The Star Wars Starbucks Reunion Thread

collapsing under our own weight is certainly true. It's a burn out to manage to compose essential things into sentences which actually mean things to other people. So sometimes I do monster post (above) and sometimes I'll just chat some. (like now!)

Sasha, there are things here everyone does which I envy.

One of these days when I have the brain watts, I'll click on McGregor's link. Until then, I'm not up for getting someone else's opinions. I'm just too tired for any "real" reading these last few days.

About the LotR comparison & SW comparison. My gut feeling is that LotR is a myth about the connection of language to reality. Tolkien creates a past for the world where language does shape the world. He follows a history in which that becomes less and less true until it leads into what is the human age when language only shapes human hearts. To me that is what LotR hinges on: the moment when the world finally moves forward into the age when language doesn't shape reality.

Gollum's fate seems to me to be tied up in that -- Gollum choose the language/power world, and in the end it took him.

In SW I don't know what power changed in RotJ. I don't know what the big shift was. I don't know what the new balance is. I don't know what connection between human and world has changed. This kind of gets back to the Brin article from last summer -- does the transcendance of Anakin & Luke have meaning for anyone other than Anakin & Luke? I KNOW what is changing at the end of RotKing. I don't know what's changing at the end of RotJedi.

What went into the pit with the Emperor? Anything? I don't know. I hope Eps. 2 & 3 tell us.

Thran: Just because Tarkin could give his theory and the imperium declare it legal does not make it correct. Because life is precious, life should be preserved as possible & with the best quality feasible. Regardless of his purpose (intimidate the people of the imperium & cut down loss of lives elsewhere) Tarkin's act of ordering the death of Aldaraan was still wrong. For the crimes of people on Aldaraan there must be other recourse. Some of them could have been saved.

Finally, the state does not have the right to wipe out an entire population. This is "proved" when the Imperium builds a super weapon to enforce this power which they clearly do not have. (If they had the power they wouldn't need the weapon.) No planet would give the state this authority which is why the state has to build the biggest weapon around to scare people into accepting this state of affairs.

Question for you all:

1. Is Luke a prince?

2. Do you think Leia gave alot of people a kiss for luck?

3. Do you think Vader thought he balanced the force when he killed Obi Wan?

4. Would you want Yoda living in a tree in you back yard?

 

150 posts in 2 weeks... We're averaging over 10 a day!

HUNTER, I had a Sarrencia Purpurea (sp?) for over 6 years... I loved that plant. But the flowers weren't very showy! (They were white, large but drab). Never could get my hands on a Flava. Then last summer, when I was in Berkeley, I found the botanical garden sold all sorts of carnivores! I was heartbroken because I wouldn't be able to bring them back here (to Mass.) alive.

EOWYN's quiz:
> 1. Is Luke a prince?

Only if Leia is a princess by heredity. I think Lucas tried to pull a fast one with "Queen" Amidala - if she's elected, would the title "Princess" mean anything? (Are Barbara and Nancy still "First Ladies"?)

> 2. Do you think Leia gave alot of people a kiss for luck?

*ahem*, what are you implying about our little princess? Paul Simon had nothing to do with it!

> 3. Do you think Vader thought he balanced the force when he killed Obi Wan?

I don't think he thinks very much about balancing anything. I don't think balancing the Force could be something consciously achieved or willed. (If Anakin brings balance to the Force, it is because Luke *is* the Force, balanced...?)

> 4. Would you want Yoda living in a tree in you back yard?

Yes, because only the OT Yoda would be willing to live in a tree. TPM Yoda seems too stuck up so it wouldn't matter if I wanted him there or not because he wouldn't do it.

(Does Yoda remind you of Gandalf and the Shire, the way he can joke around with Luke before revealing his power?)

If I had kids, Yoda would be great in the tree because they'd see him every once in a while and he'd impart his wisdom, but I wouldn't want him in the house because then there'd be too much conflict of parental authority.

EOWYN, we're trying to revive Shar Kida's thread in TPM - come on by!

