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Episode III – One more geek’s thoughts

I saw the final episode in the second trilogy of the Star Wars Saga today.

I liked it; it was a good end to the abysmal trilogy, and it filled in the only back story that anyone cared about: how Darth Vader came to be. I’d say that Lucas could have escaped all that ridicule if he focussed more on that story, instead of his esoteric tangents on trade embargoes and such that hurt the first two episodes.

I’ve written before about how Star Wars has been around my entire life. My troubles with this trilogy have at least something to do my age: I’m more critical of things like acting, dialogue and plot, rather than being captivated by the magic of the story. This film brings back the magic. The scenes where Vader is made are excellent and just as chilling as you’d want them to be.

Go see the movie.

Mild Spoiler Alert

The part that got a chuckle out of me was some dialogue on the lava planet:

Anakin: “ If you’re not with me, you’re my enemy.”
Obi-Wan: “ Only a Sith deals in absolutes.”

Anakin’s line sound familiar?

Sith Lord George Dubya

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The Automatic Millionaire

At the recommendation of the Wealthy Blogger, I bought the Automatic Millionaire by David Bach (US, Canada), and read it off and on for the past few weekends. It’s not very long but I just didn’t have attention span to finish it all at once. I blame TV.

Seriously, that usually means that the writing isn’t very interesting. That isn’t really true for this book, though. Even though the advice seems simple, I learned a lot about managing money from the book. My parents weren’t very good teachers when it came to money, so a lot of it was new to me. Essentially, Bach says Pay Yourself First and Make It Automatic! I might owe him a few bucks mentioning that, since he repeats those phrases so often I suspect they’re trademarked. He has a few other pointers, but it’s mostly centered around making it all automatic so even those who suck at saving can do it.

So what was the problem? I think it was the repetition. Pay Yourself First! Make It Automatic! Every chapter. Gawd! If he was on TV, it would have be very informercially (that’s the technical term). Now that I consider it, the text is very conversational, almost as if he transcribed one of his seminars. The repetitive catch phrases would probably work if I saw him live, but as book, it doesn’t really work. Granted, a literary masterpiece should not be sought in personal finance; the advice, the important part, is very good and essential if you suck at saving or charge everything on the plastic. Recommended.

P.S. Yay! 100th post. A significant milestone since I suck at posting frequently. More significant than a year blogging, which passed last week.

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Computer Books Every .NET Programmer Should Own

Given my natural distaste for Computer Books, and my penchant for lists, here are my picks for Computer Books That Don’t Suck (.NET Version):

You may notice that almost all of these books are written by authors who blog. (Whether the blog or book came first is another, irrelevant discussion.)

The two books that get my absolute, trapped-on-a-desert-island recommendation are Joel On Software and Coder To Developer. I was unable to put down either of those books until they were finished. And then I wanted more of that. Interestingly, the last two books on the list are the least coupled with .NET.

This list will expand. Do you have any books you simply cannot do without?

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I’m not afraid of Darth Vader

In case you got stuck under your book shelf for the past, oh, six months, then you don’t know that the next Star Wars movie is coming out soon. The first movie came out before I was born. It’s been in the cultural lexicon for my entire life. When I was a kid, I was a fan. I had the colouring books, the action figures, the lunch boxes. I think I even dressed up as the Sith Lord himself for Halloween when I was five. Or six. My Mom would know.

Anyway, I’d like to say I don’t watch very much TV, but I do. And I’m a little upset that they’re using Darth Vader to sell Burger King and Slurpees. Do masters of evil really need to pimp delicious, syrupy sugar-slush? Would you soil yourself in front of his presence if you knew he had a Mr Potato Head likeness?

What the hell was his agent thinking!? I wonder what the fallen Jedi himself has to say about this. If only he wasn’t so busy with those damn contractors.