Both Beth and Uncle Monster have sent this to me. This is perhaps one of the best (cutest!) explanations of Star Wars Episode IV. Made by www.fistofblog.com, featuring his 3 year old daughter:

I had meant to post about this a short while back, but had forgotten (and dummy me didn’t save the link!) until I was reminded via Beth’s post: GTD in Space - Seven Habits of Highly Effective Spaceship Captains.

Now seriously, I love me some IO9 — it’s a geeky guilty indulgence. While someone more “cultured” may be more obsessed with the latest edition of some wine of the month club mag, I’m jonesing for some sci-fi geekery and IO9 is my fix. They do have really good articles from time to time that make you stop for a second and say to yourself, “You know, I never thought of it that way!” This is one of those.

And so, here you have it: Getting things done, the ‘geek way’…

1. The Prime Directive is just a suggestion. Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Enterprise wasn’t as swashbuckling as he predecessor Captain James T. Kirk, simply because he actually wrestled with breaking the Prime Directive instead of ignoring it entirely. The Prime Directive states that humans shouldn’t involve themselves in the affairs of less developed planets, for fear of messing up their cultures with ultra-advanced tech. While Picard often considers the importance of the Prime Directive in his decision-making, he refuses to be bound by it. Lesson learned? Rules are made to be broken.

2. Always shoot first. Every good leader should be willing to do what he or she asks of her team. One of the reasons for the loyalty of the ragtag crew of Serenity, the ship Malcolm Reynolds captains in Firefly, is that Mal will throw himself into battle to protect his team. Whenever he has a crazy scheme or rescue mission in mind, he takes the first plunge. Lesson learned? Show your crew that you’re willing to take a bullet for them, and they’ll do the same for you.

3. Don’t be afraid to hook up with a cute spaceman. We love Leela on Futurama not just because she’s the only person on her ship with any kind of sense, but because she also lets her long, purple hair down once in a while. She’s always tangling with spacemen and getting mixed up with strange alien pets. And that’s one good reason why her goofy crew would follow her to the ends of the galaxy — well, if she had enough beer. Lesson learned? A good leader has to get laid once in a while, and she shouldn’t be ashamed of it.

4. When you’re about to go genocidal, get a second opinion. Admiral William Adama from the new Battlestar Galactica is one of the best leaders we’ve ever seen. He’s gotten a group of a few thousand humans halfway across the galaxy, despite the fact that they’re being pursuit by a group of homicidal, erotically obsessed cyborgs. He’s had to deal with incredible loss and sheer terror, and he always keeps his head. He is also truly humane. How does he keep it together without going all Admiral Cain on everybody’s ass? By sharing his power with President Roslyn as well as his circle of trusted officers and advisers. Without their guidance, the Galactica and its fleet might have turned into a bloodthirsty military fleet, instead of what it is: a mostly-civilian group with a (sort of) free press and even elections. Lesson learned? True leaders do not ever make decisions alone.

5. Just because you have a crappy ship doesn’t mean you’re a loser. Everyone knows that Han Solo, captain of the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars, is piloting a souped-up bucket. And yet his seemingly-crappy ship is probably the very best thing for helping out a group of covert resistance fighters like Obi Wan and Luke. Plus, he knows his ship so well that he can totally slam those Stormtroopers in their McFighters. Lesson learned? Every crappy PC is a lean, mean Linux box waiting to be born. Oh, and in case that didn’t make sense: It’s not the tools; it’s what you do with them.

6. Freedom fighters make good teammates. Say what you will about Captain Janeway on Voyager, but she made a smart decision early on to integrate her Federation team with a group of subversive Maquis who got stuck with them out in the Delta Quadrant. Another captain might have kept the Maquis separate from the Federation types, but Janeway integrated them and gave them Federation ranks — much to her good fortune. She got a great Chief Engineer and First Officer out of the deal. Lesson learned? A little subversion goes a long way.

7. There is always somebody out there who can bend spacetime better than you can. In Iain M. Banks’ novel Excession, the Ship Sleeper Service (which is an AI that captains itself, thank you very much) discovers that its amazing, human-dwarfing brain is nothing compared to the “excession,” a phenomenon that none of the Ships can understand. The excession exists in subspace, and looks like a giant something that could be a gateway to another dimension, perhaps, or a ship from the edges of the universe. Meeting the excession, for the Ships, is a very humbling experience. They realize that they are not as omnipotent as they realized, that that there are intelligences out there far more profound than their own. Lesson learned? No matter how in control you are, always be ready for something for which you’re completely unprepared.

I figured I might as well take a picture while it’s still clean!

I’ve finally gotten my laptop situated the way I wanted and have all my gear hooked up. (though I had to “demote” my talking Yoda doll so the laptop could fit on the top shelf ;P) I still need to get a cooler for the laptop to sit on, but otherwise I think I’ve got a pretty good setup.

Luckily I’ve been able to find Vista drivers for all of my peripherals, with the exception of my MS Sidewinder GameVoice. I figure since I use it only for hot-switching between speakers and headphones, it’s no biggie using just the default system drivers.

I love toys. I love love LOVE rubber duckies. I also love love LOVE Star Wars toys. Someone sent me a link this morning that combines the two “love love’s”:

Pond Wars Ducks: Duck Fader & Pond Trooper

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! Aren’t they ADORABLE??!! They change colors when they come into contact with water.

Jim, I want one!

Every time I’ve sat down to blog something’s come up or someone needed something from me. I actually sat down to blog last night but was distracted by a very delicious bowl of red beans and rice. (Hey, what can I say? When it comes to food, I’m easy. *shrug*)

I wanted to give a quick plug to my favorite biker geek who’s currently going through broken bike woes. Ben, I think I’m gonna join up one of those Blogathon thingies and name YOU as my cause!

I’ve run across a few goodies lately that I wanted to share with you guys … first and foremost is something I’ve been wanting myself: a way to paste to your cellphone from your pc. How cool is that!!?? Sort of related is this: Useful items you never knew you could print out. The big name thingy I had seen before but had lost the URL, so this is great because I had been wanting to find it again.

And last but not least a great WordPress article that I ran across — actually, this guy often has great WP-related tidbits, so you may want to bookmark his URI. It gives a great example of using WordPress as an online magazine.

I have a TON more open in my firefox session at home, but alas, I didn’t think to send it to myself here at work. Oh well, cest la vie and all that … I spent a little while last night helping a friend looking for some truck accessories that I had run across a while back. It was basically some tricked out Darth Vader looking stuff for a Ford Ranger — VERY wicked looking! Just wish I could remember where I saw it now. ;p

Speaking of Star Wars … my current ring tone is the Imperial March. Last weekend when I was at Jim’s mother’s house, my Helio rang and when it went off it (naturally) started playing. I didn’t hear it at first because I was in another room in the house. I heard Jim’s mother say, “What in the world is that?!”

LOL!

I explained to her what it was and the significance of the song. She tells me, “You’re so geeky, it’s cute even!”