As for what ROTJ heralds, were it not for the EU, I would say that Luke should represent the *last* Jedi. Stories set "a long time ago" often document the end of the age of magic and wonder - a bittersweet story. Middle-Earth, Eden, Valhalla... Max Weber believed it was the Protestant ethic and capitalism that led to the "disenchantment" of the modern world, but it seems that the end of magic has been a concern of humanity for as long as storytelling.

SASHA, don't kid yourself on your intellectual abilities - you're a nerd with the rest of us. Look how you scared everyone in your TPM post! Too many words for that crowd, I'm afraid.

 

SASHA -- seriously, I'm still considering my response to your thread. : )

If I didn't say it before, HI HUNTER.

& Hi CASTA! I had never looked at the trench run as significantly fun (beyond being another good part of the movie) until people here started picking it. hee hee. In some odd way, that's when Vader first *notices* his son. So the three movies move: ANH-Vader shoots at Luke, ESB-Vader tries to connect with or kill Luke, RotJ-Vader connects with Luke. It's a progression of sorts. hee hee.

Regarding the pace of threads: one of the few things I've learned from bumping around here is that brain threads take time. They aren't the quick bloomers. Though the answers don't come back at once, they will come back.

And as proof of that, I was thinking of what HAVE said pages ago about text communication lacking elements from regular talking, and I only JUST thought of something! For many of us, myself included, this was the first online experience where it got personal & mattered. Perhaps not you lot, but I've met a bunch who found this the first site where they met their own & other's online personas. For the internet naive (like me!) there was an element not of simply "being" but also of "making the being." I was initially concerned with what was seen/read/thought by others.

This is only significant because I like others (I believe) got caught up in asserting an image and not simply having fun. It's a small point, but I think can be a significant one. SASHA mentions the flames we've seen here. I've come to think that the flames are the result of defending the created self images.

just a thought for a Sunday night.

Oh, SW reference for HUNTER & PADMEWAN or anyone else: Do we know what the Sarlaac pit was? Plant, animal? ???

 

1. The one person you'd like to meet...
Paul Erdos, Hungarian math prodigy, a man who loved only numbers.

2. Superpower you most want...
Access to every single information sources on earth.

3. Favourite munchie at 2am...
I have barely anything between my meals except drinking water. Or you can say I'm munching books.

4. Things you collect...
Information. Battle tactis from various time period. Math strategy. Every tidbits of history of German engagement in WWII.

5. Favourite cartoons...
Sorry, no TV for me.

6. Person you would most want to work with...
Urrghhhh...I prefer work by myself.

7. Favourite musical performers...
Maria Callas.

8. Favourite TV show...
Didn't I say for the umpteenth time that I absolutely dislike TV?

9. Last good movie you saw...
I would have to say....Philadelphia.

10. Last good book you read...
The Prince by Machiavelli.

11. If you had the power of The Beyonder...
Information. Omniscience.

 

Hey everyone--my brain's in shutdown mode, so I thought I'd finally fill out one of the surveys.

1. If you could be any character in any of the Star Wars MOVIES, and live ONE day of their movie life, Who would you be and what day would you want?

Yoda as a Jedi spirit at the end of ROTJ. Because that way I can know what it feels like to be a spirit living in jedi heaven. And also, it would be cool to know what it feels like to be green.


2. What's the worst movie you've ever seen and why?

Leprechauns I, II, III, and IV. My favorite of the Leprechaun series: Leprechaun II: Four Weddings and Lots of Funerals. Ha! I love that title. And here's a fun Leprechaun fact: did you know that the star of the Leprechauns series is none other than Warrick Davis, the guy who played Wicket and the little Greedo in TPM? (Hmm...I realize lately, I've been mentioning and talking a lot about green, troll-like creatures...wonder what that could signify?)


3. Which would you rather do, -- Pod Race, Trench Run, or Lightsabre Duel?

All three.


4. Name something odd/strange that you like.

I don't know if this is really odd, but I love playing ultimate frisbee, even though I haven't played in several months. Odd food habits: As a kid, I used to eat tomatoes with sugar. Yum. And raw eggs, with sesame oil. Just like Rocky.


5. When you order a double scoop ice cream cone, what flavours do you usually order?

See JADE's answer.


6. If you wear a perfume or cologne, what kind?

Old Spice.


