‘Star Wars – Yoda: Dark Rendezvous’ – Chapter 5

Okay, so I know I said I would get to this yesterday, but honestly I forgot that Austin had a concert last night.  It was a good concert, the kids performed well and things went swimmingly well.  I have had a busy week, but luckily for me, the projects in my life are starting to slow a bit and certain things are really starting to come together.  I am happy with my secret project and the project is almost over.  The reveal of that project is very soon and I think when the reveal occurs, people are going to be pleasantly surprised at what I will have created in this project.  It may be some of the best work I’ve created (with some help from David Ramsay) yet!  Also, things at our house are starting to slow down.  Well, in a way.  We were able to pick up the pieces from not having power Monday and we’ll be out of town this weekend.  I can say what for just yet, but I can tell you that it’s going to be a cool surprise!  Anyway, lots of things going on, lots of things in secret, but lets face it, you came here to read about Star Wars and the books, not have me “not” talk about secret projects.

So, let’s talk about Chapter 5 of “Star Wars – Yoda:  Dark Rendezvous” by Sean Stewart ……..

‘Star Wars – Yoda: Dark Rendezvous’ – Chapter 4

Well, it’s been a long week and I can’t believe all the things that I’m fitting into one week.  What makes it tough is that I do not have a weekend free with all these weeks that have been passing by lately.  I would love to have a whole weekend home with the family with nothing major to actually do to anything.  But alas, that is not going to happen anytime soon.  So, now is a good time to catch all of you up on what has been going on in my life.

Last weekend I headed up to Rochester and visited with my family for a little bit.  More importantly, I spent some time with my friends in Garrison Excelsior of the 501st Legion and I have to say we had a blast!  We did an event at the Strong Museum of Play called “In Another Galaxy” and it was just awesome!  There were close to sixty costumers there at the museum throughout the weekend and we provided the public with an amazing array of costumed characters and we made it fun and enjoyable for everyone, even the costumers.  I have to give a shout-out to the garrison on this one, the organizers, and even the museum.  This was a great kick in the pants that I needed to get myself back into loving costuming again.

This last weekend was also Ruth and Austin’s NYSSMA Solo competition weekend.  I felt bad that I could not be there, but as Heather reminded me, there is nothing I could do even if I was able to make it.  It’s on my own kids to perform and they will perform whether I’m there or not.  However, my wife told me on Saturday night that Ruth came out of her performance room in tears saying that she messed up and she was not happy because she screwed up her favorite movement.  So, when I got home I talked to her a little bit and we decompressed from the weekend.  She was wound up a little tight about everything, but she also has my “bad” gene.  She has become her own worst critic.  I cannot complain because she got a 93 on a Level V solo in 9th grade.  There are not a lot of students doing Level V solos at her age, so she should be very proud.

Austin was not as concerned.  He told me that he knows he messed up on his trumpet solo, but that he will continue to work on things.  He doesn’t see himself as a musician and I’m not going to put pressure on him about it.  Heather said he had to start and stop a few times on his vocal solo and we know that he got a 92 on that.  Overall, they didn’t do bad, I just think Ruth put pressure on herself to do better.  I would hope that I am not putting any pressure on her.

My week this week has been really busy for several reasons.  First, it’s the first full week of school after the New York State testing.  My kids seem to be getting back into the routine, which is important to me so that I can continue working with my fourth period students.  Also, this weekend is not only Free Comic Book Day, but it’s also the date of the Binghamton Community Orchestra concert.  We have some interesting pieces, but none are as demanding as the Hailstork and the Kalinikov.  I hope things go well for that on this Saturday.  I also have more practices for the group this week in preparation for that concert.  This week is also the first week that I will be missing one of my kids’ concerts.  I feel bad, but their concert is on Thursday and my final rehearsal for this concert is on Thursday as well.

But, not too much has me as excited as Friday night.  I already have my tickets to see “The Avengers” on Friday night.  I can’t wait!  I’m about as pumped for this movie as I have been for most of the Star Wars movies.  I have several concerns about the movie and I’ve already been told to stay till after the credits like all the other Avengers movies, so I will do just that.  However, I am concerned that the movie will not live up to my expectations.  The bar is set pretty high for this movie, I just hope that it can meet that bar and it doesn’t fall short.  I am praying that is not the case.  So, busy and exciting week.  I will be so happy when my life finally slows down that I can stop for a second to “smell the roses” instead of being constantly on the go.

