End of the Day Blahs

If there's one thing I cannot stand, it's having to sit at work with nothing to do. Granted, things could be a whole lot worse (I am, of course, grateful beyond measure that I HAVE work!). Still, sitting here waiting for 4 to roll around does get a little bit annoying. Especially when I could find hundreds of interesting things to do that do not involve this place!

Well, One Ring reiterated that she was not getting me the lightsaber kit for my birthday. Sigh! That's okay, though, because I found out that this is hitting the shelves next month!

According to the write up, there will be more parts, which equals the potential for building some of the more interesting sabers that the series has produced. Mind you, I'd still like to build my own one day; it's just not going to happen anytime soon. Shoot, knowing me, this interest will burn out just like the rest of my temporary obsessions. I have a feeling that One Ring certainly hopes so! : )

If the characters on the box look, well, strangely drawn, it's because they are. The Clone Wars is the name of a new CG animated film due out on August 15th. I've seen the previews, and once you get past the odd sort of animation style (sort of a cross between anime and Saturday morning cartoons), it looks really good. Although Count Dooku looks rather bizarre, in my humble opinion.

All in all, I'm looking forward to the new movie, and reserve the right to buy the kit above. Might not - in all probability I'll just hold off until I head to WDW in October and see what's there.

Funny how the heat can affect my mood. During the day today, when I was cool and indoors, I felt fine and energetic. Now, after making a round trip to the other building, I'm exhausted and worn out. I even stopped for a smoothie at the Starbucks, but I'm still zonked. I've got Kung Fu tonight (and it's held outside), so I need to get my act together. Otherwise I'll miss it like I've missed the last couple of weeks (of course, some of those have been due to holidays and the weather, so it's not all my fault!). I've got errands to run, too. : (

Okay, 30 minutes (roughly) to go. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Peace.

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Expensive Hobby!

Well, One Ring just informed me that my not so clever attempt to hint at a potential birthday present fell through (it would have burned through her budget). So I decided to take my lunch break and price how much it would take to build a "working" (lights but no sound) lightsaber. Let's just say I'm going to have to save my pennies!

Here's the breakdown:

PVC pipe (easier to work with than steel), either 1 1/2" or 1 1/4" - $4.43

PVC 45 degree bend 1 1/2" (for a Count Dooku style saber) - optional - $3.12

Fasade copper covering (stick on for cosmetic purposes) - $10.14

Chrome spray paint to hide the fact that it's PVC - $unknown but not that much


1 1/2" adapter to blade holder rig - $8.50
w/ screw-on led blade holder with LED heat sink - $24.25
or
1 1/4" adapter w/ bladeholder and heat sink - $20.49

Luxeon K2 Electronics kit (battery pack, LED light, wiring, switch, etc.) - $19.21

1" x 40" standard blade - $30.49
or
1" x 40" "Corbin" blade (looks cooler and brighter) - $33.99

Soldering iron kit - $7.99

For a grand total (not including S&H or screw-ups on my part during the construction process!) of approximatly: $92.75 - $111.63!

Yeah. I don't think this will be happening anytime soon! : (
Okay, back to work.

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Colors, Symbolism, Religion, and Star Wars

Altogether now! "One of these things is not like the other ..."

Okay, I've been on this lightsaber kick for a few days now. Don't worry, I'm still the pirate chaplain. It's just that a pirate with a lightsaber would be so much cooler! Especially with the new Star Wars movie coming out next month! But I digress. Anyway, one of the questions that has come up, while I've been contemplating heading off to WDW and making my own (or having a wonderful person buy me one for my birthday - hint, hint!), is what color should it be. A few days ago I took the various blog quizzes and, based on very unscientific (and, in many cases, silly) questions, the results were yellow, yellow / orange, and some shade of blue-green. So, now that I have time to kill (I'm waiting for an appointment to show up), I figured I'd take a look at the symbolism of colors.

When it comes to lightsaber colors, the sky is now the limit, thanks to at least one company that is putting out colored plastic discs for the purpose of changing the color of LED style sabers:

But at any rate, colors are important, and very symbolic. Back when I worked in the church, I used colors all the time to set moods, mark the various times of the year, and to reinforce ritual and myth. Purple was used for advent and lent - it's a color of preparation, repentance, yet also of royalty (sometimes blue is used for Advent, but I didn't do so). Green was symbolic of life, growth, and the maturation of the people into a better spiritual place. White means purity, holiness, baptism, and so forth. The absence of color is used for mourning, introspection, etc. And finally, in the church, red is used only once a year, on Pentecost, to denote the Holy Spirit flowing into the world and the birth of the church. It's also used for certain celebrations, but I've seen that done only rarely.

So, with that in mind, I've been playing with the idea of how color symbolism applies to building a kick butt lightsaber ("kick butt" is a technical term, of course!). Since I want a blade that I can change the colors (I plan on picking up those discs after I get home), I'm not going to get a red blade; those belong to the Sith (the bad guys in the Star Wars universe) anyway, so ...

At first, my color choices seem to be limited to blue, green, purple and yellow (at least from the pictures I've seen online. After I get the discs, though, my options will obviously increase. Here's what I read about each, courtesy of Wikipedia:

Blue: Seas, men, productive (interior) skies, peace, unity, harmony, tranquility, calmness, coolness, confidence, conservatism, water, ice, loyalty, dependability, cleanliness, technology, winter, depression, coldness, idealism, obscenity, tackiness, air, wisdom, royalty, nobility, Earth (planet), Virgo (light blue), Pisces (pale blue) and Aquarius (dark blue) (star sign), strength, steadfastness, light, friendliness, July (sky blue), February (deep blue), peace, mourning (Iran)[citation needed], truthfulness, love, sadness, aloofness, the Virgin Mary, liberalism (U.S. politics); In many diverse cultures blue is significant in religious beliefs, believed to keep the bad spirits away.

