can smell the water from here.

The most steps I had taken in any month this year was 214,000 until this month, and now I have 236,000 in October, headed for 270,000, so my motivation scheme has me walking more so far.

Star Wars Episode III: Fight Fight Fight

Four light sabers should be cool, sorta

I watched this movie recently for only the second time ever; however, I tried to rewatch it two other times years ago, after first seeing it in a theater when it came out, and both times I got bored and did not make it through. So there's that; it is safe to say that this is not my all-time favorite Star Wars movie. Still, when I rewatched it this time, it seemed tolerable enough.

Let's start with the weakest part of the movie. In a continuation of the major problem with Episode II, Anakin continues his transformation from talented but sulky teenager to murderer of children and galactically evil villain. And it doesn't work, does not work at all. Maybe Hayden Christensen is part of the problem, but the writing seems to be the biggest culprit. We just don't see the justification for his actions.

The rest of the movie feels like a series of light saber battles: Obi-Wan and Anakin versus Count Dooku, Obi-Wan versus General Grievous, Yoda versus Palpatine, Obi-Wan versus Anakin. Palpatine becomes emperor, Luke and Leia are born, Padme wills herself to die, Anakin becomes Darth Vader and his voice changes, and we're ready for Episode IV, which was where we needed to be.

It's OK, just not very inspiring.

Chronologically, Rogue One comes just before Episode IV, and it's a good movie, so I will watch that one next.

Walk Update

After two weeks of walking, I have covered 62 miles, which leaves me 14 miles short of Port Angeles. My goal for week three is to get past Sequim, 32 miles down the road.

If all goes as planned, the trip will take me through Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Surprisingly enough, I have been to all of those states, although my drives through Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi did not amount to much. Walking even a short distance through them would be a very different experience.

Jigsaw Puzzles

I assemble a jigsaw puzzle every year, a nice big one, usually 5,000 pieces. They take a long time - this year's was a picture of the Sistine Chapel ceiling which I started in February and finished in late September.

And I try to justify this unproductive use of time by thinking of a puzzle as a long-term project that demonstrates that you can achieve many things if you just do a little day after day and don't quit. Put up shelves and get that room in the garage ready. Weed around the lawn and put down bark. Learn to cook.

 An example that occurred to me is that you could walk across the United States if you wanted to; if you can walk ten miles every day, then you can just keep walking until you reach the end of the road, presumably at either the Pacific or Atlantic Ocean. You would get across in less than a year.

And then I realized, I could actually do that if I wanted to, sort of. I don't really want to deal with the logistics - being outdoors, walking next to cars, having to find a place to stay each night, arranging for food and water. So I decide that I could do the walk virtually, in a way: map out a route, then keep track of my steps and track my progress as if I were walking the route. For example, once I have taken 100,000 steps, I will be 50 miles from where I started (2,000 steps ~ one mile.)

Big jigsaw puzzles really are like that - you sit down for an hour and sometimes put maybe 25 pieces together, and it looks and feels like you have not made any progress, but you have. Eventually, small increments will get you there.

Since I live in Washington State, I chose to start my trip at Cape Flattery, the northwest corner of the state and of the United States. I chose Miami for the endpoint, because why take the shortest route when you can walk north to south as well as west to east? Then I plugged it into Google and selected walking as my mode of travel. The entire walk is 3,491 miles per Google, so round to 3,500 miles. That's seven million steps. No problem.

Next, I needed a timeframe and a distance-per-day goal. Ten miles is too far; I doubt that I can walk that far consistently (maybe not even once), and that would mean over three hours of walking each day. I don't have that much time. So, after a bit of fine-tuning and discussing my goal with Jackie, I settled on 10,000 steps per day for 700 days.

I started on October 1, the day before I went on a cruise. A cruise is a good place to walk, but not such a good place to set a routine. So blame that or blame me, but I am already 15,000 steps behind the pace (although that is far ahead of my pace for any month so far this year.) But I figure I have to walk an extra 20 steps or so each of the remaining 690 days to make that up, so it's not really a big deal.

The fun part of this is definitely going to be tracking my progress on the map and seeing where Google sends me. Google decided that the first part of my journey will be to cross the northern end of the Olympic Peninsula, crossing east through Port Angeles and Port Townsend. At Port Townsend, I will take a ferry to Whidbey Island, then walk across the island to another ferry terminal, then take the ferry to Everett on the mainland.