Okay, let’s talk about Chapter 4 of “Star Wars – Yoda:  Dark Rendezvous” by Sean Stewart……..

‘Star Wars – Yoda: Dark Rendezvous’ – Chapter 3

Well, it looks as though my new norm is to blog at least once per week, so that is going to be my new goal.  I figure that if I can get in once per week, I should be good.  I hope that everyone out there is happy with me blogging once per week.  That will also give you plenty of time to read the book with me.

So my personal life has been extremely busy along with my professional life.  I have been extremely busy trying to catch up on things.  I feel as though I’m still behind on things from the beginning of the school year, especially since our school year started out with the issue of the flood.  It set me behind on so many things that I’m still trying to catch up, even now.   My oldest daughter is still working at people’s houses to try and help them clean up and build their houses back up.  I have been extremely busy with all sorts of projects.  I am working on bringing the GalaxyCast podcast back up and running so it is up to the end of Season 4 of “The Clone Wars”, but I keep getting distracted with other projects as well.  I have fixed several things around the house and have caught up on other work.  I am still working diligently on the secret project that I keep talking about, although that project is not as secret as it was a week ago.  I have been bouncing ideas off of other people and they have been seeing the project.  I think everyone will be surprised and I hope to have the project done fairly soon.  I hope so because it’s going to look cool and I can’t wait for everyone to see it.

I’m also a little excited lately because one of my friends may actually be buying a house down the street from me and my family.  My hope is that they do because it would be nice to have some friends that are actually on our block and it would be a load of fun.  Plus, it would make it REAL interesting on our neighbors!  We have had our New York State ELA Test already and we started the New York State Math Test today.  One thing that I have found interesting about the testing this year is the mistake that has already occurred on the ELA Exam.  There is some alarming information about this that should raise red flags for everyone.  First, they forgot to print an entire excerpt.  Second, they released this information on Friday.  Tests were not done yet and there were still individuals testing on Monday yet.  Anyway, we are almost done with the Math and ELA exams and it will then be back to a normal schedule.

I am excited because there are many cool things coming up for me and my costuming world.  There are a few cons coming up, there are some events and even an armor party.  I’m hoping to get a lot done as we head into late spring and early summer.  I am also gearing up for Celebration VI in my own unique way and I hope I can make it down to Florida without any incidents and have a great time with some of my friends while I’m down there.  I’m really looking forward to it.  A busy, but rough week but I’ll make it through.

Okay, so let’s talk about Chapter 3 of “Star Wars – Yoda:  Dark Rendezvous” by Sean Stewart…….

‘Star Wars: Yoda – Dark Rendezvous’ – Chapter 2

Well, things are certainly busy in my life and I gotta be honest, I can’t believe that my Spring Break is already over.  I have a lot of things that are going on in my life and I have a lot of thoughts about things going on around the globe.

The first thing I thought I would take a minute and address is the exit of Rick Santorum from the Republican race.  Of course this pretty much leaves Mitt Romney as the nominee as Newt Gingrich has something like $500 in his bank account to continue to run his campaign. So, there are a lot of things to deal with now that we know that Romney is the nominee.  Honestly, I think the Republican base is going to be sadly disappointed.  It means that most of the conservatives in their party will probably not come to the poles this Fall election season.  Which may mean that we are looking at four more years of Barrack Hussein Obama.  I know that means that there will be many Republicans that think the conservatives will vote simply to remove Obama.  However, I’m not so convinced that Mitt Romney is any better than Barrack Hussein Obama.  Once a lieing politician, always a lieing politician.  I am not so sure that Romney will be such a wise candidate after all.  I think this will go down in history in one of two ways.  Either it will be the bravest move the Republican base every made, or it will be one of the biggest bone-headed moves and Obama will be the first President re-elected during a down-turned economy that doubled the National Debt!

My life has been quite busy as well.  I am gearing up for a very busy April and May and with some great irony, I don’t even have a musical to prepare for this year.  The auditorium at my school is still under construction and I have come to assume that the construction will probably not conclude until the beginning of the next school year.  It means that we won’t be having a musical in the auditorium this year.  Instead, we will be presenting scenes from “Guys and Dolls” at our Spring Concert.  I’m excited and nervous about this all at once.  I’m excited because it will be something different, I’m a little nervous because we’ll be performing in another space and I have no idea what to expect.  On top of that, my fourth quarter classes have started and we are now in the “throws” of state testing.  We started the ELA exams today and next week we have our Math tests.