7. What things have you been turning to recently for entertainment? (tv, books, sports, etc)

The Real World in New Orleans and the Big Brother show. Book wise, I've been reading up on Jungian psychoanalytic theory.

 

Hi!

I am planning to keep a copy of our thread this time. I made (trumpet fanfare) yet another ezboard in which to do it. Yes, friends, the world has one more ezboard this morning. http://pub21.ezboard.com/bstarbucks48843

I suspect that one reason we burn out on these threads is because they are multiple threads all put together. On ezboard we could split up the thread into topics as the moods takes us, but the down side to an ezboard (and it's a big one) is the loss of the strangers. I'm still here at tfn because here is the place to meet more people. I don't know if we can be both places at the same time.

In any event, there's a board out there named & geared for us. It will be at the very least an archive. (Though I didn't make the archive forum yet.)

I want to hear other people's input on this. My vision is that we keep here during our reunions, but as we all start to slack and burn out we move to ezboard for the "off season" until we pick up again and then have a reunion again here.

 

Hey all,

EOWYN: I think a Starbuck's Forum is a great idea! I'm not quite sure how the Starbucks ezboard will function in relation to the JCF threads, but, we can figure that out as we go along. I think, though, that you/we should mention the board in the regular Starbucks thread, too. The ezboard seems like a good place to allow for the starbucks convergence Sasha talked about.

CASTA: Hi, nice to see you here! You made some interesting contributions to the Meaning of SW Names thread, especially about Palpatine. (I don't know about you or anyone else, but I keep thinking of Saltine crackers when I hear the name Palpatine.) And the Erdos guy you mentioned in the survey, isn't he that eccentric math genius who was homeless and lived in strangers' houses doing math problems? I heard the author who wrote his biography talk about him on NPR, and he sounded really fascinating, even for me, someone who has an antagonistic relationship with math; i.e., I don't get it.

PADMEWAN, still thinking about your question about what Lucas thinks about Vader and balancing the force. My thinking process is in the "incubation" stage. Briefly, my take is that Palpatine is the real evil mover and shaker, and Vader is like the clueless kid roped into driving the getaway car in a bank heist.

SASHA, when you compare yourself to Salieri, and implicitly characterize the rest of us as Mozarts, I am reminded of what Lloyd Bentsen once said to Dan Quayle. To paraphrase Lloyd: "I know Mozart. Mozart was a friend of mine. And son, you are no Mozart!" I am unsure of a lot of things in life, but one thing I know for certain...I am definitely no Mozart. Not even close. And I agree with Padmewan's sentiments...we are all fellow geek travellers. And, this is from way back, but, I don't think simply any piece of literature or movie can be compared to TPM. Lots of works of literature or cinema may bear surface similarities to each other, but not necessarily deep, structural, thematic similarities. Which reminds me, I still need to post my thoughts on the similarities between the Wizard of Oz and Star Wars.

And finally, not that any of you really care, but, I do *not* really wear Old Spice. That was a joke. What I actually wear is the Michael Jordan cologne. I have to admit, though, that I remember the Old Spice commercials way back when I was a kid, and I remember those commercials making Old Spice seem really cool.

 

Hi, all! Sorry I've been so sporadic, lately it's been like running the gauntlet trying to find time to post here, and it seems like whenever I do find a moment, something interrupts. So now I'm martyring myself for the cause, -- writing *before* I go running. If I keep tacking things onto the start of my day like this, soon I won't even have to bother going to bed at night, -- my day will be begin before it ends.

When I last left I was going through a big moaning jag about my posting skills.... (which reminds me, I don't think I've ever been called a nerd or geek before! I'm flattered. When do I get my honourary pocket protector? ü) Ok, as I was saying, I really don't think I measure up to the company I keep, posting-wise. Not only do I not have the "brain watts" (as EOWYN would say, -- I liked that little phrase), but I also seem to lack the ability to stand "inside" the Star Wars universe and look at it from within. I tend to be more drawn to discussing Star Wars from the filmmaking perspective, -- script, cinematography, casting, and so forth. When someone asks, Why must there always only be two? the reply that comes to my mind is, Because George Lucas wrote it that way. See? Not very philisophical.... It takes effort on my part to be speculative, and frankly, to care. I'm far more interested in what you ordered for lunch today or in what cd is popped in your player than I am in Why Anakin wanted Luke to have his lightsabre. TOSHI STATION really hit the nail on the head when he said that everyone here seems to have ideals in common. I feel that way, too, and I come here more for the people than the movie.

