Click to enlarge.

They’re not the best photos, being from the cell phone and dealing with the sun and the reflections and all, but I really like the way several of them came out, and I’m always kind of enthralled by the way hills and river valleys look from the air.

When we landed at Midway, I lucked into a shot with the Sears Tower (yes, I still call it that) as a vanishing point for shadows and runway guides:

Click to enlarge.

The entire Louisville-to-Chicago flight photo set is here.

"This is NOT what I ordered."

"Please tell me they included a receipt."

"Hey, human: The Schrödinger jokes? Not as funny as you think."

For the record, that’s a 7x10x3.25-inch box. Ferris put himself in there and is sound asleep in all of these pictures.

Click to superSeussinate.

WHAAAAAT?!? I had a DR. SEUSS ZOO See ‘n’ Say?!?! Damn: I  have no memory of it at all. I must’ve broken that thing quick.

A couple weeks ago, I found this picture of me sitting in the same chair:

This is actually in the house in Upper Sandusky where my dad and uncle grew up, on South Fifth Street. It’s December 26, 1971: A day after my second Christmas. I’m a little more than 13 months old.

(Title of the post? Hat tip to science fiction luminary Suzette Haden Elgin‘s short story, which is well worth tracking down.)

I had this game for the first computer I purchased as an adult – an IBM PS/2 with a 486 processor – and while I rarely played full games, there was much fun to be had just setting up and watching all the animated battles, like R2-D2 taking on a Scout Walker, or C-3PO knocking off the Emperor. The game was released during the Dark Times, shortly after my move to Florida, so, as with other bits of Star Wars‘ re-emergence into pop culture in the early 1990s, my memories of playing it are tied to strong emotions and a particular sense of time and place.

The pencil drawings I purchased illustrate Boba Fett’s death at the hands of Yoda, as seen at the 4:24 mark of this compilation clip.

At the time, I didn’t have the means to compile these into a video, but I was looking at these drawings today and realized that’s a much easier process than it was five years ago, so, here you go: (Looks best at 720p.)

Each element of the battle was animated separately – so Yoda and the laser blasts and even the crater at the end are not seen on these pages.

Each drawing is on a 10.5 x 12.5 sheet of paper, which is slightly larger than my scanner will handle, so to keep things aligned, the leftmost few inches of each page fell outside the scanned area. In most cases, this was blank, although there are a few pages with reference numbers that aren’t visible here, and there may be one drawing toward the end where a few bits of the explosion go out of frame.

I also created a version which holds each frame for a second to allow for a little closer look:

The sheet which begins the video came with the set and – for the viewers who noticed that there are drawings numbered 1, 1a, and 1b – clarifies that there are actually 42 all together.

The author tests the blowupability of the Kenner Death Star gun.

So, thanks to the fantastically supportive editors at Hukilau, it seems that Collect All 21! could be eligible for 2012 Hugo Award nomination in the Best Related Work category. Here’s how the Hugo Awards site describes the category:

Best Related Work: Awarded to a work related to the field of science fiction, fantasy, or fandom, appearing for the first time during the previous calendar year or which has been substantially modified during the previous calendar year. The type of works eligible include, but are not limited to, collections of art, works of literary criticism, books about the making of a film or TV series, biographies and so on, provided that they do not qualify for another category.

And while it doesn’t get more specific than that, I would think that expanding the book by almost one-third and widening its scope to include cast and crew features and interviews – thanks in large part to the encouragement of Hukilau editor Matt Kelland – might be seen as a substantial enough modification to count as a “new” 2011 publication. (Hugo voters, nominating Worldcon/Chicon 7 members and other in-the-know types? Please feel free to give me or someone at Hukilau a heads-up if we’re misinterpreting.)

I know the whole 1970s-’80s nostalgia angle is a turn-off in some quarters, and I know that George Lucas has done precious few favors for the legacy of his original 1977 version of Star Wars. Regardless of that still-evolving perception, I think it’s still more than fair to say that Star Wars was at the very least the gateway through which many science fiction fans and writers were introduced to the genre, and that’s something I tried to preserve and recognize in Collect All 21!  And hey – it did nab a spot last year on the Topless Robot list of the 10 Greatest Non-Fiction Star Wars Books.)