Things at home are moving at an alarming rate as well.  Ruth has already started her private lessons on clarinet and she is doing quite well.  She is also excited because she found a mouthpiece she liked and some reeds she liked, so we ordered her a box of reeds from Woodwind and Brasswind.  Austin has continued to practice with the track and field team and will be running the 100 meter, the 200 meter, and is doing shot-put.  He’s also running every morning, which I gotta admit that I never thought I would see my son do.  Tara is just Tara.  Doing her typical Tara things and nothing has changed in that regard.  They have all been busy at church and home and we have suddenly come to realize that we do not have a weekend free till the end of the month of May now.  I guess this is what my life will be like as a parent.

I have been personally busy.  I am still working on bringing the podcast back up to date and trying to plan ahead on the podcast.  I have been working diligently hard at trying to bring the Binghamton FanForce back up to a 501C status so we can become completely tax exempt.  It will be a huge pain in the side, but it will be well worth it in the long run.  This past week, we discussed a way to fund that legal process, which is going to be significant.  My secret project is actually coming along quite well.  One of the things that is quite exciting is that I need to learn a new skill for my new project.  I bought an airbrush machine.  Initially, I bought a cheap airbrush that required me to use cans of compressed air for the “air” part of the airbrush.  But after almost blowing off my hand with one of the cans, I thought it was time to step it up.  So, Heather and I found a beautiful airbrush kit at Harbor Freight that had the airbrush and the compressor all in one kit.  And the price wasn’t too shabby either.  I haven’t mastered the idea of airbrushing yet, but I think I’m doing rather well considering how little time I’ve had to play with it.  This weekend, I’m going to try and start to put together the project and I hope to be successful with my airbrushing skills.  I have also worked on adding some extra fans to my Tie Pilot costume for next weekend and for Celebration VI so I don’t die from heat exhaustion.  I’m also fixing Austin’s backpack and I have a plan to make T Nicky’s backpack work.  I have accomplished a lot in the costuming department.  I need to work on some podcasts and work on some things at home, but I’m also working on organizing information on my computers as well.  One of the other things I’ve started doing is watching the newer “Doctor Who” series.  Right now I’m watching the first season from 2005 and I’m liking it.  It’s actually pretty cool!

Heather’s been busy with all sorts of things.  She is sewing like mad and as always, is at work on our yard.  We have eaten our dinner outside over the last two nights because it’s been nice outside and Heather bought the family a picnic table and it’s kind of nice to have our own picnic tables so we can eat out there.  It’s actually kind of serene to eat outside.  Our world as a family has been working at lightning speed as well.  My car got inspected, parts of Heather’s car got fixed and we have taken care of all sorts of little things around the house that we needed to do.  Although, there is still little bits of cleaning that need to get taken care of.  I am happy with where we are at and I know you’re not learning about every little day of my life, but I think you are all enjoying my new, more carefree blog.

Okay, let’s take a look at Chapter 2 of “Star Wars – Yoda:  Dark Rendezvous” by Sean Stewart…….

‘Star Wars – Yoda: Dark Rendezvous’ – Chapter 1

Well, it’s well after my last time writing in this blog and I’m sure some of you are wondering what is going on and why I’m not writing everyday.  To be honest, it’s just too much in my life right now to write in this blog every single day.  I do a lot of things for a lot of different people and that list seems to be growing in extreme rates.  However, it does NOT mean I have given up on this blog.  Not by any means, as a matter of fact, I’m doing this to help my blog.  I’m sure you’re all tired of reading about all the mundane things that I do everyday.  So, instead I will be hitting the major points and skipping over the mundane tasks that I do or perform.  Instead, I’m going to write about the big things.  I will be giving some more opinion and a little less fact.  So, with that in mind let us treat today as the “new blog”.