That's not to say that I'm not a Star Wars fan, or that I'm not intrigued by all these lines of thought. I'm totally fascinated with some of the directions these musings take, I'm amazed at the new colours I find here, -- absolutely brilliant, awe inspiring insights. Every day I read something that makes me see part of the saga in a whole new light, which astounds me because people have been talking about this nonstop for years, yet fresh concepts are still being discovered and explored. I'm constantly bookmarking threads to read, or adding one to my list of "topics I want to respond to sometime soon".

But replying to any of the more serious subjects takes an incredible amount of research and time. For example, I've wanted to post on the "Weak Storytelling" thread ever since the reunion began. However, I haven't had time to read all the posts, -- I finally printed it yesterday so I could carry it around and read it in my free moments, -- and it was forty one pages! And that's only *one* of the topics, -- I still want to take a look at "A Qui Gon Article", and "The Empathy Factor" (can you imagine how many pages THAT one will print out at?) and formulate more serious replies to Clerk's friendship thread and "He's a CLONE, Jim!" -- and all the while the forum keeps spewing forth more threads, and more avenues to persue! Ahh! I can't keep up!

In the big scheme of things, it doesn't matter. Life is full of choices and we all have to prioritize, and if I don't have time or the wits, then so be it. But this is the thing. I LOVE Starbucks. I love having our group back. I've always wanted there to be a place I could check into every morning and see the same faces and feel that comraderie. You know, ".... where everybody knows you're naa-aame". CASTA mentioned Erdös. The thing I always liked about him was that he lived to be in his eighties but the longest he ever stayed anywhere was four years. That's my record, too, -- and that was a long time ago, when I was little. So I just love that here it is a year later, and here are all these familiar faces, still talking together and enjoying each other. To make a long story short: I DON'T WANT YOU TO GO AWAY! I'm afraid that if I can't contribute and do my share to keep things stimulating, you people with the snap, pop, crackling and lightning flash brains will move on, -- you'll become bus buddies.

Despite my feelings and my

 

heehee, fast response:

Sasha -- I once floated an idea about pits being this big seperation thing & anxiety about what's on the other side making it both invisible & far away -- imagination space stretched in order to keep death and judgement at bay - compared to light sabres (which are shaped like the pits) - blah blah blah - when a friend showed up and said, uh, also so that there can be bloodless death. When the body falls neatly off screen, there's no problem dealing with the body.

Ha!

So in SW we keep the "good bodies" (people we want to care about after they die) and drop the bad ones in pits. Vader funeral = no pit. Qui Gon funeral = no pit. Can't get Obi Wan's body home? = disappearance.

hee hee

And if the two didn't work together (over analyzed meaning & the way it works on the screen) then the movie wouldn't be so good.

 

Sasha, how deep you are into the math topic?

 

Talking about Erdos, he was one of those genius who comes by once in a while. He has prodigious talent, especially in elementary mathematics.

 

CALLIE, WORMIE, TOSHI, -- where'd you guys go? (Real lives not allowed)

CASTA: How deep am I into math? Well, I still add on my fingers every now and then if that answers your question... ü Skill-wise I've never been too much better than average in math and the sciences, I even have difficulty reading and processing numbers if they're not written out in word form, but that hasn't dampened my enthusiasm for the subject. I love reading about the behind the scenes world of mathmatics, the stories of the players and their discoveries. (Fermat's last thereom, Taniyama & Shimura, Richard Feynman, the entire "Longitude" story) There's no way I can pick up a technical book on the subject and grasp it, but if someone like Singh or Discovery Magazine will translate that knowledge into something I can comprehend (or at least pretend to myself I do) then it is some of my very favourite bedside reading. I feel the same about quantum theory, unified field theory, black holes, cosmic strings, and so forth. Maybe I'm hoping I can become brilliant vicariously, or maybe my talent lies in being an adoring audience, I don't know, -- I just know that anything on the topic commands my immediate attention and pulls at me like a magnet. (and I love the whole mystery of magnetism, too, btw)

Oh, and CASTA, I forgot to give you your Starbucks fortune (like anyone really cares) Here it is: "Versatility is one of your outstanding traits" Hmmm.... not much of a fortune, huh? More an observation. Here, I'll give ya a freebie, "You're about to meet a dark, mysterious stranger who will have a great impact on your life." (Yikes! Vader.....)