Green: Great intelligence, life, nature, bad spirits, spring, fertility, youth, environment, wealth, money (US), good luck, vigor, generosity, go, grass, aggression, inexperience, envy, misfortune, coldness, jealousy, disgrace (China), illness, greed, corruption (North Africa), life eternal, air, earth (classical element), sincerity, hope, Cancer (bright green, star sign), renewal, natural abundance, growth, health, August, balance, harmony, stability, calming, creative intelligence, Islam, the ordinary. During the Middle Ages, both green and yellow were used to symbolize the devil. Green is believed to be the luckiest of colors in some western countries including, Britain, Ireland, and the U.S.

Yellow: Sunlight, joy, happiness, earth, optimism, intelligence, idealism, wealth (gold), summer, hope, air, liberalism, cowardice, illness (quarantine), hazards, dishonesty, avarice, weakness, greed, femininity, gladness, sociability, summer, friendship, Gemini, Taurus, Leo (golden yellow, star signs), April, September, deceit, hazard signs, death (Middle Ages), mourning (Egypt), courage (Japan), God (gold). Yellow ribbons were worn during times of warfare as a sign of hope as women waited for their men to return. During the Middle Ages, both green and yellow were used to symbolize the devil.

Purple: Envy, Sensuality, bisexuality, spirituality, creativity, wealth, royalty, nobility, ceremony, mystery, wisdom, enlightenment, arrogance, flamboyance, gaudiness, mourning, profanity, exaggeration, confusion, pride, Scorpio (violet, star sign), May, November, riches, romanticism (light purple), delicacy (light purple), penance. Purple is the color of mourning for widows in Thailand, favorite color of Egypt's Cleopatra, and the purple heart - given to soldiers who have been wounded during warfare.

And, of course, White (if I decide to not include a color disc): Light, Reverence, purity, snow, peace, innocence, cleanliness, simplicity, security, humility, sterility, winter, coldness, criticism, surrender, cowardice, fearfulness, unimaginative, air, fire, death (Eastern cultures), hope, Aries, Pisces (star signs), bland, empty and unfriendly(interior), January, celebration.

Right now, it's a toss up between yellow or green. Of course, if I decide to make my own, using either parts from the hardware store or kits from companies like this one, I can do whatever the heck I want. Still, I find the choice of color interesting, especially if you look at who was swinging which color and what that says about the character's personality.

Then again, I may just shelve the whole thing and decide it's too much work. I get lazy like that sometimes! However, on days like this, when my appointments don't show up and there's little else to do, goofing off and imagining building something geeky and cool is fun.

I may write some more serious stuff later.

Peace.

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Been a Busy Day

I'm tired. I'm going home. Hope everyone had a good day. Tomorrow will be better, promise!

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File This One Under "You're Not Helping!"

Let's see. Gas is over $4 a gallon across much of the country. Food prices have risen sharply as a result of transportation costs and the transition to ethanol. We're in a financial crisis due to the mortgage market collapse and bad credit loans. And I won't even get into the health insurance dilemma that this country has had for years. But that's not the real problem.

The real problem is that you're a whiner.

That's right. We're all whiners. At least, that's what former Senator Phil Gramm, McCain's economic advisor, said in an interview with The Washington Times. Here's the article.

So much for compassionate conservatism!

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Not What I Expected to Get for an Answer!

So in one of yesterday's posts I mentioned my silly desire to build a lightsaber. I had come across a blog post in which I learned that there was a kiosk at Walt Disney World where one could do just that. The only question left, then, was what color should I make the blade. So tonight, while resting this evening, I decided to take some geeky online blog quizzes to find out which color would best fit my personality. Here's what I found:

What's your lightsaber color? My Result: Yellow

Often violent, you are the most emotional of the jedi. It's easy for you to fall to the dark side. Take What's your lightsaber color? Find more quizzes at Quibblo.com

Meanwhile, over at quizfarm, I got the color result "yellow / orange" for an answer, but they offered no explanation for what the color symbolized. I then found this explanation from a deleted quiz over at quizilla:

Orange is your Lightsaber color.

Orange represents energy and enthusiasm. It also
symbolizes strength and endurance. People with
orange lightsabers are curious about life, and
the world around them. Fascination catches them
at every turn, and they are creative enough to
understand life's potential.

Weird. So finally, I decided to get a third opinion. Behold what the ULTIMATE Lightsaber Color Selector Quiz said:

ULTIMATE Lightsaber Color Selector Viridian A powerful version of the Master's Blade. Yet very rare. This bolder blade has the force flowing through it fully. Click Here to Take This Quiz

Quizzes and Personality Tests

So why am I thinking that Disney's not going to have any of these colors? : )

Okay, enough silliness. I'm going to bed. Peace!

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Wow, And Here I Thought Peanut Was a Wimp!

Peanut, in case you didn't know, was my Dachshund, who died around this time last year. She was also afraid of her own shadow. Literally. And noises. And movement. She would step on a stick and then jump four feet into the air because the stick snapped and moved under her paw!

All of that I could never understand, because Dachshunds were originally bred to hunt Badgers, which are not all that gentle. I figured that all of the tenacity and aggression had been bred right out of them and they were now pretty much lap dogs.

Nope. Turns out they're vicious beasties!

Miniature dachshund gnaws off diabetic owner's toe

Sadly, the dog had to be put down for "safety concerns."

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