STAR WARS

*Day 15* I'm blogging everyday till VidCon! What is VidCon? Check it out at www.VidCon2010.com

*omg! Only 15 days to go!

So yesterday I sorta promised you that I would talk about Star Wars. So why not? Although, be forwarned, this blog will be a bit long.

I am a Star Wars fan. I didn't grow up that way though. Actually, I hated Star Wars when I was younger, I even made fun of some of the nerdy boys at school who really did like Star Wars (I am so sorry for this now.) You probably wont believe it, but I did not start to like Star Wars until Episode 1 came out in the theatres. I know what you are all going to think "Episode 1 sucked!!!" Let me tell my story.

When Episode 1 came out, I was on vacation. I had gone with my aunt to visit my Great Aunt and Uncle who lived in a really really really tiny town in northern Nevada. Tiny town = population 500, it's actually classified as a village. Anyway, when you are used to the city, life in a farming community can get rather boring, so one day my Aunt decided to take me to the next town over to go to the movies. She said she was taking me to go see Star Wars Episode 1. To thouroughly convince you of my dislike of Star Wars at that time, let me pull a quote from my diary the day before the movie.

June 22, 1999 - "...tomorrow my Aunt and I are supposed to go the movies to see Star Wars Episode 1: the Phantom Menace, though I would rather she went and I stay here and help my uncle with the yard work."

*omg! Did you notice that date? June 22, so I first began to like Star Wars on June 23, 1999. That's exactly 11 years ago. What a coincidence that I am writing this today (I seriously didn't plan this!)

So anyway, as much as I didn't want to go, I went and I ended up really likeing the movie. You can say all you want about Jar-Jar Binks. I wont stop you. I was enthralled by Anakin, Queen Amidala and Qui-Gon Jinn. Those characters just grabbed my attention and stole my heart. To seal my love for the Star Wars universe, the next day, my Aunt made me watch Episodes 4-6 all in a row. The whole story finally made sense to me and I LOVED it!

Now, fast forward to June 2005, when I was in Japan. That was the summer that Episode 3 was released. By this time I was a complete and total nut for Star Wars. (I had taken to reading nearly every Star Wars book ever written.) So, two things related to Star Wars happened while I was in Japan. First, while I was there, the movie theatre on the Navy base was having a Star Wars marathon. All six movies being shown in the theatre for a whole day! What an awesome event! I couldn't miss that! But that wasn't even the best of it. Temura Morrison and Daniel Logan (Boba Fett and Jango Fett) were touring Japan to help promote the movie and they were going to be at the theatre just before the movies started. Aaah! So I got to meet them! Look 0_0



So that was the sorta cool thing I alluded to yesterday. But wait! My story goes on. In 2005 Myspace was still sort of new and it was a really big deal back then. Everyone was using it. So while I was in Japan, I would stay up late and go onto the myspace groups to talk to the American Star Wars fans. The largest Star Wars fan group on Myspace was run by a guy named Steven Greenwood. He was a co-creator of the Wookieepedia (a Star Wars division of Wikipedia). He was always online it seemed, and even though I was super busy during my stay in Japan, I seemed to be online a lot then too. So he and I ended up sharing a lot of opinions across the forums and eventually we realized that we were both the same age and that we were both geology majors in college, so we naturally became "internet friends".

Steven and I have been as close as internet friends can be ever since then. Over the years our conversations have started to focus more on our interest in geology and our future careers than our interest in Star Wars. Anyway, he lives in Clarksville, Tennessee and about two years ago now, my cousin moved to Clarksville because her husband joined the Army and he was stationed there. I couldn't believe it! So last year for spring break, I went to visit my cousin and I spent some time hanging out with Steven. I'm telling you all of this, because Steven has a Star Wars room in his house. It is absolutely incredible and I have pictures! These pictures hardly do the room justice, but have a look! 0_0









Yep, that is Steven's Star Wars room. He never told me about this room until I was at his house and before he took me to this room, he started acting like it was a big deal. Ha, I had no idea the awesomeness I was about to see. When I opened the door, it was just amazing! :-) (Anyway, Steven is a really cool guy and is a bit of a nerdfighter now. You can follow him on Twitter @riffsyphon1024 or find him on Facebook www.facebook.com/stevengreenwood).

Two quick stories I still have to share with you. First, when I came home from Japan in 2005 my sister got a new boyfriend. She showed me his picture and I instantly recognized him as a boy I used to go to school with in the sixth grade. He was one of the boys I used to make fun of for being a huge Star Wars fan. When I met him again, he remembered me from school too and I apologized to him for having made fun of him about likeing Star Wars. (I thought you all should know that!). LAST STORY: in 2006 I had the chance to meet Kenny Baker (R2-D2) and Matthew Wood (voice of General Greivous). I got autographs from both of them, but I will only show you the R2-D2 that Kenny Baker signed for me.



Okay, okay. I'm done now. Those are my Star Wars stories. Goodbye till tomorrow. :-)