HAVE: It's not easy being green.... I think it's interesting that the Leprechaun movies are the worst you've ever seen, yet you've managed to watch all four.... hmmmm.... have you seen "Little Shop of Horrors"? -- you remind me of the Bill Murray character! ü

Hey, I caught an old episode of Real World: New Orleans last night, -- the one where Kelly gets her first shot at being a producer. (She didn't have much of a handle on it, -- does she get better with time?) I could easily get addicted to that show. I didn't feel that way about Big Brother, their lack of editing was like some slow water torture, but Real World's production values were much better, and of course, you know how much I Iove the whole voyeurism thing. Did you hear that Julie was dropped from BYU for breaking the honour code? (co-ed cohabitation) Not sure what I think of that, off hand it doesn't make much sense to me. I thought the honour code only applied while at the Y, hmmmm.... I'll have to do some research.

You mentioned NPR and I love to listen to that when I'm driving (most music stations get annoying after a while, there's only so much Santana and Mambo No. 5 a persona can listen to). On my last car trip I remember that Public Radio Café invented a movie ratings system for senior citizens that I thought was fun. E = Beware, Abrupt Ending ( Not Matlock) M = Warning, Extreme Mumbling and W meant to watch out, movie contains explicit scenes of food being wasted. Don't they know that could be frozen or made into gravy?

I also learned from NPR how to make someone fall in love with me in 30 seconds, but don't worry, it only works in person. ü I wouldn't get too close to the monitor if I were you, though...

HUNTER and MCGREGOR: There just seems to be something wrong about a plant eating bugs, you know? Did you ever see the sketch about the guy who is a vegetarian, not because he loves animals but because he hates plants? Lol! It was great. His house was filled with all these shriveled up, dying plants and every day he'd set a full glass of water beside each of them, just to taunt them.... Ü He also spoke to them every day, but you don't want to know what he said....

And McGREGOR, I think I disagree with you about the dialogue after the plastic bag scene in "American Beauty", I think that feeling needed to be put into words. It wasn't like the duel sunset in ANH, where just seeing a

 

I'm still here, rubbing my eyes in disbelief....what the hell are you guys still doing here!?!? What the hell am I still doing here?!?! Ahhh...screw it! I'm going back to bed! I'll recheck this when the allergy meds have worn off...this is probably a hallucination.

 

She was buying a coffee at Au Bon Pain, and then went out to look at flowers at the flower cart. (If you want to know the scene, it's in Good Will Hunting, a brief shot of that section of Harvard Square, with the most vocal panhandler in MA in the background. Very impressive GWH post in our mirror thread, Sash).

She was definitely Natalie. She was definitely *hot*.

~~

Sarlacc Pit: fungus
It wasn't green!

~~

The Talented Mr. Ripley: Beautiful cinematography, pretention disproportionate to the banality of the characters and theme. OK, Mr. Ripley is crazy. Get over it. And get me out of this theater!

(Of course, I was no big fan of "The English Patient" either. I guess I'm a red-blooded American; these amoral stories do nothing for me).

~~

Anakin brings balance to the Force by wiping out the Jedi. Yoda knows this and ironically, perhaps very much knowingly so, refuses his training. (Lucas himself suggestively states that "one" of the Jedi Council knows that he is the Chosen One and what it means). Yoda, unlike the rest of the Council, knows that bringing Balance will be the end of the Jedi, perhaps of the Force as they conceive of it.

Or perhaps he brings Balance by destroying the Emperor... but again only Yoda sees that the path to this is paved by the bodies of the Jedi themselves.

In any event, EOWYN, I've been very much thinking about how fantasy stories end with the victory of the mundane and the death of magic. Middle-Earth must pass away with Sauron and leave us in the world we live in today. Fairy tales must always explain why the world we live in isn't as magical as the ones in the stories. (Remember that Star Wars is science fantasy, not science fiction -- it's important that it was "A long time ago...")