After one week, I had walked far enough to pass Clallam Bay, Washington, on the way to Port Angeles. By the end of week two, I will not even make it to Port Angeles, which, if you know that area, gives you some idea of how slow my progress is versus how far I have to go. Even making it to Oregon seems like a real stretch.

But I think I will make it.

Star Wars II: I Don't Like Sand

Seriously, I don't like the stuff

This one is clearly the worst of the Star Wars nine episodes. Parts of it are OK, even good, but some of it is excruciating.

The first three episodes are the story of Obi-Wan, but as I mentioned in my post about Episode One, these films tell two major backstories in the Star Wars saga: how Senator Palpatine became Emperor and leader of the evil Republic, and how Anakin became the ultra-evil Darth Vader, and this film mostly follows those two tracks: Obi-Wan chases down a clone army, and Anakin begins his fall toward darkness by falling in love with, and marrying, Padme.

Obi-Wan's part of the story works well, as he follows a lead to a remote planet where he discovers that a clone army has been constructed for the Republic, unbeknownst to the Jedi Council or the Republic Senate. After a skirmish or two, he is captured, and when Anakin and Padme come to rescue him, all three are prepared for execution in a large arena, complete with a large crowd of spectators and big, nasty monsters. Of course, the execution does not go quite as planned, and when a whole bunch of Jedis show up, there is a big battle in the arena that is the high point of the movie.

Sadly, there are lower points. First, we begin to see that the reasons that Anakin, who seems like a perfectly happy and friendly kid, becomes one of the great movie villains of all time are that he is a pouty teenager and he is in love with Padme and wants to be with her, even though Jedis don't really partake in distractions like wives or girlfriends. The thing is, when we see a character go from normal kid to mass murderer on a galactic scale and embodiment of evil, moody teenager in love just does not feel like enough motivation. Good God, we would all be potential Hitlers if that were all it takes.

Also, the love affair between Padme and Anakin feels rushed and poorly explained and maybe a bit creepy. When they meet in Episode I, Padme and Anakin clearly see something in each other, but she is in her twenties, maybe, and he appears to be about eight or less. The spark between them ten-ish years later when they meet again (and she is presumably still more than a decade older) is a very different kind of affection, and it cannot be explained by their earlier encounter.

So to explain this great attraction, we get a conversation about sand and a scene with land-blimp animals bouncing around in a field, and we laugh and shake our heads when we are meant to be appreciating how deeply these two feel for each other. It doesn't work, and at times it's bad enough to make you cringe.

In the end, half a good movie plus half a really bad one is not the worst experience ever, but for the Star Wars franchise, it's a disappointment. The disappointment will spill over into the next movie somewhat, but the failure of the Darth Vader storyline starts here, and this one earns the Worst of the Nine Episodes designation.

Star Wars Episode 1: Jar Jar

 

The One With This Guy

I am trying to watch all nine Star Wars films in episode number order, so starting with The Phantom Menace and making my way through The Rise of Skywalker.

I always liked The Phantom Menace, which runs against the grain a bit because it is the second worst-reviewed of the Nine Star Wars episodes on Rotten Tomatoes (the ninth one is just a shade worse.) Still, we have to start by acknowledging that this movie has its weak points. For example:

• Jar Jar Binks. He appears to have been created to appeal to young children.
• The ridiculous "always a bigger fish" journey through the core.
• The whole bet on whether Qui-Gon can take one slave with him, plus the part he needs.
• Nothing can be done about Anakin's mother, ever?
• My brother once compared the admittedly-visually-impressive pod race scenes to a cartoon called "Wacky Races" that we watched as kids. For the uninitiated, Wacky Races was very much like...the pod races in The Phantom Menace.
• Jake Lloyd as Anakin. He does his best, no doubt, but he is unconvincing.
• Young Anakin gives no hint of being the future Darth Vader. More on this problem in Episode 2.

Still, there are some good characters in this movie: Qui-Gon, Padme, Darth Maul. Unfortunately, Qui-Gon and Darth Maul are killed within minutes of each other, and Padme's role turns to mush after this movie, but those are problems for future movies, not this one. The main storyline is a fairly standard good guys versus bad guys plot, with lots of action and the good guys winning by the end of the film.

Also, there are two major backstories in the first three Star Wars episodes: how Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader, and how Senator Palpatine becomes Emperor Palpatine. As mentioned above, we don't learn much about how Anakin becomes Vader here, and that is a good thing, as we will find out in the next episode. Meanwhile, the story of the rise of Palpatine starts with this movie, and that story works well.

