Fuck you, George Lucas: Lamenting the loss of a childhood bit of awesome

I dunno if you heard, but Star Tours is closing today at Disneyland. The one in Florida doesn't close til the beginning of September, but that doesn't count because it's not the original.

This makes me so depressed. You have no idea. I mean, if you've been to Disneyland and experienced for yourself the joy that is Star Tours, you'd know what I'm talking about. Waiting in line through the futuristic spacestation-esque surroundings, waiting for the doors to finally open and the super nice/mean/apathetic/jaded Disneyland employee telling you which to file through, taking your seat... The awesomeness of the ride itself... And that droid! That silly little endearing robot that pilots you on your way to Endor. GAH GEORGE LUCAS WHY ARE YOU RUINING MY LIFE.

I was seriously thinking about it on the drive home from my summer class this afternoon. I have so many good memories about that ride. Foremost in my head right now is from years and years and years ago... I must have been about four or five. My parents had taken my sister and I to Disneyland, and we were walking around the park at night, and it was dark and rainy and I was tired, but we went on Star Tours before heading back to our hotel for the evening. And there was no line. And we went in. And it was awesome. Because it wasn't the first time I'd ever been on the ride, and it certainly wasn't the last... it's just a moment that I remember because it was so good.

I was just driving home from class thinking about that, and I came to the realization that my eventual offspring won't have that experience. Sure, there's Star Tours 2.0 and all that bullshit with the podracing and the special effects and whatever, but that's not the same. There's just something about experiencing something amazing as a kid, and then eventually getting to share that same experience with your kid... And I apparently long for something like that. I've never, ever thought about it before today. But sitting in the car by myself I came to the realization that I won't be able to do that with something I genuinely love and enjoy and have great memories of, and it made me legitimately sad.

So I wonder if anyone has ever gone up to George Lucas, knowing full well who he is, and ever said "fuck you" to his face. At like, a meet and greet, or a signing, or convention. Something. I used to get really star-struck, and I occasionally still am, but meeting all these cool, famous people at Con this past weekend whom I really enjoy watching on television bringing characters to life, or writers or musicians whose work I love and admire, I realized that I'm slowly getting over it and am able to have something of a conversation with them.

I want to be the person who is eventually so bold and so articulate, and so not nervous at all. And I want to be able to someday walk up to George Lucas, and I want to say "fuck you". And maybe it impacts him, maybe not. Maybe his neck explodes. I don't know. But that's my goal.

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Shows I'll be watching this Fall

I should be packing and not procrastinating online like this, but Television Without Pity posted this fall preview of shows to 'watch, DVR, or skip' and I figure, what the heck. If I'm going to be getting into the industry, I better start watching more TV. Also, excuse to post! Yeah!

Monday
Castle (10 pm, ABC) - Nathan Fillion. Enough said. (I actually wanted to watch this during the midseason but I had class and then they stopped streaming the episodes online, which was lame.)

Tuesday
V (8 pm, ABC) - Sci-fi! Morena Baccarin! Alan Tudyk! Lizard people!

Wednesday
Glee (9 pm, ABC) - I heard a lot of good things about this show when the pilot aired a few months ago. Plus, singing and dancing.

Thursday
Flash Forward (8 pm, ABC) - I know very little about this show, but it looks awesome.
Community (9:30 pm, NBC) - Joel McHale in a comedy focusing on a group of students attending community college. I'll probably be catching this one online... I hope it doesn't suck.
30 Rock (9:30 pm, NBC) - Probably the funniest show on television, and one of my absolute favorites. Tina Fey! Alec Baldwin! I can't wait til October.

Friday
Dollhouse (9 pm, FOX) - If you missed season one, find it online and watch! You have a month. Go go go!

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In which I ramble about being nerdy <3

I think I'm going to ramble.

So this weekend was Comic Con International! It's another one of those things that makes me love living here in San Diego. No hotel reservations to make, no flights or long long car drives... just carpool with friends and jump on the trolley. Though, to be honest, if I didn't live here I probably wouldn't go to the Con in the first place, because of the aforementioned travelly stuff to take care of. And I kind of suck at that sort of thing.

I don't really think I can sum up everything right now because it's just a huge swirl of sound and color and excitement and exhaustion in my head. And I love it. And it was awesome. I can't wait to do it again next year.

It's quiet right now, mostly because my little brother's away at camp for the week. I'm supposed to be writing him a letter, but I'm blogging instead. I'll get to the letter later.

That kinda rhymed. Ish.

I haven't written anything in a while. Well, a couple weeks ago I started a new script based on a prompt Matt gave me and I wrote the first page and a half. It's kind of gory and dark. I like it. But I haven't written much else because I don't have an ending yet. I think I do, but it's stewing and developing itself in the Maybe, as Russell T says. (I saw him today and it was awesome.) I keep coming back to this image of one of the characters, a man, smothering the other character, a woman, with this white handkerchief while she pleads with him. It's night, and in the middle of this cornfield, and all you can really make out are the blue-black silhouettes of their bodies and the lighter square of cotton handkerchief pressed against her face while she says over and over, "Please, I don't want to die anymore. Please."

Like I said. Dark.

Oh. Changing tacks, there's this random guy who a couple of weeks ago asked to be my friend on Facebook. I'm kind of a friend whore, so I'm like sure, why not. He's cool, a local; keeps mentioning the fact that he's married, so I don't think of him as very sketchy. Occasionally he'll comment on stuff, and it's fun to read. So today apropos of nothing, he writes on my wall and says "You are freaking awesome!" I'm like sweet, that's cool. Random, but cool. So I thank him and remark that I don't really know what inspired him to say that--maybe it was all the tweets/status updates from Con. His response (edited because he has questionable spelling and I'm OCD like that): "It wasn't any one thing, it's the nice little wave of just great and geeky things that make you awesome." And you know what? That really made me smile. Because it's nice to be recognized like that. Usually with most of my friends I just get weird looks or eyerolls when I geek out about something. But frak that. I like what I like and I watch what I watch and I read what I read, and if I love it enough I'm probably going to gush about it. And if that makes me a nerd or a geek or whatever, that's fine. That's more than fine. I have a friend from school who says that I bring out the geek in her. And sometimes she says it's embarrassing, but I tell her this: it's important to own it. Really truly own up to who you are and what you love. Because if you have nothing to be passionate about, or if you're embarrassed by your interests... what a craphole of a life. Seriously. That would really suck. So I'd rather be branded as a nerd (which I totally am, by the way, and I love it) than live like that.

And I think that's one of the more abstract reasons why I really really enjoyed Con this year. It was nice to see a ton of other people who were into the same stuff I was and weren't afraid to flaunt it. Power to you guys. See you next year.

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