(This would go with your belief, HAVE, that Lucas is showing us the rise of the Everyman; for this to be true Luke himself must be the last Jedi, a Prometheus who brings fire to mankind and ends the reign of the gods, in the process giving up, in a sense, his own claim to divinity.)

 

SASHA -- I just read your post from before, this time with the mind switched on and in the upright position. You said perfectly what has worried me before:

>Because I think all of you are more interested
>in the conversation, than the company, so
>Starbucks won't stay high on your list of places
>to visit.

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
NOOooOO000000OOOooooooooOOO000000oo0o0o0o0o0!

I think we all care about each other. It's odd, but what we have is text, but that's not **all** we care about. I find what you all say incredibly special and I do think we're going to be chatting for a long time.

Right now I'm not going to movies and what movies I go to I've got a VERY odd view of. I'm probably the only one here who got out of Chicken Run and burst into tears. The kitchen scenes didn't remind me of home, but still, home was more real to me than the movie and I needed a private moment right there in the middle of town, *waaaa*.

I don't think I'm merely distracting myself from my problems here right now. The fun we've had isn't merely time fill. I could be doing counted cross stitch, something I do love.

Today, fyi, sat with mom while she went through the legalities of getting out of group family ownership of some property where she used to go as a child in Wisconsin. We went as a family when I was young too. And I thought of your sea glass (we call it lake glass) and smiled. (Sea glass in room is fine, btw.)

Something about connecting with others makes the yech of life easier. Not just less lonely, but easier. The memories are there not to tempt me with what can not be but rather to let me connect with the past and with others. Joy is for me these days found when I stop wishing for a different life. You all *are* part of my life, even when I don't reply for a week, and I hope to remain part of yours.

I've made **REAL** friends on the internet, most of them through tfn. I'm not here for "what you say" or "how you say it" but because I like sharing my life with you, and doing it via small talk / smart talk / Star Wars talk works for me.

I hope some of that was soothing.


What was HAVE's everyman theory? I just reread this and missed it.

I'll be back! There's more to say, but aol is warning me that it thinks I'm being inactive. Grrrrrr! AOL: anti-flood control.

 

WORMIE: Better check to make sure those are the right pills in there, the "medication" you're taking might not the right kind of ones. =)

uhm stuff. Blah blah blah blah.

There, that constitues a post.

Thran out.

"<insert Thran's ending quote here> Where? HERE!"

 

So I can justify the time I spend here, let me ask you for some help in doing some "market research":

1. Do you belong to any other "online communities"? Do you belong to any "Real World" associations? As a member of the RW association, do you automatically feel like a member of the online counterpart?


2. How would you feel about having an online counterpart to a RW organization? Would it help strengthen relationships, or make them more vulnerable (e.g. misinterpretations of posts, too much honesty, etc)?


3. Some of you who see my posts elsewhere may notice that I often try to keep discussions orderly and focused. How important is a moderator figure to a discussion? What role should that moderator play?


4. Would you ever consider being a professional moderator of an online community in an area you have expertise in, whether as a service or for pay? (If for pay, how much?)

 

Thanks, Sasha, for everything. For me, math is pretty serious stuff already--I have been with the math club since middle school

 

Sasha, I've learned that it's possible to feed tiny quantities of sirloin to a Carnivorous Plant. An experienced plant grower reports that some plants like chocolate so much that they'll pig out on the stuff and die. So far, all I have are some books on the subject. Once, I traveled to Longwood Gardens where there are several kinds of Carnivorous Plants in the greenhouses. If I ever grow a Sundew, I'll feed it microscopic bits of sirloin. I have so few insects around that it would go hungry otherwise. Occasionally, a spider gets into our dwelling and we return him or her to the yard.

~ Hunter of the Winds ~

 

HUNTER,

The problem with sirloin is that it's dead... The "active" carnivorous plants, the ones everyone finds fascinating, need stimulation to "eat." So if you just pop a sirloin piece onto a sundew or Venus flytrap, it will only get partly digested. However, I guess it would work fine wiht "passive" plants like the pitcher plant.