A LOT has happened since I last updated what has been going on in my blog.  First, Kal Falco (the alter persona I have had as a Mandalorian) has been retired from the Mandalorian Mercs and he has been deemed “dead” in my book.  There will be no more Kal Falco.  The “flaming Mando” is now dead.  He’s lived for Five Years both with me and with the Mandalorian Mercs, but to be honest, it’s time to put him away for good and for the flaming Mando to be a done deal.  I know there are some that will be sad that he’s gone for good, but I feel that it needs to be done as a bit of therapy for me.  As far as me doing another Mandalorian, I’m not sure I will.  Only time will tell.

Next, we had a lovely Easter here at my house.  The kids were each very happy with their gifts.  Ruth got the movies “War Horse” and “Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Part 1″ which she was really happy with.  Austin got an air pump BB Gun and we had a discussion about targets, safety, and all sorts of other things.  Tara got a WHOLE bunch of “Hello Kitty” things and she was pretty happy with them all.  Then they all got “The Muppets” for their joint gift and of course, they were pumped about owning that!  We also had a day with Tara alone as she went to Wal Mart to the eye doctor and we now have a second child that is going to be using glasses.  Apparently she hasn’t been able to see the Smart Board at school all year long, so we have them on order and should be able to pick them up before our Spring Break is over.

I am happy as I work on project after project.  The big thing I have done this week is cleaning up parts of the shop and also starting to finish up some other projects I have had.  I still have a lot of my week off ahead of me, but it seems to be whipping by so fast.  I think a lot of that is because we have been out of the house almost every day shopping for things that we’ve needed around the house, but just haven’t had the time to actually go out and get.  Like sand paper I need for the shop, Heather needed some clothes among other things.  She actually asked me to go dress shopping!  That like NEVER happens!  I have also been hard at work on a secret project as well.  That secret will come out when time is able to allow me to tell you.  Trust me, you’ll all like it .  Anyway, that’s my life up until now, let’s talk books.

Let’s discuss Chapter 1 of “Star Wars – Yoda: Dark Rendezvous” by Sean Stewart……..

‘Star Wars: Jedi Trial’ – REVIEW!

Saturday and I can’t believe the weekend is already here.  Austin was supposed to go to a park clean-up for an Eagle Scout.  He left early this morning to do that (on his bike), but the clean-up was cancelled and will be rescheduled.  So, he came home and let us know and I’ll admit that Heather and I slept in till about nine o’clock this morning.  I did some quick things around the house and then got a shower.  After I got out of the shower, we got a call from my parents and they were about twenty minutes away.  So, I decided to go upstairs and stay upstairs.  I even opened up the door to the front porch so the dog could see my parents showing up.  When my parents arrived, Chewie (our dog) got pretty excited and zipped around the house.  We helped my parents unload the car and said our hellos.  We sat down and visited for a little bit. We all had a light lunch for a little bit and then Heather suggested my mom go with her to “Joann’s” for some fabric for a quilt that my wife is going to make for my mother.  While they were gone, the kids and I retreated to the basement with Papa and we all watched “Johnny English: Reborn” with Rowan Atkinson.  It was actually a really funny movie and I can’t believe that I fought everyone now on seeing it.  I saw the movie as a lame attempt at reinvigorating the franchise, but it really did not try to do that at all.  A really funny movie and I would suggest it to anyone!  After the movie, we greeted the women upstairs as they returned successful from their trip.  My wife then made dinner as we visited some more and we sat down and had a nice family dinner with some boneless pork with shake n’ bake and some baked potatoes and rolls. It was a good dinner and some good socializing. After dinner (even though it was cold), my wife insisted we were going over to “Suzie Q’s” since they opened for the season today. So, we got some ice cream at the restaurant and sat down and ate and then came home.  The kids cleaned up from dinner and got showers and then we sat down and watched the movie “Hop” from last Easter.  It was another funny and clever movie and would be another one on the recommend list.  After the movie we sat around and talked for a little bit while we watched reruns of “The Big Bang Theory”.  My children have irked me somewhat because someone played around with my Google Chrome settings and now I can’t get the Internet to work properly on our upstairs/living room computer.  I can never understand why my kids can’t let things like that just be.  After my parents went to bed, Heather and I retreated to her sewing room and watched two more episodes of “Storage Wars: Texas” before finally falling asleep ( or at least attempting to). Okay, let’s review “Star Wars:  Jedi Trial” by David Sherman and Dan Cragg……..

