Monday Ramblings for 1/12/09

Ahh, it's a Monday morning again. That wonderful time of the week, where one is struggling to get up and running, knowing that there exists ahead of themselves a full 5 days of blissful work.

So, of course to get motivated I talk about Genre things, and whatever else floats through my sleep addled brain.

There was a few fun tidbits from Star Wars over the past week. I went out and purchased Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor; a fun, festive title if ever there was one. Additionally, StarWars.com has given us a first look at the cover, and a plot synopsis for Blood Oath; the upcoming Zekk-centric novel that is set in the post-LotF era.

Frankly, I'm shocked and amazed that someone not of Skywalker-blood is managing to get a focus novel in the Post-RotJ Expanded Universe. It's just so... shocking and unexpected these days.

Now the cynic in me thinks that this may be because Del Rey has realized that they have managed to kill, main, or otherwise undermine any type of heroic characters that are part of the Skywalker bloodline, so that they have to push one of these tertiary characters to the forefront in the hopes that, yes, people will want to read their books. Unfortunately, the realist in me does not believe that Del Rey & LFL has that much self-awareness of just how badly they have mangled that particular time frame as it relates to escapist fantasy, which Star Wars at its core truly is. But, as they say, hope springs eternal.

And then, even beyond THAT, USA Today ran an article in the middle of last week, talking about a new toy entitled "The Force Trainer" which is basically a wireless EEG machine, which uses your concentration to lift a ping-pong ball up a tube.

What's even more interesting is that this is just the first in a wave of new "mind-controlled" games coming from the toy companies. Mattel has a game in the works which involves you mentally moving a ball about a maze (this has much win potential if the maze is reconfigurable).

Of course, of all the interest which the Force Trainer brings, LFL is right there to remind us that yes, they do hate us, and enjoy giving it to the Fans at every chance they get. This time, I stumbled across yet another product tie-in, and it was at this point my mind just went "is there nothing LFL won't put Star Wars on for a penny?"

Yes, I'm talking about the Star Wars Misters. And the product copy! Oh, you just can't make this type of stuff up:

Star Wars fans will appreciate the breeze these handheld fans kick up, with a built-in pump that cools you off with Dagobah-worthy mist. Compact, cool, and a great stocking stuffer for sci-fifans and collectors.

Seriously folks. Who wants this stupid thing? Well, I could see my kids liking it, but I'm not going to spend nearly $20 for something that cheesy, just so my boys can break it.

In other and unrelated to Star Wars, news, as some may know, Ficlets, the writing website put up by AOL is being taken down. Well, being the sneaky individual I am, I saw a void and decided to put something up there. Pay close attention to http://www.theExpandedUniverse.com for more details.

Now all I have to do this week is to just convince my two-year-old that, no cars really don't crash the way they do in Speed Racer, at least if one hopes to continue driving them. As an aside to that, I hope I don't have to explain that "no, we can't get jump jacks for the truck," to either of my boys again.

That's all the ramblings I have for this week. Let's hope that LFL doesn't produce some new licensing evil in the next 7 days. Of course, I'm not holding my breath on that; with my luck, it'll be jump jacks.