If you really want to know what I do, I leave a strip of banana peel near the plants - you get lots o' nasty fruit flies, and inevitably a few get eaten.

 

Two things:

First of all, I was thinking about the answer to Luke killing the Emperor. There are 2 different styles of right & wrong: the paper code & the one we imagine divinity would use. On paper it is wrong to kill a gov't head, even in war, because it will not move things toward resolution, just intensify the chaos (and therefore suffering). Because in SW the Emperor was far more than simply a gov't head, but also the locus of evil, Luke has separate justification for a fight to the death. If Luke was fighting Jedi to Sith, it would be justified.

Can the Jedi/Sith conflict be separated from politics of the galaxy? I don't know.




Secondly, McGregor, that's not an easy foursome. I'll start by unpacking # 1:


>1. Do you belong to any other "online
>communities"?

If by that you mean, signed up, yes. But belong & chat & know people & think of the names as people and not just authorities on a subject that they then expound? no. (note -- I don't think of the ezboard flotilla as a separate community from tfn.)

>Do you belong to any "Real World" associations?

yes. phew, that was easy.

>As a member of the RW association, do you
>automatically feel like a member of the online
>counterpart?

no. (I tried answering this the other night. And deleted and went off to let my answer mulch some more.) There are "cyber" connections that I don't think actually connect the way the real world organization connects. If I did more than simply get the newsletter via email with my RW association, it would be to get orders & instructions. The effect of the cyber hook up is to empower authority to give unquestionable orders. For better or worse, most of us deal by insisting on the traditional body-to-body meetings. Could it be done right? yes.

Secondly, the way the org I am thinking of handles conflict right now is in part to give it space -- specific space & time. What happens when the space is the internet & the time is whatever an individual has to devote to it? I don't know.

 

Revived the "How is the Empire Evil?" thread for kicks. Wondering if that will bring ol' VADER back.

SASHA, any clue where the "Does the Death Star Floats?" thread go? That's a thread that deserves a revival!

EOWYN, like that impression of Luke in the post before last...

 

McGREGOR's QUESTIONS:

1.a) Do you belong to any other "online communities"?

Yes, I'm active in four other communities.

b) Do you belong to any "Real World" associations?

Yes

c) As a member of the RW association, do you automatically feel like a member of the online counterpart?

Hmmm.... not sure, that depends. Let me give you some examples, and you figure it out. I work with the Literacy Council, and they have a web page and e-mail, but no forum. I consider their online info a tool available to me, but there's no "membership" feeling, per se. I'm involved a bit with The Myelin Project, and most national contact is done through their site, but locally it's through other means, so yes and no. The site does help me feel like part of a larger whole, though. It seems that most rw organizations use the net as a way to disseminate information, a newslettre of sorts, yet they still feel a need for face-to-face contact on the important issues. There is a writer's community that I do feel connected with, and am an active member of, but we're all free lance, so that's the only way we *would* feel any sort of organization. In a sense, our rl association *is* the internet, -- there's no meeting or structure in any other way, so maybe that doesn't count. You know, now that I think about this, I'm really no help to you at all..... move along, move along...


2. How would you feel about having an online counterpart to a RW organization? Would it help strengthen relationships, or make them more vulnerable (e.g. misinterpretations of posts, too much honesty, etc)?

I personally think the Internet is underused and I would love to see more things function through online channels. But I really abhor long droning meetings, so that influences my thinking quite a bit. And anything that allows me to stay in my pj's or slip all day is an immediate plus in my book. As for misinterpretations of posts, people misunderstand one another all the time, so it would at least be nice to have it all in writing, -- proof of sorts.

Something you might want to take into consideration, though, is the type of people who are drawn to and utilize the Internet. In my line of work, everyone is very comfortable spending hours in front of a computer and expressing themselves textually. But what about RW organizations which are made up of several different personality types? Say, researchers and salespersons? My guess is that researchers would tend to be introverts and salespeople extraverts, and from my (grantedly limited) data, it appears that extraverts are less enamoured with the computer, or at least the web, than introverts.

3. Some of you who see my posts elsewhere may notice that I often try to keep discussions orderly and focused. How important is a moderator figure to a discussion? What role should that moderator play?