‘Star Wars: Jedi Trial’ – Epilogue

Okay, it’s Friday, it’s the end of the work week.  Yeah, we survived another!  I got up this morning and went through my usual routine.  Heather met me in the bathroom and reminded me that my parents would be here this weekend to celebrate Easter with us (moreover – Palm Sunday) and that she needed us to clean some things around the house tonight when I get home.  So, I took my shower and got dressed and joined the kids in the living room and we watched “Fox and Friends” on the TV as we got ready for our days.  Nothing to get me too much on my soap box today, other than to say that the TV was on more for background noise than anything else today.  After a while, I was off to work and the kids were off to school.

I got to work and got things ready for our big day today for all my classes. Today, we were doing Review Jeopardy.  It’s a game I play with all of my classes at the end of each quarter.  It’s actually rather fun, a little competitive, and it gets all my students to think, engage, and reflect on what they have learned over the last ten weeks in my class.  This group in particular had learned quite a bit because we had very few interruptions this quarter.  I had a very nice day of instruction and learning with my students and it made me feel a little better about myself as a teacher and I think it gave my students just the right amount of confidence going into the final exams.  I got done with my instructional day and I had to take care of a few things and then I headed home.

I got home and the house was already a bustling hive of activity.  Children were cleaning all sorts of things around the house in anticipation of my parents arriving tomorrow for the weekend.  We cleaned the upstairs especially and really didn’t concentrate too much on the basement.  I helped clean for a little bit before retiring to the basement and getting some grading done while I tried to catch up on some TV that I was behind on.  I watched some episodes of “Dr. Phil” followed by “American Idol” and then Heather came home.  We sat in the basement and ate dinner as a family down there while we finished up some shows I wanted the kids to watch like “Sons of Guns” (they’ve gotten hooked on that one – my fault!) and some episodes of “Billy the Exterminator” and then “Storage Wars: Texas”.  After that, we watched “Kitchen Nightmares” followed by “CSI: NY” before the kids headed off to bed and Heather and I did too.

Okay, let’s talk about the Epilogue of “Star Wars:  Jedi Trial” by David Sherman and Dan Cragg……..

‘Star Wars: Jedi Trial’ – Chapter 30 (Part 2)

Thursday and the end of the work week seems like it’s right around the corner.  I got up this morning and headed into the shower and said goodbye to Heather as she headed off to work as I got into the shower.  I took my shower and got changed and joined the kids in the living room as we watched “Fox and Friends” while we ate breakfast and got ready for our days.  Today’s talk of the day was the big lotto drawing that is happening tomorrow night.  It’s an estimated $500 million dollar jackpot.  Now, I’ll admit that I’m not much of a lotto gambler.  But, at the same time, it’s tempting to take the leap of faith, and that leap appeared today and I took it, but I’ll talk about that later.  After some time, I was then off to work and the kids were off to school.

I got to work and set things up for the last day of work within the classroom.  My sixth graders finished up their music history and had some time on the keyboard today to get ready for their final exams next week.  My seventh graders finished up their music history and then we did a last intervals quiz before they were done with their work.  My eighth graders finished up any back-work and final exam review packets before heading to the keyboard for one last practice run-through before next week.  Overall, my instructional day went rather well.  I got done with my school day and headed directly home.

I got home and spent some time watching “Dog, the Bounty Hunter” in the basement while grading some papers and then Heather got home.  She begged me to go out for dinner tonight, so we decided to go over and hit “Tully’s” and we figured that if they were swamped, we could go over to “Five Guys”.  Well, “Tully’s” was rather dead, so we ate there and then came right back home.  I got back in the car and headed over to the church.  We then practiced the Palm Sunday cantata that we were doing and then went into the sanctuary and practiced there before  I headed out and came home.  Once I got home, Heather and I sat down together and watched some of our shows including “Big Bang Theory”, “Community”, “Up All Night”, and “South Park” before deciding to go to bed.  It was another long, but successful day.