So this one is fun if not exactly perfect in every way. On to the second one, where things start to go downhill.

Book Club: Magpie Murders

My family started a book club this year, mostly just to have an excuse to Zoom with family every month. Book club may already be drawing to a close, but a combination of the book club, Christmas, and trying to spend more time reading and less time playing video games has led to my reading more this year.

The first book I read this year was called Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz. Horowitz has written many books including numerous children's books, plus plays, movies, and graphic novels, and he has written for and/or created fourteen television shows including Agatha Christie's Poirot, Midsomer Murders, and Foyle's War. A prolific guy.

The hook for Magpie Murders is that there are two murder mysteries in one novel. The way this is accomplished is this: A murder mystery writer submits a first draft of his latest novel, but the last chapter is missing. The narrator of our story is an editor for this author's publisher, so she (and we) read the entire 200-page manuscript along with her, only to realize that the book is not finished. We then step out of the novel and into her world, where we find out quickly that the author has killed himself by jumping off a roof.

Or was he pushed? We have two mysteries to solve.

I rarely am able to truly solve mysteries, but sometimes I can guess who did it, usually based more on writer tricks than on the clues. In this case, I was able to guess both killers. I'm so proud of myself.

The book was fine, though not anything I would say is a must-read. The writing is perfectly good, as one would expect from an author with Horowitz's body of work. There are inside references to Agatha Christie - for example, the detective in the novel-within-a-novel is clearly deliberately modeled after Hercule Poirot - as well as a few mentions of Midsomer Murders. It's all clever enough.

I think that maybe I have read enough Agatha Christie-ish murder mysteries for this lifetime, but if you are into that sort of thing, the two-mysteries-in-one setup should hold your interest.

Retirement, Year 2

 

Second Beach, Washington

The first anniversary of my retirement was Saturday, so today is the first weekday after the first anniversary of my retirement, so I am writing something. One thing that I did not expect: my weekends are less productive than my weekdays. This is because Jarrod and Jackie work during the week, leaving me uninterrupted time to do whatever I want, which means I can schedule stuff. Weekends are harder.

So what should I do with my second year? Well, let's start by looking at last year's goals, then we can move forward from there. Here are my year one goals, with some evaluation of results:

Health: I still walk every evening, but additional walking got waylaid by an injury to my Achilles heel that lasted six months and has not gone away completely after ten months. My health is not great right now.

Learn to Cook: I have settled into making dinner more or less five nights per week. I am not a great cook, but I prepare food.

Housework: As with most things I take on, I don't do an exemplary job, but I have vacuumed the house several times, mopped floors, cleaned toilets, washed the windows.

Yard work: I am always behind on the weeding and on keeping the grass looking good, but I have pruned and replanted and filled many bags with yard waste.

Piano: I practice three songs, sometimes. I am getting better but cannot play any of them well yet.

Weekend activities: Jackie and I found that we could do road trips reasonably safely during the plague year, so we did a couple, to Yellowstone and to Walla Walla & Crater Lake. Still, our activities were curtailed.

Writing: I don't think that I am going to worry too much about writing. I wrote seven blog posts last year versus two the year before, but I find myself with not that much to say.

Community activities: These got wiped out almost entirely by Covid-19.

One thing that is really clear is that I set a lot of goals that I could sort of do and sort of not do, and then I dabbled at all of them, which is exactly like me. This year, fewer goals. I will still do the activities from year one, but those are mostly ongoing everyday tasks.

So this year, it will be two activities from last year's list that were constrained by Covid-19: weekend trips and community activities.

We have ideas for a couple of weekend trips - around the Olympic Peninsula is one, and visiting my sister who recently moved to Washington is another. We can come up with more later. The biggest challenge is that we have already done a lot of the things that are available to do close to home.

I looked up clubs in our community (called Jubilee.) Most are on hold right now, but they should restart within the next two months. Jackie wants to play Bingo on Saturdays, and I will do that with her because I am an agreeable husband. Jubilee also has Chess Club, French Club (parlons francais), breakfast and lunch clubs, Hiking Club, and Jubilee Democrats, among others.

This year the goal is to get out of the house and spend time with people, one goal really, keeping it simple. I suspect that most people have similar goals for this year. We all need to reconnect with humanity.