Yikes! That's a thought provoker. I do think it's nice feeling like there's an authourity figure around, someone "in charge", yet on the other hand, it can make other people feel limited in their input. They have to feel an extra surge of boldness in order to confidently present a new direction to the conversation, they might not feel like it's "their place". I feel that now whenever I go visit the other Starbucks threads I quash the conversation and change the dynamics of the group because some people are too aware that I organized the first Starbucks thread and feel like they have to defer to me. Sometimes I think I should log on under a different name, or something. It's just a sense I get, like I'm intruding, that probably wouldn't be there if everyone felt an ownership. So moderating is kind of a touchy thing, it's nice to have someone to keep things "on track" (if that's neccessary, sometimes the tangents are welcome and better than the original direction) , someone to be a calming voice when things storm, and someone to help make sure all are included (though all these things can happen through the group rather than one specific voice, but then you're counting on people's sense of res

 

Let me say this, Sasha. The day I made my first post in Starbucks was one of the most nerve wracking days I've ever spent on the Internet. I was surfing for Ep I spoilers and chanced onto TFN's discussion board. Not wanting to get involved and fearful that anything I had to say would be unintelligent at best, I lurked for weeks. Yours I avoided all together because of the post count, but for some reason, one day I started reading them and couldn't stop. Within a week I had something to say that I just couldn't keep myself from posting. It didn't take very long before I truely felt welcome, and became totally involved. So, in answer to your question, this was the first place I ever felt a part of and participated in.

 

WORMIE: I actually meant by my question if this forum -- JCF -- was the first one people had actively participated in, not this thread in particular, though I didn't realize that this was one of your first places posting. It's funny to me to think of someone being afraid of us, though I know exactly what you mean. I remember that I was literally shaking the first time I ever wrote a "serious" post, -- McGREGOR's racism thread. Not only was it the first time I ever posted anything contemplative, it was also one of the first times in my life I spoke honestly about my feelings on the subject in a nonmonochromatic setting. I've had such a white bread life, it's pathetic.

Where I recall meeting you was on the Luke thread in the middle of our voting frenzy. You were working and we kept each other company as we tried to rule the world. Ü

HAVE: Did you really eat tomatoes with sugar? I almost tried it today (just an eensy teensy piece, just to see) and then I got to thinking....What if this was just a joke? Hmmmm, better check first..... And there's no way I'm EVER trying the sesame oil/egg thing. (though sesame oil does taste good on Thai noodles...)

And hey, we're still waiting for your other film comparison.... (you're really quite good at that)

EOWYN: Wisconsin? I've heard they're real party people there.... (that's a quote from "The Straight Story", which I thought was silly, but since the movie several people have confirmed that it's true. The Cheese State people are party animals? I had no idea....)

Lake glass has a nice ring to it, like Lady of the Lake. Somehow it's just hard to go wrong with the word "lake", it even works as a name, -- Veronica Lake. There's something evocative about it. I vacationed every year right above you, in Minnesota. Is Wisconsin as muggy and mosquito filled as Minnesota? That's my biggest memory of summers there, -- hiding and sweltering undeneath the blanket to get away from mosquitoes until I had to come up gasping for air.

CASTA: What do you plan to do with math? Or are you just a spectator like me?

McGREGOR: I would love to pontificate with you about "The English Patient" with the ever so proper amount of ennui and detachment, but I have yet to see it. I saw David Letterman spoof it by flying into the Academy Awards one year, -- does that count? ( And about it being a dismal first date, -- guys and girls have such different tastes in movies I wouldn't be so sure. It was probably great prime the pump material.)

I have to admit that the whole "balance of the force" idea has always confused me. I think that when I initially saw Star Wars I wasn't too different from everyone else by interpreting the light side to be "good" and the dark side to be "bad". And if that was so, then how would "balance" be the desired outcome? Wouldn't they much prefer to tip the scales all the way over to the "good" side? And that does seems to be the outcome of ROTJ. By the end of the movie the score stands: Dark side minus two; light side one and a half. So why always talk about wanting to achieve balance if the goal is really to bring light side supremacy back? Did it just have a nice ecologically mystical ring to it?