‘Star Wars: Jedi Trial’ – Chapter 30 (Part 1)

Well, it’s Wednesday and it’s hard to believe that my work week is almost halfway over.  I got up this morning feeling a little better today and got myself motivated and headed into the shower to get ready for my day.  Heather said a quick “good-bye” to me and was on her way to work.  I got done with my shower and got dressed and joined the kids in the living room as we watched “Fox and Friends” while we ate breakfast and got ready for our days.  They were talking about this shooting down in Florida that has been on the news in the last week.  Now, let me say that although I have my own opinions on the matter, I really don’t want to give them here.  Instead, I’m going to urge EVERYONE to let cooler heads prevail.  In other words, whether you believe the guy shot the young man or not, let’s let our justice system do their job. Let the facts all play out.  If the guy is guilty, there will be an arrest.  I think too many people in this country have become addicted to “crime drama” shows and we have all come to believe that a court case can happen in the matter of one T.V. show, i.e. and hour!  That’s really NOT the case!  Most court cases can take up to a year or more!  In this case, we have not had an arrest in a month.  A little long, but not overly long to wait for an arrest.  I do hope some people understand that they cannot arrest someone without sufficient evidence.  The evidence needs to play out in order for their to be an arrest.  Okay, enough on that subject, after watching the news, I was off to work while the kids were off to school.

I got to work and set things up for the day.  It was a day that had all my classes trying to finish things up.  My sixth graders finished up doing their music history and if they finished, they would then get some extra practice time on their scales for the final next week.  My seventh graders watched a video on Mozart while they finished up their music history pages.  My eighth graders finished up their review packets and a unit on the history of Rock and Roll and if they could, they got a chance to get on the keyboards for practice.  After school was over, we had a staff meeting and after our staff meeting I headed home.

I got home and the kids helped me unload the car, Ruth made some dinner while I helped her a little bit.  We then sat down and ate together for dinner.  We had quesadillas and some spanish rice and some chips and dip.  It was a good dinner altogether.  After dinner, Heather came home and had some dinner and then she and I went over to our chiropractor for me to have a visit.  We discovered tonight, that I had done some damage to my ribcage in November when I had gotten sick and that is why I have not been feeling 100% since then.  Apparently, my ribs (where they meet the back) had actually moved out of position.  I didn’t even know that was possible!  We made some adjustments and then set-up a follow up visit for next week and the Doctor even gave me some stretches to do between now and then.  When we got home, Heather and I watched my usual Wednesday night shows including “Survivor: One World”, “Sons of Guns”, then “CSI” before going to bed.

Okay, let’s talk about Part 1 of Chapter 30 of “Star Wars:  Jedi Trial” by David Sherman and Dan Cragg…….

‘Star Wars: Jedi Trial’ – Chapter 29 (Part 3)

Well, it’s Tuesday and it was another busy day in my life.  I started to reflect a little bit about what is going on in my head over the last week or so and I have come to another conclussion as to why I was in a bit of a depression.  We had little to no snow this past winter and honestly, we didn’t have much of a winter either.  I am a winter person (one of the reasons I live in the Northeast) and actually enjoy the winter time, yet it never really came here in New York State.  So, I think that may have played into my depression over the last month or so.  Even if just a little bit.  Today was another busy day for me and the Crissman household.  I had a lot to do and I wanted to make sure that I stay on top of things even with the way I’m feeling.  I got up this morning like I usually do and I got my shower as Heather said good-bye to me and I finished getting my shower and got dressed.  I joined the kids in the living room and we watched “Fox and Friends” on TV and then I was off to work and they were off to school.

I got to work and set things up for my day today.  Today was a day to continue working my students towards their final exams.  My sixth graders worked on finishing up their notes on the final exams and then did their tests on keyboard.  My seventh graders continued podcasting with me while others worked on their music history pages working on finishing learning about Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, and then a review.  My eighth graders finished up their units on scale building and then worked on a final exam review packet if they got done.  It was a lot of work and I was fairly happy with how my students performed on that work.  After work today, I had SMASH.  Our rehearsal went very well and we worked with our new students (two of them) to work them into our fifty-five gallon drum routine.  Things went well and I was happy with how the rehearsal ended.  I am confident with the direction the group is moving.  After SMASH, I headed home.

I got home and ate dinner with the family and after that, I went into the basement.  I worked on grading papers and then started watching an episode of “Dr. Phil” and then I ended up switching over to my normal shows including “New Girl”, “Breaking In”, and then I switched over to “Top Shot” before heading to bed.

Okay, let’s talk about Part 3 of Chapter 29 of “Star Wars:  Jedi Trial” by David Sherman and Dan Cragg…….