This year, the Hugos will be awarded at Chicon 7, about which I’ve been excited for some time because it’s an easy drive from Northeast Ohio, and I’ve been hoping to attend no matter what. All sorts of details about nominating memberships and attending memberships can be found here at the Chicon site.

Now, about that Sweet Price Cut: It’s totally true.

Hukilau’s Collect All 21! electronic edition is, for the time being, less than three bucks. Yes, for real – look:

Here’s the Amazon Kindle edition, and here’s the Nook Book version, and if you’re reading Kindle books in the United Kingdom or Germany, you’ll find an equivalent price drop in those markets, too: Collect All 21 – Amazon UK; Collect All 21 – Amazon.de .

In other words, if, over the holidays, you got a spiffy new e-book reader or tablet computer or a new laptop or pretty much any device that lets you read electronic books, then Collect All 21! awaits you for less than the price of this sticker showing a unicorn vomiting a rainbow.

Dave Filoni photo by Jim Carchidi

I’m wrapping up my teasers to Hukilau’s expanded electronic edition of Collect All 21! Memoirs of a Star Wars Geek with a clip from my Star Wars Celebration V interview with Star Wars: The Clone Wars Supervising Director Dave Filoni. This excerpt runs about three minutes, and features Dave talking about how the cartoon series ties not only back to the original 1977 film, but how he works to connect the story with different generations of fans.

Dave Filoni at Star Wars Celebration V (Right click to download.)

The electronic version of Collect All 21! includes more of Dave’s interview, as well as interviews with Matthew Wood and Dee Bradley Baker, and much more material that’s not included in the print edition.

Electronic publisher Hukilau is running a “pay with a Tweet or Facebook mention” offer, which gets you the opening few chapters of the book for free, and the complete expanded edition is available in Kindle format and for the Barnes & Noble Nook.

Matthew Wood photo by Jim Carchidi

Continuing my sneak peeks into the expanded electronic edition of Collect All 21! Memoirs of a Star Wars Geek, here’s an excerpt from my interview with Matthew Wood, supervising sound editor at Skywalker Sound and the voice of General Grievous in Revenge of the Sith. Recorded in 2010 at Star Wars Celebration V in Orlando, this clip is a little more than three minutes long and includes Matthew talking about being a science fiction and movie geek as a kid, and, as a teenager, hearing about a job opening at this place out in the middle of nowhere…

Matthew Wood at Star Wars Celebration V (Right click to download.)

As previously noted, the electronic version of Collect All 21! includes more from that interview and additional material not included in the print edition. The e-book is available in Kindle format and for the Barnes & Noble Nook.

Electronic publisher Hukilau is also running a “pay with a Tweet or Facebook mention” offer, which gets you the opening few chapters of the book for free.

Photo by Jim Carchidi

Since it seems likely that the recent holiday season has led to a few new owners of e-book readers and tablet computers, I figure it’s a good time to offer a fun glimpse at of some of the material that sets the Hukilau edition apart from the original paperback. I also figure people who like to talk and read about Star Wars would also enjoy listening to people who work on Star Wars projects geek out a little bit about it.

My first sample comes from a recorded interview with Dee Bradley Baker, the voice of Captain Rex – and the entire Clone Army – on Star Wars: The Clone Wars. (Also Perry the Platypus on Phineas and Ferb, Squilliam Fancyson on SpongeBob SquarePants and a ton of other voices on really cool cartoons.) We chatted in the press room at Star Wars Celebration V back in 2010, and in this two-minute clip, he talks a little about the things that inspired him as a kid, and about seeing The Empire Strikes Back for the first time.

Dee Bradley Baker at Star Wars Celebration V (Right click to download.)

There’s much more from that interview – as well as additional material not included in the print edition – published in the electronic version of Collect All 21!, which is available in Kindle format and for the Barnes & Noble Nook, too. (Oh, and Hukilau is still running their “pay with a Tweet or Facebook mention” offer, which gets you the opening few chapters of the book for free.)